Jon Elster quotes

“In anger, my hostility is directed toward another's action and can be extinguished by getting even - an action that reestablishes the equilibrium...”
-- Jon Elster

Source : Jon Elster (1999). “Alchemies of the Mind: Rationality and the Emotions”, p.65, Cambridge University Press

#Science Quotes #Action Quotes #Mathematics Quotes

“Knowing that one may be subject to bias is one thing; being able to correct it is another.”
-- Jon Elster

Source : Jon Elster (2015). “Explaining Social Behavior”, p.118, Cambridge University Press

#Knowing Quotes #May Quotes #Able Quotes

“The basic postulate from which I start is that the goal of the social sciences is the liberation of man.”
-- Jon Elster

#Men Quotes #Goal Quotes #Social Quotes

“Reduction is at the heart of progress in science.”
-- Jon Elster

Source : Jon Elster (1989). “Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences”, p.74, Cambridge University Press

#Heart Quotes #Progress Quotes #Reduction Quotes

“The investigation of this problem - How is spontaneous order possible? - is sometimes referred to as the 'Hayek programme'.”
-- Jon Elster

Source : Jon Elster (1989). “The Cement of Society: A Survey of Social Order”, p.250, Cambridge University Press

#Order Quotes #Problem Quotes #Sometimes Quotes

“If the world were to end tomorrow and we could choose to save only one thing as the explanation and memorial to who we were, then we couldn't do better than the Natural History Museum, although it wouldn't contain a single human. The systematic Linnean order, the vast inquisitiveness and range of collated knowledge and beauty would tell all that is the best of us.”

Source : A.A. Gill (2008). “Previous Convictions: Assignments from Here and There”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

“If nobody said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth.”

“We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent or self-satisfied; they are, if sound, the spearhead of progress. If they are fundamentally wrong, free discussion will in time put an end to them.”

“The tree of research must be fed from time to time with the blood of bean-counters, for it is its natural manure.”

“Why don't you light that candle ?”

“Harm can come about without will or action. But will and action can avert harm.”

“Action is the only reality; not only reality, but morality as well.”

Source : Abbie Hoffman (2009). “Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial”, p.9, Da Capo Press

“I had drawings that were the first time that mathematics was put into visual form.”

Source : Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

“... preliminary accounting, banking and surveying (known as arithmetic, algebra and geometry).”

“Mathematics as a science, commenced when first someone, probably a Greek, proved propositions about "any" things or about "some" things, without specifications of definite particular things.”