My Small Boat

There’s a lot we should be able to learn from history. And yet history proves that we never do. In fact, the main lesson of history is that we never learn the lessons of history. This makes us look so stupid that few people care to read it. They’d rather not be reminded. Any good […]

Idealism:
There once was a man who said, ‘God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If He finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there’s no one about in the Quad.’
A reply:
Dear Sir, Your astonishment’s odd:
I am always about in the Quad;
And that’s why this tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.

1st Law
You cannot win (that is, you cannot get something for nothing, because matter and energy are conserved).
2nd Law
You cannot break even (you cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases).
3rd Law
You cannot get out of the game (because absolute zero is unattainable).

1st Law
The energy of a closed system is conserved (DU = DQ - DW)
2nd Law
The entropy of a closed system can never decrease (DU=T.DS - W)
3rd Law
The entropy of a perfect crystal is zero when the temperature of the crystal is equal to absolute zero (0 K).

The Rolling English Road
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night […]

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

Only when you have crossed the river can you say that the crocodile has a lump on his nose.

She was rather melancholoy, but hoped as much as she could, and when she could not hope did not stand still, but walked on in the dark. I think that when the sun rises upon them, some people will be astonished to find how far they have come in the dark.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Paradise Lost (book IV) - Gabriel to Satan
Satan, I know thy strength, and thou knowest mine;
Neither our own, but given: What folly then
To boast what arms can do? since thine no more
Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now
To trample thee as mire: For proof look up,
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign;
Where thou […]

You play the hand you’re dealt. I think the game’s worthwhile.