"What's a philosopher?" - "Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting."
(О философских трактатах) "These aren't books for reading. They're more for writing."
"That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it's all Is Truth Beauty and Is Beauty Truth, and Does a Falling Tree in the Forest Make a Sound if There's No one There to Hear It, and then just when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, Incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles." (Показательно, что от этого-то аспекта философия в новое время избавилась быстрее всего. Между тем, "Анафем" Стивенсона, в частности, именно об этом.)
