More significant than the fact that poets write abstrusely, painters paint abstractly, and composers compose unintelligible music is that people should admire what they cannot understand; indeed, admire that which has no meaning or principle. – Eric Hoffer
Obscurantism is the academic theorists revenge on society for having consigned him or her to relative obscurity — a way of proclaiming ones superiority in the face of ones diminished influence. – David Lehman
A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself. – Jessamyn West
The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate. – Bern Williams
That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine. – Charles Babbage
