Profile of an Iconoclast

By opening this book, you will become privy to the thoughts I have accumulated over the past ninety years. They range from banal to bizarre, abstract to concrete, serious to frivolous. The credo that has given my life the most meaning comes from a maxim penned by Socrates: The unexamined life is not worth living. I have spent many days and countless nights devouring the pearls of wisdom generated by great minds that are no longer with us. They will, however, live on as long as they are remembered. Once they are forgotten, their labors will rejoin them in death. As a student, I once challenged a professor suggesting that a remark he made conflicted with a statement on page 17 in our textbook. He parried by saying, Tear that page out. Hence, if you encounter something in this book with which you disagree, you have my permission to tear that page out. Until we meet again, regard these words as my pre-mortem eulogy.