Quotes About Theory

I think literary theory has not been terribly good for English studies in a while. It's not that theory isn't interesting, but it isn't about books, or the idiosyncrasies and complexities of putting language together.

There's always been that theory that if a candidate can't run a decent campaign, he probably can't run a decent presidency. That might be true, although sadly I must admit that running a brilliant campaign does not translate into running a brilliant White House.

I'm interested in how we can put political principles into practice in our personal lives and the limits of theory when it comes to our desires and needs.

Economics is not a discipline that comes to correct answers - economies are too complex.

The concept of disruption is about competitive response; it is not a theory of growth. It's adjacent to growth. But it's not about growth.

Everything can look good in theory and in practice it all falls apart.

Once you've developed some technical facility on the guitar, the musical side (which entails theory, harmony, chord structure, ear training, sight-reading, composition and being able to hear chord progressions and licks) comes into play a lot more.

In subjects that physicists think of as purely quantum, classical ideas and classical computational techniques can often be powerful.

Evidence and economic theory suggests that control of the Internet by the phone and cable companies would lead to blocking of competing technologies.

Among physicists and chemists, cold fusion - nuclear fusion at close to room temperature - enjoys a reputation about on par with creationism.

Only this morning I heard a radio speaker make the observation that, in most matters, we move in either of two directions: from words to things, or from things to words. That is to say, if we do not make the journey from theories and ideals to concrete situations, then the concrete situations will be lost under a smog of words.

Manners matter, asserts the professor. What provokes rebellion, he asserts, is not as often a theory out allowing for arbitrary power but be excessive, brusque use of it by a particular individual.

Cornerstone No. 1 is the Theory of Relativity, which states: In order to settle on a rational course of action (or inaction), one must first weigh all pertinent facts in a relative light and carefully define his terms.

Cornerstone No. 2 is the Theory of Relevance, which states: No matter how interesting or how true something may be, the primary factor to take into consideration is how relevant it is to your achieving main your objective.

Stated in theory form, what I'm talking about here is the Theory of Intimidation, which states: The results a person achieves are inversely proportionate to the degree to which he is intimidated.

Max Weber was right in subscribing to the view that one need not be Caesar in order to understand Caesar. But there is a temptation for us theoretical sociologists to act sometimes as though it is not necessary even to study Caesar in order to understand him. Yet we know that the interplay of theory and research makes both for understanding of the specific case and expansion of the general rule.

Today's preoccupation with physical theories of everything takes a wrong turn from the purpose of science - to question all things relentlessly. Modern physics has become like Swift's kingdom of Laputa, flying absurdly on an island above the earth and indifferent to what is beneath.

It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity.

The world had been constructed along bloody lines, of that there was no doubt, and it remained a puzzle at least as baffling as the unified field theory he had been seeking so long.

the reason for Diocletian's hasty retreat around 304 AD. Most historians assumed it had something to do with the unceasing political struggles in the Roman senate—his rival Galerius had been restive, and it was plain he meant to seize the reins of power—and Diocletian may have felt the need to hurry back home to exert his control once again, though that theory was contradicted by his almost immediate retirement once he got there.

When his theory of relativity had been challenged by a fellow physicist—whose own theories, Einstein contended, relied too much upon random events and coincidences—he had replied: "Subtle is the Lord, but malicious he is not." He still believed that to be true; there was an order to everything in the universe, and the greatest achievement would lie in deciphering it.

The theory of dependence will take the wrong path and lead to deception if the analysis is not put within the framework of the worldwide class struggle.

One important difference is the insistence of the new theory upon seeing the big picture. Where Freudian theory concerned itself with the delineation of ever more refined detail in the life of an individual, Bowen theory pursues an ever-broadening scope that incorporates an entire relationship system.

Despite these afternoon misgivings and self-reproaches I clung to my notion, ill-defined though it was, that a serious study of human knowledge, or theory, or belief, if undertaken with a critical but not a cruel mind, would in the end yield some secret, some valuable permanent insight, into the nature of life and the true end of man.