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Simon Newcomb Biography

Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician and autodidactic polymath, who was Professor of Mathematics in the U.S. Navy and at Johns Hopkins.

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Simon Newcomb Quotes

Though born in Nova Scotia, I am of almost pure New England descent.

England, Nova Scotia, Descent, Pure, Nova

In 1858 I received the degree of D. S. from the Lawrence Scientific School, and thereafter remained on the rolls of the university as a resident graduate.

Degree, Funny, Graduation, Inspirational, Scientific, University

If my impressions are correct, our educational planing mill cuts down all the knots of genius, and reduces the best of the men who go through it to much the same standard.

Education, Cutting, Science, Men, Reduces, Knots

Until I was four years old I lived in the house of my paternal grandfather, about two miles from the pretty little village of Wallace, at the mouth of the river of that name.

Names, Pretty, Two, Village, Wallace, Years

As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

Adversity, Enjoyment, Formed, Memorial Day, New Year, Prosperity

I was taught the alphabet by my aunts before I was four years old, and I was reading the Bible in class and beginning geography when I was six.

Alphabet, Aunt, Old, Reading, Taught, Years

What we now call school training, the pursuit of fixed studies at stated hours under the constant guidance of a teacher, I could scarcely be said to have enjoyed.

Constant, Guidance, School, Teacher, Training

Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope. . . . The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly. Imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second. It is the speed alone that sustains him. How is he ever going to stop?

Cope, Darting, Feet, Future, Hundred, Men

Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.

Air, Airplane, Insignificant, Machines, Space

One hardly knows where, in the history of science, to look for an important movement that had its effective start in so pure and simple an accident as that which led to the building of the great Washington telescope, and went on to the discovery of the satellites of Mars.

Knowledge, Led, Movement, Pure, Science, Simple

Construction of an aerial vehicle which can carry even a single man. . . requires the discovery of some new metal or force. Even with such a discovery, we could not expect one to do more than carry its owner.

Discovery, Flight, Men, Metal, Single, Vehicle

The demonstration that no possible combination of known substances, known forms of machinery and known forms of force, can be united in a practical machine by which men shall fly along distances through the air, seems to the writer as complete as it is possible for the demonstration to be.

Airplane, Distance, Fly, Future, Machine, United

All attempts at artificial aviation are not only dangerous to human life, but foredoomed to failure from the engineering standpoint.

Engineering, Aviation, Human Life, Dangerous, Attempts, Life

A few years later the Naval Academy was founded at Annapolis, and a similar course was pursued to provide it with a corps of instructors.

Annapolis, Corps, Instructors, Naval, Pursued, Years

Quite likely the twentieth century is destined to see the natural forces which will enable us to fly from continent to continent with a speed far exceeding that of a bird.

Airplane, Bird, Enable, Likely, Speed, Twentieth

James Edward Oliver might have been one of the great mathematicians of his time had he not been absolutely wanting in the power of continuous work.

Might, Might Have Been, Mathematician, Mathematicians, Wanting, Time

The time was not yet ripe for the growth of mathematical science among us, and any development that might have taken place in that direction was rudely stopped by the civil war.

Civil, Rude, Stopped, Taken, Time, War

We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.

Astronomy, Knowledge, Limit, Limits, Probably, Science

Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope.

Aerial, Class, Cope, Flight, Men, Science

When about fifteen I once made a great scandal by taking out my knife in prayer meeting and assaulting a young man who, while I was kneeling down during the prayer, stood above me and squeezed my neck.

Fifteen, Knives, Men, Prayer, Taking

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Simon Newcomb Biography

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