Quotes from John Burgess

According to Quine, we must (alas, with the greatest reluctance!) resign ourselves (ah, that it should have come to this!) to accepting (unbidden and unwelcome!) mathematical entities, because (most regrettably and unfortunately!) mention of them seems (would that it were not so!) to be an unavoidable requirement (how cruel a necessity!) in formulating scientific theories.

We pray with sometimes unseemly insistence for specific things to happen. We give no thought to the myriad ways in which they might come to pass.