Quotes of the Day

I came across some very cool quotes today.

This one is true on many levels: "Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." (B. F. Skinner, New Scientist, May 21, 1964)

I love this statement: "I believe I made myself position quite clear in only a few words and with hardly any profanity." (Prof. E. J. McShane, in the middle of a letter to Prof. Ed Beagle, 11/22/1961)

I found the following quote via Focus, the MAA's newsletter (it appeared originally in a Slate article):

"With the new school year looming, I was increasingly worried I would never reach my goal. My daughter had already started on fractions and decimals, which were still as incomprehensible to me as Poincaré's conjecture. I discussed my distress with Shah, but she said doing the same problem multiple times was essential to mastering the material. I accept that this unshakable attachment to drills and repetition may be why the Japanese are better at math than Americans. But it may also be why the Japanese invented ritual seppuku."