Have to share!

Have been reading Emanuel Derman's My Life as a Quant, such a well-written book that I have to share with you some of the classic quotations:

Ever since, through ups and downs, I have tried to remember that no matter how low you get, about work or life, you can take some solace from the fact that the future is unpredictable. Even in the midst of misery, unexpectedly good things can happen without warning."

Years later I met corporate lawyers and Wall Street salesmaen who touted the fringe benefits of their jobs -- first class flights, expensive meals, and fancy hotels. I silently scorned their focus on the material benefits of work. In physics, I thought, the life itself was the benefit; talking about physics to interesting people in interesting places was the main dish, not the cutlery.

"This coercion had such a deterring effect that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distateful to me for an entire year." [words of Einstein]

to be continued ... ...