Monday, November 22, 2010

Edison

"Now I believe that somewhere in God Almighty's workshop there is a vegetable growth with geometrically parallel fibres suitable to our use. Look for it. Paper is man made and not good for filaments."
-Thomas A. Edison

Saturday, November 20, 2010

From Pensees by Blaise Pascal

"502. Abraham took nothing for himself, but only for his servants. So the righteous man takes for himself nothing of the world, nor of the applause of the world, but only for his passions, which he uses as their master, saying to the one, "Go," and to another, "Come." ... The passions thus subdued are virtues. Even God attributes to Himself avarice, jealousy, anger; and these are virtues as well as kindness, pity, constancy, which are also passions. We must employ them as slaves, and, leaving them to their food, prevent the soul from taking any of it. For, when the passions become masters, they are vices, and they give their nutriment to the soul, and the soul nourishes itself upon it and is poisoned."