3 Quotes by Alexander Monro

For, as the substance of the brain, like that of the other solids of our body, is nearly incompressible, the quantity of blood within the head must be the same, or very nearly the same, at all times, whether in health or disease, in life or after death.

Paper has been the evangelist of many of the convictions that shaped history, carrying them to distant lands or simply to a groundswell of people who could never otherwise have absorbed them. Propagandist, tyrant, democratizer, tool, inventor, magician and technician all in one, paper’s power lies in its absence of personality. Quietly, inexpensively and often slowly, it has seeped around the world, and history’s most galvanizing ideas have hitched a lift on its surface.

Just as paper allowed authors a more independent voice and a higher word count, so it also enabled them to listen to the voices of many others, even those hundreds of miles away.