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: “The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Apparently

Apparently Quotes (22 quotes)

[The famous attack of Sir William Hamilton on the tendency of mathematical studies] affords the most express evidence of those fatal lacunae in the circle of his knowledge, which unfitted him for taking a comprehensive or even an accurate view of the processes of the human mind in the establishment of truth. If there is any pre-requisite which all must see to be indispensable in one who attempts to give laws to the human intellect, it is a thorough acquaintance with the modes by which human intellect has proceeded, in the case where, by universal acknowledgment, grounded on subsequent direct verification, it has succeeded in ascertaining the greatest number of important and recondite truths. This requisite Sir W. Hamilton had not, in any tolerable degree, fulfilled. Even of pure mathematics he apparently knew little but the rudiments. Of mathematics as applied to investigating the laws of physical nature; of the mode in which the properties of number, extension, and figure, are made instrumental to the ascertainment of truths other than arithmetical or geometrical—it is too much to say that he had even a superficial knowledge: there is not a line in his works which shows him to have had any knowledge at all.
In Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1878), 607.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Afford (19)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Ascertainment (2)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Case (102)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Degree (277)  |  Direct (228)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Express (192)  |  Extension (60)  |  Famous (12)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hamilton (2)  |  Hamilton_William (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Important (229)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Instrumental (5)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Line (100)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Rudiment (6)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Study (701)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Tolerable (2)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unfitted (3)  |  Universal (198)  |  Verification (32)  |  View (496)  |  Work (1402)

But nature is remarkably obstinate against purely logical operations; she likes not schoolmasters nor scholastic procedures. As though she took a particular satisfaction in mocking at our intelligence, she very often shows us the phantom of an apparently general law, represented by scattered fragments, which are entirely inconsistent. Logic asks for the union of these fragments; the resolute dogmatist, therefore, does not hesitate to go straight on to supply, by logical conclusions, the fragments he wants, and to flatter himself that he has mastered nature by his victorious intelligence.
'On the Principles of Animal Morphology', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2 Apr 1888), 15, 289. Original as Letter to Mr John Murray, communicated to the Society by Professor Sir William Turner. Page given as in collected volume published 1889.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Ask (420)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dogmatist (4)  |  Fragment (58)  |  General (521)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inconsistent (9)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Law (913)  |  Like (23)  |  Logic (311)  |  Master (182)  |  Mocking (4)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obstinate (5)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Purely (111)  |  Remarkably (3)  |  Represent (157)  |  Resolute (2)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scattered (5)  |  Scholastic (2)  |  Schoolmaster (5)  |  Show (353)  |  Straight (75)  |  Supply (100)  |  Union (52)  |  Want (504)

I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman’s irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.
Address at The Physical Society, Berlin (1918) for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research', collected in Essays in Science (1934) 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Art (680)  |  Belief (615)  |  Built (7)  |  Compared (8)  |  Contour (3)  |  Crudity (4)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dreariness (3)  |  Escape (85)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Finely (3)  |  Freely (13)  |  High (370)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Motive (62)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noisy (3)  |  Objective (96)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Personal (75)  |  Pure (299)  |  Range (104)  |  Restful (2)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Arthur Schopenhauer (19)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Still (614)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Tempered (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Trace (109)  |  World (1850)

It is for such inquiries the modern naturalist collects his materials; it is for this that he still wants to add to the apparently boundless treasures of our national museums, and will never rest satisfied as long as the native country, the geographical distribution, and the amount of variation of any living thing remains imperfectly known. He looks upon every species of animal and plant now living as the individual letters which go to make up one of the volumes of our earth’s history; and, as a few lost letters may make a sentence unintelligible, so the extinction of the numerous forms of life which the progress of cultivation invariably entails will necessarily render obscure this invaluable record of the past. It is, therefore, an important object, which governments and scientific institutions should immediately take steps to secure, that in all tropical countries colonised by Europeans the most perfect collections possible in every branch of natural history should be made and deposited in national museums, where they may be available for study and interpretation. If this is not done, future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations. They will charge us with having culpably allowed the destruction of some of those records of Creation which we had it in our power to preserve; and while professing to regard every living thing as the direct handiwork and best evidence of a Creator, yet, with a strange inconsistency, seeing many of them perish irrecoverably from the face of the earth, uncared for and unknown.
In 'On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1863), 33, 234.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Age (509)  |  Allowed (3)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Available (80)  |  Back (395)  |  Best (467)  |  Blind (98)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Branch (155)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Charge (63)  |  Collect (19)  |  Collection (68)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entail (4)  |  European (5)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Future (467)  |  Geographical (6)  |  Government (116)  |  Handiwork (6)  |  Higher (37)  |  History (716)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Imperfectly (2)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconsistency (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Institution (73)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Known (453)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Lost (34)  |  Made (14)  |  Material (366)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Museum (40)  |  National (29)  |  Native (41)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Object (438)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perish (56)  |  Person (366)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Professing (2)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Record (161)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Render (96)  |  Rest (287)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secure (23)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Species (435)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Strange (160)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Tropical (9)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Variation (93)  |  Volume (25)  |  Want (504)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Will (2350)

It is still believed, apparently, that there is some thing mysteriously laudable about achieving viable offspring. I have searched the sacred and profane scriptures, for many years, but have yet to find any ground for this notion. To have a child is no more creditable than to have rheumatism–and no more discreditable. Ethically, it is absolutely meaningless. And practically, it is mainly a matter of chance.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Achieve (75)  |  Belief (615)  |  Chance (244)  |  Child (333)  |  Creditable (3)  |  Ethically (4)  |  Find (1014)  |  Ground (222)  |  Mainly (10)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meaningless (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Notion (120)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Practically (10)  |  Profane (6)  |  Rheumatism (3)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Scripture (14)  |  Search (175)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Viable (2)  |  Year (963)

Kepler’s discovery would not have been possible without the doctrine of conics. Now contemporaries of Kepler—such penetrating minds as Descartes and Pascal—were abandoning the study of geometry ... because they said it was so UTTERLY USELESS. There was the future of the human race almost trembling in the balance; for had not the geometry of conic sections already been worked out in large measure, and had their opinion that only sciences apparently useful ought to be pursued, the nineteenth century would have had none of those characters which distinguish it from the ancien régime.
From 'Lessons from the History of Science: The Scientific Attitude' (c.1896), in Collected Papers (1931), Vol. 1, 32.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abandon (73)  |  Already (226)  |  Balance (82)  |  Century (319)  |  Character (259)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Future (467)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Large (398)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Blaise Pascal (81)  |  Penetrating (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Race (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Trembling (4)  |  Useful (260)  |  Useless (38)  |  Utterly (15)  |  Work (1402)

No more impressive warning can be given to those who would confine knowledge and research to what is apparently useful, than the reflection that conic sections were studied for eighteen hundred years merely as an abstract science, without regard to any utility other than to satisfy the craving for knowledge on the part of mathematicians, and that then at the end of this long period of abstract study, they were found to be the necessary key with which to attain the knowledge of the most important laws of nature.
In Introduction to Mathematics (1911), 136-137.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Attain (126)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Crave (10)  |  End (603)  |  Find (1014)  |  Give (208)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Important (229)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Key (56)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Period (200)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Useful (260)  |  Utility (52)  |  Warn (7)  |  Warning (18)  |  Year (963)

Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination as a zebra. Apparently it does not occur to nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Articulate (8)  |  Bare (33)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Care (203)  |  Creature (242)  |  Design (203)  |  Discover (571)  |  Eye (440)  |  Glass (94)  |  Humble (54)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Insect (89)  |  Look (584)  |  Magnifying Glass (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Naked Eye (12)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occur (151)  |  Range (104)  |  Same (166)  |  See (1094)  |  Speck (25)  |  Stripe (4)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Vision (127)

Oddly enough, eccentrics are happier and healthier than conformists. A study of 1,000 people found that eccentrics visit a doctor an average of just once every eight years, while conformists go twice a year. Eccentrics apparently enjoy better health because they feel less pressured to follow society’s rules, said the researcher who did the study at Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland.
Eccentrics (1995).Study results in SELF magazine - 1992 National Enquirer.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Better (493)  |  Conformist (2)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Eccentric (11)  |  Edinburgh (2)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Enough (341)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Happy (108)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Less (105)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Oddly (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Royal (56)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  Scotland (6)  |  Society (350)  |  Study (701)  |  Twice (20)  |  Visit (27)  |  Year (963)

Oersted would never have made his great discovery of the action of galvanic currents on magnets had he stopped in his researches to consider in what manner they could possibly be turned to practical account; and so we would not now be able to boast of the wonders done by the electric telegraphs. Indeed, no great law in Natural Philosophy has ever been discovered for its practical implications, but the instances are innumerable of investigations apparently quite useless in this narrow sense of the word which have led to the most valuable results.
From Silvanus Phillips Thompson, 'Introductory Lecture to the Course on Natural Philosophy', The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910), Vol. 1, Appendix to Chap. 5, 249.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Action (342)  |  Boast (22)  |  Consider (428)  |  Current (122)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electric (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Implication (25)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Instance (33)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Manner (62)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Never (1089)  |  Hans Christian Oersted (5)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Practical (225)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Turn (454)  |  Useless (38)  |  Value (393)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Word (650)

One of Euler’s main recreations was music, and by cultivating it he brought with it all his geometrical spirit; … he rested his serious researches and composed his Essay of a New Theory of Music, published in 1739; a book full of new ideas presented in a new point of view, but that did not have a great success, apparently for the sole reason that it contains too much of geometry for the musician and too much music for the geometer.
From his Eulogy of Leonhard Euler, read at the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Saint Petersburg (23 Oct 1783). Published in 'Éloge de Léonard Euler, Prononcé en Français par Nicolas Fuss'. Collected in Leonard Euler, Oeuvres Complètes en Français de L. Euler (1839), Vol. 1, xii. From the original French, “Un des principaux délassements d'Euler était la musique, et en la cultivant il y apporta tout son esprit géométrique; … il accordait à ses recherches profondes, il composa son Essai d'une nouvelle théorie de la musique, publié en 1739; ouvrage rempli d'idées neuves ou présentées sous un nouveau point de vue, mais qui n’eut pas un grand succès, apparemment par la seule raison qu’il renferme trop de géométrie pour le musicien et trop de musique pour le géomètre.” English version by Webmaster using Google translate.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Compose (20)  |  Contain (68)  |  Essay (27)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Music (133)  |  Musician (23)  |  New (1273)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Present (630)  |  Publish (42)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Research (753)  |  Rest (287)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sole (50)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  View (496)

One of the main duties of science is the correlation of phenomena, apparently disconnected and even contradictory.
Opening sentence of Pt. 1, Ch. 1, 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Contradictory (8)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Disconnect (4)  |  Duty (71)  |  Main (29)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Science (39)

People declare as much, without, apparently, looking into the matter very closely. They seem able to dispense with the conscientious observer’s scruples, when inflating their bladder of theory.
Science quotes on:  |  Bladder (3)  |  Closely (12)  |  Conscientious (7)  |  Declare (48)  |  Dispense (10)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Observer (48)  |  People (1031)  |  Scruple (2)  |  Seem (150)  |  Theory (1015)

Peter Atkins, in his wonderful book Creation Revisited, uses a … personification when considering the refraction of a light beam, passing into a medium of higher refractive index which slows it down. The beam behaves as if trying to minimize the time taken to travel to an end point. Atkins imagines it as a lifeguard on a beach racing to rescue a drowning swimmer. Should he head straight for the swimmer? No, because he can run faster than he can swim and would be wise to increase the dry-land proportion of his travel time. Should he run to a point on the beach directly opposite his target, thereby minimizing his swimming time? Better, but still not the best. Calculation (if he had time to do it) would disclose to the lifeguard an optimum intermediate angle, yielding the ideal combination of fast running followed by inevitably slower swimming. Atkins concludes:
That is exactly the behaviour of light passing into a denser medium. But how does light know, apparently in advance, which is the briefest path? And, anyway, why should it care?
He develops these questions in a fascinating exposition, inspired by quantum theory.
In 'Introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition', The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition (1976, 2006), xi-xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Angle (25)  |  Anyway (3)  |  Peter William Atkins (43)  |  Beach (23)  |  Beam (26)  |  Behave (18)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Book (413)  |  Brief (37)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Care (203)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creation (350)  |  Develop (278)  |  Directly (25)  |  Drown (14)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fast (49)  |  Head (87)  |  High (370)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lifeguard (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Medium (15)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Optimum (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Path (159)  |  Personification (4)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Revisit (3)  |  Run (158)  |  Slow (108)  |  Straight (75)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimmer (4)  |  Target (13)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Try (296)  |  Wise (143)

Sylvester was incapable of reading mathematics in a purely receptive way. Apparently a subject either fired in his brain a train of active and restless thought, or it would not retain his attention at all. To a man of such a temperament, it would have been peculiarly helpful to live in an atmosphere in which his human associations would have supplied the stimulus which he could not find in mere reading. The great modern work in the theory of functions and in allied disciplines, he never became acquainted with …
What would have been the effect if, in the prime of his powers, he had been surrounded by the influences which prevail in Berlin or in Gottingen? It may be confidently taken for granted that he would have done splendid work in those domains of analysis, which have furnished the laurels of the great mathematicians of Germany and France in the second half of the present century.
In Address delivered at a memorial meeting at the Johns Hopkins University (2 May 1897), published in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (Jun 1897), 303. Also in Johns Hopkins University Circulars, 16 (1897), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Active (80)  |  Ally (7)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Association (49)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attention (196)  |  Become (821)  |  Berlin (10)  |  Brain (281)  |  Century (319)  |  Confidently (2)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Domain (72)  |  Effect (414)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  France (29)  |  Function (235)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Germany (16)  |  Gottingen (2)  |  Grant (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Half (63)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Human (1512)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Influence (231)  |  Laurel (2)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mere (86)  |  Modern (402)  |  Never (1089)  |  Peculiarly (4)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Prime (11)  |  Purely (111)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Receptive (5)  |  Restless (13)  |  Retain (57)  |  Second (66)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Subject (543)  |  Supply (100)  |  Surround (33)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Temperament (18)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

The divine tape recorder holds a million scenarios, each perfectly sensible. Little quirks at the outset, occurring for no particular reason, unleash cascades of consequences that make a particular feature seem inevitable in retrospect. But the slightest early nudge contacts a different groove, and history veers into another plausible channel, diverging continually from its original pathway. The end results are so different, the initial perturbation so apparently trivial.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Cascade (3)  |  Channel (23)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contact (66)  |  Continually (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Diverge (3)  |  Divine (112)  |  Early (196)  |  End (603)  |  Feature (49)  |  Groove (3)  |  History (716)  |  Hold (96)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Initial (17)  |  Little (717)  |  Million (124)  |  Nudge (2)  |  Occur (151)  |  Original (61)  |  Outset (7)  |  Particular (80)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Perturbation (7)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Quirk (2)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recorder (5)  |  Result (700)  |  Retrospect (3)  |  Scenario (3)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Slight (32)  |  Tape (5)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unleash (2)  |  Veer (2)

The history of mathematics may be instructive as well as agreeable; it may not only remind us of what we have, but may also teach us to increase our store. Says De Morgan, “The early history of the mind of men with regards to mathematics leads us to point out our own errors; and in this respect it is well to pay attention to the history of mathematics.” It warns us against hasty conclusions; it points out the importance of a good notation upon the progress of the science; it discourages excessive specialization on the part of the investigator, by showing how apparently distinct branches have been found to possess unexpected connecting links; it saves the student from wasting time and energy upon problems which were, perhaps, solved long since; it discourages him from attacking an unsolved problem by the same method which has led other mathematicians to failure; it teaches that fortifications can be taken by other ways than by direct attack, that when repulsed from a direct assault it is well to reconnoiter and occupy the surrounding ground and to discover the secret paths by which the apparently unconquerable position can be taken.
In History of Mathematics (1897), 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Assault (12)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attention (196)  |  Branch (155)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Connect (126)  |  Augustus De Morgan (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discourage (14)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Early (196)  |  Energy (373)  |  Error (339)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fortification (6)  |  Good (906)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hasty (7)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mathematics (7)  |  Importance (299)  |  Increase (225)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lead (391)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Notation (28)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Path (159)  |  Pay (45)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Out (9)  |  Position (83)  |  Possess (157)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reconnoitre (2)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remind (16)  |  Repulse (2)  |  Respect (212)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Secret (216)  |  Show (353)  |  Solve (145)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Store (49)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Surround (33)  |  Teach (299)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconquerable (3)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Warn (7)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)

The mathematician, carried along on his flood of symbols, dealing apparently with purely formal truths, may still reach results of endless importance for our description of the physical universe.
In The Grammar of Science (1900), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Carry (130)  |  Deal (192)  |  Description (89)  |  Endless (60)  |  Flood (52)  |  Formal (37)  |  Importance (299)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Result (700)  |  Still (614)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)

The Scientific Revolution turns us away from the older sayings to discover the lost authorization in Nature. What we have been through in these last four millennia is the slow inexorable profaning of our species. And in the last part of the second millennium A.D., that process is apparently becoming complete. It is the Great Human Irony of our noblest and greatest endeavor on this planet that in the quest for authorization, in our reading of the language of God in Nature, we should read there so clearly that we have been so mistaken.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Authorization (3)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complete (209)  |  Discover (571)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Irony (9)  |  Language (308)  |  Last (425)  |  Lose (165)  |  Millennia (4)  |  Millennium (5)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Old (499)  |  Part (235)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Profane (6)  |  Quest (39)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sayings (2)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Second (66)  |  Slow (108)  |  Species (435)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)

The university’s business is the conservation of useless knowledge; and what the university itself apparently fails to see is that this enterprise is not only noble but indispensable as well, that society can not exist unless it goes on.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fail (191)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Noble (93)  |  See (1094)  |  Society (350)  |  University (130)  |  Useless (38)

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness. There is no escape from this dilemma—either all matter is conscious, or consciousness is something distinct from matter, and in the latter case, its presence in material forms is a proof of the existence of conscious beings, outside of, and independent of, what we term matter. The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable. When we touch matter, we only really experience sensations of resistance, implying repulsive force; and no other sense can give us such apparently solid proofs of the reality of matter, as touch does. This conclusion, if kept constantly present in the mind, will be found to have a most important bearing on almost every high scientific and philosophical problem, and especially on such as relate to our own conscious existence.
In 'The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man', last chapter of Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), 365-366.
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complex (202)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Escape (85)  |  Especially (31)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Force (497)  |  Foregoing (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Found (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  High (370)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Independent (74)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reality (274)  |  Really (77)  |  Relate (26)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Term (357)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Unfortunately, the study of organic remains is beset with two evils, which, though of an opposite character, do not neutralize each other so much as at first sight might be anticipated: the one consisting of a strong desire to find similar organic remains in supposed equivalent deposits, even at great distances; the other being an equally strong inclination to discover new species, often as it would seem for the sole purpose of appending the apparently magical word nobis.
In Geological Manual (1832), Preface, iii.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Consisting (5)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equally (129)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Evil (122)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First Sight (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Magic (92)  |  New (1273)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remains (9)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sight (135)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sole (50)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Study (701)  |  Supposed (5)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Word (650)


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.