In his syllabus for a course on evolution, for example, he sneaks in a whole section on the cosmic impotence of man. “Nature no respecter of persons,” he writes. “Tampering impossible.… Her laws immutable.… He who defies them wields a club of air.” I can only imagine the impassioned diatribes that accompanied these notes, his fist held high in the air. His cosmically impotent fist.
"Wielding a club of air" is my new "tilting at windmills"
