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Quote#War

A man may be a thoroughgoing soldier enough on land; but put him in…

Quote byCarl Barus · 1856–1935

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "The Mathematical Theory of the Top" (April 8, 1898).

English (original)

A man may be a thoroughgoing soldier enough on land; but put him in the foot ropes of the flying jibboom in a storm, and he is apt to cut a most ludicrous figure. Shift a physicist's foothold of Cartesian differential coordinates, suspend him over an abyss of non-Euclidean space, and he will kick sturdily. Poor policy this, for a missionary!

— Carl Barus

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