Nicholas Murray Butler

expert more less

“An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less.”

― Nicholas Murray Butler​ (1862-1947)​

expert more eveything nothing

“An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.”

― Nicholas Murray Butler​ (1862-1947)

mathematics reason analytical geometry science

“The analytical geometry of Descartes and the calculus of Newton and Leibniz have expanded into the marvelous mathematical method—more daring than anything that the history of philosophy records—of Lobachevsky and Riemann, Gauss and Sylvester. Indeed, mathematics, the indispensable tool of the sciences, defying the senses to follow its splendid flights, is demonstrating today, as it never has been demonstrated before, the supremacy of the pure reason.”

― Nicholas Murray Butler​​ (1862-1947)​

problems think

"all of the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think."

― Nicholas Murray Butler​​ (1862-1947)​

protection liberty moral principle christmas new year greeting

"The effective protection of liberty against compulsion must rest not on force, but on moral principle. That moral principle must be openly declared and strictly adhered to if liberty is to continue to exist. Under any other circumstances liberty is doomed. It is precisely this fact which makes the oft-quoted Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States, particularly its Ninth and Tenth Amendments … of such vital importance and significance at this moment. These great historical documents are the charter of liberty. He who supports and defends their principles in any land is a liberal. With Christmas and New Year’s greetings."

― Nicholas Murray Butler​​ (1862-1947)​