>
> On Sat, 7 Aug 2004, Jonathan Nitzan wrote:
>
>> There is a common quote, attributed in various versions to Arthur
>> Schopenhauer, Arthur C. Clarke and Leo Szilard, which goes something
>> like this: "Every new truth passes through three stages. In the
>> beginning the experts ridicule it as 'nonsense.' Then they dismiss it as
>> 'trivial.' And in the end we learn that they 'said it all along.'"
>
> Fwiw, it's actually William James, from his 1907 book _Pragmatism: A New
> Name For Some Old Ways of Thinking_. It's from Lecture 6, paragraph 2:
Here's a slightly older variant from Fabian socialist Sidney Webb, in 1888.
"There are three stages through which every new notion in England has to pass: It is impossible: It is against the Bible: We knew it before. Socialism is rapidly reaching the third of these stages."
-- Sidney Webb, Fabian Society Tract #15: "English Progress towards Social Democracy", a lecture from 1888, published in 1890.
Chris