Quotable

We were talking about the rarified and highly contentious world of academia and publishing; the footnotes of many books reveal constant sniping of adherents of one school of thought against another in some niche subject.  

These professors can be petty and backbiting about some esoteric point that the rest of us have no idea what they are talking about. That's when I was informed about the conventional wisdom on the subject:

"The fights are so bitter, because the stakes are so small."