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I think of a pithy quote as a very short story. Such a short story can capture an important idea in a very few words, and such quotes tend to remain "fresh" over many years—and even over the centuries..

I have created two personal collections of such quotes fr the IAE-pedia. See my general quotes at http://iae-pedia.org/Quotations_Collected_by_David_Moursund and my math education quotes at http://iae-pedia.org/Math_Education_Quotations.

I often make use of quotations from my lists at the beginnings of articles and chapters I write. Here are some of my favorites about the future.

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor; 121 - 180 A.D.)

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." (Isaac Asimov; Russian-born American author and biochemist; 1920–1992.)

"Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still." (Chinese Proverb.)

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” (Winston Churchill; British prime minister; 1874–1965.)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” (Arthur C. Clarke; British science fiction author; 1917–2008.)

“It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it." (Albert Einstein; German-born theoretical physicist and 1921 Nobel Prize winner; 1879–1955.)

"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing." (Benjamin Franklin; American scientist, inventor statesman, printer, philosopher; 1706–1790.)

"The future depends on what we do in the present.” (Mahatma Gandhi; major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement; 1869—1948.)

“The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.” (William Gibson; American-Canadian writer who coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome" and later popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer; 1948–.)

"Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do… The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn't violate too many of Newton's Laws. (Alan Kay; American computer scientist; 1940–.)

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem." (Martin Luther King Jr., 1926–1968.)

“Children are the message we send to the future.” (Abraham Lincoln; 16th President of the United States; 1809–1865.)

"If you don't know where you are going, you're likely to end up somewhere else." (Lawrence J. Peter; educator and hierarchiologist of "Peter's Principles" fame; 1919–1990.)

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them." (George Bernard Shaw; Irish playwright; 1856–1950.)

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be the one who can not read and write, but the one who can not learn, unlearn, and relearn." (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; 1928–.)

"All education springs from some image of the future. If the image of the future held by a society is grossly inaccurate, its education system will betray its youth." (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; 1928–.)

"Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real." (Jules Verne; French author who helped pioneer the science fiction genre; 1828–1905.)

Final Remarks

Spend a bit of time reflecting on what you have just read. How does the information fit in with your current knowledge, beliefs, and activities? How can you make use of the information to help improve our informal and formal educational systems? Who do you know that might benefit from reading the IAE Blog entry?

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Links to Related IAE Documents

Math Education Quotations.

Quotations Collected by David Moursund. This file was updated 11/5/2011.