Ivan Turgenev Quotes
What's important is that twice two is four and all the rest's nonsense.
Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons. Translated by Constance Garnett, William Heinemann, 1895, p. 55.
This was the origin of the first part of John Adams famous quoation {310967}
This quotation from 1888 is apropos many of the major scientific advances which are counter-intuitive. Relativity was one; another was Quantum Mechanics where we have to learn to accept the fact that something can be in two (or more) places at once or that the exact same forces acting on an object can produce more than one result. Most non-scientists would see these as absurd, but they are basic characteristics of modern physics.
Many politicians have used this quote in recent years, but Moynahan seems to be the first.
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.