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

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index M > Category: Magnificent

Magnificent Quotes (46 quotes)

A map of the moon... should be in every geological lecture room; for no where can we have a more complete or more magnificent illustration of volcanic operations. Our sublimest volcanoes would rank among the smaller lunar eminences; and our Etnas are but spitting furnaces.
'On the Volcanoes of the Moon', American Journal of Science, 1846, 2 (2nd Series), 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Complete (209)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Etna (5)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Map (50)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Rank (69)  |  Volcano (46)

All of modern physics is governed by that magnificent and thoroughly confusing discipline called quantum mechanics ... It has survived all tests and there is no reason to believe that there is any flaw in it.... We all know how to use it and how to apply it to problems; and so we have learned to live with the fact that nobody can understand it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Belief (615)  |  Call (781)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Govern (66)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Live (650)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Reason (766)  |  Survive (87)  |  Test (221)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Understand (648)  |  Use (771)

Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed,—chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. During a man’s life only saplings can be grown, in the place of the old trees—tens of centuries old—that have been destroyed.
John Muir
In 'The American Forests', Atlantic Monthly (Aug 1897), Vol. 80, 157.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Bark (19)  |  Branch (155)  |  Branching (10)  |  Chase (14)  |  Clear-Cut (10)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Down (455)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fell (2)  |  Fool (121)  |  Forest (161)  |  Fun (42)  |  Hide (70)  |  Horn (18)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Noble (93)  |  Old (499)  |  Plant (320)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Run (158)  |  Still (614)  |  Tree (269)

Art gallery? Who needs it? Look up at the swirling silver-lined clouds in the magnificent blue sky or at the silently blazing stars at midnight. How could indoor art be any more masterfully created than God’s museum of nature?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Blaze (14)  |  Blue (63)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Create (245)  |  Gallery (7)  |  God (776)  |  Indoor (2)  |  Look (584)  |  Midnight (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Museum (40)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Silently (4)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sky (174)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Swirl (10)

As Arthur C. Clarke has observed: “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.” Nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface is sea, which is why those magnificent photographs taken from space show our planet as a sapphire blue globe, flecked with soft wisps of cloud and capped by brilliant white fields of polar ice.
From opening paragraph to Chap. 6, 'The Sea', in James E. Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) 84. The origin of the Arthur C. Clarke quote is not cited therein, and Webmaster has, as yet, been unable to locate a primary source, although found widely quoted without citation, in print and on the web. Note that G. Carleton Ray made a similar quote in 1963, naming “sea” rather than “Ocean”. See the web page for Ray on this site for his quote, beginning, “We call this planet Earth…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Blue (63)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Call (781)  |  Cap (2)  |  Arthur C. Clarke (49)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Field (378)  |  Fleck (2)  |  Globe (51)  |  Ice (58)  |  Inappropriate (5)  |  Observe (179)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Planet (402)  |  Polar (13)  |  Sapphire (4)  |  Sea (326)  |  Space (523)  |  Surface (223)  |  Three-Quarters (3)  |  White (132)

Astronomy, that micrography of heaven, is the most magnificent of the sciences. … Astronomy has its clear side and its luminous side; on its clear side it is tinctured with algebra, on its luminous side with poetry.
In Victor Hugo and Lorenzo O’Rourke (trans.) Victor Hugo’s Intellectual Autobiography: (Postscriptum de ma vie) (1907), 237-8. From the original French (1901): “L'astronomie, cette micrographie d'en haut, est la plus magnifique des sciences … L'astronomie a son côté clair et son côté lumineux ; par le côté clair elle trempe dans l'algèbre, par le côté lumineux dans la poésie.” [Note: The published translation had the typo “micography”, which is corrected herein. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Most (1728)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Side (236)  |  Tincture (5)

At last have made wonderful discovery in valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations.
Telegram (6 Nov 1922) sent to Lord Carnarvon. In The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen (1923, 1977), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrival (15)  |  Congratulation (5)  |  Congratulations (3)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Intact (9)  |  Last (425)  |  Seal (19)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Valley (37)  |  Wonderful (155)

Genius iz always in advance ov the times, and makes sum magnificent hits, but the world owes most ov its tributes to good hoss sense.
In The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1876), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Genius (301)  |  Good (906)  |  Hit (20)  |  Horse Sense (4)  |  Most (1728)  |  Owe (71)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sum (103)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tribute (10)  |  World (1850)

How I hate the man who talks about the “brute creation”, with an ugly emphasis on Brute. Only Christians are capable of it. As for me, I am proud of my close kinship with other animals. I take a jealous pride in my Simian ancestry. I like to think that I was once a magnificent hairy fellow living in the trees and that my frame has come down through geological time via sea jelly and worms and Amphioxus, Fish, Dinosaurs, and Apes. Who would exchange these for the pallid couple in the Garden of Eden?
In W.N.P. Barbellion, The Journal of a Disappointed Man (1919), 27-28.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Brute (30)  |  Capable (174)  |  Christian (44)  |  Creation (350)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Down (455)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fish (130)  |  Garden (64)  |  God (776)  |  Hate (68)  |  Jelly (6)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pride (84)  |  Sea (326)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Worm (47)

I am delighted that I have found a new reaction to demonstrate even to the blind the structure of the interstitial stroma of the cerebral cortex. I let the silver nitrate react with pieces of brain hardened in potassium dichromate. I have already obtained magnificent results and hope to do even better in the future.
Letter to Nicolo Manfredi, 16 Feb 1873. Archive source. Quoted in Paolo Mazzarello, The Hidden Structure: A Scientific Biography of Camillo Golgi, trans. and ed. Henry A. Buchtel and Aldo Badiani (1999), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Better (493)  |  Blind (98)  |  Brain (281)  |  Delight (111)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Do (1905)  |  Future (467)  |  Hope (321)  |  Neurobiology (4)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Result (700)  |  Silver (49)  |  Stain (10)  |  Structure (365)

I have enjoyed the trees and scenery of Kentucky exceedingly. How shall I ever tell of the miles and miles of beauty that have been flowing into me in such measure? These lofty curving ranks of lobing, swelling hills, these concealed valleys of fathomless verdure, and these lordly trees with the nursing sunlight glancing in their leaves upon the outlines of the magnificent masses of shade embosomed among their wide branches—these are cut into my memory to go with me forever.
John Muir
Letter, written “among the hills of Bear Creek, seven miles southeast of Burkesville, Kentucky” (Sep 1867). In John Muir and William Frederick Badé (Ed.), A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), xix. This was by far Muir's longest botanical excursion made in his earlier years.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Branch (155)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Cut (116)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Excursion (12)  |  Fathomless (3)  |  Forever (111)  |  Hill (23)  |  Kentucky (4)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Measure (241)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mile (43)  |  Nursing (9)  |  Rank (69)  |  Scenery (9)  |  Shade (35)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tree (269)  |  Valley (37)  |  Wide (97)

I have seen oaks of many species in many kinds of exposure and soil, but those of Kentucky excel in grandeur all I had ever before beheld. They are broad and dense and bright green. In the leafy bowers and caves of their long branches dwell magnificent avenues of shade, and every tree seems to be blessed with a double portion of strong exulting life.
John Muir
Notebook entry, (2 Sep 1867). In A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), xix. This was the first day of Muir's journey, which he had began at Louisville, Kentucky.
Science quotes on:  |  Avenue (14)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessed (20)  |  Bower (2)  |  Branch (155)  |  Bright (81)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Green (65)  |  Kentucky (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Oak (16)  |  Portion (86)  |  Shade (35)  |  Soil (98)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Tree (269)

I think a strong claim can be made that the process of scientific discovery may be regarded as a form of art. This is best seen in the theoretical aspects of Physical Science. The mathematical theorist builds up on certain assumptions and according to well understood logical rules, step by step, a stately edifice, while his imaginative power brings out clearly the hidden relations between its parts. A well constructed theory is in some respects undoubtedly an artistic production. A fine example is the famous Kinetic Theory of Maxwell. ... The theory of relativity by Einstein, quite apart from any question of its validity, cannot but be regarded as a magnificent work of art.
Responding to the toast, 'Science!' at the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1932.)
Quoted in Lawrence Badash, 'Ernest Rutherford and Theoretical Physics,' in Robert Kargon and Peter Achinstein (eds.) Kelvin's Baltimore Lectures and Modern Theoretical Physics: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives (1987), 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  According (236)  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Best (467)  |  Build (211)  |  Certain (557)  |  Claim (154)  |  Construct (129)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Form (976)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Theory (7)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Question (649)  |  Regard (312)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Respect (212)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Academy (3)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stately (12)  |  Step (234)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Strong (182)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Think (1122)  |  Toast (8)  |  Understood (155)  |  Validity (50)  |  Work (1402)

I well know what a spendidly great difference there is [between] a man and a bestia when I look at them from a point of view of morality. Man is the animal which the Creator has seen fit to honor with such a magnificent mind and has condescended to adopt as his favorite and for which he has prepared a nobler life; indeed, sent out for its salvation his only son; but all this belongs to another forum; it behooves me like a cobbler to stick to my last, in my own workshop, and as a naturalist to consider man and his body, for I know scarcely one feature by which man can be distinguished from apes, if it be not that all the apes have a gap between their fangs and their other teeth, which will be shown by the results of further investigation.
T. Fredbärj (ed.), Menniskans Cousiner (Valda Avhandlingar av Carl von Linné nr, 21) (1955), 4. Trans. Gunnar Broberg, 'Linnaeus's Classification of Man', in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Linnaeus: The Man and his Work (1983), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Behoove (6)  |  Belong (168)  |  Body (557)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creator (97)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gap (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Honor (57)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Result (700)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Teeth (43)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Workshop (14)

I would liken science and poetry in their natural independence to those binary stars, often different in colour, which Herschel’s telescope discovered to revolve round each other. “There is one light of the sun,” says St. Paul, “and another of the moon, and another of the stars: star differeth from star in glory.” It is so here. That star or sun, for it is both, with its cold, clear, white light, is SCIENCE: that other, with its gorgeous and ever-shifting hues and magnificent blaze, is POETRY. They revolve lovingly round each other in orbits of their own, pouring forth and drinking in the rays which they exchange; and they both also move round and shine towards that centre from which they came, even the throne of Him who is the Source of all truth and the Cause of all beauty.
'The Alleged Antagonism between Poetry and Chemistry.' In Jesse Aitken Wilson, Memoirs of George Wilson. Quoted in Natural History Society of Montreal, 'Reviews and Notices of Books,' The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist (1861) Vol. 6, 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Binary (12)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cold (115)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Drinking (21)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Light (635)  |  Moon (252)  |  Move (223)  |  Natural (810)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Ray (115)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Truth (1109)  |  White (132)  |  White Light (5)

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
'Jack London Credo' quoted, without citing a source, in Irving Shepard (ed.), Jack London’s Tales of Adventure (1956), Introduction, vii. (Irving Shepard was London's literary executor.) This sentiment, expressed two months before his death, was quoted by journalist Ernest J. Hopkins in the San Francisco Bulletin (2 Dec 1916), Pt. 2, 1. No direct source in London's writings has been found, though he wrote “I would rather be ashes than dust&rdquo. as an inscription in an autograph book. Biographer Clarice Stasz cautions that although Hopkins had visited the ranch just weeks before London's death, the journalist's quote (as was not uncommon in his time) is not necessarily reliable, or may be his own invention. See this comment in 'Apocrypha' appended to Jack London, The Call Of The Wild (eBookEden.com).
Science quotes on:  |  Ash (21)  |  Atom (381)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Burn (99)  |  Day (43)  |  Death (406)  |  Dry (65)  |  Dust (68)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Function (235)  |  Glow (15)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meteor (19)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Planet (402)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Proper (150)  |  Rot (9)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Spark (32)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trying (144)  |  Use (771)  |  Waste (109)

If needed to give a comparison expressing my feelings about the science of life, I would say that it is a magnificent reception room, resplendent with light, which one can only reach by passing through a long and dreadful kitchen.
In Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865), 23. From the original French, “S’il fallait donner une comparaison qui exprimât mon sentiment sur la science de la vie, je dirais que c’est un salon superbe tout resplendissant de lumière, dans lequel on ne peut parvenir qu’en passant par une longue et affreuse cuisine.” English version by Webmaster using Google Translate. This version has additional context than the customary translation, elsewhere on this web page, that begins, “The science of life is a superb….”
Science quotes on:  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Kitchen (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Resplendent (3)

Imagination, as well as reason, is necessary to perfection of the philosophical mind. A rapidity of combination, a power of perceiving analogies, and of comparing them by facts, is the creative source of discovery. Discrimination and delicacy of sensation, so important in physical research, are other words for taste; and the love of nature is the same passion, as the love of the magnificent, the sublime and the beautiful.
In Parallels Between Art and Science (1807).
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Combination (150)  |  Creative (144)  |  Delicacy (8)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Discrimination (9)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passion (121)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reason (766)  |  Research (753)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Taste (93)  |  Word (650)

In space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns, no worse and no less than this globe of ours. For no reasonable mind can assume that heavenly bodies that may be far more magnificent than ours would not bear upon them creatures similar or even superior to those upon our human earth.
As quoted in Dave Goldberg, The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality (2013), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Bear (162)  |  Body (557)  |  Circling (2)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Countless (39)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dark (145)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Globe (51)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Human (1512)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Light (635)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Numberless (3)  |  Planet (402)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Similar (36)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Sun (407)  |  Superior (88)

It is contrary to the usual order of things, that events so harmonious as those of the system of the world, should depend on such diversified agents as are supposed to exist in our artificial arrangements; and there is reason to anticipate a great reduction in the number of undecompounded bodies, and to expect that the analogies of nature will be found conformable to the refined operations of art. The more the phenomena of the universe are studied, the more distinct their connection appears, and the more simple their causes, the more magnificent their design, and the more wonderful the wisdom and power of their Author.
Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812), in J. Davy (ed.), The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy(1839-40), Vol. 4, 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Art (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Cause (561)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Depend (238)  |  Design (203)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Simple (426)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

It is obvious that man dwells in a splendid universe, a magnificent expanse of earth and sky and heaven, which manifestly is built on a majestic plan, maintains some mighty design, though man himself cannot grasp it. Yet for him it is not a pleasant or satisfying world. In his few moments of respite from labor or from his enemies, he dreams that this very universe might indeed be perfect, its laws operating just as now they seem to do, and yet he and it somehow be in full accord. The very ease with which he can frame this image to himself makes the reality all the more mocking. ... It is only too clear that man is not at home in this universe, and yet he is not good enough to deserve a better.
In The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939, 1954), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  Better (493)  |  Clear (111)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Dwelling (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ease (40)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Enough (341)  |  Expanse (6)  |  Frame (26)  |  Good (906)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Himself (461)  |  Home (184)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Labor (200)  |  Law (913)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mocking (4)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Operating (4)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Plan (122)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Reality (274)  |  Satisfying (5)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sky (174)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

It is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe that the species of creatures should, by gentle degrees, ascend upward from us toward His perfection, as we see them gradually descend from us downward.
In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1849), Book 3, Chap 6, Sec. 12, 326.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascend (30)  |  Creature (242)  |  Degree (277)  |  Descend (49)  |  Downward (4)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Perfection (131)  |  See (1094)  |  Species (435)  |  Universe (900)  |  Upward (44)

Logic it is called [referring to Whitehead and Russell’s Principia Mathematica] and logic it is, the logic of propositions and functions and classes and relations, by far the greatest (not merely the biggest) logic that our planet has produced, so much that is new in matter and in manner; but it is also mathematics, a prolegomenon to the science, yet itself mathematics in its most genuine sense, differing from other parts of the science only in the respects that it surpasses these in fundamentally, generality and precision, and lacks traditionality. Few will read it, but all will feel its effect, for behind it is the urgence and push of a magnificent past: two thousand five hundred years of record and yet longer tradition of human endeavor to think aright.
In Science (1912), 35, 110, from his book review on Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, Principia Mathematica.
Science quotes on:  |  Aright (3)  |  Class (168)  |  Differ (88)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Function (235)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Generality (45)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Lack (127)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics And Logic (27)  |  Matter (821)  |  New (1273)  |  Past (355)  |  Planet (402)  |  Precision (72)  |  Principia Mathematica (2)  |  Produce (117)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Push (66)  |  Read (308)  |  Record (161)  |  Relation (166)  |  Bertrand Russell (198)  |  Sense (785)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Urgent (15)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)  |  Year (963)

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

Seneca, Troades, II, 4-6
Insulting chance ne'er call'd with louder voice,
On swelling mortals to be proud no more.
Of the innumerable authors whose performances are thus treasured up in magnificent obscurity, most are forgotten, because they never deserved to be remembered, and owed the honours which they have once obtained, not to judgment or to genius, to labour or to art, but to the prejudice of faction, the stratagem of intrigue, or the servility of adulation.
Nothing is more common than to find men whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries, as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science. Curiosity is naturally excited, their volumes after long enquiry are found, but seldom reward the labour of the search. Every period of time has produced these bubbles of artificial fame, which are kept up a while by the breath of fashion and then break at once and are annihilated. The learned often bewail the loss of ancient writers whose characters have survived their works; but perhaps if we could now retrieve them we should find them only the Granvilles, Montagus, Stepneys, and Sheffields of their time, and wonder by what infatuation or caprice they could be raised to notice.
It cannot, however, be denied, that many have sunk into oblivion, whom it were unjust to number with this despicable class. Various kinds of literary fame seem destined to various measures of duration. Some spread into exuberance with a very speedy growth, but soon wither and decay; some rise more slowly, but last long. Parnassus has its flowers of transient fragrance as well as its oaks of towering height, and its laurels of eternal verdure.
The Rambler, Number 106, 23 Mar 1751. In W. J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (eds.), The Rambler (1969), Vol. 2, 200-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Art (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Authority (99)  |  Break (109)  |  Breath (61)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Call (781)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decree (9)  |  Delight (111)  |  Destined (42)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Faction (4)  |  Fame (51)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Genius (301)  |  Growth (200)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Library (53)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Measure (241)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Oak (16)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Performance (51)  |  Period (200)  |  Perpetuity (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Produced (187)  |  Remember (189)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Side (236)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spread (86)  |  Statue (17)  |  Striking (48)  |  Time (1911)  |  Towering (11)  |  Transient (13)  |  Vain (86)  |  Various (205)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wit (61)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

Of agitating good roads there is no end, and perhaps this is as it should be, but I think you'll agree that it is high time to agitate less and build more. [Here is] a plan whereby the automobile industry of America can build a magnificent “Appian Way” from New York to San Francisco, having it completed by May 1, 1915 and present it to the people of the United States.
From letter (1912) to Elbert Hubbard. In the Lincoln Highway Association, The Lincoln Highway: the Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History (1935), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Build (211)  |  Completed (30)  |  End (603)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Industry (159)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Present (630)  |  Road (71)  |  San Francisco (3)  |  State (505)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  U.S.A. (7)  |  Way (1214)

Oh, most magnificent and noble Nature!
Have I not worshipped thee with such a love
As never mortal man before displayed?
Adored thee in thy majesty of visible creation,
And searched into thy hidden and mysterious ways
As Poet, as Philosopher, as Sage?
A late fragment, probably written when he knew he was dying, in Fragmentary Remains (1858), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Creation (350)  |  Display (59)  |  Love (328)  |  Majesty (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Noble (93)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poem (104)  |  Research (753)  |  Sage (25)  |  Search (175)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)

On 17th July there came to us at Potsdam the eagerly-awaited news of the trial of the atomic bomb in the [New] Mexican desert. Success beyond all dreams crowded this sombre, magnificent venture of our American allies. The detailed reports ... could leave no doubt in the minds of the very few who were informed, that we were in the presence of a new factor in human affairs, and possessed of powers which were irresistible.
From Churchill's final review of the war and his first major speech as Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons (16 Aug 1945). In Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963 (1974), Vol. 1, 7210.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Ally (7)  |  American (56)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Desert (59)  |  Detail (150)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (222)  |  Factor (47)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inform (50)  |  Information (173)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Los Alamos (6)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Presence (63)  |  Report (42)  |  Sombre (2)  |  Success (327)  |  Test (221)  |  Trial (59)  |  Trinity (9)  |  Venture (19)

On the terrace of the Pepiniere, the 150 pupils of the Institut Chemique talk chemistry as they leave the auditoria and the laboratory. The echoes of the magnificent public garden of the city of Nancy make the words reverberate; coupling, condensation, grignardization. Moreover, their clothes stay impregnated with strong and characteristic odours; we follow the initiates of Hermes by their scent. In such an environment, how is it possible not to be productive?
Charles Courtot, 'Notice sur la vie de Victor Grignard', Bulletin Societé Chemie, 1936, 3, 1445. Trans. in Mary Jo Nye, Science in the Provinces (1986),184.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  City (87)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Environment (239)  |  Follow (389)  |  Garden (64)  |  Initiate (13)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Possible (560)  |  Productive (37)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Scent (7)  |  Strong (182)  |  Word (650)

Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endangers its cargo.
Proposed summation written for the Scopes Monkey Trial (1925), in Genevieve Forbes Herrick and John Origen Herrick ,The Life of William Jennings Bryan (1925), 405. This speech was prepared for delivery at the trial, but was never heard there, as both sides mutually agreed to forego arguments to the jury.
Science quotes on:  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Compass (37)  |  Construct (129)  |  Control (182)  |  Danger (127)  |  Element (322)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Force (497)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Machine (271)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Moral (203)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Protect (65)  |  Protection (41)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Rudder (4)  |  Ship (69)  |  Society (350)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Storm (56)  |  Supply (100)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Toss (8)  |  Unproven (5)  |  Vessel (63)

Since the examination of consistency is a task that cannot be avoided, it appears necessary to axiomatize logic itself and to prove that number theory and set theory are only parts of logic. This method was prepared long ago (not least by Frege’s profound investigations); it has been most successfully explained by the acute mathematician and logician Russell. One could regard the completion of this magnificent Russellian enterprise of the axiomatization of logic as the crowning achievement of the work of axiomatization as a whole.
Address (11 Sep 1917), 'Axiomatisches Denken' delivered before the Swiss Mathematical Society in Zürich. Translated by Ewald as 'Axiomatic Thought', (1918), in William Bragg Ewald, From Kant to Hilbert (1996), Vol. 2, 1113.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Acute (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Completion (23)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Crown (39)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Examination (102)  |  Explain (334)  |  Gottlob Frege (12)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Least (75)  |  Logic (311)  |  Logician (18)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Number Theory (6)  |  Prepared (5)  |  Profound (105)  |  Prove (261)  |  Regard (312)  |  Bertrand Russell (198)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Theory (6)  |  Successful (134)  |  Task (152)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.
[Written when the first manned mission to the Moon, Apollo 11, landed (20 Jul 1969).]
'Why on Earth Are We There? Because It's Impossible', New York Times (21 Jul 1969), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Agony (7)  |  Apollo 11 (7)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Billion (104)  |  Bungler (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Damned (4)  |  First (1302)  |  Last (425)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mission (23)  |  Money (178)  |  Moon (252)  |  Office (71)  |  Poor (139)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Sky (174)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Wire (36)

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.
In Louis Klopsch, Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1896), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Both (496)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Descend (49)  |  Human (1512)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Speak (240)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Will (2350)

The discoveries of Darwin, himself a magnificent field naturalist, had the remarkable effect of sending the whole zoological world flocking indoors, where they remained hard at work for fifty years or more, and whence they are now beginning to put forth cautious heads into the open air.
(1960)
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Field (378)  |  Field Naturalist (3)  |  Hard (246)  |  Himself (461)  |  More (2558)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Open (277)  |  Remain (355)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Zoologist (12)  |  Zoology (38)

The idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still obtained, and there was as yet no real knowledge of their extent and condition. The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter for private enterprise alone; and our magnificent river system, with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt with by the National Government not as a unit, but as a disconnected series of pork-barrel problems, whose only real interest was in their effect on the re-election or defeat of a Congressman here and there —a theory which, I regret to say, still obtains.
The Works of Theodore Roosevelt. Vol. 20: Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography (1926), 386.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arid (6)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Effect (414)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Extent (142)  |  Government (116)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Pork (2)  |  Problem (731)  |  Regret (31)  |  River (140)  |  Say (989)  |  Series (153)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Welfare (30)

The late Mr. David Hume, in his posthumous works, places the powers of generation much above those of our boasted reason; and adds, that reason can only make a machine, as a clock or a ship, but the power of generation makes the maker of the machine; … he concludes, that the world itself might have been generated, rather than created; that is, it might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fiat.—What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE GREAT ARCHITECT! THE CAUSE OF CAUSES! PARENT OF PARENTS! ENS ENTIUM!
For if we may compare infinities, it would seem to require a greater infinity of power to cause the causes of effects, than to cause the effects themselves.
'Generation', Zoonomia (1794), Vol. 1, 509. Note that this passage was restated in a 1904 translation of a book by August Weismann. That rewording was given in quotation marks and attributed to Erasumus Darwin without reference to David Hume. In the reworded form, it is seen in a number of later works as a direct quote made by Erasmus Darwin. For that restated form see the webpage for August Weismann. Webmaster has checked the quotation on this webpage in the original Zoonomia, and is the only verbatim form found so far.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Almighty (23)  |  Arent (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Boast (22)  |  Cause (561)  |  Clock (51)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Creation (350)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Greater (288)  |   David Hume (34)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Late (119)  |  Machine (271)  |  Maker (34)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reason (766)  |  Require (229)  |  Ship (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Themselves (433)  |   August Weismann, (11)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The magnificent title of the Functional School of Anthropology has been bestowed on myself, in a way on myself, and to a large extent out of my own sense of irresponsibility.
In A. Kuper, Anthropologists and Anthropology: The Modern British School (1983), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Biography (254)  |  Extent (142)  |  Large (398)  |  Myself (211)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Way (1214)

The main duty of the historian of mathematics, as well as his fondest privilege, is to explain the humanity of mathematics, to illustrate its greatness, beauty and dignity, and to describe how the incessant efforts and accumulated genius of many generations have built up that magnificent monument, the object of our most legitimate pride as men, and of our wonder, humility and thankfulness, as individuals.
In The Study of the History of Mathematics (1936), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Describe (132)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effort (243)  |  Explain (334)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genius (301)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Historian (59)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Humility (31)  |  Illustrate (14)  |  Incessant (9)  |  Individual (420)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Monument (45)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Pride (84)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Thankfulness (2)  |  Wonder (251)

The only thing harder to understand than a law of statistical origin would be a law that is not of statistical origin, for then there would be no way for it—or its progenitor principles—to come into being. On the other hand, when we view each of the laws of physics—and no laws are more magnificent in scope or better tested—as at bottom statistical in character, then we are at last able to forego the idea of a law that endures from everlasting to everlasting.
In 'Law without Law' (1979), in John Archibald Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek (eds.), Quantum Theory and Measurement (1983), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Character (259)  |  Idea (881)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Progenitor (5)  |  Scope (44)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)

There is a strange disparity between the sciences of inert matter and those of life. Astronomy, mechanics, and physics are based on concepts which can be expressed, tersely and elegantly, in mathematical language. They have built up a universe as harmonious as the monuments of ancient Greece. They weave about it a magnificent texture of calculations and hypotheses. They search for reality beyond the realm of common thought up to unutterable abstractions consisting only of equations of symbols. Such is not the position of biological sciences. Those who investigate the phenomena of life are as if lost in an inextricable jungle, in the midst of a magic forest, whose countless trees unceasingly change their place and their shape. They are crushed under a mass of facts, which they can describe but are incapable of defining in algebraic equations.
Man the Unknown (1935), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Change (639)  |  Common (447)  |  Concept (242)  |  Countless (39)  |  Crush (19)  |  Describe (132)  |  Equation (138)  |  Express (192)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forest (161)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Inert (14)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Monument (45)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reality (274)  |  Realm (87)  |  Search (175)  |  Strange (160)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tree (269)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weave (21)

There is not perhaps another object in the heavens that presents us with such a variety of extraordinary phenomena as the planet Saturn: a magnificent globe, encompassed by a stupendous double ring: attended by seven satellites: ornamented with equatorial belts: compressed at the poles: turning upon its axis: mutually eclipsing its ring and satellites, and eclipsed by them: the most distant of the rings also turning upon its axis, and the same taking place with the farthest of the satellites: all the parts of the system of Saturn occasionally reflecting light to each other: the rings and moons illuminating the nights of the Saturnian: the globe and satellites enlightening the dark parts of the rings: and the planet and rings throwing back the sun's beams upon the moons, when they are deprived of them at the time of their conjunctions. (1805)
Quoted in John Vose, A System of Astronomy: On the Principles of Copernicus (1827), 66-67.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Back (395)  |  Beam (26)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Dark (145)  |  Enlightening (3)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Light (635)  |  Moon (252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Pole (49)  |  Present (630)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Throwing (17)  |  Time (1911)  |  Variety (138)

Think, for a moment, of a cheetah, a sleek, beautiful animal, one of the fastest on earth, which roams freely on the savannas of Africa. In its natural habitat, it is a magnificent animal, almost a work of art, unsurpassed in speed or grace by any other animal. Now, think of a cheetah that has been captured and thrown into a miserable cage in a zoo. It has lost its original grace and beauty, and is put on display for our amusement. We see only the broken spirit of the cheetah in the cage, not its original power and elegance. The cheetah can be compared to the laws of physics, which are beautiful in their natural setting. The natural habitat of the laws of physics is a higher-dimensional space-time. However, we can only measure the laws of physics when they have been broken and placed on display in a cage, which is our three-dimensional laboratory. We only see the cheetah when its grace and beauty have been stripped away.
In Hyperspace by Michio Kaku (1994).
Science quotes on:  |  Africa (38)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Animal (651)  |  Art (680)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Broken (56)  |  Cage (12)  |  Cheetah (2)  |  Display (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Grace (31)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Law (913)  |  Measure (241)  |  Moment (260)  |  Natural (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Power (771)  |  See (1094)  |  Setting (44)  |  Space (523)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Speed (66)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Think (1122)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

We believe one magnificent highway of this kind [the Lincoln Highway], in actual existence, will stimulate as nothing else could the building of enduring highways everywhere that will not only be a credit to the American people but that will also mean much to American agriculture and American commerce.
From Letter (24 Sep 1912) to his friend, the publisher Elbert Hubbard asking for help facilitating fund-raising. In Jane Watts Fisher, Fabulous Hoosier: A Story of American Achievement (1947), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  America (143)  |  Belief (615)  |  Building (158)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Credit (24)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Highway (15)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lincoln Highway (4)  |  Mean (810)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Stimulate (21)  |  Will (2350)

We shall find everywhere, that the several Species are linked together, and differ but in almost insensible degrees. And when we consider the infinite Power and Wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think, that it is suitable to the magnificent Harmony of the Universe, and the great Design and infinite Goodness of the Architect, that the Species of Creatures should also, by gentle degrees, ascend upward from us toward his infinite Perfection, as we see they gradually descend from us downwards.
In An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1689, 1706, 5th ed.), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Architect (32)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creature (242)  |  Degree (277)  |  Descend (49)  |  Design (203)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Downward (4)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Maker (34)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  See (1094)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Species (435)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Universe (900)  |  Upward (44)  |  Wisdom (235)

We used to be a source of fuel; we are increasingly becoming a sink. These supplies of foreign liquid fuel are no doubt vital to our industry, but our ever-increasing dependence upon them ought to arouse serious and timely reflection. The scientific utilisation, by liquefaction, pulverisation and other processes, or our vast and magnificent deposits of coal, constitutes a national object of prime importance.
Parliamentary Debate (24 Apr 1928). Quoted in Winston Churchill and Richard Langworth (ed.), Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2008), 469.
Science quotes on:  |  Becoming (96)  |  Coal (64)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Energy (373)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Importance (299)  |  Industry (159)  |  Liquefaction (2)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Object (438)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sink (38)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vital (89)

When the Heavens were a little blue Arch, stuck with Stars, methought the Universe was too straight and close: I was almost stifled for want of Air: but now it is enlarged in height and breadth, and a thousand Vortex’s taken in. I begin to breathe with more freedom, and I think the Universe to be incomparably more magnificent than it was before.
In A Plurality of Worlds (1688), 126, as translated by Mr. Glanvill.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Arch (12)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blue (63)  |  Breadth (15)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Close (77)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Height (33)  |  Incomparable (14)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stifled (2)  |  Straight (75)  |  Stuck (5)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vortex (10)  |  Want (504)

Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? … The simple answer runs: “Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.”
Address to students of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California (16 Feb 1931). In New York Times (17 Feb 1931), p. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Easier (53)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Run (158)  |  Save (126)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Simple (426)  |  Use (771)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)


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.