Smart things your educators have said

[Harel13]

As the title says, post smart things that your educators (teachers/professors) have said that have stuck with you.

I have one that one of my professors said last semester that has been in my head for some time now:
"You know it's a fair compromise if nobody is pleased."

 

[Twilight Hue]

E before I in spelling receipt.

 

[Aštra’el]

I remember the greatest human teacher I ever had.

I would tell her, “Thank you for everything you have taught me.” She would say, “I have taught you nothing. I have helped you unleash what was already there.”

 

[Estro Felino]

Don't imitate others. Be yourself. Be unique.
Philosophy teacher.

 

[Secret Chief]

As the title says, post smart things that your educators (teachers/professors) have said that have stuck with you.

I have one that one of my professors said last semester that has been in my head for some time now:
"You know it's a fair compromise if nobody is pleased."

The final words that the head teacher said to me were: Your physical strength is matched only by your mental strength. Set free the hurricane of power that surges through your body and cast aside the weaklings that would cling to you like frightened mice. Total belief in yourself will harness both the blinding light and the terrible darkness. Accept both and surge through the world like a mighty effluent.

 

[Mark Charles Compton]

To remember a specific pharaoh's name:

When we fart together, we "Tutankhamun"! (Toot in common)

 

[Jedster]

To remember a specific pharaoh's name:

When we fart together, we "Tutankhamun"! (Toot in common)

I used to live next to Tooting Common. Beware, lots of rats live there,

 

[Mark Charles Compton]

I used to live next to Tooting Common. Beware, lots of rats live there,

Hehe. I've been warned of Barking Spiders. And to be careful not to step on a Duck or a frog... Was told the Fog Horns are always blaring in response to concentrated levels of methane locally.

 

[Jedster]

Hehe. I've been warned of Barking Spiders. And to be careful not to step on a Duck or a frog... Was told the Fog Horns are always blaring in response to concentrated levels of methane locally.

Hmm, well the cafe does sell kitkats.

 

[Mark Charles Compton]

Hmm, well the cafe does sell kitkats.

Was looking at images of the Commons you mentioned, looks beautiful. Similar scenery to where I currently live; Berrien County, Michigan, USA.

 

[exchemist]

As the title says, post smart things that your educators (teachers/professors) have said that have stuck with you.

I have one that one of my professors said last semester that has been in my head for some time now:
"You know it's a fair compromise if nobody is pleased."

"This is one model", which was almost a catchphrase of my 6th form chemistry teacher, the man who inspired me to choose chemistry for my university degree. It is quite profound, gently reminding us at intervals that science is fundamentally in the business of model-building and not of definitive truth.

In fact this is especially true of chemistry, in which, due to the hideous complexity of real chemical systems, simplifications have to be used a lot. Sometimes more than one simplified model may be required for the same phenomenon, depending on which aspect you are concerned with, e.g. Valence Bond vs. Molecular Orbital theories of bonding, or things like the formalism of oxidation states, which pretend that everything is ionised, for the sake of balancing numbers, even though it is applied to covalent compounds.

More generally, "this is one model" has given me a useful sense of perspective on many things in life.

(By the way I have also found Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to be another philosophically useful idea, but that's another story.)

 

[exchemist]

As the title says, post smart things that your educators (teachers/professors) have said that have stuck with you.

I have one that one of my professors said last semester that has been in my head for some time now:
"You know it's a fair compromise if nobody is pleased."

That could be (almost is) the motto of the BBC.

 

[Mark Charles Compton]

"If you're having to crunch time to complete a project. How do you have time to do it over?"

 

[Mark Charles Compton]

That could be (almost is) the motto of the BBC.

When I say a version of the 'fairness' quote in the OP, I think I sound much more pessimistic, such as:

"How good is fairness and who wants it? Fair is when all parties involved are equally dissatisfied."

After all, we cannot make everyone happy, but we can certainly bring everyone down to the lowest common level.

More of such pessimism:
The glass is half empty. How do I know? 'If the liquid filling the glass doesn't evaporate, it's molecular structure is decaying. If we began at exactly half, entropy determines the glass to be half empty.' Better make of it what you can, while you still have it!

 

[Kenny]

"You can make numbers and polls say anything you want"

Statistics teacher

 

[Harel13]

That could be (almost is) the motto of the BBC.

Ironically, the professor said it during a class on the start of the British Mandate, when the British were having meetings with the local Jews and Arabs.

 

[ChristineM]

It's your choice.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

A teacher I knew always used to say during a test:
"Cheating is allowed, as long as I don't see it."

 

[RestlessSoul]

The final words that the head teacher said to me were: Your physical strength is matched only by your mental strength. Set free the hurricane of power that surges through your body and cast aside the weaklings that would cling to you like frightened mice. Total belief in yourself will harness both the blinding light and the terrible darkness. Accept both and surge through the world like a mighty effluent.

Effluent ?

 

[RestlessSoul]

Ironically, the professor said it during a class on the start of the British Mandate, when the British were having meetings with the local Jews and Arabs.

Remind me again how that worked out for everyone?