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: “I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Patience

Patience Quotes (58 quotes)


“Talent is a long patience.” We must look on what we wish to express long enough and with enough attention to discover an aspect that has not been seen and portrayed by another. There is, in everything, something unexplored, because we always use our eyes only with the recollection of what has been thought before on the subject we are contemplating.
From Pierre et Jean (1888), as translated by Alexina Loranger in 'Introduction', Pierre et Jean (Peter and John) (1890), 38-39. The opening words are quoted from Gustave Flaubert. From the original French, “Le talent est une longue patience. — Il s’agit de regarder tout ce qu’on veut exprimer assez longtemps et avec assez d’attention pour en découvrir un aspect qui n’ait été vu et dit par personne. Il y a, dans tout, de l’inexploré, parce que nous sommes habitués à ne nous servir de nos yeux qu’avec le souvenir de ce qu’on a pensé avant nous sur ce que nous contemplons.”
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attention (196)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Discover (571)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Express (192)  |  Eye (440)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Must (1525)  |  Portray (6)  |  Recollection (12)  |  See (1094)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (543)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Use (771)  |  Wish (216)

[Certain students] suppose that because science has penetrated the structure of the atom it can solve all the problems of the universe. ... They are known in every ... college as the most insufferable, cocksure know-it-alls. If you want to talk to them about poetry, they are likely to reply that the "emotive response" to poetry is only a conditioned reflex .... If they go on to be professional scientists, their sharp corners are rubbed down, but they undergo no fundamental change. They most decidedly are not set apart from the others by their intellectual integrity and faith, and their patient humility in front of the facts of nature.... They are uneducated, in the fullest sense of the word, and they certainly are no advertisement for the claims of science teachers.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 18-19.
Science quotes on:  |  Advertisement (16)  |  Atom (381)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (639)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cocksure (2)  |  College (71)  |  Condition (362)  |  Corner (59)  |  Down (455)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Humility (31)  |  Insufferable (2)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pentration (2)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Problem (731)  |  Profession (108)  |  Professional (77)  |  Reflex (14)  |  Reply (58)  |  Response (56)  |  Rub (4)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Structure (365)  |  Student (317)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Uneducated (9)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

“Le génie n'est qu'une longue patience”, a dit Buffon. Cela est bien incomplet. Le génie, c'est l'impatience dans les idées et la patience dans les faits : une imagination vive et un jugement calme; quelque chose comme un liquide en ébullition dans un vase qui reste toujours froid.
“Genius is just enduring patience,” said Buffon. This is far from complete. Genius is impatience in ideas and patience with the facts: a lively imagination and a calm judgment, rather like a liquid boiling in a cup that remains cold.
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 198. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Aphorism (22)  |  Boiling (3)  |  Buffon_Georges (2)  |  Calm (32)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cup (7)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Like (23)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Lively (17)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Vivid (25)

Astonishing how great the precautions that are needed in these delicate experiments. Patience. Patience.
In ‎Thomas Martin (ed.) Faraday’s Diary: Sept. 6, 1847 - Oct. 17, 1851 (1934), 228. Concerning his efforts (1849), to duplicate certain of Weber’s experiments. In the quote above, italics are added for words underlined in sentence as given 'The Scientific Grammar of Michael Faraday’s Diaries', Part I, 'The Classic of Science', A Classic and a Founder (1937), collected in Rosenstock-Huessy Papers (1981), Vol. 1, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Need (320)  |  Precaution (5)

Il est impossible de contempler le spectacle de l’univers étoilé sans se demander comment il s’est formé: nous devions peut-être attendre pour chercher une solution que nous ayons patiemment rassemblé les éléments …mais si nous étions si raisonnables, si nous étions curieux sans impatience, il est probable que nous n’avions jamais créé la Science et que nous nous serions toujours contentés de vivre notre petite vie. Notre esprit a donc reclamé impérieusement cette solution bien avant qu’elle fut mûre, et alors qu’il ne possédait que de vagues lueurs, lui permettant de la deviner plutôt que de l’attendre.
It is impossible to contemplate the spectacle of the starry universe without wondering how it was formed: perhaps we ought to wait, and not look for a solution until have patiently assembled the elements … but if we were so reasonable, if we were curious without impatience, it is probable we would never have created Science and we would always have been content with a trivial existence. Thus the mind has imperiously laid claim to this solution long before it was ripe, even while perceived in only faint glimmers—allowing us to guess a solution rather than wait for it.
From Leçons sur les Hypothèses Consmogoniques (1913) as cited in D. Ter Haar and A.G.W. Cameron, 'Historical Review of Theories of the Origin of the Solar System', collected in Robert Jastrow and A. G. W. Cameron (eds.), Origin of the Solar System: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, January 23-24, 1962, (1963), 3. 'Cosmogonical Hypotheses' (1913), collected in Harlow Shapley, Source Book in Astronomy, 1900-1950 (1960), 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Assemble (14)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Content (75)  |  Created (6)  |  Curious (95)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Faint (10)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Guess (67)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Perceived (4)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Ripe (5)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Star (460)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vague (50)  |  Wait (66)  |  Wonder (251)

La Patience cherche et le Génie trouve.
Patience seeks; Genius finds.
Anonymous
Quoted as from an unnamed “French writer” in Thomas Moore, Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1825), Vol. 1, 209. Translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Genius (301)  |  Seek (218)

Nicht Kunst und Wissenschaft allein,
Geduld will bei dem Werke sein.

Not Art and Science serve alone; Patience must in the work be shown.
Lines for character Mephistopheles in Faust I. As translated by Bayard Taylor in Lilian Dalbiac, Dictionary of Quotations (German) (1909, 256. Also translated as “Not art and science only, but patience will be required for the work”, in James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 298, No. 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Art (680)  |  Must (1525)  |  Required (108)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Patience passe science
Patience surpasses knowledge.
Motto
Motto under Coat of Arms of Viscount Falmouth. In The Royal Kalendar (1813), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Surpass (33)

Accordingly, we find Euler and D'Alembert devoting their talent and their patience to the establishment of the laws of rotation of the solid bodies. Lagrange has incorporated his own analysis of the problem with his general treatment of mechanics, and since his time M. Poinsôt has brought the subject under the power of a more searching analysis than that of the calculus, in which ideas take the place of symbols, and intelligent propositions supersede equations.
J. C. Maxwell on Louis Poinsôt (1777-1859) in 'On a Dynamical Top' (1857). In W. D. Niven (ed.), The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890), Vol. 1, 248.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Equation (138)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Find (1014)  |  General (521)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Law (913)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  More (2558)  |  Louis Poinsot (4)  |  Power (771)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Solid (119)  |  Subject (543)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Talent (99)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)

Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific imagination, a less lofty and dignified work than looking for something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries of science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement and patient long-continued labour in the minute sifting of numerical results.
Presidential inaugural address, to the General Meeting of the British Association, Edinburgh (2 Aug 1871). In Report of the Forty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1872), xci.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Grandest (10)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Looking (191)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Minute (129)  |  Minuteness (8)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Patient (209)  |  Result (700)  |  Reward (72)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Work (1402)

Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
In 'Education', The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Vol X: Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pace (18)  |  Secret (216)

An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better.
In Samuel Butler and Henry Festing Jones (ed.), 'Higgledy-Piggledy', The Note-books of Samuel Butler (1912, 1917), 216-217.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  First (1302)  |  Get Rid (4)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incoherency (2)  |  Incoherent (7)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Introduced (3)  |  Little (717)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Rid (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Shy (5)  |  Wear (20)

An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 216-217.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Condemn (44)  |  First (1302)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incoherent (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  See (1094)

At first men try with magic charms
To fertilize the earth,
To keep their flocks and herds from harm
And bring new young to birth.

Then to capricious gods they turn
To save from fire or flood;
Their smoking sacrifices burn
On altars red with blood.

Next bold philosopher and sage
A settled plan decree
And prove by thought or sacred page
What Nature ought to be.

But Nature smiles—a Sphinx-like smile
Watching their little day
She waits in patience for a while—
Their plans dissolve away.

Then come those humbler men of heart
With no completed scheme,
Content to play a modest part,
To test, observe, and dream.

Till out of chaos come in sight
Clear fragments of a Whole;
Man, learning Nature’s ways aright
Obeying, can control.
Epigraph in A History of Science and Its Relation with Philosophy & Religion (1968), vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Birth (154)  |  Blood (144)  |  Burn (99)  |  Capricious (9)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Clear (111)  |  Complete (209)  |  Content (75)  |  Control (182)  |  Decree (9)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Dream (222)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fertilize (4)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flock (4)  |  Flood (52)  |  Fragment (58)  |  God (776)  |  Harm (43)  |  Heart (243)  |  Humble (54)  |  Learn (672)  |  Magic (92)  |  Modest (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Obey (46)  |  Observe (179)  |  Page (35)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Plan (122)  |  Poem (104)  |  Prove (261)  |  Red (38)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Sage (25)  |  Save (126)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Settle (23)  |  Sight (135)  |  Smile (34)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Sphinx (2)  |  Test (221)  |  Thought (995)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wait (66)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Young (253)

Botany is the school for patience, and it’s amateurs learn resignation from daily disappointments.
In letter to Madame de Tessé (25 Apr 1788). In Thomas Jefferson Correspondence: Printed from the Originals (1916), 7. The errant apostrophe in “it’s” appears in more than one texts checked by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Amateur (22)  |  Botany (63)  |  Daily (91)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Learn (672)  |  Resignation (3)  |  School (227)

Buffon said unreservedly, "Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme." To those who asked how he achieved fame he replied: "By spending forty years of my life bent over my writing desk.”
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieved (2)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asked (2)  |  Bent (2)  |  Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (37)  |  Carried (2)  |  Desk (13)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fame (51)  |  Genius (301)  |  Life (1870)  |  Replied (2)  |  Simply (53)  |  Spending (24)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)

Chance throws peculiar conditions in everyone's way. If we apply intelligence, patience and special vision, we are rewarded with new creative breakthroughs.
Told to his Harvard students. As quoted, without citation, by Marcus Bach, 'Serendiptiy in the Business World', in The Rotarian (Oct 1981), 139, No. 4, 40. If you know a primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Chance (244)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creative (144)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  New (1273)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Reward (72)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Special (188)  |  Throw (45)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
From 'Progress of philosophical speculations. Preface to intended treatise De Interpretatione Naturæ (1603), in Francis Bacon and James Spedding (ed.), Works of Francis Bacon (1868), Vol. 3, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affectation (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chief (99)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enough (341)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fix (34)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Hate (68)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nimble (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Point (584)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Steady (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Versatile (6)

For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a push at chance and sufferance.
Much Ado about Nothing (1598-9), V, i.
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  Endurance (8)  |  God (776)  |  Never (1089)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Push (66)  |  Sufferance (2)  |  Toothache (3)

Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience.
Inaugural speech at the French Academy (1753). Quoted in Hans Theodore David, Arthur Mendel and Christoph Wolff, The New Bach Reader (1998), 20. Also seen translated as “Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme,” or shortened as “Genius is patience.” The latter is also sometimes seen attributed (incorrectly?) to Isaac Newton, for example, in Lady Isabel Burton, The Life of Captain Sir Richd F. Burton (1893), Vol. 1, 577. Webmaster has found no primary source from Newton. Also seen attributed to Santiago Ramon y Cajal, but he was only quoting Buffon, translated as “Genius is simply patience carried to the extreme,” in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 39. Translated from the original French, “Le génie n'est qu'une grande aptitude à la patience.”
Science quotes on:  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Nothing (1000)

Genius itself has been analyzed by the shrewdest observers into a higher capacity of attention. “Genius,” says Helvetius … “is nothing but a continued attention,” (une attention suivie). “Genius,” says Buffon, “is only a protracted patience,” (une longue patience). “In the exact sciences, at least,” says Cuvier, “it is the patience of a sound intellect, when invincible, which truly constitutes genius.” And Chesterfield has also observed, that “the power of applying an attention, steady and undissipated, to a single object, is the sure mark of a superior genius.”
In Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860), Vol. 1, 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (37)  |  Capacity (105)  |  The Earl of Chesterfield (4)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Genius (301)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Invincible (6)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Observed (149)  |  Power (771)  |  Protracted (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Steady (45)  |  Superior (88)  |  Truly (118)

Geology gives us a key to the patience of God.
Attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Geology (240)  |  God (776)

Her [Nettie Stevens] single-mindedness and devotion, combined with keen powers of observation; her thoughtfulness and patience, united to a well-balanced judgment, account, in part, for her remarkable accomplishment.
In obituary, 'The Scientific Work of Miss N.M. Steves', Science (11 Oct 1912), 36, No. 928, 470.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Account (195)  |  Combine (58)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Keen (10)  |  Observation (593)  |  Power (771)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Single (365)  |  Nettie Maria Stevens (4)  |  United (15)  |  Well-Balanced (2)

I have always liked horticulturists, people who make their living from orchards and gardens, whose hands are familiar with the feel of the bark, whose eyes are trained to distinguish the different varieties, who have a form memory. Their brains are not forever dealing with vague abstractions; they are satisfied with the romance which the seasons bring with them, and have the patience and fortitude to gamble their lives and fortunes in an industry which requires infinite patience, which raise hopes each spring and too often dashes them to pieces in fall. They are always conscious of sun and wind and rain; must always be alert lest they lose the chance of ploughing at the right moment, pruning at the right time, circumventing the attacks of insects and fungus diseases by quick decision and prompt action. They are manufacturers of a high order, whose business requires not only intelligence of a practical character, but necessitates an instinct for industry which is different from that required by the city dweller always within sight of other people and the sound of their voices. The successful horticulturist spends much time alone among his trees, away from the constant chatter of human beings.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Action (342)  |  Alert (13)  |  Alone (324)  |  Attack (86)  |  Bark (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Business (156)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  City (87)  |  Constant (148)  |  Decision (98)  |  Different (595)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feel (371)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fungus (8)  |  Garden (64)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Horticulture (10)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Industry (159)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Insect (89)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lose (165)  |  Memory (144)  |  Moment (260)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prompt (14)  |  Pruning (7)  |  Rain (70)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Right (473)  |  Romance (18)  |  Season (47)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spring (140)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sun (407)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vague (50)  |  Wind (141)

I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy.
P. Frank in 'Einstein's Philosophy of Science', Reviews of Modern Physics (1949).
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Easy (213)  |  Great (1610)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Number (710)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Wood (97)

I have no patience whatever with these gorilla damnifications of humanity.
[Referring to Charles Darwin.]
In William Howie Wylie , Thomas Carlyle: The Man and his Books (1881), 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Damnation (4)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Whatever (234)

I have no patience with attempts to identify science with measurement, which is but one of its tools, or with any definition of the scientist which would exclude a Darwin, a Pasteur or a Kekulé. The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. His are not those beautiful structures so delicately designed that a single flaw may cause the collapse of the whole. The scientist builds slowly and with a gross but solid kind of masonry. If dissatisfied with any of his work, even if it be near the very foundations, he can replace that part without damage to the remainder. On the whole, he is satisfied with his work, for while science may never be wholly right it certainly is never wholly wrong; and it seems to be improving from decade to decade.
The Anatomy of Science (1926), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Build (211)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Damage (38)  |  Decade (66)  |  Definition (238)  |  Design (203)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Improvement (117)  |  August Kekulé (14)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Masonry (4)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Next (238)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Remainder (7)  |  Right (473)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Single (365)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tool (129)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)

I have no patience with the doctrine of “pure science,”—that science is science only as it is uncontaminated by application in the arts of life: and I have no patience with the spirit that considers a piece of work to be legitimate only as it has direct bearing on the arts and affairs of men. We must discover all things that are discoverable and make a record of it: the application will take care of itself.
In 'The Survey Idea in Country Life', collected in John Phelan, Readings in Rural Sociology (1920), 480.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Care (203)  |  Consider (428)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Piece (39)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Record (161)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

I prefer the spagyric chemical physicians, for they do not consort with loafers or go about gorgeous in satins, silks and velvets, gold rings on their fingers, silver daggers hanging at their sides and white gloves on their hands, but they tend their work at the fire patiently day and night. They do not go promenading, but seek their recreation in the laboratory, wear plain learthern dress and aprons of hide upon which to wipe their hands, thrust their fingers amongst the coals, into dirt and rubbish and not into golden rings. They are sooty and dirty like the smiths and charcoal burners, and hence make little show, make not many words and gossip with their patients, do not highly praise their own remedies, for they well know that the work must praise the master, not the master praise his work. They well know that words and chatter do not help the sick nor cure them... Therefore they let such things alone and busy themselves with working with their fires and learning the steps of alchemy. These are distillation, solution, putrefaction, extraction, calcination, reverberation, sublimination, fixation, separation, reduction, coagulation, tinction, etc.
Quoted in R. Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 150. [Spagyric is a form of herbalism based on alchemic procedures of preparation.]
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Alone (324)  |  Apron (2)  |  Busy (32)  |  Calcination (4)  |  Charcoal (10)  |  Chatter (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Coagulation (5)  |  Coal (64)  |  Cure (124)  |  Dagger (3)  |  Day And Night (3)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extraction (10)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Glove (4)  |  Gold (101)  |  Golden (47)  |  Gorgeous (2)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Hand (149)  |  Help (116)  |  Hide (70)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Learning (291)  |  Leather (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Loafer (2)  |  Master (182)  |  Must (1525)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Praise (28)  |  Putrefaction (4)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Reverberation (3)  |  Ring (18)  |  Rubbish (12)  |  Satin (2)  |  Seek (218)  |  Separation (60)  |  Show (353)  |  Sick (83)  |  Side (236)  |  Silk (14)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smith (3)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soot (11)  |  Step (234)  |  Tend (124)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thrust (13)  |  Velvet (4)  |  White (132)  |  Wipe (6)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

If Bacon erred here [in valuing mathematics only for its uses], we must acknowledge that we greatly prefer his error to the opposite error of Plato. We have no patience with a philosophy which, like those Roman matrons who swallowed abortives in order to preserve their shapes, takes pains to be barren for fear of being homely.
In 'Lord Bacon', Edinburgh Review (Jul 1837). Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1857), Vol. 1, 396.
Science quotes on:  |  Abortive (2)  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Barren (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Error (339)  |  Fear (212)  |  Homely (2)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Pain (144)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Roman (39)  |  Shape (77)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)

In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying, that ‘a man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants,’ has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the hardships of life, my own and others. This feeling mercifully not only mitigates the sense of responsibility which so easily becomes paralysing, and it prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of life in which humour, above all, has its due place.
In The World As I See It (1934), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Accordance (10)  |  Act (278)  |  Become (821)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Conduce (2)  |  Consolation (9)  |  Continual (44)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Easily (36)  |  Everybody (72)  |  External (62)  |  Face (214)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Hardship (4)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humour (116)  |  Inner (72)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mitigate (5)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Place (192)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Say (989)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Schopenhauers (2)  |  Sense (785)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Spring (140)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  View (496)  |  View Of Life (7)  |  Will (2350)  |  Youth (109)

In physical science the discovery of new facts is open to every blockhead with patience, manual dexterity, and acute senses; it is less effectually promoted by genius than by co-operation, and more frequently the result of accident than of design.
In Review of 'An Account of the Life, Lectures, and Writings of William Cullen, M.D. Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of Edinburgh', The Edinburgh Review (1832), 55, 461.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Design (203)  |  Dexterity (8)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Operation (221)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (785)

In summary, all great work is the fruit of patience and perseverance, combined with tenacious concentration on a subject over a period of months or years.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Combined (3)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Great (1610)  |  Month (91)  |  Period (200)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Subject (543)  |  Summary (11)  |  Tenacious (2)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is often simple patience.
From 'The Efficiency of the Passive Virtues', New Life, Sermons for the New Life (1869), 412.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Power (771)  |  Simple (426)

LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  188.
Science quotes on:  |  Ear (69)  |  Faith (209)  |  Humour (116)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Tongue (44)

Logic can be patient, for it is eternal.
Quoted without citation in Desmond MacHale, Comic Sections (1993), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Eternal (113)  |  Logic (311)  |  Patient (209)

March 24, 1672. I saw the surgeon cut off the leg of a wounded sailor, the stout and gallant man enduring it with incredible patience without being bound to his chair as usual on such painful occasions. I had hardly courage enough to be present. Not being cut off high enough, the gangrene prevailed, and the second operation cost the poor creature his life.
Science quotes on:  |  Amputation (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chair (25)  |  Cost (94)  |  Courage (82)  |  Creature (242)  |  Cut (116)  |  Enough (341)  |  Gangrene (3)  |  High (370)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Leg (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  March (48)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Operation (221)  |  Poor (139)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Sailor (21)  |  Saw (160)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Wound (26)

Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it needs only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession, but which fill only a limited number of veins and lodes; it is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests; it is not a continent or an ocean, whose area can be mapped out and its contour defined: it is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer’s gaze; it is as incapable of being restricted within assigned boundaries or being reduced to definitions of permanent validity, as the consciousness of life, which seems to slumber in each monad, in every atom of matter, in each leaf and bud cell, and is forever ready to burst forth into new forms of vegetable and animal existence.
From Commemoration Day Address (22 Feb 1877) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, collected in The Collected Mathematical Papers: (1870-1883) (1909), 77-78.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Area (33)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Assign (15)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bind (26)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Brass (5)  |  Bud (6)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cell (146)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Content (75)  |  Continent (79)  |  Contour (3)  |  Cover (40)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Define (53)  |  Definition (238)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Lode (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mine (78)  |  Monad (2)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Possession (68)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Ransack (2)  |  Ready (43)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Seem (150)  |  Slumber (6)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (523)  |  Successive (73)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vein (27)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

My imagination would never have served me as it has, but for the habit of commonplace, humble, patient, daily, toiling, drudging attention
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Daily (91)  |  Habit (174)  |  Humble (54)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Never (1089)  |  Patient (209)

Nature could not err, but knew exactly and infallibly. Our function was to ask her questions, to listen patiently to the answers, and to understand them correctly.
And to this end we went out into the field, time and time again. Often at brief intervals we returned to the same outcrop where our Pythia, nature, opened her mouth from time to time to utter her equivocal oracles. Time and again we studied the same stratification, or the same interpenetration of rocks, and yet each time advanced one step further, because of what we had learned on the last visit, because the previous impression had had time to settle, or because this time our eyes were a little keener and now observed what hitherto had escaped them.
In Hans Cloos, Ernst Cloos (ed.) and Curt Dietz (ed.), Conversation With the Earth (1953, 1959), 28, as translated by E.B. Garside from the original German edition, Gespräch mit der Erde (1947).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Err (5)  |  Exact (75)  |  Field Trip (2)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Listen (81)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Question (649)  |  Stratification (2)  |  Study (701)

None of the myriad scientific papers I’d read prepared me for the patience and diligence that go into scientific research. None had prepared me for the acute attention to minutiae that keeps science accurate, and scientific integrity intact. Or for the tedium. … I accepted the idea that finding out you don’t like something can be invaluable.
Recalling undergraduate junior year tropical biology program exploring Costa Rica’s forest jungles. In 'Concentration Crisis', Brown Alumni Magazine (Jul-Aug 2007)
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Attention (196)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intact (9)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Minutiae (7)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Paper (192)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Read (308)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Tedium (3)

O you who believe!
Seek help in patience and prayer.
Truly! Allah is with the patient.
Quran
Surah al-Baqarah 2:153. Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 178
Science quotes on:  |  Allah (2)  |  Belief (615)  |  Help (116)  |  Patient (209)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Seek (218)  |  Truly (118)

Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight in cleverness.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Cleverness (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Tenacity (10)  |  Twice (20)  |  Weight (140)  |  Worth (172)

Patience is what you need in the Antarctic. Wait—Give wind and tide a chance to change.
Muttered by Byrd onboard the ship Bear while locked in Antarctic ice. Recalled by George Dufek, 'Admiral Byrd's Greatest Discovery', This Week: The National Sunday Magazine (7 Jul 1959), as cited in Lisle A.Rose, Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd (2008), 414.
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  Change (639)  |  Tide (37)  |  Wind (141)

Patience must first explore the depths where the pearl lies hid, before Genius boldly dives and brings it up full into light.
In Memoirs of the life of the Right Honorable Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1825), Vol. 1, 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Boldly (5)  |  Depth (97)  |  Dive (13)  |  Exploration (161)  |  First (1302)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pearl (8)

Probably among all the pursuits of the University, mathematics pre-eminently demand self-denial, patience, and perseverance from youth, precisely at that period when they have liberty to act for themselves, and when on account of obvious temptations, habits of restraint and application are peculiarly valuable.
In The Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Application (257)  |  Demand (131)  |  Denial (20)  |  Habit (174)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Peculiarly (4)  |  Period (200)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Preeminent (6)  |  Probably (50)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Self (268)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Themselves (433)  |  University (130)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Youth (109)

Science, regarded as the pursuit of truth, which can only be attained by patient and unprejudiced investigation, wherein nothing is to be attempted, nothing so minute as to be justly disregarded, must ever afford occupation of consummate interest, and subject of elevated meditation.
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1858), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Consummate (5)  |  Disregard (12)  |  Elevated (3)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mediation (4)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Minute (129)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Regard (312)  |  Subject (543)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unprejudiced (3)

Success in research needs four Gs: Glück, Geduld, Geschick und Geld. Luck, patience, skill and money.
Quoted in M. Perutz, 'Rita and the Four Gs', Nature, 1988, 332, 791.
Science quotes on:  |  Luck (44)  |  Money (178)  |  Research (753)  |  Skill (116)  |  Success (327)

The idea of an atom has been so constantly associated with incredible assumptions of infinite strength, absolute rigidity, mystical actions at a distance, and individuality, that chemists and many other reasonable naturalists of modern times, losing all patience with it, have dismissed it to the realms of metaphysics, and made it smaller than ‘anything we can conceive.’ But if atoms are inconceivably small, why are not all chemical actions infinitely swift? Chemistry is powerless to deal with this question, and many others of paramount importance, if barred by the hardness of its fundamental assumptions, from contemplating the atom as a real portion of matter occupying a finite space, and forming not an immeasurably small constituent of any palpable body.
Sir William Thomson and Peter Guthrie Tait, A Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1883), Vol. I, Part 2, 495.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Action (342)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Deal (192)  |  Distance (171)  |  Finite (60)  |  Forming (42)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Modern (402)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Other (2233)  |  Palpable (8)  |  Paramount (11)  |  Portion (86)  |  Question (649)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rigidity (5)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Strength (139)  |  Time (1911)  |  Why (491)

The laboratory work was the province of Dr Searle, an explosive, bearded Nemesis who struck terror into my heart. If one made a blunder one was sent to ‘stand in the corner’ like a naughty child. He had no patience with the women students. He said they disturbed the magnetic equipment, and more than once I heard him shout ‘Go and take off your corsets!’ for most girls wore these garments then, and steel was beginning to replace whalebone as a stiffening agent. For all his eccentricities, he gave us excellent training in all types of precise measurement and in the correct handling of data.
In Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections (1996), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Child (333)  |  Corner (59)  |  Correct (95)  |  Data (162)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Eccentricity (3)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Garment (13)  |  Girl (38)  |  Handling (7)  |  Heart (243)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Precise (71)  |  Province (37)  |  Shout (25)  |  Stand (284)  |  Steel (23)  |  Student (317)  |  Terror (32)  |  Training (92)  |  Type (171)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)

The longing to behold this pre-established harmony [of phenomena and theoretical principles] is the source of the inexhaustible patience and perseverance with which Planck has devoted himself ... The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.
Address (1918) for Max Planck's 60th birthday, at Physical Society, Berlin, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934), 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Daily (91)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Enable (122)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Intention (46)  |  Kind (564)  |  Longing (19)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Principle (530)  |  Program (57)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  State (505)  |  State Of Mind (4)  |  Straight (75)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worship (32)

The point [is] largely scientific in character …[concerning] the methods which can be invented or adopted or discovered to enable the Earth to control the Air, to enable defence from the ground to exercise control—indeed dominance—upon aeroplanes high above its surface. … science is always able to provide something. We were told that it was impossible to grapple with submarines, but methods were found … Many things were adopted in war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men’s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands.
[Remarks made in the House of Commons on 7 June 1935. His speculation was later proved correct with the subsequent development of radar during World War II, which was vital in the air defence of Britain.]
Quoting himself in The Second World War: The Gathering Storm (1948, 1986), Vol. 1, 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Air (366)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Brain (281)  |  Britain (26)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (182)  |  Defence (16)  |  Defense (26)  |  Demand (131)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enable (122)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Grapple (11)  |  Greater (288)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  House (143)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invention (400)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Point (584)  |  Radar (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Sonar (2)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vital (89)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

The Wegener hypothesis has been so stimulating and has such fundamental implications in geology as to merit respectful and sympathetic interest from every geologist. Some striking arguments in his favor have been advanced, and it would be foolhardy indeed to reject any concept that offers a possible key to the solution of profound problems in the Earth’s history.
Published while geologists remained sceptical of Alfred Wegener’s idea of Continental Drift, Though unconvinced, he published these thoughts suggesting that critics should be at least be open-minded. His patience was proven justified when two decades later, the theory of plate tectonics provided a mechanism for the motion of the continents.
Some Thoughts on the Evidence for Continental Drift (1944).
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Concept (242)  |  Continent (79)  |  Continental Drift (15)  |  Decade (66)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Favor (69)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Merit (51)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Offer (142)  |  Open (277)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Profound (105)  |  Reject (67)  |  Remain (355)  |  Solution (282)  |  Striking (48)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Alfred L. Wegener (12)

The world we know at present is in no fit state to take over the dreariest little meteor ... If we have the courage and patience, the energy and skill, to take us voyaging to other planets, then let us use some of these to tidy up and civilize this earth. One world at a time, please.
Column in the London News Chronicle as quoted in article, 'Notions in Motion,' Time (24 Nov 1952).
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Courage (82)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fit (139)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Meteor (19)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Please (68)  |  Present (630)  |  Skill (116)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  State (505)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

Those who are unacquainted with the details of scientific investigation have no idea of the amount of labour expended in the determination of those numbers on which important calculations or inferences depend. They have no idea of the patience shown by a Berzelius in determining atomic weights; by a Regnault in determining coefficients of expansion; or by a Joule in determining the mechanical equivalent of heat.
In Sound: A Course of Eight Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1867), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Atomic Weight (6)  |  Jöns Jacob Berzelius (13)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Coefficient (6)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Heat (180)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Inference (45)  |  Investigation (250)  |  James Prescott Joule (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Number (710)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Unacquainted (3)  |  Weight (140)

We are apt to consider that invention is the result of spontaneous action of some heavenborn genius, whose advent we must patiently wait for, but cannot artificially produce. It is unquestionable, however, that education, legal enactments, and general social conditions have a stupendous influence on the development of the originative faculty present in a nation and determine whether it shall be a fountain of new ideas or become simply a purchaser from others of ready-made inventions.
Epigraph, without citation, in Roger Cullisin, Patents, Inventions and the Dynamics of Innovation: A Multidisciplinary Study (2007), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Advent (7)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Become (821)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fountain (18)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Idea (881)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Legal (9)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Ready-Made (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  Wait (66)

When men are engaged in war and conquest, the tools of science become as dangerous as a razor in the hands of a child of three. We must not condemn man because his inventiveness and patient conquest of the forces of nature are being exploited for false and destructive purposes. Rather, we should remember that the fate of mankind hinges entirely upon man’s moral development.
In 'I Am an American' (22 Jun 1940), Einstein Archives 29-092. Excerpted in David E. Rowe and Robert J. Schulmann, Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb (2007), 470. The British Library Sound Archive holds a recording of this statement by Einstein. It was during a radio broadcast for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, interviewed by a State Department Official. Einstein spoke following an examination on his application for American citizenship in Trenton, New Jersey. The attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war on Japan was still over a year in the future.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Child (333)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Development (441)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  False (105)  |  Fate (76)  |  Force (497)  |  Force Of Nature (9)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hinge (4)  |  Inventiveness (8)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Patient (209)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Razor (4)  |  Remember (189)  |  Tool (129)  |  War (233)

With respect to Committees as you would perceive I am very jealous of their formation. I mean working committees. I think business is always better done by few than by many. I think also the working few ought not to be embarrassed by the idle many and further I think the idle many ought not to be honoured by association with the working few.—I do not think that my patience has ever come nearer to an end than when compelled to hear … long rambling malapropros enquiries of members who still have nothing in consequence to propose that shall advance the business.
Letter to John William Lubbock (6 Dec 1833). In Frank A.J.L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday: Volume 2, 1832-1840 (1993), 160. The original text spelling of “embarrased” has been edited for ease of reading in the above quote.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Association (49)  |  Better (493)  |  Business (156)  |  Committee (16)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Formation (100)  |  Hear (144)  |  Honour (58)  |  Idle (34)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Respect (212)  |  Still (614)  |  Think (1122)  |  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.