Eric Temple Bell Quote

A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most mystical of astronomers that that the perfect simplicity of the circle is akin to the vacant smile of complete idiocy. Compared to what an ellipse can tell us, a circle has nothing to say.


The Handmaiden of the Sciences (p. 26), The Williams & Wilkins Company. 1937


A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most...

A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most...

A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most...

A circle no doubt has a certain appealing simplicity at the first glance, but one look at a healthy ellipse should have convinced even the most...