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: Affinity

Affinity Quotes (27 quotes)

[On gold, silver, mercury, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium:] As in their physical properties so in their chemical properties. Their affinities being weaker, (the noble metals) do not present that variety of combinations, belonging to the more common metals, which renders them so extensively useful in the arts; nor are they, in consequence, so necessary and important in the operations of nature. They do not assist in her hands in breaking down rocks and strata into soil, nor do they help man to make that soil productive or to collect for him its products.
From 13th Lecture in 1818, in Bence Jones, The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 1, 254.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Breaking (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (150)  |  Common (447)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Gold (101)  |  Important (229)  |  Iridium (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Noble (93)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Osmium (3)  |  Palladium (2)  |  Physical (518)  |  Platinum (6)  |  Present (630)  |  Product (166)  |  Productive (37)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Property (177)  |  Render (96)  |  Rhodium (2)  |  Rock (176)  |  Silver (49)  |  Soil (98)  |  Strata (37)  |  Useful (260)  |  Variety (138)

All the experiments which have been hitherto carried out, and those that are still being daily performed, concur in proving that between different bodies, whether principles or compounds, there is an agreement, relation, affinity or attraction (if you will have it so), which disposes certain bodies to unite with one another, while with others they are unable to contract any union: it is this effect, whatever be its cause, which will help us to give a reason for all the phenomena furnished by chemistry, and to tie them together.
From Elemens de Chymie Theorique (1749). As quoted, in Trevor Harvey Levere, Affinity and Matter: Elements of Chemical Philosophy, 1800-1865 (1971), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Daily (91)  |  Different (595)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reason (766)  |  Still (614)  |  Tie (42)  |  Together (392)  |  Union (52)  |  Unite (43)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

Although we know nothing of what an atom is, yet we cannot resist forming some idea of a small particle, which represents it to the mind ... there is an immensity of facts which justify us in believing that the atoms of matter are in some way endowed or associated with electrical powers, to which they owe their most striking qualities, and amongst them their mutual chemical affinity.
[Summarizing his investigations in electrolysis.]
Experimental Researches in Electricity (1839), section 852. Cited in Laurie M. Brown, Abraham Pais, Brian Pippard, Twentieth Century Physics (1995), Vol. 1, 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Charge (63)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forming (42)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Owe (71)  |  Particle (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Small (489)  |  Striking (48)  |  Way (1214)

Embryology furnishes … the best measure of the true affinities existing between animals.
In 'Essay on Classification', Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America (1857), Pt. 1, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Best (467)  |  Embryology (18)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Measure (241)

Here man is no longer the center of the world, only a witness, but a witness who is also a partner in the silent life of nature, bound by secret affinities to the trees.
From Presidential Address (20 Dec 1957), to the Annual Meeting of the Swedish Academy, 'The Linnaeus Tradition and Our Time', collected in Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1953-1961 (1962), 153. Also in Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations (1973), Vol. 3, 703.
Science quotes on:  |  Bound (120)  |  Center (35)  |  Forest (161)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Partner (5)  |  Secret (216)  |  Silent (31)  |  Tree (269)  |  Witness (57)  |  World (1850)

How much is our knowledge of bacteria due to the discovery of the aniline dyes on the one hand and the discovery by Weigert that bacteria had a selective affinity for certain of these?
From address, 'A Medical Retrospect'. Published in Yale Medical Journal (Oct 1910), 17, No. 2, 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Aniline (2)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Certain (557)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Due (143)  |  Dye (10)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Selective (21)

I am willing to believe that my unobtainable sixty seconds within a sponge or a flatworm might not reveal any mental acuity that I would care to ca ll consciousness. But I am also confident ... that vultures and sloths, as close evolutionary relatives with the same basic set of organs, lie on our side of any meaningful (and necessarily fuzzy) border–and that we are therefore not mistaken when we look them in the eye and see a glimmer of emotional and conceptual affinity.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Acuity (3)  |  Basic (144)  |  Belief (615)  |  Border (10)  |  Care (203)  |  Close (77)  |  Conceptual (11)  |  Confident (25)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fuzzy (5)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Lie (370)  |  Look (584)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Organ (118)  |  Relative (42)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Same (166)  |  Second (66)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Sixty (6)  |  Sloth (7)  |  Sponge (9)  |  Vulture (5)  |  Willing (44)

If any spiritualistic medium can do stunts, there is no more need for special conditions than there is for a chemist to turn down lights, start operations with a hymn, and ask whether there's any chemical present that has affinity with something named Hydrogen.
Lo! (1932). In The Complete Books of Charles Fort (1975), 575.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Condition (362)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hymn (6)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Present (630)  |  Something (718)  |  Special (188)  |  Spiritualism (3)  |  Start (237)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Turn (454)

If we range through the whole territory of nature, and endeavour to extract from each department the rich stores of knowledge and pleasure they respectively contain, we shall not find a more refined or purer source of amusement, or a more interesting and unfailing subject for recreation, than that which the observation and examination of the structure, affinities, and habits of plants and vegetables, afford.
In A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Dahlia (1838), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Botany (63)  |  Containing (3)  |  Department (93)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Examination (102)  |  Extract (40)  |  Extraction (10)  |  Find (1014)  |  Habit (174)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Plant (320)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Refined (8)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Rich (66)  |  Source (101)  |  Store (49)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Territory (25)  |  Through (846)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Whole (756)

In order to pursue chemotherapy successfully we must look for substances which possess a high affinity and high lethal potency in relation to the parasites, but have a low toxicity in relation to the body, so that it becomes possible to kill the parasites without damaging the body to any great extent. We want to hit the parasites as selectively as possible. In other words, we must learn to aim and to aim in a chemical sense. The way to do this is to synthesize by chemical means as many derivatives as possible of relevant substances.
'Ueber den jetzigen Stand der Chemotherapie'. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschagt, 1909, 42, 17-47. Translated in B. Holmstedt and G. Liljestrand (eds.), Readings in Pharmacology (1963), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemotherapy (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extent (142)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Kill (100)  |  Learn (672)  |  Look (584)  |  Low (86)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Potency (10)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Sense (785)  |  Substance (253)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

In the present state of our knowledge, it would be useless to attempt to speculate on the remote cause of the electrical energy, or the reason why different bodies, after being brought into contact, should be found differently electrified; its relation to chemical affinity is, however, sufficiently evident. May it not be identical with it, and an essential property of matter?
Bakerian Lecture, 'On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1807, 97, 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Charge (63)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Contact (66)  |  Different (595)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Energy (373)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evident (92)  |  Identical (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Present (630)  |  Property (177)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remote (86)  |  State (505)  |  Why (491)

It will be a general expression of the facts that have been detailed, relating to the changes and transitions by electricity, in common philosophical language, to say, that hydrogen, the alkaline substances, the metals, and certain metallic oxides, are all attracted by negatively electrified metallic surfaces; and contrariwise, that oxygen and acid substances are attracted by positively electrified metallic surfaces and rejected by negatively electrified metallic surfaces; and these attractive and repulsive forces are sufficiently energetic to destroy or suspend the usual operation of elective affinity.
Bakerian Lecture, 'On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1807, 97, 28-29.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Alkali (6)  |  Attractive (25)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Charge (63)  |  Common (447)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Detail (150)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Language (308)  |  Metal (88)  |  Operation (221)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Say (989)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Transition (28)  |  Will (2350)

Now, when all these studies reach the point of inter-communion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objects: otherwise there is no profit in them.
Plato
From The Republic, Book 7, Chap. 7, 531. As translated in The Dialogues of Plato (1871), Vol. 2, 367.
Science quotes on:  |  Communion (3)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Inter (12)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Object (438)  |  Point (584)  |  Profit (56)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Reach (286)  |  Study (701)  |  Think (1122)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

One word characterises the most strenuous of the efforts for the advancement of science that I have made perseveringly during fifty-five years; that word is failure. I know no more of electric and magnetic force, or of the relation between ether, electricity and ponderable matter, or of chemical affinity, than I knew and tried to teach to my students of natural philosophy fifty years ago in my first session as Professor.
Address (16 Jun 1896), at Celebration for his Jubilee as Professor, at Glasgow University. Printed in The Electrician (19 Jun 1896), 37, 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Characterise (2)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Affinity (2)  |  Effort (243)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Ether (37)  |  Failure (176)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Know (1538)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Persevere (5)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Ponderable (4)  |  Professor (133)  |  Relation (166)  |  Strenuous (5)  |  Student (317)  |  Teach (299)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

Reagents are regarded as acting by virtue of a constitutional affinity either for electrons or for nuclei... the terms electrophilic (electron-seeking) and nucleophilic (nucleus-seeking) are suggested... and the organic molecule, in the activation necessary for reaction, is therefore required to develop at the seat of attack either a high or low electron density as the case may be.
'Significance of Tautomerism and of the Reactions of Aromatic Compounds in the Electronic Theory of Organic Relations', Journal of the Chemical Society (1933), 136, 1121, fn.
Science quotes on:  |  Activation (6)  |  Attack (86)  |  Density (25)  |  Develop (278)  |  Electron (96)  |  High (370)  |  Low (86)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Organic (161)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Regard (312)  |  Required (108)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Virtue (117)

Savages have often been likened to children, and the comparison is not only correct but also highly instructive. Many naturalists consider that the early condition of the individual indicates that of the race,—that the best test of the affinities of a species are the stages through which it passes. So also it is in the case of man; the life of each individual is an epitome of the history of the race, and the gradual development of the child illustrates that of the species.
Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages, (2nd. ed. 1869, 1878), 583.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Development (441)  |  Early (196)  |  Epitome (3)  |  History (716)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Race (278)  |  Savage (33)  |  Species (435)  |  Stage (152)  |  Test (221)  |  Through (846)

Since it is proposed to regard chemical reactions as electrical transactions in which reagents act by reason of a constitutional affinity either for electrons or for atomic nuclei, it is important to be able to recognize which type of reactivity any given reagent exhibits.
'Principles of an Electronic Theory of Organic Reactions', Chemical Reviews (1934), 15, 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electron (96)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Regard (312)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Type (171)

The chemical compounds are comparable to a system of planets in that the atoms are held together by chemical affinity. They may be more or less numerous, simple or complex in composition, and in the constitution of the materials, they play the same role as Mars and Venus do in our planetary system, or the compound members such as our earth with its moon, or Jupiter with its satellites... If in such a system a particle is replaced by one of different character, the equilibrium can persist, and then the new compound will exhibit properties similar to those shown by the original substance.
Quoted in Ralph Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complex (202)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Mars (47)  |  Material (366)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  New (1273)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planet (402)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Role (86)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Simple (426)  |  Substance (253)  |  System (545)  |  Together (392)  |  Venus (21)  |  Will (2350)

The laws of Coexistence;—the adaptation of structure to function; and to a certain extent the elucidation of natural affinities may be legitimately founded upon the examination of fully developed species;—But to obtain an insight into the laws of development,—the signification or bedeutung, of the parts of an animal body demands a patient examination of the successive stages of their development, in every group of Animals.
'Lecture Four, 9 May 1837', The Hunterian Lectures in Comparative Anatomy, May-June 1837, ed. Phillip Reid Sloan (1992), 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Demand (131)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Examination (102)  |  Extent (142)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Function (235)  |  Insight (107)  |  Law (913)  |  Legitimacy (5)  |  Natural (810)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Patient (209)  |  Significance (114)  |  Species (435)  |  Stage (152)  |  Structure (365)  |  Successive (73)

The struggle between the unitary and dualistic theories of chemical affinity, which raged for nearly a century, was a form of civil war between inorganic and organic chemists.
Comment made on a postcard sent to Robin O. Gandy. Reproduced in Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Affinity (2)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil War (4)  |  Form (976)  |  Inorganic (14)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Organic (161)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unitary (3)  |  War (233)

Then if the first argument remains secure (for nobody will produce a neater one, than the length of the periodic time is a measure of the size of the spheres), the order of the orbits follows this sequence, beginning from the highest: The first and highest of all is the sphere of the fixed stars, which contains itself and all things, and is therefore motionless. It is the location of the universe, to which the motion and position of all the remaining stars is referred. For though some consider that it also changes in some respect, we shall assign another cause for its appearing to do so in our deduction of the Earth’s motion. There follows Saturn, the first of the wandering stars, which completes its circuit in thirty years. After it comes Jupiter which moves in a twelve-year long revolution. Next is Mars, which goes round biennially. An annual revolution holds the fourth place, in which as we have said is contained the Earth along with the lunar sphere which is like an epicycle. In fifth place Venus returns every nine months. Lastly, Mercury holds the sixth place, making a circuit in the space of eighty days. In the middle of all is the seat of the Sun. For who in this most beautiful of temples would put this lamp in any other or better place than the one from which it can illuminate everything at the same time? Aptly indeed is he named by some the lantern of the universe, by others the mind, by others the ruler. Trismegistus called him the visible God, Sophocles' Electra, the watcher over all things. Thus indeed the Sun as if seated on a royal throne governs his household of Stars as they circle around him. Earth also is by no means cheated of the Moon’s attendance, but as Aristotle says in his book On Animals the Moon has the closest affinity with the Earth. Meanwhile the Earth conceives from the Sun, and is made pregnant with annual offspring. We find, then, in this arrangement the marvellous symmetry of the universe, and a sure linking together in harmony of the motion and size of the spheres, such as could be perceived in no other way. For here one may understand, by attentive observation, why Jupiter appears to have a larger progression and retrogression than Saturn, and smaller than Mars, and again why Venus has larger ones than Mercury; why such a doubling back appears more frequently in Saturn than in Jupiter, and still more rarely in Mars and Venus than in Mercury; and furthermore why Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are nearer to the Earth when in opposition than in the region of their occultation by the Sun and re-appearance. Indeed Mars in particular at the time when it is visible throughout the night seems to equal Jupiter in size, though marked out by its reddish colour; yet it is scarcely distinguishable among stars of the second magnitude, though recognized by those who track it with careful attention. All these phenomena proceed from the same course, which lies in the motion of the Earth. But the fact that none of these phenomena appears in the fixed stars shows their immense elevation, which makes even the circle of their annual motion, or apparent motion, vanish from our eyes.
'Book One. Chapter X. The Order of the Heavenly Spheres', in Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), trans. A. M. Duncan (1976), 49-51.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Back (395)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Course (413)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Everything (489)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  God (776)  |  Govern (66)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Immense (89)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Lie (370)  |  Linking (8)  |  Location (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Making (300)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mars (47)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Month (91)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Next (238)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Observation (593)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progression (23)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Retrogression (6)  |  Return (133)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Royal (56)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Show (353)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Track (42)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Venus (21)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

This leads us to ask for the reasons which call for this new theory of transmutation. The beginning of things must needs lie in obscurity, beyond the bounds of proof, though within those of conjecture or of analogical inference. Why not hold fast to the customary view, that all species were directly, instead of indirectly, created after their respective kinds, as we now behold them,--and that in a manner which, passing our comprehension, we intuitively refer to the supernatural? Why this continual striving after “the unattained and dim,”—these anxious endeavors, especially of late years, by naturalists and philosophers of various schools and different tendencies, to penetrate what one of them calls “the mystery of mysteries,” the origin of species? To this, in general, sufficient answer may be found in the activity of the human intellect, “the delirious yet divine desire to know,” stimulated as it has been by its own success in unveiling the laws and processes of inorganic Nature,—in the fact that the principal triumphs of our age in physical science have consisted in tracing connections where none were known before, in reducing heterogeneous phenomena to a common cause or origin, in a manner quite analogous to that of the reduction of supposed independently originated species to a common ultimate origin,—thus, and in various other ways, largely and legitimately extending the domain of secondary causes. Surely the scientific mind of an age which contemplates the solar system as evolved from a common, revolving, fluid mass,— which, through experimental research, has come to regard light, heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, and mechanical power as varieties or derivative and convertible forms of one force, instead of independent species,—which has brought the so-called elementary kinds of matter, such as the metals, into kindred groups, and raised the question, whether the members of each group may not be mere varieties of one species,—and which speculates steadily in the direction of the ultimate unity of matter, of a sort of prototype or simple element which may be to the ordinary species of matter what the protozoa or component cells of an organism are to the higher sorts of animals and plants,—the mind of such an age cannot be expected to let the old belief about species pass unquestioned.
Asa Gray
'Darwin on the Origin of Species', The Atlantic Monthly (Jul 1860), 112-3. Also in 'Natural Selection Not Inconsistent With Natural Theology', Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism (1876), 94-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Age (509)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bound (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Component (51)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consist (223)  |  Continual (44)  |  Customary (18)  |  Desire (212)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Divine (112)  |  Domain (72)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Heat (180)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Independently (24)  |  Inference (45)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Kind (564)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Late (119)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Principal (69)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prototype (9)  |  Protozoa (6)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Simple (426)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Species (435)  |  Success (327)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unity (81)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

This new force, which was unknown until now, is common to organic and inorganic nature. I do not believe that this is a force entirely independent of the electrochemical affinities of matter; I believe, on the contrary, that it is only a new manifestation, but since we cannot see their connection and mutual dependence, it will be easier to designate it by a separate name. I will call this force catalytic force. Similarly, I will call the decomposition of bodies by this force catalysis, as one designates the decomposition of bodies by chemical affinity analysis.
In'Some Ideas on a New Force which Acts in Organic Compounds', Annales chimie physiques, 1836, 61, 146. Translated in Henry M. Leicester and Herbert S. Klickstein, A Source Book in Chemistry 1400-1900 (1952), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Call (781)  |  Catalysis (7)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  Electrochemical (4)  |  Force (497)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Organic (161)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

To what purpose should People become fond of the Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy? … People very readily call Useless what they do not understand. It is a sort of Revenge… One would think at first that if the Mathematicks were to be confin’d to what is useful in them, they ought only to be improv'd in those things which have an immediate and sensible Affinity with Arts, and the rest ought to be neglected as a Vain Theory. But this would be a very wrong Notion. As for Instance, the Art of Navigation hath a necessary Connection with Astronomy, and Astronomy can never be too much improv'd for the Benefit of Navigation. Astronomy cannot be without Optics by reason of Perspective Glasses: and both, as all parts of the Mathematicks are grounded upon Geometry … .
Of the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning (1699)
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Connection (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1302)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Ground (222)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Optics (24)  |  People (1031)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Useful (260)  |  Vain (86)  |  Wrong (246)

What agencies of electricity, gravity, light, affinity combine to make every plant what it is, and in a manner so quiet that the presence of these tremendous powers is not ordinarily suspected. Faraday said, “A grain of water is known to have electric relations equivalent to a very powerful flash of lightning.”
In 'Perpetual Forces', North American Review (1877), No. 125. Collected in Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Elliot Cabot (ed.), Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Combine (58)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Flash (49)  |  Grain (50)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Presence (63)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Water (503)

When an element A has an affinity for another substance B, I see no mechanical reason why it should not take as many atoms of B as are presented to it, and can possibly come into contact with it (which may probably be 12 in general), except so far as the repulsion of the atoms of B among themselves are more than a match for the attraction of an atom of A. Now this repulsion begins with 2 atoms of B to 1 atom of A, in which case the 2 atoms of B are diametrically opposed; it increases with 3 atoms of B to 1 of A, in which case the atoms are only 120° asunder; with 4 atoms of B it is still greater as the distance is then only 90; and so on in proportion to the number of atoms. It is evident from these positions, that, as far as powers of attraction and repulsion are concerned (and we know of no other in chemistry), binary compounds must first be formed in the ordinary course of things, then ternary and so on, till the repulsion of the atoms of B (or A, whichever happens to be on the surface of the other), refuse to admit any more.
Observations on Dr. Bostock's Review of the Atomic Principles of Chemistry', Nicholson's Journal, 1811, 29, 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Begin (275)  |  Binary (12)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Concern (239)  |  Contact (66)  |  Course (413)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Distance (171)  |  Element (322)  |  Evident (92)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happen (282)  |  Increase (225)  |  Know (1538)  |  Match (30)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reason (766)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)

When the simplest compounds of this element are considered (marsh gas, chloride of carbon, chloroform, carbonic acid, phosgene, sulphide of carbon, hydrocyanic acid, etc.) it is seen that the quantity of carbon which chemists have recognised as the smallest possible, that is, as an atom, always unites with 4 atoms of a monatomic or with two atoms of a diatomic element; that in general, the sum of the chemical units of the elements united with one atom of carbon is 4. This leads us to the view that carbon is tetratomic or tetrabasic. In the cases of substances which contain several atoms of carbon, it must be assumed that at least some of the atoms are in some way held in the compound by the affinity of carbon, and that the carbon atoms attach themselves to one another, whereby a part of the affinity of the one is naturally engaged with an equal part of the affinity of the other. The simplest and therefore the most probable case of such an association of carbon atoms is that in which one affinity unit of one is bound by one of the other. Of the 2 x 4 affinity units of the two carbon atoms, two are used up in holding the atoms together, and six remain over, which can be bound by atom)' of other elements.
'Ueber die Konstitution und die Metamorphosen der chemischen Verbindungen', Annalen (1858) 5, 106. Trans. in J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry (1972), Vol. 4, 536.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Association (49)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bond (46)  |  Bound (120)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbonic Acid (4)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chloroform (5)  |  Compound (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Element (322)  |  Gas (89)  |  General (521)  |  Lead (391)  |  Methane (9)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phosgene (2)  |  Possible (560)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Remain (355)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sum (103)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Unite (43)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)


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.