Da série "Frases que impõem respeito"™ [707]

Chinese emperors respected jesuit astronomers because, when they predicted an eclipse, it happened. I suggest that the leaders of the great central banks should be compelled, each New Year´s Day, to prophesy the course of prices and trade throughout the coming year, and that, if they are proved wrong, they should have their heads cut off, or, if they preferred it, should become undergraduates at some university and sit at the feet of academic pedants. We must know whether our experts are expert, and this would be as good a method as any.

Bertrand Russell, Experts and Oligarchs, 19 July 1933
(Mortals and Others, London, 1998, p. 48)

Afonso