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 was going to record talking... the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb',... and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Pernicious

Pernicious Quotes (9 quotes)

Consider the hateful brew compounded with gleaming, deadly white lead whose fresh colour is like milk…. Over the victim’s jaws and in the grooves of the gums is plastered an astringent froth, and the furrow of the tongue turns rough on either side, and the depth of the throat grows somewhat dry, and from the pernicious venom follows a dry retching and hawking, for this affliction is severe; meanwhile his spirit sickens and he is worn out with mortal suffering. His body too grows chill, while sometimes his eyes behold strange illusions or else he drowses; nor can he bestir his limbs as heretofore, and he succumbs to the overmastering fatigue.
Nicander
As translated by A.S.F. Gow and A.F. Scholfield in Nicander: The Poems and Portical Fragments (1953), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Compound (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Depth (97)  |  Dry (65)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Grow (247)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lead Poisoning (4)  |  Milk (23)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Palsy (3)  |  Paralysis (9)  |  Plaster (5)  |  Side (236)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strange (160)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Turn (454)  |  Venom (2)  |  Victim (37)  |  White (132)

If to be the Author of new things, be a crime; how will the first Civilizers of Men, and makers of Laws, and Founders of Governments escape? Whatever now delights us in the Works of Nature, that excells the rudeness of the first Creation, is New. Whatever we see in Cities, or Houses, above the first wildness of Fields, and meaness of Cottages, and nakedness of Men, had its time, when this imputation of Novelty, might as well have bin laid to its charge. It is not therefore an offence, to profess the introduction of New things, unless that which is introduc'd prove pernicious in itself; or cannot be brought in, without the extirpation of others, that are better.
The History of the Royal Society (1667), 322.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Better (493)  |  Charge (63)  |  City (87)  |  Cottage (4)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crime (39)  |  Delight (111)  |  Escape (85)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Extirpation (2)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Founder (26)  |  Government (116)  |  House (143)  |  Impunity (6)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Law (913)  |  Maker (34)  |  Nakedness (2)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Newness (2)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Offence (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Profess (21)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rudeness (5)  |  See (1094)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wildness (6)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

It is certain that as a nation we are all smoking a great deal too much ... Smoking among boys—to whom it cannot possibly do any kind of good, while it may do a vast amount of active harm—is becoming prevalent to a most pernicious extent. ... It would be an excellent thing for the morality of the people could the use of “intoxicants and tobacco” be forbidden to all persons under twenty years of age. (1878)
In London Daily Telegraph (22 Jan 1878). Reprinted in English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League, Monthly letters of the Committee of the English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League 1878, 1879, 1880, (1 Feb 1878), 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Age (509)  |  Amount (153)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Boy (100)  |  Certain (557)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Extent (142)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Kind (564)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Prevalent (4)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Twenty (4)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Year (963)

It was found after many troublesome experiments that when the vacuum within the lamp globe was good, and the contact between the carbon and the conductor which supported it sufficient, there was no blackening of the globes, and no appreciable wasting away of the carbons. Thus was swept away a pernicious error, which, like a misleading finger post proclaiming “No road this way,” tended to bar progress along a good thoroughfare. It only remained to perfect the details of the lamp, to find the best material from which to form the carbon, and to fix this material in the lamp in the best manner. These points, I think, I have now satisfactorily settled, and you see the result in the lamp before me on the table.
In Lecture (20 Oct 1880) at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, as quoted in United States Courts of Appeals Reports: Cases Adjudged in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals (1894), Vol. 11, 419-420.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciable (2)  |  Bar (9)  |  Best (467)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Contact (66)  |  Detail (150)  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fix (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Globe (51)  |  Good (906)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Manner (62)  |  Material (366)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Point (584)  |  Progress (492)  |  Remain (355)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  See (1094)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Signpost (3)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Support (151)  |  Table (105)  |  Tend (124)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thoroughfare (2)  |  Troublesome (8)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Way (1214)

Study of the patients’ diets was begun in 1915 in an attempt to determine if some sort of dietary deficiency could be found. The similarity of certain symptoms and signs of pernicious anemia to those in pellagra, sprue, and beriberi was appreciated.
From Nobel Prize Lecture (12 Dec 1934), collected in Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941 (1965).
Science quotes on:  |  Anemia (4)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Deficiency (15)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diet (56)  |  Patient (209)  |  Sign (63)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Sprue (2)  |  Study (701)  |  Symptom (38)

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.
From Aphorism 46, Novum Organum, Book I (1620). Collected in James Spedding (ed.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1858), Vol. 4, 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Authority (99)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Draw (140)  |  Former (138)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Human (1512)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reject (67)  |  Remain (355)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Support (151)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Weight (140)

The idea that something in food might be of advantage to patients with pernicious anemia was in my mind in 1912, when I was a house officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital…. Ever since my student days, when I had the opportunity, in my father’s wards at the Massachusetts General Hospital, … I have taken a deep interest in this disease. … Prolonged observation permitted me to become acquainted with the multiple variations and many aspects of the disease, and to realize that from a few cases it was difficult to determine the effect of therapeutic procedures.
From Nobel Prize Lecture (12 Dec 1934), collected in Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941 (1965).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Anemia (4)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Case (102)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disease (340)  |  Effect (414)  |  Few (15)  |  Food (213)  |  Idea (881)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Observation (593)  |  Patient (209)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Prolonged (7)  |  Realize (157)  |  Student (317)  |  Therapeutic (6)  |  Variation (93)

The saying often quoted from Lord Kelvin… that “where you cannot measure your knowledge is meagre and unsatisfactory,” as applied in mental and social science, is misleading and pernicious. This is another way of saying that these sciences are not science in the sense of physical science and cannot attempt to be such without forfeiting their proper nature and function. Insistence on a concretely quantitative economics means the use of statistics of physical magnitudes, whose economic meaning and significance is uncertain and dubious. (Even wheat is approximately homogeneous only if measured in economic terms.) And a similar statement would even apply more to other social sciences. In this field, the Kelvin dictum very largely means in practice, “if you cannot measure, measure anyhow!”
'What is Truth' in Economics? (1956), 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Concretely (4)  |  Dictum (10)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Field (378)  |  Function (235)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lord (97)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mental (179)  |  Misleading (21)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Statement (148)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)

What about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For the present I propose to withhold judgment. Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all these sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence.
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two (1956), 42-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Age (509)  |  Attention (196)  |  Behind (139)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Color (155)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Deep (241)  |  Discover (571)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Magic (92)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memory (144)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Pleiades (4)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Primary (82)  |  Profound (105)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Scale (122)  |  Sea (326)  |  Seven (5)  |  Sin (45)  |  Something (718)  |  Week (73)  |  Wonder (251)  |  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.