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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index P > Vilfredo Pareto, Quotes

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Vilfredo Pareto,
(15 Jul 1848 - 20 Aug 1923)

Italian economist and sociologist.


Science Quotes by Vilfredo Pareto, (4 quotes)

Above, far above the prejudices and passions of men soar the laws of nature. Eternal and immutable, they are the expression of the creative power they represent what is, what must be, what otherwise could not be. Man can come to understand them: he is incapable of changing them.
— Vilfredo Pareto,
From Cours d’Economie Politique (1896-97), as given in Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences (1993), Issues 131-133, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Creative (144)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Expression (181)  |  Far (158)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Passion (121)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Represent (157)  |  Soar (23)  |  Understand (648)

From the infinitely great down to the infinitely small, all things are subject to [the laws of nature]. The sun and the planets follow the laws discovered by Newton and Laplace, just as the atoms in their combinations follow the laws of chemistry, as living creatures follow the laws of biology. It is only the imperfections of the human mind which multiply the divisions of the sciences, separating astronomy from physics or chemistry, the natural sciences from the social sciences. In essence, science is one. It is none other than the truth.
— Vilfredo Pareto,
From Cours d’Economie Politique (1896-97), as given in Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences (1993), Issues 131-133, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atom (381)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Combination (150)  |  Creature (242)  |  Discover (571)  |  Division (67)  |  Down (455)  |  Essence (85)  |  Follow (389)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Planet (402)  |  Separate (151)  |  Small (489)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)

Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.
— Vilfredo Pareto,
Pareto’s comment on Kepler. In John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations (12th ed. 1949), 1198. Also in Francis Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis: the Scientific Search for the Soul (1995), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Correction (42)  |  Error (339)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Keep (104)  |  Seed (97)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)

Human behaviour reveals uniformities which constitute natural laws. If these uniformities did not exist, then there would be neither social science nor political economy, and even the study of history would largely be useless. In effect, if the future actions of men having nothing in common with their past actions, our knowledge of them, although possibly satisfying our curiosity by way of an interesting story, would be entirely useless to us as a guide in life.
— Vilfredo Pareto,
In Cours d’Economie Politique (1896-7), Vol. 2, 397.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Common (447)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Economy (59)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Future (467)  |  Guide (107)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Past (355)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Story (122)  |  Study (701)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Way (1214)



Quotes by others about Vilfredo Pareto, (1)

Orthodoxy can be as stubborn in science as in religion. I do not know how to shake it except by vigorous imagination that inspires unconventional work and contains within itself an elevated potential for inspired error. As the great Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto wrote: ‘Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.’ Not to mention a man named Thomas Henry Huxley who, when not in the throes of grief or the wars of parson hunting, argued that ‘irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Burst (41)  |  Contain (68)  |  Correction (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economist (20)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Error (339)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Full (68)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grief (20)  |  Harmful (13)  |  Hold (96)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Italian (13)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  Parson (3)  |  Potential (75)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Seed (97)  |  Shake (43)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unconventional (4)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  War (233)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)


See also:
  • 15 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Pareto's birth.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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