DAVID W. BALL (1961 - )

“The principles of thermodynamics are applicable even to the complex reactions ... occur in living cells.  The topic of equilibrium is also applicable, even though living cells are not isolated or even closed systems.  First, we should point out the seldom-recognized idea ... most chemical reactions in cells are not at chemical equilibrium.  If an organism or cell were at chemical equilibrium, it would be dead!”  [From Physical Chemistry (Ball, 2003), pp. 135-136].

EDWIN HUBBLE (1889-1953)

“...if we see the nebulae all receding from our position in space, then every other observer, no matter where he may be located, will see the nebulae [but not the same nebulae] all receding from his position. However, the assumption is adopted. There must be no favoured location in the Universe, no centre, no boundary; all must see the Universe alike. And, in order to ensure this situation, the cosmologist, postulates spatial isotropy and spatial homogeneity, which is his way of stating that the Universe must be pretty much alike everywhere and in all directions.”  [From The Observational Approach to Cosmology (Hubble, E. P., 1937), p. ___.]

DAVID BERLINSKI (1942- )

“And now the mathematician, in one of those imaginative leaps ..., suffices to characterize mathematics as a performing art.  The limit of the sequence S_n, as n approaches infinity, the mathematician assigns to the infinite series as its sum.  Assigns?  Meaning what?  Assigns means decides, ... is so, assigns meaning acts, as in the mathematician acts to create sense where before there were only the sums tramping on and on. [From A Tour of the Calculus (1995), p. 124, emphasis in original].

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900)

"My life-task is to prepare for humanity a moment of supreme self-consciousness, a Great Noontide when it will gaze both backwards and forwards, when it will emerge from the tyranny of accident and the priesthood, and for the first time pose the question of the Why and Wherefore of humanity as a whole."  From The Philosophy of Nietzsche (New York, Modern Library, 1954), p. 887.