Treatise Quotes
More Treatise Quotes
[T]hat the Universe was formed by a fortuitous Concourse of Atoms ... I will no more believe, than that the accidental Jumbling of the Letters of the Alphabet, could fall by Chance into a most ingenious and learned Treatise of Philosophy.
— Jonathan Swift, "A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind" (1708)
It is possible to express the laws of thermodynamics in the form of independent principles , deduced by induction from the facts of observation and experiment, without reference to any hypothesis as to the occult molecular operations with which the sensible phenomena may be conceived to be connected; and that course will be followed in the body of the present Treatise. But, in giving a brief historical sketch of the progress of thermodynamics, the progress of the hypothesis of thermic molecular motions cannot be wholly separated from that of the purely inductive theory.
william john macquorn rankine— In A Manual of the Steam Engine and other Prime Movers (1859), p. 27
Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.
David Hume— 1777 My Own Life, ch.1.
Agronomy:;; or a Treatise on the Constituent Parts and Physical Properties of the Soil, and the best Method of acquiring a Knowledge of the different Earths, and ascertaining their Value.
— Albrecht Thaer The Principles of Agriculture, Volume 1. William Shaw and Cuthbert W. Johnson (tr.). Ridgway, 1844. p. 258: Title and subtitle of section III of the book.
The engine driving the Kelly system is the "law of large numbers." In a 1713 Treatise on probability, Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli propounded a law that has been misunderstood by gamblers (and investors) ever since.
william poundstone— Part Two, Blackjack, The Kelly Criterion Under The Hood, p. 102
It is possible to express the laws of thermodynamics in the form of independent principles, deduced by induction from the facts of observation and experiment, without reference to any hypothesis as to the occult molecular operations with which the sensible phenomena may be conceived to be connected; and that course will be followed in the body of the present Treatise. But, in giving a brief historical sketch of the progress of thermodynamics, the progress of the hypothesis of thermic molecular motions cannot be wholly separated from that of the purely inductive theory.
william john macquorn rankine— A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other pPrime Movers (1859), p. 27
I am particularly fond of [Emmanuel Mendes da Costa's] Natural History of Fossils because this Treatise, more than any other work written in English, records a short episode expressing one of the grand false starts in the history of natural science and nothing can be quite so informative and instructive as a juicy mistake.
stephen jay gould— "The Clam Stripped Bare by Her Naturalists, Even", p. 93
Thus, while I thought myself employed only in forming a Nomenclature, and while I proposed to myself nothing more than to improve the chemical language, my work transformed itself by degrees, without my being able to prevent it, into a Treatise upon the Elements of Chemistry.
antoine lavoisier— p.xiv (Elements of Chemistry (1790))
Thus they shall not miss this particular branch of the many branches of the Law and will have no need to roam and ramble about in other books in search of information on matters set forth in this Treatise.
maimonides— Book 3 (Sefer Zemanim "Times"), Treatise 8 (Kiddush HaChodesh "Sanctification of the New Moon"), closing words
The chief object of the Law, as has been shown by us, is the teaching of truths; to which the truth of the creatio ex nihilo belongs. It is known that the object of the law of Sabbath is to confirm and to establish this principle, as we have shown in this Treatise (Part II. chap. xxxi.) In addition to the teaching of truths the Law aims at the removal of injustice from mankind. We have thus proved that the first laws do not refer to burnt-offering and sacrifice, which are of secondary importance.
maimonides— Ch.32 (Part III)
His [Turgot's] first important literary and scholastic effort was a Treatise On the Existence of God . Few fragments of it remain, but we are helped to understand him when we learn that he asserted, and to the end of his life maintained, his belief in an Almighty Creator and Upholder of the Universe. It did, indeed, at a later period suit the purposes of his enemies, exasperated by his tolerant spirit and his reforming plans, to proclaim him an atheist; but that sort of charge has been the commonest of missiles against troublesome thinkers in all times.
turgot, anne robert jacques, baron de laune— White, ibid., Seven Great Statesmen...
Jaisingh collected and studied all the available astronomical works...Several European works were translated into Sanskrit under his orders, particularly Euclid ’s elements, with a Treatise on plane and spherical trigonometry ; and on the construction and use of logarithms ...and also a Treatise on conical sections...maps and globes of the Ferenghis were obtained from Surat .
— G.R. Kaye, on the efforts made by Jai Singh to set up the Astronomical Observatory in Jaipur, in p.213
The Bhagavadg?t? is more a religious classic than a philosophical Treatise. It is not an esoteric work designed for and understood by the specially initiated but a popular poem which helps even those 'who wander in the region of the many and variable'.
— Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, "The Bhagavadgita", HarperCollins, 1948, Introductory Essay
I believe the Gita to be one of the major religious documents of the world. If its teachings did not seem to me to agree with those of the other gospels and scriptures, then my own system of values would be thrown into confusion, and I should feel completely bewildered. The Gita is not simply a sermon, but a philosophical Treatise.
— Christopher W. B. Isherwood, Vedanta for the Western World - Page 358.
