The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was.

The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
appreciates how difficult it was.

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other read more

I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.

It's very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out read more

It's very good for an idea to be commonplace. The important thing is that a new idea should develop out of what is already there so that it soon becomes an old acquaintance. Old acquaintances aren't by any means always welcome, but at least one can't be mistaken as to who or what they are.

The protean nature of the computer is such that it can act like a machine or like a language to read more

The protean nature of the computer is such that it can act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and exploited.

We like to test things... no matter how good an idea sounds, test it first.

We like to test things... no matter how good an idea sounds, test it first.

In a manner which matches the fortuity, if not the consequence, of Archimedes' bath and Newton's apple, the 3.6 million read more

In a manner which matches the fortuity, if not the consequence, of Archimedes' bath and Newton's apple, the 3.6 million year old fossil footprints were eventually noticed one evening in September 1976 by the paleontologist Andrew Hill, who fell while avoiding a ball of elephant dung hurled at him by the ecologist David Western.

A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the read more

A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to read more

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware read more

... it is certain that the real function of art is to increase our self-consciousness; to make us more aware of what we are, and therefore of what the universe in which we live really is. And since mathematics, in its own way, also performs this function, it is not only aesthetically charming but profoundly significant. It is an art, and a great art.