Circularity Quotes

• Beauty is Nature in perfection; circularity is its chief attribute. Behold the full moon, the enchanting golf ball, the domes of splendid temples, the huckleberry pie, the wedding ring, the circus ring, the ring for the waiter, and the "round" of drinks.

  O. Henry

  Golf, Moon, Pie

  O. Henry (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry (Illustrated)”, p.681, Delphi Classics

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• The charge that the construction of the geologic scale involves circularity has a certain amount of validity. ...Thus, the procedure is far from ideal and the geologic ranges are constantly being revised (usually extended) as new occurrences are found.

  David M. Raup

  Construction, Range, Found

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• Overemphasis of efficiency leads to an unfortunate circularity in design: for reasons of efficiency early programming languages reflected the characteristics of the early computers, and each generation of computers reflects the needs of the programming languages of the preceding generation.

  Kenneth E. Iverson

  Design, Needs, Generations

  "Notation as a Tool of Thought". Cvommunications of the ACM, 23 (8), (pp. 444 - 465), August 1980.

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• For you, a thousand times over

  Khaled Hosseini

  Love, Slingshots, Amir

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.110, A&C Black

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• Should one name one central concept, a first principle, of cybernetics, it would be circularity.

  Heinz von Foerster

  Names, Principles, Would Be

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• Utility is a metaphysical concept of impregnable circularity; utility is the quality in commodities that makes individuals want to buy them, and the fact that individuals want to buy commodities shows that they have utility.

  Joan Robinson

  Quality, Want, Facts

  Joan Robinson (1962). “Economic philosophy”, p.47, Transaction Publishers

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• In arriving at the relevant theory about the specifics of our faculty of vision we will presumably use our eyes to gather relevant data. Based on such data we come to know about the optic nerve, the structure of our eyes, the rods and cones, etc., so as to explain how it is that vision gives us reliable access to the shapes and colors of objects around us. In reliably arriving at that theory we thus exercise the very faculty whose reliability is explained by the theory. There is no vice in this sort of circularity.

  Ernest Sosa

  Eye, Exercise, Color

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• The traditional paradigm of parenting has been very hierarchical, the parent knows best and very top down. Conscious parenting topples [this paradigm] on its head and creates this mutuality, this circularity where both parent and child serve each other and where in fact, perhaps, the child could be even more of a guru for the parent .... teaching the parent how the parent needs to grow, teaching the parent how to enter the present moment like only children know how to do.

  Shefali Tsabary

  Children, Teaching, Top Down

  Source: www.chicagonow.com

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• Suppose we wonder whether we should trust the deliverances of our basic epistemic competences. If those are indeed our basic competences, then in order properly to satisfy our curiosity we will inevitably rely on one or more of them. So, either we squelch our curiosity or we will have to fall into the circularity or regress to which the skeptic objects.

  Ernest Sosa

  Fall, Order, Curiosity

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• The banks lobbied Washington so they could write the rules that got us into this crisis. They then lobbied Washington to get the money to bail them out. And then they are lobbying Washington to write the rules so they can get us into the next crisis. It's perfect circularity.

  Elizabeth Warren

  Writing, Perfect, Next

  Interview with Ruth Conniff, progressive.org. December 27, 2009.

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• the solution to racism lies in our ability to see its ubiquity but not to concede its inevitability. It lies in the collective and institutional power to make change, at least as much as with the individual will to change. It also lies in the absolute moral imperative to break the childish, deadly circularity of centuries of blindness to the shimmering brilliance of our common, ordinary humanity.

  Patricia J. Williams

  Lying, Ubiquity, Racism

  Patricia J. Williams (2016). “Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race”, p.68, Macmillan

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