Since the fine article didn't really answer the question, I'll try. We love quotations because they are distilled wisdom. Here's one of my favourites: A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein
Hi Brian, I posted your quotation on my blog (w/ reference to hubski as always) and you got this response from "Nadreck": RAH turned out some beauties. I was a passionate devourer of his juvenile SF novels. Two of my favourites are: Never try and teach a pig to sing: it's a waste of time, and it annoys the pig.
--Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.
--Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love", (Robert A. Heinlein)