The present state of the system of nature is evidently a resultant of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence which at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective positions, motions, and general effects of all these entities at any time in the past or future.
第一步是测量任何容易测量的东西。这本身没有问题。第二步是忽视无法测量的东西或给它一个任意的数值。这是人为且误导的。第三步是假设不容易测量的东西不太重要。这是盲目。第四步是说不能轻易测量的东西实际上不存在。这是自杀。
The past is a teacher, if we are willing to learn.
The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.