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: “The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index G > Category: Generalization

Generalization Quotes (61 quotes)
Generalisation Quotes

[This] may prove to be the beginning of some embracing generalization, which will throw light, not only on radioactive processes, but on elements in general and the Periodic Law.... Chemical homogeneity is no longer a guarantee that any supposed element is not a mixture of several of different atomic weights, or that any atomic weight is not merely a mean number.
From Chemical Society's Annual Reports (1910), Vol. 7, 285. As quoted in Francis Aston in Lecture (1936) on 'Forty Years of Atomic Theory', collected in Needham and Pagel (eds.) in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge Arranged by the History of Science Committee, (1938), 100. Cited in Alfred Walter Stewart, Recent Advances in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry (1920), 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Weight (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  General (521)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Homogeneity (9)  |  Isotope (4)  |  Law (913)  |  Light (635)  |  Mean (810)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Number (710)  |  Periodic Law (6)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Process (439)  |  Prove (261)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Several (33)  |  Supposed (5)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)

A mathematician who can only generalise is like a monkey who can only climb UP a tree. ... And a mathematician who can only specialise is like a monkey who can only climb DOWN a tree. In fact neither the up monkey nor the down monkey is a viable creature. A real monkey must find food and escape his enemies and so must be able to incessantly climb up and down. A real mathematician must be able to generalise and specialise. ... There is, I think, a moral for the teacher. A teacher of traditional mathematics is in danger of becoming a down monkey, and a teacher of modern mathematics an up monkey. The down teacher dishing out one routine problem after another may never get off the ground, never attain any general idea. and the up teacher dishing out one definition after the other may never climb down from his verbiage, may never get down to solid ground, to something of tangible interest for his pupils.
From 'A Story With A Moral', Mathematical Gazette (Jun 1973), 57, No. 400, 86-87
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Climb (39)  |  Creature (242)  |  Danger (127)  |  Definition (238)  |  Down (455)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Escape (85)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Food (213)  |  General (521)  |  Ground (222)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incessant (9)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Real (159)  |  Routine (26)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tree (269)  |  Up (5)  |  Verbiage (3)

Although with the majority of those who study and practice in these capacities [engineers, builders, surveyors, geographers, navigators, hydrographers, astronomers], secondhand acquirements, trite formulas, and appropriate tables are sufficient for ordinary purposes, yet these trite formulas and familiar rules were originally or gradually deduced from the profound investigations of the most gifted minds, from the dawn of science to the present day. … The further developments of the science, with its possible applications to larger purposes of human utility and grander theoretical generalizations, is an achievement reserved for a few of the choicest spirits, touched from time to time by Heaven to these highest issues. The intellectual world is filled with latent and undiscovered truth as the material world is filled with latent electricity.
In Orations and Speeches, Vol. 3 (1870), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Acquirement (3)  |  Application (257)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Builder (16)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Development (441)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Far (158)  |  Fill (67)  |  Formula (102)  |  Geographer (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Grand (29)  |  Heaven (266)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hydrographer (3)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Issue (46)  |  Large (398)  |  Latent (13)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Material World (8)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originally (7)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Present Day (5)  |  Profound (105)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Rule (307)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Table (105)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Trite (5)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undiscovered (15)  |  Utility (52)  |  World (1850)

An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.
Scientific Method in Philosophy (1914), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Base (120)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Planet (402)  |  Progress (492)  |  Single (365)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Watch (118)  |  Youth (109)

Analogy is a wonderful, useful and most important form of thinking, and biology is saturated with it. Nothing is worse than a horrible mass of undigested facts, and facts are indigestible unless there is some rhyme or reason to them. The physicist, with his facts, seeks reason; the biologist seeks something very much like rhyme, and rhyme is a kind of analogy.... This analogizing, this fine sweeping ability to see likenesses in the midst of differences is the great glory of biology, but biologists don't know it.... They have always been so fascinated and overawed by the superior prestige of exact physical science that they feel they have to imitate it.... In its central content, biology is not accurate thinking, but accurate observation and imaginative thinking, with great sweeping generalizations.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 98-100.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Awe (43)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Central (81)  |  Content (75)  |  Difference (355)  |  Exact (75)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Form (976)  |  Glory (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imitate (18)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Importance (299)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Mass (160)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Prestige (16)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rhyme (6)  |  Saturation (9)  |  See (1094)  |  Seek (218)  |  Something (718)  |  Superior (88)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Undigested (2)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)

Both religion and natural science require a belief in God for their activities, to the former He is the starting point, and to the latter the goal of every thought process. To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view.
Lecture, 'Religion and Natural Science' (1937) In Max Planck and Frank Gaynor (trans.), Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1949), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Crown (39)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Former (138)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Point (584)  |  Process (439)  |  Religion (369)  |  Require (229)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Start (237)  |  Thought (995)  |  View (496)  |  World (1850)

Chemistry teaches us to regard under one aspect, as various types of combustion or oxidation, the burning of a candle, the rusting of metals, the physiological process of respiration, and the explosion of gunpowder. In each process there is the one common fact that oxygen enters into new chemical combinations. Similarly to the physicist, the fall of the traditional apple of Newton, the revolution of the earth and planets round the sun, the apparitions of comets, and the ebb and flow of the tides are all phases of the universal law of gravitation. A race ignorant of the nature of combustion or of the law of gravitation, and ignorant of the need of such generalisations, could not be considered to have advanced far along the paths of scientific discovery.
In 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Apple (46)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Burn (99)  |  Candle (32)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Combination (150)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Comet (65)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ebb (4)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flow (89)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Oxidation (8)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Path (159)  |  Phase (37)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Race (278)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rust (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sun (407)  |  Teach (299)  |  Tide (37)  |  Type (171)  |  Various (205)

During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.
In Hermann von Helmholtz and Edmund Atkinson (trans.), 'The Aim and Progress of Physical Science', Popular Scientific Lectures on Scientific Subjects (1873), 363.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Detail (150)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  First (1302)  |  Gift (105)  |  Baron Alexander von Humboldt (21)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Present (630)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scan (4)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Task (152)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vast (188)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

During the half-century that has elapsed since the enunciation of the cell-theory by Schleiden and Schwann, in 1838-39, it has became ever more clearly apparent that the key to all ultimate biological problems must, in the last analysis, be sought in the cell. It was the cell-theory that first brought the structure of plants and animals under one point of view by revealing their common plan of organization. It was through the cell-theory that Kolliker and Remak opened the way to an understanding of the nature of embryological development, and the law of genetic continuity lying at the basis of inheritance. It was the cell-­theory again which, in the hands of Virchaw and Max Schultze, inaugurated a new era in the history of physiology and pathology, by showing that all the various functions of the body, in health and in disease, are but the outward expression of cell­-activities. And at a still later day it was through the cell-theory that Hertwig, Fol, Van Beneden, and Strasburger solved the long-standing riddle of the fertilization of the egg, and the mechanism of hereditary transmission. No other biological generalization, save only the theory of organic evolution, has brought so many apparently diverse phenomena under a common point of view or has accomplished more far the unification of knowledge. The cell-theory must therefore be placed beside the evolution-theory as one of the foundation stones of modern biology.
In The Cell in Development and Inheritance (1896), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Basis (180)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Body (557)  |  Cell Theory (4)  |  Century (319)  |  Common (447)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Development (441)  |  Disease (340)  |  Egg (71)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Enunciation (7)  |  Era (51)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fertilization (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Function (235)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Health (210)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Oskar Hertwig (2)  |  History (716)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Key (56)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Plan (122)  |  Plant (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Problem (731)  |  Robert Remak (2)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Save (126)  |  Theodor Schwann (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unification (11)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Rudolf Virchow (50)  |  Way (1214)

Ecology has not yet explicitly developed the kind of cohesive, simplifying generalizations exemplified by, say, the laws of physics. Nevertheless there are a number of generalizations that are already evident in what we now know about the ecosphere and that can be organized into a kind of informal set of laws of ecology.
In The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology (2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Cohesive (4)  |  Develop (278)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exemplify (5)  |  Explicit (3)  |  Informal (5)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Ecology (5)  |  Law Of Physics (5)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Organize (33)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Say (989)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)

Every science begins by accumulating observations, and presently generalizes these empirically; but only when it reaches the stage at which its empirical generalizations are included in a rational generalization does it become developed science.
In The Data of Ethics (1879), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Observation (593)  |  Rational (95)  |  Stage (152)

Generalisations which are fruitful because they reveal in a single general principle the rationale of a great many particular truths, the connections and common origins of which had not previously been seen, are found in all the sciences, and particularly in mathematics. Such generalisations are the most important of all, and their discovery is the work of genius.
From Essai sur les Fondements de nos Connaissances et sur les Caractères de la Critique Philosophique (1851), 28, as translated by Merritt H Moore in An Essay on the Foundations of Our Knowledge (1956), 24. From the original French: “Il y a dans toutes les sciences, et en mathématiques particulièrement, des généralisations fécondes, parce qu’elles nous montrent dans une vérité générale la raison d’une multitude de vérités particulières dont les liens et la commune origine n’étaient point aperçus. De telles généralisations sont des découvertes du génie, et les plus importantes de toutes.”
Science quotes on:  |  Connection (171)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Important (229)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Particular (80)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Single (365)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

Geometric writings are not rare in which one would seek in vain for an idea at all novel, for a result which sooner or later might be of service, for anything in fact which might be destined to survive in the science; and one finds instead treatises on trivial problems or investigations on special forms which have absolutely no use, no importance, which have their origin not in the science itself but in the caprice of the author; or one finds applications of known methods which have already been made thousands of times; or generalizations from known results which are so easily made that the knowledge of the latter suffices to give at once the former. Now such work is not merely useless; it is actually harmful because it produces a real incumbrance in the science and an embarrassment for the more serious investigators; and because often it crowds out certain lines of thought which might well have deserved to be studied.
From 'On Some Recent Tendencies in Geometric Investigations', Rivista di Matematica (1891), 43. In Bulletin American Mathematical Society (1904), 443.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Application (257)  |  Author (175)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Certain (557)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Destined (42)  |  Embarrassment (5)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Harmful (13)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Latter (21)  |  Line Of Thought (2)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Novel (35)  |  Origin (250)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rare (94)  |  Result (700)  |  Seek (218)  |  Serious (98)  |  Service (110)  |  Sooner Or Later (7)  |  Special (188)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Survive (87)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Use (771)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vain (86)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

How can a modern anthropologist embark upon a generalization with any hope of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion? By thinking of the organizational ideas that are present in any society as a mathematical pattern.
In Rethinking Anthropology (1961), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropologist (8)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Embark (7)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Organization (120)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Present (630)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Society (350)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

I have been able to solve a few problems of mathematical physics on which the greatest mathematicians since Euler have struggled in vain … But the pride I might have held in my conclusions was perceptibly lessened by the fact that I knew that the solution of these problems had almost always come to me as the gradual generalization of favorable examples, by a series of fortunate conjectures, after many errors. I am fain to compare myself with a wanderer on the mountains who, not knowing the path, climbs slowly and painfully upwards and often has to retrace his steps because he can go no further—then, whether by taking thought or from luck, discovers a new track that leads him on a little till at length when he reaches the summit he finds to his shame that there is a royal road by which he might have ascended, had he only the wits to find the right approach to it. In my works, I naturally said nothing about my mistake to the reader, but only described the made track by which he may now reach the same heights without difficulty.
(1891) As quoted in translation in Leo Koenigsberger and Frances A. Welby (trans.), Hermann von Helmholtz (1906), 180-181.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Compare (76)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discover (571)  |  Error (339)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Luck (44)  |  Mathematical Physics (12)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Myself (211)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Path (159)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Pride (84)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reach (286)  |  Right (473)  |  Royal (56)  |  Series (153)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Step (234)  |  Summit (27)  |  Thought (995)  |  Track (42)  |  Upward (44)  |  Vain (86)  |  Wit (61)  |  Work (1402)

I hope that in due time the chemists will justify their proceedings by some large generalisations deduced from the infinity of results which they have collected. For me I am left hopelessly behind and I will acknowledge to you that through my bad memory organic chemistry is to me a sealed book. Some of those here, [August] Hoffman for instance, consider all this however as scaffolding, which will disappear when the structure is built. I hope the structure will be worthy of the labour. I should expect a better and a quicker result from the study of the powers of matter, but then I have a predilection that way and am probably prejudiced in judgment.
Letter to Christian Schönbein (9 Dec 1852), The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein, 1836-1862 (1899), 209-210.
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Bad (185)  |  Behind (139)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Building (158)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Collection (68)  |  Consider (428)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Due (143)  |  Expect (203)  |  August Wilhelm von Hofmann (7)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Labor (200)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Memory (144)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Power (771)  |  Predilection (4)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Quickness (5)  |  Result (700)  |  Seal (19)  |  Sealed Book (2)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worth (172)

I see with much pleasure that you are working on a large work on the integral Calculus [ ... ] The reconciliation of the methods which you are planning to make, serves to clarify them mutually, and what they have in common contains very often their true metaphysics; this is why that metaphysics is almost the last thing that one discovers. The spirit arrives at the results as if by instinct; it is only on reflecting upon the route that it and others have followed that it succeeds in generalising the methods and in discovering its metaphysics.
Letter to S. F. Lacroix, 1792. Quoted in S. F. Lacroix, Traité du calcul differentiel et du calcul integral (1797), Vol. 1, xxiv, trans. Ivor Grattan-Guinness.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculus (65)  |  Clarification (8)  |  Common (447)  |  Discover (571)  |  Follow (389)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Integral (26)  |  Integral Calculus (7)  |  Integration (21)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Method (531)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planning (21)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Result (700)  |  Route (16)  |  See (1094)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)

If it were possible for a metaphysician to be a golfer, he might perhaps occasionally notice that his ball, instead of moving forward in a vertical plane (like the generality of projectiles, such as brickbats and cricket balls), skewed away gradually to the right. If he did notice it, his methods would naturally lead him to content himself with his caddies’s remark-“ye heeled that yin,” or “Ye jist sliced it.” … But a scientific man is not to be put off with such flimsy verbiage as that. He must know more. What is “Heeling”, what is “slicing”, and why would either operation (if it could be thoroughly carried out) send a ball as if to cover point, thence to long slip, and finally behind back-stop? These, as Falstaff said, are “questions to be asked.”
In 'The Unwritten Chapter on Golf, Nature (1887), 36, 502.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Ball (64)  |  Behind (139)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Cricket (8)  |  Flimsy (2)  |  Forward (104)  |  Generality (45)  |  Golfer (3)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metaphysician (7)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notice (81)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Operation (221)  |  Plane (22)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Projection (5)  |  Question (649)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Verbiage (3)  |  Vertical (4)  |  Why (491)

If the scientific method, and especially its application to human relations, is as important as we have contended, then our educational efforts must be judged largely by the degree to which they inculcate a familiarity with this method, and the reliable generalizations it has yielded thus far.
In 'Education in a Scientific Age', Can Science Save Us? (1947, 2nd ed. 1961), 66-67.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Contend (8)  |  Degree (277)  |  Education (423)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Human Relations (2)  |  Important (229)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Reliable (13)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Yield (86)

In Euclid each proposition stands by itself; its connection with others is never indicated; the leading ideas contained in its proof are not stated; general principles do not exist. In modern methods, on the other hand, the greatest importance is attached to the leading thoughts which pervade the whole; and general principles, which bring whole groups of theorems under one aspect, are given rather than separate propositions. The whole tendency is toward generalization. A straight line is considered as given in its entirety, extending both ways to infinity, while Euclid is very careful never to admit anything but finite quantities. The treatment of the infinite is in fact another fundamental difference between the two methods. Euclid avoids it, in modern mathematics it is systematically introduced, for only thus is generality obtained.
In 'Geometry', Encyclopedia Britannica (9th edition).
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (49)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Bring (95)  |  Careful (28)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contain (68)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Entirety (6)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Group (83)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obtain (164)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Separate (151)  |  Stand (284)  |  State (505)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thought (995)  |  Toward (45)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

In our day grand generalizations have been reached. The theory of the origin of species is but one of them. Another, of still wider grasp and more radical significance, is the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy, the ultimate philosophical issues of which are as yet but dimly seem-that doctrine which “binds nature fast in fate” to an extent not hitherto recognized, exacting from every antecedent its equivalent consequent, and bringing vital as well as physical phenomena under the dominion of that law of causal connexion which, so far as the human understanding has yet pierced, asserts itself everywhere in nature.
'Address Delivered Before The British Association Assembled at Belfast', (19 Aug 1874). Fragments of Science for Unscientific People: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews (1892), Vol. 2, 1801.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Binding (9)  |  Bringing (10)  |  Cause (561)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominion (11)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exacting (4)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fate (76)  |  Grandness (2)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Human (1512)  |  Issue (46)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Radical (28)  |  Reach (286)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Significance (114)  |  Species (435)  |  Still (614)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vital (89)  |  Vitality (24)

It has been said that no science is established on a firm basis unless its generalisations can be expressed in terms of number, and it is the special province of mathematics to assist the investigator in finding numerical relations between phenomena. After experiment, then mathematics. While a science is in the experimental or observational stage, there is little scope for discerning numerical relations. It is only after the different workers have “collected data” that the mathematician is able to deduce the required generalisation. Thus a Maxwell followed Faraday and a Newton completed Kepler.
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Assist (9)  |  Basis (180)  |  Collect (19)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Data (162)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Different (595)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Establish (63)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Express (192)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Firm (47)  |  Follow (389)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observational (15)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Province (37)  |  Relation (166)  |  Required (108)  |  Scope (44)  |  Special (188)  |  Stage (152)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Worker (34)

It is one of the striking generalizations of biochemistry—which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical text-books—that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature. As far as I am aware the presently accepted set of twenty amino acids was first drawn up by Watson and myself in the summer of 1953 in response to a letter of Gamow's.
'On the Genetic Code', Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1962. In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964), 811.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Base (120)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Book (413)  |  First (1302)  |  George Gamow (14)  |  Letter (117)  |  Mention (84)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Response (56)  |  Set (400)  |  Striking (48)  |  Summer (56)  |  Throughout (98)  |  James Watson (33)

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)  |  Experience (494)  |  Future (467)  |  Good (906)  |  Induction (81)  |  Logic (311)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prove (261)  |  Regard (312)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

It is, I believe, justifiable to make the generalization that anything an organic chemist can synthesize can be made without him. All he does is increase the probability that given reactions will “go”. So it is quite reasonable to assume that given sufficient time and proper conditions, nucleotides, amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids will arise by reactions that, though less probable, are as inevitable as those by which the organic chemist fulfills his predictions. So why not self-duplicating virus-like systems capable of further evolution?
The Place of Genetics in Modern Biology (1959),18.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Arise (162)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Condition (362)  |  DNA (81)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Nucleotide (6)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemist (2)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proper (150)  |  Protein (56)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Self (268)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  System (545)  |  Time (1911)  |  Virus (32)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Mathematicians attach great importance to the elegance of their methods and their results. This is not pure dilettantism. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details. But this is exactly what yields great results, in fact the more we see this aggregate clearly and at a single glance, the better we perceive its analogies with other neighboring objects, consequently the more chances we have of divining the possible generalizations. Elegance may produce the feeling of the unforeseen by the unexpected meeting of objects we are not accustomed to bring together; there again it is fruitful, since it thus unveils for us kinships before unrecognized. It is fruitful even when it results only from the contrast between the simplicity of the means and the complexity of the problem set; it makes us then think of the reason for this contrast and very often makes us see that chance is not the reason; that it is to be found in some unexpected law. In a word, the feeling of mathematical elegance is only the satisfaction due to any adaptation of the solution to the needs of our mind, and it is because of this very adaptation that this solution can be for us an instrument. Consequently this esthetic satisfaction is bound up with the economy of thought.
In 'The Future of Mathematics', Monist, 20, 80. Translated from the French by George Bruce Halsted.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Attach (57)  |  Balance (82)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dilettante (2)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Due (143)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happy (108)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Solution (282)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Unity (81)  |  Word (650)  |  Yield (86)

Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
Attributed (?). Widely seen, without citation. Webmaster has not yet found a satisfactory primary source, but finds the quote used as an epigraph as early as C. E. Rhoad, The Problem Method of Teaching: Operator’s Manual (1950), 43. A University of Nebraska Publication. Notably, this quote does not seem to appear in any 19th century quote collection volumes. If you know a primary source, contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Particular (80)

Modern chemistry, with its far-reaching generalizations and hypotheses, is a fine example of how far the human mind can go in exploring the unknown beyond the limits of human senses.
In 'Introduction', General Chemistry: An Elementary Survey Emphasizing Industrial Applications of Fundamental Principles (1923), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Example (98)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Far (158)  |  Far-Reaching (9)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  Sense (785)  |  Unknown (195)

Newton’s theory is the circle of generalization which includes all the others [as Kepler’s laws, Ptolemy’s theory, etc.];—the highest point of the inductive ascent;—the catastrophe of the philosophic drama to which Plato had prologized;— the point to which men’s minds had been journeying for two thousand years.
In History of the Inductive Sciences, Bk. 7, chap. 2, sect. 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascent (7)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Circle (117)  |  Drama (24)  |  High (370)  |  Include (93)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Journey (48)  |  Kepler (4)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophic (6)  |  Plato (80)  |  Point (584)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)

Not long ago the head of what should be a strictly scientific department in one of the major universities commented on the odd (and ominous) phenomenon that persons who can claim to be scientists on the basis of the technical training that won them the degree of Ph.D. are now found certifying the authenticity of the painted rag that is called the “Turin Shroud” or adducing “scientific” arguments to support hoaxes about the “paranormal” or an antiquated religiosity. “You can hire a scientist [sic],” he said, “to prove anything.” He did not adduce himself as proof of his generalization, but he did boast of his cleverness in confining his own research to areas in which the results would not perturb the Establishment or any vociferous gang of shyster-led fanatics. If such is indeed the status of science and scholarship in our darkling age, Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls.
In 'The Price of the Head', Instauration Magazine (Mar 1980).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Antiquated (3)  |  Area (33)  |  Argument (145)  |  Ask (420)  |  Authenticity (5)  |  Basis (180)  |  Bell (35)  |  Boast (22)  |  Call (781)  |  Certify (2)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Comment (12)  |  Confine (26)  |  Degree (277)  |  Department (93)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gang (4)  |  Head (87)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hire (7)  |  Hoax (6)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  Major (88)  |  Odd (15)  |  Ominous (5)  |  Paint (22)  |  Paranormal (3)  |  Person (366)  |  Perturb (2)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Prove Anything (7)  |  Rag (2)  |  Religiosity (2)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Send (23)  |  Shroud (2)  |  Status (35)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Support (151)  |  Technical (53)  |  Toll (3)  |  Training (92)  |  Turin (3)  |  University (130)  |  Win (53)

Nothing in the whole system of nature is isolated or unimportant. The fall of a leaf and the motion of a planet are governed by the same laws. … It is in the study of objects considered trivial and unworthy of notice by the casual observer that genius finds the most important and interesting phenomena. It was in the investigation of the varying colors of the soap-bubble that Newton detected the remarkable fact of the fits of easy reflection and easy refraction presented by a ray of light in its passage through space, and upon which he established the fundamental principle of the present generalization of the undulatory theory of light. … The microscopic organization of animals and plants is replete with the highest instruction; and, surely, in the language of one of the fathers of modern physical science, “nothing can be unworthy of being investigated by man which was thought worthy of being created by GOD.”
In 'Report of the Secretary', Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1852 (1853), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Color (155)  |  Consider (428)  |  Detect (45)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Father (113)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Genius (301)  |  God (776)  |  Govern (66)  |  Important (229)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (438)  |  Organization (120)  |  Passage (52)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Same (166)  |  Soap (11)  |  Space (523)  |  Study (701)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unimportant (6)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Whole (756)

One of the grandest generalizations formulated by modern biological science is that of the continuity of life; the protoplasmic activity within each living body now on earth has continued without cessation from the remote beginnings of life on our planet, and from that period until the present no single organism has ever arisen save in the form of a bit of living protoplasm detached from a pre-existing portion; the eternal flame of life once kindled upon this earth has passed from organism to organism, and is still, going on existing and propagating, incarnated within the myriad animal and plant forms of everyday life.
In History of the Human Body (1919), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arise (162)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Body (557)  |  Cessation (13)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Detach (5)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flame (44)  |  Form (976)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Grandest (10)  |  Incarnation (3)  |  Kindled (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Living Body (3)  |  Modern (402)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Organism (231)  |  Pass (241)  |  Period (200)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Portion (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Remote (86)  |  Save (126)  |  Single (365)  |  Still (614)

One-story intellects, two-story intellects, three-story intellects with skylights. All fact-collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the labors of the fact-collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict; their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight. There are minds with large ground-floors, that can store an infinite amount of knowledge; some librarians, for instance, who know enough of books to help other people, without being able to make much other use of their knowledge, have intellects of this class. Your great working lawyer has two spacious stories; his mind is clear, because his mental floors are large, and he has room to arrange his thoughts so that lie can get at them,—facts below, principles above, and all in ordered series; poets are often narrow below, incapable of clear statement, and with small power of consecutive reasoning, but full of light, if sometimes rather bare of furniture, in the attics.
The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1883), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Amount (153)  |  Arrange (33)  |  Bare (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  Class (168)  |  Collector (8)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Furniture (8)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Large (398)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Librarian (2)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Poet (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Series (153)  |  Small (489)  |  Statement (148)  |  Store (49)  |  Story (122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)

Pavlov’s data on the two fundamental antagonistic nervous processes—stimulation and inhibition—and his profound generalizations regarding them, in particular, that these processes are parts of a united whole, that they are in a state of constant conflict and constant transition of the one to the other, and his views on the dominant role they play in the formation of the higher nervous activity—all those belong to the most established natural—scientific validation of the Marxist dialectal method. They are in complete accord with the Leninist concepts on the role of the struggle between opposites in the evolution, the motion of matter.
In E. A. Asratyan, I. P. Pavlov: His Life and Work (1953), 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  Activity (218)  |  Antagonist (2)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Complete (209)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Constancy (12)  |  Constant (148)  |  Data (162)  |  Dominance (5)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Higher (37)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Vladimir Lenin (3)  |  Karl Marx (22)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Particular (80)  |  Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (18)  |  Play (116)  |  Process (439)  |  Profound (105)  |  Profoundness (2)  |  Regard (312)  |  Role (86)  |  Scientific (955)  |  State (505)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Transition (28)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  Validation (2)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

Science quickens and cultivates directly the faculty of observation, which in very many persons lies almost dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid generalizations, and the mental habit of method and arrangement; it accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of cause and effect; it familiarizes then with a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which they can promptly comprehend; and it is perhaps the best corrective for that indolence which is the vice of half-awakened minds, and which shrinks from any exertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely mechanical.
Anonymous
Report of the Royal Commission on Education (1861), Parliamentary Papers (1864), Vol 20, 32-33, as cited in Paul White, Thomas Huxley: Making the "Man of Science" (2003), 77, footnote. Also quoted in John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life (1887, 2007), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Best (467)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Corrective (2)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Effect (414)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Familiarization (2)  |  Habit (174)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mental (179)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Person (366)  |  Power (771)  |  Promptness (2)  |  Quickening (4)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Through (846)  |  Trace (109)  |  Vice (42)  |  Young (253)

Scientific discovery, or the formulation of scientific theory, starts in with the unvarnished and unembroidered evidence of the senses. It starts with simple observation—simple, unbiased, unprejudiced, naive, or innocent observation—and out of this sensory evidence, embodied in the form of simple propositions or declarations of fact, generalizations will grow up and take shape, almost as if some process of crystallization or condensation were taking place. Out of a disorderly array of facts, an orderly theory, an orderly general statement, will somehow emerge.
In 'Is the Scientific Paper Fraudulent?', The Saturday Review (1 Aug 1964), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Array (5)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Crystallization (2)  |  Declaration (10)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Embody (18)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Formulation (37)  |  General (521)  |  Grow (247)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Naive (13)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Process (439)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Shape (77)  |  Simple (426)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Start (237)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unbiased (7)  |  Unprejudiced (3)  |  Unvarnished (2)  |  Will (2350)

Scientific wealth tends to accumulate according to the law of compound interest. Every addition to knowledge of the properties of matter supplies the physical scientist with new instrumental means for discovering and interpreting phenomena of nature, which in their turn afford foundations of fresh generalisations, bringing gains of permanent value into the great storehouse of natural philosophy.
From Inaugural Address of the President to British Association for the Advancement of Science, Edinburgh (2 Aug 1871). Printed in The Chemical News (4 Aug 1871), 24, No. 610., 53.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Addition (70)  |  Compound (117)  |  Compound Interest (4)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interpreting (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Properties Of Matter (7)  |  Property (177)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Storehouse (6)  |  Supply (100)  |  Tend (124)  |  Turn (454)  |  Value (393)  |  Wealth (100)

Sylvester’s writings are flowery and eloquent. He was able to make the dullest subject bright, fresh and interesting. His enthusiasm is evident in every line. He would get quite close up to his subject, so that everything else looked small in comparison, and for the time would think and make others think that the world contained no finer matter for contemplation. His handwriting was bad, and a trouble to his printers. His papers were finished with difficulty. No sooner was the manuscript in the editor’s hands than alterations, corrections, ameliorations and generalizations would suggest themselves to his mind, and every post would carry further directions to the editors and printers.
In Nature (1897), 55, 494.
Science quotes on:  |  Alteration (31)  |  Ameliorate (2)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bright (81)  |  Carry (130)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Correction (42)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Dull (58)  |  Editor (10)  |  Eloquent (2)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evident (92)  |  Finish (62)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Hand (149)  |  Handwriting (2)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Look (584)  |  Manuscript (10)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Post (8)  |  Printer (2)  |  Small (489)  |  Sooner (6)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suggest (38)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trouble (117)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)

That mathematics “do not cultivate the power of generalization,”; … will be admitted by no person of competent knowledge, except in a very qualified sense. The generalizations of mathematics, are, no doubt, a different thing from the generalizations of physical science; but in the difficulty of seizing them, and the mental tension they require, they are no contemptible preparation for the most arduous efforts of the scientific mind. Even the fundamental notions of the higher mathematics, from those of the differential calculus upwards are products of a very high abstraction. … To perceive the mathematical laws common to the results of many mathematical operations, even in so simple a case as that of the binomial theorem, involves a vigorous exercise of the same faculty which gave us Kepler’s laws, and rose through those laws to the theory of universal gravitation. Every process of what has been called Universal Geometry—the great creation of Descartes and his successors, in which a single train of reasoning solves whole classes of problems at once, and others common to large groups of them—is a practical lesson in the management of wide generalizations, and abstraction of the points of agreement from those of difference among objects of great and confusing diversity, to which the purely inductive sciences cannot furnish many superior. Even so elementary an operation as that of abstracting from the particular configuration of the triangles or other figures, and the relative situation of the particular lines or points, in the diagram which aids the apprehension of a common geometrical demonstration, is a very useful, and far from being always an easy, exercise of the faculty of generalization so strangely imagined to have no place or part in the processes of mathematics.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 612-13.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Admit (49)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Aid (101)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Binomial (6)  |  Binomial Theorem (5)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Competent (20)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Far (158)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  High (370)  |  Higher Mathematics (7)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Involve (93)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Line (100)  |  Management (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Particular (80)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Purely (111)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Qualify (6)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relative (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rose (36)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Seize (18)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solve (145)  |  Strangely (5)  |  Successor (16)  |  Superior (88)  |  Tension (24)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Useful (260)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

The actual evolution of mathematical theories proceeds by a process of induction strictly analogous to the method of induction employed in building up the physical sciences; observation, comparison, classification, trial, and generalisation are essential in both cases. Not only are special results, obtained independently of one another, frequently seen to be really included in some generalisation, but branches of the subject which have been developed quite independently of one another are sometimes found to have connections which enable them to be synthesised in one single body of doctrine. The essential nature of mathematical thought manifests itself in the discernment of fundamental identity in the mathematical aspects of what are superficially very different domains. A striking example of this species of immanent identity of mathematical form was exhibited by the discovery of that distinguished mathematician … Major MacMahon, that all possible Latin squares are capable of enumeration by the consideration of certain differential operators. Here we have a case in which an enumeration, which appears to be not amenable to direct treatment, can actually be carried out in a simple manner when the underlying identity of the operation is recognised with that involved in certain operations due to differential operators, the calculus of which belongs superficially to a wholly different region of thought from that relating to Latin squares.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Actually (27)  |  Amenable (4)  |  Analogous (7)  |  Appear (122)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Belong (168)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Branch (155)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Capable (174)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Classification (102)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Develop (278)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discernment (4)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Domain (72)  |  Due (143)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Identity (19)  |  Include (93)  |  Independent (74)  |  Independently (24)  |  Induction (81)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Latin (44)  |  Percy Alexander MacMahon (3)  |  Major (88)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Operator (4)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Really (77)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Region (40)  |  Relate (26)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Strike (72)  |  Striking (48)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Synthesize (3)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Trial (59)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Wholly (88)

The enthusiasm of Sylvester for his own work, which manifests itself here as always, indicates one of his characteristic qualities: a high degree of subjectivity in his productions and publications. Sylvester was so fully possessed by the matter which for the time being engaged his attention, that it appeared to him and was designated by him as the summit of all that is important, remarkable and full of future promise. It would excite his phantasy and power of imagination in even a greater measure than his power of reflection, so much so that he could never marshal the ability to master his subject-matter, much less to present it in an orderly manner.
Considering that he was also somewhat of a poet, it will be easier to overlook the poetic flights which pervade his writing, often bombastic, sometimes furnishing apt illustrations; more damaging is the complete lack of form and orderliness of his publications and their sketchlike character, … which must be accredited at least as much to lack of objectivity as to a superfluity of ideas. Again, the text is permeated with associated emotional expressions, bizarre utterances and paradoxes and is everywhere accompanied by notes, which constitute an essential part of Sylvester’s method of presentation, embodying relations, whether proximate or remote, which momentarily suggested themselves. These notes, full of inspiration and occasional flashes of genius, are the more stimulating owing to their incompleteness. But none of his works manifest a desire to penetrate the subject from all sides and to allow it to mature; each mere surmise, conceptions which arose during publication, immature thoughts and even errors were ushered into publicity at the moment of their inception, with utmost carelessness, and always with complete unfamiliarity of the literature of the subject. Nowhere is there the least trace of self-criticism. No one can be expected to read the treatises entire, for in the form in which they are available they fail to give a clear view of the matter under contemplation.
Sylvester’s was not a harmoniously gifted or well-balanced mind, but rather an instinctively active and creative mind, free from egotism. His reasoning moved in generalizations, was frequently influenced by analysis and at times was guided even by mystical numerical relations. His reasoning consists less frequently of pure intelligible conclusions than of inductions, or rather conjectures incited by individual observations and verifications. In this he was guided by an algebraic sense, developed through long occupation with processes of forms, and this led him luckily to general fundamental truths which in some instances remain veiled. His lack of system is here offset by the advantage of freedom from purely mechanical logical activity.
The exponents of his essential characteristics are an intuitive talent and a faculty of invention to which we owe a series of ideas of lasting value and bearing the germs of fruitful methods. To no one more fittingly than to Sylvester can be applied one of the mottos of the Philosophic Magazine:
“Admiratio generat quaestionem, quaestio investigationem investigatio inventionem.”
In Mathematische Annalen (1898), 50, 155-160. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 176-178.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Active (80)  |  Activity (218)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attention (196)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Creative (144)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Develop (278)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Error (339)  |  Essential (210)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Expect (203)  |  Exponent (6)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fail (191)  |  Flight (101)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Greater (288)  |  High (370)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inception (3)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Invention (400)  |  Lack (127)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mature (17)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Production (190)  |  Promise (72)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  Read (308)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Series (153)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subject-Matter (8)  |  Summit (27)  |  Surmise (7)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  System (545)  |  Talent (99)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unfamiliarity (5)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Value (393)  |  Veil (27)  |  Verification (32)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

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 (680)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Certain (557)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Essence (85)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fire (203)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Separation (60)  |  Statement (148)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wood (97)

The first man who said “fire burns” was employing scientific method, at any rate if he had allowed himself to be burnt several times. This man had already passed through the two stages of observation and generalization. He had not, however, what scientific technique demands—a careful choice of significant facts on the one hand, and, on the other hand, various means of arriving at laws otherwise than my mere generalization. (1931)
In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Burn (99)  |  Choice (114)  |  Demand (131)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inference (45)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Significant (78)  |  Stage (152)  |  Technique (84)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Various (205)

The generalizations of science sweep on in ever-widening circles, and more aspiring flights, through a limitless creation.
In 'The Darwinian Hypothesis: Darwin on the Origin of Species', Man's Place in Nature and Other Essays (1910), 337.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspire (15)  |  Circle (117)  |  Creation (350)  |  Flight (101)  |  Limitless (14)  |  More (2558)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Through (846)

The history of semiconductor physics is not one of grand heroic theories, but one of painstaking intelligent labor. Not strokes of genius producing lofty edifices, but great ingenuity and endless undulation of hope and despair. Not sweeping generalizations, but careful judgment of the border between perseverance and obstinacy. Thus the history of solid-state physics in general, and of semiconductors in particular, is not so much about great men and women and their glorious deeds, as about the unsung heroes of thousands of clever ideas and skillful experiments—reflection of an age of organization rather than of individuality.
'Selected Topics from the History of Semiconductor Physics and Its Applications', in Lillian Hoddeson et al. (eds.), Out of the Crystal Maze (1992), 474.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Clever (41)  |  Deed (34)  |  Despair (40)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Endless (60)  |  Experiment (736)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Labor (200)  |  Organization (120)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Research (753)  |  Semiconductor (4)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Solid (119)  |  State (505)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Unsung (4)

The history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought.
In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890, 1900), Vol. 3, 460.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Best (467)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Devise (16)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Explain (334)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulate (16)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parlance (2)  |  Phantasmagoria (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warn (7)  |  World (1850)

The increasing technicality of the terminology employed is also a serious difficulty. It has become necessary to learn an extensive vocabulary before a book in even a limited department of science can be consulted with much profit. This change, of course, has its advantages for the initiated, in securing precision and concisement of statement; but it tends to narrow the field in which an investigator can labour, and it cannot fail to become, in the future, a serious impediment to wide inductive generalisations.
Year Book of Science (1892), preface, from review in Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (14 Apr 1892), 65, 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  Change (639)  |  Conciseness (3)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Course (413)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Employ (115)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Field (378)  |  Future (467)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learn (672)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Precision (72)  |  Profit (56)  |  Serious (98)  |  Statement (148)  |  Technicality (5)  |  Tend (124)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  Wide (97)

The mental process by which hypotheses are suggested is obscure. Ordinarily they flash into consciousness without premonition, and it would he easy to ascribe them to a mysterious intuition or creative faculty; but this would contravene one of the broadest generalizations of modern psychology. Just as in the domain of matter nothing is created from nothing, just as in the domain of life there is no spontaneous generation, so in the domain of mind there are no ideas which do not owe their existence to antecedent ideas which stand in the relation of parent to child.
In Address (11 Dec 1895) as President of the Geological Society, 'The Origin of Hypotheses, illustrated by the Discussion of a Topographical Problem', printed as Presidential Address of Grove Karl Gilbert (1896), 4. Also collected in Science (1896), 3, 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Child (333)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creative (144)  |  Do (1905)  |  Domain (72)  |  Easy (213)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flash (49)  |  Generation (256)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Owe (71)  |  Parent (80)  |  Process (439)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Spontaneous Generation (9)  |  Stand (284)

The scientist, if he is to be more than a plodding gatherer of bits of information, needs to exercise an active imagination. The scientists of the past whom we now recognize as great are those who were gifted with transcendental imaginative powers, and the part played by the imaginative faculty of his daily life is as least as important for the scientist as it is for the worker in any other field—much more important than for most. A good scientist thinks logically and accurately when conditions call for logical and accurate thinking—but so does any other good worker when he has a sufficient number of well-founded facts to serve as the basis for the accurate, logical induction of generalizations and the subsequent deduction of consequences.
‘Imagination in Science’, Tomorrow (Dec 1943), 38-9. Quoted In Barbara Marinacci (ed.), Linus Pauling In His Own Words: Selected Writings, Speeches, and Interviews (1995), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Active (80)  |  Basis (180)  |  Call (781)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Field (378)  |  Gather (76)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Importance (299)  |  Induction (81)  |  Information (173)  |  Life (1870)  |  Logic (311)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Power (771)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Transcendental (11)  |  Worker (34)

The transition from a paradigm in crisis to a new one from which a new tradition of normal science can emerge is far from a cumulative process, one achieved by an articulation or extension of the old paradigm. Rather it is a reconstruction of the field from new fundamentals, a reconstruction that changes some of the field's most elementary theoretical generalizations as well as many of its paradigm methods and applications. During the transition period there will be a large but never complete overlap between the problems that can be solved by the old and by the new paradigm. But there will also be a decisive difference in the modes of solution. When the transition is complete, the profession will have changed its view of the field, its methods, and its goals.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), 84-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Change (639)  |  Complete (209)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Difference (355)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Goal (155)  |  Large (398)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Overlap (9)  |  Paradigm (16)  |  Period (200)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Profession (108)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Solution (282)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transition (28)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

The trick in discovering evolutionary laws is the same as it is in discovering laws of physics or chemistry—namely, finding the right level of generalization to make prediction possible. We do not try to find a law that says when and where explosions will occur. We content ourselves with saying that certain sorts of compounds are explosive under the right conditions, and we predict that explosions will occur whenever those conditions are realized.
In 'Paleoanthropology: Science or Mythical Charter?', Journal of Anthropological Research (Summer 2002), 58, No. 2, 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Find (1014)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Occur (151)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Realization (44)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Trick (36)  |  Try (296)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)

The true method of discovery is like the flight of an aeroplane. It starts from the ground of particular observation; it makes a flight in the thin air of imaginative generalization; and it again lands for renewed observation rendered acute by rational interpretation.
Gifford lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh during the session 1927-28. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929, 1979), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Acute (8)  |  Air (366)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Flight (101)  |  Ground (222)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Method (531)  |  Observation (593)  |  Particular (80)  |  Rational (95)  |  Render (96)  |  Renew (20)  |  Start (237)  |  True (239)

Then followed months of intense thought in order to find out what the bewildering chaos of scattered observations meant until one day all of a sudden the whole became as clear and comprehensible as if it were illuminated with a flash of light … There are not many joys in human life equal to the joy of the sudden birth of a generalisation illuminating the mind after a long period of patient research.”
In Memoirs of a Revolutionist, 226-227. Concerning his geographical “meticulous research which resulted in his discovery of the configuration of the mountains of Asia—a discovery which he regarded as his most significant contribution to science.” As quoted, commented and cited in Caroline Cahm, Kropotkin: And the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism, 1872-1886 (2002), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Bewildering (5)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Intense (22)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Joy (117)  |  Observation (593)  |  Patient (209)  |  Research (753)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Thinking (425)

Thinking is merely the comparing of ideas, discerning relations of likeness and of difference between ideas, and drawing inferences. It is seizing general truths on the basis of clearly apprehended particulars. It is but generalizing and particularizing. Who will deny that a child can deal profitably with sequences of ideas like: How many marbles are 2 marbles and 3 marbles? 2 pencils and 3 pencils? 2 balls and 3 balls? 2 children and 3 children? 2 inches and 3 inches? 2 feet and 3 feet? 2 and 3? Who has not seen the countenance of some little learner light up at the end of such a series of questions with the exclamation, “Why it’s always that way. Isn’t it?” This is the glow of pleasure that the generalizing step always affords him who takes the step himself. This is the genuine life-giving joy which comes from feeling that one can successfully take this step. The reality of such a discovery is as great, and the lasting effect upon the mind of him that makes it is as sure as was that by which the great Newton hit upon the generalization of the law of gravitation. It is through these thrills of discovery that love to learn and intellectual pleasure are begotten and fostered. Good arithmetic teaching abounds in such opportunities.
In Arithmetic in Public Education (1909), 13. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Afford (19)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Ball (64)  |  Basis (180)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compare (76)  |  Countenance (9)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deny (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Exclamation (3)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Foster (12)  |  General (521)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Glow (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hit (20)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inference (45)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Joy (117)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learner (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life-Giving (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Marble (21)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Particular (80)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Question (649)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Series (153)  |  Step (234)  |  Successful (134)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thrill (26)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

This law [of gravitation] has been called “the greatest generalization achieved by the human mind”. … I am interested not so much in the human mind as in the marvel of a nature which can obey such an elegant and simple law as this law of gravitation. Therefore our main concentration will not be on how clever we are to have found it all out, but on how clever nature is to pay attention to it.
In The Character of Physical Law (1965), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Attention (196)  |  Call (781)  |  Clever (41)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Interest (416)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obey (46)  |  Simple (426)  |  Will (2350)

To-day, science has withdrawn into realms that are hardly understanded of the people. Biology means very largely histology, the study of the cell by difficult and elaborate microscopical processes. Chemistry has passed from the mixing of simple substances with ascertained reactions, to an experimentation of these processes under varying conditions of temperature, pressure, and electrification—all requiring complicated apparatus and the most delicate measurement and manipulation. Similarly, physics has outgrown the old formulas of gravity, magnetism, and pressure; has discarded the molecule and atom for the ion, and may in its recent generalizations be followed only by an expert in the higher, not to say the transcendental mathematics.
Anonymous
‘Exit the Amateur Scientist.’ Editorial, The Nation, 23 August 1906, 83, 160.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Atom (381)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discard (32)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Expert (67)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formula (102)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Histology (4)  |  Ion (21)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Old (499)  |  Pass (241)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recent (78)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Simple (426)  |  Study (701)  |  Substance (253)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Transcendental (11)  |  Understand (648)

Truth travels down from the heights of philosophy to the humblest walks of life, and up from the simplest perceptions of an awakened intellect to the discoveries which almost change the face of the world. At every stage of its progress it is genial, luminous, creative. When first struck out by some distinguished and fortunate genius, it may address itself only to a few minds of kindred power. It exists then only in the highest forms of science; it corrects former systems, and authorizes new generalizations. Discussion, controversy begins; more truth is elicited, more errors exploded, more doubts cleared up, more phenomena drawn into the circle, unexpected connexions of kindred sciences are traced, and in each step of the progress, the number rapidly grows of those who are prepared to comprehend and carry on some branches of the investigation,— till, in the lapse of time, every order of intellect has been kindled, from that of the sublime discoverer to the practical machinist; and every department of knowledge been enlarged, from the most abstruse and transcendental theory to the daily arts of life.
In An Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Amherst College (25 Aug 1835), 16-17.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Art (680)  |  Authorize (5)  |  Awakened (2)  |  Begin (275)  |  Carry (130)  |  Change (639)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Connection (171)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Creative (144)  |  Daily (91)  |  Department (93)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Down (455)  |  Error (339)  |  Exist (458)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Face (214)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Genial (3)  |  Genius (301)  |  Grow (247)  |  Height (33)  |  Humblest (4)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Simplest (10)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (234)  |  Sublime (50)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transcendental (11)  |  Travel (125)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Walk (138)  |  Walk Of Life (2)  |  World (1850)

We lay down a fundamental principle of generalization by abstraction: The existence of analogies between central features of various theories implies the existence of a general theory which underlies the particular theories and unifies them with respect to those central features.
Introduction to a Form of General Analysis (1910), Preface, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Central (81)  |  Down (455)  |  Existence (481)  |  Feature (49)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Principle (530)  |  Respect (212)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Various (205)

What matters in science is the body of findings and generalizations available today: a time-defined cross-section of the process of scientific discovery. I see the advance of science as self-erasing in the sense that only those elements survive that have become part of the active body of knowledge.
In A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube (1985), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Advance (298)  |  Available (80)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Erase (7)  |  Findings (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Process (439)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Survive (87)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)

When Cayley had reached his most advanced generalizations he proceeded to establish them directly by some method or other, though he seldom gave the clue by which they had first been obtained: a proceeding which does not tend to make his papers easy reading. …
His literary style is direct, simple and clear. His legal training had an influence, not merely upon his mode of arrangement but also upon his expression; the result is that his papers are severe and present a curious contrast to the luxuriant enthusiasm which pervades so many of Sylvester’s papers. He used to prepare his work for publication as soon as he carried his investigations in any subject far enough for his immediate purpose. … A paper once written out was promptly sent for publication; this practice he maintained throughout life. … The consequence is that he has left few arrears of unfinished or unpublished papers; his work has been given by himself to the world.
In Proceedings of London Royal Society (1895), 58, 23-24.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Arrears (2)  |  Carry (130)  |  Arthur Cayley (17)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clue (20)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Curious (95)  |  Direct (228)  |  Directly (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Establish (63)  |  Expression (181)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Give (208)  |  Himself (461)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Influence (231)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Leave (138)  |  Legal (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mode (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Practice (212)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Prompt (14)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reach (286)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Result (700)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Send (23)  |  Severe (17)  |  Simple (426)  |  Soon (187)  |  Style (24)  |  Subject (543)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Tend (124)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Training (92)  |  Unfinished (4)  |  Unpublished (2)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)

When the greatest of American logicians, speaking of the powers that constitute the born geometrician, had named Conception, Imagination, and Generalization, he paused. Thereupon from one of the audience there came the challenge, “What of reason?” The instant response, not less just than brilliant, was: “Ratiocination—that is but the smooth pavement on which the chariot rolls.”
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Audience (28)  |  Bear (162)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Chariot (9)  |  Conception (160)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Geometrician (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Instant (46)  |  Less (105)  |  Logician (18)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Pause (6)  |  Pavement (2)  |  Power (771)  |  Ratiocination (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Response (56)  |  Roll (41)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)


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.