"It is no paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications." (Alfred N Whitehead, "An Introduction to Mathematics", 1911)
"[...] operations of an almost mysterious character, which run counter to ordinary procedure in a more or less paradoxical way. They are methods which give an onlooker the impression of magic if he be not himself initiated or equally skilled in the mechanism. (Hans Vaihinger, "The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind", 1911)
"The very name calculus of probabilities is a paradox. Probability opposed to certainty is what we do not know, and how can we calculate what we do not know?" (Henri Poincaré, "The Foundations of Science", 1913)
"We know not to what are due the accidental errors, and precisely because we do not know, we are aware they obey the law of Gauss. Such is the paradox." (Henri Poincaré, "The Foundations of Science", 1913)
"The scientific paradox is only an exception to some familiar but too inclusive generalization. It, therefore, has both the appeal of the riddle and the charm of surprise - the surprise, the instant the truth is seen, of a sudden and unexpected discovery." (William J Humphries, "A Bundle of Meteorological Paradoxes", Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1919)
"We live in a world full of contradiction and paradox, a fact of which perhaps the most fundamental illustration is this: that the existence of a problem of knowledge depends on the future being different than the past, while the possibility of the solution of the problem depends on the future being like the past." (Frank H Knight, "Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit", 1921)
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