Simon Newcomb Quotes

I Was Taught The Alphabet By My Aunts Before I Was Four Years Old, And I Was Reading The Bible In Class And Beginning Geography When I Was Six.

A Few Years Later The Naval Academy Was Founded At Annapolis, And A Similar Course Was Pursued To Provide It With A Corps Of Instructors.

James Edward Oliver Might Have Been One Of The Great Mathematicians Of His Time Had He Not Been Absolutely Wanting In The Power Of Continuous Work.

The Beginning Of 1856 Found Me Teaching In The Family Of A Planter Named Bryan, Residing In Prince George County, Md., Some Fifteen Or Twenty Miles From Washington.

Though Born In Nova Scotia, I Am Of Almost Pure New England Descent.

My Father Followed, During Most Of His Life, The Precarious Occupation Of A Country School Teacher.

In 1860 A Total Eclipse Of The Sun Was Visible In British America.

In 1858 I Received The Degree Of D. S. From The Lawrence Scientific School, And Thereafter Remained On The Rolls Of The University As A Resident Graduate.

My Father Was The Most Rational And The Most Dispassionate Of Men.

One Hardly Knows Where, In The History Of Science, To Look For An Important Movement That Had Its Effective Start In So Pure And Simple An Accident As That Which Led To The Building Of The Great Washington Telescope, And Went On To The Discovery Of The Satellites Of Mars.

The Mathematician Of To-day Admits That He Can Neither Square The Circle, Duplicate The Cube Or Trisect The Angle. May Not Our Mechanicians, In Like Manner, Be Ultimately Forced To Admit That Aerial Flight Is One Of That Great Class Of Problems With Which Men Can Never Cope... I Do Not Claim That This Is A Necessary Conclusion From Any Past Experience. But I Do Think That Success Must Await Progress Of A Different Kind From That Of Invention.

The Reports Of The Eclipse Parties Not Only Described The Scientific Observations In Great Detail, But Also The Travels And Experiences, And Were Sometimes Marked By A Piquancy Not Common In Official Documents.