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

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “The Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index L > Category: Limit

Limit Quotes (294 quotes)

’Tis a short sight to limit our faith in laws to those of gravity, of chemistry, of botany, and so forth. Those laws do not stop where our eyes lose them, but push the same geometry and chemistry up into the invisible plane of social and rational life, so that, look where we will, in a boy's game, or in the strifes of races, a perfect reaction, a perpetual judgment keeps watch and ward.
From 'Worship', The Conduct of Life (1860) collected in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866), Vol.2, 401.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Boy (100)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eye (441)  |  Faith (210)  |  Game (104)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Look (584)  |  Lose (165)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Plane (23)  |  Push (66)  |  Race (279)  |  Rational (97)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Short (200)  |  Sight (135)  |  Social (262)  |  Social Life (9)  |  Stop (89)  |  Strife (9)  |  Ward (7)  |  Watch (119)  |  Will (2350)

“Unless,” said I [Socrates], “either philosophers become kings in our states or those whom we now call our kings and rulers take to the pursuit of' philosophy seriously and adequately, and there is a conjunction of these two things, political power and philosophic intelligence, while the motley horde of the natures who at present pursue either apart from the other are compulsorily excluded, there can be no cessation of troubles, dear Glaucon, for our states, nor, I fancy for the human race either. Nor, until this happens, will this constitution which we have been expounding in theory ever be put into practice within the limits of possibility and see the light of the sun.”
Plato
From The Republic 5 473 c-e, in Paul Shorey (trans.), Plato in Twelve Volumes (1930, 1969), Vol. 5, 509.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Call (782)  |  Cessation (13)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Horde (3)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  King (39)  |  Light (636)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Political (126)  |  Politics (123)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (773)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Pursue (64)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Race (279)  |  Ruler (21)  |  See (1095)  |   Socrates, (17)  |  State (505)  |  Sun (408)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

[To] mechanical progress there is apparently no end: for as in the past so in the future, each step in any direction will remove limits and bring in past barriers which have till then blocked the way in other directions; and so what for the time may appear to be a visible or practical limit will turn out to be but a bend in the road.
Opening address to the Mechanical Science Section, Meeting of the British Association, Manchester. In Nature (15 Sep 1887), 36, 475.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Appear (123)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Bend (13)  |  Block (13)  |  Bring (96)  |  Direction (185)  |  End (603)  |  Future (467)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (493)  |  Remove (50)  |  Road (72)  |  Step (235)  |  Time (1913)  |  Turn (454)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

A l’aide de ces sciences expérimentales actives, l’homme devient un inventeur de phénomènes, un véritable contremaître de la création; et l'on ne saurait, sous ce rapport, assigner de limites à la puissance qu’il peut acquérir sur la nature, par les progrès futurs des sciences expérimentales
With the aid of these active experimental sciences man becomes an inventor of phenomena, a real foreman of creation; and under this head we cannot set limits to the power that he may gain over nature through future progress of the experimental sciences.
Original French text in Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1898), 32. English version from An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Aid (101)  |  Become (822)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Creation (350)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Future (467)  |  Gain (149)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Power (773)  |  Progress (493)  |  Rising (44)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Universal (198)  |  Wholeness (9)

Clarke's Second Law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Profiles of the Future: An Enquiry into the Limits of the Possible (1962, rev. 1973), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Impossible (263)  |  Law (914)  |  Little (718)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Research (753)  |  Way (1214)

Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
In Tractatus logico-philosophicus (1921, 1955), Sec. 5.6, 149.
Science quotes on:  |  Language (310)  |  Mean (810)  |  World (1854)

The Charms of Statistics.—It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of man.
Natural Inheritance (1889), 62-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Charm (54)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Cut (116)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dull (59)  |  Existence (484)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flat (34)  |  Hate (68)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lake (37)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (532)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Name (360)  |  Native (41)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nuisance (10)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (160)  |  People (1034)  |  Power (773)  |  Pursue (64)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Single (366)  |  Soul (237)  |  Start (237)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Through (846)  |  Tool (131)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (650)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (498)  |  Warily (2)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Why (491)

Ueber den Glauben lässt sich wissenschaftlich nicht rechten, denn die Wissenschaft und der Glaube schliessen sich aus. Nicht so, dass der eine die andere unmöglich machte oder umgekehrt, sondern so, dass, soweit die Wissenschaft reicht, kein Glaube existirt und der Glaube erst da anfangen darf, wo die Wissenschaft aufhört. Es lässt „sich nicht läugnen, dass, wenn diese Grenze eingehalten wird, der Glaube wirklich reale Objekte haben kann. Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaft ist es daher nicht, die Gegenstände des Glaubens anzugreifen, sondern nur die Grenzen zu stecken, welche die Erkenntniss erreichen kann, und innerhalb derselben das einheitliche Selbstbewusstsein zu begründen.
There is no scientific justification for faith, for science and faith are mutually exclusive. Not that one made the other impossible, or vice versa, but that, as far as science goes, there is no faith, and faith can only begin where science ends. It can not be denied that, if this limit is adhered to, faith can really have real objects. The task of science, therefore, is not to attack the objects of faith, but merely to set the limits which knowledge can attain and to establish within it the unified self-esteem.
Original German from 'Der Mensch' (1849), collected in Gesammelte abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen medicin (1856), 6. Webmaster used Google translate for the English version. This longer quote unites the shorter quotes from within it shown separately on the Rudolf Virchow quotations page, with alternative translations, which begin: “There can be no scientific dispute…”, “Belief has no place…”, and “The task of science…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Attain (126)  |  Begin (275)  |  End (603)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Faith (210)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Justification (52)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mutually (7)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Esteem (7)  |  Set (400)  |  Task (153)  |  Vice (42)  |  Vice Versa (6)

A complete theory of evolution must acknowledge a balance between ‘external’ forces of environment imposing selection for local adaptation and ‘internal’ forces representing constraints of inheritance and development. Vavilov placed too much emphasis on internal constraints and downgraded the power of selection. But Western Darwinians have erred equally in practically ignoring (while acknowledging in theory) the limits placed on selection by structure and development–what Vavilov and the older biologists would have called ‘laws of form.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Balance (82)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Call (782)  |  Complete (209)  |  Constraint (13)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Development (442)  |  Downgrade (2)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Environment (240)  |  Equally (129)  |  Err (5)  |  Evolution (637)  |  External (62)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  Impose (22)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Internal (69)  |  Law (914)  |  Local (25)  |  Must (1525)  |  Old (499)  |  Place (194)  |  Power (773)  |  Practically (10)  |  Represent (157)  |  Selection (130)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Western (45)

A good theoretical physicist today might find it useful to have a wide range of physical viewpoints and mathematical expressions of the same theory (for example, of quantum electrodynamics) available to him. This may be asking too much of one man. Then new students should as a class have this. If every individual student follows the same current fashion in expressing and thinking about electrodynamics or field theory, then the variety of hypotheses being generated to understand strong interactions, say, is limited. Perhaps rightly so, for possibly the chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction—a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory—who will find it?
In his Nobel Prize Lecture (11 Dec 1965), 'The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics'. Collected in Stig Lundqvist, Nobel Lectures: Physics, 1963-1970 (1998), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chance (245)  |  Class (168)  |  Current (122)  |  Direction (185)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Expression (182)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (390)  |  Generate (17)  |  Good (907)  |  High (370)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  New (1276)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Electrodynamics (3)  |  Range (104)  |  Say (991)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Today (321)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understand (650)  |  Unfashionable (2)  |  Useful (261)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (498)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
In Letter (4 Mar 1950), replying to a grieving father over the loss of a young son. In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Achievement (188)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (782)  |  Circle (118)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (244)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (214)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (240)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Kind (565)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limited (103)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Part (237)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (76)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (289)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (525)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (153)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (901)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

A moment’s consideration of this case shows what a really great advance in the theory and practise of breeding has been obtained through the discovery of Mendel’s law. What a puzzle this case would have presented to the biologist ten years ago! Agouti crossed with chocolate gives in the second filial generation (not in the first) four varieties, viz., agouti, chocolate, black and cinnamon. We could only have shaken our heads and looked wise (or skeptical).
Then we had no explanation to offer for such occurrences other than the “instability of color characters under domestication,” the “effects of inbreeding,” “maternal impressions.” Serious consideration would have been given to the proximity of cages containing both black and cinnamon-agouti mice.
Now we have a simple, rational explanation, which anyone can put to the test. We are able to predict the production of new varieties, and to produce them.
We must not, of course, in our exuberance, conclude that the powers of the hybridizer know no limits. The result under consideration consists, after all, only in the making of new combinations of unit characters, but it is much to know that these units exist and that all conceivable combinations of them are ordinarily capable of production. This valuable knowledge we owe to the discoverer and to the rediscoverers of Mendel’s law.
'New Colour Variety of the Guinea Pig', Science, 1908, 28, 250-252.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Breeding (21)  |  Cage (12)  |  Capable (174)  |  Character (259)  |  Chocolate (5)  |  Color (155)  |  Combination (151)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Consist (224)  |  Course (415)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Domestication (5)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exist (460)  |  Explanation (247)  |  First (1303)  |  Generation (256)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Impression (118)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Gregor Mendel (23)  |  Moment (260)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Offer (143)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Power (773)  |  Predict (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Rational (97)  |  Result (700)  |  Serious (98)  |  Show (354)  |  Simple (430)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Test (222)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Through (846)  |  Wise (145)  |  Year (965)

A natural science is one whose propositions on limited domains of nature can have only a correspondingly limited validity; and that science is not a philosophy developing a world-view of nature as a whole or about the essence of things.
In The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (1958), 152. Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans from Das Naturbild der Heutigen Physik (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Correspond (13)  |  Develop (279)  |  Domain (72)  |  Essence (85)  |  Limited (103)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Validity (50)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1854)

All scientists must focus closely on limited targets. Whether or not one’s findings on a limited subject will have wide applicability depends to some extent on chance, but biologists of superior ability repeatedly focus on questions the answers to which either have wide ramifications or lead to new areas of investigation. One procedure that can be effective is to attempt both reduction and synthesis; that is, direct a question at a phenomenon on one integrative level, identify its mechanism at a simpler level, then extrapolate its consequences to a more complex level of integration.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 230-231,
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Answer (389)  |  Applicability (7)  |  Area (33)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Chance (245)  |  Closely (12)  |  Complex (203)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direct (228)  |  Effective (68)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extrapolate (3)  |  Findings (6)  |  Focus (36)  |  Identify (13)  |  Integration (22)  |  Integrative (2)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Level (69)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1276)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Question (652)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Simple (430)  |  Subject (544)  |  Superior (89)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Target (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

All the species recognized by Botanists came forth from the Almighty Creator’s hand, and the number of these is now and always will be exactly the same, while every day new and different florists’ species arise from the true species so-called by Botanists, and when they have arisen they finally revert to the original forms. Accordingly to the former have been assigned by Nature fixed limits, beyond which they cannot go: while the latter display without end the infinite sport of Nature.
In Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 310. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Arise (162)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Call (782)  |  Creator (97)  |  Different (596)  |  Display (59)  |  End (603)  |  Form (978)  |  Former (138)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Species (435)  |  Sport (23)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)

Also the earth is not spherical, as some have said, although it tends toward sphericity, for the shape of the universe is limited in its parts as well as its movement… . The movement which is more perfect than others is, therefore, circular, and the corporeal form which is the most perfect is the sphere.
Science quotes on:  |  Circular (19)  |  Corporeal (5)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Form (978)  |  Limited (103)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (237)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Shape (77)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Sphericity (2)  |  Tend (124)  |  Universe (901)

Although a physical law may never admit of a perfectly abrupt change, there is no limit to the approach which it may make to abruptness.
In The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1874), Vols. 1-2, 273.
Science quotes on:  |  Abrupt (6)  |  Admit (50)  |  Approach (112)  |  Change (640)  |  Law (914)  |  Never (1089)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Law (15)

As long as Algebra and Geometry have been separated, their progress has been slow and their usages limited; but when these two sciences were reunited, they lent each other mutual strength and walked together with a rapid step towards perfection.
From the original French, “Tant que l’Algèbre et la Géométrie ont été séparées, leur progrès ont été lents et leurs usages bornés; mais lorsque ces deux sciences se sont réunies, elles se sont prêté des forces mutuelles et ont marché ensemble d’un pas rapide vers la perfection,” in Leçons Élémentaires sur la Mathematiques, Leçon 5, as collected in J.A. Serret (ed.), Œuvres de Lagrange (1877), Tome 7, Leçon 15, 271. English translation above by Google translate, tweeked by Webmaster. Also seen translated as, “As long as algebra and geometry proceeded along separate paths, their advance was slow and their applications limited. But when these sciences joined company, they drew from each other fresh vitality and thenceforward marched on at a rapid pace toward perfection,” in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Application (257)  |  Company (63)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Join (32)  |  Limited (103)  |  Long (778)  |  March (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pace (18)  |  Path (160)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Rapid (38)  |  Separate (151)  |  Slow (108)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Vitality (24)

As regards railways, it is certain that nothing is so profitable, because nothing is so cheaply transported, as passenger traffic. Goods traffic, of whatsoever description, must be more or less costly. Every article conveyed by railway requires handling and conveyance beyond the limit of the railway stations; but passengers take care of themselves, and find their own way.
From 'Railway System and its Results' (Jan 1856) read to the Institution of Civil Engineers, reprinted in Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1857), 520.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Care (204)  |  Certain (557)  |  Cheap (13)  |  Convey (17)  |  Conveyance (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (907)  |  Goods (9)  |  Handling (7)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Passenger (10)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Require (229)  |  Station (30)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Transport (31)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatsoever (41)

As to Bell’s talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but … its commercial value will be limited.
Letter to William D. Baldwin, his attorney (1 Nov 1876). Telephone Investigating Committee, House of Representatives, United States 49th Congress, 1st Session, Miscellaneous Documents (1886), No. 355, 1186.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Bell (36)  |  Alexander Graham Bell (37)  |  Circle (118)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Create (252)  |  Creation (350)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limited (103)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Toy (22)  |  Value (397)  |  Will (2350)

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.
Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, March 19, 1869 (1869), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Advance (299)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1873)

As we look ahead through the vista of science with its tremendous possibilities for progress in peacetime, let us not feel that we are looking beyond the horizon of hope. The outlook is not discouraging, for there is no limit to man’s ingenuity and no end to the opportunities for progress.
In address (Fall 1946) at a dinner in New York to commemorate the 40 years of Sarnoff’s service in the radio field, 'Institute News and Radio Notes: The Past and Future of Radio', Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (I.R.E.), (May 1947), 35, No. 5, 498.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  End (603)  |  Hope (322)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Peacetime (4)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Progress (493)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Vista (12)

Because the region of the Celestial World is of so great and such incredible magnitude as aforesaid, and since in what has gone before it was at least generally demonstrated that this comet continued within the limits of the space of the Aether, it seems that the complete explanation of the whole matter is not given unless we are also informed within narrower limits in what part of the widest Aether, and next to which orbs of the Planets [the comet] traces its path, and by what course it accomplishes this.
De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis (On Recent Phenomena in the Aetherial World) (1588). Quoted in M. Boas Hall, The Scientific Renaissance 1450-1630 (1962), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Aether (13)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Comet (65)  |  Complete (209)  |  Course (415)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Great (1610)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Inform (52)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Matter (821)  |  Next (238)  |  Orb (20)  |  Path (160)  |  Planet (406)  |  Space (525)  |  Trace (109)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1854)

Biological determinism is, in its essence, a theory of limits. It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be ... We inhabit a world of human differences and predilections, but the extrapolation of these facts to theories of rigid limits is ideology.
The Mismeasure of Man (1981), 28-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (234)  |  Current (122)  |  Determinism (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Essence (85)  |  Extrapolation (6)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Human (1517)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Measure (242)  |  Must (1525)  |  Predilection (4)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Status (35)  |  Theory (1016)  |  World (1854)

But that which will excite the greatest astonishment by far, and which indeed especially moved me to call the attention of all astronomers and philosophers, is this: namely, that I have observed four planets, neither known nor observed by any one of the astronomers before my time, which have their orbits round a certain bright star [Jupiter], one of those previously known, like Venus or Mercury round the sun, and are sometimes in front of it, sometimes behind it, though they never depart from it beyond certain limits. All of which facts were discovered and observed a few days ago by the help of a telescope devised by me, through God’s grace first enlightening my mind.
In pamphlet, The Sidereal Messenger (1610), reprinted in The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei: And a Part of the Preface to the Preface to Kepler's Dioptrics Containing the Original Account of Galileo's Astronomical Discoveries (1880), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Attention (198)  |  Behind (139)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bright (82)  |  Call (782)  |  Certain (557)  |  Discover (572)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightening (3)  |  Especially (31)  |  Excite (17)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1303)  |  Four (6)  |  Front (16)  |  God (776)  |  Grace (31)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observe (181)  |  Observed (149)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Planet (406)  |  Previously (12)  |  Star (462)  |  Sun (408)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Venus (21)  |  Will (2350)

But when science, passing beyond its own limits, assumes to take the place of theology, and sets up its own conception of the order of Nature as a sufficient account of its cause, it is invading a province of thought to which it has no claim, and not unreasonably provokes the hostility of its best friends.
Presidential Address (14 Aug 1872) to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Brighton, reprinted in The Journal of the Society of Arts (16 Aug 1872), 20, No. 1030, 799, penultimate sentence.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Assume (43)  |  Best (468)  |  Best Friend (4)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cause (564)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conception (160)  |  Friend (180)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Invade (5)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Order (639)  |  Pass (242)  |  Passing (76)  |  Place (194)  |  Province (37)  |  Provoke (9)  |  Set (400)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thought (996)

By means of the Mummy, mankind, it is said,
Attests to the gods its respect for the dead.
We plunder his tomb, be he sinner or saint,
Distill him for physic and grind him for paint,
Exhibit for money his poor, shrunken frame,
And with levity flock to the scene of the shame.
O, tell me, ye gods, for the use of my rhyme:
For respecting the dead what’s the limit of time?
Science quotes on:  |  Archaeology (51)  |  God (776)  |  Grind (11)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Money (178)  |  Mummy (7)  |  Paint (22)  |  Physic (515)  |  Plunder (6)  |  Poor (139)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rhyme (6)  |  Saint (17)  |  Scene (36)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Use (771)

By no process of sound reasoning can a conclusion drawn from limited data have more than a limited application.
In Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics (1902), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Data (162)  |  Draw (141)  |  Limited (103)  |  More (2558)  |  Process (441)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sound (188)

Conflicts between men are almost always a matter of frontiers. The astronauts now have destroyed what looked like an unsurmountable frontier. They have shown us that we cannot any longer think in limited terms. There are no limitations left. We can think in terms of the universe now.
In 'Reactions to Man’s Landing on the Moon Show Broad Variations in Opinions', The New York Times (21 Jul 1969), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Insurmountable (3)  |  Leave (139)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (103)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Think (1124)  |  Universe (901)

Contingency is rich and fascinating; it embodies an exquisite tension between the power of individuals to modify history and the intelligible limits set by laws of nature. The details of individual and species’s lives are not mere frills, without power to shape the large-scale course of events, but particulars that can alter entire futures, profoundly and forever.
Reprinted from column, 'This View of Life',Natural History magazine, in Eight Little Piggies (1993), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Contingency (11)  |  Course (415)  |  Detail (150)  |  Embody (18)  |  Entire (50)  |  Event (222)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Forever (112)  |  Future (467)  |  History (719)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Live (651)  |  Mere (86)  |  Modify (15)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Power (773)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Rich (66)  |  Scale (122)  |  Set (400)  |  Shape (77)  |  Species (435)  |  Tension (24)

Create a vision and never let the environment, other people’s beliefs, or the limits of what has been done in the past shape your decisions. Ignore conventional wisdom.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Conventional Wisdom (3)  |  Create (252)  |  Decision (98)  |  Environment (240)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Let (64)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1034)  |  Shape (77)  |  Vision (127)  |  Wisdom (235)

Despite its importance to navigation, fishing, oil and gas development, and maritime safety, our understanding of how the Gulf system works remains extremely limited.
In 'Opinion: Why we can’t forget the Gulf', CNN (16 Apr 2015).
Science quotes on:  |  Despite (7)  |  Development (442)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Importance (299)  |  Limited (103)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Oil (67)  |  Remain (357)  |  Safety (58)  |  System (545)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1403)

Despite the continuing expansion or even explosion of information, there will forever be limits beyond which the devices of science cannot lead a man.
In Boundaries of the Soul (1972, 1994), 378.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Device (71)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explosion (52)  |  Forever (112)  |  Information (173)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Will (2350)

Did it ever occur to you that there’s no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another?
In 'Quo Vadimus?, The Adelphi (Jan 1930), collected in Quo Vadimus?: Or, The Case For the Bicycle (1938) 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Occur (151)  |  Thing (1914)

Doctors have been exposed—you always will be exposed—to the attacks of those persons who consider their own undisciplined emotions more important than the world's most bitter agonies—the people who would limit and cripple and hamper research because they fear research may be accompanied by a little pain and suffering.
Doctors (1908), 28-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Consider (430)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fear (215)  |  Little (718)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pain (144)  |  People (1034)  |  Person (366)  |  Physician (284)  |  Research (753)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Does it not seem as if Algebra had attained to the dignity of a fine art, in which the workman has a free hand to develop his conceptions, as in a musical theme or a subject for a painting? It has reached a point where every properly developed algebraical composition, like a skillful landscape, is expected to suggest the notion of an infinite distance lying beyond the limits of the canvas.
In 'Lectures on the Theory of Reciprocants', Lecture XXI, American Journal of Mathematics (Jul 1886), 9, No. 3, 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Art (681)  |  Attain (126)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Canvas (3)  |  Composition (86)  |  Conception (160)  |  Develop (279)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distance (171)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fine (37)  |  Free (240)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Lying (55)  |  Musical (10)  |  Notion (120)  |  Painting (46)  |  Point (585)  |  Reach (287)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Subject (544)  |  Suggest (40)  |  Theme (17)  |  Workman (13)

Doubtless the reasoning faculty, the mind, is the leading and characteristic attribute of the human race. By the exercise of this, man arrives at the properties of the natural bodies. This is science, properly and emphatically so called. It is the science of pure mathematics; and in the high branches of this science lies the truly sublime of human acquisition. If any attainment deserves that epithet, it is the knowledge, which, from the mensuration of the minutest dust of the balance, proceeds on the rising scale of material bodies, everywhere weighing, everywhere measuring, everywhere detecting and explaining the laws of force and motion, penetrating into the secret principles which hold the universe of God together, and balancing worlds against worlds, and system against system. When we seek to accompany those who pursue studies at once so high, so vast, and so exact; when we arrive at the discoveries of Newton, which pour in day on the works of God, as if a second fiat had gone forth from his own mouth; when, further, we attempt to follow those who set out where Newton paused, making his goal their starting-place, and, proceeding with demonstration upon demonstration, and discovery upon discovery, bring new worlds and new systems of worlds within the limits of the known universe, failing to learn all only because all is infinite; however we may say of man, in admiration of his physical structure, that “in form and moving he is express and admirable,” it is here, and here without irreverence, we may exclaim, “In apprehension how like a god!” The study of the pure mathematics will of course not be extensively pursued in an institution, which, like this [Boston Mechanics’ Institute], has a direct practical tendency and aim. But it is still to be remembered, that pure mathematics lie at the foundation of mechanical philosophy, and that it is ignorance only which can speak or think of that sublime science as useless research or barren speculation.
In Works (1872), Vol. 1, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Against (332)  |  Aim (175)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Balance (82)  |  Barren (33)  |  Body (557)  |  Boston (7)  |  Branch (155)  |  Bring (96)  |  Call (782)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Course (415)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Detect (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Dust (68)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Epithet (3)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Explain (334)  |  Express (192)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Fail (193)  |  Far (158)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Follow (390)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Forth (14)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  High (370)  |  Hold (96)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Institution (73)  |  Irreverence (3)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (914)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lie (370)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mensuration (2)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Minute (129)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (55)  |  Move (225)  |  Natural (811)  |  New (1276)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Pause (6)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Physical (520)  |  Pour (9)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Properly (21)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Pursue (64)  |  Race (279)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remember (189)  |  Research (753)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rising (44)  |  Say (991)  |  Scale (122)  |  Second (66)  |  Secret (217)  |  Seek (219)  |  Set (400)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (703)  |  Sublime (50)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1124)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (119)  |  Universe (901)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vast (188)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

Einstein’s space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh’s sky. The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The scientist’s discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrandt nude differs from a nude by Manet.
In The Act of Creation (1964), 252.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Act (278)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Bach (7)  |  Bach_Johann (2)  |  Base (120)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Closer (43)  |  Composer (7)  |  Creation (350)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Frame of Reference (5)  |  Glory (67)  |  Impose (22)  |  Limited (103)  |  More (2558)  |  Nude (3)  |  Observer (48)  |  Order (639)  |  Painter (30)  |  Period (200)  |  Reality (275)  |  Refer (14)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sky (174)  |  Space (525)  |  Count Leo Tolstoy (18)  |  Truth (1111)

Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention. To embody an invention the engineer must put his idea in concrete terms, and design something that people can use. That something can be a device, a gadget, a material, a method, a computing program, an innovative experiment, a new solution to a problem, or an improvement on what is existing. Since a design has to be concrete, it must have its geometry, dimensions, and characteristic numbers. Almost all engineers working on new designs find that they do not have all the needed information. Most often, they are limited by insufficient scientific knowledge. Thus they study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and mechanics. Often they have to add to the sciences relevant to their profession. Thus engineering sciences are born.
Y.C. Fung and P. Tong, Classical and Computational Solid Mechanics (2001), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (234)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Design (205)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (596)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Exist (460)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Find (1014)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Idea (882)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Information (173)  |  Invention (401)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  People (1034)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Problem (735)  |  Profession (108)  |  Science And Engineering (16)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solution (286)  |  Something (718)  |  Stress (22)  |  Study (703)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (650)  |  Use (771)

Thomas Corwin Mendenhall quote: Engineering is the art of construction
Engineering is the art of construction; but to limit it to this would be to restrict its meaning much within the range of the ordinary use of the word. In a broader sense, engineering includes all operations whose object is the utilization of the forces of nature in the interests of man.
From Address to the International Engineering Congress of the Columbia Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Published in Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (Oct 1893), 120. Reprinted in 'Fundamental Units of Measure', Smithsonian Report for 1893 (1894), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Broad (28)  |  Construction (116)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Force (497)  |  Include (93)  |  Interest (416)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (442)  |  Operation (221)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Range (104)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Sense (786)  |  Utilization (16)  |  Word (650)

England and all civilised nations stand in deadly peril of not having enough to eat. As mouths multiply, food resources dwindle. Land is a limited quantity, and the land that will grow wheat is absolutely dependent on difficult and capricious natural phenomena... I hope to point a way out of the colossal dilemma. It is the chemist who must come to the rescue of the threatened communities. It is through the laboratory that starvation may ultimately be turned into plenty... The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is one of the great discoveries, awaiting the genius of chemists.
Presidential Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1898. Published in Chemical News, 1898, 78, 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Capricious (9)  |  Chemist (170)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Dwindle (6)  |  Eat (108)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fertilizer (13)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Food (214)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hope (322)  |  Laboratory (215)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mouth (55)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Point (585)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Starvation (13)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Eventually, we reach … the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial.
In Realm of the Nebulae: The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series (1936), 201-202. The lecture series was delivered at Yale University in Fall 1935. Part of a longer quote on this page that begins: “The explorations of space…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Error (339)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Landmark (9)  |  Measure (242)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Reach (287)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Search (175)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Telescope (106)

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
In Arthur Schopenhauer and T. Bailey Saunders (ed., trans.), 'Further Psychological Observations', Studies in Pessimism: A Series of Essays (1891), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Field (378)  |  Man (2252)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1854)

Every new theory as it arises believes in the flush of youth that it has the long sought goal; it sees no limits to its applicability, and believes that at last it is the fortunate theory to achieve the 'right' answer. This was true of electron theory—perhaps some readers will remember a book called The Electrical Theory of the Universe by de Tunzelman. It is true of general relativity theory with its belief that we can formulate a mathematical scheme that will extrapolate to all past and future time and the unfathomed depths of space. It has been true of wave mechanics, with its first enthusiastic claim a brief ten years ago that no problem had successfully resisted its attack provided the attack was properly made, and now the disillusionment of age when confronted by the problems of the proton and the neutron. When will we learn that logic, mathematics, physical theory, are all only inventions for formulating in compact and manageable form what we already know, like all inventions do not achieve complete success in accomplishing what they were designed to do, much less complete success in fields beyond the scope of the original design, and that our only justification for hoping to penetrate at all into the unknown with these inventions is our past experience that sometimes we have been fortunate enough to be able to push on a short distance by acquired momentum.
The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Age (509)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arise (162)  |  Attack (86)  |  Belief (616)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (414)  |  Brief (37)  |  Call (782)  |  Claim (154)  |  Compact (13)  |  Complete (209)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (205)  |  Disillusionment (2)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experience (494)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Goal (155)  |  Invention (401)  |  Justification (52)  |  Know (1539)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Logic (313)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Momentum (10)  |  Neutron (23)  |  New (1276)  |  Past (355)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Physical (520)  |  Problem (735)  |  Proton (23)  |  Push (66)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scope (44)  |  See (1095)  |  Short (200)  |  Space (525)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Time (1913)  |  Universe (901)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)  |  Youth (109)

Every rule has its limits, and every concept its ambiguities. Most of all is this true in the science of life, where nothing quite corresponds to our ideas; similar ends are reached by varied means, and no causes are simple.
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Biology (234)  |  Cause (564)  |  Concept (242)  |  End (603)  |  Idea (882)  |  Life (1873)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Reach (287)  |  Rule (308)  |  Simple (430)

Everything material which is the subject of knowledge has number, order, or position; and these are her first outlines for a sketch of the universe. If our feeble hands cannot follow out the details, still her part has been drawn with an unerring pen, and her work cannot be gainsaid. So wide is the range of mathematical sciences, so indefinitely may it extend beyond our actual powers of manipulation that at some moments we are inclined to fall down with even more than reverence before her majestic presence. But so strictly limited are her promises and powers, about so much that we might wish to know does she offer no information whatever, that at other moments we are fain to call her results but a vain thing, and to reject them as a stone where we had asked for bread. If one aspect of the subject encourages our hopes, so does the other tend to chasten our desires, and he is perhaps the wisest, and in the long run the happiest, among his fellows, who has learned not only this science, but also the larger lesson which it directly teaches, namely, to temper our aspirations to that which is possible, to moderate our desires to that which is attainable, to restrict our hopes to that of which accomplishment, if not immediately practicable, is at least distinctly within the range of conception.
From Presidential Address (Aug 1878) to the British Association, Dublin, published in the Report of the 48th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1878), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Actual (145)  |  Ask (423)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attainable (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bread (42)  |  Call (782)  |  Chasten (2)  |  Conception (160)  |  Desire (214)  |  Detail (150)  |  Directly (25)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (141)  |  Encourage (45)  |  Everything (490)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  Hand (149)  |  Happy (108)  |  Hope (322)  |  Immediately (116)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Least (75)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limited (103)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Material (366)  |  Moderate (6)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Namely (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Number (712)  |  Offer (143)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outline (13)  |  Part (237)  |  Pen (21)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Practicable (2)  |  Presence (63)  |  Promise (72)  |  Range (104)  |  Reject (67)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Result (700)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Sketch (9)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (169)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Subject (544)  |  Teach (301)  |  Temper (12)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unerring (4)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vain (86)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wise (145)  |  Wish (217)  |  Work (1403)

Exercising the right of occasional suppression and slight modification, it is truly absurd to see how plastic a limited number of observations become, in the hands of men with preconceived ideas.
Meteorographica (1863), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Become (822)  |  Idea (882)  |  Limited (103)  |  Modification (57)  |  Number (712)  |  Observation (595)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1095)  |  Suppression (9)  |  Truly (119)

First Law
In every animal which has not passed the limit of its development, a more frequent and continuous use of any organ gradually strengthens, develops and enlarges that organ, and gives it a power proportional to the length of time it has been so used; while the permanent disuse of any organ imperceptibly weakens and deteriorates it, and progressively diminishes its functional capacity, until it finally disappears.
Philosophie Zoologique (1809), Vol. 1, 235, trans. Hugh Elliot (1914), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Develop (279)  |  Development (442)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Evolution (637)  |  First (1303)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Law (914)  |  More (2558)  |  Organ (118)  |  Pass (242)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Power (773)  |  Time (1913)  |  Use (771)

For I am yearning to visit the limits of the all-nurturing Earth, and Oceans, from whom the gods are sprung.
Homer
Hera to Aphrodite in the Iliad, 14.201. As given in Norman K. Glendenning, Our Place in the Universe (2007), 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  God (776)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (251)  |  Yearning (13)

For me, physics cultivates a perpetual state of wonder about the limits of thoughts, the workings of the universe, and our place in the vast space-time landscape that we call home.
Closing sentence of 'Introduction', The Physics Book: From Olbers’ Paradox to Schrödinger’s Cat: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics (2011), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Home (186)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Physics (568)  |  Place (194)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Thought (996)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wonder (252)  |  Working (23)

For some men of great courage and adventure, inactivity was a slow death. Would a man like Gibson ever have adjusted back to peacetime life? One can imagine it would have been a somewhat empty existence after all he had been through. Facing death had become his drug. He had seen countless friends and comrades perish in the great crusade. Perhaps something in him even welcomed the inevitability he had always felt that before the war ended he would join them in their Bomber Command Valhalla. He had pushed his luck beyond all limits and he knew it. But that was the kind of man he was… A man of great courage, inspiration and leadership. A man born for war… but born to fall in war.
Wallis wrote after the death of Guy Gibson, leader of the successful Dambusters raid by the 617 Squadron. Gibson was killed a year later when his airplane crashed returning from a night-time sortie over Germany. As quoted in W. B. Bartlett, Dam Busters: In the Words of the Bomber Crews (2011, 2013), 272-273.
Science quotes on:  |  Adjust (11)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Comrade (4)  |  Courage (82)  |  Crusade (6)  |  Death (407)  |  Drug (61)  |  Inactivity (4)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Leadership (13)  |  Peacetime (4)  |  Perish (56)  |  Slow (108)  |  Valhalla (2)  |  War (234)  |  Welcome (20)

Fortunately science, like that nature to which it belongs, is neither limited by time nor by space. It belongs to the world, and is of no country and of no age. The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance; the more we feel how much remains unknown; and in philosophy, the sentiment of the Macedonian hero can never apply,– there are always new worlds to conquer.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Apply (170)  |  Belong (168)  |  Conquer (41)  |  Country (269)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Hero (45)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Know (1539)  |  Limited (103)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1276)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Remain (357)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Space (525)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unknown (198)  |  World (1854)

Generality of points of view and of methods, precision and elegance in presentation, have become, since Lagrange, the common property of all who would lay claim to the rank of scientific mathematicians. And, even if this generality leads at times to abstruseness at the expense of intuition and applicability, so that general theorems are formulated which fail to apply to a single special case, if furthermore precision at times degenerates into a studied brevity which makes it more difficult to read an article than it was to write it; if, finally, elegance of form has well-nigh become in our day the criterion of the worth or worthlessness of a proposition,—yet are these conditions of the highest importance to a wholesome development, in that they keep the scientific material within the limits which are necessary both intrinsically and extrinsically if mathematics is not to spend itself in trivialities or smother in profusion.
In Die Entwickdung der Mathematik in den letzten Jahrhunderten (1884), 14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Apply (170)  |  Article (22)  |  Become (822)  |  Both (496)  |  Brevity (8)  |  Claim (154)  |  Common (447)  |  Condition (362)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Development (442)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Expense (22)  |  Fail (193)  |  Form (978)  |  Formulate (16)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Importance (299)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Method (532)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Point (585)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Precision (73)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Profusion (3)  |  Property (177)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Rank (69)  |  Read (309)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Single (366)  |  Smother (3)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Spend (97)  |  Study (703)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Time (1913)  |  Triviality (3)  |  View (498)  |  Wholesome (13)  |  Worth (173)  |  Worthless (22)  |  Write (250)

Genius and science have burst the limits of space, and few observations, explained by just reasoning, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascertain the history of this world, and the series of events which preceded the birth of the human race?
'Preliminary discourse', to Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles (1812), trans. R. Kerr Essay on the Theory of the Earth (1813), 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Birth (154)  |  Burst (41)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Explain (334)  |  Genius (301)  |  Glorious (50)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Observation (595)  |  Race (279)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Series (153)  |  Space (525)  |  Time (1913)  |  Universe (901)  |  World (1854)

Geologists have not been slow to admit that they were in error in assuming that they had an eternity of past time for the evolution of the earth’s history. They have frankly acknowledged the validity of the physical arguments which go to place more or less definite limits to the antiquity of the earth. They were, on the whole, disposed to acquiesce in the allowance of 100 millions of years granted to them by Lord Kelvin, for the transaction of the whole of the long cycles of geological history. But the physicists have been insatiable and inexorable. As remorseless as Lear’s daughters, they have cut down their grant of years by successive slices, until some of them have brought the number to something less than ten millions. In vain have the geologists protested that there must somewhere be a flaw in a line of argument which tends to results so entirely at variance with the strong evidence for a higher antiquity, furnished not only by the geological record, but by the existing races of plants and animals. They have insisted that this evidence is not mere theory or imagination, but is drawn from a multitude of facts which become hopelessly unintelligible unless sufficient time is admitted for the evolution of geological history. They have not been able to disapprove the arguments of the physicists, but they have contended that the physicists have simply ignored the geological arguments as of no account in the discussion.
'Twenty-five years of Geological Progress in Britain', Nature, 1895, 51, 369.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (196)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Animal (651)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Argument (145)  |  Become (822)  |  Controversy (31)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Error (339)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Grant (77)  |  History (719)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Insatiable (7)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Long (778)  |  Lord (97)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (712)  |  Past (355)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Plant (320)  |  Protest (9)  |  Race (279)  |  Record (161)  |  Result (700)  |  Slow (108)  |  Something (718)  |  Strong (182)  |  Successive (73)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Time (1913)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Vain (86)  |  Validity (50)  |  Variance (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (965)

Geology differs from physics, chemistry, and biology in that the possibilities for experiment are limited.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (234)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Geology (240)  |  Limited (103)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possibility (172)

Geometrical axioms are neither synthetic a priori conclusions nor experimental facts. They are conventions: our choice, amongst all possible conventions, is guided by experimental facts; but it remains free, and is only limited by the necessity of avoiding all contradiction. ... In other words, axioms of geometry are only definitions in disguise.
That being so what ought one to think of this question: Is the Euclidean Geometry true?
The question is nonsense. One might as well ask whether the metric system is true and the old measures false; whether Cartesian co-ordinates are true and polar co-ordinates false.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Among (3)  |  Ask (423)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Choice (114)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Convention (16)  |  Definition (239)  |  Disguise (12)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  False (105)  |  Free (240)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Guide (108)  |  In Other Words (9)  |  Limited (103)  |  Measure (242)  |  Metric System (6)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Polar (13)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (652)  |  Remain (357)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  System (545)  |  Think (1124)  |  True (240)  |  Word (650)

God has no intention of setting a limit to the efforts of man to conquer space.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Conquer (41)  |  Effort (243)  |  God (776)  |  Intention (46)  |  Man (2252)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Space (525)

He [Samuel Johnson] bid me always remember this, that after a system is well settled upon positive evidence, a few objections ought not to shake it. “The human mind is so limited that it cannot take in all parts of a subject; so that there may be objections raised against anything. There are objections against a plenum, and objections against a vacuum. Yet one of them must certainly be true.”
Note: Whereas vacuum means devoid of matter, plenum regards a space with matter throughout.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Samuel Johnson (51)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Must (1525)  |  Objection (34)  |  Positive (98)  |  Remember (189)  |  Settled (34)  |  Shake (43)  |  Subject (544)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Vacuum (41)

Here I am at the limit which God and nature has assigned to my individuality. I am compelled to depend upon word, language and image in the most precise sense, and am wholly unable to operate in any manner whatever with symbols and numbers which are easily intelligible to the most highly gifted minds.
In Letter to Naumann (1826), in Vogel, Goethe's Selbstzeugnisse (1903), 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Assign (15)  |  Compel (31)  |  Depend (238)  |  Easily (36)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  God (776)  |  Highly (16)  |  Image (97)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Language (310)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Operate (19)  |  Precise (71)  |  Sense (786)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Unable (25)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Word (650)

Historically, science has pursued a premise that Nature can be understood fully, its future predicted precisely, and its behavior controlled at will. However, emerging knowledge indicates that the nature of Earth and biological systems transcends the limits of science, questioning the premise of knowing, prediction, and control. This knowledge has led to the recognition that, for civilized human survival, technological society has to adapt to the constraints of these systems.
As quoted in Chris Maser, Decision-Making for a Sustainable Environment: A Systemic Approach (2012), 4, citing N. Narasimhan, 'Limitations of Science and Adapting to Nature', Environmental Research Letters (Jul-Sep 2007), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (234)  |  Constraint (13)  |  Control (185)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Future (467)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Premise (40)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Society (353)  |  Survival (105)  |  System (545)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (284)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)  |  Will (2350)

Hubble's observations suggested that there was a time, called the big bang, when the universe was infinitesimally small and infinitely dense. Under such conditions all the laws of science, and therefore all ability to predict the future, would break down. If there were events earlier than this time, then they could not affect what happens at the present time. Their existence can be ignored because it would have no observational consequences. One may say that time had a beginning at the big bang, in the sense that earlier times simply would not be defined. It should be emphasized that this beginning in time is very different from those that had been considered previously. In an unchanging universe a beginning in time is something that has to be imposed by some being outside the universe; there is no physical necessity for a beginning. One can imagine that God created the universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand, if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could still imagine that God created the universe at the instant of the big bang, or even afterwards in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a big bang, but it would be meaningless to suppose that it was created before the big bang. An expanding universe does not preclude a creator, but it does place limits on when he might have carried out his job!
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988), 8-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Bang (29)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Break (110)  |  Call (782)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (430)  |  Creator (97)  |  Different (596)  |  Down (455)  |  Event (222)  |  Existence (484)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Happen (282)  |  Edwin Powell Hubble (29)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Instant (46)  |  Job (86)  |  Law (914)  |  Literally (30)  |  Look (584)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observational (15)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (142)  |  Past (355)  |  Physical (520)  |  Predict (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Reason (767)  |  Say (991)  |  Sense (786)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Time (1913)  |  Universe (901)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)

I [do not know] when the end of science will come. ... What I do know is that our species is dumber than we normally admit to ourselves. This limit of our mental faculties, and not necessarily of science itself, ensures to me that we have only just begun to figure out the universe.
In Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (50)  |  Begin (275)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Figure (162)  |  Know (1539)  |  Mental (179)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Species (435)  |  Universe (901)  |  Will (2350)

I am particularly concerned to determine the probability of causes and results, as exhibited in events that occur in large numbers, and to investigate the laws according to which that probability approaches a limit in proportion to the repetition of events. That investigation deserves the attention of mathematicians because of the analysis required. It is primarily there that the approximation of formulas that are functions of large numbers has its most important applications. The investigation will benefit observers in identifying the mean to be chosen among the results of their observations and the probability of the errors still to be apprehended. Lastly, the investigation is one that deserves the attention of philosophers in showing how in the final analysis there is a regularity underlying the very things that seem to us to pertain entirely to chance, and in unveiling the hidden but constant causes on which that regularity depends. It is on the regularity of the main outcomes of events taken in large numbers that various institutions depend, such as annuities, tontines, and insurance policies. Questions about those subjects, as well as about inoculation with vaccine and decisions of electoral assemblies, present no further difficulty in the light of my theory. I limit myself here to resolving the most general of them, but the importance of these concerns in civil life, the moral considerations that complicate them, and the voluminous data that they presuppose require a separate work.
Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1825), trans. Andrew I. Dale (1995), Introduction.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Application (257)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attention (198)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Cause (564)  |  Chance (245)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Civil (26)  |  Complication (30)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constant (148)  |  Data (162)  |  Decision (98)  |  Depend (238)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Determine (152)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Final (121)  |  Formula (102)  |  Function (235)  |  General (521)  |  Government (116)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inoculation (9)  |  Institution (73)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mean (810)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Number (712)  |  Observation (595)  |  Occur (151)  |  Outcome (16)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Present (630)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Question (652)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Repetition (30)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Separate (151)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (544)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Vaccine (9)  |  Various (206)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1403)

I believe as a matter of faith that the extension of space travel to the limits of the solar system will probably be accomplished in several decades, perhaps before the end of the century. Pluto is 4000 million miles from the sun. The required minimum launching velocity is about 10 miles per second and the transit time is 46 years. Thus we would have to make the velocity considerably higher to make the trip interesting to man. Travel to the stars is dependent on radically new discoveries in science and technology. The nearest star is 25 million million miles way and requires a travel time of more than four years at the speed of light. Prof. Dr. Ing. E. Sanger has speculated that velocities comparable with the speed of light might be attained in the next century, but such extrapolation of current technology is probably not very reliable.
In Popular Mechanics (Sep 1961), 262.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Century (319)  |  Current (122)  |  Decade (66)  |  End (603)  |  Extension (60)  |  Extrapolation (6)  |  Faith (210)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Light (636)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1276)  |  Next (238)  |  Pluto (6)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Science And Technology (47)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (525)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Speed (66)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (408)  |  System (545)  |  Technology (284)  |  Time (1913)  |  Travel (125)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Birth (154)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Factor (47)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (493)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  World (1854)

I came into the room, which was half dark, and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me! Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the earth, provided no new source was discovered. That prophetic utterance refers to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! the old boy beamed upon me.
The italicized phrase refers to “no new source” of energy. Concerning a Lecture by Rutherford, at the Royal Institution, dealing with the energy of subterranean radium, which had an effect prolonging the heat of the Earth. Arthur S. Eve wrote that Rutherford “used to tell humorous stories about this lecture long afterwards:” — followed by the subject quote above, as its own paragraph. As given in Arthur S. Eve, Rutherford: Being the Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O.M. (1939), 107. The story lacks quotation marks, and thus should be regarded as perhaps Eve’s own words giving a faithful recollection, rather than Rutherford’s verbatim words. (However, note that the style used throughout the book is to omit quotation marks from their own separate paragraph.)
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Audience (28)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Boy (100)  |  Cock (6)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Dark (145)  |  Discover (572)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (374)  |  Eye (441)  |  Glance (36)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Last (425)  |  Limited (103)  |  Lord (97)  |  New (1276)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Point (585)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  Relief (30)  |  Saw (160)  |  Speech (66)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Tonight (9)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Utterance (11)  |  View (498)

I can remember … starting to gather all sorts of things like rocks and beetles when I was about nine years old. There was no parental encouragement—nor discouragement either—nor any outside influence that I can remember in these early stages. By about the age of twelve, I had settled pretty definitely on butterflies, largely I think because the rocks around my home were limited to limestone, while the butterflies were varied, exciting, and fairly easy to preserve with household moth-balls. … I was fourteen, I remember, when … I decided to be scientific, caught in some net of emulation, and resolutely threw away all of my “childish” specimens, mounted haphazard on “common pins” and without “proper labels.” The purge cost me a great inward struggle, still one of my most vivid memories, and must have been forced by a conflict between a love of my specimens and a love for orderliness, for having everything just exactly right according to what happened to be my current standards.
In The Nature of Natural History (1950, 1990), 255.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Age (509)  |  Ball (64)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Child (333)  |  Childish (20)  |  Common (447)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Cost (94)  |  Current (122)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Early (196)  |  Easy (213)  |  Emulation (2)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Everything (490)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Fourteen (2)  |  Gather (77)  |  Great (1610)  |  Haphazard (3)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Home (186)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inward (6)  |  Label (11)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Limited (103)  |  Love (328)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mount (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Old (499)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Outside (142)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pin (20)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purge (11)  |  Remember (189)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (177)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Settled (34)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standard (65)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Twelve (4)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Year (965)

I consider [H. G. Wells], as a purely imaginative writer, to be deserving of very high praise, but our methods are entirely different. I have always made a point in my romances of basing my so-called inventions upon a groundwork of actual fact, and of using in their construction methods and materials which are not entirely without the pale of contemporary engineering skill and knowledge. ... The creations of Mr. Wells, on the other hand, belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present, though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible.
Gordon Jones, 'Jules Verne at Home', Temple Bar (Jun 1904), 129, 670.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Age (509)  |  Belong (168)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Call (782)  |  Consider (430)  |  Construction (116)  |  Creation (350)  |  Degree (278)  |  Different (596)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fact (1259)  |  High (370)  |  Invention (401)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Material (366)  |  Method (532)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (585)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Purely (111)  |  Romance (18)  |  Say (991)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Skill (116)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (41)  |  Will (2350)  |  Writer (90)

I do not think there should be a limit on the rig's liability, because they are sitting on top of unlimited amounts of oil, and thus, there could be an explosion occur that could do untold damage. ... The amount of damage that an offshore oil rig can do is infinite.
Senate Floor Debate, 135 Cong. Rec. S9689-S9716 (3 Aug 1989). Reproduced in Russell V. Randle, Oil Pollution Deskbook (1991), 432.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Damage (38)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explosion (52)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Liability (7)  |  Occur (151)  |  Offshore (3)  |  Oil (67)  |  Oil Spill (6)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Think (1124)  |  Top (100)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Untold (6)

I do not think we can impose limits on research. Through hundreds of thousands of years, man’s intellectual curiosity has been essential to all the gains we have made. Although in recent times we have progressed from chance and hit-or-miss methods to consciously directed research, we still cannot know in advance what the results may be. It would be regressive and dangerous to trammel the free search for new forms of truth.
In Margaret Mead and Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (ed.), Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Chance (245)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dangerous (109)  |  Direct (228)  |  Directed (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Essential (210)  |  Form (978)  |  Free (240)  |  Gain (149)  |  Hit (20)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Impose (22)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Know (1539)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (532)  |  Miss (51)  |  New (1276)  |  Progress (493)  |  Recent (79)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Search (175)  |  Still (614)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Year (965)

I fancy you give me credit for being a more systematic sort of cove than I really am in the matter of limits of significance. What would actually happen would be that I should make out Pt (normal) and say to myself that would be about 50:1; pretty good but as it may not be normal we'd best not be too certain, or 100:1; even allowing that it may not be normal it seems good enough and whether one would be content with that or would require further work would depend on the importance of the conclusion and the difficulty of obtaining suitable experience.
Letter to E. S. Pearson, 18 May 1929. E. S. Pearson, '"Student" as Statistician', Biometrika, 1939, 30, 244.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Depend (238)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Good (907)  |  Happen (282)  |  Importance (299)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (991)  |  Significance (115)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Work (1403)

I must not pass by Dr. Young called Phaenomenon Young at Cambridge. A man of universal erudition, & almost universal accomplishments. Had he limited himself to anyone department of knowledge, he must have been first in that department. But as a mathematician, a scholar, a hieroglyphist, he was eminent; & he knew so much that it is difficult to say what he did not know. He was a most amiable & good-tempered man; too fond, perhaps, of the society of persons of rank for a true philosopher.
J. Z. Fullmer, 'Davy's Sketches of his Contemporaries', Chymia (1967), 12, 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Amiable (10)  |  Call (782)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Erudition (8)  |  First (1303)  |  Fond (13)  |  Good (907)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pass (242)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Rank (69)  |  Say (991)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Society (353)  |  Universal (198)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (16)

I think science has enjoyed an extraordinary success because it has such a limited and narrow realm in which to focus its efforts. Namely, the physical universe.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Effort (243)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Focus (36)  |  Limited (103)  |  Namely (11)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Physical (520)  |  Realm (88)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1124)  |  Universe (901)

I think the next [21st] century will be the century of complexity. We have already discovered the basic laws that govern matter and understand all the normal situations. We don’t know how the laws fit together, and what happens under extreme conditions. But I expect we will find a complete unified theory sometime this century. The is no limit to the complexity that we can build using those basic laws.
[Answer to question: Some say that while the twentieth century was the century of physics, we are now entering the century of biology. What do you think of this?]
'"Unified Theory" Is Getting Closer, Hawking Predicts', interview in San Jose Mercury News (23 Jan 2000), 29A. Answer quoted in Ashok Sengupta, Chaos, Nonlinearity, Complexity: The Dynamical Paradigm of Nature (2006), vii. Question included in Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, Nicholas Stern and Mario Molina , Global Sustainability: a Nobel Cause (2010), 13. Cite from Brent Davis and Dennis J. Sumara, Complexity and Education: Inquiries Into Learning, Teaching, and Research (2006), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  21st Century (11)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Basic (144)  |  Biology (234)  |  Build (212)  |  Century (319)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Condition (362)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  Govern (67)  |  Governing (20)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Matter (821)  |  Next (238)  |  Normal (30)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Question (652)  |  Say (991)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sometime (4)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Together (392)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unified Theory (7)  |  Will (2350)

I think, too, that we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees—you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?
Speech, pandering for support, while candidate for governor of California, to the Western Wood Products Association, San Francisco (12 Mar 1966), opposing expansion of Redwood National Park. Commonly seen paraphrased as “If you’ve seen one redwood tree, you’ve seen them all,” but Reagan did not himself express this wording.
Science quotes on:  |  Acre (13)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Do (1905)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Know (1539)  |  Look (584)  |  Mean (810)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Sense (786)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tree (269)

I transferred to … UCLA, … and I took several courses there. One was an acting class…; another was a course in television writing, which seemed practical. I also continued my studies in philosophy. I had done pretty well in symbolic logic at Long Beach, so I signed up for Advanced Symbolic Logic at my new school. Saying that I was studying Advanced Symbolic Logic at UCLA had a nice ring; what had been nerdy in high school now had mystique. However, I went to class the first day and discovered that UCLA used a different set of symbols from those I had learned at Long Beach. To catch up, I added a class in Logic 101, which meant I was studying beginning logic and advanced logic at the same time. I was overwhelmed, and shocked to find that I couldn’t keep up. I had reached my math limit as well as my philosophy limit. I abruptly changed my major to theater and, free from the workload of my logic classes…. I realized that I was now investing in no other future but show business.
In Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life (2007), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Acting (6)  |  Class (168)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Overwhelmed (6)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Show Business (2)  |  Study (703)  |  University (130)

I uphold my own rights, and therefore I also recognize the rights of others. This is the principle I act upon in life, in politics and in science. We owe it to ourselves to defend our rights, for it is the only guarantee for our individual development, and for our influence upon the community at large. Such a defence is no act of vain ambition, and it involves no renunciation of purely scientific aims. For, if we would serve science, we must extend her limits, not only as far as our own knowledge is concerned, but in the estimation of others.
Cellular Pathology, translated by Frank Chance (1860), x.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Aim (175)  |  Ambition (47)  |  Community (111)  |  Concern (239)  |  Defence (16)  |  Development (442)  |  Extend (129)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Involve (93)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Large (399)  |  Life (1873)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Owe (71)  |  Politics (123)  |  Principle (532)  |  Purely (111)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Vain (86)

I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet—all at the least expense of vital power to the patient.
Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not (1860), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Application (257)  |  Better (495)  |  Cleanliness (6)  |  Diet (56)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Light (636)  |  Limited (103)  |  Little (718)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Nurse (33)  |  Nursing (9)  |  Patient (209)  |  Power (773)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Selection (130)  |  Signify (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Vital (89)  |  Want (505)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Word (650)

I’m convinced that the best solutions are often the ones that are counterintuitive—that challenge conventional thinking—and end in breakthroughs. It is always easier to do things the same old way … why change? To fight this, keep your dissatisfaction index high and break with tradition. Don’t be too quick to accept the way things are being done. Question whether there’s a better way. Very often you will find that once you make this break from the usual way - and incidentally, this is probably the hardest thing to do—and start on a new track your horizon of new thoughts immediately broadens. New ideas flow in like water. Always keep your interests broad - don’t let your mind be stunted by a limited view.
1988
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Better (495)  |  Break (110)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Change (640)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Counterintuitive (4)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  End (603)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flow (90)  |  High (370)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Idea (882)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mind (1380)  |  New (1276)  |  Old (499)  |  Question (652)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Start (237)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (996)  |  Track (42)  |  Tradition (76)  |  View (498)  |  Water (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

If entropy must constantly and continuously increase, then the universe is remorselessly running down, thus setting a limit (a long one, to be sure) on the existence of humanity. To some human beings, this ultimate end poses itself almost as a threat to their personal immortality, or as a denial of the omnipotence of God. There is, therefore, a strong emotional urge to deny that entropy must increase.
In Asimov on Physics (1976), 141. Also in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 279.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Denial (20)  |  Deny (71)  |  Down (455)  |  Emotion (106)  |  End (603)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Existence (484)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immortality (12)  |  Increase (226)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Omnipotence (4)  |  Running (61)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Setting (44)  |  Strong (182)  |  Threat (36)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Universe (901)

If logical training is to consist, not in repeating barbarous scholastic formulas or mechanically tacking together empty majors and minors, but in acquiring dexterity in the use of trustworthy methods of advancing from the known to the unknown, then mathematical investigation must ever remain one of its most indispensable instruments. Once inured to the habit of accurately imagining abstract relations, recognizing the true value of symbolic conceptions, and familiarized with a fixed standard of proof, the mind is equipped for the consideration of quite other objects than lines and angles. The twin treatises of Adam Smith on social science, wherein, by deducing all human phenomena first from the unchecked action of selfishness and then from the unchecked action of sympathy, he arrives at mutually-limiting conclusions of transcendent practical importance, furnish for all time a brilliant illustration of the value of mathematical methods and mathematical discipline.
In 'University Reform', Darwinism and Other Essays (1893), 297-298.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Action (343)  |  Advance (299)  |  Angle (25)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Barbarous (4)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Dexterity (8)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Empty (83)  |  Equip (6)  |  Familiarize (5)  |  Fix (34)  |  Forever (112)  |  Formula (102)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1517)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Known (453)  |  Line (101)  |  Logic (313)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mathematics And Logic (27)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Minor (12)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Practical (225)  |  Proof (304)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Relation (166)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Scholastic (2)  |  Selfishness (9)  |  Adam Smith (8)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Standard (65)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Training (92)  |  Transcendent (3)  |  Treatise (46)  |  True (240)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Twin (16)  |  Unchecked (5)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Value (397)

If our intention had been merely to bring back a handful of soil and rocks from the lunar gravel pit and then forget the whole thing, we would certainly be history's biggest fools. But that is not our intention now—it never will be. What we are seeking in tomorrow's [Apollo 11] trip is indeed that key to our future on earth. We are expanding the mind of man. We are extending this God-given brain and these God-given hands to their outermost limits and in so doing all mankind will benefit. All mankind will reap the harvest…. What we will have attained when Neil Armstrong steps down upon the moon is a completely new step in the evolution of man.
Banquet speech on the eve of the Apollo 11 launch, Royal Oaks Country Club, Titusville (15 Jul 1969). In "Of a Fire on the Moon", Life (29 Aug 1969), 67, No. 9, 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Apollo 11 (7)  |  Neil Armstrong (17)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Back (395)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Brain (282)  |  Bringing (10)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Doing (277)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Fool (121)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgetting (13)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Handful (14)  |  Harvest (28)  |  History (719)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intention (46)  |  Key (56)  |  Lunar (9)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Moon (252)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1276)  |  Pit (20)  |  Reap (19)  |  Reaping (4)  |  Rock (177)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Soil (98)  |  Step (235)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Trip (11)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.
Endless Horizons (1946), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (145)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Game (104)  |  Limited (103)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1854)

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 (442)  |  Fraternity (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Highest (19)  |  Idea (882)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Kind (565)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Nation (208)  |  Object (442)  |  Physical (520)  |  Power (773)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Religion (370)  |  Remove (50)  |  Society (353)  |  Strive (53)  |  Treat (38)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unrestrained (4)  |  View (498)

If you’re too sloppy, then you never get reproducible results, and then you never can draw any conclusions; but if you are just a little sloppy, then when you see something startling, you say, “Oh, my God, what did I do, what did I do different this time?” And if you really accidentally varied only one parameter, you nail it down, and that’s exactly what happened [to produce new experimental discoveries]. So I called it the "Principle of Limited Sloppiness".
From Interview (1978) for Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, Pasadena, California (oralhistories.library.caltech.edu), Online PDF version, 76-77. Delbrück also stated he first made a casual remark about the “Principle of Limited Sloppiness” as chairman at a meeting in Oak Ridge after the war.
Science quotes on:  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Little (718)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Result (700)  |  Startle (6)

Imagine a school-boy who has outgrown his clothes. Imagine the repairs made on the vestments where the enlarged frame had burst the narrow limits of the enclosure. Imagine the additions made where the projecting limbs had fairly and far emerged beyond the confines of the garment. Imagine the boy still growing, and the clothes, mended allover, now more than ever in want of mending—such is chemistry, and such is nomenclature.
Chemical Recreations (1834), 206, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boy (100)  |  Burst (41)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Enclosure (4)  |  Garment (13)  |  Growing (99)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Mending (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  School (228)  |  Still (614)  |  Vestment (2)  |  Want (505)

Imagine that … the world is something like a great chess game being played by the gods, and we are observers of the game. … If we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules…. However, we might not be able to understand why a particular move is made in the game, merely because it is too complicated and our minds are limited…. We must limit ourselves to the more basic question of the rules of the game.
If we know the rules, we consider that we “understand” the world.
In 'Basic Physics', The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964, 2013), Vol. 1, 2-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chess (27)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Consider (430)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Game (104)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Know (1539)  |  Limited (103)  |  Long (778)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (225)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observer (48)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Play (117)  |  Question (652)  |  Rule (308)  |  Something (718)  |  Understand (650)  |  Watch (119)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1854)

In a world that is rightly so concerned about climate change and the atmosphere, to be so ignorant and neglectful of our oceans is deeply troubling. However, … having woken up to this living disaster and having realized that there are limits to how much abuse we can inflict, it’s not too late to turn things around.
In 'Can We Stop Killing Our Oceans Now, Please?', Huffington Post (14 Aug 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Change (640)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Late (119)  |  Living (492)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Realize (157)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  World (1854)

In all our academies we attempt far too much. ... In earlier times lectures were delivered upon chemistry and botany as branches of medicine, and the medical student learned enough of them. Now, however, chemistry and botany are become sciences of themselves, incapable of comprehension by a hasty survey, and each demanding the study of a whole life, yet we expect the medical student to understand them. He who is prudent, accordingly declines all distracting claims upon his time, and limits himself to a single branch and becomes expert in one thing.
Quoted in Johann Hermann Baas, Henry Ebenezer Handerson (trans.), Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession (1889), 842-843.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Become (822)  |  Botany (63)  |  Branch (155)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Claim (154)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Decline (28)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Education (423)  |  Enough (341)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expert (68)  |  Himself (461)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (112)  |  Life (1873)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Single (366)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (703)  |  Survey (36)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Understand (650)  |  Whole (756)

In all speculations on the origin, or agents that have produced the changes on this globe, it is probable that we ought to keep within the boundaries of the probable effects resulting from the regular operations of the great laws of nature which our experience and observation have brought within the sphere of our knowledge. When we overleap those limits, and suppose a total change in nature's laws, we embark on the sea of uncertainty, where one conjecture is perhaps as probable as another; for none of them can have any support, or derive any authority from the practical facts wherewith our experience has brought us acquainted.
Observations on the Geology of the United States of America (1817), iv-v.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (74)  |  Authority (100)  |  Change (640)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Derive (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Origin (251)  |  Practical (225)  |  Probability (135)  |  Produced (187)  |  Regular (48)  |  Sea (327)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Support (151)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Total (95)  |  Uncertainty (58)

In defining an element let us not take an external boundary, Let us say, e.g., the smallest ponderable quantity of yttrium is an assemblage of ultimate atoms almost infinitely more like each other than they are to the atoms of any other approximating element. It does not necessarily follow that the atoms shall all be absolutely alike among themselves. The atomic weight which we ascribe to yttrium, therefore, merely represents a mean value around which the actual weights of the individual atoms of the “element” range within certain limits. But if my conjecture is tenable, could we separate atom from atom, we should find them varying within narrow limits on each side of the mean.
Address to Annual General Meeting of the Chemical Society (28 Mar 1888), printed in Journal of the Chemical Society (1888), 491.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (145)  |  Alike (60)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Atom (381)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Definition (239)  |  Element (324)  |  External (62)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (390)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infinitely (13)  |  Mean (810)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ponderable (4)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Range (104)  |  Represent (157)  |  Say (991)  |  Separate (151)  |  Side (236)  |  Smallest (9)  |  Tenable (4)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Value (397)  |  Variation (93)  |  Weight (140)  |  Yttrium (3)

In general the position as regards all such new calculi is this That one cannot accomplish by them anything that could not be accomplished without them. However, the advantage is, that, provided such a calculus corresponds to the inmost nature of frequent needs, anyone who masters it thoroughly is able—without the unconscious inspiration of genius which no one can command—to solve the respective problems, yea, to solve them mechanically in complicated cases in which, without such aid, even genius becomes powerless. Such is the case with the invention of general algebra, with the differential calculus, and in a more limited region with Lagrange’s calculus of variations, with my calculus of congruences, and with Möbius’s calculus. Such conceptions unite, as it were, into an organic whole countless problems which otherwise would remain isolated and require for their separate solution more or less application of inventive genius.
Letter (15 May 1843) to Schumacher, collected in Carl Friedrich Gauss Werke (1866), Vol. 8, 298, as translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath's Quotation-book (1914), 197-198. From the original German, “Überhaupt verhält es sich mit allen solchen neuen Calculs so, dass man durch sie nichts leisten kann, was nicht auch ohne sie zu leisten wäre; der Vortheil ist aber der, dass, wenn ein solcher Calcul dem innersten Wesen vielfach vorkommender Bedürfnisse correspondirt, jeder, der sich ihn ganz angeeignet hat, auch ohne die gleichsam unbewussten Inspirationen des Genies, die niemand erzwingen kann, die dahin gehörigen Aufgaben lösen, ja selbst in so verwickelten Fällen gleichsam mechanisch lösen kann, wo ohne eine solche Hülfe auch das Genie ohnmächtig wird. So ist es mit der Erfindung der Buchstabenrechnung überhaupt; so mit der Differentialrechnung gewesen; so ist es auch (wenn auch in partielleren Sphären) mit Lagranges Variationsrechnung, mit meiner Congruenzenrechnung und mit Möbius' Calcul. Es werden durch solche Conceptionen unzählige Aufgaben, die sonst vereinzelt stehen, und jedesmal neue Efforts (kleinere oder grössere) des Erfindungsgeistes erfordern, gleichsam zu einem organischen Reiche.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Aid (101)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Application (257)  |  Become (822)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Command (60)  |  Complicated (119)  |  Conception (160)  |  Congruence (3)  |  Countless (39)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Frequent (26)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Inmost (2)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Invention (401)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Isolate (25)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Limited (103)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  August Möbius (2)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Need (323)  |  New (1276)  |  Organic (161)  |  Position (83)  |  Powerless (7)  |  Problem (735)  |  Regard (312)  |  Region (41)  |  Remain (357)  |  Require (229)  |  Respective (2)  |  Separate (151)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solve (146)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Unite (43)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whole (756)

In its earliest development knowledge is self-sown. Impressions force themselves upon men’s senses whether they will or not, and often against their will. The amount of interest in which these impressions awaken is determined by the coarser pains and pleasures which they carry in their train or by mere curiosity; and reason deals with the materials supplied to it as far as that interest carries it, and no further. Such common knowledge is rather brought than sought; and such ratiocination is little more than the working of a blind intellectual instinct. It is only when the mind passes beyond this condition that it begins to evolve science. When simple curiosity passes into the love of knowledge as such, and the gratification of the æsthetic sense of the beauty of completeness and accuracy seems more desirable that the easy indolence of ignorance; when the finding out of the causes of things becomes a source of joy, and he is accounted happy who is successful in the search, common knowledge passes into what our forefathers called natural history, whence there is but a step to that which used to be termed natural philosophy, and now passes by the name of physical science.
In this final state of knowledge the phenomena of nature are regarded as one continuous series of causes and effects; and the ultimate object of science is to trace out that series, from the term which is nearest to us, to that which is at the farthest limit accessible to our means of investigation.
The course of nature as it is, as it has been, and as it will be, is the object of scientific inquiry; whatever lies beyond, above, or below this is outside science. But the philosopher need not despair at the limitation on his field of labor; in relation to the human mind Nature is boundless; and, though nowhere inaccessible, she is everywhere unfathomable.
The Crayfish: an Introduction to the Study of Zoölogy (1880), 2-3. Excerpted in Popular Science (Apr 1880), 16, 789-790.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Account (196)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Against (332)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (822)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blind (98)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Call (782)  |  Carry (130)  |  Cause (564)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Common (447)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Condition (362)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (415)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deal (192)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Despair (40)  |  Determination (80)  |  Development (442)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Field (378)  |  Final (121)  |  Finding (36)  |  Force (497)  |  Forefather (4)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inaccessible (18)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intellect (252)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Joy (117)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Little (718)  |  Love (328)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (360)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Object (442)  |  Outside (142)  |  Pain (144)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Ratiocination (4)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regard (312)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Search (175)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (786)  |  Series (153)  |  Simple (430)  |  State (505)  |  Step (235)  |  Successful (134)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tracing (3)  |  Train (118)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unfathomable (11)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

In like manner, the loadstone has from nature its two poles, a northern and a southern; fixed, definite points in the stone, which are the primary termini of the movements and effects, and the limits and regulators of the several actions and properties. It is to be understood, however, that not from a mathematical point does the force of the stone emanate, but from the parts themselves; and all these parts in the whole—while they belong to the whole—the nearer they are to the poles of the stone the stronger virtues do they acquire and pour out on other bodies. These poles look toward the poles of the earth, and move toward them, and are subject to them. The magnetic poles may be found in very loadstone, whether strong and powerful (male, as the term was in antiquity) or faint, weak, and female; whether its shape is due to design or to chance, and whether it be long, or flat, or four-square, or three-cornered or polished; whether it be rough, broken-off, or unpolished: the loadstone ever has and ever shows its poles.
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies and on the Great Magnet the Earth: A New Physiology, Demonstrated with many Arguments and Experiments (1600), trans. P. Fleury Mottelay (1893), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Belong (168)  |  Broken (56)  |  Chance (245)  |  Corner (59)  |  Definite (114)  |  Design (205)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Female (50)  |  Flat (34)  |  Force (497)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Move (225)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (585)  |  Pole (49)  |  Polish (17)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Primary (82)  |  Show (354)  |  Square (73)  |  Stone (169)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Subject (544)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Two (936)  |  Understood (155)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whole (756)

In my estimation it was obvious that Jansky had made a fundamental and very important discovery. Furthermore, he had exploited it to the limit of his equipment facilities. If greater progress were to be made it would be necessary to construct new and different equipment especially designed to measure the cosmic static.
Reber explaining his own motivation to build the first radio telescope.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Design (205)  |  Different (596)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  Measure (242)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1276)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Progress (493)  |  Radio Telescope (5)

In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense—not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902), 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Association (49)  |  Attain (126)  |  Best (468)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Course (415)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Decay (59)  |  Development (442)  |  Doom (34)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extension (60)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Growth (200)  |  Habit (174)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Life (1873)  |  Live (651)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Mutual Aid (2)  |  Natural (811)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Open (277)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Practice (212)  |  Progress (493)  |  Protection (41)  |  Sense (786)  |  Society (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1854)

In the infancy of physical science, it was hoped that some discovery might be made that would enable us to emancipate ourselves from the bondage of gravity, and, at least, pay a visit to our neighbour the moon. The poor attempts of the aeronaut have shewn the hopelessness of the enterprise. The success of his achievement depends on the buoyant power of the atmosphere, but the atmosphere extends only a few miles above the earth, and its action cannot reach beyond its own limits. The only machine, independent of the atmosphere, we can conceive of, would be one on the principle of the rocket. The rocket rises in the air, not from the resistance offered by the atmosphere to its fiery stream, but from the internal reaction. The velocity would, indeed, be greater in a vacuum than in the atmosphere, and could we dispense with the comfort of breathing air, we might, with such a machine, transcend the boundaries of our globe, and visit other orbs.
God's Glory in the Heavens (1862, 3rd Ed. 1867) 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (188)  |  Action (343)  |  Air (367)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bondage (6)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emancipate (2)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extend (129)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Internal (69)  |  Machine (272)  |  Moon (252)  |  Offer (143)  |  Orb (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (773)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Rise (170)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Stream (83)  |  Success (327)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Velocity (51)

In the search for truth there are certain questions that are not important. Of what material is the universe constructed? Is the universe eternal? Are there limits or not to the universe? ... If a man were to postpone his search and practice for Enlightenment until such questions were solved, he would die before he found the path.
Budha
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Construct (129)  |  Die (95)  |  Enlightenment (21)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Find (1014)  |  Importance (299)  |  Important (231)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Path (160)  |  Postpone (5)  |  Practice (212)  |  Question (652)  |  Search (175)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solve (146)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Universe (901)

In the sense that [truth] means the reality about a human being it is probably impossible for a biographer to achieve. In the sense that it means a reasonable presentation of all the available facts it is more nearly possible, but even this limited goal is harder to reach than it appears to be. A biographer needs to be both humble and cautious.
Describing the difficulty of historical sources giving conflicting facts. From 'Getting at the Truth', The Saturday Review (19 Sep 1953), 36, No. 38, 11. Excerpted in Meta Riley Emberger and Marian Ross Hall, Scientific Writing (1955), 399.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biographer (2)  |  Both (496)  |  Cautious (4)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Goal (155)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humble (54)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Possible (560)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Reach (287)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Sense (786)  |  Truth (1111)

In the year 1666 he retired again from Cambridge... to his mother in Lincolnshire & whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (wch brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than was usually thought. Why not as high as the moon said he to himself & if so that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit, whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that supposition but being absent from books & taking the common estimate in use among Geographers & our seamen before Norwood had measured the earth, that 60 English miles were contained in one degree of latitude on the surface of the Earth his computation did not agree with his theory & inclined him then to entertain a notion that together with the force of gravity there might be a mixture of that force wch the moon would have if it was carried along in a vortex.
[The earliest account of Newton, gravity and an apple.]
Memorandum of a conversation with Newton in August 1726. Quoted in Richard Westfall, Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1980), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Absent (3)  |  Account (196)  |  Apple (46)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (414)  |  Calculation (136)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Computation (28)  |  Degree (278)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Extend (129)  |  Farther (51)  |  Force (497)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Influence (231)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mother (116)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Notion (120)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Power (773)  |  Retain (57)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thought (996)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Vortex (10)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (965)

In this physical world there is no real chaos; all is in fact orderly; all is ordered by the physical principles. Chaos is but unperceived order- it is a word indicating the limitations of the human mind and the paucity of observational facts. The words “chaos,” “accidental,” “chance,” “unpredictable," are conveniences behind which we hide our ignorance.
From Of Stars and Men: The Human Response to an Expanding Universe (1958 Rev. Ed. 1964), Foreword.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Accidental (31)  |  Behind (139)  |  Chance (245)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Hide (70)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observational (15)  |  Order (639)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Paucity (3)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Principle (532)  |  Real (160)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1854)

In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognise, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Angry (10)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  God (776)  |  Harmony (106)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mind (1380)  |  People (1034)  |  Quote (46)  |  Really (77)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Say (991)  |  Support (151)  |  View (498)

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 (239)  |  Development (442)  |  Distort (22)  |  Embed (7)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  First (1303)  |  Frame (27)  |  Geological (11)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Include (93)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Invention (401)  |  Involve (93)  |  Joy (117)  |  Kind (565)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Language (310)  |  Last (425)  |  Literature (117)  |  Little (718)  |  Mammalian (3)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Million (124)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Odd (15)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Planet (406)  |  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 (1854)  |  Year (965)

Induction is the process of generalizing from our known and limited experience, and framing wider rules for the future than we have been able to test fully. At its simplest, then, an induction is a habit or an adaptation—the habit of expecting tomorrow’s weather to be like today’s, the adaptation to the unwritten conventions of community life.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Community (111)  |  Experience (494)  |  Future (467)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Habit (174)  |  Induction (81)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Logic (313)  |  Process (441)  |  Rule (308)  |  Test (222)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Weather (49)

Is pure science to be regarded as overall beneficial to society? Answer: It depends much on what you consider benefits. If you look at health, long life, transportation, communication, education, you might be tempted to say yes. If you look at the enormous social-economic dislocations, at the prospect of an immense famine in India, brought on by the advances of public health science and nutrition science, at strains on our psyches due to the imbalance between technical developments and our limited ability to adjust to the pace of change, you might be tempted to say no. Clearly, the present state of the world—to which science has contributed much—leaves a great deal to be desired, and much to be feared. So I write down … SCIENCE BENEFICIAL? DOUBTFUL.
In 'Homo Scientificus According to Beckett," collected in William Beranek, Jr. (ed.)Science, Scientists, and Society, (1972), 135. Excerpted in Ann E. Kammer, Science, Sex, and Society (1979), 276.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Adjust (11)  |  Advance (299)  |  Answer (389)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Change (640)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consider (430)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (442)  |  Dislocation (4)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Education (423)  |  Enormous (45)  |  Famine (18)  |  Fear (215)  |  Health (211)  |  Imbalance (3)  |  Immense (89)  |  India (23)  |  Leave (139)  |  Life (1873)  |  Nutrition (25)  |  Overall (10)  |  Pace (18)  |  Present (630)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Public Health (12)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Society (353)  |  State (505)  |  Strain (13)  |  Technical (53)  |  Transportation (20)  |  World (1854)  |  Write (250)

It has been said that America is like a gigantic boiler in that once the fire is lighted, there are no limits to the power it can generate. Environmentally, the fire has been lit.
Opening remark in Foreward, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Legal Compilation (Jan 1973), iii. EPA website.
Science quotes on:  |  America (144)  |  Boiler (7)  |  Environment (240)  |  Fire (203)  |  Generate (17)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Light (636)  |  Power (773)  |  Say (991)

It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle—they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.
In An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Battle (36)  |  Book (414)  |  Cavalry (2)  |  Charge (63)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Copy (34)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (26)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Habit (174)  |  Horse (78)  |  Limited (103)  |  Moment (260)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (712)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opposite (110)  |  People (1034)  |  Perform (123)  |  Precise (71)  |  Require (229)  |  Speech (66)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truism (4)

It is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, and this, not only hand to hand, but from a distance even, by the aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines, now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with feathery wings. This last I regard as the most criminal artifice that has been devised by the human mind; for, as if to bring death upon man with still greater rapidity, we have given wings to iron and taught it to fly. ... Nature, in conformity with her usual benevolence, has limited the power of iron, by inflicting upon it the punishment of rust; and has thus displayed her usual foresight in rendering nothing in existence more perishable, than the substance which brings the greatest dangers upon perishable mortality.
Natural History of Pliny, translation (1857, 1898) by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 205-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Arm (82)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Cleave (2)  |  Construct (129)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Danger (127)  |  Death (407)  |  Display (59)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Engine (99)  |  Existence (484)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Iron (101)  |  Last (425)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Missile (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Most (1728)  |  Murder (16)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Office (72)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Perish (56)  |  Power (773)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Regard (312)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Rock (177)  |  Rust (9)  |  Spear (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Useful (261)  |  War (234)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wing (79)

It is like the difference between a specialist and a philosopher. A specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until at last he knows everything about nothing. A philosopher is someone who knows less and less about more and more until at last he knows nothing about everything. Physics is now too philosophical. In my work I would like to reverse the process, and to try to limit the things to be found out and to make some modest discoveries which may later be useful.
As quoted in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Everything (490)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Last (425)  |  Later (18)  |  Less (105)  |  Modest (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Process (441)  |  Research (753)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Useful (261)  |  Work (1403)

It is of priceless value to the human race to know that the sun will supply the needs of the earth, as to light and heat, for millions of years; that the stars are not lanterns hung out at night, but are suns like our own; and that numbers of them probably have planets revolving around them, perhaps in many cases with inhabitants adapted to the conditions existing there. In a sentence, the main purpose of the science is to learn the truth about the stellar universe; to increase human knowledge concerning our surroundings, and to widen the limits of intellectual life.
In 'The Nature of the Astronomer’s Work', North American Review (Jun 1908), 187, No. 631, 915.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Condition (362)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Hang (46)  |  Heat (181)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Increase (226)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Million (124)  |  Need (323)  |  Night (133)  |  Number (712)  |  Planet (406)  |  Priceless (9)  |  Probability (135)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Race (279)  |  Research (753)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stellar (4)  |  Sun (408)  |  Supply (101)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Universe (901)  |  Value (397)  |  Widen (10)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

It is possible to read books on Natural History with intelligence and profit, and even to make good observations, without a scientific groundwork of biological instruction; and it is possible to arrive at empirical facts of hygiene and medical treatment without any physiological instruction. But in all three cases the absence of a scientific basis will render the knowledge fragmentary and incomplete; and this ought to deter every one from offering an opinion on debatable questions which pass beyond the limit of subjective observations. The psychologist who has not prepared himself by a study of the organism has no more right to be heard on the genesis of the psychical states, or of the relations between body and mind, than one of the laity has a right to be heard on a question of medical treatment.
The Physical Basis of Mind (1877), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (234)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (414)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Fragmentary (8)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Good (907)  |  Groundwork (4)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (719)  |  Hygiene (13)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Observation (595)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Organism (231)  |  Pass (242)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profit (56)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Question (652)  |  Read (309)  |  Render (96)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (957)  |  State (505)  |  Study (703)  |  Subjective (20)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Will (2350)

It is rigid dogma that destroys truth; and, please notice, my emphasis is not on the dogma, but on the rigidity. When men say of any question, “This is all there is to be known or said of the subject; investigation ends here,” that is death. It may be that the mischief comes not from the thinker but for the use made of his thinking by late-comers. Aristotle, for example, gave us our scientific technique … yet his logical propositions, his instruction in sound reasoning which was bequeathed to Europe, are valid only within the limited framework of formal logic, and, as used in Europe, they stultified the minds of whole generations of mediaeval Schoolmen. Aristotle invented science, but destroyed philosophy.
Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, as recorded by Lucien Price (1954, 2001), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Death (407)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Dogma (49)  |  End (603)  |  Framework (33)  |  Generation (256)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Known (453)  |  Late (119)  |  Limited (103)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Mischief (13)  |  Notice (81)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Please (68)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Question (652)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rigidity (5)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sound (188)  |  Subject (544)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (996)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)

It is tautological to say that an organism is adapted to its environment. It is even tautological to say that an organism is physiologically adapted to its environment. However, just as in the case of many morphological characters, it is unwarranted to conclude that all aspects of the physiology of an organism have evolved in reference to a specific milieu. It is equally gratuitous to assume that an organism will inevitably show physiological specializations in its adaptation to a particular set of conditions. All that can be concluded is that the functional capacities of an organism are sufficient to have allowed persistence within its environment. On one hand, the history of an evolutionary line may place serious constraints upon the types of further physiological changes that are readily feasible. Some changes might require excessive restructuring of the genome or might involve maladaptive changes in related functions. On the other hand, a taxon which is successful in occupying a variety of environments may be less impressive in individual physiological capacities than one with a far more limited distribution.
In W.R. Dawson, G.A. Bartholomew, and A.F. Bennett, 'A Reappraisal of the Aquatic Specializations of the Galapagos Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)', Evolution (1977), 31, 891.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Allow (51)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Assume (43)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Case (102)  |  Change (640)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constraint (13)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Environment (240)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Far (158)  |  Feasible (4)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  Genome (15)  |  Gratuitous (2)  |  Hand (149)  |  History (719)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Involve (93)  |  Less (105)  |  Limited (103)  |  Line (101)  |  Milieu (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Occupy (27)  |  On The Other Hand (41)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Place (194)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relate (26)  |  Require (229)  |  Restructuring (2)  |  Say (991)  |  Serious (98)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (354)  |  Specialization (25)  |  Specific (98)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Tautological (2)  |  Type (172)  |  Unwarranted (2)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)

It is the task of science, as a collective human undertaking, to describe from the external side, (on which alone agreement is possible), such statistical regularity as there is in a world “in which every event has a unique aspect, and to indicate where possible the limits of such description. It is not part of its task to make imaginative interpretation of the internal aspect of reality—what it is like, for example, to be a lion, an ant or an ant hill, a liver cell, or a hydrogen ion. The only qualification is in the field of introspective psychology in which each human being is both observer and observed, and regularities may be established by comparing notes. Science is thus a limited venture. It must act as if all phenomena were deterministic at least in the sense of determinable probabilities. It cannot properly explain the behaviour of an amoeba as due partly to surface and other physical forces and partly to what the amoeba wants to do, with out danger of something like 100 per cent duplication. It must stick to the former. It cannot introduce such principles as creative activity into its interpretation of evolution for similar reasons. The point of view indicated by a consideration of the hierarchy of physical and biological organisms, now being bridged by the concept of the gene, is one in which science deliberately accepts a rigorous limitation of its activities to the description of the external aspects of events. In carrying out this program, the scientist should not, however, deceive himself or others into thinking that he is giving an account of all of reality. The unique inner creative aspect of every event necessarily escapes him.
In 'Gene and Organism', American Naturalist, (1953), 87, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Account (196)  |  Act (278)  |  Activity (218)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Alone (325)  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Ant (34)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Cell (146)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Creative (144)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Describe (133)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Escape (87)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Former (138)  |  Gene (105)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inner (72)  |  Internal (69)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Ion (21)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (103)  |  Lion (23)  |  Liver (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observed (149)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (520)  |  Point (585)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (532)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Reality (275)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (786)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Surface (223)  |  Task (153)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Unique (73)  |  View (498)  |  Want (505)  |  World (1854)

It is told of Faraday that he refused to be called a physicist; he very much disliked the new name as being too special and particular and insisted on the old one, philosopher, in all its spacious generality: we may suppose that this was his way of saying that he had not over-ridden the limiting conditions of class only to submit to the limitation of a profession.
Commentary (Jun 1962), 33, 461-77. Cited by Sydney Ross in Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science (1991), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Biography (254)  |  Call (782)  |  Called (9)  |  Class (168)  |  Condition (362)  |  Dislike (16)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Generality (45)  |  Insist (22)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Name (360)  |  New (1276)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Old (499)  |  Over-Ride (2)  |  Particular (80)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Preference (28)  |  Profession (108)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Special (189)  |  Submit (21)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Way (1214)

It may very properly be asked whether the attempt to define distinct species, of a more or less permanent nature, such as we are accustomed to deal with amongst the higher plants and animals, is not altogether illusory amongst such lowly organised forms of life as the bacteria. No biologist nowadays believes in the absolute fixity of species … but there are two circumstances which here render the problem of specificity even more difficult of solution. The bacteriologist is deprived of the test of mutual fertility or sterility, so valuable in determining specific limits amongst organisms in which sexual reproduction prevails. Further, the extreme rapidity with which generation succeeds generation amongst bacteria offers to the forces of variation and natural selection a field for their operation wholly unparalleled amongst higher forms of life.
'The Evolution of the Streptococci', The Lancet, 1906, 2, 1415-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ask (423)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Bacteriologist (5)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Deal (192)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Generation (256)  |  Life (1873)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (72)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Offer (143)  |  Operation (221)  |  Organism (231)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Plant (320)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Problem (735)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Render (96)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Selection (130)  |  Sexual (27)  |  Solution (286)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sterility (10)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Test (222)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Wholly (88)

It seems that the increased number of scientific workers, their being split up into groups whose studies are limited to a small subject, and over-specialization have brought about a shrinking of intelligence. There is no doubt that the quality of any human group decreases when the number of the individuals composing this group increases beyond certain limits… The best way to increase the intelligence of scientists would be to decrease their number.
Man the Unknown (1935), 48-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certain (557)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Human (1517)  |  Increase (226)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Limited (103)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Number (712)  |  Quality (140)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Small (489)  |  Specialization (25)  |  Subject (544)  |  Way (1214)

It seems to me that you are solving a problem which goes beyond the limits of physiology in too simple a way. Physiology has realized its problem with fortitude, breaking man down into endless actions and counteractions and reducing him to a crossing, a vortex of reflex acts. Let it now permit sociology to restore him as a whole. Sociology will wrest man from the anatomical theatre and return him to history.
Letter to his son, Alexander, July-Aug 1868. Trans. Roger Smith, Inhibition: History and Meaning in the Sciences of Mind and Brain (1992), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (343)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Down (455)  |  Endless (61)  |  History (719)  |  Man (2252)  |  Permit (61)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (735)  |  Reflex (14)  |  Return (133)  |  Simple (430)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Vortex (10)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

It will be possible in a few more years to build radio controlled rockets which can be steered into such orbits beyond the limits of the atmosphere and left to broadcast scientific information back to the Earth. A little later, manned rockets will be able to make similar flights with sufficient excess power to break the orbit and return to Earth. (1945) [Predicting communications satellites.]
In 'Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Coverage?', Wireless World (Oct 1945). Quoted and cited in Arthur C. Clarke, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998, 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Back (395)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Break (110)  |  Broadcast (2)  |  Build (212)  |  Communication (101)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Excess (23)  |  Flight (101)  |  Information (173)  |  Little (718)  |  More (2558)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Radio (60)  |  Return (133)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Space Flight (26)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

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 (343)  |  Activity (218)  |  Actual (145)  |  Alone (325)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (282)  |  Call (782)  |  Cell (146)  |  Characteristic (155)  |  Composition (86)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Derive (71)  |  Develop (279)  |  Development (442)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Display (59)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (324)  |  Existence (484)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (390)  |  Form (978)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (565)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (161)  |  Number (712)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Performance (51)  |  Present (630)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Represent (157)  |  Root (121)  |  Single (366)  |  Size (62)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (262)  |  Special (189)  |  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 civil History, one consults title-deeds, one studies coins, one deciphers ancient inscriptions, in order to determine the epochs of human revolutions and to fix the dates of moral [i.e. human] events; so, in Natural History, one must excavate the archives of the world, recover ancient monuments from the depths of the earth, collect their remains, and assemble in one body of proofs all the evidence of physical changes that enable us to reach back to the different ages of Nature. This, then, is the order of the times indicated by facts and monuments: these are six epochs in the succession of the first ages of Nature; six spaces of duration, the limits of which although indeterminate are not less real; for these epochs are not like those of civil History ... that we can count and measure exactly; nevertheless we can compare them with each other and estimate their relative duration.
'Des Époques de la Nature', Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particulière contenant les Époques de la Nature (1778), Supplement Vol. 9, 1-2, 41. Trans. Martin J. Rudwick.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Assemble (14)  |  Back (395)  |  Body (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Civil (26)  |  Compare (76)  |  Count (107)  |  Deed (34)  |  Depth (97)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (596)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enable (122)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1303)  |  Fossil (144)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Measure (242)  |  Monument (45)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Change (5)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reach (287)  |  Remain (357)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Space (525)  |  Succession (80)  |  Time (1913)  |  World (1854)

Knowing Pains
I studied parts
of a flower
to understand
its flowering.
I learned much
about my limits.
I had forgotten
Earth and climate.
Poem, in Starting Points: Poems (1971), 38. As quoted in Arthur Lerner, 'Poetry Therapy', The American Journal of Nursing (Aug 1973), 73, No. 8, 1338.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Climate (102)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Pain (144)  |  Part (237)  |  Study (703)  |  Understand (650)

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Encircle (2)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  World (1854)

Knowledge once gained casts a faint light beyond its own immediate boundaries. There is no discovery so limited as not to illuminate something beyond itself.
In 'On the Methods and Tendencies of Physical Investigation', Scientific Addresses (1870), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Cast (69)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Faint (10)  |  Gain (149)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Itself (7)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Light (636)  |  Limited (103)  |  Something (718)

Let the mind rise from victory to victory over surrounding nature, let it but conquer for human life and activity not only the surface of the earth but also all that lies between the depth of the sea and the outer limits of the atmosphere; let it command for its service prodigious energy to flow from one part of the universe to the other, let it annihilate space for the transference of its thoughts.
In Ivan Pavlov and William Horsley Gantt (trans.), Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes (1928, 1941), Preface, 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Annihilate (10)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Command (60)  |  Conquer (41)  |  Depth (97)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (374)  |  Flow (90)  |  Human (1517)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1873)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Rise (170)  |  Sea (327)  |  Service (110)  |  Space (525)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Thought (996)  |  Universe (901)  |  Victory (40)

Life through many long periods has been manifested in a countless host of varying structures, all circumscribed by one general plan, each appointed to a definite place, and limited to an appointed duration. On the whole the earth has been thus more and more covered by the associated life of plants and animals, filling all habitable space with beings capable of enjoying their own existence or ministering to the enjoyment of others; till finally, after long preparation, a being was created capable of the wonderful power of measuring and weighing all the world of matter and space which surrounds him, of treasuring up the past history of all the forms of life, and considering his own relation to the whole. When he surveys this vast and co-ordinated system, and inquires into its history and origin, can he be at a loss to decide whether it be a work of Divine thought and wisdom, or the fortunate offspring of a few atoms of matter, warmed by the anima mundi, a spark of electricity, or an accidental ray of sunshine?
Life on the Earth: Its Origin and Succession (1860), 216-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Accidental (31)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Association (49)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Coordination (11)  |  Countless (39)  |  Cover (40)  |  Decision (98)  |  Definite (114)  |  Divine (112)  |  Duration (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (169)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fill (67)  |  Form (978)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Fortune (50)  |  General (521)  |  Habitat (17)  |  History (719)  |  Host (16)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (103)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (118)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Place (194)  |  Plan (123)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (773)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Ray (115)  |  Space (525)  |  Spark (32)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sunshine (12)  |  Survey (36)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (996)  |  Through (846)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vast (188)  |  Warm (75)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (252)  |  Wonderful (156)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

Malthus argued a century and a half ago that man, by using up all his available resources, would forever press on the limits of subsistence, thus condemning humanity to an indefinite future of misery and poverty. We can now begin to hope and, I believe, know that Malthus was expressing not a law of nature, but merely the limitation then of scientific and social wisdom. The truth or falsity of his prediction will depend now, with the tools we have, on our own actions, now and in the years to come.
From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest'. Online at The American Presidency Project.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Available (80)  |  Begin (275)  |  Century (319)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Depend (238)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Forever (112)  |  Future (467)  |  Hope (322)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Misery (32)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Press (21)  |  Resource (75)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Social (262)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Tool (131)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use Up (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Year (965)

Man does not limit himself to seeing; he thinks and insists on learning the meaning of phenomena whose existence has been revealed to him by observation. So he reasons, compares facts, puts questions to them, and by the answers which he extracts, tests one by another. This sort of control, by means of reasoning and facts, is what constitutes experiment, properly speaking; and it is the only process that we have for teaching ourselves about the nature of things outside us.
In Claude Bernard and Henry Copley Greene (trans.), An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Another (7)  |  Answer (389)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Control (185)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Extract (40)  |  Extraction (10)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Himself (461)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Means (588)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Observation (595)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Outside (142)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Process (441)  |  Question (652)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reveal (153)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Revelation (51)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Test (222)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)

Man is born, not to solve the problems of the universe, but to find out where the problem applies, and then to restrain himself within the limits of the comprehensible.
Wed. 12 Oct 1825. Johann Peter Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe, ed. J. K. Moorhead and trans. J. Oxenford (1971), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Man (2252)  |  Problem (735)  |  Solve (146)  |  Universe (901)

Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out where the problem begins and then restrain himself within the limits of the comprehensible.
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Man (2252)  |  Problem (735)  |  Research (753)  |  Solve (146)  |  Universe (901)

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature; neither his understanding nor his power extends further.
Novum Organum, Aphor I. Quoted in Robert Routledge, Discoveries and Inventions of the 19th Century (1890), 696
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Extend (129)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Order (639)  |  Power (773)  |  Understanding (527)

Mathematicians assume the right to choose, within the limits of logical contradiction, what path they please in reaching their results.
In A Letter to American Teachers of History (1910), Introduction, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Choose (116)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Path (160)  |  Please (68)  |  Reach (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)

Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it needs only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession, but which fill only a limited number of veins and lodes; it is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests; it is not a continent or an ocean, whose area can be mapped out and its contour defined: it is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer’s gaze; it is as incapable of being restricted within assigned boundaries or being reduced to definitions of permanent validity, as the consciousness of life, which seems to slumber in each monad, in every atom of matter, in each leaf and bud cell, and is forever ready to burst forth into new forms of vegetable and animal existence.
From Commemoration Day Address (22 Feb 1877) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, collected in The Collected Mathematical Papers: (1870-1883) (1909), 77-78.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Area (33)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Assign (15)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bind (27)  |  Book (414)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Brass (5)  |  Bud (6)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cell (146)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Content (75)  |  Continent (79)  |  Contour (3)  |  Cover (40)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Define (53)  |  Definition (239)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forever (112)  |  Form (978)  |  Forth (14)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Lode (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mine (78)  |  Monad (2)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (323)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Patience (58)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Possession (68)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Ransack (2)  |  Ready (43)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Seem (150)  |  Slumber (6)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (525)  |  Successive (73)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vein (27)  |  World (1854)  |  Yield (86)

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)  |  Kind (565)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Power (773)  |  Tool (131)

Men always fool themselves when they give up experience for systems born of the imagination. Man is the work of nature, he exists in nature, he is subject to its laws, he can not break free, he can not leave even in thought; it is in vain that his spirit wants to soar beyond the bounds of the visible world, he is always forced to return.
Opening statement of first chapter of Système de la Nature (1770), Vol. 1, 1. Translation by Webmaster using Google Translate. From the original French, “Les hommes se tromperont toujours, quand ils abandonneront l'expérience pour des systèmes enfantés par l’imagination. L’homme est l’ouvrage de la nature, il existe dans la nature, il est soumis à ses lois, il ne peut s’en affranchir, il ne peut même par la pensée en sortir; c’est en vain que son esprit veut s’élancer au delà des bornes du monde visible, il est toujours forcé d’y rentrer.” In the English edition (1820-21), Samuel Wilkinson gives this as “Man has always deceived himself when he abandoned experience to follow imaginary systems.—He is the work of nature.—He exists in Nature.—He is submitted to the laws of Nature.—He cannot deliver himself from them:—cannot step beyond them even in thought. It is in vain his mind would spring forward beyond the visible world: direful and imperious necessity ever compels his return.”
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bound (120)  |  Break (110)  |  Escape (87)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fool (121)  |  Free (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Return (133)  |  Soar (24)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Subject (544)  |  Submit (21)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Vain (86)  |  Visible (87)  |  Want (505)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

Men are weak now, and yet they transform the Earth’s surface. In millions of years their might will increase to the extent that they will change the surface of the Earth, its oceans, the atmosphere, and themselves. They will control the climate and the Solar System just as they control the Earth. They will travel beyond the limits of our planetary system; they will reach other Suns, and use their fresh energy instead of the energy of their dying luminary.
In Plan of Space Exploration (1926). Quote as translated in Vitaliĭ Ivanovich Sevastʹi︠a︡nov, Arkadiĭ Dmitrievich Ursul, I︠U︡riĭ Andreevich Shkolenko, The Universe and Civilisation (1981), 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Change (640)  |  Climate (102)  |  Control (185)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (374)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Increase (226)  |  Luminary (4)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Reach (287)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Sun (408)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Transform (74)  |  Travel (125)  |  Use (771)  |  Weak (73)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

Men in most cases continue to be sexually competent until they are sixty years old, and if that limit be overpassed then until seventy years; and men have been actually known to procreate children at seventy years of age.
Aristotle
In The Works of Aristotle: Historia Animalium (350 BC), (The History of Animals), Book VII, Part 6, 585b5 translated in William David Ross and John Alexander Smith (eds.), D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (trans.), (1910), Vol. 4, 4
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Competent (20)  |  Continue (180)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Most (1728)  |  Old (499)  |  Procreate (4)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Seventy (2)  |  Sexuality (11)  |  Sixty (6)  |  Year (965)

Men today who have had an irreproachable training in the art are seen to abstain from the use of the hand as from the plague, and for this very reason, lest they should be slandered by the masters of the profession as barbers… . For it is indeed above all things the wide prevalence of this hateful error that prevents us even in our age from taking up the healing art as a whole, makes us confine ourselves merely to the treatment of internal complaints, and, if I may utter the blunt truth once for all, causes us, to the great detriment of mankind, to study to be healers only in a very limited degree.
As given in George I. Schwartz and ‎Philip W. Bishop, 'Andreas Vesalius', Moments of Discovery: The Development of Modern Science (1958), Vol. 1, 521.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstain (7)  |  Age (509)  |  Art (681)  |  Barber (5)  |  Blunt (5)  |  Cause (564)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Degree (278)  |  Detriment (3)  |  Error (339)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healer (3)  |  Healing (28)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Master (182)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Merely (315)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Plague (43)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Profession (108)  |  Reason (767)  |  Slander (3)  |  Study (703)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Today (321)  |  Training (92)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)

Menny people are limiting after uncommon sense, but they never find it a good deal; uncommon sense iz ov the nature of genius, and all genius iz the gift of God, and kant be had, like hens eggs, for the hunting.
In The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1876), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Deal (192)  |  Egg (71)  |  Find (1014)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gift (105)  |  God (776)  |  Good (907)  |  Hen (9)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1034)  |  Sense (786)

Modern chemistry, with its far-reaching generalizations and hypotheses, is a fine example of how far the human mind can go in exploring the unknown beyond the limits of human senses.
In 'Introduction', General Chemistry: An Elementary Survey Emphasizing Industrial Applications of Fundamental Principles (1923), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Example (100)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Far (158)  |  Far-Reaching (9)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modern (405)  |  Sense (786)  |  Unknown (198)

More discoveries have arisen from intense observation of very limited material than from statistics applied to large groups. The value of the latter lies mainly in testing hypotheses arising from the former. While observing one should cultivate a speculative, contemplative attitude of mind and search for clues to be followed up. Training in observation follows the same principles as training in any activity. At first one must do things consciously and laboriously, but with practice the activities gradually become automatic and unconscious and a habit is established. Effective scientific observation also requires a good background, for only by being familiar with the usual can we notice something as being unusual or unexplained.
The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), 101.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Applied (176)  |  Arising (22)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Background (44)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Experiment (737)  |  First (1303)  |  Follow (390)  |  Former (138)  |  Good (907)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Large (399)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limited (103)  |  Material (366)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (595)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (532)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Search (175)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (172)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Training (92)  |  Unexplained (8)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Value (397)

Most discussions of the population crisis lead logically to zero population growth as the ultimate goal, because any growth rate, if continued, will eventually use up the earth... Turning to the actual measures taken we see that the very use of family planning as the means for implementing population policy poses serious but unacknowledged limits the intended reduction in fertility. The family-planning movement, clearly devoted to the improvement and dissemination of contraceptive devices, states again and again that its purpose is that of enabling couples to have the number of children they want.
With the publication of this article 'zero population growth' and the acronym 'ZPG' came into general use.
'Population Policy: Will Current Programs Succeed?', Science, 1967, 158, 732.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Children (201)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Device (71)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Dissemination (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Family (102)  |  Fertility (23)  |  General (521)  |  Goal (155)  |  Growth (200)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Measure (242)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Number (712)  |  Planning (21)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Reduction (52)  |  See (1095)  |  Serious (98)  |  State (505)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (505)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zero (38)

My kingdom is as wide as the universe, and my desire has no limits. I am always going about enfranchising the mind and weighing the worlds, without hate, without fear, without love, and without God. I am called Science.
From La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (1874), as The Temptation of Saint Anthony, collected in The Complete Works of Gustave Flaubert (1904), 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Desire (214)  |  Fear (215)  |  God (776)  |  Hate (68)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Universe (901)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1854)

My kingdom is as wide as the world, and my desire has no limit. I go forward always, freeing spirits and weighing worlds, without fear, without compassion, without love, and without God. Men call me science.
From La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (The Temptation of Saint Anthony) (1874), as translated, without citation, in Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov’s Book Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Desire (214)  |  Fear (215)  |  Forward (104)  |  Free (240)  |  Freeing (6)  |  God (776)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Love (328)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Wide (97)  |  World (1854)

My kingdom is vast as the universe; and my desire knows no limits. I go on forever,—freeing minds, weighing worlds,—without hatred, without fear, without pity, without love, and without God. Men call me Science!
From La Tentation de Saint-Antoine (1874), as translated by Lafcadio Hearn, The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1911), 218-219.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Desire (214)  |  Fear (215)  |  Forever (112)  |  Free (240)  |  Freeing (6)  |  God (776)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1539)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Pity (16)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vast (188)  |  Weigh (51)  |  World (1854)

Myths and science fulfill a similar function: they both provide human beings with a representation of the world and of the forces that are supposed to govern it. They both fix the limits of what is considered as possible.
The Possible and the Actual (1982), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Consider (430)  |  Force (497)  |  Function (235)  |  Govern (67)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Myth (58)  |  Possible (560)  |  Representation (55)  |  World (1854)

Natural selection produces systems that function no better than necessary. It results in ad hoc adaptive solutions to immediate problems. Whatever enhances fitness is selected. The product of natural selection is not perfection but adequacy, not final answers but limited, short-term solutions.
In 'The role of natural history in contemporary biology', BioScience (1986), 36, 325.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptive (3)  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Answer (389)  |  Better (495)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Final (121)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Function (235)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Limited (103)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Perfection (132)  |  Problem (735)  |  Produce (117)  |  Product (167)  |  Result (700)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Short (200)  |  Short-Term (3)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  System (545)  |  Term (357)  |  Whatever (234)

Next came the patent laws. These began in England in 1624, and in this country with the adoption of our Constitution. Before then any man [might] instantly use what another man had invented, so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this, secured to the inventor for a limited time exclusive use of his inventions, and thereby added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of new and useful things.
Lecture 'Discoveries, Inventions and Improvements' (22 Feb 1860) in John George Nicolay and John Hay (eds.), Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln (1894), Vol. 5, 113. In Eugene C. Gerhart, Quote it Completely! (1998), 802.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Country (269)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fire (203)  |  Genius (301)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (401)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Law (914)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1276)  |  Next (238)  |  Patent (34)  |  Production (190)  |  Secured (18)  |  Special (189)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (261)  |  Usefulness (92)

No paleogeographic map is worth the paper on which it is printed unless it depicts the actual state of affairs for a limited geologic time, say several hundred thousand years.
As quoted in Adolph Knopf, 'Charles Schuchert: 1858-1942)', National Academy Biographical Memoir (1952), Vol. 28, 372.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Depict (3)  |  Geologic Time (2)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Limited (103)  |  Map (50)  |  Paper (192)  |  Printed (3)  |  Say (991)  |  State (505)  |  State Of affairs (5)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1913)  |  Worth (173)  |  Year (965)

No subject of philosophical inquiry within the limits of human investigation is more calculated to excite admiration and to awaken curiosity than fire; and there is certainly none more extensively useful to mankind. It is owing, no doubt, to our being acquainted with it from our infancy, that we are not more struck with its appearance, and more sensible of the benefits we derive from it. Almost every comfort and convenience which man by his ingenuity procures for himself is obtained by its assistance; and he is not more distinguished from the brute creation by the use of speech, than by his power over that wonderful agent.
In The Complete Works of Count Rumford (1876), Vol. 4, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Agent (74)  |  Appearance (146)  |  Assistance (23)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Brute (30)  |  Calculate (59)  |  Certain (557)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creation (350)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Derive (71)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Excite (17)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fire (203)  |  Human (1517)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Inquiry (89)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Owe (71)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Power (773)  |  Procure (6)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Speech (66)  |  Strike (72)  |  Subject (544)  |  Useful (261)  |  Wonderful (156)

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 (564)  |  Central (81)  |  Climate (102)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Direction (185)  |  Diversification (2)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Family (102)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Food (214)  |  Genus (27)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Independence (37)  |  Influence (231)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Kind (565)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (399)  |  Law (914)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (712)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Order (639)  |  Origin (251)  |  Parallelism (2)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principle (532)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Region (41)  |  Repetition (30)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (170)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spring (140)  |  Type (172)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zoology (38)

Now, in the development of our knowledge of the workings of Nature out of the tremendously complex assemblage of phenomena presented to the scientific inquirer, mathematics plays in some respects a very limited, in others a very important part. As regards the limitations, it is merely necessary to refer to the sciences connected with living matter, and to the ologies generally, to see that the facts and their connections are too indistinctly known to render mathematical analysis practicable, to say nothing of the complexity.
From article 'Electro-magnetic Theory II', in The Electrician (16 Jan 1891), 26, No. 661, 331.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Complex (203)  |  Complexity (122)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Development (442)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Inquirer (9)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (103)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Present (630)  |  Regard (312)  |  Render (96)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  See (1095)  |  Theory (1016)

October 9, 1863
Always, however great the height of the balloon, when I have seen the horizon it has roughly appeared to be on the level of the car though of course the dip of the horizon is a very appreciable quantity or the same height as the eye. From this one might infer that, could the earth be seen without a cloud or anything to obscure it, and the boundary line of the plane approximately the same height as the eye, the general appearance would be that of a slight concavity; but I have never seen any part of the surface of the earth other than as a plane.
Towns and cities, when viewed from the balloon are like models in motion. I shall always remember the ascent of 9th October, 1863, when we passed over London about sunset. At the time when we were 7,000 feet high, and directly over London Bridge, the scene around was one that cannot probably be equalled in the world. We were still so low as not to have lost sight of the details of the spectacle which presented itself to our eyes; and with one glance the homes of 3,000,000 people could be seen, and so distinct was the view, that every large building was easily distinguishable. In fact, the whole of London was visible, and some parts most clearly. All round, the suburbs were also very distinct, with their lines of detached villas, imbedded as it were in a mass of shrubs; beyond, the country was like a garden, its fields, well marked, becoming smaller and smaller as the eye wandered farther and farther away.
Again looking down, there was the Thames, throughout its whole length, without the slightest mist, dotted over its winding course with innumerable ships and steamboats, like moving toys. Gravesend was visible, also the mouth of the Thames, and the coast around as far as Norfolk. The southern shore of the mouth of the Thames was not so clear, but the sea beyond was seen for many miles; when at a higher elevation, I looked for the coast of France, but was unable to see it. On looking round, the eye was arrested by the garden-like appearance of the county of Kent, till again London claimed yet more careful attention.
Smoke, thin and blue, was curling from it, and slowly moving away in beautiful curves, from all except one part, south of the Thames, where it was less blue and seemed more dense, till the cause became evident; it was mixed with mist rising from the ground, the southern limit of which was bounded by an even line, doubtless indicating the meeting of the subsoils of gravel and clay. The whole scene was surmounted by a canopy of blue, everywhere free from cloud, except near the horizon, where a band of cumulus and stratus extended all round, forming a fitting boundary to such a glorious view.
As seen from the earth, the sunset this evening was described as fine, the air being clear and the shadows well defined; but, as we rose to view it and its effects, the golden hues increased in intensity; their richness decreased as the distance from the sun increased, both right and left; but still as far as 90º from the sun, rose-coloured clouds extended. The remainder of the circle was completed, for the most part, by pure white cumulus of well-rounded and symmetrical forms.
I have seen London by night. I have crossed it during the day at the height of four miles. I have often admired the splendour of sky scenery, but never have I seen anything which surpassed this spectacle. The roar of the town heard at this elevation was a deep, rich, continuous sound the voice of labour. At four miles above London, all was hushed; no sound reached our ears.
Travels in the Air (1871), 99-100.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Appearance (146)  |  Attention (198)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Building (158)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Car (75)  |  Cause (564)  |  Circle (118)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Completed (30)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Country (269)  |  Course (415)  |  Curve (49)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detail (150)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Down (455)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Farther (51)  |  Field (378)  |  Flight (101)  |  Form (978)  |  Forming (42)  |  Free (240)  |  Garden (64)  |  General (521)  |  Glance (36)  |  Glorious (50)  |  Golden (47)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  Home (186)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Labor (200)  |  Large (399)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Low (86)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mass (161)  |  Mist (17)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (55)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (242)  |  People (1034)  |  Present (630)  |  Pure (300)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reach (287)  |  Remainder (7)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Rising (44)  |  Rose (36)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sea (327)  |  See (1095)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Ship (70)  |  Shrub (5)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Sound (188)  |  South (39)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Splendour (8)  |  Steamboat (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Suburb (7)  |  Sun (408)  |  Sunset (28)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Thames (6)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1913)  |  Toy (22)  |  View (498)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wander (45)  |  White (132)  |  Whole (756)  |  Winding (8)  |  World (1854)

One of the largest promises of science is, that the sum of human happiness will be increased, ignorance destroyed, and, with ignorance, prejudice and superstition, and that great truth taught to all, that this world and all it contains were meant for our use and service; and that where nature by her own laws has defined the limits of original unfitness, science may by extract so modify those limits as to render wholesome that which by natural wildness was hurtful, and nutritious that which by natural poverty was unnourishing. We do not yet know half that chemistry may do by way of increasing our food.
Anonymous
'Common Cookery'. Household Words (26 Jan 1856), 13, 45. An English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Destroy (191)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extract (40)  |  Food (214)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Human (1517)  |  Hurtful (8)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Know (1539)  |  Largest (39)  |  Law (914)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Promise (72)  |  Render (96)  |  Service (110)  |  Sum (103)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholesome (13)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

One of the principal results of civilization is to reduce more and more the limits within which the different elements of society fluctuate. The more intelligence increases the more these limits are reduced, and the nearer we approach the beautiful and the good. The perfectibility of the human species results as a necessary consequence of all our researches. Physical defects and monstrosities are gradually disappearing; the frequency and severity of diseases are resisted more successfully by the progress of modern science; the moral qualities of man are proving themselves not less capable of improvement; and the more we advance, the less we shall have need to fear those great political convulsions and wars and their attendant results, which are the scourges of mankind.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (299)  |  Approach (112)  |  Attendant (3)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Capable (174)  |  Civilization (223)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Convulsion (5)  |  Defect (31)  |  Different (596)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disease (343)  |  Element (324)  |  Fear (215)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Good (907)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Species (11)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increase (226)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Less (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Science (57)  |  Monstrosity (6)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Need (323)  |  Perfectibility (3)  |  Physical (520)  |  Political (126)  |  Principal (69)  |  Progress (493)  |  Prove (263)  |  Quality (140)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Research (753)  |  Resist (15)  |  Result (700)  |  Scourge (3)  |  Severity (6)  |  Society (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Successful (134)  |  Themselves (433)  |  War (234)

One striking peculiarity of mathematics is its unlimited power of evolving examples and problems. A student may read a book of Euclid, or a few chapters of Algebra, and within that limited range of knowledge it is possible to set him exercises as real and as interesting as the propositions themselves which he has studied; deductions which might have pleased the Greek geometers, and algebraic propositions which Pascal and Fermat would not have disdained to investigate.
In 'Private Study of Mathematics', Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Algebraic (5)  |  Book (414)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Example (100)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Greek (109)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Pascal (2)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Please (68)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Problem (735)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Range (104)  |  Read (309)  |  Real (160)  |  Set (400)  |  Strike (72)  |  Striking (48)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (703)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Organisms ... are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Direct (228)  |  Extent (142)  |  Feature (49)  |  Form (978)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  Future (467)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Know (1539)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limited (103)  |  Machine (272)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Optimal (4)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Quirky (3)  |  Remain (357)  |  Role (86)  |  Shift (45)  |  Unpredictable (18)

Our earth is very old, an old warrior that has lived through many battles. Nevertheless, the face of it is still changing, and science sees no certain limit of time for its stately evolution. Our solid earth, apparently so stable, inert, and finished, is changing, mobile, and still evolving. Its major quakings are largely the echoes of that divine far-off event, the building of our noble mountains. The lava floods and intriguing volcanoes tell us of the plasticity, mobility, of the deep interior of the globe. The slow coming and going of ancient shallow seas on the continental plateaus tell us of the rhythmic distortion of the deep interior-deep-seated flow and changes of volume. Mountain chains prove the earth’s solid crust itself to be mobile in high degree. And the secret of it all—the secret of the earthquake, the secret of the “temple of fire,” the secret of the ocean basin, the secret of the highland—is in the heart of the earth, forever invisible to human eyes.
In Our Mobile Earth (1926), 320.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Building (158)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Coming (114)  |  Crust (43)  |  Deep (241)  |  Degree (278)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Divine (112)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Eye (441)  |  Face (214)  |  Finish (62)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flood (52)  |  Flow (90)  |  Forever (112)  |  Heart (244)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1517)  |  Inert (14)  |  Interior (35)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Lava (12)  |  Lithosphere (2)  |  Magma (4)  |  Major (88)  |  Mobility (11)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Noble (95)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Old (499)  |  Plasticity (7)  |  Prove (263)  |  Sea (327)  |  Secret (217)  |  See (1095)  |  Slow (108)  |  Solid (119)  |  Stable (32)  |  Stately (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Tell (344)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Volcano (46)

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Hope (322)  |  Imagination (349)

Our knowledge must always be limited, but the knowable is limitless. The greater the sphere of our knowledge the greater the surface of contact with our infinite ignorance.
Conclusion of the James Forrest Lecture (3 May 1894) at an Extra Meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 'The Relation of Mathematics to Engineering', collected in Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1894), 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Contact (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Surface (223)

Our mind, by virtue of a certain finite, limited capability, is by no means capable of putting a question to Nature that permits a continuous series of answers. The observations, the individual results of measurements, are the answers of Nature to our discontinuous questioning.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Discontinuous (6)  |  Finite (60)  |  Individual (420)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observation (595)  |  Permit (61)  |  Question (652)  |  Result (700)  |  Series (153)  |  Virtue (117)

Our purpose is to be able to measure the intellectual capacity of a child who is brought to us in order to know whether he is normal or retarded. ... We do not attempt to establish or prepare a prognosis and we leave unanswered the question of whether this retardation is curable, or even improveable. We shall limit ourselves to ascertaining the truth in regard to his present mental state.
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon (1873-1961, French psychologist) 'New Methods for the Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals' (1905), in The Development of Intelligence in Children, trans. Elizabeth Kite (1916), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (269)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Child (333)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Know (1539)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Order (639)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Present (630)  |  Prognosis (5)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Question (652)  |  Regard (312)  |  Retardation (5)  |  State (505)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Unanswered (8)

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 (273)  |  Certain (557)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consider (430)  |  Content (75)  |  Enable (122)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (978)  |  Grow (247)  |  Independently (24)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Kind (565)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Power (773)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Result (700)  |  Self (268)  |  Student (317)  |  Through (846)  |  Training (92)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

People have noted with admiration how the progress of scientific enquiry is like the growth of a coral reef; each generation of little toilers building a sure foundation on which their successors may build yet further. The simile is apt in many ways, and in one way in particular that is worth considering. When we see how industrious and how prolific are the coral insects, our chief astonishment should be, not how vast are the structures they have built, but how few and scattered. Why is not every coast lined with coral? Why is the abyss if ocean not bridged with it. The answer is that coral only lives under certain limitations; it can only thrive at certain depths, in water of certain temperatures and salinities; outside these limits it languishes and dies. Science is like coral in this. Scientific investigators can only work in certain spots of the ocean of Being, where they are at home, and all outside is unknown to them...
Scientific Method: An Inquiry into the Character and Validy of Natural Law (1923), 195. Quoted in Wilson Gee, Social science research methods (1950), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Answer (389)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Being (1276)  |  Build (212)  |  Building (158)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chief (99)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Depth (97)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Generation (256)  |  Growth (200)  |  Home (186)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Insect (89)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Little (718)  |  Live (651)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Outside (142)  |  People (1034)  |  Progress (493)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (957)  |  See (1095)  |  Simile (8)  |  Structure (365)  |  Successor (16)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Vast (188)  |  Water (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1403)  |  Worth (173)

Perhaps the majority of paleontologists of the present time, who believe in orthogenesis, the irreversibility of evolution and the polyphyletic origin families, will assume that a short molar must keep on getting shorter, that it can never get longer and then again grow relatively shorter and therefore that Propliopithecus with its extremely short third molar and Dryopithecus its long m3 are alike excluded from ancestry of the Gorilla, in which the is a slight retrogression in length of m3. After many years reflection and constant study of the evolution of the vertebrates however, I conclude that 'orthogenesis' should mean solely that structures and races evolve in a certain direction, or toward a certain goal, only until the direction of evolution shifts toward some other goal. I believe that the 'irreversibility of evolution' means only that past changes irreversibly limit and condition future possibilities, and that, as a matter of experience, if an organ is once lost the same (homogenous) organ can be regained, although nature is fertile in substituting imitations. But this not mean, in my judgement, that if one tooth is smaller than its fellows it will in all cases continue to grow smaller.
'Studies on the Evolution of the Primates’, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1916, 35, 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (640)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Continue (180)  |  Direction (185)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Future (467)  |  Goal (155)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Grow (247)  |  Irreversibility (4)  |  Long (778)  |  Majority (68)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Organ (118)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Race (279)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Retrogression (6)  |  Shift (45)  |  Short (200)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (703)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (965)

Phenomena unfold on their own appropriate scales of space and time and may be invisible in our myopic world of dimensions assessed by comparison with human height and times metered by human lifespans. So much of accumulating importance at earthly scales ... is invisible by the measuring rod of a human life. So much that matters to particles in the microscopic world of molecules ... either averages out to stability at our scale or simply stands below our limits of perception.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Assess (4)  |  Average (89)  |  Below (26)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Earthly (8)  |  Height (33)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Importance (299)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Life (1873)  |  Lifespan (9)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (242)  |  Meter (9)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Myopic (2)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perception (97)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Rod (6)  |  Scale (122)  |  Simply (53)  |  Space (525)  |  Space And Time (39)  |  Stability (28)  |  Stand (284)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unfold (15)  |  World (1854)

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility or the meaning of such a comparison. But he certainly believes that, as his knowledge increases, his picture of reality will become simpler and simpler and will explain a wider and wider range of his sensuous impressions. He may also believe in the existence of the ideal limit of knowledge and that it is approached by the human mind. He may call this ideal limit the objective truth.
Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics (1938), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Become (822)  |  Call (782)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Closed (38)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Existence (484)  |  Explain (334)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (978)  |  Free (240)  |  Hear (146)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Impression (118)  |  Increase (226)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observe (181)  |  Physical (520)  |  Picture (148)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Range (104)  |  Reality (275)  |  See (1095)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Trying (144)  |  Understand (650)  |  Watch (119)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Probably our atomic weights merely represent a mean value around which the actual atomic weights of the atoms vary within certain narrow limits... when we say, the atomic weight of, for instance, calcium is 40, we really express the fact that, while the majority of calcium atoms have an actual atomic weight of 40, there are not but a few which are represented by 39 or 41, a less number by 38 or 42, and so on.
Presidential Address, 2 September 1886, Section B, Chemical Science. Reports of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1886), 569.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (145)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Weight (6)  |  Calcium (8)  |  Certain (557)  |  Express (192)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Isotope (4)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mean (810)  |  Merely (315)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Number (712)  |  Represent (157)  |  Say (991)  |  Value (397)  |  Weight (140)

Religion and science ... constitute deep-rooted and ancient efforts to find richer experience and deeper meaning than are found in the ordinary biological and social satisfactions. As pointed out by Whitehead, religion and science have similar origins and are evolving toward similar goals. Both started from crude observations and fanciful concepts, meaningful only within a narrow range of conditions for the people who formulated them of their limited tribal experience. But progressively, continuously, and almost simultaneously, religious and scientific concepts are ridding themselves of their coarse and local components, reaching higher and higher levels of abstraction and purity. Both the myths of religion and the laws of science, it is now becoming apparent, are not so much descriptions of facts as symbolic expressions of cosmic truths.
'On Being Human,' A God Within, Scribner (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (822)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Coarse (4)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deep (241)  |  Description (89)  |  Effort (243)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (182)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  High (370)  |  Law (914)  |  Level (69)  |  Limited (103)  |  Local (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Observation (595)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (251)  |  People (1034)  |  Point (585)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (287)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rich (66)  |  Rid (14)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (262)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toward (46)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)

Science derives its conclusions by the laws of logic from our sense perceptions, Thus it does not deal with the real world, of which we know nothing, but with the world as it appears to our senses. … All our sense perceptions are limited by and attached to the conceptions of time and space. … Modern physics has come to the same conclusion in the relativity theory, that absolute space and absolute time have no existence, but, time and space exist only as far as things or events fill them, that is, are forms of sense perception.
In 'Religion and Modern Science', The Christian Register (16 Nov 1922), 101, 1089. The article is introduced as “the substance of an address to the Laymen’s League in All Soul’s Church (5 Nov 1922).
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Deal (192)  |  Derive (71)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Form (978)  |  Know (1539)  |  Law (914)  |  Limited (103)  |  Logic (313)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Real World (15)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Sense (786)  |  Space (525)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  World (1854)

Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can’t talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.
'How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later,' introduction, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1986).
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Fiction (23)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Really (77)  |  Say (991)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Talk (108)  |  Usually (176)  |  Writer (90)

Science goes from question to question; big questions, and little, tentative answers. The questions as they age grow ever broader, the answers are seen to be more limited.
Nobel banquet speech (10 Dec 1967). In Ragnar Granit (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1967 (1968).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Answer (389)  |  Big (56)  |  Broad (28)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Limited (103)  |  Little (718)  |  More (2558)  |  Question (652)  |  Tentative (18)

Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. Nearly all men of science, all men of learning for that matter, and men of simple ways too, have it in some form and in some degree. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission. If we abandon that mission under stress we shall abandon it forever, for stress will not cease. Knowledge for the sake of understanding, not merely to prevail, that is the essence of our being. None can define its limits, or set its ultimate boundaries.
Science is Not Enough (1967), 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Cease (81)  |  Definition (239)  |  Degree (278)  |  Essence (85)  |  Faith (210)  |  Forever (112)  |  Form (978)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mission (23)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Sake (61)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (430)  |  Stress (22)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Transcendence (2)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Utility (53)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide—rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires—we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once.
In op-ed, 'A Universe Without Purpose', Los Angeles Times (1 Apr 2012).
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  A Priori (26)  |  Absolute (154)  |  Atom (381)  |  Century (319)  |  Classical (49)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Desire (214)  |  Doing (277)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elementary Particle (2)  |  Falling (6)  |  Fear (215)  |  Form (978)  |  Forming (42)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Guide (108)  |  Hope (322)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1539)  |  Logic (313)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observer (48)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pillar (10)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Progress (493)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Realization (44)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Space (525)  |  Space And Time (39)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Unthinkable (8)  |  Wayside (4)

Science is often regarded as the most objective and truth-directed of human enterprises, and since direct observation is supposed to be the favored route to factuality, many people equate respectable science with visual scrutiny–just the facts ma’am, and palpably before my eyes. But science is a battery of observational and inferential methods, all directed to the testing of propositions that can, in principle, be definitely proven false ... At all scales, from smallest to largest, quickest to slowest, many well-documented conclusions of science lie beyond the strictly limited domain of direct observation. No one has ever seen an electron or a black hole, the events of a picosecond or a geological eon.
In Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History (1994), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Battery (12)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Direct (228)  |  Domain (72)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Eon (12)  |  Equate (3)  |  Event (222)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Factuality (2)  |  False (105)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  Geological (11)  |  Human (1517)  |  Inferential (2)  |  Large (399)  |  Largest (39)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limited (103)  |  Method (532)  |  Most (1728)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observational (15)  |  Often (109)  |  Palpably (2)  |  People (1034)  |  Principle (532)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (263)  |  Quick (13)  |  Regard (312)  |  Respectable (9)  |  Route (16)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1095)  |  Slow (108)  |  Small (489)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Test (222)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Visual (16)

Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
In History of Western Philosophy (2004), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Set (400)

Science, as long as it limits itself to the descriptive study of the laws of nature, has no moral or ethical quality and this applies to the physical as well as the biological sciences.
'Social Responsibility and the Scientist', New Scientist, 22 October 1970, 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Law (914)  |  Long (778)  |  Moral (203)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Physical (520)  |  Quality (140)  |  Study (703)

Science, while it penetrates deeply the system of things about us, sees everywhere, in the dim limits of vision, the word mystery.
In Corals and Coral Islands (1879), 17-18.
Science quotes on:  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Mystery (190)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  See (1095)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vision (127)  |  Word (650)

Scientific knowledge does limit the imagination, but only in the same healthy way that sanity limits what we take as real.
As co-author with Nancy Ellen Abrams, in The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (2006), 280.
Science quotes on:  |  Healthy (70)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Real (160)  |  Sanity (9)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Way (1214)

Scientists tend to resist interdisciplinary inquiries into their own territory. In many instances, such parochialism is founded on the fear that intrusion from other disciplines would compete unfairly for limited financial resources and thus diminish their own opportunity for research.
[Naming territorial dominance, greed, and fear of the unknown, as some of the influences on the increasing specialization of science]
Quoted in Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', Washington Times, supplement: The World and I (May 1988),192.
Science quotes on:  |  Compete (6)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Fear (215)  |  Greed (17)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interdisciplinary (2)  |  Intrusion (3)  |  Limited (103)  |  Money (178)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Research (753)  |  Resist (15)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Specialization (25)  |  Tend (124)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (198)

So much is human genius limited, by the limits of human nature, that we just know what our five senses teach.
In The Works of Thomas Sydenham, (1850), Vol. 2, 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Genius (301)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Know (1539)  |  Limited (103)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Sense (786)  |  Teach (301)

So numerous are the objects which meet our view in the heavens, that we cannot imagine a point of space where some light would not strike the eye;—innumerable stars, thousands of double and multiple systems, clusters in one blaze with their tens of thousands of stars, and the nebulae amazing us by the strangeness of their forms and the incomprehensibility of their nature, till at last, from the limit of our senses, even these thin and airy phantoms vanish in the distance.
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1858), 420.
Science quotes on:  |  Airy (2)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Blaze (14)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Distance (171)  |  Eye (441)  |  Form (978)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Incomprehensibility (2)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Last (425)  |  Light (636)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Object (442)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Point (585)  |  Sense (786)  |  Space (525)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Strangeness (10)  |  Strike (72)  |  System (545)  |  Thin (19)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Vanish (20)  |  View (498)

So-called extraordinary events always split into two extremes naturalists who have not witnessed them: those who believe blindly and those who do not believe at all. The latter have always in mind the story of the golden goose; if the facts lie slightly beyond the limits of their knowledge, they relegate them immediately to fables. The former have a secret taste for marvels because they seem to expand Nature; they use their imagination with pleasure to find explanations. To remain doubtful is given to naturalists who keep a middle path between the two extremes. They calmly examine facts; they refer to logic for help; they discuss probabilities; they do not scoff at anything, not even errors, because they serve at least the history of the human mind; finally, they report rather than judge; they rarely decide unless they have good evidence.
Quoted in Albert V. Carozzi, Histoire des sciences de la terre entre 1790 et 1815 vue à travers les documents inédités de la Societé de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi. (1990), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (616)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blindness (11)  |  Call (782)  |  Decision (98)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explanation (247)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Fable (12)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Final (121)  |  Find (1014)  |  Former (138)  |  Gold (101)  |  Golden (47)  |  Good (907)  |  Goose (13)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediately (116)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logic (313)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Path (160)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Probability (135)  |  Rare (95)  |  Relegation (3)  |  Remain (357)  |  Report (43)  |  Scoff (8)  |  Secret (217)  |  Service (110)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Split (15)  |  Story (122)  |  Taste (93)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Witness (57)

Speaking concretely, when we say “making experiments or making observations,” we mean that we devote ourselves to investigation and to research, that we make attempts and trials in order to gain facts from which the mind, through reasoning, may draw knowledge or instruction.
Speaking in the abstract, when we say “relying on observation and gaining experience,” we mean that observation is the mind's support in reasoning, and experience the mind's support in deciding, or still better, the fruit of exact reasoning applied to the interpretation of facts. It follows from this that we can gain experience without making experiments, solely by reasoning appropriately about well-established facts, just as we can make experiments and observations without gaining experience, if we limit ourselves to noting facts.
Observation, then, is what shows facts; experiment is what teaches about facts and gives experience in relation to anything.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Better (495)  |  Concretely (4)  |  Draw (141)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Follow (390)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gain (149)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Observation (595)  |  Order (639)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (991)  |  Show (354)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Support (151)  |  Through (846)  |  Trial (59)

Surgery is always second best. If you can so something else, it’s better. Surgery is limited. It is operating on someone who has no place else to go.
'The Best Hope of All', Time (3 May 1963)
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Better (495)  |  Limited (103)  |  Something (718)  |  Surgery (54)

The aim of poetry is to give a high and voluptuous plausibility to what is palpably not true. I offer the Twenty-third Psalm as an example: ‘The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.’ It is immensely esteemed by the inmates of almshouses, and by gentlemen waiting to be hanged. I have to limit my own reading of it, avoiding soft and yielding moods, for I too, in my way, am a gentleman waiting to be hanged, as you are.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Esteem (18)  |  Example (100)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Give (208)  |  Hang (46)  |  High (370)  |  Inmate (3)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mood (15)  |  Offer (143)  |  Palpably (2)  |  Plausibility (7)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Read (309)  |  Reading (136)  |  Shepherd (6)  |  Soft (30)  |  True (240)  |  Voluptuous (3)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)  |  Yield (86)

The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
Play, The Life of Galileo (1939, 1994), scene 9, 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Door (94)  |  Error (339)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Open (277)  |  Set (400)  |  Wisdom (235)

The anxious precision of modern mathematics is necessary for accuracy, … it is necessary for research. It makes for clearness of thought and for fertility in trying new combinations of ideas. When the initial statements are vague and slipshod, at every subsequent stage of thought, common sense has to step in to limit applications and to explain meanings. Now in creative thought common sense is a bad master. Its sole criterion for judgment is that the new ideas shall look like the old ones, in other words it can only act by suppressing originality.
In Introduction to Mathematics (1911), 157.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Act (278)  |  Anxious (4)  |  Application (257)  |  Bad (185)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Combination (151)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Creative (144)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Idea (882)  |  In Other Words (9)  |  Initial (17)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Look (584)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1276)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Old (499)  |  Originality (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Precision (73)  |  Research (753)  |  Sense (786)  |  Sole (50)  |  Stage (152)  |  Statement (148)  |  Step (235)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Suppress (6)  |  Thought (996)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Vague (50)  |  Word (650)

The astronomer is, in some measure, independent of his fellow astronomer; he can wait in his observatory till the star he wishes to observe comes to his meridian; but the meteorologist has his observations bounded by a very limited horizon, and can do little without the aid of numerous observers furnishing him contemporaneous observations over a wide-extended area.
Second Report on Meteorology to the Secretary of the Navy (1849), US Senate Executive Document 39, 31st Congress, 1st session. Quoted in J. R. Fleming, Meteorology in America: 1800-1870 (1990), vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Bound (120)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Limited (103)  |  Little (718)  |  Measure (242)  |  Meridian (4)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Numerous (71)  |  Observation (595)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Observe (181)  |  Star (462)  |  Wide (97)

The belief that mathematics, because it is abstract, because it is static and cold and gray, is detached from life, is a mistaken belief. Mathematics, even in its purest and most abstract estate, is not detached from life. It is just the ideal handling of the problems of life, as sculpture may idealize a human figure or as poetry or painting may idealize a figure or a scene. Mathematics is precisely the ideal handling of the problems of life, and the central ideas of the science, the great concepts about which its stately doctrines have been built up, are precisely the chief ideas with which life must always deal and which, as it tumbles and rolls about them through time and space, give it its interests and problems, and its order and rationality. That such is the case a few indications will suffice to show. The mathematical concepts of constant and variable are represented familiarly in life by the notions of fixedness and change. The concept of equation or that of an equational system, imposing restriction upon variability, is matched in life by the concept of natural and spiritual law, giving order to what were else chaotic change and providing partial freedom in lieu of none at all. What is known in mathematics under the name of limit is everywhere present in life in the guise of some ideal, some excellence high-dwelling among the rocks, an “ever flying perfect” as Emerson calls it, unto which we may approximate nearer and nearer, but which we can never quite attain, save in aspiration. The supreme concept of functionality finds its correlate in life in the all-pervasive sense of interdependence and mutual determination among the elements of the world. What is known in mathematics as transformation—that is, lawful transfer of attention, serving to match in orderly fashion the things of one system with those of another—is conceived in life as a process of transmutation by which, in the flux of the world, the content of the present has come out of the past and in its turn, in ceasing to be, gives birth to its successor, as the boy is father to the man and as things, in general, become what they are not. The mathematical concept of invariance and that of infinitude, especially the imposing doctrines that explain their meanings and bear their names—What are they but mathematicizations of that which has ever been the chief of life’s hopes and dreams, of that which has ever been the object of its deepest passion and of its dominant enterprise, I mean the finding of the worth that abides, the finding of permanence in the midst of change, and the discovery of a presence, in what has seemed to be a finite world, of being that is infinite? It is needless further to multiply examples of a correlation that is so abounding and complete as indeed to suggest a doubt whether it be juster to view mathematics as the abstract idealization of life than to regard life as the concrete realization of mathematics.
In 'The Humanization of Teaching of Mathematics', Science, New Series, 35, 645-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Abound (17)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (198)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (616)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (212)  |  Call (782)  |  Case (102)  |  Cease (81)  |  Central (81)  |  Change (640)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Chief (99)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Constant (148)  |  Content (75)  |  Correlate (7)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detach (5)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (223)  |  Element (324)  |  Ralph Waldo Emerson (161)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Equation (138)  |  Especially (31)  |  Estate (5)  |  Everywhere (100)  |  Example (100)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Far (158)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (114)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Flux (21)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Functionality (2)  |  General (521)  |  Give (208)  |  Gray (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guise (6)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (322)  |  Human (1517)  |  Idea (882)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Impose (22)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinitude (3)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (914)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (360)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Needless (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (442)  |  Order (639)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Painting (46)  |  Partial (10)  |  Passion (121)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Process (441)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (300)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realization (44)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Restriction (15)  |  Rock (177)  |  Roll (41)  |  Save (126)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (786)  |  Serve (64)  |  Serving (15)  |  Show (354)  |  Space (525)  |  Spiritual (96)  |  Stately (12)  |  Static (9)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Suggest (40)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unto (8)  |  Variability (5)  |  Variable (37)  |  View (498)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)  |  Worth (173)

The Betz limit is the best you can do.
Epigraph, without citation, captioned 'A simple-minded way to best remember Betz', in In Praise of Simple Physics: The Science and Mathematics behind Everyday Questions (2016), 25. Note: According to Betz’s law, no turbine can capture more than 16/27 (59.3%) of the kinetic energy in wind.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (468)  |  Do (1905)

The calculus of probabilities, when confined within just limits, ought to interest, in an equal degree, the mathematician, the experimentalist, and the statesman.
In François Arago, trans. by William Henry Smyth, Baden Powell and Robert Grant, 'Laplace', Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859), Vol. 1, 364. This comment introduces how the calculus of probabilities, being used in preparing tables of, for example, population and mortality, can give information for use by government and businesses deciding reserves for pensions, or premiums for life insurance.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculus (65)  |  Degree (278)  |  Experimentalist (20)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Statesman (20)

The child asks, “What is the moon, and why does it shine?” “What is this water and where does it run?” “What is this wind?” “What makes the waves of the sea?” “Where does this animal live, and what is the use of this plant?” And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a young child; nor any bounds to the slow, but solid, accretion of knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. To all such questions, answers which are necessarily incomplete, though true as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose ideas represent real knowledge and not mere book learning; and a panoramic view of Nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of the scientific habit of mind, may thus be placed within the reach of every child of nine or ten.
In 'Scientific Education', Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews (1870), 71. https://books.google.com/books?id=13cJAAAAIAAJ Thomas Henry Huxley - 1870
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Accretion (5)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (423)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (414)  |  Bound (120)  |  Child (333)  |  Crave (10)  |  Development (442)  |  Faculty (77)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Habit (174)  |  Idea (882)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Infusion (4)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learning (291)  |  Live (651)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Moon (252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Plant (320)  |  Question (652)  |  Reach (287)  |  Real (160)  |  Represent (157)  |  Run (158)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Sea (327)  |  Shine (49)  |  Slow (108)  |  Snub (2)  |  Solid (119)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thinking (425)  |  True (240)  |  Use (771)  |  View (498)  |  Water (505)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wind (141)  |  Young (253)

The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Avoid (124)  |  Aware (36)  |  Clever (41)  |  Competent (20)  |  Full (69)  |  Fully (20)  |  Humility (31)  |  Limited (103)  |  Plague (43)  |  Programmer (5)  |  Size (62)  |  Skull (5)  |  Task (153)  |  Trick (36)

The Congress shall have power to ... promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
Founding U.S. Patents.
Constitution of the United States, Art. 1, Sec.8, Par. 8. In George Sewall Boutwell, The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century (1895), 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Author (175)  |  Congress (20)  |  The Constitution of the United States (7)  |  Copyright (3)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Government (116)  |  Invention (401)  |  Inventor (81)  |  Limited (103)  |  Patent (34)  |  Power (773)  |  Progress (493)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Promote (32)  |  Right (473)  |  Time (1913)  |  Useful (261)  |  Writing (192)

The degree 48 … in my thermometers holds the middle between between the limit of the most intense cold obtained artificially in a mixture of water, of ice and of sal-ammoniac or even of sea-salt, and the limit of heat which is found in the blood of a healthy man.
From 'Experimenta circa gradum caloris liquorum nonnullorum ebullientium instituta', Philosophical Transactions (1724), 33, 1, as translated in William Francis Magie, A Source Book in Physics (1935), 131. Hence, Fahrenheit specified the upper and lower fixed points of his temperature scale, ranging from 0 to 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial (38)  |  Blood (144)  |  Cold (115)  |  Degree (278)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Heat (181)  |  Ice (59)  |  Intense (22)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Sal Ammoniac (2)  |  Salt (48)  |  Sea (327)  |  Thermometer (11)  |  Water (505)

The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes; the God who, according to the limits of the believer’s outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of the human race, or even or life itself; the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied longing; he who preserves the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral conception of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Believer (26)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Conception (160)  |  Dead (65)  |  Desire (214)  |  Dispose (10)  |  Form (978)  |  God (776)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Love (328)  |  Moral (203)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Prompt (14)  |  Protect (65)  |  Providence (19)  |  Punish (8)  |  Race (279)  |  Reward (72)  |  Social (262)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Soul (237)  |  Support (151)  |  Tribe (26)

The development of the nucleoplasm during ontogeny may be to some extent compared to an army composed of corps, which are made up of divisions, and these of brigades, and so on. The whole army may be taken to represent the nucleoplasm of the germ-cell: the earliest cell-division … may be represented by the separation of the two corps, similarly formed but with different duties: and the following cell­divisions by the successive detachment of divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, companies, etc.; and as the groups become simpler so does their sphere of action become limited.
In 'The Continuity of the Germ-plasm as the Foundation of a Theory of Heredity' (1885), Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1891), Vol. 1, 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Army (35)  |  Battalion (2)  |  Become (822)  |  Brigade (3)  |  Cell Division (6)  |  Company (63)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Corps (2)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Development (442)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (596)  |  Division (67)  |  Duty (71)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (978)  |  Formation (100)  |  Germ (54)  |  Germ Cell (2)  |  Limited (103)  |  Nucleoplasm (2)  |  Ontogeny (10)  |  Regiment (3)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Separation (60)  |  Similarly (4)  |  Simpler (8)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Successive (73)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Anonymous
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 310
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Genius (301)  |  Stupidity (40)

The domain, over which the language of analysis extends its sway, is, indeed, relatively limited, but within this domain it so infinitely excels ordinary language that its attempt to follow the former must be given up after a few steps. The mathematician, who knows how to think in this marvelously condensed language, is as different from the mechanical computer as heaven from earth.
In Jahresberichte der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, 13, 367. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Computer (134)  |  Condense (15)  |  Different (596)  |  Domain (72)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Excel (4)  |  Extend (129)  |  Follow (390)  |  Former (138)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Know (1539)  |  Language (310)  |  Limited (103)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Step (235)  |  Sway (5)  |  Think (1124)

The explorations of space end on a note of uncertainty. And necessarily so. … We know our immediate neighborhood rather intimately. With increasing distance our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary—the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.
From conclusion of The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series delivered at Yale University (Fall 1935). Collected in The Realm of the Nebulae: The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series (1936), 201-202.
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (56)  |  Continue (180)  |  Dim (11)  |  Distance (171)  |  Empirical (58)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fade (12)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Increase (226)  |  Intimately (4)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Landmark (9)  |  Measure (242)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Neighborhood (12)  |  Observation (595)  |  Pass (242)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Reach (287)  |  Realm (88)  |  Resource (75)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Search (175)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Space (525)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Will (2350)

The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon [the “Super”, i.e. the hydrogen bomb] makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light. For these reasons, we believe it important for the President of the United States to tell the American public and the world what we think is wrong on fundamental ethical principles to initiate the development of such a weapon.
Enrico Fermi and I.I. Rabi, 'Minority Report of the General Advisory Committee', United States Atomic Energy Commission: In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board, Washington, D.C. April 12th 1954—May 6th 1954 (1954), 79-80.
Science quotes on:  |  Consider (430)  |  Construction (116)  |  Danger (127)  |  Development (442)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exist (460)  |  Existence (484)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bomb (16)  |  Initiate (13)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Light (636)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  President (36)  |  Principle (532)  |  Reason (767)  |  State (505)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1854)  |  Wrong (247)

The famous principle of indeterminacy is not as negative as it appears. It limits the applicability of classical concepts to atomic events in order to make room for new phenomena such as the wave-particle duality. The uncertainty principle has made our understanding richer, not poorer; it permits us to include atomic reality in the framework of classical concepts. To quote from Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
In Scientific American as quoted in epigraph, in Barbara Lovett Cline, The Questioners: Physicists and the Quantum Theory (1965), 235. Weisskopf was replying to James R Newman’s statement beginning “In this century the professional philosophers…” on this site’s webpage of James R. Newman Quotations.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicability (7)  |  Atomic (6)  |  Classical (49)  |  Concept (242)  |  Dream (223)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Framework (33)  |  Hamlet (10)  |  Heaven (267)  |  New (1276)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Quote (46)  |  Reality (275)  |  William Shakespeare (110)  |  Uncertainty Principle (9)  |  Understand (650)  |  Wave-Particle Duality (3)

The feudal model of agriculture collided, first, with environmental limits and then with a massive external shock – the Black Death. After that, there was a demographic shock: too few workers for the land, which raised their wages and made the old feudal obligation system impossible to enforce. The labour shortage also forced technological innovation. The new technologies that underpinned the rise of merchant capitalism were the ones that stimulated commerce (printing and accountancy), the creation of tradeable wealth (mining, the compass and fast ships) and productivity (mathematics and the scientific method).
In 'The End of Capitalism Has Begun', The Guardian (17 Jul 2015) (online).
Science quotes on:  |  Accountant (4)  |  Agriculture (79)  |  Black Death (3)  |  Capitalism (12)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Compass (37)  |  Creation (350)  |  Environment (240)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mining (22)  |  Plague (43)  |  Printing (25)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Ship (70)  |  Shortage (6)  |  Stimulate (22)  |  Technology (284)  |  Trade (34)  |  Wage (7)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Worker (34)

The future of mankind is going to be decided within the next two generations, and there are two absolute requisites: We must aim at a stable-state society [with limited population growth] and the destruction of nuclear stockpiles. … Otherwise I don't see how we can survive much later than 2050.
Quoted in John C. Hess, 'French Nobel Biologist Says World Based On Chance', New York Times (15 Mar 1971), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Aim (175)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Destruction (136)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Growth (200)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  See (1095)  |  Society (353)  |  Stable (32)  |  State (505)  |  Survive (87)  |  Two (936)

The great age of the earth will appear greater to man when he understands the origin of living organisms and the reasons for the gradual development and improvement of their organization. This antiquity will appear even greater when he realizes the length of time and the particular conditions which were necessary to bring all the living species into existence. This is particularly true since man is the latest result and present climax of this development, the ultimate limit of which, if it is ever reached, cannot be known.
Hydrogéologie (1802), trans. A. V. Carozzi (1964), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Condition (362)  |  Development (442)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Existence (484)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Known (453)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Origin (251)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Present (630)  |  Reach (287)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reason (767)  |  Result (700)  |  Species (435)  |  Time (1913)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (650)  |  Will (2350)

The great truths with which it [mathematics] deals, are clothed with austere grandeur, far above all purposes of immediate convenience or profit. It is in them that our limited understandings approach nearest to the conception of that absolute and infinite, towards which in most other things they aspire in vain. In the pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths, which existed in the divine mind before the morning stars sang together, and which will continue to exist there, when the last of their radiant host shall have fallen from heaven. They existed not merely in metaphysical possibility, but in the actual contemplation of the supreme reason. The pen of inspiration, ranging all nature and life for imagery to set forth the Creator’s power and wisdom, finds them best symbolized in the skill of the surveyor. "He meted out heaven as with a span;" and an ancient sage, neither falsely nor irreverently, ventured to say, that “God is a geometer”.
In Orations and Speeches (1870), Vol. 3, 614.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Actual (145)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aspire (16)  |  Austere (7)  |  Best (468)  |  Conception (160)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Continue (180)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deal (192)  |  Divine (112)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exist (460)  |  Fall (243)  |  Falsely (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forth (14)  |  Geometer (24)  |  God (776)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (267)  |  Host (16)  |  Imagery (3)  |  Immediate (98)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Irreverent (2)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pen (21)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (773)  |  Profit (56)  |  Pure (300)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Purpose (337)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reason (767)  |  Sage (25)  |  Say (991)  |  Set (400)  |  Sing (29)  |  Skill (116)  |  Span (5)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vain (86)  |  Venture (19)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)

The history of a species, or any natural phenomenon that requires unbroken continuity in a world of trouble, works like a batting streak. All are games of a gambler playing with a limited stake against a house with infinite resources. The gambler must eventually go bust. His aim can only be to stick around as long as possible, to have some fun while he’s at it, and, if he happens to be a moral agent as well, to worry about staying the course with honor.
In Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History (1991), 471-472.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Agent (74)  |  Aim (175)  |  Bat (11)  |  Bust (2)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Course (415)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Fun (42)  |  Gambler (7)  |  Game (104)  |  Happen (282)  |  History (719)  |  Honor (57)  |  House (143)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Limited (103)  |  Long (778)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Play (117)  |  Playing (42)  |  Possible (560)  |  Require (229)  |  Resource (75)  |  Species (435)  |  Stake (20)  |  Stay (26)  |  Stick (27)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)  |  Worry (34)

The history of most fossil species includes two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism: 1. Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless. 2. Sudden appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Appear (123)  |  Appearance (146)  |  Area (33)  |  Arise (162)  |  Change (640)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Feature (49)  |  Form (978)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Fossil Record (12)  |  Fully (20)  |  Gradually (102)  |  History (719)  |  Include (93)  |  Inconsistent (9)  |  Limited (103)  |  Local (25)  |  Looking (191)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Record (161)  |  Same (168)  |  Species (435)  |  Steady (45)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Tenure (8)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Two (936)  |  Usually (176)

The history of this paper suggests that highly speculative investigations, especially by an unknown author, are best brought before the world through some other channel than a scientific society, which naturally hesitates to admit into its printed records matters of uncertain value. Perhaps one may go further and say that a young author who believes himself capable of great things would usually do well to secure the favourable recognition of the scientific world by work whose scope is limited and whose value is easily judged, before embarking upon higher flights.
'On the Physics of Media that are Composed of Free and Perfectly Elastic Molecules in a State of Motion', Philosophical Transactions (1892), 183, 560.
Science quotes on:  |  Admission (17)  |  Author (175)  |  Best (468)  |  Capable (174)  |  Channel (23)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embarkation (2)  |  Favor (69)  |  Flight (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (719)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Limited (103)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Record (161)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scope (44)  |  Society (353)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Unknown (198)  |  Usually (176)  |  Value (397)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)  |  Young (253)

The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain. Therefore it is that we cannot conceive of any end or limit to the world, but always as of necessity it occurs to us that there is something beyond... But he is no less an unskilled and shallow philosopher who seeks causes of that which is most general, than he who in things subordinate and subaltern omits to do so
From Aphorism 48, Novum Organum, Book I (1620). Collected in James Spedding (ed.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1858), Vol. 4, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cause (564)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1517)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Occur (151)  |  Omit (12)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Rest (289)  |  Seek (219)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unskilled (4)  |  Vain (86)  |  World (1854)

The increasing technicality of the terminology employed is also a serious difficulty. It has become necessary to learn an extensive vocabulary before a book in even a limited department of science can be consulted with much profit. This change, of course, has its advantages for the initiated, in securing precision and concisement of statement; but it tends to narrow the field in which an investigator can labour, and it cannot fail to become, in the future, a serious impediment to wide inductive generalisations.
Year Book of Science (1892), preface, from review in Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (14 Apr 1892), 65, 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Become (822)  |  Book (414)  |  Change (640)  |  Conciseness (3)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Course (415)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Employ (115)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fail (193)  |  Failure (176)  |  Field (378)  |  Future (467)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learn (672)  |  Limited (103)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Precision (73)  |  Profit (56)  |  Serious (98)  |  Statement (148)  |  Technicality (5)  |  Tend (124)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  Wide (97)

The inherent unpredictability of future scientific developments—the fact that no secure inference can be drawn from one state of science to another—has important implications for the issue of the limits of science. It means that present-day science cannot speak for future science: it is in principle impossible to make any secure inferences from the substance of science at one time about its substance at a significantly different time. The prospect of future scientific revolutions can never be precluded. We cannot say with unblinking confidence what sorts of resources and conceptions the science of the future will or will not use. Given that it is effectively impossible to predict the details of what future science will accomplish, it is no less impossible to predict in detail what future science will not accomplish. We can never confidently put this or that range of issues outside “the limits of science”, because we cannot discern the shape and substance of future science with sufficient clarity to be able to say with any assurance what it can and cannot do. Any attempt to set “limits” to science—any advance specification of what science can and cannot do by way of handling problems and solving questions—is destined to come to grief.
The Limits of Science (1984), 102-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Advance (299)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Conception (160)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Destined (42)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (442)  |  Different (596)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discerning (16)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Future (467)  |  Grief (20)  |  Handling (7)  |  Implication (25)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inference (45)  |  Inherent (44)  |  Issue (46)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Never (1089)  |  Outside (142)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (90)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (532)  |  Problem (735)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Question (652)  |  Range (104)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Say (991)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Set (400)  |  Shape (77)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Specification (7)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unpredictability (7)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

The interior parts of the earth and its internal depths are a region totally impervious to the eye of mortal man, and can least of all be approached by those ordinary paths of hypothesis adopted by naturalists and geologists. The region designed for the existence of man, and of every other creature endowed with organic life, as well as the sphere opened to the perception of man's senses, is confined to a limited space between the upper and lower parts of the earth, exceedingly small in proportion to the diameter, or even semi-diameter of the earth, and forming only the exterior surface, or outer skin, of the great body of the earth.
In Friedrich von Schlegel and James Burton Robertson (trans.), The Philosophy of History (1835), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Body (557)  |  Creature (244)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (205)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Existence (484)  |  Exterior (7)  |  Eye (441)  |  Forming (42)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Impervious (5)  |  Interior (35)  |  Internal (69)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Open (277)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (160)  |  Perception (97)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Sense (786)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (525)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Surface (223)

The interpretations of science do not give us this intimate sense of objects as the interpretations of poetry give it; they appeal to a limited faculty, and not to the whole man. It is not Linnaeus or Cavendish or Cuvier who gives us the true sense of animals, or water, or plants, who seizes their secret for us, who makes us participate in their life; it is Shakspeare [sic] … Wordsworth … Keats … Chateaubriand … Senancour.
'Maurice de Guerin' Essays in Criticism (1865), in R.H. Super (ed.) The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: Lectures and Essays in Criticism (1962), Vol. 3, 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Do (1905)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Object (442)  |  Plant (320)  |  Poetry (151)  |  Secret (217)  |  Sense (786)  |  Water (505)  |  Whole (756)

The manner of Demoivre’s death has a certain interest for psychologists. Shortly before it, he declared that it was necessary for him to sleep some ten minutes or a quarter of an hour longer each day than the preceding one: the day after he had thus reached a total of something over twenty-three hours he slept up to the limit of twenty-four hours, and then died in his sleep.
In History of Mathematics (3rd Ed., 1901), 394.
Science quotes on:  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Certain (557)  |  Day (43)  |  Death (407)  |  Declare (48)  |  Declared (24)  |  Hour (192)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Minute (129)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Reach (287)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Something (718)  |  Total (95)

The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God. If he can find, in experience, sets of entities which obey the same logical scheme as his mathematical entities, then he has applied his mathematics to the external world; he has created a branch of science.
Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Applied (176)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Branch (155)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (116)  |  Creation (350)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Entity (37)  |  Experience (494)  |  External (62)  |  Find (1014)  |  Free (240)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  God (776)  |  Idea (882)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Matter (821)  |  Obey (46)  |  Please (68)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Principle (532)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Set (400)  |  Universe (901)  |  World (1854)

The meaning of human life and the destiny of man cannot be separable from the meaning and destiny of life in general. 'What is man?' is a special case of 'What is life?' Probably the human species is not intelligent enough to answer either question fully, but even such glimmerings as are within our powers must be precious to us. The extent to which we can hope to understand ourselves and to plan our future depends in some measure on our ability to read the riddles of the past. The present, for all its awesome importance to us who chance to dwell in it, is only a random point in the long flow of time. Terrestrial life is one and continuous in space and time. Any true comprehension of it requires the attempt to view it whole and not in the artificial limits of any one place or epoch. The processes of life can be adequately displayed only in the course of life throughout the long ages of its existence.
The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Age (509)  |  Answer (389)  |  Artificiality (2)  |  Attempt (269)  |  Awesome (15)  |  Chance (245)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (415)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependence (47)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Display (59)  |  Enough (341)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Existence (484)  |  Extent (142)  |  Flow (90)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Glimmering (2)  |  Hope (322)  |  Human (1517)  |  Importance (299)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (109)  |  Life (1873)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Measure (242)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Past (355)  |  Place (194)  |  Plan (123)  |  Point (585)  |  Power (773)  |  Precious (43)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (441)  |  Question (652)  |  Random (42)  |  Read (309)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Separation (60)  |  Space (525)  |  Space And Time (39)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Species (435)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1913)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (498)  |  Whole (756)

The methods of science aren’t foolproof, but they are indefinitely perfectible. Just as important: there is a tradition of criticism that enforces improvement whenever and wherever flaws are discovered. The methods of science, like everything else under the sun, are themselves objects of scientific scrutiny, as method becomes methodology, the analysis of methods. Methodology in turn falls under the gaze of epistemology, the investigation of investigation itself—nothing is off limits to scientific questioning. The irony is that these fruits of scientific reflection, showing us the ineliminable smudges of imperfection, are sometimes used by those who are suspicious of science as their grounds for denying it a privileged status in the truth-seeking department—as if the institutions and practices they see competing with it were no worse off in these regards. But where are the examples of religious orthodoxy being simply abandoned in the face of irresistible evidence? Again and again in science, yesterday’s heresies have become today’s new orthodoxies. No religion exhibits that pattern in its history.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Analysis (245)  |  Arent (6)  |  Badly (32)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Compete (6)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Deny (71)  |  Department (93)  |  Discover (572)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Everything (490)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Example (100)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foolproof (5)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Ground (222)  |  Heresy (9)  |  History (719)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Important (231)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Institution (73)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Irony (9)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Method (532)  |  Methodology (14)  |  New (1276)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Object (442)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  Pattern (117)  |  Practice (212)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Question (652)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1095)  |  Show (354)  |  Simply (53)  |  Smudge (2)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Status (35)  |  Sun (408)  |  Suspicious (3)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (321)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Turn (454)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Yesterday (37)

The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote. Nevertheless, it has been found that there are apparent exceptions to most of these laws, and this is particularly true when the observations are pushed to a limit, i.e., whenever the circumstances of experiment are such that extreme cases can be examined. Such examination almost surely leads, not to the overthrow of the law, but to the discovery of other facts and laws whose action produces the apparent exceptions. As instances of such discoveries, which are in most cases due to the increasing order of accuracy made possible by improvements in measuring instruments, may be mentioned: first, the departure of actual gases from the simple laws of the so-called perfect gas, one of the practical results being the liquefaction of air and all known gases; second, the discovery of the velocity of light by astronomical means, depending on the accuracy of telescopes and of astronomical clocks; third, the determination of distances of stars and the orbits of double stars, which depend on measurements of the order of accuracy of one-tenth of a second-an angle which may be represented as that which a pin's head subtends at a distance of a mile. But perhaps the most striking of such instances are the discovery of a new planet or observations of the small irregularities noticed by Leverrier in the motions of the planet Uranus, and the more recent brilliant discovery by Lord Rayleigh of a new element in the atmosphere through the minute but unexplained anomalies found in weighing a given volume of nitrogen. Many other instances might be cited, but these will suffice to justify the statement that “our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.”
In Light Waves and Their Uses (1903), 23-4. Michelson had some years earlier referenced “an eminent physicist” that he did not name who had “remarked that the future truths of physical science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals,” near the end of his Convocation Address at the Dedication of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, 'Some of the Objects and Methods of Physical Science' (4 Jul 1894), published in University of Chicago Quarterly Calendar (Aug 1894), 3, No.2, 15. Also
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Action (343)  |  Actual (145)  |  Air (367)  |  Angle (25)  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Call (782)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Clock (51)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Depend (238)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discover (572)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distance (171)  |  Due (143)  |  Element (324)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Exception (74)  |  Experiment (737)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1303)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Future (467)  |  Gas (89)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Instrument (159)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (914)  |  Lead (391)  |  LeVerrier_Urbain (3)  |  Light (636)  |  Liquefaction (2)  |  Look (584)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mention (84)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  New (1276)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Observation (595)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrow (5)  |  Perfect (224)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Pin (20)  |  Planet (406)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Push (66)  |  Sir John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (9)  |  Recent (79)  |  Remote (86)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (430)  |  Small (489)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Statement (148)  |  Striking (48)  |  Surely (101)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexplained (8)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier (4)  |  Volume (25)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)

The mortal enemies of man are not his fellows of another continent or race; they are the aspects of the physical world which limit or challenge his control, the disease germs that attack him and his domesticated plants and animals, and the insects that carry many of these germs as well as working notable direct injury. This is not even the age of man, however great his superiority in size and intelligence; it is literally the age of insects.
In Chap. 7, 'Some Human Implications', The Social Life of Animals (1938), 240-241. [Books that cite a source of The Social Life of Insects are incorrect. There is no such title in the Library of Congress catalog. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attack (86)  |  Carry (130)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Continent (79)  |  Control (185)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disease (343)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Germ (54)  |  Great (1610)  |  Injury (36)  |  Insect (89)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Literally (30)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Physical (520)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Plant (320)  |  Race (279)  |  Superiority (19)  |  World (1854)

The new painters do not propose, any more than did their predecessors, to be geometers. But it may be said that geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the writer. Today, scholars no longer limit themselves to the three dimensions of Euclid. The painters have been lead quite naturally, one might say by intuition, to preoccupy themselves with the new possibilities of spatial measurement which, in the language of the modern studios, are designated by the term fourth dimension.
The Cubist Painters: Aesthetic Meditations (1913) translated by Lionel Abel (1970), 13. Quoted in Michele Emmer, The Visual Mind II (2005), 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Artist (97)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Fourth Dimension (3)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Language (310)  |  Lead (391)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Modern (405)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1276)  |  Painter (30)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Preoccupy (4)  |  Say (991)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (321)  |  Writer (90)

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Doubt (314)  |  Realization (44)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Will (2350)

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
In The Lost Worlds of 2001 (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Possible (560)  |  Way (1214)

The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.
Science quotes on:  |  Imagination (349)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Thousand (340)

The origin of a science is usually to be sought for not in any systematic treatise, but in the investigation and solution of some particular problem. This is especially the case in the ordinary history of the great improvements in any department of mathematical science. Some problem, mathematical or physical, is proposed, which is found to be insoluble by known methods. This condition of insolubility may arise from one of two causes: Either there exists no machinery powerful enough to effect the required reduction, or the workmen are not sufficiently expert to employ their tools in the performance of an entirely new piece of work. The problem proposed is, however, finally solved, and in its solution some new principle, or new application of old principles, is necessarily introduced. If a principle is brought to light it is soon found that in its application it is not necessarily limited to the particular question which occasioned its discovery, and it is then stated in an abstract form and applied to problems of gradually increasing generality.
Other principles, similar in their nature, are added, and the original principle itself receives such modifications and extensions as are from time to time deemed necessary. The same is true of new applications of old principles; the application is first thought to be merely confined to a particular problem, but it is soon recognized that this problem is but one, and generally a very simple one, out of a large class, to which the same process of investigation and solution are applicable. The result in both of these cases is the same. A time comes when these several problems, solutions, and principles are grouped together and found to produce an entirely new and consistent method; a nomenclature and uniform system of notation is adopted, and the principles of the new method become entitled to rank as a distinct science.
In A Treatise on Projections (1880), Introduction, xi. Published as United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Treasury Department Document, No. 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Add (42)  |  Adopt (22)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arise (162)  |  Become (822)  |  Both (496)  |  Bring (96)  |  Case (102)  |  Cause (564)  |  Class (168)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deem (7)  |  Department (93)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Distinct (99)  |  Effect (414)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enough (341)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entitle (3)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exist (460)  |  Expert (68)  |  Extension (60)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generally (15)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (84)  |  History (719)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increase (226)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1539)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (399)  |  Light (636)  |  Limited (103)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (532)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1276)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notation (28)  |  Occasion (88)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (251)  |  Original (62)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physical (520)  |  Piece (39)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principle (532)  |  Problem (735)  |  Process (441)  |  Produce (117)  |  Propose (24)  |  Question (652)  |  Rank (69)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognize (137)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (168)  |  Seek (219)  |  Several (33)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simple (430)  |  Solution (286)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (146)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Together (392)  |  Tool (131)  |  Treatise (46)  |  True (240)  |  Two (936)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1403)  |  Workman (13)

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 (374)  |  Kind (565)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (442)  |  Pacific Ocean (5)  |  Producer (4)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Realm (88)  |  Recycling (5)  |  Society (353)  |  Stand (284)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1854)

The present rate of progress [in X-ray crystallography] is determined, not so much by the lack of problems to investigate or the limited power of X-ray analysis, as by the restricted number of investigators who have had a training in the technique of the new science, and by the time it naturally takes for its scientific and technical importance to become widely appreciated.
Concluding remark in Lecture (1936) on 'Forty Years of Crystal Physics', collected in Needham and Pagel (eds.) in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge Arranged by the History of Science Committee, (1938), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Become (822)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Determine (152)  |  Importance (299)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lack (127)  |  Limited (103)  |  Naturally (11)  |  New (1276)  |  Number (712)  |  Power (773)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Progress (493)  |  Rate (31)  |  Ray (115)  |  Restricted (2)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Take (10)  |  Technical (53)  |  Technique (84)  |  Time (1913)  |  Training (92)  |  Widely (9)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

The Principle of Uncertainty is a bad name. In science or outside of it we are not uncertain; our knowledge is merely confined, within a certain tolerance. We should call it the Principle of Tolerance. And I propose that name in two senses: First, in the engineering sense, science has progressed, step by step, the most successful enterprise in the ascent of man, because it has understood that the exchange of information between man and nature, and man and man, can only take place with a certain tolerance. But second, I also use the word, passionately, about the real world. All knowledge, all information between human beings, can only be exchanged within a play of tolerance. And that is true whether the exchange is in science, or in literature, or in religion, or in politics, or in any form of thought that aspires to dogma. It’s a major tragedy of my lifetime and yours that scientists were refining, to the most exquisite precision, the Principle of Tolerance, and turning their backs on the fact that all around them, tolerance was crashing to the ground beyond repair. The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930s it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it, the ascent of man, against the throwback to the despots’ belief that they have absolute certainty. It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false: tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods. Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken.” We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people. [Referring to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.]
'Knowledge or Certainty,' episode 11, The Ascent of Man (1972), BBC TV series.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Act (278)  |  Against (332)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Ascent Of Man (7)  |  Aspire (16)  |  Auschwitz (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (616)  |  Beseech (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Call (782)  |  Camp (12)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Christ (17)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Conception (160)  |  Confrontation (7)  |  Culture (157)  |  Cure (124)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Edge (51)  |  End (603)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Error (339)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Fallible (6)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1303)  |  Form (978)  |  Forward (104)  |  Future (467)  |  Gas (89)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Information (173)  |  Itch (11)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Known (453)  |  Limited (103)  |  Literature (117)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (360)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Number (712)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Outside (142)  |  People (1034)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Politics (123)  |  Pond (17)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (773)  |  Precision (73)  |  Principle (532)  |  Progress (493)  |  Push (66)  |  Reality (275)  |  Realization (44)  |  Refining (4)  |  Religion (370)  |  Rise (170)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (786)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (235)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (222)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Tolerance (12)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tribute (10)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Uncertainty Principle (9)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1403)  |  World (1854)

The problem of experiences is not limited to the interpretation of sense-impressions.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Experience (494)  |  Impression (118)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Limited (103)  |  Problem (735)  |  Sense (786)

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.
From Address (Jun 1963) to the Irish Parliament, Dublin, as collected in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy (1964), 537.
Science quotes on:  |  Cynic (7)  |  Dream (223)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Limited (103)  |  Need (323)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Problem (735)  |  Reality (275)  |  Skeptic (8)  |  Solve (146)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1854)

The professor may choose familiar topics as a starting point. The students collect material, work problems, observe regularities, frame hypotheses, discover and prove theorems for themselves. … the student knows what he is doing and where he is going; he is secure in his mastery of the subject, strengthened in confidence of himself. He has had the experience of discovering mathematics. He no longer thinks of mathematics as static dogma learned by rote. He sees mathematics as something growing and developing, mathematical concepts as something continually revised and enriched in the light of new knowledge. The course may have covered a very limited region, but it should leave the student ready to explore further on his own.
In A Concrete Approach to Abstract Algebra (1959), 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Choose (116)  |  Collect (19)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Course (415)  |  Develop (279)  |  Discover (572)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Frame (27)  |  Growing (99)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (636)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  New (1276)  |  Observe (181)  |  Point (585)  |  Problem (735)  |  Professor (133)  |  Prove (263)  |  Ready (43)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Revise (6)  |  Rote (5)  |  Secure (23)  |  See (1095)  |  Something (718)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Static (9)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (544)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Think (1124)  |  Topic (23)  |  Work (1403)

The regularity with which we conclude that further advances in a particular field are impossible seems equaled only by the regularity with which events prove that we are of too limited vision. And it always seems to be those who have the fullest opportunity to know who are the most limited in view. What, then, is the trouble? I think that one answer should be: we do not realize sufficiently that the unknown is absolutely infinite, and that new knowledge is always being produced.
Quoted in Guy Suits, 'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Advance (299)  |  Answer (389)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Do (1905)  |  Event (222)  |  Field (378)  |  Further (6)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Limited (103)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1276)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Particular (80)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (263)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Regularity (41)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Think (1124)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unknown (198)  |  View (498)  |  Vision (127)

The result would inevitably be a state of universal rest and death, if the universe were finite and left to obey existing laws. But it is impossible to conceive a limit to the extent of matter in the universe; and therefore science points rather to an endless progress, through an endless space, of action involving the transformation of potential energy into palpable motion and thence into heat, than to a single finite mechanism, running down like a clock, and stopping for ever.
In 'On the Age of the Sun's Heat' (1862), Popular Lectures and Addresses (1891), Vol. 1, 349-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (343)  |  Clock (51)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Death (407)  |  Down (455)  |  Endless (61)  |  Energy (374)  |  Extent (142)  |  Finite (60)  |  Heat (181)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Law (914)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Motion (320)  |  Obey (46)  |  Palpable (8)  |  Point (585)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Progress (493)  |  Rest (289)  |  Result (700)  |  Running (61)  |  Single (366)  |  Space (525)  |  State (505)  |  Through (846)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universe (901)

The sky is no longer the limit.
From Medal of Freedom presentation speech given to the three astronauts of the first manned moon landing mission. In Leon Wagener, One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey (2004), 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Sky (174)

The solution of fallacies, which give rise to absurdities, should be to him who is not a first beginner in mathematics an excellent means of testing for a proper intelligible insight into mathematical truth, of sharpening the wit, and of confining the judgment and reason within strictly orderly limits
In 'Vorwort', Mathematische Sophismen (1864), 3. As translated and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath's Quotation-Book (1914), 89. From the original German, “Das Aufsuchen der Trugschlüsse, durch welche Ungereimtheiten entstellen, dürfte nun für den nicht ganz ersten Anfänger in der Mathematik ein vorzügliches Mittel sein, eine richtige begriffliche Einsicht in die mathematischen Wahrheiten zu erproben, den Verstand zu schärfen und das Urtheilen und Schliessen in streng geregelte Grenzen zu dämmen.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Beginner (11)  |  Confine (26)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  First (1303)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reason (767)  |  Rise (170)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Solution (286)  |  Strict (20)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Test (222)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Wit (61)

The study of letters is the study of the operation of human force, of human freedom and activity; the study of nature is the study of the operation of non-human forces, of human limitation and passivity. The contemplation of human force and activity tends naturally to heighten our own force and activity; the contemplation of human limits and passivity tends rather to check it. Therefore the men who have had the humanistic training have played, and yet play, so prominent a part in human affairs, in spite of their prodigious ignorance of the universe.
Schools and Universities on the Continent (1868), in R. H. Super (ed.) The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: Schools and Universities on the Continent (1964), Vol. 4, 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Contemplation (76)  |  Education (423)  |  Force (497)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Human (1517)  |  Ignorance (256)  |  Letter (117)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Operation (221)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Spite (55)  |  Study (703)  |  Tend (124)  |  Training (92)  |  Universe (901)

The task of science is to stake out the limits of the knowable, and to center consciousness within them.
As found in Bernard E. Farber, A Teacher’s Treasury of Quotations (1985), 264. This is probably a loose translation of the original German: “Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaftquote”..., See the more literal translation on this page, also beginning “The task of science…,” for full citation. Webmaster has not yet found a primary source for the shorter translation in these words—can you help?
Science quotes on:  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Task (153)

The task of science, therefore, is not to attack the objects of faith, but to establish the limits beyond which knowledge cannot go and found a unified self-consciousness within these limits.
Translation of the original German: Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaft ist es daher nicht, die Gegenstände des Glaubens anzugreifen, sondern nur die Grenzen zu stecken, welche die Erkenntniss erreichen kann, und innerhalb derselben das einheitliche Selbstbewusstsein zu begründen., from 'Der Mensch' (1849), collected in Gesammelte abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen medicin (1856), 6. As translated in Lelland J. Rather (ed., trans.), 'On Man', Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays (1958), 83-84.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Faith (210)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Object (442)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Self (268)  |  Task (153)

The thesis which I venture to sustain, within limits, is simply this, that the savage state in some measure represents an early condition of mankind, out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed or evolved, by processes still in regular operation as of old, the result showing that, on the whole, progress has far prevailed over relapse.
In Primitive Culture (1871), Vol. 1, 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Condition (362)  |  Culture (157)  |  Develop (279)  |  Development (442)  |  Early (196)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Mankind (357)  |  Measure (242)  |  Old (499)  |  Operation (221)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Process (441)  |  Progress (493)  |  Regular (48)  |  Relapse (5)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Savage (33)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Venture (19)  |  Whole (756)

The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions—we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down.
Max Born
Atomic Physics (1957), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Apply (170)  |  Break (110)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Physics (6)  |  Common (447)  |  Concept (242)  |  Describe (133)  |  Develop (279)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Down (455)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kind (565)  |  Language (310)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Motion (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (251)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Picture (148)  |  Principle (532)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Use (771)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (217)  |  Word (650)

The 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 (269)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (234)  |  Burden (31)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cost (94)  |  Development (442)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Domination (12)  |  Drain (12)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elimination (26)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1303)  |  Force (497)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Immunity (8)  |  Incident (4)  |  Kind (565)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Negative (66)  |  Order (639)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathology (20)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (520)  |  Policy (27)  |  Possession (68)  |  Predator (6)  |  Price (57)  |  Problem (735)  |  Process (441)  |  Protect (65)  |  Protection (41)  |  Realm (88)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Regard (312)  |  Resource (75)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Subject (544)  |  Succeed (115)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Understand (650)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universality (22)  |  Victory (40)  |  View (498)

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 (252)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electric Field (3)  |  Everything (490)  |  Extreme (79)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Field (378)  |  Free (240)  |  Game (104)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happy (108)  |  Idea (882)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Kind (565)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Physics (5)  |  Limited (103)  |  Misunderstand (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1276)  |  Next (238)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Overlook (33)  |  People (1034)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Picture (148)  |  Problem (735)  |  Question (652)  |  Say (991)  |  Situation (117)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Test (222)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1124)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Try (296)  |  Wave (112)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (217)

The wintry clouds drop spangles on the mountains. If the thing occurred once in a century historians would chronicle and poets would sing of the event; but Nature, prodigal of beauty, rains down her hexagonal ice-stars year by year, forming layers yards in thickness. The summer sun thaws and partially consolidates the mass. Each winter's fall is covered by that of the ensuing one, and thus the snow layer of each year has to sustain an annually augmented weight. It is more and more compacted by the pressure, and ends by being converted into the ice of a true glacier, which stretches its frozen tongue far down beyond the limits of perpetual snow. The glaciers move, and through valleys they move like rivers.
The Glaciers of the Alps & Mountaineering in 1861 (1911), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Annual (5)  |  Augment (12)  |  Augmentation (4)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Century (319)  |  Chronicle (6)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Compact (13)  |  Consolidation (4)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Cover (40)  |  Down (455)  |  Drop (77)  |  End (603)  |  Ensuing (3)  |  Event (222)  |  Fall (243)  |  Forming (42)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Hexagon (4)  |  Historian (59)  |  Ice (59)  |  Layer (41)  |  Mass (161)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Move (225)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Partially (8)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetuity (9)  |  Poet (97)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Prodigal (2)  |  Rain (70)  |  River (141)  |  Snow (39)  |  Song (41)  |  Spangle (2)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Summer (56)  |  Sun (408)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thaw (2)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Truth (1111)  |  Valley (37)  |  Weight (140)  |  Winter (46)  |  Yard (10)  |  Year (965)

The wise man looks into space and does not regard the small as too little, nor the great as too much, for he knows that there is no limit to dimension.
As translated from the Chinese original by Herbert A. Giles in Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (1889), 202-203.
Science quotes on:  |  Dimension (64)  |  Great (1610)  |  Little (718)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (525)  |  Wise (145)

The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.
In Life, Letters, and Journals (1896).
Science quotes on:  |  Hide (70)  |  Human (1517)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Learning (291)  |  Limited (103)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Power (773)  |  Reach (287)  |  Soul (237)  |  World (1854)

The world of mathematics and theoretical physics is hierarchical. That was my first exposure to it. There's a limit beyond which one cannot progress. The differences between the limiting abilities of those on successively higher steps of the pyramid are enormous. I have not seen described anywhere the shock a talented man experiences when he finds, late in his academic life, that there are others enormously more talented than he. I have personally seen more tears shed by grown men and women over this discovery than I would have believed possible. Most of those men and women shift to fields where they can compete on more equal terms
Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist (1987), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Experience (494)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1303)  |  Late (119)  |  Life (1873)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (568)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (493)  |  Shift (45)  |  Shock (38)  |  Step (235)  |  Talent (100)  |  Tear (48)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  World (1854)

There cannot always be fresh fields of conquest by the knife; there must be portions of the human frame that will ever remain sacred from its intrusions, at least in the surgeon's hands. That we have already, if not quite, reached these final limits, there can be little question. The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will be forever shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.
Quoted in C. Cerf and V. Navasky (eds.), I Wish I hadn't Said That: The Experts Speak and Get it Wrong! (2000), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Abdomen (6)  |  Already (226)  |  Brain (282)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Field (378)  |  Final (121)  |  Forever (112)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Human (1517)  |  Humane (19)  |  Knife (24)  |  Little (718)  |  Must (1525)  |  Portion (86)  |  Question (652)  |  Reach (287)  |  Remain (357)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Shut (41)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (145)

There could not be a language more universal and more simple, more exempt from errors and obscurities, that is to say, more worthy of expressing the invariable relations of natural objects. Considered from this point of view, it is coextensive with nature itself; it defines all the sensible relations, measures the times, the spaces, the forces, the temperatures; this difficult science is formed slowly, but it retains all the principles it has once acquired. It grows and becomes more certain without limit in the midst of so many errors of the human mind.
From Théorie Analytique de la Chaleur, Discours Préliminaire (Theory of Heat, Introduction), quoted as translated in F.R. Moulton, 'The Influence of Astronomy on Mathematics', Science (10 Mar 1911), N.S. Vol. 33, No. 845, 359.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Become (822)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consider (430)  |  Considered (12)  |  Definition (239)  |  Difficult (264)  |  Error (339)  |  Exempt (3)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (978)  |  Grow (247)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Invariable (6)  |  Language (310)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mind (1380)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Object (442)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Point (585)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Principle (532)  |  Relation (166)  |  Retain (57)  |  Say (991)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Simple (430)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Space (525)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Time (1913)  |  Universal (198)  |  View (498)

There is a single general space, a single vast immensity which we may freely call void: in it are unnumerable globes like this on which we live and grow, this space we declare to be infinite, since neither reason, convenience, sense-perception nor nature assign to it a limit.
Quoted in Joseph Silk, The Big Bang (1997), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Declare (48)  |  Earth (1076)  |  General (521)  |  Grow (247)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Live (651)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Perception (97)  |  Reason (767)  |  Sense (786)  |  Single (366)  |  Space (525)  |  Star (462)  |  Universe (901)  |  Vast (188)  |  Void (32)

There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought. Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought. In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends. To keep to the social level, our political universe is peopled exclusively by myths and monsters; all it contains is absolutes and abstract entities. This is illustrated by all the words of our political and social vocabulary: nation, security, capitalism, communism, fascism, order, authority, property, democracy. We never use them in phrases such as: There is democracy to the extent that… or: There is capitalism in so far as… The use of expressions like “to the extent that” is beyond our intellectual capacity. Each of these words seems to represent for us an absolute reality, unaffected by conditions, or an absolute objective, independent of methods of action, or an absolute evil; and at the same time we make all these words mean, successively or simultaneously, anything whatsoever. Our lives are lived, in actual fact, among changing, varying realities, subject to the casual play of external necessities, and modifying themselves according to specific conditions within specific limits; and yet we act and strive and sacrifice ourselves and others by reference to fixed and isolated abstractions which cannot possibly be related either to one another or to any concrete facts. In this so-called age of technicians, the only battles we know how to fight are battles against windmills.
From 'The Power of Words', collected in Siân Miles (ed.), Simone Weil: An Anthology (2000), 222-223.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (154)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (343)  |  Actual (145)  |  Against (332)  |  Age (509)  |  Apply (170)  |  Area (33)  |  Authority (100)  |  Battle (36)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Call (782)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Capitalism (12)  |  Casual (9)  |  Change (640)  |  Communism (11)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Complex (203)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contingency (11)  |  Cover (40)  |  Degree (278)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Device (71)  |  Element (324)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Entire (50)  |  Entity (37)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Expression (182)  |  Extent (142)  |  External (62)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Far (158)  |  Fascism (4)  |  Fight (49)  |  Fill (67)  |  Fix (34)  |  Greek (109)  |  Idea (882)  |  Illustrate (14)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Independent (75)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interrelation (8)  |  Invade (5)  |  Isolate (25)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1539)  |  Level (69)  |  Live (651)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Measure (242)  |  Method (532)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modify (15)  |  Monster (34)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myth (58)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nation (208)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  Order (639)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  P (2)  |  People (1034)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Play (117)  |  Political (126)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Principle (532)  |  Problem (735)  |  Property (177)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Rational (97)  |  Reality (275)  |  Realm (88)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relate (26)  |  Relation (166)  |  Represent (157)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Same (168)  |  Security (51)  |  Seem (150)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (262)  |  Solve (146)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Store (49)  |  Strive (53)  |  Subject (544)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Technician (9)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (996)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  Universe (901)  |  Use (771)  |  Vary (27)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Windmill (4)  |  Word (650)

There is only one nature—the division into science and engineering is a human imposition, not a natural one. Indeed, the division is a human failure; it reflects our limited capacity to comprehend the whole.
from Recent Development of Physical Science (p. 10)
Science quotes on:  |  Capacity (105)  |  Division (67)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Failure (176)  |  Human (1517)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Limited (103)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Science And Engineering (16)  |  Whole (756)

There is, I conceive, no contradiction in believing that mind is at once the cause of matter and of the development of individualised human minds through the agency of matter. And when, further on, [Mr Frederick F. Cook] asks, ‘Does mortality give consciousness to spirit, or does spirit give consciousness for a limited period to mortality?’ I would reply, ‘Neither the one nor the other; but, mortality is the means by which a permanent individuality is given to spirit.’
In 'Harmony of Spiritualism and Science', Light (1885), 5, 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (423)  |  Belief (616)  |  Cause (564)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Development (442)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Limited (103)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Reply (58)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Through (846)

There seems no limit to research, for as been truly said, the more the sphere of knowledge grows, the larger becomes the surface of contact with the unknown.
from A History of Science and Its Relations with Philosophy and Religion (1929, 4th Ed., 1948), 500.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (822)  |  Contact (66)  |  Grow (247)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  More (2558)  |  Research (753)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Surface (223)  |  Truly (119)  |  Unknown (198)

Think of the image of the world in a convex mirror. ... A well-made convex mirror of moderate aperture represents the objects in front of it as apparently solid and in fixed positions behind its surface. But the images of the distant horizon and of the sun in the sky lie behind the mirror at a limited distance, equal to its focal length. Between these and the surface of the mirror are found the images of all the other objects before it, but the images are diminished and flattened in proportion to the distance of their objects from the mirror. ... Yet every straight line or plane in the outer world is represented by a straight line or plane in the image. The image of a man measuring with a rule a straight line from the mirror, would contract more and more the farther he went, but with his shrunken rule the man in the image would count out exactly the same results as in the outer world, all lines of sight in the mirror would be represented by straight lines of sight in the mirror. In short, I do not see how men in the mirror are to discover that their bodies are not rigid solids and their experiences good examples of the correctness of Euclidean axioms. But if they could look out upon our world as we look into theirs without overstepping the boundary, they must declare it to be a picture in a spherical mirror, and would speak of us just as we speak of them; and if two inhabitants of the different worlds could communicate with one another, neither, as far as I can see, would be able to convince the other that he had the true, the other the distorted, relation. Indeed I cannot see that such a question would have any meaning at all, so long as mechanical considerations are not mixed up with it.
In 'On the Origin and Significance of Geometrical Axioms,' Popular Scientific Lectures< Second Series (1881), 57-59. In Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 357-358.
Science quotes on:  |  Aperture (5)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Behind (139)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convex (6)  |  Convince (43)  |  Count (107)  |  Declare (48)  |  Different (596)  |  Discover (572)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distort (22)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Experience (494)  |  Farther (51)  |  Focal Length (2)  |  Good (907)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limited (103)  |  Line (101)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mirror (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proportion (141)  |  Question (652)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rule (308)  |  See (1095)  |  Short (200)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (35)  |  Sun (408)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1124)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1854)

This upper limit, of earth at our feet is visible and touches the air, but below it reaches to infinity
Quoted in Arthur Fairbanks (ed. And trans.), The First Philosophers of Greece (1898), 69, fragment 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (367)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Visible (87)

Time, inexhaustible and ever accumulating his efficacy, can undoubtedly do much for the theorist in geology; but Force, whose limits we cannot measure, and whose nature we cannot fathom, is also a power never to be slighted: and to call in the one to protect us from the other, is equally presumptuous, to whichever of the two our superstition leans. To invoke Time, with ten thousand earthquakes, to overturn and set on edge a mountain-chain, should the phenomena indicate the change to have been sudden and not successive, would be ill excused by pleading the obligation of first appealing to known causes.
In History of the Inductive Sciences (1857), Vol. 3, 513-514.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (782)  |  Cause (564)  |  Chain (52)  |  Change (640)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Edge (51)  |  Equally (129)  |  Fathom (15)  |  First (1303)  |  Force (497)  |  Geology (240)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inexhaustible (27)  |  Known (453)  |  Measure (242)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Power (773)  |  Protect (65)  |  Set (400)  |  Slighted (3)  |  Successive (73)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Superstition (72)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1913)  |  Two (936)

Time, which measures everything in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes, is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone it had existence; and as the natural course of time, which to us seems infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end, the progress of things upon this globe, that is, the course of nature, cannot be limited by time, which must proceed in a continual succession.
'Theory of the Earth', Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1788), 1, 215.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (325)  |  Bound (120)  |  Continual (44)  |  Course (415)  |  End (603)  |  Endless (61)  |  Everything (490)  |  Existence (484)  |  Idea (882)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Limited (103)  |  Measure (242)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (811)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Operation (221)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progress (493)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Succession (80)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1913)

To a body of infinite size there can be ascribed neither center nor boundary ... Just as we regard ourselves as at the center of that universally equidistant circle, which is the great horizon and the limit of our own encircling ethereal region, so doubtless the inhabitants of the moon believe themselves to be at the center (of a great horizon) that embraces this earth, the sun, and the stars, and is the boundary of the radii of their own horizon. Thus the earth no more than any other world is at the center; moreover no points constitute determined celestial poles for our earth, just as she herself is not a definite and determined pole to any other point of the ether, or of the world-space; and the same is true for all other bodies. From various points of view these may all be regarded either as centers, or as points on the circumference, as poles, or zeniths and so forth. Thus the earth is not in the center of the universe; it is central only to our own surrounding space.
Irving Louis Horowitz, The Renaissance Philosophy of Giordano Bruno (1952), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Boundary (56)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Central (81)  |  Circle (118)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Definite (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Ether (37)  |  Ethereal (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (248)  |  Point (585)  |  Pole (49)  |  Regard (312)  |  Space (525)  |  Star (462)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (408)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Universe (901)  |  Various (206)  |  View (498)  |  World (1854)

To be anthropocentric is to remain unaware of the limits of human nature, the significance of biological processes underlying human behavior, and the deeper meaning of long-term genetic evolution.
Tanner Lecture on Human Values, University of Michigan, 'Comparative Social Theory' (30 Mar 1979).
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropocentric (2)  |  Behavior (132)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (234)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Behavior (10)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Long (778)  |  Meaning (246)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Process (441)  |  Remain (357)  |  Significance (115)  |  Term (357)  |  Unaware (6)  |  Underlying (33)

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (198)  |  Confine (26)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Matter (821)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Terrestrial (62)

To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain.
From the original French, “Les semences des découvertes présentées à tous par le hazard, sont stériles, si l’attention ne les séconde,” in 'Notes', De l'Homme, de ses Facultés Intellectuelles, et de son Éducation (1773), Tome 1, 383. English version from Claude Adrien Helvétius and W. Hooper (trans.), 'Notes', A Treatise on Man, His Intellectual Faculties and His Education: A Posthumous Work of M. Helvetius (1777), Note 53, 375.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (414)  |  Censorship (3)  |  Certain (557)  |  Declare (48)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Fool (121)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Insult (16)  |  Nation (208)  |  Press (21)  |  Prohibit (3)  |  Reading (136)  |  Slave (41)

To make still bigger telescopes will be useless, for the light absorption and temperature variations of the earth’s atmosphere are what now limits the ability to see fine detail. If bigger telescopes are to be built, it will have to be for use in an airless observatory, perhaps an observatory on the moon.
(1965). In Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 284.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Absorption (13)  |  Airless (3)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Big (56)  |  Build (212)  |  Detail (150)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fine (37)  |  Light (636)  |  Moon (252)  |  Observatory (18)  |  See (1095)  |  Still (614)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Use (771)  |  Useless (38)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)

To produce any given motion, to spin a certain weight of cotton, or weave any quantity of linen, there is required steam; to produce the steam, fuel; and thus the price of fuel regulates effectively the cost of mechanical power. Abundance and cheapness of fuel are hence main ingredients in industrial success. It is for this reason that in England the active manufacturing districts mark, almost with geological accuracy, the limits of the coal fields.
In The Industrial Resources of Ireland (1844), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Active (80)  |  Certain (557)  |  Coal (65)  |  Cost (94)  |  Cotton (8)  |  District (11)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  England (43)  |  Field (378)  |  Fuel (40)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geology (240)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Linen (8)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanical Power (2)  |  Motion (320)  |  Power (773)  |  Price (57)  |  Production (190)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reason (767)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Required (108)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Spin (26)  |  Spinning (18)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Power (10)  |  Success (327)  |  Weave (21)  |  Weight (140)

Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Comprehend (45)  |  Discernible (9)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Inexplicable (8)  |  Intangible (6)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (588)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Point (585)  |  Religion (370)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (357)  |  Secret (217)  |  Something (718)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Try (296)  |  Veneration (2)  |  Will (2350)

Water is the most precious, limited natural resource we have in this country… But because water belongs to no one—except the people—special interests, including government polluters, use it as their private sewers.
In Nader’s Foreword to David Zwick, Marcy Benstock and Ralph Nader, Water wasteland: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Water Pollution (1971), xiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Country (269)  |  Government (116)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limited (103)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  People (1034)  |  Person (366)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Precious (43)  |  Private (29)  |  Sewer (5)  |  Special (189)  |  Special Interest (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (505)  |  Water Pollution (17)

We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.
As quoted and cited from Radio Times in Louise Gray, 'David Attenborough - Humans are Plague on Earth', The Telegraph (22 Jan 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Change (640)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Coming (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Food (214)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Home (186)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Next (238)  |  Overpopulation (6)  |  Plague (43)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  Right (473)  |  Roost (3)  |  Space (525)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)  |  Year (965)

We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.
(1888). Widely quoted, though always without a source, for example in Astronautics & Aeronautics? (1981), 30. If you know a primary print source to authenticate this quote, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowledge (1653)

We can see that, the constant in the law of gravitation being fixed, there may be some upper limit to the amount of matter possible; as more and more matter is added in the distant parts, space curves round and ultimately closes; the process of adding more matter must stop, because there is no more space, and we can only return to the region already dealt with. But there seems nothing to prevent a defect of matter, leaving space unclosed. Some mechanism seems to be needed, whereby either gravitation creates matter, or all the matter in the universe conspires to define a law of gravitation.
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Amount (153)  |  Being (1276)  |  Constant (148)  |  Create (252)  |  Curve (49)  |  Defect (31)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Law (914)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1002)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Process (441)  |  Return (133)  |  See (1095)  |  Space (525)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Universe (901)

We come no nearer the infinitude of the creative power of God, if we enclose the space of its revelation within a sphere described with the radius of the Milky Way, than if we were to limit it to a ball an inch in diameter. All that is finite, whatever has limits and a definite relation to unity, is equally far removed from the infinite... Eternity is not sufficient to embrace the manifestations of the Supreme Being, if it is not combined with the infinitude of space.
'Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens' (1755), part 2, ch.7. In W. Hastie (ed. and trans.), Kant's Cosmogony: As in his Essay on the Retardation of the Rotation of the Earth and his Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1900), 139-40.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Being (1276)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creative (144)  |  Definite (114)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Equally (129)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Finite (60)  |  God (776)  |  Infinite (244)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Power (773)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Space (525)  |  Sphere (120)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Supreme Being (8)  |  Unity (81)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)

We have here no esoteric theory of the ultimate nature of concepts, nor a philosophical championing of the primacy of the 'operation'. We have merely a pragmatic matter, namely that we have observed after much experience that if we want to do certain kinds of things with our concepts, our concepts had better be constructed in certain ways. In fact one can see that the situation here is no different from what we always find when we push our analysis to the limit; operations are not ultimately sharp or irreducible any more than any other sort of creature. We always run into a haze eventually, and all our concepts are describable only in spiralling approximation.
In Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Better (495)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concept (242)  |  Construct (129)  |  Creature (244)  |  Different (596)  |  Do (1905)  |  Esoteric (4)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Kind (565)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Observed (149)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (410)  |  Push (66)  |  Run (158)  |  See (1095)  |  Situation (117)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Ultimately (57)  |  Want (505)  |  Way (1214)

We have learned that matter is weird stuff. It is weird enough, so that it does not limit God’s freedom to make it do what he pleases.
From Gifford Lectures (Apr-Nov 1985), 'In Praise of Diversity', given at Aberdeen, Scotland. In Infinite in All Directions (1988), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Enough (341)  |  Freedom (145)  |  God (776)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Matter (821)  |  Please (68)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Stuff (25)  |  Weird (3)

We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.
Speech, NASA Headquarters (14 Jan 2004). In Office of the Federal Register (U.S.) Staff (eds.), Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush (2007), 58-59.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (252)  |  Discover (572)  |  Dream (223)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Generation (256)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innovator (3)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Mars (48)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1276)  |  People (1034)  |  Pioneer (38)  |  Resource (75)  |  Study (703)  |  Test (222)  |  Will (2350)  |  Young (253)

We may therefore say in the future, strictly within the limits of observation, that in certain respects the fossil species of a class traverse in their historical succession metamorphoses similar to those which the embryos undergo in themselves. … The development of a class in the history of the earth offers, in many respects, the greatest analogy with the development of an individual at different periods of his life. The demonstration of this truth is one of the most beautiful results of modern paleontology.
Carl Vogt
From Embryologie des Salmones, collected in L. Agassiz, Poissons d'Eau Douce de l’Europe Centrale (1842), 260. Translated by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “On pourra donc dire à l'avenir, en restant rigoureusement dans les limites de l'observation, qu'à certains égards, les espèces fossiles d'une classe parcourent dans leur succession historique des métamorphoses semblables à celles que subissent les embryons en se développant … Le développement d’une classe dans l’histoire de la terre offre, à divers égards, la plus grande analogie avec le dévelopment d’un individu aux différentes époques de sa vie. La démonstration de cette vérité est un des plus beaux résultat de la paléontologie moderne.”
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Beautiful (273)  |  Certain (557)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Development (442)  |  Different (596)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Fossil (144)  |  Future (467)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (719)  |  History Of The Earth (3)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1873)  |  Metamorphosis (5)  |  Modern (405)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (595)  |  Offer (143)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Period (200)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Species (435)  |  Succession (80)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Truth (1111)

We need to move from the open access regime that results in overfishing in much of the ocean to rights-based fisheries, giving fishermen a vested interest in preventing overfishing and increasing compliance with catch limits.
From The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild (2020).
Science quotes on:  |  Catch (34)  |  Compliance (8)  |  Fisherman (9)  |  Fishery (3)  |  Increase (226)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Regime (3)  |  Result (700)

We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza’s pantheism, but admire even more his contributions to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and the body as one, not two separate things.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admire (19)  |  Arrange (34)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dimly (6)  |  Fascinate (14)  |  First (1303)  |  Force (497)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Law (914)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Modern (405)  |  Modern Thought (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (225)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Obey (46)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  See (1095)  |  Separate (151)  |  Soul (237)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Spinozas (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (996)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (650)  |  Universe (901)

We should admit in theory what is already very largely a case in practice, that the main currency of scientific information is the secondary sources in the forms of abstracts, reports, tables, &c., and that the primary sources are only for detailed reference by very few people. It is possible that the fate of most scientific papers will be not to be read by anyone who uses them, but with luck they will furnish an item, a number, some facts or data to such reports which may, but usually will not, lead to the original paper being consulted. This is very sad but it is the inevitable consequence of the growth of science. The number of papers that can be consulted is absolutely limited, no more time can be spent in looking up papers, by and large, than in the past. As the number of papers increase the chance of any one paper being looked at is correspondingly diminished. This of course is only an average, some papers may be looked at by thousands of people and may become a regular and fixed part of science but most will perish unseen.
'The Supply of Information to the Scientist: Some Problems of the Present Day', The Journal of Documentation, 1957, 13, 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Already (226)  |  Average (89)  |  Become (822)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chance (245)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (415)  |  Data (162)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fact (1259)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fate (76)  |  Form (978)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Growth (200)  |  Increase (226)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Information (173)  |  Large (399)  |  Lead (391)  |  Limited (103)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Luck (44)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (712)  |  Paper (192)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1034)  |  Perish (56)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Primary (82)  |  Publication (102)  |  Read (309)  |  Regular (48)  |  Scientific (957)  |  Spent (85)  |  Table (106)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1913)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

We should have positive expectations of what is in the universe, not fears and dreads. We are made with the realization that we’re not Earthbound, and that our acceptance of the universe offers us room to explore and extend outward. It’s like being in a dark room and imagining all sorts of terrors. But when we turn on the light – technology - suddenly it’s just a room where we can stretch out and explore. If the resources here on Earth are limited, they are not limited in the universe. We are not constrained by the limitations of our planet. As children have to leave the security of family and home life to insure growth into mature adults, so also must humankind leave the security and familiarity of Earth to reach maturity and obtain the highest attainment possible for the human race.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Adult (24)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Being (1276)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Dark (145)  |  Dread (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthbound (4)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extend (129)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Family (102)  |  Fear (215)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  Home (186)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Imagine (177)  |  Insure (4)  |  Leave (139)  |  Life (1873)  |  Light (636)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (103)  |  Mature (17)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Offer (143)  |  Outward (7)  |  Planet (406)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Race (279)  |  Reach (287)  |  Realization (44)  |  Resource (75)  |  Room (42)  |  Security (51)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Technology (284)  |  Terror (32)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (901)

What I then got hold of, something frightful and dangerous, a problem with horns but not necessarily a bull, in any case a new problem—today I should say that it was the problem of science itself, science considered for the first time as problematic, as questionable. But the book in which my youthful courage and suspicion found an outlet—what an impossible book had to result from a task so uncongenial to youth! Constructed from a lot of immature, overgreen personal experiences, all of them close to the limits of communication, presented in the context of art—for the problem of science cannot be recognized in the context of science—a book perhaps for artists who also have an analytic and retrospective penchant (in other words, an exceptional type of artist for whom one might have to look far and wide and really would not care to look) …
In The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Collected in Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Kaufmann (trans.), The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner (1967), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (245)  |  Art (681)  |  Artist (97)  |  Book (414)  |  Bull (3)  |  Care (204)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consider (430)  |  Construct (129)  |  Context (31)  |  Courage (82)  |  Dangerous (109)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1303)  |  Frightful (3)  |  Horn (18)  |  Immature (4)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1276)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outlet (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (735)  |  Questionable (3)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (991)  |  Something (718)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Task (153)  |  Time (1913)  |  Today (321)  |  Type (172)  |  Uncongenial (2)  |  Wide (97)  |  Word (650)  |  Youth (109)

What is it to see, in an Eagle glide
Which fills a human heart with so much pride?
Is it that it soars effortless above the Earth
That steals us from our own limits & dearth?
Trapped in our seas of befuddling sludge
We try and try but cannot budge.
And then to see a mortal; with such ease take wing
Up in a breeze that makes our failing spirits sing?
Do we, vicarious birds, search in it our childishness -
When we too were young & yearned in heart to fly?
Taking flights of fancy through adolescent nights
Listening little, heeding less, knowing not why?
From its highest perch in the forest of snow
Majestic - the Eagle soars alone.
Riding thermals, lording clouds
Till dropping silent from the sky as a stone
But we, so quick and ready to fold
Give up our wings at the whiff of age
Losing years, cursing time, wasting spirit
Living out entire lives in futile rage!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adolescent (4)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (325)  |  Befuddle (3)  |  Bird (163)  |  Breeze (8)  |  Cloud (112)  |  Curse (20)  |  Dearth (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropping (8)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ease (40)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Entire (50)  |  Fail (193)  |  Fancy (51)  |  Fill (67)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Fold (9)  |  Forest (161)  |  Futile (13)  |  Give Up (10)  |  Glide (4)  |  Heart (244)  |  Heed (12)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1517)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Less (105)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (718)  |  Live (651)  |  Living (492)  |  Lord (97)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Night (133)  |  Perch (7)  |  Pride (85)  |  Quick (13)  |  Rage (11)  |  Ready (43)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (327)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1095)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sing (29)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sludge (3)  |  Snow (39)  |  Soar (24)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steal (14)  |  Stone (169)  |  Thermal (15)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1913)  |  Trap (7)  |  Try (296)  |  Vicarious (2)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whiff (2)  |  Why (491)  |  Wing (79)  |  Year (965)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Young (253)

What remains to be learned may indeed dwarf imagination. Nevertheless, the universe itself is closed and finite. … The uniformity of nature and the general applicability of natural laws set limits to knowledge. If there are just 100, or 105, or 110 ways in which atoms may form, then when one has identified the full range of properties of these, singly and in combination, chemical knowledge will be complete.
Presidential Address (28 Dec 1970) to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 'Science: Endless Horizons or Golden Age?', Science (8 Jan 1971), 171, No. 3866, 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (381)  |  Closed (38)  |  Combination (151)  |  Complete (209)  |  Dwarf (7)  |  Finite (60)  |  Form (978)  |  General (521)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Knowledge (1653)  |  Law (914)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Range (104)  |  Remain (357)  |  Set (400)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Universe (901)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

What renders a problem definite, and what leaves it indefinite, may best be understood from mathematics. The very important idea of solving a problem within limits of error is an element of rational culture, coming from the same source. The art of totalizing fluctuations by curves is capable of being carried, in conception, far beyond the mathematical domain, where it is first learnt. The distinction between laws and co-efficients applies in every department of causation. The theory of Probable Evidence is the mathematical contribution to Logic, and is of paramount importance.
In Education as a Science (1879), 151-152.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (681)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (468)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capable (174)  |  Causation (14)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conception (160)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Culture (157)  |  Curve (49)  |  Definite (114)  |  Department (93)  |  Distinction (73)  |  Domain (72)  |  Element (324)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  First (1303)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Idea (882)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Law (914)  |  Logic (313)  |  Mathematics (1400)  |  Paramount (11)  |  Problem (735)  |  Rational (97)  |  Render (96)  |  Solving (6)  |  Theory (1016)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

What we are finding out now is that there are not only limits to growth but also to technology and that we cannot allow technology to go on without public consent.
Skeptic (Jul-Aug 1976).
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Consent (14)  |  Finding Out (6)  |  Growth (200)  |  Public (100)  |  Technology (284)

Whatever lies beyond the limits of experience, and claims another origin than that of induction and deduction from established data, is illegitimate.
In Problems of Life and Mind (1874), Vol. 1, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Claim (154)  |  Data (162)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Establish (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Induction (81)  |  Origin (251)

Whatever terrain the environmental historian chooses to investigate, he has to address the age-old predicament of how humankind can feed itself without degrading the primal source of life. Today as ever, that problem is the fundamental challenge in human ecology, and meeting it will require knowing the earth well—knowing its history and knowing its limits.
In 'Transformations of the Earth: toward an Agroecological Perspective in History', Journal of American History (Mar 1990), 76, No. 4, 1106.
Science quotes on:  |  Address (13)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Challenge (93)  |  Choose (116)  |  Degrade (9)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Feed (31)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (719)  |  Human (1517)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Know (1539)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Life (1873)  |  Old (499)  |  Primal (5)  |  Problem (735)  |  Require (229)  |  Source (102)  |  Terrain (6)  |  Today (321)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

When we think how narrow and devious this path of nature is, how dimly we can trace it, for all our lamps of science, and how from the darkness which girds it round great and terrible possibilities loom ever shadowly upwards, it is a bold and a confident man who will put a limit to the strange by-oaths into which the human spirit may wander.
Lot No. 249 (1892)
Science quotes on:  |  Bold (22)  |  Confident (25)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Loom (20)  |  Man (2252)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Oath (10)  |  Path (160)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strange (160)  |  Terrible (42)  |  Think (1124)  |  Trace (109)  |  Upward (44)  |  Wander (45)  |  Will (2350)

While natural selection drives Darwinian evolution, the growth of human culture is largely Lamarckian: new generations of humans inherit the acquired discoveries of generations past, enabling cosmic insight to grow slowly, but without limit.
In magazine article, 'The Beginning of Science', Natural History (Mar 2001). Collected in Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Culture (157)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Discovery (839)  |  Enable (122)  |  Evolution (637)  |  Generation (256)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Human (1517)  |  Human Culture (10)  |  Inherit (36)  |  Insight (107)  |  Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (24)  |  Natural (811)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  New (1276)  |  Past (355)  |  Selection (130)  |  Slow (108)

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 (596)  |  Diversity (75)  |  End (603)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Exhibition (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Friend (180)  |  Geometry (272)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Greater (288)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humour (116)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (565)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Measure (242)  |  Mimic (2)  |  Object (442)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Please (68)  |  Poet (97)  |  Process (441)  |  Production (190)  |  Publish (42)  |  Reason (767)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Render (96)  |  Taste (93)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1854)

Why should we limit by dogma or otherwise man’s liberty to select his food and drink? … the great practical rule of life in regard of human diet will not be found in enforcing limitation of the sources of food which Nature has abundantly provided.
In Eating and Living: Diet in Relation to Age and Activity (1885), 16-17.
Science quotes on:  |  Diet (56)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Drink (56)  |  Food (214)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1517)  |  Life (1873)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2027)  |  Practical (225)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rule (308)  |  Select (45)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

William Blake called division the sin of man; Faraday was a great man because he was utterly undivided. His whole, very harmonious, very well balanced, … and used the brain in the limited way in which it is useful…. [H]e built up his few but precious speculations. Their simplicity rivals with their forcefulness.
In 'The Scientific Grammar of Michael Faraday’s Diaries', Part I, 'The Classic of Science', A Classic and a Founder (1937), collected in Rosenstock-Huessy Papers (1981), Vol. 1, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  William Blake (38)  |  Brain (282)  |  Call (782)  |  Divided (50)  |  Division (67)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Limited (103)  |  Man (2252)  |  Precious (43)  |  Rival (20)  |  Simple (430)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Sin (45)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Useful (261)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

Years ago I used to worry about the degree to which I specialized. Vision is limited enough, yet I was not really working on vision, for I hardly made contact with visual sensations, except as signals, nor with the nervous pathways, nor the structure of the eye, except the retina. Actually my studies involved only the rods and cones of the retina, and in them only the visual pigments. A sadly limited peripheral business, fit for escapists. But it is as though this were a very narrow window through which at a distance, one can only see a crack of light. As one comes closer the view grows wider and wider, until finally looking through the same narrow window one is looking at the universe. It is like the pupil of the eye, an opening only two to three millimetres across in daylight, but yielding a wide angle of view, and manoeuvrable enough to be turned in all directions. I think this is always the way it goes in science, because science is all one. It hardly matters where one enters, provided one can come closer, and then one does not see less and less, but more and more, because one is not dealing with an opaque object, but with a window.
In Scientific American, 1960s, attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Business (156)  |  Closer (43)  |  Cone (8)  |  Contact (66)  |  Crack (15)  |  Daylight (23)  |  Dealing (11)  |  Degree (278)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enter (145)  |  Eye (441)  |  Fit (139)  |  Grow (247)  |  Involved (90)  |  Light (636)  |  Limited (103)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Object (442)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Opening (15)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Peripheral (3)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Really (77)  |  Retina (4)  |  Rod (6)  |  See (1095)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Signal (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1124)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (901)  |  View (498)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wide (97)  |  Window (59)  |  Year (965)

Yet I exist in the hope that these memoirs... may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality.
Flatland (1899), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Dimension (64)  |  Exist (460)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hope (322)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Limited (103)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mind (1380)  |  Race (279)  |  Rebel (7)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Stir (23)  |  Way (1214)

You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Dream (223)  |  Far (158)  |  Farther (51)  |  More (2558)


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.