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: “I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Chain

Chain Quotes (51 quotes)

All life is linked together in such a way that no part of the chain is unimportant. Frequently, upon the action of some of these minute beings depends the material success or failure of a great commonwealth.
Insect Life: An Introduction To Nature-Study And A Guide For Teachers (1897), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Being (1276)  |  Commonwealth (5)  |  Depend (238)  |  Failure (176)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  Minute (129)  |  Minuteness (8)  |  Success (327)  |  Together (392)  |  Way (1214)

An amino acid residue (other than glycine) has no symmetry elements. The general operation of conversion of one residue of a single chain into a second residue equivalent to the first is accordingly a rotation about an axis accompanied by translation along the axis. Hence the only configurations for a chain compatible with our postulate of equivalence of the residues are helical configurations.
[Co-author with American chemist, ert B. Corey (1897-1971) and H. R. Branson]
'The Structure of Proteins: Two Hydrogen-bonded Helical Configurations of the Polypeptide Chain', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1951), 37, 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Compatibility (4)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalence (7)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Helix (10)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Residue (9)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Single (365)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Translation (21)

By firm immutable immortal laws Impress’d on Nature by the GREAT FIRST CAUSE,
Say, MUSE! how rose from elemental strife
Organic forms, and kindled into life;
How Love and Sympathy with potent charm
Warm the cold heart, the lifted hand disarm;
Allure with pleasures, and alarm with pains,
And bind Society in golden chains.
From 'Production of Life', The Temple of Nature; or, The Origin of Society: A Poem, with Philosophical Notes (1803), 3, Canto I, lines 1-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Alarm (19)  |  Allure (4)  |  Bind (26)  |  Cause (561)  |  Charm (54)  |  Cold (115)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Golden (47)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (243)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Kindled (2)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lift (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Muse (10)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organic (161)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Poem (104)  |  Potent (15)  |  Rose (36)  |  Say (989)  |  Society (350)  |  Strife (9)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Warm (74)

Chemistry dissolves the goddess in the alembic,
Venus, the white queen, the universal matrix,
Down to the molecular hexagons and carbon-chains.
'The Human Form Divine', in The Collected Poems of Kathleen Raine (1956), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Alembic (3)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Down (455)  |  Goddess (9)  |  Hexagon (4)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Queen (14)  |  Universal (198)  |  Venus (21)  |  White (132)

Conclusion: Big helix in several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate inter-helical bonds disrupted by water. Phosphate links available to proteins.
Underlined in typewritten lecture notes, with handwritten annotations, as report (7 Feb 1952) on 'Colloquium November 1951'. As given in Anne Sayre, Rosalind Franklin and DNA (1975), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Bond (46)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Disruption (3)  |  DNA (81)  |  Helix (10)  |  Inter (12)  |  Molecular Structure (9)  |  Outside (141)  |  Phosphate (6)  |  Protein (56)  |  Water (503)

Despite the high long-term probability of extinction, every organism alive today, including every person reading this paper, is a link in an unbroken chain of parent-offspring relationships that extends back unbroken to the beginning of life on earth. Every living organism is a part of an enormously long success story—each of its direct ancestors has been sufficiently well adapted to its physical and biological environments to allow it to mature and reproduce successfully. Viewed thus, adaptation is not a trivial facet of natural history, but a biological attribute so central as to be inseparable from life itself.
In 'Integrative Biology: An Organismic Biologist’s Point of View', Integrative and Comparative Biology (2005), 45, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alive (97)  |  Allow (51)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Central (81)  |  Despite (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enormously (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Facet (9)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Link (48)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Mature (17)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organism (231)  |  Paper (192)  |  Parent (80)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Probability (135)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Story (122)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  Term (357)  |  Today (321)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  View (496)

Distinguisht Link in Being’s endless Chain!
Midway from Nothing to the Deity!
The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742, 1750), Night 1, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Deity (22)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Endless (60)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Midway (4)  |  Nothing (1000)

During my stay in London I resided for a considerable time in Clapham Road in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common... One fine summer evening I was returning by the last bus 'outside' as usual, through the deserted streets of the city, which are at other times so full of life. I fell into a reverie (Träumerei), and 10, the atoms were gambolling before my eyes! Whenever, hitherto, these diminutive beings had appeared to me, they had always been in motion: but up to that time I had never been able to discern the nature of their motion. Now, however, I saw how, frequently, two smaller atoms united to form a pair: how the larger one embraced the two smaller ones: how still larger ones kept hold of three or even four of the smaller: whilst the whole kept whirling in a giddy dance. I saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them but only at the ends of the chain. I saw what our past master, Kopp, my highly honoured teacher and friend has depicted with such charm in his Molekular-Welt: but I saw it long before him. The cry of the conductor 'Clapham Road', awakened me from my dreaming: but I spent part of the night in putting on paper at least sketches of these dream forms. This was the origin of the 'Structural Theory'.
Kekule at Benzolfest in Berichte (1890), 23, 1302.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Charm (54)  |  City (87)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dance (35)  |  Desert (59)  |  Discern (35)  |  Dragging (6)  |  Dream (222)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Friend (180)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (2)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paper (192)  |  Past (355)  |  Saw (160)  |  Spent (85)  |  Still (614)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Summer (56)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Whole (756)

Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable chasm … worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them.
[Showing an early awareness in ecology.]
Letter XXXV, to Daines Barrington, (20 May 1777) in The Natural History of Selborne (1789), 216 and (1899), 174.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Chasm (9)  |  Despicable (3)  |  Early (196)  |  Earthworm (8)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Great (1610)  |  Lamentable (5)  |  Link (48)  |  Lost (34)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Seem (150)  |  Small (489)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Worm (47)

Every great anthropologic and paleontologic discovery fits into its proper place, enabling us gradually to fill out, one after another, the great branching lines of human ascent and to connect with the branches definite phases of industry and art. This gives us a double means of interpretation, archaeological and anatomical. While many branches and links in the chain remain to be discovered, we are now in a position to predict with great confidence not only what the various branches will be like but where they are most like to be found.
In Henry Fairfield Osborn, 'Osborn States the Case For Evolution', New York Times (12 Jul 1925), XX1
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Art (680)  |  Branch (155)  |  Branching (10)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Connect (126)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Industry (159)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Link (48)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Phase (37)  |  Position (83)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Proper (150)  |  Remain (355)  |  Tree Of Life (10)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

Finally, to the theme of the respiratory chain, it is especially noteworthy that David Kellin's chemically simple view of the respiratory chain appears now to have been right all along–and he deserves great credit for having been so reluctant to become involved when the energy-rich chemical intermediates began to be so fashionable. This reminds me of the aphorism: 'The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer'.
'David Kellin's Respiratory Chain Concept and Its Chemiosmotic Consequences', Nobel Lecture (8 Dec 1978). In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1971-1980 (1993), 325.
Science quotes on:  |  Aphorism (22)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (821)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Completely (137)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Energy (373)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Involved (90)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Reluctant (4)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Theme (17)  |  View (496)

For man being the minister and interpreter of nature, acts and understands so far as he has observed of the order, the works and mind of nature, and can proceed no further; for no power is able to loose or break the chain of causes, nor is nature to be conquered but by submission: whence those twin intentions, human knowledge and human power, are really coincident; and the greatest hindrance to works is the ignorance of causes.
In The Great lnstauration.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Being (1276)  |  Break (109)  |  Cause (561)  |  Coincident (2)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hindrance (9)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Intention (46)  |  Interpreter (8)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Loose (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minister (10)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Power (771)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Submission (4)  |  Twin (16)  |  Understand (648)  |  Work (1402)

For the saving the long progression of the thoughts to remote and first principles in every case, the mind should provide itself several stages; that is to say, intermediate principles, which it might have recourse to in the examining those positions that come in its way. These, though they are not self-evident principles, yet, if they have been made out from them by a wary and unquestionable deduction, may be depended on as certain and infallible truths, and serve as unquestionable truths to prove other points depending upon them, by a nearer and shorter view than remote and general maxims. … And thus mathematicians do, who do not in every new problem run it back to the first axioms through all the whole train of intermediate propositions. Certain theorems that they have settled to themselves upon sure demonstration, serve to resolve to them multitudes of propositions which depend on them, and are as firmly made out from thence as if the mind went afresh over every link of the whole chain that tie them to first self-evident principles.
In The Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Afresh (4)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evident (92)  |  Examine (84)  |  Firmly (6)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Provide (79)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Remote (86)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Run (158)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Serve (64)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Several (33)  |  Short (200)  |  Stage (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  View (496)  |  Wary (3)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

From a drop of water a logician could predict an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it.
In A Study in Scarlet (1887, 1892), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Atlantic (8)  |  Drop (77)  |  Great (1610)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Logic (311)  |  Logician (18)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Niagara (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predict (86)  |  Single (365)  |  Water (503)  |  Whenever (81)

Genes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of chemical processes. Genes do not make ‘novelty seeking’ or any other complex and overt behavior. Predisposition via a long chain of complex chemical reactions, mediated through a more complex series of life’s circumstances, does not equal identification or even causation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behavior (95)  |  Causation (14)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Complex (202)  |  Control (182)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Equal (88)  |  Gene (105)  |  Identification (20)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Mediate (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Process (439)  |  Rate (31)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Seek (218)  |  Series (153)  |  Through (846)

If a mathematician wishes to disparage the work of one of his colleagues, say, A, the most effective method he finds for doing this is to ask where the results can be applied. The hard pressed man, with his back against the wall, finally unearths the researches of another mathematician B as the locus of the application of his own results. If next B is plagued with a similar question, he will refer to another mathematician C. After a few steps of this kind we find ourselves referred back to the researches of A, and in this way the chain closes.
From final remarks in 'The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics' (1944), collected in Leonard Linsky (ed.), Semantics and the Philosophy of Language: A Collection of Readings (1952), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Disparage (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Effective (68)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  Kind (564)  |  Locus (5)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Question (649)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Step (234)  |  Wall (71)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

If all boys could be made to know that with every breath of cigarette smoke they inhale imbecility and exhale manhood … and that the cigarette is a maker of invalids, criminals and fools—not men—it ought to deter them some. The yellow finger stain is an emblem of deeper degradation and enslavement than the ball and chain.
In Hudson Maxim and Clifton Johnson, 'Smoking, Swearing, and Perfumery', Hudson Maxim: Reminiscences and Comments (1924), 234. The quote is as reported by Clifton Johnson, based on interviews with Hudson Maxim.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Boy (100)  |  Breath (61)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Deterrent (3)  |  Emblem (4)  |  Enslavement (3)  |  Exhalation (2)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fool (121)  |  Imbecility (5)  |  Invalid (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Maker (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manhood (3)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Stain (10)  |  Yellow (31)

If the actual order of the bases on one of the pair of chains were given, one could write down the exact order of the bases on the other one, because of the specific pairing. Thus one chain is, as it were, the complement of the other, and it is this feature which suggests how the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule might duplicate itself.
[Co-author with Francis Crick]
In 'Genetic Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid', Nature (1958), 171, 965-966.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Actual (118)  |  Author (175)  |  Base (120)  |  Complement (6)  |  Deoxyribonucleic Acid (3)  |  Down (455)  |  Duplicate (9)  |  Exact (75)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pair (10)  |  Specific (98)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

If the atoms in [a] decimetre cube of lead were all put into a chain side by side the same distance apart as they are in the normal lead, the strings of atoms so formed would reach over six million million miles.
In Lecture (1936) on 'Forty Years of Atomic Theory', collected in Needham and Pagel (eds.) in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge Arranged by the History of Science Committee, (1938), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Size (2)  |  Cube (14)  |  Distance (171)  |  Form (976)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mile (43)  |  Million (124)  |  Reach (286)  |  Side (236)  |  String (22)

If the Weismann idea triumphs, it will be in a sense a triumph of fatalism; for, according to it, while we may indefinitely improve the forces of our education and surroundings, and this civilizing nurture will improve the individuals of each generation, its actual effects will not be cumulative as regards the race itself, but only as regards the environment of the race; each new generation must start de novo, receiving no increment of the moral and intellectual advance made during the lifetime of its predecessors. It would follow that one deep, almost instinctive motive for a higher life would be removed if the race were only superficially benefited by its nurture, and the only possible channel of actual improvement were in the selection of the fittest chains of race plasma.
'The Present Problem of Heredity', The Atlantic Monthly (1891), 57, 363.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Actual (118)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Channel (23)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Deep (241)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fatalism (2)  |  Fit (139)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Generation (256)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Idea (881)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increment (2)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Moral (203)  |  Motive (62)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Plasma (8)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Race (278)  |  Regard (312)  |  Removal (12)  |  Selection (130)  |  Sense (785)  |  Start (237)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Triumph (76)  |   August Weismann, (11)  |  Will (2350)

In Cairo, I secured a few grains of wheat that had slumbered for more than thirty centuries in an Egyptian tomb. As I looked at them this thought came into my mind: If one of those grains had been planted on the banks of the Nile the year after it grew, and all its lineal descendants had been planted and replanted from that time until now, its progeny would to-day be sufficiently numerous to feed the teeming millions of the world. An unbroken chain of life connects the earliest grains of wheat with the grains that we sow and reap. There is in the grain of wheat an invisible something which has power to discard the body that we see, and from earth and air fashion a new body so much like the old one that we cannot tell the one from the other.…This invisible germ of life can thus pass through three thousand resurrections.
In In His Image (1922), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Bank (31)  |  Body (557)  |  Century (319)  |  Connect (126)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Discard (32)  |  DNA (81)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Feeding (7)  |  Germ (54)  |  Grain (50)  |  Growth (200)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Nile (5)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Plant (320)  |  Planting (4)  |  Power (771)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Reap (19)  |  Resurrection (4)  |  Secured (18)  |  See (1094)  |  Slumber (6)  |  Something (718)  |  Sow (11)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Teeming (5)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  Wheat (10)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Induction and analogy are the special characteristics of modern mathematics, in which theorems have given place to theories and no truth is regarded otherwise than as a link in an infinite chain. “Omne exit in infinitum” is their favorite motto and accepted axiom.
In 'A Plea for the Mathematician', Nature, Vol. 1, 861. [The Latin phrase “Omne exit in infinitum” means “Everything goes to infinity”.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Give (208)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Link (48)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Motto (29)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Place (192)  |  Regard (312)  |  Special (188)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)

It is almost irresistible for humans to believe that we have some special relation to the universe, that human life is not just a more-or-less farcical outcome of a chain of accidents reaching back to the first three minutes, but that we were somehow built in from the beginning.
The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Back (395)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Farce (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Life (1870)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Special (188)  |  Universe (900)

It is now necessary to indicate more definitely the reason why mathematics not only carries conviction in itself, but also transmits conviction to the objects to which it is applied. The reason is found, first of all, in the perfect precision with which the elementary mathematical concepts are determined; in this respect each science must look to its own salvation .... But this is not all. As soon as human thought attempts long chains of conclusions, or difficult matters generally, there arises not only the danger of error but also the suspicion of error, because since all details cannot be surveyed with clearness at the same instant one must in the end be satisfied with a belief that nothing has been overlooked from the beginning. Every one knows how much this is the case even in arithmetic, the most elementary use of mathematics. No one would imagine that the higher parts of mathematics fare better in this respect; on the contrary, in more complicated conclusions the uncertainty and suspicion of hidden errors increases in rapid progression. How does mathematics manage to rid itself of this inconvenience which attaches to it in the highest degree? By making proofs more rigorous? By giving new rules according to which the old rules shall be applied? Not in the least. A very great uncertainty continues to attach to the result of each single computation. But there are checks. In the realm of mathematics each point may be reached by a hundred different ways; and if each of a hundred ways leads to the same point, one may be sure that the right point has been reached. A calculation without a check is as good as none. Just so it is with every isolated proof in any speculative science whatever; the proof may be ever so ingenious, and ever so perfectly true and correct, it will still fail to convince permanently. He will therefore be much deceived, who, in metaphysics, or in psychology which depends on metaphysics, hopes to see his greatest care in the precise determination of the concepts and in the logical conclusions rewarded by conviction, much less by success in transmitting conviction to others. Not only must the conclusions support each other, without coercion or suspicion of subreption, but in all matters originating in experience, or judging concerning experience, the results of speculation must be verified by experience, not only superficially, but in countless special cases.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 105. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arise (162)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Care (203)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Check (26)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Computation (28)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convince (43)  |  Correct (95)  |  Countless (39)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fare (5)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hide (70)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Thought (7)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Less (105)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Manage (26)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metaphysic (7)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realm (87)  |  Reason (766)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rid (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Rule (307)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Soon (187)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Support (151)  |  Survey (36)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmit (12)  |  True (239)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Use (771)  |  Verify (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Let us now declare the means whereby our understanding can rise to knowledge without fear of error. There are two such means: intuition and deduction. By intuition I mean not the varying testimony of the senses, nor the deductive judgment of imagination naturally extravagant, but the conception of an attentive mind so distinct and so clear that no doubt remains to it with regard to that which it comprehends; or, what amounts to the same thing, the self-evidencing conception of a sound and attentive mind, a conception which springs from the light of reason alone, and is more certain, because more simple, than deduction itself. …
It may perhaps be asked why to intuition we add this other mode of knowing, by deduction, that is to say, the process which, from something of which we have certain knowledge, draws consequences which necessarily follow therefrom. But we are obliged to admit this second step; for there are a great many things which, without being evident of themselves, nevertheless bear the marks of certainty if only they are deduced from true and incontestable principles by a continuous and uninterrupted movement of thought, with distinct intuition of each thing; just as we know that the last link of a long chain holds to the first, although we can not take in with one glance of the eye the intermediate links, provided that, after having run over them in succession, we can recall them all, each as being joined to its fellows, from the first up to the last. Thus we distinguish intuition from deduction, inasmuch as in the latter case there is conceived a certain progress or succession, while it is not so in the former; … whence it follows that primary propositions, derived immediately from principles, may be said to be known, according to the way we view them, now by intuition, now by deduction; although the principles themselves can be known only by intuition, the remote consequences only by deduction.
In Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Philosophy of Descartes. [Torrey] (1892), 64-65.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Add (42)  |  Admit (49)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amount (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Declare (48)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Derive (70)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Draw (140)  |  Error (339)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Incontestable (3)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Join (32)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Latter (21)  |  Let (64)  |  Light (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obliged (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recall (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (169)  |  Run (158)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Step (234)  |  Succession (80)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Therefrom (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whereby (2)  |  Why (491)

Life is not a chain of events but an area—something spreading out from a hidden centre and welling at once toward all points of the compass.
The Gentle Art of Tramping (1926), 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Centre (31)  |  Compass (37)  |  Event (222)  |  Hide (70)  |  Life (1870)  |  Point (584)  |  Something (718)  |  Spreading (5)

Life thus forms a long, unbroken chain of generations, in which the child becomes the mother, and the effect becomes the cause.
In 'On the Mechanistic Interpretation of Life' (1858), Rudolf Virchow and Lelland J. Rather (trans.) , Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays by Rudolf Virchow (1958), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Cause (561)  |  Child (333)  |  Effect (414)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Mother (116)  |  Unbroken (10)

Living is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances.
In The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950 (1961), 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Correct (95)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Never (1089)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Right (473)  |  Sum (103)  |  Total (95)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the earth’s volume must forever remain invisible and untouchable. Because more than 97 per cent of it is too hot to crystallize, its body is extremely weak. The crust, being so thin, must bend, if, over wide areas, it becomes loaded with glacial ice, ocean water or deposits of sand and mud. It must bend in the opposite sense if widely extended loads of such material be removed. This accounts for … the origin of chains of high mountains … and the rise of lava to the earth’s surface.
Presidential speech to the Geological Society of America at Cambridge, Mass. (1932). As quoted in New York Times (20 Sep 1957), 23. Also summarized in Popular Mechanics (Apr 1933), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bend (13)  |  Body (557)  |  Crust (43)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extend (129)  |  Forever (111)  |  Glacier (17)  |  High (370)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ice (58)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Lava (12)  |  Load (12)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mud (26)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Origin (250)  |  Remain (355)  |  Removal (12)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sand (63)  |  Sense (785)  |  Surface (223)  |  Water (503)  |  Weak (73)  |  Wide (97)

No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual ancestors. The ‘I’ is chained to ancestry by many factors ... This is not mere allegory, but an eternal memory.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Allegory (8)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Factor (47)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Long (778)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mere (86)  |  Self (268)

Nobody knows more than a tiny fragment of science well enough to judge its validity and value at first hand. For the rest he has to rely on views accepted at second hand on the authority of a community of people accredited as scientists. But this accrediting depends in its turn on a complex organization. For each member of the community can judge at first hand only a small number of his fellow members, and yet eventually each is accredited by all. What happens is that each recognizes as scientists a number of others by whom he is recognized as such in return, and these relations form chains which transmit these mutual recognitions at second hand through the whole community. This is how each member becomes directly or indirectly accredited by all. The system extends into the past. Its members recognize the same set of persons as their masters and derive from this allegiance a common tradition, of which each carries on a particular strand.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Derive (70)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strand (9)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Turn (454)  |  Validity (50)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

Our atom of carbon enters the leaf, colliding with other innumerable (but here useless) molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. It adheres to a large and complicated molecule that activates it, and simultaneously receives the decisive message from the sky, in the flashing form of a packet of solar light; in an instant, like an insect caught by a spider, it is separated from its oxygen, combined with hydrogen and (one thinks) phosphorus, and finally inserted in a chain, whether long or short does not matter, but it is the chain of life. All this happens swiftly, in silence, at the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere, and gratis: dear colleagues, when we learn to do likewise we will be sicut Deus [like God], and we will have also solved the problem of hunger in the world.
Levi Primo and Raymond Rosenthal (trans.), The Periodic Table (1975, 1984), 227-228. In this final section of his book, Levi imagines the life of a carbon atom. He calls this his first “literary dream”. It came to him at Auschwitz.
Science quotes on:  |  Activate (3)  |  Activation (6)  |  Adherence (2)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Atom (381)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Catch (34)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Collision (16)  |  Combination (150)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enter (145)  |  Flash (49)  |  Form (976)  |  God (776)  |  Gratis (2)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Insect (89)  |  Insertion (2)  |  Instant (46)  |  Large (398)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Likewise (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Message (53)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Packet (3)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Photon (11)  |  Photosynthesis (21)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Problem (731)  |  Receive (117)  |  Separation (60)  |  Short (200)  |  Silence (62)  |  Simultaneity (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solar (8)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spider (14)  |  Sun (407)  |  Swiftness (5)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Think (1122)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Our conception of a native protein molecule (showing specific properties) is the following. The molecule consists of one polypeptide chain which continues without interruption throughout the molecule (or, in certain cases, of two or more such chains); this chain is folded into a uniquely defined configuration, in which it is held by hydrogen bonds between the peptide nitrogen and oxygen atoms and also between the free amino and carboxyl groups of the diamino and dicarboxyl amino acid residues.
The characteristic specific properties of native proteins we attribute to their uniquely defined configurations.
The denatured protein molecule we consider to be characterized by the absence of a uniquely defined configuration.
[Co-author with American chemist, Linus Pauling (1901-94)]
'On the Structure of Native, Denatured, and Coagulated Proteins', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1936), 22, 442-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Author (175)  |  Bond (46)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consist (223)  |  Continue (179)  |  Free (239)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bond (3)  |  Interruption (5)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Native (41)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Polypeptide (2)  |  Property (177)  |  Protein (56)  |  Residue (9)  |  Specific (98)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Two (936)

Our popular lecturers on physics present us with chains of deductions so highly polished that it is a luxury to let them slip from end to end through our fingers. But they leave nothing behind but a vague memory of the sensation they afforded.
Said by the fictional character Lydia in Cashel Byron’s Profession (1886, 1906), 88.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Deduction (90)  |  End (603)  |  Finger (48)  |  Highly (16)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Memory (144)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Polish (17)  |  Popular (34)  |  Present (630)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Slip (6)  |  Through (846)  |  Vague (50)

Returning now to the Malay Archipelago, we find that all the wide expanse of sea which divides Java, Sumatra, and Borneo from each other, and from Malacca and Siam, is so shallow that ships can anchor in any part of it, since it rarely exceeds forty fathoms in depth; and if we go as far as the line of a hundred fathoms, we shall include the Philippine Islands and Bali, east of Java. If, therefore, these islands have been separated from each other and the continent by subsidence of the intervening tracts of land, we should conclude that the separation has been comparatively recent, since the depth to which the land has subsided is so small. It is also to be remarked that the great chain of active volcanoes in Sumatra and Java furnishes us with a sufficient cause for such subsidence, since the enormous masses of matter they have thrown out would take away the foundations of the surrounding district; and this may be the true explanation of the often-noticed fact that volcanoes and volcanic chains are always near the sea. The subsidence they produce around them will, in time, make a sea, if one does not already exist.
Malay Archipelago
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Already (226)  |  Anchor (10)  |  Archipelago (7)  |  Borneo (3)  |  Cause (561)  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Continent (79)  |  Depth (97)  |  District (11)  |  Divide (77)  |  East (18)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Exceed (10)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expanse (6)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forty (4)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Include (93)  |  Intervene (8)  |  Island (49)  |  Java (2)  |  Land (131)  |  Line (100)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Notable (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Philippines (3)  |  Produce (117)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Recent (78)  |  Remark (28)  |  Return (133)  |  Sea (326)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  Shallow (8)  |  Ship (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Subside (5)  |  Subsidence (2)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Surround (33)  |  Take Away (5)  |  Thrown Out (3)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tract (7)  |  True (239)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being, which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect! what no eye can see,
No glass can reach! from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing—On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
'An Essay on Man' (1733-4), Epistle I. In John Butt (ed.), The Poems of Alexander Pope (1965), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alike (60)  |  Angel (47)  |  Beast (58)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Below (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Birth (154)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Burst (41)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deep (241)  |  Depth (97)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ether (37)  |  Ethereal (9)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fish (130)  |  Glass (94)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Inferiority (7)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Might (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Power (771)  |  Press (21)  |  Progress (492)  |  Quickness (5)  |  Reach (286)  |  Scale (122)  |  See (1094)  |  Step (234)  |  Strike (72)  |  Superior (88)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Void (31)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wide (97)  |  Width (5)

The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight—previously thought to be the font of all Earth’s life—has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical process based on geothermal heat, then life could exist under similar conditions on planets far removed from the nurturing light of our parent star, the Sun.
Quoted in Peter Douglas Ward and Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (2000), 1, without citation.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemical (303)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deep (241)  |  Deep Sea (10)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Heat (180)  |  Independence (37)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Parent (80)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Sea (326)  |  Star (460)  |  Startling (15)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Thought (995)

The facts proved by geology are briefly these: that during an immense, but unknown period, the surface of the earth has undergone successive changes; land has sunk beneath the ocean, while fresh land has risen up from it; mountain chains have been elevated; islands have been formed into continents, and continents submerged till they have become islands; and these changes have taken place, not once merely, but perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of times.
In 'On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species', The Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1855), 16, No. 93, 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Change (639)  |  Continent (79)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Geology (240)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immense (89)  |  Island (49)  |  Land (131)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Period (200)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sink (38)  |  Successive (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Unknown (195)

The human brain is a machine which alone accounts for all our actions, our most private thoughts, our beliefs. ... To choose a spouse, a job, a religious creed—or even choose to rob a bank—is the peak of a causal chain that runs back to the origin of life and down to the nature of atoms and molecules.
The Mind Machine (1998), 145. In Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World (2008), 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Action (342)  |  Alone (324)  |  Atom (381)  |  Back (395)  |  Bank (31)  |  Belief (615)  |  Brain (281)  |  Causal (7)  |  Choose (116)  |  Creed (28)  |  Down (455)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Brain (4)  |  Job (86)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machine (271)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Peak (20)  |  Private (29)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rob (6)  |  Run (158)  |  Thought (995)

The kinetic concept of motion in classical theory will have to undergo profound modifications. (That is why I also avoided the term “orbit” in my paper throughout.) … We must not bind the atoms in the chains of our prejudices—to which, in my opinion, also belongs the assumption that electron orbits exist in the sense of ordinary mechanics—but we must, on the contrary, adapt our concepts to experience.
Letter to Niels Bohr (12 Dec 1924), in K. von Meyenn (ed.), Wolfgang Pauli - Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz (1979), Vol. 1, 188. Quoted and cited in Daniel Greenberger, Klaus Hentschel and Friedel Weinert, Compendium of Quantum Physics: Concepts, Experiments, History and Philosophy (2009), 615.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Belong (168)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Theory (2)  |  Concept (242)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Electron (96)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Model (106)  |  Modification (57)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Paper (192)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Profound (105)  |  Sense (785)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

The Mathematics, I say, which effectually exercises, not vainly deludes or vexatiously torments studious Minds with obscure Subtilties, perplexed Difficulties, or contentious Disquisitions; which overcomes without Opposition, triumphs without Pomp, compels without Force, and rules absolutely without Loss of Liberty; which does not privately over-reach a weak Faith, but openly assaults an armed Reason, obtains a total Victory, and puts on inevitable Chains; whose Words are so many Oracles, and Works as many Miracles; which blabs out nothing rashly, nor designs anything from the Purpose, but plainly demonstrates and readily performs all Things within its Verge; which obtrudes no false Shadow of Science, but the very Science itself, the Mind firmly adhering to it, as soon as possessed of it, and can never after desert it of its own Accord, or be deprived of it by any Force of others: Lastly the Mathematics, which depends upon Principles clear to the Mind, and agreeable to Experience; which draws certain Conclusions, instructs by profitable Rules, unfolds pleasant Questions; and produces wonderful Effects; which is the fruitful Parent of, I had almost said all, Arts, the unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to human Affairs.
Address to the University of Cambridge upon being elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (14 Mar 1664). In Mathematical Lectures (1734), xxviii.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Arm (82)  |  Art (680)  |  Certain (557)  |  Compel (31)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Delude (3)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Depend (238)  |  Desert (59)  |  Design (203)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Draw (140)  |  Effect (414)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Experience (494)  |  Faith (209)  |  False (105)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fountain (18)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Parent (80)  |  Perform (123)  |  Pomp (2)  |  Possess (157)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Rashly (2)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Soon (187)  |  Studious (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Torment (18)  |  Total (95)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Verge (10)  |  Victory (40)  |  Weak (73)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

The novel feature of the structure is the manner in which the two chains are held together by the purine and pyrimidine bases. The planes of the bases are perpendicular to the fibre axis. They are joined together in pairs, a single base from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single base from the other chain, so that the two lie side by side with identical z-co-ordinates. One of the pair must be 11 purine and the other a pyrimidine for bonding to occur. The hydrogen bonds are made as follows: purine position I to pyrimidine position I; purine position 6 to pyrimidine position 6.
[Co-author with Francis Crick]
In 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids', Nature (1953), 171, 737.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Base (120)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bond (46)  |  Fiber (16)  |  Follow (389)  |  Hold (96)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bond (3)  |  Identical (55)  |  Join (32)  |  Lie (370)  |  Must (1525)  |  Novel (35)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pair (10)  |  Perpendicular (2)  |  Plane (22)  |  Position (83)  |  Pyrimidine (2)  |  Side (236)  |  Single (365)  |  Structure (365)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)

The separate atoms of a molecule are not connected all with all, or all with one, but, on the contrary, each one is connected only with one or with a few neighbouring atoms, just as in a chain link is connected with link.
'The Scientific Aims and Achievements of Chemistry', Nature (1878), 18, 212.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Connect (126)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Separate (151)

They may say what they like; everything is organized matter. The tree is the first link of the chain; man is the last. Men are young; the earth is old. Vegetable and animal chemistry are still in their infancy. Electricity, galvanism,—what discoveries in a few years!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Everything (489)  |  First (1302)  |  Galvanism (9)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Last (425)  |  Link (48)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Old (499)  |  Organize (33)  |  Say (989)  |  Still (614)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

They say that the best weapon is the one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That’s how Dad did it, that’s how America does it... and it’s worked out pretty well so far. I present to you the newest in Stark Industries’ Freedom line. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee, the bad guys won’t even wanna come out of their caves. Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration... the Jericho.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Bad (185)  |  Best (467)  |  Cave (17)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Dad (4)  |  Disagree (14)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Guy (5)  |  Industry (159)  |  Lady (12)  |  Let (64)  |  Line (100)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Personally (7)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Present (630)  |  Pretty (21)  |  Say (989)  |  Stark (3)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Work (1402)

Those…more fortunate in their mental equipment and eager to learn and to progress, have been chained to the dull and to the average and have been allowed to proceed only so fast as they were able to drag this burden with them. Search where we will,… there can be found few organized endeavors to facilitate the progress and early emergence of the brilliant students.
Co-author with Louis Jay Heath, in A New Basis for Social Progress (1917), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Burden (30)  |  Drag (8)  |  Dull (58)  |  Eager (17)  |  Early (196)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Facilitate (6)  |  Fast (49)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Learn (672)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progress (492)  |  Search (175)  |  Student (317)

Time, inexhaustible and ever accumulating his efficacy, can undoubtedly do much for the theorist in geology; but Force, whose limits we cannot measure, and whose nature we cannot fathom, is also a power never to be slighted: and to call in the one to protect us from the other, is equally presumptuous, to whichever of the two our superstition leans. To invoke Time, with ten thousand earthquakes, to overturn and set on edge a mountain-chain, should the phenomena indicate the change to have been sudden and not successive, would be ill excused by pleading the obligation of first appealing to known causes.
In History of the Inductive Sciences (1857), Vol. 3, 513-514.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Edge (51)  |  Equally (129)  |  Fathom (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Geology (240)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Known (453)  |  Limit (294)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Power (771)  |  Protect (65)  |  Set (400)  |  Slighted (3)  |  Successive (73)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)

Water must be thought of in terms of the chains of life it supports.
In Silent Spring (1962), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Support (151)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thought (995)  |  Water (503)

We are not very pleased when we are forced to accept a mathematical truth by virtue of a complicated chain of formal conclusions and computations, which we traverse blindly, link by link, feeling our way by touch. We want first an overview of the aim and of the road; we want to understand the idea of the proof, the deeper context.
Unterrichtsblätter für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften (1932), 38, 177-188. As translated by Abe Shenitzer, in 'Part I. Topology and Abstract Algebra as Two Roads of Mathematical Comprehension', The American Mathematical Monthly (May 1995), 102, No. 7, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Aim (175)  |  Blind (98)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Computation (28)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Context (31)  |  Deep (241)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Formal (37)  |  Idea (881)  |  Link (48)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Overview (2)  |  Please (68)  |  Proof (304)  |  Road (71)  |  Touch (146)  |  Traverse (5)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

We wish to put forward a radically different structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis (see diagram).
[Co-author with Francis Crick]
From James Watson and Francis Crick, 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid', Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, No. 4356, 737.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Coil (4)  |  Francis Crick (62)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  DNA (81)  |  Forward (104)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Radical (28)  |  Salt (48)  |  See (1094)  |  Structure (365)  |  Two (936)  |  Wish (216)

Who runs may read the scroll which reason has placed as a warning over the human menageries: “chained, not tamed.” And yet who can doubt that the leaven of science, working in the individual, leavens in some slight degree the whole social fabric. Reason is at least free, or nearly so; the shackles of dogma have been removed, and faith herself, freed from a morganatic alliance, finds in the release great gain.
Address to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology of the University of Pennsylvania (1894). Collected in 'The Leaven of Science', Aequanimitas (1904), 100. A “morganatic” alliance is one between persons of unequal rank, the noble and the common.
Science quotes on:  |  Alliance (5)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Free (239)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Release (31)  |  Run (158)  |  Shackle (4)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Warning (18)  |  Whole (756)


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.