Percival Lowell bol americký podnikateľ, matematik, astronóm a diplomat. Od roku 1894 sa intenzívne venoval štúdiu Marsu a snažil sa preukázať umelý pôvod marsovských vodných kanálov. Vďaka svojím výpočtom predpovedal aj existenciu Pluta, ktoré bolo objavené 14 rokov po jeho smrti. Wikipedia
“Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants”
Percival Lowell kniha Mars and its Canals
Preface
Mars and its Canals (1906)
Kontext: Formulae are the anaesthetics of thought, not its stimulants and to make any one think is far better worth while than cramming him with ill-considered, and therefore indigestible, learning.
Percival Lowell kniha Mars and its Canals
Zdroj: Mars and its Canals (1906), Chapter XXXII, Conclusion
Kontext: War is a survival among us from savage times and affects now chiefly the boyish and unthinking element of the nation. The wisest realize that there are better ways for practicing heroism and other and more certain ends of insuring the survival of the fittest. It is something a people outgrow. But whether they consciously practice peace or not, nature in its evolution eventually practices it for them, and after enough of the inhabitants of a globe have killed each other off, the remainder must find it more advantageous to work together for the common good.
Percival Lowell kniha Mars and its Canals
Preface
Mars and its Canals (1906)
Zdroj: Mars as the Abode of Life (1908), Chapter I, p. 3
Percival Lowell kniha Mars and its Canals
Zdroj: Mars and its Canals (1906), Chapter XXXII, Conclusion
Zdroj: Mars as the Abode of Life (1908), Chapter IV, p. 125
