The silent killer of history’s obligation to truth and objectivity

British historians have viewed computing technology variously as the handmaiden of postmodernism, as a witless accomplice in the collapse of narrative, and as the silent killer of history’s obligation to truth and objectivity

W. G. Thomas III, ‘Computing and the Historical Imagination’, ed. S. Schreibman, R. G. Siemens, and J. Unsworth, A Companion to Digital Humanities (2004), 61

Not in my hands it isn't

Most of these have now left most of us, thanks to antibiotics, plumbing, civilization, and money

Until a few decades ago, bacteria were a genuine household threat, and although most of us survived them, we were always aware of the nearness of death. We moved, with our families, in and out of death. We had lobar pneumonia, meningococcal meningitis, streptococcal infections, diphtheria, endocarditis, enteric fevers, various septicemias, syphilis, and, always, everywhere, tuberculosis. Most of these have now left most of us, thanks to antibiotics, plumbing, civilization, and money, but we remember.

L. Thomas, 'Germs', The Lives of a Cell (1974), 76

A typical scientific paper has never pretended to be more than another little piece in a larger jigsaw

A regular journal carries from one research worker to another the various... observations which are of common interest.... A typical scientific paper has never pretended to be more than another little piece in a larger jigsaw-not significant in itself but as an element in a grander scheme. This technique, of soliciting many modest contributions to the store of human knowledge, has been the secret of Western science since the seventeenth century, for it achieves a corporate, collective power that is far greater than one individual can exert

J.M. Ziman, cited in L. Thomas, 'On societies as organisms', The Lives of a Cell (1974), 15