Conjecture about useful things is far preferable to exact knowledge of the useless, and that to be a little superior in important things is of greater worth than to be pre-eminent in petty things that are without value for living. Isocrates. Helen. Speech 10. Section 5.
Image: Eruption of Vesuvius in 1872 by Oswald Achenbach. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This quote reminded me of Pliny the Elder and how important it was to him to conjecture about useful things in his Naturalis Historia, sadly leading to his death due to his efforts to observe the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and rescue its victims in Pompeii.
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