TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Salt

Salt Quotes (48 quotes)

Carl Sagan quote A Subject Called Chemistry
Wellington College. CC by-NC 2.0 (source)

...it would be a simple way of solving the goiter problem. And in addition to that it would be the biggest thing in a medical proposition to be carried out in the state of Michigan, and Michigan is a large place. And as I thought of the thing the more convinced I became that this oughtn't to be a personal thing, This ought to be something done by the Michigan State Medical Society as a body.
Recommending the addition of a trace of iodine to table salt.
Opening address to the Medical Department of the University of Michigan, Sep 1914. Quoted by Howard Markel in 'When it Rains it Pours' : Endemic Goiter, Iodized Salt, and David Murray Cowie, M.D. American Journal of Public Health, Feb 1987, vol.77, No.2, page 222.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Body (557)  |  Iodine (7)  |  Large (398)  |  More (2558)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Simple (426)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  State (505)  |  Table (105)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trace (109)  |  Way (1214)

[Concerning] phosphorescent bodies, and in particular to uranium salts whose phosphorescence has a very brief duration. With the double sulfate of uranium and potassium ... I was able to perform the following experiment: One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a bromide emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, such that the plate does not become clouded upon being exposed to the sun for a day. One places on the sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of the phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the sun for several hours. When one then develops the photographic plate, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between the phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money or a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees the image of these objects appear on the negative. One can repeat the same experiments placing a thin pane of glass between the phosphorescent substance and the paper, which excludes the possibility of chemical action due to vapors which might emanate from the substance when heated by the sun's rays. One must conclude from these experiments that the phosphorescent substance in question emits rays which pass through the opaque paper and reduces silver salts.
[Although the sun is irrelevant, and he misinterprets the role of phosphorescence, he has discovered the effect of radioactivity.]
Read at French Academy of Science (24 Feb 1896). In Comptes Rendus (1896), 122, 420. As translated by Carmen Giunta on the Classic Chemistry web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brief (37)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Cut (116)  |  Design (203)  |  Develop (278)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Due (143)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emit (15)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Glass (94)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hour (192)  |  Image (97)  |  Metal (88)  |  Money (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Negative (66)  |  Object (438)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perform (123)  |  Phosphorescence (2)  |  Phosphorescent (3)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Question (649)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Ray (115)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Role (86)  |  See (1094)  |  Silhouette (4)  |  Silver (49)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sun (407)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Vapor (12)  |  Whole (756)

[Professor W.L. Bragg asserts that] In sodium chloride there appear to be no molecules represented by NaCl. The equality in number of sodium and chlorine atoms is arrived at by a chess-board pattern of these atoms; it is a result of geometry and not of a pairing-off of the atoms.
In Henry E. Armstrong, 'Poor Common Salt!', Nature (1927), 120, 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Atom (381)  |  Sir William Bragg (9)  |  Chess (27)  |  Chlorine (15)  |  Equality (34)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Number (710)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Professor (133)  |  Represent (157)  |  Result (700)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Sodium Chloride (2)

A bewildering assortment of (mostly microscopic) life-forms has been found thriving in what were once thought to be uninhabitable regions of our planet. These hardy creatures have turned up in deep, hot underground rocks, around scalding volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean, in the desiccated, super-cold Dry Valleys of Antarctica, in places of high acid, alkaline, and salt content, and below many meters of polar ice. ... Some deep-dwelling, heat-loving microbes, genetic studies suggest, are among the oldest species known, hinting that not only can life thrive indefinitely in what appear to us totally alien environments, it may actually originate in such places.
In Life Everywhere: the Maverick Science of Astrobiology (2002), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Alien (35)  |  Alkali (6)  |  Antarctica (8)  |  Assortment (5)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Cold (115)  |  Creature (242)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dry (65)  |  Environment (239)  |  Form (976)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Heat (180)  |  High (370)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ice (58)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life-Form (6)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microbes (14)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Originate (39)  |  Planet (402)  |  Polar (13)  |  Rock (176)  |  Species (435)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Thriving (2)  |  Turn (454)  |  Underground (12)  |  Valley (37)  |  Vent (2)  |  Volcano (46)

A bilious philosopher’s opinion of the world can only be accepted with a pinch of salt, of Epsom salt by preference.
From essay in Proper Studies: The Proper Study of Mankind Is Man (1927). Extract published in Vanity Fair (1927), 28, No. 4, 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepted (6)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pinch (6)  |  Preference (28)  |  World (1850)

A chemical name should not be a phrase, it ought not to require circumlocutions to become definite; it should not be of the type “Glauber’s salt”, which conveys nothing about the composition of the substance; it should recall the constituents of a compound; it should be non-committal if nothing is known about the substance; the names should preferably be coined from Latin or Greek, so that their meaning can be more widely and easily understood; the form of the words should be such that they fit easily into the language into which they are to be incorporated.
(1782) As quoted in Archibald Clow, Chemical Revolution: A Contribution to Social Technology (1952, 1992), 618.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Definite (114)  |  Fit (139)  |  Form (976)  |  Greek (109)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (308)  |  Latin (44)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Require (229)  |  Substance (253)  |  Type (171)  |  Understood (155)  |  Word (650)

A demonstrative and convincing proof that an acid does consist of pointed parts is, that not only all acid salts do Crystallize into edges, but all Dissolutions of different things, caused by acid liquors, do assume this figure in their Crystallization; these Crystalls consist of points differing both in length and bigness from one another, and this diversity must be attributed to the keener or blunter edges of the different sorts of acids
A Course of Chymistry (1675), trans. W. Harris (1686), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Both (496)  |  Consist (223)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Demonstrative (14)  |  Different (595)  |  Dissolution (11)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Edge (51)  |  Figure (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Proof (304)  |  Thing (1914)

A marine protozoan is an aqueous salty system in an aqueous salty medium, but a man is an aqueous salty system in a medium in which there is but little water and most of that poor in salts.
Quoted in Larry R. Squire (ed.), The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography (1996), Vol. 1, 558.
Science quotes on:  |  Aqueous (8)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marine (9)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Medium (15)  |  Most (1728)  |  Poor (139)  |  Protozoan (3)  |  System (545)  |  Water (503)

A time will come, when fields will be manured with a solution of glass (silicate of potash), with the ashes of burnt straw, and with the salts of phosphoric acid, prepared in chemical manufactories, exactly as at present medicines are given for fever and goitre.
Agricultural Chemistry (1847), 4th edn., 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Ash (21)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Factory (20)  |  Fertilizer (13)  |  Fever (34)  |  Field (378)  |  Glass (94)  |  Goitre (2)  |  Industrial Chemistry (2)  |  Manure (8)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Phosphate (6)  |  Present (630)  |  Silicate (2)  |  Solution (282)  |  Straw (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)

Acid Salts have the Power of Destroying the Blewness of the Infusion of our Wood [lignum nephreticum], and those Liquors indiscriminatly that abound with Sulphurous Salts, (under which I comprehend the Urinous and Volatile Salts of Animal Substances, and the Alcalisate or fixed Salts that are made by Incineration) have the virtue of Restoring it.
Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664), 212.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Acid (83)  |  Animal (651)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Indicator (6)  |  Power (771)  |  Substance (253)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wood (97)

Aristotle, in spite of his reputation, is full of absurdities. He says that children should be conceived in the Winter, when the wind is in the North, and that if people marry too young the children will be female. He tells us that the blood of females is blacker then that of males; that the pig is the only animal liable to measles; that an elephant suffering from insomnia should have its shoulders rubbed with salt, olive-oil, and warm water; that women have fewer teeth than men, and so on. Nevertheless, he is considered by the great majority of philosophers a paragon of wisdom.
From An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1937, 1943), 19. Collected in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (2009), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Black (46)  |  Blood (144)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consider (428)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Female (50)  |  Fewer (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Insomnia (3)  |  Majority (68)  |  Male (26)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Measles (4)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  North (12)  |  Oil (67)  |  Paragon (4)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pig (8)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Rub (4)  |  Say (989)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Spite (55)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Tell (344)  |  Warm (74)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)  |  Winter (46)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Woman (160)  |  Young (253)

Artificial intelligence is based on the assumption that the mind can be described as some kind of formal system manipulating symbols that stand for things in the world. Thus it doesn't matter what the brain is made of, or what it uses for tokens in the great game of thinking. Using an equivalent set of tokens and rules, we can do thinking with a digital computer, just as we can play chess using cups, salt and pepper shakers, knives, forks, and spoons. Using the right software, one system (the mind) can be mapped onto the other (the computer).
Machinery of the Mind: Inside the New Science of Artificial Intelligence (1986), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Brain (281)  |  Chess (27)  |  Computer (131)  |  Digital (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Game (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Kind (564)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Set (400)  |  Software (14)  |  Spoon (5)  |  Stand (284)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Token (10)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

At present we begin to feel impatient, and to wish for a new state of chemical elements. For a time the desire was to add to the metals, now we wish to diminish their number. They increase upon us continually, and threaten to enclose within their ranks the bounds of our fair fields of chemical science. The rocks of the mountain and the soil of the plain, the sands of the sea and the salts that are in it, have given way to the powers we have been able to apply to them, but only to be replaced by metals.
In his 16th Lecture of 1818, in Bence Jones, The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 1, 256-257.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Desire (212)  |  Element (322)  |  Feel (371)  |  Field (378)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Increase (225)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mountain (202)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sand (63)  |  Sea (326)  |  Soil (98)  |  State (505)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)

Cheese and salt meat, should be sparingly eat.
In Poor Richard's Almanack (1733).
Science quotes on:  |  Cheese (10)  |  Diet (56)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Health (210)  |  Meat (19)

Chlorine is a deadly poison gas employed on European battlefields in World War I. Sodium is a corrosive metal which burns upon contact with water. Together they make a placid and unpoisonous material, table salt. Why each of these substances has the properties it does is a subject called chemistry.
In Broca's Brain: The Romance of Science (1979), 18, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Battlefield (9)  |  Burn (99)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chlorine (15)  |  Contact (66)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Employ (115)  |  Gas (89)  |  Material (366)  |  Metal (88)  |  Poison (46)  |  Property (177)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)  |  Table (105)  |  Together (392)  |  War (233)  |  Water (503)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

Don’t trust everything you see. Even salt looks like sugar.
Anonymous
Relevant to the need for careful observation in science. Found among inspirational quotes related to “Trust”, sometimes seen attributed to Narges Obaid. Webmaster has not yet found any primary source. The resemblance has been long known, for example in The Child’s Friend (Jul 1885), 11, 108: “It looks like sugar, and tastes like — like — salt!”
Science quotes on:  |  Observation (593)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Trust (72)

Every arsenate has its corresponding phosphate, composed according to the same proportions, combined with the same amount of water of crystallization, and endowed with the same physical properties: in fact, the two series of salts differ in no respect, except that the radical of the acid in one series in phosphorus, while in the other it is arsenic.
The experimental clue he used forming his law of isomerism. Originally published in 'Om Förhållandet emellan chemiska sammansättningen och krystallformen hos Arseniksyrade och Phosphorsyrade Salter', (On the Relation between the Chemical Composition and Crystal Form of Salts of Arsenic and Phosphoric Acids), Kungliga Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar (1821), 4. Translation as shown in Joseph William Mellor, A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry (1922), Vol. 1, 652. A very similar translation (“the same physical properties” is replaced with “nearly equal solubilities in water and acids”) is in F. Szabadváry article on 'Eilhard Mitscherlich' in Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974), Vol. 9, 424; perhaps from J.R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. 4 (1964), 210.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Acid (83)  |  Amount (153)  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Combination (150)  |  Composition (86)  |  Corresponding (3)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Equal (88)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phosphate (6)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Physical (518)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Radical (28)  |  Respect (212)  |  Series (153)  |  Solubility (2)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (503)

From common salt are obtained chemically as primary derivatives chlorine—both a war gas and a means of purifying water; and 'caustic soda.' … [O]n the chlorine side there is obtained chloride of lime, (a bleaching powder and a disinfectant), chloroform (an anesthetic), phosgene (a frightful ware gas), chloroacetophenone (another war gas), and an indigo and a yellow dye. [O]n the soda side we get metallic sodium, from which are derived sodium cyanide (a disinfectant), two medicines with [long] names, another war gas, and a beautiful violet dye. Thus, from a healthful, preservative condiment come things useful and hurtful—according to the intent or purpose.
Anonymous
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 83, 209.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Both (496)  |  Chlorine (15)  |  Chloroform (5)  |  Common (447)  |  Dye (10)  |  Gas (89)  |  Hurtful (8)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Name (359)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Phosgene (2)  |  Powder (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Side (236)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)  |  Violet (11)  |  War (233)  |  Water (503)  |  Yellow (31)

How many times did the sun shine, how many times did the wind howl over the desolate tundras, over the bleak immensity of the Siberian taigas, over the brown deserts where the Earth’s salt shines, over the high peaks capped with silver, over the shivering jungles, over the undulating forests of the tropics! Day after day, through infinite time, the scenery has changed in imperceptible features. Let us smile at the illusion of eternity that appears in these things, and while so many temporary aspects fade away, let us listen to the ancient hymn, the spectacular song of the seas, that has saluted so many chains rising to the light.
In Tectonics of Asia (1924, 1977), 165, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Brown (23)  |  Climate (102)  |  Desert (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Forest (161)  |  High (370)  |  Hymn (6)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Listen (81)  |  Research (753)  |  Rising (44)  |  Sea (326)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smile (34)  |  Song (41)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wind (141)

I was led to the conclusion that at the most extreme dilutions all salts would consist of simple conducting molecules. But the conducting molecules are, according to the hypothesis of Clausius and Williamson, dissociated; hence at extreme dilutions all salt molecules are completely disassociated. The degree of dissociation can be simply found on this assumption by taking the ratio of the molecular conductivity of the solution in question to the molecular conductivity at the most extreme dilution.
Letter to Van’t Hoff, 13 April 1887. In J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry (1961), Vol. 4, 678.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conductivity (4)  |  Consist (223)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dilution (5)  |  Electrolyte (4)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Question (649)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)

I would not have it inferred ... that I am, as yet, an advocate for the hypothesis of chemical life. The doctrine of the vitality of the blood, stands in no need of aid from that speculative source. If it did, I would certainly abandon it. For, notwithstanding the fashionableness of the hypothesis in Europe, and the ascendancy it has gained over some minds in this country [USA], it will require stubborn facts to convince me that man with all his corporeal and intellectual attributes is nothing but hydro-phosphorated oxyde of azote ... When the chemist declares, that the same laws which direct the crystallization of spars, nitre and Glauber's salts, direct also the crystallization of man, he must pardon me if I neither understand him, nor believe him.
Medical Theses (1805), 391-2, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Advocate (20)  |  Aid (101)  |  Ascendancy (3)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Convince (43)  |  Country (269)  |  Declare (48)  |  Direct (228)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Gain (146)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Require (229)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vitality (24)  |  Will (2350)

In the mountains of Parma and Piacenza, multitudes of shells and corals filled with worm-holes may be seen still adhering to the rocks, and when I was making the great horse at Milan a large sack of those which had been found in these parts was brought to my workshop by some peasants... The red stone of the mountains of Verona is found with shells all intermingled, which have become part of this stone... And if you should say that these shells have been and still constantly are being created in such places as these by the nature of the locality or by potency of the heavens in these spots, such an opinion cannot exist in brains possessed of any extensive powers of reasoning because the years of their growth are numbered upon the outer coverings of their shells; and both small and large ones may be seen; and these would not have grown without feeding, or fed without movement, and here [embedded in rock] they would not have been able to move... The peaks of the Apennines once stood up in a sea, in the form of islands surrounded by salt water... and above the plains of Italy where flocks of birds are flying today, fishes were once moving in large shoals.
'Physical Geography', in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, trans. E. MacCurdy (1938), Vol. 1, 355-6, 359.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Coral (10)  |  Covering (14)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fish (130)  |  Flying (74)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horse (78)  |  Island (49)  |  Italy (6)  |  Large (398)  |  Making (300)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Peak (20)  |  Peasant (9)  |  Plain (34)  |  Possess (157)  |  Potency (10)  |  Power (771)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rock (176)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Shell (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Today (321)  |  Water (503)  |  Workshop (14)  |  Worm (47)  |  Year (963)

It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living being are now present, which could ever have been present. But if (and oh what a big if) we could conceive in some warm little pond with all sort of ammonia and phosphoric salts—light, heat, electricity present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.
Letter (1 Feb 1871) to Joseph Dalton Hooker. In The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1888), Vol. 3, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complex (202)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devour (29)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Pond (17)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Protein (56)  |  Still (614)  |  Warm (74)

It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present, which could have ever been present. But if (and oh! what a big if!) we could conceive in some warm pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, light, heat, electricity, &c., present, that a proteine compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.
Letter; as quoted in The Origin of Life by J.D. Bernal (1967) publ.Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Change (639)  |  Complex (202)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devour (29)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Light (635)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Pond (17)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Still (614)  |  Warm (74)

It is the business of science to offer rational explanations for all the events in the real world, and any scientist who calls on God to explain something is falling down on his job. This applies as much to the start of the expansion as to any other event. If the explanation is not forthcoming at once, the scientist must suspend judgment: but if he is worth his salt he will always maintain that a rational explanation will eventually be found. This is the one piece of dogmatism that a scientist can allow himself—and without it science would be in danger of giving way to superstition every time that a problem defied solution for a few years.
The Mystery of the Expanding Universe (1964), 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Business (156)  |  Call (781)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Down (455)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Event (222)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  God (776)  |  Himself (461)  |  Job (86)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Must (1525)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rational (95)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

It seems wonderful to everyone that sometimes stones are found that have figures of animals inside and outside. For outside they have an outline, and when they are broken open, the shapes of the internal organs are found inside. And Avicenna says that the cause of this is that animals, just as they are, are sometimes changed into stones, and especially [salty] stones. For he says that just as the Earth and Water are material for stones, so animals, too, are material for stones. And in places where a petrifying force is exhaling, they change into their elements and are attacked by the properties of the qualities [hot, cold, moist, dry] which are present in those places, and in the elements in the bodies of such animals are changed into the dominant element, namely Earth mixed with Water; and then the mineralizing power converts [the mixture] into stone, and the parts of the body retain their shape, inside and outside, just as they were before. There are also stones of this sort that are [salty] and frequently not hard; for it must be a strong power which thus transmutes the bodies of animals, and it slightly burns the Earth in the moisture, so it produces a taste of salt.
De Mineralibus (On Minerals) (c.1261-1263), Book I, tract 2, chapter 8, trans. Dorothy Wyckoff (1967), 52-53.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attack (86)  |  Body (557)  |  Broken (56)  |  Burn (99)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Cold (115)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hot (63)  |  Internal (69)  |  Material (366)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moist (13)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Must (1525)  |  Open (277)  |  Organ (118)  |  Outside (141)  |  Petrification (5)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Retain (57)  |  Rock (176)  |  Say (989)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strong (182)  |  Taste (93)  |  Water (503)  |  Wonderful (155)

Mr. Hobbes told me that the cause of his Lordship’s [Francis Bacon s] death was trying an experiment: viz., as he was taking the air in a coach with Dr. Witherborne, a Scotchman, physician to the King, towards Highgate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into my Lord’s thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow as in salt. They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor woman s house at the bottom of Highgate Hill and bought a hen and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the body with snow, and my Lord did help to do it himself The snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill that he could not return to his lodgings.
In Brief Lives (late 17th century), as excerpted in The Retrospective Review (1821), 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chill (10)  |  Death (406)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Lord (97)  |  Physician (284)  |  Poor (139)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Refrigeration (3)  |  Return (133)  |  Snow (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Why (491)  |  Woman (160)

Mr. Hobbes told me that the cause of his Lordship's [Francis Bacon's] death was trying an Experiment: viz. as he was taking the aire in a Coach with Dr. Witherborne (a Scotchman, Physitian to the King) towards High-gate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into my Lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in Salt. They were resolved they would try the Experiment presently. They alighted out of the Coach and went into a poore woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a Hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the body with Snow, and my Lord did help to doe it himselfe. The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging.
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (1680), edited by Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Death (406)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Gate (33)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  House (143)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Lord (97)  |  Pneumonia (8)  |  Refrigeration (3)  |  Return (133)  |  Snow (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Why (491)  |  Woman (160)

One of the memorable moments of my life was when Willard Libby came to Princeton with a little jar full of crystals of barium xenate. A stable compound, looking like common salt, but much heavier. This was the magic of chemistry, to see xenon trapped into a crystal.
Letter to Oliver Sacks. Quoted in Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001), footnote, 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Barium (4)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Jar (9)  |  Willard Frank Libby (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Looking (191)  |  Magic (92)  |  Memorable (4)  |  Moment (260)  |  Noble Gas (4)  |  Princeton (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Stable (32)  |  Trap (7)  |  Visit (27)  |  Xenon (5)

Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.
[Aristotle describing his distillation experiment.]
Aristotle
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster. Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).
Science quotes on:  |  Admixture (2)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (821)  |  Brine (3)  |  Certain (557)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Desalination (4)  |  Determine (152)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Evaporation (7)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Solution (282)  |  State (505)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vapour (16)  |  Water (503)  |  Wine (39)

Satire is a composition of salt and mercury; and it depends upon the different mixture and preparation of those ingredients, that it comes out a noble medicine, or a rank poison.
In Tryon Edwards (ed.), A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 502.
Science quotes on:  |  Composition (86)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Noble (93)  |  Poison (46)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Rank (69)  |  Satire (4)

Sufficient for us is the testimony of things produced in the salt waters and now found again in the high mountains, sometimes far from the sea.
Manuscript held by the Earl of Leicester, 31 a [R984]. In Edward McCurdy (ed.), Leonardo da Vinci's note-books: arranged and rendered into English with introductions (1908), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  High (370)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Produced (187)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Water (503)

That a free, or at least an unsaturated acid usually exists in the stomachs of animals, and is in some manner connected with the important process of digestion, seems to have been the general opinion of physiologists till the time of SPALLANZANI. This illustrious philosopher concluded, from his numerous experiments, that the gastric fluids, when in a perfectly natural state, are neither acid nor alkaline. Even SPALLANZANI, however, admitted that the contents of the stomach are very generally acid; and this accords not only with my own observation, but with that, I believe, of almost every individual who has made any experiments on the subject. ... The object of the present communication is to show, that the acid in question is the muriatic [hydrochloric] acid, and that the salts usually met with in the stomach, are the alkaline muriates.
'On the Nature of the Acid and Saline Matters Usually Existing in the Stomachs of Animals', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1824), 114, 45-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Alkali (6)  |  Animal (651)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Connect (126)  |  Content (75)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Free (239)  |  Gastric (3)  |  General (521)  |  Hydrochloric Acid (2)  |  Illustrious (10)  |  Individual (420)  |  Natural (810)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Show (353)  |  State (505)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)

That Mettals, Small Stones, Rocky-Stones, Sulphurs, Salts, and so the whole rank of Minerals, do find their Seeds in the Matrix or Womb of the Waters, which contain the Reasons, Gifts, Knowledges, Progresses, Appointments, Offices, and Durations of the same.
Oriatrike: Or, Physick Refined, trans. John Chandler (1662), 693.
Science quotes on:  |  Appointment (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gift (105)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Office (71)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reason (766)  |  Seed (97)  |  Small (489)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Womb (25)

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.
Quoted in Reader's Digest (Apr 1964). In M. P. Singh, Quote Unquote (2007), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Cure (124)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sweat (17)  |  Tear (48)  |  Water (503)

The degree 48 … in my thermometers holds the middle between between the limit of the most intense cold obtained artificially in a mixture of water, of ice and of sal-ammoniac or even of sea-salt, and the limit of heat which is found in the blood of a healthy man.
From 'Experimenta circa gradum caloris liquorum nonnullorum ebullientium instituta', Philosophical Transactions (1724), 33, 1, as translated in William Francis Magie, A Source Book in Physics (1935), 131. Hence, Fahrenheit specified the upper and lower fixed points of his temperature scale, ranging from 0 to 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial (38)  |  Blood (144)  |  Cold (115)  |  Degree (277)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Intense (22)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Sal Ammoniac (2)  |  Sea (326)  |  Thermometer (11)  |  Water (503)

There is more evidence to prove that saltiness [of the sea] is due to the admixture of some substance ... It is this stuff which makes salt water heavy (it weighs more than fresh water) and thick. The difference in consistency is such that ships with the same cargo very nearly sink in a river when they are quite fit to navigate in the sea. This circumstance has before now caused loss to shippers freighting their ships in a river. That the thicker consistency is due to an admixture of something is proved by the fact that if you make strong brine by the admixture of salt, eggs, even when they are full, float in it. It almost becomes like mud; such a quantity of earthy matter is there in the sea.
[Aristotle recognised the different density of fresh (river) or salty (sea) water. He describes an experiment using an egg (which sinks in fresh water) that floats in a strong brine solution.]
Aristotle
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster. Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).
Science quotes on:  |  Admixture (2)  |  Become (821)  |  Brine (3)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Cargo (6)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Density (25)  |  Describe (132)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Due (143)  |  Egg (71)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fit (139)  |  Float (31)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Loss (117)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Mud (26)  |  Navigate (4)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Prove (261)  |  Quantity (136)  |  River (140)  |  Sea (326)  |  Ship (69)  |  Sink (38)  |  Sinking (6)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Strong (182)  |  Substance (253)  |  Water (503)  |  Weigh (51)

There is more evidence to prove that saltness [of the sea] is due to the admixture of some substance, besides that which we have adduced. Make a vessel of wax and put it in the sea, fastening its mouth in such a way as to prevent any water getting in. Then the water that percolates through the wax sides of the vessel is sweet, the earthy stuff, the admixture of which makes the water salt, being separated off as it were by a filter.
[This is an example of Aristotle giving proof by experiment, in this case, of desalination by osmosis.]
Aristotle
Meteorology (350 B.C.), Book II, translated by E. W. Webster. Internet Classics Archive, (classics.mit.edu).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Brine (3)  |  Desalination (4)  |  Due (143)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fastening (2)  |  Filter (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Osmosis (3)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Sea (326)  |  Side (236)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Through (846)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Water (503)  |  Wax (13)  |  Way (1214)

To render aid to the worthless is sheer waste. Rain does not freshen the Dead Sea, but only enables it to dissolve more salt.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-Book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Dead (65)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Enable (122)  |  Freshen (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Rain (70)  |  Render (96)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sheer (9)  |  Waste (109)  |  Worthless (22)

We all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears.
Speech at the America’s Cup Dinner (14 Sep 1962).
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Blood (144)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Percentage (9)  |  Same (166)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sweat (17)  |  Tear (48)  |  Vein (27)

We have one of his [Newton’s] college memorandum-books, which is highly interesting. The following are some of the entries: “Drills, gravers, a hone, a hammer, and a mandril, 5s.;” “a magnet, 16s.;” “compasses, 2s.;” “glass bubbles, 4s.;” “at the tavern several other times, £1;” “spent on my cousin, 12s.;” “on other acquaintances, 10s.;” “Philosophical Intelligences, 9s. 6d.;” “lost at cards twice, 15s.;” “at the tavern twice, 3s. 6d.;” “to three prisms, £3;” “four ounces of putty, 1s. 4d.;” “Bacon’s Miscellanies, 1s. 6d.;” “a bible binding, 3s.;” “for oranges to my sister, 4s. 2d.;” “for aquafortis, sublimate, oyle pink, fine silver, antimony, vinegar, spirit of wine, white lead, salt of tartar, £2;” “Theatrum chemicum, £1 8s.”
In 'Sir Isaac Newton', People’s Book of Biography: Or, Short Lives of the Most Interesting Persons of All Ages and Countries (1868), 255.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Antimony (7)  |  Bacon (4)  |  Bible (105)  |  Binding (9)  |  Book (413)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Card (5)  |  College (71)  |  Compass (37)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Drill (12)  |  Glass (94)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Hone (3)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lose (165)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Orange (15)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ounce (9)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Pound (15)  |  Prism (8)  |  Putty (2)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sister (8)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Sublimate (4)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vinegar (7)  |  White (132)  |  Wine (39)

We must infer that a plant or animal of any species, is made up of special units, in all of which there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to aggregate into the form of that species: just as in the atoms of a salt, there dwells the intrinsic aptitude to crystallize in a particular way.
In The Principles of Biology (1872), Vol. 1, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Atom (381)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  DNA (81)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Form (976)  |  Infer (12)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Must (1525)  |  Particular (80)  |  Plant (320)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Unit (36)  |  Way (1214)

We wish to discuss a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. [Co-author with Francis Crick]
From James Watson and Francis Crick, 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid', Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, No. 4356, 737. (Note: in W.F. Bynum and Roy Porter (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (2005), 226, this quote is listed under Rosalind Elsie Franklin and cited, incorrectly, as from “Rosalind Franklin and R. G. Gosling, 'Molecular Structures of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid', Nature, 1953, 171, 737.” However, the actual Franklin and Gosling article in that issue, is on pp.740-741, and titled 'Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate'.)
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Author (175)  |  Biological (137)  |  Considerable (75)  |  DNA (81)  |  Interest (416)  |  Molecular Structure (9)  |  Novel (35)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Structure (365)  |  Wish (216)

We wish to put forward a radically different structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis (see diagram).
[Co-author with Francis Crick]
From James Watson and Francis Crick, 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid', Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, No. 4356, 737.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Author (175)  |  Axis (9)  |  Chain (51)  |  Coil (4)  |  Francis Crick (62)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  DNA (81)  |  Forward (104)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Radical (28)  |  See (1094)  |  Structure (365)  |  Two (936)  |  Wish (216)

We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest.
[Opening remark in the paper by Watson and Crick announcing discovery of the structure of DNA.]
In J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, 'A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid,' Letter in Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, 737. Quoted in Diane Dowdey, The Researching Reader: Source-based Writings Across the Disciplines (1990), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Biological (137)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Discovery (837)  |  DNA (81)  |  Interest (416)  |  Novel (35)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Paper (192)  |  Structure (365)  |  Structure Of DNA (5)  |  James Watson (33)  |  Wish (216)

What, then, shall we say about the receipts of alchemy, and about the diversity of its vessels and instruments? These are furnaces, glasses, jars, waters, oils, limes, sulphurs, salts, saltpeters, alums, vitriols, chrysocollae, copper greens, atraments, auripigments, fel vitri, ceruse, red earth, thucia, wax, lutum sapientiae, pounded glass, verdigris, soot, crocus of Mars, soap, crystal, arsenic, antimony, minium, elixir, lazarium, gold leaf salt niter, sal ammoniac, calamine stone, magnesia, bolus armenus, and many other things. Then, again, concerning herbs, roots, seeds, woods, stones, animals, worms, bone dust, snail shells, other shells, and pitch. These and the like, whereof there are some very farfetched in alchemy, are mere incumbrances of work; since even if Sol and Luna [gold and silver] could be made by them they rather hinder and delay than further one’s purpose.
In Paracelsus and Arthur Edward Waite (ed.), The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus (1894), Vol. 1, 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Animal (651)  |  Antimony (7)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Arsenic (10)  |  Bone (101)  |  Copper (25)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Delay (21)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Dust (68)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elixir (6)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Furnace (13)  |  Glass (94)  |  Gold (101)  |  Green (65)  |  Herb (6)  |  Hinder (12)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Jar (9)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Lime (3)  |  Mars (47)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Red (38)  |  Root (121)  |  Sal Ammoniac (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Seed (97)  |  Shell (69)  |  Silver (49)  |  Snail (11)  |  Soap (11)  |  Soot (11)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Water (503)  |  Wax (13)  |  Wood (97)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worm (47)

Xenophanes of Kolophon ... says that ... [t]he sun is formed each day from small fiery particles which are gathered together: the earth is infinite, and is not surrounded by air or by sky; an infinite number of suns and moons exist, and all things come from earth. The sea, he said, is salt because so many things flow together and become mixed in it...
Doxographists, Epiph. adv. Haer. iii. 9; Dox. 590. Quoted in Arthur Fairbanks (ed. And trans.), The First Philosophers of Greece (1898), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Become (821)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fiery (5)  |  Flow (89)  |  Form (976)  |  Gather (76)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Moon (252)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Particle (200)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sky (174)  |  Small (489)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Xenophanes (13)

You boil it in sawdust: you salt it in glue:
You condense it with locusts and tape:
Still keeping one principal object in view—
To preserve its symmetrical shape.
In 'The Beaver’s Lesson', The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits (1876), 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Boil (24)  |  Condense (15)  |  Glue (2)  |  Locust (2)  |  Object (438)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Principal (69)  |  Shape (77)  |  Still (614)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Tape (5)  |  View (496)


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.