Some Poor grad student pressing on the flanks of a hamster and out comes a doctorate on the other side
Interpretation
Success often comes from persistent effort and creative problem-solving, even in the most unexpected situations.
This quote humorously illustrates the often arduous journey of academic pursuit, likening it to the whimsical notion of pressing on the flanks of a hamster to yield a doctoral degree. It highlights the challenges and absurdities faced by graduate students, suggesting that through determination and innovative approaches, they can achieve significant accomplishments, even if the path seems bizarre or unlikely.
In practice
This quote can be used at a graduation ceremony to inspire students about the unexpected paths to success.
I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it.
We live well enough to have the luxury to get ourselves sick with purely social, psychological stress.
There may be frugality which is not economy. A community, that withholds the means of education from its children, withholds the bread of life and starves their souls.
The drawing teacher has this problem of communicating how to draw by osmosis and not by instruction, while the physics teacher has the problem of always teaching techniques, rather than the spirit, of how to go about solving physical problems.
A proclivity for science is embedded deeply within us, in all times, places, and cultures. It has been the means for our survival. It is our birthright. When, through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism, we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchisin g them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future.
Teach and practice, practice and teach - that is all we have; that is all we are good for; that is all we ever ought to do.
If you just do something, then you're a five-year wonder and, goodbye, you're gone. But if people feel it's worthwhile, not only do they copy but they want to learn how to do it To me, that's what it's all about. If someone were to ask me, 'What's the number one thing, in essence, that you left behind?' It was the teaching of others so that they could take my work and take it further.
Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.
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