Bridges would not be safer if only people who knew the proper definition of a real number were allowed to design them.
Interpretation
Expertise in one area does not guarantee safety or success in another.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that having specialized knowledge, such as understanding mathematical concepts, does not necessarily qualify someone to address practical and safety concerns in unrelated fields, like bridge design. It emphasizes the importance of diverse skills and practical experience over theoretical knowledge alone.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of practical experience in engineering, this quote can highlight the limitations of theoretical knowledge.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
What antidote can there be for an idea that popular and poisonous? Revenge provides revenge, which is sure to provide revenge, forming an endless chain of human misery. Here's the antidote: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.
Vedanta teaches that consciousness is singular, all happenings are played out in one universal consciousness and there is no multiplicity of selves.
[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.
If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience were reduced somehow to mere matter in motion, what would happen to our appreciation of love and pain and dreams and joy? If conscious human beings were just animated material objects, how could anything we do to them be right or wrong?
A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment
Self-justification and judging others go together, as justification by grace and serving others go together.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.