The Harvest of a Quiet Eye, a Selection of Scientific Quotations

by Alan L. Mackay

Book Overview

A personal selection of over 1200 scientific quotations including graffiti, lines of song and proverbs together with the more recognised forms of quotation not only from scientists but from artists, poets, philosophers, theologians, politicians and other miscellaneous mortals.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0854980318
• ISBN13: 9780854980314
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

not just science:an extraordinarily wonderful reference book

This book is one of my favourite books, period. So much so that I keep it at arm's reach beside my dictionaries, but often pick it up to read just for enjoyment. I disagree with the title, because this volume spans everything to do with existence: curiosity, discovery, disappointment, creativity, bureaucracy and government--what you could think would be carefully collected over a number of years by a person with a mind that hates to feel restricted. And this is exactly that. And if you think it's all highbrow stuff, prepare to be surprised. This isn't at all a collection of wisdoms. There is delicious fun here, too, sometimes at the expense of the quoted. As the foreward says, ". . . some quotations or aphorisms are so persuasive and so well put that one wishes one had said them oneself; others are wrong-headed...and others still tell us more about their authors than about their subjects: Hilaire Belloc cannot have intended to make a public exhibition of himself..." There's even delightful poetry. A truly great book.