TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index F > Category: Finally

Finally Quotes (26 quotes)

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.
In Specimen Days & Collect (1882), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Find (1014)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Politics (122)  |  Remain (355)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Wear (20)

All interesting issues in natural history are questions of relative frequency, not single examples. Everything happens once amidst the richness of nature. But when an unanticipated phenomenon occurs again and again–finally turning into an expectation–then theories are overturned.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Amidst (2)  |  Everything (489)  |  Example (98)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Happen (282)  |  History (716)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Issue (46)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Overturn (2)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Question (649)  |  Relative (42)  |  Richness (15)  |  Single (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unanticipated (2)

But now that I was finally here, standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn’t summon the energy to care.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Energy (373)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount Everest (6)  |  Stand (284)  |  Summit (27)  |  Summon (11)

Chemistry is not a primitive science like geometry and astronomy; it is constructed from the debris of a previous scientific formation; a formation half chimerical and half positive, itself found on the treasure slowly amassed by the practical discoveries of metallurgy, medicine, industry and domestic economy. It has to do with alchemy, which pretended to enrich its adepts by teaching them to manufacture gold and silver, to shield them from diseases by the preparation of the panacea, and, finally, to obtain for them perfect felicity by identifying them with the soul of the world and the universal spirit.
From Les Origines de l’Alchimie (1885), 1-2. Translation as quoted in Harry Shipley Fry, 'An Outline of the History of Chemistry Symbolically Represented in a Rookwood Fountain', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (1 Sep 1922), 14, No. 9, 868. From the original French, “La Chimie n’est pas une science primitive, comme la géométrie ou l’astronomie; elle s’est constituée sur les débris d’une formation scientifique antérieure; formation demi-chimérique et demi-positive, fondée elle-même sur le trésor lentement amassé des découvertes pratiques de la métallurgie, de la médecine, de l’industrie et de l’économie domestique. Il s’agit de l’alchimie, qui prétendait à la fois enrichir ses adeptes en leur apprenant à fabriquer l’or et l’argent, les mettre à l’abri des maladies par la préparation de la panacée, enfin leur procurer le bonheur parfait en les identifiant avec l’âme du monde et l’esprit universel.”
Science quotes on:  |  Adept (3)  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Amass (6)  |  Amassed (2)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chimerical (2)  |  Construct (129)  |  Constructed (3)  |  Debris (7)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Felicity (4)  |  Formation (100)  |  Found (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gold (101)  |  Half (63)  |  Identifying (2)  |  Industry (159)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Metallurgy (3)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Panacea (2)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Positive (98)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Previous (17)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Shield (8)  |  Silver (49)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Universal (198)  |  World (1850)

Finally, from what we now know about the cosmos, to think that all this was created for just one species among the tens of millions of species who live on one planet circling one of a couple of hundred billion stars that are located in one galaxy among hundreds of billions of galaxies, all of which are in one universe among perhaps an infinite number of universes all nestled within a grand cosmic multiverse, is provincially insular and anthropocentrically blinkered. Which is more likely? That the universe was designed just for us, or that we see the universe as having been designed just for us?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropocentric (2)  |  Billion (104)  |  Billions (7)  |  Circle (117)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Couple (9)  |  Create (245)  |  Design (203)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Grand (29)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hundreds (6)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Likely (36)  |  Live (650)  |  Locate (7)  |  Millions (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiverse (2)  |  Number (710)  |  Planet (402)  |  Provincial (2)  |  See (1094)  |  Species (435)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tens (3)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)

He saw virus particles shaped like snakes, in negative images. They were white cobras tangled among themselves, like the hair of Medusa. They were the face of nature herself, the obscene goddess revealed naked. This life form thing was breathtakingly beautiful. As he stared at it, he found himself being pulled out of the human world into a world where moral boundaries blur and finally dissolve completely. He was lost in wonder and admiration, even though he knew that he was the prey.
The Hot Zone
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blur (8)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Cobra (2)  |  Completely (137)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Goddess (9)  |  Hair (25)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Image (97)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life Form (6)  |  Lose (165)  |  Moral (203)  |  Naked (10)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Negative (66)  |  Obscene (3)  |  Particle (200)  |  Prey (13)  |  Pull (43)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Shape (77)  |  Snake (29)  |  Star (460)  |  Stare (9)  |  Tangle (8)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Virus (32)  |  White (132)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)

His spiritual insights were in three major areas: First, he has inspired mankind to see the world anew as the ultimate reality. Second, he perceived and described the physical universe itself as immanently divine. And finally, he challenged us to accept the ultimate demands of modern science which assign humanity no real or ultimate importance in the universe while also aspiring us to lives of spiritual celebration attuned to the awe, beauty and wonder about us.
Written about Robinson Jeffers by John Courtney, Vice-President of the Tor House Foundation, in online article, 'Robinson Jeffers - Pantheist poet' on pantheism.net website.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Anew (19)  |  Area (33)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Assign (15)  |  Attune (2)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Celebration (7)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Demand (131)  |  Describe (132)  |  Divine (112)  |  First (1302)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immanently (2)  |  Importance (299)  |  Insight (107)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Live (650)  |  Major (88)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Physical (518)  |  Real (159)  |  Reality (274)  |  Second (66)  |  See (1094)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)

I am of the decided opinion, that mathematical instruction must have for its first aim a deep penetration and complete command of abstract mathematical theory together with a clear insight into the structure of the system, and doubt not that the instruction which accomplishes this is valuable and interesting even if it neglects practical applications. If the instruction sharpens the understanding, if it arouses the scientific interest, whether mathematical or philosophical, if finally it calls into life an esthetic feeling for the beauty of a scientific edifice, the instruction will take on an ethical value as well, provided that with the interest it awakens also the impulse toward scientific activity. I contend, therefore, that even without reference to its applications mathematics in the high schools has a value equal to that of the other subjects of instruction.
In 'Ueber das Lehrziel im mathemalischen Unterricht der höheren Realanstalten', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, 2, 192. (The Annual Report of the German Mathematical Association. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstract Mathematics (9)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Activity (218)  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Aim (175)  |  Application (257)  |  Arouse (13)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Call (781)  |  Clear (111)  |  Command (60)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contend (8)  |  Decide (50)  |  Deep (241)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Equal (88)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Practical (225)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reference (33)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Toward (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

I can see him [Sylvester] now, with his white beard and few locks of gray hair, his forehead wrinkled o’er with thoughts, writing rapidly his figures and formulae on the board, sometimes explaining as he wrote, while we, his listeners, caught the reflected sounds from the board. But stop, something is not right, he pauses, his hand goes to his forehead to help his thought, he goes over the work again, emphasizes the leading points, and finally discovers his difficulty. Perhaps it is some error in his figures, perhaps an oversight in the reasoning. Sometimes, however, the difficulty is not elucidated, and then there is not much to the rest of the lecture. But at the next lecture we would hear of some new discovery that was the outcome of that difficulty, and of some article for the Journal, which he had begun. If a text-book had been taken up at the beginning, with the intention of following it, that text-book was most likely doomed to oblivion for the rest of the term, or until the class had been made listeners to every new thought and principle that had sprung from the laboratory of his mind, in consequence of that first difficulty. Other difficulties would soon appear, so that no text-book could last more than half of the term. In this way his class listened to almost all of the work that subsequently appeared in the Journal. It seemed to be the quality of his mind that he must adhere to one subject. He would think about it, talk about it to his class, and finally write about it for the Journal. The merest accident might start him, but once started, every moment, every thought was given to it, and, as much as possible, he read what others had done in the same direction; but this last seemed to be his real point; he could not read without finding difficulties in the way of understanding the author. Thus, often his own work reproduced what had been done by others, and he did not find it out until too late.
A notable example of this is in his theory of cyclotomic functions, which he had reproduced in several foreign journals, only to find that he had been greatly anticipated by foreign authors. It was manifest, one of the critics said, that the learned professor had not read Rummer’s elementary results in the theory of ideal primes. Yet Professor Smith’s report on the theory of numbers, which contained a full synopsis of Kummer’s theory, was Professor Sylvester’s constant companion.
This weakness of Professor Sylvester, in not being able to read what others had done, is perhaps a concomitant of his peculiar genius. Other minds could pass over little difficulties and not be troubled by them, and so go on to a final understanding of the results of the author. But not so with him. A difficulty, however small, worried him, and he was sure to have difficulties until the subject had been worked over in his own way, to correspond with his own mode of thought. To read the work of others, meant therefore to him an almost independent development of it. Like the man whose pleasure in life is to pioneer the way for society into the forests, his rugged mind could derive satisfaction only in hewing out its own paths; and only when his efforts brought him into the uncleared fields of mathematics did he find his place in the Universe.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 266-267.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Adhere (3)  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Appear (122)  |  Article (22)  |  Author (175)  |  Beard (8)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Board (13)  |  Book (413)  |  Bring (95)  |  Class (168)  |  Companion (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contain (68)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Critic (21)  |  Derive (70)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doom (34)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Error (339)  |  Example (98)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Figure (162)  |  Final (121)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forehead (3)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Forest (161)  |  Formula (102)  |  Full (68)  |  Function (235)  |  Genius (301)  |  Give (208)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Hair (25)  |  Half (63)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hear (144)  |  Help (116)  |  Hew (3)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intention (46)  |  Journal (31)  |  Ernst Eduard Kummer (3)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Last (425)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listener (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notable (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Oversight (4)  |  Pass (241)  |  Path (159)  |  Pause (6)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Place (192)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prime (11)  |  Principle (530)  |  Professor (133)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Read (308)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Report (42)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Rugged (7)  |  Rum (3)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Several (33)  |  Small (489)  |  Smith (3)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Start (237)  |  Stop (89)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subsequently (2)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Synopsis (2)  |  Talk (108)  |  Term (357)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Numbers (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)  |  White (132)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)  |  Wrinkle (4)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

I hear one day the word “mountain,” and I ask someone “what is a mountain? I have never seen one.”
I join others in discussions of mountains.
One day I see in a book a picture of a mountain.
And I decide I must climb one.
I travel to a place where there is a mountain.
At the base of the mountain I see there are lots of paths to climb.
I start on a path that leads to the top of the mountain.
I see that the higher I climb, the more the paths join together.
After much climbing the many paths join into one.
I climb till I am almost exhausted but I force myself and continue to climb.
Finally I reach the top and far above me there are stars.
I look far down and the village twinkles far below.
It would be easy to go back down there but it is so beautiful up here.
I am just below the stars.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Base (120)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Below (26)  |  Book (413)  |  Climb (39)  |  Continue (179)  |  Decide (50)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Far (158)  |  Force (497)  |  Hear (144)  |  High (370)  |  Join (32)  |  Lead (391)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Picture (148)  |  Place (192)  |  Reach (286)  |  See (1094)  |  Someone (24)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Start (237)  |  Together (392)  |  Top (100)  |  Travel (125)  |  Twinkle (6)  |  Village (13)  |  Word (650)

I shuddered when I saw a crimson flame through the porthole instead of the usual starry sky at the night horizon of the planet. Vast pillars of light were bursting into the sky, melting into it, and flooding over with all the colors of the rainbow. An area of red luminescence merged smoothly into the black of the cosmos. The intense and dynamic changes in the colors and forms of the pillars and garlands made me think of visual music. Finally, we saw that we had entered directly into the aurora borealis.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Area (33)  |  Aurora (3)  |  Aurora Borealis (2)  |  Black (46)  |  Burst (41)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Crimson (4)  |  Directly (25)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  Enter (145)  |  Flame (44)  |  Flood (52)  |  Form (976)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Instead (23)  |  Intense (22)  |  Light (635)  |  Luminescence (2)  |  Melt (16)  |  Merge (3)  |  Music (133)  |  Night (133)  |  Pillar (10)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Red (38)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Shudder (2)  |  Sky (174)  |  Smoothly (2)  |  Starry (2)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Vast (188)  |  Visual (16)

It is not always possible to know what one has learned, or when the dawning will arrive. You will continue to shift, sift, to shake out and to double back. The synthesis that finally occurs can be in the most unexpected place and the most unexpected time. My charge ... is to be alert to the dawnings.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alert (13)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Back (395)  |  Charge (63)  |  Continue (179)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Double (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occur (151)  |  Place (192)  |  Possible (560)  |  Shake (43)  |  Shift (45)  |  Sift (3)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Will (2350)

It is not surprising, in view of the polydynamic constitution of the genuinely mathematical mind, that many of the major heros of the science, men like Desargues and Pascal, Descartes and Leibnitz, Newton, Gauss and Bolzano, Helmholtz and Clifford, Riemann and Salmon and Plücker and Poincaré, have attained to high distinction in other fields not only of science but of philosophy and letters too. And when we reflect that the very greatest mathematical achievements have been due, not alone to the peering, microscopic, histologic vision of men like Weierstrass, illuminating the hidden recesses, the minute and intimate structure of logical reality, but to the larger vision also of men like Klein who survey the kingdoms of geometry and analysis for the endless variety of things that flourish there, as the eye of Darwin ranged over the flora and fauna of the world, or as a commercial monarch contemplates its industry, or as a statesman beholds an empire; when we reflect not only that the Calculus of Probability is a creation of mathematics but that the master mathematician is constantly required to exercise judgment—judgment, that is, in matters not admitting of certainty—balancing probabilities not yet reduced nor even reducible perhaps to calculation; when we reflect that he is called upon to exercise a function analogous to that of the comparative anatomist like Cuvier, comparing theories and doctrines of every degree of similarity and dissimilarity of structure; when, finally, we reflect that he seldom deals with a single idea at a tune, but is for the most part engaged in wielding organized hosts of them, as a general wields at once the division of an army or as a great civil administrator directs from his central office diverse and scattered but related groups of interests and operations; then, I say, the current opinion that devotion to mathematics unfits the devotee for practical affairs should be known for false on a priori grounds. And one should be thus prepared to find that as a fact Gaspard Monge, creator of descriptive geometry, author of the classic Applications de l’analyse à la géométrie; Lazare Carnot, author of the celebrated works, Géométrie de position, and Réflections sur la Métaphysique du Calcul infinitesimal; Fourier, immortal creator of the Théorie analytique de la chaleur; Arago, rightful inheritor of Monge’s chair of geometry; Poncelet, creator of pure projective geometry; one should not be surprised, I say, to find that these and other mathematicians in a land sagacious enough to invoke their aid, rendered, alike in peace and in war, eminent public service.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 32-33.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Administrator (11)  |  Admit (49)  |  Affair (29)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alike (60)  |  Alone (324)  |  Analogous (7)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Application (257)  |  François Arago (15)  |  Army (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Author (175)  |  Balance (82)  |  Behold (19)  |  Bernhard Bolzano (2)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Lazare-Nicolas-Marguerite Carnot (4)  |  Celebrated (2)  |  Central (81)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chair (25)  |  Civil (26)  |  Classic (13)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Compare (76)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Current (122)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (277)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Descriptive Geometry (3)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dissimilar (6)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Division (67)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Due (143)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Empire (17)  |  Endless (60)  |  Engage (41)  |  Enough (341)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  False (105)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flora (9)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Baron Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (17)  |  Function (235)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Genuinely (4)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Group (83)  |  Hero (45)  |  Hide (70)  |  High (370)  |  Histology (4)  |  Host (16)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Industry (159)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Inheritor (2)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Invoke (7)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Felix Klein (15)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Land (131)  |  Large (398)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Letter (117)  |  Logical (57)  |  Major (88)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Monarch (6)  |  Gaspard Monge (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Office (71)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Blaise Pascal (81)  |  Peace (116)  |  Peer (13)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Henri Poincaré (99)  |  Jean-Victor Poncelet (2)  |  Position (83)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Probability (135)  |  Projective Geometry (3)  |  Public Service (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Range (104)  |  Reality (274)  |  Recess (8)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reducible (2)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Relate (26)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Bernhard Riemann (7)  |  Rightful (3)  |  Sagacious (7)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Service (110)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Single (365)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Survey (36)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tune (20)  |  Unfit (13)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  War (233)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Wield (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute’s Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smart-ass.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979, 1997), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Award (13)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Galactic (6)  |  Institute (8)  |  Lynching (2)  |  Mob (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Prize (13)  |  Realization (44)  |  Respectable (8)  |  Smart (33)  |  Stand (284)  |  Startle (6)  |  Thing (1914)

It’s hard to explain to people what the significance of an invention is, so it’s hard to get funding. The first thing they say is that it can’t be done. Then they say, “You didn't do it right.” Then, when you’ve done it, they finally say, “Well, it was obvious anyway.”
http://www.thetech.org/nmot/detail.cfm?id=95&st=awardDate&qt=1997&kiosk=Off
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Explain (334)  |  First (1302)  |  Funding (20)  |  Hard (246)  |  Invention (400)  |  Obvious (128)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Significance (114)  |  Thing (1914)

Just as knowing how a magic trick is done spoils its wonder, so let us be grateful that wherever science and reason turn they finally plunge into darkness.
John Mitchinson and John Lloyd, If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren’t There More Happy People?: Smart Quotes for Dumb Times (2009), 274.
Science quotes on:  |  Darkness (72)  |  Grateful (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Let (64)  |  Magic (92)  |  Plunge (11)  |  Reason (766)  |  Spoil (8)  |  Trick (36)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Wonder (251)

Knowledge and wonder are the dyad of our worthy lives as intellectual beings. Voyager did wonders for our knowledge, but performed just as mightily in the service of wonder–and the two elements are complementary, not independent or opposed. The thought fills me with awe–a mechanical contraption that could fit in the back of a pickup truck, traveling through space for twelve years, dodging around four giant bodies and their associated moons, and finally sending exquisite photos across more than four light-hours of space from the farthest planet in our solar system.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Associate (25)  |  Awe (43)  |  Back (395)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Contraption (3)  |  Dodge (3)  |  Element (322)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Far (158)  |  Fill (67)  |  Fit (139)  |  Giant (73)  |  Hour (192)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Live (650)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mightily (2)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Perform (123)  |  Planet (402)  |  Send (23)  |  Service (110)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (523)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Truck (3)  |  Two (936)  |  Voyager (3)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

Many small strikes of a hammer will finally have as much effect as one very heavy blow.
From the original French, “Plusieurs petits coups de Marteau ne fassent enfin autant d’effet qu’vn fort grand coup,” in letter (11 Mar 1640) to Père Marin Mersenne (AT III 36), collected in Lettres de Mr Descartes (1659), Vol. 2, 211-212. English version by Webmaster using online resources. See context in longer quote that begins, “I have no doubt….” on the René Descartes Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Blow (45)  |  Effect (414)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Small (489)  |  Strike (72)  |  Will (2350)

Reaching the Moon by three-man vessels in one long bound from Earth is like casting a thin thread across space. The main effort, in the coming decades, will be to strengthen this thread; to make it a cord, a cable, and, finally, a broad highway.
In 'The Coming Decades in Space', Boy’s Life (Jun 1972), 8. Reprinted in The Beginning and the End (1977), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Bound (120)  |  Broad (28)  |  Cable (11)  |  Cast (69)  |  Casting (10)  |  Coming (114)  |  Cord (3)  |  Decade (66)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effort (243)  |  Highway (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Main (29)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  Reach (286)  |  Space (523)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Thin (18)  |  Thread (36)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Will (2350)

The cities and mansions that people dream of are those in which they finally live.
In The Story of Utopias (1922), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Dream (222)  |  Live (650)  |  Mansion (4)  |  People (1031)

The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blackness (4)  |  Change (639)  |  Christmas (13)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crumble (5)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Far (158)  |  Farther (51)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fragile (26)  |  God (776)  |  Hang (46)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marble (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Remind (16)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Size (62)  |  Space (523)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tree (269)  |  Warm (74)

The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: At first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.
In 'Field Theory and the Phase Space', collected in Melvin Herman Marx, Psychological Theory: Contemporary Readings (1951), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contradictory (8)  |  Fancy (50)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Following (16)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Last (425)  |  Looking (191)  |  Merely (315)  |  Multitude (50)  |  New (1273)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Objection (34)  |  Pure (299)  |  Raised (3)  |  Reach (286)  |  Show (353)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Usually (176)  |  Worth (172)  |  Wrong (246)

The more a science advances, the more will it be possible to understand immediately results which formerly could be demonstrated only by means of lengthy intermediate considerations: a mathematical subject cannot be considered as finally completed until this end has been attained.
In Formensystem binärer Formen (1875), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Attain (126)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  End (603)  |  Formerly (5)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Lengthy (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Possible (560)  |  Result (700)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)

The origin of a science is usually to be sought for not in any systematic treatise, but in the investigation and solution of some particular problem. This is especially the case in the ordinary history of the great improvements in any department of mathematical science. Some problem, mathematical or physical, is proposed, which is found to be insoluble by known methods. This condition of insolubility may arise from one of two causes: Either there exists no machinery powerful enough to effect the required reduction, or the workmen are not sufficiently expert to employ their tools in the performance of an entirely new piece of work. The problem proposed is, however, finally solved, and in its solution some new principle, or new application of old principles, is necessarily introduced. If a principle is brought to light it is soon found that in its application it is not necessarily limited to the particular question which occasioned its discovery, and it is then stated in an abstract form and applied to problems of gradually increasing generality.
Other principles, similar in their nature, are added, and the original principle itself receives such modifications and extensions as are from time to time deemed necessary. The same is true of new applications of old principles; the application is first thought to be merely confined to a particular problem, but it is soon recognized that this problem is but one, and generally a very simple one, out of a large class, to which the same process of investigation and solution are applicable. The result in both of these cases is the same. A time comes when these several problems, solutions, and principles are grouped together and found to produce an entirely new and consistent method; a nomenclature and uniform system of notation is adopted, and the principles of the new method become entitled to rank as a distinct science.
In A Treatise on Projections (1880), Introduction, xi. Published as United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Treasury Department Document, No. 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Add (42)  |  Adopt (22)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arise (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Bring (95)  |  Case (102)  |  Cause (561)  |  Class (168)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deem (7)  |  Department (93)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Effect (414)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enough (341)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entitle (3)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expert (67)  |  Extension (60)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generally (15)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  History (716)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increase (225)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notation (28)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  Original (61)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physical (518)  |  Piece (39)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Produce (117)  |  Propose (24)  |  Question (649)  |  Rank (69)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Seek (218)  |  Several (33)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (145)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Tool (129)  |  Treatise (46)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

We should therefore, with grace and optimism, embrace NOMA’s tough-minded demand: Acknowledge the personal character of these human struggles about morals and meanings, and stop looking for definite answers in nature’s construction. But many people cannot bear to surrender nature as a ‘transitional object’–a baby’s warm blanket for our adult comfort. But when we do (for we must) , nature can finally emerge in her true form: not as a distorted mirror of our needs, but as our most fascinating companion. Only then can we unite the patches built by our separate magisteria into a beautiful and coherent quilt called wisdom.
From essay, 'Non-overlapping Magisteria', Natural History magazine (Mar 1997), 106, 16–22 and 60–62. Collected in Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life (1999), 178. [NOMA or Non-overlapping magisteria, is viewpoint advocated by Gould, that science and religion each represent different areas of inquiry, fact vs. values, and thus he aims to resolve the supposed conflict between science and religion. He draws the term “magisterium” from an encyclical of Pope Pius XII. about science and religion. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Adult (24)  |  Answer (389)  |  Baby (29)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blanket (10)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Coherent (14)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Companion (22)  |  Construction (114)  |  Definite (114)  |  Demand (131)  |  Distort (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Form (976)  |  Grace (31)  |  Human (1512)  |  Looking (191)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Patch (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Personal (75)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Separate (151)  |  Stop (89)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Tough (22)  |  Transitional (2)  |  True (239)  |  Unite (43)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wisdom (235)

With the extension of mathematical knowledge will it not finally become impossible for the single investigator to embrace all departments of this knowledge? In answer let me point out how thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
In 'Mathematical Problems', Lecture at the International Congress of Mathematics, Paris, (8 Aug 1900). Translated by Dr. Maby Winton Newson in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (1902), 8, 479. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath's Quotation-book (1914), 94-95. It is reprinted in Jeremy Gray, The Hilbert Challenge (2000), 282.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Answer (389)  |  Assist (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Branch (155)  |  Cast (69)  |  Casting (10)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Department (93)  |  Development (441)  |  Early (196)  |  Easily (36)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Extension (60)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hand In Hand (5)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Individual (420)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Invention (400)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Let (64)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Out (9)  |  Possible (560)  |  Real (159)  |  Same (166)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simpler (8)  |  Single (365)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tool (129)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.