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There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory; but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.

— Gian-Carlo Rota

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Failure

More quotes by Gian-Carlo Rota

I wonder whether or when artificial intelligence will ever crash the barrier of meaning.

God created infinity, and man, unable to understand infinity, had to invent finite sets.

The more experimental scientists and engineers are, the more common sense they have, and so on until you get to the mathematicians, who are totally devoid of common sense.

Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don't look alike are really the same. That is one of their innermost Freudian motivations. In fact, that is what we mean by understanding.

Indiscrete Thoughts (2008)

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A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible.

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Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gian-Carlo Rota (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.