Prop Quotes (2 quotes)
Houses were knocked down... enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, propped up by great beams of wood... The yet unfinished and unopened Railway was in progress.
In Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation (1847), Vol. 1, 78.
Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money off them.
The Bee (c.1902). In What is Man? And Other Essays (1917), 283. Reprinted in Charles Neider (ed.), Complete Essays (1963). In Mark Twain and Brian Collins (ed.), When in Doubt, Tell the Truth: and Other Quotations from Mark Twain (1996), 118.
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. -- Carl Sagan
