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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Precedence

Precedence Quotes (4 quotes)

At the beginning of its existence as a science, biology was forced to take cognizance of the seemingly boundless variety of living things, for no exact study of life phenomena was possible until the apparent chaos of the distinct kinds of organisms had been reduced to a rational system. Systematics and morphology, two predominantly descriptive and observational disciplines, took precedence among biological sciences during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. More recently physiology has come to the foreground, accompanied by the introduction of quantitative methods and by a shift from the observationalism of the past to a predominance of experimentation.
In Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937, 1982), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (41)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Description (89)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observational (15)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predominance (3)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Rational (95)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Shift (45)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Variety (138)

The great object of all knowledge is to enlarge and purify the soul, to fill the mind with noble contemplations, to furnish a refined pleasure, and to lead our feeble reason from the works of nature up to its great Author and Sustainer. Considering this as the ultimate end of science, no branch of it can surely claim precedence of Astronomy. No other science furnishes such a palpable embodiment of the abstractions which lie at the foundation of our intellectual system; the great ideas of time, and space, and extension, and magnitude, and number, and motion, and power. How grand the conception of the ages on ages required for several of the secular equations of the solar system; of distances from which the light of a fixed star would not reach us in twenty millions of years, of magnitudes compared with which the earth is but a foot-ball; of starry hosts—suns like our own—numberless as the sands on the shore; of worlds and systems shooting through the infinite spaces.
Oration at Inauguration of the Dudley Astronomical Observatory, Albany (28 Jul 1856). Text published as The Uses of Astronomy (1856), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Age (509)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Author (175)  |  Ball (64)  |  Branch (155)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conception (160)  |  Considering (6)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Embodiment (9)  |  End (603)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Equation (138)  |  Extension (60)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Fill (67)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Football (11)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Host (16)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noble (93)  |  Number (710)  |  Numberless (3)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Palpable (8)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Power (771)  |  Purify (9)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Refined (8)  |  Required (108)  |  Sand (63)  |  Secular (11)  |  Shooting (6)  |  Shore (25)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Soul (235)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The opinion of Bacon on this subject [geometry] was diametrically opposed to that of the ancient philosophers. He valued geometry chiefly, if not solely, on account of those uses, which to Plato appeared so base. And it is remarkable that the longer Bacon lived the stronger this feeling became. When in 1605 he wrote the two books on the Advancement of Learning, he dwelt on the advantages which mankind derived from mixed mathematics; but he at the same time admitted that the beneficial effect produced by mathematical study on the intellect, though a collateral advantage, was “no less worthy than that which was principal and intended.” But it is evident that his views underwent a change. When near twenty years later, he published the De Augmentis, which is the Treatise on the Advancement of Learning, greatly expanded and carefully corrected, he made important alterations in the part which related to mathematics. He condemned with severity the pretensions of the mathematicians, “delidas et faslum mathematicorum.” Assuming the well-being of the human race to be the end of knowledge, he pronounced that mathematical science could claim no higher rank than that of an appendage or an auxiliary to other sciences. Mathematical science, he says, is the handmaid of natural philosophy; she ought to demean herself as such; and he declares that he cannot conceive by what ill chance it has happened that she presumes to claim precedence over her mistress.
In 'Lord Bacon', Edinburgh Review (Jul 1837). Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1857), Vol. 1, 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Admit (49)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appear (122)  |  Appendage (2)  |  Assume (43)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Bacon (4)  |  Base (120)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Book (413)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Chance (244)  |  Change (639)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Claim (154)  |  Collateral (4)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Correct (95)  |  Declare (48)  |  Derive (70)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Evident (92)  |  Expand (56)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Handmaid (6)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Important (229)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intend (18)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Late (119)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Less (105)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mistress (7)  |  Mix (24)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Presume (9)  |  Pretension (6)  |  Principal (69)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Publish (42)  |  Race (278)  |  Rank (69)  |  Relate (26)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Severity (6)  |  Solely (9)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Well-Being (5)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Though Darwin may proclaim the law,
And spread it far abroad, O!
The man that first the secret saw,
Was honest old Monboddo.
The Architect precedence takes
Of him that bears the hod, 0!
So up and at them, Land of Cakes!
We’ll vindicate Monboddo.
Anonymous
From Ballad, 'The Memory of Monboddo', in Blackwood’s Magazine (Sep 1861), 90, No. 551, 364, Verse 5 (of 6). Written to the Air, The Looking Glass. It is footnoted to explain that Lord (James Burnett) Monboddo “has written a book about the origin of language, in which he traces monkeys up to men.” The note is quoted and cited from Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Vol. 4, 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Architect (32)  |  Bear (162)  |  Cake (6)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  First (1302)  |  Honest (53)  |  Land (131)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Lord James Burnett Monboddo (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Saw (160)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spread (86)  |  Vindicate (4)


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.