Change is the Only Constant Quotes

“Mathematics can instruct us on how to optimize. But what to optimize—that remains a question for humans.”
― Ben Orlin, Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“Math is a weave of many threads: the formal and the intuitive, the simple and the profound, the momentary and the eternal. Love the thread you love. But never mistake it for the tapestry.”
― Ben Orlin, Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“Paradox is the grain of sand that helps form the pearl of theory.”
― Ben Orlin, Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“All the world's a differential equation, and the men and women are merely variables.”
― Ben Orlin, Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“What is,” said the philosopher Parmenides, not quite a million days ago, “is uncreated and indestructible, alone, complete, immovable and without end.” It’s a bold philosophy. Parmenides permitted no divisions, no distinctions, no future, no past. “Nor was it ever, nor will it be,” he explained; “for now it is, all at once, a continuous one.” To Parmenides, the universe was like Los Angeles traffic: eternal, singular, and unchanging. A million days later, it remains a very stupid idea.”
― Ben Orlin, Change Is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“Psychology: it's sociology for sociopaths.”
― Ben Orlin, Change Is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“With pendulums and escapements, we carved hours into minutes (the etymology: “a minute fraction of an hour”), and thence into seconds (as in “a second order” of tiny; a minute fraction of a minute).”
― Ben Orlin, Change Is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“History is the sum of the people living it.”
― Ben Orlin, Change is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World

“As prince of paradox Yogi Berra observed, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded now.”
― Ben Orlin, Change Is the Only Constant: The Wisdom of Calculus in a Madcap World