Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Quotations #020

"No laws are possible in sociology ... for the number of cases is far smaller than the number of variables effecting the outcome." -- Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power (1988)

"Walter Lippmann once wrote that the function of good journalism is to ensure that people are not surprised. The same can be said of good history. The past historians portray must be one out of which the present can plausibly have grown." -- Eric Foner, "Rethinking American History in a Post-9/11 World"

"Que Se Vayan Todos." [All the Politicians Out] -- Argentinian Anti-IMF/Anti-Corruption slogan, 2001

"As a propogandizer, it is not his work to convince the convinced, but to plead with the unconvinced, which requires him to use their vocabulary, their values, their symbols insofar as this is possible." -- Kenneth Burke, "Revolutionary Symbolism in America," American Writers' Congress, 26 April 1935

"No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading, if not plain wrong." James Watson, quoted by Francis Crick

No comments: