Exactness Quotes

• It is the mark of an educated mind to expect that amount of exactness which the nature of the particular subject admits. It is equally unreasonable to accept merely probable conclusions from a mathematician and to demand strict demonstration from an orator.

  Aristotle

  Mind, Demand, Accepting

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.5, Wordsworth Editions

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• It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible.

  Aristotle

  Nature, Truth, Mind

  "Time to rise to the challenge of social impact measurement" by Jeremy Nicholls, www.theguardian.com. May 10, 2013.

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• All nature has come to expect from God a sense of orderliness. Whatever God does carries with it His fingerprint. And in the world around us His fingerprint of orderliness is evident to anybody who is honest with the facts. If you look at nature, you will discover a mathematical exactness. Without this precision, the entire world would be in utter confusion. One plus one always equals two no matter what part of the universe you happen to be in. And the laws of nature operate in beautiful harmony, a harmony that is ordered by God Himself.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Beautiful, Law, Two

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• Principles are deep fundamental truths... lightly interwoven threads running with exactness, consistency, beauty and strength through the fabric of life.

  Stephen Covey

  Running, Fabric Of Life, Consistency

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• Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind.

  Francois Fenelon

  Mind, Facts, Virtue

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• We must receive the one who curses us as a messenger from God, rebuking our hidden evil thoughts, so that we, seeing our thoughts with exactness, might correct ourselves. For we do not know how many hidden evils we have; Only a perfect man can understand all of his own shortcomings.

  Marcus Eremita

  Inspirational, Christian, Religious

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• Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.

  Plutarch

  Work, Giving, Ease

  Plutarch (2015). “Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans: Top Biography”, p.213, 谷月社

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• The great standard of literature as to purity and exactness of style is the Bible.

  Hugh Blair

  Hygiene, Style, Literature

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

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• Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Remarkable, Reader, Study In Scarlet

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2015). “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Dover Reader”, p.13, Courier Dover Publications

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• This success permits us to hope that after thirty or forty years of observation on the new Planet [Neptune], we may employ it, in its turn, for the discovery of the one following it in its order of distances from the Sun. Thus, at least, we should unhappily soon fall among bodies invisible by reason of their immense distance, but whose orbits might yet be traced in a succession of ages, with the greatest exactness, by the theory of Secular Inequalities.

  Urbain Le Verrier

  Distance, Fall, Science

  "The Planet Neptune: An Exposition and History". Book by John Pringle Nichol, 1848.

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• Engineering training deals with the exact sciences. That sort of exactness makes for truth and conscience. It might be good for the world if more men had that sort of mental start in life even if they did not pursue the profession.

  Herbert Hoover

  Life, Science, Men

  Herbert Hoover (1952). “Memoirs: Years of adventure, 1874-1920”

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• A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Lying, Writing, Men

  Friedrich Nietzsche (1977). “The Portable Nietzsche”, p.38, Penguin

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• A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do.

  Niklaus Wirth

  Death, Thinking, Design

  Interview with Carlo Pescio, www.eptacom.net. June 1997.

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• Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.

  Friedrich von Logau

  Grind, Retribution, Mills

  Sinnegedichte no. 3224 (1654) (translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

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• The mills of God grind slowly.

  Lord Acton

  Grind, Retribution, Mills

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• Words are made for a certain exactness of thought, as tears are for a certain degree of pain. What is least distinct cannot be named; what is clearest is unutterable.

  Rene Daumal

  Pain, Tears, Degrees

  Rene Daumal (2003). “A Night of Serious Drinking”, p.21, The Overlook Press

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• Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.

  William E. Gladstone

  Loyalty, Law, Land

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• The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Lying, Math, Path

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• Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Patience, Justice, Waiting

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.697, Library of America

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• Translation from one language to another is like viewing a piece of tapestry on the wrong side where though the figures are distinguishable yet there are so many ends and threads that the beauty and exactness of the work is obscured.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Pieces, Sides, Language

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1822). “The History of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of la Mancha,5”, p.221

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• The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and equality; to employ it economically; and, when necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to secure its foundations in that instance, and for ever, by the clearness and candor of his proceedings, the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity of his funds.

  Edmund Burke

  Money, Foundation, Use

  Edmund Burke (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)”, p.1560, Delphi Classics

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• Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Loyalty, Honesty, Cowardice

  Harry Emerson Fosdick (1952). “A faith for tough times”

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• Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast.

  Mark Twain

  Atheist, Character, Angel

  Mark Twain (1995). “The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood”, p.319, University of Georgia Press

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• In all things that you find in the Holy Scriptures, seek out the purpose of the words, that you may enter into the depth of the thoughts of the saints and understand them with greater exactness. Do not approach the reading of the Divine Scriptures without prayer and asking the help of God. Consider prayer to be the key to the true understanding of that which is said in the Holy Scriptures.

  Isaac of Nineveh

  Inspirational, Christian, Religious

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• The calculative exactness of practical life which the money economy has brought about corresponds to the ideal of natural science: to transform the world by mathematical formulas. Only money economy has filled the days of so many people with weighing, calculating, with numerical determinations, with a reduction of qualitative values to quantitative ones.

  Georg Simmel

  Determination, People, World

  Georg Simmel, Kurt H. Wolff (1950). “The Sociology of Georg Simmel”, p.412, Simon and Schuster

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