Robert Watson-Watt famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

The three most effective incentives to human action may be ... classified as creed, greed and dread. ... In examining the scientist it is perhaps worth while to examine how far he is moved by these three incentives. I think that, rather peculiarly and rather exceptionally, he is very little moved by dread. ... He is in fact essentially a person who has been taught he must be fearless in his dealing with facts.
-- Robert Watson-Watt

#Thinking #Effectiveness #Greed
[The scientist] believes passionately in facts, in measured facts. He believes there are no bad facts, that all facts are good facts, though they may be facts about bad things, and his intellectual satisfaction can come only from the acquisition of accurately known facts, from their organization into a body of knowledge, in which the inter-relationship of the measured facts is the dominant consideration.
-- Robert Watson-Watt

#Believe #Knowledge #Science
There are few humanities that could surpass in discipline, in beauty, in emotional and aesthetic satisfaction, those humanities which are called mathematics, and the natural sciences.
-- Robert Watson-Watt

#Emotional #Discipline #Humanity
There is a great deal of emotional satisfaction in the elegant demonstration, in the elegant ordering of facts into theories, and in the still more satisfactory, still more emotionally exciting discovery that the theory is not quite right and has to be worked over again, very much as any other work of art-a painting, a sculpture has to be worked over in the interests of aesthetic perfection. So there is no scientist who is not to some extent worthy of being described as artist or poet.
-- Robert Watson-Watt

#Art #Science #Emotional
Give me the third best technology. The second best won't be ready in time. The best will never be ready.
-- Robert Watson-Watt

#Time #Science #Technology

Before one can walk as Christ walked, and talk as He talked, he must first begin to think as Christ thought.
The interesting adults are always the school failures, the weird ones, the losers, the malcontents, this isnâ€™t wishful thinking. Itâ€™s the rule.
Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and whoever makes our toothpaste. They're not laughing with us, they are laughing at us.
A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business.
I don't think that when Zionism began there was a claim that we were losing - even in part - our capacity to contribute to other peoples.
Your least frequent, most extreme exertions will have the greatest influence on your fitness. The peak moments of a workout count far more than the amount of time you spend working out. This is why a series of 40-yard sprints at full speed benefits you more than half an hour of jogging. It's also the reason why lifting a weight heavy enough to make your heart pound and your muscles burn counts more than spending hours at the gym always in your comfort zone, never truly challenging your body. When a work-out becomes an unvarying, monotonous routine, it loses its effectiveness.
Don't tell me about the pain. Show me the baby.
Never underestimate the effectiveness of a straight cash bribe.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. Itâ€™s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isnâ€™t immoral - itâ€™s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

Robert Watson-Watt famous quotes

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