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: “A change in motion is proportional to the motive force impressed and takes place along the straight line in which that force is impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index L > Category: Limited

Limited Quotes (102 quotes)

… if the consequences are the same it is always better to assume the more limited antecedent, since in things of nature the limited, as being better, is sure to be found, wherever possible, rather than the unlimited.
Aristotle
In Physics.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assume (43)  |  Better (493)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Unlimited (24)

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 (244)  |  Class (168)  |  Current (122)  |  Direction (185)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Generate (16)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Electrodynamics (3)  |  Range (104)  |  Say (989)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Today (321)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Unfashionable (2)  |  Useful (260)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)  |  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 (187)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Circle (117)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (242)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (212)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Kind (564)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (75)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

A 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 (278)  |  Domain (72)  |  Essence (85)  |  Limit (294)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Validity (50)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

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 (266)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Chance (244)  |  Closely (12)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direct (228)  |  Effective (68)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extrapolate (3)  |  Findings (6)  |  Focus (36)  |  Identify (13)  |  Integration (21)  |  Integrative (2)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Question (649)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Simple (426)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superior (88)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Target (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  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 (976)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Shape (77)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Sphericity (2)  |  Tend (124)  |  Universe (900)

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 (298)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Application (257)  |  Company (63)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Join (32)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  March (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pace (18)  |  Path (159)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Separate (151)  |  Slow (108)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Vitality (24)

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 (271)  |  Bell (35)  |  Alexander Graham Bell (37)  |  Circle (117)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limit (294)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Toy (22)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

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 (140)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  Process (439)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sound (187)

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 (189)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Insurmountable (3)  |  Leave (138)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)

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 (441)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Importance (299)  |  Limit (294)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Oil (67)  |  Remain (355)  |  Safety (58)  |  System (545)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

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 (153)  |  Act (278)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Bach (7)  |  Bach_Johann (2)  |  Base (120)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Closer (43)  |  Composer (7)  |  Creation (350)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Frame of Reference (5)  |  Glory (66)  |  Impose (22)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  Nude (3)  |  Observer (48)  |  Order (638)  |  Painter (30)  |  Period (200)  |  Reality (274)  |  Refer (14)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sky (174)  |  Space (523)  |  Count Leo Tolstoy (18)  |  Truth (1109)

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 (232)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Design (203)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Idea (881)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Information (173)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Problem (731)  |  Profession (108)  |  Science And Engineering (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Stress (22)  |  Study (701)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (648)  |  Use (771)

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 (169)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Dwindle (6)  |  Eat (108)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fertilizer (13)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Food (213)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hope (321)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Point (584)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Starvation (13)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

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 (118)  |  Ask (420)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attainable (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bread (42)  |  Call (781)  |  Chasten (2)  |  Conception (160)  |  Desire (212)  |  Detail (150)  |  Directly (25)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (140)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Everything (489)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Hand (149)  |  Happy (108)  |  Hope (321)  |  Immediately (115)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Least (75)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limit (294)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Material (366)  |  Moderate (6)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Namely (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Number (710)  |  Offer (142)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outline (13)  |  Part (235)  |  Pen (21)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Practicable (2)  |  Presence (63)  |  Promise (72)  |  Range (104)  |  Reject (67)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Result (700)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teach (299)  |  Temper (12)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unerring (4)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vain (86)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wish (216)  |  Work (1402)

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 (821)  |  Idea (881)  |  Limit (294)  |  Modification (57)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1094)  |  Suppression (9)  |  Truly (118)

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 (39)  |  Country (269)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Hero (45)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Know (1538)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Space (523)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  World (1850)

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 (232)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Geology (240)  |  Limit (294)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  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 (420)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Choice (114)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Convention (16)  |  Definition (238)  |  Disguise (12)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  False (105)  |  Free (239)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Guide (107)  |  In Other Words (9)  |  Limit (294)  |  Measure (241)  |  Metric System (6)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Polar (13)  |  Possible (560)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  System (545)  |  Think (1122)  |  True (239)  |  Word (650)

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 (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Samuel Johnson (51)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Objection (34)  |  Positive (98)  |  Remember (189)  |  Settled (34)  |  Shake (43)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Vacuum (41)

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 (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Factor (47)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  World (1850)

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 (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Eye (440)  |  Glance (36)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Last (425)  |  Limit (294)  |  Lord (97)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Point (584)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  Relief (30)  |  Saw (160)  |  Speech (66)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Tonight (9)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Utterance (11)  |  View (496)

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 (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Fourteen (2)  |  Gather (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Haphazard (3)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Home (184)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inward (6)  |  Label (11)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Limit (294)  |  Love (328)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mount (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Old (499)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Outside (141)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pin (20)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purge (11)  |  Remember (189)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (176)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Settled (34)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standard (64)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Twelve (4)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Year (963)

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 (781)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Erudition (7)  |  First (1302)  |  Fond (13)  |  Good (906)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pass (241)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Rank (69)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Society (350)  |  Universal (198)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (15)

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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Namely (11)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Physical (518)  |  Realm (87)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)

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 (366)  |  Application (257)  |  Better (493)  |  Cleanliness (6)  |  Diet (56)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Little (717)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Nurse (33)  |  Nursing (9)  |  Patient (209)  |  Power (771)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Selection (130)  |  Signify (17)  |  Use (771)  |  Vital (89)  |  Want (504)  |  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 (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Break (109)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Change (639)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Counterintuitive (4)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  End (603)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flow (89)  |  High (370)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Question (649)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Start (237)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Track (42)  |  Tradition (76)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  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 (144)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Game (104)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

If we would indicate an idea … striving to remove the barriers which prejudice and limited views of every kind have erected among men, and to treat all mankind, without reference to religion, nation, or color, as one fraternity, one great community, fitted for the attainment of one object, the unrestrained development of the physical powers. This is the ultimate and highest aim of society.
In Ueber die Kawi-Sprache, Vol. 3, 426. As quoted in Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe (1850), Vol. 1, 358, as translated by Elise C. Otté.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Color (155)  |  Community (111)  |  Development (441)  |  Fraternity (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Highest (19)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Kind (564)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nation (208)  |  Object (438)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remove (50)  |  Society (350)  |  Strive (53)  |  Treat (38)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unrestrained (4)  |  View (496)

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 (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Game (104)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Know (1538)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observer (48)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Play (116)  |  Question (649)  |  Rule (307)  |  Something (718)  |  Understand (648)  |  Watch (118)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

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 (821)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Command (60)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Conception (160)  |  Congruence (3)  |  Countless (39)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Frequent (26)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Inmost (2)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Limit (294)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  August Möbius (2)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Organic (161)  |  Position (83)  |  Powerless (7)  |  Problem (731)  |  Regard (312)  |  Region (40)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Respective (2)  |  Separate (151)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Unite (43)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whole (756)

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 (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Goal (155)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humble (54)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Possible (560)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Sense (785)  |  Truth (1109)

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 (195)  |  Apple (46)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Computation (28)  |  Degree (277)  |  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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mother (116)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Notion (120)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Power (771)  |  Retain (57)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Vortex (10)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

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 (105)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mind (1377)  |  People (1031)  |  Quote (46)  |  Really (77)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Say (989)  |  Support (151)  |  View (496)

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 (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Process (439)  |  Rule (307)  |  Test (221)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Weather (49)

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 (298)  |  Battle (36)  |  Book (413)  |  Cavalry (2)  |  Charge (63)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Copy (34)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Habit (174)  |  Horse (78)  |  Limit (294)  |  Moment (260)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opposite (110)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Precise (71)  |  Require (229)  |  Speech (66)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  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 (406)  |  Display (59)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Engine (99)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Iron (99)  |  Last (425)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Missile (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Most (1728)  |  Murder (16)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Office (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Perish (56)  |  Power (771)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Regard (312)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rust (9)  |  Spear (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Useful (260)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wing (79)

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 (406)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Dogma (49)  |  End (603)  |  Framework (33)  |  Generation (256)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Known (453)  |  Late (119)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mischief (13)  |  Notice (81)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Please (68)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Question (649)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rigidity (5)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sound (187)  |  Subject (543)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  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 (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constraint (13)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Environment (239)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Far (158)  |  Feasible (3)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  Genome (15)  |  Gratuitous (2)  |  Hand (149)  |  History (716)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Involve (93)  |  Less (105)  |  Limit (294)  |  Line (100)  |  Milieu (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Occupy (27)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Place (192)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relate (26)  |  Require (229)  |  Restructuring (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Serious (98)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Specific (98)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Tautological (2)  |  Type (171)  |  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 (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Activity (218)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Ant (34)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Cell (146)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Creative (144)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Describe (132)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Escape (85)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Former (138)  |  Gene (105)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inner (72)  |  Internal (69)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Ion (21)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Lion (23)  |  Liver (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Surface (223)  |  Task (152)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Unique (72)  |  View (496)  |  Want (504)  |  World (1850)

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 (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certain (557)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Human (1512)  |  Increase (225)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Limit (294)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Number (710)  |  Quality (139)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Small (489)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Subject (543)  |  Way (1214)

Just as a tree constitutes a mass arranged in a definite manner, in which, in every single part, in the leaves as in the root, in the trunk as in the blossom, cells are discovered to be the ultimate elements, so is it also with the forms of animal life. Every animal presents itself as a sum of vital unities, every one of which manifests all the characteristics of life. The characteristics and unity of life cannot be limited to anyone particular spot in a highly developed organism (for example, to the brain of man), but are to be found only in the definite, constantly recurring structure, which every individual element displays. Hence it follows that the structural composition of a body of considerable size, a so-called individual, always represents a kind of social arrangement of parts, an arrangement of a social kind, in which a number of individual existences are mutually dependent, but in such a way, that every element has its own special action, and, even though it derive its stimulus to activity from other parts, yet alone effects the actual performance of its duties.
In Lecture I, 'Cells and the Cellular Theory' (1858), Rudolf Virchow and Frank Chance (trans.) ,Cellular Pathology (1860), 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Activity (218)  |  Actual (118)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Composition (86)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Derive (70)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Display (59)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Number (710)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Performance (51)  |  Present (630)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Represent (157)  |  Root (121)  |  Single (365)  |  Size (62)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Special (188)  |  Spot (19)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unity (81)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Encircle (2)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  World (1850)

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 (55)  |  Cast (69)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Faint (10)  |  Gain (146)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Itself (7)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Something (718)

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 (168)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fill (67)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Fortune (50)  |  General (521)  |  Habitat (17)  |  History (716)  |  Host (16)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Place (192)  |  Plan (122)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Ray (115)  |  Space (523)  |  Spark (32)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sunshine (12)  |  Survey (36)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vast (188)  |  Warm (74)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Power (771)  |  Understanding (527)

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 (26)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  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 (238)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Lode (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mine (78)  |  Monad (2)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  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 (523)  |  Successive (73)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vein (27)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

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 (680)  |  Barber (5)  |  Blunt (5)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Detriment (3)  |  Error (339)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healer (3)  |  Healing (28)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Master (182)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Merely (315)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Plague (42)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Profession (108)  |  Reason (766)  |  Slander (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Today (321)  |  Training (92)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)

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 (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Material (366)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Search (175)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Training (92)  |  Unexplained (8)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Value (393)

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 (493)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Final (121)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Function (235)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Limit (294)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Problem (731)  |  Produce (117)  |  Product (166)  |  Result (700)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Short (200)  |  Short-Term (3)  |  Solution (282)  |  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 (837)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fire (203)  |  Genius (301)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Patent (34)  |  Production (190)  |  Secured (18)  |  Special (188)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  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 (118)  |  Depict (3)  |  Geologic Time (2)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Limit (294)  |  Map (50)  |  Paper (192)  |  Printed (3)  |  Say (989)  |  State (505)  |  State Of affairs (5)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

Now it is a well-known principle of zoological evolution that an isolated region, if large and sufficiently varied in its topography, soil, climate and vegetation, will give rise to a diversified fauna according to the law of adaptive radiation from primitive and central types. Branches will spring off in all directions to take advantage of every possible opportunity of securing food. The modifications which animals undergo in this adaptive radiation are largely of mechanical nature, they are limited in number and kind by hereditary, stirp or germinal influences, and thus result in the independent evolution of similar types in widely-separated regions under the law of parallelism or homoplasy. This law causes the independent origin not only of similar genera but of similar families and even of our similar orders. Nature thus repeats herself upon a vast scale, but the similarity is never complete and exact.
'The Geological and Faunal Relations of Europe and America during the Tertiary Period and the Theory of the Successive Invasions of an African Fauna', Science (1900), 11, 563-64.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Animal (651)  |  Branch (155)  |  Cause (561)  |  Central (81)  |  Climate (102)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Direction (185)  |  Diversification (2)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Family (101)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Food (213)  |  Genus (27)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Independence (37)  |  Influence (231)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Parallelism (2)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principle (530)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Region (40)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spring (140)  |  Type (171)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zoology (38)

Now, 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 (244)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Development (441)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Inquirer (9)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Present (630)  |  Regard (312)  |  Render (96)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Theory (1015)

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 (413)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Example (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Greek (109)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Pascal (2)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Please (68)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Range (104)  |  Read (308)  |  Real (159)  |  Set (400)  |  Strike (72)  |  Striking (48)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  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 (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  Future (467)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Machine (271)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Optimal (4)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Quirky (3)  |  Remain (355)  |  Role (86)  |  Shift (45)  |  Unpredictable (18)

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 (254)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sphere (118)  |  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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Permit (61)  |  Question (649)  |  Result (700)  |  Series (153)  |  Virtue (117)

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 (821)  |  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 (635)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  High (370)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Local (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Observation (593)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (286)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rich (66)  |  Rid (14)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (261)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toward (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  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 (153)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Deal (192)  |  Derive (70)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Form (976)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Real World (15)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Sense (785)  |  Space (523)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  World (1850)

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 (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Really (77)  |  Say (989)  |  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 (55)  |  Broad (28)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Limit (294)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Question (649)  |  Tentative (18)

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.
…...
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 (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Factuality (2)  |  False (105)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  Geological (11)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inferential (2)  |  Large (398)  |  Largest (39)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observational (15)  |  Often (109)  |  Palpably (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Quick (13)  |  Regard (312)  |  Respectable (8)  |  Route (16)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1094)  |  Slow (108)  |  Small (489)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Test (221)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Visual (16)

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 (212)  |  Greed (17)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interdisciplinary (2)  |  Intrusion (3)  |  Limit (294)  |  Money (178)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Research (753)  |  Resist (15)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Tend (124)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (195)

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 (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Know (1538)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sense (785)  |  Teach (299)

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 (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Limit (294)  |  Something (718)  |  Surgery (54)

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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Little (717)  |  Measure (241)  |  Meridian (4)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Observe (179)  |  Star (460)  |  Wide (97)

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 (123)  |  Aware (36)  |  Clever (41)  |  Competent (20)  |  Full (68)  |  Fully (20)  |  Humility (31)  |  Limit (294)  |  Plague (42)  |  Programmer (5)  |  Size (62)  |  Skull (5)  |  Task (152)  |  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 (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Congress (20)  |  The Constitution of the United States (7)  |  Copyright (3)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Government (116)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Limit (294)  |  Patent (34)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Promote (32)  |  Right (473)  |  Time (1911)  |  Useful (260)  |  Writing (192)

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 (342)  |  Army (35)  |  Battalion (2)  |  Become (821)  |  Brigade (3)  |  Cell Division (6)  |  Company (63)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Corps (2)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Division (67)  |  Duty (71)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Germ (54)  |  Germ Cell (2)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nucleoplasm (2)  |  Ontogeny (10)  |  Regiment (2)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Separation (60)  |  Similarly (4)  |  Simpler (8)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Successive (73)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

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 (244)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Computer (131)  |  Condense (15)  |  Different (595)  |  Domain (72)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Excel (4)  |  Extend (129)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Limit (294)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Step (234)  |  Sway (5)  |  Think (1122)

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 (153)  |  Aim (175)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Growth (200)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  See (1094)  |  Society (350)  |  Stable (32)  |  State (505)  |  Survive (87)  |  Two (936)

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 (153)  |  Actual (118)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Austere (7)  |  Best (467)  |  Conception (160)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Continue (179)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deal (192)  |  Divine (112)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fall (243)  |  Falsely (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forth (14)  |  Geometer (24)  |  God (776)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Host (16)  |  Imagery (3)  |  Immediate (98)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Irreverent (2)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pen (21)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Profit (56)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sage (25)  |  Say (989)  |  Set (400)  |  Sing (29)  |  Skill (116)  |  Span (5)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  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 (73)  |  Aim (175)  |  Bat (10)  |  Bust (2)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Course (413)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Fun (42)  |  Gambler (7)  |  Game (104)  |  Happen (282)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  House (143)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Play (116)  |  Playing (42)  |  Possible (560)  |  Require (229)  |  Resource (74)  |  Species (435)  |  Stake (20)  |  Stay (26)  |  Stick (27)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  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 (122)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Area (33)  |  Arise (162)  |  Change (639)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Feature (49)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Fossil Record (12)  |  Fully (20)  |  Gradually (102)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Inconsistent (9)  |  Limit (294)  |  Local (25)  |  Looking (191)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Record (161)  |  Same (166)  |  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 (467)  |  Capable (174)  |  Channel (23)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embarkation (2)  |  Favor (69)  |  Flight (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (716)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Record (161)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scope (44)  |  Society (350)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Usually (176)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

The increasing technicality of the terminology employed is also a serious difficulty. It has become necessary to learn an extensive vocabulary before a book in even a limited department of science can be consulted with much profit. This change, of course, has its advantages for the initiated, in securing precision and concisement of statement; but it tends to narrow the field in which an investigator can labour, and it cannot fail to become, in the future, a serious impediment to wide inductive generalisations.
Year Book of Science (1892), preface, from review in Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (14 Apr 1892), 65, 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  Change (639)  |  Conciseness (3)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Course (413)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Employ (115)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Field (378)  |  Future (467)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learn (672)  |  Limit (294)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Precision (72)  |  Profit (56)  |  Serious (98)  |  Statement (148)  |  Technicality (5)  |  Tend (124)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  Wide (97)

The 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 (242)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (203)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Existence (481)  |  Exterior (7)  |  Eye (440)  |  Forming (42)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Impervious (5)  |  Interior (35)  |  Internal (69)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Open (277)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Perception (97)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  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 (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Object (438)  |  Plant (320)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sense (785)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

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)  |  Limit (294)  |  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 (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Bring (95)  |  Case (102)  |  Cause (561)  |  Class (168)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deem (7)  |  Department (93)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Effect (414)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enough (341)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entitle (3)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expert (67)  |  Extension (60)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generally (15)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  History (716)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Increase (225)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notation (28)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Old (499)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  Original (61)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physical (518)  |  Piece (39)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Produce (117)  |  Propose (24)  |  Question (649)  |  Rank (69)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Seek (218)  |  Several (33)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (145)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Tool (129)  |  Treatise (46)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

The Pacific coral reef, as a kind of oasis in a desert, can stand as an object lesson for man who must now learn that mutualism between autotrophic and heterotrophic components, and between producers and consumers in the societal realm, coupled with efficient recycling of materials and use of energy, are the keys to maintaining prosperity in a world of limited resources.
'The Emergence of Ecology as a New Integrative Discipline', Science (1977), 195, 1290.
Science quotes on:  |  Component (51)  |  Consumer (6)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Desert (59)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Energy (373)  |  Kind (564)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Pacific Ocean (5)  |  Producer (4)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recycling (5)  |  Society (350)  |  Stand (284)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

The 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 (244)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Become (821)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Determine (152)  |  Importance (299)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lack (127)  |  Limit (294)  |  Naturally (11)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rate (31)  |  Ray (115)  |  Restricted (2)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Take (10)  |  Technical (53)  |  Technique (84)  |  Time (1911)  |  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 (153)  |  Act (278)  |  Against (332)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Ascent Of Man (7)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Auschwitz (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beseech (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Call (781)  |  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 (1257)  |  Fallible (6)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Future (467)  |  Gas (89)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Information (173)  |  Itch (11)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Limit (294)  |  Literature (116)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Outside (141)  |  People (1031)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Politics (122)  |  Pond (17)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Precision (72)  |  Principle (530)  |  Progress (492)  |  Push (66)  |  Reality (274)  |  Realization (44)  |  Refining (4)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tolerance (11)  |  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 (1402)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Problem (731)  |  Sense (785)

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 (222)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Limit (294)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reality (274)  |  Skeptic (8)  |  Solve (145)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1850)

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 (413)  |  Develop (278)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Frame (26)  |  Growing (99)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Observe (179)  |  Point (584)  |  Problem (731)  |  Professor (133)  |  Prove (261)  |  Ready (43)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Revise (6)  |  Rote (5)  |  Secure (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Something (718)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Static (9)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Think (1122)  |  Topic (23)  |  Work (1402)

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 (153)  |  Advance (298)  |  Answer (389)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Do (1905)  |  Event (222)  |  Field (378)  |  Further (6)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Particular (80)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unknown (195)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)

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

The 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 (1512)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Learning (291)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Power (771)  |  Reach (286)  |  Soul (235)  |  World (1850)

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 (1512)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Limit (294)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  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 (420)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Development (441)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Reply (58)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Through (846)

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 (55)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convex (6)  |  Convince (43)  |  Count (107)  |  Declare (48)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distort (22)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Experience (494)  |  Farther (51)  |  Focal Length (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Line (100)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mirror (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Question (649)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Rule (307)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)

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 (324)  |  Bound (120)  |  Continual (44)  |  Course (413)  |  End (603)  |  Endless (60)  |  Everything (489)  |  Existence (481)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Limit (294)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Operation (221)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progress (492)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Succession (80)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)

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 (44)  |  Discernible (9)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Inexplicable (8)  |  Intangible (6)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Point (584)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Secret (216)  |  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)  |  Limit (294)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Precious (43)  |  Private (29)  |  Sewer (5)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Interest (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)

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 (33)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dimly (6)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Thought (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Obey (46)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Spinozas (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)

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 (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chance (244)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Data (162)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fate (76)  |  Form (976)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Growth (200)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Information (173)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Limit (294)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Luck (44)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Paper (192)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Perish (56)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Primary (82)  |  Publication (102)  |  Read (308)  |  Regular (48)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Spent (85)  |  Table (105)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  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 (101)  |  Fear (212)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Insure (4)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Mature (17)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Offer (142)  |  Outward (7)  |  Planet (402)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realization (44)  |  Resource (74)  |  Room (42)  |  Security (51)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Technology (281)  |  Terror (32)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)

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 (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Divided (50)  |  Division (67)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Precious (43)  |  Rival (20)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Sin (45)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Useful (260)  |  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 (277)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enter (145)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fit (139)  |  Grow (247)  |  Involved (90)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Object (438)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Opening (15)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Peripheral (3)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Really (77)  |  Retina (4)  |  Rod (6)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Signal (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wide (97)  |  Window (59)  |  Year (963)

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 (458)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hope (321)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Limit (294)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Race (278)  |  Rebel (7)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Stir (23)  |  Way (1214)


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.