I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right. – Henry Bessemer (discovered new method of producing steel)

How glorious it is — and also how painful — to be an exception. – Alfred de Musset

Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking. – Alfred North Whitehead

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. – Bernard Berenson, Notebook, 1892