In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.
—
Orson Welles (via missfolly)
Which is why you don’t let actors talk about physics. Clearly Welles had never heard of the Bernoulli family or Leonhard Euler. Bernoulli’s Principle explains air flow inside carburetors and over wings, and Euler’s calculations led to accurate longitude tables. Without their contributions to science, we’d still be bumping cross-country in Conestoga wagons.
(via idroolinmysleep)
Of course, Orson Welles didn’t say this, Harry Lime did. Lime was the villain Welles portrayed in The Third Man, and this quote is from the big speech where he justifies stealing medicine meant for infants and selling them on the black market. Which is why you should check your facts before accusing someone of being an idiot.
(via idroolinmysleep)
