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: “Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index M > Category: Mark

Mark Quotes (47 quotes)

“Bitzer,” said Thomas Gradgrind. “Your definition of a horse.”
“Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth; namely, twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the Spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.” Thus (and much more) Bitzer.
“Now girl number twenty,” said Mr. Gradgrind. “You know what a horse is.”
Spoken by fictional character Thomas Gringrind in his schoolroom with pupil Bitzer, Hard Times, published in Household Words (1 Apr 1854), Vol. 36, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Coat (5)  |  Country (269)  |  Definition (238)  |  Eye (440)  |  Girl (38)  |  Hard (246)  |  Horse (78)  |  Incisive (4)  |  Iron (99)  |  Iron Age (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Marsh (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Quadruped (4)  |  Shed (6)  |  Spring (140)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thomas Gradgrind (2)  |  Tooth (32)

[The] complex pattern of the misallocation of credit for scientific work must quite evidently be described as “the Matthew effect,” for, as will be remembered, the Gospel According to St. Matthew puts it this way: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Put in less stately language, the Matthew effect consists of the accruing of greater increments of recognition for particular scientific contributions to scientists of considerable repute and the withholding of such recognition from scientists who have not yet made their mark.
'The Matthew Effect in Science', Science (1968), 159, 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  According (236)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Credit (24)  |  Description (89)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Give (208)  |  Gospel (8)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hath (2)  |  Increment (2)  |  Language (308)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Stately (12)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark’d, where on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
In 'A Noiseless Patient Spider', Broadway: A London Magazine (1868), reprinted in Leaves of Grass (5th ed., 1871, 1888), 343.
Science quotes on:  |  Entomology (9)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Filament (4)  |  Forth (14)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Launch (21)  |  Little (717)  |  Patient (209)  |  Promontory (3)  |  Speed (66)  |  Spider (14)  |  Stand (284)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Tireless (5)  |  Vast (188)

A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measurable. He lives with data that cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once. The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible. ... He becomes an equivalent of scientist, in the act of examining and sorting the things popping in [to his head], finding the marks of remote similarity, points of distant relationship, tiny irregularities that indicate that this one is really the same as that one over there only more important. Gauging the fit, he can meticulously place pieces of the universe together, in geometric configurations that are as beautiful and balanced as crystals.
In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1995), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Balance (82)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Data (162)  |  Definition (238)  |  Distance (171)  |  Engagement (9)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gauge (2)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Information (173)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Once (4)  |  Piece (39)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poet (97)  |  Point (584)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Remote (86)  |  Reproducibility (2)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Sort (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Universe (900)

A practical botanist will distinguish, at the first glance, the plant of different quarters of the globe, and yet will be at a loss to tell by what mark he detects them. There is, I know not what look—sinister, dry, obscure, in African plants; superb and elevated in the Asiatic; smooth and cheerful in the American; stunted and indurated in the Alpine.
Quoted in William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences (1847), Vol. 3, 355-356, citing ‘Philosophia Botanica’ (1751), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  African (11)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Cheerful (10)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Dry (65)  |  First (1302)  |  Glance (36)  |  Globe (51)  |  Know (1538)  |  Look (584)  |  Loss (117)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Plant (320)  |  Practical (225)  |  Quarter (6)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Tell (344)  |  Will (2350)

Algebra reverses the relative importance of the factors in ordinary language. It is essentially a written language, and it endeavors to exemplify in its written structures the patterns which it is its purpose to convey. The pattern of the marks on paper is a particular instance of the pattern to be conveyed to thought. The algebraic method is our best approach to the expression of necessity, by reason of its reduction of accident to the ghost-like character of the real variable.
In Science and Philosophy (1948), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Approach (112)  |  Best (467)  |  Character (259)  |  Convey (17)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exemplify (5)  |  Expression (181)  |  Factor (47)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Importance (299)  |  Instance (33)  |  Language (308)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particular (80)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Relative (42)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (995)  |  Variable (37)  |  Write (250)

All Nature bristles with the marks of interrogation—among the grass and the petals of flowers, amidst the feathers of birds and the hairs of mammals, on mountain and moorland, in sea and sky-everywhere. It is one of the joys of life to discover those marks of interrogation, these unsolved and half-solved problems and try to answer their questions.
In Riddles of Science (1932), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bird (163)  |  Bristle (3)  |  Discover (571)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Feather (13)  |  Flower (112)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hair (25)  |  Interrogation (5)  |  Joy (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Moorland (2)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Petal (4)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solved (2)  |  Try (296)  |  Unsolved (15)

Changes That Have Occurred in the Globe: When we have seen with our own eyes a mountain progressing into a plain; that is to say, an immense boulder separating from this mountain and covering the fields; an entire castle broken into pieces over the ground; a river swallowed up which then bursts out from its abyss; clear marks of a vast amount of water having once flooded regions now inhabited, and a hundred vestiges of other transformations, then we are much more willing to believe that great changes altered the face of the earth, than a Parisian lady who knows only that the place where her house was built was once a cultivated field. However, a lady from Naples who has seen the buried ruins of Herculaneum, is much less subject to the bias which leads us to believe that everything has always been as it is today.
From article 'Changements arrivées dans le globe', in Dictionnaire philosophique (1764), collected in Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire (1878), Vol. 2, 427-428. Translated by Ian Ellis, from the original French: “Changements arrivées dans le globe: Quand on a vu de ses yeux une montagne s’avancer dans une plaine, c’est-à-dire un immense rocher de cette montagne se détacher et couvrir des champs, un château tout entier enfoncé dans la terre, un fleuve englouti qui sort ensuite de son abîme, des marques indubitables qu’un vaste amas d’eau inondait autrefois un pays habité aujourd’hui, et cent vestiges d’autres révolutions, on est alors plus disposé à croire les grands changements qui ont altéré la face du monde, que ne l’est une dame de Paris qui sait seulement que la place où est bâtie sa maison était autrefois un champ labourable. Mais une dame de Naples, qui a vu sous terre les ruines d’Herculanum, est encore moins asservie au préjugé qui nous fait croire que tout a toujours été comme il est aujourd’hui.”
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Altered (32)  |  Amount (153)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bias (22)  |  Boulder (8)  |  Breaking (3)  |  Broken (56)  |  Built (7)  |  Buried (2)  |  Burst (41)  |  Castle (5)  |  Change (639)  |  Country (269)  |  Cover (40)  |  Covering (14)  |  Dire (6)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entire (50)  |  Erosion (20)  |  Everything (489)  |  Eye (440)  |  Face (214)  |  Field (378)  |  Flood (52)  |  Geologic History (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Herculaneum (4)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inhabitation (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lady (12)  |  Land (131)  |  Lead (391)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Move (223)  |  Naples (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paris (11)  |  Place (192)  |  Plain (34)  |  Plus (43)  |  River (140)  |  Rock (176)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Say (989)  |  Sinking (6)  |  Subject (543)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Today (321)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vestige (11)  |  Water (503)  |  Willing (44)

Definition of Mathematics.—It has now become apparent that the traditional field of mathematics in the province of discrete and continuous number can only be separated from the general abstract theory of classes and relations by a wavering and indeterminate line. Of course a discussion as to the mere application of a word easily degenerates into the most fruitless logomachy. It is open to any one to use any word in any sense. But on the assumption that “mathematics” is to denote a science well marked out by its subject matter and its methods from other topics of thought, and that at least it is to include all topics habitually assigned to it, there is now no option but to employ “mathematics” in the general sense of the “science concerned with the logical deduction of consequences from the general premisses of all reasoning.”
In article 'Mathematics', Encyclopedia Britannica (1911, 11th ed.), Vol. 17, 880. In the 2006 DVD edition of the encyclopedia, the definition of mathematics is given as “The science of structure, order, and relation that has evolved from elemental practices of counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects.” [Premiss is a variant form of “premise”. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Application (257)  |  Assign (15)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Become (821)  |  Class (168)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (413)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Denote (6)  |  Discrete (11)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Employ (115)  |  Field (378)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  General (521)  |  Habitual (5)  |  Include (93)  |  Indeterminate (4)  |  Logic (311)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Open (277)  |  Option (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Premise (40)  |  Province (37)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subject Matter (4)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Topic (23)  |  Traditional (16)  |  Use (771)  |  Waver (2)  |  Word (650)

Geology depends on impressions made by floods, earthquakes, volcanoes. The mountains tell the story of their oppressions and rebellions. The outstanding data of this science of Mother Earth are those furnished by the most violent impressions that mark an epoch in evolution
In I Am an Impure Thinker (1970), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Data (162)  |  Depend (238)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Flood (52)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geology (240)  |  Impression (118)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Oppression (6)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Rebellion (3)  |  Story (122)  |  Tell (344)  |  Violent (17)  |  Volcano (46)

Go to yon tower, where busy science plies
Her vast antennae, feeling through the skies
That little vernier on whose slender lines
The midnight taper trembles as it shines,
A silent index, tracks the planets’ march
In all their wanderings through the ethereal arch;
Tells through the mist where dazzled Mercury burns,
And marks the spot where Uranus returns.
From poem, pronounced to the Boston Mercantile Library Association (14 Oct, 1846), published as Urania: A Rhymed Lesson (1846), 9-10. [Note: This is too often seen online attributed incorrectly to Samuel Pierpont Langley, who quoted several lines from the poem in his New Astronomy (1888), without naming its actual original author. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Antenna (5)  |  Arch (12)  |  Burn (99)  |  Busy (32)  |  Dazzle (4)  |  Ethereal (9)  |  Index (5)  |  Line (100)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Mist (17)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Planet (402)  |  Return (133)  |  Shine (49)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sky (174)  |  Spot (19)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Tower (45)  |  Track (42)  |  Tremble (8)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vernier (2)  |  Wander (44)

History without the history of science, to alter slightly an apothegm of Lord Bacon, resembles a statue of Polyphemus without his eye—that very feature being left out which most marks the spirit and life of the person. My own thesis is complementary: science taught ... without a sense of history is robbed of those very qualities that make it worth teaching to the student of the humanities and the social sciences.
'The History of Science and the Teaching of Science', in I. Bernard Cohen and Fletcher G. Watson (eds.), General Education in Science (1952), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Being (1276)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feature (49)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lord (97)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Quality (139)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Sense (785)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Statue (17)  |  Student (317)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Worth (172)

I find more sure marks of the authenticity of the Bible than in any profane history whatever.
As written by Bishop Richard Watson, this anecdote was relayed to him by his former teacher, Dr. Robert Smith, late Master of Trinity College, who was told by Newton, while he was writing his Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. Quoted in Richard Watson, 'An Apology For Christianity', Bishop of Landaff’s Sermons on Public Occasions, and Tracts on Religious Subjects (1788), 286. At the time of publication, the author was Lord Bishop of Landaff and Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge. 'Apology' was one in a series of Letters addressed to Ed. Gibbon, Esq (author of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire first printed in 1776). Dr. Robert Smith (1689-2 Feb 1768) was a mathematician who helped to spread Isaac Newton’s ideas in Europe.
Science quotes on:  |  Authenticity (5)  |  Bible (105)  |  Find (1014)  |  History (716)  |  More (2558)  |  Profane (6)  |  Whatever (234)

I read once that the true mark of a pro—at anything—is that he understands, loves, and is good at even the drudgery of his profession.
In I Want to be a Mathematician: an Automathography (1985), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Drudgery (6)  |  Good (906)  |  Love (328)  |  Profession (108)  |  Professional (77)  |  Read (308)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)

If we view mathematical speculations with reference to their use, it appears that they should be divided into two classes. To the first belong those which furnish some marked advantage either to common life or to some art, and the value of such is usually determined by the magnitude of this advantage. The other class embraces those speculations which, though offering no direct advantage, are nevertheless valuable in that they extend the boundaries of analysis and increase our resources and skill. Now since many investigations, from which great advantage may be expected, must be abandoned solely because of the imperfection of analysis, no small value should be assigned to those speculations which promise to enlarge the field of anaylsis.
In Novi Comm. Petr., Vol. 4, Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appear (122)  |  Art (680)  |  Assign (15)  |  Belong (168)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Determine (152)  |  Direct (228)  |  Divide (77)  |  Divided (50)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Expect (203)  |  Extend (129)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Increase (225)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Life (1870)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Promise (72)  |  Reference (33)  |  Resource (74)  |  Skill (116)  |  Small (489)  |  Solely (9)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)

If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it; Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
'Elegiac Verse' XI, In the Harbor: Ultima Thule—Part II (1882), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Gravity (140)

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Back (395)  |  Balance (82)  |  Ball (64)  |  Bounce (2)  |  Damage (38)  |  Drop (77)  |  Family (101)  |  Five (16)  |  Friend (180)  |  Game (104)  |  Glass (94)  |  Health (210)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Irrevocably (2)  |  Keep (104)  |  Life (1870)  |  Marked (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nick (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rubber (11)  |  Same (166)  |  Shatter (8)  |  Shattered (8)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strive (53)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Educate (14)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Thought (995)

It is the mark of great art that its appeal is universal and eternal.
In Art (1913), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Art (680)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Great (1610)  |  Universal (198)

It is to Titian we must turn our eyes to find excellence with regard to color, and light and shade, in the highest degree. He was both the first and the greatest master of this art. By a few strokes he knew how to mark the general image and character of whatever object he attempted.
In Discourse XI, Discourses on Painting and the Fine Arts: Delivered at the Royal Academy (1826), 209
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Character (259)  |  Color (155)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Image (97)  |  Light (635)  |  Master (182)  |  Object (438)  |  Shade (35)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Titian (2)

Let us now declare the means whereby our understanding can rise to knowledge without fear of error. There are two such means: intuition and deduction. By intuition I mean not the varying testimony of the senses, nor the deductive judgment of imagination naturally extravagant, but the conception of an attentive mind so distinct and so clear that no doubt remains to it with regard to that which it comprehends; or, what amounts to the same thing, the self-evidencing conception of a sound and attentive mind, a conception which springs from the light of reason alone, and is more certain, because more simple, than deduction itself. …
It may perhaps be asked why to intuition we add this other mode of knowing, by deduction, that is to say, the process which, from something of which we have certain knowledge, draws consequences which necessarily follow therefrom. But we are obliged to admit this second step; for there are a great many things which, without being evident of themselves, nevertheless bear the marks of certainty if only they are deduced from true and incontestable principles by a continuous and uninterrupted movement of thought, with distinct intuition of each thing; just as we know that the last link of a long chain holds to the first, although we can not take in with one glance of the eye the intermediate links, provided that, after having run over them in succession, we can recall them all, each as being joined to its fellows, from the first up to the last. Thus we distinguish intuition from deduction, inasmuch as in the latter case there is conceived a certain progress or succession, while it is not so in the former; … whence it follows that primary propositions, derived immediately from principles, may be said to be known, according to the way we view them, now by intuition, now by deduction; although the principles themselves can be known only by intuition, the remote consequences only by deduction.
In Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Philosophy of Descartes. [Torrey] (1892), 64-65.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Add (42)  |  Admit (49)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amount (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chain (51)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Declare (48)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Derive (70)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Draw (140)  |  Error (339)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Incontestable (3)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Join (32)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Latter (21)  |  Let (64)  |  Light (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obliged (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recall (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (169)  |  Run (158)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Step (234)  |  Succession (80)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Therefrom (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whereby (2)  |  Why (491)

Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
Given as narrative, without quotation marks, in Eric Temple Bell, Mathematics, Queen and Servant of Science (1951, 1961), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Certain (557)  |  Game (104)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meaningless (17)  |  Paper (192)  |  Play (116)  |  Rule (307)  |  Simple (426)

Mediocre men often have the most acquired knowledge. It is in the darker. It is in the darker regions of science that great men are recognized; they are marked by ideas which light up phenomena hitherto obscure and carry science forward.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (reprint 1999), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Carry (130)  |  Dark (145)  |  Forward (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mediocre (14)  |  Mediocrity (8)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Region (40)  |  Understanding (527)

Montaigne simply turns his mind loose and writes whatever he feels like writing. Mostly, he wants to say that reason is not a special, unique gift of human beings, marking us off from the rest of nature.
In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1979), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Gift (105)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Mind (1377)  |   Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Special (188)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turning (5)  |  Unique (72)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Want (504)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

My mother, my dad and I left Cuba when I was two [January, 1959]. Castro had taken control by then, and life for many ordinary people had become very difficult. My dad had worked [as a personal bodyguard for the wife of Cuban president Batista], so he was a marked man. We moved to Miami, which is about as close to Cuba as you can get without being there. It’s a Cuba-centric society. I think a lot of Cubans moved to the US thinking everything would be perfect. Personally, I have to say that those early years were not particularly happy. A lot of people didn’t want us around, and I can remember seeing signs that said: “No children. No pets. No Cubans.” Things were not made easier by the fact that Dad had begun working for the US government. At the time he couldn’t really tell us what he was doing, because it was some sort of top-secret operation. He just said he wanted to fight against what was happening back at home. [Estefan’s father was one of the many Cuban exiles taking part in the ill-fated, anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro.] One night, Dad disappeared. I think he was so worried about telling my mother he was going that he just left her a note. There were rumors something was happening back home, but we didn’t really know where Dad had gone. It was a scary time for many Cubans. A lot of men were involved—lots of families were left without sons and fathers. By the time we found out what my dad had been doing, the attempted coup had taken place, on April 17, 1961. Initially he’d been training in Central America, but after the coup attempt he was captured and spent the next two years as a political prisoner in Cuba. That was probably the worst time for my mother and me. Not knowing what was going to happen to Dad. I was only a kid, but I had worked out where my dad was. My mother was trying to keep it a secret, so she used to tell me Dad was on a farm. Of course, I thought that she didn’t know what had really happened to him, so I used to keep up the pretense that Dad really was working on a farm. We used to do this whole pretending thing every day, trying to protect each other. Those two years had a terrible effect on my mother. She was very nervous, just going from church to church. Always carrying her rosary beads, praying her little heart out. She had her religion, and I had my music. Music was in our family. My mother was a singer, and on my father’s side there was a violinist and a pianist. My grandmother was a poet.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  America (143)  |  April (9)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bay Of Pigs (2)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capture (11)  |  Carry (130)  |  Fidel Castro (3)  |  Central (81)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Church (64)  |  Close (77)  |  Control (182)  |  Coup (2)  |  Course (413)  |  Cuba (2)  |  Dad (4)  |  Dictator (3)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Early (196)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exile (6)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Family (101)  |  Farm (28)  |  Father (113)  |  Fight (49)  |  Find (1014)  |  Government (116)  |  Grandmother (4)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Happening (59)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heart (243)  |  Home (184)  |  Invasion (9)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kid (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mother (116)  |  Move (223)  |  Music (133)  |  Nervous (7)  |  Next (238)  |  Night (133)  |  Note (39)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Operation (221)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrow (5)  |  Part (235)  |  Particularly (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Personal (75)  |  Personally (7)  |  Pet (10)  |  Pianist (2)  |  Place (192)  |  Poet (97)  |  Political (124)  |  Pray (19)  |  President (36)  |  Pretence (7)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Probably (50)  |  Protect (65)  |  Really (77)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rumour (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Scary (3)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Side (236)  |  Sign (63)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Son (25)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Tell (344)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Training (92)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wife (41)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)  |  Worst (57)  |  Year (963)

Numbers have neither substance, nor meaning, nor qualities. They are nothing but marks, and all that is in them we have put into them by the simple rule of straight succession.
In 'Mathematics and the Laws of Nature', The Armchair Science Reader (1959), 301.
Science quotes on:  |  Meaning (244)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rule (307)  |  Simple (426)  |  Straight (75)  |  Substance (253)  |  Succession (80)

Old and new put their stamp to everything in Nature. The snowflake that is now falling is marked by both. The present moment gives the motion and the color of the flake, Antiquity its form and properties. All things wear a lustre which is the gift of the present, and a tarnish of time.
Epigraph for chapter 'Quotation and Originality', in Letters and Social Aims (1875, 1917), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Both (496)  |  Color (155)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flake (7)  |  Form (976)  |  Gift (105)  |  Give (208)  |  Lustre (3)  |  Marked (55)  |  Moment (260)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Present (630)  |  Property (177)  |  Snowflake (15)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Tarnish (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wear (20)

Picture yourself during the early 1920's inside the dome of the [Mount Wilson Observatory]. … [Milton] Humason is showing [Harlow] Shapley stars he had found in the Andromeda Nebula that appeared and disappeared on photographs of that object. The famous astronomer very patiently explains that these objects could not be stars because the Nebula was a nearby gaseous cloud within our own Milky Way system. Shapley takes his handkerchief from his pocket and wipes the identifying marks off the back of the photographic plate.
Of course, Hubble came along in 1924 and showed that it was just these Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Nebula which proved it was a separate galaxy system.
In Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies (1998), 168. Arp writes that this was “a piece of real history which I happen to know because it was told to me by one of the participants. It dramatically illustrate the critical role of discordant evidence.”
Science quotes on:  |  Andromeda (2)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Back (395)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Course (413)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Dome (9)  |  Early (196)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Handkerchief (2)  |  Edwin Powell Hubble (29)  |  Identification (20)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount Wilson (2)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Object (438)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Picture (148)  |  Selection Effect (2)  |  Separate (151)  |  Harlow Shapley (13)  |  Show (353)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Variable (37)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wipe (6)

Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.
Quoted in interview by Tim Adams, 'This much I know: A.C. Grayling', The Observer (4 Jul 2009).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Embrace (47)  |  End (603)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Without (13)

Sir,—The Planet [Neptune] whose position you marked out actually exists. On the day on which your letter reached me, I found a star of the eighth magnitude, which was not recorded in the excellent map designed by Dr. Bremiker, containing the twenty-first hour of the collection published by the Royal Academy of Berlin. The observation of the succeeding day showed it to be the Planet of which we were in quest.
Letter, from Berlin (25 Sep 1846). In John Pringle Nichol, The Planet Neptune: An Exposition and History (1848), 89. Galle thus confirmed the existence of the planet Neptune, found at the position predicted in a letter he had just received from Urbain Le Verrier.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Collection (68)  |  Design (203)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Hour (192)  |  Letter (117)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Map (50)  |  Marked (55)  |  Neptune (13)  |  Observation (593)  |  Planet (402)  |  Position (83)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Quest (39)  |  Reach (286)  |  Record (161)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Academy (3)  |  Show (353)  |  Star (460)  |  Succeeding (14)

So many people today–and even professional scientists–seem to me like someone who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest . A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is–in my opinion–the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.
In unpublished Letter (7 Dec 1944) to R.A. Thornton, Einstein Archive, EA 6-574, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. As quoted and cited in Don A. Howard, 'Albert Einstein as a Philosopher of Science', Physics Today (Dec 2006), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Artisan (9)  |  Background (44)  |  Create (245)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Forest (161)  |  Generation (256)  |  Give (208)  |  Historic (7)  |  Independence (37)  |  Insight (107)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mere (86)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opinion (291)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Professional (77)  |  Real (159)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeker (8)  |  Seem (150)  |  Someone (24)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Tree (269)  |  Truth (1109)

That so few now dare to eccentric, marks the chief danger of our time.
From On Liberty (1859), 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Chief (99)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dare (55)  |  Eccentric (11)  |  Time (1911)

The discovery in 1846 of the planet Neptune was a dramatic and spectacular achievement of mathematical astronomy. The very existence of this new member of the solar system, and its exact location, were demonstrated with pencil and paper; there was left to observers only the routine task of pointing their telescopes at the spot the mathematicians had marked.
In J.R. Newman (ed.), 'Commentary on John Couch Adams', The World of Mathematics (1956), 820.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Exact (75)  |  Existence (481)  |  Location (15)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Neptune (13)  |  New (1273)  |  Observer (48)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Planet (402)  |  Point (584)  |  Routine (26)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Spot (19)  |  System (545)  |  Task (152)  |  Telescope (106)

The largest land animal is the elephant, and it is the nearest to man in intelligence: it understands the language of its country and obeys orders, remembers duties that it has been taught, is pleased by affection and by marks of honour, nay more it possesses virtues rare even in man, honesty, wisdom, justice, also respect for the stars and reverence for the sun and moon.
Natural History, 8, I. Trans. H. Rackham, Pliny: Natural History (1947), Vol. 3, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Animal (651)  |  Country (269)  |  Duty (71)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Honour (58)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Justice (40)  |  Language (308)  |  Largest (39)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Obey (46)  |  Order (638)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Possession (68)  |  Rare (94)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  Respect (212)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wisdom (235)

The power that produced Man when the monkey was not up to the mark, can produce a higher creature than Man if Man does not come up to the mark. What it means is that if Man is to be saved, Man must save himself. There seems no compelling reason why he should be saved. He is by no means an ideal creature. At his present best many of his ways are so unpleasant that they are unmentionable in polite society, and so painful that he is compelled to pretend that pain is often a good. Nature holds no brief for the human experiment: it must stand or fall by its results. If Man will not serve, Nature will try another experiment.
Back to Methuselah: a Metabiological Pentateuch (1921), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Another (7)  |  Best (467)  |  Brief (37)  |  Compelling (11)  |  Creature (242)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fall (243)  |  Good (906)  |  Higher (37)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Polite (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Save (126)  |  Serve (64)  |  Society (350)  |  Stand (284)  |  Try (296)  |  Unpleasant (15)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.
In The Act of Creation (1964), 402.
Science quotes on:  |  Frontier (41)  |  Genius (301)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Originality (21)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Principal (69)

The problem for a writer of a text-book has come now, in fact, to be this—to write a book so neatly trimmed and compacted that no coach, on looking through it, can mark a single passage which the candidate for a minimum pass can safely omit. Some of these text-books I have seen, where the scientific matter has been, like the lady’s waist in the nursery song, compressed “so gent and sma’,” that the thickness barely, if at all, surpasses what is devoted to the publisher’s advertisements. We shall return, I verily believe, to the Compendium of Martianus Capella. The result of all this is that science, in the hands of specialists, soars higher and higher into the light of day, while educators and the educated are left more and more to wander in primeval darkness.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science (1885), Nature, 32, 448. [Martianus Capella, who flourished c.410-320, wrote a compendium of the seven liberal arts. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Advertisement (16)  |  Barely (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Candidate (8)  |  Coach (5)  |  Compact (13)  |  Compress (2)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Educator (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Higher (37)  |  Lady (12)  |  Light (635)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Minimum (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Neat (5)  |  Nursery (4)  |  Omit (12)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passage (52)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Problem (731)  |  Publisher (3)  |  Result (700)  |  Return (133)  |  Safely (7)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Single (365)  |  Soar (23)  |  Song (41)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Student (317)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Text-Book (5)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Through (846)  |  Trim (4)  |  Waist (2)  |  Wander (44)  |  Write (250)  |  Writer (90)

The realization that our small planet is only one of many worlds gives mankind the perspective it needs to realize sooner that our own world belongs to all of its creatures, that the Moon landing marks the end of our childhood as a race and the beginning of a newer and better civilization.
Webmaster, as yet, has not traced a primary source. Although this is widely quoted in print and online, each time is without source cited. An early example is Laurence J. Peter (ed.), Peter’s Quotations (1977, 1979), 539. The moon landing was on 20 Jul 1969, and Clarke may have contributed this quote during an interview after that day. Clarke had previously speculated, in 1951, on the possible words of a historian from the year 3000, “The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation. With the landing of the first spaceship on Mars and Venus, the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.” In 'Concerning Means and Ends', The Exploration of Space (1951), 195. This is contained in a longer quote on this webpage, beginning: “[What verdict would a historian of the year 3000…].
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belong (168)  |  Better (493)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Creature (242)  |  End (603)  |  Give (208)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moon Landing (9)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Planet (402)  |  Race (278)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Small (489)  |  Sooner (6)  |  World (1850)

The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that marks the man of genius in the scientific world.
As quoted in the Inaugural Sir Henry Tizard Memorial Lecture at Westminster School (21 Feb 1963) by Sir George Thomson 'Research in Theory and Practice'. As cited Ray Corrigan, Digital Decision Making: Back to the Future (2007), 142.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Choice (114)  |  Genius (301)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secret (216)  |  World (1850)

There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.
In North to the Orient (1935, 1963), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Break (109)  |  Channel (23)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  New (1273)  |  Pass (241)  |  Sea (326)  |  Second (66)  |  Show (353)  |  Signpost (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Uncharted (10)  |  Way (1214)

Three quarks for Muster Mark!
Sure he hasn’t got much of a bark
And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.
Part of a 13-line poem in Finnegan’s Wake (1939), Book 2, Chap. 4, 383. [Other rhyming lines ended with lark, park, ark, wark, and spark. The first line inspired Murray Gell-Mann to give the name “quarks” (which he pronounced “kworks”) for fundamental particles (of which at the time he thought there were three), believed in combination to form other known subatomic particles. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Muster (2)  |  Quark (9)

Time’s arrow of ‘just history’ marks each moment of time with a distinctive brand. But we cannot, in our quest to understand history, be satisfied only with a mark to recognize each moment and a guide to order events in temporal sequence. Uniqueness is the essence of history, but we also crave some underlying generality, some principles of order transcending the distinction of moments–lest we be driven mad by Borges’s vision of a new picture every two thousand pages in a book without end. We also need, in short, the immanence of time’s cycle.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arrow (22)  |  Book (413)  |  Brand (2)  |  Crave (10)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Drive (61)  |  End (603)  |  Essence (85)  |  Event (222)  |  Generality (45)  |  Guide (107)  |  History (716)  |  Lest (3)  |  Mad (54)  |  Moment (260)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Page (35)  |  Picture (148)  |  Principle (530)  |  Quest (39)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Short (200)  |  Temporal (4)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Two (936)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Understand (648)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Vision (127)

To produce any given motion, to spin a certain weight of cotton, or weave any quantity of linen, there is required steam; to produce the steam, fuel; and thus the price of fuel regulates effectively the cost of mechanical power. Abundance and cheapness of fuel are hence main ingredients in industrial success. It is for this reason that in England the active manufacturing districts mark, almost with geological accuracy, the limits of the coal fields.
In The Industrial Resources of Ireland (1844), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Active (80)  |  Certain (557)  |  Coal (64)  |  Cost (94)  |  Cotton (8)  |  District (11)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  England (43)  |  Field (378)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geology (240)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Limit (294)  |  Linen (8)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanical Power (2)  |  Motion (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Price (57)  |  Production (190)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Required (108)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Spin (26)  |  Spinning (18)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Power (10)  |  Success (327)  |  Weave (21)  |  Weight (140)

Truth and understanding are not such wares as to be monopolized and traded in by tickets and statutes and standards. We must not think to make a staple commodity of all the knowledge in the land, to mark and license it like our broadcloth and our woolpacks.
In Areopagitica: A speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenced printing to the Parliament of England (23 Nov 1644), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Cloth (6)  |  Commodity (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Land (131)  |  License (3)  |  Monopolize (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Standard (64)  |  Staple (3)  |  Statute (4)  |  Think (1122)  |  Ticket (5)  |  Trade (34)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Ware (2)  |  Wool (4)

We were very privileged to leave on the Moon a plaque ... saying, ‘For all Mankind’. Perhaps in the third millennium a wayward stranger will read the plaque at Tranquility Base. We’ll let history mark that this was the age in which that became a fact. I was struck this morning in New York by a proudly waved but uncarefully scribbled sign. It said, ‘Through you we touched the Moon.’ It was our privilege today to touch America. I suspect perhaps the most warm, genuine feeling that all of us could receive came through the cheers and shouts and, most of all, the smiles of our fellow Americans. We hope and think that those people shared our belief that this is the beginning of a new era—the beginning of an era when man understands the universe around him, and the beginning of the era when man understands himself.
Acceptance speech (13 Aug 1969), upon receiving the Medal of Freedom as a member of the first manned moon-landing mission. In James R. Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (2005), 569.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  America (143)  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Era (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Millenium (2)  |  Moon (252)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Plaque (2)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Read (308)  |  Receive (117)  |  Scribble (5)  |  Sharing (11)  |  Shout (25)  |  Sign (63)  |  Smile (34)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Today (321)  |  Touch (146)  |  Touching (16)  |  Tranquility Base (3)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wayward (3)  |  Will (2350)

Wherever you have seen God pass, mark that spot, and go and sit in that window again.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 165
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Pass (241)  |  See (1094)  |  Sit (51)  |  Spot (19)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Window (59)

Why are atoms so small? ... Many examples have been devised to bring this fact home to an audience, none of them more impressive than the one used by Lord Kelvin: Suppose that you could mark the molecules in a glass of water, then pour the contents of the glass into the ocean and stir the latter thoroughly so as to distribute the marked molecules uniformly throughout the seven seas; if you then took a glass of water anywhere out of the ocean, you would find in it about a hundred of your marked molecules.
What is life?: the Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (1944). Collected in What is Life? with Mind And Matter & Autobiographical Sketches (1967, 1992), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Audience (28)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Example (98)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Glass (94)  |  Home (184)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Lord (97)  |  Marked (55)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Sea (326)  |  Size (62)  |  Small (489)  |  Stir (23)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Water (503)  |  Why (491)


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.