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 have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index R > Category: Regular

Regular Quotes (48 quotes)

...the question undoubtedly is, or soon will be, not whether or no we shall employ notation in chemistry, but whether we shall use a bad and incongruous, or a consistent and regular notation.
'On the Employment of Notation in Chemistry', Journal of the Royal Institution (1838), 1, 438. Cited in Timothy L. Alborn, 'Negotiating Notation: Chemical Symbols and British Society, 1831-1835', Annals of Science (1989), 46, 437.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Employ (115)  |  Employment (34)  |  Incongruity (4)  |  Notation (28)  |  Question (649)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Soon (187)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)

[John] Dalton was a man of regular habits. For fifty-seven years he walked out of Manchester every day; he measured the rainfall, the temperature—a singularly monotonous enterprise in this climate. Of all that mass of data, nothing whatever came. But of the one searching, almost childlike question about the weights that enter the construction of these simple molecules—out of that came modern atomic theory. That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.
The Ascent of Man (1973), 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Climate (102)  |  Construction (114)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Data (162)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Enter (145)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Essence (85)  |  Habit (174)  |  Impertinence (4)  |  Impertinent (5)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manchester (6)  |  Mass (160)  |  Modern (402)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pertinent (4)  |  Question (649)  |  Simple (426)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weather (49)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Year (963)

[The] structural theory is of extreme simplicity. It assumes that the molecule is held together by links between one atom and the next: that every kind of atom can form a definite small number of such links: that these can be single, double or triple: that the groups may take up any position possible by rotation round the line of a single but not round that of a double link: finally that with all the elements of the first short period [of the periodic table], and with many others as well, the angles between the valencies are approximately those formed by joining the centre of a regular tetrahedron to its angular points. No assumption whatever is made as to the mechanism of the linkage. Through the whole development of organic chemistry this theory has always proved capable of providing a different structure for every different compound that can be isolated. Among the hundreds of thousands of known substances, there are never more isomeric forms than the theory permits.
Presidential Address to the Chemical Society (16 Apr 1936), Journal of the Chemical Society (1936), 533.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Definite (114)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Double (18)  |  Element (322)  |  Extreme (78)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Isomer (6)  |  Joining (11)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Link (48)  |  Linkage (5)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Number (710)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Permit (61)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Short (200)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Table (105)  |  Tetrahedron (4)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Valency (4)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)

Every teacher certainly should know something of non-euclidean geometry. Thus, it forms one of the few parts of mathematics which, at least in scattered catch-words, is talked about in wide circles, so that any teacher may be asked about it at any moment. … Imagine a teacher of physics who is unable to say anything about Röntgen rays, or about radium. A teacher of mathematics who could give no answer to questions about non-euclidean geometry would not make a better impression.
On the other hand, I should like to advise emphatically against bringing non-euclidean into regular school instruction (i.e., beyond occasional suggestions, upon inquiry by interested pupils), as enthusiasts are always recommending. Let us be satisfied if the preceding advice is followed and if the pupils learn to really understand euclidean geometry. After all, it is in order for the teacher to know a little more than the average pupil.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Advise (7)  |  Against (332)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Average (89)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bring (95)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Circle (117)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Least (75)  |  Let (64)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Non-Euclidean (7)  |  Occasional (23)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precede (23)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Question (649)  |  Radium (29)  |  Ray (115)  |  Really (77)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Wilhelm Röntgen (8)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  School (227)  |  Something (718)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Talk (108)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Wide (97)  |  Word (650)  |  X-ray (43)

Steckt keine Poesie in der Lokomotive, die brausend durch die Nacht zieht und über die zitternde Erde hintobt, als wollte sie Raum und Zeit zermalmen, in dem hastigen, aber wohl geregelten Zucken und Zerren ihrer gewaltigen Glieder, in dem stieren, nur auf ein Ziel losstürmenden Blick ihrer roten Augen, in dem emsigen, willenlosen Gefolge der Wagen, die kreischend und klappernd, aber mit unfehlbarer Sicherheit dem verkörperten Willen aus Eisen und Stahl folge leisten?
Is there no poetry in the locomotive roaring through the night and charging over the quivering earth as if it wanted to crush time and space? Is there no poetry in the hasty but regular jerking and tugging of its powerful limbs, in the stare of its red eyes that never lose sight of their goal? Is there no poetry in the bustling, will-less retinue of cars that follow, screeching and clattering with unmistakable surety, the steel and iron embodiment of will?
Max Eyth
From 'Poesie und Technik' (1904) (Poetry and Technology), in Schweizerische Techniker-Zeitung (1907), Vol 4, 306, as translated in Paul A. Youngman, Black Devil and Iron Angel: The Railway in Nineteenth-Century German Realism (2005), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Car (75)  |  Crush (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Embodiment (9)  |  Eye (440)  |  Follow (389)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hasty (7)  |  Iron (99)  |  Limb (9)  |  Locomotive (8)  |  Lose (165)  |  Never (1089)  |  Night (133)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Quivering (2)  |  Red (38)  |  Retinue (3)  |  Sight (135)  |  Space (523)  |  Stare (9)  |  Steel (23)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Unmistakable (6)  |  Want (504)  |  Wanted (4)  |  Will (2350)

A casual glance at crystals may lead to the idea that they were pure sports of nature, but this is simply an elegant way of declaring one’s ignorance. With a thoughtful examination of them, we discover laws of arrangement. With the help of these, calculation portrays and links up the observed results. How variable and at the same time how precise and regular are these laws! How simple they are ordinarily, without losing anything of their significance! The theory which has served to develop these laws is based entirely on a fact, whose existence has hitherto been vaguely discerned rather than demonstrated. This fact is that in all minerals which belong to the same species, these little solids, which are the crystal elements and which I call their integrant molecules, have an invariable form, in which the faces lie in the direction of the natural fracture surfaces corresponding to the mechanical division of the crystals. Their angles and dimensions are derived from calculations combined with observation.
Traité de mineralogie … Publié par le conseil des mines (1801), Vol. 1, xiii-iv, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Belong (168)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Develop (278)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discover (571)  |  Division (67)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Element (322)  |  Examination (102)  |  Existence (481)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Fracture (7)  |  Glance (36)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Precise (71)  |  Pure (299)  |  Result (700)  |  Significance (114)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solid (119)  |  Species (435)  |  Sport (23)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  Variable (37)  |  Way (1214)

A tree nowhere offers a straight line or a regular curve, but who doubts that root, trunk, boughs, and leaves embody geometry?
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-Book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Bough (10)  |  Curve (49)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Embody (18)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Offer (142)  |  Root (121)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)

After having produced aquatic animals of all ranks and having caused extensive variations in them by the different environments provided by the waters, nature led them little by little to the habit of living in the air, first by the water's edge and afterwards on all the dry parts of the globe. These animals have in course of time been profoundly altered by such novel conditions; which so greatly influenced their habits and organs that the regular gradation which they should have exhibited in complexity of organisation is often scarcely recognisable.
Hydrogéologie (1802), trans. A. V. Carozzi (1964), 69-70.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquatic (5)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Condition (362)  |  Course (413)  |  Different (595)  |  Dry (65)  |  Edge (51)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extensive (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Gradation (17)  |  Habit (174)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Novel (35)  |  Organ (118)  |  Produced (187)  |  Rank (69)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Time (1911)  |  Variation (93)  |  Water (503)

Against filling the Heavens with fluid Mediums, unless they be exceeding rare, a great Objection arises from the regular and very lasting Motions of the Planets and Comets in all manner of Courses through the Heavens.
From Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light (1718), 339.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Arise (162)  |  Comet (65)  |  Course (413)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Filling (6)  |  First Law Of Motion (3)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Lasting (7)  |  Manner (62)  |  Medium (15)  |  Motion (320)  |  Objection (34)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rare (94)  |  Through (846)

All the work of the crystallographers serves only to demonstrate that there is only variety everywhere where they suppose uniformity … that in nature there is nothing absolute, nothing perfectly regular.
In Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux (1783-88), Vol. 3, 433.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Crystallographer (4)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Variety (138)  |  Work (1402)

Although I was four years at the University [of Wisconsin], I did not take the regular course of studies, but instead picked out what I thought would be most useful to me, particularly chemistry, which opened a new world, mathematics and physics, a little Greek and Latin, botany and and geology. I was far from satisfied with what I had learned, and should have stayed longer.
[Enrolled in Feb 1861, left in 1863 without completing a degree, and began his first botanical foot journey.]
John Muir
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  First (1302)  |  Geology (240)  |  Greek (109)  |  Journey (48)  |  Latin (44)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Thought (995)  |  University (130)  |  Useful (260)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Beyond these are other suns, giving light and life to systems, not a thousand, or two thousand merely, but multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion; yet calm, regular and harmonious—all space seems to be illuminated, and every particle of light a world. ... all this vast assemblages of suns and worlds may bear no greater proportion to what lies beyond the utmost boundaries of human vision, than a drop of water to the ocean.
In The Geography of the Heavens and Class-Book of Astronomy (1874), 148 That knowledge is not happiness.
Science quotes on:  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Attend (67)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Calm (32)  |  Distance (171)  |  Drop (77)  |  End (603)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immense (89)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Merely (315)  |  Motion (320)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Space (523)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vision (127)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

But regular biology, as an "ology," has to be "scientific," and this means in practice that it has to be made dull.... Everything has to be expressed in utterly impersonal terms.
In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 108-10.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Dull (58)  |  Everything (489)  |  Express (192)  |  Impersonal (5)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Practice (212)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)

Fractal is a word invented by Mandelbrot to bring together under one heading a large class of objects that have [played] … an historical role … in the development of pure mathematics. A great revolution of ideas separates the classical mathematics of the 19th century from the modern mathematics of the 20th. Classical mathematics had its roots in the regular geometric structures of Euclid and the continuously evolving dynamics of Newton. Modern mathematics began with Cantor’s set theory and Peano’s space-filling curve. Historically, the revolution was forced by the discovery of mathematical structures that did not fit the patterns of Euclid and Newton. These new structures were regarded … as “pathological,” .… as a “gallery of monsters,” akin to the cubist paintings and atonal music that were upsetting established standards of taste in the arts at about the same time. The mathematicians who created the monsters regarded them as important in showing that the world of pure mathematics contains a richness of possibilities going far beyond the simple structures that they saw in Nature. Twentieth-century mathematics flowered in the belief that it had transcended completely the limitations imposed by its natural origins.
Now, as Mandelbrot points out, … Nature has played a joke on the mathematicians. The 19th-century mathematicians may not have been lacking in imagination, but Nature was not. The same pathological structures that the mathematicians invented to break loose from 19th-century naturalism turn out to be inherent in familiar objects all around us.
From 'Characterizing Irregularity', Science (12 May 1978), 200, No. 4342, 677-678. Quoted in Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1977, 1983), 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Art (680)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Break (109)  |  Century (319)  |  Class (168)  |  Classical (49)  |  Completely (137)  |  Curve (49)  |  Development (441)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Fit (139)  |  Flower (112)  |  Fractal (11)  |  Gallery (7)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historical (70)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Joke (90)  |  Large (398)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Benoît Mandelbrot (15)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Monster (33)  |  Music (133)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (438)  |  Origin (250)  |  Painting (46)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Role (86)  |  Root (121)  |  Saw (160)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Theory (6)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Structure (365)  |  Taste (93)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Turn (454)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

I took a good clear piece of Cork and with a Pen-knife sharpen'd as keen as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off, and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth, then examining it very diligently with a Microscope, me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous; but I could not so plainly distinguish them, as to be sure that they were pores, much less what Figure they were of: But judging from the lightness and yielding quality of the Cork, that certainly the texture could not be so curious, but that possibly, if I could use some further diligence, I might find it to be discernable with a Microscope, I with the same sharp Penknife, cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it with a deep plano-convex Glass, I could exceedingly plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular; yet it was not unlike a Honey-comb in these particulars.
First, in that it had a very little solid substance, in comparison of the empty cavity that was contain'd between, ... for the Interstitia or walls (as I may so call them) or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in proportion to their pores as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb (which enclose and constitute the sexangular cells) are to theirs.
Next, in that these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but constituted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long pore, by certain Diaphragms...
I no sooner discerned these (which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this) but me thought I had with the discovery of them, presently hinted to me the true and intelligible reason of all the Phænomena of Cork.
Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries thereupon (1665), 112-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Cavity (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Convex (6)  |  Cork (2)  |  Curious (95)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deep (241)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Empty (82)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Glass (94)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hint (21)  |  Honey (15)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Knife (24)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Mention (84)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Next (238)  |  Pen (21)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Solid (119)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wax (13)  |  Writer (90)

I took him [Lawrence Bragg] to a young zoologist working on pattern formation in insect cuticles. The zoologist explained how disturbances introduced into these regular patterns pointed to their formation being governed by some kind of gradient. Bragg listened attentively and then exclaimed: “Your disturbed gradient behaves like a stream of sand running downhill and encountering an obstacle.” “Good heavens,” replied the zoologist, “I had been working on this problem for years before this simple analogy occurred to me and you think of it after twenty minutes.”
As quoted in David Phillips, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1979), 25, 132, citing: Perutz, M.F. 1971 New Sci. & Sci. J. 8 July 1967.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Being (1276)  |  Sir Lawrence Bragg (16)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Downhill (3)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formation (100)  |  Good (906)  |  Govern (66)  |  Gradient (2)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Insect (89)  |  Kind (564)  |  Listen (81)  |  Minute (129)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Problem (731)  |  Running (61)  |  Sand (63)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stream (83)  |  Think (1122)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Zoologist (12)

In all speculations on the origin, or agents that have produced the changes on this globe, it is probable that we ought to keep within the boundaries of the probable effects resulting from the regular operations of the great laws of nature which our experience and observation have brought within the sphere of our knowledge. When we overleap those limits, and suppose a total change in nature's laws, we embark on the sea of uncertainty, where one conjecture is perhaps as probable as another; for none of them can have any support, or derive any authority from the practical facts wherewith our experience has brought us acquainted.
Observations on the Geology of the United States of America (1817), iv-v.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Authority (99)  |  Change (639)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Derive (70)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Limit (294)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Origin (250)  |  Practical (225)  |  Probability (135)  |  Produced (187)  |  Sea (326)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Support (151)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Total (95)  |  Uncertainty (58)

In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist’s mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Coherent (14)  |  Compare (76)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Deal (192)  |  Design (203)  |  Difference (355)  |  Dull (58)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Embroidery (2)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Humble (54)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Kind (564)  |  Master (182)  |  Masterpiece (9)  |  Material (366)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Periodic (3)  |  Periodicity (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plain (34)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Raphael (2)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tapestry (5)  |  Trace (109)  |  Wallpaper (2)  |  Wit (61)

Inequality of the pulse is in most cases accompanied by irregularity; one hardly ever finds a regular unequal pulse.
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Find (1014)  |  Inequality (9)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Unequal (12)

It is curious to observe with what different degrees of architectonic skill Providence has endowed birds of the same genus, and so nearly correspondent in their general mode of life! for while the swallow and the house-martin discover the greatest address in raising and securely fixing crusts or shells of loam as cunabula for their young, the bank-martin terebrates a round and regular hole in the sand or earth, which is serpentine, horizontal, and about two feet deep. At the inner end of this burrow does this bird deposit, in a good degree of safety, her rude nest, consisting of fine grasses and feathers, usually goose-feathers, very inartificially laid together.
In Letter to Daines Barrington, (26 Feb 1774), in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Bank (31)  |  Bird (163)  |  Crust (43)  |  Curious (95)  |  Deep (241)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Feather (13)  |  General (521)  |  Genus (27)  |  Good (906)  |  Goose (13)  |  Grass (49)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Horizontal (9)  |  House (143)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nest (26)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Providence (19)  |  Safety (58)  |  Sand (63)  |  Shell (69)  |  Skill (116)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Usually (176)  |  Young (253)

Kepler’s principal goal was to explain the relationship between the existence of five planets (and their motions) and the five regular solids. It is customary to sneer at Kepler for this. … It is instructive to compare this with the current attempts to “explain” the zoology of elementary particles in terms of irreducible representations of Lie groups.
In Celestial Mechanics (1969), Vol. 1, 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Compare (76)  |  Current (122)  |  Customary (18)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Goal (155)  |  Irreducible (7)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lie Group (2)  |  Motion (320)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planet (402)  |  Principal (69)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Representation (55)  |  Sneer (9)  |  Solid (119)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Zoology (38)

Langmuir is a regular thinking machine. Put in facts, and you get out a theory.
Quoted in C. Guy Suits (ed.), The Collected Works of Irving Langmuir (1962), Vol. 12, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Irving Langmuir (7)  |  Machine (271)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinking (425)

Mathematics has often been characterized as the most conservative of all sciences. This is true in the sense of the immediate dependence of new upon old results. All the marvellous new advancements presuppose the old as indispensable steps in the ladder. … Inaccessibility of special fields of mathematics, except by the regular way of logically antecedent acquirements, renders the study discouraging or hateful to weak or indolent minds.
In Number and its Algebra (1896), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Discourage (14)  |  Field (378)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Inaccessible (18)  |  Indolent (2)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Logic (311)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Render (96)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (785)  |  Special (188)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weak (73)

Moreover the perfection of mathematical beauty is such … that whatsoever is most beautiful and regular is also found to be most useful and excellent.
In 'Epilogue', On Growth and Form (1917), 779.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Mathematical Beauty (19)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Usefulness (92)

Nowadays there is a pill for everything—to keep your nose from running, to keep you regular, to keep your heart beating, to keep your hair from falling out, to improve your muscle tone ... Why thanks to advances in medical science, every day people are dying who never looked better.
Anonymous
In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 174-175.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Better (493)  |  Death (406)  |  Everything (489)  |  Heart (243)  |  Look (584)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Running (61)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thanks (26)  |  Tone (22)  |  Why (491)

One thought [spectra are] marvellous, but it is not possible to make progress there. Just as if you have the wing of a butterfly then certainly it is very regular with the colors and so on, but nobody thought one could get the basis of biology from the coloring of the wing of a butterfly.
Quoted from Interviews (I, 7) in 'The Genesis of the Bohr Atom', J.L. Heilbron and T.S. Kuhn, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (1969), 257, reprinted in J. L. Heilbron, Historical Studies in the Theory of Atomic Structure (1981), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Basis (180)  |  Biology (232)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Color (155)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (492)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wing (79)

Organized Fossils are to the naturalist as coins to the antiquary; they are the antiquities of the earth; and very distinctly show its gradual regular formation, with the various changes inhabitants in the watery element.
Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils (1817), ix-x.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquary (4)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Change (639)  |  Coin (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Organization (120)  |  Show (353)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)

Over very long time scales, when the perturbing influences of both Jupiter and Saturn are taken into account, the seemingly regular orbits of asteroids that stray into the Kirkwood gaps turn chaotic. For millions of years … such an orbit seems predictable. Then the path grows increasingly eccentric until it begins to cross the orbit of Mars and then the Earth. Collisions or close encounters with those planets are inevitable.
In article 'Tales of Chaos: Tumbling Moons and Unstable Asteroids", New York Times (20 Jan 1987), C3.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Asteroid (19)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Collision (16)  |  Cross (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eccentric (11)  |  Gap (36)  |  Grow (247)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Influence (231)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Long (778)  |  Mars (47)  |  Million (124)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Path (159)  |  Perturb (2)  |  Planet (402)  |  Predictable (10)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Scale (122)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Stray (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Year (963)

Physicians are some of them so pleasing and conformable to the humour of the patient, as they press not the true cure of the disease : and some other are so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient.
XXX. Of Regimen of Health,' Essays (1597). In Francis Bacon and Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England (1852), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Art (680)  |  Condition (362)  |  Cure (124)  |  Disease (340)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Humour (116)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Respect (212)

Physicists are not regular fellows—and neither are poets. Anyone engaged in an activity that makes considerable demands on both the intellect and the emotions is not unlikely to be a little bit odd.
In Physics for Poets (1978).
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Both (496)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Demand (131)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Little (717)  |  Physicist (270)

The moment man first picked up a stone or a branch to use as a tool, he altered irrevocably the balance between him and his environment. From this point on, the way in which the world around him changed was different. It was no longer regular or predictable. New objects appeared that were not recognizable as a mutation of something that existed before, and as each one merged it altered the environment not for one season, but for ever.
from Introduction to Connections by James Burke, Macmillan (1978)
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Altering (3)  |  Balance (82)  |  Branch (155)  |  Change (639)  |  Different (595)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exist (458)  |  First (1302)  |  Irrevocable (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Mutation (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Point (584)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Season (47)  |  Something (718)  |  Stone (168)  |  Tool (129)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

The motions of the Comets are exceeding regular, are govern’d by the same laws with the motions of the Planets,… with very eccentric motions through all parts of the heavens indifferently.
In 'General Scholium' from The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1729), Vol. 2, Book 3, 387.
Science quotes on:  |  Comet (65)  |  Eccentric (11)  |  Govern (66)  |  Governed (4)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravity (16)  |  Motion (320)  |  Planet (402)  |  Through (846)

The pilots I worked with in the aerospace industry were willing to put on almost anything to keep them safe in case of a crash, but regular people in cars don't want to be uncomfortable even for a minute.
as quoted by Karl Ritter, Associated Press writer in news article Inventor of Three-Point Seat Belt Dies, 26 Sep 2002
Science quotes on:  |  Car (75)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Industry (159)  |  Minute (129)  |  People (1031)  |  Safe (61)  |  Safety (58)  |  Want (504)  |  Willing (44)  |  Work (1402)

The ravages committed by man subvert the relations and destroy the balance which nature had established between her organized and her inorganic creations; and she avenges herself upon the intruder, by letting loose upon her defaced provinces destructive energies hitherto kept in check by organic forces destined to be his best auxiliaries, but which he has unwisely dispersed and driven from the field of action. When the forest is gone, the great reservoir of moisture stored up in its vegetable mould is evaporated, and returns only in deluges of rain to wash away the parched dust into which that mould has been converted. The well-wooded and humid hills are turned to ridges of dry rock, which encumbers the low grounds and chokes the watercourses with its debris, and–except in countries favored with an equable distribution of rain through the seasons, and a moderate and regular inclination of surface–the whole earth, unless rescued by human art from the physical degradation to which it tends, becomes an assemblage of bald mountains, of barren, turfless hills, and of swampy and malarious plains. There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine Europe, where the operation of causes set in action by man has brought the face of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon; and though, within that brief space of time which we call “the historical period,” they are known to have been covered with luxuriant woods, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows, they are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimable by man, nor can they become again fitted for human use, except through great geological changes, or other mysterious influences or agencies of which we have no present knowledge, and over which we have no prospective control. The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest inhabitant, and another era of equal human crime and human improvidence, and of like duration with that through which traces of that crime and that improvidence extend, would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished productiveness, of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as to threaten the depravation, barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the species.
Man and Nature, (1864), 42-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Africa (38)  |  Art (680)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Balance (82)  |  Balance Of Nature (7)  |  Barbarism (8)  |  Barren (33)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Best (467)  |  Brief (37)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Complete (209)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Control (182)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crime (39)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Deluge (14)  |  Destined (42)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Dry (65)  |  Dust (68)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Era (51)  |  Excess (23)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Face (214)  |  Favor (69)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Forest (161)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Historical (70)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impoverished (3)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Mold (37)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Operation (221)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Present (630)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Prospective (7)  |  Province (37)  |  Rain (70)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Return (133)  |  Rock (176)  |  Season (47)  |  Set (400)  |  Shattered (8)  |  Space (523)  |  Species (435)  |  Surface (223)  |  Tend (124)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Verdant (3)  |  Wash (23)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wood (97)

The reader will find no figures in this work. The methods which I set forth do not require either constructions or geometrical or mechanical reasonings: but only algebraic operations, subject to a regular and uniform rule of procedure.
From the original French, “On ne trouvera point de Figures dans set Ouvrage. Les méthodes que j’y expose ne demandent ni constructions, ni raisonnements géométriqus ou méchaniques, mais seulement des opérations algébriques, assujetties à une march régulière et uniforme.” In 'Avertissement', Mécanique Analytique (1788, 1811), Vol. 1, i. English version as given in Cornelius Lanczos, The Variational Principles of Mechanics (1966), Vol. 1, 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Construction (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Method (531)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Require (229)  |  Rule (307)  |  Set (400)  |  Subject (543)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. … It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wilderness lies in wait.
In Orthodoxy (1908), 148.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Exactitude (10)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Real (159)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unreasonable (5)  |  Wait (66)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  World (1850)

The reason that iron filings placed in a magnetic field exhibit a pattern—or have form, as we say—is that the field they are in is not homogeneous. If the world were totally regular and homogeneous, there would be no forces, and no forms. Everything would be amorphous. But an irregular world tries to compensate for its own irregularities by fitting itself to them, and thereby takes on form.
In Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Amorphous (6)  |  Compensate (3)  |  Everything (489)  |  Field (378)  |  Fit (139)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Iron (99)  |  Irregular (7)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetic Field (7)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Reason (766)  |  Say (989)  |  World (1850)

The sign which points to strong, unfailing health is a uniform pulse which is also totally regular.
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Health (210)  |  Point (584)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Uniform (20)

The smallest particles of matter were said [by Plato] to be right-angled triangles which, after combining in pairs, ... joined together into the regular bodies of solid geometry; cubes, tetrahedrons, octahedrons and icosahedrons. These four bodies were said to be the building blocks of the four elements, earth, fire, air and water ... [The] whole thing seemed to be wild speculation. ... Even so, I was enthralled by the idea that the smallest particles of matter must reduce to some mathematical form ... The most important result of it all, perhaps, was the conviction that, in order to interpret the material world we need to know something about its smallest parts.
[Recalling how as a teenager at school, he found Plato's Timaeus to be a memorable poetic and beautiful view of atoms.]
In Werner Heisenberg and A.J. Pomerans (trans.) The Physicist's Conception of Nature (1958), 58-59. Quoted in Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory (2001), Vol. 2, 12. Cited in Mauro Dardo, Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics (2004), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Atom (381)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Body (557)  |  Building (158)  |  Building Block (9)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cube (14)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Fire (203)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Know (1538)  |  Material (366)  |  Material World (8)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Pair (10)  |  Particle (200)  |  Plato (80)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  School (227)  |  Solid (119)  |  Solid Geometry (2)  |  Something (718)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Tetrahedron (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Triangle (20)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wild (96)  |  World (1850)

The sun, moving as it does, sets up processes of change and becoming and decay, and by its agency the finest and sweetest water is every day carried up and is dissolved into vapour and rises to the upper region, where it is condensed again by the cold and so returns to the earth. This, as we have said before, is the regular course of nature.
Aristotle
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster. Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).
Science quotes on:  |  Becoming (96)  |  Change (639)  |  Cold (115)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Course (413)  |  Decay (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Rain (70)  |  Return (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Set (400)  |  Sun (407)  |  Vapour (16)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Cycle (5)

The thesis which I venture to sustain, within limits, is simply this, that the savage state in some measure represents an early condition of mankind, out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed or evolved, by processes still in regular operation as of old, the result showing that, on the whole, progress has far prevailed over relapse.
In Primitive Culture (1871), Vol. 1, 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Condition (362)  |  Culture (157)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Early (196)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Measure (241)  |  Old (499)  |  Operation (221)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Relapse (5)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Savage (33)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Venture (19)  |  Whole (756)

They will have the World to be in Large, what a Watch is in Small; which is very regular, and depends only upon the just disposing of the several Parts of the Movement.
Conversations on the Plurality of Words (1686), trans. William Gardiner (1715), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Depend (238)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machine (271)  |  Movement (162)  |  Small (489)  |  Watch (118)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

This [the fact that the pursuit of mathematics brings into harmonious action all the faculties of the human mind] accounts for the extraordinary longevity of all the greatest masters of the Analytic art, the Dii Majores of the mathematical Pantheon. Leibnitz lived to the age of 70; Euler to 76; Lagrange to 77; Laplace to 78; Gauss to 78; Plato, the supposed inventor of the conic sections, who made mathematics his study and delight, who called them the handles or aids to philosophy, the medicine of the soul, and is said never to have let a day go by without inventing some new theorems, lived to 82; Newton, the crown and glory of his race, to 85; Archimedes, the nearest akin, probably, to Newton in genius, was 75, and might have lived on to be 100, for aught we can guess to the contrary, when he was slain by the impatient and ill mannered sergeant, sent to bring him before the Roman general, in the full vigour of his faculties, and in the very act of working out a problem; Pythagoras, in whose school, I believe, the word mathematician (used, however, in a somewhat wider than its present sense) originated, the second founder of geometry, the inventor of the matchless theorem which goes by his name, the pre-cognizer of the undoubtedly mis-called Copernican theory, the discoverer of the regular solids and the musical canon who stands at the very apex of this pyramid of fame, (if we may credit the tradition) after spending 22 years studying in Egypt, and 12 in Babylon, opened school when 56 or 57 years old in Magna Græcia, married a young wife when past 60, and died, carrying on his work with energy unspent to the last, at the age of 99. The mathematician lives long and lives young; the wings of his soul do not early drop off, nor do its pores become clogged with the earthy particles blown from the dusty highways of vulgar life.
In Presidential Address to the British Association, Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2 (1908), 658.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Akin (5)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Apex (6)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Aught (6)  |  Babylon (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blow (45)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Canon (3)  |  Carry (130)  |  Clog (5)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Copernican Theory (3)  |  Credit (24)  |  Crown (39)  |  Delight (111)  |  Die (94)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dusty (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Energy (373)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fame (51)  |  Founder (26)  |  Full (68)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Glory (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Guess (67)  |  Handle (29)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Highway (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Impatient (4)  |  Invent (57)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Last (425)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Manner (62)  |  Marry (11)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Musical (10)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Originate (39)  |  Pantheon (2)  |  Particle (200)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Pore (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Pyramid (9)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Race (278)  |  Roman (39)  |  Say (989)  |  School (227)  |  Second (66)  |  Send (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sergeant (2)  |  Solid (119)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Stand (284)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Undoubtedly (3)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wife (41)  |  Wing (79)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

This whole theory of electrostatics constitutes a group of abstract ideas and general propositions, formulated in the clear and precise language of geometry and algebra, and connected with one another by the rules of strict logic. This whole fully satisfies the reason of a French physicist and his taste for clarity, simplicity and order. The same does not hold for the Englishman. These abstract notions of material points, force, line of force, and equipotential surface do not satisfy his need to imagine concrete, material, visible, and tangible things. 'So long as we cling to this mode of representation,' says an English physicist, 'we cannot form a mental representation of the phenomena which are really happening.' It is to satisfy the need that he goes and creates a model.
The French or German physicist conceives, in the space separating two conductors, abstract lines of force having no thickness or real existence; the English physicist materializes these lines and thickens them to the dimensions of a tube which he will fill with vulcanised rubber. In place of a family of lines of ideal forces, conceivable only by reason, he will have a bundle of elastic strings, visible and tangible, firmly glued at both ends to the surfaces of the two conductors, and, when stretched, trying both to contact and to expand. When the two conductors approach each other, he sees the elastic strings drawing closer together; then he sees each of them bunch up and grow large. Such is the famous model of electrostatic action imagined by Faraday and admired as a work of genius by Maxwell and the whole English school.
The employment of similar mechanical models, recalling by certain more or less rough analogies the particular features of the theory being expounded, is a regular feature of the English treatises on physics. Here is a book* [by Oliver Lodge] intended to expound the modern theories of electricity and to expound a new theory. In it are nothing but strings which move around pulleys, which roll around drums, which go through pearl beads, which carry weights; and tubes which pump water while others swell and contract; toothed wheels which are geared to one another and engage hooks. We thought we were entering the tranquil and neatly ordered abode of reason, but we find ourselves in a factory.
*Footnote: O. Lodge, Les Théories Modernes (Modern Views on Electricity) (1889), 16.
The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906), 2nd edition (1914), trans. Philip P. Wiener (1954), 70-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Action (342)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Approach (112)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Both (496)  |  Carry (130)  |  Certain (557)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Closer (43)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Connect (126)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contact (66)  |  Create (245)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Drum (8)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Electrostatics (6)  |  Employment (34)  |  End (603)  |  Engage (41)  |  Existence (481)  |  Expand (56)  |  Factory (20)  |  Family (101)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  German (37)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happening (59)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Language (308)  |  Large (398)  |  Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (13)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Materialize (2)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mental (179)  |  Model (106)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Move (223)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reason (766)  |  Representation (55)  |  Roll (41)  |  Rubber (11)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  School (227)  |  See (1094)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Surface (223)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Taste (93)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Visible (87)  |  Water (503)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Using material ferried up by rockets, it would be possible to construct a “space station” in ... orbit. The station could be provided with living quarters, laboratories and everything needed for the comfort of its crew, who would be relieved and provisioned by a regular rocket service. (1945)
In 'Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Coverage?', Wireless World (Oct 1945). Quoted and cited in Arthur C. Clarke, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998, 22. Also quoted in 'Hazards of Communication Satellites', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1961), Vol. 17, No. 5, 181, by John R. Pierce Pierce, who then commented, “Clarke thought in terms of manned space stations; today these seem very remote.”
Science quotes on:  |  Comfort (64)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Crew (10)  |  Everything (489)  |  Ferry (4)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Need (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Provision (17)  |  Relief (30)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Service (110)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Station (4)  |  Station (30)

Vast as is the universe, its phenomena are regular. Countless though its contents, the laws which govern these are uniform.
As translated from the Chinese original by Herbert A. Giles in Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (1889), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Content (75)  |  Countless (39)  |  Govern (66)  |  Law (913)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)

We should admit in theory what is already very largely a case in practice, that the main currency of scientific information is the secondary sources in the forms of abstracts, reports, tables, &c., and that the primary sources are only for detailed reference by very few people. It is possible that the fate of most scientific papers will be not to be read by anyone who uses them, but with luck they will furnish an item, a number, some facts or data to such reports which may, but usually will not, lead to the original paper being consulted. This is very sad but it is the inevitable consequence of the growth of science. The number of papers that can be consulted is absolutely limited, no more time can be spent in looking up papers, by and large, than in the past. As the number of papers increase the chance of any one paper being looked at is correspondingly diminished. This of course is only an average, some papers may be looked at by thousands of people and may become a regular and fixed part of science but most will perish unseen.
'The Supply of Information to the Scientist: Some Problems of the Present Day', The Journal of Documentation, 1957, 13, 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Already (226)  |  Average (89)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chance (244)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Data (162)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fate (76)  |  Form (976)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Growth (200)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Information (173)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Luck (44)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Paper (192)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Perish (56)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Primary (82)  |  Publication (102)  |  Read (308)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Spent (85)  |  Table (105)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

We think we understand the regular reflection of light and X rays - and we should understand the reflections of electrons as well if electrons were only waves instead of particles ... It is rather as if one were to see a rabbit climbing a tree, and were to say ‘Well, that is rather a strange thing for a rabbit to be doing, but after all there is really nothing to get excited about. Cats climb trees - so that if the rabbit were only a cat, we would understand its behavior perfectly.’ Of course, the explanation might be that what we took to be a rabbit was not a rabbit at all but was actually a cat. Is it possible that we are mistaken all this time in supposing they are particles, and that actually they are waves?
Franklin Institute Journal Vol. 205, 597. Cited in New Scientist (14 Apr 1977), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Behavior (95)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Cat (52)  |  Course (413)  |  Doing (277)  |  Election (7)  |  Electron (96)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Light (635)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Particle (200)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rabbit (10)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Strange (160)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wave (112)


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.