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: “Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index E > Category: Experience

Experience Quotes (494 quotes)

… just as the astronomer, the physicist, the geologist, or other student of objective science looks about in the world of sense, so, not metaphorically speaking but literally, the mind of the mathematician goes forth in the universe of logic in quest of the things that are there; exploring the heights and depths for facts—ideas, classes, relationships, implications, and the rest; observing the minute and elusive with the powerful microscope of his Infinitesimal Analysis; observing the elusive and vast with the limitless telescope of his Calculus of the Infinite; making guesses regarding the order and internal harmony of the data observed and collocated; testing the hypotheses, not merely by the complete induction peculiar to mathematics, but, like his colleagues of the outer world, resorting also to experimental tests and incomplete induction; frequently finding it necessary, in view of unforeseen disclosures, to abandon one hopeful hypothesis or to transform it by retrenchment or by enlargement:—thus, in his own domain, matching, point for point, the processes, methods and experience familiar to the devotee of natural science.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 26
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Class (168)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complete (209)  |  Data (162)  |  Depth (97)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Disclosure (7)  |  Domain (72)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Enlargement (8)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forth (14)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Guess (67)  |  Harmony (106)  |  Height (33)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (882)  |  Implication (25)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Literally (30)  |  Located (2)  |  Logic (313)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphor (38)  |  Method (532)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Minute (129)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observe (181)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Point (585)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Process (441)  |  Quest (40)  |  Regard (312)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Resort (8)  |  Rest (289)  |  Sense (786)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Student (317)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Test (222)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transform (74)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vast (188)  |  View (498)  |  World (1854)

…nature seems very conversant with the rules of pure mathematics, as our own mathematicians have formulated them in their studies, out of their own inner consciousness and without drawing to any appreciable extent on their experience of the outer world.
In The Mysterious Universe (1930), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Conversant (6)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Extent (142)  |  Inner (72)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Outer (13)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Rule (308)  |  Study (703)  |  World (1854)

…reality is a system, completely ordered and fully intelligible, with which thought in its advance is more and more identifying itself. We may look at the growth of knowledge … as an attempt by our mind to return to union with things as they are in their ordered wholeness…. and if we take this view, our notion of truth is marked out for us. Truth is the approximation of thought to reality … Its measure is the distance thought has travelled … toward that intelligible system … The degree of truth of a particular proposition is to be judged in the first instance by its coherence with experience as a whole, ultimately by its coherence with that further whole, all comprehensive and fully articulated, in which thought can come to rest.
In The Nature of Thought (1921), Vol II, 264.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Coherence (13)  |  Completely (137)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Degree (278)  |  Distance (171)  |  First (1303)  |  Growth (200)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Look (584)  |  Marked (55)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Notion (120)  |  Order (639)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reality (275)  |  Rest (289)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Union (52)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholeness (9)

...That day in the account of creation, or those days that are numbers according to its recurrence, are beyond the experience and knowledge of us mortal earthbound men. And if we are able to make any effort towards an understanding of those days, we ought not to rush forward with an ill considered opinion, as if no other reasonable and plausible interpretation could be offered.
iv.44
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Account (196)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Consider (430)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earthbound (4)  |  Effort (243)  |  Forward (104)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Number (712)  |  Offer (143)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Recurrence (5)  |  Rush (18)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)

“Heaven helps those who help themselves” is a well-tried maxim, embodying in a small compass the results of vast human experience. The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates. Whatever is done for men or classes, to a certain extent takes away the stimulus and necessity of doing for themselves; and where men are subjected to over-guidance and over-government, the inevitable tendency is to render them comparatively helpless.
In Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859, 1861), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Compass (37)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Doing (277)  |  Effect (414)  |  Extent (142)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Government (116)  |  Growth (200)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Help (118)  |  Helpless (14)  |  Human (1517)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Invigorate (3)  |  Live (651)  |  Maxim (19)  |  National (29)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Render (96)  |  Result (700)  |  Root (121)  |  Self (268)  |  Small (489)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Strength (139)  |  Subject (544)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Whatever (234)

“If there are two theories, one simpler man the other, the simpler one is to be preferred.” At first sight this does not seem quite so bad, but a little thought shows that our tendency to prefer the simpler possibility is psychological rather than scientific. It is less trouble to think that way. Experience invariably shows that the more correct a theory becomes, the more complex does it seem. … So this … interpretation of [Ockham’s Razor] is … worthless.
With co-author Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (1981), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Become (822)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Correct (95)  |  First (1303)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Little (718)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ockham�s Razor (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Show (354)  |  Sight (135)  |  Simple (430)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thought (996)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)

“Planning” is simply the result of experience read backward and projected into the future. To me the “purposive” action of a beehive is simply the summation and integration of its units, and Natural Selection has put higher and higher premiums on the most “purposeful” integration. It is the same way (to me) in the evolution of the middle ear, the steps in the Cynodonts (clearly shown by me in 1910 and by you later in Oudenodon) make it easier to see how such a wonderful device as the middle ear could arise without any predetermination or human-like planning, and in fact in the good old Darwinian way, if only we admit that as the “twig is bent the tree’s inclined” and that each stage conserves the advantages of its predecessors… The simple idea that planning is only experience read backward and combined by selection in suitable or successful combinations takes the mystery out of Nature and out of men’s minds.
Letter to Robert Broom [1933]. In Ronald Rainger, An Agenda for Antiquity (1991), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Arise (162)  |  Beehive (2)  |  Combination (151)  |  Device (71)  |  Ear (69)  |  Easier (53)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Future (467)  |  Good (907)  |  Human (1517)  |  Idea (882)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Integration (22)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Old (499)  |  Planning (21)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Project (77)  |  Read (309)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1095)  |  Selection (130)  |  Simple (430)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (235)  |  Successful (134)  |  Summation (3)  |  Tree (269)  |  Twig (15)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonderful (156)

[An outsider views a scientist] as a type of unscrupulous opportunist: he appears as a realist, insofar as he seeks to describe the world independent of the act of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from that which is empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations among sense experiences. He may even appear as Platonist or Pythagorean insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research.
In 'Reply to Critcisms', Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 2, 684.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Appear (123)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (430)  |  Describe (133)  |  Effective (68)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Extent (142)  |  Free (240)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Idealist (5)  |  Independent (75)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Invention (401)  |  Justify (26)  |  Logical (57)  |  Look (584)  |  Opportunist (3)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Perception (97)  |  Platonist (2)  |  Positivist (5)  |  Realist (3)  |  Relation (166)  |  Representation (55)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (219)  |  Sense (786)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Tool (131)  |  Type (172)  |  Unscrupulous (2)  |  View (498)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  World (1854)

[Haunted by the statistic that the best predictor of SAT scores is family income:] Where you were born, into what family you are born, what their resources are, are to a large extent are going to determine the quality of education you receive, beginning in preschool and moving all the way up through college.
And what this is going to create in America is a different kind of aristocracy that's going to be self-perpetuating, unless we find ways to break that juggernaut.
... I think what that really reflects is the fact that resources, and not wealth necessarily, but just good middle-class resources, can buy quality of experience for children.
In a segment from PBS TV program, Newshour (9 Sep 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  America (144)  |  Aristocracy (7)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Best (468)  |  Break (110)  |  Buy (22)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Class (168)  |  College (71)  |  Create (252)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (596)  |  Education (423)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Family (102)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (907)  |  Income (18)  |  Kind (565)  |  Large (399)  |  Middle-Class (2)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Quality (140)  |  Receive (117)  |  Resource (75)  |  Score (8)  |  Self (268)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Think (1124)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wealth (100)

[Kepler] had to realize clearly that logical-mathematical theoretizing, no matter how lucid, could not guarantee truth by itself; that the most beautiful logical theory means nothing in natural science without comparison with the exactest experience. Without this philosophic attitude, his work would not have been possible.
From Introduction that Einstein wrote for Carola Baumgardt and Jamie Callan, Johannes Kepler Life and Letters (1953), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Logic (313)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Possible (560)  |  Realize (157)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Truth (1111)  |  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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Evidence (267)  |  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)

[Plato] was the first to envisage the idea of timeless existence and to emphasize it—against reason—as a reality, more [real] than our actual experience…
Quoted in Robert J. Scully, The Demon and the Quantum (2007), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Against (332)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Existence (484)  |  First (1303)  |  Idea (882)  |  More (2558)  |  Plato (80)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reason (767)  |  Timeless (8)

[Science is] the search for unity in the variety of our experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Search (175)  |  Unity (81)  |  Variety (138)

[The body of law] has taxed the deliberative spirit of ages. The great minds of the earth have done it homage. It was the fruit of experience. Under it men prospered, all the arts flourished, and society stood firm. Every right and duty could be understood because the rules regulating each had their foundation in reason, in the nature and fitness of things; were adapted to the wants of our race, were addressed to the mind and to the heart; were like so many scraps of logic articulate with demonstration. Legislation, it is true occasionally lent its aid, but not in the pride of opinion, not by devising schemes inexpedient and untried, but in a deferential spirit, as a subordinate co-worker.
From biographical preface by T. Bigelow to Austin Abbott (ed.), Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher (1875), Vol. 1, xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Art (681)  |  Arts (3)  |  Body (557)  |  Deference (2)  |  Deliberation (5)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Duty (71)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Firm (47)  |  Flourish (35)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (244)  |  Homage (4)  |  Law (914)  |  Legislation (10)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Pride (85)  |  Prosper (8)  |  Race (279)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regulate (11)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (308)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Society (353)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Subordinate (11)  |  Tax (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understood (155)  |  Want (505)

[Werhner von Braun] is a human leader whose eyes and thoughts have always been turned toward the stars. It would be foolish to assign rocketry success to one person totally. Components must necessarily be the work of many minds; so must successive stages of development. But because Wernher von Braun joins technical ability, passionate optimism, immense experience and uncanny organizing ability in the elusive power to create a team, he is the greatest human element behind today’s rocketry success
Quoted in 'Reach For The Stars', Time (17 Feb 1958), 71, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Behind (139)  |  Wernher von Braun (29)  |  Component (51)  |  Create (252)  |  Development (442)  |  Element (324)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Eye (441)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1517)  |  Immense (89)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Organize (34)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Person (366)  |  Power (773)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Stage (152)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Success (327)  |  Successive (73)  |  Team (17)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thought (996)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Uncanny (5)  |  Work (1403)

'Causation' has been popularly used to express the condition of association, when applied to natural phenomena. There is no philosophical basis for giving it a wider meaning than partial or absolute association. In no case has it been proved that there is an inherent necessity in the laws of nature. Causation is correlation... [P]erfect correlation, when based upon sufficient experience, is causation in the scientific sense.
'Correlation, Causation and Wright's Theory of "Path Coefficients"', Genetics (7 May 1922), 7, 259-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Applied (176)  |  Association (49)  |  Basis (180)  |  Causation (14)  |  Condition (362)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Express (192)  |  Inherent (44)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sufficient (133)

Ac kynde wit cometh
Of alle kynnes syghtes,
Of briddes and of beestes,
Of tastes of truthe and of deceites.

Mother-Wit comes from all kinds of experiences,
Of birds and beasts and of tests both true and false.
In William Langland and B. Thomas Wright (ed.) The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman (1842), 235. Modern translation by Terrence Tiller in Piers Plowman (1981, 1999), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Biology (234)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Experiment (737)  |  False (105)  |  Kind (565)  |  Mother (116)  |  Observation (595)  |  Taste (93)  |  Test (222)  |  True (240)  |  Wit (61)  |  Zoology (38)

Demonstratio longe optima est experientia.
By far the best proof is experience.
Novum Organum, I., 70. In Thomas Benfield Harbottle, Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1906), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Proof (304)

L’oeuvre de Pasteur est admirable; elle montre son génie, mais it faut avoir vécu dans son intimité pour connaître toute la bonté de son coeur.
The work of Pasteur is admirable; it shows his genius, but it must have been experienced intimately to know all the goodness of his heart.
Epigraph in René Vallery-Radot, La Vie de Pasteur (1900), title page. English by Google translation, tweaked by Webmaster. Pierre Paul Émile Roux had indeed known Pasteur well, as one of his closest collaborators.
Science quotes on:  |  Genius (301)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Heart (244)  |  Know (1539)  |  Must (1525)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Show (354)  |  Work (1403)

A … difference between most system-building in the social sciences and systems of thought and classification of the natural sciences is to be seen in their evolution. In the natural sciences both theories and descriptive systems grow by adaptation to the increasing knowledge and experience of the scientists. In the social sciences, systems often issue fully formed from the mind of one man. Then they may be much discussed if they attract attention, but progressive adaptive modification as a result of the concerted efforts of great numbers of men is rare.
The Study of Man (1941), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Attention (198)  |  Both (496)  |  Building (158)  |  Classification (102)  |  Concert (7)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Difference (355)  |  Effort (243)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Form (978)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modification (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Number (712)  |  Rare (95)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Social (262)  |  Social Science (37)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thought (996)

A discovery in science, or a new theory, even when it appears most unitary and most all-embracing, deals with some immediate element of novelty or paradox within the framework of far vaster, unanalysed, unarticulated reserves of knowledge, experience, faith, and presupposition. Our progress is narrow; it takes a vast world unchallenged and for granted. This is one reason why, however great the novelty or scope of new discovery, we neither can, nor need, rebuild the house of the mind very rapidly. This is one reason why science, for all its revolutions, is conservative. This is why we will have to accept the fact that no one of us really will ever know very much. This is why we shall have to find comfort in the fact that, taken together, we know more and more.
Science and the Common Understanding (1954), 53-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Articulation (2)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Element (324)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Faith (210)  |  Find (1014)  |  Framework (33)  |  Grant (77)  |  Granted (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  House (143)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (323)  |  New (1276)  |  Novelty (32)  |  Paradox (55)  |  Presupposition (3)  |  Progress (493)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Reason (767)  |  Rebuild (4)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scope (44)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Together (392)  |  Unitary (3)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

A formal manipulator in mathematics often experiences the discomforting feeling that his pencil surpasses him in intelligence.
In An Introduction to the History of Mathematics (1953, 1976), 354. This same idea was said much earlier by Ernst Mach (1893). See the quote that begins, “The mathematician who pursues his studies,” on the Ernst Mach Quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Discomfort (4)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Formal (37)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Manipulator (5)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Surpass (33)

A great discovery solves a great problem, but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem. Your problem may be modest, but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your inventive faculties, and if you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy the triumph of discovery.
From Preface to the first printing, reprinted in How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (2004), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Challenge (93)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Grain (50)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (401)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Modest (19)  |  Problem (735)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solve (146)  |  Tension (24)  |  Triumph (76)

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
In Letter (4 Mar 1950), replying to a grieving father over the loss of a young son. In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Achievement (188)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (782)  |  Circle (118)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (244)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (214)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (240)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Kind (565)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Part (237)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (76)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (289)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (525)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (153)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (901)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Element (324)  |  Essential (210)  |  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 Miracle is a Violation of the Laws of Nature; and as a firm and unalterable Experience has established these Laws, the Proof against a Miracle, from the very Nature of the Fact, is as entire as any Argument from Experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all Men must die; that Lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the Air; that Fire consumes Wood, and is extinguished by Water; unless it be, that these Events are found agreeable to the Laws of Nature, and there is required a Violation of these Laws, or in other Words, a Miracle to prevent them? Nothing is esteem'd a Miracle, if it ever happen in the common Course of Nature... There must, therefore, be a uniform Experience against every miraculous Event, otherwise the Event would not merit that Appellation. And as a uniform Experience amounts to a Proof, there is here a direct and full Proof, from the Nature of the Fact, against the Existence of any Miracle; nor can such a Proof be destroy'd, or the Miracle render'd credible, but by an opposite Proof, which is superior.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), 180-181.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Air (367)  |  Amount (153)  |  Argument (145)  |  Common (447)  |  Course (415)  |  Death (407)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Direct (228)  |  Event (222)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fire (203)  |  Firm (47)  |  Happen (282)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Law (914)  |  Lead (391)  |  Merit (51)  |  Miracle (86)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Probable (24)  |  Proof (304)  |  Remain (357)  |  Render (96)  |  Required (108)  |  Superior (89)  |  Violation (7)  |  Water (505)  |  Why (491)  |  Wood (97)  |  Word (650)

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.
In 'Iris, Her Book', The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860, 1892), 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Insight (107)  |  Life (1873)  |  Moment (260)  |  Worth (173)

A scientist works largely by intuition. Given enough experience, a scientist examining a problem can leap to an intuition as to what the solution ‘should look like.’ ... Science is ultimately based on insight, not logic.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Enough (341)  |  Examine (84)  |  Give (208)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Largely (14)  |  Leap (57)  |  Logic (313)  |  Look (584)  |  Problem (735)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solution (286)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Work (1403)

A scientist worthy of the name, above all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same Nature.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impression (118)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Name (360)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Same (168)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Work (1403)  |  Worthy (35)

A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences.
Reflections on America (1958), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Idea (882)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Labor (200)  |  Right (473)  |  Save (126)  |  Single (366)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dynamical (15)  |  End (603)  |  Everything (490)  |  Expect (203)  |  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 ten months ago [1609] a report reached my ears that a certain Fleming [Hans Lippershey] had constructed a spyglass, by means of which visible objects, though very distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if nearby... Of this truly remarkable effect several experiences were related, to which some persons gave credence while others denied them. A few days later the report was confirmed to me in a letter from a noble Frenchman at Paris, Jacques Badovere, which caused me to apply myself wholeheartedly to enquire into the means by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument. This I did shortly afterwards, my basis being the theory of refraction. First I prepared a tube of lead, at the ends of which I fitted two glass lenses, both plane on one side while on the other side one was spherically convex and the other concave.
The Starry Messenger (1610), trans. Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), 28-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concave (6)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Construct (129)  |  Convex (6)  |  Ear (69)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (441)  |  First (1303)  |  Glass (94)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Invention (401)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lens (15)  |  Letter (117)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Month (91)  |  Myself (211)  |  Noble (95)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Reach (287)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Side (236)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Truly (119)  |  Two (936)  |  Visible (87)

All advances in science consist either in enlarging the range of experience or in expressing the regularities found or to be found in it.
Presidential Address, Royal Astronomical Society, London (13 Feb 1953), 'On Science and Modern Cosmology', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1953), 113, No. 3, 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Consist (224)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Express (192)  |  Find (1014)  |  Range (104)  |  Regularity (41)

All experience is an arch to build upon.
The Education of Henry Adams (1907, 1918), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Arch (12)  |  Build (212)

All of our experience indicates that life can manifest itself only in a concrete form, and that it is bound to certain substantial loci. These loci are cells and cell formations. But we are far from seeking the last and highest level of understanding in the morphology of these loci of life. Anatomy does not exclude physiology, but physiology certainly presupposes anatomy. The phenomena that the physiologist investigates occur in special organs with quite characteristic anatomical arrangements; the various morphological parts disclosed by the anatomist are the bearers of properties or, if you will, of forces probed by the physiologist; when the physiologist has established a law, whether through physical or chemical investigation, the anatomist can still proudly state: This is the structure in which the law becomes manifest.
In 'Cellular-Pathologie', Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fur klinische Medizin (1855), 8, 19, as translated in LellandJ. Rather, 'Cellular Pathology', Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays by Rudolf Virchow (1958), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Become (822)  |  Bound (120)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Formation (100)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (914)  |  Level (69)  |  Life (1873)  |  Locus (5)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Occur (151)  |  Organ (118)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Pride (85)  |  Probe (12)  |  Property (177)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Special (189)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Through (846)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Various (206)  |  Will (2350)

All parts of the material universe are in constant motion and though some of the changes may appear to be cyclical, nothing ever exactly returns, so far as human experience extends, to precisely the same condition.
Address (Jul 1874) at the grave of Joseph Priestley, in Joseph Henry and Arthur P. Molella, et al. (eds.), A Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry (1980), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (123)  |  Change (640)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Extend (129)  |  Human (1517)  |  Material (366)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Return (133)  |  Universe (901)

Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully controlled conditions and by more rigorous criteria than are present in the situations created by practical problems.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Advent (7)  |  Care (204)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Century (319)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (185)  |  Criteria (6)  |  Cure (124)  |  Deluded (7)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Devising (7)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Error (339)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Eye (441)  |  Horoscope (6)  |  Incantation (6)  |  Magic (92)  |  Major (88)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Method (532)  |  Modern (405)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practicality (7)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Public (100)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Reliance (12)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Situation (117)  |  Success (327)  |  Supposition (50)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Witch Doctor (2)  |  Witchcraft (6)  |  Year (965)

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence as I said before with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
'Movement and Weight', from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, trans. E. MacCurdy (1938), Vol. 1, 546.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Reason (767)

An event experienced is an event perceived, digested, and assimilated into the substance of our being, and the ratio between the number of cases seen and the number of cases assimilated is the measure of experience.
Address, opening of 1932-3 session of U.C.H. Medical School (4 Oct 1932), 'Art and Science in medicine', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Event (222)  |  Measure (242)  |  Number (712)  |  Perception (97)  |  Ratio (41)  |  See (1095)  |  Substance (253)

An experiment is an observation that can be repeated, isolated and varied. The more frequently you can repeat an observation, the more likely are you to see clearly what is there and to describe accurately what you have seen. The more strictly you can isolate an observation, the easier does your task of observation become, and the less danger is there of your being led astray by irrelevant circumstances, or of placing emphasis on the wrong point. The more widely you can vary an observation, the more clearly will the uniformity of experience stand out, and the better is your chance of discovering laws.
In A Text-Book of Psychology (1909), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Astray (13)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (495)  |  Chance (245)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Clear (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (133)  |  Description (89)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Easier (53)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Isolate (25)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Law (914)  |  Likely (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (595)  |  Point (585)  |  Repeat (44)  |  See (1095)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stand Out (5)  |  Strict (20)  |  Task (153)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (247)

An informed appraisal of life absolutely require(s) a full understanding of life’s arena–the universe. … By deepening our understanding of the true nature of physical reality, we profoundly reconfigure our sense of ourselves and our experience of the universe.
In The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (2007), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Appraisal (2)  |  Arena (4)  |  Deepen (6)  |  Full (69)  |  Inform (52)  |  Life (1873)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Physical (520)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Reality (275)  |  Require (229)  |  Sense (786)  |  True (240)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (901)

And having thus passed the principles of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and geography, with a general compact of physics, they may descend in mathematics to the instrumental science of trigonometry, and from thence to fortification, architecture, engineering, or navigation. And in natural philosophy they may proceed leisurely from the history of meteors, minerals, plants, and living creatures, as far as anatomy. Then also in course might be read to them out of some not tedious writer the institution of physic. … To set forward all these proceedings in nature and mathematics, what hinders but that they may procure, as oft as shall be needful, the helpful experiences of hunters, fowlers, fishermen, shepherds, gardeners, apothecaries; and in other sciences, architects, engineers, mariners, anatomists.
In John Milton and Robert Fletcher (ed.), 'On Education', The Prose Works of John Milton: With an Introductory Review (1834), 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Apothecary (10)  |  Architect (32)  |  Architecture (51)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Compact (13)  |  Course (415)  |  Creature (244)  |  Descend (49)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fisherman (9)  |  Fortification (6)  |  Forward (104)  |  Gardener (6)  |  General (521)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Hinder (12)  |  History (719)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Institution (73)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Life (1873)  |  Living (492)  |  Mariner (12)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Meteor (19)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (242)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Plant (320)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Read (309)  |  Science And Education (17)  |  Set (400)  |  Shepherd (6)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  Writer (90)

And I do not take my medicines from the apothecaries; their shops are but foul sculleries, from which comes nothing but foul broths. As for you, you defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last? ... let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoebuckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges.
'Credo', in J. Jacobi (ed.), Paracelsus: Selected Writings (1951), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Apothecary (10)  |  Avicenna (19)  |  Beard (8)  |  Broth (2)  |  College (71)  |  Defense (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Foul (15)  |  Galen (20)  |  Hair (25)  |  High (370)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Little (718)  |  Long (778)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Neck (15)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Scribe (3)  |  Shop (11)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1124)  |  Will (2350)

Animals generally seem naturally disposed to … intercourse at about the same period of the year, and that is when winter is changing into summer…. In the human species, the male experiences more under sexual excitement in winter, and the female in summer.
Aristotle
In The Works of Aristotle: Historia Animalium (350 BC), (The History of Animals), Book V, Part 8, 542a20 translated in William David Ross and John Alexander Smith (eds.), D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (trans.), (1910), Vol. 4, 27-28
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Change (640)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Female (50)  |  Human (1517)  |  Intercourse (5)  |  Male (26)  |  More (2558)  |  Period (200)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Sexual (27)  |  Sexuality (11)  |  Species (435)  |  Summer (56)  |  Winter (46)  |  Year (965)

Any living cell carries with it the experience of a billion years of experimentation by its ancestors. (1949)
From Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (Dec 1949), 38. Used as epigraph (without citation) to Chap 6, in Arnold Jay Levine, Viruses: A Scientific American Library Book (1991), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Billion (105)  |  Cell (146)  |  Experimentation (7)  |  Living (492)  |  Year (965)

As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries—not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.
From A Logical Point of View (1953), 44. [Note: “qua” means “in the character or role of,” thus “qua lay physicist” means “in the role of lay physicist,” or perhaps even (?) “putting on my lay physicist hat.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Both (496)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consider (430)  |  Continue (180)  |  Culture (157)  |  Definition (239)  |  Degree (278)  |  Device (71)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Empiricist (3)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entity (37)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Error (339)  |  Flux (21)  |  Footing (2)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Homer (11)  |  Import (5)  |  Intermediary (3)  |  Kind (565)  |  Light (636)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myth (58)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Past (355)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Point (585)  |  Posit (2)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Situation (117)  |  Structure (365)  |  Superior (89)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Think (1124)  |  Tool (131)  |  Ultimately (57)

As chemists, we must rename [our] scheme and insert the symbols Ba, La, Ce in place of Ra, Ac, Th. As nuclear chemists closely associated with physics, we cannot yet convince ourselves to make this leap, which contradicts all previous experience in nuclear physics.
Co-author with Fritz Strassmann, German chemist (1902-80)
Otto Hahn
'(Über den nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkallmetalle', Die Naturwissenschaften, 1939, 27, 11-15. Trans. J. Heilbron and Robert W. Seidel, Lawrence and his Laboratory: A History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1989), Vol. 1, 436-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Chemist (170)  |  Contradict (43)  |  Convince (43)  |  German (38)  |  Leap (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physics (6)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Symbol (100)

As children we all possess a natural, uninhibited curiosity, a hunger for explanation, which seems to die slowly as we age—suppressed, I suppose, by the high value we place on conformity and by the need not to appear ignorant.
It betokens a conviction that somehow science is innately incomprehensible. It precludes reaching deeper, thereby denying the profound truth that understanding enriches experience, that explanation vastly enhances the beauty of the natural world in the eye of the beholder.
In Toward the Habit of Truth (1990).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Children (201)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Eye (441)  |  High (370)  |  Hunger (24)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Natural (811)  |  Possess (158)  |  Profound (105)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (397)  |  World (1854)

As the human fetus develops, its changing form seems to retrace the whole of human evolution from the time we were cosmic dust to the time we were single-celled organisms in the primordial sea to the time we were four-legged, land-dwelling reptiles and beyond, to our current status as large­brained, bipedal mammals. Thus, humans seem to be the sum total of experience since the beginning of the cosmos.
From interview with James Reston, Jr., in Pamela Weintraub (ed.), The Omni Interviews (1984), 99. Previously published in magazine, Omni (May 1982).
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bipedal (3)  |  Brain (282)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (640)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Current (122)  |  Develop (279)  |  Dust (68)  |  Dwelling (12)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fetus (2)  |  Form (978)  |  Human (1517)  |  Land (134)  |  Large (399)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Organism (231)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Retrace (3)  |  Sea (327)  |  Single (366)  |  Status (35)  |  Sum (103)  |  Time (1913)  |  Total (95)  |  Whole (756)

Body and soul are not two different things, but only two different ways of perceiving the same thing. Similarly, physics and psychology are only different attempts to link our experiences together by way of systematic thought.
(1937). In Albert Einstein, the Human Side by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman (1979), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Body (557)  |  Body And Soul (4)  |  Different (596)  |  Link (49)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Physics (568)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Same (168)  |  Soul (237)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thought (996)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Derogatory (3)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Edge (51)  |  Everything (490)  |  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 how is it that they [astrologers] have never been able to explain why, in the life of twins, in their actions, in their experiences, their professions, their accomplishments, their positions—in all the other circumstances of human life, and even in death itself, there is often found such a diversity that in those respects many strangers show more resemblance to them than they show to one another, even though the smallest possible interval separated their births and though they were conceived at the same moment, by a single act of intercourse.
De Civitate Dei (The City of God) [413-426], Book V, chapter I, trans. H. Bettenson (1972),180-181.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (343)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Birth (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Death (407)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Explain (334)  |  Human (1517)  |  Life (1873)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profession (108)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Respect (212)  |  Show (354)  |  Single (366)  |  Twin (16)  |  Twins (2)  |  Why (491)

But I shall certainly admit a system as empirical or scientific only if it is capable of being tested by experience. These considerations suggest that not the verifiability but the falsifiability of a system is to be taken as a criterion of demarcation. In other words: I shall not require of a scientific system that it shall be capable of being singled out, once and for all, in a positive sense; but I shall require that its logical form shall be such that it can be singled out, by means of empirical tests, in a negative sense: it must be possible for an empirical scientific system to be refuted by experience. (1959)
The Logic of Scientific Discovery: Logik Der Forschung (1959, 2002), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empirical Science (9)  |  Form (978)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Must (1525)  |  Negative (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Sense (786)  |  System (545)  |  Test (222)  |  Word (650)

But in practical affairs, particularly in politics, men are needed who combine human experience and interest in human relations with a knowledge of science and technology. Moreover, they must be men of action and not contemplation. I have the impression that no method of education can produce people with all the qualities required. I am haunted by the idea that this break in human civilization, caused by the discovery of the scientific method, may be irreparable.
Max Born
My Life & My Views (1968), 57-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Break (110)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Combine (58)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Education (423)  |  Human (1517)  |  Idea (882)  |  Impression (118)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (532)  |  Must (1525)  |  People (1034)  |  Politics (123)  |  Practical (225)  |  Required (108)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Technology (284)

But the best demonstration by far is experience, if it go not beyond the actual experiment.
From Aphorism 70, Novum Organum, Book I (1620). Collected in James Spedding (ed.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1858), Vol. 4, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Best (468)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Experiment (737)

But, as Bacon has well pointed out, truth is more likely to come out of error, if this is clear and definite, than out of confusion, and my experience teaches me that it is better to hold a well-understood and intelligible opinion, even if it should turn out to be wrong, than to be content with a muddle-headed mixture of conflicting views, sometimes miscalled impartiality, and often no better than no opinion at all.
Principles of General Physiology (1915), x.
Science quotes on:  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Better (495)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Definite (114)  |  Error (339)  |  Impartiality (7)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Mixture (44)  |  More (2558)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Point (585)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understood (155)  |  View (498)  |  Wrong (247)

By the year 2070 we cannot say, or it would be imbecile to do so, that any man alive could understand Shakespearean experience better than Shakespeare, whereas any decent eighteen-year-old student of physics will know more physics than Newton.
'The Case of Leavis and the Serious Case’, Times Literary Supplement (9 Jul 1970), 737-740. Collected in Public Affairs (1971), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (98)  |  Better (495)  |  Decent (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Old (499)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Say (991)  |  William Shakespeare (110)  |  Student (317)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.
Confucius
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 109
Science quotes on:  |  Bitter (30)  |  Easy (213)  |  First (1303)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Learn (672)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Second (66)  |  Third (17)  |  Wisdom (235)

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Ambition (47)  |  Character (259)  |  Develop (279)  |  Ease (40)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Soul (237)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Success (327)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Through (846)  |  Trial (59)

Charles Babbage proposed to make an automaton chess-player which should register mechanically the number of games lost and gained in consequence of every sort of move. Thus, the longer the automaton went on playing game, the more experienced it would become by the accumulation of experimental results. Such a machine precisely represents the acquirement of experience by our nervous organization.
In ‘Experimental Legislation’, Popular Science (Apr 1880), 16, 754-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Charles Babbage (54)  |  Become (822)  |  Chess (27)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Gain (149)  |  Game (104)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Loss (118)  |  Machine (272)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (225)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Number (712)  |  Organization (120)  |  Player (9)  |  Playing (42)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Register (22)  |  Registration (2)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)

Chemical engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of mathematics, chemistry and other natural sciences gained by study, experience and practice is applied with judgment to develop economic ways of using materials and energy for the benefit of mankind.
AIChE
In Article III, 'Definition of the Profession', Constitution of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (as amended 17 Jan 2003). The same wording is found in the 1983 Constitution, as quoted in Nicholas A. Peppas (ed.), One Hundred Years of Chemical Engineering: From Lewis M. Norton (M.I.T. 1888) to Present (2012), 334.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Engineering (4)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Develop (279)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Energy (374)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Gain (149)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practice (212)  |  Profession (108)  |  Study (703)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)

Chemistry and physics are experimental sciences; and those who are engaged in attempting to enlarge the boundaries of science by experiment are generally unwilling to publish speculations; for they have learned, by long experience, that it is unsafe to anticipate events. It is true, they must make certain theories and hypotheses. They must form some kind of mental picture of the relations between the phenomena which they are trying to investigate, else their experiments would be made at random, and without connection.
From 'Radium and Its Products', Harper’s Magazine (Dec 1904), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipate (21)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Connection (171)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Event (222)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Form (978)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kind (565)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Long (778)  |  Mental (179)  |  Must (1525)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Picture (148)  |  Publish (42)  |  Random (42)  |  Relation (166)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unsafe (5)  |  Unwilling (9)

Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are then refined and improved by experience.
In How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom (2007), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Chess (27)  |  Cognition (7)  |  Cognitive (7)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nexus (4)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Together (392)  |  Unique (73)

Climbing is all about freedom, the freedom to go beyond all the rules and take a chance, to experience something new, to gain insight into human nature.
In Reinhold Messner: My Life At The Limit (2014), 12-13.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Chance (245)  |  Climb (40)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Insight (107)  |  New (1276)  |  Rule (308)

Common sense is as rare as genius—is the basis of genius and experience is the hands and feet to every enterprise.
In essay, 'Experience', Essays: Second Series (1844), collected in Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays First and Second Series (1883), 97. A half-century later, Arthur Handly Marks incorporated the quote (without attribution) as “a first-rate article of common sense is as rare as genius”, in his Address (6 Jun 1892), 'Common Sense' at the Commencement of Prior Institute, Jasper, Tennessee, collected in Igerne and Other Writings of Arthur Handly Marks (1897), 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Foot (65)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hand (149)  |  Rare (95)  |  Sense (786)

Common sense is not wrong in the view that is meaningful, appropriate and necessary to talk about the large objects of our daily experience …. Common sense is wrong only if it insists that what is familiar must reappear in what is unfamiliar.
In 'Uncommon Sense', collected in J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nicholas Metropolis (ed.) and ‎Gian-Carlo Rota (ed.), Uncommon Sense (1984), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Daily (92)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Insist (22)  |  Large (399)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Object (442)  |  Reappear (4)  |  Sense (786)  |  Talk (108)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  View (498)  |  Wrong (247)

Common sense is only the application of theories which have grown and been formulated unconsciously as result of experience.
From 'For Mans Use of God's Gifts', collected in Robert C. Goodpasture (ed.), Engineers and Ivory Towers (1952), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Grow (247)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (786)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Unconscious (24)

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
Entry for 26 Dec 1852 in Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel, trans. Humphry Ward (1893), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Life (1873)  |  Measure (242)  |  Possible (560)  |  Sense (786)

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropomorphic (4)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Belong (168)  |  Call (782)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exceptionally (3)  |  Extent (142)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (978)  |  General (521)  |  God (776)  |  High (370)  |  Individual (420)  |  Level (69)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Pure (300)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rise (170)  |  Stage (152)  |  Third (17)  |  Type (172)

Concerned to reconstruct past ideas, historians must approach the generation that held them as the anthropologist approaches an alien culture. They must, that is, be prepared at the start to find that natives speak a different language and map experience into different categories from those they themselves bring from home. And they must take as their object the discovery of those categories and the assimilation of the corresponding language.
'Revisiting Planck', Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (1984), 14, 246.
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (40)  |  Anthropologist (8)  |  Approach (112)  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Category (19)  |  Concern (239)  |  Culture (157)  |  Different (596)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Find (1014)  |  Generation (256)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (719)  |  Home (186)  |  Idea (882)  |  Language (310)  |  Map (50)  |  Must (1525)  |  Native (41)  |  Object (442)  |  Past (355)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Speak (240)  |  Start (237)  |  Themselves (433)

Consciousness is never experienced in the plural, only in the singular. Not only has none of us ever experienced more than one consciousness, but there is also no trace of circumstantial evidence of this ever happening anywhere in the world. If I say that there cannot be more than one consciousness in the same mind, this seems a blunt tautology–we are quite unable to imagine the contrary.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Blunt (5)  |  Circumstantial (2)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Same (168)  |  Say (991)  |  Seem (150)  |  Singular (24)  |  Tautology (4)  |  Trace (109)  |  Unable (25)  |  World (1854)

During the war years I worked on the development of radar and other radio systems for the R.A.F. and, though gaining much in engineering experience and in understanding people, rapidly forgot most of the physics I had learned.
From Autobiography in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1974/Nobel Lectures (1975)
Science quotes on:  |  Development (442)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Forgetfulness (8)  |  Gain (149)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1034)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Radar (9)  |  Radio (60)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  System (545)  |  Understanding (527)  |  War (234)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  College (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Little (718)  |  Matter (821)  |  Person (366)  |  Private (29)  |  School (228)  |  World (1854)

Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.
ABET
In EAC Criteria for 1999-2000 as cited in Charles R. Lord, Guide to Information Sources in Engineering (2000), 5. Found in many sources, and earlier, for example, Otis E. Lancaster, American Society for Engineering Education, Engineers' Council for Professional Development, Achieve Learning Objectives (1962), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Develop (279)  |  Economical (11)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Force (497)  |  Force Of Nature (9)  |  Gain (149)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Practice (212)  |  Profession (108)  |  Study (703)  |  Utilize (10)  |  Way (1214)

Ere long intelligence—transmitted without wires—will throb through the earth like a pulse through a living organism. The wonder is that, with the present state of knowledge and the experiences gained, no attempt is being made to disturb the electrostatic or magnetic condition of the earth, and transmit, if nothing else, intelligence.
Electrical Engineer (24 Jun 1892), 11, 609.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Being (1276)  |  Condition (362)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electrical Engineering (12)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Gain (149)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Organism (231)  |  Present (630)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Radio (60)  |  State (505)  |  Throb (6)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)  |  Wonder (252)

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Differently (4)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (222)  |  Truth (1111)

Even in populous districts, the practice of medicine is a lonely road which winds up-hill all the way and a man may easily go astray and never reach the Delectable Mountains unless he early finds those shepherd guides of whom Bunyan tells, Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere.
In Aequanimitas (1904), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Astray (13)  |  Early (196)  |  Find (1014)  |  Guide (108)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Reach (287)  |  Tell (344)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wind (141)

Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced, if only rarely, the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously… this feeling may last for hours at a time, even for days. Once you have experienced it, you are eager to repeat it but unable to do it at will, unless perhaps by dogged work….
In The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician (1992), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Eager (17)  |  Exaltation (5)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hour (192)  |  Last (425)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Name (360)  |  Repeat (44)  |  State (505)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unable (25)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)  |  Worthy (35)

Every new theory as it arises believes in the flush of youth that it has the long sought goal; it sees no limits to its applicability, and believes that at last it is the fortunate theory to achieve the 'right' answer. This was true of electron theory—perhaps some readers will remember a book called The Electrical Theory of the Universe by de Tunzelman. It is true of general relativity theory with its belief that we can formulate a mathematical scheme that will extrapolate to all past and future time and the unfathomed depths of space. It has been true of wave mechanics, with its first enthusiastic claim a brief ten years ago that no problem had successfully resisted its attack provided the attack was properly made, and now the disillusionment of age when confronted by the problems of the proton and the neutron. When will we learn that logic, mathematics, physical theory, are all only inventions for formulating in compact and manageable form what we already know, like all inventions do not achieve complete success in accomplishing what they were designed to do, much less complete success in fields beyond the scope of the original design, and that our only justification for hoping to penetrate at all into the unknown with these inventions is our past experience that sometimes we have been fortunate enough to be able to push on a short distance by acquired momentum.
The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Age (509)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arise (162)  |  Attack (86)  |  Belief (616)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (414)  |  Brief (37)  |  Call (782)  |  Claim (154)  |  Compact (13)  |  Complete (209)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (205)  |  Disillusionment (2)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enough (341)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Goal (155)  |  Invention (401)  |  Justification (52)  |  Know (1539)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (313)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Momentum (10)  |  Neutron (23)  |  New (1276)  |  Past (355)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Physical (520)  |  Problem (735)  |  Proton (23)  |  Push (66)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scope (44)  |  See (1095)  |  Short (200)  |  Space (525)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Time (1913)  |  Universe (901)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)  |  Youth (109)

Every scientist, through personal study and research, completes himself and his own humanity. ... Scientific research constitutes for you, as it does for many, the way for the personal encounter with truth, and perhaps the privileged place for the encounter itself with God, the Creator of heaven and earth. Science shines forth in all its value as a good capable of motivating our existence, as a great experience of freedom for truth, as a fundamental work of service. Through research each scientist grows as a human being and helps others to do likewise.
Address to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (13 Nov 2000). In L’Osservatore Romano (29 Nov 2000), translated in English edition, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Capable (174)  |  Complete (209)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Creator (97)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Existence (484)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  God (776)  |  Good (907)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Other (2233)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Service (110)  |  Study (703)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Value (397)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1403)

Everyone now agrees that a Physics where you banish all relationship with mathematics, to confine itself to a mere collection of observations and experiences, would be but an historical amusement, more fitting to entertain idle people, than to engage the mind of a true philosopher.
In 'Préface Contenant l’Exposition du Système', Dictionnaire de Physique (1761), Vol. 1, iii. English version via Google Translate, tweaked by Webmaster. From the original French, “Tout le monde convient maintenant qu’une Physique d’où l'on banniroit tout ce qui peut avoir quelque rapport avec les mathématiques, pour se borner à un simple recueil d’observations & d’experiences, ne seroit qu’un amusement historique, plus propre à récréer un cercle de personnes oisives, qu’à occuper un esprit véritablement philosophique.” Also seen translated as—“Everyone now agrees that a physics lacking all connection with mathematics…would only be an historical amusement, fitter for entertaining the idle than for occupying the mind of a philosopher,” in John L. Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (1979), 74. In the latter source, the subject quote immediately follows a different one by Franz Karl Achard. An editor misreading that paragraph is the likely reason the subject quote will be found in Oxford Dictionary of Science Quotations attributed to Achard. Webmaster checked the original footnoted source, and corrected the author of this entry to Paulian (16 May 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (38)  |  Banish (11)  |  Collection (68)  |  Engage (41)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Historical (70)  |  Idle (35)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (595)  |  People (1034)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Plus (43)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Simple (430)

Experience hobbles progress and leads to abandonment of difficult problems; it encourages the initiated to walk on the shady side of the street in the direction of experiences that have been pleasant. Youth without experience attacks the unsolved problems which maturer age with experience avoids, and from the labors of youth comes progress. Youth has dreams and visions, and will not be denied.
From speech 'In the Time of Henry Jacob Bigelow', given to the Boston Surgical Society, Medalist Meeting (6 Jun 1921). Printed in Journal of the Medical Association (1921), 77, 599.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Age (509)  |  Attack (86)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Denial (20)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Direction (185)  |  Dream (223)  |  Encourage (45)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Initiated (2)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mature (17)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Problem (735)  |  Progress (493)  |  Side (236)  |  Street (25)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Vision (127)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Youth (109)

Experience is a comb that Nature gives man after he has gone bald.
Anonymous
Thai saying. In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  French Saying (67)

Experience is a jewel, and it need be so, for it is often purchased at an infinite rate.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Infinite (244)  |  Jewel (10)  |  Need (323)  |  Often (109)  |  Purchase (8)  |  Rate (31)

Experience is never at fault; it is only your judgment that is in error in promising itself such results from experience as are not caused by our experiments. For having given a beginning, what follows from it must necessarily be a natural development of such a beginning, unless it has been subject to a contrary influence, while, if it is affected by any contrary influence, the result which ought to follow from the aforesaid beginning will be found to partake of this contrary influence in a greater or less degree in proportion as the said influence is more or less powerful than the aforesaid beginning.
'Philosophy', in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, trans. E. MacCurdy (1938), Vol. 1, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Degree (278)  |  Development (442)  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fault (58)  |  Follow (390)  |  Greater (288)  |  Influence (231)  |  Judgment (140)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Result (700)  |  Subject (544)  |  Will (2350)

Experience is the great teacher; unfortunately, experience leaves mental scars, and scar tissue contracts.
From speech 'In the Time of Henry Jacob Bigelow', given to the Boston Surgical Society, Medalist Meeting (6 Jun 1921). Printed in Journal of the Medical Association (1921), 77, 599.
Science quotes on:  |  Contract (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mental (179)  |  Scar (8)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Unfortunately (40)

Experience is the mother of science.
Anonymous
Collected in Henery George Bohn, A Handbook of Proverbs: Comprising Ray's Collection of English Proverbs (1855), 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Mother (116)

Experience is the sole source of truth: it alone can teach us something new; it alone can give us certainty.
In La Science et l’Hypothèse (1901, 1908), 167, as translated in Henri Poincaré and William John Greenstreet (trans.), Science and Hypothesis (1902, 1905), 140. From the original French, “L'expérience est la source unique de la vérité: elle seule peut nous apprendre quelque chose de nouveau; elle seule peut nous donner la certitude. Voilà deux points que nul ne peut contester.”
Science quotes on:  |  Certainty (180)  |  New (1276)  |  Source (102)  |  Teach (301)  |  Truth (1111)

Experience of actual fact either teaches fools or abolishes them.
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 84, 380.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Education (423)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fool (121)

Experience teaches nothing without theory.
In On the Management of Statistical Techniques for Quality and Productivity (1981), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Teach (301)  |  Theory (1016)

EXPERIENCE, n. The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  93.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Already (226)  |  Enable (122)  |  Folly (45)  |  Humour (116)  |  Old (499)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Wisdom (235)

Experience, the only logic sure to convince a diseased imagination and restore it to rugged health.
Written in 1892. In The American Claimant (1896), 203. In Mark Twain and Brian Collins (ed.), When in Doubt, Tell the Truth: and Other Quotations from Mark Twain (1996), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Convince (43)  |  Disease (343)  |  Health (211)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Logic (313)  |  Restore (13)  |  Rugged (7)

Experienced mountaineers, they know that the real feeling is—after you’ve made a summit and come back—the feeling of being reborn.
From interview with Rudraneil Sengupta, 'Reinhold Messner: When You’re Alone, Fear is All on You', Mint (1 Mar 2014). A business newspaper in India, also online at livemint.com website.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Mountaineer (3)  |  Reborn (2)  |  Summit (27)

Experimental observations are only experience carefully planned in advance, and designed to form a secure basis of new knowledge.
In The Design of Experiments (1935, 1970), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Basis (180)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Design (205)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Form (978)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  New (1276)  |  Observation (595)  |  Plan (123)  |  Security (51)

Fear, rage and pain, and the pangs of hunger are all primitive experiences which human beings share with the lower animals. These experiences are properly classed as among the most powerful that determine the action of men and beasts
From Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement (1915), vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beast (58)  |  Classify (8)  |  Determine (152)  |  Fear (215)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hunger (24)  |  Low (86)  |  Pain (144)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Rage (11)  |  Share (82)

First of all, we ought to observe, that mathematical propositions, properly so called, are always judgments a priori, and not empirical, because they carry along with them necessity, which can never be deduced from experience. If people should object to this, I am quite willing to confine my statements to pure mathematics, the very concept of which implies that it does not contain empirical, but only pure knowledge a priori.
In Critique of Pure Reason (1900), 720.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Call (782)  |  Carry (130)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confine (26)  |  Contain (68)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Empirical (58)  |  First (1303)  |  Imply (20)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (442)  |  Observe (181)  |  People (1034)  |  Properly (21)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Statement (148)  |  Willing (44)

First you guess. Don’t laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it’s wrong.
As condensed in Florentin Smarandache, V. Christianto, Multi-Valued Logic, Neutrosophy, and Schrodinger Equation? (2006), 73 & 160 (footnote), paraphrasing from Lecture No. 7, 'Seeking New Laws', Messenger Lectures, Cornell (1964). The original verbatim quote, taken from the transcript is elsewhere on the Richard Feynman Quotations webpage, beginning: “In general, we look for a new law…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Compare (76)  |  Compute (19)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Disagree (14)  |  First (1303)  |  Guess (67)  |  Important (231)  |  Key (56)  |  Laugh (51)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (360)  |  Simple (430)  |  Smart (33)  |  Statement (148)  |  Step (235)  |  Wrong (247)

For scholars and laymen alike it is not philosophy but active experience in mathematics itself that can alone answer the question: What is mathematics?
As co-author with Herbert Robbins, in What Is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods (1941, 1996), xiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Activity (218)  |  Alike (60)  |  Alone (325)  |  Answer (389)  |  Itself (7)  |  Layman (21)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Question (652)  |  Scholar (52)

For the better part of my last semester at Garden City High, I constructed a physical pendulum and used it to make a “precision” measurement of gravity. The years of experience building things taught me skills that were directly applicable to the construction of the pendulum. Twenty-five years later, I was to develop a refined version of this measurement using laser-cooled atoms in an atomic fountain interferometer.
[Outcome of high school physics teacher, Thomas Miner, encouraging Chu's ambitious laboratory project.]
Autobiography in Gösta Ekspong (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1996-2000 (2002), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Atom (381)  |  Better (495)  |  Building (158)  |  City (88)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (116)  |  Develop (279)  |  Education (423)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  High (370)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Laser (5)  |  Last (425)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physics (568)  |  Precision (73)  |  Project (77)  |  School (228)  |  Skill (116)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Year (965)

For the holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the divine Word, the former as the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the latter as the observant executrix of God's commands. It is necessary for the Bible, in order to be accommodated to the understanding of every man, to speak many things which appear to differ from the absolute truth so far as the bare meaning of the words is concerned. But Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operation are understandable to men. For that reason it appears that nothing physical which sense-experience sets before our eyes, or which necessary demonstrations prove to us, ought to be called in question (much less condemned) upon the testimony of biblical passages which may have some different meaning beneath their words.
Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany: Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science (1615), trans. Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), 182-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Alike (60)  |  Bare (33)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Call (782)  |  Care (204)  |  Command (60)  |  Concern (239)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Differ (88)  |  Different (596)  |  Divine (112)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Eye (441)  |  Former (138)  |  Ghost (36)  |  God (776)  |  Holy (35)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Law (914)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Method (532)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Observation (595)  |  Operation (221)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Physical (520)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Prove (263)  |  Question (652)  |  Reason (767)  |  Sense (786)  |  Set (400)  |  Speak (240)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understandable (12)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Word (650)

For the past 10 years I have had the interesting experience of observing the development of Parkinson's syndrome on myself. As a matter of fact, this condition does not come under my special medical interests or I would have had it solved long ago. … The condition has its compensations: one is not yanked from interesting work to go to the jungles of Burma ... one avoids all kinds of deadly committee meetings, etc.
Article for his 25th anniversary class report. In Barry G. Firkin, Judith A. Whitworth, Dictionary of Medical Eponyms (1996), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (124)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Development (442)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Kind (565)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Myself (211)  |  Past (355)  |  Special (189)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

For there are two modes of acquiring knowledge, namely, by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience; since many have the arguments relating to what can be known, but because they lack experience they neglect the arguments, and neither avoid what is harmful nor follow what is good. For if a man who has never seen fire should prove by adequate reasoning that fire burns and injures things and destroys them, his mind would not be satisfied thereby, nor would he avoid fire, until he placed his hand or some combustible substance in the fire, so that he might prove by experience that which reasoning taught. But when he has had actual experience of combustion his mind is made certain and rests in the full light of truth. Therefore reasoning does not suffice, but experience does.
Opus Majus [1266-1268], Part VI, chapter I, trans. R. B. Burke, The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon (1928), Vol. 2, 583.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Argument (145)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Burn (99)  |  Certain (557)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Discover (572)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Draw (141)  |  Fire (203)  |  Follow (390)  |  Good (907)  |  Grant (77)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Lack (127)  |  Light (636)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (595)  |  Path (160)  |  Prove (263)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remove (50)  |  Rest (289)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Two (936)

For they are, in truth, textbooks of life: they gather outer and inner experiences into a general and connected whole.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 189.
Science quotes on:  |  Connect (126)  |  Connected (8)  |  Gather (77)  |  General (521)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1873)  |  Outer (13)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Whole (756)

For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.
As quoted, without citation, in Jeffrey O. Bennett, The Cosmic Perspective (1999), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (640)  |  Divide (77)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Hundred (240)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Perspective (28)  |  See (1095)  |  Share (82)  |  Space (525)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Value (397)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Gauss was not the son of a mathematician; Handel’s father was a surgeon, of whose musical powers nothing is known; Titian was the son and also the nephew of a lawyer, while he and his brother, Francesco Vecellio, were the first painters in a family which produced a succession of seven other artists with diminishing talents. These facts do not, however, prove that the condition of the nerve-tracts and centres of the brain, which determine the specific talent, appeared for the first time in these men: the appropriate condition surely existed previously in their parents, although it did not achieve expression. They prove, as it seems to me, that a high degree of endowment in a special direction, which we call talent, cannot have arisen from the experience of previous generations, that is, by the exercise of the brain in the same specific direction.
In 'On Heredity', Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1889), Vol. 1, 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Appear (123)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Artist (97)  |  Brain (282)  |  Brother (47)  |  Call (782)  |  Centre (32)  |  Condition (362)  |  Degree (278)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Direction (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Exist (460)  |  Expression (182)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Family (102)  |  Father (114)  |  First (1303)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Generation (256)  |  High (370)  |  Known (453)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Music (133)  |  Nephew (2)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Parent (80)  |  Power (773)  |  Previous (17)  |  Produced (187)  |  Prove (263)  |  Son (25)  |  Special (189)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succession (80)  |  Surely (101)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Talent (100)  |  Time (1913)  |  Titian (2)

Gentlemen, as we study the universe we see everywhere the most tremendous manifestations of force. In our own experience we know of but one source of force, namely will. How then can we help regarding the forces we see in nature as due to the will of some omnipresent, omnipotent being? Gentlemen, there must be a GOD.
As quoted in W. E. Byerly (writing as a Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, but a former student at a Peirce lecture on celestial mechanics), 'Benjamin Peirce: II. Reminiscences', The American Mathematical Monthly (Jan 1925), 32, No. 1, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Due (143)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Force (497)  |  Gentlemen (4)  |  God (776)  |  Know (1539)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Omnipotent (13)  |  Omnipresent (3)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  See (1095)  |  Source (102)  |  Study (703)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Universe (901)  |  Will (2350)

Geology, perhaps more than any other department of natural philosophy, is a science of contemplation. It requires no experience or complicated apparatus, no minute processes upon the unknown processes of matter. It demands only an enquiring mind and senses alive to the facts almost everywhere presented in nature. And as it may be acquired without much difficulty, so it may be improved without much painful exertion.
'Lectures on Geology, 1805 Lecture', in R. Siegfried and R. H. Dott (eds.), Humphry Davy on Geology (1980), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Alive (98)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Demand (131)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Present (630)  |  Require (229)  |  Sense (786)  |  Unknown (198)

Goethe said that he who cannot draw on 3,000 years of learning is living hand to mouth. It could just as well be said that individuals who do tap deeply into this rich cultural legacy are wealthy indeed. Yet the paradox is that much of this wisdom is buried in a sea of lesser books or like lost treasure beneath an ocean of online ignorance and trivia. That doesn’t mean that with a little bit of diligence you can’t tap into it. Yet many people, perhaps most, never take advantage of all this human experience. They aren’t obtaining knowledge beyond what they need to know for work or to get by. As a result, their view of our amazing world is diminished and their lives greatly circumscribed.
In An Embarrassment of Riches: Tapping Into the World's Greatest Legacy of Wealth (2013), 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Arent (6)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bit (21)  |  Book (414)  |  Bury (19)  |  Circumscribe (3)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (141)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Hand (149)  |  Human (1517)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Legacy (14)  |  Lesser (6)  |  Little (718)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouth (55)  |  Need (323)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Online (4)  |  Paradox (55)  |  People (1034)  |  Result (700)  |  Rich (66)  |  Say (991)  |  Sea (327)  |  Tap (10)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Trivia (2)  |  View (498)  |  Wealthy (5)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)  |  Year (965)

Gradually, at various points in our childhoods, we discover different forms of conviction. There’s the rock-hard certainty of personal experience (“I put my finger in the fire and it hurt,”), which is probably the earliest kind we learn. Then there’s the logically convincing, which we probably come to first through maths, in the context of Pythagoras’s theorem or something similar, and which, if we first encounter it at exactly the right moment, bursts on our minds like sunrise with the whole universe playing a great chord of C Major.
In short essay, 'Dawkins, Fairy Tales, and Evidence', 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Burst (41)  |  Bursting (3)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Chord (4)  |  Context (31)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Different (596)  |  Discover (572)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hurting (2)  |  Kind (565)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Logic (313)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Moment (260)  |  Music (133)  |  Playing (42)  |  Point (585)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (177)  |  Something (718)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (901)  |  Various (206)  |  Whole (756)

Groups do not have experiences except insofar as all their members do. And there are no experiences... that all the members of a scientific community must share in the course of a [scientific] revolution. Revolutions should be described not in terms of group experience but in terms of the varied experiences of individual group members. Indeed, that variety itself turns out to play an essential role in the evolution of scientific knowledge.
Thomas S. Kuhn's Foreword to Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Reconstructing Scientific Revolutions: Thomas S Kuhn's Philosophy of Science (1993), xiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Community (111)  |  Course (415)  |  Do (1905)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Group (84)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Must (1525)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Role (86)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Share (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Turn (454)  |  Variety (138)

Hands-on experience at the critical time, not systematic knowledge, is what counts in the making of a naturalist. Better to be an untutored savage for a while, not to know the names or anatomical detail. Better to spend long stretches of time just searching and dreaming.
In Naturalist (1994), 11-12.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Better (495)  |  Count (107)  |  Critical (73)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dreaming (3)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Long (778)  |  Making (300)  |  Name (360)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Savage (33)  |  Searching (7)  |  Spend (97)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Time (1913)

He who does not believe that God is above all is either a fool or has no experience of life.
From the original Latin, “Deum qui non summum putet, Aut stultum aut rerum esse imperitum existumem,” in Incert. Fragment XV. As translated in Thomas Benfield Harbottle, Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1897), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Fool (121)  |  God (776)  |  Life (1873)

Here arises a puzzle that has disturbed scientists of all periods. How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality? Is human reason, then, without experience, merely by taking thought, able to fathom the properties of real things?
From 'Geometry and Experience', an expanded form of an Address by Albert Einstein to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin (27 Jan 1921). In Albert Einstein, translated by G. B. Jeffery and W. Perrett, Sidelights on Relativity (1923).
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Arise (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Human (1517)  |  Independent (75)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Merely (315)  |  Object (442)  |  Period (200)  |  Product (167)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reason (767)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)

Historians constantly rewrite history, reinterpreting (reorganizing) the records of the past. So, too, when the brain's coherent responses become part of a memory, they are organized anew as part of the structure of consciousness. What makes them memories is that they become part of that structure and thus form part of the sense of self; my sense of self derives from a certainty that my experiences refer back to me, the individual who is having them. Hence the sense of the past, of history, of memory, is in part the creation of the self.
The Strange, Familiar, and Forgotten: An Anatomy of Consciousness (1995), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Anew (19)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (822)  |  Brain (282)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creation (350)  |  Derive (71)  |  Form (978)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (719)  |  Individual (420)  |  Memory (144)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Record (161)  |  Response (56)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (786)  |  Structure (365)  |  Write (250)

Hogwash! … On our way to the moon, and on the moon, I worked as hard as John Young and it took me another six years before I found out the truth about God. In the days of Apollo and long afterwards I still believed in the theory of evolution and rejected the Biblical creation story. [Commenting on an American reporter’s printed intimation that Lunar Module pilots “had less things to do and had time to look out the spaceship’s window, or to explore the surroundings. Afterwards they could not cope with what they had seen, felt and experienced.”]
As quoted in Colin Burgess, Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of Apollo, 1969-1975 (2010), 422. Burgess introduced the quote with: “Charles Moss Duke Jr. has always been wrongly labeled as the astronaut who found God during his Apollo 16 mission, but even though he did eventually become a born-again Christian, this life-altering epiphany came some years after the event.” Burgess explained that Duke dislikes “misinformed characterizations of himself and his Apollo colleagues and of the religious impact of his own lunar mission.” [The ellipsis in the subject quote spans from one paragraph to the next in Burgess’ book. The ellipsis was added by Webmaster, on the assumption that the word “Hogwash!” belongs with the statement in the following paragraph.]
Science quotes on:  |  Apollo (9)  |  Belief (616)  |  Bible (105)  |  Cope (9)  |  Creation (350)  |  Exploration (161)  |  God (776)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Moon (252)  |  Reject (67)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Spaceship (5)  |  Story (122)  |  Surroundings (6)  |  Theory Of Evolution (5)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Window (59)  |  Work (1403)  |  Young_Johnwatts (2)

Human personality resembles a coral reef: a large hard/dead structure built and inhabited by tiny soft/live animals. The hard/dead part of our personality consists of habits, memories, and compulsions and will probably be explained someday by some sort of extended computer metaphor. The soft/live part of personality consists of moment-to-moment direct experience of being. This aspect of personality is familiar but somewhat ineffable and has eluded all attempts at physical explanation.
Quoted in article 'Nick Herbert', in Gale Cengage Learning, Contemporary Authors Online (2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Being (1276)  |  Build (212)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Computer (134)  |  Consist (224)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Dead (65)  |  Direct (228)  |  Elude (11)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Extend (129)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hard (246)  |  Human (1517)  |  Ineffable (4)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Large (399)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Memory (144)  |  Metaphor (38)  |  Moment (260)  |  Personality (66)  |  Physical (520)  |  Probability (135)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Soft (30)  |  Someday (15)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Will (2350)

Humanities are inseparable from human creations, whether these be philosophic, scientific, technical, or artistic and literary. They exist in everything to which men have imparted their virtues or vices, their joys or sufferings. There are blood and tears in geometry as well as in art, blood and tears but also innumerable joys, the purest that men can experience themselves or share with others.
In A History of Science: Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Blood (144)  |  Creation (350)  |  Everything (490)  |  Existence (484)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Human (1517)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Impart (24)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Joy (117)  |  Literary (15)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Share (82)  |  Sufferings (2)  |  Tear (48)  |  Technical (53)  |  Vice (42)  |  Virtue (117)

I am an organic chemist, albeit one who adheres to the definition of organic chemistry given by the great Swedish chemist Berzelius, namely, the chemistry of substances found in living matter, and my science is one of the more abstruse insofar as it rests on concepts and employs a jargon neither of which is a part of everyday experience. Nevertheless, organic chemistry deals with matters of truly vital Importance and in some of its aspects with which I myself have been particularly concerned it may prove to hold the keys to Life itself.
In 'Synthesis in the Study of Nucleotides', Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1957. In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1942-1962 (1964), 522.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Adhere (3)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Jöns Jacob Berzelius (13)  |  Chemist (170)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deal (192)  |  Definition (239)  |  Employ (115)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Find (1014)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Importance (299)  |  Jargon (13)  |  Key (56)  |  Life (1873)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (263)  |  Rest (289)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sweden (3)  |  Truly (119)  |  Vital (89)

I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonished (10)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Blue (63)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deficient (3)  |  Delight (111)  |  Domain (72)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Factual (8)  |  Ghastly (5)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Good (907)  |  Heart (244)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1539)  |  Lot (151)  |  Magnificently (2)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (639)  |  Pain (144)  |  Physical (520)  |  Picture (148)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Question (652)  |  Real World (15)  |  Really (77)  |  Red (38)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Silent (31)  |  Silly (17)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sundry (4)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Tell (344)  |  Ugly (14)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1854)

I am very sorry, Pyrophilus, that to the many (elsewhere enumerated) difficulties which you may meet with, and must therefore surmount, in the serious and effectual prosecution of experimental philosophy I must add one discouragement more, which will perhaps is much surprise as dishearten you; and it is, that besides that you will find (as we elsewhere mention) many of the experiments published by authors, or related to you by the persons you converse with, false and unsuccessful (besides this, I say), you will meet with several observations and experiments which, though communicated for true by candid authors or undistrusted eye-witnesses, or perhaps recommended by your own experience, may, upon further trial, disappoint your expectation, either not at all succeeding constantly, or at least varying much from what you expected.
Opening paragraph of The First Essay Concerning the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments (1673), collected in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle in Six Volumes to Which is Prefixed the Life of the Author (1772), Vol. 1, 318-319.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Disheartening (2)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Eye (441)  |  False (105)  |  Find (1014)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (595)  |  Person (366)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Say (991)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Success (327)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Trial (59)  |  Unsuccessful (5)  |  Will (2350)

I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Behind (139)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Drive (62)  |  Driving (28)  |  Force (497)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Strong (182)  |  Strongest (38)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependency (3)  |  Despise (16)  |  Drug (61)  |  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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exercise (113)  |  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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Enough (341)  |  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 feel, sometimes, as the renaissance man must have felt in finding new riches at every point and in the certainty that unexplored areas of knowledge and experience await at every turn.
Address to the University Students (10 Dec 1956 ) in Göran Liljestrand (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1955 (1956).
Science quotes on:  |  Certainty (180)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Point (585)  |  Renaissance (16)  |  Riches (14)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Wait (66)

I grew up to be indifferent to the distinction between literature and science, which in my teens were simply two languages for experience that I learned together.
As quoted in J. Wakeman, World Authors 1950 - 1970, (1975), 221-23.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinction (73)  |  Language (310)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Literature (117)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)

I had … during many years, followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed by my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from memory than favorable ones.
In The Autobiography of Charles Darwin with original omissions restored, edited by Nora Barlow (1958).
Science quotes on:  |  Escape (87)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (193)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Follow (390)  |  General (521)  |  Golden (47)  |  Memory (144)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1276)  |  Observation (595)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (308)  |  Thought (996)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Year (965)

I had at one time a very bad fever of which I almost died. In my fever I had a long consistent delirium. I dreamt that I was in Hell, and that Hell is a place full of all those happenings that are improbable but not impossible. The effects of this are curious. Some of the damned, when they first arrive below, imagine that they will beguile the tedium of eternity by games of cards. But they find this impossible, because, whenever a pack is shuffled, it comes out in perfect order, beginning with the Ace of Spades and ending with the King of Hearts. There is a special department of Hell for students of probability. In this department there are many typewriters and many monkeys. Every time that a monkey walks on a typewriter, it types by chance one of Shakespeare's sonnets. There is another place of torment for physicists. In this there are kettles and fires, but when the kettles are put on the fires, the water in them freezes. There are also stuffy rooms. But experience has taught the physicists never to open a window because, when they do, all the air rushes out and leaves the room a vacuum.
'The Metaphysician's Nightmare', Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories (1954), 38-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Arrival (15)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Chance (245)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Damned (4)  |  Death (407)  |  Delirium (3)  |  Department (93)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (223)  |  Effect (414)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Fever (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1303)  |  Freeze (7)  |  Game (104)  |  Happening (59)  |  Heart (244)  |  Hell (32)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Improbable (15)  |  Kettle (3)  |  Long (778)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Never (1089)  |  Open (277)  |  Opening (15)  |  Order (639)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Probability (135)  |  Room (42)  |  Rush (18)  |  William Shakespeare (110)  |  Shuffle (7)  |  Sonnet (5)  |  Special (189)  |  Student (317)  |  Tedium (3)  |  Time (1913)  |  Torment (18)  |  Type (172)  |  Typewriter (6)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Walk (138)  |  Water (505)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)  |  Window (59)

I had this experience at the age of eight. My parents gave me a microscope. I don’t recall why, but no matter. I then found my own little world, completely wild and unconstrained, no plastic, no teacher, no books, no anything predictable. At first I did not know the names of the water-drop denizens or what they were doing. But neither did the pioneer microscopists. Like them, I graduated to looking at butterfly scales and other miscellaneous objects. I never thought of what I was doing in such a way, but it was pure science. As true as could be of any child so engaged, I was kin to Leeuwenhoek, who said that his work “was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more that most other men.”
In The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth (2010), 143-144.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Book (414)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Child (333)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completely (137)  |  Craving (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Drop (77)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Gain (149)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Kin (10)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (17)  |  Little (718)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopist (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (360)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (442)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pioneer (38)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Praise (28)  |  Predictability (7)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Reside (25)  |  Scale (122)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thought (996)  |  Unconstrained (2)  |  Water (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.
Speech (Mar 1775) at the Virginia Convention. In W. Thomson (ed.), The Chartist Circular (), 244
Science quotes on:  |  Feet (5)  |  Future (467)  |  Guided (3)  |  Know (1539)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Past (355)  |  Way (1214)

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accentuate (2)  |  Asset (6)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Briefly (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Deteriorate (3)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Devote (45)  |  Drive (62)  |  Economic (84)  |  Egotistical (2)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Essence (85)  |  Existence (484)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  More (2558)  |  Moreover (3)  |  Naive (13)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Organic (161)  |  Perilous (4)  |  Point (585)  |  Position (83)  |  Positive (98)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Process (441)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Protective (5)  |  Reach (287)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Right (473)  |  Short (200)  |  Simple (430)  |  Social (262)  |  Society (353)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Threat (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unsophisticated (2)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whatever (234)

I have often pondered over the roles of knowledge or experience, on the one hand, and imagination or intuition, on the other, in the process of discovery. I believe that there is a certain fundamental conflict between the two, and knowledge, by advocating caution, tends to inhibit the flight of imagination. Therefore, a certain naivete, unburdened by conventional wisdom, can sometimes be a positive asset.
In R. Langlands, 'Harish-Chandra', Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (1985), Vol. 31, 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Advocate (21)  |  Asset (6)  |  Belief (616)  |  Caution (24)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Conventional Wisdom (3)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Hand (149)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inhibit (4)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Naivete (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Positive (98)  |  Process (441)  |  Role (86)  |  Tend (124)  |  Two (936)  |  Wisdom (235)

I imagined in the beginning, that a few experiments would determine the problem; but experience soon convinced me, that a very great number indeed were necessary before such an art could be brought to any tolerable degree of perfection.
Upon pursuing the ''
Preface to An Essay on Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dyeing and Painting (1794), iii. In Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (2000), 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Degree (278)  |  Determine (152)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (712)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Problem (735)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Soon (187)

I saw a horrible brown heap on the floor in the corner, which, but for previous experience in this dismal wise, I might not have suspected to be “the bed.” There was something thrown upon it and I asked what it was. “’Tis the poor craythur that stays here, sur; and ’tis very bad she is, ’tis very bad she’s been this long time, and ’tis better she’ll never be, and ’tis slape she doos all day, and ’tis wake she doos all night, and ‘tis the lead, Sur.” “The what?” “The lead, Sur. Sure, ’tis the lead-mills, where women gets took on at eighteen pence a day, Sur, when they makes application early enough, and is lucky and wanted, and ’tis lead-pisoned she is, Sur, and some of them gits lead-pisoned soon and some of them gets lead-pisoned later, and some but not many, niver, and ’tis all according to the constitooshun, Sur, and some constitooshuns is strong, and some is weak, and her constitooshun is lead-pisoned, bad as can be, Sur, and her brain is coming out at her ear, and it hurts her dreadful, and that’s what it is and niver no more and niver so less, Sur.”
In 'New Uncommercial Samples: A Small Star in the East', All the Year Round (19 Dec 1868), New Series, No. 3, 62.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Application (257)  |  Ask (423)  |  Bad (185)  |  Better (495)  |  Brain (282)  |  Brown (23)  |  Coming (114)  |  Corner (59)  |  Disabled (2)  |  Disease (343)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Ear (69)  |  Early (196)  |  Enough (341)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lead Poisoning (4)  |  Long (778)  |  Mill (16)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Poor (139)  |  Saw (160)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Strong (182)  |  Time (1913)  |  Want (505)  |  Weak (73)  |  Wise (145)

I stand before you as somebody who is both physicist and a priest, and I want to hold together my scientific and my religious insights and experiences . I want to hold them together, as far as I am able, without dishonesty and without compartmentalism. I don’t want to be a priest on Sunday and a physicist on Monday; I want to be both on both days.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Far (158)  |  Hold (96)  |  Insight (107)  |  Monday (3)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Priest (29)  |  Religious (134)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Somebody (8)  |  Stand (284)  |  Sunday (8)  |  Together (392)  |  Want (505)

I think I’ve had more failures than successes, but I don’t see the failures as mistakes because I always learned something from those experiences. I see them as having not achieved the initial goal, nothing more than that.
Quoted in Timothy L. O’Brien, 'Not Invented here: Are U.S. Innovators Losing Their Competitive Edge?', New York Times (13 Nov 2005), B6.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Failure (176)  |  Goal (155)  |  Initial (17)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  See (1095)  |  Something (718)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1124)

I think it perfectly just, that he who, from the love of experiment, quits an approved for an uncertain practice, should suffer the full penalty of Egyptian law against medical innovation; as I would consign to the pillory, the wretch, who out of regard to his character, that is, to his fees, should follow the routine, when, from constant experience he is sure that his patient will die under it, provided any, not inhuman, deviation would give his patient a chance.
From his researches in Fever, 196. In John Edmonds Stock, Memoirs of the life of Thomas Beddoes (1810), 400.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Chance (245)  |  Character (259)  |  Consign (2)  |  Constant (148)  |  Death (407)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fee (9)  |  Follow (390)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Justice (40)  |  Law (914)  |  Love (328)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Regard (312)  |  Routine (26)  |  Think (1124)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wretch (5)

I think it would be just to say the most essential characteristic of mind is memory, using this word in its broadest sense to include every influence of past experience on present reactions.
In Portraits from Memory: and Other Essays (1956), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Essential (210)  |  Include (93)  |  Influence (231)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Think (1124)  |  Word (650)

Thomas Edison quote “Afraid of things that worked”, record track background+colorized photo of Edison & tinfoil phonograph
derivative art and colorization © todayinsci.com (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.

I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.
[Recalling astonishment when his tin-foil cylinder phonograph first played back his voice recording of “Mary had a little lamb.”]
Quoted in Frank Lewis Dyer, Thomas Commerford Martin, Edison: His Life and Inventions (1910), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Afraid (24)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Back (395)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Cylinder (11)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Drawback (4)  |  First (1303)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (401)  |  Little (718)  |  Long (778)  |  Phonograph (8)  |  Recording (13)  |  Something (718)  |  Success (327)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tin (18)  |  Work (1403)

I was fascinated by fractional distillation as a method while still a school-boy, and built in the cellar of my home, which was my combined workshop and laboratory, distillation columns, packed with coke of graded size, some five feet in height. They were made from coffee tins (obtained from the kitchen), with the bottoms removed and soldered together! Experience with them served me in good stead and by the time I graduated I had a good understanding of the problems of fractional distillation.
Nobel Lectures in Chemistry (1999), Vol. 3, 359-360.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Boy (100)  |  Coffee (21)  |  Coke (4)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Good (907)  |  Home (186)  |  Kitchen (14)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Method (532)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Problem (735)  |  School (228)  |  Still (614)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tin (18)  |  Together (392)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Workshop (14)

I will frankly tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific investigations convinces me that a belief in God—a God who is behind and within the chaos of vanishing points of human knowledge—adds a wonderful stimulus to the man who attempts to penetrate into the regions of the unknown.
As quoted in E.P. Whipple, 'Recollections of Agassiz', in Henry Mills Alden (ed.), Harper's New Monthly Magazine (June 1879), 59, 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Behind (139)  |  Belief (616)  |  Biography (254)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Convince (43)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1517)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Point (585)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Tell (344)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Vanishing (11)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (156)

I will now direct the attention of scientists to a previously unnoticed cause which brings about the metamorphosis and decomposition phenomena which are usually called decay, putrefaction, rotting, fermentation and moldering. This cause is the ability possessed by a body engaged in decomposition or combination, i.e. in chemical action, to give rise in a body in contact with it the same ability to undergo the same change which it experiences itself.
Annalen der Pharmacie 1839, 30, 262. Trans. W. H. Brock.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Action (343)  |  Attention (198)  |  Body (557)  |  Call (782)  |  Cause (564)  |  Change (640)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Combination (151)  |  Contact (66)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Direct (228)  |  Fermentation (15)  |  Metamorphosis (5)  |  Mold (37)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possess (158)  |  Putrefaction (4)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rotting (2)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

I wished to show that Pythagoras, the first founder of the vegetable regimen, was at once a very great physicist and a very great physician; that there has been no one of a more cultured and discriminating humanity; that he was a man of wisdom and of experience; that his motive in commending and introducing the new mode of living was derived not from any extravagant superstition, but from the desire to improve the health and the manners of men.
From Dell Vitto Pitagorico (1743), (The Pythagorean Diet: for the Use of the Medical Faculty), as translated quotes in Howard Williams, The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-Eating (1883), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Commend (7)  |  Culture (157)  |  Desire (214)  |  Diet (56)  |  Extravagant (11)  |  First (1303)  |  Founder (27)  |  Great (1610)  |  Health (211)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Improve (65)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (62)  |  New (1276)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Show (354)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vegetarian (13)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wish (217)

I would efface the word atoms from science, persuaded that it goes further than experience... In chemistry we should never go further than experience. Could there be any hope of ever identifying the minuscule entities?
Quoted, without citation, in Nick Herbert, Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, (1985), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Efface (6)  |  Entity (37)  |  Further (6)  |  Hope (322)  |  Identifying (2)  |  Never (1089)  |  Persuation (2)  |  Word (650)

I, however, believe that for the ripening of experience the light of an intelligent theory is required. People are amused by the witticism that the man with a theory forces from nature that answer to his question which he wishes to have but nature never answers unless she is questioned, or to speak more accurately, she is always talking to us and with a thousand tongues but we only catch the answer to our own question.
Quoted in Major Greenwood, Epidemiology Historical and Experimental. The Herter Lectures for 1931 (1932), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Light (636)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1034)  |  Question (652)  |  Required (108)  |  Speak (240)  |  Talking (76)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tongue (44)

If ... the past may be no Rule for the future, all Experience becomes useless and can give rise to no Inferences or Conclusions.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Future (467)  |  Inference (45)  |  Past (355)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rule (308)

If I were working in astrophysics I would find it quite hard to explain to people what I was doing. Natural history is a pretty easy thing to explain. It does have its complexities, but nowhere do you speak about things that are outside people’s experience. You might speak about a species that is outside their experience, but nothing as remote as astrophysics.
From interview with Michael Bond, 'It’s a Wonderful Life', New Scientist (14 Dec 2002), 176, No. 2373, 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Easy (213)  |  Explain (334)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  History (719)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Outside (142)  |  People (1034)  |  Remote (86)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Thing (1914)

If our so-called facts are changing shadows, they are shadows cast by the light of constant truth. So too in religion we are repelled by that confident theological doctrine… but we need not turn aside from the measure of light that comes into our experience showing us a Way through the unseen world.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Cast (69)  |  Confident (25)  |  Constant (148)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Light (636)  |  Measure (242)  |  Religion (370)  |  Shadow (73)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1854)

If the kind of controversy which so often springs up between modernism and traditionalism in religion were applied to more commonplace affairs of life we might see some strange results. …It arises, let us say, from a passage in an obituary notice which mentions that the deceased had loved to watch the sunsets from his peaceful country home.. …it is forgotten that what the deceased man looked out for each evening was an experience and not a creed.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 84-85.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Arise (162)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Controversy (31)  |  Country (269)  |  Creed (28)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Home (186)  |  Kind (565)  |  Life (1873)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Notice (81)  |  Passage (52)  |  Religion (370)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  See (1095)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strange (160)  |  Sunset (28)  |  Watch (119)

If this seems complex, the reason is because Tao is both simple and complex. It is complex when we try to understand it, and simple when we allow ourselves to experience it.
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Reason (767)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Tao (2)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)

If we admit our depression openly and freely, those around us get from it an experience of freedom rather than the depression itself.
Paulus Harper & Row 73
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (50)  |  Depression (26)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Freely (13)

If we can combine our knowledge of science with the wisdom of wildness, if we can nurture civilization through roots in the primitive, man’s potentialities appear to be unbounded, Through this evolving awareness, and his awareness of that awareness, he can emerge with the miraculous—to which we can attach what better name than “God”? And in this merging, as long sensed by intuition but still only vaguely perceived by rationality, experience may travel without need for accompanying life.
A Letter From Lindbergh', Life (4 Jul 1969), 61. In Eugene C. Gerhart, Quote it Completely! (1998), 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Attach (57)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Better (495)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Combine (58)  |  God (776)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (86)  |  Name (360)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Potential (75)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Root (121)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Wildness (6)  |  Wisdom (235)

If we work, it is less to obtain those positive results the common people think are our only interest, than to feel that aesthetic emotion and communicate it to those able to experience it.
From the original French, “Si nous travaillons, c’est moins pour obtenir ces résultats auxquels le vulgaire nous croit uniquement attachés, que pour ressentir cette émotion esthétique et la communiquer à ceux qui sont capables de l’éprouver,” quoted in Henri Poincaré,'Notice sur Halphen', Journal de l’École Polytechnique (1890), 60, 143, cited in Oeuvres de G.H. Halphen (1916), Vol. 1, xxiv. As translated in Armand Borel, 'On the Place of Mathematics in Culture', in Armand Borel: Œvres: Collected Papers (1983), Vol. 4, 421.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Common (447)  |  Common People (2)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Feel (371)  |  Interest (416)  |  Obtain (164)  |  People (1034)  |  Positive (98)  |  Result (700)  |  Think (1124)  |  Work (1403)

In a sense, of course, probability theory in the form of the simple laws of chance is the key to the analysis of warfare;… My own experience of actual operational research work, has however, shown that its is generally possible to avoid using anything more sophisticated. … In fact the wise operational research worker attempts to concentrate his efforts in finding results which are so obvious as not to need elaborate statistical methods to demonstrate their truth. In this sense advanced probability theory is something one has to know about in order to avoid having to use it.
In 'Operations Research', Physics Today (Nov 1951), 19. As cited by Maurice W. Kirby and Jonathan Rosenhead, 'Patrick Blackett (1897)' in Arjang A. Assad (ed.) and Saul I. Gass (ed.),Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators (2011), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Advanced (12)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Chance (245)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Course (415)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Finding (36)  |  Form (978)  |  Key (56)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Method (532)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Order (639)  |  Possible (560)  |  Probability (135)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (786)  |  Simple (430)  |  Something (718)  |  Sophisticated (16)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use (771)  |  Warfare (12)  |  Wise (145)  |  Work (1403)

In a word, to get the law from experiment, it is necessary to generalize; this is a necessity imposed upon the most circumspect observer.
From La Valeur de la Science (1908), 142, as translated by George Bruce Halsted in The Value of Science (1907), 77. From the original French, “En un mot, pour tirer la loi de l’expérience, il faut généraliser; c’est une nécessité qui s’impose à l’observateur le plus circonspect.” An alternate translation is given “approximately” as “In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most circumspect observer,” in Anton Bovier, Statistical Mechanics of Disordered Systems (2006), 186, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Draw (141)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Observation (595)  |  Plus (43)  |  Rule (308)  |  Word (650)

In all speculations on the origin, or agents that have produced the changes on this globe, it is probable that we ought to keep within the boundaries of the probable effects resulting from the regular operations of the great laws of nature which our experience and observation have brought within the sphere of our knowledge. When we overleap those limits, and suppose a total change in nature's laws, we embark on the sea of uncertainty, where one conjecture is perhaps as probable as another; for none of them can have any support, or derive any authority from the practical facts wherewith our experience has brought us acquainted.
Observations on the Geology of the United States of America (1817), iv-v.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (74)  |  Authority (100)  |  Change (640)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Derive (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Origin (251)  |  Practical (225)  |  Probability (135)  |  Produced (187)  |  Regular (48)  |  Sea (327)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Support (151)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Total (95)  |  Uncertainty (58)

In both social and natural sciences, the body of positive knowledge grows by the failure of a tentative hypothesis to predict phenomena the hypothesis professes to explain; by the patching up of that hypothesis until someone suggests a new hypothesis that more elegantly or simply embodies the troublesome phenomena, and so on ad infinitum. In both, experiment is sometimes possible, sometimes not (witness meteorology). In both, no experiment is ever completely controlled, and experience often offers evidence that is the equivalent of controlled experiment. In both, there is no way to have a self-contained closed system or to avoid interaction between the observer and the observed. The Gödel theorem in mathematics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, the self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecy in the social sciences all exemplify these limitations.
Inflation and Unemployment (1976), 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Closed (38)  |  Completely (137)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Explain (334)  |  Failure (176)  |  Kurt Gödel (8)  |  Grow (247)  |  Werner Heisenberg (43)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  New (1276)  |  Observed (149)  |  Offer (143)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predict (86)  |  Principle (532)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Self (268)  |  Social (262)  |  Social Science (37)  |  System (545)  |  Tentative (18)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Uncertainty Principle (9)  |  Way (1214)  |  Witness (57)

In early times, when the knowledge of nature was small, little attempt was made to divide science into parts, and men of science did not specialize. Aristotle was a master of all science known in his day, and wrote indifferently treatises on physics or animals. As increasing knowledge made it impossible for any one man to grasp all scientific subjects, lines of division were drawn for convenience of study and of teaching. Besides the broad distinction into physical and biological science, minute subdivisions arose, and, at a certain stage of development, much attention was, given to methods of classification, and much emphasis laid on the results, which were thought to have a significance beyond that of the mere convenience of mankind.
But we have reached the stage when the different streams of knowledge, followed by the different sciences, are coalescing, and the artificial barriers raised by calling those sciences by different names are breaking down. Geology uses the methods and data of physics, chemistry and biology; no one can say whether the science of radioactivity is to be classed as chemistry or physics, or whether sociology is properly grouped with biology or economics. Indeed, it is often just where this coalescence of two subjects occurs, when some connecting channel between them is opened suddenly, that the most striking advances in knowledge take place. The accumulated experience of one department of science, and the special methods which have been developed to deal with its problems, become suddenly available in the domain of another department, and many questions insoluble before may find answers in the new light cast upon them. Such considerations show us that science is in reality one, though we may agree to look on it now from one side and now from another as we approach it from the standpoint of physics, physiology or psychology.
In article 'Science', Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), 402.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulated (2)  |  Advance (299)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Attention (198)  |  Available (80)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Become (822)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (234)  |  Cast (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Coalesce (5)  |  Coalescence (2)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (279)  |  Development (442)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Distinction (73)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Domain (72)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (390)  |  Geology (240)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indifferent (17)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (636)  |  Little (718)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Master (182)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (532)  |  Minute (129)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (360)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physics (568)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (735)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Question (652)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reality (275)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Show (354)  |  Side (236)  |  Significance (115)  |  Small (489)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Special (189)  |  Specialize (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Stream (83)  |  Striking (48)  |  Study (703)  |  Subject (544)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)

In general, we look for a new law by the following process. First, we guess it. Then we—don’t laugh, that’s really true. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see if this is right—if this law that we guessed is right—we see what it would imply. And then we compare those computation results to nature—or, we say compare to experiment or experience—compare it directly with observation to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong.
Verbatim from Lecture No. 7, 'Seeking New Laws', Messenger Lectures, Cornell, (1964) in video and transcript online at caltech.edu website. Also, lightly paraphrased, in Christopher Sykes, No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman (1994), 143. There is another paraphrase elsewhere on the Richard Feynman Quotations webpage, beginning: “First you guess…”. Also see the continuation of this quote, verbatim, beginning: “If it disagrees with experiment…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Compare (76)  |  Computation (28)  |  Compute (19)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disagree (14)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Imply (20)  |  Laugh (51)  |  Law (914)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Observation (595)  |  Process (441)  |  Real (160)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  True (240)  |  Verify (24)  |  Work (1403)  |  Wrong (247)

In my experience most mathematicians are intellectually lazy and especially dislike reading experimental papers. He (René Thom) seemed to have very strong biological intuitions but unfortunately of negative sign.
In What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (1988), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Dislike (16)  |  Especially (31)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Lazy (10)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Negative (66)  |  Paper (192)  |  Read (309)  |  Reading (136)  |  Strong (182)  |   René Frédéric Thom, (2)  |  Unfortunate (19)  |  Unfortunately (40)

In my experience of anorexia nervosa it is exclusively a disease of private patients.
Cited as “Attributed” to Sir Adolf Abrams of Westminster Hospital, in Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations (2004), 1. Webmaster assumes this is properly “Sir Adolphe Abrahams,” of that hospital, (confirmed there by an obituary), after finding nothing for the sound-alike “Sir Adolf Abrams.” If you know a primary source for the quote, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Disease (343)  |  Patient (209)  |  Private Patient (2)

In order to survive, an animal must be born into a favoring or at least tolerant environment. Similarly, in order to achieve preservation and recognition, a specimen of fossil man must be discovered in intelligence, attested by scientific knowledge, and interpreted by evolutionary experience. These rigorous prerequisites have undoubtedly caused many still-births in human palaeontology and are partly responsible for the high infant mortality of discoveries of geologically ancient man.
Apes, Men and Morons (1938), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Animal (651)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Birth (154)  |  Discover (572)  |  Environment (240)  |  Excavation (8)  |  Fossil (144)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1517)  |  Infant (26)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (639)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Still (614)  |  Survive (87)

In order to understand what is meant by the word “brain” as it is used by neuroscientists, we must bear in mind the evidence that this organ contains in some recorded form the basis of one’s whole conscious life. It contains the record of all our aims and ambitions and is essential for the experience of all pleasures and pains, all loves and hates.
In Philosophy and the Brain (1987), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Ambition (47)  |  Brain (282)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Hate (68)  |  Life (1873)  |  Love (328)  |  Neuroscientist (2)  |  Pain (144)  |  Please (68)  |  Record (161)

In point of fact, no conclusive disproof of a theory can ever be produced; for it is always possible to say that the experimental results are not reliable or that the discrepancies which are asserted to exist between the experimental results and the theory are only apparent and that they will disappear with the advance of our understanding. If you insist on strict proof (or strict disproof) in the empirical sciences, you will never benefit from experience, and never learn from it how wrong you are.
The Logic of Scientific Discovery: Logik Der Forschung (1959, 2002), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Assert (69)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empirical Science (9)  |  Exist (460)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Learn (672)  |  Never (1089)  |  Point (585)  |  Possible (560)  |  Produced (187)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (247)

In reality, all Arguments from Experience are founded on the Similarity which we discover among natural Objects, and by which we are induc'd to expect effects similar to those which we have found to follow from such Objects. And tho' none but a Fool or Madman will ever pretend to dispute the Authority of Experience, or to reject that great Guide of human Life, it may surely be allow'd a Philosopher to have so much Curiosity at least as to examine the Principle of human Nature, which gives this mighty Authority to Experience, and makes us draw Advantage from that Similarity which Nature has plac'd among different Objects. From Causes which appear similar we expect similar Effects. This is the Sum of our experimental Conclusions.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Argument (145)  |  Authority (100)  |  Cause (564)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Different (596)  |  Discover (572)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Draw (141)  |  Effect (414)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Follow (390)  |  Fool (121)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guide (108)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Life (1873)  |  Madman (6)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Object (442)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reject (67)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Sum (103)  |  Surely (101)  |  Will (2350)

In that pure enjoyment experienced on approaching to the ideal, in that eagerness to draw aside the veil from the hidden truth, and even in that discord which exists between the various workers, we ought to see the surest pledges of further scientific success. Science thus advances, discovering new truths, and at the same time obtaining practical results.
In The Principles of Chemistry (1891), Vol. 1, preface, footnote, ix, as translated from the Russian 5th edition by George Kamensky, edited by A. J. Greenaway.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Approach (112)  |  Discord (10)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Draw (141)  |  Eagerness (5)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Exist (460)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Ideal (110)  |  New (1276)  |  Obtaining (5)  |  Pledge (4)  |  Practical (225)  |  Pure (300)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (957)  |  See (1095)  |  Success (327)  |  Time (1913)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Various (206)  |  Veil (27)  |  Worker (34)

In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense—not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902), 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Association (49)  |  Attain (126)  |  Best (468)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Course (415)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Decay (59)  |  Development (442)  |  Doom (34)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Existence (484)  |  Extension (60)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Growth (200)  |  Habit (174)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limit (294)  |  Live (651)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Mutual Aid (2)  |  Natural (811)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Open (277)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Practice (212)  |  Progress (493)  |  Protection (41)  |  Sense (786)  |  Society (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1854)

In the case of chemical investigations known as decompositions or analyses, it is first important to determine exactly what ingredients you are dealing with, or chemically speaking, what substances are contained in a given mixture or composite. For this purpose we use reagents, i.e., substances that possess certain properties and characteristics, which we well know from references or personal experience, such that the changes which they bring about or undergo, so to say the language that they speak thereby inform the researcher that this or that specific substance is present in the mixture in question.
From Zur Farben-Chemie Musterbilder für Freunde des Schönen und zum Gebrauch für Zeichner, Maler, Verzierer und Zeugdrucker [On Colour Chemistry...] (1850), Introduction. Translation tweaked by Webmaster from version in Herbert and W. Roesky and Klaud Möckel, translated by T.N. Mitchell and W.E. Russey, Chemical Curiosities: Spectacular Experiments and Inspired Quotes (1996), 1. From the original German, “Bei solchen chemischen Untersuchungen, die man zersetzende oder zergliedernde nennt, kommt es zunächst darauf an, zu ermitteln, mit welchen Stoffen man es zu thun hat, oder um chemisch zu reden, welche Stoffe in einem bestimmten Gemenge oder Gemisch enthalten sind. Hierzu bedient man sich sogenannter gegenwirkender Mittel, d. h. Stoffe, die bestimmte Eigenschaften und Eigenthümlichkeiten besitzen und die man aus Ueberlieferung oder eigner Erfahrung genau kennt, so daß die Veränderungen, welche sie bewirken oder erleiden, gleichsam die Sprache sind, mit der sie reden und dadurch dem Forscher anzeigen, daß der und der bestimmte Stoff in der fraglichen Mischung enthalten sei.”
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Composite (4)  |  Contain (68)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Exactly (14)  |  First (1303)  |  Inform (52)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (310)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Personal (76)  |  Possess (158)  |  Present (630)  |  Property (177)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Question (652)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Reference (33)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Say (991)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Specific (98)  |  Substance (253)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Use (771)

In the light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion, and the final emergence into the light—only those who have experienced it can understand that.
Quoted in Banesh Hoffmann and Helen Dukas, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1972), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Alternation (5)  |  Anxious (4)  |  Attain (126)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Course (415)  |  Dark (145)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Final (121)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Happy (108)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Intense (22)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Light (636)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  Search (175)  |  Student (317)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (650)  |  Year (965)

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.
Address at Physical Society, Berlin (1918), for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Ambition (47)  |  Angel (47)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (282)  |  Depletion (4)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Joy (117)  |  Look (584)  |  Lord (97)  |  Love (328)  |  Motive (62)  |  Offer (143)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1034)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Power (773)  |  Present (630)  |  Product (167)  |  Purely (111)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Sense (786)  |  Special (189)  |  Sport (23)  |  Still (614)  |  Superior (89)  |  Temple (45)  |  Temple Of Science (8)  |  Time (1913)  |  Two (936)  |  Utility (53)  |  Various (206)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Why (491)

In this respect mathematics fails to reproduce with complete fidelity the obvious fact that experience is not composed of static bits, but is a string of activity, or the fact that the use of language is an activity, and the total meanings of terms are determined by the matrix in which they are embedded.
In The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Bit (21)  |  Complete (209)  |  Compose (20)  |  Determine (152)  |  Embed (7)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fail (193)  |  Language (310)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Respect (212)  |  Static (9)  |  String (22)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Total (95)  |  Use (771)

Louis Agassiz quote: In-depth studies have an influence on general ideas, whereas theories, in turn, in order to maintain themse
In-depth studies have an influence on general ideas, whereas theories, in turn, in order to maintain themselves, push their spectators to search for new evidence. The mind’s activity that is maintained by the debates about these works, is probably the source of the greatest joys given to man to experience on Earth.
La théorie des glaciers et ses progrès les plus récents. Bibl. universelle de Geneve, (3), Vol. 41, p. 139. Trans. Karin Verrecchia.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Debate (40)  |  Depth (97)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evidence (267)  |  General (521)  |  Geology (240)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Idea (882)  |  Influence (231)  |  Joy (117)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  New (1276)  |  Order (639)  |  Push (66)  |  Search (175)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Turn (454)  |  Work (1403)

Induction is the process of generalizing from our known and limited experience, and framing wider rules for the future than we have been able to test fully. At its simplest, then, an induction is a habit or an adaptation—the habit of expecting tomorrow’s weather to be like today’s, the adaptation to the unwritten conventions of community life.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Community (111)  |  Future (467)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Habit (174)  |  Induction (81)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Logic (313)  |  Process (441)  |  Rule (308)  |  Test (222)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Weather (49)

It did not cause anxiety that Maxwell’s equations did not apply to gravitation, since nobody expected to find any link between electricity and gravitation at that particular level. But now physics was faced with an entirely new situation. The same entity, light, was at once a wave and a particle. How could one possibly imagine its proper size and shape? To produce interference it must be spread out, but to bounce off electrons it must be minutely localized. This was a fundamental dilemma, and the stalemate in the wave-photon battle meant that it must remain an enigma to trouble the soul of every true physicist. It was intolerable that light should be two such contradictory things. It was against all the ideals and traditions of science to harbor such an unresolved dualism gnawing at its vital parts. Yet the evidence on either side could not be denied, and much water was to flow beneath the bridges before a way out of the quandary was to be found. The way out came as a result of a brilliant counterattack initiated by the wave theory, but to tell of this now would spoil the whole story. It is well that the reader should appreciate through personal experience the agony of the physicists of the period. They could but make the best of it, and went around with woebegone faces sadly complaining that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays they must look on light as a wave; on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, as a particle. On Sundays they simply prayed.
The Strange Story of the Quantum (1947), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Agony (7)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Apply (170)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Best (468)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Cause (564)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Dualism (4)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enigma (16)  |  Entity (37)  |  Equation (138)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Expect (203)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flow (90)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Interference (22)  |  Light (636)  |  Look (584)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Particle (200)  |  Period (200)  |  Photon (11)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Remain (357)  |  Result (700)  |  Saturday (11)  |  Side (236)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soul (237)  |  Spread (86)  |  Story (122)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Vital (89)  |  Water (505)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

It has become a cheap intellectual pastime to contrast the infinitesimal pettiness of man with the vastnesses of the stellar universes. Yet all such comparisons are illicit. We cannot compare existence and meaning; they are disparate. The characteristic life of a man is itself the meaning of vast stretches of existences, and without it the latter have no value or significance. There is no common measure of physical existence and conscious experience because the latter is the only measure there is of the former. The significance of being, though not its existence, is the emotion it stirs, the thought it sustains.
Philosophy and Civilization (1931), reprinted in David Sidorsky (ed.), John Dewey: The Essential Writings (1977), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Common (447)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Existence (484)  |  Former (138)  |  Human (1517)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Measure (242)  |  Pastime (6)  |  Pettiness (3)  |  Physical (520)  |  Significance (115)  |  Stir (23)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thought (996)  |  Universe (901)  |  Value (397)  |  Vast (188)

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Better (495)  |  Blue (63)  |  Build (212)  |  Building (158)  |  Character (259)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Conceit (15)  |  Deal (192)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Distant (33)  |  Dot (18)  |  Folly (45)  |  Home (186)  |  Human (1517)  |  Humble (54)  |  Image (97)  |  Kindly (2)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Pale (9)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Say (991)  |  Tiny (74)  |  World (1854)

It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the philosophising? Such might indeed be the right thing to do a time when the physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental laws which are so well that waves of doubt can't reach them; but it cannot be right at a time when the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they are now … when experience forces us to seek a newer and more solid foundation.
‘Physics and Reality’, Franklin Institute Journal (Mar 1936). Collected in Out of My Later Years (1950), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Justification (52)  |  Law (914)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (568)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reach (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Seek (219)  |  Solid (119)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Wave (112)  |  Why (491)

It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find him writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove new theorems, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematicians have done. Statesmen despise publicists, painters despise art-critics, and physiologists, physicists, or mathematicians have usually similar feelings; there is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 61 (Hardy's opening lines after Snow's foreward).
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Art (681)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explain (334)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Find (1014)  |  Function (235)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Professional (77)  |  Profound (105)  |  Prove (263)  |  Scorn (13)  |  Something (718)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1403)  |  Writing (192)

It is a peculiar feature in the fortune of principles of such high elementary generality and simplicity as characterise the laws of motion, that when they are once firmly established, or supposed to be so, men turn with weariness and impatience from all questionings of the grounds and nature of their authority. We often feel disposed to believe that truths so clear and comprehensive are necessary conditions, rather than empirical attributes of their subjects: that they are legible by their own axiomatic light, like the first truths of geometry, rather than discovered by the blind gropings of experience.
In An Introduction to Dynamics (1832), x.
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Authority (100)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Blind (98)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Condition (362)  |  Discover (572)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1303)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Motion (14)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Light (636)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Principle (532)  |  Question (652)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Subject (544)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Weariness (6)

It is admitted by all that a finished or even a competent reasoner is not the work of nature alone; the experience of every day makes it evident that education develops faculties which would otherwise never have manifested their existence. It is, therefore, as necessary to learn to reason before we can expect to be able to reason, as it is to learn to swim or fence, in order to attain either of those arts. Now, something must be reasoned upon, it matters not much what it is, provided it can be reasoned upon with certainty. The properties of mind or matter, or the study of languages, mathematics, or natural history, may be chosen for this purpose. Now of all these, it is desirable to choose the one which admits of the reasoning being verified, that is, in which we can find out by other means, such as measurement and ocular demonstration of all sorts, whether the results are true or not. When the guiding property of the loadstone was first ascertained, and it was necessary to learn how to use this new discovery, and to find out how far it might be relied on, it would have been thought advisable to make many passages between ports that were well known before attempting a voyage of discovery. So it is with our reasoning faculties: it is desirable that their powers should be exerted upon objects of such a nature, that we can tell by other means whether the results which we obtain are true or false, and this before it is safe to trust entirely to reason. Now the mathematics are peculiarly well adapted for this purpose, on the following grounds:
1. Every term is distinctly explained, and has but one meaning, and it is rarely that two words are employed to mean the same thing.
2. The first principles are self-evident, and, though derived from observation, do not require more of it than has been made by children in general.
3. The demonstration is strictly logical, taking nothing for granted except self-evident first principles, resting nothing upon probability, and entirely independent of authority and opinion.
4. When the conclusion is obtained by reasoning, its truth or falsehood can be ascertained, in geometry by actual measurement, in algebra by common arithmetical calculation. This gives confidence, and is absolutely necessary, if, as was said before, reason is not to be the instructor, but the pupil.
5. There are no words whose meanings are so much alike that the ideas which they stand for may be confounded. Between the meaning of terms there is no distinction, except a total distinction, and all adjectives and adverbs expressing difference of degrees are avoided.
In On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics (1898), chap. 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (145)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adjective (3)  |  Admit (50)  |  Adverb (3)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Alike (60)  |  Alone (325)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Art (681)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Authority (100)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Choose (116)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Common (447)  |  Competent (20)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Confound (21)  |  Degree (278)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Derive (71)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Develop (279)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distinction (73)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Employ (115)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exert (40)  |  Existence (484)  |  Expect (203)  |  Explain (334)  |  Express (192)  |  Faculty (77)  |  False (105)  |  Falsehood (30)  |  Far (158)  |  Fence (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Give (208)  |  Grant (77)  |  Ground (222)  |  Guide (108)  |  History (719)  |  Idea (882)  |  Independent (75)  |  Instructor (5)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (310)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lodestone (7)  |  Logical (57)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Means (588)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1276)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Object (442)  |  Observation (595)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ocular (3)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Peculiarly (4)  |  Port (2)  |  Power (773)  |  Principle (532)  |  Probability (135)  |  Property (177)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rely (13)  |  Require (229)  |  Rest (289)  |  Result (700)  |  Safe (60)  |  Same (168)  |  Say (991)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Something (718)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stand (284)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Study (703)  |  Swim (32)  |  Tell (344)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Total (95)  |  True (240)  |  Trust (73)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Verify (24)  |  Voyage (14)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)

It is both a sad and a happy fact of engineering history that disasters have been powerful instruments of change. Designers learn from failure. Industrial society did not invent grand works of engineering, and it was not the first to know design failure. What it did do was develop powerful techniques for learning from the experience of past disasters. It is extremely rare today for an apartment house in North America, Europe, or Japan to fall down. Ancient Rome had large apartment buildings too, but while its public baths, bridges and aqueducts have lasted for two thousand years, its big residential blocks collapsed with appalling regularity. Not one is left in modern Rome, even as ruin.
In Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (1997), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  America (144)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apartment (4)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Aqueduct (4)  |  Bath (11)  |  Both (496)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Building (158)  |  Change (640)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Design (205)  |  Designer (7)  |  Develop (279)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fall (243)  |  First (1303)  |  Grand (29)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  History (719)  |  House (143)  |  Industry (160)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Invention (401)  |  Know (1539)  |  Large (399)  |  Last (425)  |  Lasting (7)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Modern (405)  |  Past (355)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Rare (95)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Residence (3)  |  Rome (19)  |  Ruin (45)  |  Sadness (37)  |  Society (353)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Two (936)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

It is certainly true that principles cannot be more securely founded than on experience and consciously clear thinking.
'The Goal' lecture at Princeton University (1939), quoted in Philipp Frank and George Rosen, Einstein (2002), 287.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Principle (532)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Thinking (425)

It is difficult even to attach a precise meaning to the term “scientific truth.” So different is the meaning of the word “truth” according to whether we are dealing with a fact of experience, a mathematical proposition or a scientific theory. “Religious truth” conveys nothing clear to me at all.
From 'Scientific Truth' in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Attach (57)  |  Clear (111)  |  Convey (17)  |  Different (596)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Precise (71)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Word (650)

It is difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is of mental character. But no one can deny that mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience, and all else is remote inference—inference either intuitive or deliberate.
From Gifford Lecture, Edinburgh, (1927), 'Reality', collected in The Nature of the Physical World (1928), 281.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Character (259)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Deny (71)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Direct (228)  |  Everything (490)  |  Fact (1259)  |  First (1303)  |  Inference (45)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Remote (86)  |  Thing (1914)  |  View (498)

It is not surprising that our language should be incapable of describing the processes occurring within the atoms, for, as has been remarked, it was invented to describe the experiences of daily life, and these consists only of processes involving exceedingly large numbers of atoms. Furthermore, it is very difficult to modify our language so that it will be able to describe these atomic processes, for words can only describe things of which we can form mental pictures, and this ability, too, is a result of daily experience. Fortunately, mathematics is not subject to this limitation, and it has been possible to invent a mathematical scheme—the quantum theory—which seems entirely adequate for the treatment of atomic processes; for visualization, however, we must content ourselves with two incomplete analogies—the wave picture and the corpuscular picture.
The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, trans. Carl Eckart and Frank C. Hoyt (1949), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Atom (381)  |  Consist (224)  |  Daily (92)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Describe (133)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Form (978)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Language (310)  |  Large (399)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mental (179)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (712)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Particle (200)  |  Picture (148)  |  Possible (560)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Result (700)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Subject (544)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Two (936)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (596)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  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 often the scientist’s experience that he senses the nearness of truth when … connections are envisioned. A connection is a step toward simplification, unification. Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and a criterion of beauty.
In Toward the Habit of Truth (1990).
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Connection (171)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Envision (3)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (786)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Step (235)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Unification (11)

It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason.
In Pensées (1670), Section 26, No. 5. From Blaise Pascal, W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 99. Also seen translated as, “It is the heart which perceives God, and not the reason”. From the French, “C'est le cœur qui sent Dieu, et non la raison,” in Ernest Havet (ed.),Pensées de Pascal (1852), 296.
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Heart (244)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Reason (767)

It is the object of science to replace, or save, experiences, by the reproduction and anticipation of facts in thought. Memory is handier than experience, and often answers the same purpose. This economical office of science, which fills its whole life, is apparent at first glance; and with its full recognition all mysticism in science disappears.
In 'The Economy of Science', The Science of Mechanics: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Principles (1893), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Economical (11)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fill (67)  |  First (1303)  |  Glance (36)  |  Handy (2)  |  Life (1873)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mysticism (14)  |  Object (442)  |  Office (72)  |  Often (109)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Replace (32)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Save (126)  |  Thought (996)  |  Whole (756)

It is the old experience that a rude instrument in the hand of a master craftsman will achieve more than the finest tool wielded by the uninspired journeyman.
Quoted in The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton (1930), Vol. 3A, 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Craftsman (5)  |  Hand (149)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Journeyman (3)  |  Master (182)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Rude (6)  |  Tool (131)  |  Uninspired (2)  |  Wield (10)  |  Will (2350)

It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick that, second only to their need of fresh air, is their need of light; that, after a close room, what hurts them most is a dark room and that it is not only light but direct sunlight they want.
Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not (1860), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Dark (145)  |  Direct (228)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Health (211)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Light (636)  |  Most (1728)  |  Patient (209)  |  Result (700)  |  Sick (83)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Want (505)

It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the problem of induction. The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.
Language, Truth and Logic (1960), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Certain (557)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Future (467)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Good (907)  |  Induction (81)  |  Logic (313)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Problem (735)  |  Prove (263)  |  Regard (312)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Time (1913)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

It is true that mathematics, owing to the fact that its whole content is built up by means of purely logical deduction from a small number of universally comprehended principles, has not unfittingly been designated as the science of the self-evident [Selbstverständlichen]. Experience however, shows that for the majority of the cultured, even of scientists, mathematics remains the science of the incomprehensible [Unverständlichen].
In Ueber Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Maihemaliker Vereinigung (1904), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Content (75)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Designation (13)  |  Evident (92)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Logic (313)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Number (712)  |  Owing (39)  |  Principle (532)  |  Purely (111)  |  Remain (357)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Show (354)  |  Small (489)  |  Universal (198)  |  Whole (756)

It is usual to say that the two sources of experience are Observation and Experiment. When we merely note and record the phenomena which occur around us in the ordinary course of nature we are said to observe. When we change the course of nature by the intervention of our will and muscular powers, and thus produce unusual combinations and conditions of phenomena, we are said to experiment. [Sir John] Herschel has justly remarked that we might properly call these two modes of experience passive and active observation. In both cases we must certainly employ our senses to observe, and an experiment differs from a mere observation in the fact that we more or less influence the character of the events which we observe. Experiment is thus observation plus alteration of conditions.
Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1874, 2nd ed., 1913), 400.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (782)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (640)  |  Character (259)  |  Combination (151)  |  Condition (362)  |  Course (415)  |  Definition (239)  |  Differ (88)  |  Employ (115)  |  Event (222)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Sir John Herschel (24)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Note (39)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observe (181)  |  Occur (151)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Plus (43)  |  Power (773)  |  Record (161)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Source (102)  |  Two (936)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Will (2350)

It is very remarkable that while the words Eternal, Eternity, Forever, are constantly in our mouths, and applied without hesitation, we yet experience considerable difficulty in contemplating any definite term which bears a very large proportion to the brief cycles of our petty chronicles. There are many minds that would not for an instant doubt the God of Nature to have existed from all Eternity, and would yet reject as preposterous the idea of going back a million of years in the History of His Works. Yet what is a million, or a million million, of solar revolutions to an Eternity?
Memoir on the Geology of Central France (1827), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Back (395)  |  Bear (162)  |  Brief (37)  |  Chronicle (6)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Definite (114)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Exist (460)  |  Forever (112)  |  God (776)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  History (719)  |  Idea (882)  |  Instant (46)  |  Large (399)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Mouth (55)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Petty (9)  |  Preposterous (8)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Reject (67)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sun (408)  |  Term (357)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence in such a theory is certainly justified. There is less danger of going completely astray, particularly since it takes so much less time and effort to disprove such theories by experience. Yet more and more, as the depth of our knowledge increases, we must give up this advantage in our quest for logical simplicity in the foundations of physical theory...
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950), 13. In David H. Levy (Ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Astray (13)  |  Basic (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Danger (127)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Effort (243)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Increase (226)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (520)  |  Proof (304)  |  Quest (40)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Time (1913)

It must happen that in some cases the author is not understood, or is very imperfectly understood; and the question is what is to be done. After giving a reasonable amount of attention to the passage, let the student pass on, reserving the obscurity for future efforts. … The natural tendency of solitary students, I believe, is not to hurry away prematurely from a hard passage, but to hang far too long over it; the just pride that does not like to acknowledge defeat, and the strong will that cannot endure to be thwarted, both urge to a continuance of effort even when success seems hopeless. It is only by experience we gain the conviction that when the mind is thoroughly fatigued it has neither the power to continue with advantage its course in .an assigned direction, nor elasticity to strike out a new path; but that, on the other hand, after being withdrawn for a time from the pursuit, it may return and gain the desired end.
In 'Private Study of Mathematics', Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Amount (153)  |  Assign (15)  |  Attention (198)  |  Author (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (616)  |  Both (496)  |  Case (102)  |  Continuance (2)  |  Continue (180)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Course (415)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Desire (214)  |  Direction (185)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elasticity (8)  |  End (603)  |  Endure (21)  |  Far (158)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Future (467)  |  Gain (149)  |  Give (208)  |  Hang (46)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Imperfectly (2)  |  Let (64)  |  Long (778)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  New (1276)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  On The Other Hand (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (242)  |  Passage (52)  |  Path (160)  |  Power (773)  |  Premature (22)  |  Pride (85)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (652)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Return (133)  |  Seem (150)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Strike (72)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Success (327)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Time (1913)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understood (155)  |  Urge (17)  |  Will (2350)  |  Withdraw (11)

It seems to me it [hands-on experience] was more prevalent in a more primitive society, where you’re closer to machinery. [As a university teacher,] I see this with farm kids all the time. They have a more or less rugged self-reliance.
About the his concern that as society is changing, education is losing the benefits of childhood hand-on experience. In interview, Rushworth M. Kidder, 'Grounded in Space Science', Christian Science Monitor (22 Dec 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  All The Time (4)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Closer (43)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Education (423)  |  Farm (28)  |  Hands-On (2)  |  Kid (19)  |  Machinery (59)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Prevalent (4)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Rugged (7)  |  See (1095)  |  Seem (150)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Reliance (2)  |  Society (353)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Time (1913)  |  University (130)

It takes someone with a vision of the possibilities to attain new levels of experience. Someone with the courage to live his dreams.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Courage (82)  |  Dream (223)  |  Level (69)  |  Live (651)  |  New (1276)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Someone (24)  |  Vision (127)

It was not a spiritual experience for me; I didn’t feel close to God. … I didn’t think I needed God in my life at that stage. … I had about all of God that I thought I needed and that was one hour every Sunday morning…. I was a faithful attender at church.
More of his answer at a public talk to a question whether he actually felt close to God on the Moon, following: “The answer is no, I did not.” As quoted in Colin Burgess, Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of Apollo, 1969-1975 (2010), 422.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Attend (67)  |  Church (65)  |  Faithful (13)  |  God (776)  |  Hour (192)  |  Morning (98)  |  Need (323)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  Sunday (8)  |  Thought (996)

It would appear that Deductive and Demonstrative Sciences are all, without exception, Inductive Sciences: that their evidence is that of experience, but that they are also, in virtue of the peculiar character of one indispensable portion of the general formulae according to which their inductions are made, Hypothetical Sciences. Their conclusions are true only upon certain suppositions, which are, or ought to be, approximations to the truth, but are seldom, if ever, exactly true; and to this hypothetical character is to be ascribed the peculiar certainty, which is supposed to be inherent in demonstration.
In System of Logic, Bk. 2, chap. 6, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Appear (123)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Demonstrative (14)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Exception (74)  |  Formula (102)  |  General (521)  |  Hypothetical (6)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Inherent (44)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Portion (86)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supposition (50)  |  True (240)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Virtue (117)

It... [can] be easily shown:
1. That all present mountains did not exist from the beginning of things.
2. That there is no growing of mountains.
3. That the rocks or mountains have nothing in common with the bones of animals except a certain resemblance in hardness, since they agree in neither matter nor manner of production, nor in composition, nor in function, if one may be permitted to affirm aught about a subject otherwise so little known as are the functions of things.
4. That the extension of crests of mountains, or chains, as some prefer to call them, along the lines of certain definite zones of the earth, accords with neither reason nor experience.
5. That mountains can be overthrown, and fields carried over from one side of a high road across to the other; that peaks of mountains can be raised and lowered, that the earth can be opened and closed again, and that other things of this kind occur which those who in their reading of history wish to escape the name of credulous, consider myths.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 232-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aught (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bone (101)  |  Call (782)  |  Certain (557)  |  Closed (38)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Consider (430)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Definite (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Escape (87)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Function (235)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  History (719)  |  Kind (565)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (718)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Myth (58)  |  Name (360)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reason (767)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rock (177)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (544)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wish (217)

It’s beyond imagination until you actually get up and see it and experience it and feel it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Feel (371)  |  Get Up (5)  |  Imagination (349)  |  See (1095)

Judging from our experience upon this planet, such a history, that begins with elementary particles, leads perhaps inevitably toward a strange and moving end: a creature that knows, a science-making animal, that turns back upon the process that generated him and attempts to understand it. Without his like, the universe could be, but not be known, and this is a poor thing. Surely this is a great part of our dignity as men, that we can know, and that through us matter can know itself; that beginning with protons and electrons, out of the womb of time and the vastnesses of space, we can begin to understand; that organized as in us, the hydrogen, the carbon, the nitrogen, the oxygen, those 16-21 elements, the water, the sunlight—all having become us, can begin to understand what they are, and how they came to be.
In 'The Origins of Life', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1964), 52, 609-110.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (822)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Creature (244)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Electron (96)  |  Element (324)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Generation (256)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (719)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Making (300)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moving (11)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Organized (9)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planet (406)  |  Poor (139)  |  Process (441)  |  Proton (23)  |  Space (525)  |  Strange (160)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Surely (101)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Water (505)  |  Womb (25)

Knowledge and wisdom are indeed not identical; and every man’s experience must have taught him that there may be much knowledge with little wisdom, and much wisdom with little knowledge. But with imperfect knowledge it is difficult or impossible to arrive at right conclusions. Many of the vices, many of the miseries, many of the follies and absurdities by which human society has been infested and disgraced may be traced to a want of knowledge.
Presidential Address to Anniversary meeting of the Royal Society (30 Nov 1859), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1860), 10, 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disgrace (12)  |  Folly (45)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Society (14)  |  Identical (55)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Lack (127)  |  Little (718)  |  Man (2252)  |  Misery (32)  |  Must (1525)  |  Right (473)  |  Society (353)  |  Vice (42)  |  Want (505)  |  Wisdom (235)

Later, I realized that the mission had to end in a let-down because the real barrier wasn’t in the sky but in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.
Science quotes on:  |  Barrier (34)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  Flight (101)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Late (119)  |  Mission (23)  |  Real (160)  |  Realize (157)  |  Sky (174)  |  Supersonic (4)

Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. By day, space is one with the earth and with man - it is his sun that is shining, his clouds that are floating past; at night, space is his no more. When the great earth, abandoning day, rolls up the deeps of the heavens and the universe, a new door opens for the human spirit, and there are few so clownish that some awareness of the mystery of being does not touch them as they gaze. For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars - pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across eternal seas of space and time. Fugitive though the instant be, the spirit of man is, during it, ennobled by a genuine moment of emotional dignity, and poetry makes its own both the human spirit and experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Across (32)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Banishment (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Clown (2)  |  Deep (241)  |  Depth (97)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Door (94)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Ennoble (8)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Fear (215)  |  Float (31)  |  Fugitive (4)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Give (208)  |  Glimpse (16)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Instant (46)  |  Island (49)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Mood (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Mystery (190)  |  New (1276)  |  Night (133)  |  Open (277)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Past (355)  |  Pilgrim (4)  |  Poetic (7)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Roll (41)  |  Sea (327)  |  Shine (49)  |  Shining (35)  |  Space (525)  |  Space And Time (39)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stream (83)  |  Sun (408)  |  Time (1913)  |  Touch (146)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vanish (20)  |  Voyage (14)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  World (1854)

Learning teacheth more in one year than experience in twenty.
The Scholemaster (1570). In Robert Chambers (ed.), Cyclopaedia of English Literature: A Selection of the Choicest Productions (1858), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Learning (291)  |  More (2558)  |  Year (965)

Let us then suppose the Mind to be, as we say, white Paper, void of all Characters, without any Ideas; How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store, which the busy and boundless Fancy of Man has painted on it, with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of Reason and Knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from Experience: In that, all our Knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives it self. Our Observation employ’d either about external, sensible Objects; or about the internal Operations of our Minds, perceived and reflected on by our selves, is that, which supplies our Understandings with all the materials of thinking.
In 'Of Ideas in general, and their Original', An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Book 2, Chap. 1, Sec. 2, 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Character (259)  |  Derive (71)  |  Employ (115)  |  Endless (61)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Idea (882)  |  Internal (69)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Object (442)  |  Observation (595)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Paper (192)  |  Reason (767)  |  Say (991)  |  Self (268)  |  Store (49)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vast (188)  |  Void (32)  |  White (132)  |  Word (650)

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and griefs which we endure help us in our marching onward.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Big (56)  |  Build (212)  |  Character (259)  |  Develop (279)  |  Endure (21)  |  Grief (20)  |  Hard (246)  |  Help (118)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1873)  |  March (48)  |  Must (1525)  |  Onward (6)  |  Realize (157)  |  Series (153)  |  Setback (3)  |  World (1854)

Life is order, death is disorder. A fundamental law of Nature states that spontaneous chemical changes in the universe tend toward chaos. But life has, during milliards of years of evolution, seemingly contradicted this law. With the aid of energy derived from the sun it has built up the most complicated systems to be found in the universe—living organisms. Living matter is characterized by a high degree of chemical organisation on all levels, from the organs of large organisms to the smallest constituents of the cell. The beauty we experience when we enjoy the exquisite form of a flower or a bird is a reflection of a microscopic beauty in the architecture of molecules.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Introductory Address'. Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1981-1990 (1992), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Architecture (51)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Bird (163)  |  Build (212)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (640)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Contradict (43)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Death (407)  |  Degree (278)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Energy (374)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Flower (112)  |  Form (978)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  High (370)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Life (1873)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Order (639)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organism (231)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  State (505)  |  Sun (408)  |  System (545)  |  Tend (124)  |  Universe (901)  |  Year (965)

Life is short, and the Art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and externals cooperate.
The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, trans. Francis Adams (1886), Vol. 2, 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fallacious (13)  |  Himself (461)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occasion (88)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Right (473)  |  Short (200)

Life is short, the Art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult. The physician must be ready, not only to do his duty himself, but also to secure the co-operation of the patient, of the attendants and of externals.
Aphorisms, in Hippocrates, trans. W. H. S. Jones (1931), Vol. 4, 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Do (1905)  |  Himself (461)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nurse (33)  |  Operation (221)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Short (200)

Logic does not pretend to teach the surgeon what are the symptoms which indicate a violent death. This he must learn from his own experience and observation, or from that of others, his predecessors in his peculiar science. But logic sits in judgment on the sufficiency of that observation and experience to justify his rules, and on the sufficiency of his rules to justify his conduct. It does not give him proofs, but teaches him what makes them proofs, and how he is to judge of them.
In A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation (1843), Vol. 1, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Conduct (70)  |  Death (407)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Justify (26)  |  Learn (672)  |  Logic (313)  |  Make (25)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (595)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rule (308)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Teach (301)  |  Violent (17)

Man has never been a particularly modest or self-deprecatory animal, and physical theory bears witness to this no less than many other important activities. The idea that thought is the measure of all things, that there is such a thing as utter logical rigor, that conclusions can be drawn endowed with an inescapable necessity, that mathematics has an absolute validity and controls experience—these are not the ideas of a modest animal. Not only do our theories betray these somewhat bumptious traits of self-appreciation, but especially obvious through them all is the thread of incorrigible optimism so characteristic of human beings.
In The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 135-136.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Betray (8)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Control (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endow (17)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Idea (882)  |  Important (231)  |  Inescapable (7)  |  Logic (313)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Measure (242)  |  Modest (19)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (520)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Self (268)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Thread (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Trait (23)  |  Utter (8)  |  Validity (50)  |  Witness (57)

Man is but a perambulating tool-box and workshop or office, fashioned for itself by a piece of very clever slime, as the result of long experience. ... Hence we speak of man's body as his “trunk.”
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Box (22)  |  Clever (41)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Definition (239)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Office (72)  |  Result (700)  |  Slime (6)  |  Speak (240)  |  Tool (131)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Workshop (14)

Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
Address at The Physical Society, Berlin (1918) for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research', collected in Essays in Science (1934, 2004) 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Construction (116)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Scientist (6)  |  Order (639)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Painter (30)  |  Peace (116)  |  Personal (76)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Picture (148)  |  Pivot (2)  |  Poet (97)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Security (51)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Substitute (49)  |  Suit (12)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whirlpool (2)  |  World (1854)

Many scientific theories have, for very long periods of time, stood the test of experience until they had to be discarded owing to man’s decision, not merely to make other experiments, but to have different experiences.
In The Disinherited Mind: Essays in Modern German Literature and Thought (1952), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Decision (98)  |  Different (596)  |  Discard (32)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owing (39)  |  Period (200)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Test (222)  |  Time (1913)

Mathematics … belongs to every inquiry, moral as well as physical. Even the rules of logic, by which it is rigidly bound, could not be deduced without its aid. The laws of argument admit of simple statement, but they must be curiously transposed before they can be applied to the living speech and verified by observation. In its pure and simple form the syllogism cannot be directly compared with all experience, or it would not have required an Aristotle to discover it. It must be transmuted into all the possible shapes in which reasoning loves to clothe itself. The transmutation is the mathematical process in the establishment of the law.
From Memoir (1870) read before the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, printed in 'Linear Associative Algebra', American Journal of Mathematics (1881), 4, 97-98.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Argument (145)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Belong (168)  |  Bound (120)  |  Compare (76)  |  Curious (95)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (572)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Form (978)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Law (914)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Logic (313)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mathematics And Logic (27)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (595)  |  Physical (520)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (441)  |  Pure (300)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rule (308)  |  Shape (77)  |  Simple (430)  |  Speech (66)  |  Statement (148)  |  Syllogism (8)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Transmute (6)  |  Transpose (2)  |  Verify (24)

Mathematics associates new mental images with ... physical abstractions; these images are almost tangible to the trained mind but are far removed from those that are given directly by life and physical experience. For example, a mathematician represents the motion of planets of the solar system by a flow line of an incompressible fluid in a 54-dimensional phase space, whose volume is given by the Liouville measure
Mathematics and Physics (1981), Foreward. Reprinted in Mathematics as Metaphor: Selected Essays of Yuri I. Manin (2007), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Associate (25)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Directly (25)  |  Example (100)  |  Far (158)  |  Flow (90)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Give (208)  |  Image (97)  |  Life (1873)  |  Line (101)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Motion (320)  |  New (1276)  |  Phase (37)  |  Phase Space (2)  |  Physical (520)  |  Planet (406)  |  Remove (50)  |  Represent (157)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (525)  |  System (545)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Train (118)  |  Volume (25)

Mathematics must subdue the flights of our reason; they are the staff of the blind; no one can take a step without them; and to them and experience is due all that is certain in physics.
In Oeuvres Completes (1880), t. 35, 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Certain (557)  |  Due (143)  |  Flight (101)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Reason (767)  |  Staff (5)  |  Step (235)  |  Subdue (7)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

May we not suspect that the vague but very real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, are the inherited effects of real dangers and abject superstitions during ancient savage times?
Mind, 1877
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Children (201)  |  Danger (127)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Fear (215)  |  Inherit (36)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Time (1913)  |  Vague (50)

Medicine is a science of experience; its object is to eradicate diseases by means of remedies. The knowledge of disease, the knowledge of remedies and the knowledge of their employment, constitute medicine.
In 'The Medicine of Experience' (1805), collected in R.E. Dudgeon (ed., trans.) The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann (1851), 501.
Science quotes on:  |  Constitute (99)  |  Disease (343)  |  Employment (34)  |  Eradicate (6)  |  Eradication (2)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Object (442)  |  Remedy (63)

Memory is a fascinating trickster. Words and images have enormous power and can easily displace actual experience over the years.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Displace (9)  |  Easily (36)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Image (97)  |  Memory (144)  |  Power (773)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (965)

Men always fool themselves when they give up experience for systems born of the imagination. Man is the work of nature, he exists in nature, he is subject to its laws, he can not break free, he can not leave even in thought; it is in vain that his spirit wants to soar beyond the bounds of the visible world, he is always forced to return.
Opening statement of first chapter of Système de la Nature (1770), Vol. 1, 1. Translation by Webmaster using Google Translate. From the original French, “Les hommes se tromperont toujours, quand ils abandonneront l'expérience pour des systèmes enfantés par l’imagination. L’homme est l’ouvrage de la nature, il existe dans la nature, il est soumis à ses lois, il ne peut s’en affranchir, il ne peut même par la pensée en sortir; c’est en vain que son esprit veut s’élancer au delà des bornes du monde visible, il est toujours forcé d’y rentrer.” In the English edition (1820-21), Samuel Wilkinson gives this as “Man has always deceived himself when he abandoned experience to follow imaginary systems.—He is the work of nature.—He exists in Nature.—He is submitted to the laws of Nature.—He cannot deliver himself from them:—cannot step beyond them even in thought. It is in vain his mind would spring forward beyond the visible world: direful and imperious necessity ever compels his return.”
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bound (120)  |  Break (110)  |  Escape (87)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fool (121)  |  Free (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Return (133)  |  Soar (24)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Subject (544)  |  Submit (21)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Vain (86)  |  Visible (87)  |  Want (505)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
In 'Maxims for Revolutionists: Experience', in Man and Superman (1903), 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Capacity (105)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (145)

Men who have had a great deal of experience learn not to lose their tempers.
Quoted without citation in Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations (1891), 565. Webmaster invites help pinpointing the primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Deal (192)  |  Great (1610)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lose (165)  |  Temper (12)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  England (43)  |  Equating (2)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Event (222)  |  Helpful (16)  |  House (143)  |  Mental (179)  |  Need (323)  |  Parliament (8)  |  Part (237)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  State (505)  |  Substrate (2)  |  Threshold (11)  |  United States (31)

Mind is the first and most direct thing in our experience; all else is remote inference.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Direct (228)  |  First (1303)  |  Inference (45)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Remote (86)  |  Thing (1914)

Mistakes are a source of experience; and it is the essence of experience that we call wisdom.
From Henry Ford and Ralph Waldo Trine, The Power that Wins (1929), 25-26.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Essence (85)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Source (102)  |  Wisdom (235)

Modern Physics impresses us particularly with the truth of the old doctrine which teaches that there are realities existing apart from our sense-perceptions, and that there are problems and conflicts where these realities are of greater value for us than the richest treasures of the world of experience.
In The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics (1931), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Conflict (77)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Exist (460)  |  Greater (288)  |  Impress (66)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Old (499)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Problem (735)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Reality (275)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sense (786)  |  Teach (301)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Value (397)  |  World (1854)

Most of the arts, as painting, sculpture, and music, have emotional appeal to the general public. This is because these arts can be experienced by some one or more of our senses. Such is not true of the art of mathematics; this art can be appreciated only by mathematicians, and to become a mathematician requires a long period of intensive training. The community of mathematicians is similar to an imaginary community of musical composers whose only satisfaction is obtained by the interchange among themselves of the musical scores they compose.
In Anton Z. Capri, Quips, Quotes and Quanta: An Anecdotal History of Physics (2007), 151. The author described Lanczos invited up on the platform at the Trieste Conference to celebrate Dirac’s 70th birthday, and gave an impromptu quote by Lanczos speaking about Pauli. The author followed that unrelated topic with another beginning, “Here is a comment by Lanczos…” followed by the subject quote above.
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Art (681)  |  Become (822)  |  Community (111)  |  Compose (20)  |  Composer (7)  |  Emotion (106)  |  General (521)  |  General Public (7)  |  Imaginary (16)  |  Intensive (9)  |  Interchange (4)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Musical (10)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Painting (46)  |  Period (200)  |  Require (229)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Score (8)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Sense (786)  |  Similar (36)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Training (92)

Most of the scientists in their twenties and thirties who went in 1939 to work on wartime problems were profoundly affected by their experience. The belief that Rutherford's boys were the best boys, that we could do anything that was do-able and could master any subject in a few days was of enormous value.
'The Effect of World War II on the Development of Knowledge in the Physical Sciences', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 1975, Series A, 342, 531.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Best (468)  |  Boy (100)  |  Do (1905)  |  Master (182)  |  Most (1728)  |  Problem (735)  |  Sir Ernest Rutherford (55)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Subject (544)  |  Value (397)  |  War (234)  |  Wartime (4)  |  Work (1403)

Much is said about the progress of science in these centuries. I should say that the useful results of science had accumulated, but that there had been no accumulation of knowledge, strictly speaking, for posterity; for knowledge is to be acquired only by corresponding experience. How can be know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another’s experience only by his own.
In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 384.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Progress (493)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Useful (261)

Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.
As quoted, without citation, in William L. Schaaf, 'The Highest Rung', National Mathematics Magazine (May 1942), 16, 8, 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Aware (36)  |  Being (1276)  |  Count (107)  |  Counting (26)  |  Human (1517)  |  Music (133)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Soul (237)

My conviction based upon extensive experiences of village life is that in India at any rate for generations to come, we shall not be able to make much use of mechanical power for solving the problem of the ever growing poverty of the masses.
Letter (1934) to Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya expressing his different vision for the future of India. Visvesvaraya believed in, and achieved, heavy industry manufacturing in India. See the Visvesvaraya Quotations page for his reply.
Science quotes on:  |  Conviction (100)  |  Generation (256)  |  India (23)  |  Mechanical Power (2)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Problem (735)  |  Solve (146)  |  Village (13)

My decision to begin research in radio astronomy was influenced both by my wartime experience with electronics and antennas and by one of my teachers, Jack Ratcliffe, who had given an excellent course on electromagnetic theory during my final undergraduate year.
From Autobiography in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1974/Nobel Lectures (1975)
Science quotes on:  |  Antenna (5)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Career (87)  |  Course (415)  |  Decision (98)  |  Electromagnetic Theory (5)  |  Electronics (21)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Final (121)  |  Influence (231)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radio Astronomy (3)  |  Ratcliffe_Jack (2)  |  Research (753)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  War (234)  |  Wartime (4)  |  Year (965)

My earliest impressions of wildlife and its pursuit retain a vivid sharpness of form, color, and atmosphere that half a century of professional wildlife experience has failed to obliterate or improve on.
In 'Red Legs Kicking', A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949, 1987), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Century (319)  |  Color (155)  |  Early (196)  |  Form (978)  |  Impression (118)  |  Improve (65)  |  Obliterate (2)  |  Professional (77)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Retain (57)  |  Sharpness (9)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Wildlife (16)

My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?
In letter to California State board of Education (14 Sep 1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Candle (32)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Existence (484)  |  God (776)  |  Leading (17)  |  Light (636)  |  Must (1525)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (263)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  See (1095)  |  Sun (408)

My interest in the biology of tissue and organ transplantation arose from my [WW II] military experience at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania … a major plastic surgical center. While there, I spent all my available spare time on the plastic surgical wards which were jammed with hundreds of battle casualties. I enjoyed talking to the patients, helping with dressings, and observing the results of the imaginative reconstructive surgical operations.
As a First Lieutenant with only a nine-month surgical internship, randomly assigned to VFGH to await overseas duty. In Tore Frängsmyr and Jan E. Lindsten (eds.), Nobel Lectures: Physiology Or Medicine: 1981-1990 (1993), 556.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Battle (36)  |  Biography (254)  |  Biology (234)  |  Casualty (3)  |  Forge (11)  |  General (521)  |  Help (118)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imaginative (9)  |  Interest (416)  |  Major (88)  |  Military (45)  |  Observe (181)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Organ (118)  |  Patient (209)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Result (700)  |  Spent (85)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Transplantation (4)  |  Valley (37)  |  Ward (7)

My view of the matter, for what it is worth, is that there is no such thing as a logical method of having new ideas, or a logical reconstruction of this process. My view may be expressed by saying that every discovery contains an “irrational element,” or “a creative intuition,” in Bergson's sense. In a similar way Einstein speaks of the “search for those highly universal laws … from which a picture of the world can be obtained by pure deduction. There is no logical path.” he says, “leading to these … laws. They can only be reached by intuition, based upon something like an intellectual love (Einfühlung) of the objects of experience.”
In The Logic of Scientific Discovery: Logik Der Forschung (1959, 2002), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Creative (144)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Element (324)  |  Express (192)  |  Idea (882)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Law (914)  |  Love (328)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (532)  |  New (1276)  |  Object (442)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Path (160)  |  Picture (148)  |  Process (441)  |  Pure (300)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Say (991)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (786)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universal (198)  |  View (498)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1854)  |  Worth (173)

Nature is a source of truth. Experience does not ever err, it is only your judgment that errs in promising itself results which are not caused by your experiments.
The Notebook. As cited in Edward Schwartz, One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward (2003), 38, with caption “examining objects in all their diversity.” Also quoted in Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers (1983), 350.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (564)  |  Err (5)  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Promise (72)  |  Result (700)  |  Source (102)  |  Truth (1111)

New associations and fresh ideas are more likely to come out of a varied store of memories and experience than out of a collection that is all of one kind.
As quoted, attributed to Taylor, but without further source details, in W.I.B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), 5. Note: the quote is seen incorrectly attributed to Beveridge in Colin McFarland, Experiment! (2012), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Association (49)  |  Collection (68)  |  Idea (882)  |  Memory (144)

No Man’s Knowledge here, can go beyond his Experience.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 19, 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)

No true geologist holds by the development hypothesis;—it has been resigned to sciolists and smatterers;—and there is but one other alternative. They began to be, through the miracle of creation. From the evidence furnished by these rocks we are shut down either to belief in miracle, or to something else infinitely harder of reception, and as thoroughly unsupported by testimony as it is contrary to experience. Hume is at length answered by the severe truths of the stony science.
The Foot-prints of the Creator: Or, The Asterolepis of Stromness (1850, 1859), 301.
Science quotes on:  |  Alternative (32)  |  Answer (389)  |  Belief (616)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Creation (350)  |  Development (442)  |  Down (455)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geologist (82)  |   David Hume (34)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Miracle (86)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reception (16)  |  Rock (177)  |  Sciolist (2)  |  Shut (41)  |  Something (718)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1111)

No video, no photographs, no verbal descriptions, no lectures can provide the enchantment that a few minutes out-of-doors can: watch a spider construct a web; observe a caterpillar systematically ravaging the edge of a leaf; close your eyes, cup your hands behind your ears, and listen to aspen leaves rustle or a stream muse about its pools and eddies. Nothing can replace plucking a cluster of pine needles and rolling them in your fingers to feel how they’re put together, or discovering that “sedges have edges and grasses are round,” The firsthand, right-and-left-brain experience of being in the out-of-doors involves all the senses including some we’ve forgotten about, like smelling water a mile away. No teacher, no student, can help but sense and absorb the larger ecological rhythms at work here, and the intertwining of intricate, varied and complex strands that characterize a rich, healthy natural world.
Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Aspen (2)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (282)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Characterize (23)  |  Close (77)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Complex (203)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cup (7)  |  Description (89)  |  Discover (572)  |  Door (94)  |  Ear (69)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Eddy (4)  |  Edge (51)  |  Enchantment (9)  |  Eye (441)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finger (48)  |  Firsthand (2)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Help (118)  |  Include (93)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Involve (93)  |  Large (399)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Leave (139)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Listen (81)  |  Mile (43)  |  Minute (129)  |  Muse (10)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Needle (7)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Observe (181)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pine (12)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Pool (16)  |  Provide (79)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Replace (32)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Rich (66)  |  Right (473)  |  Roll (41)  |  Round (26)  |  Rustle (2)  |  Sedge (2)  |  Sense (786)  |  Smell (29)  |  Spider (14)  |  Strand (9)  |  Stream (83)  |  Student (317)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Together (392)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Video (2)  |  Watch (119)  |  Water (505)  |  Web (17)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

Nor need you doubt that Pythagoras, a long time before he found the demonstration for the Hecatomb, had been certain that the square of the side subtending the right angle in a rectangular triangle was equal to the square of the other two sides; the certainty of the conclusion helped not a little in the search for a demonstration. But whatever was the method of Aristotle, and whether his arguing a priori preceded sense a posteriori, or the contrary, it is sufficient that the same Aristotle (as has often been said) put sensible experiences before all discourses. As to the arguments a priori, their force has already been examined.
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632). Revised and Annotated by Giorgio De Santillana (1953), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  A Posteriori (2)  |  A Priori (26)  |  Already (226)  |  Argument (145)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Force (497)  |  Little (718)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (532)  |  Observation (595)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (786)  |  Side (236)  |  Square (73)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1913)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Whatever (234)

Nothing in our experience suggests the introduction of [complex numbers]. Indeed, if a mathematician is asked to justify his interest in complex numbers, he will point, with some indignation, to the many beautiful theorems in the theory of equations, of power series, and of analytic functions in general, which owe their origin to the introduction of complex numbers. The mathematician is not willing to give up his interest in these most beautiful accomplishments of his genius.
In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 537.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Ask (423)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complex Number (3)  |  Equation (138)  |  Function (235)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indignation (5)  |  Interest (416)  |  Justify (26)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Number (712)  |  Origin (251)  |  Owe (71)  |  Point (585)  |  Power (773)  |  Series (153)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Will (2350)  |  Willing (44)

Nothing is more flatly contradicted by experience than the belief that a man, distinguished in one of the departments of science is more likely to think sensibly about ordinary affairs than anyone else.
In 'Has the Intellect A Function?', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Contradict (43)  |  Department (93)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1124)

Now, I must tell you of a strange experience which bore fruit in my later life. … We had a cold [snap] drier that ever observed before. People walking in the snow left a luminous trail behind them and a snowball thrown against an obstacle gave a flare of light like a loaf of sugar hit with a knife. [As I stroked] Mačak’s back, [it became] a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks. … My father … remarked, this is nothing but electricity, the same thing you see on the trees in a storm. My mother seemed alarmed. Stop playing with the cat, she said, he might start a fire. I was thinking abstractly. Is nature a cat? If so, who strokes its back? It can only be God, I concluded. …
I cannot exaggerate the effect of this marvelous sight on my childish imagination. Day after day I asked myself what is electricity and found no answer. Eighty years have gone by since and I still ask the same question, unable to answer it.
Letter to Miss Pola Fotitch, 'A Story of Youth Told by Age' (1939). In John Ratzlaff, editor, Tesla Said (1984), 283-84. Cited in Marc J. Seifer, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla (1998), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alarm (19)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (423)  |  Back (395)  |  Behind (139)  |  Biography (254)  |  Cat (52)  |  Childish (20)  |  Cold (115)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Father (114)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fruit (108)  |  God (776)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knife (24)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Loaf (5)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Mother (116)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observed (149)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  People (1034)  |  Playing (42)  |  Produced (187)  |  Question (652)  |  See (1095)  |  Sight (135)  |  Snap (7)  |  Snow (39)  |  Snowball (4)  |  Spark (32)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Storm (56)  |  Strange (160)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Tree (269)  |  Year (965)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Doom (34)  |  Equally (129)  |  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)

Official science is fully committed to the principle of muddling through and not looking beyond the tip of your nose. All past experience, it is said, teaches us to take only one step at a time.
From transcript of BBC radio Reith Lecture (12 Nov 1967), 'A Runaway World', on the bbc.co.uk website.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Commit (43)  |  Looking (191)  |  Muddle (3)  |  Nose (14)  |  Official (8)  |  Past (355)  |  Principle (532)  |  Step (235)  |  Teach (301)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tip (2)

Often a liberal antidote of experience supplies a sovereign cure for a paralyzing abstraction built upon a theory.
In The Paradoxes of Legal Science (1928).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Antidote (9)  |  Cure (124)  |  Sovereign (5)  |  Theory (1016)

On Breaking Habits. To begin knocking off the habit in the evening, then the afternoon as well and, finally, the morning too is better than to begin cutting it off in the morning and then go on to the afternoon and evening. I speak from experience as regards smoking and can say that when one comes to within an hour or two of smoke-time one begins to be impatient for it, whereas there will be no impatience after the time for knocking off has been confirmed as a habit.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Afternoon (5)  |  Begin (275)  |  Better (495)  |  Break (110)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Cut Off (3)  |  Evening (12)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hour (192)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Morning (98)  |  Regard (312)  |  Say (991)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Speak (240)  |  Time (1913)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

On the whole, at least in the author's experience, the preparation of species-specific antiserum fractions and the differentiation of closely related species with precipitin sera for serum proteins does not succeed so regularly as with agglutinins and lysins for blood cells. This may be due to the fact that in the evolutional scale the proteins undergo continuous variations whereas cell antigens are subject to sudden changes not linked by intermediary stages.
The Specificity of Serological Reactions (1936), 12-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Agglutinin (2)  |  Antigen (5)  |  Author (175)  |  Blood (144)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (640)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Due (143)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Protein (56)  |  Scale (122)  |  Serum (11)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Stage (152)  |  Subject (544)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whole (756)

One and all
We lend an ear—nay, Science takes thereto—
Encourages the meanest who has racked
Nature until he gains from her some fact,
To state what truth is from his point of view,
Mere pin-point though it be: since many such
Conduce to make a whole, she bids our friend
Come forward unabashed and haply lend
His little life-experience to our much
Of modern knowledge.
'With Francis Furini', The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning (1895), 967.
Science quotes on:  |  Ear (69)  |  Encourage (45)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Forward (104)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gain (149)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Life (1873)  |  Little (718)  |  Modern (405)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Pin (20)  |  Point (585)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Research (753)  |  State (505)  |  Truth (1111)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)

One cannot ignore half of life for the purposes of science, and then claim that the results of science give a full and adequate picture of the meaning of life. All discussions of “life” which begin with a description of man's place on a speck of matter in space, in an endless evolutionary scale, are bound to be half-measures, because they leave out most of the experiences which are important to use as human beings.
In Religion and the Rebel (1957), 309.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bound (120)  |  Claim (154)  |  Description (89)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Endless (61)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Full (69)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Important (231)  |  Leave Out (2)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meaning Of Life (2)  |  Measure (242)  |  Most (1728)  |  Picture (148)  |  Place (194)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Result (700)  |  Scale (122)  |  Space (525)  |  Speck (25)  |  Use (771)

One could not by any experience whatsoever demonstrate that the heavens, and not the earth, are moved with a diurnal motion.
In Livre du ciel et du monde (On the Book of the Heavens and the World of Aristotle) (completed 1377), Book 2, Chap 25. Translated by Menut and Denomy (1968), as excerpted in Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages, 600. Also found translated as, “No experience whatsoever could prove that the heavens rotate daily and not the earth.”
Science quotes on:  |  Daily (92)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Prove (263)  |  Rotate (8)  |  Whatsoever (41)

One rarely hears of the mathematical recitation as a preparation for public speaking. Yet mathematics shares with these studies [foreign languages, drawing and natural science] their advantages, and has another in a higher degree than either of them.
Most readers will agree that a prime requisite for healthful experience in public speaking is that the attention of the speaker and hearers alike be drawn wholly away from the speaker and concentrated upon the thought. In perhaps no other classroom is this so easy as in the mathematical, where the close reasoning, the rigorous demonstration, the tracing of necessary conclusions from given hypotheses, commands and secures the entire mental power of the student who is explaining, and of his classmates. In what other circumstances do students feel so instinctively that manner counts for so little and mind for so much? In what other circumstances, therefore, is a simple, unaffected, easy, graceful manner so naturally and so healthfully cultivated? Mannerisms that are mere affectation or the result of bad literary habit recede to the background and finally disappear, while those peculiarities that are the expression of personality and are inseparable from its activity continually develop, where the student frequently presents, to an audience of his intellectual peers, a connected train of reasoning. …
One would almost wish that our institutions of the science and art of public speaking would put over their doors the motto that Plato had over the entrance to his school of philosophy: “Let no one who is unacquainted with geometry enter here.”
In A Scrap-book of Elementary Mathematics: Notes, Recreations, Essays (1908), 210-211.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alike (60)  |  Art (681)  |  Attention (198)  |  Audience (28)  |  Background (44)  |  Bad (185)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Classroom (12)  |  Command (60)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Connect (126)  |  Count (107)  |  Degree (278)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Develop (279)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Door (94)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Expression (182)  |  Feel (371)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hear (146)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Institution (73)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Language (310)  |  Listener (7)  |  Little (718)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peer (13)  |  Personality (66)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Plato (80)  |  Power (773)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Present (630)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recede (11)  |  Recitation (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  School (228)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Share (82)  |  Simple (430)  |  Speaker (6)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Student (317)  |  Thought (996)  |  Train (118)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (217)

One's instinct is at first to try and get rid of a discrepancy, but I believe that experience shows such an endeavour to be a mistake. What one ought to do is to magnify a small discrepancy with a view to finding out the explanation.
General Monthly Meeting, on Argon, (1 Apr 1895), Proceedings of the Royal Institution (1895), 14, 525.
Science quotes on:  |  Discrepancy (7)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Magnification (10)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Show (354)  |  Small (489)  |  Try (296)  |  View (498)

Ordinary scientist: one who possesses an assortment of information not verified by personal experience, and which is often disproved by another “scientist”.
In On Love & Psychological Exercises: With Some Aphorisms & Other Essays (1998), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Assortment (5)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Information (173)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Personal (76)  |  Possess (158)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Verify (24)

Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter. … Transmutation of the elements, unlimited power, ability to investigate the working of living cells by tracer atoms, the secret of photosynthesis about to be uncovered, these and a host of other results, all in about fifteen short years. It is not too much to expect that our children will know of great periodic regional famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under the and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great speeds, and will experience a life span far longer than ours, as disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age.
Speech at the 20th anniversary of the National Association of Science Writers, New York City (16 Sep 1954), as quoted in 'Abundant Power From Atom Seen', New York Times (17 Sep 1954) 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Age (509)  |  Aging (9)  |  Air (367)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Atom (381)  |  Cause (564)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cheapness (2)  |  Children (201)  |  Danger (127)  |  Disease (343)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Element (324)  |  Energy (374)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Famine (18)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (719)  |  Home (186)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1539)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lifespan (9)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meter (9)  |  Minimum (13)  |  Other (2233)  |  Photosynthesis (21)  |  Power (773)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Sea (327)  |  Secret (217)  |  Ship (70)  |  Short (200)  |  Speed (66)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Travel (125)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)  |  Year (965)  |  Yield (86)

Our commercial and mercantile law was no sudden invention. It was not the work of a day, or of one set of minds… In the incipient, the early existence of this system, a single maxim obtained force, others succeeded; one rule of right formed a nucleus around which other kindred rules might cling; the necessities of trade originated customs, customs ripened into law; a few feeble decisions of courts laid the foundation for others; the wisdom and experience of each succeeding generation improved upon the wisdom and experience of generations that were past; and thus the edifice arose, perfect in its parts, beautiful in its proportions.
From biographical preface by T. Bigelow to Austin Abbott (ed.), Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher (1875), Vol. 1, xi-xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Court (35)  |  Custom (45)  |  Decision (98)  |  Early (196)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Existence (484)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Generation (256)  |  Improve (65)  |  Invention (401)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Law (914)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Right (473)  |  Ripen (4)  |  Rule (308)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (366)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Sudden (70)  |  System (545)  |  Trade (34)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1403)

Our contemporary culture, primed by population growth and driven by technology, has created problems of environmental degradation that directly affect all of our senses: noise, odors and toxins which bring physical pain and suffering, and ugliness, barrenness, and homogeneity of experience which bring emotional and psychological suffering and emptiness. In short, we are jeopardizing our human qualities by pursuing technology as an end rather than a means. Too often we have failed to ask two necessary questions: First, what human purpose will a given technology or development serve? Second, what human and environmental effects will it have?
Report of the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution (7 Aug 1969). 'Environmental Quality: Summary and Discussion of Major Provisions', U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Legal Compilation, (Jan 1973), Water, Vol. 3, 1365. EPA website.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Barren (33)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Culture (157)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Development (442)  |  Drive (62)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Emptiness (13)  |  End (603)  |  Environment (240)  |  Fail (193)  |  First (1303)  |  Growth (200)  |  Homogeneity (9)  |  Human (1517)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Noise (40)  |  Odor (11)  |  Pain (144)  |  Physical (520)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  Problem (735)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Question (652)  |  Sense (786)  |  Short (200)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Technology (284)  |  Toxin (8)  |  Two (936)  |  Ugliness (3)  |  Will (2350)

Our experience shows that not everything that is observable and measurable is predictable, no matter how complete our past observations may have been.
In Presidential Address (8 Feb 1963), Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (Mar 1963), 4, 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Everything (490)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Observable (21)  |  Observation (595)  |  Past (355)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Show (354)

Our experience up to date justifies us in feeling sure that in Nature is actualized the ideal of mathematical simplicity. It is my conviction that pure mathematical construction enables us to discover the concepts and the laws connecting them, which gives us the key to understanding nature… In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.
In Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford (10 Jun 1933), 'On the Methods of Theoretical Physics'. Printed in Discovery (Jul 1933), 14, 227. Also quoted in Stefano Zambelli and Donald A. R. George, Nonlinearity, Complexity and Randomness in Economics (2012).
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connection (171)  |  Construction (116)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Dream (223)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enabling (7)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Justification (52)  |  Key (56)  |  Law (914)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Pure (300)  |  Reality (275)  |  Sense (786)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understanding (527)

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.
In Hialmer Day Gould, New Practical Spelling (1905), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Amass (6)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Thought (996)

Our novice runs the risk of failure without additional traits: a strong inclination toward originality, a taste for research, and a desire to experience the incomparable gratification associated with the act of discovery itself.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Addition (70)  |  Association (49)  |  Desire (214)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Failure (176)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Incomparable (14)  |  Novice (2)  |  Originality (21)  |  Research (753)  |  Risk (68)  |  Run (158)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Taste (93)  |  Trait (23)  |  Without (13)

Our system of philosophy is itself on trial; it must stand or fall according as it is broad enough to find room for this experience as an element of life.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Element (324)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Life (1873)  |  Must (1525)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Stand (284)  |  System (545)  |  Trial (59)

People exaggerate the value of things they haven’t got: everybody worships truth and unselfishness because they have no experience with them.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Everybody (72)  |  Exaggerate (7)  |  People (1034)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Value (397)  |  Worship (32)

Perhaps I can best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of a journey through a dark unexplored mansion. You enter the first room of the mansion and it’s completely dark. You stumble around bumping into the furniture, but gradually you learn where each piece of furniture is. Finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch, you turn it on, and suddenly it’s all illuminated. You can see exactly where you were. Then you move into the next room and spend another six months in the dark. So each of these breakthroughs, while sometimes they’re momentary, sometimes over a period of a day or two, they are the culmination of—and couldn’t exist without—the many months of stumbling around in the dark that proceed them.
Quoted in interview for website for PBS TV Nova program, 'The Proof'.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Completely (137)  |  Culmination (5)  |  Dark (145)  |  Describe (133)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enter (145)  |  Exist (460)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Furniture (8)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Journey (48)  |  Learn (672)  |  Light (636)  |  Mansion (4)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Month (91)  |  Move (225)  |  Next (238)  |  Period (200)  |  Proceed (134)  |  See (1095)  |  Solution (286)  |  Spend (97)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)

Perhaps the majority of paleontologists of the present time, who believe in orthogenesis, the irreversibility of evolution and the polyphyletic origin families, will assume that a short molar must keep on getting shorter, that it can never get longer and then again grow relatively shorter and therefore that Propliopithecus with its extremely short third molar and Dryopithecus its long m3 are alike excluded from ancestry of the Gorilla, in which the is a slight retrogression in length of m3. After many years reflection and constant study of the evolution of the vertebrates however, I conclude that 'orthogenesis' should mean solely that structures and races evolve in a certain direction, or toward a certain goal, only until the direction of evolution shifts toward some other goal. I believe that the 'irreversibility of evolution' means only that past changes irreversibly limit and condition future possibilities, and that, as a matter of experience, if an organ is once lost the same (homogenous) organ can be regained, although nature is fertile in substituting imitations. But this not mean, in my judgement, that if one tooth is smaller than its fellows it will in all cases continue to grow smaller.
'Studies on the Evolution of the Primates’, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1916, 35, 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Continue (180)  |  Direction (185)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Future (467)  |  Goal (155)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Grow (247)  |  Irreversibility (4)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Majority (68)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Organ (118)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Race (279)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Retrogression (6)  |  Shift (45)  |  Short (200)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (703)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

Philosophy is not a science of things in general, but a science that investigates the presuppositions of experience and discovers the nature of the first principle.
Epigram to 'Philosophy in Outline', The Journal of Speculative Philosophy (Jul 1883), 17, No. 3, 296.
Science quotes on:  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  First (1303)  |  General (521)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Presupposition (3)  |  Principle (532)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Thing (1914)

Philosophy would long ago have reached a high level if our predecessors and fathers had put this into practice; and we would not waste time on the primary difficulties, which appear now as severe as in the first centuries which noticed them. We would have the experience of assured phenomena, which would serve as principles for a solid reasoning; truth would not be so deeply sunken; nature would have taken off most of her envelopes; one would see the marvels she contains in all her individuals. ...
Les Préludes de l'Harmonie Universelle (1634), 135-139. In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974), Vol. 9, 316.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (146)  |  Century (319)  |  Contain (68)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Envelope (6)  |  Father (114)  |  First (1303)  |  High (370)  |  Individual (420)  |  Long (778)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Notice (81)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Practice (212)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  See (1095)  |  Severity (6)  |  Sinking (6)  |  Solid (119)  |  Time (1913)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Waste (109)

Physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teach us the actual value and right use of the Imagination—of that wondrous faculty, which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads us astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land of mists and shadows; but which, properly controlled by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute of man; the source of poetic genius, the instrument of discovery in Science, without the aid of which Newton would never have invented fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found another Continent.
Presidential Address to Anniversary meeting of the Royal Society (30 Nov 1859), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1860), 10, 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alkali (6)  |  America (144)  |  Astray (13)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Become (822)  |  Christopher Columbus (17)  |  Continent (79)  |  Sir Humphry Davy (49)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (324)  |  Error (339)  |  Fluxion (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mist (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Physical (520)  |  Ramble (3)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Right (473)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Teach (301)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (397)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Wondrous (23)

Physics is experience, arranged in economical order.
'The Economical Nature of Physics' (1882), in Popular Scientific Lectures, trans. Thomas J. McConnack (1910), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrange (34)  |  Economy (59)  |  Order (639)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)

Plasticity is a double-edged sword; the more flexible an organism is the greater the variety of maladaptive, as well as adaptive, behaviors it can develop; the more teachable it is the more fully it can profit from the experiences of its ancestors and associates and the more it risks being exploited by its ancestors and associates.
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 361.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Associate (25)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Being (1276)  |  Develop (279)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Flexibility (6)  |  Greater (288)  |  Learning (291)  |  More (2558)  |  Organism (231)  |  Plasticity (7)  |  Profit (56)  |  Risk (68)  |  Teachable (2)  |  Variety (138)

Positive, objective knowledge is public property. It can be transmitted directly from one person to another, it can be pooled, and it can be passed on from one generation to the next. Consequently, knowledge accumulates through the ages, each generation adding its contribution. Values are quite different. By values, I mean the standards by which we judge the significance of life. The meaning of good and evil, of joy and sorrow, of beauty, justice, success-all these are purely private convictions, and they constitute our store of wisdom. They are peculiar to the individual, and no methods exist by which universal agreement can be obtained. Therefore, wisdom cannot be readily transmitted from person to person, and there is no great accumulation through the ages. Each man starts from scratch and acquires his own wisdom from his own experience. About all that can be done in the way of communication is to expose others to vicarious experience in the hope of a favorable response.
The Nature of Science and Other Lectures (1954), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Age (509)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Communication (101)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Different (596)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exist (460)  |  Expose (28)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (907)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hope (322)  |  Individual (420)  |  Joy (117)  |  Judge (114)  |  Justice (40)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Method (532)  |  Next (238)  |  Objective (96)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (242)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Person (366)  |  Positive (98)  |  Property (177)  |  Purely (111)  |  Response (56)  |  Scratch (14)  |  Significance (115)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Start (237)  |  Store (49)  |  Success (327)  |  Through (846)  |  Universal (198)  |  Value (397)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)

Present experience is a dream; the future a distraction; only memory can unlock the meaning of life.
In 'Thomas Hardy', Saturday Review of Literature (1 Dec 1928), 5, 422. Rearranged by Anne Ellis for epigraph to Chap. 1 as “The present is a distraction; the future a dream; only memory can unlock the meaning of life” in Plain Anne Ellis: More About the Life of an Ordinary Woman (1931), 1, cited as “Desmond MacCarthy. (Rearranged by A.E.)”. The Anne Ellis variant is used as an epigraph attributed to Desmond MacCarthy, in Hans Cloos, 'Ship’s Wake', Conversation With the Earth. The variant also appears quoted in a conversation between characters in Chap. 31, Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune: Dune Chronicles #4 (1981).
Science quotes on:  |  Distraction (7)  |  Dream (223)  |  Future (467)  |  Meaning Of Life (2)  |  Memory (144)  |  Present (630)  |  Unlock (12)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direction (185)  |  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)

Reason, Observation, and Experience—the Holy Trinity of Science.
In 'The Gods', The Gods: and Other Lectures (1874, 1879), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Holy (35)  |  Observation (595)  |  Reason (767)  |  Trinity (9)

Religion and science ... constitute deep-rooted and ancient efforts to find richer experience and deeper meaning than are found in the ordinary biological and social satisfactions. As pointed out by Whitehead, religion and science have similar origins and are evolving toward similar goals. Both started from crude observations and fanciful concepts, meaningful only within a narrow range of conditions for the people who formulated them of their limited tribal experience. But progressively, continuously, and almost simultaneously, religious and scientific concepts are ridding themselves of their coarse and local components, reaching higher and higher levels of abstraction and purity. Both the myths of religion and the laws of science, it is now becoming apparent, are not so much descriptions of facts as symbolic expressions of cosmic truths.
'On Being Human,' A God Within, Scribner (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (822)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Coarse (4)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deep (241)  |  Description (89)  |  Effort (243)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Expression (182)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  High (370)  |  Law (914)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Local (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Observation (595)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (251)  |  People (1034)  |  Point (585)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (287)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rich (66)  |  Rid (14)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (262)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toward (46)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)

Religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. … near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.
From 'A Sunday Sermon', in Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1975, 2011), 332-333.
Science quotes on:  |  Contention (14)  |  Core (20)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Rational (97)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (544)  |  Tough (22)

Remembering is not the re-excitation of innumerable fixed, lifeless and fragmentary traces. It is an imaginative reconstruction, or construction, built out of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organised past reactions and experience, and to a little outstanding detail which commonly appears in image or in language form. It is thus hardly ever really exact, even in the most rudimentary cases of rote recapitulation, and it is not at all important that it should be so.
From the summary section of Chapter 10, 'A Theory of Remembering', Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932, 1995), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Memory (144)  |  Recapitulation (6)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rote (5)

Samuel Pierpoint Langley, at that time regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists in the United States … evidently believed that a full sized airplane could be built and flown largely from theory alone. This resulted in two successive disastrous plunges into the Potomac River, the second of which almost drowned his pilot. This experience contrasts with that of two bicycle mechanics Orville and Wilbur Wright who designed, built and flew the first successful airplane. But they did this after hundreds of experiments extending over a number of years.
In article Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future (1995), published at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Science quotes on:  |  Airplane (43)  |  Alone (325)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Build (212)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Design (205)  |  Disastrous (3)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Drown (14)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Experiment (737)  |  First (1303)  |  Fly (153)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Samuel Pierpont Langley (6)  |  Largely (14)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (712)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Plunge (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Regarded (4)  |  Result (700)  |  River (141)  |  Scientist (881)  |  State (505)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Successive (73)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Time (1913)  |  Two (936)  |  United States (31)  |  Orville Wright (10)  |  Year (965)

Science aims at constructing a world which shall be symbolic of the world of commonplace experience. It is not at all necessary that every individual symbol that is used should represent something in common experience or even something explicable in terms of common experience. The man in the street is always making this demand for concrete explanation of the things referred to in science; but of necessity he must be disappointed. It is like our experience in learning to read. That which is written in a book is symbolic of a story in real life. The whole intention of the book is that ultimately a reader will identify some symbol, say BREAD, with one of the conceptions of familiar life. But it is mischievous to attempt such identifications prematurely, before the letters are strung into words and the words into sentences. The symbol A is not the counterpart of anything in familiar life.
From 'Introduction', The Nature of the Physical World (1928), xiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Book (414)  |  Bread (42)  |  Common (447)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Conception (160)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Counterpart (11)  |  Demand (131)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Identification (20)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intention (46)  |  Learning (291)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1873)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mischievous (12)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Read (309)  |  Represent (157)  |  Say (991)  |  Something (718)  |  Story (122)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1854)

Science began to be powerful when it began to be cumulative, when observers began to preserve detailed records, to organize cooperating groups in order to pool and criticize their experiences.
In School and Society (1930), 31, 581.
Science quotes on:  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Criticize (7)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Detail (150)  |  Group (84)  |  Observer (48)  |  Order (639)  |  Organization (120)  |  Organize (34)  |  Pool (16)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Record (161)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (442)  |  Examine (84)  |  Existence (484)  |  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 a system of statements based on direct experience, and controlled by experimental verification. Verification in science is not, however, of single statements but of the entire system or a sub-system of such statements.
The Unity of Science (1934), trans. Max Black, 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Direct (228)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Single (366)  |  Statement (148)  |  System (545)  |  Verification (32)

Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.
Out of my Later Years (1950, 1995), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Sense (786)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (996)

Science is the systematic classification of experience.
The Physical Basis of Mind (1877), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Classification (102)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)

Science may be a boon if war can be abolished and democracy and cultural liberty preserved. If this cannot be done, science will precipitate evils greater than any that mankind has ever experienced.
In 'Boredom or Doom in a Scientific World', United Nations World (Sep 1948), Vol. 2, No. 8, 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Boon (7)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Evil (122)  |  Greater (288)  |  Liberty (30)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Precipitate (3)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  War (234)  |  Will (2350)

Science only begins for man from the moment when his mind lays hold of matter—when he tries to subject the mass accumulated by experience to rational combinations.
In 'Introduction', Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1849), Vol. 1, 64. Translation “under the superintendence of” Edward Sabine.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Begin (275)  |  Combination (151)  |  Hold (96)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (161)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Moment (260)  |  Rational (97)  |  Subject (544)  |  Try (296)

Science provides an understanding of a universal experience, and arts provides a universal understanding of a personal experience.
In online transcript of TED talk, 'Mae Jemison on teaching arts and sciences together' (2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Personal (76)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)

Science starts with preconception, with the common culture, and with common sense. It moves on to observation, is marked by the discovery of paradox, and is then concerned with the correction of preconception. It moves then to use these corrections for the designing of further observation and for more refined experiment. And as it moves along this course the nature of the evidence and experience that nourish it becomes more and more unfamiliar; it is not just the language that is strange [to common culture].
From 'The Growth of Science and the Structure of Culture', Daedalus (Winter 1958), 87, No. 1, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Concern (239)  |  Correction (42)  |  Course (415)  |  Culture (157)  |  Design (205)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Language (310)  |  Marked (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (225)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nourish (18)  |  Observation (595)  |  Paradox (55)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Refined (8)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sense (786)  |  Start (237)  |  Strange (160)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Use (771)

Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment.
Letter to her father, Ellis Franklin, undated, perhaps summer 1940 while she was an undergraduate at Cambridge. Excerpted in Brenda Maddox, The Dark Lady of DNA (2002), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Life (1873)

Science, then, is the attentive consideration of common experience; it is common knowledge extended and refined. Its validity is of the same order as that of ordinary perception; memory, and understanding. Its test is found, like theirs, in actual intuition, which sometimes consists in perception and sometimes in intent. The flight of science is merely longer from perception to perception, and its deduction more accurate of meaning from meaning and purpose from purpose. It generates in the mind, for each vulgar observation, a whole brood of suggestions, hypotheses, and inferences. The sciences bestow, as is right and fitting, infinite pains upon that experience which in their absence would drift by unchallenged or misunderstood. They take note, infer, and prophesy. They compare prophesy with event, and altogether they supply—so intent are they on reality—every imaginable background and extension for the present dream.
The Life of Reason, or the Phases of Human Progress (1954), 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Actual (145)  |  Attention (198)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Background (44)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Common (447)  |  Compare (76)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Consist (224)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Dream (223)  |  Event (222)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Flight (101)  |  Human Progress (18)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inference (45)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Intent (9)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Memory (144)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (595)  |  Order (639)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Present (630)  |  Prophesy (11)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Reality (275)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Right (473)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Supply (101)  |  Test (222)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Whole (756)

Science, though apparently transformed into pure knowledge, has yet never lost its character of being a craft; and that it is not the knowledge itself which can rightly be called science, but a special way of getting and of using knowledge. Namely, science is the getting of knowledge from experience on the assumption of uniformity in nature, and the use of such knowledge to guide the actions of men.
In 'On The Scientific Basis of Morals', Contemporary Review (Sep 1875), collected in Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays: By the Late William Kingdon Clifford, F.R.S. (1886), 289.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (782)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Character (259)  |  Craft (12)  |  Guide (108)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Pure (300)  |  Special (189)  |  Transform (74)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)

Scientific modes of thought cannot be developed and become generally accepted unless people renounce their primary, unreflecting, and spontaneous attempt to understand all their experience in terms of its purpose and meaning for themselves. The development that led to more adequate knowledge and increasing control of nature was therefore, considered from one aspect, also a development toward greater self-control by men.
The Civilizing Process: The Development of Manners—Changes in the Code of Conduct and Feeling in Early Modern Times (1939), trans. Edmund Jephcott (1978), 225. Originally published as Über den Prozess der Zivilisation.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Become (822)  |  Consider (430)  |  Control (185)  |  Develop (279)  |  Development (442)  |  Greater (288)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Meaning (246)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  People (1034)  |  Primary (82)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Renounce (6)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Self (268)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Understand (650)

Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society.
In Education For a New World (1946), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Activity (218)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Direct (228)  |  Doing (277)  |  Education (423)  |  Environment (240)  |  Event (222)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Society (14)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interference (22)  |  Listening (26)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Motive (62)  |  Natural (811)  |  New (1276)  |  Observation (595)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Process (441)  |  Rising (44)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Series (153)  |  Servant (40)  |  Society (353)  |  Soul (237)  |  Spread (86)  |  Task (153)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Victim (37)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)

Scientists are entitled to be proud of their accomplishments, and what accomplishments can they call ‘theirs’ except the things they have done or thought of first? People who criticize scientists for wanting to enjoy the satisfaction of intellectual ownership are confusing possessiveness with pride of possession. Meanness, secretiveness and, sharp practice are as much despised by scientists as by other decent people in the world of ordinary everyday affairs; nor, in my experience, is generosity less common among them, or less highly esteemed.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Affair (29)  |  Call (782)  |  Common (447)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Criticize (7)  |  Decent (12)  |  Despise (16)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Entitle (3)  |  Esteem (18)  |  Everyday (32)  |  First (1303)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Highly (16)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Less (105)  |  Meanness (5)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1034)  |  Possession (68)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pride (85)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Theirs (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Want (505)  |  World (1854)

Seeing is an experience. A retinal reaction is only a physical state... People, not their eyes, see. Cameras, and eye-balls, are blind... there is more to seeing than meets the eyeball.
Patterns of Discovery (1958), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Blind (98)  |  Eye (441)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1034)  |  Physical (520)  |  Reaction (106)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sight (135)  |  State (505)

Several very eminent living paleontologists frequently emphasise the abruptness of some of the major changes that have occurred, and seek for an external cause. This is a heady wine and has intoxicated palaeontologists since the days when they could blame it all on Noah's flood. In fact, books are still being published by the lunatic fringe with the same explanation. In case this book should be read by some fundamentalist searching for straws to prop up his prejudices, let me state categorically that all my experience (such as it is) has led me to an unqualified acceptance of evolution by natural selection as a sufficient explanation for what I have seen in the fossil record
In The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (1973), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Abrupt (6)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blame (31)  |  Book (414)  |  Cause (564)  |  Change (640)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Explanation (247)  |  External (62)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Flood (52)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Fossil Record (12)  |  Fringe (7)  |  Fundamentalist (4)  |  Heady (2)  |  Intoxication (8)  |  Living (492)  |  Lunatic (9)  |  Major (88)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Prop (6)  |  Publish (42)  |  Read (309)  |  Reading (136)  |  Record (161)  |  Search (175)  |  Seek (219)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Selection (130)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Straw (7)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Wine (39)

Some experience of popular lecturing had convinced me that the necessity of making things plain to uninstructed people, was one of the very best means of clearing up the obscure corners in one's own mind.
'Preface'. In Man's Place in Nature and Other Anthropological Essays. Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 7, Preface, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Corner (59)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Obscure (66)  |  People (1034)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)

Some of what these pamphlets [of astrological forecasts] say will turn out to be true, but most of it time and experience will expose as empty and worthless. The latter part will be forgotten [literally: written on the winds] while the former will be carefully entered in people’s memories, as is usual with the crowd.
On giving astrology sounder foundations, De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus, (1602), Thesis 2, Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke (1937- ), Vol. 4, 12, trans. J. V. Field, in Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 1984, 31, 229-72.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrology (46)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Empty (83)  |  Enter (145)  |  Expose (28)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Former (138)  |  Literally (30)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1034)  |  Say (991)  |  Time (1913)  |  Turn (454)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)

Sooner or later for good or ill, a united mankind, equipped with science and power, will probably turn its attention to the other planets, not only for economic exploitation, but also as possible homes for man... The goal for the solar system would seem to be that it should become an interplanetary community of very diverse worlds... each contributing to the common experience its characteristic view of the universe. Through the pooling of this wealth of experience, through this “commonwealth of worlds,” new levels of mental and spiritual development should become possible, levels at present quite inconceivable to man.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (198)  |  Become (822)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Common (447)  |  Commonwealth (6)  |  Community (111)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Development (442)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Economic (84)  |  Equip (6)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (907)  |  Home (186)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Interplanetary (2)  |  Level (69)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Mental (179)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (406)  |  Pool (16)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Seem (150)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Sooner Or Later (7)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  United (15)  |  Universe (901)  |  View (498)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Speaking concretely, when we say “making experiments or making observations,” we mean that we devote ourselves to investigation and to research, that we make attempts and trials in order to gain facts from which the mind, through reasoning, may draw knowledge or instruction.
Speaking in the abstract, when we say “relying on observation and gaining experience,” we mean that observation is the mind's support in reasoning, and experience the mind's support in deciding, or still better, the fruit of exact reasoning applied to the interpretation of facts. It follows from this that we can gain experience without making experiments, solely by reasoning appropriately about well-established facts, just as we can make experiments and observations without gaining experience, if we limit ourselves to noting facts.
Observation, then, is what shows facts; experiment is what teaches about facts and gives experience in relation to anything.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Better (495)  |  Concretely (4)  |  Draw (141)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Follow (390)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gain (149)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limit (294)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Observation (595)  |  Order (639)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (991)  |  Show (354)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Support (151)  |  Through (846)  |  Trial (59)

Spirituality leaps where science cannot yet follow, because science must always test and measure, and much of reality and human experience is immeasurable.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 43
Science quotes on:  |  Follow (390)  |  Human (1517)  |  Immeasurable (4)  |  Leap (57)  |  Measure (242)  |  Must (1525)  |  Reality (275)  |  Spirituality (8)  |  Test (222)

Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience, and written words are the symbols of spoken words.
Aristotle
In De Interpretatione, translated by E.M. Edghill in On Interpretation, Chap. 1, second sentence.
Science quotes on:  |  Mental (179)  |  Spoken (3)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Word (650)  |  Written (6)

Standing now in diffused light, with the wind at my back, I experience suddenly a feeling of completeness–not a feeling of having achieved something or of being stronger than everyone who was ever here before, not a feeling of having arrived at the ultimate point, not a feeling of supremacy. Just a breath of happiness deep inside my mind and my breast. The summit seemed suddenly to me to be a refuge, and I had not expected to find any refuge up here. Looking at the steep, sharp ridges below us, I have the impression that to have come later would have been too late. Everything we now say to one another, we only say out of embarrassment. I don’t think anymore. As I pull the tape recorder, trancelike, from my rucksack, and switch it on wanting to record a few appropriate phrases, tears again well into my eyes. “Now we are on the summit of Everest,” I begin, “it is so cold that we cannot take photographs…” I cannot go on, I am immediately shaken with sobs. I can neither talk nor think, feeling only how this momentous experience changes everything. To reach only a few meters below the summit would have required the same amount of effort, the same anxiety and burden of sorrow, but a feeling like this, an eruption of feeling, is only possible on the summit itself.
In Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate (1979), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Amount (153)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Anymore (5)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Back (395)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Below (26)  |  Breast (10)  |  Breath (62)  |  Burden (31)  |  Change (640)  |  Cold (115)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Deep (241)  |  Diffuse (5)  |  Effort (243)  |  Embarrassment (5)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Everest (10)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Everything (490)  |  Expect (203)  |  Eye (441)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inside (30)  |  Late (119)  |  Light (636)  |  Looking (191)  |  Meter (9)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Momentous (7)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Point (585)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pull (43)  |  Reach (287)  |  Record (161)  |  Recorder (5)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Rucksack (3)  |  Same (168)  |  Say (991)  |  Seem (150)  |  Shake (43)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Something (718)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Stand (284)  |  Steep (7)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Summit (27)  |  Supremacy (4)  |  Switch (10)  |  Talk (108)  |  Tape (5)  |  Tear (48)  |  Think (1124)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Want (505)  |  Wind (141)

Suppose the results of a line of study are negative. It might save a lot of otherwise wasted money to know a thing won’t work. But how do you accurately evaluate negative results? ... The power plant in [the recently developed streamline trains] is a Diesel engine of a type which was tried out many [around 25] years ago and found to be a failure. … We didn’t know how to build them. The principle upon which it operated was sound. [Since then much has been] learned in metallurgy [and] the accuracy with which parts can be manufactured
When this type of engine was given another chance it was an immediate success [because now] an accuracy of a quarter of a tenth of a thousandth of an inch [prevents high-pressure oil leaks]. … If we had taken the results of past experience without questioning the reason for the first failure, we would never have had the present light-weight, high-speed Diesel engine which appears to be the spark that will revitalize the railroad business.
'Industrial Prospecting', an address to the Founder Societies of Engineers (20 May 1935). In National Research Council, Reprint and Circular Series of the National Research Council (1933), No. 107, 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Build (212)  |  Business (156)  |  Chance (245)  |  Develop (279)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engine (99)  |  Failure (176)  |  First (1303)  |  High (370)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1539)  |  Leak (4)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (636)  |  Lot (151)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Metallurgy (3)  |  Money (178)  |  Negative (66)  |  Never (1089)  |  Oil (67)  |  Past (355)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (773)  |  Present (630)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Principle (532)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Reason (767)  |  Result (700)  |  Save (126)  |  Sound (188)  |  Spark (32)  |  Speed (66)  |  Study (703)  |  Success (327)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Train (118)  |  Type (172)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

Technology [is] the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.
Max Frisch and Michael Bullock (trans.), Homo Faber (1959), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Technology (284)  |  World (1854)

Technology is the science of arranging life so that one need not experience it.
Anonymous
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arrange (34)  |  Definition (239)  |  Life (1873)  |  Need (323)  |  Science (42)  |  Technology (284)

The admirable perfection of the adaptations of organisms and of their parts to the functions they perform has detracted attention from the fact that adaptedness does not consist of perfect fit, but capacity to fit or to adapt in a variety of ways: only in this sense is adaptedness a guarantee of further survival and evolutionary progress, for too perfect a fit is fatal to the species if not to the individual. This, I think, sets phylogeny and ontogeny in the correct perspective. It is the genotype which bears the marks of past experience of the species and defines the range of possible fits. What fit is actually chosen, what phenotype is actually evolved, is determined by the ever renewed individual history.
'The Interplay of Heredity and Environment in the Synthesis of Respiratory Enzymes in Yeast', The Harvey Lectures: Delivered under the auspices of The Harvey Society of New York 1950-1951, 1951, 156, 45-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Attention (198)  |  Bear (162)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Consist (224)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  Genotype (8)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Heredity (62)  |  History (719)  |  Individual (420)  |  Ontogeny (10)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Perform (123)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Phenotype (5)  |  Phylogeny (10)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (493)  |  Range (104)  |  Renew (21)  |  Sense (786)  |  Set (400)  |  Species (435)  |  Survival (105)  |  Think (1124)  |  Variety (138)  |  Way (1214)

The aim of science is, on the one hand, as complete a comprehension as possible of the connection between perceptible experiences in their totality, and, on the other hand, the achievement of this aim by employing a minimum of primary concepts and relations.
H. Cuny, Albert Einstein: The Man and his Theories (1963), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Aim (175)  |  Complete (209)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connection (171)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primary (82)  |  Totality (17)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Enable (122)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  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 alchemists of past centuries tried hard to make the elixir of life: ... Those efforts were in vain; it is not in our power to obtain the experiences and the views of the future by prolonging our lives forward in this direction. However, it is well possible in a certain sense to prolong our lives backwards by acquiring the experiences of those who existed before us and by learning to know their views as well as if we were their contemporaries. The means for doing this is also an elixir of life.
Foreword to Die Entwicklung der Chemie in der neueren Zeit (1873), trans. W. H. Brock.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Direction (185)  |  Doing (277)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elixir (6)  |  Exist (460)  |  Forward (104)  |  Future (467)  |  Hard (246)  |  History (719)  |  Know (1539)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Sense (786)  |  Vain (86)  |  View (498)

The best and safest way of philosophising seems to be, first to enquire diligently into the properties of things, and to establish those properties by experiences [experiments] and then to proceed slowly to hypotheses for the explanation of them. For hypotheses should be employed only in explaining the properties of things, but not assumed in determining them; unless so far as they may furnish experiments.
Letter to the French Jesuit, Gaston Pardies. Translation from the original Latin, as in Richard S. Westfall, Never at Rest: a Biography of Isaac Newton (1983), 242.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Best (468)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enquire (4)  |  Establish (63)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (247)  |  First (1303)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Property (177)  |  Safe (60)  |  Safest (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Way (1214)

The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance— the idea that anything is possible.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Best (468)  |  Idea (882)  |  Open (277)  |  Possible (560)  |  Romance (18)  |  Scientist (881)

The century after the Civil War was to be an Age of Revolution—of countless, little-noticed revolutions, which occurred not in the halls of legislatures or on battlefields or on the barricades but in homes and farms and factories and schools and stores, across the landscape and in the air—so little noticed because they came so swiftly, because they touched Americans everywhere and every day. Not merely the continent but human experience itself, the very meaning of community, of time and space, of present and future, was being revised again and again, a new democratic world was being invented and was being discovered by Americans wherever they lived.
In The Americans: The Democratic Experience (1973, 1974), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Air (367)  |  Battlefield (9)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil War (4)  |  Community (111)  |  Continent (79)  |  Countless (39)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Democratic (12)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Factory (20)  |  Farm (28)  |  Future (467)  |  Home (186)  |  Human (1517)  |  Invention (401)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Legislature (4)  |  Little (718)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Merely (315)  |  New (1276)  |  Present (630)  |  Revise (6)  |  Revolution (133)  |  School (228)  |  Space (525)  |  Store (49)  |  Swiftly (5)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Touch (146)  |  War (234)  |  Wherever (51)  |  World (1854)

The cult of individual personalities is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts variously among her children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed ones too, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unregarded lives. It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque. The consciousness of this extraordinary state of affairs would be unbearable but for one great consoling thought: it is a welcome symptom in an age which is commonly denounced as materialistic, that it makes heroes of men whose ambitions lie wholly in the intellectual and moral sphere. This proves that knowledge and justice are ranked above wealth and power by a large section of the human race. My experience teaches me that this idealistic outlook is particularly prevalent in America, which is usually decried as a particularly materialistic country.
From Mein Weltbild, as translated by Alan Harris (trans.), 'Some Notes on my American Impressions', The World as I See It (1956, 1993), 37-38.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Age (509)  |  Ambition (47)  |  America (144)  |  Bad (185)  |  Biography (254)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Character (259)  |  Children (201)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consoling (4)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Country (269)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fate (76)  |  Gift (105)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justice (40)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Lie (370)  |  Live (651)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Power (773)  |  Prove (263)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Race (279)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reality (275)  |  Select (45)  |  Sphere (120)  |  State (505)  |  Strike (72)  |  Superhuman (6)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thought (996)  |  Usually (176)  |  View (498)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welcome (20)  |  Wholly (88)

The dog [in Pavlov’s experiments] does not continue to salivate whenever it hears a bell unless sometimes at least an edible offering accompanies the bell. But there are innumerable instances in human life where a single association, never reinforced, results in the establishment of a life-long dynamic system. An experience associated only once with a bereavement, an accident, or a battle, may become the center of a permanent phobia or complex, not in the least dependent on a recurrence of the original shock.
Personality: A Psychological Interpretation(1938), 199.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Association (49)  |  Become (822)  |  Bell (36)  |  Complex (203)  |  Continue (180)  |  Dog (72)  |  Edible (7)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Hear (146)  |  Human (1517)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (19)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Phobia (3)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Result (700)  |  Shock (38)  |  Single (366)  |  System (545)  |  Whenever (81)

The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acting (6)  |  Artist (97)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bread (42)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Course (415)  |  Daily (92)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Development (442)  |  Direct (228)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (907)  |  Human (1517)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconspicuous (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Kind (565)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Lot (151)  |  Minority (24)  |  Most (1728)  |  Emmy Noether (7)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (142)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Run (158)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Special (189)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Successor (16)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (397)

The essence of knowledge is generalization. That fire can be produced by rubbing wood in a certain way is a knowledge derived by generalization from individual experiences; the statement means that rubbing wood in this way will always produce fire. The art of discovery is therefore the art of correct generalization. ... The separation of relevant from irrelevant factors is the beginning of knowledge.
The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (1951), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Certain (557)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Essence (85)  |  Fire (203)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Separation (60)  |  Statement (148)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wood (97)

The experience and behaviour that gets labelled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.
Politics of Experience (1967), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Behavior (132)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Order (639)  |  Person (366)  |  Situation (117)  |  Special (189)  |  Strategy (13)

The experience was more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. I have a newfound sense of wonder seeing the Earth and stars from such an incredible perspective. Certainly, through my training I was prepared for the technical aspects, but I had no idea that I would be flooded with such amazement and joy after seeing my first sunrise and sunset from space.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Amazement (19)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1303)  |  Flood (52)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Idea (882)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Joy (117)  |  More (2558)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Prepare (44)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sense (786)  |  Space (525)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Sunset (28)  |  Technical (53)  |  Through (846)  |  Training (92)  |  Wonder (252)

The experienced observer does more than merely report and recite. He guides the eager student to an understanding of the earth. He may chart the scientist’s steep, barren road of sober observation and strict deduction, or the artist’s gentle road of contemplation and empathy. And, finally, he may point out his own unique way, the path of the initiated, which leads him from the laboratories and libraries to the meadows and flower gardens of the living earth.
In 'Prologue', Conversation with the Earth (1954), 7. As translated by E.B. Garside from Gespräch mit der Erde (1947).
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Biology (234)  |  Chart (7)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Eager (17)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Education (423)  |  Empathy (4)  |  Flower (112)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gentle (9)  |  Geology (240)  |  Guide (108)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Library (53)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observer (48)  |  Path (160)  |  Recite (2)  |  Report (43)  |  Strict (20)  |  Student (317)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Understand (650)  |  Unique (73)

The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.
In 'A Journey Without Journeying', The Everything and the Nothing (1963), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (123)  |  Destination (16)  |  Find (1014)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Interminable (3)  |  Journey (48)  |  Last (425)  |  Never (1089)  |  Reach (287)  |  Sight (135)  |  Travel (125)  |  Vary (27)  |  Wonder (252)

The fact that man produces a concept ‘I’ besides the totality of his mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence behind such a concept. We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Better (495)  |  Call (782)  |  Concept (242)  |  Due (143)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Kind (565)  |  Language (310)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Prove (263)  |  Reach (287)  |  Self (268)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Totality (17)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)

The fact that the regions of nature actually covered by known laws are few and fragmentary is concealed by the natural tendency to crowd our experience into those particular regions and to leave the others to themselves. We seek out those parts that are known and familiar and avoid those that are unknown and unfamiliar. This is simply what is called 'Applied Science.'
Scientific Method: An Inquiry into the Character and Validy of Natural Law (1923), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Call (782)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fragmentary (8)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (914)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Research (753)  |  Seek (219)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Unknown (198)

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery–even if mixed with fear–that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms–it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.
From 'What I Believe: Living Philosophies XIII', Forum and Century (Oct 1930), 84, No. 4, 193-194. Alan Harris (trans.), The World as I See It (1956, 1993), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Alone (325)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Art (681)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Candle (32)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Cradle (20)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fear (215)  |  Feel (371)  |  Form (978)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (907)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Reason (767)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Sense (786)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  True Science (25)  |  Truly (119)  |  Wonder (252)

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not, and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead. We all had this priceless talent when we were young. But as time goes by, many of us lose it. The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being.
Newsweek (31 Mar 1958).
Science quotes on:  |  Amazement (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cradle (20)  |  Death (407)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Essence (85)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Fair (16)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (907)  |  Know (1539)  |  Lose (165)  |  Loss (118)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Never (1089)  |  Priceless (9)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Stand (284)  |  Talent (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  True Science (25)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Wonder (252)  |  Young (253)

The faith of scientists in the power and truth of mathematics is so implicit that their work has gradually become less and less observation, and more and more calculation. The promiscuous collection and tabulation of data have given way to a process of assigning possible meanings, merely supposed real entities, to mathematical terms, working out the logical results, and then staging certain crucial experiments to check the hypothesis against the actual empirical results. But the facts which are accepted by virtue of these tests are not actually observed at all. With the advance of mathematical technique in physics, the tangible results of experiment have become less and less spectacular; on the other hand, their significance has grown in inverse proportion. The men in the laboratory have departed so far from the old forms of experimentation—typified by Galileo's weights and Franklin's kite—that they cannot be said to observe the actual objects of their curiosity at all; instead, they are watching index needles, revolving drums, and sensitive plates. No psychology of 'association' of sense-experiences can relate these data to the objects they signify, for in most cases the objects have never been experienced. Observation has become almost entirely indirect; and readings take the place of genuine witness.
Philosophy in a New Key; A Study in Inverse the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art (1942), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Actual (145)  |  Advance (299)  |  Against (332)  |  Association (49)  |  Become (822)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Certain (557)  |  Collection (68)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Data (162)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Drum (8)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empiricism (21)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faith (210)  |  Form (978)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Implicit (12)  |  Indirect (18)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Merely (315)  |  Meter (9)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (442)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observe (181)  |  Observed (149)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Process (441)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Reading (136)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (786)  |  Significance (115)  |  Signify (18)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Tabulation (2)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Technique (84)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Test (222)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Witness (57)  |  Work (1403)

The final results [of work on the theory of relativity] appear almost simple; any intelligent undergraduate can understand them without much trouble. But the years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels, but cannot express; the intense effort and the alternations of confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.
Concluding remark of George Gibson lecture at the University of Glasgow, 'The Origins of the General Theory of Relativity', (20 Jun 1933). Published by Glasgow University as The Origins of the General Theory of Relativity: Being the First Lecture on the George A. Gibson Foundation in the University of Glasgow, Delivered on June 20th, 1933 (1933), 11. Also quoted in 'No Hitching Posts' The Atlantic (1936), 157, 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Alternation (5)  |  Appear (123)  |  Break (110)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Dark (145)  |  Effort (243)  |  Express (192)  |  Feel (371)  |  Final (121)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Intense (22)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Misgiving (3)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Search (175)  |  Simple (430)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1403)  |  Year (965)

The first [quality] to be named must always be the power of attention, of giving one's whole mind to the patient without the interposition of anything of oneself. It sounds simple but only the very greatest doctors ever fully attain it. … The second thing to be striven for is intuition. This sounds an impossibility, for who can control that small quiet monitor? But intuition is only interference from experience stored and not actively recalled. … The last aptitude I shall mention that must be attained by the good physician is that of handling the sick man's mind.
In 'Art and Science in Medicine', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attention (198)  |  Control (185)  |  Doctor (191)  |  First (1303)  |  Good (907)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Handling (7)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Interference (22)  |  Interposition (2)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Monitor (10)  |  Must (1525)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Power (773)  |  Quality (140)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Recall (11)  |  Sick (83)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Small (489)  |  Sound (188)  |  Store (49)  |  Strive (53)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Whole (756)

The generalized theory of relativity has furnished still more remarkable results. This considers not only uniform but also accelerated motion. In particular, it is based on the impossibility of distinguishing an acceleration from the gravitation or other force which produces it. Three consequences of the theory may be mentioned of which two have been confirmed while the third is still on trial: (1) It gives a correct explanation of the residual motion of forty-three seconds of arc per century of the perihelion of Mercury. (2) It predicts the deviation which a ray of light from a star should experience on passing near a large gravitating body, the sun, namely, 1".7. On Newton's corpuscular theory this should be only half as great. As a result of the measurements of the photographs of the eclipse of 1921 the number found was much nearer to the prediction of Einstein, and was inversely proportional to the distance from the center of the sun, in further confirmation of the theory. (3) The theory predicts a displacement of the solar spectral lines, and it seems that this prediction is also verified.
Studies in Optics (1927), 160-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Arc (14)  |  Body (557)  |  Century (319)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Confirmation (26)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (430)  |  Corpuscle (14)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Displacement (9)  |  Distance (171)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Force (497)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Inversely Proportional (7)  |  Large (399)  |  Light (636)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mercury (54)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Number (712)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passing (76)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Ray (115)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Residual (5)  |  Result (700)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Star (462)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (408)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Trial (59)  |  Two (936)

The great scientists have been occupied with values—it is only their vulgar followers who think they are not. If scientists like Descartes, Newton, Einstein, Darwin, and Freud don’t “look deeply into experience,” what do they do? They have imaginations as powerful as any poet’s and some of them were first-rate writers as well. How do you draw the line between Walden and The Voyage of the Beagle? The product of the scientific imagination is a new vision of relations—like that of the artistic imagination.
In a letter to Allen Tate, July 20, 1931.
Science quotes on:  |  Artistic (24)  |  Beagle (14)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (141)  |  Einstein (101)  |  First (1303)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Look (584)  |  New (1276)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Product (167)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1124)  |  Value (397)  |  Vision (127)  |  Voyage Of The Beagle (4)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Writer (90)

The greatest achievements in the science of this [twentieth] century are themselves the sources of more puzzlement than human beings have ever experienced. Indeed, it is likely that the twentieth century will be looked back at as the time when science provided the first close glimpse of the profundity of human ignorance. We have not reached solutions; we have only begun to discover how to ask questions.
In 'On Science and Certainty', Discover Magazine (Oct 1980).
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  Achievement (188)  |  Ask (423)  |  Asking (74)  |  Back (395)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Discover (572)  |  First (1303)  |  Glimpse (16)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Profundity (6)  |  Question (652)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reaching (2)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Source (102)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1913)  |  Will (2350)

The history of science teaches only too plainly the lesson that no single method is absolutely to be relied upon, that sources of error lurk where they are least expected, and that they may escape the notice of the most experienced and conscientious worker.
Transactions of the Sections', Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1883), 438.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Conscientious (7)  |  Error (339)  |  Escape (87)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  History (719)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Least (75)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Lurking (7)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Notice (81)  |  Reliance (12)  |  Single (366)  |  Source (102)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Worker (34)

The ideal of mathematics should be to erect a calculus to facilitate reasoning in connection with every province of thought, or of external experience, in which the succession of thoughts, or of events can be definitely ascertained and precisely stated. So that all serious thought which is not philosophy, or inductive reasoning, or imaginative literature, shall be mathematics developed by means of a calculus.
In Universal Algebra (1898), Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Connection (171)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Develop (279)  |  Erect (6)  |  Event (222)  |  External (62)  |  Facilitate (6)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imaginative (9)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Literature (117)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Province (37)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Serious (98)  |  State (505)  |  Succession (80)  |  Thought (996)

The ideas which these sciences, Geometry, Theoretical Arithmetic and Algebra involve extend to all objects and changes which we observe in the external world; and hence the consideration of mathematical relations forms a large portion of many of the sciences which treat of the phenomena and laws of external nature, as Astronomy, Optics, and Mechanics. Such sciences are hence often termed Mixed Mathematics, the relations of space and number being, in these branches of knowledge, combined with principles collected from special observation; while Geometry, Algebra, and the like subjects, which involve no result of experience, are called Pure Mathematics.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1868), Part 1, Bk. 2, chap. 1, sect. 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Call (782)  |  Change (640)  |  Collect (19)  |  Combine (58)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Extend (129)  |  External (62)  |  Form (978)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Idea (882)  |  Involve (93)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mix (24)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Object (442)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observe (181)  |  Often (109)  |  Optics (24)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Portion (86)  |  Principle (532)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Relation (166)  |  Result (700)  |  Space (525)  |  Special (189)  |  Subject (544)  |  Term (357)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Treat (38)  |  World (1854)

The importance of C.F. Gauss for the development of modern physical theory and especially for the mathematical fundament of the theory of relativity is overwhelming indeed; also his achievement of the system of absolute measurement in the field of electromagnetism. In my opinion it is impossible to achieve a coherent objective picture of the world on the basis of concepts which are taken more or less from inner psychological experience.
Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 350.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Achievement (188)  |  Basis (180)  |  Concept (242)  |  Development (442)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Field (378)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inner (72)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Modern (405)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Objective (96)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Physical (520)  |  Picture (148)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Relativity (91)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  World (1854)

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learned especially from the wonderful writings of Schopenhauer, contains a much stronger element of this. The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Akin (5)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (123)  |  Atheist (16)  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beginnings (5)  |  Both (496)  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Case (102)  |  Central (81)  |  Church (65)  |  Closely (12)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  David (6)  |  Democritus of Abdera (17)  |  Desire (214)  |  Development (442)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (324)  |  Especially (31)  |  Existence (484)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Francis (2)  |  Futility (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  God (776)  |  Heretic (8)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1517)  |  Image (97)  |  Impress (66)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (565)  |  Know (1539)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (636)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Order (639)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prison (13)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reveal (153)  |  Saint (17)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Significant (78)  |  Single (366)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Universe (901)  |  Want (505)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (156)  |  World (1854)  |  Writing (192)  |  Writings (6)

The investigation of causal relations between economic phenomena presents many problems of peculiar difficulty, and offers many opportunities for fallacious conclusions. Since the statistician can seldom or never make experiments for himself, he has to accept the data of daily experience, and discuss as best he can the relations of a whole group of changes; he cannot, like the physicist, narrow down the issue to the effect of one variation at a time. The problems of statistics are in this sense far more complex than the problems of physics.
Udny Yule
In 'On the Theory of Correlation', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Dec 1897), 60, 812, as cited in Stephen M. Stigler, The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 (1986), 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Best (468)  |  Cause (564)  |  Change (640)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Daily (92)  |  Data (162)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Down (455)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fallacious (13)  |  Himself (461)  |  Investigation (250)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Never (1089)  |  Offer (143)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (568)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Relation (166)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Sense (786)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Time (1913)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whole (756)

The kinetic concept of motion in classical theory will have to undergo profound modifications. (That is why I also avoided the term “orbit” in my paper throughout.) … We must not bind the atoms in the chains of our prejudices—to which, in my opinion, also belongs the assumption that electron orbits exist in the sense of ordinary mechanics—but we must, on the contrary, adapt our concepts to experience.
Letter to Niels Bohr (12 Dec 1924), in K. von Meyenn (ed.), Wolfgang Pauli - Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz (1979), Vol. 1, 188. Quoted and cited in Daniel Greenberger, Klaus Hentschel and Friedel Weinert, Compendium of Quantum Physics: Concepts, Experiments, History and Philosophy (2009), 615.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Belong (168)  |  Chain (52)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Theory (2)  |  Concept (242)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Electron (96)  |  Exist (460)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Model (106)  |  Modification (57)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Paper (192)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Profound (105)  |  Sense (786)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

The laws expressing the relations between energy and matter are, however, not solely of importance in pure science. They necessarily come first in order ... in the whole record of human experience, and they control, in the last resort, the rise or fall of political systems, the freedom or bondage of nations, the movements of commerce and industry, the origin of wealth and poverty, and the general physical welfare of the race.
In Matter and Energy (1912), 10-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Bondage (6)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Control (185)  |  Energy (374)  |  Expression (182)  |  Fall (243)  |  First (1303)  |  Freedom (145)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1517)  |  Importance (299)  |  Industry (160)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (914)  |  Matter (821)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nation (208)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Order (639)  |  Origin (251)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Political (126)  |  Politics (123)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Race (279)  |  Record (161)  |  Relation (166)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rise And Fall (2)  |  Solely (9)  |  System (545)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Whole (756)

The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior.
In 'The Science of Custom', Patterns of Culture (1934, 2005), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accommodation (9)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Birth (154)  |  Community (111)  |  Custom (45)  |  Down (455)  |  First (1303)  |  Foremost (11)  |  History (719)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1873)  |  Life History (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Shape (77)  |  Standard (65)  |  Traditional (16)

The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities—that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future—will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Akin (5)  |  Ball (64)  |  Become (822)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Blur (8)  |  Bright (82)  |  Bring (96)  |  Cash (2)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clock (51)  |  Company (63)  |  Continue (180)  |  Dance (35)  |  Dose (17)  |  Drift (14)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Far (158)  |  Future (467)  |  Generate (17)  |  Giddy (3)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hate (68)  |  Heady (2)  |  Investment (15)  |  Kind (565)  |  Know (1539)  |  Large (399)  |  Leave (139)  |  Likely (36)  |  Line (101)  |  Market (23)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Minute (129)  |  Miss (51)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Normally (2)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Overstay (2)  |  Participant (6)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1034)  |  Plan (123)  |  Problem (735)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Recently (3)  |  Relative (42)  |  Room (42)  |  Second (66)  |  Sedate (2)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Single (366)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Still (614)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Valuation (4)  |  Will (2350)

The losses of the natural world are our loss, their silence silences something within the human mind. Human language is lit with animal life: we play cats-cradle or have hare-brained ideas; we speak of badgering, or outfoxing someone; to squirrel something away and to ferret it out. … When our experience of the wild world shrinks, we no longer fathom the depths of our own words; language loses its lustre and vividness.
In 'Fifty Years On, the Silence of Rachel Carson’s Spring Consumes Us', The Guardian (25 Sep 2012),
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Badger (2)  |  Brain (282)  |  Cat (52)  |  Cradle (20)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Fox (9)  |  Hare (3)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (882)  |  Language (310)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lose (165)  |  Loss (118)  |  Lustre (3)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Play (117)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Silence (62)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Squirrel (11)  |  Wild (96)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1854)

The mathematical formulation of the physicist’s often crude experience leads in an uncanny number of cases to an amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena. This shows that the mathematical language has more to commend it than being the only language which we can speak; it shows that it is, in a very real sense, the correct language.
In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 542.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Commend (7)  |  Correct (95)  |  Crude (32)  |  Description (89)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Language (310)  |  Large (399)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (712)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Sense (786)  |  Show (354)  |  Speak (240)  |  Uncanny (5)

The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God. If he can find, in experience, sets of entities which obey the same logical scheme as his mathematical entities, then he has applied his mathematics to the external world; he has created a branch of science.
Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Applied (176)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Branch (155)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (116)  |  Creation (350)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Entity (37)  |  External (62)  |  Find (1014)  |  Free (240)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  God (776)  |  Idea (882)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Obey (46)  |  Please (68)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Principle (532)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Set (400)  |  Universe (901)  |  World (1854)

The mathematician of to-day admits that he can neither square the circle, duplicate the cube or trisect the angle. May not our mechanicians, in like manner, be ultimately forced to admit that aerial flight is one of that great class of problems with which men can never cope… I do not claim that this is a necessary conclusion from any past experience. But I do think that success must await progress of a different kind from that of invention.
[Written following Samuel Pierpoint Langley's failed attempt to launch his flying machine from a catapult device mounted on a barge in Oct 1903. The Wright Brother's success came on 17 Dec 1903.]
'The Outlook for the Flying Machine'. The Independent: A Weekly Magazine (22 Oct 1903), 2509.
Science quotes on:  |  Aerial (11)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Aviation (8)  |  Brother (47)  |  Circle (118)  |  Claim (154)  |  Class (168)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Cube (14)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (596)  |  Do (1905)  |  Duplicate (9)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Fail (193)  |  Flight (101)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (401)  |  Kind (565)  |  Launch (21)  |  Machine (272)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mount (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Past (355)  |  Problem (735)  |  Progress (493)  |  Square (73)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1124)  |  Ultimately (57)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Desert (59)  |  Design (205)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Draw (141)  |  Effect (414)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exercise (113)  |  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 mighty steam-engine has its germ in the simple boiler in which the peasant prepares his food. The huge ship is but the expansion of the floating leaf freighted with its cargo of atmospheric dust; and the flying balloon is but the infant's soap-bubble lightly laden and overgrown. But the Telescope, even in its most elementary form, embodies a novel and gigantic idea, without an analogue in nature, and without a prototype in experience
Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts (1860), 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogue (7)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Boiler (7)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Cargo (6)  |  Cook (20)  |  Dust (68)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Engine (99)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Flying (74)  |  Food (214)  |  Form (978)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Idea (882)  |  Infant (26)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Novel (35)  |  Origin (251)  |  Peasant (9)  |  Prototype (9)  |  Ship (70)  |  Simple (430)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (48)  |  Telescope (106)

The mind uses its faculty for creating only when experience forces it to do so.
From La Science et l’Hypothèse (1908), 43 as translated by George Bruce Halsted in Science and Hypothesis (1905), 25. From the original French, “L’esprit n’use de sa faculté créatrice que quand l’expérience lui en impose la nécessité”.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (252)  |  Do (1905)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Force (497)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Use (771)

The more experiences and experiments accumulate in the exploration of nature, the more precarious the theories become. But it is not always good to discard them immediately on this account. For every hypothesis which once was sound was useful for thinking of previous phenomena in the proper interrelations and for keeping them in context. We ought to set down contradictory experiences separately, until enough have accumulated to make building a new structure worthwhile.
Lichtenberg: Aphorisms & Letters (1969), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Become (822)  |  Building (158)  |  Context (31)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Discard (32)  |  Down (455)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Good (907)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Interrelation (8)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Precarious (6)  |  Proper (150)  |  Set (400)  |  Sound (188)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Useful (261)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Worthwhile (18)

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Behind (139)  |  Blind (98)  |  Dead (65)  |  Deep (241)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Least (75)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Never (1089)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religiousness (3)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (786)  |  Serious (98)  |  Something (718)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Underlying (33)

The most beautiful and profound experience for a person is the feeling of the mysterious. It underlies religion and all deeper endeavors in art and science. Anyone who has not experienced this appears to me, if not like a dead man, at least like a blind man. To feel that behind the perceptible is hidden something that is incomprehensible, whose beauty and grandeur only reach us indirectly and in a dim reflection—that is religiousness. In that sense I am religious. It is enough for me to sense these secrets with wonder and to try to humbly grasp a faint image of the majestic structure of all things.
From His 'Credo' on a manuscript in German (Aug 1932) which he read for a sound recording (c. end Sep/early Oct 1932) for limited distribution on a 20 cm, 75 rpm shellac disk, by order and to benefit of the German League of Human Rights. Manuscript held by the Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Original text, in German, “Das Schönste und Tiefste, was der Mensch erleben kann, ist das Gefühl des Geheimnisvollen. Es liegt der Religion sowie allem tieferen Streben in Kunst und Wissenschaft zugrunde. Wer dies nicht erlebt hat, erscheint mir, wenn nicht wie ein Toter, so doch wie ein Blinder. Zu empfinden, dass hinter dem Erlebbaren ein für unseren Geist Unerreichbares verborgen sei, dessen Schönheit und Erhabenheit uns nur mittelbar und in schwachem Widerschein erreicht, das ist Religiosität. In diesem Sinne bin ich religiös. Es ist mir genug, diese Geheimnisse staunend zu ahnen und zu versuchen, von der erhabenen Struktur des Seienden in Demut ein mattes Abbild geistig zu erfassen.” Translated to English using Google Translate and other online tools—and tweaked by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Perceptible (7)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Secret (217)  |  Structure (365)  |  Wonder (252)

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.
As quoted in Philip Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times (1947), chap. 12, sec. 5 - “Einstein’s Attitude Toward Religion.”
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Center (35)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Death (407)  |  Dull (59)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (978)  |  Good (907)  |  Impenetrable (7)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Power (773)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rapt (5)  |  Religious (134)  |  Religiousness (3)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (786)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stranger (17)  |  True (240)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (252)

The most beautiful thing to experience is the mysterious. It is the true source of life, art and science.
This is seen around the Web attributed to Talbot, but is not his original idea. It is an abridged statement, from a longer quote by Albert Einstein in his 'Credo' (1932).
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Life (1873)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Source (102)  |  Thing (1914)  |  True (240)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
'The World As I See It', Forum and Century Oct 1930), 84, 193-194. Albert Einstein and Carl Seelig. Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild (1954), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Closed (38)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Eye (441)  |  Good (907)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wonder (252)

The multiplicity is only apparent. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. And not of the Upanishads only. The mystical experience of the union with God regularly leads to this view, unless strong prejudices stand in the West.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  God (776)  |  Lead (391)  |  Multiplicity (14)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Regularly (3)  |  Stand (284)  |  Strong (182)  |  Union (52)  |  View (498)  |  West (21)

The National Science Foundation asked the great “breakthrough” scientists what they felt to be the most dominantly favorable factor in their educational experience. The answer was almost uniformly, “Intimate association with a great, inspiring teacher.”
In "How Little I Know", in Saturday Review (12 Nov 1966), 152. Excerpted in Buckminster Fuller and Answar Dil, Humans in Universe (1983), 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (423)  |  Association (49)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Educational (7)  |  Factor (47)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Uniform (20)

The peculiar character of mathematical truth is, that it is necessarily and inevitably true; and one of the most important lessons which we learn from our mathematical studies is a knowledge that there are such truths, and a familiarity with their form and character.
This lesson is not only lost, but read backward, if the student is taught that there is no such difference, and that mathematical truths themselves are learned by experience.
In Thoughts on the Study of Mathematics. Principles of English University Education (1838).
Science quotes on:  |  Backward (10)  |  Character (259)  |  Difference (355)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Form (978)  |  Important (231)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Read (309)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (703)  |  Teach (301)  |  Themselves (433)  |  True (240)  |  Truth (1111)

The personal views of the lecturer may seem to be brought forward with undue exclusiveness, but, as it is his business to give a clear exposition of the actual state of the science which he treats, he is obliged to define with precision the principles, the correctness of which he has proved by his own experience.
Cellular Pathology, translated by Frank Chance (1860), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Business (156)  |  Forward (104)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Precision (73)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proof (304)  |  State (505)  |  View (498)

The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be viewed, not only with the usual attention to facts as they occur, but with the eye of reason and experience.
'An Account of Three Volcanoes on the Moon', read before the Royal Society, Philosophical Transactions (1787). Reprinted in Edward Polehampton, The Gallery of Nature and Art; or, a Tour Through Creation and Science (1815), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attention (198)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fall (243)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Occur (151)  |  Reason (767)  |  View (498)

The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from an investigation of the governing physics. (The problem does not lend itself to full experimental verification—at least not more than once.)[co-author with American atmospheric chemist Richard P. Turco (1943- )]
A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race (1990), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Author (175)  |  Chemist (170)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (415)  |  Direct (228)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Global (39)  |  Governing (20)  |  Investigation (250)  |  More (2558)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Winter (3)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Problem (735)  |  Verification (32)  |  War (234)  |  Winter (46)

The problem of experiences is not limited to the interpretation of sense-impressions.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Impression (118)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Problem (735)  |  Sense (786)

The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968), Vol. 1, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Attractive (25)  |  Computer (134)  |  Digital (10)  |  Music (133)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Process (441)  |  Programming (2)  |  Reward (72)  |  Software (14)  |  Writing (192)

The professor may choose familiar topics as a starting point. The students collect material, work problems, observe regularities, frame hypotheses, discover and prove theorems for themselves. … the student knows what he is doing and where he is going; he is secure in his mastery of the subject, strengthened in confidence of himself. He has had the experience of discovering mathematics. He no longer thinks of mathematics as static dogma learned by rote. He sees mathematics as something growing and developing, mathematical concepts as something continually revised and enriched in the light of new knowledge. The course may have covered a very limited region, but it should leave the student ready to explore further on his own.
In A Concrete Approach to Abstract Algebra (1959), 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Choose (116)  |  Collect (19)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Course (415)  |  Develop (279)  |  Discover (572)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Frame (27)  |  Growing (99)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (636)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  New (1276)  |  Observe (181)  |  Point (585)  |  Problem (735)  |  Professor (133)  |  Prove (263)  |  Ready (43)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Revise (6)  |  Rote (5)  |  Secure (23)  |  See (1095)  |  Something (718)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Static (9)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (544)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Think (1124)  |  Topic (23)  |  Work (1403)

The reformer [of the body of law] who would seek to improve such a system in any material degree, mistakes his vocation. That task had better be left to time and experience. He will often find it impossible to know what to eradicate and what to spare, and in plucking up the tares, the wheat may sometimes be destroyed. “The pound of flesh” may be removed, indeed, but with it will come, gushing forth, the blood of life.
From biographical preface by T. Bigelow to Austin Abbott (ed.), Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher (1875), Vol. 1, xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (495)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Degree (278)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Eradicate (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Improve (65)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Material (366)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Reformer (5)  |  Remove (50)  |  Seek (219)  |  System (545)  |  Task (153)  |  Time (1913)  |  Vocation (10)  |  Wheat (10)  |  Will (2350)

The result is that a generation of physicists is growing up who have never exercised any particular degree of individual initiative, who have had no opportunity to experience its satisfactions or its possibilities, and who regard cooperative work in large teams as the normal thing. It is a natural corollary for them to feel that the objectives of these large teams must be something of large social significance.
In 'Science and Freedom: Reflections of a Physicist', Isis, 1947, 37, 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Degree (278)  |  Feel (371)  |  Generation (256)  |  Growing (99)  |  Individual (420)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Large (399)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Regard (312)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Significance (115)  |  Social (262)  |  Something (718)  |  Team (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Work (1403)

The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 53, ed. Pocock (1790).
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Cause (564)  |  Commonwealth (6)  |  Construct (129)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Moral (203)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practical (225)  |  Real (160)  |  Reform (22)  |  Renovate (3)  |  Short (200)  |  Teach (301)

The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience.
In Immanuel Kant and F. Max Müller (trans.), 'Method of Transcendentalism', Critique of Pure Reason (1881), Vol. 2, 610.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Domain (72)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Example (100)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Most (1728)  |  Present (630)  |  Pure (300)  |  Reason (767)  |  Success (327)

The scientific method is the only authentic means at our command for getting at the significance of our everyday experiences of the world in which we live. It means that scientific method provides a working pattern of the way in which and the conditions under which experiences are used to lead ever onward and outward. … Consequently, whatever the level of experience, we have no choice but either to operate in accord with the pattern it provides or else to neglect the place of intelligence in the development and control of a living and moving experience.
In Experience And Education (1938), 88.
Science quotes on:  |  Authentic (9)  |  Choice (114)  |  Command (60)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (185)  |  Development (442)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Lead (391)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Method (532)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Significance (115)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  World (1854)

The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an inexorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says “Yes” to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says “Maybe,” and in the great majority of cases simply “No.” If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter “Maybe,” and if it does not agree it means “No.” Probably every theory will someday experience its “No”—most theories, soon after conception.
In Albert Einstein: The Human Side by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann (1979).
Science quotes on:  |  Conception (160)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Judge (114)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Someday (15)  |  Soon (187)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

The scientific value of truth is not, however, ultimate or absolute. It rests partly on practical, partly on aesthetic interests. As our ideas are gradually brought into conformity with the facts by the painful process of selection,—for intuition runs equally into truth and into error, and can settle nothing if not controlled by experience,—we gain vastly in our command over our environment. This is the fundamental value of natural science
In The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory (1896), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Command (60)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Control (185)  |  Environment (240)  |  Equally (129)  |  Error (339)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gain (149)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Idea (882)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Painful (12)  |  Practical (225)  |  Process (441)  |  Rest (289)  |  Run (158)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Selection (130)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Value (397)

The self is the class (not the collection) of the experiences (or autopsychological states). The self does not belong to the expression of the basic experience, but is constructed only on a very high level.
The Logical Structure of the World, trans. by Rolf A. George (1967), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Belong (168)  |  Class (168)  |  Collection (68)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (116)  |  Expression (182)  |  High (370)  |  Level (69)  |  Self (268)  |  State (505)

The seventeenth century witnessed the birth of modern science as we know it today. This science was something new, based on a direct confrontation of nature by experiment and observation. But there was another feature of the new science—a dependence on numbers, on real numbers of actual experience.
From The Triumph of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life (2005), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  17th Century (20)  |  Actual (145)  |  Birth (154)  |  Century (319)  |  Confrontation (7)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Direct (228)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Feature (49)  |  Know (1539)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Science (57)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  Observation (595)  |  Real (160)  |  Something (718)  |  Today (321)  |  Witness (57)

The simple and plain fact is that the scientific method wins its success by ignoring parts of reality as given in experience; it is perfectly right to do this for its own purposes; but it must not be permitted by a kind of bluff to create the impression that what it ignores is non-existent.
In Nature, Man and God: Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Glasgow in the Academical Years 1932-1933 and 1933-1934 (1934), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Bluff (3)  |  Create (252)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exist (460)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  Impression (118)  |  Kind (565)  |  Method (532)  |  Must (1525)  |  Permit (61)  |  Plain (34)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Reality (275)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Simple (430)  |  Success (327)  |  Win (53)

The solution, as all thoughtful people recognize, must lie in properly melding the themes of inborn predisposition and shaping through life’s experiences. This fruitful joining cannot take the false form of percentages adding to 100–as in ‘intelligence is 80 percent nature and 20 percent nurture,’ or ‘homosexuality is 50 percent inborn and 50 percent learned,’ and a hundred other harmful statements in this foolish format. When two ends of such a spectrum are commingled, the result is not a separable amalgam (like shuffling two decks of cards with different backs), but an entirely new and higher entity that cannot be decomposed (just as adults cannot be separated into maternal and paternal contributions to their totality).
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Adult (24)  |  Back (395)  |  Card (5)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Deck (3)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Different (596)  |  End (603)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entity (37)  |  False (105)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Form (978)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Harmful (13)  |  High (370)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inborn (4)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Join (32)  |  Joining (11)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1873)  |  Maternal (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paternal (2)  |  People (1034)  |  Percent (5)  |  Percentage (9)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Properly (21)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Result (700)  |  Separable (3)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shape (77)  |  Shuffle (7)  |  Solution (286)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Through (846)  |  Totality (17)  |  Two (936)

The starting-point for all systems of æsthetics must be the personal experience of a peculiar emotion. The objects that provoke this emotion we call works of art.
In Art (1913), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Art (681)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (442)  |  Peculiar (116)  |  Personal (76)  |  Point (585)  |  Provoke (9)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  System (545)

The stories of Whitney’s love for experimenting are legion. At one time he received a letter asking if insects could live in a vacuum. Whitney took the letter to one of the members of his staff and asked the man if he cared to run an experiment on the subject. The man replied that there was no point in it, since it was well established that life could not exist without a supply of oxygen. Whitney, who was an inveterate student of wild life, replied that on his farm he had seen turtles bury themselves in mud each fall, and, although the mud was covered with ice and snow for months, emerge again in the spring. The man exclaimed, “Oh, you mean hibernation!” Whitney answered, “I don’t know what I mean, but I want to know if bugs can live in a vacuum.”
He proceeded down the hall and broached the subject to another member of the staff. Faced with the same lack of enthusiasm for pursuing the matter further, Whitney tried another illustration. “I’ve been told that you can freeze a goldfish solidly in a cake of ice, where he certainly can’t get much oxygen, and can keep him there for a month or two. But if you thaw him out carefully he seems none the worse for his experience.” The second scientist replied, “Oh, you mean suspended animation.” Whitney once again explained that his interest was not in the terms but in finding an answer to the question.
Finally Whitney returned to his own laboratory and set to work. He placed a fly and a cockroach in a bell jar and removed the air. The two insects promptly keeled over. After approximately two hours, however, when he gradually admitted air again, the cockroach waved its feelers and staggered to its feet. Before long, both the cockroach and the fly were back in action.
'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 357-358.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Air (367)  |  Animation (6)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (423)  |  Asking (74)  |  Back (395)  |  Bell (36)  |  Both (496)  |  Burial (8)  |  Car (75)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Cockroach (7)  |  Down (455)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exist (460)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fall (243)  |  Farm (28)  |  Feeler (3)  |  Fly (153)  |  Freeze (7)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Hibernation (3)  |  Hour (192)  |  Ice (59)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1539)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Lack (127)  |  Legion (4)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Long (778)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Month (91)  |  Mud (26)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Point (585)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (652)  |  Removal (12)  |  Return (133)  |  Run (158)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Snow (39)  |  Spring (140)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (544)  |  Supply (101)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thaw (2)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1913)  |  Turtle (8)  |  Two (936)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Want (505)  |  Willis R. Whitney (17)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1403)

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.
Opus Tertium. Translation as stated in Popular Science (Aug 1901), 337.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Goal (155)  |  Long (778)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (263)  |  Queen (14)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Verify (24)

The study of mathematics—from ordinary reckoning up to the higher processes—must be connected with knowledge of nature, and at the same time with experience, that it may enter the pupil’s circle of thought.
In Johann Friedrich Herbart, Henry M. Felkin (trans.) and Emmie Felkin (trans.), Letters and Lectures on Education [Felkin] (1898), 117.
Science quotes on:  |  Circle (118)  |  Connect (126)  |  Enter (145)  |  Higher (37)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Process (441)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Study (703)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)

The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Basic (144)  |  Data (162)  |  Datum (3)  |  Element (324)  |  Goal (155)  |  Irreducible (7)  |  Possible (560)  |  Representation (55)  |  Simple (430)  |  Single (366)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Theory (1016)

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. In this methodological uncertainty, one might suppose that there were any number of possible systems of theoretical physics all equally well justified; and this opinion is no doubt correct, theoretically. But the development of physics has shown that at any given moment, out of all conceivable constructions, a single one has always proved itself decidedly superior to all the rest.
Address (1918) for Max Planck's 60th birthday, at Physical Society, Berlin, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Construction (116)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Development (442)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Equally (129)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Law (914)  |  Logic (313)  |  Moment (260)  |  Number (712)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Path (160)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pure (300)  |  Reach (287)  |  Rest (289)  |  Single (366)  |  Superior (89)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  System (545)  |  Task (153)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)

The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.
In 'Universities and Their Function', Aims of Education: & Other Essays (1917), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Imagination (349)  |  Task (153)  |  Together (392)  |  University (130)

The task of science is both to extend the range of our experience and to reduce it to order.
From Introductory Survey (1929) in Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (1934), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Extend (129)  |  Order (639)  |  Range (104)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Task (153)

The teens are emotionally unstable and pathic. It is a natural impulse to experience hot and perfervid psychic states, and it is characterized by emotionalism. We see here the instability and fluctuations now so characteristic. The emotions develop by contrast and reaction into the opposite.
Hall, GS (1904b). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relations to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion and education (1904), Vol. 2, 74-75.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Child (333)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Develop (279)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Hot (63)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Natural (811)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Reaction (106)  |  See (1095)  |  State (505)

The terror of the thunderstorm led primitive man to the conception of a Supreme Being whose attribute was the thunderbolt. But when Franklin brought the lightning from the clouds and showed it to he a mere electric spark, when we learned to make the lightning harmless by the lightning-rod, and when finally we harnessed electricity to do our work, naturally our reverence for the thrower of the thunderbolt decayed. So the gods of experience vanished.
In 'Religion and Modern Science', The Christian Register (16 Nov 1922), 101, 1089. The article is introduced as “the substance of an address to the Laymen’s League in All Soul’s Church (5 Nov 1922).
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bring (96)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Conception (160)  |  Decay (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  God (776)  |  Harmless (10)  |  Harness (25)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Lightning-Rod (2)  |  Man (2252)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Primitive Man (5)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Show (354)  |  Spark (32)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Supreme Being (8)  |  Terror (32)  |  Thunderbolt (7)  |  Thunderstorm (8)  |  Vanish (20)  |  Work (1403)

The theoretical idea … does not arise apart from and independent of experience; nor can it be derived from experience by a purely logical procedure. It is produced by a creative act. Once a theoretical idea has been acquired, one does well to hold fast to it until it leads to an untenable conclusion.
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950). Collected in David H. Levy (ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Act (278)  |  Arise (162)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (882)  |  Lead (391)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Produced (187)  |  Purely (111)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Untenable (5)

The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience. A conflict with experience at the periphery occasions readjustments in the interior of the field. Truth values have to be redistributed over some of our statements. Reevaluation of some statements entails reevaluation of others, because of their logical interconnections—the logical laws being in turn simply certain further statements of the system, certain further elements of the field.
'Two Dogmas of Experience,' in Philosophical Review (1951). Reprinted in From a Logical Point of View (1953), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Physics (7)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (616)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Call (782)  |  Casual (9)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Edge (51)  |  Element (324)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Field (378)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  Geography (39)  |  History (719)  |  Impinge (4)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Interior (35)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Logic (313)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man-Made (10)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mathematics And Logic (27)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occasion (88)  |  Other (2233)  |  Periphery (3)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Reevaluation (2)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Statement (148)  |  System (545)  |  Total (95)  |  Totality (17)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Value (397)

The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination.
In 'Universities and Their Function', Aims of Education: & Other Essays (1917), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Fool (121)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Pedant (5)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  World (1854)

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.”
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961, 2012), 85. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0307819167 Daniel J. Boorstin - 2012
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Expect (203)  |  Happen (282)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Passive (8)  |  People (1034)  |  Search (175)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sight-Seeing (2)  |  Strenuous (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tourist (6)  |  Traveler (33)

The true man of science will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, taste, see, hear, feel, better than other men. His will be a deeper and finer experience.
In 'Natural history of Massachusetts', The Dial: A Magazine for Literature, Philosophy, and Religion (Jul 1842), 3, No. 1, 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (495)  |  Deep (241)  |  Direct (228)  |  Feel (371)  |  Hear (146)  |  Intercourse (5)  |  Know (1539)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  See (1095)  |  Smell (29)  |  Taste (93)  |  True (240)  |  Will (2350)

The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions—we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down.
Max Born
Atomic Physics (1957), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Apply (170)  |  Break (110)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Physics (6)  |  Common (447)  |  Concept (242)  |  Describe (133)  |  Develop (279)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Down (455)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kind (565)  |  Language (310)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Motion (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Picture (148)  |  Principle (532)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Use (771)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (217)  |  Word (650)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Differ (88)  |  Entertain (27)  |  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 Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictability, no regularity, are in grave peril. The Universe belongs to those who, at least to some degree, have figured it out.
In Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1979, 1980), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Creature (244)  |  Degree (278)  |  Event (222)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Grave (52)  |  Jumble (10)  |  Least (75)  |  Live (651)  |  Muddle (3)  |  Peril (9)  |  Predictability (7)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Understand (650)  |  Universe (901)

The vacuum-apparatus requires that its manipulators constantly handle considerable amounts of mercury. Mercury is a strong poison, particularly dangerous because of its liquid form and noticeable volatility even at room temperature. Its poisonous character has been rather lost sight of during the present generation. My co-workers and myself found from personal experience-confirmed on many sides when published—that protracted stay in an atmosphere charged with only 1/100 of the amount of mercury required for its saturation, sufficed to induce chronic mercury poisoning. This first reveals itself as an affection of the nerves, causing headaches, numbness, mental lassitude, depression, and loss of memory; such are very disturbing to one engaged in intellectual occupations.
Hydrides of Boron and Silicon (1933), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Amount (153)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Character (259)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Dangerous (109)  |  Depression (26)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Engagement (9)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Generation (256)  |  Handle (29)  |  Handling (7)  |  Headache (5)  |  Induce (24)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Lassitude (4)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Loss (118)  |  Manipulator (5)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Poison (47)  |  Present (630)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Reveal (153)  |  Saturation (9)  |  Side (236)  |  Sight (135)  |  Strong (182)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Volatility (3)  |  Worker (34)

The vulgar opinion, then, which, on health reasons, condemns vegetable food and so much praises animal food, being so ill-founded, I have always thought it well to oppose myself to it, moved both by experience and by that refined knowledge of natural things which some study and conversation with great men have given me. And perceiving now that such my constancy has been honoured by some learned and wise physicians with their authoritative adhesion (della autorevole sequela), I have thought it my duty publicly to diffuse the reasons of the Pythagorean diet, regarded as useful in medicine, and, at the same time, as full of innocence, of temperance, and of health. And it is none the less accompanied with a certain delicate pleasure, and also with a refined and splendid luxury (non è privo nemmeno d’una certa delicate voluttà e d’un lusso gentile e splendido ancora), if care and skill be applied in selection and proper supply of the best vegetable food, to which the fertility and the natural character of our beautiful country seem to invite us. For my part I have been so much the more induced to take up this subject, because I have persuaded myself that I might be of service to intending diet-reformers, there not being, to my knowledge, any book of which this is the sole subject, and which undertakes exactly to explain the origin and the reasons of it.
From Dell Vitto Pitagorico (1743), (The Pythagorean Diet: for the Use of the Medical Faculty), as translated quotes in Howard Williams, The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-Eating (1883), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Adhesion (6)  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Authority (100)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Book (414)  |  Both (496)  |  Care (204)  |  Certain (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Constancy (12)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Country (269)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Diet (56)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Food (214)  |  Great (1610)  |  Health (211)  |  Honour (58)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Natural (811)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Origin (251)  |  Physician (284)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Praise (28)  |  Proper (150)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reformer (5)  |  Regard (312)  |  Selection (130)  |  Service (110)  |  Skill (116)  |  Sole (50)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Study (703)  |  Subject (544)  |  Supply (101)  |  Temperance (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Useful (261)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vegetarian (13)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wise (145)

The way of pure research is opposed to all the copy-book maxims concerning the virtues of industry and a fixed purpose, and the evils of guessing, but it is damned useful when it comes off. It is the diametrical opposite of Edison’s reputed method of trying every conceivable expedient until he hit the right one. It requires, not diligence, but experience, information, and a good nose for the essence of a problem.
Letter to Paul de Kruif (3 Aug 1933), as quoted in Nathan Reingold, Science in America: A Documentary History 1900-1939 (1981), 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (414)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Copy (34)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Essence (85)  |  Evil (122)  |  Expedience (2)  |  Good (907)  |  Guess (67)  |  Industry (160)  |  Information (173)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Method (532)  |  Nose (14)  |  Opposed (3)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Problem (735)  |  Pure (300)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Trying (144)  |  Useful (261)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Way (1214)

The whole philosophy of medicine consists in working out the histories of diseases, and applying the remedies which may dispel them; and Experience is the sole guide. This we attain by … the suggestions of common sense rather than of speculation.
In The Works of Thomas Sydenham, (1850), Vol. 2, 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Attain (126)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Consist (224)  |  Disease (343)  |  Dispel (5)  |  Guide (108)  |  History (719)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sole (50)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1403)

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are preserved by quotations.
From Section, 'Quotation', Curiosities of Literature (1834), Vol. 1, 2nd Series, 53. This quotation appears in a printed primary source. It should not be confused with a spurious misquoted variant attributed to his son, Benjamin Disraeli, in which “preserved” is replaced with “perpetuated”.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Quotation (19)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (145)

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.
In Charles Simmons, A Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker (1852), 273.
Science quotes on:  |  Brute (30)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Reason (767)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Wise (145)

The work of the inventor consists of conceptualizing, combining, and ordering what is possible according to the laws of nature. This inner working out which precedes the external has a twofold characteristic: the participation of the subconscious in the inventing subject; and that encounter with an external power which demands and obtains complete subjugation, so that the way to the solution is experienced as the fitting of one's own imagination to this power.
Philosophie der Technik (1927). 'Technology in Its Proper Sphere' translated by William Carroll. In Carl Mitcham (ed.) and Robert Mackey (ed.), Philosophy and Technology: Readings in the Philosophical Problems of Technology, (1972), Vol. 14, 321. In David Lovekin, Technique, Discourse, and Consciousness (1991), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Combination (151)  |  Complete (209)  |  Consist (224)  |  Demand (131)  |  Encounter (23)  |  External (62)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inner (72)  |  Internal (69)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Order (639)  |  Participation (15)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Solution (286)  |  Subconscious (4)  |  Subject (544)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1403)  |  Working (23)

The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived. Subject and object are only one. The barrier between them cannot be said to have broken down as a result of recent experience in the physical sciences, for this barrier does not exist.
Concluding remark in Lecture, 'The Principle of Objectivation', the Tarner Lectures Delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge (Oct 1956), published in Mind and Matter (1958). Reprinted in collection What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches (1992, 2006), 127
Science quotes on:  |  Barrier (34)  |  Broken (56)  |  Down (455)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Object (442)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Recent (79)  |  Result (700)  |  Subject (544)  |  World (1854)

The world of mathematics and theoretical physics is hierarchical. That was my first exposure to it. There's a limit beyond which one cannot progress. The differences between the limiting abilities of those on successively higher steps of the pyramid are enormous. I have not seen described anywhere the shock a talented man experiences when he finds, late in his academic life, that there are others enormously more talented than he. I have personally seen more tears shed by grown men and women over this discovery than I would have believed possible. Most of those men and women shift to fields where they can compete on more equal terms
Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist (1987), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Late (119)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (493)  |  Shift (45)  |  Shock (38)  |  Step (235)  |  Talent (100)  |  Tear (48)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  World (1854)

The worth of a new idea is invariably determined, not by the degree of its intuitiveness—which incidentally, is to a major extent a matter of experience and habit—but by the scope and accuracy of the individual laws to the discovery of which it eventually leads.
In Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1968), 109-110.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Degree (278)  |  Determine (152)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extent (142)  |  Habit (174)  |  Idea (882)  |  Individual (420)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Law (914)  |  Lead (391)  |  Major (88)  |  Matter (821)  |  New (1276)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Scope (44)  |  Worth (173)

Theory is a window into the world. Theory leads to prediction. Without prediction, experience and examples teach nothing.
In The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Example (100)  |  Lead (391)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Teach (301)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Window (59)  |  World (1854)

There are diverse views as to what makes a science, but three constituents will be judged essential by most, viz: (1) intellectual content, (2) organization into an understandable form, (3) reliance upon the test of experience as the ultimate standard of validity. By these tests, mathematics is not a science, since its ultimate standard of validity is an agreed-upon sort of logical consistency and provability.
In 'The Future of Data Analysis', Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1962), 33, No. 1, 5-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Content (75)  |  Definition (239)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Essential (210)  |  Form (978)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organization (120)  |  Reliance (12)  |  Standard (65)  |  Test (222)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understandable (12)  |  Validity (50)  |  View (498)  |  Will (2350)

There are no royal roads to knowledge, and we can only advance to new and important truths along the rugged path of experience, guided by cautious induction.
In 'Report of the Secretary', Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1856 (1857), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Cautious (4)  |  Guide (108)  |  Important (231)  |  Induction (81)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  New (1276)  |  Path (160)  |  Road (72)  |  Royal (56)  |  Rugged (7)  |  Truth (1111)

There are still psychologists who, in a basic misunderstanding, think that gestalt theory tends to underestimate the role of past experience. Gestalt theory tries to differentiate between and-summative aggregates, on the one hand, and gestalten, structures, on the other, both in sub-wholes and in the total field, and to develop appropriate scientific tools for investigating the latter. It opposes the dogmatic application to all cases of what is adequate only for piecemeal aggregates. The question is whether an approach in piecemeal terms, through blind connections, is or is not adequate to interpret actual thought processes and the role of the past experience as well. Past experience has to be considered thoroughly, but it is ambiguous in itself; so long as it is taken in piecemeal, blind terms it is not the magic key to solve all problems.
In Productive Thinking (1959), 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Application (257)  |  Approach (112)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Basic (144)  |  Blind (98)  |  Both (496)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (430)  |  Develop (279)  |  Differentiate (20)  |  Dogmatic (8)  |  Field (378)  |  Gestalt (3)  |  Interpret (25)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Key (56)  |  Long (778)  |  Magic (92)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Piecemeal (3)  |  Problem (735)  |  Process (441)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Question (652)  |  Role (86)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Solve (146)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tend (124)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Thought (996)  |  Through (846)  |  Tool (131)  |  Total (95)  |  Try (296)  |  Underestimate (7)  |  Whole (756)

There are trillions of cells in our body, and no cell claims to be the boss. All the cells have ways to communicate with each other, and the reality of no-self can be found in the way our bodies function. When neuroscientists look into our brain they see so many neurons, and they say it’s like an orchestra without a conductor. The neurons communicate with each other and a decision is made not by one neuron but by all together. The decision is made based on former experiences. Continuation is possible, and that doesn’t need a permanent separate self. It’s wonderful to notice that in the twenty-first century Buddhism and science can go together and support each other in the practice.
In The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices (2013), 202.
Science quotes on:  |  21st Century (11)  |  Brain (282)  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Decision (98)  |  Neuron (10)  |  Neuroscientist (2)  |  Orchestra (3)  |  Science And Religion (337)

There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and his say.
In 'The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life,' The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1910).
Science quotes on:  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Final (121)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Say (991)  |  Truth (1111)

There have, however, always been men of high and disciplined spirituality who have insisted on their direct experience of something greater than themselves. Their conviction of the reality of a spiritual life apart from and transcending the life of the body may not lend itself to scientific proof or disproof; nevertheless the remarkable transformation in personality seen in those who rightfully lay claim to such experience is as objective as tomorrow's sunrise. Millions of lesser men draw strength from the contacts they can make through prayer and meditation with this aspect of the inner life.
at a convention of scientists in 1967 at the University of Notre Dame
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Body (557)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contact (66)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Direct (228)  |  Draw (141)  |  Greater (288)  |  High (370)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1873)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Objective (96)  |  Personality (66)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reality (275)  |  Religion (370)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Something (718)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  Strength (139)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Transformation (72)

There is no art so difficult as the art of observation: it requires a skillful, sober spirit and a well-trained experience, which can only be acquired by practice; for he is not an observer who only sees the thing before him with his eyes, but he who sees of what parts the thing consists, and in what connexion the parts stand to the whole. One person overlooks half from inattention; another relates more than he sees while he confounds it with that which he figures to himself; another sees the parts of the whole, but he throws things together that ought to be separated. ... When the observer has ascertained the foundation of a phenomenon, and he is able to associate its conditions, he then proves while he endeavours to produce the phenomena at his will, the correctness of his observations by experiment. To make a series of experiments is often to decompose an opinion into its individual parts, and to prove it by a sensible phenomenon. The naturalist makes experiments in order to exhibit a phenomenon in all its different parts. When he is able to show of a series of phenomena, that they are all operations of the same cause, he arrives at a simple expression of their significance, which, in this case, is called a Law of Nature. We speak of a simple property as a Law of Nature when it serves for the explanation of one or more natural phenomena.
'The Study of the Natural Sciences: An Introductory Lecture to the Course of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Munich, for the Winter Session of 1852-53,' as translated and republished in The Medical Times and Gazette (22 Jan 1853), N.S. Vol. 6, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (681)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Associate (25)  |  Call (782)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Cause (564)  |  Component (51)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Consist (224)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Different (596)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Expression (182)  |  Eye (441)  |  Figure (162)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observer (48)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (639)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (237)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Practice (212)  |  Produce (117)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Prove (263)  |  Relationship (115)  |  Report (43)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1095)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (354)  |  Significance (115)  |  Simple (430)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Sober (10)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (222)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Validity (50)  |  Verify (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

There is no doubt but men of genius and leisure may carry our method to greater perfection, but, having had long experience, we have found none equal to it for the commodiousness it affords in working with the Understanding.
In 'Scala Intellectus', The Works of Francis Bacon (1815), Vol. 11, 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Carry (130)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Genius (301)  |  Greater (288)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (532)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Understanding (527)

There is the immense sea of energy ... a multidimensional implicate order, ... the entire universe of matter as we generally observe it is to be treated as a comparatively small pattern of excitation. This excitation pattern is relatively autonomous and gives rise to approximately recurrent, stable separable projections into a three-dimensional explicate order of manifestation, which is more or less equivalent to that of space as we commonly experience it.
Wholeness and the Implicate Order? (1981), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Autonomous (3)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Energy (374)  |  Entire (50)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Excitation (9)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Immense (89)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observe (181)  |  Order (639)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Projection (5)  |  Recurrent (2)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Rise (170)  |  Sea (327)  |  Separable (3)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (525)  |  Stable (32)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Treat (38)  |  Universe (901)

There is waste going on in the business life of our people in many ways—waste both of resources and of opportunities. There is waste of energy due to insufficient occupation, because agriculture gives full employment for only six or seven months in the year. There is waste due to illiteracy, because ninety-four persons out of every hundred are uneducated. There is waste through ignorance of the ways of the civilized people, because we fail to utilize their accumulated asset of wisdom and experience. Waste is also going on through our imperfect acquaintance with the commonplaces of civilization and lack of correct business ideals and business standards in daily life. Mental energy is wasted in caste disputes and village factions. Capital is wasted because money is hoarded instead of being made available for productive purposes. There is waste of health because, although leading moral lives normally, men and women grow prematurely old for want of pride of person and attention to the elementary laws of health. The largest waste of all is the lack of capacity for cooperation, the difficulty of ensuring harmony, sympathy and oneness of feeling, in matters affecting the larger interests of the State.
Speech (3 Jun 1914), 'Address to the Mycore Economic Conference'. Collected in Speeches: 1910-11 to 1916-17: by Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1917), 152-153.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Business (156)  |  Capital (16)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Energy (374)  |  Harmony (106)  |  Health (211)  |  Illiteracy (8)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Pride (85)  |  Resource (75)  |  State (505)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Waste (109)  |  Wisdom (235)

There was wildlife, untouched, a jungle at the border of the sea, never seen by those who floated on the opaque roof.
Describing his early experience, in 1936, when a fellow naval officer, Philippe Tailliez, gave him goggles to see below the Mediterranean Sea surface.
Quoted in 'Sport: Poet of the Depths', Time (28 Mar 1960)
Science quotes on:  |  Border (10)  |  Early (196)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Float (31)  |  Floating (4)  |  Goggles (2)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Mediterranean (9)  |  Mediterranean Sea (6)  |  Never (1089)  |  Officer (12)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Roof (14)  |  Sea (327)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Surface (223)  |  Untouched (5)  |  Wildlife (16)

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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Excessive (24)  |  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)

These were errors in thinking which caused me two years of hard work before at last, in 1915, I recognised them as such. … The final results appear almost simple; any intelligent undergraduate can understand them without much trouble. But the years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels, but cannot express; the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.
From address, 'Notes on the Origin of the General Theory of Relativity', part of the collection of essays in Mein Weltbild (1934), translated from the original German. This translation as quoted in W.I.B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), 60. Another translation is given on this web page, beginning: “These were errors of thought…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Clarity (49)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Dark (145)  |  Desire (214)  |  Error (339)  |  Expressing (3)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Misgiving (3)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Searching (7)  |  Simple (430)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Understand (650)

They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art.
The Advancement of Learning, Bk IV, Ch. II.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Great (1610)  |  Learning (291)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Tradition (76)

Think of the image of the world in a convex mirror. ... A well-made convex mirror of moderate aperture represents the objects in front of it as apparently solid and in fixed positions behind its surface. But the images of the distant horizon and of the sun in the sky lie behind the mirror at a limited distance, equal to its focal length. Between these and the surface of the mirror are found the images of all the other objects before it, but the images are diminished and flattened in proportion to the distance of their objects from the mirror. ... Yet every straight line or plane in the outer world is represented by a straight line or plane in the image. The image of a man measuring with a rule a straight line from the mirror, would contract more and more the farther he went, but with his shrunken rule the man in the image would count out exactly the same results as in the outer world, all lines of sight in the mirror would be represented by straight lines of sight in the mirror. In short, I do not see how men in the mirror are to discover that their bodies are not rigid solids and their experiences good examples of the correctness of Euclidean axioms. But if they could look out upon our world as we look into theirs without overstepping the boundary, they must declare it to be a picture in a spherical mirror, and would speak of us just as we speak of them; and if two inhabitants of the different worlds could communicate with one another, neither, as far as I can see, would be able to convince the other that he had the true, the other the distorted, relation. Indeed I cannot see that such a question would have any meaning at all, so long as mechanical considerations are not mixed up with it.
In 'On the Origin and Significance of Geometrical Axioms,' Popular Scientific Lectures< Second Series (1881), 57-59. In Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 357-358.
Science quotes on:  |  Aperture (5)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Behind (139)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convex (6)  |  Convince (43)  |  Count (107)  |  Declare (48)  |  Different (596)  |  Discover (572)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distort (22)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Farther (51)  |  Focal Length (2)  |  Good (907)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (103)  |  Line (101)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mirror (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Question (652)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rule (308)  |  See (1095)  |  Short (200)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (35)  |  Sun (408)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1124)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1854)

This brings me to the final point of my remarks, the relation between creativity and aging, a topic with which I have had substantial experience. Scientific research, until it has gone through the grueling and sometimes painful process of publication, is just play, and play is characteristic of young vertebrates, particularly young mammals. In some ways, scientific creativity is related to the exuberant behavior of young mammals. Indeed, creativity seems to be a natural characteristic of young humans. If one is fortunate enough to be associated with a university, even as one ages, teaching allows one to contribute to, and vicariously share, in the creativity of youth.”
In 'Integrative Biology: An Organismic Biologist’s Point of View', Integrative and Comparative Biology (2005), 45, 331.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aging (9)  |  Allow (51)  |  Associate (25)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Bring (96)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Enough (341)  |  Exuberant (2)  |  Final (121)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Grueling (2)  |  Human (1517)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Natural (811)  |  Painful (12)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Play (117)  |  Point (585)  |  Process (441)  |  Publication (102)  |  Relate (26)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remark (29)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Seem (150)  |  Share (82)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Teach (301)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Through (846)  |  Topic (23)  |  University (130)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Way (1214)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

This car of mine, I am tickled to death with it. The machine is nearly everything, its power, stability and balance. The driver, allowing for his experience and courage, is much less.
[Referring to the Bluebird racing car in which he broke the speed record on 5 Feb 1931.]
Quoted in 'Campbell Drive Auto 245 Miles an Hour, Four Miles a Minute, a World Speed Record', New York Times (6 Feb 1931), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Car (75)  |  Courage (82)  |  Death (407)  |  Driver (5)  |  Everything (490)  |  Less (105)  |  Machine (272)  |  Mine (78)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Power (773)  |  Race (279)  |  Record (161)  |  Speed (66)  |  Stability (28)

This irrelevance of molecular arrangements for macroscopic results has given rise to the tendency to confine physics and chemistry to the study of homogeneous systems as well as homogeneous classes. In statistical mechanics a great deal of labor is in fact spent on showing that homogeneous systems and homogeneous classes are closely related and to a considerable extent interchangeable concepts of theoretical analysis (Gibbs theory). Naturally, this is not an accident. The methods of physics and chemistry are ideally suited for dealing with homogeneous classes with their interchangeable components. But experience shows that the objects of biology are radically inhomogeneous both as systems (structurally) and as classes (generically). Therefore, the method of biology and, consequently, its results will differ widely from the method and results of physical science.
Atom and Organism: A New Approach to Theoretical Biology (1966), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Biology (234)  |  Both (496)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Deal (192)  |  Differ (88)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Great (1610)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Irrelevance (4)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (532)  |  Object (442)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physics (568)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (170)  |  Show (354)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statistical Mechanics (7)  |  Study (703)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Will (2350)

This notion that “science” is something that belongs in a separate compartment of its own, apart from everyday life, is one that I should like to challenge. We live in a scientific age; yet we assume that knowledge of science is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings, isolated and priest-like in their laboratories. This is not true. It cannot be true. The materials of science are the materials of life itself. Science is part of the reality of living; it is the what, the how, and the why of everything in our experience. It is impossible to understand man without understanding his environment and the forces that have molded him physically and mentally.
Address upon receiving National Book Award at reception, Hotel Commodore, New York (27 Jan 1952). As cited in Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (1997), 218-219.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Environment (240)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Everything (490)  |  Force (497)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mold (37)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (712)  |  Physical (520)  |  Prerogative (3)  |  Priest (29)  |  Reality (275)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Separate (151)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Why (491)

Albert Einstein quote: Mistrust of every kind of authority
Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment–an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.
In P. A. Schilpp, (ed.), Part I, 'Autobiographical Notes', Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 1, 5. Translated by the P.A. Schilpp, from Einstein’s original German manuscript, written at age 67, (p.2, 4): “Durch Lesen populärwissenschaftlicher Bücher kam ich bald zu der Ueberzeugung, dass vieles in den Erzählungen der Bibel nicht wahr sein konnte. Die Folge war eine geradezu fanatische Freigeisterei, verbunden mit dem Eindruck, dass die Jugend vom Staate mit Vorbedacht belogen wird; es war ein niederschmetternder Eindruck. Das Misstrauen gegen jede Art Autorität erwuchs aus diesem Erlebnis, eine skeptische Einstellung gegen die Ueberzeugungen, welche in der jeweiligen sozialen Umwelt lebendig waren—eine Einstellung, die mich nicht wieder verlassen hat, wenn sie auch später durch bessere Einsicht in die kausalen Zusammenhänge ihre ursprünglische Schärfe verloren haben.”.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (98)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Author (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (495)  |  Bible (105)  |  Book (414)  |  Causal (7)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Couple (9)  |  Crush (19)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Environment (240)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Freethinking (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Impression (118)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intentionally (3)  |  Kind (565)  |  Late (119)  |  Leave (139)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mistrust (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Orgy (3)  |  Popular (35)  |  Positively (4)  |  Reach (287)  |  Read (309)  |  Reading (136)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Social (262)  |  Soon (187)  |  Specific (98)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Temper (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Toward (46)  |  True (240)  |  Youth (109)

To consider the matter aright, reason is nothing but a wonderful and unintelligible instinct in our souls, which carries us along a certain train of ideas, and endows them with particular qualities, according to their particular situations and relations. This instinct, 'tis true, arises from past observation and experience; but can anyone give the ultimate reason, why past experience and observation produces such an effect, any more than why nature alone should produce it?
A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1888), book 1, part 3, section 16, 179.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Alone (325)  |  Arise (162)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consider (430)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experienced (2)  |  Idea (882)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Observation (595)  |  Past (355)  |  Reason (767)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soul (237)  |  Train (118)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Why (491)  |  Wonderful (156)

To fly in space is to see the reality of Earth, alone. The experience changed my life and my attitude toward life itself. I am one of the lucky ones.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (325)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Change (640)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fly (153)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Reality (275)  |  See (1095)  |  Space (525)  |  Toward (46)

To go to sea! Why, it is to have the experience of Noah,—to realize the deluge. Every vessel is an ark.
In Cape Cod (1866), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Ark (6)  |  Deluge (14)  |  Realize (157)  |  Sea (327)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Why (491)

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness. There is no escape from this dilemma—either all matter is conscious, or consciousness is something distinct from matter, and in the latter case, its presence in material forms is a proof of the existence of conscious beings, outside of, and independent of, what we term matter. The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable. When we touch matter, we only really experience sensations of resistance, implying repulsive force; and no other sense can give us such apparently solid proofs of the reality of matter, as touch does. This conclusion, if kept constantly present in the mind, will be found to have a most important bearing on almost every high scientific and philosophical problem, and especially on such as relate to our own conscious existence.
In 'The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man', last chapter of Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), 365-366.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complex (203)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Element (324)  |  Escape (87)  |  Especially (31)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Force (497)  |  Foregoing (3)  |  Form (978)  |  Forth (14)  |  Found (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  High (370)  |  Important (231)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Independent (75)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (142)  |  Part (237)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Product (167)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reality (275)  |  Really (77)  |  Relate (26)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (786)  |  Show (354)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Term (357)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

To the east was our giant neighbor Makalu, unexplored and unclimbed, and even on top of Everest the mountaineering instinct was sufficient strong to cause me to spend some moments conjecturing as to whether a route up that mountain might not exist. Far away across the clouds the great bulk of Kangchenjunga loomed on the horizon. To the west, Cho Oyu, our old adversary from 1952, dominated the scene and we could see the great unexplored ranges of Nepal stretching off into the distance. The most important photograph, I felt, was a shot down the north ridge, showing the North Col and the old route that had been made famous by the struggles of those great climbers of the 1920s and 1930s. I had little hope of the results being particularly successful, as I had a lot of difficulty in holding the camera steady in my clumsy gloves, but I felt that they would at least serve as a record. After some ten minutes of this, I realized that I was becoming rather clumsy-fingered and slow-moving, so I quickly replaced my oxygen set and experience once more the stimulating effect of even a few liters of oxygen. Meanwhile, Tenzing had made a little hole in the snow and in it he placed small articles of food – a bar of chocolate, a packet of biscuits and a handful of lollies. Small offerings, indeed, but at least a token gifts to the gods that all devoted Buddhists believe have their home on this lofty summit. While we were together on the South Col two days before, Hunt had given me a small crucifix that he had asked me to take to the top. I, too, made a hole in the snow and placed the crucifix beside Tenzing’s gifts.
As quoted in Whit Burnett, The Spirit of Adventure: The Challenge (1955), 349.
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Adversary (7)  |  Article (22)  |  Ask (423)  |  Bar (9)  |  Become (822)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (616)  |  Buddhist (5)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Camera (7)  |  Cause (564)  |  Chocolate (5)  |  Climb (40)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Clumsy (7)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Down (455)  |  East (18)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everest (10)  |  Exist (460)  |  Famous (12)  |  Far (158)  |  Feel (371)  |  Food (214)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gift (105)  |  Give (208)  |  Glove (4)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Handful (14)  |  Hold (96)  |  Hole (17)  |  Home (186)  |  Hope (322)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Important (231)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Least (75)  |  Little (718)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Loom (20)  |  Lot (151)  |  Meanwhile (2)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mountaineering (5)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Nepal (2)  |  North (12)  |  Offering (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Packet (3)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Place (194)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Range (104)  |  Realize (157)  |  Record (161)  |  Replace (32)  |  Result (700)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Route (16)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1095)  |  Serve (64)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Show (354)  |  Slow (108)  |  Small (489)  |  Snow (39)  |  South (39)  |  Spend (97)  |  Steady (45)  |  Stimulate (22)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Strong (182)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Summit (27)  |  Together (392)  |  Token (10)  |  Top (100)  |  Two (936)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  West (21)

Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it.
In Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), 366.
Science quotes on:  |  Baby (29)  |  Birth (154)  |  Cease (81)  |  Ceasing (2)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Human (1517)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (323)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sight (135)  |  Taste (93)  |  Touch (146)  |  Use (771)

Truth can only be found by the human intellect, exercised in perfect freedom, and trained to submit itself to the facts of nature. This is the essence of the Scientific Method, which is the exact opposite of the Theological Method. Science teaches men to think with absolute independence of all arbitrary authority, but to submit all their thoughts to the test of actual experiences of Nature. Christianity teaches them to think only according to its own foregone dogmatic conclusions, and to stick to these dogmatic conclusion in defiance of all possible experience.
Leading article in Francis Ellingwood Abbot (ed.), The Index (1 Jan 1880), Volume 11, No. 523, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  According (236)  |  Actual (145)  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Authority (100)  |  Christianity (11)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Defiance (7)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Essence (85)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Independence (37)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Method (532)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Possible (560)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Submit (21)  |  Teach (301)  |  Test (222)  |  Theology (54)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thought (996)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1111)

Unless the structure of the nucleus has a surprise in store for us, the conclusion seems plain—there is nothing in the whole system if laws of physics that cannot be deduced unambiguously from epistemological considerations. An intelligence, unacquainted with our universe, but acquainted with the system of thought by which the human mind interprets to itself the contents of its sensory experience, and should be able to attain all the knowledge of physics that we have attained by experiment.
In Clive William Kilmister, Eddington's Search for a Fundamental Theory (1994), 202.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Store (49)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surprise (91)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (996)  |  Universe (901)  |  Whole (756)

Until its results have gone through the painful process of publication, preferably in a refereed journal of high standards, scientific research is just play. Publication is an indispensable part of science. “Publish or perish” is not an indictment of the system of academia; it is a partial prescription for creativity and innovation. Sustained and substantial publication favors creativity. Novelty of conception has a large component of unpredictability. ... One is often a poor judge of the relative value of his own creative efforts. An artist’s ranking of his own works is rarely the same as that of critics or of history. Most scientists have had similar experiences. One’s supply of reprints for a pot-boiler is rapidly exhausted, while a major monograph that is one’s pride and joy goes unnoticed. The strategy of choice is to increase the odds favoring creativity by being productive.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 233-234.
Science quotes on:  |  Academia (4)  |  Artist (97)  |  Being (1276)  |  Choice (114)  |  Component (51)  |  Conception (160)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Critic (21)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  High (370)  |  History (719)  |  Increase (226)  |  Indictment (2)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Journal (31)  |  Joy (117)  |  Judge (114)  |  Large (399)  |  Major (88)  |  Monograph (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Novelty (32)  |  Odds (6)  |  Often (109)  |  Painful (12)  |  Part (237)  |  Partial (10)  |  Perish (56)  |  Play (117)  |  Poor (139)  |  Preferably (2)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Pride (85)  |  Process (441)  |  Productive (37)  |  Publication (102)  |  Publish (42)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Referee (8)  |  Relative (42)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (168)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Similar (36)  |  Standard (65)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Supply (101)  |  Sustain (52)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Unnoticed (5)  |  Unpredictability (7)  |  Value (397)  |  Work (1403)

Using any reasonable definition of a scientist, we can say that 80 to 90 percent of all the scientists that have ever lived are alive now. Alternatively, any young scientist, starting now and looking back at the end of his career upon a normal life span, will find that 80 to 90 percent of all scientific work achieved by the end of the period will have taken place before his very eyes, and that only 10 to 20 percent will antedate his experience.
Little Science, Big Science (1963), 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (98)  |  Back (395)  |  Career (87)  |  Definition (239)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (441)  |  Find (1014)  |  Life (1873)  |  Looking (191)  |  Period (200)  |  Reasonableness (6)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)  |  Young (253)

Vannevar Bush has said that there is no more thrilling experience for a man than to be able to state that he has learned something no other person in the world has ever known before him. … I have been lucky enough to be included in such an event.
From address to the 101st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Gainesville, Florida (27 Dec 1958). Printed in 'An Account of the Discovery of Jupiter as a Radio Source', The Astronomical Journal (Mar 1959), 64, No. 2, 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Vannevar Bush (16)  |  Enough (341)  |  Event (222)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Something (718)  |  State (505)  |  Thrill (26)  |  World (1854)

Visualize yourself confronted with the task of killing, one after the other, a cabbage, a fly, a fish, a lizard, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a monkey and a baby chimpanzee. In the unlikely case that you should experience no greater inhibitions in killing the chimpanzee than in destroying the cabbage or the fly, my advice to you is to commit suicide at your earliest possible convenience, because you are a weird monstrosity and a public danger.
'The Enmity Between Generations and Its Probable Ethological Causes'. In Richard I. Evans, Konrad Lorenz: The Man and his Ideas (1975), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Baby (29)  |  Cabbage (5)  |  Cat (52)  |  Chimpanzee (15)  |  Commit (43)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dog (72)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fly (153)  |  Greater (288)  |  Guinea Pig (3)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Kill (101)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Monster (34)  |  Monstrosity (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Task (153)

We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals. We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual’s instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man’s actions. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us. Though our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher animals, the primary instincts are much alike in them and in us. The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices. Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions. In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the part of servants of the primary instincts. But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (343)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Causal (7)  |  Cease (81)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Death (407)  |  Describe (133)  |  Desire (214)  |  Device (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elemental (4)  |  Enter (145)  |  Escape (87)  |  Evident (92)  |  Existence (484)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fear (215)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Hate (68)  |  High (370)  |  Hunger (24)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Important (231)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inner (72)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intersect (5)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Know (1539)  |  Language (310)  |  Less (105)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (225)  |  Need (323)  |  Organize (34)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Pain (144)  |  Part (237)  |  Pity (16)  |  Play (117)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Power (773)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Pride (85)  |  Primary (82)  |  Race (279)  |  Relation (166)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (308)  |  Same (168)  |  Seek (219)  |  Seem (150)  |  Self (268)  |  Servant (40)  |  Serve (64)  |  Social (262)  |  Spring (140)  |  Stir (23)  |  Strong (182)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  True (240)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

We already know the physical laws that govern everything we experience in everyday life … It is a tribute to how far we have come in theoretical physics that it now takes enormous machines and a great deal of money to perform an experiment whose results we cannot predict.
From Inaugural Lecture (29 Apr 1980) as Lucasian Professor at Cambridge University, 'Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?', collected in Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993), 50 & 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Deal (192)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Everything (490)  |  Expensive (10)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Govern (67)  |  Great (1610)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Machine (272)  |  Money (178)  |  Perform (123)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Law (15)  |  Physics (568)  |  Predict (86)  |  Result (700)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Tribute (10)

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 36
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Spiritual (96)

We come finally, however, to the relation of the ideal theory to real world, or “real” probability. If he is consistent a man of the mathematical school washes his hands of applications. To someone who wants them he would say that the ideal system runs parallel to the usual theory: “If this is what you want, try it: it is not my business to justify application of the system; that can only be done by philosophizing; I am a mathematician”. In practice he is apt to say: “try this; if it works that will justify it”. But now he is not merely philosophizing; he is committing the characteristic fallacy. Inductive experience that the system works is not evidence.
In A Mathematician’s Miscellany (1953). Reissued as Béla Bollobás (ed.), Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Business (156)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Practice (212)  |  Probability (135)  |  Real World (15)  |  Relation (166)  |  Run (158)  |  Say (991)  |  School (228)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Try (296)  |  Want (505)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

We found that each disconnected hemisphere [of the brain] was capable of sustaining its own conscious awareness, each largely oblivious of experience of the other.
As quoted in Melvin P. Shaw and Mark A. Runco (eds.), Creativity and Affect (1994), 215
Science quotes on:  |  Awareness (42)  |  Brain (282)  |  Capable (174)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Oblivious (9)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physiology (101)

We go to the mountains to experience … how human beings must have felt a hundred thousand years ago, before civilization, governments, social structures, religions, and all the rules that you must follow to be a human.
From interview with Rudraneil Sengupta, 'Reinhold Messner: When You’re Alone, Fear is All on You', Mint (1 Mar 2014). A business newspaper in India, also online at livemint.com website.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (223)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Government (116)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Religion (370)  |  Rule (308)

We have here no esoteric theory of the ultimate nature of concepts, nor a philosophical championing of the primacy of the 'operation'. We have merely a pragmatic matter, namely that we have observed after much experience that if we want to do certain kinds of things with our concepts, our concepts had better be constructed in certain ways. In fact one can see that the situation here is no different from what we always find when we push our analysis to the limit; operations are not ultimately sharp or irreducible any more than any other sort of creature. We always run into a haze eventually, and all our concepts are describable only in spiralling approximation.
In Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Better (495)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concept (242)  |  Construct (129)  |  Creature (244)  |  Different (596)  |  Do (1905)  |  Esoteric (4)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Kind (565)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observed (149)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Push (66)  |  Run (158)  |  See (1095)  |  Situation (117)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)

We have two kinds of knowledge which I call symbolic knowledge and intimate knowledge. I do not know whether it would be correct to say that reasoning is only applicable to symbolic knowledge, but the more customary forms of reasoning have been developed for symbolic knowledge only. The intimate knowledge will not submit to codification and analysis; or, rather, when we attempt to analyse it the intimacy is lost and it is replaced by symbolism. … Experience is intimate knowledge.
In 'Science and Mysticism', The Nature of the Physical World (1928), 321-322.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Symbol (100)

We know by experience itself, that … we find out but a short way, by long wandering.
The Scholemaster (1570), Book 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learning (291)  |  Long (778)  |  Short (200)  |  Way (1214)

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Learn (672)  |  Never (1089)

We may summarize … the fundamental characteristics and limitations of mathematics as follows: mathematics is ultimately an experimental science, for freedom from contradiction cannot be proved, but only postulated and checked by observation, and similarly existence can only be postulated and checked by observation. Furthermore, mathematics requires the fundamental device of all thought, of analyzing experience into static bits with static meanings.
In The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Analyze (13)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Check (26)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Device (71)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Follow (390)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Observation (595)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Prove (263)  |  Require (229)  |  Static (9)  |  Summarize (10)  |  Thought (996)  |  Ultimately (57)

We must remember that all our [models of flying machine] inventions are but developments of crude ideas; that a commercially successful result in a practically unexplored field cannot possibly be got without an enormous amount of unremunerative work. It is the piled-up and recorded experience of many busy brains that has produced the luxurious travelling conveniences of to-day, which in no way astonish us, and there is no good reason for supposing that we shall always be content to keep on the agitated surface of the sea and air, when it is possible to travel in a superior plane, unimpeded by frictional disturbances.
Paper to the Royal Society of New South Wales (4 Jun 1890), as quoted in Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), 2226.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Amount (153)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Brain (282)  |  Busy (32)  |  Commercially (3)  |  Content (75)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Crude (32)  |  Development (442)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Field (378)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Good (907)  |  Idea (882)  |  Invention (401)  |  Machine (272)  |  Model (106)  |  Must (1525)  |  Plane (23)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Practically (10)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reason (767)  |  Record (161)  |  Recorded (2)  |  Remember (189)  |  Result (700)  |  Sea (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Superior (89)  |  Supposing (3)  |  Surface (223)  |  Today (321)  |  Travel (125)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Unimpeded (2)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1403)

We must take the abiding spiritual values which inhere in the deep experiences of religion in all ages and give them new expression in terms of the framework which our new knowledge gives us. Science forces religion to deal with new ideas in the theoretical realm and new forces in the practical realm.
Address to Seventh Annual Midsummer Conferences of Ministers and Other Christian Workers, held by Union Theological Seminary, at Columbia University gymnasium (19 Jul 1927), as quoted in 'Fosdick Sees Bible Outrun by Science', New York Times (20 Jul 1927), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Abiding (3)  |  Age (509)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Expression (182)  |  Force (497)  |  Framework (33)  |  Idea (882)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Practical (225)  |  Realm (88)  |  Religion (370)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Value (397)

We need only reflect on what has been prov'd at large, that we are never sensible of any connexion betwixt causes and effects, and that 'tis only by our experience of their constant conjunction, we can arrive at any knowledge of this relation.
A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1888), book 1, part 4, section 165, 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (564)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Connection (171)  |  Constant (148)  |  Effect (414)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Never (1089)  |  Proof (304)  |  Relationship (115)

We no longer can talk of unearned “rights.” We’ll have to get back to working for “rights” to adequate food, housing, education, opportunity, a place in the sun—and not everybody is going to make the grade. I don’t see this obsession with the lowest strata of humanity, against all natural biologic experience. We must accept that life is unfair.
In Raymond Mungo, 'Dixy Lee Ray: How Madame Nuke Took Over Washington', Mother Jones (May 1977), 2, No. 4, 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Against (332)  |  Back (395)  |  Biology (234)  |  Earn (9)  |  Education (423)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Food (214)  |  Grade (12)  |  House (143)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Life (1873)  |  Low (86)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Place (194)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1095)  |  Strata (37)  |  Stratum (11)  |  Sun (408)  |  Talk (108)  |  Unfair (9)  |  Work (1403)

We now realize with special clarity, how much in error are those theorists who believe that theory comes inductively from experience.
In section 3, 'The Field Concept', Physics and Reality (1936), collected in Essays in Physics (1950), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Error (339)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Realize (157)  |  Special (189)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1016)

We receive experience from nature in a series of messages. From these messages we extract a content of information: that is, we decode the messages in some way. And from this code of information we then make a basic vocabulary of concepts and a basic grammar of laws, which jointly describe the inner organization that nature translates into the happenings and the appearances we meet.
The Identity of Man. Quoted in Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (2008), 176-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (146)  |  Basic (144)  |  Code (31)  |  Concept (242)  |  Describe (133)  |  Extract (40)  |  Happening (59)  |  Information (173)  |  Inner (72)  |  Law (914)  |  Message (53)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Organization (120)  |  Receive (117)  |  Series (153)  |  Translate (21)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  Way (1214)

We shall therefore say that a program has common sense if it automatically deduces for itself a sufficient wide class of immediate consequences of anything it is told and what it already knows. ... Our ultimate objective is to make programs that learn from their experience as effectively as humans do.
'Programs with Common Sense', (probably the first paper on AI), delivered to the Teddington Conference on the Mechanization of Thought Processes (Dec 1958). Printed in National Physical Laboratory, Mechanisation of Thought Processes: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the National Physical Laboratory on 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th November 1958 (1959), 78. Also Summary in John McCarthy and Vladimir Lifschitz (ed.), Formalizing Common Sense: Papers by John McCarthy (1990), 9-10.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Definition (239)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Human (1517)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Make (25)  |  Objective (96)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Wide (97)

We should not argue with the blind man who maintained that sight was an illusion to which some abnormal people were subject. Therefore in speaking of religious experience I do not attempt to prove the existence of religious experience…
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 48-49.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Blind (98)  |  Do (1905)  |  Existence (484)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  People (1034)  |  Prove (263)  |  Religious (134)  |  Sight (135)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Subject (544)

We sometimes are inclined to look into a science not our own as into a catalogue of results. In Faraday’s Diary, it becomes again what it really is, a campaign of mankind, balancing in any given moment, past experience, present speculation, and future experimentation, in a unique concoction of scepticism, faith, doubt, and expectation.
In 'The Scientific Grammar of Michael Faraday’s Diaries', Part I, 'The Classic of Science', A Classic and a Founder (1937), collected in Rosenstock-Huessy Papers (1981), Vol. 1, 1. The context is that Faraday, for “more than four decades. He was in the habit of describing each experiment and every observation inside and outside his laboratory, in full and accurate detail, on the very day they were made. Many of the entries discuss the consequences which he drew from what he observed. In other cases they outline the proposed course of research for the future.”
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Become (822)  |  Campaign (6)  |  Catalogue (5)  |  Diary (2)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Experimentation (7)  |  Faith (210)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Future (467)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Look (584)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Moment (260)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Result (700)  |  Scepticism (17)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Unique (73)

What appear to be the most valuable aspects of the theoretical physics we have are the mathematical descriptions which enable us to predict events. These equations are, we would argue, the only realities we can be certain of in physics; any other ways we have of thinking about the situation are visual aids or mnemonics which make it easier for beings with our sort of macroscopic experience to use and remember the equations.
In The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-body Problem (2003).
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Appear (123)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Being (1276)  |  Certain (557)  |  Description (89)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enable (122)  |  Equation (138)  |  Event (222)  |  Macroscopic (2)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mnemonic (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Predict (86)  |  Reality (275)  |  Remember (189)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sort (50)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (397)  |  Way (1214)

What friends do with us and for us is a real part of our life; for it strengthens and advances our personality. The assault of our enemies is not part of our life ; it is only part of our experience ; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Against (332)  |  Assault (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Evil (122)  |  Expect (203)  |  External (62)  |  Friend (180)  |  Frost (15)  |  Guard (19)  |  Hail (4)  |  Happen (282)  |  Life (1873)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Part (237)  |  Personality (66)  |  Rain (70)  |  Real (160)  |  Storm (56)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Throw (45)

What I then got hold of, something frightful and dangerous, a problem with horns but not necessarily a bull, in any case a new problem—today I should say that it was the problem of science itself, science considered for the first time as problematic, as questionable. But the book in which my youthful courage and suspicion found an outlet—what an impossible book had to result from a task so uncongenial to youth! Constructed from a lot of immature, overgreen personal experiences, all of them close to the limits of communication, presented in the context of art—for the problem of science cannot be recognized in the context of science—a book perhaps for artists who also have an analytic and retrospective penchant (in other words, an exceptional type of artist for whom one might have to look far and wide and really would not care to look) …
In The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Collected in Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Kaufmann (trans.), The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (1967), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Art (681)  |  Artist (97)  |  Book (414)  |  Bull (3)  |  Care (204)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consider (430)  |  Construct (129)  |  Context (31)  |  Courage (82)  |  Dangerous (109)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  First (1303)  |  Frightful (3)  |  Horn (18)  |  Immature (4)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Limit (294)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outlet (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Questionable (3)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Something (718)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Task (153)  |  Time (1913)  |  Today (321)  |  Type (172)  |  Uncongenial (2)  |  Wide (97)  |  Word (650)  |  Youth (109)

What is possible can never be demonstrated to be false; and 'tis possible the course of nature may change, since we can conceive such a change. Nay, I will go farther, and assert, that he could not so much as prove by any probable arguments, that the future must be conformable to the past. All probable arguments are built on the supposition, that there is this conformity betwixt the future and the past, and therefore can never prove it. This conformity is a matter of fact, and if it must be proved, will admit of no proof but from experience. But our experience in the past can be a proof of nothing for the future, but upon a supposition, that there is a resemblance betwixt them. This therefore is a point, which can admit of no proof at all, and which we take for granted without any proof.
An Abstract of A Treatise on Human Nature (1740), ed. John Maynard Keynes and Piero Sraffa (1938), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Assert (69)  |  Change (640)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Course (415)  |  Fact (1259)  |  False (105)  |  Farther (51)  |  Future (467)  |  Grant (77)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Past (355)  |  Point (585)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (263)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Supposition (50)  |  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)  |  Depend (238)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (882)  |  Language (310)  |  Other (2233)  |  Task (153)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Word (650)

What to-day is to be believed is to-morrow to be cast aside, certainly has been the law of advancement, and seemingly must continue to be so. With what a babel of discordant voices does it [medicine] celebrate its two thousand years of experience!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Babel (3)  |  Belief (616)  |  Cast (69)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Continue (180)  |  Discord (10)  |  Law (914)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Must (1525)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Thousand (340)  |  To-Day (6)  |  Two (936)  |  Voice (54)  |  Year (965)

Whatever lies beyond the limits of experience, and claims another origin than that of induction and deduction from established data, is illegitimate.
In Problems of Life and Mind (1874), Vol. 1, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Claim (154)  |  Data (162)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Establish (63)  |  Induction (81)  |  Limit (294)  |  Origin (251)

When carbon (C), Oxygen (o) and hydrogen (H) atoms bond in a certain way to form sugar, the resulting compound has a sweet taste. The sweetness resides neither in the C, nor in the O, nor in the H; it resides in the pattern that emerges from their interaction. It is an emergent property. Moreover, strictly speaking, is not a property of the chemical bonds. It is a sensory experience that arises when the sugar molecules interact with the chemistry of our taste buds, which in turns causes a set of neurons to fire in a certain way. The experience of sweetness emerges from that neural activity.
In The Hidden Connections (2002), 116-117.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Arise (162)  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Cause (564)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Bond (7)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Compound (117)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Fire (203)  |  Form (978)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Neuron (10)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Property (177)  |  Reside (25)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Set (400)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Sweetness (12)  |  Taste (93)  |  Turn (454)  |  Way (1214)

When experience has proved a physical fact, one must give up reasoning.
Geneanthropeiae siue de Hominis Generatione Decateuchon (1642), Column 604. Quoted in Jacques Roger, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, ed. Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Fact (1259)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (520)  |  Reasoning (212)

When I call to mind my earliest impressions, I wonder whether the process ordinarily referred to as growing up is not actually a process of growing down; whether experience, so much touted among adults as the thing children lack, is not actually a progressive dilution of the essentials by the trivialities of living.
In 'Red Legs Kicking', A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949, 1987), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Adult (24)  |  Child (333)  |  Dilution (5)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Essential (210)  |  Growing Up (4)  |  Impression (118)  |  Lack (127)  |  Life (1873)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Remember (189)  |  Triviality (3)

When I was in college studying science, I found the experience fundamentally unsatisfying. I was continually oppressed by the feeling that my only role was to “shut up and learn.” I felt there was nothing I could say to my instructors that they would find interesting. … As I sat in the science lecture hall, I was utterly silent. That’s not a good state to be in when you are 19 years old.
In Understanding the Universe: An Inquiry Approach to Astronomy and the Nature of Scientific Research (2013), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  College (71)  |  Continually (17)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (907)  |  Instructor (5)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Lecture Hall (2)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Old (499)  |  Oppressed (2)  |  Role (86)  |  Say (991)  |  Shut (41)  |  Shut Up (2)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sit (51)  |  State (505)  |  Study (703)  |  Studying (70)  |  Unsatisfying (3)  |  Utterly (15)  |  Year (965)

When puzzled, it never hurts to read the primary documents–a rather simple and self-evident principle that has, nonetheless, completely disappeared from large sectors of the American experience.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Completely (137)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Document (7)  |  Evident (92)  |  Hurt (14)  |  Large (399)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (532)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Read (309)  |  Sector (7)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Simple (430)

When the boy begins to understand that the visible point is preceded by an invisible point, that the shortest distance between two points is conceived as a straight line before it is ever drawn with the pencil on paper, he experiences a feeling of pride, of satisfaction. And justly so, for the fountain of all thought has been opened to him, the difference between the ideal and the real, potentia et actu, has become clear to him; henceforth the philosopher can reveal him nothing new, as a geometrician he has discovered the basis of all thought.
In Sprüche in Reimen. Sprüche in Prosa. Ethisches (1850), Vol. 3, 214. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 67. From the original German, “Wenn der knabe zu begreifen anfängt, daß einem sichtbaren Punkte ein unsichtbarer vorhergehen müsse, daß der nächste Weg zwischen zwei Punkten schon als Linie gedacht werde, ehe sie mit dem Bleistift aufs Papier gezogen wird, so fühlt er einen gewissen Stolz, ein Behagen. Und nicht mit Unrecht; denn ihm ist die Quelle alles Denkens aufgeschlossen, Idee und Verwirklichtes, potentia et actu, ist ihm klargeworden; der Philosoph entdeckt ihm nichts Neues; dem Geometer war von seiner Seite der Grund alles Denkens aufgegangen.” The Latin phrase, “potentia et actu” means “potentiality and actuality”.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (822)  |  Begin (275)  |  Boy (100)  |  Clear (111)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discover (572)  |  Distance (171)  |  Draw (141)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fountain (18)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Justly (7)  |  New (1276)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Open (277)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Point (585)  |  Potentia (3)  |  Precede (23)  |  Pride (85)  |  Real (160)  |  Reveal (153)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Shortest (16)  |  Shortest Distance (2)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (35)  |  Thought (996)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (650)  |  Visible (87)

When the practice of farming spread over the earth, mankind experienced its first population explosion.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Explosion (52)  |  Farming (8)  |  First (1303)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Explosion (2)  |  Practice (212)  |  Spread (86)

When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting, I speak from experience, does the study of natural history become!
From the Conclusion of Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (3rd. ed., 1861), 521.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Complex (203)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contrivance (12)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (719)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Invention (401)  |  Labor (200)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Production (190)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regard (312)  |  Savage (33)  |  Ship (70)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (703)  |  Summation (3)  |  Useful (261)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  View (498)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Workman (13)

Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science. If what is seen is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, we are engaged in science. If it is communicated through forms whose connections are not accessible to the conscious mind but are recognized intuitively as meaningful, then we are engaged in art.
'What Artistic and Scientific Experience Have in Common', Menschen (27 Jan 1921). In Albert Einstein, Helen Dukas, Banesh Hoffmann, Albert Einstein, The Human Side (1981), 37-38. The article was published in a German magazine on modern art, upon a request from the editor, Walter Hasenclever, for a few paragraphs on the idea that there was a close connection between the artistic developments and the scientific results belonging to a given epoch. (The magazine name, and editor's name are given by Ze'ev Rosenkranz, The Einstein Scrapbook (2002), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Admire (19)  |  Art (681)  |  Ask (423)  |  Asking (74)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cease (81)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Connection (171)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Engage (41)  |  Enter (145)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (978)  |  Free (240)  |  Hope (322)  |  Language (310)  |  Logic (313)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Observe (181)  |  Personal (76)  |  Portray (6)  |  Realm (88)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1095)  |  Through (846)  |  Wish (217)  |  World (1854)

Whereas you have a very expensive dept. for destroying human life, would it not be for the honour of the New World to have a little national establishment for the preservation of human life; more especially as the devouring monster, small pox, has already destroyed many millions (some say 40) more lives than there are people now on the face of the earth.
(Conclusion of a letter (14 Dec 1826) to Massachusetts Congressman Edward Everett (1794-1865), in which he outlined his experience with vaccination.)
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Face (214)  |  Honour (58)  |  Human (1517)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1873)  |  Little (718)  |  Live (651)  |  Monster (34)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1276)  |  People (1034)  |  Say (991)  |  Small (489)  |  Vaccination (7)  |  World (1854)

Whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in [science], is moved by profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Existence (484)  |  Intense (22)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Move (225)  |  Profound (105)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Successful (134)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Whoever (42)

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.
Anonymous
Widely seen, attributed to Terry Pratchett, but always without citation. This seems dubious to Webmaster, who has, so far, found no primary source to verify this quote—not found for Pratchett, nor for anyone else. (Can you help?)
Science quotes on:  |  Lack (127)  |  Often (109)  |  Result (700)  |  Wisdom (235)

With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond.
Speech, NASA Headquarters (14 Jan 2004). In Office of the Federal Register (U.S.) Staff (eds.), Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush (2007), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Gain (149)  |  Human (1517)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mars (48)  |  Mission (23)  |  Moon (252)  |  Next (238)  |  Ready (43)  |  Space (525)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Step (235)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Within each of us there is a silence, a silence as vast as the universe. And when we experience that silence, we remember who we are.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 189
Science quotes on:  |  Remember (189)  |  Silence (62)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vast (188)

Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. Hence without theory there is no learning.
In The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Learning (291)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Question (652)  |  Theory (1016)

Yet, hermit and stoic as he was, he was really fond of sympathy, and threw himself heartily and childlike into the company of young people whom he loved, and whom he delighted to entertain, as he only could, with the varied and endless anecdotes of his experiences by field and river: and he was always ready to lead a huckleberry-party or a search for chestnuts and grapes.
In magazine article, 'Thoreau', The Atlantic (Aug 1862), 10, 240. Emerson is credited as author on the Contents page.
Science quotes on:  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Chestnut (2)  |  Company (63)  |  Delight (111)  |  Endless (61)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Field (378)  |  Fond (13)  |  Grape (4)  |  Hermit (2)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lead (391)  |  Love (328)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1034)  |  River (141)  |  Search (175)  |  Stoic (3)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Young (253)

You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity. When you get it right, it is obvious that it is right—at least if you have any experience—because usually what happens is that more comes out than goes in. … The inexperienced, the crackpots, and people like that, make guesses that are simple, but you can immediately see that they are wrong, so that does not count. Others, the inexperienced students, make guesses that are very complicated, and it sort of looks as if it is all right, but I know it is not true because the truth always turns out to be simpler than you thought.
In The Character of Physical Law (1965), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Count (107)  |  Guess (67)  |  Happen (282)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Inexperienced (2)  |  Know (1539)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1034)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1095)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Student (317)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Usually (176)  |  Wrong (247)

You can’t discuss the ocean with a well frog—he’s limited by the space he lives in. [A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.]
As translated by Burton Watson in The Complete Works Of Chuang Tzu (1968, 2013), 126. A free translation is given in brackets.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceive (100)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Frog (44)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Short-Sighted (5)  |  Tunnel Vision (2)

You have to have a lot of ideas. First, if you want to make discoveries, it’s a good thing to have good ideas. And second, you have to have a sort of sixth sense—the result of judgment and experience—which ideas are worth following up. I seem to have the first thing, a lot of ideas, and I also seem to have good judgment as to which are the bad ideas that I should just ignore, and the good ones, that I’d better follow up.
As quoted by Nancy Rouchette, The Journal of NIH Research (Jul 1990), 2, 63. Reprinted in Linus Pauling, Barclay Kamb, Linus Pauling: Selected Scientific Papers, Vol. 2, Biomolecular Sciences (2001), 1101.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Better (495)  |  Discovery (839)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  Good (907)  |  Idea (882)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Lot (151)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (786)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (505)  |  Worth (173)

You know we’re constantly taking. We don’t make most of the food we eat, we don’t grow it, anyway. We wear clothes other people make, we speak a language other people developed, we use a mathematics other people evolved and spent their lives building. I mean we’re constantly taking things. It’s a wonderful ecstatic feeling to create something and put it into the pool of human experience and knowledge.
Expressing the driving force behind his passion. Interview with Rolling Stone writer, Steven Levy (late Nov 1983). As quoted in Nick Bilton, 'The 30-Year-Old Macintosh and a Lost Conversation With Steve Jobs' (24 Jan 2014), on New York Times blog web page. Levy appended a transcript of the interview to an updated Kindle version of his book, Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything.
Science quotes on:  |  Building (158)  |  Clothes (11)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Create (252)  |  Creating (7)  |  Develop (279)  |  Eat (108)  |  Ecstatic (3)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Food (214)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Human (1517)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Language (310)  |  Live (651)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1034)  |  Pool (16)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spent (85)  |  Taking (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)  |  Wearing (2)  |  Wonder (252)  |  Wonderful (156)

You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralising invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.
Letter to her father, Ellis Franklin (undated, summer 1940? while she was an undergraduate at Cambridge). Excerpted in Brenda Maddox, The Dark Lady of DNA (2002), 60-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Apart (7)  |  Caution (24)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Guard (19)  |  Invention (401)  |  Life (1873)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Real (160)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)

You must remember that nothing happens quite by chance. It’s a question of accretion of information and experience … it’s just chance that I happened to be here at this particular time when there was available and at my disposal the great experience of all the investigators who plodded along for a number of years.
on his discovery of the polio vaccine, in Breakthrough: The Saga of Jonas Salk by Richard Carter (1965).
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Chance (245)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Information (173)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Number (712)  |  Question (652)  |  Remember (189)  |  Time (1913)  |  Year (965)

You’ve watched the Star Trek and the Star Wars and all those movies, and everything is evil looking and all sharp and angular. But on the moon it’s not that way at all. It’s all smooth and…just sort of rounded, general rolling terrain except for the individual rocks and things. And they were angular, but the general impression was just the rounded mountains that came down and then rolled into the valley, and then the valley rolled away to the horizon… it was mostly gray in color, but some of the rocks were white and some were gray…. It was just tremendously exciting to stand on the moon. I can’t even put into words the excitement that I experienced as I stood there looking across this dramatic landscape, which was absolutely lifeless.
Describing his first impression of the moon landscape and sky, as quoted in Colin Burgess, Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of Apollo, 1969-1975 (2010), 422-423.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Color (155)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Evil (122)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Gray (9)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Impression (118)  |  Individual (420)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Look (584)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Rock (177)  |  Rolling (4)  |  Rounded (2)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star Trek (2)  |  Star Wars (3)  |  Terrain (6)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Valley (37)  |  White (132)  |  Word (650)

Rosalind Franklin quote: In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer
Your theories are those which you and many other people find easiest and pleasantest to believe, but, so far as I can see, they have no foundation other than they lead to a pleasant view of life … I agree that faith is essential to success in life … but I do not accept your definition of faith, i.e. belief in life after death. In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining … I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.
Letter to her father, Ellis Franklin (undated, summer 1940? while she was an undergraduate at Cambridge). Excerpted in Brenda Maddox, The Dark Lady of DNA (2002), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Aim (175)  |  Belief (616)  |  Best (468)  |  Death (407)  |  Definition (239)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Faith (210)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Future (467)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lot (151)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1034)  |  Pleasantness (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  See (1095)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1016)  |  View (498)  |  View Of Life (7)  |  World (1854)  |  Worth (173)


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.