It is a mistake to imagine that potentially great men are rare. It is the conditions that permit the promise of greatness to be fulfilled that are rare. What is so difficult to achieve is the cultural background that permits potential greatness to be converted into actual greatness. – Fred Hoyle, Of Man and Galaxies

Originality is the art of concealing your source. – Franklin P. Jones

It has been said that figures rule the world; maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1830, translated