G. Spencer-Brown Quotes

7 Sourced Quotes

We take as given the idea of distinction and the idea of indication, and that we cannot make an indication without drawing a distinction. We take, therefore, the form of distinction for the form.

G. Spencer-Brown
Let us consider, for a moment, the world as described by the physicist. It consists of a number of fundamental particles which, if shot through their own space, appear as waves, and are thus... of the same laminated structure as pearls or onions, and other wave forms called electromagnetic which it is convenient, by Occam's razor, to consider as travelling through space with a standard velocity. All these appear bound by certain natural laws which indicate the form of their relationship.

G. Spencer-Brown
To teach pride in knowledge is to put up an effective barrier against any advance upon what is already known, since it makes one ashamed to look beyond the bounds imposed by one's own ignorance.

G. Spencer-Brown
Doing engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change.

G. Spencer-Brown
Left to itself, the world of science slowly diminishes as each result classed as scientific has to be reclassed as anecdotal or historical... Science is a continuous living process; it is made up of activities rather than records; and if the activities cease it dies.

G. Spencer-Brown
The concept of randomness arises partly from games of chance. The word "chance" derives from the Latin cadentia signifying the fall of a die. The word "random" itself comes from the French randir meaning to run fast or gallop.

G. Spencer-Brown
That mathematics, in common with other art forms, can lead us beyond ordinary existence, and can show us something of the structure in which all creation hangs together, is no new idea. But mathematical texts generally begin the story somewhere in the middle, leaving the reader to pick up the thread as best he can.

G. Spencer-Brown