We all project our petty lives upon the universe. - Stephen Baxter

In this marginal land accurate information was at a premium; to know the land was to prosper, not to know it meant starvation, and experts were a lot more valuable than bosses.

But that's insane," Morrow protested.
Uvarov hissed, "No one ever said it wasn't. We're human beings. What do you expect?

Buffon’s work created a great furore, of course. The theologians at the Sorbonne condemned him, and Buffon dutifully retracted. But he wasn’t sincere: ‘It is better to be humble than hanged.’