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: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index R > Category: Rigorous

Rigorous Quotes (50 quotes)
Rigorously Quotes

[The Royal Society] is quite simply the voice of science in Britain. It is intellectually rigorous, not afraid to be outspoken on controversial issues such as climate change, but it is not aggressively secular either, insisting on a single view of the world. In fact, there are plenty of eminent scientists – Robert Winston, for instance – who are also men of faith.
Quoted in Max Davidson, 'Bill Bryson: Have faith, science can solve our problems', Daily Telegraph (26 Sep 2010)
Science quotes on:  |  Aggression (10)  |  Britain (26)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Issue (46)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secular (11)  |  Single (365)  |  Society (350)  |  View (496)  |  Voice (54)  |  World (1850)

Almost every major systematic error which has deluded men for thousands of years relied on practical experience. Horoscopes, incantations, oracles, magic, witchcraft, the cures of witch doctors and of medical practitioners before the advent of modern medicine, were all firmly established through the centuries in the eyes of the public by their supposed practical successes. The scientific method was devised precisely for the purpose of elucidating the nature of things under more carefully controlled conditions and by more rigorous criteria than are present in the situations created by practical problems.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Advent (7)  |  Care (203)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Century (319)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (182)  |  Criteria (6)  |  Cure (124)  |  Deluded (7)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Devising (7)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Error (339)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Horoscope (6)  |  Incantation (6)  |  Magic (92)  |  Major (88)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practicality (7)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Public (100)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reliance (11)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Situation (117)  |  Success (327)  |  Supposition (50)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Witch Doctor (2)  |  Witchcraft (6)  |  Year (963)

As in the experimental sciences, truth cannot be distinguished from error as long as firm principles have not been established through the rigorous observation of facts.
Ésur la maladie des vers ásoie (1870), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Error (339)  |  Establish (63)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Firm (47)  |  Long (778)  |  Observation (593)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)

At that point, my sense of dissatisfaction was so strong that I firmly resolved to start thinking until I should find a purely arithmetic and absolutely rigorous foundation of the principles of infinitesimal analysis. … I achieved this goal on November 24th, 1858, … but I could not really decide upon a proper publication, because, firstly, the subject is not easy to present, and, secondly, the material is not very fruitful.
(1872). As quoted in Ernst Hairer and Gerhard Wanner, Analysis by Its History (2008), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Achieve (75)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Decide (50)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Goal (155)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proper (150)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purely (111)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Subject (543)

Besides it is an error to believe that rigour is the enemy of simplicity. On the contrary we find it confirmed by numerous examples that the rigorous method is at the same time the simpler and the more easily comprehended. The very effort for rigor forces us to find out simpler methods of proof.
'Mathematical Problems', Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (Jul 1902), 8, 441.
Science quotes on:  |  Confirm (58)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Effort (243)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Error (339)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Time (1911)

Chemists have made of phlogiston a vague principle which is not at all rigorously defined, and which, in consequence, adapts itself to all explanations in which it is wished it shall enter; sometimes it is free fire, sometimes it is fire combined with the earthy element; sometimes it passes through the pores of vessels, sometimes they are impenetrable to it; it explains both the causticity and non-causticity, transparency and opacity, colours and absence of colours. It is a veritable Proteus which changes its form every instant. It is time to conduct chemistry to a more rigorous mode of reasoning ... to distinguish fact and observation from what is systematic and hypothetical.
'Réflexions sur le phlogistique', Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences, 1783, 505-38. Reprinted in Oeuvres de Lavoisier (1864), Vol. 2, 640, trans. M. P. Crosland.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Definition (238)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Enter (145)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fire (203)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Instant (46)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Phlogiston (9)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transparency (7)  |  Vague (50)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Wish (216)

Descriptive geometry has two objects: the first is to establish methods to represent on drawing paper which has only two dimensions,—namely, length and width,—all solids of nature which have three dimensions,—length, width, and depth,—provided, however, that these solids are capable of rigorous definition.
The second object is to furnish means to recognize accordingly an exact description of the forms of solids and to derive thereby all truths which result from their forms and their respective positions.
From On the Purpose of Descriptive Geometry as translated by Arnold Emch in David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics (1929), 426.
Science quotes on:  |  Capable (174)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Derive (70)  |  Description (89)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Descriptive Geometry (3)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Exact (75)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Length (24)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Paper (192)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Solid (119)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Width (5)

Exercise in the most rigorous thinking that is possible will of its own accord strengthen the sense of truth and right, for each advance in the ability to distinguish between correct and false thoughts, each habit making for rigour in thought development will increase in the sound pupil the ability and the wish to ascertain what is right in life and to defend it.
In Anleitung zum mathematischen Unterricht in den höheren Schulen (1906), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Advance (298)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Correct (95)  |  Defend (32)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Exercise (113)  |  False (105)  |  Habit (174)  |  Increase (225)  |  Life (1870)  |  Making (300)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sound (187)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

Facts are the materials of science, but all Facts involve Ideas. … we must, for the purposes of science, take care that the Ideas are clear and rigorously applied.
Aphorism 4, 'Aphorisms Concerning Science', The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. 1, xxxvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Care (203)  |  Clear (111)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Idea (881)  |  Involve (93)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Purpose (336)

Few will deny that even in the first scientific instruction in mathematics the most rigorous method is to be given preference over all others. Especially will every teacher prefer a consistent proof to one which is based on fallacies or proceeds in a vicious circle, indeed it will be morally impossible for the teacher to present a proof of the latter kind consciously and thus in a sense deceive his pupils. Notwithstanding these objectionable so-called proofs, so far as the foundation and the development of the system is concerned, predominate in our textbooks to the present time. Perhaps it will be answered, that rigorous proof is found too difficult for the pupil’s power of comprehension. Should this be anywhere the case,—which would only indicate some defect in the plan or treatment of the whole,—the only remedy would be to merely state the theorem in a historic way, and forego a proof with the frank confession that no proof has been found which could be comprehended by the pupil; a remedy which is ever doubtful and should only be applied in the case of extreme necessity. But this remedy is to be preferred to a proof which is no proof, and is therefore either wholly unintelligible to the pupil, or deceives him with an appearance of knowledge which opens the door to all superficiality and lack of scientific method.
In 'Stücke aus dem Lehrbuche der Arithmetik', Werke, Bd. 2 (1904), 296.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Base (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Concern (239)  |  Confession (9)  |  Consciously (6)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Defect (31)  |  Deny (71)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Door (94)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Especially (31)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Forego (4)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Frank (4)  |  Give (208)  |  Historic (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lack (127)  |  Latter (21)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Morally (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Preference (28)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sense (785)  |  So-Called (71)  |  State (505)  |  Superficiality (4)  |  System (545)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Vicious Circle (4)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

For, in mathematics or symbolic logic, reason can crank out the answer from the symboled equations—even a calculating machine can often do so—but it cannot alone set up the equations. Imagination resides in the words which define and connect the symbols—subtract them from the most aridly rigorous mathematical treatise and all meaning vanishes. Was it Eddington who said that we once thought if we understood 1 we understood 2, for 1 and 1 are 2, but we have since found we must learn a good deal more about “and”?
In 'The Biological Basis of Imagination', American Thought: 1947 (1947), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arid (6)  |  Calculating Machine (3)  |  Connect (126)  |  Crank (18)  |  Deal (192)  |  Define (53)  |  Do (1905)  |  Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (135)  |  Equation (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Learn (672)  |  Logic (311)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reside (25)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Up (3)  |  Subtract (2)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Thought (995)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vanish (19)  |  Word (650)

I like to look at mathematics almost more as an art than as a science; for the activity of the mathematician, constantly creating as he is, guided though not controlled by the external world of the senses, bears a resemblance, not fanciful I believe but real, to the activity of an artist, of a painter let us say. Rigorous deductive reasoning on the part of the mathematician may be likened here to technical skill in drawing on the part of the painter. Just as no one can become a good painter without a certain amount of skill, so no one can become a mathematician without the power to reason accurately up to a certain point. Yet these qualities, fundamental though they are, do not make a painter or mathematician worthy of the name, nor indeed are they the most important factors in the case. Other qualities of a far more subtle sort, chief among which in both cases is imagination, go to the making of a good artist or good mathematician.
From 'Fundamental Conceptions and Methods in Mathematics', Bulletin American Mathematical Society (1904), 9, 133. As cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Amount (153)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chief (99)  |  Control (182)  |  Create (245)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drawing (56)  |  External (62)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Guide (107)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Important (229)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skill (116)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Technical (53)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

If physics leads us today to a world view which is essentially mystical, it returns, in a way, to its beginning, 2,500 years ago. ... This time, however, it is not only based on intuition, but also on experiments of great precision and sophistication, and on a rigorous and consistent mathematical formalism.
In The Tao of Physics (1975), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Formalism (7)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mysticism (14)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precision (72)  |  Return (133)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

If you ask ... the man in the street ... the human significance of mathematics, the answer of the world will be, that mathematics has given mankind a metrical and computatory art essential to the effective conduct of daily life, that mathematics admits of countless applications in engineering and the natural sciences, and finally that mathematics is a most excellent instrumentality for giving mental discipline... [A mathematician will add] that mathematics is the exact science, the science of exact thought or of rigorous thinking.
Address (28 Mar 1912), Michigan School Masters' Club, Ann Arbor, 'The Humanization of the Teaching of Mathematics. Printed in Science (26 Apr 1912). Collected in The Human Worth of Rigorous Thinking: Essays and Addresses (1916), 65-66.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Ask (420)  |  Computation (28)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Countless (39)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Effective (68)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Human (1512)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man In The Street (2)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Metrical (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Significance (114)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

In order to survive, an animal must be born into a favoring or at least tolerant environment. Similarly, in order to achieve preservation and recognition, a specimen of fossil man must be discovered in intelligence, attested by scientific knowledge, and interpreted by evolutionary experience. These rigorous prerequisites have undoubtedly caused many still-births in human palaeontology and are partly responsible for the high infant mortality of discoveries of geologically ancient man.
Apes, Men and Morons (1938), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Animal (651)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Birth (154)  |  Discover (571)  |  Environment (239)  |  Excavation (8)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fossil (143)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Infant (26)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Still (614)  |  Survive (87)

In other branches of science, where quick publication seems to be so much desired, there may possibly be some excuse for giving to the world slovenly or ill-digested work, but there is no such excuse in mathematics. The form ought to be as perfect as the substance, and the demonstrations as rigorous as those of Euclid. The mathematician has to deal with the most exact facts of Nature, and he should spare no effort to render his interpretation worthy of his subject, and to give to his work its highest degree of perfection. “Pauca sed matura” was Gauss’s motto.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, (1890), Nature, 42, 467. [The Latin motto translates as “Few, but ripe”. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Branch (155)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Desire (212)  |  Effort (243)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Exact (75)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Give (208)  |  High (370)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motto (29)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Publication (102)  |  Quick (13)  |  Render (96)  |  Seem (150)  |  Slovenly (2)  |  Spare (9)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Worthy (35)

In working out physical problems there should be, in the first place, no pretence of rigorous formalism. The physics will guide the physicist along somehow to useful and important results, by the constant union of physical and geometrical or analytical ideas. The practice of eliminating the physics by reducing a problem to a purely mathematical exercise should be avoided as much as possible. The physics should be carried on right through, to give life and reality to the problem, and to obtain the great assistance which the physics gives to the mathematics.
In Electromagnetic Theory (1892), Vol. 2, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Assistance (23)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Constant (148)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Exercise (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Formalism (7)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guide (107)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pretence (7)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Through (846)  |  Union (52)  |  Useful (260)  |  Will (2350)

It is not only a decided preference for synthesis and a complete denial of general methods which characterizes the ancient mathematics as against our newer Science [modern mathematics]: besides this extemal formal difference there is another real, more deeply seated, contrast, which arises from the different attitudes which the two assumed relative to the use of the concept of variability. For while the ancients, on account of considerations which had been transmitted to them from the Philosophie school of the Eleatics, never employed the concept of motion, the spatial expression for variability, in their rigorous system, and made incidental use of it only in the treatment of phonoromically generated curves, modern geometry dates from the instant that Descartes left the purely algebraic treatment of equations and proceeded to investigate the variations which an algebraic expression undergoes when one of its variables assumes a continuous succession of values.
In 'Untersuchungen über die unendlich oft oszillierenden und unstetigen Functionen', Ostwald’s Klassiker der exacten Wissenschaften (1905), No. 153, 44-45. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 115. From the original German, “Nicht allein entschiedene Vorliebe für die Synthese und gänzliche Verleugnung allgemeiner Methoden charakterisiert die antike Mathematik gegenüber unserer neueren Wissenschaft; es gibt neben diesem mehr äußeren, formalen, noch einen tiefliegenden realen Gegensatz, welcher aus der verschiedenen Stellung entspringt, in welche sich beide zu der wissenschaftlichen Verwendung des Begriffes der Veränderlichkeit gesetzt haben. Denn während die Alten den Begriff der Bewegung, des räumlichen Ausdruckes der Veränderlichkeit, aus Bedenken, die aus der philosophischen Schule der Eleaten auf sie übergegangen waren, in ihrem strengen Systeme niemals und auch in der Behandlung phoronomisch erzeugter Kurven nur vorübergehend verwenden, so datiert die neuere Mathematik von dem Augenblicke, als Descartes von der rein algebraischen Behandlung der Gleichungen dazu fortschritt, die Größenveränderungen zu untersuchen, welche ein algebraischer Ausdruck erleidet, indem eine in ihm allgemein bezeichnete Größe eine stetige Folge von Werten durchläuft.”
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Against (332)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Arise (162)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Complete (209)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Curve (49)  |  Denial (20)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Employ (115)  |  Equation (138)  |  Expression (181)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Instant (46)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Preference (28)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Purely (111)  |  School (227)  |  Succession (80)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  System (545)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Variable (37)  |  Variation (93)

It is now necessary to indicate more definitely the reason why mathematics not only carries conviction in itself, but also transmits conviction to the objects to which it is applied. The reason is found, first of all, in the perfect precision with which the elementary mathematical concepts are determined; in this respect each science must look to its own salvation .... But this is not all. As soon as human thought attempts long chains of conclusions, or difficult matters generally, there arises not only the danger of error but also the suspicion of error, because since all details cannot be surveyed with clearness at the same instant one must in the end be satisfied with a belief that nothing has been overlooked from the beginning. Every one knows how much this is the case even in arithmetic, the most elementary use of mathematics. No one would imagine that the higher parts of mathematics fare better in this respect; on the contrary, in more complicated conclusions the uncertainty and suspicion of hidden errors increases in rapid progression. How does mathematics manage to rid itself of this inconvenience which attaches to it in the highest degree? By making proofs more rigorous? By giving new rules according to which the old rules shall be applied? Not in the least. A very great uncertainty continues to attach to the result of each single computation. But there are checks. In the realm of mathematics each point may be reached by a hundred different ways; and if each of a hundred ways leads to the same point, one may be sure that the right point has been reached. A calculation without a check is as good as none. Just so it is with every isolated proof in any speculative science whatever; the proof may be ever so ingenious, and ever so perfectly true and correct, it will still fail to convince permanently. He will therefore be much deceived, who, in metaphysics, or in psychology which depends on metaphysics, hopes to see his greatest care in the precise determination of the concepts and in the logical conclusions rewarded by conviction, much less by success in transmitting conviction to others. Not only must the conclusions support each other, without coercion or suspicion of subreption, but in all matters originating in experience, or judging concerning experience, the results of speculation must be verified by experience, not only superficially, but in countless special cases.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 105. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arise (162)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Care (203)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Chain (51)  |  Check (26)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Computation (28)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convince (43)  |  Correct (95)  |  Countless (39)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fare (5)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hide (70)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Thought (7)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Less (105)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Manage (26)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metaphysic (7)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realm (87)  |  Reason (766)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rid (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Soon (187)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Support (151)  |  Survey (36)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmit (12)  |  True (239)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Use (771)  |  Verify (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

It is the task of science, as a collective human undertaking, to describe from the external side, (on which alone agreement is possible), such statistical regularity as there is in a world “in which every event has a unique aspect, and to indicate where possible the limits of such description. It is not part of its task to make imaginative interpretation of the internal aspect of reality—what it is like, for example, to be a lion, an ant or an ant hill, a liver cell, or a hydrogen ion. The only qualification is in the field of introspective psychology in which each human being is both observer and observed, and regularities may be established by comparing notes. Science is thus a limited venture. It must act as if all phenomena were deterministic at least in the sense of determinable probabilities. It cannot properly explain the behaviour of an amoeba as due partly to surface and other physical forces and partly to what the amoeba wants to do, with out danger of something like 100 per cent duplication. It must stick to the former. It cannot introduce such principles as creative activity into its interpretation of evolution for similar reasons. The point of view indicated by a consideration of the hierarchy of physical and biological organisms, now being bridged by the concept of the gene, is one in which science deliberately accepts a rigorous limitation of its activities to the description of the external aspects of events. In carrying out this program, the scientist should not, however, deceive himself or others into thinking that he is giving an account of all of reality. The unique inner creative aspect of every event necessarily escapes him.
In 'Gene and Organism', American Naturalist, (1953), 87, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Activity (218)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Ant (34)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Cell (146)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Creative (144)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Describe (132)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Escape (85)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Former (138)  |  Gene (105)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inner (72)  |  Internal (69)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Ion (21)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (102)  |  Lion (23)  |  Liver (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Surface (223)  |  Task (152)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Unique (72)  |  View (496)  |  Want (504)  |  World (1850)

Let him [the author] be permitted also in all humility to add … that in consequence of the large arrears of algebraical and arithmetical speculations waiting in his mind their turn to be called into outward existence, he is driven to the alternative of leaving the fruits of his meditations to perish (as has been the fate of too many foregone theories, the still-born progeny of his brain, now forever resolved back again into the primordial matter of thought), or venturing to produce from time to time such imperfect sketches as the present, calculated to evoke the mental co-operation of his readers, in whom the algebraical instinct has been to some extent developed, rather than to satisfy the strict demands of rigorously systematic exposition.
In Philosophic Magazine (1863), 460.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Arrears (2)  |  Author (175)  |  Back (395)  |  Brain (281)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Call (781)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Demand (131)  |  Develop (278)  |  Drive (61)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Existence (481)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fate (76)  |  Forego (4)  |  Forever (111)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Humility (31)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Large (398)  |  Leave (138)  |  Let (64)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Operation (221)  |  Outward (7)  |  Perish (56)  |  Permit (61)  |  Present (630)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Produce (117)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Reader (42)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Still (614)  |  Stillborn (2)  |  Strict (20)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Venture (19)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)

Mathematics is crystallized clarity, precision personified, beauty distilled and rigorously sublimated.
In The American Mathematical Monthly (1949), 56, 19. Excerpted in John Ewing (ed,), A Century of Mathematics: Through the Eyes of the Monthly (1996), 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Distill (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Precision (72)  |  Sublimate (4)

Mathematics is not arithmetic. Though mathematics may have arisen from the practices of counting and measuring it really deals with logical reasoning in which theorems—general and specific statements—can be deduced from the starting assumptions. It is, perhaps, the purest and most rigorous of intellectual activities, and is often thought of as queen of the sciences.
Essay,'Private Games', in Lewis Wolpert, Alison Richards (eds.), A Passion for Science (1988), 53.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Counting (26)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deduce (27)  |  General (521)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measuring (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Practice (212)  |  Queen (14)  |  Queen Of The Sciences (6)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Specific (98)  |  Starting (2)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thought (995)

Mathematics is of two kinds, Rigorous and Physical. The former is Narrow: the latter Bold and Broad. To have to stop to formulate rigorous demonstrations would put a stop to most physico-mathematical inquiries. Am I to refuse to eat because I do not fully understand the mechanism of digestion?
As quoted by Charles Melbourne Focken in Dimensional Methods and Their Applications (1953), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Bold (22)  |  Broad (28)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Former (138)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Physical (518)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Stop (89)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)

Mathematics renders its best service through the immediate furthering of rigorous thought and the spirit of invention.
In 'Mathematischer Lehrplan für Realschulen' Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 170. (Mathematics Curriculum for Secondary Schools). As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Render (96)  |  Service (110)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spirit Of Invention (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Measurement has too often been the leitmotif of many investigations rather than the experimental examination of hypotheses. Mounds of data are collected, which are statistically decorous and methodologically unimpeachable, but conclusions are often trivial and rarely useful in decision making. This results from an overly rigorous control of an insignificant variable and a widespread deficiency in the framing of pertinent questions. Investigators seem to have settled for what is measurable instead of measuring what they would really like to know.
'Patient Care—Mystical Research or Researchable Mystique/', Clinical Research (1964), 12, no. 4, 422.
Science quotes on:  |  Collection (68)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Control (182)  |  Data (162)  |  Decision (98)  |  Deficiency (15)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Framing (2)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Insignificance (12)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Like (23)  |  Making (300)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Pertinent (4)  |  Question (649)  |  Rare (94)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Variable (37)  |  Widespread (23)

One of the principal obstacles to the rapid diffusion of a new idea lies in the difficulty of finding suitable expression to convey its essential point to other minds. Words may have to be strained into a new sense, and scientific controversies constantly resolve themselves into differences about the meaning of words. On the other hand, a happy nomenclature has sometimes been more powerful than rigorous logic in allowing a new train of thought to be quickly and generally accepted.
Opening Address to the Annual Meeting of the British Association by Prof. Arthur Schuster, in Nature (4 Aug 1892), 46, 325.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Convey (17)  |  Difference (355)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diffusion (13)  |  Essential (210)  |  Expression (181)  |  Finding (34)  |  Happy (108)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logic (311)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principal (69)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Suitability (11)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Word (650)

One rarely hears of the mathematical recitation as a preparation for public speaking. Yet mathematics shares with these studies [foreign languages, drawing and natural science] their advantages, and has another in a higher degree than either of them.
Most readers will agree that a prime requisite for healthful experience in public speaking is that the attention of the speaker and hearers alike be drawn wholly away from the speaker and concentrated upon the thought. In perhaps no other classroom is this so easy as in the mathematical, where the close reasoning, the rigorous demonstration, the tracing of necessary conclusions from given hypotheses, commands and secures the entire mental power of the student who is explaining, and of his classmates. In what other circumstances do students feel so instinctively that manner counts for so little and mind for so much? In what other circumstances, therefore, is a simple, unaffected, easy, graceful manner so naturally and so healthfully cultivated? Mannerisms that are mere affectation or the result of bad literary habit recede to the background and finally disappear, while those peculiarities that are the expression of personality and are inseparable from its activity continually develop, where the student frequently presents, to an audience of his intellectual peers, a connected train of reasoning. …
One would almost wish that our institutions of the science and art of public speaking would put over their doors the motto that Plato had over the entrance to his school of philosophy: “Let no one who is unacquainted with geometry enter here.”
In A Scrap-book of Elementary Mathematics: Notes, Recreations, Essays (1908), 210-211.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alike (60)  |  Art (680)  |  Attention (196)  |  Audience (28)  |  Background (44)  |  Bad (185)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Classroom (11)  |  Command (60)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Connect (126)  |  Count (107)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Door (94)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feel (371)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hear (144)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Institution (73)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Language (308)  |  Listener (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peer (13)  |  Personality (66)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Power (771)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Present (630)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recede (11)  |  Recitation (2)  |  Result (700)  |  School (227)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Share (82)  |  Simple (426)  |  Speaker (6)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Student (317)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

Phony psychics like Uri Geller have had particular success in bamboozling scientists with ordinary stage magic, because only scientists are arrogant enough to think that they always observe with rigorous and objective scrutiny, and therefore could never be so fooled–while ordinary mortals know perfectly well that good performers can always find a way to trick people.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arrogant (4)  |  Enough (341)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fool (121)  |  Good (906)  |  Know (1538)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observe (179)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Particular (80)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Performer (2)  |  Phony (3)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  Stage (152)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trick (36)  |  Way (1214)

Science requires an almost complete openness to all ideas. On the other hand, it requires the most rigorous and uncompromising skepticism.
In article, 'Wonder and Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer (Jan/Feb 1995), 19, No. 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Complete (209)  |  Idea (881)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Openness (8)  |  Require (229)  |  Science Requires (6)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Uncompromising (2)

Sign language is the equal of speech, lending itself equally to the rigorous and the poetic, to philosophical analysis or to making love.
In The Times (16 Jun 1994).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equally (129)  |  Language (308)  |  Love (328)  |  Making (300)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Poetic (7)  |  Speech (66)

Sophie Germain proved to the world that even a woman can accomplish something in the most rigorous and abstract of sciences and for that reason would well have deserved an honorary degree.
Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Degree (277)  |  Sophie Germain (4)  |  Most (1728)  |  Reason (766)  |  Something (718)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

Suppose then I want to give myself a little training in the art of reasoning; suppose I want to get out of the region of conjecture and probability, free myself from the difficult task of weighing evidence, and putting instances together to arrive at general propositions, and simply desire to know how to deal with my general propositions when I get them, and how to deduce right inferences from them; it is clear that I shall obtain this sort of discipline best in those departments of thought in which the first principles are unquestionably true. For in all our thinking, if we come to erroneous conclusions, we come to them either by accepting false premises to start with—in which case our reasoning, however good, will not save us from error; or by reasoning badly, in which case the data we start from may be perfectly sound, and yet our conclusions may be false. But in the mathematical or pure sciences,—geometry, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, the calculus of variations or of curves,— we know at least that there is not, and cannot be, error in our first principles, and we may therefore fasten our whole attention upon the processes. As mere exercises in logic, therefore, these sciences, based as they all are on primary truths relating to space and number, have always been supposed to furnish the most exact discipline. When Plato wrote over the portal of his school. “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here,” he did not mean that questions relating to lines and surfaces would be discussed by his disciples. On the contrary, the topics to which he directed their attention were some of the deepest problems,— social, political, moral,—on which the mind could exercise itself. Plato and his followers tried to think out together conclusions respecting the being, the duty, and the destiny of man, and the relation in which he stood to the gods and to the unseen world. What had geometry to do with these things? Simply this: That a man whose mind has not undergone a rigorous training in systematic thinking, and in the art of drawing legitimate inferences from premises, was unfitted to enter on the discussion of these high topics; and that the sort of logical discipline which he needed was most likely to be obtained from geometry—the only mathematical science which in Plato’s time had been formulated and reduced to a system. And we in this country [England] have long acted on the same principle. Our future lawyers, clergy, and statesmen are expected at the University to learn a good deal about curves, and angles, and numbers and proportions; not because these subjects have the smallest relation to the needs of their lives, but because in the very act of learning them they are likely to acquire that habit of steadfast and accurate thinking, which is indispensable to success in all the pursuits of life.
In Lectures on Teaching (1906), 891-92.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Act (278)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Angle (25)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Art (680)  |  Attention (196)  |  Badly (32)  |  Base (120)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Case (102)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clergy (4)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Curve (49)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deep (241)  |  Department (93)  |  Desire (212)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disciple (8)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Duty (71)  |  England (43)  |  Enter (145)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Expect (203)  |  False (105)  |  First (1302)  |  Follower (11)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Free (239)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Habit (174)  |  High (370)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Inference (45)  |  Instance (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Least (75)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  Line (100)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Logic (311)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Need (320)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Plato (80)  |  Political (124)  |  Portal (9)  |  Premise (40)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Region (40)  |  Relate (26)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Right (473)  |  Same (166)  |  Save (126)  |  School (227)  |  Simply (53)  |  Small (489)  |  Social (261)  |  Sort (50)  |  Sound (187)  |  Space (523)  |  Stand (284)  |  Start (237)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Steadfast (4)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Task (152)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Topic (23)  |  Training (92)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Unfitted (3)  |  University (130)  |  Unquestionably (3)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Variation (93)  |  Want (504)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)

Suppose we loosely define a religion as any discipline whose foundations rest on an element of faith, irrespective of any element of reason which may be present. Quantum mechanics for example would be a religion under this definition. But mathematics would hold the unique position of being the only branch of theology possessing a rigorous demonstration of the fact that it should be so classified.
Concluding remark in 'Consistency and Completeness—A Résumé', The American Mathematical Monthly (May 1956), 63, No.5, 305.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Classification (102)  |  Definition (238)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Element (322)  |  Example (98)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faith (209)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Irrespective (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Position (83)  |  Possessing (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rest (287)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theology (54)  |  Unique (72)

The employment of mathematical symbols is perfectly natural when the relations between magnitudes are under discussion; and even if they are not rigorously necessary, it would hardly be reasonable to reject them, because they are not equally familiar to all readers and because they have sometimes been wrongly used, if they are able to facilitate the exposition of problems, to render it more concise, to open the way to more extended developments, and to avoid the digressions of vague argumentation.
From Recherches sur les Principes Mathématiques de la Théorie des Richesses (1838), as translated by Nathaniel T. Bacon in 'Preface', Researches Into Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth (1897), 3-4. From the original French, “L’emploi des signes mathématiques est chose naturelle toutes les fois qu'il s'agit de discuter des relations entre des grandeurs ; et lors même qu’ils ne seraient pas rigoureusement nécessaires, s’ils peuvent faciliter l’exposition, la rendre plus concise, mettre sur la voie de développements plus étendus, prévenir les écarts d’une vague argumentation, il serait peu philosophique de les rebuter, parce qu'ils ne sont pas également familiers à tous les lecteurs et qu'on s'en est quelquefois servi à faux.”
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Concise (9)  |  Development (441)  |  Digression (3)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Employment (34)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Extend (129)  |  Facilitate (6)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Open (277)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Reject (67)  |  Relation (166)  |  Render (96)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Vague (50)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wrong (246)

The following story is true. There was a little boy, and his father said, “Do try to be like other people. Don’t frown.” And he tried and tried, but could not. So his father beat him with a strap; and then he was eaten up by lions. Reader, if young, take warning by his sad life and death. For though it may be an honour to be different from other people, if Carlyle’s dictum about the 30 million be still true, yet other people do not like it. So, if you are different, you had better hide it, and pretend to be solemn and wooden-headed. Until you make your fortune. For most wooden-headed people worship money; and, really, I do not see what else they can do. In particular, if you are going to write a book, remember the wooden-headed. So be rigorous; that will cover a multitude of sins. And do not frown.
From 'Electromagnetic Theory, CXII', The Electrician (23 Feb 1900), Vol. 44, 615.
Science quotes on:  |  Beat (42)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Boy (100)  |  Thomas Carlyle (38)  |  Cover (40)  |  Death (406)  |  Dictum (10)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Father (113)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Frown (5)  |  Hide (70)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Honour (58)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lion (23)  |  Little (717)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Reader (42)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  Sadness (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Sin (45)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Still (614)  |  Story (122)  |  Strap (3)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Warning (18)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worship (32)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)  |  Young (253)

The foundations of population genetics were laid chiefly by mathematical deduction from basic premises contained in the works of Mendel and Morgan and their followers. Haldane, Wright, and Fisher are the pioneers of population genetics whose main research equipment was paper and ink rather than microscopes, experimental fields, Drosophila bottles, or mouse cages. Theirs is theoretical biology at its best, and it has provided a guiding light for rigorous quantitative experimentation and observation.
'A Review of Some Fundamental Concepts and Problems of Population Genetics', Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 1955, 20, 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Best (467)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cage (12)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Drosophila (10)  |  Drosphilia (4)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Field (378)  |  Fischer_Ronald (2)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Thomas Hunt Morgan (14)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Observation (593)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Population (115)  |  Premise (40)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Research (753)  |  Work (1402)  |  Sewall Wright (9)

The great masters of modern analysis are Lagrange, Laplace, and Gauss, who were contemporaries. It is interesting to note the marked contrast in their styles. Lagrange is perfect both in form and matter, he is careful to explain his procedure, and though his arguments are general they are easy to follow. Laplace on the other hand explains nothing, is indifferent to style, and, if satisfied that his results are correct, is content to leave them either with no proof or with a faulty one. Gauss is as exact and elegant as Lagrange, but even more difficult to follow than Laplace, for he removes every trace of the analysis by which he reached his results, and studies to give a proof which while rigorous shall be as concise and synthetical as possible.
In History of Mathematics (3rd Ed., 1901), 468.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Argument (145)  |  Both (496)  |  Concise (9)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Content (75)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Correct (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Easy (213)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Exact (75)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Faulty (3)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Leave (138)  |  Marked (55)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possible (560)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remove (50)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Style (24)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Trace (109)

The only way in which to treat the elements of an exact and rigorous science is to apply to them all the rigor and exactness possible.
Quoted in De Morgan, Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849), Title page.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Element (322)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Treat (38)  |  Way (1214)

There are in this world optimists who feel that any symbol that starts off with an integral sign must necessarily denote something that will have every property that they should like an integral to possess. This of course is quite annoying to us rigorous mathematicians; what is even more annoying is that by doing so they often come up with the right answer.
In 'Integrals Devised for Special Purposes', Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (1963), 69, 611.
Science quotes on:  |  Annoy (5)  |  Answer (389)  |  Course (413)  |  Denote (6)  |  Doing (277)  |  Feel (371)  |  Integral (26)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Often (109)  |  Optimist (8)  |  Possess (157)  |  Property (177)  |  Right (473)  |  Sign (63)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right; they’re the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Quoted in Donald R. Prothero and Carl Dennis Buell, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters (2007), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Aperture (5)  |  Correction (42)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Process (439)  |  Right (473)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Correcting (5)  |  Survive (87)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wrong (246)

There is an occasional glimmer of fertility [as compounds], the chemical equivalent of a blade of grass [in a desert]. So, gone … is the justification for “inert.” [Group 0 elements] are now known collectively as the noble gases, a name intended to imply a kind of chemical aloofness rather than a rigorous chastity.
In The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into the Land of the Chemical Elements (1995), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Blade (11)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Compound (117)  |  Desert (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Grass (49)  |  Group (83)  |  Inert (14)  |  Justification (52)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Name (359)  |  Noble (93)  |  Noble Gas (4)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occasional (23)

There is no rigorous definition of rigor.

In Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty (1982), 315.
Science quotes on:  |  Definition (238)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigour (21)

This relation logical implication is probably the most rigorous and powerful of all the intellectual enterprises of man. From a properly selected set of the vast number of prepositional functions a set can be selected from which an infinitude of prepositional functions can be implied. In this sense all postulational thinking is mathematics. It can be shown that doctrines in the sciences, natural and social, in history, in jurisprudence and in ethics are constructed on the postulational thinking scheme and to that extent are mathematical. Together the proper enterprise of Science and the enterprise of Mathematics embrace the whole knowledge-seeking activity of mankind, whereby “knowledge” is meant the kind of knowledge that admits of being made articulate in the form of propositions.
In Mathematics as a Culture Clue: And Other Essays (1947), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Articulate (8)  |  Being (1276)  |  Construct (129)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  History (716)  |  Imply (20)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Number (710)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Select (45)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Together (392)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)

Felix Klein quote: Undoubtedly, the capstone of every mathematical theory is a convincing proof of all of its assertions
Undoubtedly, the capstone of every mathematical theory is a convincing proof of all of its assertions. Undoubtedly, mathematics inculpates itself when it foregoes convincing proofs. But the mystery of brilliant productivity will always be the posing of new questions, the anticipation of new theorems that make accessible valuable results and connections. Without the creation of new viewpoints, without the statement of new aims, mathematics would soon exhaust itself in the rigor of its logical proofs and begin to stagnate as its substance vanishes. Thus, in a sense, mathematics has been most advanced by those who distinguished themselves by intuition rather than by rigorous proofs.
As quoted in Hermann Weyl, Unterrichtsblätter für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften (1932), 38, 177-188. As translated by Abe Shenitzer, in 'Part I. Topology and Abstract Algebra as Two Roads of Mathematical Comprehension', The American Mathematical Monthly (May 1995), 102, No. 7, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Advance (298)  |  Aim (175)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Begin (275)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Capstone (2)  |  Connection (171)  |  Convince (43)  |  Creation (350)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  New (1273)  |  Pose (9)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Sense (785)  |  Soon (187)  |  Stagnate (3)  |  Statement (148)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Value (393)  |  Vanish (19)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  Will (2350)

We receive it as a fact, that some minds are so constituted as absolutely to require for their nurture the severe logic of the abstract sciences; that rigorous sequence of ideas which leads from the premises to the conclusion, by a path, arduous and narrow, it may be, and which the youthful reason may find it hard to mount, but where it cannot stray; and on which, if it move at all, it must move onward and upward… . Even for intellects of a different character, whose natural aptitude is for moral evidence and those relations of ideas which are perceived and appreciated by taste, the study of the exact sciences may be recommended as the best protection against the errors into which they are most likely to fall. Although the study of language is in many respects no mean exercise in logic, yet it must be admitted that an eminently practical mind is hardly to be formed without mathematical training.
In Orations and Speeches (1870), Vol. 8, 510.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Admit (49)  |  Against (332)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Best (467)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Different (595)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Language (308)  |  Lead (391)  |  Likely (36)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mount (43)  |  Move (223)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Path (159)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Practical (225)  |  Premise (40)  |  Protection (41)  |  Reason (766)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Relation (166)  |  Require (229)  |  Respect (212)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Severe (17)  |  Stray (7)  |  Study (701)  |  Taste (93)  |  Training (92)  |  Upward (44)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Youthful (2)

While it is never safe to affirm that the future of Physical Science has no marvels in store even more astonishing than those of the past, it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice.
'Spectroscopy, Molecular Orbitals, and Chemical Bonding', Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1966). In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1963-1970 (1972), 159.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Affirmation (8)  |  Application (257)  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Establish (63)  |  Future (467)  |  Marvel (37)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Past (355)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Safe (61)  |  Safety (58)  |  Seek (218)  |  Store (49)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Wonder (251)

While it is never safe to affirm that the future of Physical Science has no marvels in store even more astonishing than those of the past, it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established, and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous applications of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice. It is here that the science of measurement shows its importance—where the quantitative results are more to be desired than qualitative work. An eminent physicist has remarked that the future truths of Physical Science are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.
University of Chicago, Annual Register 1894-1895 (1894), 150. Michelson also incorporated these lines in his address, 'Some of the Objects and Methods of Physical Science', at the opening of the Physics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory at the University of Kansas, reprinted in The Electrical Engineer (1 Jan 1896), 21, No. 400, 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Application (257)  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Desired (5)  |  Established (7)  |  Future (467)  |  Grand (29)  |  Importance (299)  |  Look (584)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Past (355)  |  Phenomena (8)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Principle (530)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Result (700)  |  Safe (61)  |  Show (353)  |  Store (49)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Work (1402)

You have read my writings, and from them you have certainly understood which was the true and real motive that caused, under the lying mask of religion, this war against me that continually restrains and undercuts me in all directions, so that neither can help come to me from outside nor can I go forth to defend myself, there having been issued an express order to all Inquisitors that they should not allow any of my works to be reprinted which had been printed many years ago or grant permission to any new work that I would print. … a most rigorous and general order, I say, against all my works, omnia et edenda; so that it is left to me only to succumb in silence under the flood of attacks, exposures, derision, and insult coming from all sides.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Allow (51)  |  Attack (86)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Coming (114)  |  Defend (32)  |  Derision (8)  |  Direction (185)  |  Exposure (9)  |  Express (192)  |  Flood (52)  |  General (521)  |  Grant (76)  |  Inquisitor (6)  |  Insult (16)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mask (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Myself (211)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Outside (141)  |  Permission (7)  |  Print (20)  |  Read (308)  |  Religion (369)  |  Restrain (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Side (236)  |  Silence (62)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Undercut (3)  |  Understood (155)  |  War (233)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)

You have read my writings, and from them you have certainly understood which was the true and real motive that caused, under the lying mask of religion, this war against me that continually restrains and undercuts me in all directions, so that neither can help come to me from outside nor can I go forth to defend myself, there having been issued an express order to all Inquisitors that they should not allow any of my works to be reprinted which had been printed many years ago or grant permission to any new work that I would print. … a most rigorous and general order, I say, against all my works, omnia et edenda; so that it is left to me only to succumb in silence under the flood of attacks, exposures, derision, and insult coming from all sides.
In Letter to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (16 Mar 1635). As quoted in translation in Giorgio de Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (1976), 324, with footnote that “he had known about the reserved orders to the provincial Inquisitors from Micanzio in Venice. On September 8, 1633, the Pope had further reprimanded the Inquisitor of Florence for giving permission to reprint some past works.”
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Attack (86)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Coming (114)  |  Direction (185)  |  Express (192)  |  Flood (52)  |  General (521)  |  Grant (76)  |  Insult (16)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mask (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Myself (211)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Outside (141)  |  Read (308)  |  Religion (369)  |  Say (989)  |  Side (236)  |  Silence (62)  |  Undercut (3)  |  Understood (155)  |  War (233)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)


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.