Formality Thus the absence of all mention of particular things or properties in logic or pure mathematics is a necessary result of the fact that this study is, as we say, "purely formal".

What science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.

There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. So, if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end.

The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large.

Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

The mind is a strange machine which can combine the materials offered to it in the most astonishing ways.

When the journey from means to end is not too long, the means themselves are enjoyed if the end is ardently desired.