This is what they wrote:
1. [The French encyclopedist] Diderot paid a visit to the Russian Court at the invitation of the Empress. He conversed very freely, and gave the younger members of the Court circle a good deal of lively atheism. The Empress was much amused, but some of her councillors suggested that it might be desirable to check these expositions of doctrine. The Empress did not like to put a direct muzzle on her guest's tongue, so the following plot was contrived. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician was in possession of an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God, and would give it him before all the Court, if he desired to hear it. Diderot gladly consented: though the name of the mathematician is not given, it was Euler. He advanced towards Diderot, and said gravely, and in a tone of perfect conviction:
Monsieur, (a+bⁿ)/n=x, Dieu existe; repondez! [Sir, (a+bⁿ)/n=x. Therefore God exists;reply!] Diderot to whom algebra was Hebrew, was embarrassed and disconcerted; while peals of laughter rose on all sides. He asked permission to return to France at once, which was granted.
1. [The French encyclopedist] Diderot paid a visit to the Russian Court at the invitation of the Empress. He conversed very freely, and gave the younger members of the Court circle a good deal of lively atheism. The Empress was much amused, but some of her councillors suggested that it might be desirable to check these expositions of doctrine. The Empress did not like to put a direct muzzle on her guest's tongue, so the following plot was contrived. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician was in possession of an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God, and would give it him before all the Court, if he desired to hear it. Diderot gladly consented: though the name of the mathematician is not given, it was Euler. He advanced towards Diderot, and said gravely, and in a tone of perfect conviction:
Monsieur, (a+bⁿ)/n=x, Dieu existe; repondez! [Sir, (a+bⁿ)/n=x. Therefore God exists;reply!] Diderot to whom algebra was Hebrew, was embarrassed and disconcerted; while peals of laughter rose on all sides. He asked permission to return to France at once, which was granted.
Augustus De Morgan, A Budget of Paradoxes (1872)
2. You’ve forgotten the greatest moral attribute of a Scotsman, Maggie, that he’ll do nothing which might damage his career- Sir James Barrie (1860-1937)
3. He [Coleridge] talked on forever; and you wished him to talk on forever- [Lecture on the English Poets, 8] William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
4. Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience – George-Louis De Buffon (1707-1788)
5. For when the One Great Scorer comes / To write against your name, / He marks-not that you won or lost - /But how you played the game – [Alumnus Football] Grantland Rice (1880-1954)
6. God is not Dead but Alive and Well and working on a Much Less Ambitious Project- [Noted in a Greenwich pub. Quoted in the Guardian ’London Letter’, 27 Nov. 1975, Graffiti]
7. How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
8. When a person dies who does any one thing better than anyone else in the world, which so many others are trying to do well, it leaves a gap in the society – [On the death of John Cavanagh, the fives-player, The Indian Jugglers] William Hazlitt (1778-1830)
9. Who will rid me of this turbulent priest? – [(Archbishop Thomas Becket) Attr.] Henry II (1133-1189)
10. If I had been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better arrangement of the universe – [Attr. In W.R. Inge, The End of an Age, Ch.6 ] Alfonso The Wise, King Of Castile (1221-1284)
