"It is utterly implausible that a mathematical formula should make the future known to us, and those who think it can would once have believed in witchcraft."

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To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives? - and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared to live more worthily and profitably?

— Henry David Thoreau