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: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index D > Category: Depend

Depend Quotes (238 quotes)


...Outer space, once a region of spirited international competition, is also a region of international cooperation. I realized this as early as 1959, when I attended an international conference on cosmic radiation in Moscow. At this conference, there were many differing views and differing methods of attack, but the problems were common ones to all of us and a unity of basic purpose was everywhere evident. Many of the papers presented there depended in an essential way upon others which had appeared originally in as many as three or four different languages. Surely science is one of the universal human activities.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Attend (67)  |  Basic (144)  |  Common (447)  |  Competition (45)  |  Conference (18)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Different (596)  |  Early (196)  |  Essential (210)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Evident (92)  |  Human (1517)  |  International (40)  |  Language (310)  |  Method (532)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Space (525)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Surely (101)  |  Unity (81)  |  Universal (198)  |  View (498)  |  Way (1214)

“Facts, facts, facts,” cries the scientist if he wants to emphasize the necessity of a firm foundation for science. What is a fact? A fact is a thought that is true. But the scientist will surely not recognize something which depends on men's varying states of mind to be the firm foundation of science.
From the first chapter of an unfinished book, The Thought: A Logical Inquiry (1918), collected in Arthur Sullivan (ed.), Logicism and the Philosophy of Language: Selections from Frege and Russell (2003), 215.
Science quotes on:  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Firm (47)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Something (718)  |  State (505)  |  Surely (101)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Want (505)  |  Will (2350)

“Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where … ,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“So long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if only you walk long enough.”
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865, 1869), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (204)  |  Cat (52)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enough (341)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Good (907)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Please (68)  |  Tell (344)  |  Walk (138)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)

[Alice asks the Cheshire Cat] Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where———” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,” said the Cat.
In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1866), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Alice (8)  |  Ask (423)  |  Care (204)  |  Cat (52)  |  Cheshire Cat (3)  |  Deal (192)  |  Good (907)  |  Matter (821)  |  Please (68)  |  Tell (344)  |  Walk (138)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)

[In geology,] As in history, the material in hand remains silent if no questions are asked. The nature of these questions depends on the “school” to which the geologist belongs and on the objectivity of his investigations. Hans Cloos called this way of interrogation “the dialogue with the earth,” “das Gesprach mit der Erde.”
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 456.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Belong (168)  |  Call (782)  |  Hans Cloos (15)  |  Dialogue (10)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  History (719)  |  Interrogation (5)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Question (652)  |  Remain (357)  |  School (228)  |  Silent (31)  |  Way (1214)

[It] is not the nature of things for any one man to make a sudden, violent discovery; science goes step by step and every man depends on the work of his predecessors. When you hear of a sudden unexpected discovery—a bolt from the blue—you can always be sure that it has grown up by the influence of one man or another, and it is the mutual influence which makes the enormous possibility of scientific advance. Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected.
Concluding remark in Lecture ii (1936) on 'Forty Years of Physics', revised and prepared for publication by J.A. Ratcliffe, collected in Needham and Pagel (eds.), Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge Arranged by the History of Science Committee, (1938), 73-74. Note that the words as prepared for publication may not be verbatim as spoken in the original lecture by the then late Lord Rutherford.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Advance (299)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bit (21)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bolt (11)  |  Bolt From The Blue (2)  |  Combined (3)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Erected (2)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hear (146)  |  Idea (882)  |  Influence (231)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Little (718)  |  Make (25)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Problem (735)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Single (366)  |  Step (235)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Violent (17)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1403)

[Microscopic] evidence cannot be presented ad populum. What is seen with the microscope depends not only upon the instrument and the rock-section, but also upon the brain behind the eye of the observer. Each of us looks at a section with the accumulated experience of his past study. Hence the veteran cannot make the novice see with his eyes; so that what carries conviction to the one may make no appeal to the other. This fact does not always seem to be sufficiently recognized by geologists at large.
'The Anniversary Address of the President', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 1885, 41, 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Brain (282)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Large (399)  |  Look (584)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Rock (177)  |  See (1095)  |  Study (703)

[Mitscherlich Law of Isomerism] An equal number of atoms, combined in the same way produce the same crystal forms, and the same crystal form does not depend on the nature of the atoms, but only on their number and mode of combination.
Originally published in 'Om Förhållandet emellan chemiska sammansättningen och krystallformen hos Arseniksyrade och Phosphorsyrade Salter', (On the Relation between the Chemical Composition and Crystal Form of Salts of Arsenic and Phosphoric Acids), Kungliga Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar (1821), 4. This alternate translation of the law appears is given by F. Szabadváry article on 'Eilhard Mitscherlich' in Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974), Vol. 9, 424; perhaps from J.R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. 4 (1964), 210.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Combination (151)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Form (978)  |  Isomerism (2)  |  Law (914)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Way (1214)

[The object of education is] to train the mind to ascertain the sequence of a particular conclusion from certain premises, to detect a fallacy, to correct undue generalisation, to prevent the growth of mistakes in reasoning. Everything in these must depend on the spirit and the manner in which the instruction itself is conveyed and honoured. If you teach scientific knowledge without honouring scientific knowledge as it is applied, you do more harm than good. I do think that the study of natural science is so glorious a school for the mind, that with the laws impressed on all these things by the Creator, and the wonderful unity and stability of matter, and the forces of matter, there cannot be a better school for the education of the mind.
Giving Evidence (18 Nov 1862) to the Public Schools Commission. As quoted in John L. Lewis, 125 Years: The Physical Society & The Institute of Physics (1999), 168-169.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Better (495)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Creator (97)  |  Detect (45)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Everything (490)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Force (497)  |  Glorious (50)  |  Good (907)  |  Growth (200)  |  Harm (43)  |  Honour (58)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Object (442)  |  Premise (40)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  School (228)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stability (28)  |  Study (703)  |  Teach (301)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Train (118)  |  Unity (81)  |  Wonderful (156)

Dogbert: So, Since Columbus is dead, you have no evidence that the earth is round.
Dilbert: Look. You can Ask Senator John Glenn. He orbited the earth when he was an astronaut.
Dogbert: So, your theory depends on the honesty of politicians.
Dilbert: Yes... no, wait...
Dilbert comic strip (10 Oct 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Christopher Columbus (17)  |  Death (407)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Flat Earth (3)  |  John Glenn, Jr. (33)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Look (584)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Politician (40)  |  Round (26)  |  Theory (1016)

Question: If you were to pour a pound of molten lead and a pound of molten iron, each at the temperature of its melting point, upon two blocks of ice, which would melt the most ice, and why?
Answer: This question relates to diathermancy. Iron is said to be a diathermanous body (from dia, through, and thermo, I heat), meaning that it gets heated through and through, and accordingly contains a large quantity of real heat. Lead is said to be an athermanous body (from a, privative, and thermo, I heat), meaning that it gets heated secretly or in a latent manner. Hence the answer to this question depends on which will get the best of it, the real heat of the iron or the latent heat of the lead. Probably the iron will smite furthest into the ice, as molten iron is white and glowing, while melted lead is dull.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 180-1, Question 14. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Best (468)  |  Block (13)  |  Body (557)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Dull (59)  |  Examination (102)  |  Heat (181)  |  Howler (15)  |  Ice (59)  |  Iron (101)  |  Large (399)  |  Latent (13)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Lead (391)  |  Manner (62)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Melting Point (3)  |  Molten (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Point (585)  |  Pound (15)  |  Pour (9)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (652)  |  Secret (217)  |  Smite (4)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  White (132)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Question: Why do the inhabitants of cold climates eat fat? How would you find experimentally the relative quantities of heat given off when equal weights of sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon are thoroughly burned?
Answer: An inhabitant of cold climates (called Frigid Zoans) eats fat principally because he can't get no lean, also because he wants to rise is temperature. But if equal weights of sulphur phosphorus and carbon are burned in his neighbourhood he will give off eating quite so much. The relative quantities of eat given off will depend upon how much sulphur etc. is burnt and how near it is burned to him. If I knew these facts it would be an easy sum to find the answer.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 183, Question 32. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Burn (99)  |  Burning (49)  |  Call (782)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Climate (102)  |  Cold (115)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easy (213)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Emission (20)  |  Equal (88)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fat (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finding (36)  |  Heat (181)  |  Howler (15)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Lean (7)  |  Neighborhood (12)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (652)  |  Relative (42)  |  Rise (170)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Sum (103)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Want (505)  |  Weight (140)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zone (5)

A cell has a history; its structure is inherited, it grows, divides, and, as in the embryo of higher animals, the products of division differentiate on complex lines. Living cells, moreover, transmit all that is involved in their complex heredity. I am far from maintaining that these fundamental properties may not depend upon organisation at levels above any chemical level; to understand them may even call for different methods of thought; I do not pretend to know. But if there be a hierarchy of levels we must recognise each one, and the physical and chemical level which, I would again say, may be the level of self-maintenance, must always have a place in any ultimate complete description.
'Some Aspects of Biochemistry', The Irish Journal of Medical Science (1932), 79, 346.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Call (782)  |  Cell (146)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complex (203)  |  Different (596)  |  Differentiate (20)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  History (719)  |  Inherit (36)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Involved (90)  |  Know (1539)  |  Living (492)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Method (532)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (520)  |  Product (167)  |  Say (991)  |  Self (268)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (996)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (650)

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Dead (65)  |  Exert (40)  |  Give In (3)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inner (72)  |  Labor (200)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Measure (242)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Receive (117)  |  Remind (16)  |  Still (614)  |  Time (1913)

A little science is something that they must have. I should like my nephews to know what air is, and water; why we breathe, and why wood burns; the nutritive elements essential to plant life, and the constituents of the soil. And it is no vague and imperfect knowledge from hearsay I would have them gain of these fundamental truths, on which depend agriculture and the industrial arts and our health itself; I would have them know these things thoroughly from their own observation and experience. Books here are insufficient, and can serve merely as aids to scientific experiment.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Aid (101)  |  Air (367)  |  Art (681)  |  Book (414)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Burn (99)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Element (324)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gain (149)  |  Health (211)  |  Hearsay (5)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Insufficient (10)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Life (1873)  |  Little (718)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nephew (2)  |  Observation (595)  |  Plant (320)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Serve (64)  |  Soil (98)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Vague (50)  |  Water (505)  |  Why (491)  |  Wood (97)

A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows. We call him good or bad according to how he stands in this matter. It looks at first sight as if our estimate of a man depended entirely on his social qualities.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Action (343)  |  Bad (185)  |  Call (782)  |  Community (111)  |  Direct (228)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Far (158)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1303)  |  First Sight (6)  |  Good (907)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Primarily (12)  |  Promote (32)  |  Quality (140)  |  Sight (135)  |  Social (262)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thought (996)  |  Value (397)

A nation which depends upon others for its new basic scientific knowledge will be slow in its industrial progress and weak in its competitive position in world trade, regardless of its mechanical skill.
Quoted by Edwin T. Layton, Jr., in 'American Ideologies of Science and Engineering', Technology and Culture (1976), 17, 689. As cited in Arie Leegwater, 'Technology and Science', Stephen V. Monsma (ed.), Responsible Technology: A Christian Perspective (1986), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Competitive (10)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Position (83)  |  Progress (493)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Skill (116)  |  Slow (108)  |  Trade (34)  |  Weak (73)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men of other tribes, how to restrain his passions, what to believe in and what not to believe in, and much else. And what does our science say to him on these matters?
It triumphantly tells him: how many million miles it is from the earth to the sun; at what rate light travels through space; how many million vibrations of ether per second are caused by light, and how many vibrations of air by sound; it tells of the chemical components of the Milky Way, of a new element—helium—of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points on the hand at which electricity collects, of X rays, and similar things.
“But I don't want any of those things,” says a plain and reasonable man—“I want to know how to live.”
In 'Modern Science', Essays and Letters (1903), 221-222.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Component (51)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Element (324)  |  Ether (37)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Family (102)  |  Helium (11)  |  Know (1539)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Live (651)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Micro-Organism (3)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  New (1276)  |  Old (499)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passion (121)  |  People (1034)  |  Point (585)  |  Question (652)  |  Ray (115)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Solve (146)  |  Sound (188)  |  Space (525)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Spend (97)  |  Study (703)  |  Studying (70)  |  Sun (408)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Will (2350)  |  X-ray (43)

A prolonged war in which a nation takes part is bound to impoverish the breed, since the character of the breed depends on the men who are left.
As given in David Starr Jordan, War and the Breed: The Relation of War to the Downfall of Nations (1915), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Bound (120)  |  Breed (27)  |  Character (259)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Impoverish (2)  |  Left (15)  |  Nation (208)  |  Prolong (29)  |  War (234)

A strict materialist believes that everything depends on the motion of matter. He knows the form of the laws of motion though he does not know all their consequences when applied to systems of unknown complexity.
Now one thing in which the materialist (fortified with dynamical knowledge) believes is that if every motion great & small were accurately reversed, and the world left to itself again, everything would happen backwards the fresh water would collect out of the sea and run up the rivers and finally fly up to the clouds in drops which would extract heat from the air and evaporate and afterwards in condensing would shoot out rays of light to the sun and so on. Of course all living things would regrede from the grave to the cradle and we should have a memory of the future but not of the past.
The reason why we do not expect anything of this kind to take place at any time is our experience of irreversible processes, all of one kind, and this leads to the doctrine of a beginning & an end instead of cyclical progression for ever.
Letter to Mark Pattison (7 Apr 1868). In P. M. Hannan (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 360-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Applied (176)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (415)  |  Cradle (20)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dynamical (15)  |  End (603)  |  Everything (490)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extract (40)  |  Fly (153)  |  Form (978)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Future (467)  |  Grave (52)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heat (181)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Kind (565)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Lead (391)  |  Light (636)  |  Living (492)  |  Materialist (4)  |  Matter (821)  |  Memory (144)  |  Motion (320)  |  Past (355)  |  Process (441)  |  Progression (23)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reverse (33)  |  River (141)  |  Run (158)  |  Sea (327)  |  Small (489)  |  Sun (408)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Water (505)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1854)

About the year 1821, I undertook to superintend, for the Government, the construction of an engine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical tables. Early in the year 1833, a small portion of the machine was put together, and was found to perform its work with all the precision which had been anticipated. At that period circumstances, which I could not control, caused what I then considered a temporary suspension of its progress; and the Government, on whose decision the continuance or discontinuance of the work depended, have not yet communicated to me their wishes on the question.
In The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise: A Fragment (1838), 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Calculate (59)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Consider (430)  |  Construction (116)  |  Control (185)  |  Decision (98)  |  Early (196)  |  Engine (99)  |  Government (116)  |  Machine (272)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Perform (123)  |  Period (200)  |  Portion (86)  |  Precision (73)  |  Print (20)  |  Printing (25)  |  Progress (493)  |  Question (652)  |  Science And Politics (16)  |  Small (489)  |  Suspension (7)  |  Table (106)  |  Temporary (25)  |  Together (392)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

According to the poet, “The world’s bread depends on the shooting of a seed.”
In The Testimony of the Rocks (1857), 26. This is paraphrase from a poem by John Savery, 'A Corner in Wheat', which begins: “Our world depends for daily bread / Upon the shooting of the seed.” Its first stanza ends similarly: “Upon the shooting of a seed / Our world depends for daily bread.” The poem is collected in Memorial Volume: Selections from the Prose and Poetical Writings of the Late John Savary (1912), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Bread (42)  |  Seed (98)  |  Shoot (21)  |  World (1854)

All depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed on the facts of nature and so receiving their images simply as they are.
In Francis Bacon, James Spedding (ed.), Robert Leslie Ellis (ed.), 'The Plan of the Work: The Great Instauration', The Works of Francis Bacon: Translations of the Philosophical Works (1858), Vol. 4, 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fix (34)  |  Image (97)  |  Keep (104)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Receive (117)  |  Simply (53)  |  Steady (45)

All important unit operations have much in common, and if the underlying principles upon which the rational design and operation of basic types of engineering equipment depend are understood, their successful adaptation to manufacturing processes becomes a matter of good management rather than of good fortune.
In William H. Walker, Warren K. Lewis and William H. MacAdams, The Principles of Chemical Engineering (1923), Preface to 1st. edition, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Basic (144)  |  Become (822)  |  Common (447)  |  Design (205)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Good (907)  |  Important (231)  |  Management (23)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Matter (821)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Principle (532)  |  Process (441)  |  Rational (97)  |  Successful (134)  |  Type (172)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Understood (155)

All life depends on organic reactions.
A favorite saying.
Quoted in William J. Cromie, Obituary, Harvard University Gazette (16 Oct 1997).
Science quotes on:  |  Favorite (37)  |  Life (1873)  |  Organic (161)  |  Reaction (106)

All life is linked together in such a way that no part of the chain is unimportant. Frequently, upon the action of some of these minute beings depends the material success or failure of a great commonwealth.
Insect Life: An Introduction To Nature-Study And A Guide For Teachers (1897), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chain (52)  |  Commonwealth (6)  |  Failure (176)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1873)  |  Material (366)  |  Minute (129)  |  Minuteness (8)  |  Success (327)  |  Together (392)  |  Way (1214)

All scientists must focus closely on limited targets. Whether or not one’s findings on a limited subject will have wide applicability depends to some extent on chance, but biologists of superior ability repeatedly focus on questions the answers to which either have wide ramifications or lead to new areas of investigation. One procedure that can be effective is to attempt both reduction and synthesis; that is, direct a question at a phenomenon on one integrative level, identify its mechanism at a simpler level, then extrapolate its consequences to a more complex level of integration.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 230-231,
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Answer (389)  |  Applicability (7)  |  Area (33)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Chance (245)  |  Closely (12)  |  Complex (203)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Direct (228)  |  Effective (68)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extrapolate (3)  |  Findings (6)  |  Focus (36)  |  Identify (13)  |  Integration (22)  |  Integrative (2)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Question (652)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Simple (430)  |  Subject (544)  |  Superior (89)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Target (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  Development (442)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Society (14)  |  Individual (420)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Society (353)  |  Value (397)

All the knowledge we have of nature depends upon facts; for without observations and experiments our natural philosophy would only be a science of terms and an unintelligible jargon.
First sentence of 'Preface', Course of Experimental Philosophy (1745), Vol. 1, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Jargon (13)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Unintelligible (17)

All the scientist creates in a fact is the language in which he enunciates it. If he predicts a fact, he will employ this language, and for all those who can speak and understand it, his prediction is free from ambiguity. Moreover, this prediction once made, it evidently does not depend upon him whether it is fulfilled or not.
The Value of Science (1905), in The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis, The Value of Science, Science and Method(1946), trans. by George Bruce Halsted, 332.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Create (252)  |  Creation (350)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Employ (115)  |  Employment (34)  |  Enunciation (7)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Free (240)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fulfillment (20)  |  Language (310)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

And so I conclude that blood lives and is nourished of itself and in no way depends on any other part of the body as being prior to it or more excellent... So that from this we may perceive the causes not only of life in general... but also of longer or shorter life, of sleeping and waking, of skill, of strength and so forth.
Disputations Touching the Generation of Animals (1651), trans. Gweneth Whitteridge (1981), Chapter 52, 247. Alternate translation: “We conclude that blood lives of itself and that it depends in no ways upon any parts of the body. Blood is the cause not only of life in general, but also of longer or shorter life, of sleep and waking, of genius, aptitude, and strength. It is the first to live and the last to die.”
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (564)  |  Conclude (66)  |  General (521)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Skill (116)  |  Strength (139)  |  Waking (17)  |  Way (1214)

Any opinion as to the form in which the energy of gravitation exists in space is of great importance, and whoever can make his opinion probable will have, made an enormous stride in physical speculation. The apparent universality of gravitation, and the equality of its effects on matter of all kinds are most remarkable facts, hitherto without exception; but they are purely experimental facts, liable to be corrected by a single observed exception. We cannot conceive of matter with negative inertia or mass; but we see no way of accounting for the proportionality of gravitation to mass by any legitimate method of demonstration. If we can see the tails of comets fly off in the direction opposed to the sun with an accelerated velocity, and if we believe these tails to be matter and not optical illusions or mere tracks of vibrating disturbance, then we must admit a force in that direction, and we may establish that it is caused by the sun if it always depends upon his position and distance.
Letter to William Huggins (13 Oct 1868). In P. M. Hannan (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 451-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Comet (65)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Effect (414)  |  Energy (374)  |  Equality (34)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exist (460)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fly (153)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Kind (565)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Mass (161)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Negative (66)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observed (149)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Optical (11)  |  Physical (520)  |  Position (83)  |  Proportionality (2)  |  Purely (111)  |  See (1095)  |  Single (366)  |  Space (525)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Stride (16)  |  Sun (408)  |  Track (42)  |  Universality (22)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)

As a general scientific principle, it is undesirable to depend crucially on what is unobservable to explain what is observable, as happens frequently in Big Bang cosmology.
In Arp, H.C., G. Burbidge, F. Hoyle, J.V. Narlikar, and N.C. Wickramasinghe, 'The Extragalactic Universe: An Alternative View,' Nature (30 Aug 1990), 346, No. 6287, 812.
Science quotes on:  |  Bang (29)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Crucial (10)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Frequent (26)  |  General (521)  |  Happen (282)  |  Observable (21)  |  Principle (532)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Undesirable (3)

As arithmetic and algebra are sciences of great clearness, certainty, and extent, which are immediately conversant about signs, upon the skilful use whereof they entirely depend, so a little attention to them may possibly help us to judge of the progress of the mind in other sciences, which, though differing in nature, design, and object, may yet agree in the general methods of proof and inquiry.
In Alciphron: or the Minute Philosopher, Dialogue 7, collected in The Works of George Berkeley D.D. (1784), Vol. 1, 621.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Attention (198)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Conversant (6)  |  Design (205)  |  Different (596)  |  Entire (50)  |  Extent (142)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Help (118)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Judge (114)  |  Little (718)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Progress (493)  |  Proof (304)  |  Sign (63)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Use (771)

As he [Clifford] spoke he appeared not to be working out a question, but simply telling what he saw. Without any diagram or symbolic aid he described the geometrical conditions on which the solution depended, and they seemed to stand out visibly in space. There were no longer consequences to be deduced, but real and evident facts which only required to be seen. … So whole and complete was his vision that for the time the only strange thing was that anybody should fail to see it in the same way. When one endeavored to call it up again, and not till then, it became clear that the magic of genius had been at work, and that the common sight had been raised to that higher perception by the power that makes and transforms ideas, the conquering and masterful quality of the human mind which Goethe called in one word das Dämonische.
In Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays by William Kingdon Clifford(1879), Vol. 1, Introduction, 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Appear (123)  |  Call (782)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conquer (41)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Describe (133)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Evident (92)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (193)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Higher (37)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (882)  |  Magic (92)  |  Masterful (2)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Perception (97)  |  Power (773)  |  Quality (140)  |  Question (652)  |  Raise (38)  |  Real (160)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1095)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sight (135)  |  Solution (286)  |  Space (525)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stand Out (5)  |  Strange (160)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Transform (74)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)

As we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Continue (180)  |  Future (467)  |  Kind (565)  |  Material (366)  |  Other (2233)  |  Secured (18)  |  Understanding (527)

Astronomy is a cold, desert science, with all its pompous figures,—depends a little too much on the glass-grinder, too little on the mind. ’Tis of no use to show us more planets and systems. We know already what matter is, and more or less of it does not signify.
In 'Country Life', collected in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904), Vol. 12, 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Cold (115)  |  Desert (59)  |  Figure (162)  |  Glass (94)  |  Know (1539)  |  Little (718)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Planet (406)  |  Show (354)  |  Signify (18)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Use (771)

Attention makes the genius; all learning, fancy, and science depend on it. Newton traced back his discoveries to its unwearied employment. It builds bridges, opens new worlds, and heals diseases; without it Taste is useless, and the beauties of literature are unobserved; as the rarest flowers bloom in vain, if the eye be not fixed upon the bed.
Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature (1855), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (198)  |  Back (395)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Build (212)  |  Disease (343)  |  Employment (34)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Flower (112)  |  Genius (301)  |  Learning (291)  |  Literature (117)  |  New (1276)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Open (277)  |  Taste (93)  |  Vain (86)  |  World (1854)

Besides accustoming the student to demand, complete proof, and to know when he has not obtained it, mathematical studies are of immense benefit to his education by habituating him to precision. It is one of the peculiar excellencies of mathematical discipline, that the mathematician is never satisfied with à peu près. He requires the exact truth. Hardly any of the non-mathematical sciences, except chemistry, has this advantage. One of the commonest modes of loose thought, and sources of error both in opinion and in practice, is to overlook the importance of quantities. Mathematicians and chemists are taught by the whole course of their studies, that the most fundamental difference of quality depends on some very slight difference in proportional quantity; and that from the qualities of the influencing elements, without careful attention to their quantities, false expectation would constantly be formed as to the very nature and essential character of the result produced.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 611. [The French phrase, à peu près means “approximately”. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Attention (198)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Careful (28)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemist (170)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Complete (209)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Course (415)  |  Demand (131)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Education (423)  |  Element (324)  |  Error (339)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exact (75)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Expectation (67)  |  False (105)  |  Form (978)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Habituate (3)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Immense (89)  |  Importance (299)  |  Influence (231)  |  Know (1539)  |  Loose (14)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mode (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Practice (212)  |  Precision (73)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proportional (5)  |  Quality (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Slight (32)  |  Source Of Error (2)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (703)  |  Teach (301)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Whole (756)

Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught, The wise, for cure, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend.
'To my Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden', The English Poets (1901), Vol. 2, 491.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (495)  |  Cure (124)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Field (378)  |  God (776)  |  Health (211)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Man (2252)  |  Money (178)  |  Never (1089)  |  Physician (284)  |  Wise (145)  |  Work (1403)

Bistromathics itself is simply a revolutionary new way of understanding the behavior of numbers. Just as Einstein observed that space was not an absolute but depended on the observer's movement in space, and that time was not an absolute, but depended on the observer's movement in time, so it is now realized that numbers are not absolute, but depend on the observer's movement in restaurants.
Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, 1995), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Movement (162)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  Observed (149)  |  Restaurant (3)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Space (525)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Time (1913)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Way (1214)

Break the chains of your prejudices and take up the torch of experience, and you will honour nature in the way she deserves, instead of drawing derogatory conclusions from the ignorance in which she has left you. Simply open your eyes and ignore what you cannot understand, and you will see that a labourer whose mind and knowledge extend no further than the edges of his furrow is no different essentially from the greatest genius, as would have been proved by dissecting the brains of Descartes and Newton; you will be convinced that the imbecile or the idiot are animals in human form, in the same way as the clever ape is a little man in another form; and that, since everything depends absolutely on differences in organisation, a well-constructed animal who has learnt astronomy can predict an eclipse, as he can predict recovery or death when his genius and good eyesight have benefited from some time at the school of Hippocrates and at patients' bedsides.
Machine Man (1747), in Ann Thomson (ed.), Machine Man and Other Writings (1996), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Brain (282)  |  Break (110)  |  Clever (41)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Construct (129)  |  Death (407)  |  Derogatory (3)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Edge (51)  |  Everything (490)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (441)  |  Eyesight (5)  |  Form (978)  |  Genius (301)  |  Good (907)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hippocrates (49)  |  Honour (58)  |  Human (1517)  |  Idiot (22)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Imbecile (4)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Little (718)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Open (277)  |  Patient (209)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Recovery (24)  |  School (228)  |  See (1095)  |  Time (1913)  |  Torch (13)  |  Understand (650)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

But shall gravity be therefore called an occult cause, and thrown out of philosophy, because the cause of gravity is occult and not yet discovered? Those who affirm this, should be careful not to fall into an absurdity that may overturn the foundations of all philosophy. For causes usually proceed in a continued chain from those that are more compounded to those that are more simple; when we are arrived at the most simple cause we can go no farther ... These most simple causes will you then call occult and reject them? Then you must reject those that immediately depend on them.
Mathematical Principles (1729), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Call (782)  |  Cause (564)  |  Compound (117)  |  Discover (572)  |  Fall (243)  |  Farther (51)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Immediately (116)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occult (9)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Reject (67)  |  Simple (430)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

But when it has been shown by the researches of Pasteur that the septic property of the atmosphere depended not on the oxygen, or any gaseous constituent, but on minute organisms suspended in it, which owed their energy to their vitality, it occurred to me that decomposition in the injured part might be avoided without excluding the air, by applying as a dressing some material capable of destroying the life of the floating particles. Upon this principle I have based a practice.
'On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery', The British Medical Journal (1867), ii, 246.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Antiseptic (8)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Capable (174)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Dressing (3)  |  Energy (374)  |  Infection (27)  |  Injury (36)  |  Life (1873)  |  Material (366)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Minute (129)  |  Organism (231)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Particle (200)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (532)  |  Property (177)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Vitality (24)

Call Archimedes from his buried tomb
Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse,
And feelingly the sage shall make report
How insecure, how baseless in itself,
Is the philosophy, whose sway depends
On mere material instruments—how weak
Those arts, and high inventions, if unpropped
By virtue.
In 'The Excursion', as quoted in review, 'The Excursion, Being a Portion of the Recluse, a Poem, The Edinburgh Review (Nov 1814), 24, No. 47, 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (681)  |  Bury (19)  |  Call (782)  |  High (370)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Invention (401)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mere (86)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Plain (34)  |  Report (43)  |  Sage (25)  |  Sway (5)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Vanish (20)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Weak (73)

Chemistry works with an enormous number of substances, but cares only for some few of their properties; it is an extensive science. Physics on the other hand works with rather few substances, such as mercury, water, alcohol, glass, air, but analyses the experimental results very thoroughly; it is an intensive science. Physical chemistry is the child of these two sciences; it has inherited the extensive character from chemistry. Upon this depends its all-embracing feature, which has attracted so great admiration. But on the other hand it has its profound quantitative character from the science of physics.
In Theories of Solutions (1912), xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Air (367)  |  Alcohol (23)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Care (204)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Child (333)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Feature (49)  |  Few (15)  |  Glass (94)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inherit (36)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Intensive (9)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Number (712)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Chemistry (6)  |  Physics (568)  |  Profound (105)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Result (700)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (505)  |  Work (1403)

Clean water is a great example of something that depends on energy. And if you solve the water problem, you solve the food problem.
In Lecture (2003) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Golden, Colorado, as quoted in obituary, Barnaby J. Feder, 'Richard E. Smalley, 62, Dies; Chemistry Nobel Winner:', New York Times (29 Oct 2005), Late Edition (East Coast), C16.
Science quotes on:  |  Clean (52)  |  Energy (374)  |  Example (100)  |  Food (214)  |  Great (1610)  |  Problem (735)  |  Solve (146)  |  Something (718)  |  Water (505)

Consider the very roots of our ability to discern truth. Above all (or perhaps I should say “underneath all”), common sense is what we depend on—that crazily elusive, ubiquitous faculty we all have to some degree or other. … If we apply common sense to itself over and over again, we wind up building a skyscraper. The ground floor of the structure is the ordinary common sense we all have, and the rules for building news floors are implicit in the ground floor itself. However, working it all out is a gigantic task, and the result is a structure that transcends mere common sense.
In Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern (1985), 93–94.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Apply (170)  |  Build (212)  |  Building (158)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Consider (430)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Degree (278)  |  Discern (35)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Floor (21)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Ground (222)  |  Ground Floor (2)  |  Implicit (12)  |  Mere (86)  |  New (1276)  |  News (36)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Result (700)  |  Root (121)  |  Rule (308)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Skyscraper (9)  |  Structure (365)  |  Task (153)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Ubiquitous (5)  |  Underneath (4)  |  Wind (141)  |  Work (1403)

Culture in its higher forms is a delicate plant which depends on a complicated set of conditions and is wont to flourish only in a few places at any given time.
From Mein Weltbild, as translated by Alan Harris (trans.), 'Politics and Pacifism: Culture and Prosperity', The World as I See It (1956, 1993), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Complicated (119)  |  Condition (362)  |  Culture (157)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Flourish (35)  |  Form (978)  |  Plant (320)  |  Set (400)  |  Time (1913)

Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane.
Paraphrased from American Mathematics Monthly (1998) 105, 640-50. Quoted in John De Pillis, 777 Mathematical Conversation Starters (2004), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Airplane (43)  |  Care (204)  |  Claim (154)  |  Difference (355)  |  Fly (153)  |  Integral (26)  |  Integration (22)  |  Physical (520)  |  Say (991)  |  Significance (115)

Don’t forget that the flavors of wine and cheese depend upon the types of infecting microorganisms.
Science quotes on:  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Cheese (10)  |  Flavor (8)  |  Forget (125)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Type (172)  |  Wine (39)

Even the mind depends so much on temperament and the disposition of one’s bodily organs that, if it is possible to find a way to make people generally more wise and more skilful than they have been in the past, I believe that we should look for it in medicine. It is true that medicine as it is currently practiced contains little of much use.
In Discourse on Method as translated by Desmond M. Clarke, in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1999), 44. Also see an earlier translation that begins “For the mind…” on this web page.
Science quotes on:  |  Disposition (44)  |  Find (1014)  |  Little (718)  |  Look (584)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Organ (118)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1034)  |  Possible (560)  |  Temperament (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wise (145)

Every breath you draw, every accelerated beat of your heart in the emotional periods of your oratory depend upon highly elaborated physical and chemical reactions and mechanisms which nature has been building up through a million centuries. If one of these mechanisms, which you owe entirely to your animal ancestry, were to be stopped for a single instant, you would fall lifeless on the stage. Not only this, but some of your highest ideals of human fellowship and comradeship were not created in a moment, but represent the work of ages.
Quoted in Closing Address by Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, president of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, at the Memorial Service for Osborn at St. Bartholomew's Church, N.Y. (18 Dec 1935). In 'Henry Fairfield Osborn', Supplement to Natural History (Feb 1936), 37:2, 133-34. Bound in Kofoid Collection of Pamphlets on Biography, University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beat (42)  |  Breath (62)  |  William Jennings Bryan (20)  |  Building (158)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Deaf (4)  |  Draw (141)  |  Drowning (2)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elaborated (7)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fall (243)  |  Heart (244)  |  Human (1517)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Instant (46)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Moment (260)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Owe (71)  |  Period (200)  |  Physical (520)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Represent (157)  |  Single (366)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Speech (66)  |  Stage (152)  |  Through (846)  |  Voice (54)  |  Work (1403)

Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics, 1099b, 21-22. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1738.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Everything (490)  |  Good (907)  |  Nature (2027)

Facts are to the mind the same thing as food to the body. On the due digestion of facts depends the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable in the commerce of life is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Assimilate (9)  |  Body (557)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Council (9)  |  Debate (40)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Due (143)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Food (214)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Health (211)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (712)  |  Other (2233)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vigor (12)  |  Wisdom (235)

Finally in a large population, divided and subdivided into partially isolated local races of small size, there is a continually shifting differentiation among the latter (intensified by local differences in selection but occurring under uniform and static conditions) which inevitably brings about an indefinitely continuing, irreversible, adaptive, and much more rapid evolution of the species. Complete isolation in this case, and more slowly in the preceding, originates new species differing for the most part in nonadaptive parallel orthogenetic lines, in accordance with the conditions. It is suggested, in conclusion, that the differing statistical situations to be expected among natural species are adequate to account for the different sorts of evolutionary processes which have been described, and that, in particular, conditions in nature are often such as to bring about the state of poise among opposing tendencies on which an indefinitely continuing evolutionary process depends.
In 'Evolution In Mendelian Populations', Genetics, (1931), 16, 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Divided (50)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Expect (203)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Large (399)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Originate (39)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Partially (8)  |  Population (115)  |  Process (441)  |  Race (279)  |  Selection (130)  |  Situation (117)  |  Small (489)  |  Species (435)  |  State (505)  |  Statistics (172)

Finally, since I thought that we could have all the same thoughts, while asleep, as we have while we are awake, although none of them is true at that time, I decided to pretend that nothing that ever entered my mind was any more true than the illusions of my dreams. But I noticed, immediately afterwards, that while I thus wished to think that everything was false, it was necessarily the case that I, who was thinking this, was something. When I noticed that this truth “I think, therefore I am” was so firm and certain that all the most extravagant assumptions of the sceptics were unable to shake it, I judged that I could accept it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy for which I was searching. Then, when I was examining what I was, I realized that I could pretend that I had no body, and that there was no world nor any place in which I was present, but I could not pretend in the same way that I did not exist. On the contrary, from the very fact that I was thinking of doubting the truth of other things, it followed very evidently and very certainly that I existed; whereas if I merely ceased to think, even if all the rest of what I had ever imagined were true, I would have no reason to believe that I existed. I knew from this that I was a substance, the whole essence or nature of which was to think and which, in order to exist, has no need of any place and does not depend on anything material. Thus this self—that is, the soul by which I am what I am—is completely distinct from the body and is even easier to know than it, and even if the body did not exist the soul would still be everything that it is.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 4, 24-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Awake (19)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Dream (223)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enter (145)  |  Essence (85)  |  Everything (490)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Exist (460)  |  Extravagant (11)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Know (1539)  |  Material (366)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reason (767)  |  Rest (289)  |  Self (268)  |  Shake (43)  |  Something (718)  |  Soul (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wish (217)  |  World (1854)

For the saving the long progression of the thoughts to remote and first principles in every case, the mind should provide itself several stages; that is to say, intermediate principles, which it might have recourse to in the examining those positions that come in its way. These, though they are not self-evident principles, yet, if they have been made out from them by a wary and unquestionable deduction, may be depended on as certain and infallible truths, and serve as unquestionable truths to prove other points depending upon them, by a nearer and shorter view than remote and general maxims. … And thus mathematicians do, who do not in every new problem run it back to the first axioms through all the whole train of intermediate propositions. Certain theorems that they have settled to themselves upon sure demonstration, serve to resolve to them multitudes of propositions which depend on them, and are as firmly made out from thence as if the mind went afresh over every link of the whole chain that tie them to first self-evident principles.
In The Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Afresh (4)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chain (52)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evident (92)  |  Examine (84)  |  Firmly (6)  |  First (1303)  |  General (521)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Link (49)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (585)  |  Position (83)  |  Principle (532)  |  Problem (735)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (263)  |  Provide (79)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Remote (86)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Run (158)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (991)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Serve (64)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Several (33)  |  Short (200)  |  Stage (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thought (996)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  View (498)  |  Wary (3)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

For, every time a certain portion is destroyed, be it of the brain or of the spinal cord, a function is compelled to cease suddenly, and before the time known beforehand when it would stop naturally, it is certain that this function depends upon the area destroyed. It is in this way that I have recognized that the prime motive power of respiration has its seat in that part of the medulla oblongata that gives rise to the nerves of the eighth pair [vagi]; and it is by this method that up to a certain point it will be possible to discover the use of certain parts of the brain.
Expériences sur le Principe de la Vie, Notamment sur celui des Mouvements du Coeur, et sur le Siege de ce Principe (1812), 148-149. Translated in Edwin Clarke and L. S. Jacyna, Nineteenth Century Origins of Neuroscientific Concepts (1987), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (282)  |  Cease (81)  |  Certain (557)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Discover (572)  |  Function (235)  |  Known (453)  |  Medulla Oblongata (2)  |  Method (532)  |  Motive (62)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Point (585)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Rise (170)  |  Spinal Cord (5)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Time (1913)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Four elements, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, also provide an example of the astonishing togetherness of our universe. They make up the “organic” molecules that constitute living organisms on a planet, and the nuclei of these same elements interact to generate the light of its star. Then the organisms on the planet come to depend wholly on that starlight, as they must if life is to persist. So it is that all life on the Earth runs on sunlight. [Referring to photosynthesis]
In lecture, 'Life and Mind in the Universe', versions of which George Wald delivered throughout the 1980s. On the website of his son, Elijah Wald, who states it was the last of his father’s major lectures.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (324)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Living (492)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Photosynthesis (21)  |  Planet (406)  |  Run (158)  |  Star (462)  |  Starlight (5)  |  Sun (408)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Universe (901)  |  Wholly (88)

Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 129. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (47)  |  Art (681)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (782)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Command (60)  |  Country (269)  |  Desire (214)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Extend (129)  |  First (1303)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Kind (565)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  More (2558)  |  Native (41)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Noble (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (773)  |  Race (279)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wholesome (13)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

Geology depends on impressions made by floods, earthquakes, volcanoes. The mountains tell the story of their oppressions and rebellions. The outstanding data of this science of Mother Earth are those furnished by the most violent impressions that mark an epoch in evolution
In I Am an Impure Thinker (1970), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Data (162)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Flood (52)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geology (240)  |  Impression (118)  |  Mark (47)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Oppression (6)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Rebellion (3)  |  Story (122)  |  Tell (344)  |  Violent (17)  |  Volcano (46)

He [Lord Bacon] appears to have been utterly ignorant of the discoveries which had just been made by Kepler’s calculations … he does not say a word about Napier’s Logarithms, which had been published only nine years before and reprinted more than once in the interval. He complained that no considerable advance had been made in Geometry beyond Euclid, without taking any notice of what had been done by Archimedes and Apollonius. He saw the importance of determining accurately the specific gravities of different substances, and himself attempted to form a table of them by a rude process of his own, without knowing of the more scientific though still imperfect methods previously employed by Archimedes, Ghetaldus and Porta. He speaks of the εὕρηκα of Archimedes in a manner which implies that he did not clearly appreciate either the problem to be solved or the principles upon which the solution depended. In reviewing the progress of Mechanics, he makes no mention either of Archimedes, or Stevinus, Galileo, Guldinus, or Ghetaldus. He makes no allusion to the theory of Equilibrium. He observes that a ball of one pound weight will fall nearly as fast through the air as a ball of two, without alluding to the theory of acceleration of falling bodies, which had been made known by Galileo more than thirty years before. He proposed an inquiry with regard to the lever,—namely, whether in a balance with arms of different length but equal weight the distance from the fulcrum has any effect upon the inclination—though the theory of the lever was as well understood in his own time as it is now. … He speaks of the poles of the earth as fixed, in a manner which seems to imply that he was not acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes; and in another place, of the north pole being above and the south pole below, as a reason why in our hemisphere the north winds predominate over the south.
From Spedding’s 'Preface' to De Interpretations Naturae Proœmium, in The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 3, 511-512. [Note: the Greek word “εὕρηκα” is “Eureka” —Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Advance (299)  |  Air (367)  |  Apollonius (6)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Balance (82)  |  Ball (64)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Body (557)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Complain (10)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (596)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Employ (115)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Equinox (5)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Eureka (13)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fast (49)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Form (978)  |  Fulcrum (3)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Hemisphere (5)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Known (453)  |  Length (24)  |  Lever (13)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mention (84)  |  Method (532)  |  More (2558)  |  John Napier (4)  |  Nearly (137)  |  North Pole (5)  |  North Wind (2)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observe (181)  |  Pole (49)  |  Pound (15)  |  Precession (4)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Principle (532)  |  Problem (735)  |  Process (441)  |  Progress (493)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regard (312)  |  Saw (160)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solve (146)  |  South (39)  |  South Pole (3)  |  Speak (240)  |  Specific (98)  |  Specific Gravity (2)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Table (106)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understood (155)  |  Weight (140)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (965)

Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for assistance call,
Till one man’s weakness grows the strength of all.
In 'Epistle II: Of the Nature and State of Man', collected in Samuel Johnson (ed.), The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland: Vol. 6: The Whole Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq. (1800), Vol. 6, 374.
Science quotes on:  |  Assistance (23)  |  Call (782)  |  Forming (42)  |  Friend (180)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Other (2233)  |  Servant (40)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Strength (139)  |  Weakness (50)

Here I am at the limit which God and nature has assigned to my individuality. I am compelled to depend upon word, language and image in the most precise sense, and am wholly unable to operate in any manner whatever with symbols and numbers which are easily intelligible to the most highly gifted minds.
In Letter to Naumann (1826), in Vogel, Goethe's Selbstzeugnisse (1903), 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Assign (15)  |  Compel (31)  |  Easily (36)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  God (776)  |  Highly (16)  |  Image (97)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Language (310)  |  Limit (294)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Operate (19)  |  Precise (71)  |  Sense (786)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Unable (25)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Word (650)

Historical chronology, human or geological, depends... upon comparable impersonal principles. If one scribes with a stylus on a plate of wet clay two marks, the second crossing the first, another person on examining these marks can tell unambiguously which was made first and which second, because the latter event irreversibly disturbs its predecessor. In virtue of the fact that most of the rocks of the earth contain imprints of a succession of such irreversible events, an unambiguous working out of the chronological sequence of these events becomes possible.
'Critique of the Principle of Uniformity', in C. C. Albritton (ed.), Uniformity and Simplicity (1967), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Chronology (9)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1259)  |  First (1303)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Principle (532)  |  Rock (177)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Succession (80)  |  Tell (344)  |  Two (936)  |  Virtue (117)

History shows that the human animal has always learned but progress used to be very slow. This was because learning often depended on the chance coming together of a potentially informative event on the one hand and a perceptive observer on the other. Scientific method accelerated that process.
In article Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future (1995), published at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerate (11)  |  Animal (651)  |  Chance (245)  |  Coming (114)  |  Event (222)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Informative (3)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Method (532)  |  Observer (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceptive (3)  |  Potential (75)  |  Process (441)  |  Progress (493)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Show (354)  |  Slow (108)  |  Together (392)

Human beings are sea creatures, dependent on the oceans just as much as whales, herring or coral reefs.
In 'Can We Stop Killing Our Oceans Now, Please?', Huffington Post (14 Aug 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Creature (244)  |  Herring (4)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Sea (327)  |  Whale (45)

I am particularly concerned to determine the probability of causes and results, as exhibited in events that occur in large numbers, and to investigate the laws according to which that probability approaches a limit in proportion to the repetition of events. That investigation deserves the attention of mathematicians because of the analysis required. It is primarily there that the approximation of formulas that are functions of large numbers has its most important applications. The investigation will benefit observers in identifying the mean to be chosen among the results of their observations and the probability of the errors still to be apprehended. Lastly, the investigation is one that deserves the attention of philosophers in showing how in the final analysis there is a regularity underlying the very things that seem to us to pertain entirely to chance, and in unveiling the hidden but constant causes on which that regularity depends. It is on the regularity of the main outcomes of events taken in large numbers that various institutions depend, such as annuities, tontines, and insurance policies. Questions about those subjects, as well as about inoculation with vaccine and decisions of electoral assemblies, present no further difficulty in the light of my theory. I limit myself here to resolving the most general of them, but the importance of these concerns in civil life, the moral considerations that complicate them, and the voluminous data that they presuppose require a separate work.
Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1825), trans. Andrew I. Dale (1995), Introduction.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Application (257)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attention (198)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Cause (564)  |  Chance (245)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Civil (26)  |  Complication (30)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constant (148)  |  Data (162)  |  Decision (98)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Determine (152)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Final (121)  |  Formula (102)  |  Function (235)  |  General (521)  |  Government (116)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inoculation (9)  |  Institution (73)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mean (810)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Number (712)  |  Observation (595)  |  Occur (151)  |  Outcome (16)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Present (630)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Question (652)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Repetition (30)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Separate (151)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (544)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Vaccine (9)  |  Various (206)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

I am quite aware that we have just now lightheartedly expelled in imagination many excellent men who are largely, perhaps chiefly, responsible for the buildings of the temple of science; and in many cases our angel would find it a pretty ticklish job to decide. But of one thing I feel sure: if the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have come to be, any more than a forest can grow which consists of nothing but creepers. For these people any sphere of human activity will do, if it comes to a point; whether they become engineers, officers, tradesmen, or scientists depends on circumstances.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Angel (47)  |  Aware (36)  |  Become (822)  |  Building (158)  |  Buildings (5)  |  Case (102)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Consist (224)  |  Decide (53)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expel (4)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forest (161)  |  Grow (247)  |  Human (1517)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Job (86)  |  Largely (14)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Officer (12)  |  People (1034)  |  Point (585)  |  Pretty (21)  |  Responsible (20)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Temple (45)  |  Temple Of Science (8)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Type (172)  |  Will (2350)

I believe that the useful methods of mathematics are easily to be learned by quite young persons, just as languages are easily learned in youth. What a wondrous philosophy and history underlie the use of almost every word in every language—yet the child learns to use the word unconsciously. No doubt when such a word was first invented it was studied over and lectured upon, just as one might lecture now upon the idea of a rate, or the use of Cartesian co-ordinates, and we may depend upon it that children of the future will use the idea of the calculus, and use squared paper as readily as they now cipher. … When Egyptian and Chaldean philosophers spent years in difficult calculations, which would now be thought easy by young children, doubtless they had the same notions of the depth of their knowledge that Sir William Thomson might now have of his. How is it, then, that Thomson gained his immense knowledge in the time taken by a Chaldean philosopher to acquire a simple knowledge of arithmetic? The reason is plain. Thomson, when a child, was taught in a few years more than all that was known three thousand years ago of the properties of numbers. When it is found essential to a boy’s future that machinery should be given to his brain, it is given to him; he is taught to use it, and his bright memory makes the use of it a second nature to him; but it is not till after-life that he makes a close investigation of what there actually is in his brain which has enabled him to do so much. It is taken because the child has much faith. In after years he will accept nothing without careful consideration. The machinery given to the brain of children is getting more and more complicated as time goes on; but there is really no reason why it should not be taken in as early, and used as readily, as were the axioms of childish education in ancient Chaldea.
In Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Actual (145)  |  Afterlife (3)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Belief (616)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brain (282)  |  Bright (82)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Careful (28)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Chaldea (4)  |  Child (333)  |  Childish (20)  |  Children (201)  |  Cipher (3)  |  Close (77)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Coordinate (5)  |  Depth (97)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Easily (36)  |  Easy (213)  |  Education (423)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essential (210)  |  Faith (210)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Future (467)  |  Gain (149)  |  Give (208)  |  History (719)  |  Idea (882)  |  Immense (89)  |  Invent (57)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (310)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Life (1873)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Memory (144)  |  Method (532)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (712)  |  Paper (192)  |  Person (366)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Plain (34)  |  Property (177)  |  Rate (31)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reason (767)  |  Same (168)  |  Second Nature (3)  |  Simple (430)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Square (73)  |  Study (703)  |  Teach (301)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Thought (996)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unconsciously (9)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (261)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wondrous (23)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (965)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

I cannot separate land and sea: to me they interfinger like a pattern in a moss agate, positive and negative shapes irrevocably interlocked. My knowledge of this peninsula depends on that understanding: of underwater canyons that are continuations of the land, of the shell fossils far inland that measure continuations of the sea in eons past.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agate (2)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Eon (12)  |  Far (158)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Inland (3)  |  Interlock (4)  |  Irrevocably (2)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Land (134)  |  Measure (242)  |  Moss (14)  |  Negative (66)  |  Past (355)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Peninsula (2)  |  Positive (98)  |  Sea (327)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shape (77)  |  Shell (69)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Underwater (5)

I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.
In 'The Science Of Deduction', A Study In Scarlet (1887, 1904), 15-16.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Assortment (5)  |  Attic (3)  |  Best (468)  |  Brain (282)  |  Choose (116)  |  Consider (430)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Doing (277)  |  Elastic (2)  |  Empty (83)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fool (121)  |  Forget (125)  |  Furniture (8)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jumble (10)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Little (718)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tool (131)  |  Useful (261)  |  Useless (38)  |  Wall (71)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

I despise people who depend on these things [heroin and cocaine]. If you really want a mind-altering experience, look at a tree.
Quoted in interview by Tim Adams, 'This much I know: A.C. Grayling', The Observer (4 Jul 2009).
Science quotes on:  |  Addiction (6)  |  Dependency (3)  |  Despise (16)  |  Drug (61)  |  Experience (494)  |  Heroin (2)  |  High (370)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1380)  |  People (1034)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Want (505)

I do not intend to go deeply into the question how far mathematical studies, as the representatives of conscious logical reasoning, should take a more important place in school education. But it is, in reality, one of the questions of the day. In proportion as the range of science extends, its system and organization must be improved, and it must inevitably come about that individual students will find themselves compelled to go through a stricter course of training than grammar is in a position to supply. What strikes me in my own experience with students who pass from our classical schools to scientific and medical studies, is first, a certain laxity in the application of strictly universal laws. The grammatical rules, in which they have been exercised, are for the most part followed by long lists of exceptions; accordingly they are not in the habit of relying implicitly on the certainty of a legitimate deduction from a strictly universal law. Secondly, I find them for the most part too much inclined to trust to authority, even in cases where they might form an independent judgment. In fact, in philological studies, inasmuch as it is seldom possible to take in the whole of the premises at a glance, and inasmuch as the decision of disputed questions often depends on an aesthetic feeling for beauty of expression, or for the genius of the language, attainable only by long training, it must often happen that the student is referred to authorities even by the best teachers. Both faults are traceable to certain indolence and vagueness of thought, the sad effects of which are not confined to subsequent scientific studies. But certainly the best remedy for both is to be found in mathematics, where there is absolute certainty in the reasoning, and no authority is recognized but that of one’s own intelligence.
In 'On the Relation of Natural Science to Science in general', Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects, translated by E. Atkinson (1900), 25-26.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Accordingly (5)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Application (257)  |  Attainable (3)  |  Authority (100)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Best (468)  |  Both (496)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Classical (49)  |  Compel (31)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Course (415)  |  Decision (98)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (182)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Far (158)  |  Fault (58)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  Form (978)  |  Genius (301)  |  Glance (36)  |  Grammar (15)  |  Grammatical (2)  |  Habit (174)  |  Happen (282)  |  Important (231)  |  Improve (65)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Independent (75)  |  Individual (420)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intend (18)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Language (310)  |  Law (914)  |  Laxity (2)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  List (10)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Medical (31)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Often (109)  |  Organization (120)  |  Part (237)  |  Pass (242)  |  Philological (3)  |  Place (194)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Premise (40)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Question (652)  |  Range (104)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Refer (14)  |  Rely (13)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Representative (14)  |  Rule (308)  |  Sadness (37)  |  School (228)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Strict (20)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Strike (72)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (703)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Supply (101)  |  System (545)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Through (846)  |  Traceable (5)  |  Training (92)  |  Trust (73)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universal Law (4)  |  Vagueness (15)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

I do not share in this reverence for knowledge as such. It all depends on who has the knowledge and what he does with it. That knowledge which adds greatly to character is knowledge so handled as to transform every phase of immediate experience.
In 'The Rhythmic Claims of Freedom and Discipline', The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1929), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Experience (494)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Phase (37)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Share (82)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transformation (72)

I fancy you give me credit for being a more systematic sort of cove than I really am in the matter of limits of significance. What would actually happen would be that I should make out Pt (normal) and say to myself that would be about 50:1; pretty good but as it may not be normal we'd best not be too certain, or 100:1; even allowing that it may not be normal it seems good enough and whether one would be content with that or would require further work would depend on the importance of the conclusion and the difficulty of obtaining suitable experience.
Letter to E. S. Pearson, 18 May 1929. E. S. Pearson, '"Student" as Statistician', Biometrika, 1939, 30, 244.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Good (907)  |  Happen (282)  |  Importance (299)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (991)  |  Significance (115)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Work (1403)

I have attempted to form a judgment as to the conditions for evolution based on the statistical consequences of Mendelian heredity. The most general conclusion is that evolution depends on a certain balance among its factors. There must be a gene mutation, but an excessive rate gives an array of freaks, not evolution; there must be selection, but too severe a process destroys the field of variability, and thus the basis for further advance; prevalence of local inbreeding within a species has extremely important evolutionary consequences, but too close inbreeding leads merely to extinction. A certain amount of crossbreeding is favorable but not too much. In this dependence on balance the species is like a living organism. At all levels of organization life depends on the maintenance of a certain balance among its factors.
In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics: Ithaca, New York, 1932 (1932) Vol. 1, 365.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Balance (82)  |  Basis (180)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Crossbreeding (2)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Factor (47)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Field (378)  |  Form (978)  |  Freak (6)  |  Gene (105)  |  General (521)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1873)  |  Living (492)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Gregor Mendel (23)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (41)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Process (441)  |  Selection (130)  |  Severity (6)  |  Species (435)  |  Variability (5)

I have very often reflected on what it is that really distinguishes the great genius from the common crowd. Here are a few observations I have made. The common individual always conforms to the prevailing opinion and the prevailing fashion; he regards the State in which everything now exists as the only possible one and passively accepts it ail. It does not occur to him that everything, from the shape of the furniture up to the subtlest hypothesis, is decided by the great council of mankind of which he is a member. He wears thin-soled shoes even though the sharp stones of the Street hurt his feet, he allows fashion to dictate to him that the buckles of his shoes must extend as far as the toes even though that means the shoe is often hard to get on. He does not reflect that the form of the shoe depends as much upon him as it does upon the fool who first wore thin shoes on a cracked pavement. To the great genius it always occurs to ask: Could this too not be false! He never gives his vote without first reflecting.
Aphorism 24 in Notebook C (1772-1773), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Ask (423)  |  Common (447)  |  Council (9)  |  Everything (490)  |  Exist (460)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fashion (34)  |  First (1303)  |  Fool (121)  |  Form (978)  |  Furniture (8)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (595)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Possible (560)  |  Regard (312)  |  Shoe (12)  |  State (505)  |  Stone (169)  |  Vote (16)

I shall explain a System of the World differing in many particulars from any yet known, answering in all things to the common Rules of Mechanical Motions: This depends upon three Suppositions. First, That all Cœlestial Bodies whatsoever, have an attraction or gravitating power towards their own Centers, whereby they attract not only their own parts, and keep them from flying from them, as we may observe the Earth to do, but that they do also attract all the other Cœlestial bodies that are within the sphere of their activity; and consequently that not only the Sun and Moon have an influence upon the body and motion the Earth, and the Earth upon them, but that Mercury also Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter by their attractive powers, have a considerable influence upon its motion in the same manner the corresponding attractive power of the Earth hath a considerable influence upon every one of their motions also. The second supposition is this, That all bodies whatsoever that are put into a direct and simple motion, will continue to move forward in a streight line, till they are by some other effectual powers deflected and bent into a Motion, describing a Circle, Ellipse, or some other more compounded Curve Line. The third supposition is, That these attractive powers are so much the more powerful in operating, by how much the nearer the body wrought upon is to their own Centers. Now what these several degrees are I have not yet experimentally verified; but it is a notion, which if fully prosecuted as it ought to be, will mightily assist the Astronomer to reduce all the Cœlestial Motions to a certain rule, which I doubt will never be done true without it. He that understands the nature of the Circular Pendulum and Circular Motion, will easily understand the whole ground of this Principle, and will know where to find direction in Nature for the true stating thereof. This I only hint at present to such as have ability and opportunity of prosecuting this Inquiry, and are not wanting of Industry for observing and calculating, wishing heartily such may be found, having myself many other things in hand which I would first compleat and therefore cannot so well attend it. But this I durst promise the Undertaker, that he will find all the Great Motions of the World to be influenced by this Principle, and that the true understanding thereof will be the true perfection of Astronomy.
An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations (1674), 27-8. Based on a Cutlerian Lecture delivered by Hooke at the Royal Society four years earlier.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Activity (218)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Attractive (25)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circle (118)  |  Circular (19)  |  Circular Motion (7)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Continue (180)  |  Curve (49)  |  Degree (278)  |  Direct (228)  |  Direction (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ellipse (8)  |  Explain (334)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Flying (74)  |  Forward (104)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hint (21)  |  Industry (160)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Mars (48)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (225)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Observe (181)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Planet (406)  |  Power (773)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (532)  |  Promise (72)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Rule (308)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Simple (430)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Sun (408)  |  Supposition (50)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Venus (21)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

I speak as a planetary physician whose patient, the living Earth, complains of fever; I see the Earth’s declining health as our most important concern, our very lives depending upon a healthy Earth. Our concern for it must come first, because the welfare of the burgeoning mass of humanity demands a healthy planet.
In The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity (2006, 2007), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Burgeoning (2)  |  Complain (10)  |  Concern (239)  |  Decline (28)  |  Demand (131)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1303)  |  Health (211)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Important (231)  |  Live (651)  |  Living Earth (5)  |  Mass (161)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Planet (406)  |  Welfare (30)

I will ask you to mark again that rather typical feature of the development of our subject; how so much progress depends on the interplay of techniques, discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order of decreasing importance.
This is the original quote, which gave rise to the commonly seen misstated shortened quote as: “Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order”—with the qualifying words “interplay” and “decreasing importance” omitted. From Brenner’s own handwritten notes of a Speech (20 Mar 1980), 'Biology in the 1980s', at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland. Reproduced in his article 'Life sentences: Detective Rummage investigates', The Scientist (19 Aug 2002), 16, No. 16, 15. He reflects on the original wording of the quote, from his notes that he “came across”, while rummaging through “the piles of papers that I have accumulated,” (hence “Detective Rummage” in the title). See more on the commonly seen misstated shortened quote also on the Sydney Brenner Quotes web page of this site, beginning, “Progress in science…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Decrease (16)  |  Development (442)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Feature (49)  |  Idea (882)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interplay (9)  |  New (1276)  |  New Idea (3)  |  Order (639)  |  Probably (50)  |  Progress (493)  |  Subject (544)  |  Technique (84)  |  Typical (16)  |  Will (2350)

If it is possible to have a linear unit that depends on no other quantity, it would seem natural to prefer it. Moreover, a mensural unit taken from the earth itself offers another advantage, that of being perfectly analogous to all the real measurements that in ordinary usage are also made upon the earth, such as the distance between two places or the area of some tract, for example. It is far more natural in practice to refer geographical distances to a quadrant of a great circle than to the length of a pendulum.
'Histoire'. Histoire et Memoires de l’Academie Royale des Science de Paris (1788/1791), 9-10. In Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace, 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (2nd Ed., 2000), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Being (1276)  |  Circle (118)  |  Definition (239)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Great (1610)  |  Length (24)  |  Linear (14)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Offer (143)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Two (936)  |  Unit (36)

If they don’t depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Better (495)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Scientist (881)  |  True (240)

In all cases of the motion of free material points under the influence of their attractive and repulsive forces, whose intensity depends solely upon distance, the loss in tension is always equal to the gain in vis viva, and the gain in the former equal to the loss in the latter. Hence the sum of the existing tensions and vires vivae is always constant. In this most general form we can distinguish our law as the principle of the conservation of force.
'On the Conservation of Force; a Physical Memoir'. In John Tyndall and William Francis (eds.), Scientific Memoirs: Natural Philosophy (1853), 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Attractive (25)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Constant (148)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Former (138)  |  Free (240)  |  Gain (149)  |  General (521)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Law (914)  |  Loss (118)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Point (585)  |  Principle (532)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tension (24)

In all cases when a particular agent or cause is to be studied, experiments should be arranged in such a way as to lead if possible to results depending on it alone ; or, if this cannot be done, they should be arranged so as to increase the effects due to the cause to be studied till these so far exceed the unavoidable concomitants, that the latter may be considered as only disturbing, not essentially modifying the effects of the principal agent.
In William Thomson and Peter Guthrie Tait, Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867), Vol. 1, 305.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (74)  |  Alone (325)  |  Arrange (34)  |  Cause (564)  |  Consider (430)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Due (143)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Increase (226)  |  Lead (391)  |  Modify (15)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principal (69)  |  Result (700)  |  Study (703)  |  Way (1214)

In an age of egoism, it is so difficult to persuade man that of all studies, the most important is that of himself. This is because egoism, like all passions, is blind. The attention of the egoist is directed to the immediate needs of which his senses give notice, and cannot be raised to those reflective needs that reason discloses to us; his aim is satisfaction, not perfection. He considers only his individual self; his species is nothing to him. Perhaps he fears that in penetrating the mysteries of his being he will ensure his own abasement, blush at his discoveries, and meet his conscience. True philosophy, always at one with moral science, tells a different tale. The source of useful illumination, we are told, is that of lasting content, is in ourselves. Our insight depends above all on the state of our faculties; but how can we bring our faculties to perfection if we do not know their nature and their laws! The elements of happiness are the moral sentiments; but how can we develop these sentiments without considering the principle of our affections, and the means of directing them? We become better by studying ourselves; the man who thoroughly knows himself is the wise man. Such reflection on the nature of his being brings a man to a better awareness of all the bonds that unite us to our fellows, to the re-discovery at the inner root of his existence of that identity of common life actuating us all, to feeling the full force of that fine maxim of the ancients: 'I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me.'
Considerations sur les diverses méthodes à suivre dans l'observation des peuples sauvages (1800) The Observation of Savage Peoples, trans. F. C. T. Moore (1969), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Alien (40)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Attention (198)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (495)  |  Blind (98)  |  Bond (46)  |  Common (447)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Consider (430)  |  Develop (279)  |  Different (596)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disclose (19)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Do (1905)  |  Element (324)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Ethnology (9)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fear (215)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Force (497)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Identity (19)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inner (72)  |  Insight (107)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Notice (81)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Passion (121)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (786)  |  Species (435)  |  State (505)  |  Studying (70)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Unite (43)  |  Useful (261)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (145)  |  Wise Man (17)

In describing a protein it is now common to distinguish the primary, secondary and tertiary structures. The primary structure is simply the order, or sequence, of the amino-acid residues along the polypeptide chains. This was first determined by Sanger using chemical techniques for the protein insulin, and has since been elucidated for a number of peptides and, in part, for one or two other small proteins. The secondary structure is the type of folding, coiling or puckering adopted by the polypeptide chain: the a-helix structure and the pleated sheet are examples. Secondary structure has been assigned in broad outline to a number of librous proteins such as silk, keratin and collagen; but we are ignorant of the nature of the secondary structure of any globular protein. True, there is suggestive evidence, though as yet no proof, that a-helices occur in globular proteins, to an extent which is difficult to gauge quantitatively in any particular case. The tertiary structure is the way in which the folded or coiled polypeptide chains are disposed to form the protein molecule as a three-dimensional object, in space. The chemical and physical properties of a protein cannot be fully interpreted until all three levels of structure are understood, for these properties depend on the spatial relationships between the amino-acids, and these in turn depend on the tertiary and secondary structures as much as on the primary. Only X-ray diffraction methods seem capable, even in principle, of unravelling the tertiary and secondary structures.
Co-author with G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips
'A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis', Nature (1958) 181, 662.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Diffraction (5)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extent (142)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Helix (10)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Insulin (9)  |  Method (532)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Object (442)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (520)  |  Polypeptide (2)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proof (304)  |  Protein (56)  |  Ray (115)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Residue (9)  |  Frederick Sanger (6)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Silk (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (525)  |  Structure (365)  |  Technique (84)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (172)  |  Understood (155)  |  Way (1214)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Diffraction (5)

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 (188)  |  Action (343)  |  Air (367)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bondage (6)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Discovery (839)  |  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 (272)  |  Moon (252)  |  Offer (143)  |  Orb (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (773)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Stream (83)  |  Success (327)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Velocity (51)

In the world of science, however, these sentiments have never been of much account. There everything depends on making opinion prevail and dominate; few men are really independent; the majority draws the individual after it.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Draw (141)  |  Everything (490)  |  Independent (75)  |  Individual (420)  |  Majority (68)  |  Making (300)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  World (1854)

Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depend on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and of heredity--all require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they are scientifically illiterate?
articles.latimes.com/1989-03-31/news/vw-543_1_scientific-literacy
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Acid Rain (2)  |  Choose (116)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deal (192)  |  Diet (56)  |  Effect (414)  |  Good (907)  |  Greenhouse Effect (5)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Illiteracy (8)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Layer (41)  |  Leader (51)  |  Literacy (10)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ozone (7)  |  Ozone Layer (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Program (58)  |  Proper (150)  |  Question (652)  |  Rain (70)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Support (151)  |  Threat (36)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  United States (31)  |  World (1854)

Increasingly, our leaders must deal with dangers that threaten the entire world, where an understanding of those dangers and the possible solutions depends on a good grasp of science. The ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, questions of diet and heredity. All require scientific literacy. Can Americans choose the proper leaders and support the proper programs if they themselves are scientifically illiterate? The whole premise of democracy is that it is safe to leave important questions to the court of public opinion—but is it safe to leave them to the court of public ignorance?
In Los Angeles Times (31 Mar 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Acid Rain (2)  |  America (144)  |  Choose (116)  |  Court (35)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deal (192)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Diet (56)  |  Effect (414)  |  Good (907)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Greenhouse Effect (5)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Illiteracy (8)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Importance (299)  |  Layer (41)  |  Leader (51)  |  Literacy (10)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Ozone (7)  |  Ozone Layer (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Premise (40)  |  Program (58)  |  Proper (150)  |  Public (100)  |  Question (652)  |  Rain (70)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Safe (60)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Illiteracy (8)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Support (151)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Threat (36)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1854)

Invention depends altogether upon Execution or Organisation, as that is right or wrong, so is the Invention perfect or imperfect.
Marginal note (c. 1808) written At head of account of Reynolds’ life in his copy of The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1798), beside “Much copying discountenanced”. As given in William Blake, Edwin John Ellis (ed.) and William Butler Yeats (ed.), The Works of William Blake (1893), Vol. 2, 319-320.
Science quotes on:  |  Execution (25)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Invention (401)  |  Organisation (7)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Right (473)  |  Wrong (247)

Is pure science to be regarded as overall beneficial to society? Answer: It depends much on what you consider benefits. If you look at health, long life, transportation, communication, education, you might be tempted to say yes. If you look at the enormous social-economic dislocations, at the prospect of an immense famine in India, brought on by the advances of public health science and nutrition science, at strains on our psyches due to the imbalance between technical developments and our limited ability to adjust to the pace of change, you might be tempted to say no. Clearly, the present state of the world—to which science has contributed much—leaves a great deal to be desired, and much to be feared. So I write down … SCIENCE BENEFICIAL? DOUBTFUL.
In 'Homo Scientificus According to Beckett," collected in William Beranek, Jr. (ed.)Science, Scientists, and Society, (1972), 135. Excerpted in Ann E. Kammer, Science, Sex, and Society (1979), 276.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Adjust (11)  |  Advance (299)  |  Answer (389)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Change (640)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consider (430)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Development (442)  |  Dislocation (4)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Education (423)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Famine (18)  |  Fear (215)  |  Health (211)  |  Imbalance (3)  |  Immense (89)  |  India (23)  |  Leave (139)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nutrition (25)  |  Overall (10)  |  Pace (18)  |  Present (630)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Public Health (12)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Society (353)  |  State (505)  |  Strain (13)  |  Technical (53)  |  Transportation (20)  |  World (1854)  |  Write (250)

It [an ethical problem with in vitro fertilization] depends on whether you're talking ethics from the standpoint of some religious denomination or from just truly religious people. The Jewish or Catholic faiths, for example, have their own rules. But just religious people, who will make very devoted parents, have no problem with in vitro fertilization.
From address to the annual meeeting of the American Fertility Society in San Francisco (5 Feb 1979), as quoted in a UPI news article, reprinted in, for example, 'Steptoe Discusses Test Tube Ethics', The Milwaukee Journal (6 Feb 1979), 5. As reported, each sentence was separated in its own quote marks, separated by “Dr. Patrick Steptoe said” and “he said,” so the quote may not have been delivered as a single statement.
Science quotes on:  |  Catholic (18)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Faith (210)  |  Fertilization (15)  |  In Vitro (3)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Parent (80)  |  People (1034)  |  Problem (735)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rule (308)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Talking (76)  |  Test Tube Baby (2)  |  Truly (119)  |  Will (2350)

It is a law, that every event depends on the same law.
A System of Logic; Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 1, Book 2, Chapter 5, 396.
Science quotes on:  |  Event (222)  |  Law (914)

It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodeling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the direction of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward.
'The Struggle for Existence in Human Society' (1888). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 9, 199.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Direction (185)  |  Effect (414)  |  Error (339)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Involve (93)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Organism (231)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Process (441)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Upward (44)

It is as true now, as it was in the days when Werner first drew his far-reaching inferences before his charmed listeners, that on the characteristic phenomena and varying distribution of the grand mineral masses of the rock-formations, almost all that concerns the relative habitability of a land depends.
In 'The Relations of Geology', Scottish Geographical Magazine (Aug 1902), 19, No. 8, 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Charm (54)  |  Concern (239)  |  Distribution (51)  |  First (1303)  |  Formation (100)  |  Inference (45)  |  Land (134)  |  Listener (7)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Relative (42)  |  Rock (177)  |  True (240)  |  Abraham Werner (5)

It is contrary to the usual order of things, that events so harmonious as those of the system of the world, should depend on such diversified agents as are supposed to exist in our artificial arrangements; and there is reason to anticipate a great reduction in the number of undecompounded bodies, and to expect that the analogies of nature will be found conformable to the refined operations of art. The more the phenomena of the universe are studied, the more distinct their connection appears, and the more simple their causes, the more magnificent their design, and the more wonderful the wisdom and power of their Author.
Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812), in J. Davy (ed.), The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy(1839-40), Vol. 4, 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (74)  |  Anticipate (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Art (681)  |  Author (175)  |  Cause (564)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Design (205)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (460)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (639)  |  Power (773)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Simple (430)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (901)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonderful (156)  |  World (1854)

It is high time that laymen abandoned the misleading belief that scientific enquiry is a cold dispassionate enterprise, bleached of imaginative qualities, and that a scientist is a man who turns the handle of discovery; for at every level of endeavour scientific research is a passionate undertaking and the Promotion of Natural Knowledge depends above all on a sortee into what can be imagined but is not yet known.
The Times Literary Supplement (London), 1963 October 25 (p. 850)
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Belief (616)  |  Bleach (3)  |  Cold (115)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  Imaginative (9)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Layman (21)  |  Level (69)  |  Man (2252)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Natural (811)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Promotion (8)  |  Quality (140)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Time (1913)  |  Turn (454)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Undertaking (17)

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 (145)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (616)  |  Better (495)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Care (204)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Chain (52)  |  Check (26)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Computation (28)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Continue (180)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convince (43)  |  Correct (95)  |  Countless (39)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Degree (278)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (596)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fail (193)  |  Fare (5)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (907)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hide (70)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (322)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Thought (7)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Increase (226)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Isolate (25)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1539)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Less (105)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Manage (26)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metaphysic (7)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1276)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Object (442)  |  Old (499)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (237)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Point (585)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (73)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Rapid (38)  |  Reach (287)  |  Realm (88)  |  Reason (767)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rid (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Rule (308)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Same (168)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  See (1095)  |  Single (366)  |  Soon (187)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Support (151)  |  Survey (36)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thought (996)  |  Transmit (12)  |  True (240)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Use (771)  |  Verify (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

It is only by the influence of individuals who can set an example, whom the masses recognize as their leaders, that they can be induced to submit to the labors and renunciations on which the existence of culture depends.
In The Future of an Illusion (1928), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Culture (157)  |  Example (100)  |  Existence (484)  |  Individual (420)  |  Induce (24)  |  Influence (231)  |  Labor (200)  |  Leader (51)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Renunciation (2)  |  Set (400)  |  Submit (21)

It is true that physics gives a wonderful training in precise, logical thinking-about physics. It really does depend upon accurate reproducible experiments, and upon framing hypotheses with the greatest possible freedom from dogmatic prejudice. And if these were the really important things in life, physics would be an essential study for everybody.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 90-91.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Essential (210)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Importance (299)  |  Life (1873)  |  Logic (313)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (73)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Reproducibility (2)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Study (703)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Training (92)  |  Wonderful (156)

It was his [Leibnitz’s] love of method and order, and the conviction that such order and harmony existed in the real world, and that our success in understanding it depended upon the degree and order which we could attain in our own thoughts, that originally was probably nothing more than a habit which by degrees grew into a formal rule. This habit was acquired by early occupation with legal and mathematical questions. We have seen how the theory of combinations and arrangements of elements had a special interest for him. We also saw how mathematical calculations served him as a type and model of clear and orderly reasoning, and how he tried to introduce method and system into logical discussions, by reducing to a small number of terms the multitude of compound notions he had to deal with. This tendency increased in strength, and even in those early years he elaborated the idea of a general arithmetic, with a universal language of symbols, or a characteristic which would be applicable to all reasoning processes, and reduce philosophical investigations to that simplicity and certainty which the use of algebraic symbols had introduced into mathematics.
A mental attitude such as this is always highly favorable for mathematical as well as for philosophical investigations. Wherever progress depends upon precision and clearness of thought, and wherever such can be gained by reducing a variety of investigations to a general method, by bringing a multitude of notions under a common term or symbol, it proves inestimable. It necessarily imports the special qualities of number—viz., their continuity, infinity and infinite divisibility—like mathematical quantities—and destroys the notion that irreconcilable contrasts exist in nature, or gaps which cannot be bridged over. Thus, in his letter to Arnaud, Leibnitz expresses it as his opinion that geometry, or the philosophy of space, forms a step to the philosophy of motion—i.e., of corporeal things—and the philosophy of motion a step to the philosophy of mind.
In Leibnitz (1884), 44-45. [The first sentence is reworded to better introduce the quotation. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Algebraic (5)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bring (96)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Combination (151)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Corporeal (5)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (278)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Early (196)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Elaborated (7)  |  Element (324)  |  Exist (460)  |  Express (192)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Form (978)  |  Formal (37)  |  Gain (149)  |  Gap (36)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Grow (247)  |  Habit (174)  |  Harmony (106)  |  Highly (16)  |  Idea (882)  |  Import (5)  |  Increase (226)  |  Inestimable (4)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Interest (416)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Language (310)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Legal (9)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Letter (117)  |  Logical (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (712)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (639)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Original (62)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Precision (73)  |  Probable (24)  |  Process (441)  |  Progress (493)  |  Prove (263)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Quality (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (652)  |  Quotation (19)  |  Real World (15)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Rule (308)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1095)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Serve (64)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (525)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Interest (2)  |  Step (235)  |  Strength (139)  |  Success (327)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Try (296)  |  Type (172)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Wherever (51)  |  World (1854)  |  Year (965)

It will be found that everything depends on the composition of the forces with which the particles of matter act upon one another; and from these forces, as a matter of fact, all phenomena of Nature take their origin.
Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria (1758), sec. 1. 5
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Composition (86)  |  Everything (490)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Force (497)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Origin (251)  |  Particle (200)  |  Will (2350)

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.
In The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson (1948, 1993), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Character (259)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Danger (127)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  Government (116)  |  Governor (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Honest (53)  |  Hope (322)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Thomas Jefferson (70)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pin (20)  |  Rise (170)  |  Success (327)  |  George Washington (4)  |  Welfare (30)

Just as the arts of tanning and dyeing were practiced long before the scientific principles upon which they depend were known, so also the practice of Chemical Engineering preceded any analysis or exposition of the principles upon which such practice is based.
In William H. Walker, Warren K. Lewis and William H. MacAdams, The Principles of Chemical Engineering (1923), Preface to 1st. edition, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Art (681)  |  Base (120)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Engineering (4)  |  Dyeing (2)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Long (778)  |  Practice (212)  |  Precede (23)  |  Principle (532)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Tanning (3)

Leakey’s work on the Olduvai Canyon man has depended a great deal on the observance of a notched break in the shinbones of good-sized animals, which is assumed to have been made by striking a bone with a sharp rock before breaking it over the knee to expose the bone marrow which is edible and nourishing. When he found broken bones with the tell-tale notch, he knew that man must have been there and so began his search.
In 'Man’s Place in the Physical Universe', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Sep 1965), 21, No. 7, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Bone (101)  |  Break (110)  |  Broken (56)  |  Clue (20)  |  Deal (192)  |  Edible (7)  |  Expose (28)  |  Food (214)  |  Good (907)  |  Great (1610)  |  Louis S.B. Leakey (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marrow (5)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (595)  |  Rock (177)  |  Search (175)  |  Striking (48)  |  Tell (344)  |  Work (1403)

Looking down on this great metropolis, the ingenuity with which we continue to reshape our planet is very striking. It’s also sobering. It reminds me of just how easy it is for us to lose our connection with the natural world. Yet it is on this connection that the future of both humanity and the natural world will depend.
From BBC TV series Planet Earth II, while at London from the top of a skyscraper. As quoted in interview with Joe Shute, 'David Attenborough at 90: ‘I think about my mortality every day’', The Telegraph (29 Oct 2016).
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Connection (171)  |  Continue (180)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Lose (165)  |  Metropolis (2)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Planet (406)  |  Reshape (5)  |  Striking (48)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Magnitude may be compared to the power output in kilowatts of a [radio] broadcasting station; local intensity, on the Mercalli or similar scale, is then comparable to the signal strength noted on a receiver at a given locality. Intensity, like signal strength, will generally fall off with distance from the source; it will also depend on local conditions at the point of observation, and to some extent on the conditions along the path from source to that point.
From interview in the Earthquake Information Bulletin (Jul-Aug 1971), 3, No. 4, as abridged in article on USGS website.
Science quotes on:  |  Comparable (7)  |  Compare (76)  |  Condition (362)  |  Distance (171)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fall (243)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Kilowatt (2)  |  Local (25)  |  Locality (8)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Observation (595)  |  Output (12)  |  Path (160)  |  Point (585)  |  Power (773)  |  Radio (60)  |  Receiver (5)  |  Scale (122)  |  Signal (29)  |  Source (102)  |  Station (30)  |  Strength (139)  |  Will (2350)

Malthus argued a century and a half ago that man, by using up all his available resources, would forever press on the limits of subsistence, thus condemning humanity to an indefinite future of misery and poverty. We can now begin to hope and, I believe, know that Malthus was expressing not a law of nature, but merely the limitation then of scientific and social wisdom. The truth or falsity of his prediction will depend now, with the tools we have, on our own actions, now and in the years to come.
From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest'. Online at The American Presidency Project.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Available (80)  |  Begin (275)  |  Century (319)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Forever (112)  |  Future (467)  |  Hope (322)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Misery (32)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Press (21)  |  Resource (75)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Social (262)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Tool (131)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use Up (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Year (965)

Man is an eating animal, a drinking animal, and a sleeping animal, and one placed in a material world, which alone furnishes all the human animal can desire. He is gifted besides with knowing faculties, practically to explore and to apply the resources of this world to his use. These are realities. All else is nothing; conscience and sentiment are mere figments of the imagination. Man has but five gates of knowledge, the five senses; he can know nothing but through them; all else is a vain fancy, and as for the being of a God, the existence of a soul, or a world to come, who can know anything about them? Depend upon it, my dear madam, these are only the bugbears by which men of sense govern fools.
Attributed to Darwin by Mary Anne Schimmelpennick. Quoted in Christiana C. Hankin (ed.) Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck (1858), Vol. I, 241-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (325)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apply (170)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Desire (214)  |  Drinking (21)  |  Eating (46)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Fool (121)  |  Gate (33)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  God (776)  |  Govern (67)  |  Human (1517)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Sense (786)  |  Soul (237)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Vain (86)  |  World (1854)

Man's health and well-being depends upon, among many things, the proper functioning of the myriad proteins that participate in the intricate synergisms of living systems.
Nobel Prize Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Function (235)  |  Health (211)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Life (1873)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Participate (10)  |  Proper (150)  |  Protein (56)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)

Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out depends upon what you put in; and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-flour from peascods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite result out of loose data.
From Anniversary Address of the President to the Geological Society, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (1869), l. In 'Geological Reform', Collected Essays: Discourses, Biological and Geological (1894), Vol. 8, 333.
Science quotes on:  |  Data (162)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (278)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Extract (40)  |  Flour (4)  |  Formula (102)  |  Grandest (10)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mill (16)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Result (700)  |  Will (2350)  |  Workmanship (7)  |  World (1854)

Mathematics, as much as music or any other art, is one of the means by which we rise to a complete self-consciousness. The significance of mathematics resides precisely in the fact that it is an art; by informing us of the nature of our own minds it informs us of much that depends on our minds.
In Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Complete (209)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Inform (52)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Music (133)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Reside (25)  |  Rise (170)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Significance (115)

Medicine in its present state is, it seems to me, by now completely discovered, insofar as it teaches in each instance the particular details and the correct measures. For anyone who has an understanding of medicine in this way depends very little upon good luck, but is able to do good with or without luck. For the whole of medicine has been established, and the excellent principles discovered in it clearly have very little need of good luck.
Places in Man, in Hippocrates, trans. P. Potter (1995), Vol. 8, 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Completely (137)  |  Detail (150)  |  Discover (572)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (907)  |  Little (718)  |  Luck (44)  |  Measure (242)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (532)  |  State (505)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

Mental events proceeding beneath the threshold of consciousness are the substrate upon which all conscious experience depends. To argue that all we need of our mental equipment is that part of which we are conscious is about as helpful as equating the United States with the Senate or England with the Houses of Parliament.
Quoted in 'Anthony (George) Stevens' in Gale, Contemporary Authors Online (2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  England (43)  |  Equating (2)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Event (222)  |  Experience (494)  |  Helpful (16)  |  House (143)  |  Mental (179)  |  Need (323)  |  Parliament (8)  |  Part (237)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  State (505)  |  Substrate (2)  |  Threshold (11)  |  United States (31)

Modern anthropology has taught us, through comparative investigation of so-called primitive cultures, that the social behavior of human beings may differ greatly, depending upon prevailing cultural patterns and the types of organisation which predominate in society. It is on this that those who are striving to improve the lot of man may ground their hopes: human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Annihilate (10)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Call (782)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Culture (157)  |  Differ (88)  |  Fate (76)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hope (322)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Improve (65)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mercy (12)  |  Modern (405)  |  Organisation (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Self (268)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (262)  |  Society (353)  |  Strive (53)  |  Teach (301)  |  Through (846)  |  Type (172)

Modern civilization depends on science … James Smithson was well aware that knowledge should not be viewed as existing in isolated parts, but as a whole, each portion of which throws light on all the other, and that the tendency of all is to improve the human mind, and give it new sources of power and enjoyment … narrow minds think nothing of importance but their own favorite pursuit, but liberal views exclude no branch of science or literature, for they all contribute to sweeten, to adorn, and to embellish life … science is the pursuit above all which impresses us with the capacity of man for intellectual and moral progress and awakens the human intellect to aspiration for a higher condition of humanity.
[Joseph Henry was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, named after its benefactor, James Smithson.]
The first clause is inscribed on the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. In Library of Congress, Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989), 313. From 'On the Smithsonian Institution', (Aug 1853), Proceedings of the Third Session of the American Association for the Advancement of Education (1854), 101.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Branch (155)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Condition (362)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Favorite (37)  |  First (1303)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Importance (299)  |  Institution (73)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Literature (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modern (405)  |  Moral (203)  |  Narrow (85)  |  New (1276)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Other (2233)  |  Portion (86)  |  Power (773)  |  Progress (493)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Smithsonian Institution (2)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1124)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)

My experiments proved that the radiation of uranium compounds ... is an atomic property of the element of uranium. Its intensity is proportional to the quantity of uranium contained in the compound, and depends neither on conditions of chemical combination, nor on external circumstances, such as light or temperature.
... The radiation of thorium has an intensity of the same order as that of uranium, and is, as in the case of uranium, an atomic property of the element.
It was necessary at this point to find a new term to define this new property of matter manifested by the elements of uranium and thorium. I proposed the word radioactivity which has since become generally adopted; the radioactive elements have been called radio elements.
In Pierre Curie, with the Autobiographical Notes of Marie Curie, trans. Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg (1923), 96. Also in reprint (2012) 45-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Call (782)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Combination (151)  |  Compound (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Element (324)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Find (1014)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Light (636)  |  Matter (821)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1276)  |  Nomencalture (4)  |  Order (639)  |  Point (585)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Thorium (5)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Word (650)

My internal and external life depend so much on the work of others that I must make an extreme effort to give as much as I receive.
Quoted, without citation, in Floyd Merrell, Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics, and the New Physics, 241. Webmaster has not found any other source for this quote, and cautions doubt about its authenticity. If you know a primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Dependence (47)  |  Effort (243)  |  External (62)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Giving (11)  |  Internal (69)  |  Life (1873)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Receive (117)  |  Work (1403)

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 (146)  |  Attention (198)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Bell (36)  |  Brain (282)  |  Brief (37)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complex (203)  |  Consist (224)  |  Drain (12)  |  Existence (484)  |  First (1303)  |  Gas (89)  |  General (521)  |  Happen (282)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (882)  |  Impression (118)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Pass (242)  |  Period (200)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Record (161)  |  Sight (135)  |  Still (614)  |  Sudden (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Usually (176)  |  Water (505)  |  Wire (36)

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain that alone on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine would not, I suppose, have thus suffered, and if I had to live my life over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept alive through use.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (98)  |  Alone (325)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Become (822)  |  Better (495)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brain (282)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  General (521)  |  Kind (565)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Listen (81)  |  Live (651)  |  Machine (272)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Mine (78)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Read (309)  |  Rule (308)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Taste (93)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Week (73)  |  Why (491)

My success will not depend on what A or B thinks of me. My success will be what I make of my work.
Quoted in India Today (Apr 2008), 33, No 16, as cited on webpage of Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Science quotes on:  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1124)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

Nature is no great mother who has borne us. She is our creation. It is our brain that she quickens to life. Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that have influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty.
In 'Decay of Lying', The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, Phrases and Philosophies For the Use of the Young (1907), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Brain (282)  |  Creation (350)  |  Different (596)  |  Great (1610)  |  Influence (231)  |  Life (1873)  |  Look (584)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Quicken (8)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Thing (1914)

Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.
As quoted, without citation, in David Suzuki and Holly Dressel , From Naked Ape to Superspecies: Humanity and the Global Eco-Crisis (1999, 2009), 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Founded (22)  |  Government (116)  |  Guide (108)  |  Individual (420)  |  Institution (73)  |  Motivated (14)  |  Movement (162)  |  Never (1089)  |  Passion (121)  |  Problem (735)  |  Social (262)  |  Solve (146)  |  Through (846)

Never leave an unsolved difficulty behind. I mean, don’t go any further in that book till the difficulty is conquered. In this point, Mathematics differs entirely from most other subjects. Suppose you are reading an Italian book, and come to a hopelessly obscure sentence—don’t waste too much time on it, skip it, and go on; you will do very well without it. But if you skip a mathematical difficulty, it is sure to crop up again: you will find some other proof depending on it, and you will only get deeper and deeper into the mud.
From letter to Edith Rix with hints for studying (about Mar 1885), in Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (1898), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Book (414)  |  Conquer (41)  |  Crop (26)  |  Deep (241)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Italian (14)  |  Learning (291)  |  Leave (139)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mud (26)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (585)  |  Proof (304)  |  Read (309)  |  Reading (136)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Skip (4)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (544)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Waste (109)  |  Will (2350)

Nobody knows more than a tiny fragment of science well enough to judge its validity and value at first hand. For the rest he has to rely on views accepted at second hand on the authority of a community of people accredited as scientists. But this accrediting depends in its turn on a complex organization. For each member of the community can judge at first hand only a small number of his fellow members, and yet eventually each is accredited by all. What happens is that each recognizes as scientists a number of others by whom he is recognized as such in return, and these relations form chains which transmit these mutual recognitions at second hand through the whole community. This is how each member becomes directly or indirectly accredited by all. The system extends into the past. Its members recognize the same set of persons as their masters and derive from this allegiance a common tradition, of which each carries on a particular strand.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Authority (100)  |  Become (822)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Chain (52)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Derive (71)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Master (182)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (712)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1034)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Rest (289)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strand (9)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Turn (454)  |  Validity (50)  |  Value (397)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)

Nobody supposes that doctors are less virtuous than judges; but a judge whose salary and reputation depended on whether the verdict was for plaintiff or defendant, prosecutor or prisoner, would be as little trusted as a general in the pay of the enemy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Defendant (2)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Enemy (86)  |  General (521)  |  Judge (114)  |  Less (105)  |  Little (718)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Pay (45)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Salary (8)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Trust (73)  |  Verdict (8)  |  Virtuous (9)

Not enough of our society is trained how to understand and interpret quantitative information. This activity is a centerpiece of science literacy to which we should all strive—the future health, wealth, and security of our democracy depend on it. Until that is achieved, we are at risk of making under-informed decisions that affect ourselves, our communities, our country, and even the world.
From email message, as published on Huffington Post website (5 Feb 2015).
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Activity (218)  |  Affect (19)  |  Community (111)  |  Country (269)  |  Decision (98)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Education (423)  |  Enough (341)  |  Future (467)  |  Health (211)  |  Inform (52)  |  Information (173)  |  Interpreting (5)  |  Literacy (10)  |  Making (300)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Risk (68)  |  Science Literacy (6)  |  Security (51)  |  Society (353)  |  Strive (53)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wealth (100)  |  World (1854)

Not only do the various components of the cells form a living system, in which the capacity to live, react, and reproduce is dependent on the interactions of all the members of the system; but this living system is identical with the genetic system. The form of life is determined not only by the specific nature of the hereditary units but also by the structure and arrangement of the system. The whole system is more than the sum of its parts, and the effect of each of the components depends on and is influenced by all previous reactions, whose sequence is in turn determined by the whole idiotype.
'Cytoplasmic Inheritance in Epilobium and Its Theoretical Significance', Advances in Genetics (1954), 6, 320.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Cell (146)  |  Component (51)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Form (978)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Identical (55)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Part (237)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Specific (98)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sum (103)  |  System (545)  |  Turn (454)  |  Various (206)  |  Whole (756)

Observation is so wide awake, and facts are being so rapidly added to the sum of human experience, that it appears as if the theorizer would always be in arrears, and were doomed forever to arrive at imperfect conclusion; but the power to perceive a law is equally rare in all ages of the world, and depends but little on the number of facts observed.
In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 383.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Awake (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Doom (34)  |  Equally (129)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forever (112)  |  Human (1517)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Law (914)  |  Little (718)  |  Number (712)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observed (149)  |  Power (773)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Rare (95)  |  Sum (103)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1854)

On the basis of the results recorded in this review, it can be claimed that the average sand grain has taken many hundreds of millions of years to lose 10 per cent. of its weight by abrasion and become subangular. It is a platitude to point to the slowness of geological processes. But much depends on the way things are put. For it can also be said that a sand grain travelling on the bottom of a river loses 10 million molecules each time it rolls over on its side and that representation impresses us with the high rate of this loss. The properties of quartz have led to the concentration of its grains on the continents, where they could now form a layer averaging several hundred metres thick. But to my mind the most astounding numerical estimate that follows from the present evaluations, is that during each and every second of the incredibly long geological past the number of quartz grains on earth has increased by 1,000 million.
'Sand-its Origin, Transportation, Abrasion and Accumulation', The Geological Society of South Africa (1959), Annexure to Volume 62, 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Astounding (9)  |  Average (89)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (822)  |  Claim (154)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Continent (79)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Evaluation (10)  |  Follow (390)  |  Form (978)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grain (50)  |  High (370)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Layer (41)  |  Long (778)  |  Lose (165)  |  Loss (118)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (712)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Past (355)  |  Point (585)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (441)  |  Quartz (2)  |  Record (161)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)  |  Review (27)  |  River (141)  |  Roll (41)  |  Sand (63)  |  Side (236)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Year (965)

One feature which will probably most impress the mathematician accustomed to the rapidity and directness secured by the generality of modern methods is the deliberation with which Archimedes approaches the solution of any one of his main problems. Yet this very characteristic, with its incidental effects, is calculated to excite the more admiration because the method suggests the tactics of some great strategist who foresees everything, eliminates everything not immediately conducive to the execution of his plan, masters every position in its order, and then suddenly (when the very elaboration of the scheme has almost obscured, in the mind of the spectator, its ultimate object) strikes the final blow. Thus we read in Archimedes proposition after proposition the bearing of which is not immediately obvious but which we find infallibly used later on; and we are led by such easy stages that the difficulties of the original problem, as presented at the outset, are scarcely appreciated. As Plutarch says: “It is not possible to find in geometry more difficult and troublesome questions, or more simple and lucid explanations.” But it is decidedly a rhetorical exaggeration when Plutarch goes on to say that we are deceived by the easiness of the successive steps into the belief that anyone could have discovered them for himself. On the contrary, the studied simplicity and the perfect finish of the treatises involve at the same time an element of mystery. Though each step depends on the preceding ones, we are left in the dark as to how they were suggested to Archimedes. There is, in fact, much truth in a remark by Wallis to the effect that he seems “as it were of set purpose to have covered up the traces of his investigation as if he had grudged posterity the secret of his method of inquiry while he wished to extort from them assent to his results.” Wallis adds with equal reason that not only Archimedes but nearly all the ancients so hid away from posterity their method of Analysis (though it is certain that they had one) that more modern mathematicians found it easier to invent a new Analysis than to seek out the old.
In The Works of Archimedes (1897), Preface, vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Add (42)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Approach (112)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Assent (12)  |  Bear (162)  |  Belief (616)  |  Blow (45)  |  Calculate (59)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Conducive (3)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cover (40)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Decidedly (2)  |  Deliberation (5)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discover (572)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easiness (4)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elaboration (11)  |  Element (324)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Equal (88)  |  Everything (490)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Excite (17)  |  Execution (25)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Extort (2)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Feature (49)  |  Final (121)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finish (62)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grudge (2)  |  Hide (70)  |  Himself (461)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Impress (66)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Invent (57)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Involve (93)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leave (139)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Main (29)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modern (405)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1276)  |  Object (442)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (639)  |  Original (62)  |  Outset (7)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Plan (123)  |  Plutarch (16)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Precede (23)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (735)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Question (652)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Read (309)  |  Reason (767)  |  Remark (29)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (168)  |  Say (991)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Secret (217)  |  Secure (23)  |  Secured (18)  |  Seek (219)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solution (286)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (235)  |  Strike (72)  |  Study (703)  |  Successive (73)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suggest (40)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Time (1913)  |  Trace (109)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Troublesome (8)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  John Wallis (3)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (217)

Our national security depends upon energy security.
Tom Allen
Title of public statement (22 Sep 2005), 'Energy Conservation Is the Foundation of Energy Independence' on co-sponsoring the Energy Efficiency Cornerstone Act, on his house.gov website at the time.
Science quotes on:  |  Energy (374)  |  National Security (3)  |  Security (51)

Our survival, the future of our civilization, possibly the existence of mankind, depends on American leadership.
From Of Flight and Life (1948), 37. Also quoted in a Review of this book, 'Antiseptic Christianity', Time magazine, (6 Sep 1948) 52, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  America (144)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Existence (484)  |  Future (467)  |  Leadership (13)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Survival (105)

Our world depends for daily bread
Upon the shooting of a seed.
In 'A Corner in Wheat', Memorial Volume: Selections from the Prose and Poetical Writings of the Late John Savary (1912), 44. The quoted lines begin the first stanza, which ends similarly: “Upon the shooting of a seed
Our world depends for daily bread.”
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Bread (42)  |  Daily (92)  |  Germination (3)  |  Seed (98)  |  Shoot (21)  |  World (1854)

Overemphasis on the competitive system and premature specialization on the ground of immediate usefulness kill the spirit on which all cultural life depends.
From interview with Benjamin Fine, 'Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking', New York Times (5 Oct 1952), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Competitive (10)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Education (423)  |  Ground (222)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Kill (101)  |  Life (1873)  |  Premature (22)  |  Specialization (25)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Spirit (278)  |  System (545)  |  Usefulness (92)

Overwhelming evidences of an intelligence and benevolent intention surround us, show us the whole of nature through the work of a free will and teach us that all alive beings depend on an eternal creator-ruler.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (98)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benevolent (9)  |  Creator (97)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Free (240)  |  Free Will (15)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intention (46)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Show (354)  |  Surround (33)  |  Teach (301)  |  Through (846)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

Professor Whitehead has recently restored a seventeenth century phrase—"climate of opinion." The phrase is much needed. Whether arguments command assent or not depends less upon the logic that conveys them than upon the climate of opinion in which they are sustained.
In The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932, 2003), 5
Science quotes on:  |  17th Century (20)  |  Argument (145)  |  Assent (12)  |  Century (319)  |  Climate (102)  |  Command (60)  |  Convey (17)  |  Logic (313)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)

Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order.
As quoted in Miranda Robinson, 'Biology in the 1980s, Plus or Minus a Decade', Nature (5 Jun 1980), 285, 358-359. Note that Robinson gave her (slightly flawed) recollection of the quote from Brenner’s Speech (20 Mar 1980), 'Biology in the 1980s', Friedrich Miescher Institute Basel, Switzerland. Note that in other sources the journal date is stated incorrectly as 5 May 1980, for example, in Alan Mackay, A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991), 39. See the original quote also on the Sydney Brenner Quotes web page of this site, beginning, “I will ask you…”
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (839)  |  Idea (882)  |  New (1276)  |  Order (639)  |  Progress (493)  |  Research (753)  |  Technique (84)

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The Life of Reason, or the Phases of Human Progress (1954), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (640)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  Direction (185)  |  Experience (494)  |  Human Progress (18)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Past (355)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (493)  |  Remain (357)  |  Remember (189)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Retain (57)  |  Retention (5)  |  Set (400)

Psychology appeared to be a jungle of confusing, conflicting, and arbitrary concepts. These pre-scientific theories doubtless contained insights which still surpass in refinement those depended upon by psychiatrists or psychologists today. But who knows, among the many brilliant ideas offered, which are the true ones? Some will claim that the statements of one theorist are correct, but others will favour the views of another. Then there is no objective way of sorting out the truth except through scientific research.
From The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1965), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Claim (154)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusing (2)  |  Correct (95)  |  Idea (882)  |  Insight (107)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Know (1539)  |  Objective (96)  |  Offer (143)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pre-Scientific (5)  |  Psychiatrist (16)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Statement (148)  |  Still (614)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Through (846)  |  Today (321)  |  True (240)  |  Truth (1111)  |  View (498)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Questioning the status quo can result in banishment, imprisonment, ridicule or being burned at the stake, depending on your era, your locale, and the sacred cows you wish to butcher.
From post 're:The Pursuit of Knowledge, from Genesis to Google' to the 'Interesting People' List (6 Jan 2005) maintained by David J. Farber, now archived at interesting-people.org website.
Science quotes on:  |  Banishment (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Burn (99)  |  Butcher (9)  |  Cow (42)  |  Era (51)  |  Imprisonment (2)  |  Locale (2)  |  Question (652)  |  Result (700)  |  Ridicule (25)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Sacred Cow (3)  |  Stake (20)  |  Status (35)  |  Status Quo (5)  |  Wish (217)

Samoa culture demonstrates how much the tragic or the easy solution of the Oedipus situation depends upon the inter-relationship between parents and children, and is not created out of whole cloth by the young child’s biological impulses.
Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World (1949), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Easy (213)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Inter (12)  |  Inter-Relationship (2)  |  Oedipus (2)  |  Parent (80)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solution (286)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Whole (756)  |  Young (253)

Satire is a composition of salt and mercury; and it depends upon the different mixture and preparation of those ingredients, that it comes out a noble medicine, or a rank poison.
In Tryon Edwards (ed.), A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 502.
Science quotes on:  |  Composition (86)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Noble (95)  |  Poison (47)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Rank (69)  |  Salt (48)  |  Satire (4)

Saturated with that speculative spirit then pervading the Greek mind, he [Pythagoras] endeavoured to discover some principle of homogeneity in the universe. Before him, the philosophers of the Ionic school had sought it in the matter of things; Pythagoras looked for it in the structure of things. He observed the various numerical relations or analogies between numbers and the phenomena of the universe. Being convinced that it was in numbers and their relations that he was to find the foundation to true philosophy, he proceeded to trace the origin of all things to numbers. Thus he observed that musical strings of equal lengths stretched by weights having the proportion of 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, produced intervals which were an octave, a fifth and a fourth. Harmony, therefore, depends on musical proportion; it is nothing but a mysterious numerical relation. Where harmony is, there are numbers. Hence the order and beauty of the universe have their origin in numbers. There are seven intervals in the musical scale, and also seven planets crossing the heavens. The same numerical relations which underlie the former must underlie the latter. But where number is, there is harmony. Hence his spiritual ear discerned in the planetary motions a wonderful “Harmony of spheres.”
In History of Mathematics (1893), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Cross (21)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discover (572)  |  Ear (69)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Equal (88)  |  Fifth (3)  |  Find (1014)  |  Former (138)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fourth (8)  |  Greek (109)  |  Harmony (106)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Homogeneity (9)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Interval (14)  |  Length (24)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Motion (320)  |  Musical (10)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Number (712)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observe (181)  |  Observed (149)  |  Octave (3)  |  Order (639)  |  Origin (251)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Pervading (7)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Planet (406)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Relation (166)  |  Scale (122)  |  School (228)  |  Seek (219)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  Stretch (39)  |  String (22)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trace (109)  |  True (240)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Universe (901)  |  Various (206)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wonderful (156)

Science and technology were developing at a prodigious speed, and it seemed natural to assume that they would go on developing. This failed to happen, partly because of the impoverishment caused by a long series of wars and revolutions, partly because scientific and technical progress depended on the empirical habit of thought, which could not survive in a strictly regimented society.
In 1984 (1949), Book 2, Chapter 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Cause (564)  |  Develop (279)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Fail (193)  |  Habit (174)  |  Happen (282)  |  Impoverish (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Natural (811)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Progress (493)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Series (153)  |  Society (353)  |  Speed (66)  |  Survive (87)  |  Technical (53)  |  Technology (284)  |  Thought (996)  |  War (234)

Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying, everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous modern development of power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff work to apply them; that the difference between a mob and an army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great number of laborers may be increased by military discipline.
'The Need for Organization in Scientific Research', in Bulletin of the National Research Council: The National Importance of Scientific and Industrial Research (Oct 1919), Col 1, Part 1, No. 1, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Army (35)  |  Classification (102)  |  Degree (278)  |  Development (442)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effort (243)  |  Everything (490)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Kind (565)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Large (399)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Military (45)  |  Mob (10)  |  Modern (405)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Principle (532)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Success (327)  |  Transportation (20)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Work (1403)

Science has now been for a long time—and to an ever-increasing extent—a collective enterprise. Actually, new results are always, in fact, the work of specific individuals; but, save perhaps for rare exceptions, the value of any result depends on such a complex set of interrelations with past discoveries and possible future researches that even the mind of the inventor cannot embrace the whole.
In Oppression and Liberty (1955, 1958), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Collective (24)  |  Complex (203)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exception (74)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Future (467)  |  Increase (226)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interrelation (8)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Long (778)  |  Mind (1380)  |  New (1276)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rare (95)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Save (126)  |  Set (400)  |  Specific (98)  |  Time (1913)  |  Value (397)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1403)

Science is a progressive activity. The outstanding peculiarity of man is that he stumbled onto the possibility of progressive activities. Such progress, the accumulation of experience from generation to generation, depended first on the development of language, then of writing and finally of printing. These allowed the accumulation of tradition and of knowledge, of the whole aura of cultural inheritance that surrounds us. This has so conditioned our existence that it is almost impossible for us to stop and examine the nature of our culture. We accept it as we accept the air we breathe; we are as unconscious of our culture as a fish, presumably, is of water.
In The Nature of Natural History (1950, 1961), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Activity (218)  |  Air (367)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Condition (362)  |  Culture (157)  |  Development (442)  |  Examine (84)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1303)  |  Fish (130)  |  Generation (256)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Language (310)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Printing (25)  |  Progress (493)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Water (505)  |  Whole (756)  |  Writing (192)

Science is something we depend on all the time. If I develop a pain in the chest I must take an X-ray. But what if the radiation from the X-ray causes me deeper problems? Before I know it. I’m going in for surgery. Naturally, while they’re giving me oxygen an intern decides to light up a cigarette. The next thing you know I’m rocketing over the World Trade Center in bed clothes. Is this science?
In 'My Speech to the Graduates', Side Effects (1986), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (564)  |  Chest (3)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Intern (2)  |  Light (636)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pain (144)  |  Problem (735)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Surgery (54)  |  X-ray (43)

Scientific development depends in part on a process of non-incremental or revolutionary change. Some revolutions are large, like those associated with the names of Copernicus, Newton, or Darwin, but most are much smaller, like the discovery of oxygen or the planet Uranus. The usual prelude to changes of this sort is, I believed, the awareness of anomaly, of an occurrence or set of occurrences that does not fit existing ways of ordering phenomena. The changes that result therefore require 'putting on a different kind of thinking-cap', one that renders the anomalous lawlike but that, in the process, also transforms the order exhibited by some other phenomena, previously unproblematic.
The Essential Tension (1977), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Change (640)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Development (442)  |  Different (596)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Fit (139)  |  Kind (565)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (360)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planet (406)  |  Process (441)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Set (400)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Transform (74)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Way (1214)

Since many cases are known in which the specificities of antigens and enzymes appear to bear a direct relation to gene specificities, it seems reasonable to suppose that the gene’s primary and possibly sole function is in directing the final configurations of protein molecules.
Assuming that each specific protein of the organism has its unique configuration copied from that of a gene, it follows that every enzyme whose specificity depends on a protein should be subject to modification or inactivation through gene mutation. This would, of course, mean that the reaction normally catalyzed by the enzyme in question would either have its rate or products modified or be blocked entirely.
Such a view does not mean that genes directly “make” proteins. Regardless of precisely how proteins are synthesized, and from what component parts, these parts must themselves be synthesized by reactions which are enzymatically catalyzed and which in turn depend on the functioning of many genes. Thus in the synthesis of a single protein molecule, probably at least several hundred different genes contribute. But the final molecule corresponds to only one of them and this is the gene we visualize as being in primary control.
In 'Genetics and Metabolism in Neurospora', Physiological Reviews, 1945, 25, 660.
Science quotes on:  |  Antigen (5)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Component (51)  |  Control (185)  |  Course (415)  |  Different (596)  |  Direct (228)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Final (121)  |  Follow (390)  |  Function (235)  |  Gene (105)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Known (453)  |  Mean (810)  |  Modification (57)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (41)  |  Organism (231)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Primary (82)  |  Product (167)  |  Protein (56)  |  Question (652)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Single (366)  |  Sole (50)  |  Specific (98)  |  Subject (544)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unique (73)  |  View (498)

Success in the solution of a problem generally depends in a great measure on the selection of the most appropriate method of approaching it; many properties of conic sections (for instance) being demonstrable by a few steps of pure geometry which would involve the most laborious operations with trilinear co-ordinates, while other properties are almost self-evident under the method of trilinear co-ordinates, which it would perhaps be actually impossible to prove by the old geometry.
In Trilinear Coordinates and Other Methods of Modern Analytical Geometry of Two Dimensions (1866), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Evident (92)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Involve (93)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Measure (242)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Old (499)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (735)  |  Property (177)  |  Prove (263)  |  Pure (300)  |  Selection (130)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Solution (286)  |  Step (235)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Success (327)

Suicide is merely the product of the general condition of society, and that the individual felon only carries into effect what is a necessary consequence of preceding circumstances. In a given state of society, a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life. This is the general law; and the special question as to who shall commit the crime depends of course upon special laws; which, however, in their total action, must obey the large social law to which they are all subordinate. And the power of the larger law is so irresistible, that neither the love of life nor the fear of another world can avail any thing towards even checking its operation.
In History of Civilization in England (1857, 1904), 15-16.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commit (43)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (415)  |  Crime (39)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Fear (215)  |  General (521)  |  Individual (420)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Love (328)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (712)  |  Obey (46)  |  Operation (221)  |  Person (366)  |  Power (773)  |  Product (167)  |  Question (652)  |  Social (262)  |  Society (353)  |  Special (189)  |  State (505)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Total (95)  |  World (1854)

Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to scorn upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight?
Yet, it is a very plain and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without remorse.
Address to the South London Working Men’s College. 'A Liberal Education; and Where to Find It', in David Masson, (ed.), Macmillan’s Magazine (Mar 1868), 17, 369. Also in 'A Liberal Education and Where to Find it' (1868). In Collected Essays (1893), Vol. 3, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (782)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Check (26)  |  Checkmate (2)  |  Chess (27)  |  Chessboard (2)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Complication (30)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consider (430)  |  Cost (94)  |  Delight (111)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Eye (441)  |  Father (114)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Game (104)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Haste (6)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Ill (12)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Knight (6)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1873)  |  Look (584)  |  Loss (118)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Member (42)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Move (225)  |  Name (360)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pawn (2)  |  Payment (6)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Player (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Remorse (9)  |  Rule (308)  |  Scorn (13)  |  Show (354)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Son (25)  |  Stake (20)  |  State (505)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Think (1124)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (901)  |  Win (53)  |  Winning (19)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1854)

Surgical knowledge depends on long practice, not from speculations.
'Letter to Borghese' (27 Jul 1689), quoted in H.B. Adelmann (ed.), The Correspondence of Marcello Malpighi (1975), Vol. 4, 1486.
Science quotes on:  |  Dependence (47)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Long (778)  |  Practice (212)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Surgery (54)

Technology, when misused, poisons air, soil, water and lives. But a world without technology would be prey to something worse: the impersonal ruthlessness of the natural order, in which the health of a species depends on relentless sacrifice of the weak.
Editorial, 'Nature As Demon', (29 Aug 1986), A26.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Health (211)  |  Impersonal (5)  |  Live (651)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Order (6)  |  Order (639)  |  Poison (47)  |  Prey (13)  |  Relentless (9)  |  Ruthlessness (3)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Soil (98)  |  Something (718)  |  Species (435)  |  Technology (284)  |  Water (505)  |  Weak (73)  |  World (1854)  |  Worse (25)

That a country, [England], eminently distinguished for its mechanical and manufacturing ingenuity, should be indifferent to the progress of inquiries which form the highest departments of that knowledge on whose more elementary truths its wealth and rank depend, is a fact which is well deserving the attention of those who shall inquire into the causes that influence the progress of nations.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and on Some of its Causes (1830), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (198)  |  Cause (564)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Education (423)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Form (978)  |  Influence (231)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Nation (208)  |  Progress (493)  |  Rank (69)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Wealth (100)

The achievements of the Beagle did not just depend on FitzRoy’s skill as a hydrographer, nor on Darwin’s skill as a natural scientist, but on the thoroughly effective fashion in which everyone on board pulled together. Of course Darwin and FitzRoy had their quarrels, but all things considered, they were remarkably infrequent. To have shared such cramped quarters for nearly five years with a man often suffering from serious depression, prostrate part of the time with sea sickness, with so little friction, Darwin must have been one of the best-natured people ever! This is, indeed, apparent in his letters. And anyone who has participated in a scientific expedition will agree that when he wrote from Valparaiso in July 1834 that ‘The Captain keeps all smooth by rowing everyone in turn, which of course he has as much right to do as a gamekeeper to shoot partridges on the first of September’, he was putting a finger on an important ingredient in the Beagle’s success.
From Introduction to The Beagle Record (1979, 2012), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beagle (14)  |  Best (468)  |  Biography (254)  |  Captain (16)  |  Consider (430)  |  Course (415)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depression (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Expedition (9)  |  First (1303)  |  Robert Fitzroy (4)  |  Friction (14)  |  Hydrographer (3)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (718)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Scientist (6)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Partridge (2)  |  People (1034)  |  Pull (43)  |  Quarrel (10)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sea (327)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Skill (116)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Success (327)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Time (1913)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

The aim of scientific thought, then, is to apply past experience to new circumstances; the instrument is an observed uniformity in the course of events. By the use of this instrument it gives us information transcending our experience, it enables us to infer things that we have not seen from things that we have seen; and the evidence for the truth of that information depends on our supposing that the uniformity holds good beyond our experience.
'On the Aims and Instruments of Scientific Thought,' a Lecture delivered before the members of the British Association, at Brighton, on 19 Aug 1872, in Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays, by the Late William Kingdon Clifford (1886), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Apply (170)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Course (415)  |  Enable (122)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experience (494)  |  Good (907)  |  Information (173)  |  Instrument (159)  |  New (1276)  |  Observed (149)  |  Past (355)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Use (771)

The animal's heart is the basis of its life, its chief member, the sun of its microcosm; on the heart all its activity depends, from the heart all its liveliness and strength arise. Equally is the king the basis of his kingdoms, the sun of his microcosm, the heart of the state; from him all power arises and all grace stems.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth j. Franklin (1957), Dedication to the King, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arise (162)  |  Basis (180)  |  Chief (99)  |  Equally (129)  |  Grace (31)  |  Heart (244)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Life (1873)  |  Microcosm (10)  |  Power (773)  |  State (505)  |  Stem (31)  |  Strength (139)  |  Sun (408)

The blood corpuscles take up the atmospheric oxygen in the lungs, and the vital chemical process accordingly depends essentially on the combination of oxygen absorbed by blood corpuscles with the combustible constituents of the blood to form carbonic acid and water.
Quoted in Joseph Stewart Fruton Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Acid (83)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (151)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Corpuscle (14)  |  Form (978)  |  Lung (38)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Process (441)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Vital (89)  |  Water (505)

The canons of art depend on what they appeal to. Painting appeals to the eye, and is founded on the science of optics. Music appeals to the ear and is founded on the science of acoustics. The drama appeals to human nature, and must have as its ultimate basis the science of psychology and physiology.
In Letter (Jul 1883) to Marie Prescott, in Oscar Wilde, ‎Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, ‎Lady Wilde, The Writings of Oscar Wilde (1907), Vol. 15, 153-154.
Science quotes on:  |  Acoustic (3)  |  Acoustics (4)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Art (681)  |  Basis (180)  |  Canon (3)  |  Drama (24)  |  Ear (69)  |  Eye (441)  |  Founded (22)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Music (133)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Optics (24)  |  Painting (46)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Ultimate (152)

The complexity of an object depends not on itself, but of the degree to which it is investigated, and the questions we ourselves raise in investigating it.
In The Unity of Science (1921), 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Complexity (122)  |  Degree (278)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Object (442)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Question (652)

The conception of correspondence plays a great part in modern mathematics. It is the fundamental notion in the science of order as distinguished from the science of magnitude. If the older mathematics were mostly dominated by the needs of mensuration, modern mathematics are dominated by the conception of order and arrangement. It may be that this tendency of thought or direction of reasoning goes hand in hand with the modern discovery in physics, that the changes in nature depend not only or not so much on the quantity of mass and energy as on their distribution or arrangement.
In History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1903), Vol. 2, 736.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Change (640)  |  Conception (160)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Energy (374)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand In Hand (5)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mass (161)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mensuration (2)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Need (323)  |  Notion (120)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (639)  |  Part (237)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Play (117)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thought (996)

The desire to preserve to future ages the memory of past achievements is a universal human instinct, as witness the clay tablets of old Chaldea, the hieroglyphs of the obelisks, our countless thousands of manuscripts and printed volumes, and the gossiping old story-teller of the village or the backwoods cabin. The reliability of the record depends chiefly on the truthfulness of the recorder and the adequacy of the method employed. In Asia, the cradle of civilization, authentic history goes back thousands of years; in Europe the record begins much later, while in America the aboriginal narrative, which may be considered as fairly authentic, is all comprised within a thousand years.
The first paragraph, 'Introduction: Age of American Aboriginal Records', Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians (1898).
Science quotes on:  |  Aborigine (2)  |  Achievement (188)  |  Adequacy (10)  |  America (144)  |  Asia (7)  |  Authentic (9)  |  Books (2)  |  Cabin (5)  |  Chaldea (4)  |  Ethnology (9)  |  Europe (50)  |  Future (467)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Hieroglyph (3)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Manuscript (10)  |  Method (532)  |  Narrative (9)  |  Obelisk (2)  |  Past (355)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Record (161)  |  Recorder (5)  |  Reliability (18)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Truthfulness (3)  |  Universal (198)  |  Village (13)  |  Year (965)

The difference between a successful and an unsuccessful business man lies often in the greater accuracy of the former’s guesses. Statistics are no substitution for judgment. Their use is to check and discipline the judgments on which in the last resort business decisions depend.
In report on a speech delivered to a business group (Sep 1930), in 'Production Prices and Depression: Professor Clay on the Trade Outlook', Evening Sentinel (Staffordshire, 13 Oct 1930), 5. As cited on the quoteinvestigator.com website.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Business (156)  |  Check (26)  |  Decision (98)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Economics (44)  |  Guess (67)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Substitution (16)  |  Successful (134)  |  Unsuccessful (5)

The earth holds a silver treasure, cupped between ocean bed and tenting sky. Forever the heavens spend it, in the showers that refresh our temperate lands, the torrents that sluice the tropics. Every suckling root absorbs it, the very soil drains it down; the rivers run unceasing to the sea, the mountains yield it endlessly… Yet none is lost; in vast convection our water is returned, from soil to sky, and sky to soil, and back gain, to fall as pure as blessing. There was never less; there could never be more. A mighty mercy on which life depends, for all its glittering shifts, water is constant.
In A Cup of Sky (1950), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Back (395)  |  Bed (25)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Constant (148)  |  Convection (3)  |  Cup (7)  |  Down (455)  |  Drain (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endlessly (4)  |  Fall (243)  |  Forever (112)  |  Gain (149)  |  Glittering (2)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hold (96)  |  Land (134)  |  Less (105)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lost (35)  |  Mercy (12)  |  Mighty (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pure (300)  |  Refresh (5)  |  Return (133)  |  River (141)  |  Root (121)  |  Run (158)  |  Sea (327)  |  Shift (45)  |  Shower (7)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sluice (2)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spend (97)  |  Suckling (3)  |  Torrent (5)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Tropic (2)  |  Unceasing (3)  |  Vast (188)  |  Water (505)  |  Water Cycle (5)  |  Yield (86)

The end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century were remarkable for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this country, especially in its more exact departments. ... Mathematics were at the last gasp, and Astronomy nearly so—I mean in those members of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had begun to spread itself over all those branches of Science which wanted the excitement of experimental research.
Quoted in Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan, Memoir of Augustus De Morgan (1882), 41
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (41)  |  Amount (153)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Century (319)  |  Chill (10)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  End (603)  |  Exact (75)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Gasp (6)  |  Last (425)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (73)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Research (753)  |  Routine (26)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Small (489)  |  Spread (86)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Want (505)

The fate of human civilization will depend on whether the rockets of the future carry the astronomer’s telescope or a hydrogen bomb.
Concluding remark, BBC Reith Lecture (30 Nov 1958), 'Astronomy and the State', published as The Individual and the Universe (1959, 1961), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Carry (130)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Fate (76)  |  Future (467)  |  Human (1517)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bomb (16)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Will (2350)

The future of our civilisation depends upon the widening spread and deepening hold of the scientific habit of mind.
Address to Section L, Education, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Boston (1909). Published in Science (1910), N.S. Vol. 31, No. 787, 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Deepening (2)  |  Future (467)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hold (96)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Spread (86)  |  Widening (2)

The habitat of an organism is the place where it lives, or the place where one would go to find it. The ecological niche, on the other hand, is the position or status of an organism within its community and ecosystem resulting from the organism’s structural adaptations, physiological responses and specific behavior (inherited and/or learned). The ecological niche of an organism depends not only on where it lives, but also on what it does. By analogy, it may be said that the habitat is the organism’s ‘address,’ and the niche is its ‘profession,’ biologically speaking.
Fundamentals of Ecology
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Address (13)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Biologically (4)  |  Community (111)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Ecosystem (35)  |  Find (1014)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Inherit (36)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Live (651)  |  Niche (9)  |  On The Other Hand (41)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Place (194)  |  Position (83)  |  Profession (108)  |  Response (56)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Specific (98)  |  Status (35)  |  Structural (29)

The health of society thus depends quite as much on the independence of the individuals composing it as on their close political cohesion.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Close (77)  |  Cohesion (7)  |  Compose (20)  |  Health (211)  |  Independence (37)  |  Individual (420)  |  Political (126)  |  Society (353)

The Mathematics, I say, which effectually exercises, not vainly deludes or vexatiously torments studious Minds with obscure Subtilties, perplexed Difficulties, or contentious Disquisitions; which overcomes without Opposition, triumphs without Pomp, compels without Force, and rules absolutely without Loss of Liberty; which does not privately over-reach a weak Faith, but openly assaults an armed Reason, obtains a total Victory, and puts on inevitable Chains; whose Words are so many Oracles, and Works as many Miracles; which blabs out nothing rashly, nor designs anything from the Purpose, but plainly demonstrates and readily performs all Things within its Verge; which obtrudes no false Shadow of Science, but the very Science itself, the Mind firmly adhering to it, as soon as possessed of it, and can never after desert it of its own Accord, or be deprived of it by any Force of others: Lastly the Mathematics, which depends upon Principles clear to the Mind, and agreeable to Experience; which draws certain Conclusions, instructs by profitable Rules, unfolds pleasant Questions; and produces wonderful Effects; which is the fruitful Parent of, I had almost said all, Arts, the unshaken Foundation of Sciences, and the plentiful Fountain of Advantage to human Affairs.
Address to the University of Cambridge upon being elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (14 Mar 1664). In Mathematical Lectures (1734), xxviii.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Arm (82)  |  Art (681)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chain (52)  |  Compel (31)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Delude (3)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Desert (59)  |  Design (205)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Draw (141)  |  Effect (414)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Experience (494)  |  Faith (210)  |  False (105)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fountain (18)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Human (1517)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Liberty (30)  |  Loss (118)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Miracle (86)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Parent (80)  |  Perform (123)  |  Pomp (2)  |  Possess (158)  |  Principle (532)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Question (652)  |  Rashly (2)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reason (767)  |  Rule (308)  |  Say (991)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Soon (187)  |  Studious (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Torment (18)  |  Total (95)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Verge (10)  |  Victory (40)  |  Weak (73)  |  Wonderful (156)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)

The meaning of human life and the destiny of man cannot be separable from the meaning and destiny of life in general. 'What is man?' is a special case of 'What is life?' Probably the human species is not intelligent enough to answer either question fully, but even such glimmerings as are within our powers must be precious to us. The extent to which we can hope to understand ourselves and to plan our future depends in some measure on our ability to read the riddles of the past. The present, for all its awesome importance to us who chance to dwell in it, is only a random point in the long flow of time. Terrestrial life is one and continuous in space and time. Any true comprehension of it requires the attempt to view it whole and not in the artificial limits of any one place or epoch. The processes of life can be adequately displayed only in the course of life throughout the long ages of its existence.
The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Age (509)  |  Answer (389)  |  Artificiality (2)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Awesome (15)  |  Chance (245)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (415)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Display (59)  |  Enough (341)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Existence (484)  |  Extent (142)  |  Flow (90)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Glimmering (2)  |  Hope (322)  |  Human (1517)  |  Importance (299)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Measure (242)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Past (355)  |  Place (194)  |  Plan (123)  |  Point (585)  |  Power (773)  |  Precious (43)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (441)  |  Question (652)  |  Random (42)  |  Read (309)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Separation (60)  |  Space (525)  |  Space And Time (39)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Species (435)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1913)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)

The method of science depends on our attempts to describe the world with simple theories: theories that are complex may become untestable, even if they happen to be true. Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification—the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.
Karl Raimund Popper and William Warren Bartley (ed.), The Open Universe: an Argument for Indeterminism (1991), 44. by Karl Raimund Popper, William Warren Bartley - Science - 1991
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Art (681)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Become (822)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Describe (133)  |  Description (89)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Happen (282)  |  Method (532)  |  Omit (12)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Test (222)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Truth (1111)  |  World (1854)

The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion. It should, however, be borne in mind, that the enforcement of public opinion depends on our appreciation of the approbation and disapprobation of others; and this appreciation is founded on our sympathy, which it can hardly be doubted was originally developed through natural selection as one of the most important elements of the social instincts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Bear (162)  |  Best (468)  |  Brain (282)  |  Cause (564)  |  Consist (224)  |  Custom (45)  |  Develop (279)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Education (423)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Element (324)  |  Embody (18)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Enforcement (2)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Founded (22)  |  Good (907)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  Important (231)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Law (914)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Originally (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Progress (493)  |  Public (100)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selection (130)  |  Social (262)  |  Standard (65)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Through (846)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Whilst (3)  |  Youth (109)

The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote. Nevertheless, it has been found that there are apparent exceptions to most of these laws, and this is particularly true when the observations are pushed to a limit, i.e., whenever the circumstances of experiment are such that extreme cases can be examined. Such examination almost surely leads, not to the overthrow of the law, but to the discovery of other facts and laws whose action produces the apparent exceptions. As instances of such discoveries, which are in most cases due to the increasing order of accuracy made possible by improvements in measuring instruments, may be mentioned: first, the departure of actual gases from the simple laws of the so-called perfect gas, one of the practical results being the liquefaction of air and all known gases; second, the discovery of the velocity of light by astronomical means, depending on the accuracy of telescopes and of astronomical clocks; third, the determination of distances of stars and the orbits of double stars, which depend on measurements of the order of accuracy of one-tenth of a second-an angle which may be represented as that which a pin's head subtends at a distance of a mile. But perhaps the most striking of such instances are the discovery of a new planet or observations of the small irregularities noticed by Leverrier in the motions of the planet Uranus, and the more recent brilliant discovery by Lord Rayleigh of a new element in the atmosphere through the minute but unexplained anomalies found in weighing a given volume of nitrogen. Many other instances might be cited, but these will suffice to justify the statement that “our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.”
In Light Waves and Their Uses (1903), 23-4. Michelson had some years earlier referenced “an eminent physicist” that he did not name who had “remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals,” near the end of his Convocation Address at the Dedication of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, 'Some of the Objects and Methods of Physical Science' (4 Jul 1894), published in University of Chicago Quarterly Calendar (Aug 1894), 3, No.2, 15. Also
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Action (343)  |  Actual (145)  |  Air (367)  |  Angle (25)  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Call (782)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Clock (51)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distance (171)  |  Due (143)  |  Element (324)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Exception (74)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1303)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Future (467)  |  Gas (89)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (914)  |  Lead (391)  |  LeVerrier_Urbain (3)  |  Light (636)  |  Limit (294)  |  Liquefaction (2)  |  Look (584)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mention (84)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  New (1276)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Observation (595)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrow (5)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Pin (20)  |  Planet (406)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Push (66)  |  Sir John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (9)  |  Recent (79)  |  Remote (86)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (430)  |  Small (489)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Statement (148)  |  Striking (48)  |  Surely (101)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexplained (8)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier (4)  |  Volume (25)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
In a letter to a minister in Brooklyn, N.Y. (20 Nov 1950), first paragraph, as quoted in Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann (eds.), Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979, 1981), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Balance (82)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Existence (484)  |  Give (208)  |  Human (1517)  |  Important (231)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1873)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Strive (53)

The number of humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Mr. H. Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humble-bees, ... says “Near villages and small towns I have found the nests of humble-bees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the mice.” Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district!
From On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1861), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Bee (44)  |  Cat (52)  |  Certain (557)  |  Credible (3)  |  Degree (278)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Determine (152)  |  District (11)  |  Elsewhere (10)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1303)  |  Flower (112)  |  Food Chain (7)  |  Found (11)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habit (174)  |  Humble (54)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Large (399)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Nest (26)  |  Number (712)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Presence (63)  |  Say (991)  |  Small (489)  |  Through (846)  |  Town (30)  |  Village (13)

The perfection of the heavenly spheres does not depend upon the order of their relative position as to whether one is higher than another.
As quoted in Edward Grant, Planets, Stars, and Orbs: The Medieval Cosmos, 1200-1687 (1996), 231, citing Oresme, Le Livre du ciel, (1968), Book 2, 507. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=052156509X Edward Grant - 1996
Science quotes on:  |  Heavens (125)  |  Higher (37)  |  Order (639)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Planet (406)  |  Position (83)  |  Relative (42)  |  Sphere (120)

The progress of science depends less than is usually believed on the efforts and performance of the individual genius ... many important discoveries have been made by men of ordinary talents, simply because chance had made them, at the proper time and in the proper place and circumstances, recipients of a body of doctrines, facts and techniques that rendered almost inevitable the recognition of an important phenomenon. It is surprising that some historian has not taken malicious pleasure in writing an anthology of 'one discovery' scientists. Many exciting facts have been discovered as a result of loose thinking and unimaginative experimentation, and described in wrappings of empty words. One great discovery does not betoken a great scientist; science now and then selects insignificant standard bearers to display its banners.
Louis Pasteur, Free Lance of Science (1986), 368
Science quotes on:  |  Banner (9)  |  Body (557)  |  Chance (245)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Display (59)  |  Effort (243)  |  Empty (83)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historian (59)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Malicious (8)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Performance (51)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Progress (493)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Proper (150)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Render (96)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Select (45)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Talent (100)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Usually (176)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

The psychoanalysis of individual human beings, however, teaches us with quite special insistence that the god of each of them is formed in the likeness of his father, that his personal relation to God depends on his relation to his father in the flesh and oscillates and changes along with that relation, and that at bottom God is nothing other than an exalted father.
(Originally published 1913). Totem and Taboo, vol. 13, pt. 4, sct. 6, Complete Works, Standard Edition, eds. James Strachey and Anna Freud (1953).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Change (640)  |  Exalt (30)  |  Exalted (22)  |  Father (114)  |  Flesh (28)  |  Form (978)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Oscillate (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Personal (76)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Relation (166)  |  Special (189)  |  Teach (301)

The pursuit of the good and evil are now linked in astronomy as in almost all science. … The fate of human civilization will depend on whether the rockets of the future carry the astronomer’s telescope or a hydrogen bomb.
In BBC Reith Lecture (30 Nov 1958), 'Astronomy and the State', published as The Individual and the Universe (1959, 1961), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Carry (130)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fate (76)  |  Future (467)  |  Good (907)  |  Human (1517)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bomb (16)  |  Nuclear Bomb (7)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Will (2350)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
In 'Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason', in Man and Superman (1903), 238. Also seen misquoted (?) as “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Himself (461)  |  Man (2252)  |  Progress (493)  |  Reason (767)  |  Trying (144)  |  World (1854)

The same algebraic sum of positive and negative charges in the nucleus, when the arithmetical sum is different, gives what I call “isotopes” or “isotopic elements,” because they occupy the same place in the periodic table. They are chemically identical, and save only as regards the relatively few physical properties which depend upon atomic mass directly, physically identical also. Unit changes of this nuclear charge, so reckoned algebraically, give the successive places in the periodic table. For any one “place” or any one nuclear charge, more than one number of electrons in the outer-ring system may exist, and in such a case the element exhibits variable valency. But such changes of number, or of valency, concern only the ring and its external environment. There is no in- and out-going of electrons between ring and nucleus.
Concluding paragraph of 'Intra-atomic Charge', Nature (1913), 92, 400. Collected in Alfred Romer, Radiochemistry and the Discovery of Isotopes (1970), 251-252.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Call (782)  |  Change (640)  |  Charge (63)  |  Concern (239)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Electron (96)  |  Element (324)  |  Environment (240)  |  Exist (460)  |  Identical (55)  |  Isotope (4)  |  Mass (161)  |  More (2558)  |  Negative (66)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (712)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Physical (520)  |  Place (194)  |  Positive (98)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Regard (312)  |  Save (126)  |  Successive (73)  |  Sum (103)  |  System (545)  |  Table (106)  |  Valency (4)  |  Variable (37)

The self-regulating mechanism of the market place cannot always be depended upon to produce adequate results in scientific research.
With co-author Byron S. Miller in The Control of Atomic Energy: A Study of Its Social, Economic, and Political Implications (1948), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Market (23)  |  Marketplace (4)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Regulating (3)

The skeletal striated muscle cell of amphibia therefore resembles the cardiac striated muscle cell in the property of “all or none” contraction. The difference which renders it possible to obtain 'submaximal' contractions from a whole skeletal muscle but not from a whole heart is not a difference in the functional capabilities of the two types of cell; it depends upon the fact that cardiac muscle cells are connected one with another, whereas skeletal muscle cells are isolated by their sarcolemma. The 'submaximal' contraction of a skeletal muscle is the maximal contraction of less than all its fibres.
'The “All or None” Contraction of the Amphibian Skeletal Muscle Fibre', Journal of Physiology (1909), 38, 133.
Science quotes on:  |  Amphibian (7)  |  Cell (146)  |  Connect (126)  |  Contraction (18)  |  Difference (355)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Heart (244)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Possible (560)  |  Property (177)  |  Render (96)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (172)  |  Whole (756)

The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bunch (7)  |  Do (1905)  |  Grape (4)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Planet (406)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Ripen (4)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (408)  |  Universe (901)

The truth of the matter is that, though mathematics truth may be beauty, it can be only glimpsed after much hard thinking. Mathematics is difficult for many human minds to grasp because of its hierarchical structure: one thing builds on another and depends on it.
As co-author with D.T.E. Marjoram, Mathematics in a Changing World (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Build (212)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Glimpse (16)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Hard (246)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truth (1111)

The understanding must not however be allowed to jump and fly from particulars to axioms remote and of almost the highest generality (such as the first principles, as they are called, of arts and things), and taking stand upon them as truths that cannot be shaken, proceed to prove and frame the middle axioms by reference to them; which has been the practice hitherto, the understanding being not only carried that way by a natural impulse, but also by the use of syllogistic demonstration trained and inured to it. But then, and then only, may we hope well of the sciences when in a just scale of ascent, and by successive steps not interrupted or broken, we rise from particulars to lesser axioms; and then to middle axioms, one above the other; and last of all to the most general. For the lowest axioms differ but slightly from bare experience, while the highest and most general (which we now have) are notional and abstract and without solidity. But the middle are the true and solid and living axioms, on which depend the affairs and fortunes of men; and above them again, last of all, those which are indeed the most general; such, I mean, as are not abstract, but of which those intermediate axioms are really limitations.
The understanding must not therefore be supplied with wings, but rather hung with weights, to keep it from leaping and flying. Now this has never yet been done; when it is done, we may entertain better hopes of science.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 104. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Art (681)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Bare (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (495)  |  Broken (56)  |  Call (782)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Differ (88)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1303)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Fortune (50)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Hope (322)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Jump (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Living (492)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Prove (263)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (170)  |  Scale (122)  |  Solid (119)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (235)  |  Successive (73)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wing (79)

The validity of all the Inductive Methods depends on the assumption that every event, or the beginning of every phenomenon, must have some cause; some antecedent, upon the existence of which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 2, 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cause (564)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Event (222)  |  Existence (484)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Method (532)  |  Must (1525)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Validity (50)

The valuable properties of this cement depend in a great measure on the mode of preparing it for use. The mixing should therefore be conducted with care in order to form a perfect union of the powdered cement, sand and water. This can be best accomplished by the use of the New England corn hoe on a board floor or by beating with a hand stamper; not much labour is required if properly applied. Mechanics can judge when the mixture is perfect by the appearance of the mortar, which, when properly prepared, very much resembles putty.
Directions for Using White's Patent Hydraulic Cement.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (146)  |  Applied (176)  |  Best (468)  |  Care (204)  |  Cement (10)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Corn (20)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Form (978)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judge (114)  |  Labor (200)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mixture (44)  |  New (1276)  |  Order (639)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Powder (9)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Required (108)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Sand (63)  |  Union (52)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (505)

The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career; yet it depended on so small a circumstance as my uncle offering to drive me 30 miles to Shrewsbury, which few uncles would have done, and on such a trifle as the shape of my nose.
At the end of a particular drive, his uncle, Josiah Wedgwood, convinced Darwin’s reluctant father that Charles should voyage on the Beagle. Captain Fitz-Roy believed he could read a man’s character from the shape of his nose. In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), 'Autobiography', The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887, 1896), Vol. 1, 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Beagle (14)  |  Biography (254)  |  Career (87)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Event (222)  |  Life (1873)  |  Most (1728)  |  Small (489)  |  Whole (756)

The whole value of solitude depends upon oneself; it may be a sanctuary or a prison, a haven of repose or a place of punishment, a heaven or a hell, as we ourselves make it.
On Peace and Happiness (1909), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Prison (13)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Sanctuary (12)  |  Solitude (20)  |  Value (397)  |  Whole (756)

There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only truths of definition. These definitions rest upon simple, but abstract, suppositions, and all truths in this category are only constructed, but abstract, consequences of these definitions ... Physical truths, to the contrary, are in no way arbitrary, and do not depend on us.
'Premier Discours: De la Manière d'Étudier et de Traiter l'Histoire naturelle', Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particulière, Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi (1749), Vol. I, 53-4. Trans. Phillip R. Sloan.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Category (19)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Construct (129)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Customary (18)  |  Definition (239)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1303)  |  Kind (565)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Order (639)  |  Physical (520)  |  Rest (289)  |  Simple (430)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Way (1214)

There is another approach to the extraterrestrial hypothesis of UFO origins. This assessment depends on a large number of factors about which we know little, and a few about which we know literally nothing. I want to make some crude numerical estimate of the probability that we are frequently visited by extraterrestrial beings.
Now, there is a range of hypotheses that can be examined in such a way. Let me give a simple example: Consider the Santa Claus hypothesis, which maintains that, in a period of eight hours or so on December 24-25 of each year, an outsized elf visits one hundred million homes in the United States. This is an interesting and widely discussed hypothesis. Some strong emotions ride on it, and it is argued that at least it does no harm.
We can do some calculations. Suppose that the elf in question spends one second per house. This isn't quite the usual picture—“Ho, Ho, Ho,” and so on—but imagine that he is terribly efficient and very speedy; that would explain why nobody ever sees him very much-only one second per house, after all. With a hundred million houses he has to spend three years just filling stockings. I have assumed he spends no time at all in going from house to house. Even with relativistic reindeer, the time spent in a hundred million houses is three years and not eight hours. This is an example of hypothesis-testing independent of reindeer propulsion mechanisms or debates on the origins of elves. We examine the hypothesis itself, making very straightforward assumptions, and derive a result inconsistent with the hypothesis by many orders of magnitude. We would then suggest that the hypothesis is untenable.
We can make a similar examination, but with greater uncertainty, of the extraterrestrial hypothesis that holds that a wide range of UFOs viewed on the planet Earth are space vehicles from planets of other stars.
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Consider (430)  |  Crude (32)  |  Debate (40)  |  Derive (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elf (7)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extraterrestrial Life (20)  |  Greater (288)  |  Home (186)  |  Hour (192)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Know (1539)  |  Large (399)  |  Literally (30)  |  Little (718)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Number (712)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Order (639)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Picture (148)  |  Plane (23)  |  Planet (406)  |  Probability (135)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Question (652)  |  Range (104)  |  Reindeer (2)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Result (700)  |  Ride (23)  |  Santa Claus (2)  |  See (1095)  |  Simple (430)  |  Space (525)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  State (505)  |  Straightforward (10)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Test (222)  |  Time (1913)  |  UFO (4)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Untenable (5)  |  Vehicle (12)  |  View (498)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wide (97)  |  Year (965)

There is no doubt that human survival will continue to depend more and more on human intellect and technology. It is idle to argue whether this is good or bad. The point of no return was passed long ago, before anyone knew it was happening.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Argue (25)  |  Bad (185)  |  Continue (180)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Good (907)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Idle (35)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Know (1539)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Pass (242)  |  Point (585)  |  Return (133)  |  Survival (105)  |  Technology (284)  |  Will (2350)

There is no profession so incompatible with original enquiry as is a Scotch Professorship, where one’s income depends on the numbers of pupils. Is there one Professor in Edinburgh pursuing science with zeal? Are they not all occupied as showmen whose principal object is to attract pupils and make money?
Brewster to J. D. Forbes, 11 February 1830 (St. Andrew's University Library). Quoted in William Cochlan, 'Sir David Brewster: An Outline Biography', in J.R.R. Christie (ed.), Martyr of Science: Sir David Brewster, 1781-1868 (1984), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Income (18)  |  Money (178)  |  Number (712)  |  Object (442)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Principal (69)  |  Profession (108)  |  Professor (133)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Pursuing (27)

There is something sublime in the secrecy in which the really great deeds of the mathematician are done. No popular applause follows the act; neither contemporary nor succeeding generations of the people understand it. The geometer must be tried by his peers, and those who truly deserve the title of geometer or analyst have usually been unable to find so many as twelve living peers to form a jury. Archimedes so far outstripped his competitors in the race, that more than a thousand years elapsed before any man appeared, able to sit in judgment on his work, and to say how far he had really gone. And in judging of those men whose names are worthy of being mentioned in connection with his,—Galileo, Descartes, Leibnitz, Newton, and the mathematicians created by Leibnitz and Newton’s calculus,—we are forced to depend upon their testimony of one another. They are too far above our reach for us to judge of them.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 86, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Analyst (8)  |  Appear (123)  |  Applause (9)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Competitor (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Create (252)  |  Deed (34)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Elapse (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (390)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Generation (256)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Jury (3)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (360)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Outstrip (4)  |  Peer (13)  |  People (1034)  |  Popular (35)  |  Race (279)  |  Reach (287)  |  Really (77)  |  Say (991)  |  Secrecy (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Something (718)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Title (20)  |  Truly (119)  |  Try (296)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (650)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1403)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (965)

Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Analyse (4)  |  Authority (100)  |  Become (822)  |  Break (110)  |  Broken (56)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Concept (242)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Experience (494)  |  Game (104)  |  Givens (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Idle (35)  |  Individually (2)  |  Justification (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Practice (212)  |  Show (354)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Will (2350)

They will have the World to be in Large, what a Watch is in Small; which is very regular, and depends only upon the just disposing of the several Parts of the Movement.
Conversations on the Plurality of Words (1686), trans. William Gardiner (1715), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Large (399)  |  Life (1873)  |  Machine (272)  |  Movement (162)  |  Regular (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Watch (119)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

This very important property of rods, and indeed also of each kind of cone, this limitation of output to a single dimension of change, may be called the Principle of Univariance and stated thus: “The output of a receptor depends upon its quantum catch, but not upon what quanta are caught.” … Young's theory of colour vision may now be stated in terms of cone pigments. “There are three classes of cone each containing a different visual pigment. The output of each cone is univariant, depending simply upon the quantum catch of its pigment. Our sensation of colour depends upon the ratios of these three cone outputs.”
Principle of Univariance, concerning color vision, as stated in Lecture to a meeting of the Physiological Society at Chelsea College, London (17 Apr 1970), and reported in 'Pigments and Signals in Colour Vision', The Journal of Physiology (1972), 220 No. 3, 4P.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Change (640)  |  Color (155)  |  Cone (8)  |  Different (596)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Eye (441)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Kind (565)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Output (12)  |  Photon (11)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Principle (532)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Retina (4)  |  Rod (6)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Single (366)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Vision (127)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (16)

Those who are unacquainted with the details of scientific investigation have no idea of the amount of labour expended in the determination of those numbers on which important calculations or inferences depend. They have no idea of the patience shown by a Berzelius in determining atomic weights; by a Regnault in determining coefficients of expansion; or by a Joule in determining the mechanical equivalent of heat.
In Sound: A Course of Eight Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1867), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Atomic Weight (6)  |  Jöns Jacob Berzelius (13)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Coefficient (6)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Heat (181)  |  Idea (882)  |  Important (231)  |  Inference (45)  |  Investigation (250)  |  James Prescott Joule (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Number (712)  |  Patience (58)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Unacquainted (3)  |  Weight (140)

Through most of his existence man’s survival depended on his ability to cope with nature. If the mind evolved as an aid in human survival it was primarily as an instrument for the mastery of nature. The mind is still at its best when tinkering with the mathematics that rule nature.
In Before the Sabbath (1979), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Aid (101)  |  Best (468)  |  Cope (9)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Existence (484)  |  Human (1517)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Primary (82)  |  Rule (308)  |  Still (614)  |  Survival (105)  |  Through (846)  |  Tinker (6)  |  Tinkering (6)

Thus one becomes entangled in contradictions if one speaks of the probable position of the electron without considering the experiment used to determine it ... It must also be emphasized that the statistical character of the relation depends on the fact that the influence of the measuring device is treated in a different manner than the interaction of the various parts of the system on one another. This last interaction also causes changes in the direction of the vector representing the system in the Hilbert space, but these are completely determined. If one were to treat the measuring device as a part of the system—which would necessitate an extension of the Hilbert space—then the changes considered above as indeterminate would appear determinate. But no use could be made of this determinateness unless our observation of the measuring device were free of indeterminateness. For these observations, however, the same considerations are valid as those given above, and we should be forced, for example, to include our own eyes as part of the system, and so on. The chain of cause and effect could be quantitatively verified only if the whole universe were considered as a single system—but then physics has vanished, and only a mathematical scheme remains. The partition of the world into observing and observed system prevents a sharp formulation of the law of cause and effect. (The observing system need not always be a human being; it may also be an inanimate apparatus, such as a photographic plate.)
The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, trans. Carl Eckart and Frank C. Hoyt (1949), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (564)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Change (640)  |  Character (259)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consider (430)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Determine (152)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (596)  |  Direction (185)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electron (96)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Extension (60)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Free (240)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Include (93)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (914)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observed (149)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Remain (357)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Single (366)  |  Space (525)  |  Speak (240)  |  System (545)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Universe (901)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (206)  |  Vector (6)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1854)

Today, when so much depends on our informed action, we as voters and taxpayers can no longer afford to confuse science and technology, to confound “pure” science and “applied” science.
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Inform (52)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Taxpayer (2)  |  Technology (284)  |  Today (321)  |  Voter (3)

Undeveloped though the science [of chemistry] is, it already has great power to bring benefits. Those accruing to physical welfare are readily recognized, as in providing cures, improving the materials needed for everyday living, moving to ameliorate the harm which mankind by its sheer numbers does to the environment, to say nothing of that which even today attends industrial development. And as we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Application (257)  |  Attend (67)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Continue (180)  |  Cure (124)  |  Development (442)  |  Environment (240)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Improve (65)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Industrial Development (4)  |  Kind (565)  |  Living (492)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (323)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Number (712)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (520)  |  Power (773)  |  Provision (17)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Say (991)  |  Secured (18)  |  Today (321)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Welfare (30)

Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit from his ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws of light and vision, on which multitudes of phenomena depend, shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Derive (71)  |  Descend (49)  |  Exist (460)  |  Government (116)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Inquirer (9)  |  Institution (73)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Law (914)  |  Light (636)  |  Money (178)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Profit (56)  |  Research (753)  |  Support (151)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Unravel (16)  |  Vision (127)

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.
Speech (15 Jun 1874), in the House of Commons, Motion for a Select Committee, HC Deb 15 June 1874 vol 219 cc1618.
Science quotes on:  |  Country (269)  |  Education (423)  |  Fate (76)  |  People (1034)

We agreed then on the good things we have in common. On the advantage of being able to test yourself, not depending on others in the test, reflecting yourself in your work. On the pleasure of seeing your creature grow, beam after beam, bolt after bolt, solid, necessary, symmetrical, suited to its purpose; and when it’s finished, you look at it and you think that perhaps it will live longer than you, and perhaps it will be of use to someone you don’t know, who doesn’t know you. Maybe, as an old man you’ll be able to come back and look at it, and it will seem beautiful, and it doesn’t really matter so much that it will seem beautiful only to you, and you can say to yourself “maybe another man wouldn’t have brought it off.”
In The Monkey’s Wrench: A Novel (1986, 2017), 54-55. Originally published in Italian (1978).
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Beam (26)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Bolt (11)  |  Creature (244)  |  Finish (62)  |  Grow (247)  |  Live (651)  |  Long (778)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Old Man (6)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Reflect (39)  |  See (1095)  |  Seem (150)  |  Solid (119)  |  Suit (12)  |  Symmetrical (3)  |  Test (222)  |  Think (1124)  |  Work (1403)

We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely we all have a responsibility to care for our blue planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us.
As quoted, without source, in Kate Ng, 'David Attenborough turns 95: His best quotes on nature, sustainability and humankind', Independent (8 May 2021).
Science quotes on:  |  Awareness (42)  |  Blue (63)  |  Care (204)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Future (467)  |  History (719)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Planet (406)  |  Power (773)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Stage (152)  |  Unique (73)

We are fishing out the top of the food chain, and it’s pretty crucial because about 200 million people depend on fish and fishing for their livelihood, and about a billion people, mostly in poorer countries, depend on fish for their protein. So this is a big problem. Good news is, it’s fixable.
From transcript of PBS TV interview by Tavis Smiley (28 Mar 2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Big (56)  |  Billion (105)  |  Country (269)  |  Crucial (10)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Food (214)  |  Food Chain (7)  |  Good (907)  |  Good News (3)  |  Livelihood (13)  |  Million (124)  |  New (1276)  |  News (36)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  People (1034)  |  Poorer (2)  |  Problem (735)  |  Protein (56)  |  Top (100)

We are in the grip of a scientific materialism, caught in a vicious cycle where our security today seems to depend on regimentation and weapons which will ruin us tomorrow.
Quoted in 'Antiseptic Christianity', book review of Lindbergh, Of Flight and Life in Time magazine, (6 Sep 1948).
Science quotes on:  |  Cycle (42)  |  Materialism (11)  |  Regimentation (2)  |  Ruin (45)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Security (51)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Will (2350)

We depend upon science for prosperity for it supplies the new products and processes indispensable to our growing economy. We depend upon science for peace, for it supplies the weapons by which we defend the free world, and deter a reckless aggressor.
From Draft of Science Speech for Presidential Campaign (1960), held by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Digital Identifier: JFKCAMP1960-0993-005.
Science quotes on:  |  Defend (32)  |  Deter (4)  |  Economy (59)  |  Grow (247)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  New (1276)  |  Peace (116)  |  Process (441)  |  Product (167)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Reckless (6)  |  Supply (101)  |  Weapon (98)

We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe; it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge
In A Toolbox for Humanity: More than 9000 Years of Thought (2006), Vol. 1, 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (223)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Everything (490)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Origin (251)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Universe (901)  |  Want (505)

We may always depend on it that algebra, which cannot be translated into good English and sound common sense, is bad algebra.
In Common Sense in the Exact Sciences (1885), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Bad (185)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Good (907)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sound (188)

We may be well be justified in saying that quantum theory is of greater importance to chemistry than physics. For where there are large fields of physics that can be discussed in a completely penetrating way without reference to Planck's constant and to quantum theory at all, there is no part of chemistry that does not depend, in its fundamental theory, upon quantum principles.
As quoted in Leonard W. Fine, Chemistry (1972), 537. Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Completely (137)  |  Constant (148)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Field (378)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  Importance (299)  |  Large (399)  |  Part (237)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Principle (532)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Way (1214)

We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created; an equal quantity of matter exists both before and after the experiment; the quality and quantity of the elements remain precisely the same; and nothing takes place beyond changes and modifications in the combination of these elements. Upon this principle the whole art of performing chemical experiments depends: We must always suppose an exact equality between the elements of the body examined and those of the products of its analysis.
Elements of Chemistry trans. Robert. Kerr, (1790, 5th Ed. 1802), Vol. 1, 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Analaysis (2)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Art (681)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Change (640)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Combination (151)  |  Creation (350)  |  Down (455)  |  Element (324)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equality (34)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exist (460)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modification (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Principle (532)  |  Product (167)  |  Quality (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Remain (357)  |  Same (168)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Whole (756)

We must raise the salaries of our operators or they will all be taken from us, that is, all that are good for anything. You will recollect that, at the first meeting of the Board of Directors, I took the ground that 'it was our policy to make the office of operator desirable, to pay operators well and make their situation so agreeable that intelligent men and men of character will seek the place and dread to lose it.' I still think so, and, depend upon it, it is the soundest economy to act on this principle.
Letter to T.S. Faxton, one of his lieutenants (15 Mar 1848). Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals (1914), vol. 2, 274.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Biography (254)  |  Character (259)  |  Desirable (33)  |  First (1303)  |  Good (907)  |  Ground (222)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Lose (165)  |  Must (1525)  |  Office (72)  |  Principle (532)  |  Seek (219)  |  Situation (117)  |  Still (614)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Think (1124)  |  Will (2350)

We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.
In 'Can We Stop Killing Our Oceans Now, Please?', Huffington Post (14 Aug 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Care (204)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Do (1905)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Respect (212)

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.
Address at Rice University in Houston (12 Sep 1962). On website of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. [This go-to-the-moon speech was largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen.]
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Decision (98)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Force (497)  |  Gain (149)  |  Good (907)  |  Help (118)  |  Ill (12)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Science (2)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Peace (116)  |  People (1034)  |  Position (83)  |  Preeminence (3)  |  Progress (493)  |  Right (473)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sailing (14)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Sea (327)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (525)  |  State (505)  |  Technology (284)  |  United States (31)  |  Use (771)  |  War (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Winning (19)

We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most critical elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
From The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Blow (45)  |  Blow Up (9)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Combustible (2)  |  Critical (73)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Element (324)  |  Face (214)  |  Global (39)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Power (773)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Technology (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (650)

What is more difficult, to think of an encampment on the moon or of Harlem rebuilt? Both are now within the reach of our resources. Both now depend upon human decision and human will.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Decision (98)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Human (1517)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Reach (287)  |  Rebuild (4)  |  Resource (75)  |  Think (1124)  |  Will (2350)

Niels Bohr quote: What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language.
What is that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others.
Quoted in Aage Petersen, 'The Philosophy of Niels Bohr', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1963, 19, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Communication (101)  |  Experience (494)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (882)  |  Language (310)  |  Other (2233)  |  Task (153)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Word (650)

What we believe, endorse, agree with, and depend on is representable and, increasingly, represented on the Web. We all have to ensure that the society we build with the Web is the sort we intend.
Weaving The Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web (2004), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Build (212)  |  Creation (350)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Intention (46)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Society (353)  |  World Wide Web (4)

What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.
The Beauties of Nature (1893, 2009), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Crop (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Farmer (35)  |  Field (378)  |  Flower (112)  |  Follow (390)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Game (104)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Look (584)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (595)  |  See (1095)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
In The Beauties of Nature (1893, 2009), 12. This is (slightly paraphrased) part of a longer quote on the John Lubbock Quotations page that begins, “What we do see depends…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Look (584)  |  See (1095)

What we still designate as chance, merely depends on a concatenation of circumstances, the internal connection and final causes of which we have as yet been unable to unravel.
Force and Matter (1884), 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (564)  |  Chance (245)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Connection (171)  |  Final (121)  |  Internal (69)  |  Merely (315)  |  Still (614)  |  Unravel (16)

When scientists discovered that liquid water, which brought forth life on Earth, exists nowhere else in great quantities in the solar system, the most significant lesson they taught was not that water, or the life that depends on it, is necessarily the result of some chemical accident in space; their most important revelation was that water is rare in infinity, that we should prize it, preserve it, conserve it.
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 201-202.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Conserve (7)  |  Discover (572)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (460)  |  Great (1610)  |  Important (231)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Life (1873)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Prize (13)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rare (95)  |  Result (700)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Significant (78)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (525)  |  System (545)  |  Teach (301)  |  Water (505)

Wherever possible, scientists experiment. Which experiments suggest themselves often depends on which theories currently prevail. Scientists are intent of testing those theories to the breaking point. They do not trust what is intuitively obvious. That the Earth is flat was once obvious. That heavy bodies fall faster than light ones was once obvious. That bloodsucking leeches cure most diseases was once obvious. That some people are naturally and by divine decree slaves was once obvious. That there is such a place as the center of the Universe, and that the Earth sits in that exalted spot was once obvious. That there is an absolute standard of rest was once obvious. The truth may be puzzling or counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held beliefs. Experiment is how we get a handle on it.
In The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle in the Dark (1995), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Belief (616)  |  Contradict (43)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Counterintuitive (4)  |  Cure (124)  |  Decree (9)  |  Disease (343)  |  Divine (112)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exalt (30)  |  Exalted (22)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fall (243)  |  Faster (50)  |  Flat (34)  |  Handle (29)  |  Leech (6)  |  Light (636)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obvious (128)  |  People (1034)  |  Point (585)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Prevailing (3)  |  Puzzling (8)  |  Rest (289)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Slave (41)  |  Test (222)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Trust (73)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Universe (901)  |  Wherever (51)

Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed.
Quoted in Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (1971), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Obervation (4)  |  Observe (181)  |  Observed (149)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)

With highly civilised nations continued progress depends in a subordinate degree on natural selection; for such nations do not supplant and exterminate one another as do savage tribes. Nevertheless the more intelligent members within the same community will succeed better in the long run than the inferior, and leave a more numerous progeny, and this is a form of natural selection.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Better (495)  |  Civilised (4)  |  Community (111)  |  Continue (180)  |  Degree (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exterminate (10)  |  Form (978)  |  Highly (16)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Leave (139)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Progress (493)  |  Same (168)  |  Savage (33)  |  Selection (130)  |  Subordinate (11)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Supplant (4)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Will (2350)

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)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Death (407)  |  Human (1517)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Protection (41)  |  Reach (287)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transport (31)  |  Use (771)

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), 422.
Science quotes on:  |  Eye (441)  |  Focus (36)  |  Imagination (349)

Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Thing (1914)


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.