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

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index O > Category: Outline

Outline Quotes (13 quotes)

Everything material which is the subject of knowledge has number, order, or position; and these are her first outlines for a sketch of the universe. If our feeble hands cannot follow out the details, still her part has been drawn with an unerring pen, and her work cannot be gainsaid. So wide is the range of mathematical sciences, so indefinitely may it extend beyond our actual powers of manipulation that at some moments we are inclined to fall down with even more than reverence before her majestic presence. But so strictly limited are her promises and powers, about so much that we might wish to know does she offer no information whatever, that at other moments we are fain to call her results but a vain thing, and to reject them as a stone where we had asked for bread. If one aspect of the subject encourages our hopes, so does the other tend to chasten our desires, and he is perhaps the wisest, and in the long run the happiest, among his fellows, who has learned not only this science, but also the larger lesson which it directly teaches, namely, to temper our aspirations to that which is possible, to moderate our desires to that which is attainable, to restrict our hopes to that of which accomplishment, if not immediately practicable, is at least distinctly within the range of conception.
From Presidential Address (Aug 1878) to the British Association, Dublin, published in the Report of the 48th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1878), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Actual (118)  |  Ask (420)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attainable (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bread (42)  |  Call (781)  |  Chasten (2)  |  Conception (160)  |  Desire (212)  |  Detail (150)  |  Directly (25)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (140)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Everything (489)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Hand (149)  |  Happy (108)  |  Hope (321)  |  Immediately (115)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Least (75)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Material (366)  |  Moderate (6)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Namely (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Number (710)  |  Offer (142)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Pen (21)  |  Position (83)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Practicable (2)  |  Presence (63)  |  Promise (72)  |  Range (104)  |  Reject (67)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Result (700)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teach (299)  |  Temper (12)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unerring (4)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vain (86)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wish (216)  |  Work (1402)

If we consider what science already has enabled men to know—the immensity of space, the fantastic philosophy of the stars, the infinite smallness of the composition of atoms, the macrocosm whereby we succeed only in creating outlines and translating a measure into numbers without our minds being able to form any concrete idea of it—we remain astounded by the enormous machinery of the universe.
Address (10 Sep 1934) to the International Congress of Electro-Radio Biology, Venice. In Associated Press, 'Life a Closed Book, Declares Marconi', New York Times (11 Sep 1934), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Astound (9)  |  Astounding (9)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Composition (86)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Creation (350)  |  Enabled (3)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Macrocosm (2)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Number (710)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Smallness (7)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Translation (21)  |  Universe (900)

If we imagine an observer to approach our planet from outer space, and, pushing aside the belts of red-brown clouds which obscure our atmosphere, to gaze for a whole day on the surface of the earth as it rotates beneath him, the feature, beyond all others most likely to arrest his attention would be the wedge-like outlines of the continents as they narrow away to the South.
The Face of the Earth (1904), Vol. 1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Arrest (9)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attention (196)  |  Belt (4)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Brown (23)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Continent (79)  |  Day (43)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Feature (49)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Observer (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer Space (6)  |  Planet (402)  |  Push (66)  |  Rotate (8)  |  Rotation (13)  |  South (39)  |  Space (523)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Wedge (3)  |  Whole (756)

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact or the description of one actual phenomenon to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect, but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through, it is not comprehended in its entireness.
In Walden (1878), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (118)  |  Bored (5)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Concur (2)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Course (413)  |  Description (89)  |  Detect (45)  |  Element (322)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infer (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instance (33)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Particular (80)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Really (77)  |  Result (700)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Wonderful (155)

Much of his [Clifford’s] best work was actually spoken before it was written. He gave most of his public lectures with no visible preparation beyond very short notes, and the outline seemed to be filled in without effort or hesitation. Afterwards he would revise the lecture from a shorthand writer’s report, or sometimes write down from memory almost exactly what he had said. It fell out now and then, however, that neither of these things was done; in such cases there is now no record of the lecture at all.
In Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays by William Kingdon Clifford(1879), Vol. 1, Introduction, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Down (455)  |  Effort (243)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Note (39)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Record (161)  |  Revise (6)  |  Short (200)  |  Shorthand (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Visible (87)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)  |  Writer (90)

One of the grandest figures that ever frequented Eastern Yorkshire was William Smith, the distinguished Father of English Geology. My boyish reminiscence of the old engineer, as he sketched a triangle on the flags of our yard, and taught me how to measure it, is very vivid. The drab knee-breeches and grey worsted stockings, the deep waistcoat, with its pockets well furnished with snuff—of which ample quantities continually disappeared within the finely chiselled nostril—and the dark coat with its rounded outline and somewhat quakerish cut, are all clearly present to my memory.
From Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Naturalist (1896), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Coat (5)  |  Cut (116)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deep (241)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Engineer (136)  |  English (35)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grandest (10)  |  Grey (10)  |  Measure (241)  |  Memory (144)  |  Nostril (4)  |  Old (499)  |  Pocket (11)  |  Present (630)  |  Quaker (2)  |  Reminiscence (4)  |  Sketch (8)  |  William Smith (5)  |  Snuff (2)  |  Teach (299)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Worst (57)  |  Yorkshire (2)

Scientific education is catholic; it embraces the whole field of human learning. No student can master all knowledge in the short years of his academic life, but a young man of ability and industry may reasonably hope to master the outlines of science, obtain a deep insight into the methods of scientific research, and at the same time secure an initiation into some one of the departments of science, in such a manner that he may fully appreciate the multitude of facts upon which scientific conclusions rest, and be prepared to enter the field of scientific research himself and make additions to the sum of human knowledge.
From address (1 Oct 1884), at inauguration of the Corcoran School of Science and Arts, Columbian University, Washington, D.C. Published in 'The Larger Import of Scientific Education', Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1885), 26, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Addition (70)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Catholic (18)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Deep (241)  |  Department (93)  |  Education (423)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enter (145)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Knowledge (2)  |  Industry (159)  |  Initiation (8)  |  Insight (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Master (182)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Short (200)  |  Student (317)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

The concept of number is the obvious distinction between the beast and man. Thanks to number, the cry becomes a song, noise acquires rhythm, the spring is transformed into a dance, force becomes dynamic, and outlines figures.
Epigraph, without citation, in Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behavior Technology Methods and Therapy (1966), Vol. 12, 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Beast (58)  |  Become (821)  |  Concept (242)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dance (35)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  Man (2252)  |  Noise (40)  |  Number (710)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Song (41)  |  Spring (140)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thanks (26)  |  Transform (74)

The effort of the economist is to see, to picture the interplay of economic elements. The more clearly cut these elements appear in his vision, the better; the more elements he can grasp and hold in his mind at once, the better. The economic world is a misty region. The first explorers used unaided vision. Mathematics is the lantern by which what before was dimly visible now looms up in firm, bold outlines. The old phantasmagoria disappear. We see better. We also see further.
In Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices (1892), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Better (493)  |  Bold (22)  |  Clear (111)  |  Cut (116)  |  Dim (11)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economist (20)  |  Effort (243)  |  Element (322)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Far (158)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Hold (96)  |  Interplay (9)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Loom (20)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Misty (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Phantasmagoria (3)  |  Picture (148)  |  Region (40)  |  See (1094)  |  Unaided (2)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

There is a noble vision of the great Castle of Mathematics, towering somewhere in the Platonic World of Ideas, which we humbly and devotedly discover (rather than invent). The greatest mathematicians manage to grasp outlines of the Grand Design, but even those to whom only a pattern on a small kitchen tile is revealed, can be blissfully happy. … Mathematics is a proto-text whose existence is only postulated but which nevertheless underlies all corrupted and fragmentary copies we are bound to deal with. The identity of the writer of this proto-text (or of the builder of the Castle) is anybody’s guess. …
In 'Mathematical Knowledge: Internal, Social, and Cultural Aspects', Mathematics As Metaphor: Selected Essays (2007), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Bound (120)  |  Builder (16)  |  Castle (5)  |  Copy (34)  |  Deal (192)  |  Design (203)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Discover (571)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fragmentary (8)  |  Grand (29)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Guess (67)  |  Happy (108)  |  Humble (54)  |  Humbly (8)  |  Idea (881)  |  Identity (19)  |  Invent (57)  |  Kitchen (14)  |  Manage (26)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Noble (93)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Platonic (4)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Small (489)  |  Text (16)  |  Tile (2)  |  Towering (11)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)  |  Writer (90)

When he [Wilhelm His] set a problem it was concisely stated; he outlined the general plan by which it was to be solved. All of the details were left to the pupil and it annoyed him to be consulted regarding them. He desired that the pupil should have full freedom to work out his own solution and aided him mainly through severe criticism.
As quoted, without citation, in Florence R. Sabin, Franklin Paine Mall: The Story of a Mind. (1934), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Annoy (5)  |  Concise (9)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Detail (150)  |  Freedom (145)  |  General (521)  |  Plan (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Severe (17)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  State (505)  |  Work (1402)

When the sun is covered by clouds, objects are less conspicuous, because there is little difference between the light and shade of the trees and the buildings being illuminated by the brightness of the atmosphere which surrounds the objects in such a way that the shadows are few, and these few fade away so that their outline is lost in haze.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brightness (12)  |  Building (158)  |  Buildings (5)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Cover (40)  |  Difference (355)  |  Fade (12)  |  Haze (3)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Less (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Lose (165)  |  Object (438)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surround (33)  |  Tree (269)  |  Way (1214)

While speaking, M. Bertrand is always in motion; now he seems in combat with some outside enemy, now he outlines with a gesture of the hand the figures he studies. Plainly he sees and he is eager to paint, this is why he calls gesture to his aid. With M. Hermite, it is just the opposite; his eyes seem to shun contact with the world; it is not without, it is within he seeks the vision of truth.
From La Valeur de la Science (1904), 14, as translated by George Bruce Halsted (trans.), in The Value of Science (1907), 16. From the French, “Tout en parlant, M. Bertrand est toujours en action; tantôt il semble aux prises avec quelque ennemi extérieur, tantôt il dessine d'un geste de la main les figures qu’il étudie. Évidemment, il voit et il cherche à peindre, c’est pour cela qu’il appelle le geste à son secours. Pour M. Hermite, c’est tout le contraire; ses yeux semblent fuir le contact du monde; ce n’est pas au dehors, c’est au dedans qu’il cherche la vision de la vérité.”
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Joseph Bertrand (6)  |  Call (781)  |  Combat (16)  |  Contact (66)  |  Eager (17)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Eye (440)  |  Figure (162)  |  Gesture (4)  |  Hand (149)  |  Charles Hermite (10)  |  Inside (30)  |  Motion (320)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paint (22)  |  See (1094)  |  Seek (218)  |  Shun (4)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Study (701)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vision (127)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)


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.