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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Comfort

Comfort Quotes (64 quotes)

[Engineering] is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings homes to men or women. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer’s high privilege.
Reprint of his 1916 statement in 'Engineering as a Profession', Engineer’s Week (1954).
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Metal (88)  |  Move (223)  |  Paper (192)  |  Plan (122)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Profession (108)  |  Realization (44)  |  Standard Of Living (5)  |  Stone (168)  |  Through (846)  |  Watching (11)

A discovery in science, or a new theory, even when it appears most unitary and most all-embracing, deals with some immediate element of novelty or paradox within the framework of far vaster, unanalysed, unarticulated reserves of knowledge, experience, faith, and presupposition. Our progress is narrow; it takes a vast world unchallenged and for granted. This is one reason why, however great the novelty or scope of new discovery, we neither can, nor need, rebuild the house of the mind very rapidly. This is one reason why science, for all its revolutions, is conservative. This is why we will have to accept the fact that no one of us really will ever know very much. This is why we shall have to find comfort in the fact that, taken together, we know more and more.
Science and the Common Understanding (1954), 53-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Articulation (2)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Framework (33)  |  Grant (76)  |  Granted (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  House (143)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Presupposition (3)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rebuild (4)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scope (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Unitary (3)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
In Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Alone (324)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Balance (82)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bone (101)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Butcher (9)  |  Change (639)  |  Computer (131)  |  Cooking (12)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Death (406)  |  Design (203)  |  Diaper (2)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Equation (138)  |  Fight (49)  |  Gallant (2)  |  Hog (4)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Insect (89)  |  Invasion (9)  |  Manure (8)  |  Meal (19)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Plan (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Program (57)  |  Set (400)  |  Ship (69)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Sonnet (5)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Wall (71)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

A paradigm is an all-encompassing idea, a model providing a way of looking at the world such that an array of diverse observations is united under one umbrella of belief, and a series of related questions are thus answered. Paradigms provide broad understanding, a certain “comfort level,” the psychological satisfaction associated with a mystery solved. What is important here, and perhaps surprising at first glance, is that a paradigm need not have much to do with reality. It does not have to be factual. It just needs to be satisfying to those whom it serves. For example, all creation myths, including the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, are certainly paradigms, at least to those who subscribe to the particular faith that generated the myth.
Anonymous
From John Krichter, The Balance of Nature: Ecology's Enduring Myth (2009), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Adam And Eve (5)  |  Answer (389)  |  Belief (615)  |  Creation (350)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Encompass (3)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Garden Of Eden (2)  |  Idea (881)  |  Model (106)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Myth (58)  |  Observation (593)  |  Paradigm (16)  |  Question (649)  |  Reality (274)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Solve (145)  |  Umbrella (4)  |  Understand (648)  |  United (15)

A science or an art may be said to be “useful” if its development increases, even indirectly, the material well-being and comfort of men, it promotes happiness, using that word in a crude and commonplace way.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, 2012), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Crude (32)  |  Development (441)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Material (366)  |  Promote (32)  |  Promoting (7)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Using (6)  |  Way (1214)  |  Well-Being (5)  |  Word (650)

A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.
Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (1978), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Convenience (54)  |  Damage (38)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Labor (200)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Production (190)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Technology (281)  |  Termination (4)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Vast (188)

But among all these many departments of research, these many branches of industry, new and old, which are being rapidly expanded, there is one dominating all others in importance—one which is of the greatest significance for the comfort and welfare, not to say for the existence, of mankind, and that is the electrical transmission of power.
Speech (12 Jan 1897) at a gala inaugurating power service from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, NY. Printed in 'Tesla on Electricity', The Electrical Review (27 Jan 1897), 30, No. 3, 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Department (93)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Expand (56)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Importance (299)  |  Industry (159)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Research (753)  |  Significance (114)  |  Welfare (30)

Coal … We may well call it black diamonds. Every basket is power and civilization; for coal is a portable climate. … Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comforts bring its industrial power.
In chapter 3, 'Wealth', The Conduct of Life (1860), collected in Emerson’s Complete Works (1892), Vol. 6, 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Basket (8)  |  Black (46)  |  Boat (17)  |  Bringing (10)  |  Call (781)  |  Canada (6)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Climate (102)  |  Coal (64)  |  Diamond (21)  |  Draw (140)  |  Ear (69)  |  Industry (159)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mile (43)  |  Ounce (9)  |  Portable (4)  |  Power (771)  |  Rail (5)  |  Secret (216)  |  Ton (25)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (74)  |  James Watt (11)  |  Whisper (11)  |  Will (2350)

Comfort came in with the middle classes.
In Civilization: An Essay (1928), 70-71.
Science quotes on:  |  Class (168)  |  Middle (19)

Computers teach us to withdraw, to retreat into the warm comfort of their false reality.
In Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Computer (131)  |  False (105)  |  Reality (274)  |  Retreat (13)  |  Teach (299)  |  Warm (74)  |  Withdraw (11)

Darwin's Origin of Species had come into the theological world like a plough into an ant-hill. Everywhere those thus rudely awakened from their old comfort and repose had swarmed forth angry and confused. Reviews, sermons, books light and heavy, came flying at the new thinker from all sides.
From The Warfare of Science and Theology in Christendom (1898), 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Ant (34)  |  Anthill (3)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Book (413)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Flying (74)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Light (635)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Plough (15)  |  Repose (9)  |  Review (27)  |  Sermon (9)  |  Side (236)  |  Species (435)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thinker (41)  |  World (1850)

Debunking bad science should be constant obligation of the science community, even if it takes time away from serious research or seems to be a losing battle. One takes comfort from the fact there is no Gresham’s laws in science. In the long run, good science drives out bad.
In preamble to 'Part III: Pseudoscience', The Night Is Large: Collected Essays 1938-1995 (1996), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Bad Science (5)  |  Community (111)  |  Constant (148)  |  Drive Out (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Good (906)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Law (913)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Research (753)  |  Serious (98)  |  Time (1911)

For it is owing to their wonder that men now both begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun and the stars, and about the genesis of the universe. And a man who is puzzled and wonders thinks himself ignorant (whence even the lover of myth is in a sense a lover of wisdom, for myth is composed of wonders); therefore since they philosophized in order to escape from ignorance, evidently they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end. And this is confirmed by the facts; for it was when almost all the necessities of life and the things that make for comfort and recreation were present, that such knowledge began to be sought. Evidently then we do not seek it for the sake of any advantage; but as the man is free, we say, who exists for himself and not for another, so we pursue this as the only free science, for it alone exists for itself.
Aristotle
Metaphysics, 982b, 12-27. In Jonathan Baines (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1554.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alone (324)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Escape (85)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Greater (288)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moon (252)  |  Myth (58)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Order (638)  |  Owing (39)  |  Present (630)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Sake (61)  |  Say (989)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (251)

Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief … give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.
From 'Science and Literature', The Hope of Progress: A Scientist Looks at Problems in Philosophy, Literature and Science (1973), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Believable (3)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deeper (4)  |  Description (89)  |  End (603)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Hang (46)  |  Incoherence (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Loss (117)  |  Myth (58)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Relief (30)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  True (239)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Genuine science, of course, is neutral. But its practical effects, when harnessed to the appetites of the market, are something less than neutral. Heartbeats are human, but when harnessed to a public-address system, they can be terrifying. Ordinary human appetites for comfort, prestige, or power have in history been troublesome enough, but when they are given exaggerated expression by means of applied science they promise swift destruction.
In The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1967), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Appetite (20)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exaggerate (7)  |  Expression (181)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Harness (25)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Market (23)  |  Means (587)  |  Neutral (15)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prestige (16)  |  Promise (72)  |  Swift (16)  |  System (545)  |  Terrify (12)  |  Trouble (117)

Getting out of the comfortable path, that's what exploration is all about.
Interview (22 May 1997). On Academy of Achievement website.
Science quotes on:  |  Exploration (161)  |  Path (159)

Sigmund Freud quote: I cannot face with comfort the idea of life without work; work and the free play of the imagination are for
I cannot face with comfort the idea of life without work; work and the free play of the imagination are for me the same thing, I take no pleasure in anything else.
Letter to Oskar Pfister, 3 Jun 1910. Quoted in H. Meng and E. Freud (eds.), Psycho-Analysis and Faith: The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister (1963), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Face (214)  |  Free (239)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Life (1870)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Work (1402)

I despair of persuading people to drop the familiar and comforting tactic of dichotomy. Perhaps, instead, we might expand the framework of debates by seeking other dichotomies more appropriate than, or simply different from, the conventional divisions. All dichotomies are simplifications, but the rendition of a conflict along differing axes of several orthogonal dichotomies might provide an amplitude of proper intellectual space without forcing us to forgo our most comforting tool of thought.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Amplitude (4)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Axe (16)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Debate (40)  |  Despair (40)  |  Dichotomy (4)  |  Differ (88)  |  Different (595)  |  Division (67)  |  Drop (77)  |  Expand (56)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Force (497)  |  Forgo (4)  |  Framework (33)  |  Instead (23)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Persuade (11)  |  Proper (150)  |  Provide (79)  |  Seek (218)  |  Several (33)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Simply (53)  |  Space (523)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tool (129)

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.
Preferring the “silence of the forest” to the noise of a cocktail party while participating in a symposium, 'What We Can Learn About Humankind From the Apes' at Sweet Briar College campus. As quoted by Nan Robertson in 'Three Who Have Chosen a Life in the Wild', New York Times (1 May 1981), B36.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feel (371)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivated (14)  |  Motivation (28)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)

If there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least some consolation in the research itself. Men and women are not content to comfort themselves with tales of gods and giants, or to confine their thoughts to the daily affairs of life; they also build telescopes and satellites and accelerators and sit at their desks for endless hours working out the meaning of the data they gather.
In The First Three Minutes (1977), 154-155.
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerator (11)  |  Build (211)  |  Consolation (9)  |  Daily (91)  |  Data (162)  |  Desk (13)  |  Endless (60)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gather (76)  |  Giant (73)  |  God (776)  |  Hour (192)  |  Life (1870)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Research (753)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Solace (7)  |  Tale (17)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Work (1402)

In my work I now have the comfortable feeling that I am so to speak on my own ground and territory and almost certainly not competing in an anxious race and that I shall not suddenly read in the literature that someone else had done it all long ago. It is really at this point that the pleasure of research begins, when one is, so to speak, alone with nature and no longer worries about human opinions, views and demands. To put it in a way that is more learned than clear: the philological aspect drops out and only the philosophical remains.
In Davis Baird, R.I.G. Hughes and Alfred Nordmann, Heinrich Hertz: Classical Physicist, Modern Philosopher (1998), 157.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Competition (45)  |  Demand (131)  |  Drop (77)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Ground (222)  |  Human (1512)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Race (278)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Speak (240)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Territory (25)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

In the infancy of physical science, it was hoped that some discovery might be made that would enable us to emancipate ourselves from the bondage of gravity, and, at least, pay a visit to our neighbour the moon. The poor attempts of the aeronaut have shewn the hopelessness of the enterprise. The success of his achievement depends on the buoyant power of the atmosphere, but the atmosphere extends only a few miles above the earth, and its action cannot reach beyond its own limits. The only machine, independent of the atmosphere, we can conceive of, would be one on the principle of the rocket. The rocket rises in the air, not from the resistance offered by the atmosphere to its fiery stream, but from the internal reaction. The velocity would, indeed, be greater in a vacuum than in the atmosphere, and could we dispense with the comfort of breathing air, we might, with such a machine, transcend the boundaries of our globe, and visit other orbs.
God's Glory in the Heavens (1862, 3rd Ed. 1867) 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Action (342)  |  Air (366)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bondage (6)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emancipate (2)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extend (129)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Machine (271)  |  Moon (252)  |  Offer (142)  |  Orb (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Stream (83)  |  Success (327)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Velocity (51)

Indeed, we need not look back half a century to times which many now living remember well, and see the wonderful advances in the sciences and arts which have been made within that period. Some of these have rendered the elements themselves subservient to the purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke of his labors and effected the great blessings of moderating his own, of accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, and extending the comforts of life to a much enlarged circle, to those who had before known its necessaries only.
From paper 'Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Fix the Site of the University of Virginia' (Dec 1818), reprinted in Annual Report of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia for the Fiscal Year Ending May 31, 1879 (1879), 10. Collected in Commonwealth of Virginia, Annual Reports of Officers, Boards, and Institutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for the Year Ending September 30, 1879 (1879).
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Advance (298)  |  Art (680)  |  Back (395)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Blessings (17)  |  Century (319)  |  Circle (117)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harness (25)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Known (453)  |  Labor (200)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Period (200)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Remember (189)  |  Render (96)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  See (1094)  |  Subservient (5)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Yoke (3)

Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought—particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.
Side Effects (1981), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Finite (60)  |  Modern (402)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Remember (189)  |  Space (523)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)

It has been said by a distinguished philosopher that England is “usually the last to enter into the general movement of the European mind.” The author of the remark probably meant to assert that a man or a system may have become famous on the continent, while we are almost ignorant of the name of the man and the claims of his system. Perhaps, however, a wider range might be given to the assertion. An exploded theory or a disadvantageous practice, like a rebel or a patriot in distress, seeks refuge on our shores to spend its last days in comfort if not in splendour.
Opening from essay, 'Elementary Geometry', included in The Conflict of Studies and Other Essays (1873), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Claim (154)  |  Continent (79)  |  Disadvantageous (2)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distress (9)  |  England (43)  |  Enter (145)  |  European (5)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Famous (12)  |  General (521)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Movement (162)  |  Name (359)  |  Patriot (5)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practice (212)  |  Range (104)  |  Rebel (7)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Remark (28)  |  Seek (218)  |  Spend (97)  |  Splendour (8)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Usually (176)

It is clear that the twentieth century is the most disturbed century within the memory of humanity. Any contemporary of ours who wants peace and comfort above all has chosen a bad time to be born.
In 'On the New Germany', Manchester Guardian (22 Mar 1933). Also seen paraphrased as, “Anyone desiring a quiet life has done badly to be born in the twentieth century.”
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  Bad (185)  |  Born (37)  |  Century (319)  |  Choose (116)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Clear (111)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peace (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Want (504)

It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Disproportion (3)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Seem (150)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1850)

It is no small comfort when I reflect that we should not so much marvel at the vast and almost infinite breadth of the most distant heavens but much more at the smallness of us manikins and the smallness of this our tiny ball of earth and also of all the planets.
From Letter to Johann Herwart (1598), as quoted in Murray Roston, Milton and the Baroque (1980), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Breadth (15)  |  Distant (33)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Marvel (37)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Planet (402)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallness (7)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Vast (188)

It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving; and also every man may draw comfort from Lessing's fine saying, that the search for truth is more precious than its possession.
From 'E=mc2', in Science Illustrated (Apr 1946). In Albert Einstein, The Einstein Reader (2006), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Choose (116)  |  Direction (185)  |  Draw (140)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Open (277)  |  Possession (68)  |  Precious (43)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Search (175)  |  Strive (53)  |  Truth (1109)

It’s not quite as exhilarating a feeling as orbiting the earth, but it’s close. In addition, it has an exotic, bizarre quality due entirely to the nature of the surface below. The earth from orbit is a delight - offering visual variety and an emotional feeling of belonging “down there.” Not so with this withered, sun-seared peach pit out of my window. There is no comfort to it; it is too stark and barren; its invitation is monotonous and meant for geologists only.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Barren (33)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Below (26)  |  Bizarre (6)  |  Close (77)  |  Delight (111)  |  Down (455)  |  Due (143)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Exhilarating (3)  |  Exotic (8)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Mean (810)  |  Monotonous (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Offer (142)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Peach (3)  |  Pit (20)  |  Quality (139)  |  Sear (2)  |  Stark (3)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Variety (138)  |  Visual (16)  |  Window (59)  |  Wither (9)

Learning is wealth to the poor, an honor to the rich, an aid to the young, and a support and comfort to the aged.
As cited in Abram N. Coleman (ed.), Proverbial Wisdom: Proverbs, Maxims and Ethical Sentences (1903), 130. Often-seen attribution to John C. Lavater is probably erroneous. Several quote collections of the same era give the quote without citation. In Tryon Edwards, Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 294, this quote is given without citation, followed by a blank line separator, and then an unrelated quote by Lavater. This juxtaposition is likely the source of confusion in attribution.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Honor (57)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Poor (139)  |  Rich (66)  |  Support (151)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Young (253)

Man is still by instinct a predatory animal given to devilish aggression.
The discoveries of science have immensely increased productivity of material things. They have increased the standards of living and comfort. They have eliminated infinite drudgery. They have increased leisure. But that gives more time for devilment.
The work of science has eliminated much disease and suffering. It has increased the length of life. That, together with increase in productivity, has resulted in vastly increased populations. Also it increased the number of people engaged in devilment.
Address delivered to Annual Meeting of the York Bible Class, Toronto, Canada (22 Nov 1938), 'The Imperative Need for Moral Re-armament', collected in America's Way Forward (1939), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Aggression (10)  |  Animal (651)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Drudgery (6)  |  Elimination (26)  |  Increase (225)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Population (115)  |  Predator (6)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Result (700)  |  Standard Of Living (5)  |  Still (614)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Work (1402)

Mathematical rigor is like clothing; in its style it ought to suit the occasion, and it diminishes comfort and restrains freedom of movement if it is either too loose or too tight.
In Differential Equations: With Applications and Historical Notes (1972), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Clothing (11)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Loose (14)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Movement (162)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Restrain (6)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Style (24)  |  Suit (12)  |  Tight (4)

My method consists in allowing the mind to play freely for a very brief period, until a couple or so of ideas have passed through it, and then, while the traces or echoes of those ideas are still lingering in the brain, to turn the attention upon them with a sudden and complete awakening; to arrest, to scrutinise them, and to record their exact appearance... The general impression they have left upon me is like that which many of us have experienced when the basement of our house happens to be under thorough sanitary repairs, and we realise for the first time the complex system of drains and gas and water pipes, flues, bell-wires, and so forth, upon which our comfort depends, but which are usually hidden out of sight, and with whose existence, so long as they acted well, we had never troubled ourselves.
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development (1883),185-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Attention (196)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Bell (35)  |  Brain (281)  |  Brief (37)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consist (223)  |  Depend (238)  |  Drain (12)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Gas (89)  |  General (521)  |  Happen (282)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impression (118)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pass (241)  |  Period (200)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Record (161)  |  Sight (135)  |  Still (614)  |  Sudden (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Usually (176)  |  Water (503)  |  Wire (36)

Never, I believe, did a vessel leave England better provided, or fitted for the service she was destined to perform, and for the health and comfort of her crew, than the Beagle. If we did want any thing which could have been carried, it was our own fault; for all that was asked for, from the Dockyard, Victualling Department, Navy Board, or Admiralty, was granted.
In Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the Years 1826 and 1836 (1839), Vol. 2, 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiralty (2)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beagle (14)  |  Better (493)  |  Crew (10)  |  Department (93)  |  Destined (42)  |  Dockyard (2)  |  Fault (58)  |  Grant (76)  |  Health (210)  |  Navy (10)  |  Never (1089)  |  Perform (123)  |  Service (110)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Want (504)

No comfort should be drawn from the spurious belief that because extinction is a natural process, man is merely another Darwinian agent.
In 'Edward O. Wilson: The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science', Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985), 2, No. 1, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Belief (615)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Natural (810)  |  Process (439)  |  Spurious (3)

No subject of philosophical inquiry within the limits of human investigation is more calculated to excite admiration and to awaken curiosity than fire; and there is certainly none more extensively useful to mankind. It is owing, no doubt, to our being acquainted with it from our infancy, that we are not more struck with its appearance, and more sensible of the benefits we derive from it. Almost every comfort and convenience which man by his ingenuity procures for himself is obtained by its assistance; and he is not more distinguished from the brute creation by the use of speech, than by his power over that wonderful agent.
In The Complete Works of Count Rumford (1876), Vol. 4, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Agent (73)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Assistance (23)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Brute (30)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Certain (557)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creation (350)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Derive (70)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Excite (17)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fire (203)  |  Human (1512)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Owe (71)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Power (771)  |  Procure (6)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Speech (66)  |  Strike (72)  |  Subject (543)  |  Useful (260)  |  Wonderful (155)

Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet
As quoted in 'Then & Now: Dr. Mae Jemison' (19 Jun 2005) on CNN web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Comet (65)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Planet (402)  |  Right (473)  |  Space (523)  |  Speck (25)  |  Stardust (5)  |  Universe (900)

Organic chemistry has literally placed a new nature beside the old. And not only for the delectation and information of its devotees; the whole face and manner of society has been altered by its products. We are clothed, ornamented and protected by forms of matter foreign to Nature; we travel and are propelled, in, on and by them. Their conquest of our powerful insect enemies, their capacity to modify the soil and control its microscopic flora, their ability to purify and protect our water, have increased the habitable surface of the earth and multiplied our food supply; and the dramatic advances in synthetic medicinal chemistry comfort and maintain us, and create unparalleled social opportunities (and problems).
In 'Synthesis', in A. Todd (ed.), Perspectives in Organic Chemistry (1956), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Advance (298)  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Control (182)  |  Create (245)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Food (213)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Form (976)  |  Information (173)  |  Insect (89)  |  Literally (30)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Matter (821)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Protect (65)  |  Purification (10)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Soil (98)  |  Supply (100)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Travel (125)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

Perhaps I am just a hopeless rationalist, but isn’t fascination as comforting as solace? Isn’t nature immeasurably more interesting for its complexities and its lack of conformity to our hopes? Isn’t curiosity as wondrously and fundamentally human as compassion?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Compassion (12)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Fundamentally (3)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Lack (127)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Rationalist (5)  |  Solace (7)

Pure mathematics consists entirely of such asseverations as that, if such and such is a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another propositions is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is of which it is supposed to be true. Both these points would belong to applied mathematics. … If our hypothesis is about anything and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, not whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate.
In 'Recent Work on the Principles of Mathematics', International Monthly (1901), 4, 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Mathematics (15)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belong (168)  |  Both (496)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Definition (238)  |  Essential (210)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Subject (543)  |  Talking (76)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Relatively few benefits have flowed to the people who live closest to the more than 3,000 protected areas that have been established in tropical countries during the past 50 years. For this reason, the preservation of biodiversity is often thought of as something that poor people are asked to do to fulfill the wishes of rich people living in comfort thousands of miles away.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Area (33)  |  Ask (420)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Close (77)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Establish (63)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mile (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Often (109)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Poor (139)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Protect (65)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Rich (66)  |  Something (718)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tropical (9)  |  Wish (216)  |  Year (963)

Science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide—rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires—we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once.
In op-ed, 'A Universe Without Purpose', Los Angeles Times (1 Apr 2012).
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  A Priori (26)  |  Absolute (153)  |  Atom (381)  |  Century (319)  |  Classical (49)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Desire (212)  |  Doing (277)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elementary Particle (2)  |  Falling (6)  |  Fear (212)  |  Form (976)  |  Forming (42)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hope (321)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observer (48)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pillar (10)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Progress (492)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Realization (44)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Unthinkable (8)  |  Wayside (4)

Science is complex and chilling. The mathematical language of science is understood by very few. The vistas it presents are scary—an enormous universe ruled by chance and impersonal rules, empty and uncaring, ungraspable and vertiginous. How comfortable to turn instead to a small world, only a few thousand years old, and under God's personal; and immediate care; a world in which you are His peculiar concern.
The 'Threat' of Creationism. In Ashley Montagu (ed.), Science and Creationism (1984), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Care (203)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Concern (239)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Empty (82)  |  Fear (212)  |  God (776)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Old (499)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Present (630)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scary (3)  |  Small (489)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understood (155)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vista (12)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.
The 'Threat' of Creationism. In Ashley Montagu (ed.), Science and Creationism (1984), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Bible (105)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Disillusionment (2)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Observation (593)  |  Open (277)  |  Quarrel (10)  |  Religion (369)  |  Revision (7)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (543)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Turn (454)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Untrained (2)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)

Society is becoming increasingly aware of the power of science to bring weal or woe to mankind. But now when it is seen that the same science that brings prosperity and comfort may lead to depression and discomfort, men are beginning to look with mixed feelings at this monster which society may exalt or persecute, but cannot view with indifference. Perhaps my topic today should have read “Ought Scientists to be Burnt at the Stake?” I shall not attempt to decide this question, but only to present in a cursory way some of the pros and cons … But if scientists are to be destroyed, let them not alone by the victims; every creative thought must be extirpated. A philosopher’s epigram may kindle a world war. So scientist, inventor, artist, poet and every sort of troublous enthusiast must together be brought before the bar of the new inquisition
As quoted in Lecture (1981), American Chemical Society, Symposium of the Division of Chemical Education on Gilbert Newton Lewis Melvin Calvin, 'Gilbert Newton Lewis: His Influence on Physical-Organic Chemists at Berkeley', published in Chemical Biodynamics Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Proceedings (Mar 1982).
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Artist (97)  |  Aware (36)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Burn (99)  |  Creative (144)  |  Depression (26)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Discomfort (4)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Epigram (2)  |  Exalt (29)  |  Extirpate (3)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indifference (16)  |  Inquisition (9)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Kindle (9)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mix (24)  |  Monster (33)  |  Persecute (6)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poet (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Question (649)  |  Science (39)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Society (350)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stake (20)  |  Thought (995)  |  Topic (23)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Victim (37)  |  View (496)  |  World War (2)

The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants of this globe that we call ours, “I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence to all, to be kind to all, to be kind to each other.”
In The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (27 Jan O.S. 1794), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Art (680)  |  Call (781)  |  Display (59)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Globe (51)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Kind (564)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Made (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Munificence (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Provide (79)  |  Render (96)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Star (460)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)

The beginning of civilisation is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions. The discovery of peculiar arts gives superiority to particular nations ... to subjugate other nations, who learn their arts, and ultimately adopt their manners;— so that in reality the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil society is founded in mechanical and chemical inventions.
Consolations In Travel; or, the Last Days of a Philosopher (1830), 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Institution (73)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Nation (208)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Progress (492)  |  Property (177)  |  Reality (274)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Useful (260)

The conditions that direct the order of the whole of the living world around us, are marked by their persistence in improving the birthright of successive generations. They determine, at much cost of individual comfort, that each plant and animal shall, on the general average, be endowed at its birth with more suitable natural faculties than those of its representative in the preceding generation.
In 'The Observed Order of Events', Inquiries Into Human Faculty and Its Development (1882), 229.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Average (89)  |  Birth (154)  |  Birthright (5)  |  Condition (362)  |  Cost (94)  |  Determine (152)  |  Direct (228)  |  Endow (17)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Faculty (76)  |  General (521)  |  Generation (256)  |  Improve (64)  |  Individual (420)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Marked (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Order (638)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Plant (320)  |  Precede (23)  |  Representative (14)  |  Successive (73)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The history of Europe is the history of Rome curbing the Hebrew and the Greek, with their various impulses of religion, and of science, and of art, and of quest for material comfort, and of lust of domination, which are all at daggers drawn with each other. The vision of Rome is the vision of the unity of civilisation.
In 'The Place of Classics in Education', The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1929), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Dagger (3)  |  Domination (12)  |  Education (423)  |  Europe (50)  |  Greek (109)  |  Hebrew (10)  |  History (716)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Lust (7)  |  Material (366)  |  Other (2233)  |  Quest (39)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rome (19)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Unity (81)  |  Various (205)  |  Vision (127)

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Fill (67)  |  Goal (155)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Joy (117)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Never (1089)  |  Shine (49)  |  Truth (1109)

The intellectual craves a social order in which uncommon people perform uncommon tasks every day. He wants a society throbbing with dedication, reverence, and worshiHe sees it as scandalous that the discoveries of science and the feats of heroes should have as their denouement the comfort and affluence of common folk. A social order run by and for the people is to him a mindless organism motivated by sheer physiologism.
In 'Concerning Individual Freedom', The Ordeal of Change (1963, 1990), 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Affluence (3)  |  Common (447)  |  Crave (10)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Feat (11)  |  Folk (10)  |  Hero (45)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Mindless (4)  |  Motivate (8)  |  Motivated (14)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Run (158)  |  Scandalous (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Sheer (9)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Order (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Task (152)  |  Throb (6)  |  Uncommon (14)  |  Want (504)

The night spread out of the east in a great flood, quenching the red sunlight in a single minute. We wriggled by breathless degrees deep into our sleeping bags. Our sole thought was of comfort; we were not alive to the beauty or the grandeur of our position; we did not reflect on the splendor of our elevation. A regret I shall always have is that I did not muster up the energy to spend a minute or two stargazing. One peep I did make between the tent flaps into the night, and I remember dimly an appalling wealth of stars, not pale and remote as they appear when viewed through the moisture-laden air of lower levels, but brilliant points of electric blue fire standing out almost stereoscopically. It was a sight an astronomer would have given much to see, and here were we lying dully in our sleeping bags concerned only with the importance of keeping warm and comfortable.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alive (97)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Appear (122)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Bag (4)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Blue (63)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Comfortable (13)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deep (241)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dimly (6)  |  East (18)  |  Electric (76)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flap (2)  |  Flood (52)  |  Give (208)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Keep (104)  |  Level (69)  |  Lie (370)  |  Low (86)  |  Lying (55)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Muster (2)  |  Night (133)  |  Pale (9)  |  Peep (4)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Red (38)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Regret (31)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remote (86)  |  See (1094)  |  Sight (135)  |  Single (365)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Sole (50)  |  Spend (97)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Spread (86)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Tent (13)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Wriggle (3)

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

The ordinary patient goes to his doctor because he is in pain or some other discomfort and wants to be comfortable again; he is not in pursuit of the ideal of health in any direct sense. The doctor on the other hand wants to discover the pathological condition and control it if he can. The two are thus to some degree at cross purposes from the first, and unless the affair is brought to an early and happy conclusion this diversion of aims is likely to become more and more serious as the case goes on.
Address, opening of 1932-3 session of U.C.H. Medical School (4 Oct 1932), 'Art and Science in Medicine', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Aim (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Case (102)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (182)  |  Degree (277)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discomfort (4)  |  Discover (571)  |  Diversion (10)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Early (196)  |  First (1302)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  Health (210)  |  Ideal (110)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Other Hand (2)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Patient (209)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serious (98)  |  Seriousness (10)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)

There are no shortcuts to moral insight. Nature is not intrinsically anything that can offer comfort or solace in human terms–if only because our species is such an insignificant latecomer in a world not constructed for us. So much the better. The answers to moral dilemmas are not lying out there, waiting to be discovered. They reside, like the kingdom of God, within us–the most difficult and inaccessible spot for any discovery or consensus.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Better (493)  |  Consensus (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inaccessible (18)  |  Insight (107)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Intrinsically (2)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lying (55)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Offer (142)  |  Reside (25)  |  Shortcut (3)  |  Solace (7)  |  Species (435)  |  Spot (19)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |  World (1850)

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
Cosmos (1985), 275.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Being (1276)  |  Confront (18)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Courage (82)  |  Differ (88)  |  Envision (3)  |  Fleeting (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Profound (105)  |  Structure (365)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weave (21)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.
Chinese proverb.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Uncertain (45)

To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope.
Reprint of his 1916 statement in 'Engineering as a Profession', Engineer’s Week (1954).
Science quotes on:  |  Bare (33)  |  Bone (101)  |  Clothing (11)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Fall (243)  |  Hope (321)  |  Job (86)  |  Life (1870)

Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balance (82)  |  Brutality (4)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Dream (222)  |  Essential (210)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Force (497)  |  Friend (180)  |  Home (184)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Lose (165)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Travel (125)  |  Trust (72)

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a “space station” in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945)
In 'Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Coverage?', Wireless World (Oct 1945). Quoted and cited in Arthur C. Clarke, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998, 22. Also quoted in 'Hazards of Communication Satellites', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1961), Vol. 17, No. 5, 181, by John R. Pierce Pierce, who then commented, “Clarke thought in terms of manned space stations; today these seem very remote.”
Science quotes on:  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Crew (10)  |  Everything (489)  |  Ferry (4)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Provision (17)  |  Regular (48)  |  Relief (30)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Service (110)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)  |  Station (30)

We should therefore, with grace and optimism, embrace NOMA’s tough-minded demand: Acknowledge the personal character of these human struggles about morals and meanings, and stop looking for definite answers in nature’s construction. But many people cannot bear to surrender nature as a ‘transitional object’–a baby’s warm blanket for our adult comfort. But when we do (for we must) , nature can finally emerge in her true form: not as a distorted mirror of our needs, but as our most fascinating companion. Only then can we unite the patches built by our separate magisteria into a beautiful and coherent quilt called wisdom.
From essay, 'Non-overlapping Magisteria', Natural History magazine (Mar 1997), 106, 16–22 and 60–62. Collected in Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life (1999), 178. [NOMA or Non-overlapping magisteria, is viewpoint advocated by Gould, that science and religion each represent different areas of inquiry, fact vs. values, and thus he aims to resolve the supposed conflict between science and religion. He draws the term “magisterium” from an encyclical of Pope Pius XII. about science and religion. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Adult (24)  |  Answer (389)  |  Baby (29)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blanket (10)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Coherent (14)  |  Companion (22)  |  Construction (114)  |  Definite (114)  |  Demand (131)  |  Distort (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Finally (26)  |  Form (976)  |  Grace (31)  |  Human (1512)  |  Looking (191)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Patch (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Personal (75)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Separate (151)  |  Stop (89)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Tough (22)  |  Transitional (2)  |  True (239)  |  Unite (43)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wisdom (235)

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad that they have to get better.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Badly (32)  |  Better (493)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hope (321)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)

Without natural resources life itself is impossible. From birth to death, natural resources, transformed for human use, feed, clothe, shelter, and transport us. Upon them we depend for every material necessity, comfort, convenience, and protection in our lives. Without abundant resources prosperity is out of reach.
In Breaking New Ground (1947, 1998), 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Birth (154)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Death (406)  |  Depend (238)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Protection (41)  |  Reach (286)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transport (31)  |  Use (771)


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.