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: “A change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed and takes place along the straight line in which that force is impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Convince

Convince Quotes (43 quotes)

...they have never affirm'd any thing, concerning the Cause, till the Trial was past: whereas, to do it before, is a most venomous thing in the making of Sciences; for whoever has fix'd on his Cause, before he experimented; can hardly avoid fitting his Experiment to his Observations, to his own Cause, which he had before imagin'd; rather than the Cause to the Truth of the Experiment itself.
Referring to experiments of the Aristotelian mode, whereby a preconceived truth would be illustrated merely to convince people of the validity of the original thought.
Thomas Sprat, Abraham Cowley, History of the Royal Society (1667, 1734), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Bias (22)  |  Cause (561)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Making (300)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Preconceive (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trial (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Validity (50)  |  Venom (2)  |  Whoever (42)

A man who is convinced of the truth of his religion is indeed never tolerant. At the least, he is to feel pity for the adherent of another religion but usually it does not stop there. The faithful adherent of a religion will try first of all to convince those that believe in another religion and usually he goes on to hatred if he is not successful. However, hatred then leads to persecution when the might of the majority is behind it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adherent (6)  |  Behind (139)  |  Belief (615)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Faithful (13)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Majority (68)  |  Man (2252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Persecution (14)  |  Pity (16)  |  Religion (369)  |  Stop (89)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tolerant (4)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

A stone arrowhead is as convincing as a steam-engine.
As proof that there has been a continuing advance of technology since prehistoric times. In 'A Law of Acceleration' (1904), The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (1918), 493.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrowhead (4)  |  Engine (99)  |  Invention (400)  |  Steam (81)  |  Stone (168)

After that, I thought about what a proposition generally needs in order to be true and certain because, since I had just found one that I knew was such, I thought I should also know what this certainty consists in. Having noticed that there is nothing at all in the proposition “I think, therefore I am” [cogito ergo sum] which convinces me that I speak the truth, apart from the fact that I see very clearly that one has to exist in order to think, I judged that I could adopt as a general rule that those things we conceive very clearly and distinctly are all true. The only outstanding difficulty is in recognizing which ones we conceive distinctly.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 4, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Cogito Ergo Sum (4)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consist (223)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Order (638)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Rule (307)  |  See (1094)  |  Speak (240)  |  Sum (103)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)

An author has always great difficulty in avoiding unnecessary and tedious detail on the one hand; while, on the other, he must notice such a number of facts as may convince a student, that he is not wandering in a wilderness of crude hypotheses or unsupported assumptions.
In A Geological Manual (1832), Preface, iii.
Science quotes on:  |  Assumption (96)  |  Author (175)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Crude (32)  |  Detail (150)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Student (317)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Unnecessary (23)  |  Unsupported (3)  |  Wander (44)  |  Wilderness (57)

As advertising always convinces the sponsor even more than the public, the scientists have become sold, and remain sold, on the idea that they have the key to the Absolute, and that nothing will do for Mr. Average Citizen but to stuff himself full of electrons.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Advertising (9)  |  Average (89)  |  Become (821)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electron (96)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idea (881)  |  Key (56)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Public (100)  |  Remain (355)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sponsor (5)  |  Stuff (24)  |  Will (2350)

As chemists, we must rename [our] scheme and insert the symbols Ba, La, Ce in place of Ra, Ac, Th. As nuclear chemists closely associated with physics, we cannot yet convince ourselves to make this leap, which contradicts all previous experience in nuclear physics.
Co-author with Fritz Strassmann, German chemist (1902-80)
Otto Hahn
'(Über den nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkallmetalle', Die Naturwissenschaften, 1939, 27, 11-15. Trans. J. Heilbron and Robert W. Seidel, Lawrence and his Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1989), Vol. 1, 436-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Experience (494)  |  German (37)  |  Leap (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physics (6)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Symbol (100)

But in science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. Not the man who finds a grain of new and precious quality but to him who sows it, reaps it, grinds it and feeds the world on it.
First Galton Lecture before the Eugenics Society', Eugenics Review, 1914, 6, 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Grain (50)  |  Idea (881)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Precious (43)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reap (19)  |  World (1850)

Darwin's characteristic perspicacity is nowhere better illustrated than in his prophecy of the reaction of the world of science. He admitted at once that it would be impossible to convince those older men '...whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts, all viewed ... from a point of view directly opposite to mine ... A few naturalists endowed with much flexibility of mind and who have already begun to doubt the immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with confidence to the young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides with equal impartiality.
'The Reaction of American scientists to Darwinism', American Historical Review 1932), 38, 687. Quoted in David L. Hull, Science as Process (), 379.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Impartiality (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Rising (44)  |  Side (236)  |  Species (435)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of disease, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases; we have done more; we have increased their mortality. ... I am pursuing Truth, and am indifferent whither I am led, if she is my only leader.
From a public lecture by Rush. Quoted by Isaac Jennings, in Medical Reform; a Treatise on Man's Physical Being and Disorders (1847), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Daily (91)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Drug (61)  |  Error (339)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mischief (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Whither (11)

Do you realize we’ve got 250 million years of coal? But coal has got environmental hazards to it, but there’s—I’m convinced, and I know that we—technology can be developed so we can have zero-emissions coal-fired electricity plants.
Remarks at the Associated Builders and Contractors National Legislative Conference (8 Jun 2005). The White house corrected “250 million years” to “250 years” in a footnote to the printed record, 41 WCPD 956 in 'Administration of George W. Bush', 959.
Science quotes on:  |  Clean (52)  |  Coal (64)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Environment (239)  |  Hazard (21)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Million (124)  |  Money (178)  |  Plant (320)  |  Realize (157)  |  Technology (281)  |  Year (963)  |  Zero (38)

Environmentalists may get off on climate porn, but most people just turn away. 'If it was really so bad, they'd do something,' says one colleague, without specifying who 'they' are. The human tendency to convince yourself that everything is OK, because no one else is worried, is deeply ingrained.
'Wake up and smell the smoke of disaster', The Times (8 Nov 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Climate (102)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Do (1905)  |  Environmentalist (7)  |  Everything (489)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1031)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Turn (454)  |  Worry (34)

Experience, the only logic sure to convince a diseased imagination and restore it to rugged health.
Written in 1892. In The American Claimant (1896), 203. In Mark Twain and Brian Collins (ed.), When in Doubt, Tell the Truth: and Other Quotations from Mark Twain (1996), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Disease (340)  |  Experience (494)  |  Health (210)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Logic (311)  |  Restore (12)  |  Rugged (7)

Genetics seems to be everything to those who have convinced themselves they have arisen from worthy ancestors.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Everything (489)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Worthy (35)

How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity–in short: what mathematicians call ‘elegance’–are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Crucial (10)  |  Decide (50)  |  Dispense (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Failure (176)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  People (1031)  |  Program (57)  |  Short (200)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Success (327)

I consider the study of medicine to have been that training which preached more impressively and more convincingly than any other could have done, the everlasting principles of all scientific work; principles which are so simple and yet are ever forgotten again, so clear and yet always hidden by a deceptive veil.
In Lecture (2 Aug 1877) delivered on the anniversary of the foundation of the Institute for the Education of Army Surgeons, 'On Thought in Medicine', collected in 'Popular Scientific Lectures', The Humboldt Library of Popular Science Literature (1 Jul 1881), 1, No. 24, 18, (renumbered as p.748 in reprint volume of Nos. 1-24).
Science quotes on:  |  Clear (111)  |  Consider (428)  |  Deceptive (2)  |  Everlasting (11)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Preach (11)  |  Principle (530)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Simple (426)  |  Study (701)  |  Training (92)  |  Veil (27)  |  Work (1402)

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, then that this universall Frame, is without a Minde. And therefore, God never wrought Miracle, to convince Atheisme, because his Ordinary Works Convince it. It is true, that a little Philosophy inclineth Mans Minde to Atheisme; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Mens Mindes about to Religion.
'Of Atheisme' (1625) in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1887-1901), Vol. 6, 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Atheism (11)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fable (12)  |  God (776)  |  Legend (18)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Religion (369)  |  Work (1402)

I have before mentioned mathematics, wherein algebra gives new helps and views to the understanding. If I propose these it is not to make every man a thorough mathematician or deep algebraist; but yet I think the study of them is of infinite use even to grown men; first by experimentally convincing them, that to make anyone reason well, it is not enough to have parts wherewith he is satisfied, and that serve him well enough in his ordinary course. A man in those studies will see, that however good he may think his understanding, yet in many things, and those very visible, it may fail him. This would take off that presumption that most men have of themselves in this part; and they would not be so apt to think their minds wanted no helps to enlarge them, that there could be nothing added to the acuteness and penetration of their understanding.
In The Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Acuteness (3)  |  Add (42)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Apt (9)  |  Course (413)  |  Deep (241)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fail (191)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Help (116)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Part (235)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Propose (24)  |  Reason (766)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Serve (64)  |  Study (701)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (496)  |  Visible (87)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

I will frankly tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific investigations convinces me that a belief in God—a God who is behind and within the chaos of vanishing points of human knowledge—adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to penetrate into the regions of the unknown.
As quoted in E.P. Whipple, 'Recollections of Agassiz', in Henry Mills Alden (ed.), Harper's New Monthly Magazine (June 1879), 59, 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Behind (139)  |  Belief (615)  |  Biography (254)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Experience (494)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Point (584)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Tell (344)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vanishing (11)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)

I would not have it inferred ... that I am, as yet, an advocate for the hypothesis of chemical life. The doctrine of the vitality of the blood, stands in no need of aid from that speculative source. If it did, I would certainly abandon it. For, notwithstanding the fashionableness of the hypothesis in Europe, and the ascendancy it has gained over some minds in this country [USA], it will require stubborn facts to convince me that man with all his corporeal and intellectual attributes is nothing but hydro-phosphorated oxyde of azote ... When the chemist declares, that the same laws which direct the crystallization of spars, nitre and Glauber's salts, direct also the crystallization of man, he must pardon me if I neither understand him, nor believe him.
Medical Theses (1805), 391-2, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Advocate (20)  |  Aid (101)  |  Ascendancy (3)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Country (269)  |  Declare (48)  |  Direct (228)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Gain (146)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Require (229)  |  Salt (48)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vitality (24)  |  Will (2350)

If you have to prove a theorem, do not rush. First of all, understand fully what the theorem says, try to see clearly what it means. Then check the theorem; it could be false. Examine the consequences, verify as many particular instances as are needed to convince yourself of the truth. When you have satisfied yourself that the theorem is true, you can start proving it.
In How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (2004), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Check (26)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  False (105)  |  First (1302)  |  Instance (33)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Need (320)  |  Particular (80)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rush (18)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Start (237)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Verification (32)  |  Verify (24)

In man, then, let us take the amount that is extruded by the individual beats, and that cannot return into the heart because of the barrier set in its way by the valves, as half an ounce, or three drachms, or at least one drachm. In half an hour the heart makes over a thousand beats; indeed, in some individuals, and on occasion, two, three, or four thousand. If you multiply the drachms per beat by the number of beats you will see that in half an hour either a thousand times three drachms or times two drachms, or five hundred ounces, or other such proportionate quantity of blood has been passed through the heart into the arteries, that is, in all cases blood in greater amount than can be found in the whole of the body. Similarly in the sheep or the dog. Let us take it that one scruple passes in a single contraction of the heart; then in half an hour a thousand scruples, or three and a half pounds of blood, do so. In a body of this size, as I have found in the sheep, there is often not more than four pounds of blood.
In the above sort of way, by calculating the amount of blood transmitted [at each heart beat] and by making a count of the beats, let us convince ourselves that the whole amount of the blood mass goes through the heart from the veins to the arteries and similarly makes the pulmonary transit.
Even if this may take more than half an hour or an hour or a day for its accomplishment, it does nevertheless show that the beat of the heart is continuously driving through that organ more blood than the ingested food can supply, or all the veins together at any time contain.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth J. Franklin (1957), Chapter 9, 62-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Amount (153)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Beat (42)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Contraction (18)  |  Count (107)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Driving (28)  |  Food (213)  |  Greater (288)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pulmonary (3)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Return (133)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Single (365)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Vein (27)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

In this great celestial creation, the catastrophy of a world, such as ours, or even the total dissolution of a system of worlds, may possibly be no more to the great Author of Nature, than the most common accident in life with us, and in all probability such final and general Doomsdays may be as frequent there, as even Birthdays or mortality with us upon the earth. This idea has something so cheerful in it, that I know I can never look upon the stars without wondering why the whole world does not become astronomers; and that men endowed with sense and reason should neglect a science they are naturally so much interested in, and so capable of enlarging their understanding, as next to a demonstration must convince them of their immortality, and reconcile them to all those little difficulties incident to human nature, without the least anxiety. All this the vast apparent provision in the starry mansions seem to promise: What ought we then not to do, to preserve our natural birthright to it and to merit such inheritance, which alas we think created all to gratify alone a race of vain-glorious gigantic beings, while they are confined to this world, chained like so many atoms to a grain of sand.
In The Universe and the Stars: Being an Original Theory on the Visible Creation, Founded on the Laws of Nature (1750, 1837), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Alone (324)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Atom (381)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Birthday (9)  |  Birthright (5)  |  Capable (174)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Cheerful (10)  |  Common (447)  |  Creation (350)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Dissolution (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doomsday (5)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Final (121)  |  General (521)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Grain (50)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Merit (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Probability (135)  |  Promise (72)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reconcile (19)  |  Sand (63)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Think (1122)  |  Total (95)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vain (86)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

In want of other proofs, the thumb would convince me of the existence of a God.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 42
Science quotes on:  |  Existence (481)  |  God (776)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proof (304)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Want (504)

It has long been a complaint against mathematicians that they are hard to convince: but it is a far greater disqualification both for philosophy, and for the affairs of life, to be too easily convinced; to have too low a standard of proof. The only sound intellects are those which, in the first instance, set their standards of proof high. Practice in concrete affairs soon teaches them to make the necessary abatement: but they retain the consciousness, without which there is no sound practical reasoning, that in accepting inferior evidence because there is no better to be had, they do not by that acceptance raise it to completeness.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 611.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Affair (29)  |  Against (332)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Disqualification (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easily (36)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hard (246)  |  High (370)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Low (86)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proof (304)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Retain (57)  |  Set (400)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Standard (64)  |  Teach (299)

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)  |  Chain (51)  |  Check (26)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Computation (28)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conviction (100)  |  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)

It seems that the rivers know the theory. It only remains to convince the engineers of the validity of this analysis.
Epigraph, without citation, in Péter Érdi, Complexity Explained (2007), 339. In French, “Il semble que les rivières connaissent déjà la théorie Il ne reste qu'à convaincre les ingénieurs de la validité de cette analyse.”
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Know (1538)  |  Remain (355)  |  River (140)  |  Seem (150)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Validity (50)

My view of life is that it’s next to impossible to convince anybody of anything.
(20 Feb 1890). Quoted in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), 291.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Anything (9)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Life (1870)  |  Next (238)  |  View (496)  |  View Of Life (7)

Nothing has afforded me so convincing a proof of the unity of the Deity as these purely mental conceptions of numerical and mathematical science which have been by slow degrees vouchsafed to man, and are still granted in these latter times by the Differential Calculus, now superseded by the Higher Algebra, all of which must have existed in that sublimely omniscient Mind from eternity.
Martha Somerville (ed.) Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville (1874), 140-141.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Conception (160)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deity (22)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Exist (458)  |  Grant (76)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Omniscient (6)  |  Proof (304)  |  Purely (111)  |  Slow (108)  |  Still (614)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Supersede (8)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unity (81)  |  Vouchsafe (3)

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.
In Civilization: An Essay (1928), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Effective (68)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Open (277)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognition (93)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)

Owing to my life-long habit of being a minority of one on all occasions, my research work does not look convincing to most people. Since I have become avowedly a specialist in unorthodox ideas in the last decade the situation is getting worse, because now I irritate more people.
Writing to classmates in 1937. As quoted in John W. Servos, 'Wilder Dwight Bancroft', National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs (1994), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Decade (66)  |  Habit (174)  |  Idea (881)  |  Irritate (4)  |  Lifelong (10)  |  Minority (24)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Research (753)  |  Situation (117)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Unorthodox (2)  |  Worse (25)

Space travel is at the frontier of my profession. It is going to be accomplished and I want to be in on it. There is also an element of simple duty involved. I am convinced that I have something to give this project.
As he wrote in an article for Life (14 Sep 1959), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Duty (71)  |  Element (322)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Give (208)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Profession (108)  |  Project (77)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Travel (125)  |  Want (504)

The discovery of the laws of definite proportions is one of the most important and wonderful among the great and brilliant achievements of modern chemistry. It is sufficient of itself to convince any reasoning mind, that order and system pervade the universe, and that the minutest atoms of matter, and the vast orbs that move round the heavens are equally under the control of the invariable laws of the creator.
Elements of Chemistry (1845), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Atom (381)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Control (182)  |  Creator (97)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Equally (129)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Orb (20)  |  Order (638)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wonderful (155)

The electrical matter consists of particles extremely subtile, since it can permeate common matter, even the densest metals, with such ease and freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance.
If anyone should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will probably convince him.
Electrical matter differs from common matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other.
'Opinions and Conjectures, Concerning the Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter, arising from Experiments and Observations, made at Philadelphia, 1749.' In I. Bernard Cohen (ed.), Benjamin Franklin's Experiments (1941), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Consist (223)  |  Differ (88)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Former (138)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Glass (94)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Receive (117)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Shock (38)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)

The people of Sydney who can speak of my work [on flying-machine models] without a smile are very scarce; it is doubtless the same with American workers. I know that success is dead sure to come, and therefore do not waste time and words in trying to convince unbelievers.
As quoted in Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Certain (557)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machine (271)  |  Model (106)  |  People (1031)  |  Same (166)  |  Scarce (11)  |  Smile (34)  |  Speak (240)  |  Success (327)  |  Sydney (2)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unbeliever (3)  |  Waste (109)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)

The Sun is no lonelier than its neighbors; indeed, it is a very common-place star,—dwarfish, though not minute,—like hundreds, nay thousands, of others. By accident the brighter component of Alpha Centauri (which is double) is almost the Sun's twin in brightness, mass, and size. Could this Earth be transported to its vicinity by some supernatural power, and set revolving about it, at a little less than a hundred million miles' distance, the star would heat and light the world just as the Sun does, and life and civilization might go on with no radical change. The Milky Way would girdle the heavens as before; some of our familiar constellations, such as Orion, would be little changed, though others would be greatly altered by the shifting of the nearer stars. An unfamiliar brilliant star, between Cassiopeia and Perseus would be—the Sun. Looking back at it with our telescopes, we could photograph its spectrum, observe its motion among the stars, and convince ourselves that it was the same old Sun; but what had happened to the rest of our planetary system we would not know.
The Solar System and its Origin (1935), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Alpha Centauri (2)  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Altered (32)  |  Back (395)  |  Brightness (12)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Cassiopeia (2)  |  Change (639)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Common (447)  |  Component (51)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Distance (171)  |  Double (18)  |  Dwarf (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Heat (180)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Loneliness (6)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mile (43)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Million (124)  |  Minute (129)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Nearness (3)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Perseus (2)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Planet (402)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Power (771)  |  Radical (28)  |  Rest (287)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Set (400)  |  Shift (45)  |  Size (62)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Transport (31)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Twin (16)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Unfamiliarity (5)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

Think of the image of the world in a convex mirror. ... A well-made convex mirror of moderate aperture represents the objects in front of it as apparently solid and in fixed positions behind its surface. But the images of the distant horizon and of the sun in the sky lie behind the mirror at a limited distance, equal to its focal length. Between these and the surface of the mirror are found the images of all the other objects before it, but the images are diminished and flattened in proportion to the distance of their objects from the mirror. ... Yet every straight line or plane in the outer world is represented by a straight line or plane in the image. The image of a man measuring with a rule a straight line from the mirror, would contract more and more the farther he went, but with his shrunken rule the man in the image would count out exactly the same results as in the outer world, all lines of sight in the mirror would be represented by straight lines of sight in the mirror. In short, I do not see how men in the mirror are to discover that their bodies are not rigid solids and their experiences good examples of the correctness of Euclidean axioms. But if they could look out upon our world as we look into theirs without overstepping the boundary, they must declare it to be a picture in a spherical mirror, and would speak of us just as we speak of them; and if two inhabitants of the different worlds could communicate with one another, neither, as far as I can see, would be able to convince the other that he had the true, the other the distorted, relation. Indeed I cannot see that such a question would have any meaning at all, so long as mechanical considerations are not mixed up with it.
In 'On the Origin and Significance of Geometrical Axioms,' Popular Scientific Lectures< Second Series (1881), 57-59. In Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 357-358.
Science quotes on:  |  Aperture (5)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Behind (139)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convex (6)  |  Count (107)  |  Declare (48)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distort (22)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Experience (494)  |  Farther (51)  |  Focal Length (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Line (100)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mirror (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Question (649)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rule (307)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)

To show, therefore, that we are capable of knowing, i.e. being certain that there is a God, and how we may come by this certainty, I think we need go no further than ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge we have of our own existence... For man knows that he himself exists... If any one pretends to be so sceptical as to deny his own existence, (for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible,) let him for me enjoy his beloved happiness of being nothing, until hunger or some other pain convince him of the contrary... He knows also that nothing cannot produce a being; therefore something must have existed from eternity... Next, it is evident, that what had its being and beginning from another, must also have all that which is in and belongs to its being from another too. All the powers it has must be owing to and received from the same source. This eternal source, then, of all being must also be the source and original of all power; and so this eternal Being must be also the most powerful... And most knowing. Again, a man finds in himself perception and knowledge. We have then got one step further; and we are certain now that there is not only some being, but some knowing, intelligent being in the world. There was a time, then, when there was no knowing being, and when knowledge began to be; or else there has been also a knowing being from eternity...And therefore God.
Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), book 4, ch. 10, sec 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Deny (71)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  God (776)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Owing (39)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Show (353)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

Felix Klein quote: Undoubtedly, the capstone of every mathematical theory is a convincing proof of all of its assertions
Undoubtedly, the capstone of every mathematical theory is a convincing proof of all of its assertions. Undoubtedly, mathematics inculpates itself when it foregoes convincing proofs. But the mystery of brilliant productivity will always be the posing of new questions, the anticipation of new theorems that make accessible valuable results and connections. Without the creation of new viewpoints, without the statement of new aims, mathematics would soon exhaust itself in the rigor of its logical proofs and begin to stagnate as its substance vanishes. Thus, in a sense, mathematics has been most advanced by those who distinguished themselves by intuition rather than by rigorous proofs.
As quoted in Hermann Weyl, 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:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Advance (298)  |  Aim (175)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Begin (275)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Capstone (2)  |  Connection (171)  |  Creation (350)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  New (1273)  |  Pose (9)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Sense (785)  |  Soon (187)  |  Stagnate (3)  |  Statement (148)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Value (393)  |  Vanish (19)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  Will (2350)

What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students in the third or fourth year of graduate school… It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don’t understand it. You see my physics students don’t understand it… That is because I don’t understand it. Nobody does.
From Lecture, the first in the first series of Alix G. Mauntner Lectures, trascribed and editted by Ralph Leighton, 'Introduction', QED, The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985, 1988), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Fourth (8)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  School (227)  |  See (1094)  |  Student (317)  |  Task (152)  |  Teach (299)  |  Tell (344)  |  Third (17)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Year (963)

With a single exception, it may be affirmed that units of volume now [1893] in use were originally in no way related to units of length, most of them being of accidental and now unknown origin. That a legal bushel in the United States must contain 2150.42 cubic inches is convincing evidence that the foot or the yard has no place in its ancestry.
From Address to the International Engineering Congress of the Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Published in Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (Oct 1893), 121. Reprinted in 'Fundamental Units of Measure', Smithsonian Report for 1893 (1894), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Accidental (31)  |  Affirm (3)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Bushel (4)  |  Contain (68)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Foot (65)  |  Legal (9)  |  Length (24)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Origin (250)  |  Place (192)  |  Relate (26)  |  Unit (36)  |  Unknown (195)  |  United States (31)  |  Volume (25)  |  Yard (10)

You can hardly convince a man of error in a life-time, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grand-children may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more, to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.
In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Children (201)  |  Deluge (14)  |  Error (339)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Organic (161)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Slow (108)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Year (963)

You will never convince some palaeontologists that an impact killed the dinosaurs unless you find a dinosaur skeleton with a crushed skull and a ring of iridium round the hole.
Quoted in 'Extinction Wars' by Stell Weisburd, Science News (1 Feb 1986), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Crush (19)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Find (1014)  |  Impact (45)  |  Iridium (3)  |  Kill (100)  |  Never (1089)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Skull (5)  |  Will (2350)


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.