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: Sheep

Sheep Quotes (13 quotes)

A dead cow or sheep lying in a pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of a carcass dressed and hung up in a butcher's stall passes as food.
This quote is consistent in sentiment with others documented as by Kellogg, but Webmaster has so far not found the original source for this one. If you know the primary source of this quote, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Butcher (9)  |  Carcass (2)  |  Carrion (5)  |  Cow (42)  |  Dead (65)  |  Dressed (3)  |  Food (213)  |  Lying (55)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Recognized (3)  |  Stall (3)

Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.
Another Roadside Attraction (1990), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Both (496)  |  Breed (26)  |  Breeding (21)  |  Bullshit (2)  |  Closer (43)  |  Cow (42)  |  Difference (355)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Former (138)  |  Future (467)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Involve (93)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Past (355)  |  Principal (69)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Selective (21)  |  Skill (116)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)

I have a friendly feeling towards pigs generally, and consider them the most intelligent of beasts, not excepting the elephant and the anthropoid ape—the dog is not to be mentioned in this connection. I also like his disposition and attitude towards all other creatures, especially man. He is not suspicious, or shrinkingly submissive, like horses, cattle, and sheep; nor an impudent devil-may-care like the goat; nor hostile like the goose; nor condescending like the cat; nor a flattering parasite like the dog. He views us from a totally different, a sort of democratic, standpoint as fellow-citizens and brothers, and takes it for granted, or grunted, that we understand his language, and without servility or insolence he has a natural, pleasant, camerados-all or hail-fellow-well-met air with us.
In The Book of a Naturalist (1919), 295-296.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Anthropoid (9)  |  Ape (54)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beast (58)  |  Brother (47)  |  Care (203)  |  Cat (52)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Comrade (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cow (42)  |  Creature (242)  |  Democratic (12)  |  Devil (34)  |  Different (595)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Dog (70)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Goat (9)  |  Goose (13)  |  Grant (76)  |  Grunt (3)  |  Horse (78)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Pig (8)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Understand (648)  |  View (496)

In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Flock (4)  |  Form (976)  |  Immaculate (2)  |  Member (42)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)

In Sheldon it was not only the wild creatures [and cats] … that were sacrificed in the campaign against an insect. … Sheep [were in]… a small, untreated blue-grass pasture across a gravel road from a field which had been treated with dieldrin spray…. Evidently some spray had drifted across the road into the pasture, for the sheep began to show symptoms of intoxication almost at once…. They lost interest in food and displayed extreme restlessness, following the pasture fence around and around apparently searching for a way out… [They] bleated almost continuously, and stood with their heads lowered… [Several] sheep eventually died.
In 'Needless Havoc', Silent Spring (1962), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Cat (52)  |  Death (406)  |  Drift (14)  |  Food (213)  |  Insect (89)  |  Insecticide (5)  |  Intoxication (7)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Restless (13)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Spray (5)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Wild (96)

It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
Dean Inge
In 'Patriotism' (Aug 1919), Outspoken Essays (1919), 42-43.
Science quotes on:  |  Different (595)  |  Favor (69)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Pass (241)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vegetarian (13)  |  Wolf (11)

Many successful investigators were not trained in the branch of science in which they made their most brilliant discoveries: Pasteur, Metchnikoff and Galvani are well-known examples. A sheepman named J.H.W. Mules, who had no scientific training, discovered a means of preventing blowfly attack in sheep in Australia when many scientists had failed.
In W.I.B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Australia (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Luigi Galvani (2)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Elie Metchnikov (3)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Training (92)

March 15th. Imperial Banquet for Welcoming the English Cruelty to Animals. MENU OF FOODS: VITAMIN A, Tin Sardines. VITAMIN B, Roasted Beef. VITAMIN C, Small Roasted Suckling Porks. VITAMIN D, Hot Sheep and Onions. VITAMIN E, Spiced Turkey. VITAMIN F, Sweet Puddings. VITAMIN G, Coffee. VITAMIN H, Jam.
In Black Mischief (1932), 1962 edn., 170.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Beef (5)  |  Coffee (21)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  England (43)  |  Food (213)  |  Hot (63)  |  Imperial (2)  |  Jam (3)  |  March (48)  |  Menu (3)  |  Onion (9)  |  Pork (2)  |  Pudding (2)  |  Roasted (2)  |  Sardine (2)  |  Small (489)  |  Suckling (3)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Tin (18)  |  Turkey (2)  |  Vitamin (13)  |  Vitamin C (3)  |  Welcome (20)

Students of the heavens are separable into astronomers and astrologers as readily as the minor domestic ruminants into sheep and goats, but the separation of philosophers into sages and cranks seems to be more sensitive to frames of reference.
Theories and Things (1981), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrologer (10)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Crank (18)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Frame of Reference (5)  |  Goat (9)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Minor (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Sage (25)  |  Separation (60)  |  Student (317)

The Pestilence can never breed the Small-Pox, nor the Small-Pox the Measles, nor they the Crystals or Chicken-Pox, any more than an Hen can breed a Duck, a Wolf a Sheep, or a Thistle Figs; and consequently, one Sort cannot be a Preservative against any other Sort.
In Ludvig Hektoen, 'Thomas Fuller 1654-1734: country physician and pioneer exponent of specificness in infection and immunity', Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago (Mar 1922), 2, 321. In the reprint of the paper alone, the quote is on page 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Breed (26)  |  Consequently (5)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Duck (3)  |  Hen (9)  |  Measles (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Sort (50)  |  Thistle (5)  |  Wolf (11)

This Academy [at Lagado] is not an entire single Building, but a Continuation of several Houses on both Sides of a Street; which growing waste, was purchased and applied to that Use.
I was received very kindly by the Warden, and went for many Days to the Academy. Every Room hath in it ' one or more Projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five Hundred Rooms.
The first Man I saw was of a meagre Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, his Hair and Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. His Clothes, Shirt, and Skin were all of the same Colour. He had been Eight Years upon a Project for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, which were to be put into Vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the Air in raw inclement Summers. He told me, he did not doubt in Eight Years more, that he should be able to supply the Governor's Gardens with Sunshine at a reasonable Rate; but he complained that his Stock was low, and interested me to give him something as an Encouragement to Ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear Season for Cucumbers. I made him a small Present, for my Lord had furnished me with Money on purpose, because he knew their Practice of begging from all who go to see them.
I saw another at work to calcine Ice into Gunpowder; who likewise shewed me a Treatise he had written concerning the Malleability of Fire, which he intended to publish.
There was a most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for building Houses, by beginning at the Roof, and working downwards to the Foundation; which he justified to me by the life Practice of those two prudent Insects the Bee and the Spider.
In another Apartment I was highly pleased with a Projector, who had found a device of plowing the Ground with Hogs, to save the Charges of Plows, Cattle, and Labour. The Method is this: In an Acre of Ground you bury at six Inches Distance, and eight deep, a quantity of Acorns, Dates, Chestnuts, and other Masts or Vegetables whereof these Animals are fondest; then you drive six Hundred or more of them into the Field, where in a few Days they will root up the whole Ground in search of their Food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time manuring it with their Dung. It is true, upon Experiment they found the Charge and Trouble very great, and they had little or no Crop. However, it is not doubted that this Invention may be capable of great Improvement.
I had hitherto seen only one Side of the Academy, the other being appropriated to the Advancers of speculative Learning.
Some were condensing Air into a dry tangible Substance, by extracting the Nitre, and letting the acqueous or fluid Particles percolate: Others softening Marble for Pillows and Pin-cushions. Another was, by a certain Composition of Gums, Minerals, and Vegetables outwardly applied, to prevent the Growth of Wool upon two young lambs; and he hoped in a reasonable Time to propagate the Breed of naked Sheep all over the Kingdom.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, Penguin ed. 1967), Part III, Chap. 5, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Acorn (5)  |  Acre (13)  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Architect (32)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bee (44)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Breed (26)  |  Building (158)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Charge (63)  |  Chestnut (2)  |  Composition (86)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Crop (26)  |  Cucumber (4)  |  Date (14)  |  Deep (241)  |  Device (71)  |  Distance (171)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dry (65)  |  Dung (10)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Face (214)  |  Field (378)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Food (213)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Garden (64)  |  Governor (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Hermetic Seal (2)  |  Hog (4)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ice (58)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lamb (6)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Lord (97)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marble (21)  |  Mast (3)  |  Method (531)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pillow (4)  |  Pin (20)  |  Plow (7)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Project (77)  |  Projector (3)  |  Publish (42)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Raw (28)  |  Root (121)  |  Save (126)  |  Saw (160)  |  Seal (19)  |  Search (175)  |  Season (47)  |  See (1094)  |  Side (236)  |  Single (365)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Soot (11)  |  Sowing (9)  |  Spider (14)  |  Substance (253)  |  Summer (56)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunbeam (3)  |  Supply (100)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vial (4)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wool (4)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

Three train travelers, passing through Scottish countryside, saw a black sheep through the window.
Engineer: Aha! I see that Scottish sheep are black.
Physician: Hmm. You mean that some Scottish sheep are black.
Mathematician: No, all we know is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, and that at least one side of that one sheep is black.
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Black (46)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Joke (90)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mean (810)  |  Passing (76)  |  Physician (284)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scotland (6)  |  Scottish (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Side (236)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Window (59)

You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.
In Zuleika Dobson (1911), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Crowd (25)  |  Flock (4)  |  Leg (35)  |  Man (2252)  |  Position (83)  |  Stand (284)


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.