Every once in a while, as you’re frantically skimming through your reading before discussion section wondering how you’re possibly going to remember any of it, you’ll spot a sentence like any of the following and find your answer. Yes, we’ve done this before, but there’s so much more to learn!
- “It is possible—but a sign of unbelievably bad taste—to put unrelated conditions into the loop header”
Big Java, 4th Edition - “The printing presses should be put on automatic pilot, and no human interference should be allowed. Essentially, the central bank is run by robots. This would be difficult to implement.”
International Money and Finance, Feenstra and Taylor - “Sometimes we make artificial animals’ feet to put on our feet; at others we put artificial birds on our hats and quietly conceal ourselves in luxuriant undergrowth”
The Art of War, Sun-Tzu - “If Pavlovian conditioning were only applicable to situations that involve a US (unconditioned stimulus), it would be somewhat limited. It would only occur if you received food, shock, or had sex. How about the rest of the time, when you are not eating or having sex?”
The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 6th Edition, Michael Domjan - “Intermediate filaments are particularly prominent in the cytoplasm of cells that are subject to mechanical stress, and are generally not found in animals that have rigid exoskeletons such as anthropods and echinoderms. It seems that intermediate filaments plan an important role in imparting mechanical strength to tissues for the squishier animals. ”
Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition, Alberts et al - “When we hear the word ‘chicken’ we presume, unless there is a good reason not to do so, that what is meant is the common domestic fowl”.
A History of Islamic Legal Theories, Wael Hallaq
Share your own favorite textbook quotes in the comments!
3 Comments
@Anonymous “Obviously there are many ways in which nuclear tests are not at all like, say, the Catholic mass or African adolescent circumcision rituals”
“People of the bomb: Portraits of America’s nuclear complex”- Hugh Gusterson
@Anonymous “When Nemo the clownfish loses his mother to a predator, his father takes over the duties of raising him. But in a more realistic version of the story, after losing his mate Nemo’s father would have done something less predictable: he would have changed sex and become a female.” Ecology- Cain, Bowman and Hacker
@Anonymous Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Norton Shakespeare”
Henry IV Part 1.
Prince Harry:
“As, for proof, now: A purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing “lay by!”,1 and spent with crying “bring in!”; 2 now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder, and by-and-by in as high a flow as the ridge3 of the gallows. 4
1. A thief’s cry similar to “Hands up!”
2. A tavern customer’s call for more food or wine
3. Crossbar
4. The Prince’s speech is riddled with sexual slang, including “purse” as meaning “vagina” or “scrotum”; “snatched” as “forcibly had sexual relations with”; “spent” as “exhausted by sexual activity”; “lay by” as “lie back”; “spent with” as “reached orgasm with”; and “low” and “high” as referring to a penis, first limp and then erect.