Scientists bow down to the ‘concretism’ of a mode of understanding
that finds the works of a clock more interesting than the time the
clock measures. They have all become mechanics, as it were. In their
theories, they invest all their love in those things that they can
deal with free of doubt. They think they can find security in things
that seem absolute to them and that protect them from all
contradiction. They are infatuated with neat means, methods, and
techniques and pathologically underestimate, or forget, what they
think themselves no longer capable of and what all of us at one time
or another have hoped to achieve in the way of insight.
Max Horkheimer, qtd. in Dietrich Dörner, The Logic of Failure.
Principle the Overly Refined
Rather on your toes, up high,
Than crawling on all fours!
Rather through a keyhole spy
Than through open doors!
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science