It Has Been Said

IT HAS BEEN SAID and colkcted by W. GRAYJEROME" In the complexities of contemporary existence, the specialist who is trained but uneducated, technically skilled but culturally incompetent, is a menace.— David B. Truman The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.—John W. Gardner Facts do not "speak for themselves"; they are read in the light of theory. Creative thought, in science as much as in the arts, is the motor of changing opinion.—Stephen Jay Gould What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, as steady freedom from moral indignation, an all embracing tolerance . . . when he fights he fights in the manner of a gentleman fighting a duel, not in that of a longshoreman cleaning out the waterfront saloon. That is to say, he carefully guards his amour propre by assuming that his opponent is as decent a man as he is, and just as honest— and perhaps, after all, right.—H. L. Mencken Proper treatment will cure a cold in seven days, but left to itself a cold will hang on for a week.—Henry G. Felsen There is something fascinating about statistics, one gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such trifling investment of facts.—Mark Twain Crouton's first law of stock rotation: What you can't disguise, euphemize!— Unknown *Department of Pathology, Wake Forest University, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, 300 South Hawthorne Road, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27103. Material appearing under this title is collected with the aim of making the serious a bit less serious, the ponderous a bit less heavy, and the reading hours a bit more fun. Toward this goal we invite a guest editor of this feature for each issue. Will readers volunteer to share their senses of humor by collecting or recollecting items that have brought smiles to their faces? We invite your participation. Originals are also welcomed. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 29, 1 ¦ Autumn 1985 | 73 Trouble makes man think, Thought makes man wise, Wisdom makes life endurable. John Patrick, from Tea House of tL· August Moon I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, believe that you could be wrong.Oliver Cromwell In time and space, infinite knowledge is illusive.—W. Gray Jerome and collected by GEORGE Y. LESHER* A witty saying proves nothing.—Voltaire Analogies prove nothing, that is true, but they can make one feel at home.— Sigmund Freud There is no cure for birth or death save to enjoy the interval.—George SanTAYANA Life is not a spectacle or a feast; it is a predicament.—George Santayana Life is a mystery to be lived—not a problem to be solved. Life is what you do while you are waiting to die.—Nikos Kazantzakis A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority ; what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.—Eric Hoffer The justification of majority rule in politics is not to be found in its ethical superiority. You can be sincere and still be wrong.—Walter Lippmann If you see in any given situation only what everyone else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it.— S. I. Hayakawa I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't believed it.—An Old Geologist's Saying What we see depends mainly on what we look for.—John Lubbock *Institute fellow in chemistry, Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, Rensselaer, New York 12144. 74 I It Has Been Said A woman's strongest asset is man's imagination. Leave the attractive women for men with no imagination.—Marcel Proust Women's virtue is man's greatest invention.—Cornelia Otis Skinner Choices are the hinges of destiny. It may make a difference to all eternity whether we do right or wrong today.— Edwin Markham Humdrum is not where you are; it is what you are. Those who want to sing always find a song.—Howard MacGrath Idealism...