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: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index K > Category: Kind

Kind Quotes (564 quotes)

... finding that in [the Moon] there is a provision of light and heat; also in appearance, a soil proper for habitation fully as good as ours, if not perhaps better who can say that it is not extremely probable, nay beyond doubt, that there must be inhabitants on the Moon of some kind or other?
Letter to Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne (1780). Quoted in Patrick Moore, Patrick Moore on the Moon (2006), 144.
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (35)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Good (906)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Heat (180)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Light (635)  |  Moon (252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proper (150)  |  Say (989)  |  Soil (98)

… the three positive characteristics that distinguish mathematical knowledge from other knowledge … may be briefly expressed as follows: first, mathematical knowledge bears more distinctly the imprint of truth on all its results than any other kind of knowledge; secondly, it is always a sure preliminary step to the attainment of other correct knowledge; thirdly, it has no need of other knowledge.
In Mathematical Essays and Recreations (1898), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Bear (162)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Correct (95)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Express (192)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Imprint (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Need (320)  |  Other (2233)  |  Positive (98)  |  Preliminary (6)  |  Result (700)  |  Step (234)  |  Truth (1109)

...[T]he natural history of the rat is tragically similar to that of man ... some of the more obvious qualities in which rats resemble men — ferocity, omnivorousness, and adaptability to all climates ... the irresponsible fecundity with which both species breed at all seasons of the year with a heedlessness of consequences, which subjects them to wholesale disaster on the inevitable, occasional failure of the food supply.... [G]radually, these two have spread across the earth, keeping pace with each other and unable to destroy each other, though continually hostile. They have wandered from East to West, driven by their physical needs, and — unlike any other species of living things — have made war upon their own kind. The gradual, relentless, progressive extermination of the black rat by the brown has no parallel in nature so close as that of the similar extermination of one race of man by another...
Rats, Lice and History(1935)
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptability (7)  |  Both (496)  |  Brown (23)  |  Climate (102)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Failure (176)  |  Food (213)  |  History (716)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pace (18)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Physical (518)  |  Race (278)  |  Rat (37)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Season (47)  |  Species (435)  |  Spread (86)  |  Subject (543)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Wander (44)  |  War (233)  |  Year (963)

...conscience looks backwards and judges past actions, inducing that kind of dissatisfaction, which if weak we call regret, and if severe remorse.
Descent of Man
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Call (781)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Judge (114)  |  Look (584)  |  Past (355)  |  Regret (31)  |  Remorse (9)  |  Weak (73)

…the ideal doctor would be a man endowed with profound knowledge of life and of the soul, intuitively divining any suffering or disorder of whatever kind, and restoring peace by his mere presence.
Amiel's Journal The Journal Intime of Henri-Frederic Amiel (22 Aug 1873), trans. By Mrs Humphry Ward (1889), Vol 2., 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Disorder (45)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Peace (116)  |  Physician (284)  |  Presence (63)  |  Profound (105)  |  Soul (235)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Whatever (234)

“Normal” science, in Kuhn’s sense, exists. It is the activity of the non-revolutionary, or more precisely, the not-too-critical professional: of the science student who accepts the ruling dogma of the day… in my view the 'normal' scientist, as Kuhn describes him, is a person one ought to be sorry for… He has been taught in a dogmatic spirit: he is a victim of indoctrination… I can only say that I see a very great danger in it and in the possibility of its becoming normal… a danger to science and, indeed, to our civilization. And this shows why I regard Kuhn’s emphasis on the existence of this kind of science as so important.
In Imre Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.), 'Normal Science and its Dangers', Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970), 52-53.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Activity (218)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Critical (73)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indoctrination (2)  |  Thomas S. Kuhn (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Normal (29)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Professional (77)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  Victim (37)  |  View (496)  |  Why (491)

“Science studies everything,” say the scientists. But, really, everything is too much. Everything is an infinite quantity of objects; it is impossible at one and the same time to study all. As a lantern cannot light up everything, but only lights up the place on which it is turned or the direction in which the man carrying it is walking, so also science cannot study everything, but inevitably only studies that to which its attention is directed. And as a lantern lights up most strongly the place nearest to it, and less and less strongly objects that are more and more remote from it, and does not at all light up those things its light does not reach, so also human science, of whatever kind, has always studied and still studies most carefully what seems most important to the investigators, less carefully what seems to them less important, and quite neglects the whole remaining infinite quantity of objects. ... But men of science to-day ... have formed for themselves a theory of “science for science's sake,” according to which science is to study not what mankind needs, but everything.
In 'Modern Science', Essays and Letters (1903), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Attention (196)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Direct (228)  |  Direction (185)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Object (438)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reach (286)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Remote (86)  |  Sake (61)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)

“Scientific people,” proceeded the Time Traveler, after the pause required for the proper assimilation of this, “know very well that Time is only a kind of Space.”
In The Time Machine (1898), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Know (1538)  |  Pause (6)  |  People (1031)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proper (150)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Space (523)  |  Time (1911)  |  Traveler (33)

[1665-06-07] ...This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and 'Lord have mercy upon us' writ there - which was a sad sight to me, being the first of that kind that to my remembrance I ever saw. It put me into an ill conception of myself and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll-tobacco to smell to and chaw - which took away the apprehension.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (7 Jun 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conception (160)  |  Door (94)  |  First (1302)  |  House (143)  |  Lord (97)  |  Marked (55)  |  Myself (211)  |  Plague (42)  |  Remembrance (5)  |  Roll (41)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Sight (135)  |  Smell (29)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

[Haunted by the statistic that the best predictor of SAT scores is family income:] Where you were born, into what family you are born, what their resources are, are to a large extent are going to determine the quality of education you receive, beginning in preschool and moving all the way up through college.
And what this is going to create in America is a different kind of aristocracy that's going to be self-perpetuating, unless we find ways to break that juggernaut.
... I think what that really reflects is the fact that resources, and not wealth necessarily, but just good middle-class resources, can buy quality of experience for children.
In a segment from PBS TV program, Newshour (9 Sep 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Aristocracy (7)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Best (467)  |  Break (109)  |  Buy (21)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Class (168)  |  College (71)  |  Create (245)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Education (423)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Family (101)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Income (18)  |  Large (398)  |  Middle-Class (2)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Quality (139)  |  Receive (117)  |  Resource (74)  |  Score (8)  |  Self (268)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wealth (100)

[Helmholtz] is not a philosopher in the exclusive sense, as Kant, Hegel, Mansel are philosophers, but one who prosecutes physics and physiology, and acquires therein not only skill in developing any desideratum, but wisdom to know what are the desiderata, e.g., he was one of the first, and is one of the most active, preachers of the doctrine that since all kinds of energy are convertible, the first aim of science at this time. should be to ascertain in what way particular forms of energy can be converted into each other, and what are the equivalent quantities of the two forms of energy.
Letter to Lewis Campbell (21 Apr 1862). In P.M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1990), Vol. 1, 711.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Active (80)  |  Aim (175)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Hermann von Helmholtz (32)  |  Immanuel Kant (50)  |  Know (1538)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Preacher (13)  |  Prosecute (3)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skill (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)

[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.
In 'Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught', Indiscrete Thoughts (2008), 202.
Science quotes on:  |  Contingent (12)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Fatal (14)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Stability (28)  |  Testing (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)

[Richard Nixon] is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.
Campaign speech (1956). Quoted in Jean H. Baker, The Stevensons: A Biography of an American Family (1997), 328. Jean H. Baker - 1997
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Cut (116)  |  Down (455)  |  Hypocrite (6)  |  Mount (43)  |  Richard M. Nixon (26)  |  Politician (40)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Speech (66)  |  Stump (3)  |  Tree (269)

[The word] genius is derived from gignere, gigno; I bring forth, I produce; it always supposes invention, and this quality, is the only one which belongs to all the different kinds of genius.
From the original French, “Celui de génie dérive de gignere, gigno; j’enfante, je produis; il suppose toujours invention: & cette qualité est la seule qui appartienne à tous les génies différents,” in 'Du Génie', L’Esprit (1758), Discourse 4, 476. English version from Claude Adrien Helvétius and William Mudford (trans.), 'Of Genius', De l’Esprit or, Essays on the Mind and its several Faculties (1759), Essay 4, Chap. 1, 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Derive (70)  |  Different (595)  |  Genius (301)  |  Invention (400)  |  Produce (117)  |  Quality (139)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Word (650)

[The] structural theory is of extreme simplicity. It assumes that the molecule is held together by links between one atom and the next: that every kind of atom can form a definite small number of such links: that these can be single, double or triple: that the groups may take up any position possible by rotation round the line of a single but not round that of a double link: finally that with all the elements of the first short period [of the periodic table], and with many others as well, the angles between the valencies are approximately those formed by joining the centre of a regular tetrahedron to its angular points. No assumption whatever is made as to the mechanism of the linkage. Through the whole development of organic chemistry this theory has always proved capable of providing a different structure for every different compound that can be isolated. Among the hundreds of thousands of known substances, there are never more isomeric forms than the theory permits.
Presidential Address to the Chemical Society (16 Apr 1936), Journal of the Chemical Society (1936), 533.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Definite (114)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Double (18)  |  Element (322)  |  Extreme (78)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Isomer (6)  |  Joining (11)  |  Known (453)  |  Link (48)  |  Linkage (5)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Number (710)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Permit (61)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Regular (48)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Short (200)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Table (105)  |  Tetrahedron (4)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Valency (4)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)

[About John Evershed] There is much in our medallist’s career which is a reminder of the scientific life of Sir William Huggins. They come from the same English neighbourhood and began as amateurs of the best kind. They both possess the same kind of scientific aptitude.
Address, presenting the Gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Evershed, as quoted in F.J.M. Stratton, 'John Evershed', Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1957), 3, 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Amateur (22)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Best (467)  |  Both (496)  |  Career (86)  |  English (35)  |  Sir William Huggins (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Neighbourhood (2)  |  Possess (157)  |  Reminder (13)  |  Scientific (955)

[In refutation of evolution] They use carbon dating ... to prove that something was millions of years old. Well, we have the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens and the carbon dating test that they used then would have to then prove that these were hundreds of millions of years younger, when what happened was they had the exact same results on the fossils and canyons that they did the tests on that were supposedly 100 millions of years old. And it’s the kind of inconsistent tests like this that they’re basing their “facts” on.
[Citing results from a solitary young-Earth creationist, questioning whether the lava dome at Mount St. Helens is really a million years old.]
From interview by Miles O''Brien on CNN (30 Mar 1996). Reported from transcript, via Nexis, in New York Magazine (15 Sep 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Canyon (9)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Creationism (8)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Dome (9)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Lava (12)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount St. Helens (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Prove (261)  |  Result (700)  |  Saint (17)  |  Something (718)  |  Test (221)  |  Use (771)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Younger (21)

[Pechblende] einer eigenthümlichen, selbstständigen metallischen Substanz bestehe. Es fallen folglich auch deren bisherige Benennungen, als: Ресhblende Eisenpecherz, hinweg, welche nun durch einen neuen ausschliessend bezeichnenden Namen zu ersetzen sind. Ich habe dazu den Namen: Uranerz (Uranium) erwählt; zu einigem Andenken, dass die chemische Ausfindung dieses neuen Metallkörpers in die Epoche der astronomischen. Entdeckung des Planeten Uranus gefallen sei.
[Pitchblende] consists of a peculiar, distinct, metallic substance. Therefore its former denominations, pitch-blende, pitch-iron-ore, &c. are no longer applicable, and must be supplied by another more appropriate name.—I have chosen that of uranite, (Uranium), as a kind of memorial, that the chemical discovery of this new metal happened in the period of the astronomical discovery of the new planet Uranus.
In original German edition, Beiträge Zur Chemischen Kenntniss Der Mineralkörper (1797), Vol. 2, 215. English edition, translator not named, Analytical Essays Towards Promoting the Chemical Knowledge of Mineral Substances (1801), 491. The new planet was discovered on 13 Mar 1781 by William Herschel, who originally named it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) to honour King George III.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Choice (114)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Consist (223)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Former (138)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Sir William Herschel (14)  |  Iron (99)  |  Memorial (4)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Ore (14)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Period (200)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Pitchblende (2)  |  Planet (402)  |  Substance (253)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Uranus (6)

[Responding to a student whose friend asked about studying Agricultural Chemistry at Johns Hopkins:]
We would be glad to have your friend come here to study, but tell him that we teach Chemistry here and not Agricultural Chemistry, nor any other special kind of chemistry. ... We teach Chemistry.
In Frederick Hutton Getman, The Life of Ira Remsen, 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Friend (180)  |  Johns Hopkins (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Special (188)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Tell (344)

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

Mother-Wit comes from all kinds of experiences,
Of birds and beasts and of tests both true and false.
In William Langland and B. Thomas Wright (ed.) The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman (1842), 235. Modern translation by Terrence Tiller in Piers Plowman (1981, 1999), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Biology (232)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  False (105)  |  Mother (116)  |  Observation (593)  |  Taste (93)  |  Test (221)  |  True (239)  |  Wit (61)  |  Zoology (38)

Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen. Spricht man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie alles in ihre eigene Sprache, und so wird es alsobald etwas ganz anderes.
Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchmen. Whenever you say anything or talk to them, they translate it into their own language, and right away it is something completely different.
Quoted by Christiane Senn-Fennell, 'Oral and Written Communication', in Ian Westbury et al. (eds.), Teaching as a Reflective Practice (2000), 225.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Completely (137)  |  Different (595)  |  Frenchman (4)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Talk (108)  |  Translate (21)  |  Whenever (81)

Dogbert (advice to Boss): Every credible scientist on earth says your products harm the environment. I recommend paying weasels to write articles casting doubt on the data. Then eat the wrong kind of foods and hope you die before the earth does.
Dilbert cartoon strip (30 Oct 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Article (22)  |  Casting (10)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Credibility (4)  |  Data (162)  |  Death (406)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eat (108)  |  Environment (239)  |  Food (213)  |  Harm (43)  |  Hope (321)  |  Product (166)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Recommendation (12)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)  |  Wrong (246)

In primis, hominis est propria VERI inquisitio atque investigato. Itaque cum sumus negotiis necessariis, curisque vacui, tum avemus aliquid videre, audire, ac dicere, cognitionemque rerum, aut occultarum aut admirabilium, ad benè beatéque vivendum necessariam ducimus; —ex quo intelligitur, quod VERUM, simplex, sincerumque sit, id esse naturæ hominis aptissimum. Huic veri videndi cupiditati adjuncta est appetitio quædam principatûs, ut nemini parere animus benè a naturâ informatus velit, nisi præcipienti, aut docenti, aut utilitatis causâ justè et legitimè imperanti: ex quo animi magnitudo existit, et humanarum rerum contemtio.
Before all other things, man is distinguished by his pursuit and investigation of TRUTH. And hence, when free from needful business and cares, we delight to see, to hear, and to communicate, and consider a knowledge of many admirable and abstruse things necessary to the good conduct and happiness of our lives: whence it is clear that whatsoever is TRUE, simple, and direct, the same is most congenial to our nature as men. Closely allied with this earnest longing to see and know the truth, is a kind of dignified and princely sentiment which forbids a mind, naturally well constituted, to submit its faculties to any but those who announce it in precept or in doctrine, or to yield obedience to any orders but such as are at once just, lawful, and founded on utility. From this source spring greatness of mind and contempt of worldly advantages and troubles.
In De Officiis, Book 1. Sect. 13. As given in epigraph to John Frederick William Herschel, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Announce (13)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Congenial (3)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Delight (111)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Forbid (14)  |  Free (239)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Hear (144)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Longing (19)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Precept (10)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Spring (140)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Utility (52)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Yield (86)

Question: Explain why pipes burst in cold weather.
Answer: People who have not studied acoustics think that Thor bursts the pipes, but we know that is nothing of the kind for Professor Tyndall has burst the mythologies and has taught us that it is the natural behaviour of water (and bismuth) without which all fish would die and the earth be held in an iron grip. (1881)
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1881), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 186-7, Question 10. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.) Webmaster notes that “fish would die” may refer to being taught that water's greatest density is at 4°C, and sinks below a frozen surface, so bodies of water can remain liquid underneath, to the benefit of the fish. The student was likely taught that bismuth, like water, expands when it freezes.
Science quotes on:  |  Acoustics (4)  |  Answer (389)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Bismuth (7)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cold (115)  |  Death (406)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Examination (102)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fish (130)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Grip (10)  |  Ice (58)  |  Iron (99)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Pipe (7)  |  Professor (133)  |  Question (649)  |  Schoolboy (9)  |  Study (701)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Think (1122)  |  John Tyndall (53)  |  Water (503)  |  Weather (49)  |  Why (491)

Question: What is the difference between a “real” and a “virtual” image? Give a drawing showing the formation of one of each kind.
Answer: You see a real image every morning when you shave. You do not see virtual images at all. The only people who see virtual images are those people who are not quite right, like Mrs. A. Virtual images are things which don't exist. I can't give you a reliable drawing of a virtual image, because I never saw one.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 177-8, Question 6. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Formation (100)  |  Howler (15)  |  Image (97)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Reliability (18)  |  Right (473)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Shave (2)  |  Showing (6)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Virtual (5)

The Annotated Alice, of course, does tie in with math, because Lewis Carroll was, as you know, a professional mathematician. So it wasn’t really too far afield from recreational math, because the two books are filled with all kinds of mathematical jokes. I was lucky there in that I really didn’t have anything new to say in The Annotated Alice because I just looked over the literature and pulled together everything in the form of footnotes. But it was a lucky idea because that’s been the best seller of all my books.
In Anthony Barcellos, 'A Conversation with Martin Gardner', The Two-Year College Mathematics Journal (Sep 1979), 10, No. 4, 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Lewis Carroll (48)  |  Course (413)  |  Everything (489)  |  Footnote (5)  |  Form (976)  |  Idea (881)  |  Joke (90)  |  Know (1538)  |  Literature (116)  |  Look (584)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Professional (77)  |  Pull (43)  |  Pull Together (2)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Say (989)  |  Tie (42)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)

~~[No known source]~~ Every kind of science, if it has only reached a certain degree of maturity, automatically becomes a part of mathematics.
Eine jede Wissenschaft fällt, hat sie erst eine gewisse Reife erreicht, automatisch der Mathematik anheim.
Webmaster has so far found no source for these verbatim words. (Can you help?) Expressed in totally different words, Hilbert expresses a similar idea in Address (11 Sep 1917), 'Axiomatisches Denken' delivered before the Swiss Mathematical Society in Zürich. See the quote that begins, “Anything at all that can be the object of scientific thought …”, on the David Hilbert Quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Automatically (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Certain (557)  |  Degree (277)  |  Known (453)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Part (235)  |  Reach (286)

A first step in the study of civilization is to dissect it into details, and to classify these in their proper groups. Thus, in examining weapons, they are to be classed under spear, club, sling, bow and arrow, and so forth; among textile arts are to be ranged matting, netting, and several grades of making and weaving threads; myths are divided under such headings as myths of sunrise and sunset, eclipse-myths, earthquake-myths, local myths which account for the names of places by some fanciful tale, eponymic myths which account for the parentage of a tribe by turning its name into the name of an imaginary ancestor; under rites and ceremonies occur such practices as the various kinds of sacrifice to the ghosts of the dead and to other spiritual beings, the turning to the east in worship, the purification of ceremonial or moral uncleanness by means of water or fire. Such are a few miscellaneous examples from a list of hundreds … To the ethnographer, the bow and arrow is the species, the habit of flattening children’s skulls is a species, the practice of reckoning numbers by tens is a species. The geographical distribution of these things, and their transmission from region to region, have to be studied as the naturalist studies the geography of his botanical and zoological species.
In Primitive Culture (1871), Vol. 1, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Botany (63)  |  Bow (15)  |  Ceremony (6)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Club (8)  |  Death (406)  |  Detail (150)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Divided (50)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Geography (39)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Moral (203)  |  Myth (58)  |  Name (359)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purification (10)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Rite (3)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Skull (5)  |  Sling (4)  |  Spear (8)  |  Species (435)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Tale (17)  |  Textile (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thread (36)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Weaving (6)  |  Worship (32)  |  Zoological (5)

A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. A kind of mental radar works even if he isn’t concentrating hard. A fossil mollusk expert has a mollusk search image. A fossil antelope expert has an antelope search image. … Yet even when one has a good internal radar, the search is incredibly more difficult than it sounds. Not only are fossils often the same color as the rocks among which they are found, so they blend in with the background; they are also usually broken into odd-shaped fragments. … In our business, we don’t expect to find a whole skull lying on the surface staring up at us. The typical find is a small piece of petrified bone. The fossil hunter’s search therefore has to have an infinite number of dimensions, matching every conceivable angle of every shape of fragment of every bone on the human body.
Describing the skill of his co-worker, Kamoya Kimeu, who discovered the Turkana Boy, the most complete specimen of Homo erectus, on a slope covered with black lava pebbles.
Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human (1992), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Background (44)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Boy (100)  |  Broken (56)  |  Business (156)  |  Color (155)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Discover (571)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expert (67)  |  Eye (440)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Good (906)  |  Hard (246)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Image (97)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Internal (69)  |  Lava (12)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mollusk (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Radar (9)  |  Rock (176)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Skill (116)  |  Slope (10)  |  Small (489)  |  Sound (187)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Surface (223)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

A good deal of my research in physics has consisted in not setting out to solve some particular problem, but simply examining mathematical quantities of a kind that physicists use and trying to fit them together in an interesting way, regardless of any application that the work may have. It is simply a search for pretty mathematics. It may turn out later to have an application. Then one has good luck. At age 78.
International Journal of Theoretical Physics (1982), 21, 603. In A. Pais, 'Playing With Equations, the Dirac Way'. Behram N. Kursunoglu (Ed.) and Eugene Paul Wigner (Ed.), Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences about a Great Physicist (1990), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Application (257)  |  Consist (223)  |  Deal (192)  |  Equation (138)  |  Fit (139)  |  Good (906)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Luck (44)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Problem (731)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Setting (44)  |  Solve (145)  |  Together (392)  |  Trying (144)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
In Letter (4 Mar 1950), replying to a grieving father over the loss of a young son. In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Circle (117)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (242)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (212)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (75)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

A lot of people ask, “Do you think humans are parasites?” It’s an interesting idea and one worth thinking about. People casually refer to humanity as a virus spreading across the earth. In fact, we do look like some strange kind of bio-film spreading across the landscape. A good metaphor? If the biosphere is our host, we do use it up for our own benefit. We do manipulate it. We alter the flows and fluxes of elements like carbon and nitrogen to benefit ourselves—often at the expense of the biosphere as a whole. If you look at how coral reefs or tropical forests are faring these days, you’ll notice that our host is not doing that well right now. Parasites are very sophisticated; parasites are highly evolved; parasites are very successful, as reflected in their diversity. Humans are not very good parasites. Successful parasites do a very good job of balancing—using up their hosts and keeping them alive. It’s all a question of tuning the adaptation to your particular host. In our case, we have only one host, so we have to be particularly careful.
Talk at Columbia University, 'The Power of Parasites'.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alive (97)  |  Alter (64)  |  Ask (420)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Biosphere (14)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Cycle (5)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forest (161)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Idea (881)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Job (86)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Manipulate (11)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nitrogen Cycle (2)  |  Notice (81)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Parasite (33)  |  People (1031)  |  Question (649)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Right (473)  |  Strange (160)  |  Successful (134)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Use (771)  |  Virus (32)  |  Whole (756)  |  Worth (172)

A man avails himself of the truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it; whether it be to dazzle others with it as a kind of half-truth, or to employ it as a stopgap for effecting all apparent union between things that have been disjointed.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Avail (4)  |  Dazzle (4)  |  Disjointed (2)  |  Effect (414)  |  Eloquence (7)  |  Employ (115)  |  False (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Momentary (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Seize (18)  |  Serviceable (2)  |  Soon (187)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Union (52)  |  Use (771)

A million years is a short time—the shortest worth messing with for most problems. You begin tuning your mind to a time scale that is the planet’s time scale. For me, it is almost unconscious now and is a kind of companionship with the earth.
In Basin and Range (1981), 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Companionship (4)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Mess (14)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Planet (402)  |  Problem (731)  |  Scale (122)  |  Short (200)  |  Shortest (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tune (20)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content and the depth of the conviction concerning its overpowering meaningfulness, regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Accordingly (5)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appear (122)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |   Buddha (5)  |  Capable (174)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Cling (6)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Content (75)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Count (107)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Desire (212)  |  Devout (5)  |  Divine (112)  |  Domain (72)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  Himself (461)  |  Important (229)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Loftiness (3)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Outside (141)  |  Person (366)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rational (95)  |  Regardless (8)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Same (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Superpersonal (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unite (43)  |  Value (393)

A single kind of red cell is supposed to have an enormous number of different substances on it, and in the same way there are substances in the serum to react with many different animal cells. In addition, the substances which match each kind of cell are different in each kind of serum. The number of hypothetical different substances postulated makes this conception so uneconomical that the question must be asked whether it is the only one possible. ... We ourselves hold that another, simpler, explanation is possible.
Landsteiner and Adriano Sturli, 'Hamagglutinine normaler Sera', Wiener klinische Wochenschrift (1902), 15, 38-40. Trans. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Cell (2)  |  Ask (420)  |  Blood (144)  |  Conception (160)  |  Different (595)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Match (30)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (649)  |  Red Cell (2)  |  Serum (11)  |  Single (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Way (1214)

A statistician is one who has learned how to get valid evidence from statistics and how (usually) to avoid being misled by irrelevant facts. It’s too bad that we apply the same name to this kind of person that we use for those who only tabulate. It’s as if we had the same name for barbers and brain surgeons because they both work on the head.
In How to Tell the Liars from the Statisticians (1983), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Bad (185)  |  Barber (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Head (87)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mislead (6)  |  Name (359)  |  Person (366)  |  Same (166)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Tabulate (3)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Valid (12)  |  Work (1402)

A strict materialist believes that everything depends on the motion of matter. He knows the form of the laws of motion though he does not know all their consequences when applied to systems of unknown complexity.
Now one thing in which the materialist (fortified with dynamical knowledge) believes is that if every motion great & small were accurately reversed, and the world left to itself again, everything would happen backwards the fresh water would collect out of the sea and run up the rivers and finally fly up to the clouds in drops which would extract heat from the air and evaporate and afterwards in condensing would shoot out rays of light to the sun and so on. Of course all living things would regrede from the grave to the cradle and we should have a memory of the future but not of the past.
The reason why we do not expect anything of this kind to take place at any time is our experience of irreversible processes, all of one kind, and this leads to the doctrine of a beginning & an end instead of cyclical progression for ever.
Letter to Mark Pattison (7 Apr 1868). In P. M. Hannan (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 360-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Applied (176)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dynamical (15)  |  End (603)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extract (40)  |  Fly (153)  |  Form (976)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Future (467)  |  Grave (52)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heat (180)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Lead (391)  |  Light (635)  |  Living (492)  |  Materialist (4)  |  Matter (821)  |  Memory (144)  |  Motion (320)  |  Past (355)  |  Process (439)  |  Progression (23)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reverse (33)  |  River (140)  |  Run (158)  |  Sea (326)  |  Small (489)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Water (503)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that within the framework of the applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown.
Autobiographical Notes (1946), 33. Quoted in Gerald Holton and Yehuda Elkana, Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives (1997), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicability (7)  |  Area (33)  |  Basic (144)  |  Classical (49)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Content (75)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Deep (241)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Framework (33)  |  Greater (288)  |  Impression (118)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Impressiveness (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Physical (518)  |  Premise (40)  |  Relation (166)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universal (198)  |  Will (2350)

Activity bears fruit in habit, and the kind of activity determines the quality of the habit.
As quoted in William W. Speer, Primary Arithmetic: First Year, for the Use of Teachers (1902), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Bear (162)  |  Determine (152)  |  Education (423)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Habit (174)  |  Quality (139)

Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work up the reptiles till you've got a supply of lizards and spiders and toads and alligators and Congressmen and so on, then cross the entire lot again and get a plant of amphibiums, which are half-breeds and do business both wet and dry, such as turtles and frogs and ornithorhyncuses and so on, and cross-up again and get a mongrel bird, sired by a snake and dam'd by a bat, resulting in a pterodactyl, then they develop him, and water his stock till they've got the air filled with a million things that wear feathers, then they cross-up all the accumulated animal life to date and fetch out a mammal, and start-in diluting again till there's cows and tigers and rats and elephants and monkeys and everything you want down to the Missing Link, and out of him and a mermaid they propagate Man, and there you are! Everything ship-shape and finished-up, and nothing to do but lay low and wait and see if it was worth the time and expense.
'The Refuge of the Derelicts' collected in Mark Twain and John Sutton Tuckey, The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings (1980), 340-41. - 1980
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Adam (7)  |  Air (366)  |  Amphibian (7)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Bat (10)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Bug (10)  |  Business (156)  |  Church (64)  |  Cow (42)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Dry (65)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expense (21)  |  Feather (13)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Flea (11)  |  Fly (153)  |  Frog (44)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gnat (7)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Lot (151)  |  Low (86)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mermaid (5)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Missing (21)  |  Missing Link (4)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Plant (320)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Pterodactyl (2)  |  Rat (37)  |  Reptile (33)  |  See (1094)  |  Ship (69)  |  Snake (29)  |  Speck (25)  |  Spider (14)  |  Start (237)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tiger (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toad (10)  |  Turtle (8)  |  Wait (66)  |  Want (504)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

Agreeing that plants and animals were produced by Omnipotent fiat does not exclude the idea of natural order and what we call secondary causes. The record of the fiat—“Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,” etc., “and it was so;” “let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind” — seems even to imply them.
Asa Gray
In Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism (1877), 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Animal (651)  |  Bring Forth (2)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Creature (242)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exclude (8)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Grass (49)  |  Herb (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imply (20)  |  Let (64)  |  Live (650)  |  Natural Order (6)  |  Omnipotent (13)  |  Plant (320)  |  Produce (117)  |  Record (161)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Seed (97)  |  Seem (150)  |  Yield (86)

All truth is a shadow except the last—yet every Truth is true in its kind. It is substance in its own place, though it be but a shadow in another place, (for it is but a shadow from an intenser substance;) and the shadow is a true shadow, as the substance is a true substance.
The Life of a Christian (1653), first page (unnumbered). In Elizabeth Waterhouse, et al., A Little Book of Life and Death (1902), 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Last (425)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Substance (253)  |  Truth (1109)

Almost all the greatest discoveries in astronomy have resulted from what we have elsewhere termed Residual Phenomena, of a qualitative or numerical kind, of such portions of the numerical or quantitative results of observation as remain outstanding and unaccounted for, after subducting and allowing for all that would result from the strict application of known principles.
Outlines of Astronomy (1876), 626.
Science quotes on:  |  Allowing (2)  |  Application (257)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Phenomena (8)  |  Portion (86)  |  Principle (530)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Remain (355)  |  Residual (5)  |  Result (700)  |  Term (357)  |  Unaccounted (2)

Americans have always believed that—within the law—all kinds of people should be allowed to take the initiative in all kinds of activities. And out of that pluralism has come virtually all of our creativity. Freedom is real only to the extent that there are diverse alternatives.
Speech to the Council on Foundations (16 May 1979). In 'Infinite Variety: The Nonprofit Sector', Grant's Magazine (1979), Vol. 2-3, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Allow (51)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Belief (615)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Extent (142)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Law (913)  |  People (1031)  |  Pluralism (3)

Among natural bodies some have, and some have not, life; and by life we mean the faculties of self-nourishment, self-growth and self-decay. Thus every natural body partaking of life may be regarded as an essential existence; … but then it is an existence only in combination. … And since the organism is such a combination, being possessed of life, it cannot be the Vital Principle. Therefore it follows that the Vital Principle most be an essence, as being the form of a natural body, holding life in potentiality; but essence is a reality (entetechie). The Vital Principle is the original reality of a natural body endowed with potential life; this, however, is to be understood only of a body which may be organized. Thus the parts even of plants are organs, but they are organs that are altogether simple; as the leaf which is the covering of the pericarp, the pericarp of the fruit. If, then, there be any general formula for every kind of Vital Principle, it is—tthe primary reality of an organism.
Aristotle
In George Henry Lewes, Aristotle (1864), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Combination (150)  |  Covering (14)  |  Decay (59)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Essence (85)  |  Essential (210)  |  Existence (481)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Formula (102)  |  Fruit (108)  |  General (521)  |  Growth (200)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organism (231)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possess (157)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potentiality (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reality (274)  |  Regard (312)  |  Self (268)  |  Simple (426)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vital (89)

Among people I have met, the few whom I would term “great” all share a kind of unquestioned, fierce dedication; an utter lack of doubt about the value of their activities (or at least an internal impulse that drives through any such angst); and above all, a capacity to work (or at least to be mentally alert for unexpected insights) at every available moment of every day of their lives.
From The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History (2000), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Alert (13)  |  Angst (2)  |  Available (80)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Drive (61)  |  Fierce (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Internal (69)  |  Lack (127)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mentally (3)  |  Met (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Share (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Utter (8)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment, but to change it. And that series of inventions, by which man from age to age has remade his environment, is a different kind of evolution—not biological, but cultural evolution. I call that brilliant sequence of cultural peaks The Ascent of Man. I use the word ascent with a precise meaning. Man is distinguished from other animals by his imaginative gifts. He makes plans, inventions, new discoveries, by putting different talents together; and his discoveries become more subtle and penetrating, as he learns to combine his talents in more complex and intimate ways. So the great discoveries of different ages and different cultures, in technique, in science, in the arts, express in their progression a richer and more intricate conjunction of human faculties, an ascending trellis of his gifts.
The Ascent of Man (1973), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Age (509)  |  Animal (651)  |  Art (680)  |  Ascent Of Man (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Combine (58)  |  Complex (202)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Culture (157)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Express (192)  |  Fly (153)  |  Gift (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Invention (400)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Multitude (50)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plan (122)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precise (71)  |  Progression (23)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Series (153)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Swim (32)  |  Talent (99)  |  Technique (84)  |  Together (392)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

Among the sea-fishes many stories are told about the dolphin, indicative of his gentle and kindly nature…. It appears to be the fleetest of all animals, marine and terrestrial, and it can leap over the masts of large vessels.
Aristotle
In 'The History of Animals' (350 BC), Great Books of the Western World (1952), Vol. 9, 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Appear (122)  |  Dolphin (9)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fleet (4)  |  Gentle (9)  |  Large (398)  |  Leap (57)  |  Marine (9)  |  Mast (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sea (326)  |  Story (122)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Vessel (63)

An egg is a chemical process, but it is not a mere chemical process. It is one that is going places—even when, in our world of chance and contingency, it ends up in an omelet and not in a chicken. Though it surely be a chemical process, we cannot understand it adequately without knowing the kind of chicken it has the power to become.
'The Changing Impact of Darwin on Philosophy', Journal of the History of Ideas (1961), 22, 457.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Chance (244)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chicken (12)  |  Contingency (11)  |  Egg (71)  |  End (603)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Surely (101)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Glory (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imitate (18)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Importance (299)  |  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)

Anaximenes ... said that infinite air was the principle, from which the things that are becoming, and that are, and that shall be, and gods and things divine, all come into being, and the rest from its products. The form of air is of this kind: whenever it is most equable it is invisible to sight, but is revealed by the cold and the hot and the damp and by movement. It is always in motion; for things that change do not change unless there be movement. Through becoming denser or finer it has different appearances; for when it is dissolved into what is finer it becomes fire, while winds, again, are air that is becoming condensed, and cloud is produced from air by felting. When it is condensed still more, water is produced; with a further degree of condensation earth is produced, and when condensed as far as possible, stones. The result is that the most influential components of the generation are opposites, hot and cold.
Hippolytus, Refutation, 1.7.1. In G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven and M. Schofield (eds.), The Presocratic Philosophers: A Critical History with a Selection of Texts (1983), p. 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Anaximander (5)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Cold (115)  |  Component (51)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Divine (112)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fire (203)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  God (776)  |  Hot (63)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Produced (187)  |  Product (166)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Sight (135)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Water (503)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wind (141)

And as for Mixed Mathematics, I may only make this prediction, that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as nature grows further disclosed.
In Advancement of Learning (1605), Book 2. Collected in The Works of Francis Bacon (1765), Vol. 1, 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Disclosed (2)  |  Fail (191)  |  Grow (247)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mixed (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Prediction (89)

And as I had my father’s kind of mind—which was also his mother’s—I learned that the mind is not sex-typed.
Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years (1973), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Father (113)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mother (116)  |  Sex (68)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Type (171)

And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.” And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Creation (350)  |  Day (43)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evening (12)  |  Fruit (108)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Morning (98)  |  Plant (320)  |  Saw (160)  |  Seed (97)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vegetation (24)

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Bible
From Genesis, I, 24, in The Holy Bible (1756), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Creature (242)  |  Creeping (4)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  God (776)  |  Living (492)  |  Thing (1914)

And if one look through a Prism upon a white Object encompassed with blackness or darkness, the reason of the Colours arising on the edges is much the same, as will appear to one that shall a little consider it. If a black Object be encompassed with a white one, the Colours which appear through the Prism are to be derived from the Light of the white one, spreading into the Regions of the black, and therefore they appear in a contrary order to that, when a white Object is surrounded with black. And the same is to be understood when an Object is viewed, whose parts are some of them less luminous than others. For in the borders of the more and less luminous Parts, Colours ought always by the same Principles to arise from the Excess of the Light of the more luminous, and to be of the same kind as if the darker parts were black, but yet to be more faint and dilute.
Opticks (1704), Book I, Part 2, Prop. VIII, Prob. III, 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Arising (22)  |  Color (155)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Edge (51)  |  Excess (23)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  Luminous (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prism (8)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reason (766)  |  Through (846)  |  Understood (155)  |  View (496)  |  White (132)  |  Will (2350)

And many kinds of creatures must have died,
Unable to plant out new sprouts of life.
For whatever you see that lives and breathes and thrives
Has been, from the very beginning, guarded, saved
By it's trickery for its swiftness or brute strength.
And many have been entrusted to our care,
Commended by their usefulness to us.
For instance, strength supports a savage lion;
Foxes rely on their cunning; deer their flight.
On the Nature of Things, trans. Anthony M. Esolen (1995), Book 5, lines 852-60, 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Brute (30)  |  Care (203)  |  Commend (7)  |  Creature (242)  |  Cunning (17)  |  Death (406)  |  Deer (11)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fox (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lion (23)  |  Live (650)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Plant (320)  |  See (1094)  |  Strength (139)  |  Support (151)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Whatever (234)

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind.
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Alive (97)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ark (6)  |  Bird (163)  |  Female (50)  |  Flesh (28)  |  Ground (222)  |  Living (492)  |  Male (26)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Zoology (38)

And so the great truth, now a paradox, may become a commonplace, that man is greater than his surroundings, and that the production of a breed of men and women, even in our great cities, less prone to disease, and pain, more noble in aspect, more rational in habits, more exultant in the pure joy of living, is not only scientifically possible, but that even the partial fulfillment of this dream, if dream it be, is the most worthy object towards which the lover of his kind can devote the best energies of his life.
In 'The Breed of Man', The Nineteenth Century, (Oct 1900), 669, as collected in Martin Polley (ed.), The History of Sport in Britain, 1880-1914: Sport, Education, and Improvement (2004), Vol. 2, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Become (821)  |  Best (467)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fulfillment (20)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Habit (174)  |  Joy (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noble (93)  |  Object (438)  |  Pain (144)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Possible (560)  |  Production (190)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rational (95)  |  Truth (1109)

And there are absolutely no judgments (or rules) in Mechanics which do not also pertain to Physics, of which Mechanics is a part or type: and it is as natural for a clock, composed of wheels of a certain kind, to indicate the hours, as for a tree, grown from a certain kind of seed, to produce the corresponding fruit. Accordingly, just as when those who are accustomed to considering automata know the use of some machine and see some of its parts, they easily conjecture from this how the other parts which they do not see are made: so, from the perceptible effects and parts of natural bodies, I have attempted to investigate the nature of their causes and of their imperceptible parts.
Principles of Philosophy (1644), trans. V. R. and R. P. Miller (1983), 285-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Clock (51)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Hour (192)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Rule (307)  |  See (1094)  |  Seed (97)  |  Tree (269)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)  |  Wheel (51)

Anthropologists are highly individual and specialized people. Each of them is marked by the kind of work he or she prefers and has done, which in time becomes an aspect of that individual’s personality.
In Margaret Mead and Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (ed.), Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979), 258.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropologist (8)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Become (821)  |  Individual (420)  |  Marked (55)  |  People (1031)  |  Personality (66)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

Any opinion as to the form in which the energy of gravitation exists in space is of great importance, and whoever can make his opinion probable will have, made an enormous stride in physical speculation. The apparent universality of gravitation, and the equality of its effects on matter of all kinds are most remarkable facts, hitherto without exception; but they are purely experimental facts, liable to be corrected by a single observed exception. We cannot conceive of matter with negative inertia or mass; but we see no way of accounting for the proportionality of gravitation to mass by any legitimate method of demonstration. If we can see the tails of comets fly off in the direction opposed to the sun with an accelerated velocity, and if we believe these tails to be matter and not optical illusions or mere tracks of vibrating disturbance, then we must admit a force in that direction, and we may establish that it is caused by the sun if it always depends upon his position and distance.
Letter to William Huggins (13 Oct 1868). In P. M. Hannan (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 451-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Comet (65)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Effect (414)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equality (34)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fly (153)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Negative (66)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Optical (11)  |  Physical (518)  |  Position (83)  |  Proportionality (2)  |  Purely (111)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Space (523)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Stride (15)  |  Sun (407)  |  Track (42)  |  Universality (22)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)

Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with.
In Max Planck and James Vincent Murphy (trans.), Where is Science Going?, (1932), 214.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Faith (209)  |  Gate (33)  |  Must (1525)  |  Quality (139)  |  Realize (157)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Temple (45)  |  Temple Of Science (8)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

ARSENIC, n. A kind of cosmetic greatly affected by the ladies, whom it greatly affects in turn.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  26.
Science quotes on:  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Cosmetic (2)  |  Humour (116)  |  Turn (454)

Art arises in those strange complexities of action that are called human beings. It is a kind of human behavior. As such it is not magic, except as human beings are magical. Nor is it concerned in absolutes, eternities, “forms,” beyond those that may reside in the context of the human being and be subject to his vicissitudes. Art is not an inner state of consciousness, whatever that may mean. Neither is it essentially a supreme form of communication. Art is human behavior, and its values are contained in human behavior.
In Art Is Action: A Discussion of Nine Arts in a Modern World (1939), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Action (342)  |  Arise (162)  |  Art (680)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Call (781)  |  Communication (101)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Context (31)  |  Essential (210)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Behavior (10)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mean (810)  |  Reside (25)  |  State (505)  |  Strange (160)  |  Subject (543)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Value (393)  |  Vicissitude (6)  |  Whatever (234)

Artificial intelligence is based on the assumption that the mind can be described as some kind of formal system manipulating symbols that stand for things in the world. Thus it doesn't matter what the brain is made of, or what it uses for tokens in the great game of thinking. Using an equivalent set of tokens and rules, we can do thinking with a digital computer, just as we can play chess using cups, salt and pepper shakers, knives, forks, and spoons. Using the right software, one system (the mind) can be mapped onto the other (the computer).
Machinery of the Mind: Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence (1986), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Brain (281)  |  Chess (27)  |  Computer (131)  |  Digital (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Game (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Salt (48)  |  Set (400)  |  Software (14)  |  Spoon (5)  |  Stand (284)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Token (10)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

Arts and sciences in one and the same century have arrived at great perfection; and no wonder, since every age has a kind of universal genius, which inclines those that live in it to some particular studies; the work then, being pushed on by many hands, must go forward.
In Samuel Austin Allibone, Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay (1880), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Forward (104)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Live (650)  |  Must (1525)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Progress (492)  |  Push (66)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Study (701)  |  Universal (198)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Work (1402)

As a different, but perhaps more common, strategy for the suppression of novelty, we may admit the threatening object to our midst, but provide an enveloping mantle of ordinary garb… . This kind of cover-up, so often amusing in our daily lives, can be quite dangerous in science, for nothing can stifle originality more effectively than an ordinary mantle placed fully and securely over an extraordinary thing.
In 'A Short Way to Big Ends', Natural History (Jan 1986), 95, No. 1, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Daily (91)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Different (595)  |  Envelop (5)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Garb (6)  |  Live (650)  |  Mantle (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originality (21)  |  Research (753)  |  Stifle (5)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Suppression (9)  |  Thing (1914)

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
From The Art of Living, Day by Day 91972), 77. Frequently misattributed to Henry David Thoreau.
Science quotes on:  |  Deep (241)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Footstep (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Path (159)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Physical (518)  |  Single (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries—not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.
From A Logical Point of View (1953), 44. [Note: “qua” means “in the character or role of,” thus “qua lay physicist” means “in the role of lay physicist,” or perhaps even (?) “putting on my lay physicist hat.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consider (428)  |  Continue (179)  |  Culture (157)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degree (277)  |  Device (71)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Empiricist (3)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entity (37)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Flux (21)  |  Footing (2)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Homer (11)  |  Import (5)  |  Intermediary (3)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myth (58)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Past (355)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Point (584)  |  Posit (2)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Situation (117)  |  Structure (365)  |  Superior (88)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tool (129)  |  Ultimately (56)

As never before, the work of the engineer is basic to the kind of society to which our best efforts are committed. Whether it be city planning, improved health care in modern facilities, safer and more efficient transportation, new techniques of communication, or better ways to control pollution and dispose of wastes, the role of the engineer—his initiative, creative ability, and hard work—is at the root of social progress.
Remarks for National Engineers Week (1971). As quoted in Consulting Engineer (1971), 36, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Basic (144)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Care (203)  |  City (87)  |  Communication (101)  |  Control (182)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Dispose (10)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Effort (243)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Health (210)  |  Health Care (10)  |  Improve (64)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Planning (21)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Progress (492)  |  Role (86)  |  Root (121)  |  Safety (58)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Progress (3)  |  Society (350)  |  Technique (84)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

As our technology evolves, we will have the capacity to reach new, ever-increasing depths. The question is: What kind of technology, in the end, do we want to deploy in the far reaches of the ocean? Tools of science, ecology and documentation, or the destructive tools of heavy industry? Some parts of our oceans, like the rich and mysterious recesses of our Atlantic submarine canyons and seamounts, are so stunning and sensitive they deserve to be protected from destructive activities.
In 'Ocean Oases: Protecting Canyons & Seamounts of the Atlantic Coast', The Huffington Post (8 Jun 2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Atlantic Ocean (7)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Deploy (3)  |  Depth (97)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ecology (81)  |  End (603)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Industry (159)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  New (1273)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Protect (65)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Recess (8)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sensitive (15)  |  Stunning (4)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Technology (281)  |  Tool (129)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

As there are six kinds of metals, so I have also shown with reliable experiments… that there are also six kinds of half-metals. I through my experiments, had the good fortune … to be the discoverer of a new half-metal, namely cobalt regulus, which had formerly been confused with bismuth.
The six metals were gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin. The semimetals, in addition to cobalt, were mercury, bismuth, zinc, and the reguluses of antimony and arsenic. Cited as “According to Zenzén, Brandt stated in his diary for 1741,” in Mary Elvira Weeks and Henry M. Leicester (ed.), Discovery of the Elements (6th edition, revised and enlarged 1960). Brandt presented his work to the Royal Academy of Sciences, Upsala, as printed in 'Dissertatio de semimetallis' (Dissertation on semi-metals) in Acta Literaria et Scientiarum Sveciae (Journal of Swedish literature and sciences) (1735), 4 1-10.
Science quotes on:  |  Antimony (7)  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Bismuth (7)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Copper (25)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Iron (99)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Metal (88)  |  New (1273)  |  Reliability (18)  |  Silver (49)  |  Through (846)  |  Tin (18)  |  Zinc (3)

As we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Continue (179)  |  Depend (238)  |  Future (467)  |  Material (366)  |  Other (2233)  |  Secured (18)  |  Understanding (527)

As you kind of get over the anxiety about [science and evolution], it actually adds to your sense of awe about this amazing universe that we live in, it doesn't subtract from it at all.
From video of interview with Huffington post reporter at the 2014 Davos Annual Meeting, World Economic Forum (25 Jan 2014). On web page 'Dr. Francis Collins: “There Is An Uneasiness” About Evolution'
Science quotes on:  |  Amazement (19)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Awe (43)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Live (650)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Universe (900)

Astronomy is older than physics. In fact, it got physics started by showing the beautiful simplicity of the motion of the stars and planets, the understanding of which was the beginning of physics. But the most remarkable discovery in all of astronomy is that the stars are made of atoms of the same kind as those on the earth.
In 'Astronomy', The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961), Vol. 1, 3-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atom (381)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Made (14)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Older (7)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Planet (402)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Showing (6)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Start (237)  |  Understanding (527)

At the beginning of its existence as a science, biology was forced to take cognizance of the seemingly boundless variety of living things, for no exact study of life phenomena was possible until the apparent chaos of the distinct kinds of organisms had been reduced to a rational system. Systematics and morphology, two predominantly descriptive and observational disciplines, took precedence among biological sciences during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. More recently physiology has come to the foreground, accompanied by the introduction of quantitative methods and by a shift from the observationalism of the past to a predominance of experimentation.
In Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937, 1982), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (41)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Description (89)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observational (15)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precedence (4)  |  Predominance (3)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Rational (95)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Shift (45)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Variety (138)

At the entrance to the observatory Stjerneborg located underground, Tycho Brahe built a Ionic portal. On top of this were three sculptured lions. On both sides were inscriptions and on the backside was a longer inscription in gold letters on a porfyr stone: Consecrated to the all-good, great God and Posterity. Tycho Brahe, Son of Otto, who realized that Astronomy, the oldest and most distinguished of all sciences, had indeed been studied for a long time and to a great extent, but still had not obtained sufficient firmness or had been purified of errors, in order to reform it and raise it to perfection, invented and with incredible labour, industry, and expenditure constructed various exact instruments suitable for all kinds of observations of the celestial bodies, and placed them partly in the neighbouring castle of Uraniborg, which was built for the same purpose, partly in these subterranean rooms for a more constant and useful application, and recommending, hallowing, and consecrating this very rare and costly treasure to you, you glorious Posterity, who will live for ever and ever, he, who has both begun and finished everything on this island, after erecting this monument, beseeches and adjures you that in honour of the eternal God, creator of the wonderful clockwork of the heavens, and for the propagation of the divine science and for the celebrity of the fatherland, you will constantly preserve it and not let it decay with old age or any other injury or be removed to any other place or in any way be molested, if for no other reason, at any rate out of reverence to the creator’s eye, which watches over the universe. Greetings to you who read this and act accordingly. Farewell!
(Translated from the original in Latin)
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Age (509)  |  Application (257)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Both (496)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Constant (148)  |  Construct (129)  |  Creator (97)  |  Decay (59)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Divine (112)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Error (339)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  Finish (62)  |  Glorious (49)  |  God (776)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greeting (10)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Honour (58)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Industry (159)  |  Injury (36)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Island (49)  |  Labor (200)  |  Letter (117)  |  Lion (23)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Portal (9)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rare (94)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reform (22)  |  Research (753)  |  Side (236)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Underground (12)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useful (260)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)

BAROMETER, n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  32.
Science quotes on:  |  Barometer (7)  |  Humour (116)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Weather (49)

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. ...The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.
Dune
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Critical (73)  |  Critical Point (3)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Do (1905)  |  Existence (481)  |  Finite (60)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Human (1512)  |  Increase (225)  |  Number (710)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Question (649)  |  Space (523)  |  Survive (87)  |  System (545)

But in the heavens we discover by their light, and by their light alone, stars so distant from each other that no material thing can ever have passed from one to another; and yet this light, which is to us the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds, tells us also that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds as those which we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule, therefore, throughout the universe, bears impressed on it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the double royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac ... the exact quantity of each molecule to all others of same kind gives it, as Sir John Herschel has well said, the essential character of a manufactured article and precludes the idea of its being external and self-existent.
'Molecules', 1873. In W. D. Niven (ed.), The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890), Vol. 2, 375-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arcturus (4)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Execute (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Sir John Herschel (24)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Light (635)  |  Material (366)  |  Metric System (6)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Royal (56)  |  Self (268)  |  Sole (50)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Tell (344)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vibration (26)  |  World (1850)

But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Burn (99)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Compare (76)  |  Description (89)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Eager (17)  |  Eagerness (5)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Follow (389)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lost (34)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rare (94)  |  Right (473)  |  Saw (160)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zeal (12)

But nothing of a nature foreign to the duties of my profession [clergyman] engaged my attention while I was at Leeds so much as the, prosecution of my experiments relating to electricity, and especially the doctrine of air. The last I was led into a consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where first amused myself with making experiments on fixed air [carbon dioxide] which found ready made in the process of fermentation. When I removed from that house, I was under the necessity making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind. When I began these experiments I knew very little of chemistry, and had in a manner no idea on the subject before I attended a course of chymical lectures delivered in the Academy at Warrington by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought that upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; as in this situation I was led to devise an apparatus and processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views. Whereas, if I had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I should not have so easily thought of any other; and without new modes of operation I should hardly have discovered anything materially new.
Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley, in the Year 1795 (1806), Vol. 1, 61-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adjoining (3)  |  Air (366)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attention (196)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Duty (71)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fermentation (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Fixed Air (2)  |  Foreign (45)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Last (425)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Mode (43)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Process (439)  |  Profession (108)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Situation (117)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thought (995)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

But there is another alchemy, operative and practical, which teaches how to make the noble metals and colours and many other things better and more abundantly by art than they are made in nature. And science of this kind is greater than all those preceding because it produces greater utilities. For not only can it yield wealth and very many other things for the public welfare, but it also teaches how to discover such things as are capable of prolonging human life for much longer periods than can be accomplished by nature … Therefore this science has special utilities of that nature, while nevertheless it confirms theoretical alchemy through its works.
Opus Tertium [1266-1268], chapter 12, quoted in A. C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo (1959), Vol. I, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Art (680)  |  Better (493)  |  Capable (174)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Discover (571)  |  Greater (288)  |  Human (1512)  |  Life (1870)  |  Metal (88)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Noble (93)  |  Operative (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Practical (225)  |  Special (188)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

But who can say that the vapour engine has not a kind of consciousness? Where does consciousness begin, and where end? Who can draw the line? Who can draw any line? Is not everything interwoven with everything? Is not machinery linked with animal life in an infinite variety of ways?
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Begin (275)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Draw (140)  |  End (603)  |  Engine (99)  |  Everything (489)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Interwoven (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Say (989)  |  Vapour (16)  |  Variety (138)  |  Way (1214)

But, further, no animal can live upon a mixture of pure protein, fat and carbohydrate, and even when the necessary inorganic material is carefully supplied, the animal still cannot flourish. The animal body is adjusted to live either upon plant tissues or the tissues of other animals, and these contain countless substances other than the proteins, carbohydrates and fats... In diseases such as rickets, and particularly in scurvy, we have had for long years knowledge of a dietetic factor; but though we know how to benefit these conditions empirically, the real errors in the diet are to this day quite obscure. They are, however, certainly of the kind which comprises these minimal qualitative factors that I am considering.
'The Analyst and the Medical Man', The Analyst (1906), 31, 395-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Body (557)  |  Carbohydrate (3)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Condition (362)  |  Countless (39)  |  Diet (56)  |  Dietetic (4)  |  Disease (340)  |  Error (339)  |  Fat (11)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Food (213)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Protein (56)  |  Pure (299)  |  Scurvy (5)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Vitamin (13)  |  Year (963)

By destroying the biological character of phenomena, the use of averages in physiology and medicine usually gives only apparent accuracy to the results. From our point of view, we may distinguish between several kinds of averages: physical averages, chemical averages and physiological and pathological averages. If, for instance, we observe the number of pulsations and the degree of blood pressure by means of the oscillations of a manometer throughout one day, and if we take the average of all our figures to get the true or average blood pressure and to learn the true or average number of pulsations, we shall simply have wrong numbers. In fact, the pulse decreases in number and intensity when we are fasting and increases during digestion or under different influences of movement and rest; all the biological characteristics of the phenomenon disappear in the average. Chemical averages are also often used. If we collect a man's urine during twenty-four hours and mix all this urine to analyze the average, we get an analysis of a urine which simply does not exist; for urine, when fasting, is different from urine during digestion. A startling instance of this kind was invented by a physiologist who took urine from a railroad station urinal where people of all nations passed, and who believed he could thus present an analysis of average European urine! Aside from physical and chemical, there are physiological averages, or what we might call average descriptions of phenomena, which are even more false. Let me assume that a physician collects a great many individual observations of a disease and that he makes an average description of symptoms observed in the individual cases; he will thus have a description that will never be matched in nature. So in physiology, we must never make average descriptions of experiments, because the true relations of phenomena disappear in the average; when dealing with complex and variable experiments, we must study their various circumstances, and then present our most perfect experiment as a type, which, however, still stands for true facts. In the cases just considered, averages must therefore be rejected, because they confuse, while aiming to unify, and distort while aiming to simplify. Averages are applicable only to reducing very slightly varying numerical data about clearly defined and absolutely simple cases.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 134-135.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Average (89)  |  Biological (137)  |  Blood (144)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consider (428)  |  Data (162)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distort (22)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fasting (3)  |  Figure (162)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hour (192)  |  Increase (225)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pathological (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Present (630)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplify (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Startling (15)  |  Station (30)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Type (171)  |  Unify (7)  |  Urine (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Variable (37)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

By research in pure science I mean research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the Laws of Nature. I will give just one example of the ‘utility’ of this kind of research, one that has been brought into great prominence by the War—I mean the use of X-rays in surgery. Now, not to speak of what is beyond money value, the saving of pain, or, it may be, the life of the wounded, and of bitter grief to those who loved them, the benefit which the state has derived from the restoration of so many to life and limb, able to render services which would otherwise have been lost, is almost incalculable. Now, how was this method discovered? It was not the result of a research in applied science starting to find an improved method of locating bullet wounds. This might have led to improved probes, but we cannot imagine it leading to the discovery of X-rays. No, this method is due to an investigation in pure science, made with the object of discovering what is the nature of Electricity. The experiments which led to this discovery seemed to be as remote from ‘humanistic interest’ —to use a much misappropriated word—as anything that could well be imagined. The apparatus consisted of glass vessels from which the last drops of air had been sucked, and which emitted a weird greenish light when stimulated by formidable looking instruments called induction coils. Near by, perhaps, were great coils of wire and iron built up into electro-magnets. I know well the impression it made on the average spectator, for I have been occupied in experiments of this kind nearly all my life, notwithstanding the advice, given in perfect good faith, by non-scientific visitors to the laboratory, to put that aside and spend my time on something useful.
In Speech made on behalf of a delegation from the Conjoint Board of Scientific Studies in 1916 to Lord Crewe, then Lord President of the Council. In George Paget Thomson, J. J. Thomson and the Cavendish Laboratory in His Day (1965), 167-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Air (366)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Average (89)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Call (781)  |  Consist (223)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Drop (77)  |  Due (143)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Glass (94)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grief (20)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Induction (81)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Iron (99)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Looking (191)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Method (531)  |  Money (178)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Object (438)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Probe (12)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Ray (115)  |  Remote (86)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Service (110)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spend (97)  |  State (505)  |  Suck (8)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value (393)  |  Vessel (63)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)  |  Word (650)  |  Wound (26)  |  X-ray (43)

By the act of generation nothing more is done than to ferment the sperm of ye female by the sperm of ye male that it may thereby become fit nourishment for ye Embryo: ffor ye nourishment of all animals is prepared by ferment & the ferment is taken from animals of the same kind, & makes the nourishment subtile & spiritual. In adult animals the nourishmt is fermented by the choler and pancreatic juice both wch come from the blood. The Embryo not being able to ferment its own nourishment wch comes from the mothers blood has it fermented by the sperm wch comes from ye fathers blood, & by this nourishment it swells, drops off from ye Ovarium & begins to grow with a life distinct from that of ye mother.
From 'Quæst 25' in Draft version of The Queries manuscript, Add. MS. 3970, folio 235 held by the University of Cambridge Library. As quoted and cited in R.W. Home, 'Force, Electricity, and Living Matter', from Margaret J. Osler and Paul Lawrence Farber (eds.), Religion, Science, and Worldview: Essays in Honor of Richard S. Westfall (2002), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Animal (651)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Both (496)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Drop (77)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Father (113)  |  Female (50)  |  Ferment (6)  |  Fit (139)  |  Generation (256)  |  Grow (247)  |  Juice (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Male (26)  |  More (2558)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Pancreas (4)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Sperm (7)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Swell (4)

Chemistry and physics are experimental sciences; and those who are engaged in attempting to enlarge the boundaries of science by experiment are generally unwilling to publish speculations; for they have learned, by long experience, that it is unsafe to anticipate events. It is true, they must make certain theories and hypotheses. They must form some kind of mental picture of the relations between the phenomena which they are trying to investigate, else their experiments would be made at random, and without connection.
From 'Radium and Its Products', Harper’s Magazine (Dec 1904), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Connection (171)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Event (222)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Form (976)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Long (778)  |  Mental (179)  |  Must (1525)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Picture (148)  |  Publish (42)  |  Random (42)  |  Relation (166)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unsafe (5)  |  Unwilling (9)

Chromosomes … [contain] some kind of code-script the entire pattern of the individual’s future development and of its functioning in the mature state. Every complete set of chromosomes contains the full code.
In What is Life? : The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (1944), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Code (31)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contain (68)  |  Development (441)  |  Function (235)  |  Future (467)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mature (17)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Script (2)  |  Set (400)  |  State (505)

Common sense … has the very curious property of being more correct retrospectively than prospectively. It seems to me that one of the principal criteria to be applied to successful science is that its results are almost always obvious retrospectively; unfortunately, they seldom are prospectively. Common sense provides a kind of ultimate validation after science has completed its work; it seldom anticipates what science is going to discover.
Quoted in A. De Reuck, M. Goldsmith and J. Knight (eds.), Decision Making in National Science Policy (1968), 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Applied (176)  |  Being (1276)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Completed (30)  |  Curious (95)  |  Discover (571)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Principal (69)  |  Property (177)  |  Result (700)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Sense (785)  |  Successful (134)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Validation (2)  |  Work (1402)

Common sense is, of all kinds, the most uncommon.
In Hialmer Day Gould, New Practical Spelling (1905), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sense (785)  |  Uncommon (14)

Concerning alchemy it is more difficult to discover the actual state of things, in that the historians who specialise in this field seem sometimes to be under the wrath of God themselves; for, like those who write of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy or on Spanish politics, they seem to become tinctured with the kind of lunacy they set out to describe.
The Origins of Modern Science (1949), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Become (821)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Describe (132)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discover (571)  |  Field (378)  |  God (776)  |  Historian (59)  |  More (2558)  |  Politics (122)  |  Set (400)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  State (505)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Write (250)

D’you know how embarrassing it is to mention good and evil in a scientific laboratory? Have you any idea? One of the reasons l became a scientist was not to have to think about that kind of thing.
Spoken by character Dr. Malone in His Dark Materials Omnibus (2012), 370.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Embarrassment (5)  |  Evil (122)  |  Good (906)  |  Good And Evil (3)  |  Idea (881)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Mention (84)  |  Reason (766)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

Darwin grasped the philosophical bleakness with his characteristic courage. He argued that hope and morality cannot, and should not, be passively read in the construction of nature. Aesthetic and moral truths, as human concepts, must be shaped in human terms, not ‘discovered’ in nature. We must formulate these answers for ourselves and then approach nature as a partner who can answer other kinds of questions for us–questions about the factual state of the universe, not about the meaning of human life. If we grant nature the independence of her own domain–her answers unframed in human terms–then we can grasp her exquisite beauty in a free and humble way. For then we become liberated to approach nature without the burden of an inappropriate and impossible quest for moral messages to assuage our hopes and fears. We can pay our proper respect to nature’s independence and read her own ways as beauty or inspiration in our different terms.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Answer (389)  |  Approach (112)  |  Argue (25)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Bleakness (2)  |  Burden (30)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Concept (242)  |  Construction (114)  |  Courage (82)  |  Darwin (14)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Domain (72)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Factual (8)  |  Fear (212)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Free (239)  |  Grant (76)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Humble (54)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inappropriate (5)  |  Independence (37)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Message (53)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Partner (5)  |  Passively (3)  |  Pay (45)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quest (39)  |  Question (649)  |  Read (308)  |  Respect (212)  |  Shape (77)  |  State (505)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)

Dear Dr. Pauling, Will you be so kind as to stay off precipitous cliffs until the question of disarmament and atomic testing is finished? A needy citizen.
Telegram to Linus Pauling (Feb 1960). Following a rescue of Pauling, who on 30 Jan 1960, while on a walking trip along an ocean cliff had become stuck on a treacherous high ledge, unable to move because of slippery, loose rocks that could tumble him on a 300-ft fall. As quoted on the Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement website at scarc.library.oregonstate.edu.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Cliff (22)  |  Disarmament (6)  |  Finish (62)  |  Linus Pauling (60)  |  Question (649)  |  Test (221)  |  Will (2350)

Definitions are a kind of scratching and generally leave a sore place more sore than it was before.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 221.
Science quotes on:  |  Definition (238)  |  More (2558)  |  Sore (4)

Different kinds of animals and plants live together in different places: camels in deserts, whales in the seas, gorillas in tropical forests. The totality of this diversity from the genetic level, through organisms to ecosystems and landscapes is termed collectively biological diversity.
From Reith Lecture, 'Biodiversity', on BBC Radio 4 (19 Apr 2000). Transcript and audio on BBC website.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biological Diversity (5)  |  Camel (12)  |  Desert (59)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Ecosystem (33)  |  Forest (161)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Live (650)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Organism (231)  |  Place (192)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Sea (326)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Totality (17)  |  Whale (45)

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions: oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch’d and vex’d
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers.
Dialogue by Hotspur to Glendower, in King Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act III, Scene 1. Reprinted in The Works of Shakespeare: The First Part of King Henry IV (1790), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Break (109)  |  Colic (3)  |  Disease (340)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Enlargement (8)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Forth (14)  |  Imprison (11)  |  Moss (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Pinch (6)  |  Shake (43)  |  Steeple (4)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strive (53)  |  Teem (2)  |  Topple (2)  |  Tower (45)  |  Unruly (4)  |  Vex (10)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Wind (141)  |  Womb (25)

Dissection … teaches us that the body of man is made up of certain kinds of material, so differing from each other in optical and other physical characters and so built up together as to give the body certain structural features. Chemical examination further teaches us that these kinds of material are composed of various chemical substances, a large number of which have this characteristic that they possess a considerable amount of potential energy capable of being set free, rendered actual, by oxidation or some other chemical change. Thus the body as a whole may, from a chemical point of view, be considered as a mass of various chemical substances, representing altogether a considerable capital of potential energy.
From Introduction to A Text Book of Physiology (1876, 1891), Book 1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Altogether (9)  |  Amount (153)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Capable (174)  |  Capital (16)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Compose (20)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Energy (373)  |  Examination (102)  |  Free (239)  |  Large (398)  |  Made (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Material (366)  |  Number (710)  |  Optical (11)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxidation (8)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possess (157)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Render (96)  |  Represent (157)  |  Set (400)  |  Structural (29)  |  Substance (253)  |  Together (392)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

Each of us has read somewhere that in New Guinea pidgin the word for 'piano' is (I use English spelling) 'this fellow you hit teeth belonging to him he squeal all same pig'. I am inclined to doubt whether this expression is authentic; it looks just like the kind of thing a visitor to the Islands would facetiously invent. But I accept 'cut grass belong head belong me' for 'haircut' as genuine... Such phrases seem very funny to us, and make us feel very superior to the ignorant foreigners who use long winded expressions for simple matters. And then it is our turn to name quite a simple thing, a small uncomplicated molecule consisting of nothing more than a measly 11 carbons, seven hydrogens, one nitrogen and six oxygens. We sharpen our pencils, consult our rule books and at last come up with 3-[(1, 3- dihydro-1, 3-dioxo-2H-isoindol-2-yl) oxy]-3-oxopropanoic acid. A name like that could drive any self-respecting Papuan to piano-playing.
The Chemist's English (1990), 3rd Edition, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acid (83)  |  Authentic (9)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Book (413)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Complication (30)  |  Cut (116)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  Funny (11)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Invention (400)  |  Island (49)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  New Guinea (4)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Piano (12)  |  Playing (42)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Superior (88)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Wind (141)  |  Word (650)

Each thing in the world has names or unnamed relations to everything else. Relations are infinite in number and kind. To be is to be related. It is evident that the understanding of relations is a major concern of all men and women. Are relations a concern of mathematics? They are so much its concern that mathematics is sometimes defined to be the science of relations.
In Mole Philosophy and Other Essays (1927), 94-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Define (53)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evident (92)  |  Infinite (243)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Name (359)  |  Number (710)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

Each volcano is an independent machine—nay, each vent and monticule is for the time being engaged in its own peculiar business, cooking as it were its special dish, which in due time is to be separately served. We have instances of vents within hailing distance of each other pouring out totally different kinds of lava, neither sympathizing with the other in any discernible manner nor influencing other in any appreciable degree.
In Report on the Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah (1880), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Business (156)  |  Cooking (12)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Discernible (9)  |  Distance (171)  |  Due (143)  |  Lava (12)  |  Machine (271)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Special (188)  |  Time (1911)  |  Volcano (46)

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)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Informal (5)  |  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)

Edward [Teller] isn’t the cloistered kind of scientist. He gets his ideas in conversation and develops them by trying them out on people. We were coming back from Europe on the Ile de France and I was standing in the ship’s nightclub when he came up and said, 'Freddie, I think I have an idea.’ It was something he’d just thought of about magnetohydrodynamics. I was a bachelor then and I’d located several good-looking girls on the ship, but I knew what I had to do, so I disappeared and started working on the calculations. I’d get something finished and start prowling on the deck again when Edward would turn up out of the night and we’d walk the deck together while he talked and I was the brick wall he was bouncing these things off of. By the end of the trip we had a paper. He’d had the ideas, and I’d done some solving of equations. But he insisted that we sign in alphabetical order, which put my name first.
As quoted in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 61-62.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Bounce (2)  |  Brick (20)  |  Brick Wall (2)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Equation (138)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Girl (38)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Insist (22)  |  Looking (191)  |  Name (359)  |  Order (638)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Reclusive (2)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Ship (69)  |  Solve (145)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Edward Teller (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Trying (144)  |  Turn (454)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wall (71)

Entropy theory, on the other hand, is not concerned with the probability of succession in a series of items but with the overall distribution of kinds of items in a given arrangement.
In Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order (1974), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Concern (239)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Given (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Other Hand (2)  |  Overall (10)  |  Probability (135)  |  Series (153)  |  Succession (80)  |  Theory (1015)

Eskimos living in a world of ice have no word at all for that substance—and this has been cited as evidence of their primitive mentality. But ice as such is of no interest to an Eskimo; what is of interest, indeed of vital importance, are the different kinds of ice with which he must deal virtually every day of his life.
As co-author with Floyd W. Matson, in The Human Connection (1979), 174. More often seen without explanatory context, as “The Eskimos live among ice all their lives but have no single word for ice,” for example, in Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar (1989), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Deal (192)  |  Different (595)  |  Eskimo (2)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Ice (58)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Interest (416)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Must (1525)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Substance (253)  |  Vital (89)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Every man looks at his wood-pile with a kind of affection. … [T]hey warmed me twice, once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat.
In Walden: or, Life in the Woods (1854, 1899), 263.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Axe (16)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Heat (180)  |  Log (7)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Pile (12)  |  Split (15)  |  Twice (20)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wood (97)

Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there [The Metaphysical Society], and expressed itself with entire openness; most of my colleagues were -ists of one sort or another; and, however kind and friendly they might be, I, the man without a rag of a label to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of “agnostic” .
'Agnosticism' (1889). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 5, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Agnostic (10)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Companion (22)  |  Express (192)  |  Fail (191)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Himself (461)  |  Historical (70)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Openness (8)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Present (630)  |  Remain (355)  |  Represent (157)  |  Society (350)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thought (995)  |  Variety (138)

Everybody using C is a dangerous thing. We have other languages that don’t have buffer overflows. But what is the longer-term cost to us as an enterprise in increased vulnerability, increased need for add-on security services or whatever else is involved? Those kinds of questions don’t get asked often enough.
As quoted in magazine article, an interview by John McCormick, 'Computer Security as a Business Enabler', Baseline (7 Jul 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Buffer (2)  |  C (2)  |  Cost (94)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Increase (225)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Language (308)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Need (320)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overflow (10)  |  Question (649)  |  Security (51)  |  Service (110)  |  Term (357)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vulnerability (5)  |  Whatever (234)

Everything is always in trouble at the frontier. Any science that is not in this kind of trouble is dead.
As quoted in John Noble Wilford, 'Sizing up the Cosmos: An Astronomers Quest', New York Times (12 Mar 1991), C10.
Science quotes on:  |  Dead (65)  |  Everything (489)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Trouble (117)

Everything on this earth iz bought and sold, except air and water, and they would be if a kind Creator had not made the supply too grate for the demand.
In The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1876), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Buy (21)  |  Creator (97)  |  Demand (131)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hydrology (10)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Sell (15)  |  Supply (100)  |  Water (503)

Evidence of this [transformation of animals into fossils] is that parts of aquatic animals and perhaps of naval gear are found in rock in hollows on mountains, which water no doubt deposited there enveloped in sticky mud, and which were prevented by coldness and dryness of the stone from petrifying completely. Very striking evidence of this kind is found in the stones of Paris, in which one very often meets round shells the shape of the moon.
De Causis Proprietatum Elementorum (On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements) [before 1280], Book II, tract 3, chapter 5, quoted in A. C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo (1959), Vol. 1, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquatic (5)  |  Completely (137)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dryness (5)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mud (26)  |  Petrification (5)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Rock (176)  |  Shell (69)  |  Stone (168)  |  Striking (48)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Water (503)

Experiments may be of two kinds: experiments of simple fact, and experiments of quantity. ...[In the latter] the conditions will ... vary, not in quality, but quantity, and the effect will also vary in quantity, so that the result of quantitative induction is also to arrive at some mathematical expression involving the quantity of each condition, and expressing the quantity of the result. In other words, we wish to know what function the effect is of its conditions. We shall find that it is one thing to obtain the numerical results, and quite another thing to detect the law obeyed by those results, the latter being an operation of an inverse and tentative character.
Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1874, 1892), 439.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Condition (362)  |  Detect (45)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Function (235)  |  Induction (81)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Obey (46)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Tentative (18)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Word (650)

Few will deny that even in the first scientific instruction in mathematics the most rigorous method is to be given preference over all others. Especially will every teacher prefer a consistent proof to one which is based on fallacies or proceeds in a vicious circle, indeed it will be morally impossible for the teacher to present a proof of the latter kind consciously and thus in a sense deceive his pupils. Notwithstanding these objectionable so-called proofs, so far as the foundation and the development of the system is concerned, predominate in our textbooks to the present time. Perhaps it will be answered, that rigorous proof is found too difficult for the pupil’s power of comprehension. Should this be anywhere the case,—which would only indicate some defect in the plan or treatment of the whole,—the only remedy would be to merely state the theorem in a historic way, and forego a proof with the frank confession that no proof has been found which could be comprehended by the pupil; a remedy which is ever doubtful and should only be applied in the case of extreme necessity. But this remedy is to be preferred to a proof which is no proof, and is therefore either wholly unintelligible to the pupil, or deceives him with an appearance of knowledge which opens the door to all superficiality and lack of scientific method.
In 'Stücke aus dem Lehrbuche der Arithmetik', Werke, Bd. 2 (1904), 296.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Base (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Concern (239)  |  Confession (9)  |  Consciously (6)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Defect (31)  |  Deny (71)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Door (94)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Especially (31)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Forego (4)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Frank (4)  |  Give (208)  |  Historic (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lack (127)  |  Latter (21)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Morally (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Preference (28)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sense (785)  |  So-Called (71)  |  State (505)  |  Superficiality (4)  |  System (545)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Vicious Circle (4)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

Fifty years after we undertook to make the first synthetic polarizers we find them the essential layer in digital liquid-crystal. And thirty four years after we undertook to make the first instant camera and film, our kind of photography has become ubiquitous.
Letter to shareholders (1978). In Alan R. Earls and Nasrin Rohani, Polaroid (2005), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Camera (7)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Digital (10)  |  Display (59)  |  Essential (210)  |  Film (12)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Instant (46)  |  Layer (41)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Photography (9)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Ubiquitous (5)  |  Year (963)

For all their wealth of content, for all the sum of history and social institution invested in them, music, mathematics, and chess are resplendently useless (applied mathematics is a higher plumbing, a kind of music for the police band). They are metaphysically trivial, irresponsible. They refuse to relate outward, to take reality for arbiter. This is the source of their witchery.
In 'A Death of Kings', George Steiner at The New Yorker (2009), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Mathematics (15)  |  Arbiter (5)  |  Band (9)  |  Chess (27)  |  Content (75)  |  History (716)  |  Institution (73)  |  Invest (20)  |  Irresponsible (5)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Music (133)  |  Outward (7)  |  Plumbing (5)  |  Police (5)  |  Reality (274)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Relate (26)  |  Resplendent (3)  |  Social (261)  |  Source (101)  |  Sum (103)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Useless (38)  |  Wealth (100)

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
From 'Progress of philosophical speculations. Preface to intended treatise De Interpretatione Naturæ (1603), in Francis Bacon and James Spedding (ed.), Works of Francis Bacon (1868), Vol. 3, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affectation (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chief (99)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enough (341)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fix (34)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Hate (68)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nimble (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Patience (58)  |  Point (584)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Steady (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Versatile (6)

For the time of making Observations none can ever be amiss; there being no season, nor indeed hardly any place where in some Natural Thing or other does not present it self worthy of Remark: yea there are some things that require Observation all the Year round, as Springs, Rivers, &c. Nor is there any Season amiss for the gathering Natural Things. Bodies of one kind or other presenting themselves at all times, and in Winter as well as Summer.
In Brief Instructions for Making Observations in all Parts of the World (1696), 10-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Making (300)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Require (229)  |  River (140)  |  Season (47)  |  Self (268)  |  Spring (140)  |  Summer (56)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Winter (46)  |  Year (963)

For the past 10 years I have had the interesting experience of observing the development of Parkinson's syndrome on myself. As a matter of fact, this condition does not come under my special medical interests or I would have had it solved long ago. … The condition has its compensations: one is not yanked from interesting work to go to the jungles of Burma ... one avoids all kinds of deadly committee meetings, etc.
Article for his 25th anniversary class report. In Barry G. Firkin, Judith A. Whitworth, Dictionary of Medical Eponyms (1996), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Development (441)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Myself (211)  |  Past (355)  |  Special (188)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

For the philosopher, order is the entirety of repetitions manifested, in the form of types or of laws, by perceived objects. Order is an intelligible relation. For the biologist, order is a sequence in space and time. However, according to Plato, all things arise out of their opposites. Order was born of the original disorder, and the long evolution responsible for the present biological order necessarily had to engender disorder.
An organism is a molecular society, and biological order is a kind of social order. Social order is opposed to revolution, which is an abrupt change of order, and to anarchy, which is the absence of order.
I am presenting here today both revolution and anarchy, for which I am fortunately not the only one responsible. However, anarchy cannot survive and prosper except in an ordered society, and revolution becomes sooner or later the new order. Viruses have not failed to follow the general law. They are strict parasites which, born of disorder, have created a very remarkable new order to ensure their own perpetuation.
'Interaction Among Virus, Cell, and Organism', Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1965). In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1963-1970 (1972), 174.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Arise (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (639)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Entirety (6)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fail (191)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Perpetuation (4)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Plato (80)  |  Present (630)  |  Prosper (8)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Order (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Survive (87)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Type (171)  |  Virus (32)

For twenty pages perhaps, he read slowly, carefully, dutifully, with pauses for self-examination and working out examples. Then, just as it was working up and the pauses should have been more scrupulous than ever, a kind of swoon and ecstasy would fall on him, and he read ravening on, sitting up till dawn to finish the book, as though it were a novel. After that his passion was stayed; the book went back to the Library and he was done with mathematics till the next bout. Not much remained with him after these orgies, but something remained: a sensation in the mind, a worshiping acknowledgment of something isolated and unassailable, or a remembered mental joy at the rightness of thoughts coming together to a conclusion, accurate thoughts, thoughts in just intonation, coming together like unaccompanied voices coming to a close.
In Mr. Fortune’s Maggot (1927), 161.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Back (395)  |  Book (413)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Ecstasy (9)  |  Examination (102)  |  Fall (243)  |  Finish (62)  |  Joy (117)  |  Library (53)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Novel (35)  |  Passion (121)  |  Read (308)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scrupulous (7)  |  Self (268)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Something (718)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)

Fossils are of four kinds, viz. saline, earthy, inflammable and metallic; hence arise four classes.
In Outlines of Mineralogy (1783), trans. William Withering, 12. [Before it was used for the petrified remains of organic forms, the word “fossil”—obsolete, as used here—refers to that which is “dug from the earth, preserved in the ground.” Hence, in the quote, Bergman is classifying minerals, which are the subject matter of his book. —Webmaster] Also collected in William Withering (the son, ed.), The Miscellaneous Tracts of the Late William Withering (1822), Vol. 2, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Inflammable (5)  |  Mineral (66)

Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief … give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.
From 'Science and Literature', The Hope of Progress: A Scientist Looks at Problems in Philosophy, Literature and Science (1973), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Believable (3)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deeper (4)  |  Description (89)  |  End (603)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Hang (46)  |  Incoherence (2)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Loss (117)  |  Myth (58)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Relief (30)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  True (239)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

From the intensity of the spots near the centre, we can infer that the protein molecules are relatively dense globular bodies, perhaps joined together by valency bridges, but in any event separated by relatively large spaces which contain water. From the intensity of the more distant spots, it can be inferred that the arrangement of atoms inside the protein molecule is also of a perfectly definite kind, although without the periodicities characterising the fibrous proteins. The observations are compatible with oblate spheroidal molecules of diameters about 25 A. and 35 A., arranged in hexagonal screw-axis. ... At this stage, such ideas are merely speculative, but now that a crystalline protein has been made to give X-ray photographs, it is clear that we have the means of checking them and, by examining the structure of all crystalline proteins, arriving at a far more detailed conclusion about protein structure than previous physical or chemical methods have been able to give.
'X-Ray Photographs of Crystalline Pepsin', Nature (1934), 133, 795.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Definite (114)  |  Detail (150)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Event (222)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Large (398)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physical (518)  |  Protein (56)  |  Ray (115)  |  Screw (17)  |  Space (523)  |  Stage (152)  |  Structure (365)  |  Together (392)  |  Valency (4)  |  Water (503)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 129. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Art (680)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Command (60)  |  Country (269)  |  Depend (238)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Extend (129)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Native (41)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noble (93)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wholesome (12)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

Furthermore, it’s equally evident that what goes on is actually one degree better than self-reproduction, for organisms appear to have gotten more elaborate in the course of time. Today's organisms are phylogenetically descended from others which were vastly simpler than they are, so much simpler, in fact, that it’s inconceivable, how any kind of description of the latter, complex organism could have existed in the earlier one. It’s not easy to imagine in what sense a gene, which is probably a low order affair, can contain a description of the human being which will come from it. But in this case you can say that since the gene has its effect only within another human organism, it probably need not contain a complete description of what is to happen, but only a few cues for a few alternatives. However, this is not so in phylogenetic evolution. That starts from simple entities, surrounded by an unliving amorphous milieu, and produce, something more complicated. Evidently, these organisms have the ability to produce something more complicated than themselves.
From lecture series on self-replicating machines at the University of Illinois, Lecture 5 (Dec 1949), 'Re-evaluation of the Problems of Complicated Automata—Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution', Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Amorphous (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Descend (49)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evident (92)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Gene (105)  |  Happen (282)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Low (86)  |  Milieu (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phylogenetic (3)  |  Produce (117)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Say (989)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Will (2350)

Gardner writes about various kinds of cranks with the conscious superiority of the scientist…. He asserts that the scientist, unlike the crank, does his best to remain open-minded, so how can he be so sure that no sane person has ever seen a flying saucer…? … A.J. Ayer once remarked wryly “I wish I was as certain of anything as he seems to be about everything”.
In The Quest For Wilhelm Reich (1981), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Best (467)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Crank (18)  |  Everything (489)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Saucer (3)  |  Martin Gardner (50)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Open (277)  |  Open-Minded (2)  |  Person (366)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sane (5)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Various (205)  |  Wish (216)  |  Write (250)

Genetics is the first biological science which got in the position in which physics has been in for many years. One can justifiably speak about such a thing as theoretical mathematical genetics, and experimental genetics, just as in physics. There are some mathematical geniuses who work out what to an ordinary person seems a fantastic kind of theory. This fantastic kind of theory nevertheless leads to experimentally verifiable prediction, which an experimental physicist then has to test the validity of. Since the times of Wright, Haldane, and Fisher, evolutionary genetics has been in a similar position.
Oral history memoir. Columbia University, Oral History Research Office, New York, 1962. Quoted in William B. Provine, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (1989), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Fischer_Ronald (2)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Person (366)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Speak (240)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Validity (50)  |  Work (1402)  |  Sewall Wright (9)  |  Year (963)

God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation… . Let the earth produce every kind of living creature. …” God said, “Let us make man in our image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts, and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth. “
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Bird (163)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Crawl (9)  |  Creature (242)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fish (130)  |  God (776)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Image (97)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Sea (326)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Wild (96)

Gradually, at various points in our childhoods, we discover different forms of conviction. There’s the rock-hard certainty of personal experience (“I put my finger in the fire and it hurt,”), which is probably the earliest kind we learn. Then there’s the logically convincing, which we probably come to first through maths, in the context of Pythagoras’s theorem or something similar, and which, if we first encounter it at exactly the right moment, bursts on our minds like sunrise with the whole universe playing a great chord of C Major.
In short essay, 'Dawkins, Fairy Tales, and Evidence', 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Burst (41)  |  Bursting (3)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Chord (4)  |  Context (31)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experience (494)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hurting (2)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Logic (311)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  Music (133)  |  Playing (42)  |  Point (584)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (176)  |  Something (718)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Whole (756)

Haldane could have made a success of any one of half a dozen careers—as mathematician, classical scholar, philosopher, scientist, journalist or imaginative writer. On his life’s showing he could not have been a politician, administrator (heavens, no!), jurist or, I think, a critic of any kind. In the outcome he became one of the three or four most influential biologists of his generation.
Essay, 'J.B.S.', in Pluto’s Republic: Incorporating The Art of the Soluble and Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought (1982), collected in The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science (1996), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Administrator (11)  |  Biography (254)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Career (86)  |  Classical (49)  |  Critic (21)  |  Generation (256)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Influential (4)  |  Journalist (8)  |  Jurist (6)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Politician (40)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  Writer (90)

Have you ever watched an eagle held captive in a zoo, fat and plump and full of food and safe from danger too?
Then have you seen another wheeling high up in the sky, thin and hard and battle-scarred, but free to soar and fly?
Well, which have you pitied the caged one or his brother? Though safe and warm from foe or storm, the captive, not the other!
There’s something of the eagle in climbers, don’t you see; a secret thing, perhaps the soul, that clamors to be free.
It’s a different sort of freedom from the kind we often mean, not free to work and eat and sleep and live in peace serene.
But freedom like a wild thing to leap and soar and strive, to struggle with the icy blast, to really be alive.
That’s why we climb the mountain’s peak from which the cloud-veils flow, to stand and watch the eagle fly, and soar, and wheel... below...
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Below (26)  |  Blast (13)  |  Brother (47)  |  Cage (12)  |  Captive (2)  |  Climb (39)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Different (595)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Eat (108)  |  Fat (11)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foe (11)  |  Food (213)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Full (68)  |  Hard (246)  |  High (370)  |  Hold (96)  |  Icy (3)  |  Leap (57)  |  Live (650)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Peak (20)  |  Pity (16)  |  Really (77)  |  Safe (61)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Serene (5)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Soar (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Sort (50)  |  Soul (235)  |  Stand (284)  |  Storm (56)  |  Strive (53)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thin (18)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Veil (27)  |  Warm (74)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Wheeling (3)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  Zoo (9)

He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.
'You and Your Research', Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar, 7 Mar 1986.
Science quotes on:  |  Clue (20)  |  Door (94)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interruption (5)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Open (277)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

His [Erwin Schrödinger's] private life seemed strange to bourgeois people like ourselves. But all this does not matter. He was a most lovable person, independent, amusing, temperamental, kind and generous, and he had a most perfect and efficient brain.
Max Born
In My Life, Recollections of a Nobel Laureate (1978), 270. Quoted by Walter Moore, Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1992), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brain (281)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Generous (17)  |  Independence (37)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Person (366)  |  Private Life (3)  |  Erwin Schrödinger (68)  |  Strange (160)  |  Temperament (18)

Human language is in some ways similar to, but in other ways vastly different from, other kinds of animal communication. We simply have no idea about its evolutionary history, though many people have speculated about its possible origins. There is, for instance, the “bow-bow” theory, that language started from attempts to imitate animal sounds. Or the “ding-dong” theory, that it arose from natural sound-producing responses. Or the “pooh-pooh” theory, that it began with violent outcries and exclamations.
We have no way of knowing whether the kinds of men represented by the earliest fossils could talk or not…
Language does not leave fossils, at least not until it has become written.
Man in Nature (1961), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Bow (15)  |  Communication (101)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exclamation (3)  |  Fossil (143)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imitate (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Language (308)  |  Natural (810)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcry (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Possible (560)  |  Represent (157)  |  Response (56)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Start (237)  |  Talk (108)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Violent (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Write (250)

HYDRA, n. A kind of animal that the ancients catalogued under many heads.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  144.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Animal (651)  |  Humour (116)  |  Hydra (3)

I abide in a goodly Museum,
Frequented by sages profound:
'Tis a kind of strange mausoleum,
Where the beasts that have vanished abound.
There's a bird of the ages Triassic,
With his antediluvian beak,
And many a reptile Jurassic,
And many a monster antique.
'Ballad of the Ichthyosaurus', Dreams to Sell (1887), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Age (509)  |  Antediluvian (5)  |  Beast (58)  |  Bird (163)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Jurassic (3)  |  Monster (33)  |  Museum (40)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Poem (104)  |  Profound (105)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Sage (25)  |  Strange (160)

I am here to support the assertion that light of every kind is itself an electrical phenomenon—the light of the sun, the light of a candle, the light of a glowworm.
From Lecture (20 Sep 1889) delivered to the German Association for the Advancement of Natural Science and Medicine, Heidelberg, 'On the Relations Between Light and Electricity', Miscellaneous Papers (1896), 313, as translated by D.E. Jones and G.A. Schott.
Science quotes on:  |  Assertion (35)  |  Candle (32)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Light (635)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Sun (407)  |  Support (151)

I am opposed to looking upon logic as a kind of game. … One might think that it is a matter of choice or convention which logic one adopts. I disagree with this view.
Objective Knowledge: an Evolutionary Approach (1972), 304.
Science quotes on:  |  Adoption (7)  |  Choice (114)  |  Convention (16)  |  Disagreement (14)  |  Game (104)  |  Logic (311)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Think (1122)  |  View (496)

I believe that in every person is a kind of circuit which resonates to intellectual discovery—and the idea is to make that resonance work
Quoted by Dennis Meredith, in 'Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish', Science Digest (Jun 1979), 85, 37. Reproduced in Carl Sagan and Tom Head (editor), Conversations With Sagan (2006), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Person (366)  |  Resonance (7)  |  Work (1402)

I believe that life can go on forever. It takes a million years to evolve a new species, ten million for a new genus, one hundred million for a class, a billion for a phylum—and that’s usually as far as your imagination goes. In a billion years, it seems, intelligent life might be as different from humans as humans are from insects. But what would happen in another ten billion years? It’s utterly impossible to conceive of ourselves changing as drastically as that, over and over again. All you can say is, on that kind of time scale the material form that life would take is completely open. To change from a human being to a cloud may seem a big order, but it’s the kind of change you’d expect over billions of years.
Quoted in Omni (1986), 8, 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Billion (104)  |  Change (639)  |  Class (168)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expect (203)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Genus (27)  |  Happen (282)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Insect (89)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Species (435)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Year (963)

I came from Paris in the Spring of 1884, and was brought in intimate contact with him [Thomas Edison]. We experimented day and night, holidays not excepted. His existence was made up of alternate periods of work and sleep in the laboratory. He had no hobby, cared for no sport or amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene. There can be no doubt that, if he had not married later a woman of exceptional intelligence, who made it the one object of her life to preserve him, he would have died many years ago from consequences of sheer neglect. So great and uncontrollable was his passion for work.
As quoted in 'Tesla Says Edison Was an Empiricist', The New York Times (19 Oct 1931), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Car (75)  |  Care (203)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contact (66)  |  Death (406)  |  Disregard (12)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hobby (14)  |  Holiday (12)  |  Hygiene (13)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Life (1870)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Night (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Passion (121)  |  Period (200)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Rule (307)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Sport (23)  |  Spring (140)  |  Uncontrollable (5)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I conclude therefore that this star [Tycho’s supernova] is not some kind of comet or a fiery meteor, whether these be generated beneath the Moon or above the Moon, but that it is a star shining in the firmament itself—one that has never previously been seen before our time, in any age since the beginning of the world.
In De Stella Nova, as translated in Dagobert D. Runes, A Treasury of World Science (1962), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Tycho Brahe (24)  |  Comet (65)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Fiery (5)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Meteor (19)  |  Moon (252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Shining (35)  |  Star (460)  |  Supernova (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Robert W. Wood (2)  |  World (1850)

I consider then, that generally speaking, to render a reason of an effect or Phaenomenon, is to deduce It from something else in Nature more known than it self, and that consequently there may be divers kinds of Degrees of Explication of the same thing. For although such Explications be the most satisfactory to the Understanding, wherein ’tis shewn how the effect is produc’d by the more primitive and Catholick Affection of Matter, namely bulk, shape and motion, yet are not these Explications to be despis’d, wherein particular effects are deduc’d from the more obvious and familiar Qualities or States of Bodies, … For in the search after Natural Causes, every new measure of Discovery does both instinct and gratifie the Understanding.
Physiological Essays (1669), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Both (496)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consider (428)  |  Degree (277)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Known (453)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Reason (766)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Self (268)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)

I distinguish two kinds of "applied" research: problem-solving research — government or commercially initiated, centrally managed and institutionally coupled to a plan for application of the results, useful science—investigator-initiated, competitively evaluated and widely communicated. Then we have basic science—useful also, also investigator-initiated, competitively evaluated and widely communicated.
In Confessions of a Technophile (1994), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Basic (144)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Evaluated (4)  |  Government (116)  |  Institutional (3)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Plan (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Problem-Solving (3)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Solution (282)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)

I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity. Science in itself appears to me neutral, that is to say, it increases men’s power whether for good or for evil. An appreciation of the ends of life is something which must be superadded to science if it is to bring happiness, but only the kind of society to which science is apt to give rise. I am afraid you may be disappointed that I am not more of an apostle of science, but as I grow older, and no doubt—as a result of the decay of my tissues, I begin to see the good life more and more as a matter of balance and to dread all over-emphasis upon anyone ingredient.
Letter to W. W. Norton, Publisher (27 Jan 1931). In The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944 (1968), Vol. 2, 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Age (509)  |  Apostle (3)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Balance (82)  |  Begin (275)  |  Belief (615)  |  Decay (59)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dread (13)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  End (603)  |  Evil (122)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Increase (225)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neutral (15)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Power (771)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Source (101)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tissue (51)

I do not subscribe to the “’Exploding Custard” kind of science communication.
Professor of Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University, speaking at the British Association Annual Festival of Science, at Leeds University in 1997.
Science quotes on:  |  Communication (101)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explode (15)  |  Subscribe (2)

I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.
In The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirer (9)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Back (395)  |  Bed (25)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blue (63)  |  Care (203)  |  Daylight (23)  |  Daylight Saving Time (10)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Doing (277)  |  Eager (17)  |  Earlier (9)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Finger (48)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Long (778)  |  Moonlight (5)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  People (1031)  |  Push (66)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Resent (4)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Something (718)  |  Spite (55)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Tell (344)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Value (393)  |  Want (504)  |  Waste (109)  |  Wealthy (5)  |  Wise (143)

I happen to be a kind of monkey. I have a monkeylike curiosity that makes me want to feel, smell, and taste things which arouse my curiosity, then to take them apart. It was born in me. Not everybody is like that, but a scientific researchist should be. Any fool can show me an experiment is useless. I want a man who will try it and get something out of it.
Quoted in Guy Suits, ''Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Apart (7)  |  Arousal (2)  |  Birth (154)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fool (121)  |  Happen (282)  |  Man (2252)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Show (353)  |  Smell (29)  |  Something (718)  |  Take (10)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

I have failed in finding parasites in mosquitoes fed on malaria patients, but perhaps I am not using the proper kind of mosquito.
Letter to his wife (14 Aug 1897). In Memoirs, With a Full Account of the Great Malaria Problem and its Solution (1923), 221.
Science quotes on:  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Feeding (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  Malaria (10)  |  Mosquito (16)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Proper (150)  |  Using (6)

I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens out on our West Coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about.
Address in Steubenville, Ohio (7 Oct 1980). As quoted in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14. The article also stated that according to an E.P.A. spokesman, “all American manmade emissions of sulfur dioxide amounted to 81,000 tons a day, and the emissions from the volcano ranged from 500 to 2,000 tons a day.”
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Concern (239)  |  Driving (28)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fly (153)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount St. Helens (2)  |  Mountain (202)  |  People (1031)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Probably (50)  |  Release (31)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sulfur (5)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I have never done anything “useful.” No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world... Judged by all practical standards, the value of my mathematical life is nil; and outside mathematics it is trivial anyhow. I have just one chance of escaping a verdict of complete triviality, that I may be judged to have created something worth creating. And that I have created something is undeniable: the question is about its value. [The things I have added to knowledge do not differ from] the creations of the other artists, great or small, who have left some kind of memorial beind them.
Concluding remarks in A Mathmatician's Apology (1940, 2012), 150-151.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Biography (254)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complete (209)  |  Creation (350)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mine (78)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Practical (225)  |  Question (649)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Verdict (8)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

I have no dress except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory.
[Referring to her wedding dress.]
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie: a biography by Eve Curie (1937, 2007), 136-37.
Science quotes on:  |  Dark (145)  |  Dress (10)  |  Enough (341)  |  Give (208)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Please (68)  |  Practical (225)  |  Wear (20)  |  Wedding (7)

I have no patience with attempts to identify science with measurement, which is but one of its tools, or with any definition of the scientist which would exclude a Darwin, a Pasteur or a Kekulé. The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. His are not those beautiful structures so delicately designed that a single flaw may cause the collapse of the whole. The scientist builds slowly and with a gross but solid kind of masonry. If dissatisfied with any of his work, even if it be near the very foundations, he can replace that part without damage to the remainder. On the whole, he is satisfied with his work, for while science may never be wholly right it certainly is never wholly wrong; and it seems to be improving from decade to decade.
The Anatomy of Science (1926), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Build (211)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Damage (38)  |  Decade (66)  |  Definition (238)  |  Design (203)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Improvement (117)  |  August Kekulé (14)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Masonry (4)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Next (238)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Patience (58)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Remainder (7)  |  Right (473)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Single (365)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tool (129)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)

I have presented the periodic table as a kind of travel guide to an imaginary country, of which the elements are the various regions. This kingdom has a geography: the elements lie in particular juxtaposition to one another, and they are used to produce goods, much as a prairie produces wheat and a lake produces fish. It also has a history. Indeed, it has three kinds of history: the elements were discovered much as the lands of the world were discovered; the kingdom was mapped, just as the world was mapped, and the relative positions of the elements came to take on a great significance; and the elements have their own cosmic history, which can be traced back to the stars.
In The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into the Land of the Chemical Elements (1995), Preface, viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Country (269)  |  Discover (571)  |  Element (322)  |  Fish (130)  |  Geography (39)  |  Good (906)  |  Goods (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guide (107)  |  History (716)  |  Imaginary (16)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Juxtaposition (3)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Lake (36)  |  Land (131)  |  Lie (370)  |  Map (50)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Position (83)  |  Prairie (4)  |  Present (630)  |  Produce (117)  |  Region (40)  |  Relative (42)  |  Significance (114)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Table (105)  |  Trace (109)  |  Travel (125)  |  Various (205)  |  Wheat (10)  |  World (1850)

I have recently observed and stated that the serum of normal people is capable of clumping the red cells of other healthy individuals... As commonly expressed, it can be said that in these cases at least two different kinds of agglutinins exist, one kind in A, the other in B, both together in C. The cells are naturally insensitive to the agglutinins in their own serum.
Ueber Agglutinationserscheinungen normalen menschlichen Blutes', Wiener klinische Wochenschrift (1901), 14, 1132-1134. Trans. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar.
Science quotes on:  |  Blood (144)  |  Both (496)  |  Capable (174)  |  Different (595)  |  Exist (458)  |  Express (192)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Individual (420)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Red Cell (2)  |  Serum (11)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)

I have seen oaks of many species in many kinds of exposure and soil, but those of Kentucky excel in grandeur all I had ever before beheld. They are broad and dense and bright green. In the leafy bowers and caves of their long branches dwell magnificent avenues of shade, and every tree seems to be blessed with a double portion of strong exulting life.
John Muir
Notebook entry, (2 Sep 1867). In A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), xix. This was the first day of Muir's journey, which he had began at Louisville, Kentucky.
Science quotes on:  |  Avenue (14)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessed (20)  |  Bower (2)  |  Branch (155)  |  Bright (81)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Green (65)  |  Kentucky (4)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Oak (16)  |  Portion (86)  |  Shade (35)  |  Soil (98)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Tree (269)

I kind of like scientists, in a funny way. … I'm kind of interested in genetics though. I think I would have liked to have met Gregor Mendel. Because he was a monk who just sort of figured this stuff out on his own. That's a higher mind, that’s a mind that's connected. … But I would like to know about Mendel, because I remember going to the Philippines and thinking “this is like Mendel’s garden” because it had been invaded by so many different countries over the years, and you could see the children shared the genetic traits of all their invaders over the years, and it made for this beautiful varietal garden.
Answering question: “If you could go back in time and have a conversation with one person, who would it be and why?” by Anniedog03 during an Internet Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) online session (17 Jan 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Connect (126)  |  Country (269)  |  Different (595)  |  Garden (64)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invader (2)  |  Invasion (9)  |  Know (1538)  |  Like (23)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monk (5)  |  Philippines (3)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Share (82)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Trait (23)  |  Variety (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Year (963)

I like to do high-risk and high-payoff kind of research. And I had a gut feeling that MIT was a cool place to be with people who are fearless.
As quoted in Anna Azvolinsky, 'Fearless About Folding', The Scientist (Jan 2016).
Science quotes on:  |  Cool (15)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fearless (7)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Gut Feeling (2)  |  High (370)  |  M.I.T. (2)  |  Payoff (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Research (753)  |  Risk (68)

I must reject fluids and ethers of all kinds, magnetical, electrical, and universal, to whatever quintessential thinness they may be treble distilled, and (as it were) super-substantiated.
Hints Towards the Formation of a more Comprehensive Theory of Life (1848). In The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Shorter Works and Fragments (1995), H. J. Jackson and J. R. de J. Jackson (eds.), Vol 11, 1, 502.
Science quotes on:  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Ether (37)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Reject (67)  |  Universal (198)  |  Whatever (234)

I pray every day and I think everybody should. I don’t think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and look out at the Earth from this vantage point. We’re not so high compared to people who went to the moon and back. But to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is, to me, impossible. It just strengthens my faith.
From NASA transcript of News Conference by downlink from Space Shuttle Discovery during its STS-95 Mission in Earth orbit (5 Nov 1998). In response to question from Paul Hoveston of USA Today asking John Glenn about how the space flight strengthened his faith and if he had any time to pray in orbit.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Belief (615)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Faith (209)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  High (370)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Look (584)  |  Moon (252)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Pray (19)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Think (1122)  |  Window (59)

I remember asking an adult, “What goes on inside a cocoon?” and he said, “The caterpillar is totally broken down into a kind of soup. And then it starts again.” And I remember saying, “That can’t be right.” As a procedure, you can’t imagine how it evolved.
From 'Interview: Of Mind and Matter: David Attenborough Meets Richard Dawkins', The Guardian (11 Sep 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Adult (24)  |  Ask (420)  |  Belief (615)  |  Broken Down (2)  |  Can�t (16)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Change (639)  |  Cocoon (4)  |  Dragonfly (3)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inside (30)  |  Larva (8)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Soup (10)  |  Start (237)  |  Totally (6)

I said that there is something every man can do, if he can only find out what that something is. Henry Ford has proved this. He has installed in his vast organization a system for taking hold of a man who fails in one department, and giving him a chance in some other department. Where necessary every effort is made to discover just what job the man is capable of filling. The result has been that very few men have had to be discharged, for it has been found that there was some kind of work each man could do at least moderately well. This wonderful system adopted by my friend Ford has helped many a man to find himself. It has put many a fellow on his feet. It has taken round pegs out of square holes and found a round hole for them. I understand that last year only 120 workers out of his force of 50,000 were discharged.
As quoted from an interview by B.C. Forbes in The American Magazine (Jan 1921), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chance (244)  |  Department (93)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Henry Ford (23)  |  Friend (180)  |  Himself (461)  |  Job (86)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Result (700)  |  Something (718)  |  Square (73)  |  System (545)  |  Talent (99)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I see nothing wrong ethically with the idea of correcting single gene defects [through genetic engineering]. But I am concerned about any other kind of intervention, for anything else would be an experiment, [which would] impose our will on future generations [and take unreasonable chances] with their welfare ... [Thus] such intervention is beyond the scope of consideration.
in The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Chance (244)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Defect (31)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Future (467)  |  Gene (105)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetic Engineering (16)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scope (44)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Through (846)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

I should like to compare this rearrangement which the proteins undergo in the animal or vegetable organism to the making up of a railroad train. In their passage through the body parts of the whole may be left behind, and here and there new parts added on. In order to understand fully the change we must remember that the proteins are composed of Bausteine united in very different ways. Some of them contain Bausteine of many kinds. The multiplicity of the proteins is determined by many causes, first through the differences in the nature of the constituent Bausteine; and secondly, through differences in the arrangement of them. The number of Bausteine which may take part in the formation of the proteins is about as large as the number of letters in the alphabet. When we consider that through the combination of letters an infinitely large number of thoughts may be expressed, we can understand how vast a number of the properties of the organism may be recorded in the small space which is occupied by the protein molecules. It enables us to understand how it is possible for the proteins of the sex-cells to contain, to a certain extent, a complete description of the species and even of the individual. We may also comprehend how great and important the task is to determine the structure of the proteins, and why the biochemist has devoted himself with so much industry to their analysis.
'The Chemical Composition of the Cell', The Harvey Lectures (1911), 7, 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Behind (139)  |  Biochemist (9)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Combination (150)  |  Compare (76)  |  Complete (209)  |  Consider (428)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Determine (152)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Enable (122)  |  Express (192)  |  Extent (142)  |  First (1302)  |  Formation (100)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Individual (420)  |  Industry (159)  |  Large (398)  |  Letter (117)  |  Making (300)  |  Model (106)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Multiplicity (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Passage (52)  |  Possible (560)  |  Protein (56)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Rearrangement (5)  |  Record (161)  |  Remember (189)  |  Sex (68)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Species (435)  |  Structure (365)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)

I should regard them [the Elves interested in technical devices] as no more wicked or foolish (but in much the same peril) as Catholics engaged in certain kinds of physical research (e.g. those producing, if only as by-products, poisonous gases and explosives): things not necessarily evil, but which, things being as they are, and the nature and motives of the economic masters who provide all the means for their work being as they are, are pretty certain to serve evil ends. For which they will not necessarily be to blame, even if aware of them.
From Letter draft to Peter Hastings (manager of a Catholic bookshop in Oxford, who wrote about his enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings) (Sep 1954). In Humphrey Carpenter (ed.) assisted by Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995, 2014), 190, Letter No. 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Aware (36)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blame (31)  |  Catholic (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Device (71)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Elf (7)  |  End (603)  |  Engage (41)  |  Evil (122)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Gas (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lord Of The Rings (6)  |  Master (182)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (62)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Peril (9)  |  Physical (518)  |  Poison (46)  |  Produce (117)  |  Product (166)  |  Provide (79)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Serve (64)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wicked (5)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

I specifically paused to show that, if there were such machines with the organs and shape of a monkey or of some other non-rational animal, we would have no way of discovering that they are not the same as these animals. But if there were machines that resembled our bodies and if they imitated our actions as much as is morally possible, we would always have two very certain means for recognizing that, none the less, they are not genuinely human. The first is that they would never be able to use speech, or other signs composed by themselves, as we do to express our thoughts to others. For one could easily conceive of a machine that is made in such a way that it utters words, and even that it would utter some words in response to physical actions that cause a change in its organs—for example, if someone touched it in a particular place, it would ask what one wishes to say to it, or if it were touched somewhere else, it would cry out that it was being hurt, and so on. But it could not arrange words in different ways to reply to the meaning of everything that is said in its presence, as even the most unintelligent human beings can do. The second means is that, even if they did many things as well as or, possibly, better than anyone of us, they would infallibly fail in others. Thus one would discover that they did not act on the basis of knowledge, but merely as a result of the disposition of their organs. For whereas reason is a universal instrument that can be used in all kinds of situations, these organs need a specific disposition for every particular action.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 5, 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arrange (33)  |  Ask (420)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Cry (30)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Express (192)  |  Fail (191)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Presence (63)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reply (58)  |  Response (56)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Situation (117)  |  Specific (98)  |  Speech (66)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Touch (146)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

I think that intelligence does not emerge from a handful of very beautiful principles—like physics. It emerges from perhaps a hundred fundamentally different kinds of mechanisms that have to interact just right. So, even if it took only four years to understand them, it might take four hundred years to unscramble the whole thing.
As quoted from an interview with author Jeremy Bernstein, in Science Observed: Essays Out of My Mind (1982), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Different (595)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Handful (14)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interact (8)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Right (473)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (963)

I thought that the wisdom of our City had certainly designed the laudable practice of taking and distributing these accompts [parish records of christenings and deaths] for other and greater uses than [merely casual comments], or, at least, that some other uses might be made of them; and thereupon I ... could, and (to be short) to furnish myself with as much matter of that kind ... the which when I had reduced into tables ... so as to have a view of the whole together, in order to the more ready comparing of one Year, Season, Parish, or other Division of the City, with another, in respect of all Burials and Christnings, and of all the Diseases and Casualties happening in each of them respectively...
Moreover, finding some Truths and not-commonly-believed opinions to arise from my meditations upon these neglected Papers, I proceeded further to consider what benefit the knowledge of the same would bring to the world, ... with some real fruit from those ayrie blossoms.
From Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index and Made upon Bills of Mortality (1662), Preface. Reproduced in Cornelius Walford, The Insurance Cyclopaedia (1871), Vol. 1, 286-287.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arise (162)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Burial (8)  |  Casualty (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  City (87)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Consider (428)  |  Data (162)  |  Death (406)  |  Design (203)  |  Disease (340)  |  Division (67)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happening (59)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Record (161)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Season (47)  |  Short (200)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I took him [Lawrence Bragg] to a young zoologist working on pattern formation in insect cuticles. The zoologist explained how disturbances introduced into these regular patterns pointed to their formation being governed by some kind of gradient. Bragg listened attentively and then exclaimed: “Your disturbed gradient behaves like a stream of sand running downhill and encountering an obstacle.” “Good heavens,” replied the zoologist, “I had been working on this problem for years before this simple analogy occurred to me and you think of it after twenty minutes.”
As quoted in David Phillips, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1979), 25, 132, citing: Perutz, M.F. 1971 New Sci. & Sci. J. 8 July 1967.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Being (1276)  |  Sir Lawrence Bragg (16)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Downhill (3)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formation (100)  |  Good (906)  |  Govern (66)  |  Gradient (2)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Insect (89)  |  Listen (81)  |  Minute (129)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Problem (731)  |  Regular (48)  |  Running (61)  |  Sand (63)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stream (83)  |  Think (1122)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Zoologist (12)

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.
Player Piano (1999), 84. In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Centre (31)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Edge (51)  |  Research (753)  |  See (1094)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (504)

I wanted certainty in the kind of way in which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere. But I discovered that many mathematical demonstrations, which my teachers expected me to accept, were full of fallacies, and that, if certainty were indeed discoverable in mathematics, it would be in a new field of mathematics, with more solid foundations than those that had hitherto been thought secure. But as the work proceeded, I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was no more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of very arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.
In 'Reflections on my Eightieth Birthday', Portraits from Memory (1956), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Construct (129)  |  Continual (44)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fable (12)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Field (378)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indubitable (3)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reminded (2)  |  Rest (287)  |  Solid (119)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thought (995)  |  Toil (29)  |  Tortoise (10)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I was a kind of a one-man army. I could solder circuits together, I could turn out things on the lathe, I could work with rockets and balloons. I’m a kind of a hybrid between an engineer and a physicist and astronomer.
Characterizing the self-reliance of scientists of his day, contrasted to the complexities of scientific undertakings today, when “the pattern is much more a team of people” who are “backed up by a technical staff that does most of these things.” In interview, Rushworth M. Kidder, 'Grounded in Space Science', Christian Science Monitor (22 Dec 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  Army (35)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Individual (420)  |  Make (25)  |  Man (2252)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self-Reliance (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Work (1402)

I was sitting writing at my textbook but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gambolling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold confirmation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the rest of the hypothesis. Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the truth... But let us beware of publishing our dreams till they have been tested by waking understanding.
Kekule at Benzolfest in Berichte (1890), 23, 1302.
Science quotes on:  |  Aromatic (4)  |  Atom (381)  |  Background (44)  |  Beware (16)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Chair (25)  |  Confirmation (25)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Dream (222)  |  Eye (440)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flash (49)  |  Form (976)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Mental (179)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Progress (492)  |  Render (96)  |  Rest (287)  |  Ring (18)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Snake (29)  |  Spent (85)  |  Structure (365)  |  Test (221)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Twisting (3)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Verification (32)  |  Vision (127)  |  Waking (17)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

I was working with a Crookes tube covered by a shield of black cardboard. A piece of barium platino-cyanide paper lay on the bench there. I had been passing a current through the tube, and I noticed a peculiar black line across the paper. …
The effect was one which could only be produced in ordinary parlance by the passage of light. No light could come from the tube because the shield which covered it was impervious to any light known even that of the electric arc. …
I did not think; I investigated. …
I assumed that the effect must have come from the tube since its character indicated that it could come from nowhere else. … It seemed at first a new kind of invisible light. It was clearly something new something unrecorded. …
There is much to do, and I am busy, very busy. [Describing to a journalist the discovery of X-rays that he had made on 8 Nov 1895.]
In H.J.W. Dam in 'The New Marvel in Photography", McClure's Magazine (Apr 1896), 4:5, 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Arc (14)  |  Barium (4)  |  Bench (8)  |  Busy (32)  |  Character (259)  |  Current (122)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electric (76)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Impervious (5)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Paper (192)  |  Passage (52)  |  Passing (76)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Produced (187)  |  Ray (115)  |  Shield (8)  |  Something (718)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  X-ray (43)

I would like to see us continue to explore space. There's just a lot for us to keep learning. I think it’s a good investment, so on my list of things that I want our country to invest in—in terms of research and innovation and science, basic science, exploring space, exploring our oceans, exploring our genome—we’re at the brink of all kinds of new information. Let's not back off now!
At Town Hall Meeting, Dover, New Hampshire (16 Jul 2015). As quoted in Clare Foran, 'Hillary Clinton: I Wanted to Be an Astronaut', National Journal (16 Jul 2015).
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Basic (144)  |  Brink (2)  |  Continue (179)  |  Country (269)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Genome (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Information (173)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Invest (20)  |  Investment (15)  |  Learning (291)  |  List (10)  |  Lot (151)  |  New (1273)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Research (753)  |  See (1094)  |  Space (523)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Want (504)

I… formerly had two pair of spectacles, which I shifted occasionally, as in travelling I sometimes read, and often wanted to regard the prospects. Finding this change troublesome, and not always sufficiently ready, I had the glasses cut, and half of each kind associated in the same circle. … By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly far or near, the proper glasses being always ready.
Letter (23 May 1785) to George Wheatley). Collected in William Temple Franklin (ed.), The Works of Dr. Benjamin Franklin (1809), Vol. 6, 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Circle (117)  |  Cut (116)  |  Down (455)  |  Eye (440)  |  Far (158)  |  Glass (94)  |  Lens (15)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Move (223)  |  Near (3)  |  Optic (2)  |  Proper (150)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Read (308)  |  Regard (312)  |  See (1094)  |  Shift (45)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)

I'm not a wizard or a Frankenstein tampering with Nature. We are not creating life. We have merely done what many people try to do in all kinds of medicine—to help nature. We found nature could not put an egg and sperm together, so we did it. We do not see anything immoral in doing that in the interests of the mother. I cannot see anything immoral in trying to help the patient’s problem.
As quoted by thr Associated Press after the birth of Louise Brown, the first baby born by in vitro fertilization. Reprinted in, for example,'First test-tube baby born in England', Toledo Blade (27 Jul 1978), 1. As reported, the first sentence was given in its own quote marks, followed by “Dr. Steptoe said,” so the quote may not have been delivered as a single statement.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Egg (71)  |  Fertilization (15)  |  Frankenstein (3)  |  Help (116)  |  Immoral (5)  |  Immorality (7)  |  In Vitro (3)  |  Interest (416)  |  Life (1870)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Patient (209)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  See (1094)  |  Sperm (7)  |  Tamper (7)  |  Tampering (3)  |  Together (392)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Wizard (4)

I’ve met a lot of people in important positions, and he [Wernher von Braun] was one that I never had any reluctance to give him whatever kind of credit they deserve. He owned his spot, he knew what he was doing, and he was very impressive when you met with him. He understood the problems. He could come back and straighten things out. He moved with sureness whenever he came up with a decision. Of all the people, as I think back on it now, all of the top management that I met at NASA, many of them are very, very good. But Wernher, relative to the position he had and what he had to do, I think was the best of the bunch.
From interview with Ron Stone (24 May 1999) for NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project on NASA website.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Best (467)  |  Wernher von Braun (29)  |  Credit (24)  |  Decision (98)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Good (906)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Lot (151)  |  Management (23)  |  Manager (6)  |  NASA (12)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Spot (19)  |  Sureness (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Top (100)  |  Understood (155)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whenever (81)

Iamblichus in his treatise On the Arithmetic of Nicomachus observes p. 47- “that certain numbers were called amicable by those who assimilated the virtues and elegant habits to numbers.” He adds, “that 284 and 220 are numbers of this kind; for the parts of each are generative of each other according to the nature of friendship, as was shown by Pythagoras. For some one asking him what a friend was, he answered, another I (ετεϑος εγω) which is demonstrated to take place in these numbers.” [“Friendly” thus: Each number is equal to the sum of the factors of the other.]
In Theoretic Arithmetic (1816), 122. (Factors of 284 are 1, 2, 4 ,71 and 142, which give the sum 220. Reciprocally, factors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11 ,22, 44, 55 and 110, which give the sum 284.) Note: the expression “alter ego” is Latin for “the other I.”
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Addition (70)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Asking (74)  |  Assimilate (9)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Factor (47)  |  Friend (180)  |  Friendship (18)  |  Generative (2)  |  Habit (174)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Sum (103)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Virtue (117)

If a man can have only one kind of sense, let him have common sense. If he has that an uncommon sense too, he is not far from genius.
In Hialmer Day Gould, New Practical Spelling (1905), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Far (158)  |  Genius (301)  |  Let (64)  |  Man (2252)  |  Sense (785)

If a mathematician wishes to disparage the work of one of his colleagues, say, A, the most effective method he finds for doing this is to ask where the results can be applied. The hard pressed man, with his back against the wall, finally unearths the researches of another mathematician B as the locus of the application of his own results. If next B is plagued with a similar question, he will refer to another mathematician C. After a few steps of this kind we find ourselves referred back to the researches of A, and in this way the chain closes.
From final remarks in 'The Semantic Conception of Truth and the Foundations of Semantics' (1944), collected in Leonard Linsky (ed.), Semantics and the Philosophy of Language: A Collection of Readings (1952), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Chain (51)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Disparage (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Effective (68)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  Locus (5)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Question (649)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Step (234)  |  Wall (71)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

If a mixture of different kinds of electrified atoms is moving along in one stream, then when electric and magnetic forces are applied to the stream simultaneously, the different kinds of atoms are sorted out, and the original stream is divided up into a number of smaller streams separated from each other. The particles in any one of the smaller streams are all of the same kind.
From the Romanes Lecture (10 Jun 1914) delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, published as The Atomic Theory (1914), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Atom (381)  |  Different (595)  |  Divided (50)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electrified (2)  |  Force (497)  |  Ion (21)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Mass Spectrometer (2)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Move (223)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stream (83)

If patterns of ones and zeros were “like” patterns of human lives and death, if everything about an individual could be represented in a computer record by a long string of ones and zeros, then what kind of creature would be represented by a long string of lives and deaths?
Vineland (1900, 1997), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Binary (12)  |  Computer (131)  |  Creature (242)  |  Death (406)  |  Everything (489)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Record (161)  |  Represent (157)  |  String (22)  |  Zero (38)

If the kind of controversy which so often springs up between modernism and traditionalism in religion were applied to more commonplace affairs of life we might see some strange results. …It arises, let us say, from a passage in an obituary notice which mentions that the deceased had loved to watch the sunsets from his peaceful country home.. …it is forgotten that what the deceased man looked out for each evening was an experience and not a creed.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 84-85.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Arise (162)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Country (269)  |  Creed (28)  |  Experience (494)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Home (184)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Notice (81)  |  Passage (52)  |  Religion (369)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strange (160)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Watch (118)

If the observation of the amount of heat the sun sends the earth is among the most important and difficult in astronomical physics, it may also be termed the fundamental problem of meteorology, nearly all whose phenomena would become predictable, if we knew both the original quantity and kind of this heat.
In Report of the Mount Whitney Expedition, quoted in Charles Greeley Abbot, Adventures in the World of Science (1958), 17. Also quoted and cited in David H. Devorkin, 'Charles Greeley Abbot', Biographical Memoirs (1998), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Heat (180)  |  Important (229)  |  Know (1538)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Observation (593)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Predictable (10)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sun (407)  |  Term (357)

If the term education may be understood in so large a sense as to include all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others or by increase of it through its own exertions, we learn by them what is the kind of education science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing — not to despise the small beginnings, for they precede of necessity all great things in the knowledge of science, either pure or applied.
'Science as a Branch of Education', lecture to the Royal Institution, 11 Jun 1858. Reprinted in The Mechanics Magazine (1858), 49, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Applied (176)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belong (168)  |  Education (423)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Include (93)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pure (299)  |  Sense (785)  |  Small (489)  |  Term (357)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)

If the world goes crazy for a lovely fossil, that's fine with me. But if that fossil releases some kind of mysterious brain ray that makes people say crazy things and write lazy articles, a serious swarm of flies ends up in my ointment.
Criticism of excessive media hype about a fossil discovery, from blog 'The Loom' (19 May 2009) on Discover magazine website.
Science quotes on:  |  Article (22)  |  Brain (281)  |  Crazy (27)  |  End (603)  |  Fly (153)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Lazy (10)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  People (1031)  |  Ray (115)  |  Release (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Serious (98)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)

If the world has begun with a single quantum, the notions of space and would altogether fail to have any meaning at the beginning; they would only begin to have a sensible meaning when the original quantum had been divided into a sufficient number of quanta. If this suggestion is correct, the beginning of the world happened a little before the beginning of space and time. I think that such a beginning of the world is far enough from the present order of Nature to be not at all repugnant. It may be difficult to follow up the idea in detail as we are not yet able to count the quantum packets in every case. For example, it may be that an atomic nucleus must be counted as a unique quantum, the atomic number acting as a kind of quantum number. If the future development of quantum theory happens to turn in that direction, we could conceive the beginning of the universe in the form of a unique atom, the atomic weight of which is the total mass of the universe. This highly unstable atom would divide in smaller and smaller atoms by a kind of super-radioactive process.
In a seminal short letter (457 words), 'The Beginning of the World from the Point of View of Quantum Theory', Nature (9 May 1931), 127, 706.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Number (3)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Count (107)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direction (185)  |  Divide (77)  |  Divided (50)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fail (191)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Future (467)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Little (717)  |  Mass (160)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Number (2)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Repugnant (8)  |  Single (365)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Total (95)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unique (72)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weight (140)  |  World (1850)

If there be an order in which the human race has mastered its various kinds of knowledge, there will arise in every child an aptitude to acquire these kinds of knowledge in the same order. So that even were the order intrinsically indifferent, it would facilitate education to lead the individual mind through the steps traversed by the general mind. But the order is not intrinsically indifferent; and hence the fundamental reason why education should be a repetition of civilization in little.
Education: Intellectual, Moral and Physical (1861), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Arise (162)  |  Child (333)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Education (423)  |  Facilitation (2)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Indifference (16)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Master (182)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Order (638)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Step (234)  |  Through (846)  |  Traverse (5)  |  Variety (138)  |  Various (205)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

If there is any kind of animal which is female and has no male separate from it, it is possible that this may generate a young one from itself. No instance of this worthy of any credit has been observed up to the present at any rate, but one case in the class of fishes makes us hesitate. No male of the so-called erythrinus has ever yet been seen, but females, and specimens full of roe, have been seen. Of this, however, we have as yet no proof worthy of credit.
Aristotle
Generation of Animals, 741a, 32-8. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. I, 1150.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Call (781)  |  Class (168)  |  Female (50)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Observed (149)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Separate (151)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Young (253)

If this [human kind’s extinction] happens I venture to hope that we shall not have destroyed the rat, an animal of considerable enterprise which stands as good a chance as any … of evolving toward intelligence.
In The Inequality of Man: And Other Essays (1937), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Chance (244)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Rat (37)  |  Stand (284)

If we look round the world, there seem to be not above six distinct varieties in the human species, each of which is strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to have mixed with any other. But there is nothing in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows their coming from different originals; and the varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, are sufficient to produce every change.
In History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774, 1812), Vol. 2, 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Coming (114)  |  Custom (44)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Human (1512)  |  Look (584)  |  Marked (55)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Show (353)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Variety (138)  |  World (1850)

If we would indicate an idea … striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of every kind have erected among men, and to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community, fitted for the attainment of one object, the unrestrained development of the physical powers. This is the ultimate and highest aim of society.
In Ueber die Kawi-Sprache, Vol. 3, 426. As quoted in Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1850), Vol. 1, 358, as translated by Elise C. Otté.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Color (155)  |  Community (111)  |  Development (441)  |  Fraternity (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Highest (19)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nation (208)  |  Object (438)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remove (50)  |  Society (350)  |  Strive (53)  |  Treat (38)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unrestrained (4)  |  View (496)

If you’re telling a story, it’s very tempting to personalise an animal. To start with, biologists said this fascination with one individual was just television storytelling. But they began to realise that, actually, it was a new way to understand behaviour–following the fortunes of one particular animal could be very revealing and have all kinds of implications in terms of the ecology and general behaviour of the animals in that area.
From interview with Alice Roberts, 'Attenborough: My Life on Earth', The Biologist (Aug 2015), 62, No. 4, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Fortune (50)  |  General (521)  |  Implication (25)  |  Individual (420)  |  New (1273)  |  Personalize (2)  |  Realize (157)  |  Research (753)  |  Start (237)  |  Story (122)  |  Television (33)  |  Tempting (10)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Understand (648)  |  Way (1214)

Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has nine thousand matches. The other has seven thousand matches. Each of them is concerned about who's ahead, who's stronger. Well that's the kind of situation we are actually in. The amount of weapons that are available to the United States and the Soviet Union are so bloated, so grossly in excess of what's needed to dissuade the other, that if it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable. What is necessary is to reduce the matches and to clean up the gasoline.
From Sagan's analogy about the nuclear arms race and the need for disarmament, during a panel discussion in ABC News Viewpoint following the TV movie The Day After (20 Nov 1983). Transcribed by Webmaster from a video recording. It is seen misquoted in summary form as “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”
Science quotes on:  |  Ahead (21)  |  Amount (153)  |  Arms Race (3)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Available (80)  |  Clean (52)  |  Clean Up (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Excess (23)  |  Gasoline (4)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Implacable (4)  |  Laughable (4)  |  Match (30)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Need (320)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soviet (10)  |  Soviet Union (4)  |  State (505)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  United States (31)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

In all works on Natural History, we constantly find details of the marvellous adaptation of animals to their food, their habits, and the localities in which they are found. But naturalists are now beginning to look beyond this, and to see that there must be some other principle regulating the infinitely varied forms of animal life. It must strike every one, that the numbers of birds and insects of different groups having scarcely any resemblance to each other, which yet feed on the same food and inhabit the same localities, cannot have been so differently constructed and adorned for that purpose alone. Thus the goat-suckers, the swallows, the tyrant fly-catchers, and the jacamars, all use the same kind ‘Of food, and procure it in the same manner: they all capture insects on the wing, yet how entirely different is the structure and the whole appearance of these birds!
In A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853), 83-84.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bird (163)  |  Capture (11)  |  Constant (148)  |  Construct (129)  |  Constructed (3)  |  Detail (150)  |  Different (595)  |  Feed (31)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fly (153)  |  Food (213)  |  Form (976)  |  Goat (9)  |  Habit (174)  |  History (716)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  See (1094)  |  Strike (72)  |  Structure (365)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Tyrant (10)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wing (79)  |  Work (1402)

In destroying the predisposition to anger, science of all kind is useful; but the mathematics possess this property in the most eminent degree.
Quoted in Day, Collacon (no date).
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Degree (277)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possess (157)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Property (177)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

In diabetes the thirst is greater for the fluid dries the body ... For the thirst there is need of a powerful remedy, for in kind it is the greatest of all sufferings, and when a fluid is drunk, it stimulates the discharge of urine.
Therapeutics of chronic diseases II, Ch. II, 485-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Diabetes (5)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Drunk (10)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Urine (18)

In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence, for he finds it impossible to imagine that he is the first to have thought out the exceedingly delicate threads that connect his perceptions.
1920, in Conversations with Einstein by Alexander Moszkowski (1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Connect (126)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perception (97)  |  Religious (134)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thread (36)

In fact, the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere, compared with the size of the Earth, is in about the same ratio as the thickness of a coat of shellac on a schoolroom globe is to the diameter of the globe. That's the air that nurtures us and almost all other life on Earth, that protects us from deadly ultraviolet light from the sun, that through the greenhouse effect brings the surface temperature above the freezing point. (Without the greenhouse effect, the entire Earth would plunge below the freezing point of water and we'd all be dead.) Now that atmosphere, so thin and fragile, is under assault by our technology. We are pumping all kinds of stuff into it. You know about the concern that chlorofluorocarbons are depleting the ozone layer; and that carbon dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gases are producing global warming, a steady trend amidst fluctuations produced by volcanic eruptions and other sources. Who knows what other challenges we are posing to this vulnerable layer of air that we haven't been wise enough to foresee?
In 'Wonder and Skepticism', Skeptical Enquirer (Jan-Feb 1995), 19, No. 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Assault (12)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Death (406)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Freezing Point (3)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Globe (51)  |  Greenhouse Effect (5)  |  Greenhouse Gas (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Layer (41)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Methane (9)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ozone (7)  |  Plunge (11)  |  Point (584)  |  Produced (187)  |  Protect (65)  |  Pump (9)  |  Ratio (41)  |  School (227)  |  Source (101)  |  Steady (45)  |  Stuff (24)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Technology (281)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Thin (18)  |  Through (846)  |  Trend (23)  |  Ultraviolet (2)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Vulnerability (5)  |  Warming (24)  |  Water (503)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (143)

In many cases, mathematics is an escape from reality. The mathematician finds his own monastic niche and happiness in pursuits that are disconnected from external affairs. Some practice it as if using a drug. Chess sometimes plays a similar role. In their unhappiness over the events of this world, some immerse themselves in a kind of self-sufficiency in mathematics. (Some have engaged in it for this reason alone.)
In Adventures of a Mathematician (1976), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Alone (324)  |  Chess (27)  |  Disconnect (4)  |  Drug (61)  |  Escape (85)  |  Event (222)  |  External (62)  |  Find (1014)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Immerse (6)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Monastic (2)  |  Niche (9)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Role (86)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Sufficient (3)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Unhappiness (9)  |  World (1850)

In New England they once thought blackbirds useless, and mischievous to the corn. They made efforts to destroy them. The consequence was, the blackbirds were diminished; but a kind of worm, which devoured their grass, and which the blackbirds used to feed on, increased prodigiously; then, finding their loss in grass much greater than their saving in corn, they wished again for their blackbirds.
Letter to Richard Jackson, 5 May 1753. In Albert Henry Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (1905), Vol. 3, 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Consequence (220)  |  Corn (20)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Devour (29)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Effort (243)  |  Grass (49)  |  Greater (288)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mischievous (12)  |  New (1273)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wish (216)  |  Worm (47)

In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.
Often seen quoted in a condensed form: If you cannot measure it, then it is not science.
From lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers, London (3 May 1883), 'Electrical Units of Measurement', Popular Lectures and Addresses (1889), Vol. 1, 80-81.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Connect (126)  |  Direction (185)  |  Essential (210)  |  Express (192)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Method (531)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Principle (530)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (234)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thought (995)  |  Whatever (234)

In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist’s mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Coherent (14)  |  Compare (76)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Deal (192)  |  Design (203)  |  Difference (355)  |  Dull (58)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Embroidery (2)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Humble (54)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Master (182)  |  Masterpiece (9)  |  Material (366)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Periodic (3)  |  Periodicity (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plain (34)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Raphael (2)  |  Regular (48)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tapestry (5)  |  Trace (109)  |  Wallpaper (2)  |  Wit (61)

In scientific matters ... the greatest discoverer differs from the most arduous imitator and apprentice only in degree, whereas he differs in kind from someone whom nature has endowed for fine art. But saying this does not disparage those great men to whom the human race owes so much in contrast to those whom nature has endowed for fine art. For the scientists' talent lies in continuing to increase the perfection of our cognitions and on all the dependent benefits, as well as in imparting that same knowledge to others; and in these respects they are far superior to those who merit the honour of being called geniuses. For the latter's art stops at some point, because a boundary is set for it beyond which it cannot go and which has probably long since been reached and cannot be extended further.
The Critique of Judgement (1790), trans. J. C. Meredith (1991), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Apprentice (4)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Call (781)  |  Cognition (7)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Degree (277)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disparage (5)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Extend (129)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Honour (58)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Imitator (3)  |  Imparting (6)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merit (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Point (584)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Respect (212)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Superior (88)  |  Talent (99)

In scientific thought we adopt the simplest theory which will explain all the facts under consideration and enable us to predict new facts of the same kind. The catch in this criterion lies in the world “simplest.” It is really an aesthetic canon such as we find implicit in our criticisms of poetry or painting. The layman finds such a law as dx/dt = κ(d²x/dy²) much less simple than “it oozes,” of which it is the mathematical statement. The physicist reverses this judgment, and his statement is certainly the more fruitful of the two, so far as prediction is concerned. It is, however, a statement about something very unfamiliar to the plain man, namely the rate of change of a rate of change.
In 'Science and Theology as Art-Forms', Possible Worlds (1927), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Catch (34)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (639)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Differential Equation (18)  |  Enable (122)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Implicit (12)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Law (913)  |  Layman (21)  |  Lie (370)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Ooze (2)  |  Painting (46)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplest (10)  |  Something (718)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

In the Choice of … Things, neglect not any, tho’ the most ordinary and trivial; the Commonest Peble or Flint, Cockle or Oyster-shell, Grass, Moss, Fern or Thistle, will be as useful, and as proper to be gathered and sent, as any the rarest production of the Country. Only take care to choose of each the fairest of its kind, and such as are perfect or whole.
In Brief Instructions for Making Observations in all Parts of the World (1696), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Country (269)  |  Fern (10)  |  Flint (7)  |  Gather (76)  |  Grass (49)  |  Moss (14)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Production (190)  |  Proper (150)  |  Shell (69)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thistle (5)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Useful (260)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

In the case of those solids, whether of earth, or rock, which enclose on all sides and contain crystals, selenites, marcasites, plants and their parts, bones and the shells of animals, and other bodies of this kind which are possessed of a smooth surface, these same bodies had already become hard at the time when the matter of the earth and rock containing them was still fluid. And not only did the earth and rock not produce the bodies contained in them, but they did not even exist as such when those bodies were produced in them.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 218.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Animal (651)  |  Become (821)  |  Bone (101)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enclosure (4)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hardness (4)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possess (157)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Rock (176)  |  Shell (69)  |  Side (236)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Solid (119)  |  Still (614)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)

In the end, science as we know it has two basic types of practitioners. One is the educated man who still has a controlled sense of wonder before the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snail’s eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate organ. The second kind of observer is the extreme reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to a trifle, to intangibles not worth troubling one’s head about.
In 'Science and the Sense of the Holy,' The Star Thrower (1978), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Busy (32)  |  Control (182)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Educate (14)  |  End (603)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Eye (440)  |  Head (87)  |  Hide (70)  |  Impinge (4)  |  Intangible (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Observer (48)  |  Organ (118)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Second (66)  |  Sense (785)  |  Snail (11)  |  Still (614)  |  Strip (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Trifle (18)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Universal (198)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Worth (172)

In the heavens we discover [stars] by their light, and by their light alone ... the sole evidence of the existence of these distant worlds ... that each of them is built up of molecules of the same kinds we find on earth. A molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sirius or in Arcturus, executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. Each molecule therefore throughout the universe bears impressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the royal cubit of the Temple of Karnac.
[Footnote: Where Maxwell uses the term “molecule” we now use the term “atom.”]
Lecture to the British Association at Bradford (1873), 'Atoms and Molecules'. Quoted by Ernest Rutherford, in 'The Constitution of Matter and the Evolution of the Elements', The Popular Science Monthly (Aug 1915), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arcturus (4)  |  Atom (381)  |  Bear (162)  |  Cubit (2)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Execute (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Light (635)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Metric System (6)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Royal (56)  |  Small (489)  |  Sole (50)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Temple (45)  |  Term (357)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Wavelength (10)  |  World (1850)

In the last four days I have got the spectrum given by Tantalum. Chromium. Manganese. Iron. Nickel. Cobalt. and Copper and part of the Silver spectrum. The chief result is that all the elements give the same kind of spectrum, the result for any metal being quite easy to guess from the results for the others. This shews that the insides of all the atoms are very much alike, and from these results it will be possible to find out something of what the insides are made up of.
Letter to his mother (2 Nov 1913). In J. L. Heilbron (ed.), H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist 1887-1915 (1974), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chief (99)  |  Chromium (2)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Copper (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Element (322)  |  Find (1014)  |  Guess (67)  |  Iron (99)  |  Last (425)  |  Manganese (2)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nickel (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Result (700)  |  Silver (49)  |  Something (718)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Tantalum (2)  |  Will (2350)

In the secondary schools mathematics should be a part of general culture and not contributory to technical training of any kind; it should cultivate space intuition, logical thinking, the power to rephrase in clear language thoughts recognized as correct, and ethical and esthetic effects; so treated, mathematics is a quite indispensable factor of general education in so far as the latter shows its traces in the comprehension of the development of civilization and the ability to participate in the further tasks of civilization.
The purposes of instruction in mathematics in secondary schools formulated by the German Society for the Advancement of Instruction. From Unterrichtsblätter fur Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft (1904), 128. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 72-73.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Correct (95)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Culture (157)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Factor (47)  |  General (521)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Language (308)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Part (235)  |  Participate (10)  |  Power (771)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rephrase (2)  |  School (227)  |  Secondary School (4)  |  Show (353)  |  Space (523)  |  Task (152)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Technical (53)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trace (109)  |  Training (92)  |  Treat (38)

In the vestibule of the Manchester Town Hall are placed two life-sized marble statues facing each other. One of these is that of John Dalton … the other that of James Prescott Joule. … Thus honour is done to Manchester’s two greatest sons—to Dalton, the founder of modern Chemistry and of the Atomic Theory, and the laws of chemical-combining proportions; to Joule, the founder of modern Physics and the discoverer of the Law of Conservation of Energy. The one gave to the world the final and satisfactory proof … that in every kind of chemical change no loss of matter occurs; the other proved that in all the varied modes of physical change, no loss of energy takes place.
In John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chemistry (1895), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conservation Of Mass (2)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Energy (373)  |  Final (121)  |  Founder (26)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Honour (58)  |  James Prescott Joule (7)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Loss (117)  |  Manchester (6)  |  Marble (21)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Change (5)  |  Physics (564)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Statue (17)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Town Hall (2)  |  Two (936)  |  Vestibule (2)  |  World (1850)

In the world of science different levels of esteem are accorded to different kinds of specialist. Mathematicians have always been eminently respectable, and so are those who deal with hard lifeless theories about what constitutes the physical world: the astronomers, the physicists, the theoretical chemists. But the more closely the scientist interests himself in matters which are of direct human relevance, the lower his social status. The real scum of the scientific world are the engineers and the sociologists and the psychologists. Indeed, if a psychologist wants to rate as a scientist he must study rats, not human beings. In zoology the same rules apply. It is much more respectable to dissect muscle tissues in a laboratory than to observe the behaviour of a living animal in its natural habitat.
From transcript of BBC radio Reith Lecture (12 Nov 1967), 'A Runaway World', on the bbc.co.uk website.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Apply (170)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Close (77)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Deal (192)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Esteem (18)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Hard (246)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Interest (416)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Level (69)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Low (86)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Observe (179)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Rat (37)  |  Rate (31)  |  Real (159)  |  Relevance (18)  |  Respectable (8)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Social (261)  |  Sociologist (5)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Status (35)  |  Study (701)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Want (504)  |  World (1850)  |  Zoology (38)

In view of the kind of matter we work with, it will never be possible to avoid little laboratory explosions.
Letter to Carl Jung, 18 Jun 1909. Quoted in William McGuire (ed.), The Freud-Jung Letters: The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung (1974), 235.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Included in this ‘almost nothing,’ as a kind of geological afterthought of the last few million years, is the first development of self-conscious intelligence on this planet–an odd and unpredictable invention of a little twig on the mammalian evolutionary bush. Any definition of this uniqueness, embedded as it is in our possession of language, must involve our ability to frame the world as stories and to transmit these tales to others. If our propensity to grasps nature as story has distorted our perceptions, I shall accept this limit of mentality upon knowledge, for we receive in trade both the joys of literature and the core of our being.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accept (198)  |  Afterthought (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Bush (11)  |  Core (20)  |  Definition (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Distort (22)  |  Embed (7)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  First (1302)  |  Frame (26)  |  Geological (11)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Include (93)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Invention (400)  |  Involve (93)  |  Joy (117)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Last (425)  |  Limit (294)  |  Literature (116)  |  Little (717)  |  Mammalian (3)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Million (124)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Odd (15)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Planet (402)  |  Possession (68)  |  Propensity (9)  |  Receive (117)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Conscious (3)  |  Story (122)  |  Tale (17)  |  Trade (34)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Twig (15)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Indeed, if one understands by algebra the application of arithmetic operations to composite magnitudes of all kinds, whether they be rational or irrational number or space magnitudes, then the learned Brahmins of Hindostan are the true inventors of algebra.
In Geschichte der Mathematik im Altertum und im Mittelalter (1874), 195. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 284. From the original German, “Ja, wenn man unter Algebra die Anwendung arithmetischer Operationen auf zusammengesetzte Grössen aller Art, mögen sie rationale oder irrationale Zahl- oder Raumgrössen sein, versteht, so sind die gelehrten Brahmanen Hindustans die wahren Erfinder der Algebra.”
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Application (257)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Composite (4)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Irrational Number (4)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Number (710)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Rational (95)  |  Space (523)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)

Indeed, not all attacks—especially the bitter and ridiculing kind leveled at Darwin—are offered in good faith, but for practical purposes it is good policy to assume that they are.
From Dream to Discovery: On Being a Scientist (1964), 157
Science quotes on:  |  Assumption (96)  |  Attack (86)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Faith (209)  |  Good (906)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Offer (142)  |  Policy (27)  |  Practical (225)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Ridicule (23)

Infectious disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world. The dragons are all dead and the lance grows rusty in the chimney corner. ... About the only sporting proposition that remains unimpaired by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species is the war against those ferocious little fellow creatures, which lurk in dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and waylay us in our food and drink and even in our love
Rats, Lice and History (1935)
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Against (332)  |  Animal (651)  |  Corner (59)  |  Crawl (9)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dark (145)  |  Disease (340)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Domestication (5)  |  Drink (56)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fly (153)  |  Food (213)  |  Free (239)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Grow (247)  |  Human (1512)  |  Insect (89)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Love (328)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Rat (37)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Species (435)  |  Stalk (6)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

Instinct is defined as the untaught ability to perform actions of all kinds, and more especially such as are necessary or useful to the animal.
The Senses and the Intellect (1855, 1974), p. 246.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Definition (238)  |  Instinct (91)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Perform (123)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It’s a kind of understanding that flourishes if it’s combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It’s the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.
In Irv Broughton (ed.), The Writer's Mind: Interviews with American Authors (1990), Vol. 2, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Absence (21)  |  Cause (561)  |  Combine (58)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Correct (95)  |  Draw (140)  |  Exist (458)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Fool (121)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Good (906)  |  Inference (45)  |  Information (173)  |  Insufficient (10)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Logic (311)  |  Memory (144)  |  Person (366)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Result (700)  |  Solution (282)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

Inventions and discoveries are of two kinds. The one which we owe to chance, such as those of the mariner’s compass, gunpowder, and in general almost all the discoveries we have made in the arts. The other which we owe to genius: and here we ought to understand by the word discovery, a new combination, or a new relation perceived between certain objects or ideas. A person obtains the title of a man of genius, if the ideas which result from this combination form one grand whole, are fruitful in truths, and are of importance with respect to mankind.
From the original French, “Les inventions ou les découvertes sont de deux espèces. Il en est que nous devons au hazard; telles sont la boussole, la poudre à canon, & généralement presque toutes les découvertes que nous avons faites dans les arts. Il en est d'autres que nous devons au génie: &, par ce mot de découverte, on doit alors entendre une nouvelle combinaison, un rapport nouveau aperçu entre certains objets ou certaines idées. On obtient le titre d'homme de génie, si les idées qui résultent de ce rapport forment un grand ensemble, sont fécondes en vérités & intéressantes pour l'humanité,” in 'Du Génie', L’Esprit (1758), Discourse 4, 476. English version from Claude Adrien Helvétius and William Mudford (trans.), 'Of Genius', De l’Esprit or, Essays on the Mind and its several Faculties (1759), Essay 4, Chap. 1, 241-242.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Combination (150)  |  Compass (37)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Invention (400)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mariner (12)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Person (366)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Title (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

It be urged that the wild and uncultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour and bitter fruit only, can never be made to yield better; yet we know that the grafting art implants a new tree on the savage stock, producing what is most estimable in kind and degree. Education, in like manner, engrafts a new man on the native stock, and improves what in his nature was vicious and perverse into qualities of virtue and social worth.
From paper 'Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Fix the Site of the University of Virginia', included in Annual Report of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia for the Fiscal Year Ending May 31, 1879 (1879), 10. Collected in Commonwealth of Virginia, Annual Reports of Officers, Boards, and Institutions of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for the Year Ending September 30, 1879 (1879).
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Art (680)  |  Better (493)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Degree (277)  |  Education (423)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Graft (4)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Native (41)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Perverse (5)  |  Producing (6)  |  Quality (139)  |  Savage (33)  |  Social (261)  |  Sour (3)  |  Stock (7)  |  Tree (269)  |  Uncultivated (2)  |  Vicious (5)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wild (96)  |  Worth (172)  |  Yield (86)

It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil—which is the view that religion has. The stage is too big for the drama.
'Viewpoint' Interview (with Bill Stout) for Los Angeles KNXT television station (1 May 1959), printed in Michelle Feynman (ed.) Perfectly Reasonable Deviations (from the Beaten Track) (2006), Appendix I, 426. Also quoted in James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992), 372. Gleick adds that KNXT “felt obliged to suppress” the interview. It was not broadcast until after Feynman, asked to redo the interview, wrote back with a letter objecting to “a direct censorship of the expression of my views.”
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Big (55)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Drama (24)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Merely (315)  |  Motion (320)  |  Planet (402)  |  Range (104)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Space (523)  |  Stage (152)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Watch (118)

It has been my misfortune never to have had any neighbours whose studies have led them towards the pursuit of natural knowledge; so that, for want of a companion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, I have made but slender progress in a kind of information to which I have been attached from my childhood.
In Letter to Thomas Pennant (4 Aug 1767), in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Attention (196)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Companion (22)  |  Industry (159)  |  Information (173)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Misfortune (13)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Never (1089)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Pursuit Of Natural Knowledge (2)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Study (701)  |  Want (504)

It is a right, yes a duty, to search in cautious manner for the numbers, sizes, and weights, the norms for everything [God] has created. For He himself has let man take part in the knowledge of these things ... For these secrets are not of the kind whose research should be forbidden; rather they are set before our eyes like a mirror so that by examining them we observe to some extent the goodness and wisdom of the Creator.
Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. In Michael B. Foster, Mystery and Philosophy, 61. Cited by Max Casper and Doris Hellman, trans., ed. Kepler (1954), 381. Cited by Gerald J. Galgan, Interpreting the Present: Six Philosophical Essays (1993), 105. Gerald J. Galgan
Science quotes on:  |  Caution (24)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Duty (71)  |  Everything (489)  |  Examination (102)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  God (776)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Himself (461)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Secret (216)  |  Set (400)  |  Size (62)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wisdom (235)

It is an old saying, abundantly justified, that where sciences meet there growth occurs. It is true moreover to say that in scientific borderlands not only are facts gathered that [are] often new in kind, but it is in these regions that wholly new concepts arise. It is my own faith that just as the older biology from its faithful studies of external forms provided a new concept in the doctrine of evolution, so the new biology is yet fated to furnish entirely new fundamental concepts of science, at which physics and chemistry when concerned with the non-living alone could never arrive.
'Biological Thought and Chemical Thought: A Plea for Unification', Linacre Lecture, Cambridge (6 May 1938), published in Lancet (1938),2, 1204.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arise (162)  |  Biology (232)  |  Borderland (6)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faith (209)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Gather (76)  |  Growth (200)  |  Living (492)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Old (499)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Wholly (88)

It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit for continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccinations is broad enough to cover cutting Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
Chief Justice Holmes contributed this opinion to the judgment by which the sterilization law of Virginia was declared constitutional. Quoted from Journal of Heredity (1927), 18, 495. In Henry Ernest Sigerist, Civilization and Disease (1970), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Crime (39)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eugenics (6)  |  Execute (7)  |  Generation (256)  |  Imbecility (5)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Society (350)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Vaccination (7)  |  Waiting (42)  |  World (1850)

It is certain that as a nation we are all smoking a great deal too much ... Smoking among boys—to whom it cannot possibly do any kind of good, while it may do a vast amount of active harm—is becoming prevalent to a most pernicious extent. ... It would be an excellent thing for the morality of the people could the use of “intoxicants and tobacco” be forbidden to all persons under twenty years of age. (1878)
In London Daily Telegraph (22 Jan 1878). Reprinted in English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League, Monthly letters of the Committee of the English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League 1878, 1879, 1880, (1 Feb 1878), 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Age (509)  |  Amount (153)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Boy (100)  |  Certain (557)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Extent (142)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  People (1031)  |  Pernicious (9)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Prevalent (4)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Twenty (4)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Year (963)

It is curious to observe how differently these great men [Plato and Bacon] estimated the value of every kind of knowledge. Take Arithmetic for example. Plato, after speaking slightly of the convenience of being able to reckon and compute in the ordinary transactions of life, passes to what he considers as a far more important advantage. The study of the properties of numbers, he tells us, habituates the mind to the contemplation of pure truth, and raises us above the material universe. He would have his disciples apply themselves to this study, not that they may be able to buy or sell, not that they may qualify themselves to be shop-keepers or travelling merchants, but that they may learn to withdraw their minds from the ever-shifting spectacle of this visible and tangible world, and to fix them on the immutable essences of things.
Bacon, on the other hand, valued this branch of knowledge only on account of its uses with reference to that visible and tangible world which Plato so much despised. He speaks with scorn of the mystical arithmetic of the later Platonists, and laments the propensity of mankind to employ, on mere matters of curiosity, powers the whole exertion of which is required for purposes of solid advantage. He advises arithmeticians to leave these trifles, and employ themselves in framing convenient expressions which may be of use in physical researches.
In 'Lord Bacon', Edinburgh Review (Jul 1837). Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1857), Vol. 1, 394.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Advise (7)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Arithmetician (3)  |  Bacon (4)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Buy (21)  |  Compute (19)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Despise (16)  |  Different (595)  |  Disciple (8)  |  Employ (115)  |  Essence (85)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Example (98)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fix (34)  |  Frame (26)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habituate (3)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Important (229)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lament (11)  |  Late (119)  |  Learn (672)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merchant (7)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plato (80)  |  Platonist (2)  |  Power (771)  |  Propensity (9)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reference (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Research (753)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Sell (15)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Study (701)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Tell (344)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Travel (125)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Trifle (18)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Visible (87)  |  Whole (756)  |  Withdraw (11)  |  World (1850)

It is easy to create an interstellar radio message which can be recognized as emanating unambiguously from intelligent beings. A modulated signal (‘beep,’ ‘beep-beep,’…) comprising the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, for example, consists exclusively of the first 12 prime numbers…. A signal of this kind, based on a simple mathematical concept, could only have a biological origin. … But by far the most promising method is to send pictures.
From 'The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence', in the magazine Smithsonian (May 1978), 43-44. Reprinted in Cosmic Search (Mar 1979), 1, No. 2, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consist (223)  |  Create (245)  |  Easy (213)  |  First (1302)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Interstellar (8)  |  Message (53)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Origin (250)  |  Picture (148)  |  Prime Number (5)  |  Radio (60)  |  SETI (3)  |  Signal (29)  |  Simple (426)

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms.
Concluding remarks in final chapter, The Origin of Species (1859), 490.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Bank (31)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bird (163)  |  Character (259)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Construct (129)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Divergence (6)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Food Web (8)  |  Form (976)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indirect (18)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Largest (39)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Plant (320)  |  Produced (187)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Selection (130)  |  Sense (785)  |  Singing (19)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Worm (47)

It is interesting to note how many fundamental terms which the social sciences are trying to adopt from physics have as a matter of historical fact originated in the social field. Take, for instance, the notion of cause. The Greek aitia or the Latin causa was originally a purely legal term. It was taken over into physics, developed there, and in the 18th century brought back as a foreign-born kind for the adoration of the social sciences. The same is true of the concept of law of nature. Originally a strict anthropomorphic conception, it was gradually depersonalized or dehumanized in the natural sciences and then taken over by the social sciences in an effort to eliminate final causes or purposes from the study of human affairs. It is therefore not anomalous to find similar transformations in the history of such fundamental concepts of statistics as average and probability. The concept of average was developed in the Rhodian laws as to the distribution of losses in maritime risks. After astronomers began to use it in correcting their observations, it spread to other physical sciences; and the prestige which it thus acquired has given it vogue in the social field. The term probability, as its etymology indicates, originates in practical and legal considerations of probing and proving.
The Statistical View of Nature (1936), 327-8.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Adoration (4)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Average (89)  |  Back (395)  |  Cause (561)  |  Century (319)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Develop (278)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Final (121)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Greek (109)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Latin (44)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Matter (821)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Observation (593)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physics (564)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prestige (16)  |  Probability (135)  |  Purely (111)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Risk (68)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Spread (86)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Study (701)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Trying (144)  |  Use (771)

It is not enough to teach man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine, but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he—with his specialized knowledge—more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.
From interview with Benjamin Fine, 'Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking', New York Times (5 Oct 1952), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Dog (70)  |  Enough (341)  |  Essential (210)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Good (906)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lively (17)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Person (366)  |  Personality (66)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Sense (785)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Specialty (13)  |  Student (317)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Vivid (25)

It is not, indeed, strange that the Greeks and Romans should not have carried ... any ... experimental science, so far as it has been carried in our time; for the experimental sciences are generally in a state of progression. They were better understood in the seventeenth century than in the sixteenth, and in the eighteenth century than in the seventeenth. But this constant improvement, this natural growth of knowledge, will not altogether account for the immense superiority of the modern writers. The difference is a difference not in degree, but of kind. It is not merely that new principles have been discovered, but that new faculties seem to be exerted. It is not that at one time the human intellect should have made but small progress, and at another time have advanced far; but that at one time it should have been stationary, and at another time constantly proceeding. In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. They reasoned as justly as ourselves on subjects which required pure demonstration.
History (May 1828). In Samuel Austin Allibone, Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay (1880), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  16th Century (3)  |  17th Century (20)  |  18th Century (21)  |  Account (195)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Art (680)  |  Better (493)  |  Century (319)  |  Constant (148)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Exert (40)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Grace (31)  |  Greek (109)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immense (89)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progression (23)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Required (108)  |  Roman (39)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Small (489)  |  State (505)  |  Stationary (11)  |  Strange (160)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Taste (93)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understood (155)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

It is presumed that there exists a great unity in nature, in respect of the adequacy of a single cause to account for many different kinds of consequences.
In Theoretical Philosophy, 1755-1770, trans. and ed. By David Walford (2003), 155.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Exist (458)  |  External (62)  |  Great (1610)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Respect (212)  |  Single (365)  |  Unity (81)

It is probably no exaggeration to suppose that in order to improve such an organ as the eye at all, it must be improved in ten different ways at once. And the improbability of any complex organ being produced and brought to perfection in any such way is an improbability of the same kind and degree as that of producing a poem or a mathematical demonstration by throwing letters at random on a table.
[Expressing his reservations about Darwin's proposed evolution of the eye by natural selection.]
Opening address to the Belfast Natural History Society, as given in the 'Belfast Northern Whig,' (19 Nov 1866). As cited by Charles Darwin in The Variation of Animals & Plants Under Domestication (1868), 222.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Bring (95)  |  Complex (202)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Eye (440)  |  Improbability (11)  |  Improve (64)  |  Letter (117)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Order (638)  |  Organ (118)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Poem (104)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Random (42)  |  Selection (130)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Table (105)  |  Throw (45)  |  Throwing (17)  |  Way (1214)

It is still false to conclude that man is nothing but the highest animal, or the most progressive product of organic evolution. He is also a fundamentally new sort of animal and one in which, although organic evolution continues on its way, a fundamentally new sort of evolution has also appeared. The basis of this new sort of evolution is a new sort of heredity, the inheritance of learning. This sort of heredity appears modestly in other mammals and even lower in the animal kingdom, but in man it has incomparably fuller development and it combines with man's other characteristics unique in degree with a result that cannot be considered unique only in degree but must also be considered unique in kind.
In The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Basis (180)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Combination (150)  |  Combine (58)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consider (428)  |  Continue (179)  |  Degree (277)  |  Development (441)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Highest (19)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Product (166)  |  Result (700)  |  Sort (50)  |  Still (614)  |  Unique (72)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Way (1214)

It is the patient workers, and the active, kindly sympathetic men and women who hold the balance of things secure.
Aphorism in The Philistine (Apr 1905), 20, No. 5, 160.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Balance (82)  |  Patient (209)  |  Secure (23)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Worker (34)

It is unreasonable to expect science to produce a system of ethics—ethics are a kind of highway code for traffic among mankind—and the fact that in physics atoms which were yesterday assumed to be square are now assumed to be round is exploited with unjustified tendentiousness by all who are hungry for faith; so long as physics extends our dominion over nature, these changes ought to be a matter of complete indifference to you.
Letter to Oskar Pfister, 24 Feb 1928. Quoted in H. Meng and E. Freud (eds.), Psycho-Analysis and Faith: The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Oscar Pfister (1963), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Change (639)  |  Code (31)  |  Complete (209)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Expect (203)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faith (209)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Square (73)  |  System (545)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Yesterday (37)

It may be argued that to know one kind of beetle is to know them all. But a species is not like a molecule in a cloud of molecules—it is a unique population.
'The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science', Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985), 2:1, 22. Reprinted in Nature Revealed: Selected Writings, 1949-2006 (2006), 622.
Science quotes on:  |  Beetle (19)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Know (1538)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Population (115)  |  Species (435)  |  Unique (72)

It may be argued that to know one kind of beetle is to know them all. But a species is not like a molecule in a cloud of molecules—it is a unique population.
In 'Edward O. Wilson: The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science', Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985), 2, No. 1, 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Beetle (19)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Know (1538)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Population (115)  |  Species (435)  |  Unique (72)

It need scarcely be pointed out that with such a mechanism complete isolation of portion of a species should result relatively rapidly in specific differentiation, and one that is not necessarily adaptive. The effective inter­group competition leading to adaptive advance may be between species rather than races. Such isolation is doubtless usually geographic in character at the outset but may be clinched by the development of hybrid sterility. The usual difference of the chromosome complements of related species puts the importance of chromosome aberration as an evolutionary process beyond question, but, as I see it, this importance is not in the character differences which they bring (slight in balanced types), but rather in leading to the sterility of hybrids and thus making permanent the isolation of two groups.
How far do the observations of actual species and their subdivisions conform to this picture? This is naturally too large a subject for more than a few suggestions.
That evolution involves non-adaptive differentiation to a large extent at the subspecies and even the species level is indicated by the kinds of differences by which such groups are actually distinguished by systematics. It is only at the subfamily and family levels that clear-cut adaptive differences become the rule. The principal evolutionary mechanism in the origin of species must thus be an essentially nonadaptive one.
In Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics: Ithaca, New York, 1932 (1932) Vol. 1, 363-364.
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Actual (118)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Advance (298)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Character (259)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Clear-Cut (10)  |  Competition (45)  |  Complement (6)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cut (116)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extent (142)  |  Family (101)  |  Geographic (10)  |  Geography (39)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inter (12)  |  Involve (93)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Large (398)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Observation (593)  |  Origin (250)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Picture (148)  |  Point (584)  |  Portion (86)  |  Principal (69)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  See (1094)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sterility (10)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Usually (176)

It seems to me that the view toward which we are tending is that the specificity in gene action is always a chemical specificity, probably the production of enzymes which guide metabolic processes along particular channels. A given array of genes thus determines the production of a particular kind of protoplasm with particular properties—such, for example, as that of responding to surface forces by the formation of a special sort of semipermeable membrane, and that of responding to trivial asymmetries in the play of external stimuli by polarization, with consequent orderly quantitative gradients in all physiologic processes. Different genes may now be called into play at different points in this simple pattern, either through the local formation of their specific substrates for action, or by activation of a mutational nature. In either case the pattern becomes more complex and qualitatively differentiated. Successive interactions of differentiated regions and the calling into play of additional genes may lead to any degree of complexity of pattern in the organism as a largely self-contained system. The array of genes, assembled in the course of evolution, must of course be one which determines a highly self­regulatory system of reactions. On this view the genes are highly specific chemically, and thus called into play only under very specific conditions; but their morphological effects, if any, rest on quantitative influences of immediate or remote products on growth gradients, which are resultants of all that has gone on before in the organism.
In 'Genetics of Abnormal Growth in the Guinea Pig', Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology (1934), 2, 142.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Activation (6)  |  Asymmetry (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Channel (23)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Force (497)  |  Formation (100)  |  Gene (105)  |  Gradient (2)  |  Growth (200)  |  Guide (107)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Lead (391)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Organism (231)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Polarization (4)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rest (287)  |  Self (268)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Special (188)  |  Specific (98)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Successive (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Trivial (59)  |  View (496)

It seems to me, he says, that the test of “Do we or not understand a particular subject in physics?” is, “Can we make a mechanical model of it?” I have an immense admiration for Maxwell’s model of electromagnetic induction. He makes a model that does all the wonderful things that electricity docs in inducing currents, etc., and there can be no doubt that a mechanical model of that kind is immensely instructive and is a step towards a definite mechanical theory of electromagnetism.
From stenographic report by A.S. Hathaway of the Lecture 20 Kelvin presented at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, on 'Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light' (1884), 132. (Hathaway was a Mathematics fellow there.) This remark is not included in the first typeset publication—a revised version, printed twenty years later, in 1904, as Lord Kelvin’s Baltimore Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light. The original notes were reproduced by the “papyrograph” process. They are excerpted in Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem, Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science (1996), 54-55.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Current (122)  |  Definite (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Immense (89)  |  Induction (81)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Model (106)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Say (989)  |  Step (234)  |  Subject (543)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wonderful (155)

It showed a kind of obscenity you see only in nature, an obscenity so extreme that it dissolves imperceptibly into beauty.
The Hot Zone
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Imperceptibly (2)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscenity (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)

It was a great step in science when men became convinced that, in order to understand the nature of things, they must begin by asking, not whether a thing is good or bad, noxious or beneficial, but of what kind it is? And how much is there of it? Quality and Quantity were then first recognised as the primary features to be observed in scientific inquiry.
'Address to the Mathematical and Physical Sections of the British Association, Liverpool, 15 Sep 1870', The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890 edition, reprint 2003), Vol. 2, 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Bad (185)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Primary (82)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Step (234)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

It was my good fortune to be linked with Mme. Curie through twenty years of sublime and unclouded friendship. I came to admire her human grandeur to an ever growing degree. Her strength, her purity of will, her austerity toward herself, her objectivity, her incorruptible judgement—all these were of a kind seldom found joined in a single individual… The greatest scientific deed of her life—proving the existence of radioactive elements and isolating them—owes its accomplishment not merely to bold intuition but to a devotion and tenacity in execution under the most extreme hardships imaginable, such as the history of experimental science has not often witnessed.
Out of My Later Years (1950), 227-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Austerity (3)  |  Bold (22)  |  Marie Curie (37)  |  Deed (34)  |  Degree (277)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Element (322)  |  Execution (25)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Friendship (18)  |  Good (906)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Growing (99)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Life (1870)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Owe (71)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Single (365)  |  Strength (139)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tenacity (10)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)  |  Witness (57)  |  Year (963)

It was the method which attracted me [to physics]—the experimental method, which was born with physics, and is now universal in science. It’s asking a question of nature, and listening for the answer from nature … the way in which you’re going about asking the question and detecting the answer. And in my view it’s this kind of method that attracts me.
From 'Asking Nature', collected in Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (eds.), Passionate Minds: The Inner World of Scientists (1997), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Attract (25)  |  Detect (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listening (26)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Universal (198)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)

It will be a vast boon to mankind when we learn to prophesy the precise dates when cycles of various kinds will reach definite stages.
Mainsprings of Civilization (1945), 458.
Science quotes on:  |  Boon (7)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Definite (114)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Precise (71)  |  Prophesy (11)  |  Reach (286)  |  Stage (152)  |  Various (205)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)

It would appear... that moral phenomena, when observed on a great scale, are found to resemble physical phenomena; and we thus arrive, in inquiries of this kind, at the fundamental principle, that the greater the number of individuals observed, the more do individual peculiarities, whether physical or moral, become effaced, and leave in a prominent point of view the general facts, by virtue of which society exists and is preserved.
A Treatise on Man and the Development of his Faculties (1842). Reprinted with an introduction by Solomon Diamond (1969), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Do (1905)  |  Efface (6)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Individual (420)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prominent (6)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Scale (122)  |  Society (350)  |  View (496)  |  Virtue (117)

It would be an easy task to show that the characteristics in the organization of man, on account of which the human species and races are grouped as a distinct family, are all results of former changes of occupation, and of acquired habits, which have come to be distinctive of individuals of his kind. When, compelled by circumstances, the most highly developed apes accustomed themselves to walking erect, they gained the ascendant over the other animals. The absolute advantage they enjoyed, and the new requirements imposed on them, made them change their mode of life, which resulted in the gradual modification of their organization, and in their acquiring many new qualities, and among them the wonderful power of speech.
Quoted in Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel The Evolution of Man (1897), Vol. 1, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Account (195)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Change (639)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Develop (278)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Family (101)  |  Former (138)  |  Gain (146)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Result (700)  |  Show (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Speech (66)  |  Task (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Wonderful (155)

It... [can] be easily shown:
1. That all present mountains did not exist from the beginning of things.
2. That there is no growing of mountains.
3. That the rocks or mountains have nothing in common with the bones of animals except a certain resemblance in hardness, since they agree in neither matter nor manner of production, nor in composition, nor in function, if one may be permitted to affirm aught about a subject otherwise so little known as are the functions of things.
4. That the extension of crests of mountains, or chains, as some prefer to call them, along the lines of certain definite zones of the earth, accords with neither reason nor experience.
5. That mountains can be overthrown, and fields carried over from one side of a high road across to the other; that peaks of mountains can be raised and lowered, that the earth can be opened and closed again, and that other things of this kind occur which those who in their reading of history wish to escape the name of credulous, consider myths.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 232-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aught (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bone (101)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Closed (38)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Consider (428)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Definite (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Escape (85)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Function (235)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Myth (58)  |  Name (359)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reason (766)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rock (176)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wish (216)

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Fun (42)  |  Impossible (263)

Just as a tree constitutes a mass arranged in a definite manner, in which, in every single part, in the leaves as in the root, in the trunk as in the blossom, cells are discovered to be the ultimate elements, so is it also with the forms of animal life. Every animal presents itself as a sum of vital unities, every one of which manifests all the characteristics of life. The characteristics and unity of life cannot be limited to anyone particular spot in a highly developed organism (for example, to the brain of man), but are to be found only in the definite, constantly recurring structure, which every individual element displays. Hence it follows that the structural composition of a body of considerable size, a so-called individual, always represents a kind of social arrangement of parts, an arrangement of a social kind, in which a number of individual existences are mutually dependent, but in such a way, that every element has its own special action, and, even though it derive its stimulus to activity from other parts, yet alone effects the actual performance of its duties.
In Lecture I, 'Cells and the Cellular Theory' (1858), Rudolf Virchow and Frank Chance (trans.) ,Cellular Pathology (1860), 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Activity (218)  |  Actual (118)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Composition (86)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Derive (70)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Display (59)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Individual (420)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Number (710)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Performance (51)  |  Present (630)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Represent (157)  |  Root (121)  |  Single (365)  |  Size (62)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Special (188)  |  Spot (19)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unity (81)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)

Just as in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, an individual comes into being, so to speak, grows, remains in being, declines and passes on, will it not be the same for entire species? If our faith did not teach us that animals left the Creator's hands just as they now appear and, if it were permitted to entertain the slightest doubt as to their beginning and their end, may not a philosopher, left to his own conjectures, suspect that, from time immemorial, animal life had its own constituent elements, scattered and intermingled with the general body of matter, and that it happened when these constituent elements came together because it was possible for them to do so; that the embryo formed from these elements went through innumerable arrangements and developments, successively acquiring movement, feeling, ideas, thought, reflection, consciousness, feelings, emotions, signs, gestures, sounds, articulate sounds, language, laws, arts and sciences; that millions of years passed between each of these developments, and there may be other developments or kinds of growth still to come of which we know nothing; that a stationary point either has been or will be reached; that the embryo either is, or will be, moving away from this point through a process of everlasting decay, during which its faculties will leave it in the same way as they arrived; that it will disappear for ever from nature-or rather, that it will continue to exist there, but in a form and with faculties very different from those it displays at this present point in time? Religion saves us from many deviations, and a good deal of work. Had religion not enlightened us on the origin of the world and the universal system of being, what a multitude of different hypotheses we would have been tempted to take as nature's secret! Since these hypotheses are all equally wrong, they would all have seemed almost equally plausible. The question of why anything exists is the most awkward that philosophy can raise- and Revelation alone provides the answer.
Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature and Other Philosophical Works (1753/4), ed. D. Adams (1999), Section LVIII, 75-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Art (680)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Continue (179)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decline (28)  |  Development (441)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Different (595)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Display (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Element (322)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Emotion (106)  |  End (603)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exist (458)  |  Faith (209)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Individual (420)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remain (355)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Save (126)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Stationary (11)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Universal (198)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future ... If someone can hit on the right lines along which to make this development, it m may lead to a future advance in which people will first discover the equations and then, after examining them, gradually learn how to apply the ... My own belief is that this is a more likely line of progress than trying to guess at physical pictures.
'The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature', Scientific American, May 1963, 208, 47. In Steve Adams, Frontiers (2000), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Apply (170)  |  Belief (615)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Equation (138)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hope (321)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Picture (148)  |  Progress (492)  |  Right (473)  |  Studying (70)  |  Trying (144)  |  Will (2350)

Just now nuclear physicists are writing a great deal about hypothetical particles called neutrinos supposed to account for certain peculiar facts observed in β-ray disintegration. We can perhaps best describe the neutrinos as little bits of spin-energy that have got detached. I am not much impressed by the neutrino theory. In an ordinary way I might say that I do not believe in neutrinos… But I have to reflect that a physicist may be an artist, and you never know where you are with artists. My old-fashioned kind of disbelief in neutrinos is scarcely enough. Dare I say that experimental physicists will not have sufficient ingenuity to make neutrinos? Whatever I may think, I am not going to be lured into a wager against the skill of experimenters under the impression that it is a wager against the truth of a theory. If they succeed in making neutrinos, perhaps even in developing industrial applications of them, I suppose I shall have to believe—though I may feel that they have not been playing quite fair.
From Tarner Lecture, 'Discovery or Manufacture?' (1938), in The Philosophy of Physical Science (1939, 2012), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Against (332)  |  Application (257)  |  Artist (97)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Dare (55)  |  Deal (192)  |  Describe (132)  |  Disbelief (4)  |  Disintegration (8)  |  Do (1905)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Feel (371)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Impression (118)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Neutrino (11)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physicist (5)  |  Observed (149)  |  Old (499)  |  Old-Fashioned (9)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Particle (200)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Playing (42)  |  Ray (115)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spin (26)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Writing (192)

Knowledge is not happiness, and science
But an exchange of ignorance for that
Which is another kind of ignorance.
Manfred (1816), Act 2, Scene 4. In George Gordon Byron and Thomas Moore, The Works of Lord Byron (1837), 333.
Science quotes on:  |  Exchange (38)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)

Lavoisier was right in the deepest, almost holy, way. His passion harnessed feeling to the service of reason; another kind of passion was the price. Reason cannot save us and can even persecute us in the wrong hands; but we have no hope of salvation without reason. The world is too complex, too intransigent; we cannot bend it to our simple will.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bend (13)  |  Complex (202)  |  Deep (241)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hand (149)  |  Harness (25)  |  Holy (35)  |  Hope (321)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Passion (121)  |  Persecute (6)  |  Price (57)  |  Reason (766)  |  Right (473)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Save (126)  |  Service (110)  |  Simple (426)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  188.
Science quotes on:  |  Humour (116)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Learning (291)  |  Studious (5)

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (as it was later known), originally published untitled and with no author credited in the Boston Gazette (Aug 1765). Collected in John Adams and Charles Francis Adams (ed.), The Works of John Adams (1851), Vol. 3, 462.
Science quotes on:  |  Cherish (25)  |  Dare (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Read (308)  |  Speak (240)  |  Tender (6)  |  Think (1122)  |  Write (250)

Life is short and we have not too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.
Entry for 16 Dec 1868 in Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime (1896), Vol. 2, 15, as translated by Mrs. Humphry Ward.
Science quotes on:  |  Dark (145)  |  Glad (7)  |  Haste (6)  |  Heart (243)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Short (200)  |  Swift (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Way (1214)

Logicians have but ill defined
As rational the human mind;
Reason, they say, belongs to man,
But let them prove it if they can.
In 'The Logicians Refuted', The Poems and Plays of Oliver Goldsmith (1818), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Logician (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Say (989)

Man is occupied and has been persistently occupied since his separate evolution, with three kinds of struggle: first with the massive unintelligent forces of nature, heat and cold, winds, rivers, matter and energy; secondly, with the things closer to him, animals and plants, his own body, its health and disease; and lastly, with his desires and fears, his imaginations and stupidities.
In The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1929).
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Body (557)  |  Closer (43)  |  Cold (115)  |  Desire (212)  |  Disease (340)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fear (212)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Health (210)  |  Heat (180)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Man (2252)  |  Massive (9)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Plant (320)  |  River (140)  |  Separate (151)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wind (141)

Man must at all costs overcome the Earth’s gravity and have, in reserve, the space at least of the Solar System. All kinds of danger wait for him on the Earth… We are talking of disaster that can destroy the whole of mankind or a large part of it… For instance, a cloud of bolides [meteors] or a small planet a few dozen kilometers in diameter could fall on the Earth, with such an impact that the solid, liquid or gaseous blast produced by it could wipe off the face of the Earth all traces of man and his buildings. The rise of temperature accompanying it could alone scorch or kill all living beings… We are further compelled to take up the struggle against gravity, and for the utilization of celestial space and all its wealth, because of the overpopulation of our planet. Numerous other terrible dangers await mankind on the Earth, all of which suggest that man should look for a way into the Cosmos. We have said a great deal about the advantages of migration into space, but not all can be said or even imagined.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Against (332)  |  Alone (324)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blast (13)  |  Building (158)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Cost (94)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deal (192)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impact (45)  |  Kill (100)  |  Kilometer (10)  |  Large (398)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Meteor (19)  |  Migration (12)  |  Must (1525)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Overpopulation (6)  |  Planet (402)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Rise (169)  |  Small (489)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Solid (119)  |  Space (523)  |  Struggle (111)  |  System (545)  |  Talking (76)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Trace (109)  |  Utilization (16)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Whole (756)

Man’s respect for knowledge is one of his most peculiar characteristics. Knowledge in Latin is scientia, and science came to be the name of the most respectable kind of knowledge.
In Radio Lecture (30 Jun 1973) broadcast by the Open University, collected in Imre Lakatos, John Worrall (ed.) and Gregory Currie (ed.), 'Introduction: Science and Pseudoscience', The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes (1978, 1980), Vol. 1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latin (44)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectable (8)

Many animals even now spring out of the soil,
Coalescing from the rains and the heat of the sun.
Small wonder, then, if more and bigger creatures,
Full-formed, arose from the new young earth and sky.
The breed, for instance, of the dappled birds
Shucked off their eggshells in the springtime, as
Crickets in summer will slip their slight cocoons
All by themselves, and search for food and life.
Earth gave you, then, the first of mortal kinds,
For all the fields were soaked with warmth and moisture.
On the Nature of Things, trans. Anthony M. Esolen (1995), Book 5, lines 794-803, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Bird (163)  |  Cocoon (4)  |  Creature (242)  |  Cricket (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Food (213)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moisture (21)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  New (1273)  |  Rain (70)  |  Search (175)  |  Sky (174)  |  Small (489)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spring (140)  |  Springtime (5)  |  Summer (56)  |  Sun (407)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Young (253)

Many kinds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee and spirituous liqueurs.
The Descent of Man (1871), Vol. 1, 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Coffee (21)  |  Drink (56)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Strong (182)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tea (13)

Many of the things that have happened in the laboratory have happened in ways it would have been impossible to foresee, but not impossible to plan for in a sense. I do not think Dr. Whitney deliberately plans his serendipity but he is built that way; he has the art—an instinctive way of preparing himself by his curiosity and by his interest in people and in all kinds of things and in nature, so that the things he learns react on one another and thereby accomplish things that would be impossible to foresee and plan.
Quoted in Guy Suits, 'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 355.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Art (680)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Do (1905)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Happening (59)  |  Himself (461)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Interest (416)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Learn (672)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Research (753)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Way (1214)  |  Willis R. Whitney (17)

Many people know everything they know in the way we know the solution of a riddle after we have read it or been told it, and that is the worst kind of knowledge and the kind least to be cultivated; we ought rather to cultivate that kind of knowledge which enables us to discover for ourselves in case of need that which others have to read or be told of in order to know it.
Aphorism 89 in Notebook D (1773-1775), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enable (122)  |  Everything (489)  |  Insight (107)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Solution (282)  |  Way (1214)  |  Worst (57)

Mathematics contain a great number of premises, and there is perhaps a kind of intellect that can search with ease a few premises to the bottom, and cannot in the least penetrate those matters in which there are many premises.
In Pascal’s Pensées (1958), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Bottom (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Number (710)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Premise (40)  |  Search (175)

Mathematics gives the young man a clear idea of demonstration and habituates him to form long trains of thought and reasoning methodically connected and sustained by the final certainty of the result; and it has the further advantage, from a purely moral point of view, of inspiring an absolute and fanatical respect for truth. In addition to all this, mathematics, and chiefly algebra and infinitesimal calculus, excite to a high degree the conception of the signs and symbols—necessary instruments to extend the power and reach of the human mind by summarizing an aggregate of relations in a condensed form and in a kind of mechanical way. These auxiliaries are of special value in mathematics because they are there adequate to their definitions, a characteristic which they do not possess to the same degree in the physical and mathematical [natural?] sciences.
There are, in fact, a mass of mental and moral faculties that can be put in full play only by instruction in mathematics; and they would be made still more available if the teaching was directed so as to leave free play to the personal work of the student.
In 'Science as an Instrument of Education', Popular Science Monthly (1897), 253.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Addition (70)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Available (80)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Clear (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Condense (15)  |  Connect (126)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excite (17)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fanatical (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Final (121)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Full (68)  |  Give (208)  |  Habituate (3)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Leave (138)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mental (179)  |  Methodically (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Personal (75)  |  Physical (518)  |  Play (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Sign (63)  |  Special (188)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Summarize (10)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

Mathematics is of two kinds, Rigorous and Physical. The former is Narrow: the latter Bold and Broad. To have to stop to formulate rigorous demonstrations would put a stop to most physico-mathematical inquiries. Am I to refuse to eat because I do not fully understand the mechanism of digestion?
As quoted by Charles Melbourne Focken in Dimensional Methods and Their Applications (1953), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Bold (22)  |  Broad (28)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Former (138)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Physical (518)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Stop (89)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)

Mathematics is the tool specially suited for dealing with abstract concepts of any kind and there is no limit to its power in this field.
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930, 1981), Preface, viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Concept (242)  |  Field (378)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Power (771)  |  Tool (129)

Memory is to mind as viscosity is to protoplasm it gives a kind of tenacity to thought—a kind of pied à terre from which it can, and without it could not, advance.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Tenacity (10)  |  Thought (995)  |  Viscosity (3)

Men go into space to see whether it is the kind of place where other men, and their families and their children, can eventually follow them. A disturbingly high proportion of the intelligent young are discontented because they find the life before them intolerably confining. The moon offers a new frontier. It is as simple and splendid as that.
Editorial on the moon landing, The Economist (1969).
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Confine (26)  |  Discontented (2)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Family (101)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Frontier (41)  |  High (370)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1273)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Proportion (140)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Young (253)

Metaphysical ghosts cannot be killed, because they cannot be touched; but they may be dispelled by dispelling the twilight in which shadows and solidities are easily confounded. The Vital Principle is an entity of this ghostly kind; and although the daylight has dissipated it, and positive Biology is no longer vexed with its visitations, it nevertheless reappears in another shape in the shadowy region of mystery which surrounds biological and all other questions.
The History of Philosophy from Thales to Comte (1867), lxxxiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Confound (21)  |  Daylight (23)  |  Dispelling (4)  |  Entity (37)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Kill (100)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  Positive (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Question (649)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Touch (146)  |  Vex (10)  |  Vital (89)

Most classifications, whether of inanimate objects or of organisms, are hierarchical. There are “higher” and “lower” categories, there are higher and lower ranks. What is usually overlooked is that the use of the term “hierarchy” is ambiguous, and that two fundamentally different kinds of arrangements have been designated as hierarchical. A hierarchy can be either exclusive or inclusive. Military ranks from private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, up to general are a typical example of an exclusive hierarchy. A lower rank is not a subdivision of a higher rank; thus, lieutenants are not a subdivision of captains. The scala naturae, which so strongly dominated thinking from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is another good illustration of an exclusive hierarchy. Each level of perfection was considered an advance (or degradation) from the next lower (or higher) level in the hierarchy, but did not include it.
The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance (1982), 205-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Captain (16)  |  Century (319)  |  Classification (102)  |  Consider (428)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Different (595)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Include (93)  |  Inclusive (4)  |  Level (69)  |  Military (45)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Object (438)  |  Organism (231)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Rank (69)  |  Term (357)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)

Most of these Mountains and Inland places whereon these kind of Petrify’d Bodies and Shells are found at present, or have been heretofore, were formerly under the Water, and that either by the descending of the Waters to another part of the Earth by the alteration of the Centre of Gravity of the whole bulk, or rather by the Eruption of some kind of Subterraneous Fires or Earthquakes, great quantities of Earth have been deserted by the Water and laid bare and dry.
Lectures and Discourses of Earthquakes (1668). In The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, containing his Cutlerian Lectures and other Discourses read at the Meetings of the Illustrious Royal Society (1705), 320-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Alteration (31)  |  Bare (33)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Centre Of Gravity (4)  |  Desert (59)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Present (630)  |  Shell (69)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

Most people prefer to carry out the kinds of experiments that allow the scientist to feel that he is in full control of the situation rather than surrendering himself to the situation, as one must in studying human beings as they actually live.
In Blackberry Winter (1972), 321.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Being (1276)  |  Carry (130)  |  Control (182)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Live (650)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  People (1031)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Situation (117)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Surrender (21)

Most scientists think of science as being a kind of purifying intellectual machinery that leads to honesty, to the withering away of ignorance and wrong ideas, including, provided they are of the atheistic persuasion, those of religion.
In Pamela Weintraub (ed.), 'E. O. Wilson', The Omni Interviews (1984), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Atheist (16)  |  Being (1276)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Lead (391)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Most (1728)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Purify (9)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wither (9)  |  Wrong (246)

Mr. Bertrand Russell tells us that it can be shown that a mathematical web of some kind can be woven about any universe containing several objects. If this be so, then the fact that our universe lends itself to mathematical treatment is not a fact of any great philosophical significance.
In The Limitations of Science (1933), 229. [Notice that there are no quotation marks in the narrative statement by Sullivan. Therefore, Webmaster believes they are not necessarily, and likely not, the verbatim words from Russell. The first sentence is more likely to be Sullivan expressing in his own words an idea from Russell, and most likely the second sentence is Sullivan’s comment on that idea. (Be cautioned that quotation marks, perhaps spurious, have appeared when re-stated in later publications by other authors.) Webmaster has so far been unable to identify a primary source for these words in a text by Russell. If you know the primary source, please contact Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Contain (68)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Object (438)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Bertrand Russell (198)  |  Several (33)  |  Show (353)  |  Significance (114)  |  Tell (344)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weave (21)  |  Web (17)

Museums are, in a way, the cathedrals of the modern world, places where sacred issues are expressed and where people come to reflect on them. A museum is also a kind of bridge between the academy and the public.
In The Legacy of the Great War: Ninety Years On (2009), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Cathedrals Of The Modern World (5)  |  Express (192)  |  Expression (181)  |  Issue (46)  |  Modern (402)  |  Museum (40)  |  People (1031)  |  Public (100)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain that alone on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine would not, I suppose, have thus suffered, and if I had to live my life over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept alive through use.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Alone (324)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Become (821)  |  Better (493)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brain (281)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Depend (238)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  General (521)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listen (81)  |  Live (650)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Taste (93)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Week (73)  |  Why (491)

Natural Science treats of motion and force. Many of its teachings remain as part of an educated man's permanent equipment in life.
Such are:
(a) The harder you shove a bicycle the faster it will go. This is because of natural science.
(b) If you fall from a high tower, you fall quicker and quicker and quicker; a judicious selection of a tower will ensure any rate of speed.(c) If you put your thumb in between two cogs it will go on and on, until the wheels are arrested, by your suspenders. This is machinery.
(d) Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one kind comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it.
In Literary Lapses (1918), 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Cog (7)  |  Difference (355)  |  Durable (7)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Fall (243)  |  Faster (50)  |  Force (497)  |  High (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Negative (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Positive (98)  |  Remain (355)  |  Selection (130)  |  Speed (66)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Tower (45)  |  Two (936)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Will (2350)

Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous—indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.
River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (1995), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Cruel (25)  |  Evil (122)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  View Of Life (7)

Nevertheless, his [Dostoyevsky’s] personality retained sadistic traits in plenty, which show themselves in his irritability, his love of tormenting, and his intolerance even towards people he loved, and which appear also in the way in which, as an author, he treats his readers. Thus in little things he was a sadist towards others, and in bigger things a sadist towards himself, in fact a masochist—that is to say the mildest, kindliest, most helpful person possible.
In James Strachey (ed.), 'Dostoyevsky and Parricide', The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953-74), Vol. 21, 178-179. Reprinted in Writings on Art and Literature (1997), 236
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intolerance (8)  |  Irritability (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Mild (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Reader (42)  |  Retain (57)  |  Sadist (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Torment (18)  |  Trait (23)  |  Treat (38)  |  Way (1214)

No one can read the history of astronomy without perceiving that Copernicus, Newton, Laplace, are not new men, or a new kind of men, but that Thales, Anaximenes, Hipparchus, Empodocles, Aristorchus, Pythagorus, Oenipodes, had anticipated them.
In The Conduct of Life (1904), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Anaximenes (5)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Hipparchus (5)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Astronomy (2)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Perception (97)  |  Read (308)  |  Thales (9)

No physiologist who calmly considers the question in connection with the general truths of his science, can long resist the conviction that different parts of the cerebrum subserve different kinds of mental action. Localization of function is the law of all organization whatever: separateness of duty is universally accompanied with separateness of structure: and it would be marvellous were an exception to exist in the cerebral hemispheres.
The Principles of Psychology (1855), 607.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Action (342)  |  Calm (32)  |  Cerebrum (10)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Duty (71)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Function (235)  |  General (521)  |  Hemisphere (5)  |  Law (913)  |  Localization (3)  |  Long (778)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mental (179)  |  Organization (120)  |  Part (235)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Question (649)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Separateness (2)  |  Serve (64)  |  Structure (365)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universality (22)  |  Whatever (234)

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a publick library; for who can see the wall crouded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditation, and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue, and preserved only to encrease the pomp of learning, without considering how many hours have been wasted in vain endeavours, how often imagination has anticipated the praises of futurity, how many statues have risen to the eye of vanity, how many ideal converts have elevated zeal, how often wit has exulted in the eternal infamy of his antagonists, and dogmatism has delighted in the gradual advances of his authority, the immutability of his decrees, and the perpetuity of his power.
Non unquam dedit
Documenta fors majora, quam fragili loco
Starent superbi.

Seneca, Troades, II, 4-6
Insulting chance ne'er call'd with louder voice,
On swelling mortals to be proud no more.
Of the innumerable authors whose performances are thus treasured up in magnificent obscurity, most are forgotten, because they never deserved to be remembered, and owed the honours which they have once obtained, not to judgment or to genius, to labour or to art, but to the prejudice of faction, the stratagem of intrigue, or the servility of adulation.
Nothing is more common than to find men whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries, as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science. Curiosity is naturally excited, their volumes after long enquiry are found, but seldom reward the labour of the search. Every period of time has produced these bubbles of artificial fame, which are kept up a while by the breath of fashion and then break at once and are annihilated. The learned often bewail the loss of ancient writers whose characters have survived their works; but perhaps if we could now retrieve them we should find them only the Granvilles, Montagus, Stepneys, and Sheffields of their time, and wonder by what infatuation or caprice they could be raised to notice.
It cannot, however, be denied, that many have sunk into oblivion, whom it were unjust to number with this despicable class. Various kinds of literary fame seem destined to various measures of duration. Some spread into exuberance with a very speedy growth, but soon wither and decay; some rise more slowly, but last long. Parnassus has its flowers of transient fragrance as well as its oaks of towering height, and its laurels of eternal verdure.
The Rambler, Number 106, 23 Mar 1751. In W. J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (eds.), The Rambler (1969), Vol. 2, 200-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Art (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Authority (99)  |  Break (109)  |  Breath (61)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Call (781)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decree (9)  |  Delight (111)  |  Destined (42)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Faction (4)  |  Fame (51)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Genius (301)  |  Growth (200)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Known (453)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Library (53)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Measure (241)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Oak (16)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Performance (51)  |  Period (200)  |  Perpetuity (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Produced (187)  |  Remember (189)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Side (236)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spread (86)  |  Statue (17)  |  Striking (48)  |  Time (1911)  |  Towering (11)  |  Transient (13)  |  Vain (86)  |  Various (205)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wit (61)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

Non-standard analysis frequently simplifies substantially the proofs, not only of elementary theorems, but also of deep results. This is true, e.g., also for the proof of the existence of invariant subspaces for compact operators, disregarding the improvement of the result; and it is true in an even higher degree in other cases. This state of affairs should prevent a rather common misinterpretation of non-standard analysis, namely the idea that it is some kind of extravagance or fad of mathematical logicians. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Rather, there are good reasons to believe that non-standard analysis, in some version or other, will be the analysis of the future.
In 'Remark on Non-standard Analysis' (1974), in S. Feferman (ed.), Kurt Gödel Collected Works: Publications 1938-1974 (1990), Vol. 2, 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Common (447)  |  Compact (13)  |  Deep (241)  |  Degree (277)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fad (10)  |  Farther (51)  |  Future (467)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Invariant (10)  |  Logician (18)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  State (505)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)

Now I must take you to a very interesting part of our subject—to the relation between the combustion of a candle and that living kind of combustion which goes on within us. In every one of us there is a living process of combustion going on very similar to that of a candle, and I must try to make that plain to you. For it is not merely true in a poetical sense—the relation of the life of man to a taper; and if you will follow, I think I can make this clear.
A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861), 155-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Candle (32)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Follow (389)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Process (439)  |  Sense (785)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  Try (296)  |  Will (2350)

Now it is a well-known principle of zoological evolution that an isolated region, if large and sufficiently varied in its topography, soil, climate and vegetation, will give rise to a diversified fauna according to the law of adaptive radiation from primitive and central types. Branches will spring off in all directions to take advantage of every possible opportunity of securing food. The modifications which animals undergo in this adaptive radiation are largely of mechanical nature, they are limited in number and kind by hereditary, stirp or germinal influences, and thus result in the independent evolution of similar types in widely-separated regions under the law of parallelism or homoplasy. This law causes the independent origin not only of similar genera but of similar families and even of our similar orders. Nature thus repeats herself upon a vast scale, but the similarity is never complete and exact.
'The Geological and Faunal Relations of Europe and America during the Tertiary Period and the Theory of the Successive Invasions of an African Fauna', Science (1900), 11, 563-64.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Animal (651)  |  Branch (155)  |  Cause (561)  |  Central (81)  |  Climate (102)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Direction (185)  |  Diversification (2)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Family (101)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Food (213)  |  Genus (27)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Independence (37)  |  Influence (231)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Parallelism (2)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principle (530)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Region (40)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spring (140)  |  Type (171)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zoology (38)

Now this supreme wisdom, united to goodness that is no less infinite, cannot but have chosen the best. For as a lesser evil is a kind of good, even so a lesser good is a kind of evil if it stands in the way of a greater good; and the would be something to correct in the actions of God if it were possible to the better. As in mathematics, when there is no maximum nor minimum, in short nothing distinguished, everything is done equally, or when that is not nothing at all is done: so it may be said likewise in respect of perfect wisdom, which is no less orderly than mathematics, that if there were not the best (optimum) among all possible worlds, God would not have produced any.
Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God and Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil (1710), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evil (122)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Greater (288)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maximum (16)  |  Minimum (13)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Possible (560)  |  Produced (187)  |  Respect (212)  |  Short (200)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (284)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)

Now, at Suiattle Pass, Brower was still talking about butterflies. He said he had raised them from time to time and had often watched them emerge from the chrysalis—first a crack in the case, then a feeler, and in an hour a butterfly. He said he had felt that he wanted to help, to speed them through the long and awkward procedure; and he had once tried. The butterflies came out with extended abdomens, and their wings were balled together like miniature clenched fists. Nothing happened. They sat there until they died. ‘I have never gotten over that,’ he said. ‘That kind of information is all over in the country, but it’s not in town.”
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abdomen (6)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Ball (64)  |  Brower (2)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Case (102)  |  Clench (3)  |  Country (269)  |  Crack (15)  |  Die (94)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeler (3)  |  First (1302)  |  Fist (3)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Help (116)  |  Hour (192)  |  Information (173)  |  Long (778)  |  Miniature (7)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Often (109)  |  Pass (241)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Raise (38)  |  Say (989)  |  Sit (51)  |  Speed (66)  |  Still (614)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Town (30)  |  Try (296)  |  Want (504)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wing (79)

Of the Passive Principle, and Material Cause of the Small Pox ... Nature, in the first compounding and forming of us, hath laid into the Substance and Constitution of each something equivalent to Ovula, of various distinct Kinds, productive of all the contagious, venomous Fevers, we can possibly have as long as we live.
Exanthematologia: Or, An Attempt to Give a Rational Account of Eruptive Fevers, Especially of the Measles and SmallPox (1730), Part II, 'Of the Small-Pox', 175. In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: Country Physician and Pioneer Exponent of Specificness in Infection and Immunity', read to the Society (8 Nov 1921), published in Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 329, or in reprint form, p. 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Forming (42)  |  Germ (54)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Principle (530)  |  Productive (37)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Something (718)  |  Substance (253)  |  Various (205)

On consideration, it is not surprising that Darwin's finches should recognize their own kind primarily by beak characters. The beak is the only prominent specific distinction, and it features conspicuously both in attacking behaviour, when the birds face each other and grip beaks, and also in courtship, when food is passed from the beak of the male to the beak of the female. Hence though the beak differences are primarily correlated with differences in food, secondarily they serve as specific recognition marks, and the birds have evolved behaviour patterns to this end.
Darwin's Finches (1947), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Beak (5)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinction (72)  |  End (603)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Face (214)  |  Female (50)  |  Finch (4)  |  Food (213)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Specific (98)

On entering his [John James Audubon] room, I was astonished and delighted to find that it was turned into a museum. The walls were festooned with all kinds of birds’ eggs, carefully blown out and strung on a thread. The chimney-piece was covered with stuffed squirrels, raccoons, and opossums; and the shelves around were likewise crowded with specimens, among which were fishes, frogs, snakes, lizards, and other reptiles. Besides these stuffed varieties, many paintings were arrayed on the walls, chiefly of birds.
In Richard Rhodes, John James Audubon: The Making of an American (2004), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  John James Audubon (9)  |  Bird (163)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Delight (111)  |  Egg (71)  |  Festoon (3)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fish (130)  |  Frog (44)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Museum (40)  |  Opossum (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painting (46)  |  Raccoon (2)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Room (42)  |  Shelf (8)  |  Snake (29)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Squirrel (11)  |  Thread (36)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wall (71)

On May 7, a few weeks after the accident at Three-Mile Island, I was in Washington. I was there to refute some of that propaganda that Ralph Nader, Jane Fonda and their kind are spewing to the news media in their attempt to frighten people away from nuclear power. I am 71 years old, and I was working 20 hours a day. The strain was too much. The next day, I suffered a heart attack. You might say that I was the only one whose health was affected by that reactor near Harrisburg. No, that would be wrong. It was not the reactor. It was Jane Fonda. Reactors are not dangerous.
From statement, published as a two-page advertisement, 'I Was the Only Victim of Three-Mile Island', placed by Dresser Industries in The Wall Street Journal (31 Jul 1979), U.S. Representative Larry McDonald entered the entire content of the ad, as Extensions of Remarks, into the Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Congress (18 Dec 1979), 36876. [Note: The Three Mile Island accident happened on 28 Mar 1979. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Age (509)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Fright (11)  |  Health (210)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heart Attack (2)  |  Hour (192)  |  Island (49)  |  Media (14)  |  Ralph Nader (3)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Next (238)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Power (16)  |  Old (499)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Reactor (3)  |  Refute (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Week (73)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

On the whole, I cannot help saying that it appears to me not a little extraordinary, that a theory so new, and of such importance, overturning every thing that was thought to be the best established in chemistry, should rest on so very narrow and precarious a foundation, the experiments adduced in support of it being not only ambiguous or explicable on either hypothesis, but exceedingly few. I think I have recited them all, and that on which the greatest stress is laid, viz. That of the formation of water from the decomposition of the two kinds of air, has not been sufficiently repeated. Indeed it required so difficult and expensive an apparatus, and so many precautions in the use of it, that the frequent repetition of the experiment cannot be expected; and in these circumstances the practised experimenter cannot help suspecting the accuracy of the result and consequently the certainty of the conclusion.
Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston (1796), 57-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Air (366)  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Establish (63)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Formation (100)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Little (717)  |  Narrow (85)  |  New (1273)  |  Precarious (6)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Required (108)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Stress (22)  |  Support (151)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
In 'Difference Engine No. 1', Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), Chap. 5, 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Figure (162)  |  Idea (881)  |  Machine (271)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Parliament (8)  |  Provoke (9)  |  Question (649)  |  Right (473)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

One day at Fenner's (the university cricket ground at Cambridge), just before the last war, G. H. Hardy and I were talking about Einstein. Hardy had met him several times, and I had recently returned from visiting him. Hardy was saying that in his lifetime there had only been two men in the world, in all the fields of human achievement, science, literature, politics, anything you like, who qualified for the Bradman class. For those not familiar with cricket, or with Hardy's personal idiom, I ought to mention that “the Bradman class” denoted the highest kind of excellence: it would include Shakespeare, Tolstoi, Newton, Archimedes, and maybe a dozen others. Well, said Hardy, there had only been two additions in his lifetime. One was Lenin and the other Einstein.
Variety of Men (1966), 87. First published in Commentary magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Addition (70)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Class (168)  |  Cricket (8)  |  Denote (6)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Field (378)  |  Ground (222)  |  G. H. Hardy (71)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idiom (5)  |  Include (93)  |  Last (425)  |  Vladimir Lenin (3)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mention (84)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Personal (75)  |  Politics (122)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Return (133)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Talking (76)  |  Time (1911)  |  Count Leo Tolstoy (18)  |  Two (936)  |  University (130)  |  Visit (27)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

One day at least in every week,
The sects of every kind
Their doctrines here are sure to seek,
And just as sure to find.
From Matter to Spirit, Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Poem (104)  |  Seek (218)  |  Week (73)

One has a feeling that one has a kind of home in this timeless community of human beings that strive for truth ... I have always believed that Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God the small group scattered all through time of intellectually and ethically valuable people.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Community (111)  |  Ethically (4)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  God (776)  |  Group (83)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Jesus (9)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Mean (810)  |  People (1031)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Small (489)  |  Strive (53)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Timeless (8)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)

One of my guiding principles is don’t do anything that other people are doing. Always do something a little different if you can. The concept is that if you do it a little differently there is a greater potential for reward than if you the same thing that other people are doing. I think that this kind of goal for one’s work, having obviously the maximum risk, would have the maximum reward no matter what the field may be.
In transcript of a video history interview with Seymour Cray by David K. Allison at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, (9 May 1995), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Field (378)  |  Goal (155)  |  Greater (288)  |  Guide (107)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Potential (75)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reward (72)  |  Risk (68)  |  Same (166)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Work (1402)

Our methods of communication with our fellow men take many forms. We share with other animals the ability to transmit information by such diverse means as the posture of our bodies, by the movements of our eyes, head, arms, and hands, and by our utterances of non-specific sounds. But we go far beyond any other species on earth in that we have evolved sophisticated forms of pictorial representation, elaborate spoken and written languages, ingenious methods of recording music and language on discs, on magnetic tape and in a variety of other kinds of code.
As quoted in epigraph before title page in John Wolfenden, Hermann Bondi, et al., The Languages of Science: A Survey of Techniques of Communication (1963), i.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Code (31)  |  Communication (101)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Form (976)  |  Hand (149)  |  Head (87)  |  Information (173)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Language (308)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Movement (162)  |  Music (133)  |  Other (2233)  |  Picture (148)  |  Posture (7)  |  Record (161)  |  Recording (13)  |  Representation (55)  |  Share (82)  |  Sophisticated (16)  |  Sound (187)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Spoken (3)  |  Tape (5)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Variety (138)  |  Written (6)

Out of the interaction of form and content in mathematics grows an acquaintance with methods which enable the student to produce independently within certain though moderate limits, and to extend his knowledge through his own reflection. The deepening of the consciousness of the intellectual powers connected with this kind of activity, and the gradual awakening of the feeling of intellectual self-reliance may well be considered as the most beautiful and highest result of mathematical training.
In 'Ueber Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung (1904), 374.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Activity (218)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Certain (557)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consider (428)  |  Content (75)  |  Enable (122)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (976)  |  Grow (247)  |  Independently (24)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Power (771)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Result (700)  |  Self (268)  |  Student (317)  |  Through (846)  |  Training (92)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Particular and contingent inventions in the solution of problems, which, though many times more concise than a general method would allow, yet, in my judgment, are less proper to instruct a learner, as acrostics, and such kind of artificial poetry, though never so excellent, would be but improper examples to instruct one that aims at Ovidean poetry.
In Letter to Collins (Macclesfield, 1670), Correspondence of Scientific Men (1841), Vol. 2, 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Allow (51)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Concise (9)  |  Contingent (12)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellent (29)  |  General (521)  |  Improper (3)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Invention (400)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Learner (10)  |  Less (105)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Publius Ovid (15)  |  Particular (80)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proper (150)  |  Solution (282)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Time (1911)

People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 13
Science quotes on:  |  Constantly (27)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lack (127)  |  People (1031)  |  Something (718)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Want (504)

Placed in a universe of constant change, on an isolated globe surrounded by distant celestial objects on all sides, subjected to influences of various kinds, it is a sublime occupation to measure the earth and weigh the planets, to predict their changes, and even to discover the materials of which they are composed; to investigate the causes of the tempest and volcano; to bring the lightning from the clouds; to submit it to experiment by which it shall reveal its character; and to estimate the size and weight of those invisible atoms which constitute the universe of things.
In Letter (3 Feb 1873) to the Committee of Arrangements, in Proceedings of the Farewell Banquet to Professor Tyndall (4 Feb 1873), 19. Reprinted as 'On the Importance of the Cultivation of Science', The Popular Science Monthly (1873), Vol. 2, 645.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Cause (561)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Composition (86)  |  Constant (148)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Globe (51)  |  Influence (231)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Material (366)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Planet (402)  |  Predict (86)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Side (236)  |  Star (460)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tempest (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weight (140)

Plants are extraordinary. For instance ... if you pinch a leaf of a plant you set off electrical impulse. You can't touch a plant without setting off an electrical impulse ... There is no question that plants have all kinds of sensitivities. They do a lot of responding to an environment. They can do almost anything you can think of.
Quoted in George Ritzer and Barry Smart, Handbook of Social Theory, 532.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Lot (151)  |  Pinch (6)  |  Plant (320)  |  Question (649)  |  Reflex (14)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Think (1122)  |  Touch (146)

Plasma seems to have the kinds of properties one would like for life. It’s somewhat like liquid water—unpredictable and thus able to behave in an enormously complex fashion. It could probably carry as much information as DNA does. It has at least the potential for organizing itself in interesting ways.
Quoted in T.A. Heppenheimer, 'After The Sun Dies', Omni (1986), 8, No. 11, 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Carry (130)  |  Complex (202)  |  DNA (81)  |  Information (173)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Plasma (8)  |  Potential (75)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)

Positivism is a theory of knowledge according to which the only kind of sound knowledge available to human kind is that if science grounded in observation.
(1891). As given as an epigraph in M.J. Vinod and Meena Deshpande, Contemporary Political Theory (2013), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Available (80)  |  Ground (222)  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Observation (593)  |  Positivism (3)  |  Sound (187)  |  Theory (1015)

Producing food for 6.2 billion people, adding a population of 80 million more a year, is not simple. We better develop an ever improved science and technology, including the new biotechnology, to produce the food that’s needed for the world today. In response to the fraction of the world population that could be fed if current farmland was convered to organic-only crops: “We are 6.6 billion people now. We can only feed 4 billion. I don’t see 2 billion volunteers to disappear.” In response to extreme critics: “These are utopian people that live on Cloud 9 and come into the third world and cause all kinds of confusion and negative impacts on the developing countries.”
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Better (493)  |  Billion (104)  |  Biotechnology (6)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Country (269)  |  Critic (21)  |  Crop (26)  |  Current (122)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Farmland (2)  |  Feed (31)  |  Food (213)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Impact (45)  |  Improve (64)  |  Include (93)  |  Live (650)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (320)  |  Negative (66)  |  New (1273)  |  Organic (161)  |  People (1031)  |  Population (115)  |  Produce (117)  |  Response (56)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Technology (281)  |  Third (17)  |  Today (321)  |  Utopian (3)  |  Volunteer (7)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Quantitative work shows clearly that natural selection is a reality, and that, among other things, it selects Mendelian genes, which are known to be distributed at random through wild populations, and to follow the laws of chance in their distribution to offspring. In other words, they are an agency producing variation of the kind which Darwin postulated as the raw material on which selection acts.
'Natural Selection', Nature, 1929, 124, 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gene (105)  |  Genes (2)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Population (115)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Random (42)  |  Raw (28)  |  Reality (274)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Show (353)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Variation (93)  |  Wild (96)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

Quantum mechanics and relativity, taken together, are extraordinarily restrictive, and they therefore provide us with a great logical machine. We can explore with our minds any number of possible universes consisting of all kinds of mythical particles and interactions, but all except a very few can be rejected on a priori grounds because they are not simultaneously consistent with special relativity and quantum mechanics. Hopefully in the end we will find that only one theory is consistent with both and that theory will determine the nature of our particular universe.
As quoted in John D. Barrow, The Universe that Discovered Itself (2000), 360.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Consist (223)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Determine (152)  |  End (603)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Find (1014)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Logical (57)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mythical (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Particle (200)  |  Particular (80)  |  Possible (560)  |  Provide (79)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Restrictive (4)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Relativity (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)

Quite distinct from the theoretical question of the manner in which mathematics will rescue itself from the perils to which it is exposed by its own prolific nature is the practical problem of finding means of rendering available for the student the results which have been already accumulated, and making it possible for the learner to obtain some idea of the present state of the various departments of mathematics. … The great mass of mathematical literature will be always contained in Journals and Transactions, but there is no reason why it should not be rendered far more useful and accessible than at present by means of treatises or higher text-books. The whole science suffers from want of avenues of approach, and many beautiful branches of mathematics are regarded as difficult and technical merely because they are not easily accessible. … I feel very strongly that any introduction to a new subject written by a competent person confers a real benefit on the whole science. The number of excellent text-books of an elementary kind that are published in this country makes it all the more to be regretted that we have so few that are intended for the advanced student. As an example of the higher kind of text-book, the want of which is so badly felt in many subjects, I may mention the second part of Prof. Chrystal’s Algebra published last year, which in a small compass gives a great mass of valuable and fundamental knowledge that has hitherto been beyond the reach of an ordinary student, though in reality lying so close at hand. I may add that in any treatise or higher text-book it is always desirable that references to the original memoirs should be given, and, if possible, short historic notices also. I am sure that no subject loses more than mathematics by any attempt to dissociate it from its history.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A (1890), Nature, 42, 466.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Add (42)  |  Advance (298)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Already (226)  |  Approach (112)  |  At Hand (7)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Available (80)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Badly (32)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  Branch (155)  |  George Chrystal (8)  |  Close (77)  |  Compass (37)  |  Competent (20)  |  Confer (11)  |  Contain (68)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissociate (2)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Far (158)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Historic (7)  |  History (716)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intend (18)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Journal (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Learner (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Literature (116)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lying (55)  |  Making (300)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mention (84)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  Part (235)  |  Peril (9)  |  Person (366)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prof (2)  |  Prolific (5)  |  Publish (42)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Real (159)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reference (33)  |  Regard (312)  |  Regret (31)  |  Render (96)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Second (66)  |  Short (200)  |  Small (489)  |  State (505)  |  Strongly (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Technical (53)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Various (205)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of “touching” a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
From 'Charles II', Twelve Types (1906), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Brute (30)  |  Brute Force (4)  |  Do (1905)  |  Force (497)  |  Head (87)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hit (20)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Polite (9)  |  Reason (766)  |  Speak (240)  |  Touching (16)  |  Violence (37)

Reductionism is a dirty word, and a kind of 'holistier than thou' self-righteousness has become fashionable.
The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Selection (1982), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Reductionism (8)  |  Righteousness (6)  |  Self (268)  |  Word (650)

Religious creeds are a great obstacle to any full sympathy between the outlook of the scientist and the outlook which religion is so often supposed to require … The spirit of seeking which animates us refuses to regard any kind of creed as its goal. It would be a shock to come across a university where it was the practice of the students to recite adherence to Newton's laws of motion, to Maxwell's equations and to the electromagnetic theory of light. We should not deplore it the less if our own pet theory happened to be included, or if the list were brought up to date every few years. We should say that the students cannot possibly realise the intention of scientific training if they are taught to look on these results as things to be recited and subscribed to. Science may fall short of its ideal, and although the peril scarcely takes this extreme form, it is not always easy, particularly in popular science, to maintain our stand against creed and dogma.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929), Science and the Unseen World (1929), 54-56.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Creed (28)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Easy (213)  |  Education (423)  |  Electromagnetic Theory (5)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Equation (138)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fall (243)  |  Form (976)  |  Goal (155)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Intention (46)  |  Law (913)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Motion (320)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Practice (212)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Shock (38)  |  Short (200)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Student (317)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Training (92)  |  University (130)  |  Year (963)

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.
In Life’s Instructions for Wisdom, Success, and Happiness (2000),
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Flower (112)  |  Garden (64)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Remember (189)

Reproduction anywhere in the world of photographic pictures and all kinds of drawings or records.
One of 12 visionary goals listed in Brochure (1900) on his 'World System of Wireless Transmission', In Arthur J. Beckhard, Electrical Genius Nikola Tesla (1959), 176. Webmaster note: Tesla was years ahead of his time predicting possibilities of radio.
Science quotes on:  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Photographic (2)  |  Picture (148)  |  Radio (60)  |  Record (161)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  World (1850)

Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Justice (40)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Run (158)  |  Weed (19)  |  Wild (96)

Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.
[Aristotle describing his distillation experiment.]
Aristotle
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster. Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).
Science quotes on:  |  Admixture (2)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (821)  |  Brine (3)  |  Certain (557)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Desalination (4)  |  Determine (152)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Evaporation (7)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  Know (1538)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Salt (48)  |  Solution (282)  |  State (505)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vapour (16)  |  Water (503)  |  Wine (39)

Science and art are only too often a superior kind of dope, possessing this advantage over booze and morphia: that they can be indulged in with a good conscience and with the conviction that, in the process of indulging, one is leading the “higher life.”
Ends and Means (1937), 320. In Collected Essays (1959), 369.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Art (680)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Dope (3)  |  Good (906)  |  Indulge (15)  |  Life (1870)  |  Process (439)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Superior (88)

Science demands great linguistic austerity and discipline, and the canons of good style in scientific writing are different from those in other kinds of literature.
In Biology and Language: An Introduction to the Methodology of the (1952), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Austerity (3)  |  Canon (3)  |  Demand (131)  |  Different (595)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Linguistic (3)  |  Literature (116)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Style (24)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying, everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous modern development of power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff work to apply them; that the difference between a mob and an army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great number of laborers may be increased by military discipline.
'The Need for Organization in Scientific Research', in Bulletin of the National Research Council: The National Importance of Scientific and Industrial Research (Oct 1919), Col 1, Part 1, No. 1, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Army (35)  |  Classification (102)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effort (243)  |  Everything (489)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Large (398)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Military (45)  |  Mob (10)  |  Modern (402)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Work (1402)

Science in England, in America, is jealous of theory, hates the name of love and moral purpose. There's revenge for this humanity. What manner of man does science make? The boy is not attracted. He says, I do not wish to be such a kind of man as my professor is.
In essay. 'Beauty', collected in The Conduct of Life (1860), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Attract (25)  |  Boy (100)  |  Do (1905)  |  England (43)  |  Hate (68)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Jealous (3)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manner (62)  |  Moral (203)  |  Name (359)  |  Professor (133)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Say (989)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Wish (216)

Science is but the exchange of ignorance for that which is another kind of ignorance.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Exchange (38)  |  Ignorance (254)

Science is rooted in the will to truth. With the will to truth it stands or falls. Lower the standard even slightly and science becomes diseased at the core. Not only science, but man. The will to truth, pure and unadulterated, is among the essential conditions of his existence; if the standard is compromised he easily becomes a kind of tragic caricature of himself.
Opening statement in 'On Truth', Social Research (May 1934), 1, No. 2, 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Caricature (6)  |  Condition (362)  |  Core (20)  |  Disease (340)  |  Essential (210)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fall (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lower (11)  |  Man (2252)  |  Pure (299)  |  Root (121)  |  Stand (284)  |  Standard (64)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)

Science is the tool of the Western mind and with it more doors can be opened than with bare hands. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is.
Carl Jung
In Jung’s 'Commentary' as translated for the English edition of Richard Wilhelm, The Secret Of The Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (1999, 2013), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Bare (33)  |  Door (94)  |  Insight (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Open (277)  |  Tool (129)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Western (45)

Science is, perhaps, some kind of cosmic apple juice from the Garden of Eden. Those of it are doomed to carry the burden of original sin.
As quoted in Norman C. Harris, Updating Occupational Education (1973), 105. Also in News Summaries (9 Apr 1971), as cited in Bill Swainson (ed.),The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Apple (46)  |  Burden (30)  |  Carry (130)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Doom (34)  |  Eden (2)  |  Garden (64)  |  Juice (7)  |  Original (61)  |  Sin (45)

Science only offers three kinds of interest: 1. Technical applications. 2. A game of chess. 3. A road to God. (Attractions are added to the game of chess in the shape of competitions, prizes, and medals.)
In Gravity and Grace, (1947, 1952), 186-187.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Chess (27)  |  Competition (45)  |  Game (104)  |  God (776)  |  Interest (416)  |  Medal (4)  |  Offer (142)  |  Prize (13)  |  Road (71)  |  Science And God (5)  |  Technology (281)

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.
[Answer to question: You've said there is no reason to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper. Is our existence all down to luck?]
'Stephen Hawking: "There is no heaven; it's a fairy story"', interview in newspaper The Guardian (15 May 2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Chance (244)  |  Creation (350)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Down (455)  |  Existence (481)  |  God (776)  |  Light (635)  |  Luck (44)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Spontaneity (7)  |  Universe (900)  |  Which (2)  |  Will (2350)

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)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Habit (174)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  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 development depends in part on a process of non-incremental or revolutionary change. Some revolutions are large, like those associated with the names of Copernicus, Newton, or Darwin, but most are much smaller, like the discovery of oxygen or the planet Uranus. The usual prelude to changes of this sort is, I believed, the awareness of anomaly, of an occurrence or set of occurrences that does not fit existing ways of ordering phenomena. The changes that result therefore require 'putting on a different kind of thinking-cap', one that renders the anomalous lawlike but that, in the process, also transforms the order exhibited by some other phenomena, previously unproblematic.
The Essential Tension (1977), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Change (639)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fit (139)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Set (400)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Transform (74)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Way (1214)

Scientific method, although in its more refined forms it may seem complicated, is in essence remarkably simply. It consists in observing such facts as will enable the observer to discover general laws governing facts of the kind in question. The two stages, first of observation, and second of inference to a law, are both essential, and each is susceptible of almost indefinite refinement. (1931)
In The Scientific Outlook (1931, 2009), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consist (223)  |  Discover (571)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essence (85)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Governing (20)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Inference (45)  |  Law (913)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Question (649)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Stage (152)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

Scientific reasoning is a kind of dialogue between the possible and the actual, between what might be and what is in fact the case.
Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought (1969), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Dialogue (10)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (955)

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
In Science Past, Science Future (1975), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Education (423)  |  Self (268)

Siphonophores do not convey the message–a favorite theme of unthinking romanticism–that nature is but one gigantic whole, all its parts intimately connected and interacting in some higher, ineffable harmony. Nature revels in boundaries and distinctions; we inhabit a universe of structure. But since our universe of structure has evolved historically, it must present us with fuzzy boundaries, where one kind of thing grades into another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (55)  |  Connect (126)  |  Convey (17)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fuzzy (5)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Grade (12)  |  Harmony (105)  |  High (370)  |  Historically (3)  |  Ineffable (4)  |  Inhabit (18)  |  Interact (8)  |  Intimately (4)  |  Message (53)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Part (235)  |  Present (630)  |  Revel (6)  |  Romanticism (5)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unthinking (3)  |  Whole (756)

Sir, the reason is very plain; knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1820), Vol. 1, 418.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Plain (34)  |  Reason (766)  |  Subject (543)  |  Two (936)

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds.
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Living (492)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Monster (33)  |  Move (223)  |  Sea (326)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Water (503)

So many people today–and even professional scientists–seem to me like someone who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest . A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is–in my opinion–the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.
In unpublished Letter (7 Dec 1944) to R.A. Thornton, Einstein Archive, EA 6-574, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. As quoted and cited in Don A. Howard, 'Albert Einstein as a Philosopher of Science', Physics Today (Dec 2006), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Artisan (9)  |  Background (44)  |  Create (245)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Forest (161)  |  Generation (256)  |  Give (208)  |  Historic (7)  |  Independence (37)  |  Insight (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mere (86)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opinion (291)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Professional (77)  |  Real (159)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeker (8)  |  Seem (150)  |  Someone (24)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Tree (269)  |  Truth (1109)

Society is itself a kind of organism, an enormously powerful one, but unfortunately not a very wise one.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 301.
Science quotes on:  |  Enormously (4)  |  Organism (231)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Society (350)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Wise (143)

Specialized meaninglessness has come to be regarded, in certain circles, as a kind of hallmark of true science.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Circle (117)  |  Hallmark (6)  |  Regard (312)  |  Specialize (4)  |  True Science (25)

Spherical space is not very easy to imagine. We have to think of the properties of the surface of a sphere—the two-dimensional case—and try to conceive something similar applied to three-dimensional space. Stationing ourselves at a point let us draw a series of spheres of successively greater radii. The surface of a sphere of radius r should be proportional to r2; but in spherical space the areas of the more distant spheres begin to fall below the proper proportion. There is not so much room out there as we expected to find. Ultimately we reach a sphere of biggest possible area, and beyond it the areas begin to decrease. The last sphere of all shrinks to a point—our antipodes. Is there nothing beyond this? Is there a kind of boundary there? There is nothing beyond and yet there is no boundary. On the earth’s surface there is nothing beyond our own antipodes but there is no boundary there
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 158-159.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Draw (140)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greater (288)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Last (425)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reach (286)  |  Series (153)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1122)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimately (56)

Suppose [an] imaginary physicist, the student of Niels Bohr, is shown an experiment in which a virus particle enters a bacterial cell and 20 minutes later the bacterial cell is lysed and 100 virus particles are liberated. He will say: “How come, one particle has become 100 particles of the same kind in 20 minutes? That is very interesting. Let us find out how it happens! How does the particle get in to the bacterium? How does it multiply? Does it multiply like a bacterium, growing and dividing, or does it multiply by an entirely different mechanism ? Does it have to be inside the bacterium to do this multiplying, or can we squash the bacterium and have the multiplication go on as before? Is this multiplying a trick of organic chemistry which the organic chemists have not yet discovered ? Let us find out. This is so simple a phenomenon that the answers cannot be hard to find. In a few months we will know. All we have to do is to study how conditions will influence the multiplication. We will do a few experiments at different temperatures, in different media, with different viruses, and we will know. Perhaps we may have to break into the bacteria at intermediate stages between infection and lysis. Anyhow, the experiments only take a few hours each, so the whole problem can not take long to solve.”
[Eight years later] he has not got anywhere in solving the problem he set out to solve. But [he may say to you] “Well, I made a slight mistake. I could not do it in a few months. Perhaps it will take a few decades, and perhaps it will take the help of a few dozen other people. But listen to what I have found, perhaps you will be interested to join me.”
From 'Experiments with Bacterial Viruses (Bacteriophages)', Harvey Lecture (1946), 41, 161-162. As cited in Robert Olby, The Path of the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA (1974, 1994), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Condition (362)  |  Decade (66)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Divide (77)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hour (192)  |  Infection (27)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Know (1538)  |  Listen (81)  |  Long (778)  |  Lysis (4)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Media (14)  |  Minute (129)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Month (91)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Problem (731)  |  Say (989)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solve (145)  |  Squash (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Trick (36)  |  Virus (32)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Surrealists … are not exactly artists and we are not exactly men of science; … we are carnivorous fish … swimming between two kinds of water, the cold water of art and the warm water of science.
In Conquest of the Irrational (1935), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Carnivorous (7)  |  Cold (115)  |  Fish (130)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (74)  |  Water (503)

Take away these instinctive dispositions with their powerful impulses, and the organism would become incapable of activity of any kind; it would lie inert and motionless like a wonderful clockwork whose mainspring had been removed or a steam-engine whose fires had been withdrawn.
An Introduction to Social Psychology (1928), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Become (821)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Engine (99)  |  Fire (203)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Inert (14)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mainspring (2)  |  Organism (231)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Steam (81)  |  Wonderful (155)

Taking … the mathematical faculty, probably fewer than one in a hundred really possess it, the great bulk of the population having no natural ability for the study, or feeling the slightest interest in it*. And if we attempt to measure the amount of variation in the faculty itself between a first-class mathematician and the ordinary run of people who find any kind of calculation confusing and altogether devoid of interest, it is probable that the former could not be estimated at less than a hundred times the latter, and perhaps a thousand times would more nearly measure the difference between them.
[* This is the estimate furnished me by two mathematical masters in one of our great public schools of the proportion of boys who have any special taste or capacity for mathematical studies. Many more, of course, can be drilled into a fair knowledge of elementary mathematics, but only this small proportion possess the natural faculty which renders it possible for them ever to rank high as mathematicians, to take any pleasure in it, or to do any original mathematical work.]
In Darwinism, chap. 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Altogether (9)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Boy (100)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Class (168)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Course (413)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drill (12)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fair (16)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fewer (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First-Class (2)  |  Former (138)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latter (21)  |  Less (105)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  People (1031)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Population (115)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Probable (24)  |  Probably (50)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Public School (4)  |  Rank (69)  |  Really (77)  |  Render (96)  |  Run (158)  |  School (227)  |  Slight (32)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Study (701)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Work (1402)

Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
Bible
Reference to an early use of metals, from Ezekiel 27:12, in Holy Bible (1769).
Science quotes on:  |  Iron (99)  |  Lead (391)  |  Merchant (7)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Reason (766)  |  Riches (14)  |  Silver (49)  |  Tin (18)

That no generally applicable law of the formulation and development of hybrids has yet been successfully formulated can hardly astonish anyone who is acquainted with the extent of the task and who can appreciate the difficulties with which experiments of this kind have to contend.
'Experiments on Plant Hybrids' (1865). In Curt Stern and Eva R. Sherwood (eds.), The Origin of Genetics: A Mendel Source Book (1966), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extent (142)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Law (913)  |  Success (327)  |  Task (152)

That no real Species of Living Creatures is so utterly extinct, as to be lost entirely out of the World, since it was first Created, is the Opinion of many Naturalists; and 'tis grounded on so good a Principle of Providence taking Care in general of all its Animal Productions, that it deserves our Assent. However great Vicissitudes may be observed to attend the Works of Nature, as well as Humane Affairs; so that some entire Species of Animals, which have been formerly Common, nay even numerous in certain Countries; have, in Process of time, been so perfectly soft, as to become there utterly unknown; tho' at the same time it cannot be denyed, but the kind has been carefully preserved in some other part of the World.
'A Discourse concerning the Large Horns frequently found under Ground in Ireland, Concluding from them that the great American Deer, call'd a Moose, was formerly common in that Island: With Remarks on some other things Natural to that Country', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1697), 19, 489.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Assent (12)  |  Attend (67)  |  Become (821)  |  Care (203)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Creature (242)  |  Deny (71)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Extinction (80)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Horn (18)  |  Humane (19)  |  Ireland (8)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Moose (4)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Observed (149)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Providence (19)  |  Soft (30)  |  Species (435)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vicissitude (6)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

That the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry.
Address to Section L, Education, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Boston (1909), 'Science as Subject-Matter and as Method'. Published in Science (28 Jan 1910), N.S. Vol. 31, No. 787, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Belief (615)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Distaste (3)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Expect (203)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Improve (64)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lively (17)  |  Majority (68)  |  Marked (55)  |  Method (531)  |  Reach (286)  |  Required (108)  |  School (227)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Substantiate (4)  |  Type (171)  |  Way (1214)

The ability of the genes to vary and, when they vary (mutate), to reproduce themselves in their new form, confers on these cell elements, as Muller has so convincingly pointed out, the properties of the building blocks required by the process of evolution. Thus, the cell, robbed of its noblest prerogative, was no longer the ultimate unit of life. This title was now conferred on the genes, subcellular elements, of which the cell nucleus contained many thousands and, more precisely, like Noah’s ark, two of each kind.
Nucleo-cytoplasmic Relations in Micro-Organisms: Their Bearing on Cell Heredity and Differentiation (1953), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Building (158)  |  Building Block (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cell Nucleus (2)  |  Element (322)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Gene (105)  |  Life (1870)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Noah�s Ark (2)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Point (584)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Process (439)  |  Required (108)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimate (152)

The advance from the simple to the complex, through a process of successive differentiations, is seen alike in the earliest changes of the Universe to which we can reason our way back, and in the earliest changes which we can inductively establish; it is seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth; it is seen in the unfolding of every single organism on its surface, and in the multiplication of kinds of organisms; it is seen in the evolution of Humanity, whether contemplated in the civilized individual, or in the aggregate of races; it is seen in the evolution of Society in respect alike of its political, its religious, and its economical organization; and it is seen in the evolution of all those endless concrete and abstract products of human activity which constitute the environment of our daily life. From the remotest past which Science can fathom, up to the novelties of yesterday, that in which Progress essentially consists, is the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous.
Progress: Its Law and Cause (1857), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Activity (218)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Aggregation (6)  |  Alike (60)  |  Back (395)  |  Change (639)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Climate (102)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Early (196)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Economy (59)  |  Endless (60)  |  Environment (239)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Geology (240)  |  Heterogeneity (4)  |  Homogeneity (9)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Individual (420)  |  Induction (81)  |  Life (1870)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Progress (492)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remoteness (9)  |  Respect (212)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Society (350)  |  Succession (80)  |  Successive (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Yesterday (37)

The Almighty lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants of this globe that we call ours, “I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence to all, to be kind to all, to be kind to each other.”
In The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (27 Jan O.S. 1794), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Art (680)  |  Call (781)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Display (59)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Globe (51)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Made (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Munificence (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Provide (79)  |  Render (96)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Star (460)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)

The alternative to the Big Bang is not, in my opinion, the steady state; it is instead the more general theory of continuous creation. Continuous creation can occur in bursts and episodes. These mini-bangs can produce all the wonderful element-building that Fred Hoyle discovered and contributed to cosmology. This kind of element and galaxy formation can take place within an unbounded, non-expanding universe. It will also satisfy precisely the Friedmann solutions of general relativity. It can account very well for all the facts the Big Bang explains—and also for those devastating, contradictory observations which the Big Bang must, at all costs, pretend are not there
In 'Letters: Wrangling Over the Bang', Science News (27 Jul 1991), 140, No. 4, 51. Also quoted in Roy C. Martin, Astronomy on Trial: A Devastating and Complete Repudiation of the Big Bang Fiasco (1999), Appendix I, 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Bang (29)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Building (158)  |  Burst (41)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Continuous Creation (2)  |  Contradictory (8)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Cost (94)  |  Creation (350)  |  Devastating (6)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Episode (5)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Formation (100)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Sir Fred Hoyle (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Produce (117)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  State (505)  |  Steady (45)  |  Steady-State (7)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)

The architect does not demand things which cannot be found or made ready without great expense. For example: it is not everywhere that there is plenty of pitsand, rubble, fir, clear fir, and marble… Where there is no pitsand, we must use the kinds washed up by rivers or by the sea… and other problems we must solve in similar ways.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 1, Chap 2, Sec. 8. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Architect (32)  |  Demand (131)  |  Economy (59)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Expense (21)  |  Fir (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Marble (21)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  River (140)  |  Sand (63)  |  Sea (326)  |  Solve (145)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)  |  Wash (23)  |  Way (1214)

The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 1, Chap 1, Sec. 1. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Architect (32)  |  Art (680)  |  Branch (155)  |  Child (333)  |  Education (423)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practice (212)  |  Study (701)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Various (205)  |  Work (1402)

The art of drawing conclusions from experiments and observations consists in evaluating probabilities and in estimating whether they are sufficiently great or numerous enough to constitute proofs. This kind of calculation is more complicated and more difficult than it is commonly thought to be. … It is above all in medicine that the difficulty of evaluating the probabilities is greater.
Translated by I.M.L. Donaldson, from an undated document collected in Mémoires de Lavoisier, Oeuvres (1865), Tome III, 509. From the original French, “L’art de conclure d’après des expériences et des observations consiste à évaluer des probabilités, et à estimer si elles sont assez grandes ou assez multipliées pour constituer des preuves. Ce genre de calcul est plus compliqué et plus difficile qu’on ne pense. … C’est surtout en médecine que la difficulté d’évaluer les probabilités est plus grande.”
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Enough (341)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Evaluate (7)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Observation (593)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proof (304)  |  Sufficiently (9)

The assumptions of population thinking are diametrically opposed to those of the typologist. The populationist stresses the uniqueness of everything in the organic world. What is true for the human species,–that no two individuals are alike, is equally true for all other species of animals and plants ... All organisms and organic phenomena are composed of unique features and can be described collectively only in statistical terms. Individuals, or any kind of organic entities, form populations of which we can determine the arithmetic mean and the statistics of variation. Averages are merely statistical abstractions, only the individuals of which the populations are composed have reality. The ultimate conclusions of the population thinker and of the typologist are precisely the opposite. For the typologist, the type (eidos) is real and the variation. an illusion, while for the populationist the type (average) is an abstraction and only the variation is real. No two ways of looking at nature could be more different.
Darwin and the Evolutionary Theory in Biology (1959), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Average (89)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Description (89)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everything (489)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Species (11)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Individual (420)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mean (810)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Population (115)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Reality (274)  |  Species (435)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unique (72)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Variation (93)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

The beauty of natural history programmes is that you can be straightforward and fascinate the 7s and the 70s. If you just present it as it is, all kinds of people of all ages and all educational backgrounds love it. That’s the joy of natural history—it’s a godsend for blokes like me.
In Rowan Hooper, 'One Minute With… David Attenborough', New Scientist (2 Feb 2013), 217, No. 2902, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Background (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Education (423)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  History (716)  |  Joy (117)  |  Love (328)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  People (1031)  |  Present (630)  |  Program (57)  |  Straightforward (10)

The best class of scientific mind is the same as the best class of business mind. The great desideratum in either case is to know how much evidence is enough to warrant action. It is as unbusiness-like to want too much evidence before buying or selling as to be content with too little. The same kind of qualities are wanted in either case. The difference is that if the business man makes a mistake, he commonly has to suffer for it, whereas it is rarely that scientific blundering, so long as it is confined to theory, entails loss on the blunderer. On the contrary it very often brings him fame, money and a pension. Hence the business man, if he is a good one, will take greater care not to overdo or underdo things than the scientific man can reasonably be expected to take.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Best (467)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Class (168)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  Difference (355)  |  Enough (341)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fame (51)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Money (178)  |  Overdo (2)  |  Pension (2)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rare (94)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Selling (6)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (504)  |  Warrant (8)  |  Will (2350)

The chemical differences among various species and genera of animals and plants are certainly as significant for the history of their origins as the differences in form. If we could define clearly the differences in molecular constitution and functions of different kinds of organisms, there would be possible a more illuminating and deeper understanding of question of the evolutionary reactions of organisms than could ever be expected from morphological considerations.
'Uber das Vorkommen von Haemoglobin in den Muskeln der Mollusken und die Verbreitung desselben in den lebenden Organismen', Pflügers Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere, 1871, 4, 318-9. Trans. Joseph S. Fruton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 270.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Define (53)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expect (203)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Genus (27)  |  History (716)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (649)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Significance (114)  |  Significant (78)  |  Species (435)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Various (205)

The Commissioner of Patents may be likened to a wine merchant. He has in his office the wine of human progress of every kind and quality—wine, one may say, produced from the fermentation of the facts of the world through the yeast of human effort. Sometimes the yeast is “wild” and sometimes the “must” is poor, and while it all lies there shining with its due measure of the sparkle of divine effort, it is but occasionally that one finds a wine whose bouquet is the result of a pure culture on the true fruit of knowledge. But it is this true, pure wine of discovery that is alone of lasting significance.
In Some Chemical Problems of Today (1911), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Bouquet (2)  |  Culture (157)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Divine (112)  |  Due (143)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fermentation (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Progress (18)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lasting (7)  |  Lie (370)  |  Measure (241)  |  Must (1525)  |  Office (71)  |  Patent (34)  |  Poor (139)  |  Produced (187)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pure (299)  |  Quality (139)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Shining (35)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sparkle (8)  |  Through (846)  |  True (239)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wine (39)  |  World (1850)  |  Yeast (7)

The concepts of ‘soul’ or ‘life’ do not occur in atomic physics, and they could not, even indirectly, be derived as complicated consequences of some natural law. Their existence certainly does not indicate the presence of any fundamental substance other than energy, but it shows only the action of other kinds of forms which we cannot match with the mathematical forms of modern atomic physics ... If we want to describe living or mental processes, we shall have to broaden these structures. It may be that we shall have to introduce yet other concepts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Atomic Physics (7)  |  Broaden (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Derive (70)  |  Describe (132)  |  Do (1905)  |  Energy (373)  |  Existence (481)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Presence (63)  |  Process (439)  |  Show (353)  |  Soul (235)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Want (504)

The contemplation of Nature, and his own relation to her, produced in Faraday, a kind of spiritual exaltation which makes itself manifest here. His religious feeling and his philosophy could not be kept apart; there was an habitual overflow of the one into the other.
In Faraday as a Discoverer (1868), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Exaltation (5)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overflow (10)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Produced (187)  |  Religious (134)  |  Spiritual (94)

The critical mathematician has abandoned the search for truth. He no longer flatters himself that his propositions are or can be known to him or to any other human being to be true; and he contents himself with aiming at the correct, or the consistent. The distinction is not annulled nor even blurred by the reflection that consistency contains immanently a kind of truth. He is not absolutely certain, but he believes profoundly that it is possible to find various sets of a few propositions each such that the propositions of each set are compatible, that the propositions of each such set imply other propositions, and that the latter can be deduced from the former with certainty. That is to say, he believes that there are systems of coherent or consistent propositions, and he regards it his business to discover such systems. Any such system is a branch of mathematics.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 94. Also in Science (1912), New Series, 35, 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Aim (175)  |  Annul (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blur (8)  |  Branch (155)  |  Business (156)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Coherent (14)  |  Compatible (4)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Contain (68)  |  Content (75)  |  Correct (95)  |  Critical (73)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Find (1014)  |  Former (138)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Immanently (2)  |  Imply (20)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Latter (21)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Regard (312)  |  Say (989)  |  Search (175)  |  Set (400)  |  System (545)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Various (205)

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.
From De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (45-44 B.C.) Vol. 19. As quoted in Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1986), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Food (213)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Soul (235)

The diversity of life is extraordinary. There is said to be a million or so different kinds of living animals, and hundreds of thousands of kinds of plants. But we don’t need to think of the world at large. It is amazing enough to stop and look at a forest or at a meadow—at the grass and trees and caterpillars and hawks and deer. How did all these different kinds of things come about; what forces governed their evolution; what forces maintain their numbers and determine their survival or extinction; what are their relations to each other and to the physical environment in which they live? These are the problems of natural history.
In The Nature of Natural History (1950), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Amazing (35)  |  Animal (651)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Deer (11)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Enough (341)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Force (497)  |  Forest (161)  |  Govern (66)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hawk (4)  |  History (716)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Million (124)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plant (320)  |  Problem (731)  |  Relation (166)  |  Survival (105)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tree (269)  |  World (1850)

The double horror of two Japanese city names [Hiroshima and Nagasaki] grew for me into another kind of double horror; an estranging awareness of what the United States was capable of, the country that five years before had given me its citizenship; a nauseating terror at the direction the natural sciences were going. Never far from an apocalyptic vision of the world, I saw the end of the essence of mankind an end brought nearer, or even made, possible, by the profession to which I belonged. In my view, all natural sciences were as one; and if one science could no longer plead innocence, none could.
Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life before Nature (1978), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Belong (168)  |  Capable (174)  |  City (87)  |  Country (269)  |  Direction (185)  |  End (603)  |  Essence (85)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Horror (15)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nagasaki (3)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profession (108)  |  Saw (160)  |  State (505)  |  Terror (32)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The Earth Speaks, clearly, distinctly, and, in many of the realms of Nature, loudly, to William Jennings Bryan, but he fails to hear a single sound. The earth speaks from the remotest periods in its wonderful life history in the Archaeozoic Age, when it reveals only a few tissues of its primitive plants. Fifty million years ago it begins to speak as “the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life.” In successive eons of time the various kinds of animals leave their remains in the rocks which compose the deeper layers of the earth, and when the rocks are laid bare by wind, frost, and storm we find wondrous lines of ascent invariably following the principles of creative evolution, whereby the simpler and more lowly forms always precede the higher and more specialized forms.
The earth speaks not of a succession of distinct creations but of a continuous ascent, in which, as the millions of years roll by, increasing perfection of structure and beauty of form are found; out of the water-breathing fish arises the air-breathing amphibian; out of the land-living amphibian arises the land-living, air-breathing reptile, these two kinds of creeping things resembling each other closely. The earth speaks loudly and clearly of the ascent of the bird from one kind of reptile and of the mammal from another kind of reptile.
This is not perhaps the way Bryan would have made the animals, but this is the way God made them!
The Earth Speaks to Bryan (1925), 5-6. Osborn wrote this book in response to the Scopes Monkey Trial, where William Jennings Bryan spoke against the theory of evolution. They had previously been engaged in the controversy about the theory for several years. The title refers to a Biblical verse from the Book of Job (12:8), “Speak to the earth and it shall teach thee.”
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Air (366)  |  Amphibian (7)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arise (162)  |  Bare (33)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bird (163)  |  Breath (61)  |  Breathing (23)  |  William Jennings Bryan (20)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creature (242)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eon (12)  |  Erosion (20)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fish (130)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Frost (15)  |  God (776)  |  Hear (144)  |  History (716)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Land (131)  |  Layer (41)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Period (200)  |  Plant (320)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principle (530)  |  Realm (87)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remains (9)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Rock (176)  |  Roll (41)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Storm (56)  |  Structure (365)  |  Succession (80)  |  Successive (73)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Two (936)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wind (141)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  Year (963)

The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acting (6)  |  Artist (97)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bread (42)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Course (413)  |  Daily (91)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Development (441)  |  Direct (228)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconspicuous (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lot (151)  |  Minority (24)  |  Most (1728)  |  Emmy Noether (7)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (141)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Run (158)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Special (188)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Successor (16)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (393)

The eighth element, starting from a given one, is a kind of repetition of the first, like the eighth note of an octave in music.
'Letter to the Editor', Chemical News (1864), 10, 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Element (322)  |  First (1302)  |  Music (133)  |  Octave (3)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Repetition (29)

The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine. … We hope in the next few years to get some idea of what these atoms are, how they are made, and the way they are worked.
Address at Leicester (11 Sep 1933), reported in The Times (12 Sep 1933). Also cited as 'Atom Powered World Absurd, Scientists Told: Lord Rutherford Scoffs at Theory of Harnessing Energy in Laboratories', New York Herald Tribune (12 Sep 1933), in Jacqueline D. Spears and Dean Zollman, The Fascination of Physics, (1985), 508.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Down (455)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expect (203)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Moonshine (5)  |  Next (238)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (771)  |  Produced (187)  |  Source (101)  |  Talking (76)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them to the service of man ... To make contribution of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality.
In Philip Sporn, Foundations of Engineering: Cornell College of Engineering Lectures, Spring 1963 (1964), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Figure (162)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Possible (560)  |  Potential (75)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reality (274)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Service (110)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Technological (62)  |  Tool (129)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

The Excellence of Modern Geometry is in nothing more evident, than in those full and adequate Solutions it gives to Problems; representing all possible Cases in one view, and in one general Theorem many times comprehending whole Sciences; which deduced at length into Propositions, and demonstrated after the manner of the Ancients, might well become the subjects of large Treatises: For whatsoever Theorem solves the most complicated Problem of the kind, does with a due Reduction reach all the subordinate Cases.
In 'An Instance of the Excellence of Modern Algebra, etc', Philosophical Transactions, 1694, 960.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Become (821)  |  Case (102)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Due (143)  |  Evident (92)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Full (68)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Large (398)  |  Length (24)  |  Manner (62)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Represent (157)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (145)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subordinate (11)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  View (496)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Whole (756)

The fact that death from cancer is on the increase is not only a problem of medicine, but its at the same time testifies to the wonderful efficiency of medical science... [as it] enables more persons top live long enough to develop some kind of cancer in old and less resistant tissues.
Charles H. Mayo and William A. Hendricks, 'Carcinoma of the Right Segment of the Colon', presented to Southern Surgical Assoc. (15 Dec 1925). In Annals of Surgery (Mar 1926), 83, 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Cancer (61)  |  Death (406)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Increase (225)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Person (366)  |  Problem (731)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Top (100)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)

The fact that man produces a concept ‘I’ besides the totality of his mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence behind such a concept. We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Better (493)  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Due (143)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reach (286)  |  Self (268)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Totality (17)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

The farther researches we make into this admirable scene of things, the more beauty and harmony we see in them: And the stronger and clearer convictions they give us, of the being, power and wisdom of the divine Architect, who has made all things to concur with a wonderful conformity, in carrying on, by various and innumerable combinations of matter, such a circulation of causes, and effects, as was necessary to the great ends of nature. And since we are assured that the all-wise Creator has observed the most exact proportions, of number, weight and measure, in the make of all things; the most likely way therefore, to get any insight into the nature of those parts of the creation, which come within our observation, must in all reason be to number, weigh and measure. And we have much encouragement to pursue this method, of searching into the nature of things, from the great success that has attended any attempts of this kind.
Vegetable Staticks (1727), xxxi.
Science quotes on:  |  Architect (32)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attend (67)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Divine (112)  |  Effect (414)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  End (603)  |  Farther (51)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Insight (107)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Power (771)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Reason (766)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Success (327)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wonderful (155)

The footsteps of Nature are to be trac'd, not only in her ordinary course, but when she seems to be put to her shifts, to make many doublings and turnings, and to use some kind of art in endeavouring to avoid our discovery.
Micrographia (1665, reprint 2008), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Course (413)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Shift (45)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)

The golden age of mathematics—that was not the age of Euclid, it is ours. Ours is the age when no less than six international congresses have been held in the course of nine years. It is in our day that more than a dozen mathematical societies contain a growing membership of more than two thousand men representing the centers of scientific light throughout the great culture nations of the world. It is in our time that over five hundred scientific journals are each devoted in part, while more than two score others are devoted exclusively, to the publication of mathematics. It is in our time that the Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik, though admitting only condensed abstracts with titles, and not reporting on all the journals, has, nevertheless, grown to nearly forty huge volumes in as many years. It is in our time that as many as two thousand books and memoirs drop from the mathematical press of the world in a single year, the estimated number mounting up to fifty thousand in the last generation. Finally, to adduce yet another evidence of a similar kind, it requires not less than seven ponderous tomes of the forthcoming Encyclopaedie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften to contain, not expositions, not demonstrations, but merely compact reports and bibliographic notices sketching developments that have taken place since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Admit (49)  |  Age (509)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bibliography (3)  |  Book (413)  |  Center (35)  |  Century (319)  |  Compact (13)  |  Condense (15)  |  Congress (20)  |  Course (413)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Development (441)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Dozen (10)  |  Drop (77)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Generation (256)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Huge (30)  |  Hundred (240)  |  International (40)  |  Journal (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Membership (6)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Mount (43)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Ponderous (2)  |  Press (21)  |  Publication (102)  |  Report (42)  |  Reporting (9)  |  Represent (157)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Score (8)  |  Single (365)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Title (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Volume (25)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The great testimony of history shows how often in fact the development of science has emerged in response to technological and even economic needs, and how in the economy of social effort, science, even of the most abstract and recondite kind, pays for itself again and again in providing the basis for radically new technological developments. In fact, most people—when they think of science as a good thing, when they think of it as worthy of encouragement, when they are willing to see their governments spend substance upon it, when they greatly do honor to men who in science have attained some eminence—have in mind that the conditions of their life have been altered just by such technology, of which they may be reluctant to be deprived.
In 'Contemporary World', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Feb 1948), 4, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Altered (32)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Basis (180)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deprivation (5)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Effort (243)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  Honour (58)  |  Life (1870)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Pay (45)  |  People (1031)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Providing (5)  |  Radical (28)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Response (56)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Social (261)  |  Spend (97)  |  Substance (253)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Willing (44)  |  Worthy (35)

The great thing about being an astronaut is you kind of get to do a little bit of everything. I mean, we’re going to ride a rocket uphill.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bit (21)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Great (1610)  |  Little (717)  |  Mean (810)  |  Ride (23)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Uphill (3)

The greatest scientists have always looked on scientific materialism as a kind of religion, as a mythology. They are impelled by a great desire to explore mystery, to celebrate mystery in the universe, to open it up, to read the stars, to find the deeper meaning.
In Pamela Weintraub (ed.), 'E. O. Wilson', The Omni Interviews (1984), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Deep (241)  |  Desire (212)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Find (1014)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Look (584)  |  Materialism (11)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Open (277)  |  Read (308)  |  Religion (369)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Universe (900)

The Greeks in the first vigour of their pursuit of mathematical truth, at the time of Plato and soon after, had by no means confined themselves to those propositions which had a visible bearing on the phenomena of nature; but had followed out many beautiful trains of research concerning various kinds of figures, for the sake of their beauty alone; as for instance in their doctrine of Conic Sections, of which curves they had discovered all the principal properties. But it is curious to remark, that these investigations, thus pursued at first as mere matters of curiosity and intellectual gratification, were destined, two thousand years later, to play a very important part in establishing that system of celestial motions which succeeded the Platonic scheme of cycles and epicycles. If the properties of conic sections had not been demonstrated by the Greeks and thus rendered familiar to the mathematicians of succeeding ages, Kepler would probably not have been able to discover those laws respecting the orbits and motions of planets which were the occasion of the greatest revolution that ever happened in the history of science.
In History of Scientific Ideas, Bk. 9, chap. 14, sect. 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Concern (239)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Curve (49)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Destined (42)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Epicycle (4)  |  Establish (63)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Figure (162)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greek (109)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Important (229)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kepler (4)  |  Late (119)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mere (86)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Part (235)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plato (80)  |  Platonic (4)  |  Play (116)  |  Principal (69)  |  Probably (50)  |  Property (177)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Remark (28)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Respect (212)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sake (61)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Soon (187)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Various (205)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Visible (87)  |  Year (963)

The human mind has a natural tendency to explore what has passed in distant ages in scenes with which it is familiar: hence the taste for National and Local Antiquities. Geology gratifies a larger taste of this kind; it inquires into what may appropriately be termed the Antiquities of the Globe itself, and collects and deciphers what may be considered as the monuments and medals of its remoter eras.
Vindiciae Geologicae (1820), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Consider (428)  |  Era (51)  |  Geology (240)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monument (45)  |  Natural (810)  |  Pass (241)  |  Scene (36)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)

The hypothesis that man is not free is essential to the application of scientific method to the study of human behavior. The free inner man who is held responsible for the behavior of the external biological organism is only a prescientific substitute for the kinds of causes which are discovered in the course of a scientific analysis.
In Science and Human Behavior (1953), 447.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Application (257)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cause (561)  |  Course (413)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Essential (210)  |  External (62)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Behavior (10)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inner (72)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Organism (231)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Study (701)  |  Substitute (47)

The incomplete knowledge of a system must be an essential part of every formulation in quantum theory. Quantum theoretical laws must be of a statistical kind. To give an example: we know that the radium atom emits alpha-radiation. Quantum theory can give us an indication of the probability that the alpha-particle will leave the nucleus in unit time, but it cannot predict at what precise point in time the emission will occur, for this is uncertain in principle.
The Physicist's Conception of Nature (1958), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Atom (381)  |  Emit (15)  |  Essential (210)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Indication (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Occur (151)  |  Particle (200)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Predict (86)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Will (2350)

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learned especially from the wonderful writings of Schopenhauer, contains a much stronger element of this. The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Akin (5)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (122)  |  Atheist (16)  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beginnings (5)  |  Both (496)  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Case (102)  |  Central (81)  |  Church (64)  |  Closely (12)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  David (6)  |  Democritus of Abdera (17)  |  Desire (212)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Especially (31)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Francis (2)  |  Futility (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  God (776)  |  Heretic (8)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Image (97)  |  Impress (66)  |  Individual (420)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prison (13)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Saint (17)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Significant (78)  |  Single (365)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Writings (6)

The instruction of children should aim gradually to combine knowing and doing [Wissen und Konnen]. Among all sciences mathematics seems to be the only one of a kind to satisfy this aim most completely.
In Werke, Bd. 9 (1888), 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Combine (58)  |  Completely (137)  |  Doing (277)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Seem (150)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but every one says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed. Therefore, since the truth seems to be like the proverbial door, which no one can fail to hit, in this way it is easy, but the fact that we can have a whole truth and not the particular part we aim at shows the difficulty of it. Perhaps, as difficulties are of two kinds, the cause of the present difficulty is not in the facts but in us.
Aristotle
Metaphysics, 993a, 30-993b, 9. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1569-70.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Amass (6)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attain (126)  |  Cause (561)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Door (94)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Hard (246)  |  Indication (33)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Little (717)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Proverbial (8)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

The Johns Hopkins University certifies that John Wentworth Doe does not know anything but Biochemistry. Please pay no attention to any pronouncements he may make on any other subject, particularly when he joins with others of his kind to save the world from something or other. However, he worked hard for this degree and is potentially a most valuable citizen. Please treat him kindly.
[An imaginary academic diploma reworded to give a more realistic view of the value of the training of scientists.]
'Our Splintered Learning and the Nature of Scientists', Science (15 Apr 1955), 121, 516.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Degree (277)  |  Diploma (2)  |  Hard (246)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Johns Hopkins (7)  |  Johns Hopkins University (2)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Please (68)  |  Potential (75)  |  Pronouncement (2)  |  Realistic (6)  |  Save (126)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (543)  |  Training (92)  |  University (130)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The kind of lecture which I have been so kindly invited to give, and which now appears in book form, gives one a rare opportunity to allow the bees in one's bonnet to buzz even more noisily than usual.
From Assumption and Myth in Physical Theory (1967), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Appear (122)  |  Bee (44)  |  Book (413)  |  Buzz (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Give (208)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Lecture (111)  |  More (2558)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Rare (94)

The King saw them with no common satisfaction, expressing his desire in no particular to have yt Stellar fish engraven and printed. We wish very much, Sir, yt you could procure for us a particular description of yesd Fish, viz. whether it be common there; what is observable in it when alive; what colour it then hath; what kind of motion in the water; what use it maketh of all that curious workmanship, wch Nature hath adorn'd it with?
Letter to John Winthrop, Jr. (26 Mar 1670), concerning specimens provided by Winthrop to the Society. In A. Rupert Hall & Marie Boas Hall (eds.), The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg (1969), Vol. 6, 594.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Color (155)  |  Common (447)  |  Curious (95)  |  Desire (212)  |  Engraving (4)  |  Fish (130)  |  King (39)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observable (21)  |  Observation (593)  |  Printing (25)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Saw (160)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Wish (216)  |  Workmanship (7)

The life and soul of science is its practical application, and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.
From 'Electrical Units of Measurement', a lecture delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London (3 May 1883), Popular Lectures and Addresses Vol. 1 (1891), 86-87.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Application (257)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Practical (225)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Properties Of Matter (7)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soul (235)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Useful (260)  |  World (1850)

The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities—that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future—will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Akin (5)  |  Ball (64)  |  Become (821)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Blur (8)  |  Bright (81)  |  Bring (95)  |  Cash (2)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clock (51)  |  Company (63)  |  Continue (179)  |  Dance (35)  |  Dose (17)  |  Drift (14)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Experience (494)  |  Far (158)  |  Future (467)  |  Generate (16)  |  Giddy (3)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hate (68)  |  Heady (2)  |  Investment (15)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Leave (138)  |  Likely (36)  |  Line (100)  |  Market (23)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Minute (129)  |  Miss (51)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Normally (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Overstay (2)  |  Participant (6)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Recently (3)  |  Relative (42)  |  Room (42)  |  Second (66)  |  Sedate (2)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Single (365)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Still (614)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Valuation (4)  |  Will (2350)

The longing to behold this pre-established harmony [of phenomena and theoretical principles] is the source of the inexhaustible patience and perseverance with which Planck has devoted himself ... The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.
Address (1918) for Max Planck's 60th birthday, at Physical Society, Berlin, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934), 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Daily (91)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Enable (122)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Intention (46)  |  Longing (19)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Patience (58)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Principle (530)  |  Program (57)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  State (505)  |  State Of Mind (4)  |  Straight (75)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worship (32)

The man who classifies facts of any kind whatever, who sees their mutual relation and describes their sequence, is applying the scientific method and is a man of science.
From The Grammar of Science (1892), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Classify (8)  |  Describe (132)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (531)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Relation (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  See (1094)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Whatever (234)

The mathematician of to-day admits that he can neither square the circle, duplicate the cube or trisect the angle. May not our mechanicians, in like manner, be ultimately forced to admit that aerial flight is one of that great class of problems with which men can never cope… I do not claim that this is a necessary conclusion from any past experience. But I do think that success must await progress of a different kind from that of invention.
[Written following Samuel Pierpoint Langley's failed attempt to launch his flying machine from a catapult device mounted on a barge in Oct 1903. The Wright Brother's success came on 17 Dec 1903.]
'The Outlook for the Flying Machine'. The Independent: A Weekly Magazine (22 Oct 1903), 2509.
Science quotes on:  |  Aerial (11)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Aviation (8)  |  Brother (47)  |  Circle (117)  |  Claim (154)  |  Class (168)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Cube (14)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Duplicate (9)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fail (191)  |  Flight (101)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (400)  |  Launch (21)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mount (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Past (355)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Square (73)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  Ultimately (56)

The more progress physical sciences make, the more they tend to enter the domain of mathematics, which is a kind of center to which they all converge. We may even judge of the degree of perfection to which a science has arrived by the facility with which it may be submitted to calculation.
In Eulogy of Quetelet by E. Mailly (1874).
Science quotes on:  |  Calculation (134)  |  Converge (10)  |  Degree (277)  |  Domain (72)  |  Enter (145)  |  Judge (114)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Progress (492)  |  Tend (124)

The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.
As summarized on a CNN web page - without quotation marks - from a statement by Glenn about the fourth National Space Day (4 May 2000). 'All systems go for National Space Day' on CNN website.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Help (116)  |  Important (229)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Phase (37)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Travel (125)  |  Will (2350)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

The most ordinary things are to philosophy a source of insoluble puzzles. In order to explain our perceptions it constructs the concept of matter and then finds matter quite useless either for itself having or for causing perceptions in a mind. With infinite ingenuity it constructs a concept of space or time and then finds it absolutely impossible that there be objects in this space or that processes occur during this time ... The source of this kind of logic lies in excessive confidence in the so-called laws of thought.
'On Statistical Mechanics' (1904), in Theoretical Physics and Philosophical Problems (1974), 164-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Construct (129)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Explain (334)  |  Find (1014)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Law (913)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logic (311)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Space (523)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)

The motto in the pursuit of knowledge, of whatever kind, has always been, “Hope all things;—Prove all things.”
From Address (Oct 1874) delivered at Guy’s Hospital, 'On The Study of Medicine', printed in British Medical journal (1874), 2, 425. Collected in Sir William Withey Gull and Theodore Dyke Acland (ed.), A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull (1896), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Hope (321)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Motto (29)  |  Prove (261)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Whatever (234)

The natural scientist is concerned with a particular kind of phenomena … he has to confine himself to that which is reproducible … I do not claim that the reproducible by itself is more important than the unique. But I do claim that the unique exceeds the treatment by scientific method. Indeed it is the aim of this method to find and test natural laws…
In Aufsätze und Vorträge über Physik und Erkenntnistheorie (1961), 94. Quoted in Erhard Scheibe and Brigitte Falkenburg (ed), Between Rationalism and Empiricism: Selected Papers in the Philosophy of Physics (2001), 276
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Claim (154)  |  Concern (239)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Law (913)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Test (221)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Unique (72)

The notion of evolution predicts the nested pattern of relationships we find in the living world; supernatural creation, on the other hand, predicts nothing. It is concepts of this latter kind that are truly untestable.
In The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human (2003), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  Living (492)  |  Nest (26)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Predict (86)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Truly (118)  |  World (1850)

The object of pure mathematics is those relations which may be conceptually established among any conceived elements whatsoever by assuming them contained in some ordered manifold; the law of order of this manifold must be subject to our choice; the latter is the case in both of the only conceivable kinds of manifolds, in the discrete as well as in the continuous.
In Über das System der rein mathematischen Wissenschaften, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, Bd. 1, 36. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Both (496)  |  Choice (114)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Discrete (11)  |  Element (322)  |  Establish (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Relation (166)  |  Subject (543)  |  Whatsoever (41)

The observer is not he who merely sees the thing which is before his eyes, but he who sees what parts the thing is composed of. To do this well is a rare talent. One person, from inattention, or attending only in the wrong place, overlooks half of what he sees; another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers; another takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating their degree, leaves the quantity of each vague and uncertain; another sees indeed the whole, but makes such an awkward division of it into parts, throwing into one mass things which require to be separated, and separating others which might more conveniently be considered as one, that the result is much the same, sometimes even worse than if no analysis had been attempted at all.
In A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive (1858), 216.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attend (67)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Being (1276)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Composed (3)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confounding (8)  |  Consider (428)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Degree (277)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Eye (440)  |  Half (63)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inexpert (2)  |  Infer (12)  |  Mass (160)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Note (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observer (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Place (192)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rare (94)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Down (2)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throwing (17)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Vague (50)  |  Whole (756)  |  Worse (25)  |  Wrong (246)

The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called “deep truths”, are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth.
Niels Bohr, 'Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics', in P. A. Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Call (781)  |  Deep (241)  |  Old (499)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Simple (426)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Statement (148)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)

The organism possesses certain contrivances by means of which the immunity reaction, so easily produced by all kinds of cells, is prevented from acting against the organism’s own elements and so giving rise to auto toxins … so that one might be justified in speaking of a “horror autotoxicus” of the organism. These contrivances are naturally of the highest importance for the existence of the individual.
P. Ehrlich and J. Morgenroth, 'Studies On Haemolysins: Fifth Communication', Berliner klin. Wochenschrift (1901), No. 10. Reprinted in Collected Studies on Immunity (1906), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Certain (557)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Horror (15)  |  Immunity (8)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Importance (299)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Organism (231)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Rise (169)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Toxin (8)

The other experiment (which I shall hardly, I confess, make again, because it was cruel) was with a dog, which, by means of a pair of bellows, wherewith I filled his lungs, and suffered them to empty again, I was able to preserve alive as long as I could desire, after I had wholly opened the thorax, and cut off all the ribs, and opened the belly. Nay, I kept him alive above an hour after I had cut off the pericardium and the mediastinum, and had handled and turned his lungs and heart and all the other parts of its body, as I pleased. My design was to make some enquiries into the nature of respiration. But though I made some considerable discovery of the necessity of fresh air, and the motion of the lungs for the continuance of the animal life, yet I could not make the least discovery in this of what I longed for, which was, to see, if I could by any means discover a passage of the air of the lungs into either the vessels or the heart; and I shall hardly be induced to make any further trials of this kind, because of the torture of this creature: but certainly the enquiry would be very noble, if we could any way find a way so to stupify the creature, as that it might not be sensible.
Letter from Robert Hooke to Robert Boyle (10 Nov 1664). In M. Hunter, A. Clericuzio and L. M. Principe (eds.), The Correspondence of Robert Boyle (2001), Vol. 2, 399.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alive (97)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Bellows (5)  |  Body (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Confess (42)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Creature (242)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Cut (116)  |  Design (203)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dog (70)  |  Empty (82)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hour (192)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Lung (37)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Noble (93)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Rib (6)  |  See (1094)  |  Torture (30)  |  Trial (59)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Vivisection (7)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)

The Pacific coral reef, as a kind of oasis in a desert, can stand as an object lesson for man who must now learn that mutualism between autotrophic and heterotrophic components, and between producers and consumers in the societal realm, coupled with efficient recycling of materials and use of energy, are the keys to maintaining prosperity in a world of limited resources.
'The Emergence of Ecology as a New Integrative Discipline', Science (1977), 195, 1290.
Science quotes on:  |  Component (51)  |  Consumer (6)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Desert (59)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Energy (373)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Pacific Ocean (5)  |  Producer (4)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recycling (5)  |  Society (350)  |  Stand (284)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

The politician … is sometimes tempted to encroach on the normal territory of the scientific estate. Sometimes he interferes directly with the scientist’s pursuit of basic science; but he is more likely to interfere when the scientist proposes to publish findings that upset the established political or economic order, or when he joins with the engineering or medical profession in proposing to translate the findings of science into new policies. … Who decides when the apparent consensus of scientific opinion on the relation of cigarettes to lung cancer is great enough to justify governmental regulatory action, and of what kind? In such issues the problem is less often whether politics will presume to dictate to science than it is how much politics is to be influenced by the new findings of science.
In The Scientific Estate (1965), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Basic (144)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Consensus (8)  |  Decision (98)  |  Dictate (11)  |  Economic (84)  |  Encroach (2)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enough (341)  |  Finding (34)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Interference (22)  |  Lung (37)  |  Lung Cancer (7)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Policy (27)  |  Political (124)  |  Politician (40)  |  Politics (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Profession (108)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Science And Politics (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Territory (25)  |  Translate (21)  |  Upset (18)  |  Will (2350)

The progress of Science is generally regarded as a kind of clean, rational advance along a straight ascending line; in fact it has followed a zig-zag course, at times almost more bewildering than the evolution of political thought. The history of cosmic theories, in particular, may without exaggeration be called a history of collective obsessions and controlled schizophrenias; and the manner in which some of the most important individual discoveries were arrived at reminds one more of a sleepwalker’s performance than an electronic brain’s.
From 'Preface', in The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Bewildering (5)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Clean (52)  |  Collective (24)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Course (413)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electronics (21)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  History (716)  |  Important (229)  |  Individual (420)  |  Line (100)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Performance (51)  |  Political (124)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Rational (95)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remind (16)  |  Schizophrenia (4)  |  Sleepwalker (2)  |  Straight (75)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Zigzag (3)

The purpose of science is to develop, without prejudice or preconception of any kind, a knowledge of the facts, the laws, and the processes of nature. The even more important task of religion, on the other hand, is to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind.
'A Joint Statement Upon the Relations of Science and Religion' formulated by Millikan (1923), signed by forty-five leaders of religion, science and human affairs. Reproduced in Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (May 1923), 9, No. 5, 47. Included in Science and Life (1924), 86. (Note the context in time: the contemporary social climate by 1925 led to the Butler Act banning the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools and the resulting trial of John Scopes.)
Science quotes on:  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Importance (299)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Process (439)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Purpose Of Science (5)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Task (152)

The real problem is not the loss of a particular species but the loss of particular kinds of environments. … When you lose a big, dramatic species like the whooping crane, you don’t notice that you are also losing other plants and animals. … We are only putting Band-Aids on until we recognize we need to be protecting environments, not just endangered species.
In Philip Shabecoff, 'Further Safeguards Urged For Endangered Species', New York Times (14 Mar 1985), B9. Attenborough was in America to testify before a Congressional subcommittee considering the reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act (originally passed in 1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Big (55)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Endangered Species (6)  |  Environment (239)  |  Lose (165)  |  Loss (117)  |  Need (320)  |  Notice (81)  |  Particular (80)  |  Plant (320)  |  Problem (731)  |  Protect (65)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Species (435)  |  Whooping Crane (3)

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. … It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wilderness lies in wait.
In Orthodoxy (1908), 148.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Exactitude (10)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Real (159)  |  Regular (48)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unreasonable (5)  |  Wait (66)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  World (1850)

The reciprocal relationship of epistemology and science is of noteworthy kind. They are dependent on each other. Epistemology without contact with science becomes an empty scheme. Science without epistemology is–insofar as it is thinkable at all–primitive and muddled.
In Ralph Keyesr, The Quote Verifier, 51-52.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Contact (66)  |  Empty (82)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Thinkable (5)

The Reproductions of the living Ens
From sires to sons, unknown to sex, commence...
Unknown to sex the pregnant oyster swells,
And coral-insects build their radiate shells...
Birth after birth the line unchanging runs,
And fathers live transmitted in their sons;
Each passing year beholds the unvarying kinds,
The same their manners, and the same their minds.
The Temple of Nature (1803), canto 2, lines 63-4, 89-90, 107-10, pages 48-52.
Science quotes on:  |  Birth (154)  |  Build (211)  |  Father (113)  |  Insect (89)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Passing (76)  |  Poem (104)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Run (158)  |  Sex (68)  |  Shell (69)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Year (963)

The responsibility for maintaining the composition of the blood in respect to other constituents devolves largely upon the kidneys. It is no exaggeration to say that the composition of the blood is determined not by what the mouth ingests but by what the kidneys keep; they are the master chemists of our internal environment, which, so to speak, they synthesize in reverse. When, among other duties, they excrete the ashes of our body fires, or remove from the blood the infinite variety of foreign substances which are constantly being absorbed from our indiscriminate gastrointestinal tracts, these excretory operations are incidental to the major task of keeping our internal environment in an ideal, balanced state. Our glands, our muscles, our bones, our tendons, even our brains, are called upon to do only one kind of physiological work, while our kidneys are called upon to perform an innumerable variety of operations. Bones can break, muscles can atrophy, glands can loaf, even the brain can go to sleep, without immediately endangering our survival, but when the kidneys fail to manufacture the proper kind of blood neither bone, muscle, gland nor brain can carry on.
'The Evolution of the Kidney', Lectures on the Kidney (1943), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Absorption (13)  |  Ash (21)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Balance (82)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Brain (281)  |  Break (109)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Composition (86)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Determined (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Excretion (7)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fire (203)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gland (14)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Indiscriminate (2)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Internal (69)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Loaf (5)  |  Major (88)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Master (182)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Proper (150)  |  Removal (12)  |  Remove (50)  |  Respect (212)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Say (989)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Speak (240)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Survival (105)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Task (152)  |  Tract (7)  |  Variety (138)  |  Work (1402)

The routine produces. But each day, nevertheless, when you try to get started you have to transmogrify, transpose yourself; you have to go through some kind of change from being a normal human being, into becoming some kind of slave.
I simply don’t want to break through that membrane. I’d do anything to avoid it. You have to get there and you don’t want to go there because there’s so much pressure and so much strain and you just want to stay on the outside and be yourself. And so the day is a constant struggle to get going.
And if somebody says to me, You’re a prolific writer—it seems so odd. It’s like the difference between geological time and human time. On a certain scale, it does look like I do a lot. But that’s my day, all day long, sitting there wondering when I’m going to be able to get started. And the routine of doing this six days a week puts a little drop in a bucket each day, and that’s the key. Because if you put a drop in a bucket every day, after three hundred and sixty-five days, the bucket’s going to have some water in it.
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5997/john-mcphee-the-art-of-nonfiction-no-3-john-mcphee
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Break (109)  |  Bucket (4)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Constant (148)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Drop (77)  |  Geological (11)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Key (56)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Normal (29)  |  Odd (15)  |  Outside (141)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Produce (117)  |  Prolific (5)  |  Routine (26)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Seem (150)  |  Simply (53)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Slave (40)  |  Somebody (8)  |  Start (237)  |  Stay (26)  |  Strain (13)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transpose (2)  |  Try (296)  |  Want (504)  |  Water (503)  |  Week (73)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Writer (90)

The rudest numerical scales, such as that by which the mineralogists distinguish different degrees of hardness, are found useful. The mere counting of pistils and stamens sufficed to bring botany out of total chaos into some kind of form. It is not, however, so much from counting as from measuring, not so much from the conception of number as from that of continuous quantity, that the advantage of mathematical treatment comes. Number, after all, only serves to pin us down to a precision in our thoughts which, however beneficial, can seldom lead to lofty conceptions, and frequently descend to pettiness.
On the Doctrine of Chances, with Later Reflections (1878), 61-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Botany (63)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Conception (160)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Count (107)  |  Counting (26)  |  Degree (277)  |  Descend (49)  |  Descent (30)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Down (455)  |  Form (976)  |  Hardness (4)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mineralogist (3)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Pettiness (3)  |  Pin (20)  |  Precision (72)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rudeness (5)  |  Scale (122)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Stamen (4)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Thought (995)  |  Total (95)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

The same thing may have all the kinds of causes, e.g. the moving cause of a house is the art or the builder, the final cause is the function it fulfils, the matter is earth and stones, and the form is the definitory formula.
Aristotle
Metaphysics, 996b, 5-8. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1574.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Cause (561)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Final (121)  |  Form (976)  |  Formula (102)  |  Function (235)  |  House (143)  |  Matter (821)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thing (1914)

The science of the geologist seems destined to exert a marked influence on that of the natural theologian... Not only—to borrow from Paley's illustration—does it enable him to argue on the old grounds, from the contrivance exhibited in the watch found on the moor, that the watch could not have lain upon the moor for ever; but it establishes further, on different and more direct evidence, that there was a time when absolutely the watch was not there; nay, further, so to speak, that there was a previous time in which no watches existed at all, but only water-clocks; yet further, that there was at time in which there we not even water-clocks, but only sun-dials; and further, an earlier time still in which sun-dials were not, nor an measurers of time of any kind.
Lecture to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, 'Geology in its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Part 1', collected in The Testimony of the Rocks: or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed (1857), 211.
Science quotes on:  |  Borrow (31)  |  Clock (51)  |  Contrivance (12)  |  Destined (42)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Dial (9)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Enable (122)  |  Era (51)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exert (40)  |  Exist (458)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Ground (222)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Influence (231)  |  Marked (55)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Moor (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Old (499)  |   William Paley (8)  |  Speak (240)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Theologian (23)  |  Time (1911)  |  Watch (118)  |  Water (503)

The sea is not all that responds to the moon. Twice a day the solid earth bobs up and down, as much as a foot. That kind of force and that kind of distance are more than enough to break hard rock. Wells will flow faster during lunar high tides.
Annals of the Former World
Science quotes on:  |  Bob (2)  |  Break (109)  |  Distance (171)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fast (49)  |  Faster (50)  |  Flow (89)  |  Foot (65)  |  Force (497)  |  Hard (246)  |  High (370)  |  Lunar (9)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Respond (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sea (326)  |  Solid (119)  |  Tide (37)  |  Twice (20)  |  Will (2350)

The sea is the universal sewer where all kinds of pollution end up conveyed by rain from the atmosphere and from the mainland.
Statement in testimony to the Twelfth Meeting With the Panel on Science and Technology (28 Jan 1971), printed in Proceedings Before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session, No. 1 (1971), 325.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Convey (17)  |  End (603)  |  Mainland (3)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Rain (70)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sewer (5)  |  Universal (198)

The simple and plain fact is that the scientific method wins its success by ignoring parts of reality as given in experience; it is perfectly right to do this for its own purposes; but it must not be permitted by a kind of bluff to create the impression that what it ignores is non-existent.
In Nature, Man and God: Being the Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Glasgow in the Academical Years 1932-1933 and 1933-1934 (1934), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Bluff (3)  |  Create (245)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  Impression (118)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Permit (61)  |  Plain (34)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Success (327)  |  Win (53)

The source and origin of the nerves is the brain and spinal marrow, and hence some nerves originate from the brain and some from the spinal marrow. Some … experts set down the heart as the origin of the nerves and some the hard membrane that envelops the brain; none of them, however, thought it was the liver or any other viscus of that kind … Aristotle in particular, and quite a few others, thought that the nerves took origin from the heart.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543), Book IV, 315, as translated by William Frank Richardson and John Burd Carman, in 'The Nerves Originate From the Brain', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book III: The Veins And Arteries; Book IV: The Nerves (1998), 160
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Brain (281)  |  Down (455)  |  Envelop (5)  |  Expert (67)  |  Hard (246)  |  Heart (243)  |  Liver (22)  |  Marrow (5)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Origin (250)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Set (400)  |  Source (101)  |  Spine (9)  |  Thought (995)

The speculative propositions of mathematics do not relate to facts; … all that we are convinced of by any demonstration in the science, is of a necessary connection subsisting between certain suppositions and certain conclusions. When we find these suppositions actually take place in a particular instance, the demonstration forces us to apply the conclusion. Thus, if I could form a triangle, the three sides of which were accurately mathematical lines, I might affirm of this individual figure, that its three angles are equal to two right angles; but, as the imperfection of my senses puts it out of my power to be, in any case, certain of the exact correspondence of the diagram which I delineate, with the definitions given in the elements of geometry, I never can apply with confidence to a particular figure, a mathematical theorem. On the other hand, it appears from the daily testimony of our senses that the speculative truths of geometry may be applied to material objects with a degree of accuracy sufficient for the purposes of life; and from such applications of them, advantages of the most important kind have been gained to society.
In Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Sec. 3, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Angle (25)  |  Appear (122)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Connection (171)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Daily (91)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Element (322)  |  Equal (88)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gain (146)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Line (100)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (438)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Right (473)  |  Right Angle (4)  |  Sense (785)  |  Side (236)  |  Society (350)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)

The starting point of Darwin’s theory of evolution is precisely the existence of those differences between individual members of a race or species which morphologists for the most part rightly neglect. The first condition necessary, in order that any process of Natural Selection may begin among a race, or species, is the existence of differences among its members; and the first step in an enquiry into the possible effect of a selective process upon any character of a race must be an estimate of the frequency with which individuals, exhibiting any given degree of abnormality with respect to that, character, occur. The unit, with which such an enquiry must deal, is not an individual but a race, or a statistically representative sample of a race; and the result must take the form of a numerical statement, showing the relative frequency with which the various kinds of individuals composing the race occur.
Biometrika: A Joumal for the Statistical Study of Biological Problems (1901), 1, 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Character (259)  |  Composition (86)  |  Condition (362)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difference (355)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Individual (420)  |  Member (42)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Occur (151)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Order (638)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Precision (72)  |  Process (439)  |  Race (278)  |  Relative (42)  |  Representative (14)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Sample (19)  |  Selection (130)  |  Selective (21)  |  Species (435)  |  Start (237)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Statement (148)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Step (234)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Various (205)

The subsequent course of nature, teaches, that God, indeed, gave motion to matter; but that, in the beginning, he so guided the various motion of the parts of it, as to contrive them into the world he design'd they should compose; and establish'd those rules of motion, and that order amongst things corporeal, which we call the laws of nature. Thus, the universe being once fram'd by God, and the laws of motion settled, and all upheld by his perpetual concourse, and general providence; the same philosophy teaches, that the phenomena of the world, are physically produced by the mechanical properties of the parts of matter; and, that they operate upon one another according to mechanical laws. 'Tis of this kind of corpuscular philosophy, that I speak.
'The Excellence and Grounds of the Mechanical Philosophy', In P. Shaw (ed.), The Philosophical Works of Robert Boyle (1725), Vol. 1, 187.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Contrive (10)  |  Course (413)  |  Design (203)  |  General (521)  |  God (776)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Law (913)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Produced (187)  |  Providence (19)  |  Rule (307)  |  Settled (34)  |  Speak (240)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  World (1850)

The telegraph is a kind of very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and he is mewing in Los Angeles. Radio operates in exactly the same way, except there is no cat.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Angeles (4)  |  Cat (52)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Long (778)  |  Los (4)  |  Mew (2)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  Operate (19)  |  Pull (43)  |  Radio (60)  |  Same (166)  |  Tail (21)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Way (1214)

The tendency of modern physics is to resolve the whole material universe into waves, and nothing but waves. These waves are of two kinds: bottled-up waves, which we call matter, and unbottled waves, which we call radiation or light. If annihilation of matter occurs, the process is merely that of unbottling imprisoned wave-energy and setting it free to travel through space. These concepts reduce the whole universe to a world of light, potential or existent, so that the whole story of its creation can be told with perfect accuracy and completeness in the six words: 'God said, Let there be light'.
In The Mysterious Universe (1930, 1932), 97-98
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Annihilation (15)  |  Bottled-Up (2)  |  Call (781)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Energy (373)  |  Free (239)  |  God (776)  |  Imprison (11)  |  Let There Be Light (4)  |  Light (635)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occur (151)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Potential (75)  |  Process (439)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Setting (44)  |  Space (523)  |  Story (122)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wave (112)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The theory of medicine, therefore, presents what is useful in thought, but does not indicate how it is to be applied in practice—the mode of operation of these principles. The theory, when mastered, gives us a certain kind of knowledge. Thus we say, for example, there are three forms of fevers and nine constitutions. The practice of medicine is not the work which the physician carries out, but is that branch of medical knowledge which, when acquired, enables one to form an opinion upon which to base the proper plan of treatment.
Avicenna
'The Definition of Medicine', in The Canon of Medicine, adapted by L. Bakhtiar (1999), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Applied (176)  |  Base (120)  |  Branch (155)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Enable (122)  |  Fever (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Operation (221)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Physician (284)  |  Plan (122)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proper (150)  |  Say (989)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Useful (260)  |  Work (1402)

The theory of quantum mechanics also explained all kinds of details, such as why an oxygen atom combines with two hydrogen atoms to make water, and so on. Quantum mechanics thus supplied the theory behind chemistry. So, fundamental theoretical chemistry is really physics.
In 'Introduction', QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (1985), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Behind (139)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Combine (58)  |  Detail (150)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Theoretical Chemistry (4)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (503)  |  Why (491)

The totality of life, known as the biosphere to scientists and creation to theologians, is a membrane of organisms wrapped around Earth so thin it cannot be seen edgewise from a space shuttle, yet so internally complex that most species composing it remain undiscovered. The membrane is seamless. From Everest's peak to the floor of the Mariana Trench, creatures of one kind or another inhabit virtually every square inch of the planetary surface.
In 'Vanishing Before Our Eyes', Time (26 Apr 2000). Also in The Future of Life (2002), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Biosphere (14)  |  Complex (202)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Organism (231)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Remain (355)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Shuttle (12)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theologian (23)  |  Thin (18)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Totality (17)  |  Trench (6)  |  Undiscovered (15)

The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions—we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down.
Max Born
Atomic Physics (1957), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Apply (170)  |  Break (109)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Physics (6)  |  Common (447)  |  Concept (242)  |  Describe (132)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Down (455)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Language (308)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Motion (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Picture (148)  |  Principle (530)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Use (771)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)  |  Word (650)

The universality of parasitism as an offshoot of the predatory habit negatives the position taken by man that it is a pathological phenomenon or a deviation from the normal processes of nature. The pathological manifestations are only incidents in a developing parasitism. As human beings intent on maintaining man's domination over nature we may regard parasitism as pathological insofar as it becomes a drain upon human resources. In our efforts to protect ourselves we may make every kind of sacrifice to limit, reduce, and even eliminate parasitism as a factor in human life. Science attempts to define the terms on which this policy of elimination may or may not succeed. We must first of all thoroughly understand the problem, put ourselves in possession of all the facts in order to estimate the cost. Too often it has been assumed that parasitism was abnormal and that it needed only a slight force to reestablish what was believed to be a normal equilibrium without parasitism. On the contrary, biology teaches us that parasitism is a normal phenomenon and if we accept this view we shall be more ready to pay the price of freedom as a permanent and ever recurring levy of nature for immunity from a condition to which all life is subject. The greatest victory of man over nature in the physical realm would undoubtedly be his own delivery from the heavy encumbrance of parasitism with which all life is burdened.
Parasitism and Disease (1934), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Abnormality (2)  |  Accept (198)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (232)  |  Burden (30)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cost (94)  |  Development (441)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Domination (12)  |  Drain (12)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elimination (26)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Immunity (8)  |  Incident (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Negative (66)  |  Order (638)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Policy (27)  |  Possession (68)  |  Predator (6)  |  Price (57)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Protect (65)  |  Protection (41)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Regard (312)  |  Resource (74)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Subject (543)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universality (22)  |  Victory (40)  |  View (496)

The universe seems to me infinitely strange and foreign. At such a moment I gaze upon it with a mixture of anguish and euphoria; separate from the universe, as though placed at a certain distance outside it; I look and I see pictures, creatures that move in a kind of timeless time and spaceless space, emitting sounds that are a kind of language I no longer understand or ever register.
‘Interviews: Brief Notes for Radio’, Notes and Counter-Notes: Writings on the Theatre (1964), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Anguish (2)  |  Certain (557)  |  Creature (242)  |  Distance (171)  |  Emit (15)  |  Euphoria (2)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Infinitely (13)  |  Language (308)  |  Look (584)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moment (260)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Outside (141)  |  Picture (148)  |  Place (192)  |  Register (22)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Sound (187)  |  Space (523)  |  Spaceless (2)  |  Strange (160)  |  Time (1911)  |  Timeless (8)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)

The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.
'Space And Time', a translation of an address delivered at the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, at Cologne, 21 Sep 1908. In H.A. Lorentz, H. Weyl, H. Minkowski, et al., The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity (1952), 74. Also seen translated as, “From henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, have vanished into the merest shadows and only a kind of blend of the two exists in its own right.”
Science quotes on:  |  Doom (34)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Lie (370)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Radical (28)  |  Reality (274)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Strength (139)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

The way to solve the conflict between human values and technological needs is not to run away from technology, that’s impossible. The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is—not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974).
Science quotes on:  |  Barrier (34)  |  Both (496)  |  Break (109)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Creation (350)  |  Down (455)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Run (158)  |  Solve (145)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)

The whole question of imagination in science is often misunderstood by people in other disciplines. They try to test our imagination in the following way. They say, “Here is a picture of some people in a situation. What do you imagine will happen next?” When we say, “I can’t imagine,” they may think we have a weak imagination. They overlook the fact that whatever we are allowed to imagine in science must be consistent with everything else we know; that the electric fields and the waves we talk about are not just some happy thoughts which we are free to make as we wish, but ideas which must be consistent with all the laws of physics we know. We can’t allow ourselves to seriously imagine things which are obviously in contradiction to the laws of nature. And so our kind of imagination is quite a difficult game. One has to have the imagination to think of something that has never been seen before, never been heard of before. At the same time the thoughts are restricted in a strait jacket, so to speak, limited by the conditions that come from our knowledge of the way nature really is. The problem of creating something which is new, but which is consistent with everything which has been seen before, is one of extreme difficulty
In The Feynman Lectures in Physics (1964), Vol. 2, Lecture 20, p.20-10 to p.20-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Create (245)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electric Field (3)  |  Everything (489)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Free (239)  |  Game (104)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happy (108)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Physics (5)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Misunderstand (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Overlook (33)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Picture (148)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Say (989)  |  Situation (117)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

The worst thing about medicine is that one kind makes another necessary.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Worst (57)

There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower.
From interview by BBC TV in episode 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out', Horizon (1981). Collected in Richard P. Feynman, 'The Making of a Scientist', What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (2001), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Awe (43)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Flower (112)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Question (649)

There are also two kinds of truths, those of reasoning and those of fact. Truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible: truths of fact are contingent and their opposite is possible. When a truth is necessary, reason can be found by analysis, resolving it into more simple ideas and truths, until we come to those which are primary.
The Monadology and Other Philosophical Writings (1714), trans. Robert Latta (1898), 235-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Contingent (12)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impossible (263)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primary (82)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Simple (426)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)

There are only two kinds of math books. Those you cannot read beyond the first sentence, and those you cannot read beyond the first page.
Attributed, but without reference. For example, in John Mitchinson, John Lloyd, If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? (2009), 31. If you know the primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  First (1302)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Page (35)  |  Read (308)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Two (936)

There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only truths of definition. These definitions rest upon simple, but abstract, suppositions, and all truths in this category are only constructed, but abstract, consequences of these definitions ... Physical truths, to the contrary, are in no way arbitrary, and do not depend on us.
'Premier Discours: De la Manière d'Étudier et de Traiter l'Histoire naturelle', Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particulière, Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi (1749), Vol. I, 53-4. Trans. Phillip R. Sloan.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Category (19)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Construct (129)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Customary (18)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1302)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Order (638)  |  Physical (518)  |  Rest (287)  |  Simple (426)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Way (1214)

There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.
As quoted in Jack Shepherd, "David Attenborough: 15 of the naturalist’s best quotes: In celebration of his 94th birthday", Independent (8 May 2017), on independent.co.uk website.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Animal (651)  |  Different (595)  |  Million (124)  |  Plant (320)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solution (282)  |  World (1850)

There are then two kinds of intellect: the one able to penetrate acutely and deeply into the conclusions of given premises, and this is the precise intellect; the other able to comprehend a great number of premises without confusing them, and this is the mathematical intellect. The one has force and exactness, the other comprehension. Now the one quality can exist without the other; the intellect can be strong and narrow, and can also be comprehensive and weak.
In Pascal’s Pensées (1958), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acutely (2)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Exist (458)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Precise (71)  |  Premise (40)  |  Quality (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Two (936)  |  Weak (73)

There are those who say that the human kidney was created to keep the blood pure, or more precisely, to keep our internal environment in an ideal balanced state. This I must deny. I grant that the human kidney is a marvelous organ, but I cannot grant that it was purposefully designed to excrete urine or to regulate the composition of the blood or to subserve the physiological welfare of Homo sapiens in any sense. Rather I contend that the human kidney manufactures the kind of urine that it does, and it maintains the blood in the composition which that fluid has, because this kidney has a certain functional architecture; and it owes that architecture not to design or foresight or to any plan, but to the fact that the earth is an unstable sphere with a fragile crust, to the geologic revolutions that for six hundred million years have raised and lowered continents and seas, to the predacious enemies, and heat and cold, and storms and droughts; to the unending succession of vicissitudes that have driven the mutant vertebrates from sea into fresh water, into desiccated swamps, out upon the dry land, from one habitation to another, perpetually in search of the free and independent life, perpetually failing, for one reason or another, to find it.
From Fish to Philosopher (1953), 210-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Architecture (50)  |  Balance (82)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certain (557)  |  Cold (115)  |  Composition (86)  |  Contention (14)  |  Continent (79)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crust (43)  |  Denial (20)  |  Deny (71)  |  Design (203)  |  Drought (14)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Environment (239)  |  Excretion (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Fragility (2)  |  Free (239)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Function (235)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grant (76)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Heat (180)  |  Homo Sapiens (23)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Independent (74)  |  Internal (69)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Land (131)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lowering (4)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutant (2)  |  Organ (118)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Plan (122)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Predator (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purity (15)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Sea (326)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Storm (56)  |  Storms (18)  |  Succession (80)  |  Swamp (9)  |  Unstable (9)  |  Urine (18)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Vicissitude (6)  |  Water (503)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Year (963)

There are three distinctions in the kinds of bodies, or three states, which have more especially claimed the attention of philosophical chemists; namely, those which are marked by the terms elastic fluids, liquids, and solids. A very familiar instance is exhibited to us in water, of a body, which, in certain circumstances, is capable of assuming all the three states. In steam we recognise a perfectly elastic fluid, in water, a perfect liquid, and in ice of a complete solid. These observations have tacitly led to the conclusion which seems universally adopted, that all bodies of sensible magnitude, whether liquid or solid, are constituted of a vast number of extremely small particles, or atoms of matter bound together by a force of attraction.
A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808), Vol. 1, 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Body (557)  |  Bound (120)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Claim (154)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Force (497)  |  Ice (58)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Marked (55)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecular Force (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Small (489)  |  Solid (119)  |  State (505)  |  Steam (81)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Together (392)  |  Vast (188)  |  Water (503)

There are three kinds of explanation in science: explanations which throw a light upon, or give a hint at a matter; explanations which do not explain anything; and explanations which obscure everything.
Aphorism 82 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Anything (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Hint (21)  |  Light (635)  |  Matter (821)  |  Obscure (66)

There are three kinds of lies—lies, damned lies and statistics.
In Autobiography (1924).
Science quotes on:  |  Lie (370)  |  Statistics (170)

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Attributed to Disraeli in Mark Twain’s Autobiography (1924), Vol. 1, 246. However, this attribution is the only reference stating that Disraeli made this statement.
Science quotes on:  |  Lie (370)  |  Statistics (170)

There are two kinds of biologists, those who are looking to see if there is one thing that can be understood and those who keep saying it is very complicated and that nothing can be understood. ... You must study the simplest system you think has the properties you are interested in.
As quoted, without source, by John R. Platt in 'Science, Strong Inference', Science (16 Oct 1964), 146, No. 3642, 349.
Science quotes on:  |  Biologist (70)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Interest (416)  |  Looking (191)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Property (177)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Simplest (10)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)

There are two kinds of fools: one says, “This is old, therefore it is good”; the other says, “This is new, therefore it is better.”
Dean Inge
In William Ralph Inge, More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Fool (121)  |  Good (906)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Say (989)  |  Two (936)

There are two kinds of physician - those who work for love, and those who work for their own profit. They are both known by their works; the true and just physician is known by his love and by his unfailing love for his neighbor. The unjust physicians are known for their transgressions against the commandment; for they reap, although they have not sown, and they are like ravening wolves; they reap because they want to reap, in order to increase their profit, and they are heedless of the commandment of love.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Both (496)  |  Commandment (8)  |  Heedless (2)  |  Increase (225)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Love (328)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Order (638)  |  Physician (284)  |  Profit (56)  |  Raven (2)  |  Reap (19)  |  Sow (11)  |  Transgression (3)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  Unjust (6)  |  Want (504)  |  Wolf (11)  |  Work (1402)

There are two kinds of sleep. The sleep of the just and the sleep of the just after.
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Quip (81)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Two (936)

There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.
Anonymous
Death of a Doxy (1966, 2010), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Look (584)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Two (936)

There are two kinds of statistics: the kind you look up and the kind you make up.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Look (584)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Two (936)

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.
In 'Great Thought' (19 Feb 1938), The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer: A Gothic Romance, (1976), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Crude (32)  |  First (1302)  |  Heart (243)  |  High (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Second (66)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (74)  |  Way (1214)

There can be no doubt that science is in many ways the natural enemy of language. Language, either literary or colloquial, demands a rich store of living and vivid words—words that are “thoughtpictures,” and appeal to the senses, and also embody our feelings about the objects they describe. But science cares nothing about emotion or vivid presentation; her ideal is a kind of algebraic notation, to be used simply as an instrument of analysis; and for this she rightly prefers dry and abstract terms, taken from some dead language, and deprived of all life and personality.
In The English Language (1912), 124-125.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Care (203)  |  Dead (65)  |  Demand (131)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Describe (132)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dry (65)  |  Embody (18)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Live (650)  |  Natural (810)  |  Notation (28)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Personality (66)  |  Picture (148)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Store (49)  |  Term (357)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Word (650)

There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers: when a fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and hold it fast till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but they will close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of rain or a piece of stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its own interest.
In Erewhon: Or Over the Range (1880), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Curious (95)  |  Drop (77)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flower (112)  |  Fly (153)  |  Food (213)  |  Good (906)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Organic (161)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

There is an occasional glimmer of fertility [as compounds], the chemical equivalent of a blade of grass [in a desert]. So, gone … is the justification for “inert.” [Group 0 elements] are now known collectively as the noble gases, a name intended to imply a kind of chemical aloofness rather than a rigorous chastity.
In The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into the Land of the Chemical Elements (1995), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Blade (11)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Compound (117)  |  Desert (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Grass (49)  |  Group (83)  |  Inert (14)  |  Justification (52)  |  Known (453)  |  Name (359)  |  Noble (93)  |  Noble Gas (4)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Rigorous (50)

There is common misapprehension that the magnitude scale is itself some kind of instrument or apparatus. Visitors will ask to “see the scale,” and are disconcerted by being referred to tables and charts used for applying the scale to readings taken from the seismograms.
From interview with Henry Spall, as in an abridged version of Earthquake Information Bulletin (Jan-Feb 1980), 12, No. 1, that was on the USGS website.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Apply (170)  |  Ask (420)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chart (7)  |  Common (447)  |  Disappointed (6)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Misapprehension (2)  |  Reading (136)  |  Scale (122)  |  See (1094)  |  Table (105)  |  Visitor (3)  |  Will (2350)

There is no kind of material, no body, and no thing that can be produced or conceived of, which is not made up of elementary particles; and nature does not admit of a truthful exploration in accordance with the doctrines of the physicists without an accurate demonstration of the primary causes of things, showing how and why they are as they are.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 2, Chap 1, Sec. 9. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Atom (381)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Particle (200)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Primary (82)  |  Produced (187)  |  Research (753)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Why (491)

There is, in fact, no reason whatever for believing that such a game as, say, football improves the health of those who play it. On the contrary, there is every reason for believing that it is deleterious. The football player is not only exposed constantly to a risk of grave injury, often of an irremediable kind; he is also damaged in his normal physiological processes by the excessive strains of the game, and the exposure that goes with playing it. … The truth is that athletes, as a class, are not above the normal in health, but below it. … Some are crippled on the field, but more succumb to the mere wear and tear.
From American Mercury (Jun 1931). Collected in A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949, 1956), 370-371.
Science quotes on:  |  Athlete (2)  |  Below (26)  |  Class (168)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Crippled (2)  |  Damage (38)  |  Deleterious (2)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Exposure (9)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Football (11)  |  Game (104)  |  Grave (52)  |  Health (210)  |  Injury (36)  |  Mere (86)  |  More (2558)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Player (9)  |  Playing (42)  |  Reason (766)  |  Risk (68)  |  Say (989)  |  Strain (13)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Tear (48)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Whatever (234)

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors—this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.
In 'Positions to be Examined', The Works of Benjamin Franklin Consisting of Essays, Humorous, Moral and Literary (1824), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Cheating (2)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Continual (44)  |  Favor (69)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  Honest (53)  |  Increase (225)  |  Industry (159)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Nation (208)  |  Plunder (6)  |  Real (159)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reward (72)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Roman (39)  |  Seed (97)  |  Throw (45)  |  Virtuous (9)  |  War (233)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wealth (100)

There were details like clothing, hair styles and the fragile objects that hardly ever survive for the archaeologist—musical instruments, bows and arrows, and body ornaments depicted as they were worn. … No amounts of stone and bone could yield the kinds of information that the paintings gave so freely
As quoted in Current Biography Yearbook (1985), 259.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Bow (15)  |  Clothing (11)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Freely (13)  |  Giving (11)  |  Hair (25)  |  Information (173)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Music (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Painting (46)  |  Stone (168)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Yield (86)

There were two kinds of physicists in Berlin: on the one hand there was Einstein, and on the other all the rest.
As quoted in Discovery: The Popular Journal of Knowledge (1949), 45. Also as epigraph in A.P. French (ed.), Einstein: A Centenary Volume (1979), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Berlin (10)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Hand (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Rest (287)  |  Two (936)

Therefore, the causes assigned to natural effects of the same kind must be, so far as possible, the same.
The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), 3rd edition (1726), trans. I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman (1999), Book 3, Rule. of Reasoning in Philosophy, Rule 2, 795.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Effect (414)  |  Equality (34)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Possible (560)

Things of all kinds are subject to a universal law which may be called the law of large numbers. It consists in the fact that, if one observes very considerable numbers of events of the same nature, dependent on constant causes and causes which vary irregularly, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other, it is to say without their variation being progressive in any definite direction, one shall find, between these numbers, relations which are almost constant.
Poisson’s Law of Large Numbers (16 Nov 1837), in Recherches sur la Probabilités (1837), 7. English version by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “Les choses de toutes natures sont soumises à une loi universelle qu’on) peut appeler la loi des grands nombres. Elle consiste en ce que, si l’on observe des nombres très considérables d’événements d’une même nature, dépendants de causes constantes et de causes qui varient irrégulièrement, tantôt dans un sens, tantôt daus l’autre, c’est-à-dire sans que leur variation soit progressive dans aucun sens déterminé, on trouvera, entre ces nombres, des rapports a très peu près constants.”
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constant (148)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Direction (185)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Probability (135)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Relation (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universal Law (4)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vary (27)

Thinking, after a while, becomes the most pleasurable thing in the world. Give me a satchel and a fishing rod, and I could hie myself off and keep busy at thinking forever. I don't need anybody to amuse me. It is the same way with my friends John Burroughs, the naturalist, and Henry Ford, who is a natural-born mechanic. We can derive the most satisfying kind of joy from thinking and thinking and thinking.
As quoted from an interview by B.C. Forbes in The American Magazine (Jan 1921), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Become (821)  |  John Burroughs (17)  |  Derive (70)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Henry Ford (23)  |  Forever (111)  |  Friend (180)  |  Joy (117)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Natural (810)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right—now do you understand serendipity?
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (28 Jan 1754), in W. S. Lewis, Warren Hunting Smith and George L. Lam (eds.), Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann (1960), Vol. 20, 407-408.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Better (493)  |  Blind (98)  |  Call (781)  |  Definition (238)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eating (46)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expressive (6)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fairy (10)  |  Grass (49)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instance (33)  |  Making (300)  |  Mule (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Prince (13)  |  Quest (39)  |  Read (308)  |  Right (473)  |  Road (71)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Side (236)  |  Silly (17)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Traveled (2)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

This leads us to ask for the reasons which call for this new theory of transmutation. The beginning of things must needs lie in obscurity, beyond the bounds of proof, though within those of conjecture or of analogical inference. Why not hold fast to the customary view, that all species were directly, instead of indirectly, created after their respective kinds, as we now behold them,--and that in a manner which, passing our comprehension, we intuitively refer to the supernatural? Why this continual striving after “the unattained and dim,”—these anxious endeavors, especially of late years, by naturalists and philosophers of various schools and different tendencies, to penetrate what one of them calls “the mystery of mysteries,” the origin of species? To this, in general, sufficient answer may be found in the activity of the human intellect, “the delirious yet divine desire to know,” stimulated as it has been by its own success in unveiling the laws and processes of inorganic Nature,—in the fact that the principal triumphs of our age in physical science have consisted in tracing connections where none were known before, in reducing heterogeneous phenomena to a common cause or origin, in a manner quite analogous to that of the reduction of supposed independently originated species to a common ultimate origin,—thus, and in various other ways, largely and legitimately extending the domain of secondary causes. Surely the scientific mind of an age which contemplates the solar system as evolved from a common, revolving, fluid mass,— which, through experimental research, has come to regard light, heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, and mechanical power as varieties or derivative and convertible forms of one force, instead of independent species,—which has brought the so-called elementary kinds of matter, such as the metals, into kindred groups, and raised the question, whether the members of each group may not be mere varieties of one species,—and which speculates steadily in the direction of the ultimate unity of matter, of a sort of prototype or simple element which may be to the ordinary species of matter what the protozoa or component cells of an organism are to the higher sorts of animals and plants,—the mind of such an age cannot be expected to let the old belief about species pass unquestioned.
Asa Gray
'Darwin on the Origin of Species', The Atlantic Monthly (Jul 1860), 112-3. Also in 'Natural Selection Not Inconsistent With Natural Theology', Darwiniana: Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism (1876), 94-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Affinity (27)  |  Age (509)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bound (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Component (51)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consist (223)  |  Continual (44)  |  Customary (18)  |  Desire (212)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Divine (112)  |  Domain (72)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Heat (180)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Independently (24)  |  Inference (45)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Late (119)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Principal (69)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prototype (9)  |  Protozoa (6)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Simple (426)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Species (435)  |  Success (327)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unity (81)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

This means that we have here an entirely separate kind of chemistry for which the current tool we use is the electrometer, not the balance, and which we might well call the chemistry of the imponderable.
(11 Dec 1911) As quoted in Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium, Nobel Lecture
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Current (122)  |  Imponderable (4)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Research (753)  |  Separate (151)  |  Tool (129)  |  Use (771)

This organ deserves to be styled the starting point of life and the sun of our microcosm just as much as the sun deserves to be styled the heart of the world. For it is by the heart's vigorous beat that the blood is moved, perfected, activated, and protected from injury and coagulation. The heart is the tutelary deity of the body, the basis of life, the source of all things, carrying out its function of nourishing, warming, and activating body as a whole. But we shall more fittingly speak of these matters when we consider the final cause of this kind of movement.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth J. Franklin (1957), Chapter 8, 59. Alternate translation: “The heart is the beginning of life; the sun of the microcosm, even as the sun in his turn might well be designated the heart of the world; for it is the heart by whose virtue and pulse the blood is moved, perfected, made apt to nourish, and is preserved from corruption and coagulation; it is the household divinity which, discharging its function, nourishes, cherishes, quickens the whole body, and is indeed the foundation of life, the source of all action. … The heart, like the prince in a kingdom, in whose hands lie the chief highest authority, rules over all; it is the original and foundation from which all power is derived, on which all power depends in the animal body.” In translation by Geoffrey Keynes (1953), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Beat (42)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Coagulation (5)  |  Consider (428)  |  Deity (22)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Final (121)  |  Function (235)  |  Heart (243)  |  Injury (36)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microcosm (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Organ (118)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Point (584)  |  Protect (65)  |  Speak (240)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Warming (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

This relation logical implication is probably the most rigorous and powerful of all the intellectual enterprises of man. From a properly selected set of the vast number of prepositional functions a set can be selected from which an infinitude of prepositional functions can be implied. In this sense all postulational thinking is mathematics. It can be shown that doctrines in the sciences, natural and social, in history, in jurisprudence and in ethics are constructed on the postulational thinking scheme and to that extent are mathematical. Together the proper enterprise of Science and the enterprise of Mathematics embrace the whole knowledge-seeking activity of mankind, whereby “knowledge” is meant the kind of knowledge that admits of being made articulate in the form of propositions.
In Mathematics as a Culture Clue: And Other Essays (1947), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Articulate (8)  |  Being (1276)  |  Construct (129)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  History (716)  |  Imply (20)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Number (710)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Select (45)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Together (392)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)

This science, Geometry, is one of indispensable use and constant reference, for every student of the laws of nature; for the relations of space and number are the alphabet in which those laws are written. But besides the interest and importance of this kind which geometry possesses, it has a great and peculiar value for all who wish to understand the foundations of human knowledge, and the methods by which it is acquired. For the student of geometry acquires, with a degree of insight and clearness which the unmathematical reader can but feebly imagine, a conviction that there are necessary truths, many of them of a very complex and striking character; and that a few of the most simple and self-evident truths which it is possible for the mind of man to apprehend, may, by systematic deduction, lead to the most remote and unexpected results.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Part 1, Bk. 2, chap. 4, sect. 8 (1868).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Alphabet (14)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Character (259)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Complex (202)  |  Constant (148)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Degree (277)  |  Evident (92)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Insight (107)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mind Of Man (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remote (86)  |  Result (700)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Strike (72)  |  Striking (48)  |  Student (317)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wish (216)  |  Write (250)

This very important property of rods, and indeed also of each kind of cone, this limitation of output to a single dimension of change, may be called the Principle of Univariance and stated thus: “The output of a receptor depends upon its quantum catch, but not upon what quanta are caught.” … Young's theory of colour vision may now be stated in terms of cone pigments. “There are three classes of cone each containing a different visual pigment. The output of each cone is univariant, depending simply upon the quantum catch of its pigment. Our sensation of colour depends upon the ratios of these three cone outputs.”
Principle of Univariance, concerning color vision, as stated in Lecture to a meeting of the Physiological Society at Chelsea College, London (17 Apr 1970), and reported in 'Pigments and Signals in Colour Vision', The Journal of Physiology (1972), 220 No. 3, 4P.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Cone (8)  |  Depend (238)  |  Different (595)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Eye (440)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Output (12)  |  Photon (11)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Principle (530)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Retina (4)  |  Rod (6)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Single (365)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Vision (127)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (15)

Those that can readily master the difficulties of Mathematics find a considerable charm in the study, sometimes amounting to fascination. This is far from universal; but the subject contains elements of strong interest of a kind that constitutes the pleasures of knowledge. The marvellous devices for solving problems elate the mind with the feeling of intellectual power; and the innumerable constructions of the science leave us lost in wonder.
In Education as a Science (1879), 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Charm (54)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Construction (114)  |  Device (71)  |  Elation (2)  |  Element (322)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  Problem (731)  |  Strong (182)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Universal (198)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wonder (251)

Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far...
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.
Novum Organum (1620)
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Already (226)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Correction (42)  |  Course (413)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Follow (389)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Injury (36)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Operation (221)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Professional (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rest (287)  |  Retain (57)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stage (152)  |  Start (237)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understood (155)

Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed.
An early injunction against genetic modification.
Bible
Leviticus 19:19. In 'Shaping Life in the Lab', Time (9 Mar 1981).
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Cow (42)  |  Early (196)  |  Field (378)  |  Gender (3)  |  Gene Splicing (5)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Modification (57)  |  Seed (97)

Three ways have been taken to account for it [racial differences]: either that they are the posterity of Ham, who was cursed; or that God at first created two kinds of men, one black and another white; or that by the heat of the sun the skin is scorched, and so gets the sooty hue. This matter has been much canvassed among naturalists, but has never been brought to any certain issue.
In James Boswell, London Journal, 1762-1763, as First Published in 1950 from the Original Manuscript (1956), 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Black (46)  |  Certain (557)  |  Color (155)  |  Create (245)  |  Curse (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  Ham (2)  |  Heat (180)  |  Matter (821)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Never (1089)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Race (278)  |  Scorch (2)  |  Skin (48)  |  Soot (11)  |  Study (701)  |  Sun (407)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  White (132)

Through the Middle Ages and down to the late eighteenth century, many philosophers, most men of science, and, indeed, most educated men, were to accept without question—the conception of the universe as a Great Chain of Being, composed of an immense, or—by the strict but seldom rigorously applied logic of the principle of continuity—of an infinite number of links ranging in hierarchical order from the meagerest kind of existents, which barely escape non-existence, through 'every possible' grade up to the ens perfectissimum—or, in a somewhat more orthodox version, to the highest possible kind of creature, between which and the Absolute Being the disparity was assumed to be infinite—every one of them differing from that immediately above and that immediately below it by the 'least possible' degree of difference.
The Great Chain of Being (1936), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  Absolute (153)  |  Accept (198)  |  Age (509)  |  Applied (176)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Conception (160)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Creature (242)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difference (355)  |  Down (455)  |  Escape (85)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Great Chain Of Being (2)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Immense (89)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Late (119)  |  Logic (311)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Middle Age (19)  |  Middle Ages (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Question (649)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (900)

Albert Einstein quote: Mistrust of every kind of authority
Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment–an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.
In P. A. Schilpp, (ed.), Part I, 'Autobiographical Notes', Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 1, 5. Translated by the P.A. Schilpp, from Einstein’s original German manuscript, written at age 67, (p.2, 4): “Durch Lesen populärwissenschaftlicher Bücher kam ich bald zu der Ueberzeugung, dass vieles in den Erzählungen der Bibel nicht wahr sein konnte. Die Folge war eine geradezu fanatische Freigeisterei, verbunden mit dem Eindruck, dass die Jugend vom Staate mit Vorbedacht belogen wird; es war ein niederschmetternder Eindruck. Das Misstrauen gegen jede Art Autorität erwuchs aus diesem Erlebnis, eine skeptische Einstellung gegen die Ueberzeugungen, welche in der jeweiligen sozialen Umwelt lebendig waren—eine Einstellung, die mich nicht wieder verlassen hat, wenn sie auch später durch bessere Einsicht in die kausalen Zusammenhänge ihre ursprünglische Schärfe verloren haben.”.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Author (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Bible (105)  |  Book (413)  |  Causal (7)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Couple (9)  |  Crush (19)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Environment (239)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Freethinking (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Impression (118)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intentionally (3)  |  Late (119)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mistrust (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Orgy (3)  |  Popular (34)  |  Positively (4)  |  Reach (286)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Social (261)  |  Soon (187)  |  Specific (98)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Temper (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Toward (45)  |  True (239)  |  Youth (109)

Thus God himself was too kind to remain idle, and began to play the game of signatures, signing his likeness into the world; therefore I chance to think that all nature and the graceful sky are symbolized in the art of geometry.
In Tertius Interveniens (1610), as quoted in Freeman Dyson, 'Mathematics in the Physical Sciences', Scientific American (Sep 1964), 211, No. 3, 129.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Chance (244)  |  Game (104)  |  Geometry (271)  |  God (776)  |  Graceful (3)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idle (34)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Play (116)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sign (63)  |  Signature (4)  |  Sky (174)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Think (1122)  |  World (1850)

Time has a different quality in a forest, a different kind of flow. Time moves in circles, and events are linked, even if it’s not obvious that they are linked. Events in a forest occur with precision in the flow of tree time, like the motions of an endless dance.
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring
Science quotes on:  |  Circle (117)  |  Dance (35)  |  Different (595)  |  Endless (60)  |  Event (222)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forest (161)  |  Link (48)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Occur (151)  |  Precision (72)  |  Quality (139)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)

Time is that which is measured by a clock. This is a sound way of looking at things. A quantity like time, or any other physical measurement, does not exist in a completely abstract way. We find no sense in talking about something unless we specify how we measure it. It is the definition by the method of measuring a quantity that is the one sure way of avoiding talking nonsense about this kind of thing.
From Relativity and Common Sense: A New Approach to Einstein (1980), 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Avoiding (2)  |  Clock (51)  |  Completely (137)  |  Definition (238)  |  Exist (458)  |  Find (1014)  |  Looking (191)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measured (2)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Method (531)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Sound (187)  |  Specify (6)  |  Talking (76)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)

To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know. And yet those with the courage to tread this path to real discovery are not only offered practically no guidance on how to do so, they are actively discouraged and have to set about it in secret, pretending meanwhile to be diligently engaged in the frantic diversions and to conform with the deadening personal opinions which are continually being thrust upon them.
In 'Appendix 1', The Laws of Form (1969), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Actively (3)  |  Activity (218)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Busy (32)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Conform (15)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Continual (44)  |  Courage (82)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Discourage (14)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Diversion (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Engage (41)  |  Frantic (3)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Know (1538)  |  Making (300)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Offer (142)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Path (159)  |  Personal (75)  |  Practically (10)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Real (159)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Require (229)  |  Secret (216)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simply (53)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thrust (13)  |  Tread (17)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Year (963)

To call ourselves a Microcosme, or little world, I thought it onely a pleasant trope of Rhetorick, till my neare judgement and second thoughts told me there was a reall truth therein: for first wee are a rude masse, and in the ranke of creatures, which only are, and have a dull kinde of being not yet priviledged with life, or preferred to sense or reason; next we live the life of plants, the life of animals, the life of men, and at last the life of spirits, running on in one mysterious nature those five kinds of existence, which comprehend the creatures not onely of world, but of the Universe.
Religio Medici (1642), Part I, Section 34. In L. C. Martin (ed.), Thomas Browne: Religio Medici and Other Works (1964), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dull (58)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Plant (320)  |  Reason (766)  |  Running (61)  |  Sense (785)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction one or more universal laws, together with certain singular statements, the initial conditions ... We have thus two different kinds of statement, both of which are necessary ingredients of a complete causal explanation. (1959)
The Logic of Scientific Discovery: Logik Der Forschung (1959, 2002), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Complete (209)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Describe (132)  |  Different (595)  |  Event (222)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Law (913)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Premise (40)  |  Singular (24)  |  Statement (148)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (198)

To illustrate the apparent contrast between statistics and truth … may I quote a remark I once overheard: “There are three kinds of lies: white lies, which are justifiable; common lies—these have no justification; and statistics.” Our meaning is similar when we say: “Anything can be proved by figures”; or, modifying a well-known quotation from Goethe, with numbers “all men may contend their charming systems to defend.”
In Probability, Statistics, and Truth (1939), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Charming (4)  |  Common (447)  |  Contend (8)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Defend (32)  |  Figure (162)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Illustrate (14)  |  Justifiable (3)  |  Justification (52)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Number (710)  |  Prove (261)  |  Quotation (19)  |  Quote (46)  |  Say (989)  |  Statistics (170)  |  System (545)  |  Truth (1109)  |  White (132)

To live for a time close to great minds is the best kind of education.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Close (77)  |  Education (423)  |  Great (1610)  |  Live (650)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Time (1911)

To us investigators, the concept ‘soul’ is irrelevant and a matter for laughter. But matter is an abstraction of exactly the same kind, just as good and just as bad as it is. We know as much about the soul as we do of matter.
'Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit' (1872). Trans. Philip E. Jourdain, History and Root of the Principle of the Conservation of Energy (1911), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Bad (185)  |  Concept (242)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (906)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Matter (821)  |  Soul (235)

Two kinds of symbol must surely be distinguished. The algebraic symbol comes naked into the world of mathematics and is clothed with value by its masters. A poetic symbol—like the Rose, for Love, in Guillaume de Lorris—comes trailing clouds of glory from the real world, clouds whose shape and colour largely determine and explain its poetic use. In an equation, x and y will do as well as a and b; but the Romance of the Rose could not, without loss, be re-written as the Romance of the Onion, and if a man did not see why, we could only send him back to the real world to study roses, onions, and love, all of them still untouched by poetry, still raw.
C.S. Lewis and E.M. Tillyard, The Personal Heresy: A Controversy (1936), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Back (395)  |  Clothes (11)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Color (155)  |  Determine (152)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equation (138)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Glory (66)  |  Loss (117)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Naked (10)  |  Onion (9)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Raw (28)  |  Rewriting (2)  |  Romance (18)  |  Rose (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Shape (77)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Surely (101)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Two (936)  |  Untouched (5)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Undeveloped though the science [of chemistry] is, it already has great power to bring benefits. Those accruing to physical welfare are readily recognized, as in providing cures, improving the materials needed for everyday living, moving to ameliorate the harm which mankind by its sheer numbers does to the environment, to say nothing of that which even today attends industrial development. And as we continue to improve our understanding of the basic science on which applications increasingly depend, material benefits of this and other kinds are secured for the future.
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Application (257)  |  Attend (67)  |  Basic (144)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cure (124)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Environment (239)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Improve (64)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Industrial Development (4)  |  Living (492)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (320)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Provision (17)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Say (989)  |  Secured (18)  |  Today (321)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Welfare (30)

Unhappily for the physiologist, the subjects of the principal department of his science, that of animal physiology, are sentient beings; and every experiment, every new or unusual situation of such a being, is necessarily attended by pain or suffering of a bodily or mental kind.
A Critical and Experimental Essay on the Circulation of the Blood (1831), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attend (67)  |  Being (1276)  |  Department (93)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Mental (179)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Pain (144)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Principal (69)  |  Sentient (8)  |  Situation (117)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Unusual (37)

We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.
From White House Announcement of the Completion of the First Survey of the Entire Human Genome Project, broadcast on the day of the publication of the first draft of the human genome. Quoted in transcript on the National Archives, Clinton White House web site, 'Text of Remarks on the Completion of the First Survey of the Entire Human Genome Project' (26 Jun 2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Completion (23)  |  Doubt (314)  |  First (1302)  |  Genome (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Genome (13)  |  Human Genome Project (6)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Map (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  Produced (187)  |  Survey (36)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wondrous (22)

We are placed here with certain talents and capabilities. It is up to each of us to use those talents and capabilities as best you can. If you do that, I think there is a power greater than any of us that will place the opportunities in our way, and if we use our talents properly, we will be living the kind of life we should live.
At NASA press conference (9 Apr 1959) to introduce the Mercury 7 astronauts. As quoted in Joseph N. Bell, Seven Into Space: The Story of the Mercury Astronauts (1960), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Capability (44)  |  Certain (557)  |  Do (1905)  |  Greater (288)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Place (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Properly (21)  |  Talent (99)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

We believe one magnificent highway of this kind [the Lincoln Highway], in actual existence, will stimulate as nothing else could the building of enduring highways everywhere that will not only be a credit to the American people but that will also mean much to American agriculture and American commerce.
From Letter (24 Sep 1912) to his friend, the publisher Elbert Hubbard asking for help facilitating fund-raising. In Jane Watts Fisher, Fabulous Hoosier: A Story of American Achievement (1947), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  America (143)  |  Belief (615)  |  Building (158)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Credit (24)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Highway (15)  |  Lincoln Highway (4)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Mean (810)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Stimulate (21)  |  Will (2350)

We can learn a lot from living organisms. An organism is a pretty complicated thing, which can tolerate surgery, which can tolerate injury, which can tolerate all kinds of perturbation provided they are not too great and do not come too suddenly. There’s something we call trauma, however. We don’t really understand what it is—but organisations can suffer from it too.
From interview with Graham Chedd, 'The Lady Gets Her Way', New Scientist (5 Jul 1973), 59, No. 853, 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Do (1905)  |  Great (1610)  |  Injury (36)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Lot (151)  |  Organisation (7)  |  Organism (231)  |  Perturbation (7)  |  Something (718)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tolerate (8)  |  Trauma (2)  |  Understand (648)

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Problem (731)  |  Same (166)  |  Solve (145)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

We come back then to our records of nervous messages with a reasonable assurance that they do tell us what the message is like. It is a succession of brief waves of surface breakdown, each allowing a momentary leakage of ions from the nerve fibre. The waves can be set up so that they follow one another in rapid or in slow succession, and this is the only form of gradation of which the message is capable. Essentially the same kind of activity is found in all sorts of nerve fibres from all sorts of animals and there is no evidence to suggest that any other kind of nervous transmission is possible. In fact we may conclude that the electrical method can tell us how the nerve fibre carries out its function as the conducting unit of the nervous system, and that it does so by reactions of a fairly simple type.
The Mechanism of Nervous Action (1932), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Back (395)  |  Brief (37)  |  Capable (174)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Gradation (17)  |  Ion (21)  |  Message (53)  |  Method (531)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Nervous System (35)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Record (161)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Slow (108)  |  Succession (80)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Tell (344)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Type (171)  |  Wave (112)

We do not know of any enzymes or other chemical defined organic substances having specifically acting auto-catalytic properties such as to enable them to construct replicas of themselves. Neither was there a general principle known that would result in pattern-copying; if there were, the basis of life would be easier to come by. Moreover, there was no evidence to show that the enzymes were not products of hereditary determiners or genes, rather than these genes themselves, and they might even be products removed by several or many steps from the genes, just as many other known substances in the cell must be. However, the determiners or genes themselves must conduct, or at least guide, their own replication, so as to lead to the formation of genes just like themselves, in such wise that even their own mutations become .incorporated in the replicas. And this would probably take place by some kind of copying of pattern similar to that postulated by Troland for the enzymes, but requiring some distinctive chemical structure to make it possible. By virtue of this ability of theirs to replicate, these genes–or, if you prefer, genetic material–contained in the nuclear chromosomes and in whatever other portion of the cell manifests this property, such as the chloroplastids of plants, must form the basis of all the complexities of living matter that have arisen subsequent to their own appearance on the scene, in the whole course of biological evolution. That is, this genetic material must underlie all evolution based on mutation and selective multiplication.
'Genetic Nucleic Acid', Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1961), 5, 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Construct (129)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Gene (105)  |  General (521)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Guide (107)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Plant (320)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Product (166)  |  Property (177)  |  Replication (10)  |  Result (700)  |  Scene (36)  |  Selective (21)  |  Show (353)  |  Step (234)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)

We do whatever we can to deny intuition of the invisible realms. We clog up our senses with smog, jam our minds with media overload. We drown ourselves in alcohol or medicate ourselves into rigidly artificial states... we take pride in our cynicism and detachment. Perhaps we are terrified to discover that our “rationality” is itself a kind of faith, an artifice, that beneath it lies the vast territory of the unknown.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 29
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Artifice (4)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Clog (5)  |  Cynicism (4)  |  Deny (71)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drown (14)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Jam (3)  |  Lie (370)  |  Media (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rigidly (4)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Terrified (4)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whatever (234)

We had various kinds of tape-recorded concerts and popular music. But by the end of the flight what we listened to most was Russian folk songs. We also had recordings of nature sounds: thunder, rain, the singing of birds. We switched them on most frequently of all, and we never grew tired of them. It was as if they returned us to Earth.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Concert (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Flight (101)  |  Folk (10)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Grow (247)  |  Listen (81)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Popular (34)  |  Rain (70)  |  Record (161)  |  Recording (13)  |  Return (133)  |  Russian (3)  |  Sing (29)  |  Singing (19)  |  Song (41)  |  Sound (187)  |  Switch (10)  |  Thunder (21)  |  Tired (13)  |  Various (205)

We have here no esoteric theory of the ultimate nature of concepts, nor a philosophical championing of the primacy of the 'operation'. We have merely a pragmatic matter, namely that we have observed after much experience that if we want to do certain kinds of things with our concepts, our concepts had better be constructed in certain ways. In fact one can see that the situation here is no different from what we always find when we push our analysis to the limit; operations are not ultimately sharp or irreducible any more than any other sort of creature. We always run into a haze eventually, and all our concepts are describable only in spiralling approximation.
In Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Better (493)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concept (242)  |  Construct (129)  |  Creature (242)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Esoteric (4)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observed (149)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Push (66)  |  Run (158)  |  See (1094)  |  Situation (117)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

We have here spoken of the prediction of facts of the same kind as those from which our rule was collected. But the evidence in favour of our induction is of a much higher and more forcible character when it enables us to explain and determine cases of a kind different from those which were contemplated in the formation of our hypothesis. The instances in which this has occurred, indeed, impress us with a conviction that the truth of our hypothesis is certain. No accident could give rise to such an extraordinary coincidence. No false supposition could, after being adjusted to one class of phenomena, so exactly represent a different class, when the agreement was unforeseen and contemplated. That rules springing from remote and unconnected quarters should thus leap to the same point, can only arise from that being where truth resides.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. 2, 230.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Arise (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Certain (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Enable (122)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Formation (100)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Impress (66)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Induction (81)  |  Leap (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Remote (86)  |  Represent (157)  |  Reside (25)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rule (307)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unconnected (10)  |  Unforeseen (11)

We have long been seeking a different kind of evolutionary process and have now found one; namely, the change within the pattern of the chromosomes. ... The neo-Darwinian theory of the geneticists is no longer tenable.
The Material Basis of Evolution (1940), 397.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Process (439)  |  Tenable (4)  |  Theory (1015)

We have several stones whose generation is incomprehensible unless it is supposed that they come from some kind of seed, if I may be permitted to use this term; that is to say, from a germ in which the organic particles of these stones are enclosed ‘en petit’, just as those of the largest plants are enclosed in the germs of their grains.
In Histoire de l' Académie Royale des Sciences Annee: Avec les Memoires de Mathematique et de Physique (1702), 230.
Science quotes on:  |  Generation (256)  |  Germ (54)  |  Grain (50)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Largest (39)  |  Organic (161)  |  Particle (200)  |  Plant (320)  |  Say (989)  |  Seed (97)  |  Stone (168)  |  Supposed (5)  |  Term (357)  |  Use (771)

We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is.
Pensées (1670), Section 1, aphorism 223. In H. F. Stewart (ed.), Pascal's Pensées (1950), 117.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (639)  |  Even (2)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Finite (60)  |  God (776)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Odd (15)  |  Unit (36)  |  Untrue (12)

We maintain that there are two exhalations, one vaporous the other smoky, and these correspond to two kinds of bodies that originate in the earth, things quarried and things mined. The heat of the dry exhalation is the cause of all things quarried. Such are the kinds of stones that cannot be melted, and realgar, and ochre, and ruddle, and sulphur, and the other things of that kind, most things quarried being either coloured lye or, like cinnabar, a stone compounded of it. The vaporous exhalation is the cause of all things mined—things which are either fusible or malleable such as iron, copper, gold.
Aristotle
Meteorology, 378a, 19-28. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. I, 607.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Compound (117)  |  Copper (25)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Geology (240)  |  Gold (101)  |  Heat (180)  |  Iron (99)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Most (1728)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)

We may also draw a very important additional conclusion from the gradual dissolution of the milky way; for the state into which the incessant action of the clustering power [presumably, gravity] has brought it at present, is a kind of chronometer that may be used to measure the time of its past and future existence; and although we do not know the rate of going of this mysterious chronometer, it is nevertheless certain, that since the breaking up of the parts of the milky way affords a proof that it cannot last for ever, it equally bears witness that its past duration cannot be admitted to the infinite.
'Astronomical Observations... ' Philosophical Transactions (1814), 104, 284.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Bear (162)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chronometer (2)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dissolution (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Equally (129)  |  Existence (481)  |  Future (467)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Measure (241)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Past (355)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Proof (304)  |  State (505)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Witness (57)

We must also teach science not as the bare body of fact, but more as human endeavor in its historic context—in the context of the effects of scientific thought on every kind of thought. We must teach it as an intellectual pursuit rather than as a body of tricks.
In Kermit Lansner, Second-Rate Brains: A Factual, Perceptive Report by Top Scientists, Educators, Journalists, and Their Urgent Recommendations (1958), 31. Note: Dr. I.I. Rabi was chairman of President Eisenhower's Science Advisory Committee.
Science quotes on:  |  Bare (33)  |  Body (557)  |  Context (31)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Fact (1257)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trick (36)

We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad effect s of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage, though this is more to be hoped for than expected.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Appear (122)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bear (162)  |  Body (557)  |  Check (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Expect (203)  |  Freely (13)  |  Hope (321)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Least (75)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Marry (11)  |  Member (42)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Namely (11)  |  Propagate (5)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Society (350)  |  Sound (187)  |  Steady (45)  |  Survive (87)  |  Undoubtedly (3)  |  Weak (73)

We say in general that the material of all stone is either some form of Earth or some form of Water. For one or the other of these elements predominates in stones; and even in stones in which some form of Water seems to predominate, something of Earth is also important. Evidence of this is that nearly all kinds of stones sink in water.
From De Mineralibus (c.1261-1263), as translated by Dorothy Wyckoff, Book of Minerals (1967), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Important (229)  |  Material (366)  |  Mineralogy (24)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Sink (38)  |  Something (718)  |  Stone (168)  |  Water (503)

We, however, maintain … that all animals whatsoever, even the viviparous, and man himself not excepted, are produced from ova; that the first conception, from which the foetus proceeds in all, is an ovum of one description or another, as well as the seeds of all kinds of plants.
As translated by Robert Willis in The Works of William Harvey (1847), Vol. 7, 170. Harvey’s doctrine, given herein, has been summarized in later literature as: omne vivum ex ovo omnia, (all life from an egg). Also see the quote “Ex ova omnia,” elsewhere on this webpage.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Conception (160)  |  Egg (71)  |  First (1302)  |  Foetus (5)  |  Himself (461)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Plant (320)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Seed (97)  |  Viviparous (2)  |  Whatsoever (41)

What else can the human mind hold besides numbers and magnitudes? These alone we apprehend correctly, and if piety permits to say so, our comprehension is in this case of the same kind as God’s, at least insofar as we are able to understand it in this mortal life.
As quoted in Epilogue, The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), 524.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Correct (95)  |  God (776)  |  Hold (96)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Life (1870)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Number (710)  |  Permit (61)  |  Piety (5)  |  Say (989)  |  Understand (648)

What happened to those Ice Age beasts? What caused the mammoth and mastodon and wooly rhinoceros to pay the ultimate Darwinian penalty, while bison and musk ox survived? Why didn't the fauna of Africa suffer the kinds of losses evident in other regions of the world? And if something like climatic change caused the extinction of North America's Pleistocene horse, how have feral horses managed to reestablish themselves on the western range?
(1986)
Science quotes on:  |  Africa (38)  |  Age (509)  |  America (143)  |  Beast (58)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Horse (78)  |  Ice (58)  |  Ice Age (10)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mammoth (9)  |  Mastodon (4)  |  Musk (2)  |  North America (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ox (5)  |  Penalty (7)  |  Pleistocene (4)  |  Range (104)  |  Rhinoceros (2)  |  Something (718)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Survive (87)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Western (45)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

What is mathematics? What is it for? What are mathematicians doing nowadays? Wasn't it all finished long ago? How many new numbers can you invent anyway? Is today’s mathematics just a matter of huge calculations, with the mathematician as a kind of zookeeper, making sure the precious computers are fed and watered? If it’s not, what is it other than the incomprehensible outpourings of superpowered brainboxes with their heads in the clouds and their feet dangling from the lofty balconies of their ivory towers?
Mathematics is all of these, and none. Mostly, it’s just different. It’s not what you expect it to be, you turn your back for a moment and it's changed. It's certainly not just a fixed body of knowledge, its growth is not confined to inventing new numbers, and its hidden tendrils pervade every aspect of modern life.
Opening paragraphs of 'Preface', From Here to Infinity (1996), vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Back (395)  |  Balcony (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (639)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Computer (131)  |  Confine (26)  |  Dangle (2)  |  Different (595)  |  Doing (277)  |  Expect (203)  |  Finish (62)  |  Finished (4)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Foot (65)  |  Growth (200)  |  Head (87)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Huge (30)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Invent (57)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Life (3)  |  Moment (260)  |  New (1273)  |  Nowadays (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Precious (43)  |  Today (321)  |  Tower (45)  |  Turn (454)  |  Water (503)  |  Zookeeper (2)

What is the use of this history, what the use of all this minute research? I well know that it will not produce a fall in the price of pepper, a rise in that of crates of rotten cabbages, or other serious events of this kind, which cause fleets to be manned and set people face to face intent upon one another's extermination. The insect does not aim at so much glory. It confines itself to showing us life in the inexhaustible variety of its manifestations; it helps us to decipher in some small measure the obscurest book of all, the book of ourselves.
Introducing the natural history and his study of the insect Minotaurus typhoeus. In Jean-Henri Fabre and Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (trans.), The Life and Love of the Insect (1918), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Book (413)  |  Cabbage (5)  |  Cause (561)  |  Decipher (7)  |  Event (222)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  History (716)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Insect (89)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Measure (241)  |  Minute (129)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Pepper (2)  |  Price (57)  |  Research (753)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rotten (3)  |  Serious (98)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)

What nature does blindly, slowly and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly and kindly.
In Nature (2 Feb 1911), 85, 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Cloning (8)  |  Do (1905)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Slow (108)

What opposite discoveries we have seen!
(Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets.)
One makes new noses, one a guillotine,
One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets;
But vaccination certainly has been
A kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets, ...
Don Juan (1819, 1858), Canto I, CCXXIX, 35. Referring to Edward Jenner's work on vaccination (started 14 May 1796), later applied by Napoleon who caused his soldiers to be vaccinated. Sir William Congreve's shells, invented in 1804, proved very effective at the battle of Leipzig (1813).
Science quotes on:  |  Antithesis (7)  |  Bone (101)  |  Break (109)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Emptiness (13)  |  Empty (82)  |  Genius (301)  |  New (1273)  |  Nose (14)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Pocket (11)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Socket (2)  |  Vaccination (7)

What was Freud’s Galapagos, what species fluttered what kinds of wings before his searching eyes? It has often been pointed out derisively: his creative laboratory was the neurologist’s office, the dominant species hysterical ladies.
The First Psychoanalyst (1957), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Creative (144)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Eye (440)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Galapagos (5)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Office (71)  |  Point (584)  |  Species (435)  |  Wing (79)

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!
First of eight lectures on ‘Pragmatism: A New Name For an Old Way of Thinking’ given at the Lowell Institute, Boston and the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, Columbia University. In The Popular Science Monthly (Mar 1907), 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Anything (9)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cheap (13)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discourse (19)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Lengthy (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Something (718)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Whatever (234)

When air has been freshly and strongly tainted with putrefaction, so as to smell through the water, sprigs of mint have presently died, upon being put into it, their leaves turning black; but if they do not die presently, they thrive in a most surprizing manner. In no other circumstances have I ever seen vegetation so vigorous as in this kind of air, which is immediately fatal to animal life. Though these plants have been crouded in jars filled with this air, every leaf has been full of life; fresh shoots have branched out in various , and have grown much faster than other similiar plants, growing in the same exposure in common air.
This observation led me to conclude that plants, instead of affecting the air in the same manner with animal respiration, reverse the effects of breathing, and tend to keep the atmosphere sweet and wholesome, when it is become noxious, in consequence on animals living and breathing, or dying and putrefying in it.
In order to ascertain this, I took a quantity of air, made thoroughly noxious, by mice breathing and dying in it, and divided it into two parts; one of which I put into a phial immersed in water; and to the other (which was contained in a glass jar, standing in water) I put a sprig of mint. This was about the beginning of August 1771, and after eight or nine days, I found that a mouse lived perfectly well in that part of the air, in which the sprig of mint had grown, but died the moment it was put into the other part of the same original quantity of air; and which I had kept in the very same exposure, but without any plant growing in it.
'Observations on Different Kinds of Air', Philosophical Transactions (1772), 62, 193-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Common (447)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Death (406)  |  Divided (50)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Faster (50)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Glass (94)  |  Growing (99)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Jar (9)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mint (4)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Respiration (14)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Smell (29)  |  Spring (140)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Taint (10)  |  Tainted (5)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Thriving (2)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Various (205)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Water (503)  |  Wholesome (12)

When an hypothesis has come to birth in the mind, or gained footing there, it leads a life so far comparable with the life of an organism, as that it assimilates matter from the outside world only when it is like in kind with it and beneficial; and when contrarily, such matter is not like in kind but hurtful, the hypothesis, equally with the organism, throws it off, or, if forced to take it, gets rid of it again entirely.
In Arthur Schopenhauer and T. Bailey Saunders (ed., trans), The Art of Literature: A Series of Essays (1891), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Assimilate (9)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Birth (154)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Equally (129)  |  Gain (146)  |  Hurtful (8)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Organism (231)  |  Outside (141)  |  Rid (14)  |  World (1850)

When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself.
In Is Shakespeare Dead?: From My Autobiography (1909), 127-128.
Science quotes on:  |  Brightest (12)  |  Cast (69)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Conscientious (7)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Sincerity (8)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Validity (50)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

When external objects are impressed on the sensory nerves, they excite vibrations in the aether residing in the pores of these nerves... Thus it seems that light affects both the optic nerve and the aether and ... the affections of the aether are communicated to the optic nerve, and vice versa. And the same may be observed of frictions of the skin, taste, smells and sounds... Vibrations in the aether will agitate the small particles of the medullary substance of the sensory nerves with synchronous vibrations... up to the brain... These vibrations are motions backwards and forwards of small particles, of the same kind with the oscillations of pendulums, and the tremblings of the particles of the sounding bodies (but) exceedingly short and small, so as not to have the least efficacy to disturb or move the whole bodies of the nerves... That the nerves themselves should vibrate like musical strings is highly absurd.
Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations (1749), part 1, 11-22.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Aether (13)  |  Affection (44)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Forward (104)  |  Friction (14)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Light (635)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Object (438)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Short (200)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Smell (29)  |  Sound (187)  |  Substance (253)  |  Taste (93)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Vibrate (7)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Vice (42)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes.
Science quotes on:  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eye (440)  |  Faith (209)  |  Myself (211)  |  Star (460)  |  Supernova (7)  |  Thing (1914)

When people talk of atoms obeying fixed laws, they are either ascribing some kind of intelligence and free will to atoms or they are talking nonsense. There is no obedience unless there is at any rate a potentiality of disobeying.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascribing (2)  |  Atom (381)  |  Disobedience (4)  |  Free (239)  |  Free Will (15)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Law (913)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Obey (46)  |  People (1031)  |  Potentiality (9)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Will (2350)

When Richard Dawkins first published his idea of a meme, he made it clear he was speaking of “a unit of imitation” … Memes were supposed to be exclusive triumphs of humanity. But memes come in two different kinds—behavioral and verbal. … behavioral memes began brain-hopping long before there were such things as human minds.
In 'Threading a New Tapestry', Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century (2000), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Behavioral (6)  |  Brain (281)  |  Richard Dawkins (49)  |  Different (595)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  First (1302)  |  Hop (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Long (778)  |  Meme (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Publish (42)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Two (936)  |  Unit (36)  |  Verbal (10)

When the history of our galaxy is written, and for all any of us know it may already have been, if Earth gets mentioned at all it won’t be because its inhabitants visited their own moon. That first step, like a newborn’s cry, would be automatically assumed. What would be worth recording is what kind of civilization we earthlings created and whether or not we ventured out to other parts of the galaxy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Assume (43)  |  Automatically (5)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Create (245)  |  Cry (30)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  History (716)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mention (84)  |  Moon (252)  |  Newborn (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Record (161)  |  Recording (13)  |  Step (234)  |  Venture (19)  |  Visit (27)  |  Worth (172)  |  Write (250)

When we mention the end of the world, the idea of some kind of catastrophe always comes to mind.
In Teilhard de Chardin and Sara Appleton-Weber (trans.), The Human Phenomenon (1999, 2003), 196. Originally published in French as Le Phénomene Humain (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  End (603)  |  End Of The World (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1377)  |  World (1850)

When you get up here in space and you go into the weightlessness environment, your body is not sure what really just happened to it. So your stomach, intestines, and that stuff kind of shuts down for a few hours to figure out what is going on and during that timeframe your body is not doing much with your food. After your body figures out that it can handle the new environment, everything cranks back up and your food, stomach and intestines and all start working like normal.
Replying to a Mifflin Middle School students’ question during a school forum held using a downlink with the Discovery Space Shuttle mission (31 Oct 1998). On NASA web page 'STS-95 Educational Downlink'. Mike Tomolillo, Philip Slater asked, “Commander Brown, how does space affect the digestive system?”
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Body (557)  |  Crank (18)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Doing (277)  |  Down (455)  |  Environment (239)  |  Everything (489)  |  Figure (162)  |  Food (213)  |  Handle (29)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Hour (192)  |  Intestine (16)  |  New (1273)  |  Normal (29)  |  Shut (41)  |  Space (523)  |  Start (237)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Weightlessness (2)

Where do correct ideas come from? Do they drop from the skies? No. They come from social practice, and from it alone; they come from three kinds of social practice, the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment.
In Where do Correct Ideas Come From? (May 1963). As quoted and cited in Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (1966, 1972), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Class (168)  |  Correct (95)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Idea (881)  |  Practice (212)  |  Production (190)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sky (174)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Struggle (111)

Whereas there is nothing more necessary for promoting the improvement of Philosophical Matters, than the communicating to such, as apply their Studies and Endeavours that way, such things as are discovered or put in practice by others; it is therefore thought fit to employ the Press, as the most proper way to gratifie those, whose engagement in such Studies, and delight in the advancement of Learning and profitable Discoveries, doth entitle them to the knowledge of what this Kingdom, or other parts of the World, do, from time to time, afford as well of the progress of the Studies, Labours, and attempts of the Curious and learned in things of this kind, as of their compleat Discoveries and performances: To the end, that such Productions being clearly and truly communicated, desires after solid and usefull knowledge may be further entertained, ingenious Endeavours and Undertakings cherished, and those, addicted to and conversant in such matters, may be invited and encouraged to search, try, and find out new things, impart their knowledge to one another, and contribute what they can to the Grand design of improving Natural knowledge, and perfecting all Philosophical Arts, and Sciences. All for the Glory of God, the Honour and Advantage of these Kingdoms, and the Universal Good of Mankind.
'Introduction', Philosophical Transactions (1665), 1, 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Apply (170)  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Communication (101)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Delight (111)  |  Design (203)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Employ (115)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Engagement (9)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Honour (58)  |  Impart (24)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfecting (6)  |  Performance (51)  |  Practice (212)  |  Press (21)  |  Production (190)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proper (150)  |  Search (175)  |  Solid (119)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Try (296)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Universal (198)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

Wherefore also these Kinds [elements] occupied different places even before the universe was organised and generated out of them. Before that time, in truth, all these were in a state devoid of reason or measure, but when the work of setting in order this Universe was being undertaken, fire and water and earth and air, although possessing some traces of their known nature, were yet disposed as everything is likely to be in the absence of God; and inasmuch as this was then their natural condition, God began by first marking them out into shapes by means of forms and numbers.
Plato
Timaeus 53ab, trans. R. G. Bury, in Plato: Timaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles (1929), 125-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Being (1276)  |  Condition (362)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  God (776)  |  Known (453)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Order (638)  |  Organization (120)  |  Place (192)  |  Reason (766)  |  Setting (44)  |  State (505)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Water (503)  |  Work (1402)

While all bodies are composed of the four elements, that is, of heat, moisture, the earthy, and air, yet there are mixtures according to natural temperament which make up the natures of all the different animals of the world, each after its kind.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 1, Chap 4, Sec. 5. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Heat (180)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Phlogiston Theory (2)  |  Temperament (18)  |  World (1850)

While electric railroading is perhaps the most important branch of electrical engineering, at least as regards commercial importance, considering the amount capital invested therein, nevertheless it is a remarkable fact that while most other branches of electrical engineering had been developed to a very high degree of perfection, even a few years ago theoretical investigation of electric railroading was still conspicuous by its almost entire absence.
All the work was done by some kind of empirical experimenting, that is, some kind of motor was fitted up with some gearing or some sort of railway car, and then run, and if the motor burned out frequently it was replaced with a larger motor, and if it did not burn out, a trailer was put on the car, and perhaps a second trailer, until the increase of the expense account in burn-outs of the motors balanced the increased carrying capacity of the train.
'The Electric Railway', Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (1902), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Branch (155)  |  Burn (99)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Car (75)  |  Carrying capacity (3)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Develop (278)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrical Engineering (12)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empirical Science (9)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fact (1257)  |  High (370)  |  Importance (299)  |  Increase (225)  |  Invest (20)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motor (23)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Run (158)  |  Still (614)  |  Train (118)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

While the vaccine discovery was progressive, the joy I felt at the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to take away from the world one of its greatest calamities [smallpox], blended with the fond hope of enjoying independence and domestic peace and happiness, was often so excessive that, in pursuing my favourite subject among the meadows, I have sometimes found myself in a kind of reverie.
John Baron, The Life of Dr. Jenner (1827), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Calamity (11)  |  Destined (42)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Hope (321)  |  Independence (37)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Joy (117)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Myself (211)  |  Peace (116)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Subject (543)  |  Vaccine (9)  |  World (1850)

Who can fail to be uplifted by the kind of vision that the laureates in physics have provided into the outer reaches of space?
Speech at the Nobel Banquet (10 Dec 1983) for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel: The Nobel Prizes (1984), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Fail (191)  |  Laureate (2)  |  Outer Space (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Space (523)  |  Uplift (6)  |  Vision (127)

Who has studied the works of such men as Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Riemann, Sophus Lie, and Weierstrass, can doubt that a great mathematician is a great artist? The faculties possessed by such men, varying greatly in kind and degree with the individual, are analogous with those requisite for constructive art. Not every mathematician possesses in a specially high degree that critical faculty which finds its employment in the perfection of form, in conformity with the ideal of logical completeness; but every great mathematician possesses the rarer faculty of constructive imagination.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogous (7)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (11)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Critical (73)  |  Degree (277)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Employment (34)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Individual (420)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possess (157)  |  Rare (94)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Bernhard Riemann (7)  |  Specially (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Vary (27)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Work (1402)

Whoever limits his exertions to the gratification of others, whether by personal exhibition, as in the case of the actor and of the mimic, or by those kinds of literary composition which are calculated for no end but to please or to entertain, renders himself, in some measure, dependent on their caprices and humours. The diversity among men, in their judgments concerning the objects of taste, is incomparably greater than in their speculative conclusions; and accordingly, a mathematician will publish to the world a geometrical demonstration, or a philosopher, a process of abstract reasoning, with a confidence very different from what a poet would feel, in communicating one of his productions even to a friend.
In Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Sec. 3, 202.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Actor (9)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Composition (86)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  End (603)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Exhibition (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Friend (180)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Greater (288)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humour (116)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mimic (2)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Please (68)  |  Poet (97)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Publish (42)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Render (96)  |  Taste (93)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Why can the chemist not take the requisite numbers of atoms and simply put them together? The answer is that the chemist never has atoms at his disposal, and if he had, the direct combination of the appropriate numbers of atoms would lead only to a Brobdingnagian potpourri of different kinds of molecules, having a vast array of different structures. What the chemist has at hand always consists of substances, themselves made up of molecules, containing defined numbers of atoms in ordered arrangements. Consequently, in order to synthesize anyone substance, his task is that of combining, modifying, transforming, and tailoring known substances, until the total effect of his manipulations is the conversion of one or more forms of matter into another.
In 'Art and Science in the Synthesis of Organic Compounds: Retrospect and Prospect', in Maeve O'Connor (ed.), Pointers and Pathways in Research (1963), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Brobdingnag (2)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Combination (150)  |  Consist (223)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Effect (414)  |  Form (976)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modification (57)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Task (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Together (392)  |  Total (95)  |  Vast (188)  |  Why (491)

Why does a man want to be a scientist? There are many goals: fame, position, a thirst for understanding. The first two can be attained without intellectual integrity; the third cannot. … The thirst for knowledge, what Thomas Huxley called the ‘Divine dipsomania’, can only be satisfied by complete intellectual integrity. It seems to me the only one of the three goals that continues to reward the pursuer. He presses on, “knowing that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her”. Here is another kind of love, that has so many faces. Love is neither passion, nor pride, nor pity, nor blind adoration, but it can be any or all of these if they are transfigured by deep and unbiased understanding.
In Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections (1996), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Adoration (4)  |  Attain (126)  |  Betray (8)  |  Blind (98)  |  Call (781)  |  Complete (209)  |  Continue (179)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dipsomania (2)  |  Divine (112)  |  Face (214)  |  Fame (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Goal (155)  |  Heart (243)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Passion (121)  |  Pity (16)  |  Position (83)  |  Press On (2)  |  Pride (84)  |  Reward (72)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Third (17)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Transfigure (2)  |  Two (936)  |  Unbiased (7)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Why (491)

Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment. We need wilderness preserved—as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds—because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed.
Letter (3 Dec 1960) written to David E. Pesonen of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. Collected in 'Coda: Wilderness Letter', The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West (1969), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Brave (16)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  Committed (2)  |  Completely (137)  |  Controlled (3)  |  Drive (61)  |  Environment (239)  |  Form (976)  |  Formed (5)  |  Headlong (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Preserved (3)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Rest (287)  |  Still (614)  |  Technological (62)  |  Termite (7)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  World (1850)

Without some kind of God, man is not even very interesting.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Man (2252)

Without tracing back to the Tower of Babel, one can observe that the very idea of building a very tall tower has long haunted human imagination. That kind of victory over the formidable law of gravity that tethers man to the ground has always appeared to him a symbol of the force and the challenges overcome.
From the original French, “Sans remonter à la Tour de Babel, on peut observer que l’idée même de la construction d’une tour de très grande hauteur a depuis longtemps hanté l'imagination des hommes. Celle sorte de victoire sur cette terrible loi de la pesanteur qui attache l’homme au sol lui a toujours paru un symbole de la force et des difficultés vaincues.” First sentences of Chap. 1, in Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 1. English translation by Webmaster using online resources.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Ground (222)  |  Haunt (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravity (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Observe (179)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tall (11)  |  Tower (45)  |  Tower Of Babel (2)  |  Victory (40)

Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.
From Summa Theologiae Question 32, 'The Causes of Pleasure,' Article 8, 'Is Pleasure Caused by Wondering.'(1a2ae 32.8). As translated in James Vincent Cunningham, Tragic Effect and Tragic Process in Some Plays of Shakespeare (1945). Also in The Collected Essays of J.V. Cunningham (1976), 72-73.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Arouse (13)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Cause (561)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hope (321)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  See (1094)  |  Situation (117)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Wonder (251)

Wonder [admiratio astonishment, marvel] is a kind of desire for knowledge. The situation arises when one sees an effect and does not know its cause, or when the cause of the particular effect is one that exceeds his power of understanding. Hence, wonder is a cause of pleasure insofar as there is annexed the hope of attaining understanding of that which one wants to know. ... For desire is especially aroused by the awareness of ignorance, and consequently a man takes the greatest pleasure in those things which he discovers for himself or learns from the ground up.
From Summa Theologiae Question 32, 'The Causes of Pleasure,' Article 8, 'Is Pleasure Caused by Wondering.'(1a2ae 32.8). As translated in James Vincent Cunningham, Tragic Effect and Tragic Process in Some Plays of Shakespeare (1945). Also in The Collected Essays of J.V. Cunningham (1976), 72-73.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Cause (561)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Effect (414)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hope (321)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  See (1094)  |  Situation (117)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Wonder (251)

Wonder was the motive that led people to philosophy ... wonder is a kind of desire in knowledge. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.
In a summarized form, from Summa Theologiae (1266-73), I-II, Q.32.a.8.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Delight (111)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Hope (321)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Motive (62)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Wonder (251)

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.
In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Surface (223)  |  Two (936)  |  Unpleasant (15)  |  Work (1402)

Working on the final formulation of technological patents was a veritable blessing for me. It enforced many-sided thinking and also provided important stimuli to physical thought. Academia places a young person under a kind of compulsion to produce impressive quantities of scientific publications–a temptation to superficiality.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Academia (4)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Important (229)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Many-Sided (2)  |  Patent (34)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Place (192)  |  Produce (117)  |  Provide (79)  |  Publication (102)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Superficiality (4)  |  Technological (62)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Veritable (5)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
When asked to describe radio
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Angeles (4)  |  Ask (420)  |  Cat (52)  |  Describe (132)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Head (87)  |  Long (778)  |  Los (4)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  Operate (19)  |  Pull (43)  |  Radio (60)  |  Receive (117)  |  Same (166)  |  See (1094)  |  Send (23)  |  Signal (29)  |  Tail (21)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wire (36)

Young writers find out what kinds of writers they are by experiment. If they choose from the outset to practice exclusively a form of writing because it is praised in the classroom or otherwise carries appealing prestige, they are vastly increasing the risk inherent in taking up writing in the first place.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Carry (130)  |  Choose (116)  |  Classroom (11)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Find Out (25)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Outset (7)  |  Place (192)  |  Practice (212)  |  Praise (28)  |  Prestige (16)  |  Risk (68)  |  Vastly (8)  |  Write (250)  |  Writer (90)  |  Writing (192)  |  Young (253)

Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, but you destroy yourself when you are cruel.
Bible
Proverbs 11:17. Proverbs 11:17
Science quotes on:  |  Cruel (25)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Nourish (18)  |  Soul (235)


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.