Quotes About Precision

Economics could not be an exact science, because the number of variables was too great, and stability of variables over time could not be guaranteed. As he was to put it later, it is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.

Philosophy is the art of making distinctions.

but there was no way he could hold a target

A year's work can be ruined quickly, sometimes within seconds, if roasting isn't done well.

Mathematics, after all, lives on unambiguous exactitude, whereas there are types of art that die of it.

Sharpening your knife is never a waste of time.

The edge of a leaf is not simply uneven; there is a glossary of specific words for the appearance of a leaf margin: dentate for large, coarse teeth, serrate for a sawblade edge, serrulate if the teeth are fine and even, ciliate for a fringe along the edge. A leaf folded by accordion pleats is plicate, complanate when flattened as if squashed between two pages of a book. Every nuance of moss architecture has a word.

Following the path of science trained me to separate, to distinguish perception from physical reality, to atomize complexity into its smallest components, to honor the chain of evidence and logic, to discern one thing from another, to savor the pleasure of precision.

I can count

A complaint had to be true and specific

Don't you agree? Swordplay is a dance of sorts, an understanding of the logical, most sophisticated next step. Except that in a fight, one must take the unexpected step. In dance it is all about taking the right, expected step.

Precision of language, Jonah.

como si dijera: «Ya casi hemos terminado», y ciertamente los chorritos de leche salieron más finos y lentos. Dio un apretón final

Jonas was careful about language.

Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it's become almost obsolete," his mother explained carefully.

like swatting flies with a laser cannon. The aim's a bit tricky, but it sure takes care of the flies.

He's not so short," said Ekaterin defensively. "He's just . . . concentrated." Her

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

I planned my life by the hour as closely as one plans a year, and no further than an hour.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day,' and this is one of the times I'm right.

It's bad enough when they refer to medical science as 'an inexact science,' says the Mother. But when they start referring to it as 'an art,' I get extremely nervous.

The neck shot is best," I commented, "if chance allows. If shot through the heart or lungs they will often run a mile or more before dropping.

But if there was embellishment, it only had to do with the facts.

There was the unspeakable neatness of military preparation for violence