My father followed, during most of his life, the precarious occupation of a country school teacher. – Simon Newcomb
The time was not yet ripe for the growth of mathematical science among us, and any development that might have taken place in that direction was rudely stopped by the civil war. – Simon Newcomb
The result was that, if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening, I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme. – Simon Newcomb
One hardly knows where, in the history of science, to look for an important movement that had its effective start in so pure and simple an accident as that which led to the building of the great Washington telescope, and went on to the discovery of the satellites of Mars. – Simon Newcomb
Whenever somebody says they need an angle for their story I always fear that theyve got an idea and they want me to fit into it or they want me to come up with an idea myself or Im supposed to be more revealing than Ive been, and to me it just sounds like something I dont want to do. – David Duchovny