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: Acquisition

Acquisition Quotes (46 quotes)


… the reasoning process [employed in mathematics] is not different from that of any other branch of knowledge, … but there is required, and in a great degree, that attention of mind which is in some part necessary for the acquisition of all knowledge, and in this branch is indispensably necessary. This must be given in its fullest intensity; … the other elements especially characteristic of a mathematical mind are quickness in perceiving logical sequence, love of order, methodical arrangement and harmony, distinctness of conception.
In Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus (1868), Vol. 8, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attention (196)  |  Branch (155)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conception (160)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Element (322)  |  Employ (115)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logical (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Methodical (8)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Process (439)  |  Quickness (5)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Required (108)  |  Sequence (68)

[The scientist] believes passionately in facts, in measured facts. He believes there are no bad facts, that all facts are good facts, though they may be facts about bad things, and his intellectual satisfaction can come only from the acquisition of accurately known facts, from their organization into a body of knowledge, in which the inter-relationship of the measured facts is the dominant consideration.
'Scientist and Citizen', Speech to the Empire Club of Canada (29 Jan 1948), The Empire Club of Canada Speeches (29 Jan 1948), 209-221.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Bad (185)  |  Belief (615)  |  Body (557)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Dominance (5)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Good (906)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Inter (12)  |  Inter-Relationship (2)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Organization (120)  |  Passion (121)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)

~~[Not in his own words]~~ Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Attributed, no citation found, and probably not by Einstein. For example, it is found without citation in Albert Einstein, Jerry Mayer and John P. Holms, Bite-size Einstein (1996), 25. Listed under heading 'Probably Not by Einstein' by Alice Calaprice, The New Quotable Einstein (2005), 294. It probably morphed from a writer’s restatement of how he understood Einstein’s views, expressed in the writer’s own words, without quotation marks as: But as Einstein has pointed out, common sense is actually nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen. This statement appeared in Lincoln Barnett, 'The Universe and Dr. Einstein', Harper’s Magazine (May 1948), 473. The quoteinvestigator.com site gives more background, with the speculation on how eventually quotation marks crept in, and then propagated that way.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Age (509)  |  Collection (68)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Sense (785)  |  Word (650)

A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge.
The Philosophy of Physics. Collected in The New Science: 3 Complete Works (1959), 253.
Science quotes on:  |  Attainment (48)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Happy (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Steady (45)

All knowledge is profitable; profitable in its ennobling effect on the character, in the pleasure it imparts in its acquisition, as well as in the power it gives over the operations of mind and of matter. All knowledge is useful; every part of this complex system of nature is connected with every other. Nothing is isolated. The discovery of to-day, which appears unconnected with any useful process, may, in the course of a few years, become the fruitful source of a thousand inventions.
In 'Report of the Secretary', Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1851 (1852), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Character (259)  |  Complex (202)  |  Connect (126)  |  Course (413)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Ennoble (8)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Impart (24)  |  Invention (400)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Source (101)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Unconnected (10)  |  Useful (260)  |  Year (963)

Charles Babbage proposed to make an automaton chess-player which should register mechanically the number of games lost and gained in consequence of every sort of move. Thus, the longer the automaton went on playing game, the more experienced it would become by the accumulation of experimental results. Such a machine precisely represents the acquirement of experience by our nervous organization.
In ‘Experimental Legislation’, Popular Science (Apr 1880), 16, 754-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Charles Babbage (54)  |  Become (821)  |  Chess (27)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Gain (146)  |  Game (104)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Loss (117)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Player (9)  |  Playing (42)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Register (22)  |  Registration (2)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)

Doubtless the reasoning faculty, the mind, is the leading and characteristic attribute of the human race. By the exercise of this, man arrives at the properties of the natural bodies. This is science, properly and emphatically so called. It is the science of pure mathematics; and in the high branches of this science lies the truly sublime of human acquisition. If any attainment deserves that epithet, it is the knowledge, which, from the mensuration of the minutest dust of the balance, proceeds on the rising scale of material bodies, everywhere weighing, everywhere measuring, everywhere detecting and explaining the laws of force and motion, penetrating into the secret principles which hold the universe of God together, and balancing worlds against worlds, and system against system. When we seek to accompany those who pursue studies at once so high, so vast, and so exact; when we arrive at the discoveries of Newton, which pour in day on the works of God, as if a second fiat had gone forth from his own mouth; when, further, we attempt to follow those who set out where Newton paused, making his goal their starting-place, and, proceeding with demonstration upon demonstration, and discovery upon discovery, bring new worlds and new systems of worlds within the limits of the known universe, failing to learn all only because all is infinite; however we may say of man, in admiration of his physical structure, that “in form and moving he is express and admirable,” it is here, and here without irreverence, we may exclaim, “In apprehension how like a god!” The study of the pure mathematics will of course not be extensively pursued in an institution, which, like this [Boston Mechanics’ Institute], has a direct practical tendency and aim. But it is still to be remembered, that pure mathematics lie at the foundation of mechanical philosophy, and that it is ignorance only which can speak or think of that sublime science as useless research or barren speculation.
In Works (1872), Vol. 1, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Against (332)  |  Aim (175)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Balance (82)  |  Barren (33)  |  Body (557)  |  Boston (7)  |  Branch (155)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Course (413)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Detect (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Dust (68)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Epithet (3)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Explain (334)  |  Express (192)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fail (191)  |  Far (158)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  High (370)  |  Hold (96)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Institution (73)  |  Irreverence (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mensuration (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Move (223)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Pause (6)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pour (9)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Properly (21)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remember (189)  |  Research (753)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Second (66)  |  Secret (216)  |  Seek (218)  |  Set (400)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Sublime (50)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (118)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vast (188)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Facts were never pleasing to him. He acquired them with reluctance and got rid of them with relief. He was never on terms with them until he had stood them on their heads.
The Greenwood Hat (1937), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Head (87)  |  Never (1089)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Relief (30)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Rid (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)

Geometrical reasoning, and arithmetical process, have each its own office: to mix the two in elementary instruction, is injurious to the proper acquisition of both.
In Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Both (496)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Injurious (14)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Mix (24)  |  Office (71)  |  Process (439)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Two (936)

However, if we consider that all the characteristics which have been cited are only differences in degree of structure, may we not suppose that this special condition of organization of man has been gradually acquired at the close of a long period of time, with the aid of circumstances which have proved favorable? What a subject for reflection for those who have the courage to enter into it!
In Recherches sur l'Organization des corps vivans (1802), as translated in Alpheus Spring Packard, Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution: His Life and Work (1901), 363. Packard's italics.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Aid (101)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Close (77)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Courage (82)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difference (355)  |  Enter (145)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Organization (120)  |  Period (200)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Special (188)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Time (1911)

I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that the production of wealth is not the work of any one man, and the acquisition of great fortunes is not possible without the co-operation of multitudes of men.
Address (31 May 1871) to the 12th annual commencement at the Cooper Union, honoring his 80th birthday, in New York City Mission and Tract Society, Annual report of the New York City Mission and Tract Society (1872), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Charity (13)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Great (1610)  |  Man (2252)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Operation (221)  |  Possible (560)  |  Production (190)  |  Shut (41)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Work (1402)

I do not know whether my distrust of men of science is congenital or acquired, but I think I should have transmitted it to descendants.
Samuel Butler, edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill, Samuel Butler’s Notebooks (1951), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Congenital (4)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Distrust (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Transmission (34)

I had a dislike for [mathematics], and ... was hopelessly short in algebra. ... [One extraordinary teacher of mathematics] got the whole year's course into me in exactly six [after-school] lessons of half an hour each. And how? More accurately, why? Simply because he was an algebra fanatic—because he believed that algebra was not only a science of the utmost importance, but also one of the greatest fascination. ... [H]e convinced me in twenty minutes that ignorance of algebra was as calamitous, socially and intellectually, as ignorance of table manners—That acquiring its elements was as necessary as washing behind the ears. So I fell upon the book and gulped it voraciously. ... To this day I comprehend the binomial theorem.
In Prejudices: third series (1922), 261-262.
For a longer excerpt, see H. L. Mencken's Recollections of School Algebra.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Behind (139)  |  Binomial (6)  |  Binomial Theorem (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Calamity (11)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Course (413)  |  Dislike (16)  |  Ear (69)  |  Element (322)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Gulp (3)  |  Half (63)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Hour (192)  |  How (3)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Importance (299)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Manners (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  School (227)  |  Short (200)  |  Society (350)  |  Table (105)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Washing (3)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

I have been especially fortunate for about 50 years in having two memory banks available—whenever I can't remember something I ask my wife, and thus I am able to draw on this auxiliary memory bank. Moreover, there is a second way In which I get ideas ... I listen carefully to what my wife says, and in this way I often get a good idea. I recommend to ... young people ... that you make a permanent acquisition of an auxiliary memory bank that you can become familiar with and draw upon throughout your lives.
T. Goertzel and B. Goertzel, Linus Pauling (1995), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Available (80)  |  Bank (31)  |  Become (821)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Draw (140)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listening (26)  |  Live (650)  |  Memory (144)  |  People (1031)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Recommendation (12)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wife (41)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

I know a good many men of great learning—that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently—and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
In Prejudices: third series (1922), 261.
For a longer excerpt, see H. L. Mencken's Recollections of School Algebra.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Already (226)  |  Amount (153)  |  Birth (154)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Clumsiness (2)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Eagerness (5)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inaccuracy (4)  |  Independence (37)  |  Independently (24)  |  Infrequently (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  School (227)  |  Schoolmaster (5)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Tell (344)  |  Test (221)  |  Value (393)

If the term education may be understood in so large a sense as to include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others or by increase of it through its own exertions, we learn by them what is the kind of education science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing — not to despise the small beginnings, for they precede of necessity all great things in the knowledge of science, either pure or applied.
'Science as a Branch of Education', lecture to the Royal Institution, 11 Jun 1858. Reprinted in The Mechanics Magazine (1858), 49, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belong (168)  |  Education (423)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Include (93)  |  Increase (225)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pure (299)  |  Sense (785)  |  Small (489)  |  Term (357)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)

In my own view, some advice about what should be known, about what technical education should be acquired, about the intense motivation needed to succeed, and about the carelessness and inclination toward bias that must be avoided is far more useful than all the rules and warnings of theoretical logic.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Advice (57)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Avoidance (11)  |  Bias (22)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Education (423)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Logic (311)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Must (1525)  |  Rule (307)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Technical Education (3)  |  Technology (281)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  View (496)  |  Warning (18)

In the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is.
Reflections: Mathematics and Creativity', New Yorker (1972), 47, No. 53, 39-45. In Douglas M. Campbell, John C. Higgins (eds.), Mathematics: People, Problems, Results (1984), Vol. 2, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Book (413)  |  Businessman (4)  |  Company (63)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Economist (20)  |  Friend (180)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Profound (105)  |  State (505)  |  Understandable (12)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

Intelligence is the capacity to learn. Learning is based on the acquisition of new knowledge about the environment. Memory is its retention.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Environment (239)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Memory (144)  |  New (1273)  |  Retention (5)

It is characteristic of our age to endeavour to replace virtues by technology. That is to say, wherever possible we strive to use methods of physical or social engineering to achieve goals which our ancestors thought attainable only by the training of character. Thus, we try so far as possible to make contraception take the place of chastity, and anaesthetics to take the place of fortitude; we replace resignation by insurance policies and munificence by the Welfare State. It would be idle romanticism to deny that such techniques and institutions are often less painful and more efficient methods of achieving the goods and preventing the evils which unaided virtue once sought to achieve and avoid. But it would be an equal and opposite folly to hope that the take-over of virtue by technology may one day be complete, so that the necessity for the laborious acquisition of the capacity for rational choice by individuals can be replaced by the painless application of the fruits of scientific discovery over the whole field of human intercourse and enterprise.
'Mental Health in Plato's Republic', in The Anatomy of the Soul: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Mind (1973), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Anaesthetic (2)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Application (257)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Choice (114)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contraception (2)  |  Deny (71)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Evil (122)  |  Field (378)  |  Folly (44)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (906)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idle (34)  |  Individual (420)  |  Institution (73)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Munificence (2)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rational (95)  |  Romanticism (5)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Engineering (2)  |  State (505)  |  Technique (84)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thought (995)  |  Training (92)  |  Try (296)  |  Use (771)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Whole (756)

It is one of the laws of life that each acquisition has its cost. No organism can exercise power without yielding up part of its substance. The physiological law of Transfer of Energy is the basis of human success and happiness. There is no action without expenditure of energy and if energy be not expended the power to generate it is lost. This law shows itself in a thousand ways in the life of man. The arm which is not used becomes palsied. The wealth which comes by chance weakens and destroys. The good which is unused turns to evil. The charity which asks no effort cannot relieve the misery she creates.
In The Strength of Being Clean: A Study of the Quest for Unearned Happiness (1900), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Arm (82)  |  Ask (420)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charity (13)  |  Cost (94)  |  Create (245)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Effort (243)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Expend (3)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Generate (16)  |  Good (906)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Human (1512)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lost (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Misery (31)  |  Organism (231)  |  Palsy (3)  |  Part (235)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Power (771)  |  Relieve (6)  |  Show (353)  |  Substance (253)  |  Success (327)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Turn (454)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weaken (5)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Yield (86)

Mathematics accomplishes really nothing outside of the realm of magnitude; marvellous, however, is the skill with which it masters magnitude wherever it finds it. We recall at once the network of lines which it has spun about heavens and earth; the system of lines to which azimuth and altitude, declination and right ascension, longitude and latitude are referred; those abscissas and ordinates, tangents and normals, circles of curvature and evolutes; those trigonometric and logarithmic functions which have been prepared in advance and await application. A look at this apparatus is sufficient to show that mathematicians are not magicians, but that everything is accomplished by natural means; one is rather impressed by the multitude of skilful machines, numerous witnesses of a manifold and intensely active industry, admirably fitted for the acquisition of true and lasting treasures.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 101. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Active (80)  |  Admirably (3)  |  Advance (298)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Ascension (4)  |  Await (6)  |  Circle (117)  |  Curvature (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolute (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Industry (159)  |  Intense (22)  |  Latitude (6)  |  Line (100)  |  Logarithmic (5)  |  Longitude (8)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magician (15)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Network (21)  |  Normal (29)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Outside (141)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Really (77)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recall (11)  |  Refer (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Show (353)  |  Skill (116)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Spin (26)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Tangent (6)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  True (239)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Witness (57)

My father’s collection of fossils was practically unnamed, but the appearance of Phillips’ book [Geology of the Yorkshire Coast], in which most of our specimens were figured, enabled us to remedy this defect. Every evening was devoted by us to accomplishing the work. This was my first introduction to true scientific study. … Phillips’ accurate volume initiated an entirely new order of things. Many a time did I mourn over the publication of this book, and the consequences immediately resulting from it. Instead of indulging in the games and idleness to which most lads are prone, my evenings throughout a long winter were devoted to the detested labour of naming these miserable stones. Such is the short-sightedness of boyhood. Pursuing this uncongenial work gave me in my thirteenth year a thorough practical familiarity with the palaeontological treasures of Eastern Yorkshire. This early acquisition happily moulded the entire course of my future life.
In Reminiscences of a Yorkshire naturalist (1896), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Book (413)  |  Boyhood (4)  |  Coast (13)  |  Collection (68)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Defect (31)  |  Detest (5)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Early (196)  |  Evening (12)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Father (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Future (467)  |  Game (104)  |  Geology (240)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Indulge (15)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Labor (200)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Miserable (8)  |  Mold (37)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mourn (3)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  John Phillips (2)  |  Practical (225)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Short (200)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Stone (168)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treasure (59)  |  True (239)  |  Uncongenial (2)  |  Winter (46)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Yorkshire (2)

Necessity is not the mother of invention. Knowledge and experiment are its parents. It sometimes happens that successful search is made for unknown materials to fill well-recognized and predetermined requirements. It more often happens that the acquirement of knowledge of the previously unknown properties of a material suggests its trial for some new use. These facts strongly indicate the value of knowledge of properties of materials and indicate a way for research.
Quoted in Guy Suits, 'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Happen (282)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mother Of Invention (6)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Parent (80)  |  Predetermine (2)  |  Property (177)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Trial (59)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
In Sceptical Essays (1928), 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Consist (223)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Generally (15)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourself (21)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Themselves (433)

No history of civilization can be tolerably complete which does not give considerable space to the explanation of scientific progress. If we had any doubts about this, it would suffice to ask ourselves what constitutes the essential difference between our and earlier civilizations. Throughout the course of history, in every period, and in almost every country, we find a small number of saints, of great artists, of men of science. The saints of to-day are not necessarily more saintly than those of a thousand years ago; our artists are not necessarily greater than those of early Greece; they are more likely to be inferior; and of course, our men of science are not necessarily more intelligent than those of old; yet one thing is certain, their knowledge is at once more extensive and more accurate. The acquisition and systematization of positive knowledge is the only human activity which is truly cumulative and progressive. Our civilization is essentially different from earlier ones, because our knowledge of the world and of ourselves is deeper, more precise, and more certain, because we have gradually learned to disentangle the forces of nature, and because we have contrived, by strict obedience to their laws, to capture them and to divert them to the gratification of our own needs.
Introduction to the History of Science (1927), Vol. 1, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Activity (218)  |  Artist (97)  |  Ask (420)  |  Capture (11)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Country (269)  |  Course (413)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Disentangle (4)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Early (196)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greece (9)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Need (320)  |  Number (710)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Old (499)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Period (200)  |  Positive (98)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Progress (492)  |  Saint (17)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Truly (118)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Research may start from definite problems whose importance it recognizes and whose solution is sought more or less directly by all forces. But equally legitimate is the other method of research which only selects the field of its activity and, contrary to the first method, freely reconnoitres in the search for problems which are capable of solution. Different individuals will hold different views as to the relative value of these two methods. If the first method leads to greater penetration it is also easily exposed to the danger of unproductivity. To the second method we owe the acquisition of large and new fields, in which the details of many things remain to be determined and explored by the first method.
In Zum Gedächtniss an Julius Plucker', Göttinger Abhandlungen (1871), 16, Mathematische Classe, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Capable (174)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Danger (127)  |  Definite (114)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Easy (213)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Freely (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hold (96)  |  Importance (299)  |  Individual (420)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Problem (731)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reconnoitre (2)  |  Relative (42)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Select (45)  |  Solution (282)  |  Start (237)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Science, history and politics are not suited for discussion except by experts. Others are simply in the position of requiring more information; and, till they have acquired all available information, cannot do anything but accept on authority the opinions of those better qualified.
The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays (1931), Epilogue, 287-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Authority (99)  |  Availability (10)  |  Available (80)  |  Better (493)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expert (67)  |  History (716)  |  Information (173)  |  More (2558)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Politics (122)  |  Position (83)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Suitability (11)

Second Law
All the acquisitions or losses wrought by nature on individuals, through the influence of the environment in which their race has long been placed, and hence through the influence of the predominant use or permanent disuse of any organ; all these are preserved by reproduction to the new individuals which arise, provided that the acquired modifications are common to both sexes, or at least to the individuals which produce the young.
Philosophie Zoologique (1809), Vol. 1, 235, trans. Hugh Elliot (1914), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Arise (162)  |  Both (496)  |  Common (447)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Organ (118)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Race (278)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Young (253)

Surely it must be admitted that if the conceptions of Physics are presented to the beginner in erroneous language, there is a danger that in many instances these conceptions will never be properly acquired. And is not accurate language as cheap as inaccurate?
A paper read at the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching (19 Jan 1889), 'The Vices of our Scientific Education', in Nature (6 Jun 1889), 40, 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Beginner (11)  |  Cheap (13)  |  Conception (160)  |  Danger (127)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Inaccuracy (4)  |  Language (308)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Present (630)  |  Proper (150)  |  Surely (101)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Will (2350)

Talent is full of thoughts; genius, of thought. One has definite acquisitions; the other, indefinite power.
In 'Genius', Wellman’s Miscellany (Dec 1871), 4, No. 6, 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Definite (114)  |  Full (68)  |  Genius (301)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thought (995)

The action of the mind in the acquisition of knowledge of any sort is synthetic-analytic; that is, uniting and separating. These are the two sides, or aspects, of the one process. … There is no such thing as a synthetic activity that is not accompanied by the analytic; and there is no analytic activity that is not accompanied by the synthetic. Children cannot be taught to perform these knowing acts. It is the nature of the mind to so act when it acts at all.
In The Public-School Journal (Jan 1895), Vol. 14, 281-282.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Activity (218)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Education (423)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perform (123)  |  Process (439)  |  Separate (151)  |  Side (236)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Unite (43)

The better educated we are and the more acquired information we have, the better prepared shall we find our minds for making great and fruitful discoveries.
In An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 38, as translated by Henry Copley Greene. From the original French by Claude Bernard: “Plus on est instruit, plus on possède de connaissances antérieures, mieux on aura l’esprit disposé pour faire des découvertes grandes et fécondes.” (1865), 67. A Google translation gives: “The more educated one is, the more prior knowledge one possesses, the better disposed one’s mind will be to make great and fruitful discoveries.”
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Better (493)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Education (423)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Great (1610)  |  Information (173)  |  Making (300)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Preparation (60)

The Grand Cañon of the Colorado is a great innovation in modern ideas of scenery, and in our conceptions of the grandeur, beauty, and power of nature. As with all great innovations it is not to be comprehended in a day or a week, nor even in a month. It must be dwelt upon and studied, and the study must comprise the slow acquisition of the meaning and spirit of that marvelous scenery which characterizes the Plateau Country, and of which the great chasm is the superlative manifestation.
In Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District: With Atlas (1882), Vol. 2, 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Chasm (9)  |  Colorado (5)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Comprise (2)  |  Conception (160)  |  Country (269)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Grand Canyon (11)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Modern (402)  |  Month (91)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Plateau (8)  |  Power (771)  |  Scenery (9)  |  Slow (108)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Superlative (4)  |  Week (73)

The indescribable pleasure—which pales the rest of life's joys—is abundant compensation for the investigator who endures the painful and persevering analytical work that precedes the appearance of the new truth, like the pain of childbirth. It is true to say that nothing for the scientific scholar is comparable to the things that he has discovered. Indeed, it would be difficult to find an investigator willing to exchange the paternity of a scientific conquest for all the gold on earth. And if there are some who look to science as a way of acquiring gold instead of applause from the learned, and the personal satisfaction associated with the very act of discovery, they have chosen the wrong profession.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Abundant (23)  |  Act (278)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Applause (9)  |  Childbirth (2)  |  Choice (114)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Comparable (7)  |  Compensation (8)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endurance (8)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gold (101)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indescribable (2)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Joy (117)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pale (9)  |  Paternity (2)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Preceding (8)  |  Profession (108)  |  Rest (287)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Willing (44)  |  Willingness (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)

The instinct for collecting, which began as in other animals as an adaptive property, could always in man spread beyond reason; it could become a hoarding mania. But in its normal form it provides a means of livelihood at the hunting and collecting stage of human evolution. It is then attached to a variety of rational aptitudes, above all in observing, classifying, and naming plants, animals and minerals, skills diversely displayed by primitive peoples. These skills with an instinctive beginning were the foundation of most of the civilised arts and sciences. Attached to other skills in advanced societies they promote the formation of museums and libraries; detached, they lead to acquisition and classification by eccentric individuals, often without any purpose or value at all.
As quoted in Richard Fifield, 'Cytologist Supreme', New Scientist (16 Apr 1981), 90, No. 1249, 179; citing C.D. Darlington, The Little Universe of Man (1978).
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Art (680)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Display (59)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Lead (391)  |  Library (53)  |  Livelihood (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mania (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Most (1728)  |  Museum (40)  |  Name (359)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Plant (320)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Promote (32)  |  Property (177)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spread (86)  |  Stage (152)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)

The intrinsic character of mathematical research and knowledge is based essentially on three properties: first, on its conservative attitude towards the old truths and discoveries of mathematics; secondly, on its progressive mode of development, due to the incessant acquisition of new knowledge on the basis of the old; and thirdly, on its self-sufficiency and its consequent absolute independence.
In Mathematical Essays and Recreations (1898), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Basis (180)  |  Character (259)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Development (441)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Due (143)  |  First (1302)  |  Incessant (9)  |  Independence (37)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mode (43)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Property (177)  |  Research (753)  |  Self (268)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Truth (1109)

The opening of a foreign trade, by making them acquainted with new objects, or tempting them by the easier acquisition of things which they had not previously thought attainable, sometimes works a sort of industrial revolution in a country whose resources were previously undeveloped for want of energy and ambition in the people; inducing those who were satisfied with scanty comforts and little work to work harder for the gratification of their new tastes, and even to save, and accumulate capital, for the still more complete satisfaction of those tastes at a future time.
In Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy Vol. 1 (1873), Vol. 1, 351.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Attain (126)  |  Capital (16)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Complete (209)  |  Country (269)  |  Easier (53)  |  Energy (373)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Future (467)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Hard (246)  |  Induce (24)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Resource (74)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Save (126)  |  Scanty (3)  |  Still (614)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tempt (6)  |  Tempting (10)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Want (504)  |  Work (1402)  |  Work Hard (14)

The science of the modern school … is in effect … the acquisition of imperfectly analyzed misstatements about entrails, elements, and electricity…
Mankind in the Making (1903), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Entrail (2)  |  Entrails (4)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Modern (402)  |  School (227)

The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. A good example of a simple technology with profound historical consequences is hay. Nobody knows who invented hay, the idea of cutting grass in the autumn and storing it in large enough quantities to keep horses and cows alive through the winter. All we know is that the technology of hay was unknown to the Roman Empire but was known to every village of medieval Europe. Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages. According to the Hay Theory of History, the invention of hay was the decisive event which moved the center of gravity of urban civilization from the Mediterranean basin to Northern and Western Europe. The Roman Empire did not need hay because in a Mediterranean climate the grass grows well enough in winter for animals to graze. North of the Alps, great cities dependent on horses and oxen for motive power could not exist without hay. So it was hay that allowed populations to grow and civilizations to flourish among the forests of Northern Europe. Hay moved the greatness of Rome to Paris and London, and later to Berlin and Moscow and New York. ... Great inventions like hay and printing, whatever their immediate social costs may be, result in a permanent expansion of our horizons, a lasting acquisition of new territory for human bodies and minds to cultivate.
Infinite In All Directions (1988, 2004), 135. The book is a revised version of a series of the Gifford Lectures under the title 'In Praise of Diversity', given at Aberdeen, Scotland.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Age (509)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Alive (97)  |  Alp (9)  |  Alps (9)  |  Animal (651)  |  Autumn (11)  |  Berlin (10)  |  Call (781)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Climate (102)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Cost (94)  |  Cow (42)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Dark (145)  |  Dark Ages (10)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enough (341)  |  Europe (50)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Forest (161)  |  Good (906)  |  Grass (49)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hay (6)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Horse (78)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  London (15)  |  Medieval (12)  |  Mediterranean (9)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moscow (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxen (8)  |  Paris (11)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Population (115)  |  Power (771)  |  Printing (25)  |  Profound (105)  |  Result (700)  |  Roman (39)  |  Rome (19)  |  Simple (426)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Technology (281)  |  Territory (25)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Urban (12)  |  Usually (176)  |  Western (45)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Winter (46)

The wise man should study the acquisition of science and riches as if he were not subject to sickness and death; but to the duties of religion he should attend as if death had seized him by the hair.
In Charles Wilkins (trans.) Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit: being the Hitopadesa (1885), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Attention (196)  |  Death (406)  |  Duty (71)  |  Hair (25)  |  Man (2252)  |  Religion (369)  |  Riches (14)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wise Man (17)

There are very few things of which we can acquire a conception through all five senses.
Aphorism 9 in Notebook B (1768-1771), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Conception (160)  |  Few (15)  |  Sense (785)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)

When rich men are thus brought to regard themselves as trustees, and poor men learn to be industrious, economical, temperate, self-denying, and diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, then the deplorable strife between capital and labor, tending to destroy their fundamental, necessary, and irrefragable harmony will cease, and the world will no longer be afflicted with such unnatural industrial conflicts as we have seen during the past century...
Address (31 May 1871) to the 12th annual commencement at the Cooper Union, honoring his 80th birthday, in New York City Mission and Tract Society, Annual report of the New York City Mission and Tract Society (1872), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Affliction (6)  |  Capital (16)  |  Cease (81)  |  Century (319)  |  Cessation (13)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Deplorable (4)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Economy (59)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Industry (159)  |  Irrefragable (2)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learn (672)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Past (355)  |  Poor (139)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rich (66)  |  Self (268)  |  Strife (9)  |  Temperance (3)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trustee (3)  |  Unnatural (15)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones
(Attributed ??) This quote is often seen, but without a citation, even on the official Marshall McLuhan website. If you known a primary print source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Current (122)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Easy (213)  |  Past (355)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (145)  |  Why (491)

Why it is that animals, instead of developing in a simple and straightforward way, undergo in the course of their growth a series of complicated changes, during which they often acquire organs which have no function, and which, after remaining visible for a short time, disappear without leaving a trace ... To the Darwinian, the explanation of such facts is obvious. The stage when the tadpole breathes by gills is a repetition of the stage when the ancestors of the frog had not advanced in the scale of development beyond a fish.
In The Works of Francis Maitland Balfour (1885), Vol. 1, 702.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Change (639)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Course (413)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Development (441)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fish (130)  |  Frog (44)  |  Function (235)  |  Gill (3)  |  Growth (200)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Organ (118)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Scale (122)  |  Series (153)  |  Short (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Stage (152)  |  Straightforward (10)  |  Tadpole (3)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Visibility (6)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)

Working is beautiful and rewarding, but acquisition of wealth for its own sake is disgusting.
A comment Bunsen often told his students.
Quoted in Ralph Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Disgust (10)  |  Reward (72)  |  Sake (61)  |  Student (317)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Work (1402)


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.