TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Accustomed

Accustomed Quotes (46 quotes)

[An artist] will sooner and with more certainty, establish the character of skeletons, than the most learned anatomist, whose eye has not been accustomed to seize on every peculiarity.
Asserting his (incorrect) belief that the fossil teeth of the mastodon revealed it was a carnivorous animal.]
In An Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth, or, Great American Incognitum, an Extinct, Immense, Carnivorous Animal, whose Fossil Remains Have Been Found in North America (1903), 38-39, which was published for his London exhibit of a mastodon skeleton. As cited in Michele L. Aldrich article on Peale, in Charles Coulston Gillespie, Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1978), Vol. 15-16, 472.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Animal (651)  |  Artist (97)  |  Belief (615)  |  Carnivorous (7)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Character (259)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mammoth (9)  |  Mastodon (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Seize (18)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Will (2350)

[On suburbia] We’re bringing up our children in one-class areas. When they grow up and move to a city or go abroad, they’re not accustomed to variety and they get uncertain and insecure. We should bring up our children where they’re exposed to all types of people.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  City (87)  |  Class (168)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Grow (247)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Move (223)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Type (171)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Variety (138)

[Young] was afterwards accustomed to say, that at no period of his life was he particularly fond of repeating experiments, or even of very frequently attempting to originate new ones; considering that, however necessary to the advancement of science, they demanded a great sacrifice of time, and that when the fact was once established, that time was better employed in considering the purposes to which it might be applied, or the principles which it might tend to elucidate.
Hudson Gurney, Memoir of the Life of Thomas Young, M.D. F.R.S. (1831), 12-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Better (493)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Demand (131)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Employ (115)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fond (13)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Great (1610)  |  Life (1870)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Originate (39)  |  Origination (7)  |  Particular (80)  |  Period (200)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Time (1911)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (15)

Se è vero che ci si abitua al dolore, come mai con l’andare degli anni si soffre sempre di píu?
If it is true that one gets used to suffering, how is it that, as the years go by, one always suffers more?
Diary entry for 21 Nov 1937, in Il mestiere di vivere (1947), 303. Translated as The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950 (1961), 70.
Science quotes on:  |  More (2558)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Year (963)

A primâ facie argument in favour of the efficacy of prayer is therefore to be drawn from the very general use of it. The greater part of mankind, during all the historic ages, have been accustomed to pray for temporal advantages. How vain, it may be urged, must be the reasoning that ventures to oppose this mighty consensus of belief! Not so. The argument of universality either proves too much, or else it is suicidal.
'Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer', Fortnightly Review, 1872, 12, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Age (509)  |  Argument (145)  |  Belief (615)  |  Consensus (8)  |  General (521)  |  Greater (288)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Must (1525)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Universality (22)  |  Use (771)  |  Vain (86)

A mind is accustomed to mathematical deduction, when confronted with the faulty foundations of astrology, resists a long, long time, like an obstinate mule, until compelled by beating and curses to put its foot into that dirty puddle.
As quoted in Arthur Koestler, The Sleep Walkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), 243, citing De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii (1606).
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Beat (42)  |  Compel (31)  |  Confront (18)  |  Curse (20)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Faulty (3)  |  Foot (65)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mule (2)  |  Obstinate (5)  |  Resist (15)  |  Time (1911)

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific enquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustable source of pure and exciting contemplations:— One would think that Shakespeare had such a mind in view when he describes a contemplative man as finding
    “Tongues in trees—books in running brooks—
    Sermons in stones—and good in everything.”
Accustomed to trace the operations of general causes and the exemplification of general laws, in circumstances where the uninformed and uninquiring eye, perceives neither novelty nor beauty, he walks in the midst of wonders; every object which falls in his way elucidates some principle, affords some instruction and impresses him with a sense of harmony and order. Nor is it a mere passive pleasure which is thus communicated. A thousand questions are continually arising in his mind, a thousand objects of enquiry presenting themselves, which keep his faculties in constant exercise, and his thoughts perpetually on the wing, so that lassitude is excluded from his life, and that craving after artificial excitement and dissipation of the mind, which leads so many into frivolous, unworthy, and destructive pursuits, is altogether eradicated from his bosom.
In Dionysius Lardner (ed.), Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Vol 1, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831), 14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Arising (22)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Book (413)  |  Bosom (14)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Describe (132)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Everything (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fall (243)  |  Frivolous (8)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Habit (174)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Lassitude (4)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Object (438)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (649)  |  Running (61)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sermon (9)  |  Stone (168)  |  Taste (93)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tree (269)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  View (496)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wing (79)  |  Wonder (251)

And there are absolutely no judgments (or rules) in Mechanics which do not also pertain to Physics, of which Mechanics is a part or type: and it is as natural for a clock, composed of wheels of a certain kind, to indicate the hours, as for a tree, grown from a certain kind of seed, to produce the corresponding fruit. Accordingly, just as when those who are accustomed to considering automata know the use of some machine and see some of its parts, they easily conjecture from this how the other parts which they do not see are made: so, from the perceptible effects and parts of natural bodies, I have attempted to investigate the nature of their causes and of their imperceptible parts.
Principles of Philosophy (1644), trans. V. R. and R. P. Miller (1983), 285-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Clock (51)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Hour (192)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Rule (307)  |  See (1094)  |  Seed (97)  |  Tree (269)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)  |  Wheel (51)

As to the Christian religion, Sir, … there is a balance in its favor from the number of great men who have been convinced of its truth after a serious consideration of the question. Grotius was an acute man, a lawyer, a man accustomed to examine evidence, and he was convinced. Grotius was not a recluse, but a man of the world, who surely had no bias on the side of religion. Sir Isaac Newton set out an infidel, and came to be a very firm believer.
(1763). In George Birkbeck Hill (ed.), Boswell’s Life of Johnson (1799), Vol. 1, 524.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Balance (82)  |  Believer (26)  |  Bias (22)  |  Christian (44)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examine (84)  |  Favor (69)  |  Firm (47)  |  Great (1610)  |  Infidel (4)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Man (2252)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Number (710)  |  Question (649)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Serious (98)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Surely (101)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

But nothing of a nature foreign to the duties of my profession [clergyman] engaged my attention while I was at Leeds so much as the, prosecution of my experiments relating to electricity, and especially the doctrine of air. The last I was led into a consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where first amused myself with making experiments on fixed air [carbon dioxide] which found ready made in the process of fermentation. When I removed from that house, I was under the necessity making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind. When I began these experiments I knew very little of chemistry, and had in a manner no idea on the subject before I attended a course of chymical lectures delivered in the Academy at Warrington by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought that upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; as in this situation I was led to devise an apparatus and processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views. Whereas, if I had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I should not have so easily thought of any other; and without new modes of operation I should hardly have discovered anything materially new.
Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley, in the Year 1795 (1806), Vol. 1, 61-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adjoining (3)  |  Air (366)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attention (196)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Duty (71)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fermentation (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Fixed Air (2)  |  Foreign (45)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Mode (43)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Process (439)  |  Profession (108)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Situation (117)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thought (995)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

By these pleasures it is permitted to relax the mind with play, in turmoils of the mind, or when our labors are light, or in great tension, or as a method of passing the time. A reliable witness is Cicero, when he says (De Oratore, 2): 'men who are accustomed to hard daily toil, when by reason of the weather they are kept from their work, betake themselves to playing with a ball, or with knucklebones or with dice, or they may also contrive for themselves some new game at their leisure.'
The Book of Games of Chance (1663), final sentences, trans. Sydney Henry Gould. In Oysten Ore, The Gambling Scholar (1953), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Ball (64)  |  Chance (244)  |  Contrive (10)  |  Daily (91)  |  Dice (21)  |  Game (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Labor (200)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Light (635)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  Passing (76)  |  Playing (42)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Reason (766)  |  Say (989)  |  Tension (24)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toil (29)  |  Turmoil (8)  |  Weather (49)  |  Witness (57)  |  Work (1402)

For Nature is accustomed to rehearse with certain large, perhaps baser, and all classes of wild (animals), and to place in the imperfect the rudiments of the perfect animals.
De Pulmonibus (1661), trans. James Young, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (1929-30), 23, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Animal (651)  |  Certain (557)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Large (398)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Rehearse (4)  |  Rudiment (6)  |  Wild (96)

He who gives a portion of his time and talent to the investigation of mathematical truth will come to all other questions with a decided advantage over his opponents. He will be in argument what the ancient Romans were in the field: to them the day of battle was a day of comparative recreation, because they were ever accustomed to exercise with arms much heavier than they fought; and reviews differed from a real battle in two respects: they encountered more fatigue, but the victory was bloodless.
Reflection 352, in Lacon: or Many things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think (1820), 159.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Battle (36)  |  Bloodless (2)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Decide (50)  |  Differ (88)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Field (378)  |  Fight (49)  |  Give (208)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Opponent (23)  |  Other (2233)  |  Portion (86)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Respect (212)  |  Review (27)  |  Roman (39)  |  Talent (99)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Victory (40)  |  Will (2350)

How quickly do we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story “Nightfall,” about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove men mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Isaac Asimov (267)  |  Awesome (15)  |  Casually (2)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Dairy (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Drive (61)  |  Glance (36)  |  Grow (247)  |  Mad (54)  |  Night (133)  |  Planet (402)  |  Queen (14)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Remind (16)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Sight (135)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Story (122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Year (963)

I am accustomed, as a professional mathematician, to living in a sort of vacuum, surrounded by people who declare with an odd sort of pride that they are mathematically illiterate.
As quoted, without citation, in Peter G. Casazza 'A Mathematician’s Survival Guide', pdf document linked from his homepage at math.missouri.edu (undated, but 2011 or earlier, indicated by an “accessed on” date elsewhere.) Collected in Peter Casazza, Steven G. Krantz and Randi D. Ruden (eds.) I, Mathematician (2005), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Declare (48)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Odd (15)  |  People (1031)  |  Pride (84)  |  Professional (77)  |  Surrounded (2)  |  Vacuum (41)

I am afraid all we can do is to accept the paradox and try to accommodate ourselves to it, as we have done to so many paradoxes lately in modern physical theories. We shall have to get accustomed to the idea that the change of the quantity R, commonly called the 'radius of the universe', and the evolutionary changes of stars and stellar systems are two different processes, going on side by side without any apparent connection between them. After all the 'universe' is an hypothesis, like the atom, and must be allowed the freedom to have properties and to do things which would be contradictory and impossible for a finite material structure.
Kosmos (1932), 133.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accommodate (17)  |  Accommodation (9)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Afraid (24)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Atom (381)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Finite (60)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Material (366)  |  Modern (402)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Physical (518)  |  Process (439)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Radius (5)  |  Side (236)  |  Side By Side (2)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stellar (4)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)

I am not accustomed to saying anything with certainty after only one or two observations.
Epistola, Rationem, Modumque Propinandi Radicis Chynae Decocti (Letter on the China Root) in Charles Donald O'Malley (trans.), Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514-1564 (1965), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Observation (593)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Two (936)

I think that we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a 'body of knowledge,' but rather as a system of hypotheses; that is to say, as a system of guesses or anticipations which in principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying that we know they are 'true' or 'more or less certain' or even 'probable.'
The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), 317.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Justification (52)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Say (989)  |  Stand (284)  |  System (545)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

It is odd to think that there is a word for something which, strictly speaking, does not exist, namely, “rest.” We distinguish between living and dead matter; between moving bodies and bodies at rest. This is a primitive point of view. What seems dead, a stone or the proverbial “door-nail,” say, is actually forever in motion. We have merely become accustomed to judge by outward appearances; by the deceptive impressions we get through our senses.
Max Born
The Restless Universe (1935), I.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Become (821)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Door (94)  |  Exist (458)  |  Forever (111)  |  Impression (118)  |  Judge (114)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Motion (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Proverbial (8)  |  Reference Frame (2)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stone (168)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  View (496)  |  Word (650)

It is well to know something of the manners of various peoples, in order more sanely to judge our own, and that we do not think that everything against our modes is ridiculous, and against reason, as those who have seen nothing are accustomed to think.
In Discourse on Method (1637).
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Against (332)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Reason (766)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Something (718)  |  Think (1122)  |  Various (205)

It may very properly be asked whether the attempt to define distinct species, of a more or less permanent nature, such as we are accustomed to deal with amongst the higher plants and animals, is not altogether illusory amongst such lowly organised forms of life as the bacteria. No biologist nowadays believes in the absolute fixity of species … but there are two circumstances which here render the problem of specificity even more difficult of solution. The bacteriologist is deprived of the test of mutual fertility or sterility, so valuable in determining specific limits amongst organisms in which sexual reproduction prevails. Further, the extreme rapidity with which generation succeeds generation amongst bacteria offers to the forces of variation and natural selection a field for their operation wholly unparalleled amongst higher forms of life.
'The Evolution of the Streptococci', The Lancet, 1906, 2, 1415-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Bacteriologist (5)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Deal (192)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Offer (142)  |  Operation (221)  |  Organism (231)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Plant (320)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Render (96)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Selection (130)  |  Sexual (27)  |  Solution (282)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sterility (10)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Test (221)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Wholly (88)

It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent.
Letter to his sister, Mrs. Jane Mecom (1787) just after the close of the Constitutional Convention. In Jared Sparks (ed.) The Works of Benjamin Franklin (1840), Vol. 10, 445.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Less (105)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Seem (150)  |  Statesman (20)  |  War (233)

It would be an easy task to show that the characteristics in the organization of man, on account of which the human species and races are grouped as a distinct family, are all results of former changes of occupation, and of acquired habits, which have come to be distinctive of individuals of his kind. When, compelled by circumstances, the most highly developed apes accustomed themselves to walking erect, they gained the ascendant over the other animals. The absolute advantage they enjoyed, and the new requirements imposed on them, made them change their mode of life, which resulted in the gradual modification of their organization, and in their acquiring many new qualities, and among them the wonderful power of speech.
Quoted in Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel The Evolution of Man (1897), Vol. 1, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Account (195)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Change (639)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Develop (278)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Family (101)  |  Former (138)  |  Gain (146)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Result (700)  |  Show (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Speech (66)  |  Task (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Wonderful (155)

Mathematicians attach great importance to the elegance of their methods and their results. This is not pure dilettantism. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details. But this is exactly what yields great results, in fact the more we see this aggregate clearly and at a single glance, the better we perceive its analogies with other neighboring objects, consequently the more chances we have of divining the possible generalizations. Elegance may produce the feeling of the unforeseen by the unexpected meeting of objects we are not accustomed to bring together; there again it is fruitful, since it thus unveils for us kinships before unrecognized. It is fruitful even when it results only from the contrast between the simplicity of the means and the complexity of the problem set; it makes us then think of the reason for this contrast and very often makes us see that chance is not the reason; that it is to be found in some unexpected law. In a word, the feeling of mathematical elegance is only the satisfaction due to any adaptation of the solution to the needs of our mind, and it is because of this very adaptation that this solution can be for us an instrument. Consequently this esthetic satisfaction is bound up with the economy of thought.
In 'The Future of Mathematics', Monist, 20, 80. Translated from the French by George Bruce Halsted.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Attach (57)  |  Balance (82)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dilettante (2)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Due (143)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happy (108)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Solution (282)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Unity (81)  |  Word (650)  |  Yield (86)

Men ought to know that from the brain, and from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears. Through it, in particular, we think, see, hear, and distinguish the ugly from the beautiful, the bad from the good, the pleasant from the unpleasant, in some cases using custom as a test, in others perceiving them from their utility. It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires us with dread or fear, whether by night or by day, brings sleeplessness, inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absent-mindedness, and acts that are contrary to habit. These things that we suffer all come from the brain, when it is not healthy, but becomes abnormally hot, cold, moist, or dry, or suffers any other unnatural affection to which it was not accustomed. Madness comes from its moistness.
The Sacred Disease, in Hippocrates, trans. W. H. S. Jones (1923), Vol. 2, 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Act (278)  |  Affection (44)  |  Aimless (5)  |  Arise (162)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cold (115)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Custom (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Dry (65)  |  Fear (212)  |  Good (906)  |  Grief (20)  |  Habit (174)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hot (63)  |  Joy (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Mad (54)  |  Madness (33)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Moist (13)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  See (1094)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Tear (48)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Unnatural (15)  |  Unpleasant (15)  |  Utility (52)

Men, accustomed to think of men as possessing sex attributes and other things besides, are accustomed to think of women as having sex, and nothing else.
In “Common Sense” Applied to Woman Suffrage (1894), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Sex (68)  |  Suffrage (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Woman (160)  |  Women�s Rights (2)

Nature is accustomed to hide itself.
Heraclitus, fr. 123. Trans. R. W. Sharples.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Hide (70)  |  Nature (2017)

Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows tracings of her workings apart from the beaten paths; nor is there any better way to advance the proper practice of medicine than to give our minds to the discovery of the usual law of nature, by careful investigation of cases of rarer forms of disease.
Letter IX, to John Vlackveld (24 Apr 1657), in The Circulation of the Blood (2006), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advance (298)  |  Better (493)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Display (59)  |  Form (976)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Path (159)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Secret (216)  |  Show (353)  |  Way (1214)

One feature which will probably most impress the mathematician accustomed to the rapidity and directness secured by the generality of modern methods is the deliberation with which Archimedes approaches the solution of any one of his main problems. Yet this very characteristic, with its incidental effects, is calculated to excite the more admiration because the method suggests the tactics of some great strategist who foresees everything, eliminates everything not immediately conducive to the execution of his plan, masters every position in its order, and then suddenly (when the very elaboration of the scheme has almost obscured, in the mind of the spectator, its ultimate object) strikes the final blow. Thus we read in Archimedes proposition after proposition the bearing of which is not immediately obvious but which we find infallibly used later on; and we are led by such easy stages that the difficulties of the original problem, as presented at the outset, are scarcely appreciated. As Plutarch says: “It is not possible to find in geometry more difficult and troublesome questions, or more simple and lucid explanations.” But it is decidedly a rhetorical exaggeration when Plutarch goes on to say that we are deceived by the easiness of the successive steps into the belief that anyone could have discovered them for himself. On the contrary, the studied simplicity and the perfect finish of the treatises involve at the same time an element of mystery. Though each step depends on the preceding ones, we are left in the dark as to how they were suggested to Archimedes. There is, in fact, much truth in a remark by Wallis to the effect that he seems “as it were of set purpose to have covered up the traces of his investigation as if he had grudged posterity the secret of his method of inquiry while he wished to extort from them assent to his results.” Wallis adds with equal reason that not only Archimedes but nearly all the ancients so hid away from posterity their method of Analysis (though it is certain that they had one) that more modern mathematicians found it easier to invent a new Analysis than to seek out the old.
In The Works of Archimedes (1897), Preface, vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Add (42)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Approach (112)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Assent (12)  |  Bear (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blow (45)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conducive (3)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cover (40)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Decidedly (2)  |  Deliberation (5)  |  Depend (238)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discover (571)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easiness (4)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elaboration (11)  |  Element (322)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Equal (88)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Excite (17)  |  Execution (25)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extort (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feature (49)  |  Final (121)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finish (62)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grudge (2)  |  Hide (70)  |  Himself (461)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impress (66)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Invent (57)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Involve (93)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Main (29)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Original (61)  |  Outset (7)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Plan (122)  |  Plutarch (16)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Precede (23)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remark (28)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Secret (216)  |  Secure (23)  |  Secured (18)  |  Seek (218)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (234)  |  Strike (72)  |  Study (701)  |  Successive (73)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Troublesome (8)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  John Wallis (3)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

People who are unused to learning, learn little, and that slowly, while those more accustomed do much more and do it more easily. The same thing also happens in connection with research. Those who are altogether unfamiliar with this become blinded and bewildered as soon as their minds begin to work: they readily withdraw from the inquiry, in a state of mental fatigue and exhaustion, much like people who attempt to race without having been trained. He, on the other hand, who is accustomed to research, seeks and penetrates everywhere mentally, passing constantly from one topic to another; nor does he ever give up his investigation; he pursues it not merely for a matter of days, but throughout his whole life. Also by transferring his mind to other ideas which are yet not foreign to the questions at issue, he persists till he reaches the solution.
'On Paralysis'. Quoted in A. J. Brock, Greek Medicine: Being Extracts Illustrative of Medical Writers from Hippocrates to Galen (1929), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blind (98)  |  Connection (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Happen (282)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mental (179)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passing (76)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  People (1031)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Research (753)  |  Seek (218)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Topic (23)  |  Train (118)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds must begin their manufacture before we are aware of it.
Seven American Nights (1978). In the collection, David G. Hartwell (Ed.), The Dark Descent (1997), 653.
Science quotes on:  |  Accepting (22)  |  Account (195)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Begin (275)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observe (179)  |  Theory (1015)

Science is neither a single tradition, nor the best tradition there is, except for people who have become accustomed to its presence, its benefits and its disadvantages. In a democracy it should be separated from the state just as churches are now separated from the state.
Against Method, p. 238 (1975).The author's warning against allowing scientists to become the new 'high priests' of society.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Best (467)  |  Church (64)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  People (1031)  |  Presence (63)  |  Separate (151)  |  Single (365)  |  State (505)  |  Tradition (76)

Some of my cousins who had the great advantage of University education used to tease me with arguments to prove that nothing has any existence except what we think of it. … These amusing mental acrobatics are all right to play with. They are perfectly harmless and perfectly useless. ... I always rested on the following argument. … We look up to the sky and see the sun. Our eyes are dazzled and our senses record the fact. So here is this great sun standing apparently on no better foundation than our physical senses. But happily there is a method, apart altogether from our physical senses, of testing the reality of the sun. It is by mathematics. By means of prolonged processes of mathematics, entirely separate from the senses, astronomers are able to calculate when an eclipse will occur. They predict by pure reason that a black spot will pass across the sun on a certain day. You go and look, and your sense of sight immediately tells you that their calculations are vindicated. So here you have the evidence of the senses reinforced by the entirely separate evidence of a vast independent process of mathematical reasoning. We have taken what is called in military map-making “a cross bearing.” When my metaphysical friends tell me that the data on which the astronomers made their calculations, were necessarily obtained originally through the evidence of the senses, I say, “no.” They might, in theory at any rate, be obtained by automatic calculating-machines set in motion by the light falling upon them without admixture of the human senses at any stage. When it is persisted that we should have to be told about the calculations and use our ears for that purpose, I reply that the mathematical process has a reality and virtue in itself, and that onie discovered it constitutes a new and independent factor. I am also at this point accustomed to reaffirm with emphasis my conviction that the sun is real, and also that it is hot— in fact hot as Hell, and that if the metaphysicians doubt it they should go there and see.
In My Early Life (1930).
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Argument (145)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Data (162)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Ear (69)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Education (423)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hot (63)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mental (179)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Method (531)  |  Military (45)  |  Motion (320)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pass (241)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Predict (86)  |  Process (439)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Prove (261)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Record (161)  |  Reply (58)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  University (130)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Will (2350)

Such is the character of mathematics in its profounder depths and in its higher and remoter zones that it is well nigh impossible to convey to one who has not devoted years to its exploration a just impression of the scope and magnitude of the existing body of the science. An imagination formed by other disciplines and accustomed to the interests of another field may scarcely receive suddenly an apocalyptic vision of that infinite interior world. But how amazing and how edifying were such a revelation, if it only could be made.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Apocalyptic (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Convey (17)  |  Depth (97)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Exist (458)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Field (378)  |  Form (976)  |  High (370)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impression (118)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interior (35)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Other (2233)  |  Profound (105)  |  Receive (117)  |  Remote (86)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scope (44)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Zone (5)

The bird which is drawn to the water by its need of finding there the prey on which it lives, separates the digits of its feet in trying to strike the water and move about on the surface. The skin which unites these digits at their base acquires the habit of being stretched by these continually repeated separations of the digits; thus in course of time there are formed large webs which unite the digits of ducks, geese, etc., as we actually find them. In the same way efforts to swim, that is to push against the water so as to move about in it, have stretched the membranes between the digits of frogs, sea-tortoises, the otter, beaver, etc.
On the other hand, a bird which is accustomed to perch on trees and which springs from individuals all of whom had acquired this habit, necessarily has longer digits on its feet and differently shaped from those of the aquatic animals that I have just named. Its claws in time become lengthened, sharpened and curved into hooks, to clasp the branches on which the animal so often rests.
We find in the same way that the bird of the water-side which does not like swimming and yet is in need of going to the water's edge to secure its prey, is continually liable to sink into the mud. Now this bird tries to act in such a way that its body should not be immersed in the liquid, and hence makes its best efforts to stretch and lengthen its legs. The long-established habit acquired by this bird and all its race of continually stretching and lengthening its legs, results in the individuals of this race becoming raised as though on stilts, and gradually obtaining long, bare legs, denuded of feathers up to the thighs and often higher still.
Philosophie Zoologique (1809), Vol. 1, 249-50, trans. Hugh Elliot (1914), 119-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Act (278)  |  Against (332)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquatic (5)  |  Bare (33)  |  Base (120)  |  Beaver (8)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Bird (163)  |  Body (557)  |  Claw (8)  |  Course (413)  |  Duck (3)  |  Edge (51)  |  Effort (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foot (65)  |  Form (976)  |  Frog (44)  |  Goose (13)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Habit (174)  |  Individual (420)  |  Large (398)  |  Leg (35)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Move (223)  |  Mud (26)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Other (2233)  |  Otter (2)  |  Perch (7)  |  Push (66)  |  Race (278)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Sea (326)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Side (236)  |  Sink (38)  |  Skin (48)  |  Spring (140)  |  Still (614)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Strike (72)  |  Surface (223)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tortoise (10)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unite (43)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)

The conception that antibodies, which should protect against disease, are also responsible for the disease, sounds at first absurd. This has as its basis the fact that we are accustomed to see in disease only the harm done to the organism and to see in the antibodies solely antitoxic [protective] substances. One forgets too easily that the disease represents only a stage in the development of immunity, and that the organism often attains the advantage of immunity only by means of disease. ... Serum sickness represents, so to speak, an unnatural (artificial) form of disease.
C. von Pirquet and B. Schick, Die Serumkrankheit (1906), trans B. Schick, Serum Sickness (1951), 119-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Against (332)  |  Antibody (6)  |  Antitoxin (2)  |  Attain (126)  |  Basis (180)  |  Conception (160)  |  Development (441)  |  Disease (340)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Forget (125)  |  Form (976)  |  Harm (43)  |  Immunity (8)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Organism (231)  |  Protect (65)  |  Protection (41)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  See (1094)  |  Serum (11)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stage (152)  |  Substance (253)  |  Unnatural (15)

The generality of men are so accustomed to judge of things by their senses that, because the air is indivisible, they ascribe but little to it, and think it but one remove from nothing.
In Mary Elvira Weeks, The Discovery of the Elements (1934), 29, citing Boyle, 'Memoirs for a General History of the Air', in Shaw's Abridgment of Boyle's works (1725), Vol. 3, 61, and Ramsay, The Gases of the Atmosphere (1915), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Air (366)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Generality (45)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Judge (114)  |  Little (717)  |  Men (20)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Remove (50)  |  Sense (785)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

The geometrical problems and theorems of the Greeks always refer to definite, oftentimes to rather complicated figures. Now frequently the points and lines of such a figure may assume very many different relative positions; each of these possible cases is then considered separately. On the contrary, present day mathematicians generate their figures one from another, and are accustomed to consider them subject to variation; in this manner they unite the various cases and combine them as much as possible by employing negative and imaginary magnitudes. For example, the problems which Apollonius treats in his two books De sectione rationis, are solved today by means of a single, universally applicable construction; Apollonius, on the contrary, separates it into more than eighty different cases varying only in position. Thus, as Hermann Hankel has fittingly remarked, the ancient geometry sacrifices to a seeming simplicity the true simplicity which consists in the unity of principles; it attained a trivial sensual presentability at the cost of the recognition of the relations of geometric forms in all their changes and in all the variations of their sensually presentable positions.
In 'Die Synthetische Geometrie im Altertum und in der Neuzeit', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung (1902), 2, 346-347. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 112. The spelling of the first “Apollonius” has been corrected from “Appolonius” in the original English text. From the original German, “Die geometrischen Probleme und Sätze der Griechen beziehen sich allemal auf bestimmte, oft recht komplizierte Figuren. Nun können aber die Punkte und Linien einer solchen Figur häufig sehr verschiedene Lagen zu einander annehmen; jeder dieser möglichen Fälle wird alsdann für sich besonders erörtert. Dagegen lassen die heutigen Mathematiker ihre Figuren aus einander entstehen und sind gewohnt, sie als veränderlich zu betrachten; sie vereinigen so die speziellen Fälle und fassen sie möglichst zusammen unter Benutzung auch negativer und imaginärer Gröfsen. Das Problem z. B., welches Apollonius in seinen zwei Büchern de sectione rationis behandelt, löst man heutzutage durch eine einzige, allgemein anwendbare Konstruktion; Apollonius selber dagegen zerlegt es in mehr als 80 nur durch die Lage verschiedene Fälle. So opfert, wie Hermann Hankel treffend bemerkt, die antike Geometrie einer scheinbaren Einfachheit die wahre, in der Einheit der Prinzipien bestehende; sie erreicht eine triviale sinnliche Anschaulichkeit auf Kosten der Erkenntnis vom Zusammenhang geometrischer Gestalten in aller Wechsel und in aller Veränderlichkeit ihrer sinnlich vorstellbaren Lage.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apollonius (6)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Attain (126)  |  Book (413)  |  Case (102)  |  Change (639)  |  Combine (58)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consist (223)  |  Construction (114)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cost (94)  |  Definite (114)  |  Different (595)  |  Figure (162)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Greek (109)  |  Hermann Hankel (16)  |  Imaginary Number (6)  |  Line (100)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Negative (66)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Today (321)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Two (936)  |  Unite (43)  |  Unity (81)  |  Universal (198)  |  Variation (93)  |  Various (205)

The history of science shows so many examples of the 'irrational' notions and theories of to-day becoming the 'rational' notions and theories of to-morrow, that it seems largely a matter of being accustomed to them whether they are considered rational or not, natural or not.
Natural Law and Divine Miracle: The Principle of Uniformity in Geology, Biology and Theology (1963),167.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Consider (428)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Matter (821)  |  Natural (810)  |  Notion (120)  |  Rational (95)  |  Show (353)  |  Theory (1015)

The magnitude of the railway works undertaken in this country will be still more clearly exhibited, if you consider the extent of the Earth-Works. Taking them at an average of 70,000 cubic yards to a mile, they will measure 550,000,000 cubic yards. What does this represent? We are accustomed to regard St. Paul’s as a test for height and space; but by the side of the pyramid of earth these works would rear, St. Paul’s would be but as a pigmy by a giant. Imagine a mountain half a mile in diameter at its base, and soaring into the clouds one mile and a half in height;—that would be the size of the mountain of earth which these earth-works would form.
From 'Railway System and its Results' (Jan 1856) read to the Institution of Civil Engineers, reprinted in Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1857), 512.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Average (89)  |  Base (120)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Consider (428)  |  Country (269)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Giant (73)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Pyramid (9)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Side (236)  |  Soaring (9)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)  |  Test (221)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The world probably being of much greater antiquity than physical science has thought to be possible, it is interesting and harmless to speculate whether man has shared with the world its more remote history. … Some of the beliefs and legends which have come down to us from antiquity are so universal and deep-rooted that we have are accustomed to consider them almost as old as the race itself. One is tempted to inquire how far the unsuspected aptness of some of these beliefs and sayings to the point of view so recently disclosed is the result of mere chance or coincidence, and how far it may be evidence of a wholly unknown and unsuspected ancient civilization of which all other relic has disappeared.
In 'The Elixir of Life', The Interpretation of Radium: Being the Substance of Six Free Popular Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow (1909, 1912), 248-250. The original lectures of early 1908, were greatly edited, rearranged and supplemented by the author for the book form.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Chance (244)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Consider (428)  |  Deep (241)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Down (455)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmless (9)  |  History (716)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Legend (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Race (278)  |  Relic (8)  |  Remote (86)  |  Result (700)  |  Root (121)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unknown (195)  |  View (496)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)

This shall be the test of innocence—if I can hear a taunt, and look out on this friendly moon, pacing the heavens in queenlike majesty, with the accustomed yearning.
In 'Sin Destroys the Perception of the Beautiful' (13 Nov 1837). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: I: 1837-1846 (1906), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Friendly (7)  |  Hear (144)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Look (584)  |  Majesty (21)  |  Moon (252)  |  Queen (14)  |  Test (221)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Yearning (13)

Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, because they want to comprehend at a glance and are not used to seeking for first principles. Those, on the other hand, who are accustomed to reason from first principles do not understand matters of feeling at all, because they look for first principles and are unable to comprehend at a glance.
In Pensées (1670), Section 7, No. 33. As translated in W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger (eds.) The Viking Book of Aphorisms (1966), 351. Also translated as “Those who are accustomed to judge by feeling do not understand the process of reasoning, for they would understand at first sight, and are not used to seek for principles. And others, on the contrary, who are accustomed to reason from principles, do not at all understand matters of feeling, seeking principles, and being unable to see at a glance,” in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 3, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 9. From the original French, “Ceux qui sont accoutumés à juger par le sentiment ne comprennent rien aux choses de raisonnement, car ils veulent d’abord pénétrer d’une vue et ne sont point accoutumés à chercher les principes. Et les autres, au contraire, qui sont accoutumés à raisonner par principes, ne comprennent rien aux choses de sentiment, y cherchant des principes et ne pouvant voir d’une vue,” in Ernest Havet (ed.), Pensées de Pascal (1892), 224.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  Glance (36)  |  Judge (114)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Seek (218)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Want (504)

To fully understand the mathematical genius of Sophus Lie, one must not turn to books recently published by him in collaboration with Dr. Engel, but to his earlier memoirs, written during the first years of his scientific career. There Lie shows himself the true geometer that he is, while in his later publications, finding that he was but imperfectly understood by the mathematicians accustomed to the analytic point of view, he adopted a very general analytic form of treatment that is not always easy to follow.
In Lectures on Mathematics (1911), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Adopt (22)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Book (413)  |  Career (86)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Early (196)  |  Easy (213)  |   Ernst Engel, (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Fully (20)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Late (119)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Publication (102)  |  Publish (42)  |  Recently (3)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Show (353)  |  Treatment (135)  |  True (239)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  View (496)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Twenty years ago many chemists would have defended the theory of bond arms as a satisfactory explanation because they had become accustomed to thinking of it as unique and as ultimate.
The Nature of Physical Reality: A Philosophy of Modern Physics (1950), 99, n.1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Become (821)  |  Bond (46)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unique (72)  |  Year (963)

We are accustomed to say that every human being displays both male and female instinctual impulses, needs, and attributes, but the characteristics of what is male and female can only be demonstrated in anatomy, and not in psychology.
In Sigmund Freud and Joan Riviere (trans.), Civilization and Its Discontents (1930, 1994), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Display (59)  |  Female (50)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Male (26)  |  Need (320)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Say (989)


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
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.