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 was going to record talking... the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb',... and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Show

Show Quotes (353 quotes)

… on these expanded membranes [butterfly wings] Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modifications of species, so truly do all changes of the organisation register themselves thereon. Moreover, the same colour-patterns of the wings generally show, with great regularity, the degrees of blood-relationship of the species. As the laws of nature must be the same for all beings, the conclusions furnished by this group of insects must be applicable to the whole world.
From The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel (1864), 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (257)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Degree (277)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expand (56)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Furnishing (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Insect (89)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Modification (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organization (120)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Register (22)  |  Registration (2)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Sameness (3)  |  Species (435)  |  Story (122)  |  Tablet (6)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Truly (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Wing (79)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

.…yes, sitting on the bank of the Kibali itself and philosophizing about river systems with the much-traveled Abu Ssamat and his people, … I caught him out there and then in blatant contradictions and inaccuracies. Well then, I finally said, quite beside myself, so show me how you speak of rivers: here is the Kibali, show me with your hand: where does it come from and in what direction does it flow? To which all pointed eastwards and said: it is flowing in that direction, and then pointing west: it comes from there, that is how we say it. I could have gone through the roof. No, I cried, you Moslem, you have everything confused and mixed up, what must it be like inside your heads!
In August Petermann, Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen (1871), 135. As quoted and cited in Kathrin Fritsch, '"You Have Everything Confused And Mixed Up…!" Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge And Cartography Of Africa In The 19th Century', History in Africa (2009), 36, 94. Fritsch comments on their misunderstandings caused by “different spatial conceptions [and] language barriers.”
Science quotes on:  |  Blatant (4)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Direction (185)  |  Flow (89)  |  Inaccuracy (4)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Point (584)  |  River (140)

...the scientific attitude implies what I call the postulate of objectivity—that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan, that there is no intention in the universe. Now, this is basically incompatible with virtually all the religious or metaphysical systems whatever, all of which try to show that there is some sort of harmony between man and the universe and that man is a product—predictable if not indispensable—of the evolution of the universe.
Quoted in John C. Hess, 'French Nobel Biologist Says World Based On Chance', New York Times (15 Mar 1971), 6. Cited in Herbert Marcuse, Counter-Revolution and Revolt (1972), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Call (781)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Intention (46)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Plan (122)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Product (166)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  System (545)  |  Try (296)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whatever (234)

“I had,” said he, “come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.”
From 'VIII—The Adventure of the Speckled Band', Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly (Feb 1892), Vol. 3, 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Data (162)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Reason (766)

“If there are two theories, one simpler man the other, the simpler one is to be preferred.” At first sight this does not seem quite so bad, but a little thought shows that our tendency to prefer the simpler possibility is psychological rather than scientific. It is less trouble to think that way. Experience invariably shows that the more correct a theory becomes, the more complex does it seem. … So this … interpretation of [Ockham’s Razor] is … worthless.
With co-author Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (1981), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Become (821)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Correct (95)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1302)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ockham�s Razor (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sight (135)  |  Simple (426)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)

“Normal” science, in Kuhn’s sense, exists. It is the activity of the non-revolutionary, or more precisely, the not-too-critical professional: of the science student who accepts the ruling dogma of the day… in my view the 'normal' scientist, as Kuhn describes him, is a person one ought to be sorry for… He has been taught in a dogmatic spirit: he is a victim of indoctrination… I can only say that I see a very great danger in it and in the possibility of its becoming normal… a danger to science and, indeed, to our civilization. And this shows why I regard Kuhn’s emphasis on the existence of this kind of science as so important.
In Imre Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.), 'Normal Science and its Dangers', Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970), 52-53.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Activity (218)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Critical (73)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indoctrination (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Thomas S. Kuhn (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Normal (29)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Professional (77)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  Victim (37)  |  View (496)  |  Why (491)

[1665-06-11] I out of doors a little to show forsooth my new suit, and back again; and in going, saw poor Dr Burnets door shut. But he hath, I hear, gained goodwill among his neighbours; for he discovered it himself first, and caused himself to be shut up of his own accord - which was very handsome.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (11 Jun 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Discover (571)  |  Door (94)  |  First (1302)  |  Gain (146)  |  Goodwill (6)  |  Handsome (4)  |  Hear (144)  |  Himself (461)  |  Little (717)  |  New (1273)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Saw (160)  |  Shut (41)

[Having already asserted his opposition to communism in every respect by signing the regents' oath, his answer to a question why a non-Communist professor should refuse to take a non-Communist oath as a condition of University employment was that to do so would imply it was] up to an accused person to clear himself. ... That sort of thing is going on in Washington today and is a cause of alarm to thoughtful citizens. It is the method used in totalitarian countries. It sounds un-American to people who don’t like to be pushed around. If someone says I ought to do a certain thing the burden should be on him to show I why I should, not on me to show why I should not.
As quoted in 'Educator Scores Oath For Faculty', New York Times (16 Apr 1950), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Alarm (19)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Assert (69)  |  Burden (30)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Communism (11)  |  Communist (9)  |  Condition (362)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Employment (34)  |  Himself (461)  |  Method (531)  |  Oath (10)  |  Opposition (49)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Professor (133)  |  Push (66)  |  Question (649)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Sound (187)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Today (321)  |  Totalitarian (6)  |  Un-American (3)  |  Unamerican (2)  |  University (130)  |  Washington (7)  |  Why (491)

[It has been ascertained by statistical observation that in engineering enterprises one man is killed for every million francs that is spent on the works.] Supposing you have to build a bridge at an expense of one hundred million francs, you must be prepared for the death of one hundred men. In building the Eiffel Tower, which was a construction costing six million and a half, we only lost four men, thus remaining below the average. In the construction of the Forth Bridge, 55 men were lost in over 45,000,000 francs’ worth of work. That would appear to be a large number according to the general rule, but when the special risks are remembered, this number shows as a very small one.
As quoted in 'M. Eiffel and the Forth Bridge', The Tablet (15 Mar 1890), 75, 400. Similarly quoted in Robert Harborough Sherard, Twenty Years in Paris: Being Some Recollections of a Literary Life (1905), 169, which adds to the end “, and reflects very great credit on the engineers for the precautions which they took on behalf of their men.” Sherard gave the context that Eiffel was at the inauguration [4 Mar 1890] of the Forth Bridge, and gave this compliment when conversing there with the Prince of Wales.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Average (89)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cost (94)  |  Death (406)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Expense (21)  |  General (521)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Kill (100)  |  Large (398)  |  Man (2252)  |  Million (124)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Remember (189)  |  Risk (68)  |  Rule (307)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Tower (45)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

[L]et us not overlook the further great fact, that not only does science underlie sculpture, painting, music, poetry, but that science is itself poetic. The current opinion that science and poetry are opposed is a delusion. … On the contrary science opens up realms of poetry where to the unscientific all is a blank. Those engaged in scientific researches constantly show us that they realize not less vividly, but more vividly, than others, the poetry of their subjects. Whoever will dip into Hugh Miller’s works on geology, or read Mr. Lewes's “Seaside Studies,” will perceive that science excites poetry rather than extinguishes it. And whoever will contemplate the life of Goethe will see that the poet and the man of science can co-exist in equal activity. Is it not, indeed, an absurd and almost a sacrilegious belief that the more a man studies Nature the less he reveres it? Think you that a drop of water, which to the vulgar eye is but a drop of water, loses anything in the eye of the physicist who knows that its elements are held together by a force which, if suddenly liberated, would produce a flash of lightning? Think you that what is carelessly looked upon by the uninitiated as a mere snow-flake, does not suggest higher associations to one who has seen through a microscope the wondrously varied and elegant forms of snow-crystals? Think you that the rounded rock marked with parallel scratches calls up as much poetry in an ignorant mind as in the mind of a geologist, who knows that over this rock a glacier slid a million years ago? The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded. Whoever has not in youth collected plants and insects, knows not half the halo of interest which lanes and hedge-rows can assume. Whoever has not sought for fossils, has little idea of the poetical associations that surround the places where imbedded treasures were found. Whoever at the seaside has not had a microscope and aquarium, has yet to learn what the highest pleasures of the seaside are. Sad, indeed, is it to see how men occupy themselves with trivialities, and are indifferent to the grandest phenomena—care not to understand the architecture of the Heavens, but are deeply interested in some contemptible controversy about the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots!—are learnedly critical over a Greek ode, and pass by without a glance that grand epic written by the finger of God upon the strata of the Earth!
In Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical (1889), 82-83.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Activity (218)  |  Aquarium (2)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Association (49)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blank (14)  |  Call (781)  |  Care (203)  |  Collection (68)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Critical (73)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Current (122)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Drop (77)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Element (322)  |  Enter (145)  |  Epic (12)  |  Excitation (9)  |  Exist (458)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flash (49)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Glance (36)  |  God (776)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Grandest (10)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greek (109)  |  Halo (7)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hedgerow (2)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  George Henry Lewes (22)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Lose (165)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Hugh Miller (18)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ode (3)  |  Open (277)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Painting (46)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Pass (241)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Plant (320)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Read (308)  |  Realize (157)  |  Realm (87)  |  Research (753)  |  Rock (176)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seaside (2)  |  See (1094)  |  Snow (39)  |  Snowflake (15)  |  Strata (37)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Understand (648)  |  Unscientific (13)  |  Vividly (11)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Water (503)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Youth (109)

[My work as a photographer is a] mission to document endangered species and landscapes in order to show a world worth saving.
On the 'About' page of his web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Document (7)  |  Endangered Species (6)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Mission (23)  |  Order (638)  |  Saving (20)  |  Species (435)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

[The famous attack of Sir William Hamilton on the tendency of mathematical studies] affords the most express evidence of those fatal lacunae in the circle of his knowledge, which unfitted him for taking a comprehensive or even an accurate view of the processes of the human mind in the establishment of truth. If there is any pre-requisite which all must see to be indispensable in one who attempts to give laws to the human intellect, it is a thorough acquaintance with the modes by which human intellect has proceeded, in the case where, by universal acknowledgment, grounded on subsequent direct verification, it has succeeded in ascertaining the greatest number of important and recondite truths. This requisite Sir W. Hamilton had not, in any tolerable degree, fulfilled. Even of pure mathematics he apparently knew little but the rudiments. Of mathematics as applied to investigating the laws of physical nature; of the mode in which the properties of number, extension, and figure, are made instrumental to the ascertainment of truths other than arithmetical or geometrical—it is too much to say that he had even a superficial knowledge: there is not a line in his works which shows him to have had any knowledge at all.
In Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1878), 607.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Afford (19)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Ascertainment (2)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Case (102)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Degree (277)  |  Direct (228)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Express (192)  |  Extension (60)  |  Famous (12)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hamilton (2)  |  Hamilton_William (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Important (229)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Instrumental (5)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Line (100)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Rudiment (6)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Study (701)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Tolerable (2)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unfitted (3)  |  Universal (198)  |  Verification (32)  |  View (496)  |  Work (1402)

[Tom Bombadil is] an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are ‘other’ and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with ‘doing’ anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture. Even the Elves hardly show this: they are primarily artists.
From Letter draft to Peter Hastings (manager of a Catholic bookshop in Oxford, who wrote about his enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings) (Sep 1954). In Humphrey Carpenter (ed.) assisted by Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995, 2014), 192, Letter No. 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Artist (97)  |  Botany (63)  |  Breeding (21)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Desire (212)  |  Doing (277)  |  Elf (7)  |  Embody (18)  |  Exemplar (2)  |  History (716)  |  Independent (74)  |  Inquiring (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lord Of The Rings (6)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rational (95)  |  Real (159)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Zoology (38)

[When combustion occurs,] one body, at least, is oxygenated, and another restored, at the same time, to its combustible state... This view of combustion may serve to show how nature is always the same, and maintains her equilibrium by preserving the same quantities of air and water on the surface of our globe: for as fast as these are consumed in the various processes of combustion, equal quantities are formed, and rise regenerated like the Phoenix from her ashes.
Fulhame believed 'that water was the only source of oxygen, which oxygenates combustible bodies' and that 'the hydrogen of water is the only substance that restores bodies to their combustible state.'
An Essay on Combustion with a View to a New Art of Dyeing and Painting (1794), 179-180. In Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (2000), 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Body (557)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Conservation Of Matter (7)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Oxidation (8)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Redox Reaction (2)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Rise (169)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)


Speaking as a Prolife leader, the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. After speaking on a 3 Aug 2005 radio show, he drew criticism for his extreme opinion that embryonic stem cell compares with Nazi deathcamp experiments.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Compare (76)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Draw (140)  |  Embryonic (6)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Family (101)  |  Focus (36)  |  Founder (26)  |  Leader (51)  |  Nazi (10)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Prolife (2)  |  Radio (60)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stem (31)  |  Stem Cell (11)

[Et peut-être la posterité me saura gré de lui avoir fait connaître que les Anciens n’ont pas tout su.]
And perhaps, posterity will thank me for having shown that the ancients did not know everything.
'Relation of New Discoveries in the Science of Numbers', in Letter (Aug 1659) to Pierre de Carcavi, an amateur mathematician, collected in OEuvres de Fermat: Correspondance (1894), 436. Translation, used as an epigraph, in D.M. Burton, Elementary Number Theory (1976, 1989), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Everything (489)  |  Know (1538)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Thank (48)  |  Will (2350)

[When recording electrical impulses from a frog nerve-muscle preparation seemed to show a tiresomely oscillating electrical artefact—but only when the muscle was hanging unsupported.] The explanation suddenly dawned on me ... a muscle hanging under its own weight ought, if you come to think of it, to be sending sensory impulses up the nerves coming from the muscle spindles ... That particular day’s work, I think, had all the elements that one could wish for. The new apparatus seemed to be misbehaving very badly indeed, and I suddenly found it was behaving so well that it was opening up an entire new range of data ... it didn’t involve any particular hard work, or any particular intelligence on my part. It was just one of those things which sometimes happens in a laboratory if you stick apparatus together and see what results you get.
From 'Memorable experiences in research', Diabetes (1954), 3, 17-18. As cited in Alan McComa, Galvani's Spark: The Story of the Nerve Impulse (2011), 102-103.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Artefact (2)  |  Badly (32)  |  Behave (18)  |  Coming (114)  |  Data (162)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Element (322)  |  Entire (50)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Found (11)  |  Frog (44)  |  Hang (46)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Involve (93)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nerve (82)  |  New (1273)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Range (104)  |  Recording (13)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Send (23)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Unsupported (3)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wish (216)  |  Work (1402)

But how shall we this union well expresse?
Naught tyes the soule: her subtiltie is such
She moves the bodie, which she doth possesse.
Yet no part toucheth, but by Vertue's touch.
Then dwels she not therein as in a tent;
Nor as a pilot in his Ship doth sit;
Nor as the spider in his web is pent;
Nor as the Waxe retaines the print in it;
Nor as a Vessell water doth containe;
Nor as one Liquor in another shed;
Nor as the heate dath in the fire remaine;
Nor as a voice throughout the ayre is spred;
But as the faire and cheerfull morning light,
Doth here, and there, her silver beames impart,
And in an instant doth her selfe unite
To the transparent Aire, in all, and part:
Still resting whole, when blowes the Aire devide;
Abiding pure, when th' Aire is most corrupted;
Throughout the Aire her beames dispersing wide,
And when the Aire is tost, not interrupted:
So doth the piercing Soule the body fill;
Being all in all, and all in part diffus'd;
Indivisible, incorruptible still,
Not forc't, encountred, troubled or confus'd.
And as the Sunne above the light doth bring,
Tough we behold it in the Aire below;
So from th'eternall light the Soule doth spring,
Though in the Bodie she her powers do show.
From 'Nosce Teipsum' (1599), in Claire Howard (ed.), The Poems of Sir John Davies (1941), 151-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fire (203)  |  Impart (24)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Instant (46)  |  Light (635)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Naught (10)  |  Power (771)  |  Pure (299)  |  Ship (69)  |  Silver (49)  |  Spider (14)  |  Spring (140)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tent (13)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tough (22)  |  Transparent (16)  |  Union (52)  |  Unite (43)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)

L’Astronomie est utile, parce qu’elle nous élève au-dessus de nous-mêmes; elle est utile, parce qu’elle est grande; elle est utile, parce qu’elle est belle… C’est elle qui nous montre combien l’homme est petit par le corps et combien il est grand par l’esprit, puisque cette immensité éclatante où son corps n’est qu’un point obscur, son intelligence peut l’embrasser tout entière et en goûter la silencieuse harmonie.
Astronomy is useful because it raises us above ourselves; it is useful because it is grand[; it is useful because it is beautiful]… It shows us how small is man’s body, how great his mind, since his intelligence can embrace the whole of this dazzling immensity, where his body is only an obscure point, and enjoy its silent harmony.
In La Valeur de la Science (1904), 276, translated by George Bruce Halsted, in The Value of Science (1907), 84. Webmaster added the meaning of “elle est utile, parce qu’elle est belle,” in brackets, which was absent in Halsted’s translation.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Body (557)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Grand (29)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Point (584)  |  Raising (4)  |  Silent (31)  |  Small (489)  |  Useful (260)  |  Whole (756)

L’oeuvre de Pasteur est admirable; elle montre son génie, mais it faut avoir vécu dans son intimité pour connaître toute la bonté de son coeur.
The work of Pasteur is admirable; it shows his genius, but it must have been experienced intimately to know all the goodness of his heart.
Epigraph in René Vallery-Radot, La Vie de Pasteur (1900), title page. English by Google translation, tweaked by Webmaster. Pierre Paul Émile Roux had indeed known Pasteur well, as one of his closest collaborators.
Science quotes on:  |  Experience (494)  |  Genius (301)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Heart (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Must (1525)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Work (1402)

Question: Account for the delicate shades of colour sometimes seen on the inside of an oyster shell. State and explain the appearance presented when a beam of light falls upon a sheet of glass on which very fine equi-distant parallel lines have been scratched very close to one another.
Answer: The delicate shades are due to putrefaction; the colours always show best when the oyster has been a bad one. Hence they are considered a defect and are called chromatic aberration.
The scratches on the glass will arrange themselves in rings round the light, as any one may see at night in a tram car.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 182, Question 27. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Account (195)  |  Answer (389)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Arrange (33)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beam (26)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Car (75)  |  Chromatic (4)  |  Closeness (4)  |  Color (155)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Defect (31)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Diffraction (5)  |  Due (143)  |  Examination (102)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fine (37)  |  Glass (94)  |  Howler (15)  |  Inside (30)  |  Light (635)  |  Line (100)  |  Night (133)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Present (630)  |  Putrefaction (4)  |  Question (649)  |  Ring (18)  |  Scratch (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Shade (35)  |  Sheet (8)  |  Shell (69)  |  State (505)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Tram (3)  |  Will (2350)

Question: Show how the hypothenuse face of a right-angled prism may be used as a reflector. What connection is there between the refractive index of a medium and the angle at which an emergent ray is totally reflected?
Answer: Any face of any prism may be used as a reflector. The con nexion between the refractive index of a medium and the angle at which an emergent ray does not emerge but is totally reflected is remarkable and not generally known.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 182-3, Question 29. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Answer (389)  |  Connection (171)  |  Emergent (3)  |  Examination (102)  |  Face (214)  |  Howler (15)  |  Hypotenuse (4)  |  Index (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Medium (15)  |  Prism (8)  |  Question (649)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Reflector (4)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Right (473)  |  Total (95)

A black hole has no hair.
[Summarizing the simplicity of a black hole, which shows only three characteristics to the outside world (mass, charge, spin) and comparing the situation to a room full of bald-pated people who had one characteristic in common, but no differences in hair length, style or color for individual variations.]
In Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam (2000), 297. Quote introduced previously as the No-Hair Theorem in Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne and John Wheeler, Gravitation (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Charge (63)  |  Color (155)  |  Common (447)  |  Difference (355)  |  Identification (20)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mass (160)  |  Outside (141)  |  People (1031)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Situation (117)  |  Small (489)  |  Spin (26)  |  Variation (93)  |  World (1850)

A comparison between the triplets tentatively deduced by these methods with the changes in amino acid sequence produced by mutation shows a fair measure of agreement.
In Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1962). Collected in Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964).
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Change (639)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Measure (241)  |  Method (531)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Produced (187)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Triplet (2)

A drop of old tuberculin, which is an extract of tubercle bacilli, is put on the skin and then a small superficial scarification is made by turning, with some pressure, a vaccination lancet on the surface of the skin. The next day only those individuals show an inflammatory reaction at the point of vaccination who have already been infected with tuberculosis, whereas the healthy individuals show no reaction at all. Every time we find a positive reaction, we can say with certainty that the child is tuberculous.
'The Relation of Tuberculosis to Infant Mortality', read at the third mid-year meeting of the American Academy of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, (4 Nov 1909). In Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine (1910), 11, 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Bacillus (9)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Child (333)  |  Drop (77)  |  Extract (40)  |  Find (1014)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infection (27)  |  Inflammation (7)  |  Next (238)  |  Old (499)  |  Point (584)  |  Positive (98)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Say (989)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Surface (223)  |  Test (221)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tuberculosis (9)  |  Vaccination (7)

A few years ago, Science endeavored to show that it was not inconsistent with the bible. The tables have been turned, and now, Religion is endeavoring to prove that the bible is not inconsistent with Science.
In Some Mistakes of Moses (1879), 242.
Science quotes on:  |  Bible (105)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Inconsistency (5)  |  Prove (261)  |  Religion (369)

A frequent misunderstanding of my vision of Gaia is that I champion complacence, that I claim feedback will always protect the environment from any serious harm that humans might do. It is sometimes more crudely put as “Lovelock’s Gaia gives industry the green light to pollute at will.” The truth is almost diametrically opposite. Gaia, as I see her, is no doting mother tolerant of misdemeanors, nor is she some fragile and delicate damsel in danger from brutal mankind. She is stern and tough, always keeping the world warm and comfortable for those who obey the rules, but ruthless in her destruction of those who transgress. Her unconscious goal is a planet fit for life. If humans stand in the way of this, we shall be eliminated with as little pity as would be shown by the micro-brain of an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile in full flight to its target.
In The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth (1999), 199.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Brutal (3)  |  Champion (6)  |  Claim (154)  |  Comfortable (13)  |  Complacent (7)  |  Danger (127)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Diametrical (2)  |  Dote (2)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Environment (239)  |  Feedback (10)  |  Fit (139)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Gaia (15)  |  Goal (155)  |  Harm (43)  |  Human (1512)  |  Industry (159)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Misdemeanor (2)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nuclear Missile (2)  |  Obey (46)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Pity (16)  |  Planet (402)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Protect (65)  |  Rule (307)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Serious (98)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stern (6)  |  Target (13)  |  Tolerant (4)  |  Tough (22)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Vision (127)  |  Warm (74)  |  World (1850)

A great advantage of X-ray analysis as a method of chemical structure analysis is its power to show some totally unexpected and surprising structure with, at the same time, complete certainty.
In 'X-ray Analysis of Complicated Molecules', Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1964). In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1942-1962 (1964), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complete (209)  |  Great (1610)  |  Method (531)  |  Power (771)  |  Ray (115)  |  Structure (365)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.
First sentences in When Prophecy Fails (1956), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Appeal (46)  |  Change (639)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Disagree (14)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Figure (162)  |  Hard (246)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  Point (584)  |  Question (649)  |  See (1094)  |  Source (101)  |  Tell (344)  |  Turn (454)

A moment’s consideration of this case shows what a really great advance in the theory and practise of breeding has been obtained through the discovery of Mendel’s law. What a puzzle this case would have presented to the biologist ten years ago! Agouti crossed with chocolate gives in the second filial generation (not in the first) four varieties, viz., agouti, chocolate, black and cinnamon. We could only have shaken our heads and looked wise (or skeptical).
Then we had no explanation to offer for such occurrences other than the “instability of color characters under domestication,” the “effects of inbreeding,” “maternal impressions.” Serious consideration would have been given to the proximity of cages containing both black and cinnamon-agouti mice.
Now we have a simple, rational explanation, which anyone can put to the test. We are able to predict the production of new varieties, and to produce them.
We must not, of course, in our exuberance, conclude that the powers of the hybridizer know no limits. The result under consideration consists, after all, only in the making of new combinations of unit characters, but it is much to know that these units exist and that all conceivable combinations of them are ordinarily capable of production. This valuable knowledge we owe to the discoverer and to the rediscoverers of Mendel’s law.
'New Colour Variety of the Guinea Pig', Science, 1908, 28, 250-252.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Both (496)  |  Breeding (21)  |  Cage (12)  |  Capable (174)  |  Character (259)  |  Chocolate (5)  |  Color (155)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Consist (223)  |  Course (413)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Domestication (5)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Generation (256)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Impression (118)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Limit (294)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Moment (260)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Power (771)  |  Predict (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Rational (95)  |  Result (700)  |  Serious (98)  |  Simple (426)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Wise (143)  |  Year (963)

A noteworthy and often-remarked similarity exists between the facts and methods of geology and those of linguistic study. The science of language is, as it were, the geology of the most modern period, the Age of the Man, having for its task to construct the history of development of the earth and its inhabitants from the time when the proper geological record remains silent … The remains of ancient speech are like strata deposited in bygone ages, telling of the forms of life then existing, and of the circumstances which determined or affected them; while words are as rolled pebbles, relics of yet more ancient formations, or as fossils, whose grade indicates the progress of organic life, and whose resemblances and relations show the correspondence or sequence of the different strata; while, everywhere, extensive denudation has marred the completeness of the record, and rendered impossible a detailed exhibition of the whole course of development.
In Language and the Study of Language (1867), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Bygone (4)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Course (413)  |  Denudation (2)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exhibition (7)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Geology (240)  |  History (716)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marred (3)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organic (161)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Period (200)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proper (150)  |  Record (161)  |  Remain (355)  |  Render (96)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Roll (41)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Speech (66)  |  Strata (37)  |  Stratum (11)  |  Study (701)  |  Task (152)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

A physician’s subject of study is necessarily the patient, and his first field for observation is the hospital. But if clinical observation teaches him to know the form and course of diseases, it cannot suffice to make him understand their nature; to this end he must penetrate into the body to find which of the internal parts are injured in their functions. That is why dissection of cadavers and microscopic study of diseases were soon added to clinical observation. But to-day these various methods no longer suffice; we must push investigation further and, in analyzing the elementary phenomena of organic bodies, must compare normal with abnormal states. We showed elsewhere how incapable is anatomy alone to take account of vital phenenoma, and we saw that we must add study of all physico-chemical conditions which contribute necessary elements to normal or pathological manifestations of life. This simple suggestion already makes us feel that the laboratory of a physiologist-physician must be the most complicated of all laboratories, because he has to experiment with phenomena of life which are the most complex of all natural phenomena.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 140-141.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Alone (324)  |  Already (226)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Clinical (18)  |  Compare (76)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Course (413)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Internal (69)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Method (531)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Observation (593)  |  Organic (161)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Patient (209)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Push (66)  |  Saw (160)  |  Simple (426)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Understand (648)  |  Various (205)  |  Vital (89)  |  Why (491)

A scientific observation is always a committed observation. It confirms or denies one’s preconceptions, one’s first ideas, one’s plan of observation. It shows by demonstration. It structures the phenomenon. It transcends what is close at hand. It reconstructs the real after having reconstructed its representation.
In The New Scientific Spirit (1934).
Science quotes on:  |  Confirm (58)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  First (1302)  |  Idea (881)  |  Observation (593)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Plan (122)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Representation (55)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Structure (365)  |  Transcend (27)

A study of history shows that civilizations that abandon the quest for knowledge are doomed to disintegration.
In The Observer (14 May 1972), 'Sayings of the Week'. As cited in Bill Swainson, The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 579.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Disintegration (8)  |  Doom (34)  |  History (716)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Quest (39)  |  Study (701)

After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.
From On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1861), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Decision (98)  |  Detail (150)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Five (16)  |  Hasty (7)  |  Hope (321)  |  Myself (211)  |  Note (39)  |  Object (438)  |  Period (200)  |  Personal (75)  |  Present (630)  |  Probable (24)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Short (200)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Steadily (7)  |  Subject (543)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

All admit that the mountains of the globe are situated mostly along the border regions of the continents (taking these regions as 300 to 1000 miles or more in width), and that over these same areas the sedimentary deposits have, as a general thing, their greatest thickness. At first thought, it would seem almost incredible that the upliftings of mountains, whatever their mode of origin, should have taken place just where the earth’s crust, through these sedimentary accumulations, was the thickest, and where, therefore, there was the greatest weight to be lifted. … Earthquakes show that even now, in this last of the geological ages, the same border regions of the continents, although daily thickening from the sediments borne to the ocean by rivers, are the areas of the greatest and most frequent movements of the earth’s crust. (1866)
[Thus, the facts were known long ago; the explanation by tectonic activity came many decades later.]
In 'Observations on the Origin of Some of the Earth’s Features', The American Journal of Science (Sep 1866), Second Series, 42, No. 125, 210-211.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Activity (218)  |  Age (509)  |  Border (10)  |  Continent (79)  |  Crust (43)  |  Daily (91)  |  Decade (66)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Lift (57)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Movement (162)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  River (140)  |  Sediment (9)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Uplift (6)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whatever (234)

All Modern Men are descended from a Wormlike creature but it shows more on some people.
The Great Bustard and Other People (1944), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Creature (242)  |  Descend (49)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Human (1512)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Worm (47)

Always preoccupied with his profound researches, the great Newton showed in the ordinary-affairs of life an absence of mind which has become proverbial. It is related that one day, wishing to find the number of seconds necessary for the boiling of an egg, he perceived, after waiting a minute, that he held the egg in his hand, and had placed his seconds watch (an instrument of great value on account of its mathematical precision) to boil!
This absence of mind reminds one of the mathematician Ampere, who one day, as he was going to his course of lectures, noticed a little pebble on the road; he picked it up, and examined with admiration the mottled veins. All at once the lecture which he ought to be attending to returned to his mind; he drew out his watch; perceiving that the hour approached, he hastily doubled his pace, carefully placed the pebble in his pocket, and threw his watch over the parapet of the Pont des Arts.
Popular Astronomy: a General Description of the Heavens (1884), translated by J. Ellard Gore, (1907), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Admiration (61)  |  André-Marie Ampère (11)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Approach (112)  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Boil (24)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Course (413)  |  Egg (71)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forgetfulness (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hastily (7)  |  Hour (192)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Number (710)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pace (18)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Precision (72)  |  Profound (105)  |  Proverbial (8)  |  Research (753)  |  Return (133)  |  Value (393)  |  Vein (27)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Watch (118)

An enthusiasm about psychiatry is preposterous—it shows one just hasn’t grown up; but at the same time, for the psychiatrist to be indifferent toward his work is fatal.
The Psychiatric Interview (1954, 1970), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Fatal (14)  |  Grow Up (9)  |  Indifference (16)  |  Preposterous (8)  |  Psychiatrist (16)  |  Psychiatry (26)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

And do you know what “the world” is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not grow bigger or smaller, that does not expend itself but only transforms itself; as a whole, of unalterable size, a household without expenses or losses, but likewise without increase or income; enclosed by “nothingness”' as by a boundary; not by something blurry or wasted, not something endlessly extended, but set in a definite space as a definite force, and not a space that might be “empty” here or there, but rather as force throughout, as a play of forces and waves of forces, at the same time one and many, increasing here and at the same time decreasing there; a sea of forces flowing and rushing together, eternally changing, eternally flooding back, with tremendous years of recurrence, with an ebb and a flood of its forms; out of the simplest forms striving toward the most complex, out of the stillest, most rigid, coldest forms toward the hottest, most turbulent, most self-contradictory, and then again returning home to the simple out of this abundance, out of the play of contradictions back to the joy of concord, still affirming itself in this uniformity of its courses and its years, blessing itself as that which must return eternally, as a becoming that knows no satiety, no disgust, no weariness: this, my Dionysian world of the eternally self-creating, the eternally self-destroying, this mystery world of the twofold voluptuous delight, my “beyond good and evil,” without goal, unless the joy of the circle itself is a goal; without will, unless a ring feels good will toward itself-do you want a name for this world? A solution for all its riddles? A light for you, too, you best-concealed, strongest, most intrepid, most midnightly men?—This world is the will to power—and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power—and nothing besides!
The Will to Power (Notes written 1883-1888), book 4, no. 1067. Trans. W. Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale and ed. W. Kaufmann (1968), 549-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Back (395)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Circle (117)  |  Complex (202)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Course (413)  |  Definite (114)  |  Delight (111)  |  Disgust (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Empty (82)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evil (122)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feel (371)  |  Firm (47)  |  Flood (52)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Home (184)  |  Income (18)  |  Increase (225)  |  Iron (99)  |  Joy (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Monster (33)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Name (359)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nothingness (12)  |  Power (771)  |  Return (133)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Sea (326)  |  Self (268)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Voluptuous (3)  |  Want (504)  |  Wave (112)  |  Weariness (6)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Any statistics can be extrapolated to the point where they show disaster.
'Penetrating the Rhetoric', The Vision of the Anointed (1996), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Disaster (58)  |  Point (584)  |  Statistics (170)

Archimedes … had stated that given the force, any given weight might be moved, and even boasted, we are told, relying on the strength of demonstration, that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this. Hiero being struck with amazement at this, and entreating him to make good this problem by actual experiment, and show some great weight moved by a small engine, he fixed accordingly upon a ship of burden out of the king’s arsenal, which could not be drawn out of the dock without great labor and many men; and, loading her with many passengers and a full freight, sitting himself the while far off with no great endeavor, but only holding the head of the pulley in his hand and drawing the cords by degrees, he drew the ship in a straight line, as smoothly and evenly, as if she had been in the sea. The king, astonished at this, and convinced of the power of the art, prevailed upon Archimedes to make him engines accommodated to all the purposes, offensive and defensive, of a siege. … the apparatus was, in most opportune time, ready at hand for the Syracusans, and with it also the engineer himself.
Plutarch
In John Dryden (trans.), Life of Marcellus.
Science quotes on:  |  Accommodate (17)  |  According (236)  |  Actual (118)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Arsenal (5)  |  Art (680)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonished (10)  |  At Hand (7)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boast (22)  |  Burden (30)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Cord (3)  |  Defensive (2)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Engine (99)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Far (158)  |  Fix (34)  |  Force (497)  |  Freight (3)  |  Full (68)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand (149)  |  Head (87)  |  Hiero (2)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hold (96)  |  King (39)  |  Labor (200)  |  Load (12)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Offensive (4)  |  Passenger (10)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pulley (2)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Ready (43)  |  Rely (12)  |  Remove (50)  |  Sea (326)  |  Ship (69)  |  Siege (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Small (489)  |  Smoothly (2)  |  State (505)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strike (72)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Weight (140)

As a little boy, I showed an abnormal aptitude for mathematics this gift played a horrible part in tussles with quinsy or scarlet fever, when I felt enormous spheres and huge numbers swell relentlessly in my aching brain.
In Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited (1999), 2
Science quotes on:  |  Abnormal (6)  |  Ache (7)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brain (281)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fever (34)  |  Gift (105)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Huge (30)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Number (710)  |  Relentless (9)  |  Scarlet Fever (2)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Swell (4)

As I show you this liquid, I too could tell you, 'I took my drop of water from the immensity of creation, and I took it filled with that fecund jelly, that is, to use the language of science, full of the elements needed for the development of lower creatures. And then I waited, and I observed, and I asked questions of it, and I asked it to repeat the original act of creation for me; what a sight it would be! But it is silent! It has been silent for several years, ever since I began these experiments. Yes! And it is because I have kept away from it, and am keeping away from it to this moment, the only thing that it has not been given to man to produce, I have kept away from it the germs that are floating in the air, I have kept away from it life, for life is the germ, and the germ is life.'
Quoted in Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, trans. Elborg Forster (1994), 169.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Air (366)  |  Ask (420)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  Development (441)  |  Drop (77)  |  Element (322)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fecund (2)  |  Float (31)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Jelly (6)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Production (190)  |  Question (649)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Sight (135)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)  |  Wait (66)  |  Water (503)  |  Year (963)

Astronomers have built telescopes which can show myriads of stars unseen before; but when a man looks through a tear in his own eye, that is a lens which opens reaches into the unknown, and reveals orbs which no telescope, however skilfully constructed, could do.
Life Thoughts (1858), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Building (158)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eye (440)  |  Lens (15)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Open (277)  |  Opening (15)  |  Orb (20)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Showing (6)  |  Skill (116)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tear (48)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Unseen (23)

Astronomy is a cold, desert science, with all its pompous figures,—depends a little too much on the glass-grinder, too little on the mind. ’Tis of no use to show us more planets and systems. We know already what matter is, and more or less of it does not signify.
In 'Country Life', collected in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904), Vol. 12, 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Cold (115)  |  Depend (238)  |  Desert (59)  |  Figure (162)  |  Glass (94)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Planet (402)  |  Signify (17)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Use (771)

Be not afeard.
The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices
That if I then had waked after long sleep
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
The Tempest (1611), III, ii.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Delight (111)  |  Dream (222)  |  Drop (77)  |  Ear (69)  |  Humming (5)  |  Hurt (14)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Isle (6)  |  Long (778)  |  Mine (78)  |  Noise (40)  |  Open (277)  |  Riches (14)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Sound (187)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Voice (54)  |  Waking (17)  |  Will (2350)

Because intelligence is our own most distinctive feature, we may incline to ascribe superior intelligence to the basic primate plan, or to the basic plan of the mammals in general, but this point requires some careful consideration. There is no question at all that most mammals of today are more intelligent than most reptiles of today. I am not going to try to define intelligence or to argue with those who deny thought or consciousness to any animal except man. It seems both common and scientific sense to admit that ability to learn, modification of action according to the situation, and other observable elements of behavior in animals reflect their degrees of intelligence and permit us, if only roughly, to compare these degrees. In spite of all difficulties and all the qualifications with which the expert (quite properly) hedges his conclusions, it also seems sensible to conclude that by and large an animal is likely to be more intelligent if it has a larger brain at a given body size and especially if its brain shows greater development of those areas and structures best developed in our own brains. After all, we know we are intelligent, even though we wish we were more so.
In The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  According (236)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Area (33)  |  Argument (145)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Basic (144)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Best (467)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Care (203)  |  Common (447)  |  Compare (76)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Element (322)  |  Expert (67)  |  Feature (49)  |  General (521)  |  Greater (288)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Larger (14)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observable (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Plan (122)  |  Point (584)  |  Primate (11)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Question (649)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Situation (117)  |  Size (62)  |  Spite (55)  |  Structure (365)  |  Superior (88)  |  Thought (995)  |  Today (321)  |  Try (296)  |  Wish (216)

But as my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous position—namely, at the close of the Introduction—the following words: “I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not the exclusive means of modification.” This has been of no avail. Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.
In The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection with additions and corrections from sixth and last English edition (1899), Vol. 2, 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Edition (5)  |  Endure (21)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Misrepresentation (5)  |  Modification (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Power (771)  |  Remark (28)  |  Selection (130)  |  Species (435)  |  State (505)  |  Steady (45)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

But how is it that they [astrologers] have never been able to explain why, in the life of twins, in their actions, in their experiences, their professions, their accomplishments, their positions—in all the other circumstances of human life, and even in death itself, there is often found such a diversity that in those respects many strangers show more resemblance to them than they show to one another, even though the smallest possible interval separated their births and though they were conceived at the same moment, by a single act of intercourse.
De Civitate Dei (The City of God) [413-426], Book V, chapter I, trans. H. Bettenson (1972),180-181.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Birth (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Death (406)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Experience (494)  |  Explain (334)  |  Human (1512)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profession (108)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Respect (212)  |  Single (365)  |  Twin (16)  |  Twins (2)  |  Why (491)

But nature is remarkably obstinate against purely logical operations; she likes not schoolmasters nor scholastic procedures. As though she took a particular satisfaction in mocking at our intelligence, she very often shows us the phantom of an apparently general law, represented by scattered fragments, which are entirely inconsistent. Logic asks for the union of these fragments; the resolute dogmatist, therefore, does not hesitate to go straight on to supply, by logical conclusions, the fragments he wants, and to flatter himself that he has mastered nature by his victorious intelligence.
'On the Principles of Animal Morphology', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2 Apr 1888), 15, 289. Original as Letter to Mr John Murray, communicated to the Society by Professor Sir William Turner. Page given as in collected volume published 1889.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Ask (420)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dogmatist (4)  |  Fragment (58)  |  General (521)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inconsistent (9)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Law (913)  |  Like (23)  |  Logic (311)  |  Master (182)  |  Mocking (4)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obstinate (5)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Purely (111)  |  Remarkably (3)  |  Represent (157)  |  Resolute (2)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scattered (5)  |  Scholastic (2)  |  Schoolmaster (5)  |  Straight (75)  |  Supply (100)  |  Union (52)  |  Want (504)

But, but, but … if anybody says he can think about quantum theory without getting giddy it merely shows that he hasn’t understood the first thing about it!
Quoted in Otto R. Frisch, What Little I Remember (1979), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  First (1302)  |  Merely (315)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Say (989)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)

Can the cause be reached from knowledge of the effect with the same certainty as the effect can be shown to follow from its cause? Is it possible for one effect to have many causes? If one determinate cause cannot be reached from the effect, since there is no effect which has not some cause, it follows that an effect, when it has one cause, may have another, and so that there may be several causes of it.
As quoted in Alistair Cameron Crombie, Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100-1700 (1971), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Determinate (7)  |  Effect (414)  |  Follow (389)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reach (286)  |  Several (33)

Chemists show us that strange property, catalysis, which enables a substance while unaffected itself to incite to union elements around it. So a host, or hostess, who may know but little of those concerned, may, as a social switchboard, bring together the halves of pairs of scissors, men who become life-long friends, men and women who marry and are happy husbands and wives.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Around (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Bring (95)  |  Catalysis (7)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Concern (239)  |  Element (322)  |  Enable (122)  |  Friend (180)  |  Half (63)  |  Happy (108)  |  Host (16)  |  Hostess (2)  |  Husband (13)  |  Incite (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifelong (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Marry (11)  |  Pair (10)  |  Property (177)  |  Social (261)  |  Strange (160)  |  Substance (253)  |  Together (392)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  Union (52)  |  Wife (41)  |  Woman (160)

Da Vinci was as great a mechanic and inventor as were Newton and his friends. Yet a glance at his notebooks shows us that what fascinated him about nature was its variety, its infinite adaptability, the fitness and the individuality of all its parts. By contrast what made astronomy a pleasure to Newton was its unity, its singleness, its model of a nature in which the diversified parts were mere disguises for the same blank atoms.
From The Common Sense of Science (1951), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptability (7)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atom (381)  |  Blank (14)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Leonardo da Vinci (87)  |  Disguise (12)  |  Diversified (3)  |  Fascinated (2)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Friend (180)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Model (106)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Notebook (4)  |  Part (235)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Singleness (2)  |  Unity (81)  |  Variety (138)

Dewar’s rule in his laboratory was as absolute as that of a Pharaoh, and he showed deference to no one except the ghost of Faraday whom he met occasionally all night in the gallery behind the lecture room.
In The Quest for Absolute Zero (1945, 1966), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Behind (139)  |  Sir James Dewar (2)  |  Gallery (7)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Pharaoh (4)  |  Rule (307)

Doubtless it is true that while consciousness is occupied in the scientific interpretation of a thing, which is now and again “a thing of beauty,” it is not occupied in the aesthetic appreciation of it. But it is no less true that the same consciousness may at another time be so wholly possessed by the aesthetic appreciation as to exclude all thought of the scientific interpretation. The inability of a man of science to take the poetic view simply shows his mental limitation; as the mental limitation of a poet is shown by his inability to take the scientific view. The broader mind can take both.
In An Autobiography (1904), Vol. 1, 485.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Both (496)  |  Broader (3)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Inability (11)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Poet (97)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possession (68)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  Wholly (88)

Einstein, twenty-six years old, only three years away from crude privation, still a patent examiner, published in the Annalen der Physik in 1905 five papers on entirely different subjects. Three of them were among the greatest in the history of physics. One, very simple, gave the quantum explanation of the photoelectric effect—it was this work for which, sixteen years later, he was awarded the Nobel prize. Another dealt with the phenomenon of Brownian motion, the apparently erratic movement of tiny particles suspended in a liquid: Einstein showed that these movements satisfied a clear statistical law. This was like a conjuring trick, easy when explained: before it, decent scientists could still doubt the concrete existence of atoms and molecules: this paper was as near to a direct proof of their concreteness as a theoretician could give. The third paper was the special theory of relativity, which quietly amalgamated space, time, and matter into one fundamental unity.
This last paper contains no references and quotes no authority. All of them are written in a style unlike any other theoretical physicist’s. They contain very little mathematics. There is a good deal of verbal commentary. The conclusions, the bizarre conclusions, emerge as though with the greatest of ease: the reasoning is unbreakable. It looks as though he had reached the conclusions by pure thought, unaided, without listening to the opinions of others. To a surprisingly large extent, that is precisely what he had done.
In Variety of Men (1966), 100-101. First published in Commentary magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Authority (99)  |  Award (13)  |  Bizarre (6)  |  Brownian Motion (2)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Concreteness (5)  |  Conjuring (3)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decent (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Ease (40)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Erratic (4)  |  Examiner (5)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Physics (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particle (200)  |  Patent (34)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Photoelectric Effect (2)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Privation (5)  |  Proof (304)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (299)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quote (46)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Special (188)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suspension (7)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Trick (36)  |  Unbreakable (3)  |  Unity (81)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Endow the already established with money. Endow the woman who shows genius with time.
In Phebe Mitchell Kendall (ed.), Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals (1896), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Endow (17)  |  Established (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  Money (178)  |  Research (753)  |  Time (1911)  |  Woman (160)

Euclid and Archimedes are allowed to be knowing, and to have demonstrated what they say: and yet whosoever shall read over their writings without perceiving the connection of their proofs, and seeing what they show, though he may understand all their words, yet he is not the more knowing. He may believe, indeed, but does not know what they say, and so is not advanced one jot in mathematical knowledge by all his reading of those approved mathematicians.
In Conduct of the Understanding, sect. 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Allow (51)  |  Approve (6)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Belief (615)  |  Connection (171)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jot (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Proof (304)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Understand (648)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded.
Humphry Davy and John Davy, 'Consolations in Travel—Dialogue V—The Chemical Philosopher', The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (1840), Vol. 9, 362.
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (55)  |  Circle (117)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (378)  |  Greater (288)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Light (635)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Research (753)  |  Theory (1015)

Every man is ready to join in the approval or condemnation of a philosopher or a statesman, a poet or an orator, an artist or an architect. But who can judge of a mathematician? Who will write a review of Hamilton’s Quaternions, and show us wherein it is superior to Newton’s Fluxions?
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 85, 224.
Science quotes on:  |  Approval (12)  |  Architect (32)  |  Artist (97)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  Fluxion (7)  |  Fluxions (2)  |  Sir William Rowan Hamilton (10)  |  Join (32)  |  Judge (114)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Orator (3)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poet (97)  |  Quaternion (9)  |  Ready (43)  |  Review (27)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Superior (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

Examples ... show how difficult it often is for an experimenter to interpret his results without the aid of mathematics.
Quoted in E. T. Bell, Men of Mathematics, xvi.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Example (98)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Result (700)

Florey was not an easy personality. His drive and ambition were manifest from the day he arrived ... He could be ruthless and selfish; on the other hand, he could show kindliness, a warm humanity and, at times, sentiment and a sense of humour. He displayed utter integrity and he was scathing of humbug and pretence. His attitude was always—&ldqo;You must take me as you find me” But to cope with him at times, you had to do battle, raise your voice as high as his and never let him shout you down. You had to raise your pitch to his but if you insisted on your right he was always, in the end, very fair. I must say that at times, he went out of his way to cut people down to size with some very destructive criticism. But I must also say in the years I knew him he did not once utter a word of praise about himself.
Personal communication (1970) to Florey's Australian biographer, Lennard Bickel. By letter, Drury described his experience as a peer, being a research collaborator while Florey held a Studentship at Cambridge in the 1920s. This quote appears without naming Drury, in Eric Lax, The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle (2004), 40. Dury is cited in Lennard Bickel, Rise Up to Life: A Biography of Howard Walter Florey Who Gave Penicillin to the World (1972), 24. Also in Eric Lax
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Battle (36)  |  Coping (4)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Cut (116)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Display (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Drive (61)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Fairness (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Sir Howard Walter Florey (3)  |  High (370)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Humbug (6)  |  Humour (116)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Personality (66)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Praise (28)  |  Pretense (2)  |  Right (473)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Ruthlessness (3)  |  Say (989)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Selfishness (9)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense of Humour (2)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Shout (25)  |  Time (1911)  |  Voice (54)  |  Warm (74)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

For the evolution of science by societies the main requisite is the perfect freedom of communication between each member and anyone of the others who may act as a reagent.
The gaseous condition is exemplified in the soiree, where the members rush about confusedly, and the only communication is during a collision, which in some instances may be prolonged by button-holing.
The opposite condition, the crystalline, is shown in the lecture, where the members sit in rows, while science flows in an uninterrupted stream from a source which we take as the origin. This is radiation of science. Conduction takes place along the series of members seated round a dinner table, and fixed there for several hours, with flowers in the middle to prevent any cross currents.
The condition most favourable to life is an intermediate plastic or colloidal condition, where the order of business is (1) Greetings and confused talk; (2) A short communication from one who has something to say and to show; (3) Remarks on the communication addressed to the Chair, introducing matters irrelevant to the communication but interesting to the members; (4) This lets each member see who is interested in his special hobby, and who is likely to help him; and leads to (5) Confused conversation and examination of objects on the table.
I have not indicated how this programme is to be combined with eating.
Letter to William Grylls Adams (3 Dec 1873). In P. M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 949-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Business (156)  |  Chair (25)  |  Collision (16)  |  Colloid (5)  |  Communication (101)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conduction (8)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Current (122)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Examination (102)  |  Flow (89)  |  Flower (112)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Gas (89)  |  Greeting (10)  |  Hobby (14)  |  Hour (192)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Program (57)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Remark (28)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Short (200)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Something To Say (4)  |  Special (188)  |  Stream (83)  |  Table (105)  |  Talk (108)  |  Uninterrupted (7)

For, however much we may clench our teeth in anger, we cannot but confess, in opposition to Galen’s teaching but in conformity with the might of Aristotle’s opinion, that the size of the orifice of the hollow vein at the right chamber of the heart is greater than that of the body of the hollow vein, no matter where you measure the latter. Then the following chapter will show the falsity of Galen’s view that the hollow vein is largest at the point where it joins the hump of the liver.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543), Book III, 275, as translated by William Frank Richardson and John Burd Carman, in 'The Arguments Advanced by Galen in Opposition to Aristotl’s Views about the Origin of the Hollow Vein Do Not Have Oracular Authority', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book III: The Veins And Arteries; Book IV: The Nerves (1998), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Body (557)  |  Chamber (7)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Clench (3)  |  Confess (42)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Galen (20)  |  Greater (288)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hump (3)  |  Join (32)  |  Largest (39)  |  Liver (22)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Orifice (2)  |  Point (584)  |  Right (473)  |  Size (62)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Vein (27)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Fragments of the natural method must be sought with the greatest care. This is the first and last desideratum among botanists.
Nature makes no jumps.
[Natura non facit saltus]
All taxa show relationships on all sides like the countries on a map of the world.
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 77. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Botanist (25)  |  Care (203)  |  Country (269)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Jump (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Map (50)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Side (236)  |  World (1850)

From the rocket we can see the huge sphere of the planet in one or another phase of the Moon. We can see how the sphere rotates, and how within a few hours it shows all its sides successively ... and we shall observe various points on the surface of the Earth for several minutes and from different sides very closely. This picture is so majestic, attractive and infinitely varied that I wish with all my soul that you and I could see it. (1911)
As translated in William E. Burrows, The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth (2007), 147. From Tsiolkovsky's 'The Investigation of Universal Space by Means of Reactive Devices', translated in K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Works on Rocket Technology (NASA, NASATT F-243, n.d.), 76-77.
Science quotes on:  |  Attractive (25)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Hour (192)  |  Infinitely (13)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moon (252)  |  Observe (179)  |  Phase (37)  |  Picture (148)  |  Planet (402)  |  Point (584)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Rotate (8)  |  See (1094)  |  Side (236)  |  Soul (235)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Varied (6)  |  Various (205)  |  Wish (216)

From the time of Aristotle it had been said that man is a social animal: that human beings naturally form communities. I couldn’t accept it. The whole of history and pre-history is against it. The two dreadful world wars we have recently been through, and the gearing of our entire economy today for defensive war belie it. Man's loathsome cruelty to man is his most outstanding characteristic; it is explicable only in terms of his carnivorous and cannibalistic origin. Robert Hartmann pointed out that both rude and civilised peoples show unspeakable cruelty to one another. We call it inhuman cruelty; but these dreadful things are unhappily truly human, because there is nothing like them in the animal world. A lion or tiger kills to eat, but the indiscriminate slaughter and calculated cruelty of human beings is quite unexampled in nature, especially among the apes. They display no hostility to man or other animals unless attacked. Even then their first reaction is to run away.
In Africa's Place In the Emergence of Civilisation (1959), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Against (332)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Attack (86)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belie (3)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Carnivorous (7)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  Display (59)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Eat (108)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Robert Hartmann (2)  |  History (716)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Kill (100)  |  Lion (23)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Run (158)  |  Social (261)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Truly (118)  |  Two (936)  |  War (233)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through.
Mauvaises pensées et autres (1942). In Bill Swainson and Anne H. Soukhanov. Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 951.
Science quotes on:  |  Creation (350)  |  Everything (489)  |  God (776)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nothingness (12)  |  Through (846)

Governments and parliaments must find that astronomy is one of the sciences which cost most dear: the least instrument costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, the least observatory costs millions; each eclipse carries with it supplementary appropriations. And all that for stars which are so far away, which are complete strangers to our electoral contests, and in all probability will never take any part in them. It must be that our politicians have retained a remnant of idealism, a vague instinct for what is grand; truly, I think they have been calumniated; they should be encouraged and shown that this instinct does not deceive them, that they are not dupes of that idealism.
In Henri Poincaré and George Bruce Halsted (trans.), The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare (1907), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriation (5)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cost (94)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Dupe (5)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Election (7)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Government (116)  |  Grand (29)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idealism (4)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Millions (17)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Parliament (8)  |  Politician (40)  |  Probability (135)  |  Remnant (7)  |  Retain (57)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Supplementary (4)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Truly (118)  |  Vague (50)  |  Will (2350)

Great is the power of steady misrepresentation - but the history of science shows how, fortunately, this power does not endure long.
Origin of Species (1878), 421.
Science quotes on:  |  Endure (21)  |  Error (339)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Long (778)  |  Misrepresentation (5)  |  Power (771)  |  Steady (45)

Hail, Gastronome, Apostle of Excess,
Well skilled to overeat without distress!
Thy great invention, the unfatal feast,
Shows Man’s superiority to Beast.
Science quotes on:  |  Apostle (3)  |  Beast (58)  |  Distress (9)  |  Excess (23)  |  Feast (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (400)  |  Man (2252)  |  Skill (116)  |  Skilled (6)  |  Superiority (19)

He [Sylvester] had one remarkable peculiarity. He seldom remembered theorems, propositions, etc., but had always to deduce them when he wished to use them. In this he was the very antithesis of Cayley, who was thoroughly conversant with everything that had been done in every branch of mathematics.
I remember once submitting to Sylvester some investigations that I had been engaged on, and he immediately denied my first statement, saying that such a proposition had never been heard of, let alone proved. To his astonishment, I showed him a paper of his own in which he had proved the proposition; in fact, I believe the object of his paper had been the very proof which was so strange to him.
As quoted by Florian Cajori, in Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 268.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Antithesis (7)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Belief (615)  |  Branch (155)  |  Arthur Cayley (17)  |  Conversant (6)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deny (71)  |  Engage (41)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Hear (144)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Let (64)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (438)  |  Paper (192)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Remember (189)  |  Say (989)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Statement (148)  |  Strange (160)  |  Submit (21)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Use (771)  |  Wish (216)

He that could teach mathematics well, would not be a bad teacher in any of [physics, chemistry, biology or psychology] unless by the accident of total inaptitude for experimental illustration; while the mere experimentalist is likely to fall into the error of missing the essential condition of science as reasoned truth; not to speak of the danger of making the instruction an affair of sensation, glitter, or pyrotechnic show.
In Education as a Science (1879), 298.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Bad (185)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Condition (362)  |  Danger (127)  |  Error (339)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimentalist (20)  |  Fall (243)  |  Glitter (10)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Missing (21)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Pyrotechnic (2)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sensational (2)  |  Speak (240)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Total (95)  |  Truth (1109)

He who wishes to explain Generation must take for his theme the organic body and its constituent parts, and philosophize about them; he must show how these parts originated, and how they came to be in that relation in which they stand to each other. But he who learns to know a thing not only from its phenomena, but also its reasons and causes; and who, therefore, not by the phenomena merely, but by these also, is compelled to say: “The thing must be so, and it cannot be otherwise; it is necessarily of such a character; it must have such qualities; it is impossible for it to possess others”—understands the thing not only historically but truly philosophically, and he has a philosophic knowledge of it. Our own Theory of Generation is to be such a philosphic comprehension of an organic body, a very different one from one merely historical. (1764)
Quoted as an epigraph to Chap. 2, in Ernst Haeckel, The Evolution of Man, (1886), Vol 1, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Character (259)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Different (595)  |  Explain (334)  |  Generation (256)  |  Historical (70)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Say (989)  |  Stand (284)  |  Theme (17)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truly (118)  |  Understand (648)

Her [Rosalind Franklin] devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end.
In his obituary for Rosalind Franklin, Nature, 1958, 182, 154. As given in Andrew Brown, J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science (2005), 359.
Science quotes on:  |  Devotion (37)  |  End (603)  |  Rosalind Franklin (18)  |  Illness (35)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Month (91)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Work (1402)

Here are a few things to keep in mind the next time ants show up in the potato salad. The 8,800 known species of the family Formicidae make up from 10% to 15% of the world's animal biomass, the total weight of all fauna. They are the most dominant social insect in the world, found almost everywhere except in the polar regions. Ants turn more soil than earthworms; they prune, weed and police most of the earth’s carrion. Among the most gregarious of creatures, they are equipped with a sophisticated chemical communications system. To appreciate the strength and speed of this pesky invertebrate, consider that a leaf cutter the size of a man could run repeated four-minute miles while carrying 750 lbs. of potato salad.
From book review, 'Nature: Splendor in The Grass', Time (3 Sep 1990).
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ant (34)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Carrion (5)  |  Carry (130)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthworm (8)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Family (101)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Gregarious (3)  |  Insect (89)  |  Invertebrate (6)  |  Known (453)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mile (43)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Polar (13)  |  Police (5)  |  Potato (11)  |  Prune (7)  |  Run (158)  |  Social (261)  |  Soil (98)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Species (435)  |  Speed (66)  |  Strength (139)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Total (95)  |  Turn (454)  |  Weed (19)  |  Weight (140)  |  World (1850)

History shows that the human animal has always learned but progress used to be very slow. This was because learning often depended on the chance coming together of a potentially informative event on the one hand and a perceptive observer on the other. Scientific method accelerated that process.
In article Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future (1995), published at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerate (11)  |  Animal (651)  |  Chance (244)  |  Coming (114)  |  Depend (238)  |  Event (222)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Informative (3)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Method (531)  |  Observer (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceptive (3)  |  Potential (75)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Slow (108)  |  Together (392)

Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
The Wind from the Sun: Stories of the Space Age (1972), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Human (1512)  |  Judge (114)  |  Law (913)  |  Nature (2017)

I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Conservation (187)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dull (58)  |  Effort (243)  |  Glad (7)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Moral (203)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Panda (2)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Slither (2)  |  Standard (64)  |  Toad (10)  |  Value (393)  |  Worm (47)

I am much occupied with the investigation of the physical causes [of motions in the Solar System]. My aim in this is to show that the celestial machine is to be likened not to a divine organism but rather to a clockwork … insofar as nearly all the manifold movements are carried out by means of a single, quite simple magnetic force. This physical conception is to be presented through calculation and geometry.
Letter to Ilerwart von Hohenburg (10 Feb 1605) Quoted in Holton, Johannes Kepler's Universe: Its Physics and Metaphysics, 342, as cited by Hylarie Kochiras, Force, Matter, and Metaphysics in Newton's Natural Philosophy (2008), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Cause (561)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Clockwork (7)  |  Conception (160)  |  Divine (112)  |  Force (497)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Organism (231)  |  Physical (518)  |  Present (630)  |  Presenting (2)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Solar System (81)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)

I am only a physicist with nothing material to show for my labours. I have never even seen the ionosphere, although I have worked on the subject for thirty years. That does show how lucky people can be. If there had been no ionosphere I would not have been standing here this morning.
Response to receiving an honour from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers. As quoted in New Scientist (22 Nov 1956), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Labor (200)  |  Luck (44)  |  Material (366)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Subject (543)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I can conceive few human states more enviable than that of the man to whom, panting in the foul laboratory, or watching for his life under the tropic forest, Isis shall for a moment lift her sacred veil, and show him, once and for ever, the thing he dreamed not of; some law, or even mere hint of a law, explaining one fact; but explaining with it a thousand more, connecting them all with each other and with the mighty whole, till order and meaning shoots through some old Chaos of scattered observations.
Health and Education (1874), 289.
Science quotes on:  |  Chaos (99)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Deer (11)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Forest (161)  |  Foul (15)  |  Hint (21)  |  Human (1512)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lift (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Observation (593)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paramecium (2)  |  Rat (37)  |  Sacred (48)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Veil (27)  |  Whole (756)

I can understand your aversion to the use of the term ‘religion’ to describe an emotional and psychological attitude which shows itself most clearly in Spinoza ... I have not found a better expression than ‘religious’ for the trust in the rational nature of reality that is, at least to a certain extent, accessible to human reason.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Better (493)  |  Certain (557)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Describe (132)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Expression (181)  |  Extent (142)  |  Find (1014)  |  Human (1512)  |  Least (75)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Term (357)  |  Trust (72)  |  Understand (648)  |  Use (771)

I cannot serve as an example for younger scientists to follow. What I teach cannot be learned. I have never been a “100 percent scientist.” My reading has always been shamefully nonprofessional. I do not own an attaché case, and therefore cannot carry it home at night, full of journals and papers to read. I like long vacations, and a catalogue of my activities in general would be a scandal in the ears of the apostles of cost-effectiveness. I do not play the recorder, nor do I like to attend NATO workshops on a Greek island or a Sicilian mountain top; this shows that I am not even a molecular biologist. In fact, the list of what I have not got makes up the American Dream. Readers, if any, will conclude rightly that the Gradus ad Parnassum will have to be learned at somebody else’s feet.
In Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life before Nature (1978), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Biography (254)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Carry (130)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Cost (94)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Ear (69)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  General (521)  |  Greek (109)  |  Home (184)  |  Island (49)  |  Journal (31)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Long (778)  |  Molecular Biologist (3)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Paper (192)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Teach (299)  |  Top (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  Workshop (14)  |  Younger (21)

I did it [worked long hours] because I wanted to, not because I had to. I loved it and still do love it, That is what women must have in addition to diligence—a real and absorbing devotion to their work. They need now to have a bigger body of work to show.
In Genevieve Parkhurst, 'Dr. Sabin, Scientist: Winner Of Pictorial Review’s Achievement Award', Pictorial Review (Jan 1930), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Addition (70)  |  Big (55)  |  Body (557)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Love (328)  |  Need (320)  |  Real (159)  |  Women Scientists (18)  |  Work (1402)

I do not hope for any relief, and that is because I have committed no crime. I might hope for and obtain pardon, if I had erred, for it is to faults that the prince can bring indulgence, whereas against one wrongfully sentenced while he was innocent, it is expedient, in order to put up a show of strict lawfulness, to uphold rigor… . But my most holy intention, how clearly would it appear if some power would bring to light the slanders, frauds, and stratagems, and trickeries that were used eighteen years ago in Rome in order to deceive the authorities!
In Letter to Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (22 Feb 1635). As quoted in translation in Giorgio de Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (1976), 324.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Authority (99)  |  Commit (43)  |  Crime (39)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fault (58)  |  Fraud (15)  |  Holy (35)  |  Hope (321)  |  Indulgence (6)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Intention (46)  |  Lawfulness (5)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Order (638)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Power (771)  |  Relief (30)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rome (19)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Slander (3)  |  Stratagem (2)  |  Trickery (2)  |  Year (963)

I do not personally want to believe that we already know the equations that determine the evolution and fate of the universe; it would make life too dull for me as a scientist. … I hope, and believe, that the Space Telescope might make the Big Bang cosmology appear incorrect to future generations, perhaps somewhat analogous to the way that Galileo’s telescope showed that the earth-centered, Ptolemaic system was inadequate.
From 'The Space Telescope (the Hubble Space Telescope): Out Where the Stars Do Not Twinkle', in NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1978: Hearings before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, United States Senate, 95th Congress, first session on S.365 (1977), 124. This was testimony to support of authorization for NASA beginning the construction of the Space Telescope, which later became known as the Hubble Space Telescope.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Analogous (7)  |  Bang (29)  |  Belief (615)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dull (58)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equation (138)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fate (76)  |  Future (467)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Generation (256)  |  Geocentric (6)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hubble Space Telescope (9)  |  Inadequate (20)  |  Incorrect (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Space (523)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

I do not profess to be able thus to account for all the [planetary] motions at the same time; but I shall show that each by itself is well explained by its proper hypothesis.
Ptolemy
(c. 100 AD). From introduction to 'Hypotheses', translated into French by Abbé N. Halma, Hypothèses et époques des planètes de Cl. Ptolémée et Hypotyposes de Proclus Diadochus (1820), 41-42. As quoted, in English, in John Louis Emil Dreyer History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler (1906), 201. In French, “Je ne prétends pas pouvoir ainsi rendre raison de tous ces mouvemens à la fois; mais je veux montrer que chacun à part s'explique très-bien par son hypothèse propre.”
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explain (334)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Motion (320)  |  Planet (402)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Profess (21)  |  Proper (150)  |  Time (1911)

I do not see the possibility of comparison between his [H. G. Wells] work and mine. We do not proceed in the same manner. It occurs to me that his stories do not repose on a very scientific basis. ... I make use of physics. He invents. I go to the moon in a cannon-ball, discharged from a cannon. Here there is no invention. He goes to Mars in an airship, which he constructs of a metal which does not obey the law of gravitation. Ça c'est très joli ... but show me this metal. Let him produce it.
Quoted in R. H. Sherard, 'Jules Verne Re-Visited', T.P.'s Weekly (9 Oct 1903).
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Basis (180)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Construct (129)  |  Do (1905)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Mars (47)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mine (78)  |  Moon (252)  |  Obey (46)  |  Occur (151)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Use (771)  |  Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (41)  |  Work (1402)

I had a feeling once about Mathematics—that I saw it all. Depth beyond depth was revealed to me—the Byss and Abyss. I saw—as one might see the transit of Venus or even the Lord Mayor’s Show—a quantity passing through infinity and changing its sign from plus to minus. I saw exactly why it happened and why the tergiversation was inevitable but it was after dinner and I let it go.
In Sir Winston Churchill: A Self-Portrait (1954), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Change (639)  |  Depth (97)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Minus (7)  |  Passing (76)  |  Plus (43)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Sign (63)  |  Through (846)  |  Venus (21)  |  Why (491)

I had observed that there were different lines exhibited in the spectra of different metals when ignited in the voltaic arc; and if I had had any reasonable amount of wit I ought to have seen the converse, viz., that by ignition different bodies show in their spectral lines the materials of which they are formed. If that thought had occured to my mind, I should have discovered the spectroscope before Kirchoff; but it didn’t.
Address, in 'Report to the Chemical Society's Jubilee', Nature (26 Mar 1891), 43, 493. Words as in original text, occured and Kirchoff are sic.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Arc (14)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Converse (9)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Form (976)  |  Ignite (3)  |  Ignition (3)  |  Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (4)  |  Line (100)  |  Material (366)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Occur (151)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Realize (157)  |  Remorse (9)  |  Research (753)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Spectroscope (3)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Thought (995)  |  Voltaic (9)  |  Wit (61)

I happen to be a kind of monkey. I have a monkeylike curiosity that makes me want to feel, smell, and taste things which arouse my curiosity, then to take them apart. It was born in me. Not everybody is like that, but a scientific researchist should be. Any fool can show me an experiment is useless. I want a man who will try it and get something out of it.
Quoted in Guy Suits, ''Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Apart (7)  |  Arousal (2)  |  Birth (154)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fool (121)  |  Happen (282)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Smell (29)  |  Something (718)  |  Take (10)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

I have long recognized the theory and aesthetic of such comprehensive display: show everything and incite wonder by sheer variety. But I had never realized how power fully the decor of a cabinet museum can promote this goal until I saw the Dublin [Natural History Museum] fixtures redone right ... The exuberance is all of one piece–organic and architectural. I write this essay to offer my warmest congratulations to the Dublin Museum for choosing preservation–a decision not only scientifically right, but also ethically sound and decidedly courageous. The avant-garde is not an exclusive locus of courage; a principled stand within a reconstituted rear unit may call down just as much ridicule and demand equal fortitude. Crowds do not always rush off in admirable or defendable directions.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Cabinet (5)  |  Call (781)  |  Choose (116)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Congratulation (5)  |  Congratulations (3)  |  Courage (82)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Decidedly (2)  |  Decision (98)  |  Demand (131)  |  Direction (185)  |  Display (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Dublin (3)  |  Equal (88)  |  Essay (27)  |  Ethically (4)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exuberance (3)  |  Fixture (2)  |  Fortitude (2)  |  Fully (20)  |  Goal (155)  |  History (716)  |  Incite (3)  |  Locus (5)  |  Long (778)  |  Museum (40)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Never (1089)  |  Offer (142)  |  Organic (161)  |  Piece (39)  |  Power (771)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Principle (530)  |  Promote (32)  |  Realize (157)  |  Rear (7)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reconstitute (2)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Right (473)  |  Rush (18)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scientifically (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Sheer (9)  |  Sound (187)  |  Stand (284)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unit (36)  |  Variety (138)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Write (250)

I have now said enough to show you that it is indispensable for this country to have a scientific education in connexion with manufacturers, if we wish to outstrip the intellectual competition which now, happily for the world, prevails in all departments of industry. As surely as darkness follows the setting of the sun, so surely will England recede as a manufacturing nation, unless her industrial population become much more conversant with science than they are now.
In 'The Study of Abstract Science Essential to the Progress of Industry', Records of the School of Mines (1852) 1, 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Competition (45)  |  Connection (171)  |  Conversant (6)  |  Country (269)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Department (93)  |  Education (423)  |  England (43)  |  Enough (341)  |  Follow (389)  |  Industry (159)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Manufacturer (10)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  More (2558)  |  Nation (208)  |  Outstrip (4)  |  Population (115)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Recede (11)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Setting (44)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Surely (101)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

I have said that mathematics is the oldest of the sciences; a glance at its more recent history will show that it has the energy of perpetual youth. The output of contributions to the advance of the science during the last century and more has been so enormous that it is difficult to say whether pride in the greatness of achievement in this subject, or despair at his inability to cope with the multiplicity of its detailed developments, should be the dominant feeling of the mathematician. Few people outside of the small circle of mathematical specialists have any idea of the vast growth of mathematical literature. The Royal Society Catalogue contains a list of nearly thirty- nine thousand papers on subjects of Pure Mathematics alone, which have appeared in seven hundred serials during the nineteenth century. This represents only a portion of the total output, the very large number of treatises, dissertations, and monographs published during the century being omitted.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 285.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Advance (298)  |  Alone (324)  |  Appear (122)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catalogue (5)  |  Century (319)  |  Circle (117)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Cope (9)  |  Despair (40)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissertation (2)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Glance (36)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inability (11)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  List (10)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Monograph (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiplicity (14)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nineteenth (5)  |  Number (710)  |  Oldest (9)  |  Omit (12)  |  Output (12)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Portion (86)  |  Pride (84)  |  Publish (42)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Recent (78)  |  Represent (157)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Say (989)  |  Serial (4)  |  Small (489)  |  Society (350)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thirty (6)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Total (95)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)  |  Youth (109)

I have taken up my lodgings in the loft of the laboratory building itself and am so quite at home with chemical apparatus and preparations all around, “they are congenial spirits,” as Mr. Silliman remarked when he showed me the room.
Letter to a friend (25 Jun 1845) as quoted by Frank Dawson Adams, in 'Biographical Memoir of Thomas Sterry Hunt' presented to the Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (1932). Hunt was Professor Silliman Jr’s student and assistant at the Scientific School of Yale University.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Building (158)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Congenial (3)  |  Home (184)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lodging (2)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Spirit (278)

I have therefore tried to show the tendency displayed throughout history, by the most profound investigators, to pass from the world of the senses to a world where vision becomes spiritual, where principles are elaborated, and from which the explorer emerges with conceptions and conclusions, to be approved or rejected according as they coincide with sensible things.
Heat, A Mode of Motion (1880, 1915), 6th ed., viii.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Approve (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Coincide (6)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Display (59)  |  Elaborated (7)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Explorer (30)  |  History (716)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pass (241)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profound (105)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

I have tried to show why I believe that the biologist is the most romantic figure on earth at the present day. At first sight he seems to be just a poor little scrubby underpaid man, groping blindly amid the mazes of the ultra-microscopic, engaging in bitter and lifelong quarrels over the nephridia of flatworms, waking perhaps one morning to find that someone whose name he has never heard has demolished by a few crucial experiments the work which he had hoped would render him immortal.
Daedalus or Science and the Future (1924), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Biologist (70)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Demolish (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Lifelong (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  Poor (139)  |  Present (630)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Sight (135)  |  Waking (17)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)

I like to think that when Medawar and his colleagues showed that immunological tolerance could be produced experimentally the new immunology was born. This is a science which to me has far greater potentialities both for practical use in medicine and for the better understanding of living process than the classical immunochemistry which it is incorporating and superseding.
'Immunological Recognition of Self', Nobel Lecture, 12 December 1960. In Nobel Lectures Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964), 689.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Classical (49)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Greater (288)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Living (492)  |  Sir Peter B. Medawar (57)  |  Medicine (392)  |  New (1273)  |  Practical (225)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Superseding (2)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tolerance (11)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)

I never come across one of Laplace’s “Thus it plainly appears” without feeling sure that I have hours of hard work before me to fill up the chasm and find out and show how it plainly appears.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1896), 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Appear (122)  |  Chasm (9)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Hour (192)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Never (1089)  |  Plainly (5)  |  Work (1402)

I often get letters … from people who say … I never give credit to the almighty power that created nature. … I reply … “Well, it’s funny that the people, when they say that this is evidence of the Almighty, always quote beautiful things … orchids and hummingbirds and butterflies and roses.” But I always have to think too of a little boy sitting on the banks of a river in west Africa who has a worm boring through his eyeball, turning him blind before he’s five years old. And I … say, “Well, presumably the God you speak about created the worm as well,” and now, I find that baffling to credit a merciful God with that action. And therefore it seems to me safer to show things that I know to be truth, truthful and factual, and allow people to make up their own minds about the moralities of this thing, or indeed the theology of this thing.
From BBC TV, Life on Air (2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Africa (38)  |  Almighty (23)  |  Bank (31)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blind (98)  |  Boring (7)  |  Boy (100)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  God (776)  |  Humming Bird (2)  |  Hummingbird (4)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Know (1538)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Old (499)  |  Orchid (4)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Quote (46)  |  Reply (58)  |  River (140)  |  Rose (36)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Speak (240)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Worm (47)  |  Year (963)

I prefer the spagyric chemical physicians, for they do not consort with loafers or go about gorgeous in satins, silks and velvets, gold rings on their fingers, silver daggers hanging at their sides and white gloves on their hands, but they tend their work at the fire patiently day and night. They do not go promenading, but seek their recreation in the laboratory, wear plain learthern dress and aprons of hide upon which to wipe their hands, thrust their fingers amongst the coals, into dirt and rubbish and not into golden rings. They are sooty and dirty like the smiths and charcoal burners, and hence make little show, make not many words and gossip with their patients, do not highly praise their own remedies, for they well know that the work must praise the master, not the master praise his work. They well know that words and chatter do not help the sick nor cure them... Therefore they let such things alone and busy themselves with working with their fires and learning the steps of alchemy. These are distillation, solution, putrefaction, extraction, calcination, reverberation, sublimination, fixation, separation, reduction, coagulation, tinction, etc.
Quoted in R. Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 150. [Spagyric is a form of herbalism based on alchemic procedures of preparation.]
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Alone (324)  |  Apron (2)  |  Busy (32)  |  Calcination (4)  |  Charcoal (10)  |  Chatter (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Coagulation (5)  |  Coal (64)  |  Cure (124)  |  Dagger (3)  |  Day And Night (3)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extraction (10)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Glove (4)  |  Gold (101)  |  Golden (47)  |  Gorgeous (2)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Hand (149)  |  Help (116)  |  Hide (70)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Learning (291)  |  Leather (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Loafer (2)  |  Master (182)  |  Must (1525)  |  Patience (58)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Praise (28)  |  Putrefaction (4)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Reverberation (3)  |  Ring (18)  |  Rubbish (12)  |  Satin (2)  |  Seek (218)  |  Separation (60)  |  Sick (83)  |  Side (236)  |  Silk (14)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smith (3)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soot (11)  |  Step (234)  |  Tend (124)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thrust (13)  |  Velvet (4)  |  White (132)  |  Wipe (6)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

I specifically paused to show that, if there were such machines with the organs and shape of a monkey or of some other non-rational animal, we would have no way of discovering that they are not the same as these animals. But if there were machines that resembled our bodies and if they imitated our actions as much as is morally possible, we would always have two very certain means for recognizing that, none the less, they are not genuinely human. The first is that they would never be able to use speech, or other signs composed by themselves, as we do to express our thoughts to others. For one could easily conceive of a machine that is made in such a way that it utters words, and even that it would utter some words in response to physical actions that cause a change in its organs—for example, if someone touched it in a particular place, it would ask what one wishes to say to it, or if it were touched somewhere else, it would cry out that it was being hurt, and so on. But it could not arrange words in different ways to reply to the meaning of everything that is said in its presence, as even the most unintelligent human beings can do. The second means is that, even if they did many things as well as or, possibly, better than anyone of us, they would infallibly fail in others. Thus one would discover that they did not act on the basis of knowledge, but merely as a result of the disposition of their organs. For whereas reason is a universal instrument that can be used in all kinds of situations, these organs need a specific disposition for every particular action.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 5, 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arrange (33)  |  Ask (420)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Cry (30)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  Express (192)  |  Fail (191)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Presence (63)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reply (58)  |  Response (56)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Situation (117)  |  Specific (98)  |  Speech (66)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Touch (146)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

I stand almost with the others. They believe the world was made for man, I believe it likely that it was made for man; they think there is proof, astronomical mainly, that it was made for man, I think there is evidence only, not proof, that it was made for him. It is too early, yet, to arrange the verdict, the returns are not all in. When they are all in, I think that they will show that the world was made for man; but we must not hurry, we must patiently wait till they are all in.
Attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrange (33)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Belief (615)  |  Early (196)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Likely (36)  |  Made (14)  |  Mainly (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patiently (3)  |  Proof (304)  |  Return (133)  |  Stand (284)  |  Think (1122)  |  Verdict (8)  |  Wait (66)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

I think it is a duty I owe to my profession and to my sex to show that a woman has a right to the practice of her profession and cannot be condemned to abandon it merely because she marries. I cannot conceive how women’s colleges, inviting and encouraging women to enter professions can be justly founded or maintained denying such a principle.
(From a letter Brooks wrote to her dean, knowing that she would be told to resign if she married, she asked to keep her job. Nevertheless, she lost her teaching position at Barnard College in 1906. Dean Gill wrote that “The dignity of women’s place in the home demands that your marriage shall be a resignation.”)
As quoted by Margaret W. Rossiter in Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1982).
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Ask (420)  |  College (71)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  Demand (131)  |  Denial (20)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Duty (71)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Enter (145)  |  Founding (5)  |  Home (184)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Job (86)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Letter (117)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Owe (71)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profession (108)  |  Right (473)  |  Role Model (9)  |  Sex (68)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Think (1122)  |  Woman (160)

I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million light years away. This discovery showed that some galaxies were capable of producing radio emission about a million times more intense than that from our own Galaxy or the Andromeda nebula, and the mechanisms responsible were quite unknown. ... [T]he possibilities were so exciting even in 1952 that my colleagues and I set about the task of designing instruments capable of extending the observations to weaker and weaker sources, and of exploring their internal structure.
From Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1974). In Stig Lundqvist (ed.), Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971-1980 (1992), 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Andromeda (2)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Design (203)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distance (171)  |  Emission (20)  |  Event (222)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extending (3)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Internal (69)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Observation (593)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radio Telescope (5)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Search (175)  |  Set (400)  |  Source (101)  |  Structure (365)  |  Task (152)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Year (963)

I wished to show that Pythagoras, the first founder of the vegetable regimen, was at once a very great physicist and a very great physician; that there has been no one of a more cultured and discriminating humanity; that he was a man of wisdom and of experience; that his motive in commending and introducing the new mode of living was derived not from any extravagant superstition, but from the desire to improve the health and the manners of men.
From Dell Vitto Pitagorico (1743), (The Pythagorean Diet: for the Use of the Medical Faculty), as translated quotes in Howard Williams, The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-Eating (1883), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Commend (7)  |  Culture (157)  |  Desire (212)  |  Diet (56)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  First (1302)  |  Founder (26)  |  Great (1610)  |  Health (210)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Improve (64)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (62)  |  New (1273)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vegetarian (13)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wish (216)

If in the citation of work that we have both done together only one of us is named, and especially in a journal [Annalen der Chemie] in which both are named on the title page, about which everyone knows that you are the actual editor, and this editor allows that to happen and does not show the slightest consideration to report it, then everyone will conclude that this represents an agreement between us, that the work is yours alone, and that I am a jackass.
Letter from Wohler to Liebig (15 Nov 1840). In A. W. Hofmann (ed.), Aus Justus Liebigs und Friedrich Wohlers Briefwechsel (1888), Vol. 1, 166. Trans. W. H. Brock.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Alone (324)  |  Both (496)  |  Citation (4)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Editor (10)  |  Happen (282)  |  Jackass (3)  |  Journal (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Report (42)  |  Represent (157)  |  Title (20)  |  Together (392)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

If men of science owe anything to us, we may learn much from them that is essential. For they can show how to test proof, how to secure fulness and soundness in induction, how to restrain and to employ with safety hypothesis and analogy.
Lecture, 'The Study of History' (11 Jun 1895) delivered at Cambridge, published as A Lecture on The Study of History (1895), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Employ (115)  |  Essential (210)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Induction (81)  |  Learn (672)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Owe (71)  |  Proof (304)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Safety (58)  |  Secure (23)  |  Soundness (4)  |  Test (221)

If one proves the equality of two numbers a and b by showing first that “a is less than or equal to b” and then “a is greater than or equal to b”, it is unfair, one should instead show that they are really equal by disclosing the inner ground for their equality.
As quoted, without citation, in biography by Hermann Wehl, Emmy Noether (1935), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Equality (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Greater (288)  |  Ground (222)  |  Inner (72)  |  Number (710)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Showing (6)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfair (9)

If the resident zoologist of Galaxy X had visited the earth 5 million years ago while making his inventory of inhabited planets in the universe, he would surely have corrected his earlier report that apes showed more promise than Old World monkeys and noted that monkeys had overcome an original disadvantage to gain domination among primates. (He will confirm this statement after his visit next year–but also add a footnote that one species from the ape bush has enjoyed an unusual and unexpected flowering, thus demanding closer monitoring.)
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Ape (54)  |  Bush (11)  |  Close (77)  |  Closer (43)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Correct (95)  |  Demand (131)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Domination (12)  |  Early (196)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Flower (112)  |  Footnote (5)  |  Gain (146)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Inhabit (18)  |  Inventory (7)  |  Making (300)  |  Million (124)  |  Monitor (10)  |  Monkey (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Note (39)  |  Old (499)  |  Old World (9)  |  Original (61)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Planet (402)  |  Primate (11)  |  Promise (72)  |  Report (42)  |  Species (435)  |  Statement (148)  |  Surely (101)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Visit (27)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Zoologist (12)

If we look round the world, there seem to be not above six distinct varieties in the human species, each of which is strongly marked, and speaks the kind seldom to have mixed with any other. But there is nothing in the shape, nothing in the faculties, that shows their coming from different originals; and the varieties of climate, of nourishment, and custom, are sufficient to produce every change.
In History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774, 1812), Vol. 2, 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Coming (114)  |  Custom (44)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Human (1512)  |  Kind (564)  |  Look (584)  |  Marked (55)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Variety (138)  |  World (1850)

If you are young, then I say: Learn something about statistics as soon as you can. Don’t dismiss it through ignorance or because it calls for thought. … If you are older and already crowned with the laurels of success, see to it that those under your wing who look to you for advice are encouraged to look into this subject. In this way you will show that your arteries are not yet hardened, and you will be able to reap the benefits without doing overmuch work yourself. Whoever you are, if your work calls for the interpretation of data, you may be able to do without statistics, but you won’t do as well.
In Facts from Figures (1951), 463.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Already (226)  |  Artery (10)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Call (781)  |  Crown (39)  |  Data (162)  |  Dismiss (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Hardened (2)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Laurel (2)  |  Learn (672)  |  Look (584)  |  Older (7)  |  Reap (19)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wing (79)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently. … It is that which feels & discovers what is, the REAL which we see not, which exists not for our senses. … Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. … Imagination too shows what is. … Hence she is or should be especially cultivated by the truly Scientific, those who wish to enter into the worlds around us!
Lovelace Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, 175, folio 199, journal entry for 5 Jan 1841. As quoted and cited in Dorothy Stein (ed.), 'In Time I Will Do All, I Dare Say', Ada: A Life and a Legacy (1985), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enter (145)  |  Exist (458)  |  Feel (371)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truly (118)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

In 1945 J.A. Ratcliffe … suggested that I [join his group at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge] to start an investigation of the radio emission from the Sun, which had recently been discovered accidentally with radar equipment. … [B]oth Ratcliffe and Sir Lawrence Bragg, then Cavendish Professor, gave enormous support and encouragement to me. Bragg’s own work on X-ray crystallography involved techniques very similar to those we were developing for “aperture synthesis,” and he always showed a delighted interest in the way our work progressed.
From Autobiography in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1974/Nobel Lectures (1975)
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Aperture (5)  |  Sir Lawrence Bragg (16)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Delight (111)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Emission (20)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Involved (90)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Professor (133)  |  Progress (492)  |  Radar (9)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radio Telescope (5)  |  Ratcliffe_Jack (2)  |  Ray (115)  |  Start (237)  |  Sun (407)  |  Support (151)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Technique (84)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

In chemistry, our theories are crutches; to show that they are valid, they must be used to walk... A theory established with the help of twenty facts must explain thirty, and lead to the discovery of ten more.
Leçons sur la Philosophie Chimique (1837), 60. Trans. S. Kapoor, 'Dumas and Organic Classification', Ambix, 1969, 16, 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Lead (391)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Walk (138)

In comparison with the great size of the earth the protrusion of mountains is not sufficient to deprive it of its spherical shape or to invalidate measurements based on its spherical shape. For Eratosthenes shows that the perpendicular distance from the highest mountain tops to the lowest regions is ten stades [c.5,000-5,500 feet]. This he shows with the help of dioptras which measure magnitudes at a distance.
Simplicius, Commentary On Aristotle's De Caelo, pp. 549.32-550.4 (Heiberg). Quoted in Morris R. Cohen and I. E. Drabkin, A Sourcebook in Greek Science (1948), 160 n.2.
Science quotes on:  |  Comparison (108)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Great (1610)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Top (100)

In early times, when the knowledge of nature was small, little attempt was made to divide science into parts, and men of science did not specialize. Aristotle was a master of all science known in his day, and wrote indifferently treatises on physics or animals. As increasing knowledge made it impossible for any one man to grasp all scientific subjects, lines of division were drawn for convenience of study and of teaching. Besides the broad distinction into physical and biological science, minute subdivisions arose, and, at a certain stage of development, much attention was, given to methods of classification, and much emphasis laid on the results, which were thought to have a significance beyond that of the mere convenience of mankind.
But we have reached the stage when the different streams of knowledge, followed by the different sciences, are coalescing, and the artificial barriers raised by calling those sciences by different names are breaking down. Geology uses the methods and data of physics, chemistry and biology; no one can say whether the science of radioactivity is to be classed as chemistry or physics, or whether sociology is properly grouped with biology or economics. Indeed, it is often just where this coalescence of two subjects occurs, when some connecting channel between them is opened suddenly, that the most striking advances in knowledge take place. The accumulated experience of one department of science, and the special methods which have been developed to deal with its problems, become suddenly available in the domain of another department, and many questions insoluble before may find answers in the new light cast upon them. Such considerations show us that science is in reality one, though we may agree to look on it now from one side and now from another as we approach it from the standpoint of physics, physiology or psychology.
In article 'Science', Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), 402.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulated (2)  |  Advance (298)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attention (196)  |  Available (80)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cast (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Coalesce (5)  |  Coalescence (2)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Domain (72)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Geology (240)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indifferent (17)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Master (182)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (531)  |  Minute (129)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (731)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Question (649)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reality (274)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Side (236)  |  Significance (114)  |  Small (489)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Special (188)  |  Specialize (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Stream (83)  |  Striking (48)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)

In like manner, the loadstone has from nature its two poles, a northern and a southern; fixed, definite points in the stone, which are the primary termini of the movements and effects, and the limits and regulators of the several actions and properties. It is to be understood, however, that not from a mathematical point does the force of the stone emanate, but from the parts themselves; and all these parts in the whole—while they belong to the whole—the nearer they are to the poles of the stone the stronger virtues do they acquire and pour out on other bodies. These poles look toward the poles of the earth, and move toward them, and are subject to them. The magnetic poles may be found in very loadstone, whether strong and powerful (male, as the term was in antiquity) or faint, weak, and female; whether its shape is due to design or to chance, and whether it be long, or flat, or four-square, or three-cornered or polished; whether it be rough, broken-off, or unpolished: the loadstone ever has and ever shows its poles.
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies and on the Great Magnet the Earth: A New Physiology, Demonstrated with many Arguments and Experiments (1600), trans. P. Fleury Mottelay (1893), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Belong (168)  |  Broken (56)  |  Chance (244)  |  Corner (59)  |  Definite (114)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Female (50)  |  Flat (34)  |  Force (497)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Pole (49)  |  Polish (17)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Primary (82)  |  Square (73)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Subject (543)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Two (936)  |  Understood (155)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whole (756)

In man, then, let us take the amount that is extruded by the individual beats, and that cannot return into the heart because of the barrier set in its way by the valves, as half an ounce, or three drachms, or at least one drachm. In half an hour the heart makes over a thousand beats; indeed, in some individuals, and on occasion, two, three, or four thousand. If you multiply the drachms per beat by the number of beats you will see that in half an hour either a thousand times three drachms or times two drachms, or five hundred ounces, or other such proportionate quantity of blood has been passed through the heart into the arteries, that is, in all cases blood in greater amount than can be found in the whole of the body. Similarly in the sheep or the dog. Let us take it that one scruple passes in a single contraction of the heart; then in half an hour a thousand scruples, or three and a half pounds of blood, do so. In a body of this size, as I have found in the sheep, there is often not more than four pounds of blood.
In the above sort of way, by calculating the amount of blood transmitted [at each heart beat] and by making a count of the beats, let us convince ourselves that the whole amount of the blood mass goes through the heart from the veins to the arteries and similarly makes the pulmonary transit.
Even if this may take more than half an hour or an hour or a day for its accomplishment, it does nevertheless show that the beat of the heart is continuously driving through that organ more blood than the ingested food can supply, or all the veins together at any time contain.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth J. Franklin (1957), Chapter 9, 62-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Amount (153)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Beat (42)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Contraction (18)  |  Convince (43)  |  Count (107)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Driving (28)  |  Food (213)  |  Greater (288)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pulmonary (3)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Return (133)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (365)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Vein (27)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

In my opinion, there is absolutely no trustworthy proof that talents have been improved by their exercise through the course of a long series of generations. The Bach family shows that musical talent, and the Bernoulli family that mathematical power, can be transmitted from generation to generation, but this teaches us nothing as to the origin of such talents. In both families the high-watermark of talent lies, not at the end of the series of generations, as it should do if the results of practice are transmitted, but in the middle. Again, talents frequently appear in some member of a family which has not been previously distinguished.
In 'On Heredity', Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1889), Vol. 1, 95-96.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Bach (7)  |  Bach_Johann (2)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Both (496)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Family (101)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Generation (256)  |  High (370)  |  Improve (64)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Member (42)  |  Middle (19)  |  Musical (10)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Previous (17)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  Series (153)  |  Talent (99)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Trustworthy (14)

In physics we have dealt hitherto only with periodic crystals. To a humble physicist’s mind, these are very interesting and complicated objects; they constitute one of the most fascinating and complex material structures by which inanimate nature puzzles his wits. Yet, compared with the aperiodic crystal, they are rather plain and dull. The difference in structure is of the same kind as that between an ordinary wallpaper in which the same pattern is repeated again and again in regular periodicity and a masterpiece of embroidery, say a Raphael tapestry, which shows no dull repetition, but an elaborate, coherent, meaningful design traced by the great master.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Coherent (14)  |  Compare (76)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Deal (192)  |  Design (203)  |  Difference (355)  |  Dull (58)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Embroidery (2)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Humble (54)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Kind (564)  |  Master (182)  |  Masterpiece (9)  |  Material (366)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Periodic (3)  |  Periodicity (6)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plain (34)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Raphael (2)  |  Regular (48)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tapestry (5)  |  Trace (109)  |  Wallpaper (2)  |  Wit (61)

In that same year [1932], the number of [known] particles was suddenly doubled. In two beautiful experiments, Chadwick showed that the neutron existed, and Anderson photographed the first unmistakable positron track.
In Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1968), 'Recent Developments in Particle Physics', collected in Nobel Lectures: Physics 1963-1970 (1972), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Sir James Chadwick (9)  |  Definitive (3)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Known (453)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Number (710)  |  Particle (200)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Positron (4)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Track (42)  |  Two (936)  |  Unmistakable (6)  |  Year (963)

In the discussion of the. energies involved in the deformation of nuclei, the concept of surface tension of nuclear matter has been used and its value had been estimated from simple considerations regarding nuclear forces. It must be remembered, however, that the surface tension of a charged droplet is diminished by its charge, and a rough estimate shows that the surface tension of nuclei, decreasing with increasing nuclear charge, may become zero for atomic numbers of the order of 100. It seems therefore possible that the uranium nucleus has only small stability of form, and may, after neutron capture, divide itself into two nuclei of roughly equal size (the precise ratio of sizes depending on liner structural features and perhaps partly on chance). These two nuclei will repel each other and should gain a total kinetic energy of c. 200 Mev., as calculated from nuclear radius and charge. This amount of energy may actually be expected to be available from the difference in packing fraction between uranium and the elements in the middle of the periodic system. The whole 'fission' process can thus be described in an essentially classical way, without having to consider quantum-mechanical 'tunnel effects', which would actually be extremely small, on account of the large masses involved.
[Co-author with Otto Robert Frisch]
Lise Meitner and O. R. Frisch, 'Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction', Nature (1939), 143, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Atomic Number (3)  |  Author (175)  |  Available (80)  |  Become (821)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charge (63)  |  Classical (49)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Deformation (3)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Divide (77)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Energy (373)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fission (10)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gain (146)  |  Involved (90)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Energy (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precise (71)  |  Process (439)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Radius (5)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Remember (189)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Stability (28)  |  Structural (29)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Tension (2)  |  System (545)  |  Tension (24)  |  Total (95)  |  Tunnel (13)  |  Two (936)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zero (38)

In the early days of dealing with climate change, I wouldn’t go out on a limb one way or another, because I don’t have the qualifications there. But I do have the qualifications to measure the scientific community and see what the consensus is about climate change. I remember the moment when I suddenly thought it was incontrovertible. There was a lecture given by a distinguished American expert in atmospheric science and he showed a series of graphs about the temperature changes in the upper atmosphere. He plotted time against population growth and industrialisation. It was incontrovertible, and once you think it’s really totally incontrovertible, then you have a responsibility to say so.
From interview with Brian Cox and Robert Ince, in 'A Life Measured in Heartbeats', New Statesman (21 Dec 2012), 141, No. 5138, 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Community (111)  |  Consensus (8)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Early (196)  |  Expert (67)  |  Graph (8)  |  Growth (200)  |  Incontrovertible (8)  |  Industrialisation (4)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Measure (241)  |  Moment (260)  |  Population (115)  |  Population Growth (9)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Remember (189)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)

In the field of thinking, the whole history of science from geocentrism to the Copernican revolution, from the false absolutes of Aristotle’s physics to the relativity of Galileo’s principle of inertia and to Einstein’s theory of relativity, shows that it has taken centuries to liberate us from the systematic errors, from the illusions caused by the immediate point of view as opposed to “decentered” systematic thinking.
As quoted in D. E. Berlyne, Structure and Direction in Thinking (1965), 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Century (319)  |  Decentered (2)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Error (339)  |  False (105)  |  Field (378)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Principle (530)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Thinking (425)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

In the information age, you don’t teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he’d have a talk show.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Alive (97)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Information (173)  |  Perform (123)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Talk (108)  |  Teach (299)  |  Today (321)

In the philosophic sense, observation shows and experiment teaches.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Observation (593)  |  Sense (785)

In the secondary schools mathematics should be a part of general culture and not contributory to technical training of any kind; it should cultivate space intuition, logical thinking, the power to rephrase in clear language thoughts recognized as correct, and ethical and esthetic effects; so treated, mathematics is a quite indispensable factor of general education in so far as the latter shows its traces in the comprehension of the development of civilization and the ability to participate in the further tasks of civilization.
The purposes of instruction in mathematics in secondary schools formulated by the German Society for the Advancement of Instruction. From Unterrichtsblätter fur Mathematik und Naturwissenschaft (1904), 128. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 72-73.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Correct (95)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Culture (157)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Factor (47)  |  General (521)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Kind (564)  |  Language (308)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Part (235)  |  Participate (10)  |  Power (771)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rephrase (2)  |  School (227)  |  Secondary School (4)  |  Space (523)  |  Task (152)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Technical (53)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trace (109)  |  Training (92)  |  Treat (38)

In the year 1692, James Bernoulli, discussing the logarithmic spiral [or equiangular spiral, ρ = αθ] … shows that it reproduces itself in its evolute, its involute, and its caustics of both reflection and refraction, and then adds: “But since this marvellous spiral, by such a singular and wonderful peculiarity, pleases me so much that I can scarce be satisfied with thinking about it, I have thought that it might not be inelegantly used for a symbolic representation of various matters. For since it always produces a spiral similar to itself, indeed precisely the same spiral, however it may be involved or evolved, or reflected or refracted, it may be taken as an emblem of a progeny always in all things like the parent, simillima filia matri. Or, if it is not forbidden to compare a theorem of eternal truth to the mysteries of our faith, it may be taken as an emblem of the eternal generation of the Son, who as an image of the Father, emanating from him, as light from light, remains ὁμοούσιος with him, howsoever overshadowed. Or, if you prefer, since our spira mirabilis remains, amid all changes, most persistently itself, and exactly the same as ever, it may be used as a symbol, either of fortitude and constancy in adversity, or, of the human body, which after all its changes, even after death, will be restored to its exact and perfect self, so that, indeed, if the fashion of Archimedes were allowed in these days, I should gladly have my tombstone bear this spiral, with the motto, ‘Though changed, I arise again exactly the same, Eadem numero mutata resurgo.’”
In 'The Uses of Mathesis', Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. 32, 516-516. [The Latin phrase “simillima filia matri” roughly translates as “the daughter resembles the mother”. “Spira mirabilis” is Latin for “marvellous spiral”. The Greek word (?µ???s???) translates as “consubstantial”, meaning of the same substance or essence (used especially of the three persons of the Trinity in Christian theology). —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Adversity (6)  |  Allow (51)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Arise (162)  |  Bear (162)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Caustic (2)  |  Change (639)  |  Compare (76)  |  Constancy (12)  |  Death (406)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Emanate (3)  |  Emblem (4)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evolute (2)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (113)  |  Forbid (14)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Fortitude (2)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gladly (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Image (97)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  James (3)  |  Light (635)  |  Logarithmic (5)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motto (29)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Overshadow (2)  |  Parent (80)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Please (68)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Produce (117)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Remain (355)  |  Representation (55)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Restore (12)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Scarce (11)  |  Self (268)  |  Similar (36)  |  Singular (24)  |  Son (25)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tombstone (2)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Year (963)

In this communication I wish first to show in the simplest case of the hydrogen atom (nonrelativistic and undistorted) that the usual rates for quantization can be replaced by another requirement, in which mention of “whole numbers” no longer occurs. Instead the integers occur in the same natural way as the integers specifying the number of nodes in a vibrating string. The new conception can be generalized, and I believe it touches the deepest meaning of the quantum rules.
'Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem', Annalen der Physik (1926), 79, 361. Trans. Walter Moore, Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1989), 200-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Case (102)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conception (160)  |  First (1302)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Integer (12)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mention (84)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Rule (307)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  String (22)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wish (216)

It appears, nevertheless, that all such simple solutions of the problem of vertebrate ancestry are without warrant. They arise from a very common tendency of the mind, against which the naturalist has to guard himself,—a tendency which finds expression in the very widespread notion that the existing anthropoid apes, and more especially the gorilla, must be looked upon as the ancestors of mankind, if once the doctrine of the descent of man from ape-like forefathers is admitted. A little reflexion suffices to show that any given living form, such as the gorilla, cannot possibly be the ancestral form from which man was derived, since ex-hypothesi that ancestral form underwent modification and development, and in so doing, ceased to exist.
'Vertebrata', entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition (1899), Vol. 24, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Ancestry (13)  |  Anthropoid (9)  |  Ape (54)  |  Arise (162)  |  Common (447)  |  Descent (30)  |  Descent Of Man (6)  |  Development (441)  |  Doing (277)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expression (181)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Himself (461)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modification (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Notion (120)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Problem (731)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Warrant (8)  |  Widespread (23)

It follows from the theory of relativity that mass and energy are both different manifestations of the same thing—a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average man. Furthermore E=MC2, in which energy is put equal to mass multiplied with the square of the velocity of light, showed that a very small amount of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy... the mass and energy were in fact equivalent.
As expressed in the Einstein film, produced by Nova Television (1979). Quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Average (89)  |  Both (496)  |  Conception (160)  |  Different (595)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mass (160)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Small (489)  |  Square (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Velocity (51)

It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition—and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that—“Bugs” as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success—or failure—is certainly reached.
Describing his invention of a storage battery that involved 10,296 experiments. Note Edison’s use of the term “Bug” in the engineering research field for a mechanical defect greatly predates the use of the term as applied by Admiral Grace Murray Hopper to a computing defect upon finding a moth in the electronic mainframe.] Letter to Theodore Puskas (18 Nov 1878). In The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Applied (176)  |  Arise (162)  |  Battery (12)  |  Bug (10)  |  Burst (41)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Defect (31)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fault (58)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Grace (31)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Invention (400)  |  Involved (90)  |  Labor (200)  |  Little (717)  |  Mainframe (3)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Month (91)  |  Reach (286)  |  Research (753)  |  Small (489)  |  Step (234)  |  Storage (6)  |  Study (701)  |  Success (327)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)  |  Watch (118)

It has been said that science is opposed to, and in conflict with revelation. But the history of the former shown that the greater its progress, and the more accurate its investigations and results, the more plainly it is seen not only not to clash with the Latter, but in all things to confirm it. The very sciences from which objections have been brought against religion have, by their own progress, removed those objections, and in the end furnished fall confirmation of the inspired Word of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Against (332)  |  Bring (95)  |  Clash (10)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Confirmation (25)  |  Conflict (77)  |  End (603)  |  Fall (243)  |  Former (138)  |  Furnish (97)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  History (716)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Latter (21)  |  More (2558)  |  Objection (34)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Plainly (5)  |  Progress (492)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remove (50)  |  Result (700)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

It is a very strange thing to reflect that but for the invention of Professor Haber the Germans could not have continued the War after their original stack of nitrates was exhausted. The invention of this single man has enabled them, utilising the interval in which their accumulations were used up, not only to maintain an almost unlimited supply of explosives for all purposes, but to provide amply for the needs of agriculture in chemical manures. It is a remarkable fact, and shows on what obscure and accidental incidents the fortunes of possible the whole world may turn in these days of scientific discovery.
[During World War I, Fritz Haber and Karl Bosch invented a large scale process to cause the direct combination of hydrogen and nitrogen gases to chemically synthesize ammonia, thus providing a replacement for sodium nitrate in the manufacture of explosives and fertilizers.]
Parliamentary debate (25 Apr 1918). In Winston Churchill, Richard Langworth (ed.), Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2008), 469. by Winston Churchill, Richard Langworth
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (150)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fertilizer (13)  |  Fortune (50)  |  German (37)  |  Fritz Haber (4)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Invention (400)  |  Large (398)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)  |  Professor (133)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Replacement (13)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Single (365)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Strange (160)  |  Supply (100)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  War (233)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

It is not I who seek to base Man's dignity upon his great toe, or insinuate that we are lost if an Ape has a hippocampus minor. On the contrary, I have done my best to sweep away this vanity. I have endeavoured to show that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves; and I may add the expression of my belief that the attempt to draw a physical distinction is equally futile, and that even the highest facuities of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life. At the same time, no one is more strongly convinced than I am of the vastness of the gulf between civilized man and the brutes; or is more certain that whether from them or not, he is assuredly not of them.
'On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals' (1863). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 7. 152-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Base (120)  |  Begin (275)  |  Belief (615)  |  Best (467)  |  Brute (30)  |  Certain (557)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Draw (140)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Equally (129)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (976)  |  Futile (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Hippocampus (2)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physical (518)  |  Scale (122)  |  Seek (218)  |  Structural (29)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vastness (15)  |  World (1850)

It is one of the laws of life that each acquisition has its cost. No organism can exercise power without yielding up part of its substance. The physiological law of Transfer of Energy is the basis of human success and happiness. There is no action without expenditure of energy and if energy be not expended the power to generate it is lost. This law shows itself in a thousand ways in the life of man. The arm which is not used becomes palsied. The wealth which comes by chance weakens and destroys. The good which is unused turns to evil. The charity which asks no effort cannot relieve the misery she creates.
In The Strength of Being Clean: A Study of the Quest for Unearned Happiness (1900), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Action (342)  |  Arm (82)  |  Ask (420)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charity (13)  |  Cost (94)  |  Create (245)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Effort (243)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Expend (3)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Generate (16)  |  Good (906)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Human (1512)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lost (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Misery (31)  |  Organism (231)  |  Palsy (3)  |  Part (235)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Power (771)  |  Relieve (6)  |  Substance (253)  |  Success (327)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Turn (454)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weaken (5)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Yield (86)

It is only when science asks why, instead of simply describing how, that it becomes more than technology. When it asks why, it discovers Relativity. When it only shows how, it invents the atom bomb, and then puts its hands over its eye and says, 'My God what have I done?
The Stalin in Soul (1973). Quoted in Gary Westfahl, Science Fiction Quotations (2005), 322.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Become (821)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Eye (440)  |  God (776)  |  More (2558)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Say (989)  |  Technology (281)  |  Why (491)

It is tautological to say that an organism is adapted to its environment. It is even tautological to say that an organism is physiologically adapted to its environment. However, just as in the case of many morphological characters, it is unwarranted to conclude that all aspects of the physiology of an organism have evolved in reference to a specific milieu. It is equally gratuitous to assume that an organism will inevitably show physiological specializations in its adaptation to a particular set of conditions. All that can be concluded is that the functional capacities of an organism are sufficient to have allowed persistence within its environment. On one hand, the history of an evolutionary line may place serious constraints upon the types of further physiological changes that are readily feasible. Some changes might require excessive restructuring of the genome or might involve maladaptive changes in related functions. On the other hand, a taxon which is successful in occupying a variety of environments may be less impressive in individual physiological capacities than one with a far more limited distribution.
In W.R. Dawson, G.A. Bartholomew, and A.F. Bennett, 'A Reappraisal of the Aquatic Specializations of the Galapagos Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)', Evolution (1977), 31, 891.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Allow (51)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Assume (43)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Case (102)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constraint (13)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Environment (239)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Far (158)  |  Feasible (3)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  Genome (15)  |  Gratuitous (2)  |  Hand (149)  |  History (716)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Involve (93)  |  Less (105)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Line (100)  |  Milieu (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphological (3)  |  Occupy (27)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Place (192)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relate (26)  |  Require (229)  |  Restructuring (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Serious (98)  |  Set (400)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Specific (98)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Tautological (2)  |  Type (171)  |  Unwarranted (2)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)

It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Celestial Mechanics (4)  |  Century (319)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Church (64)  |  Completely (137)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Countless (39)  |  Deep (241)  |  Derive (70)  |  Develop (278)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Disentangle (4)  |  Easily (36)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Enable (122)  |  End (603)  |  Failure (176)  |  False (105)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fight (49)  |  Give (208)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Issue (46)  |  Kepler (4)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Labor (200)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Materialistic (2)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motive (62)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Notion (120)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ours (4)  |  People (1031)  |  Persecute (6)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reality (274)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Serious (98)  |  Similar (36)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spite (55)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Surround (33)  |  Theoretical Science (4)  |  Through (846)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unjustly (2)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wide (97)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Yearning (13)

It is true that mathematics, owing to the fact that its whole content is built up by means of purely logical deduction from a small number of universally comprehended principles, has not unfittingly been designated as the science of the self-evident [Selbstverständlichen]. Experience however, shows that for the majority of the cultured, even of scientists, mathematics remains the science of the incomprehensible [Unverständlichen].
In Ueber Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Maihemaliker Vereinigung (1904), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Content (75)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Designation (13)  |  Evident (92)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Logic (311)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Number (710)  |  Owing (39)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purely (111)  |  Remain (355)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Small (489)  |  Universal (198)  |  Whole (756)

It seems to me that it had no other rationale than to show that we are not simply the country of entertainers, but also that of engineers and builders called from across the world to build bridges, viaducts, stations and major monuments of modern industry, the Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with more consideration.
English version by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “Il me semble que, n’eût elle pas d’autre raison d’être que de montrer que nous ne sommes pas simplement le pays des amuseurs, mais aussi celui des ingénieurs et des constructeurs qu’on appelle de toutes les régions du monde pour édifier les ponts, les viaducs, les gares et les grands monuments de l’industrie moderne, la Tour Eiffel mériterait d’être traitée avec plus de consideration.” From interview of Eiffel by Paul Bourde, in the newspaper Le Temps (14 Feb 1887). Reprinted in 'Au Jour le Jour: Les Artistes Contre la Tour Eiffel', Gazette Anecdotique, Littéraire, Artistique et Bibliographique (Feb 1887), 126-127, and in Gustave Eiffel, Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 16. Also quoted in review of the Gustave Eiffel’s book La Tour Eiffel (1902), in Nature (30 Jan 1902), 65, 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineer (136)  |  France (29)  |  Industry (159)  |  Major (88)  |  Modern (402)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Station (30)  |  Tower (45)  |  World (1850)

It showed a kind of obscenity you see only in nature, an obscenity so extreme that it dissolves imperceptibly into beauty.
The Hot Zone
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Imperceptibly (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscenity (4)  |  See (1094)

It would be an easy task to show that the characteristics in the organization of man, on account of which the human species and races are grouped as a distinct family, are all results of former changes of occupation, and of acquired habits, which have come to be distinctive of individuals of his kind. When, compelled by circumstances, the most highly developed apes accustomed themselves to walking erect, they gained the ascendant over the other animals. The absolute advantage they enjoyed, and the new requirements imposed on them, made them change their mode of life, which resulted in the gradual modification of their organization, and in their acquiring many new qualities, and among them the wonderful power of speech.
Quoted in Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel The Evolution of Man (1897), Vol. 1, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Account (195)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Change (639)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Develop (278)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Family (101)  |  Former (138)  |  Gain (146)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Result (700)  |  Species (435)  |  Speech (66)  |  Task (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Wonderful (155)

It’s that moment, that brief epiphany when the universe opens up and shows us something, and in that instant we get just a sense of an order greater than Heaven and, as yet at least, beyond the grasp of Stephen Hawking.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 109
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Brief (37)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Stephen W. Hawking (62)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Instant (46)  |  Least (75)  |  Moment (260)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Universe (900)

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
... Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape.
'An Essay on Man' (1733-4), Epistle II. In John Butt (ed.), The Poems of Alexander Pope (1965), 516-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Act (278)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Alike (60)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Being (1276)  |  Birth (154)  |  Body (557)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Creation (350)  |  Death (406)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Endless (60)  |  Error (339)  |  Fall (243)  |  Glory (66)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hang (46)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hurling (2)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Isthmus (2)  |  Jest (5)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Late (119)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Passion (121)  |  Preference (28)  |  Prey (13)  |  Pride (84)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Rise (169)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sceptic (5)  |  Shape (77)  |  Side (236)  |  Sole (50)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Stoic (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Superior (88)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)

Let us make an arbitrary decision (by a show of hands if necessary) to define the base of every stratigraphical unit in a selected section. This may be called the Principle of the Golden Spike. Then stratigraphical nomenclature can be forgotten and we can get on with the real work of stratigraphy, which is correlation and interpretation.
In The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record (1973), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Base (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Decision (98)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Geology (240)  |  Golden (47)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Principle (530)  |  Select (45)  |  Stratigraphy (7)  |  Work (1402)

Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Life (1870)

M. Waldman … concluded with a panegyric upon modern chemistry…:— “The ancient teachers of this science” said he, “Promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.”
In Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (1823), Vol. 1, 73-74. Webmaster note: In the novel, when the fictional characters meet, M. Waldman, professor of chemistry, sparks Victor Frankenstein’s interest in science. Shelley was age 20 when the first edition of the novel was published anonymously (1818).
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Blood (144)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chimera (10)  |  Command (60)  |  Crucible (8)  |  Dabble (2)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Elixir (6)  |  Elixir Of Life (2)  |  Eye (440)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Master (182)  |  Metal (88)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mimic (2)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Mock (7)  |  Modern (402)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Perform (123)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Promise (72)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thunder (21)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Mathematics accomplishes really nothing outside of the realm of magnitude; marvellous, however, is the skill with which it masters magnitude wherever it finds it. We recall at once the network of lines which it has spun about heavens and earth; the system of lines to which azimuth and altitude, declination and right ascension, longitude and latitude are referred; those abscissas and ordinates, tangents and normals, circles of curvature and evolutes; those trigonometric and logarithmic functions which have been prepared in advance and await application. A look at this apparatus is sufficient to show that mathematicians are not magicians, but that everything is accomplished by natural means; one is rather impressed by the multitude of skilful machines, numerous witnesses of a manifold and intensely active industry, admirably fitted for the acquisition of true and lasting treasures.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 101. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Active (80)  |  Admirably (3)  |  Advance (298)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Ascension (4)  |  Await (6)  |  Circle (117)  |  Curvature (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolute (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Industry (159)  |  Intense (22)  |  Latitude (6)  |  Line (100)  |  Logarithmic (5)  |  Longitude (8)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magician (15)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Network (21)  |  Normal (29)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Outside (141)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Really (77)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recall (11)  |  Refer (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Skill (116)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Spin (26)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Tangent (6)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  True (239)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Witness (57)

Mathematics and music, the most sharply contrasted fields of scientific activity which can be found, and yet related, supporting each other, as if to show forth the secret connection which ties together all the activities of our mind, and which leads us to surmise that the manifestations of the artist’s genius are but the unconscious expressions of a mysteriously acting rationality.
In Vorträge und Reden (1884, 1896), Vol 1, 122. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 191. From the original German, “Mathematik und Musik, der schärfste Gegensatz geistiger Thätigkeit, den man auffinden kann, und doch verbunden, sich unterstützend, als wollten sie die geheime Consequenz nachweisen, die sich durch alle Thätigkeiten unseres Geistes hinzieht, und die auch in den Offenbarungen des künstlerischen Genius uns unbewusste Aeusserungen geheimnissvoll wirkender Vernunftmässigkeit ahnen lässt.”
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Activity (218)  |  Artist (97)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Expression (181)  |  Field (378)  |  Genius (301)  |  Lead (391)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Relate (26)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Support (151)  |  Surmise (7)  |  Tie (42)  |  Together (392)  |  Unconscious (24)

Mathematics is a science of Observation, dealing with reals, precisely as all other sciences deal with reals. It would be easy to show that its Method is the same: that, like other sciences, having observed or discovered properties, which it classifies, generalises, co-ordinates and subordinates, it proceeds to extend discoveries by means of Hypothesis, Induction, Experiment and Deduction.
In Problems of Life and Mind: The Method of Science and its Application (1874), 423-424. [The reals are the relations of magnitude.]
Science quotes on:  |  Classify (8)  |  Coordinate (5)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Discover (571)  |  Easy (213)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extend (129)  |  Generalize (19)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Induction (81)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Property (177)  |  Real (159)  |  Subordinate (11)

Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don’t look alike are really the same. That is one of their innermost Freudian motivations. In fact, that is what we mean by understanding.
In 'A Mathematician's Gossip', Indiscrete Thoughts (2008), 214.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Innermost (3)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Really (77)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.
Essay, 'The Study of Mathematics' (1902), collected in Philosophical Essays (1910), 73-74. Also collected in Mysticism and Logic: And Other Essays (1918), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Austere (7)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cold (115)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Mathematical Beauty (19)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Music (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Painting (46)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Pure (299)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)

Medicine is an incoherent assemblage of incoherent ideas, and is, perhaps, of all the physiological Sciences, that which best shows the caprice of the human mind. What did I say! It is not a Science for a methodical mind. It is a shapeless assemblage of inaccurate ideas, of observations often puerile, of deceptive remedies, and of formulae as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged.
Bichat's General Anatomy, vol. 1, 17. Quoted in Alva Curtis, A Fair Examination and Criticism of All the Medical Systems in Vogue (1855), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Best (467)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incoherent (7)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Methodical (8)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Say (989)

Medicine is the one place where all the show is stripped of the human drama. You, as doctors, will be in a position to see the human race stark naked—not only physically, but mentally and morally as well.
Martin H. Fischer, Howard Fabing (ed.) and Ray Marr (ed.), Fischerisms (1944).
Science quotes on:  |  Doctor (191)  |  Drama (24)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Naked (10)  |  Race (278)  |  See (1094)  |  Will (2350)

Medicine rests upon four pillars—philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, and ethics. The first pillar is the philosophical knowledge of earth and water; the second, astronomy, supplies its full understanding of that which is of fiery and airy nature; the third is an adequate explanation of the properties of all the four elements—that is to say, of the whole cosmos—and an introduction into the art of their transformations; and finally, the fourth shows the physician those virtues which must stay with him up until his death, and it should support and complete the three other pillars.
Vas Buch Paragranum (c.1529-30), in J. Jacobi (ed.), Paracelsus: Selected Writings (1951), 133-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Air (366)  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Art (680)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Death (406)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Four (6)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physician (284)  |  Pillar (10)  |  Property (177)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Stay (26)  |  Supply (100)  |  Support (151)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

Men do not have to cook their food; they do so for symbolic reasons to show they are men and not beasts.
Interpreting ideas of Claude Levi-Strauss. In Claude Levi-Strauss (1989), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Cook (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Food (213)  |  Reason (766)  |  Symbolic (16)

Modern science gives lectures on botany, to show there is no such thing as a flower; on humanity, to show there is no such thing as a man; and on theology, to show there is no such thing as a God. No such thing as a man, but only a mechanism, No such thing as a God, but only a series of forces.
Letter V (1 May 1871) collected in Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain (1894), Vol. 1, 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Flower (112)  |  Force (497)  |  God (776)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Series (153)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thing (1914)

Most variables can show either an upward or downward trend, depending on the base year chosen.
'Penetrating the Rhetoric', The Vision of the Anointed (1996), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Most (1728)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Trend (23)  |  Upward (44)  |  Variable (37)  |  Year (963)

Mr. Bertrand Russell tells us that it can be shown that a mathematical web of some kind can be woven about any universe containing several objects. If this be so, then the fact that our universe lends itself to mathematical treatment is not a fact of any great philosophical significance.
In The Limitations of Science (1933), 229. [Notice that there are no quotation marks in the narrative statement by Sullivan. Therefore, Webmaster believes they are not necessarily, and likely not, the verbatim words from Russell. The first sentence is more likely to be Sullivan expressing in his own words an idea from Russell, and most likely the second sentence is Sullivan’s comment on that idea. (Be cautioned that quotation marks, perhaps spurious, have appeared when re-stated in later publications by other authors.) Webmaster has so far been unable to identify a primary source for these words in a text by Russell. If you know the primary source, please contact Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Contain (68)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Object (438)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Bertrand Russell (198)  |  Several (33)  |  Significance (114)  |  Tell (344)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weave (21)  |  Web (17)

My father, and the father of my father, pitched their tents here before me. … For twelve hundred years have the true believers—and, praise be to God! all true wisdom is with them alone—been settled in this country, and not one of them ever heard of a palace underground. Neither did they who went before them. But lo! here comes a Frank from many days’ journey off, and he walks up to the very place, and he takes a stick … and makes a line here, and makes a line there. Here, says he, is the palace; there, says he, is the gate; and he shows us what has been all our lives beneath our feet, without our having known anything about it. Wonderful! Wonderful! Is it by books, is it by magic, is it by your prophets, that you have learnt wisdom?
(c. 1850) To Austin Layard, the English archaeologist who discovered and excavated Nineveh and Nimrud, 1845-1861.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Believer (26)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Book (413)  |  Country (269)  |  Father (113)  |  Gate (33)  |  God (776)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Journey (48)  |  Known (453)  |  Live (650)  |  Magic (92)  |  Palace (8)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Say (989)  |  Settled (34)  |  Tent (13)  |  Underground (12)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Year (963)

My task was to show the psychologists that it is possible to apply physiological knowledge to the phenomena of psychical life.
'Reflexes of the Brain', Selected Works (1935), 335-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychologist (26)  |  Task (152)

Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows tracings of her workings apart from the beaten paths; nor is there any better way to advance the proper practice of medicine than to give our minds to the discovery of the usual law of nature, by careful investigation of cases of rarer forms of disease.
Letter IX, to John Vlackveld (24 Apr 1657), in The Circulation of the Blood (2006), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Advance (298)  |  Better (493)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Display (59)  |  Form (976)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Path (159)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Secret (216)  |  Way (1214)

Nature may be as selfishly studied as trade. Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology; psychology, mesmerism (with intent to show where our spoons are gone); and anatomy and physiology become phrenology and palmistry.
Essay, 'Nature', in Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson (ed.) and Jean Ferguson Carr (ed.), The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume III, Essays: Second Series (1984), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Become (821)  |  Mesmerism (2)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Phrenology (5)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Spoon (5)  |  Study (701)

Nature only shows us the tail of the lion. I am convinced, however, that the lion is attached to it, even though he cannot reveal himself directly because of his enormous size.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 41
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lion (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Size (62)  |  Tail (21)

Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lion (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Size (62)  |  Tail (21)

Nevertheless, his [Dostoyevsky’s] personality retained sadistic traits in plenty, which show themselves in his irritability, his love of tormenting, and his intolerance even towards people he loved, and which appear also in the way in which, as an author, he treats his readers. Thus in little things he was a sadist towards others, and in bigger things a sadist towards himself, in fact a masochist—that is to say the mildest, kindliest, most helpful person possible.
In James Strachey (ed.), 'Dostoyevsky and Parricide', The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953-74), Vol. 21, 178-179. Reprinted in Writings on Art and Literature (1997), 236
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intolerance (8)  |  Irritability (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Mild (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Reader (42)  |  Retain (57)  |  Sadist (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Torment (18)  |  Trait (23)  |  Treat (38)  |  Way (1214)

Not only in antiquity but in our own times also laws have been passed...to secure good conditions for workers; so it is right that the art of medicine should contribute its portion for the benefit and relief of those for whom the law has shown such foresight...[We] ought to show peculiar zeal...in taking precautions for their safety. I for one have done all that lay in my power, and have not thought it beneath me to step into workshops of the meaner sort now and again and study the obscure operations of mechanical arts.
De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (1713). Translation by W.C.Wright, in A.L.Birmingham Classics of Medicine Library (1983). Quoted in Edward J. Huth, T. J. Murray (eds.), Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Art (680)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Condition (362)  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Law (913)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Pass (241)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Portion (86)  |  Power (771)  |  Relief (30)  |  Right (473)  |  Safety (58)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Workshop (14)

Not since the Lord himself showed his stuff to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones had anyone shown such grace and skill in the reconstruction of animals from disarticulated skeletons. Charles R. Knight, the most celebrated of artists in the reanimation of fossils, painted all the canonical figures of dinosaurs that fire our fear and imagination to this day.
In Wonderful Life: the Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (1990), 23. First sentence of chapter one.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Artist (97)  |  Bone (101)  |  Celebration (7)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Dry (65)  |  Ezekiel (2)  |  Fear (212)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Grace (31)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Charles R. Knight (2)  |  Lord (97)  |  Most (1728)  |  Painting (46)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Skill (116)  |  Valley (37)

Nothing is rich but the inexhaustible wealth of nature. She shows us only surfaces, but she is a million fathoms deep.
In 'Resources', Letters and Social Aims (1875, 1894), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Deep (241)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Surface (223)  |  Wealth (100)

Now, we propose in the first place to show, that this law of organic progress is the law of all progress. Whether it be in the development of the Earth, in the development in Life upon its surface, in the development of Society, of Government, of Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language, Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the simple into the complex, through a process of continuous differentiation, holds throughout. From the earliest traceable cosmical changes down to the latest results of civilization, we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous is that in which Progress essentially consists.
'Progress: Its Law and Cause', Westminster Review (1857), 67, 446-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Change (639)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Consist (223)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Development (441)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Government (116)  |  Heterogeneity (4)  |  Homogeneity (9)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literature (116)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Organic (161)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Society (350)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Trace (109)  |  Traceable (5)  |  Transformation (72)

Of power does Man possess no particle:
Of knowledge—just so much as show that still
It ends in ignorance on every side…
'With Francis Furini', The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning (1895), 967.
Science quotes on:  |  End (603)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Particle (200)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Side (236)  |  Still (614)

Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Scarlet Begonias
Science quotes on:  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Place (192)  |  Right (473)  |  Strange (160)

One [idea] was that the Universe started its life a finite time ago in a single huge explosion, and that the present expansion is a relic of the violence of this explosion. This big bang idea seemed to me to be unsatisfactory even before detailed examination showed that it leads to serious difficulties.
In radio talk on the BBC Third Programme, as subsequently printed in the BBC’s The Listener magazine (9 Mar 1950), Vol.43, 420. This was his further use of the term “big bang” that he first expressed in a radio talk on 28 Mar 1949.
Science quotes on:  |  Bang (29)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Creation (350)  |  Detail (150)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Examination (102)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Finite (60)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Present (630)  |  Relic (8)  |  Serious (98)  |  Single (365)  |  Start (237)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unsatisfactory (4)  |  Violence (37)

One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
'The Genetic Code: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow', Cold Spring Harbour Symposium on Quantitative Biology, 1966, 31, 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Acid (83)  |  Biology (232)  |  Code (31)  |  DNA (81)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Language (308)  |  Looking (191)  |  Molecular Biology (27)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Paper (192)  |  Polymer (4)  |  Protein (56)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Together (392)

One might describe the mathematical quality in Nature by saying that the universe is so constituted that mathematics is a useful tool in its description. However, recent advances in physical science show that this statement of the case is too trivial. The connection between mathematics and the description of the universe goes far deeper than this, and one can get an appreciation of it only from a thorough examination of the various facts that make it up.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Connection (171)  |  Constituted (5)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Examination (102)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Quality (139)  |  Recent (78)  |  Statement (148)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Tool (129)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useful (260)  |  Various (205)

One never finds fossil bones bearing no resemblance to human bones. Egyptian mummies, which are at least three thousand years old, show that men were the same then. The same applies to other mummified animals such as cats, dogs, crocodiles, falcons, vultures, oxen, ibises, etc. Species, therefore, do not change by degrees, but emerged after the new world was formed. Nor do we find intermediate species between those of the earlier world and those of today's. For example, there is no intermediate bear between our bear and the very different cave bear. To our knowledge, no spontaneous generation occurs in the present-day world. All organized beings owe their life to their fathers. Thus all records corroborate the globe's modernity. Negative proof: the barbaritY of the human species four thousand years ago. Positive proof: the great revolutions and the floods preserved in the traditions of all peoples.
'Note prese al Corso di Cuvier. Corso di Geologia all'Ateneo nel 1805', quoted in Pietro Corsi, The Age of Lamarck, trans. J. Mandelbaum (1988), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bone (101)  |  Cat (52)  |  Change (639)  |  Crocodile (14)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Falcon (2)  |  Father (113)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flood (52)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Generation (256)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Species (11)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Men (20)  |  Mummy (7)  |  Negative (66)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Ox (5)  |  Oxen (8)  |  People (1031)  |  Positive (98)  |  Present (630)  |  Present Day (5)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Proof (304)  |  Record (161)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Same (166)  |  Species (435)  |  Spontaneity (7)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Spontaneous Generation (9)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Vulture (5)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

One of the most curious and interesting reptiles which I met with in Borneo was a large tree-frog, which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured me that he had seen it come down in a slanting direction from a high tree, as if it flew. On examining it, I found the toes very long and fully webbed to their very extremity, so that when expanded they offered a surface much larger than the body. The forelegs were also bordered by a membrane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation. The back and limbs were of a very deep shining green colour, the undersurface and the inner toes yellow, while the webs were black, rayed with yellow. The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully expanded, covered a surface of four square inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve square inches. As the extremities of the toes have dilated discs for adhesion, showing the creature to be a true tree frog, it is difficult to imagine that this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and the account of the Chinaman, that it flew down from the tree, becomes more credible. This is, I believe, the first instance known of a “flying frog,” and it is very interesting to Darwinians as showing that the variability of the toes which have been already modified for purposes of swimming and adhesive climbing, have been taken advantage of to enable an allied species to pass through the air like the flying lizard. It would appear to be a new species of the genus Rhacophorus, which consists of several frogs of a much smaller size than this, and having the webs of the toes less developed.
Malay Archipelago
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adhesion (6)  |  Adhesive (2)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Air (366)  |  Ally (7)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (122)  |  Assure (16)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Black (46)  |  Body (557)  |  Border (10)  |  Borneo (3)  |  Bring (95)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Climb (39)  |  Color (155)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cover (40)  |  Creature (242)  |  Credible (3)  |  Curious (95)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Deep (241)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disk (3)  |  Down (455)  |  Enable (122)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expand (56)  |  Extremity (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Foot (65)  |  Frog (44)  |  Fully (20)  |  Genus (27)  |  Green (65)  |  High (370)  |  Hind (3)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inch (10)  |  Inflation (6)  |  Inner (72)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Less (105)  |  Limb (9)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Long (778)  |  Meet (36)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Modify (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Offer (142)  |  Pass (241)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reptile (33)  |  See (1094)  |  Several (33)  |  Shine (49)  |  Shining (35)  |  Size (62)  |  Small (489)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Through (846)  |  Toe (8)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)  |  Tree Frog (2)  |  True (239)  |  Underside (2)  |  Variability (5)  |  Web (17)  |  Workman (13)  |  Yellow (31)

One of the most immediate consequences of the electrochemical theory is the necessity of regarding all chemical compounds as binary substances. It is necessary to discover in each of them the positive and negative constituents... No view was ever more fitted to retard the progress of organic chemistry. Where the theory of substitution and the theory of types assume similar molecules, in which some of the elements can be replaced by others without the edifice becoming modified either in form or outward behaviour, the electrochemical theory divides these same molecules, simply and solely, it may be said, in order to find in them two opposite groups, which it then supposes to be combined with each other in virtue of their mutual electrical activity... I have tried to show that in organic chemistry there exist types which are capable, without destruction, of undergoing the most singular transformations according to the nature of the elements.
Traité de Chemie Appliquée aux Arts, Vol. I (1828), 53. Trans. J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry, Vol. 4, 366.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Activity (218)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Binary (12)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Discover (571)  |  Divide (77)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrochemical (4)  |  Electrochemistry (5)  |  Element (322)  |  Exist (458)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Negative (66)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Positive (98)  |  Progress (492)  |  Singular (24)  |  Substance (253)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  View (496)  |  Virtue (117)

One will see a layer of smooth stones, popularly called fluitati [diluvium], and over these another layer of smaller pebbles, thirdly sand, and finally earth, and you will see this repeatedly … up to the summit of the Mountain. This clearly shows that the order has been caused by many floods, not just one.
In De' Corpi Marini che su Monti si Trovano (1721), 57, as translated by Ezio Vaccari.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flood (52)  |  Layer (41)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Order (638)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Sand (63)  |  See (1094)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Stone (168)  |  Summit (27)  |  Will (2350)

One's instinct is at first to try and get rid of a discrepancy, but I believe that experience shows such an endeavour to be a mistake. What one ought to do is to magnify a small discrepancy with a view to finding out the explanation.
General Monthly Meeting, on Argon, (1 Apr 1895), Proceedings of the Royal Institution (1895), 14, 525.
Science quotes on:  |  Discrepancy (7)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Magnification (10)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Small (489)  |  Try (296)  |  View (496)

Organized Fossils are to the naturalist as coins to the antiquary; they are the antiquities of the earth; and very distinctly show its gradual regular formation, with the various changes inhabitants in the watery element.
Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils (1817), ix-x.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquary (4)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Change (639)  |  Coin (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Organization (120)  |  Regular (48)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)

Our experience shows that not everything that is observable and measurable is predictable, no matter how complete our past observations may have been.
In Presidential Address (8 Feb 1963), Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (Mar 1963), 4, 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Everything (489)  |  Experience (494)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Observable (21)  |  Observation (593)  |  Past (355)  |  Prediction (89)

Our Science comes to be at once a history of the ideas, the customs, and the deeds of mankind. From these three we shall derive the principles of the history of human nature, which we shall show to be the principles of universal history, which principles it seems hitherto to have lacked.
From The New Science (1744), Chap. 2, para 368, as translated in Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch (eds.), The New Science of Giambattista Vico (1970), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Custom (44)  |  Deed (34)  |  Derive (70)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lack (127)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Principle (530)  |  Universal (198)

Overwhelming evidences of an intelligence and benevolent intention surround us, show us the whole of nature through the work of a free will and teach us that all alive beings depend on an eternal creator-ruler.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benevolent (9)  |  Creator (97)  |  Depend (238)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Free (239)  |  Free Will (15)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intention (46)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Surround (33)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

People give ear to an upstart astrologer [Copernicus] who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy.
c. 1543, in The Experts Speak by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky (1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Best (467)  |  Clever (41)  |  Course (413)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Fool (121)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Moon (252)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Whoever (42)

Persons possessing great intellect and a capacity for excelling in the creative arts and also in the sciences are generally likely to have heavier brains than the ordinary individual. Arguing from this we might expect to find a corresponding lightness in the brain of the criminal, but this is not always the case ... Many criminals show not a single anomaly in their physical or mental make-up, while many persons with marked evidences of morphological aberration have never exhibited the criminal tendency.
Every attempt to prove crime to be due to a constitution peculiar only to criminals has failed signally. It is because most criminals are drawn from the ranks of the low, the degraded, the outcast, that investigators were ever deceived into attempting to set up a 'type' of criminal. The social conditions which foster the great majority of crimes are more needful of study and improvement.
From study of known normal brains we have learned that there is a certain range of variation. No two brains are exactly alike, and the greatest source of error in the assertions of Benedict and Lombroso has been the finding of this or that variation in a criminal’s brains, and maintaining such to be characteristic of the 'criminal constitution,' unmindful of the fact that like variations of structure may and do exist in the brains of normal, moral persons.
Address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia (28 Dec 1904), as quoted in 'Americans of Future Will Have Best Brains', New York Times (29 Dec 1904), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Alike (60)  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Brain (281)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Crime (39)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foster (12)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Low (86)  |  Majority (68)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mental (179)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prove (261)  |  Range (104)  |  Rank (69)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (365)  |  Social (261)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Variation (93)

Physicists do, of course, show a healthy respect for High Voltage, Radiation, and Liquid Hydrogen signs. They are not reckless. I can think of only six who have been killed on the job.
In Adventures of a Physicist (1987), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Course (413)  |  Death (406)  |  Do (1905)  |  Healthy (70)  |  High (370)  |  High Voltage (2)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Job (86)  |  Kill (100)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reckless (6)  |  Respect (212)  |  Think (1122)  |  Voltage (3)

Physio-philosophy has to show how, and in accordance indeed with what laws, the Material took its origin; and, therefore, how something derived its existence from nothing. It has to portray the first periods of the world's development from nothing; how the elements and heavenly bodies originated; in what method by self-evolution into higher and manifold forms, they separated into minerals, became finally organic, and in Man attained self-consciousness.
In Lorenz Oken, trans. by Alfred Tulk, Elements of Physiophilosophy (1847), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accordance (10)  |  Attain (126)  |  Body (557)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creation (350)  |  Definition (238)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Development (441)  |  Element (322)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Material (366)  |  Method (531)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Organic (161)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origination (7)  |  Period (200)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Portrayal (2)  |  Self (268)  |  Separation (60)  |  Showing (6)  |  Something (718)  |  World (1850)

Picture yourself during the early 1920's inside the dome of the [Mount Wilson Observatory]. … [Milton] Humason is showing [Harlow] Shapley stars he had found in the Andromeda Nebula that appeared and disappeared on photographs of that object. The famous astronomer very patiently explains that these objects could not be stars because the Nebula was a nearby gaseous cloud within our own Milky Way system. Shapley takes his handkerchief from his pocket and wipes the identifying marks off the back of the photographic plate.
Of course, Hubble came along in 1924 and showed that it was just these Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda Nebula which proved it was a separate galaxy system.
In Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies (1998), 168. Arp writes that this was “a piece of real history which I happen to know because it was told to me by one of the participants. It dramatically illustrate the critical role of discordant evidence.”
Science quotes on:  |  Andromeda (2)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Back (395)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Course (413)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Dome (9)  |  Early (196)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Handkerchief (2)  |  Edwin Powell Hubble (29)  |  Identification (20)  |  Mark (47)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount Wilson (2)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Object (438)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Picture (148)  |  Selection Effect (2)  |  Separate (151)  |  Harlow Shapley (13)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  System (545)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Variable (37)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wipe (6)

Thomas Robert Malthus quote Population…increases in a geometrical ratio
colorization © todayinsci (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.
An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), 1st edition, 14. As cited in James Bonar, Parson Malthus (1881), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Check (26)  |  Comparison (108)  |  First (1302)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Increase (225)  |  Number (710)  |  Population (115)  |  Power (771)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Will (2350)

Priestley [said] that each discovery we make shows us many others that should be made.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 222.
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Other (2233)  |  Joseph Priestley (16)

Probably the simple facts about health are that all of us form bad dietary habits when we have young stomachs, and continue in them when our stomachs show the natural wear of long use. Stomachs weaken, as do eyes; but we cannot buy spectacles for our stomachs.
In Sinner Sermons: A Selection of the Best Paragraphs of E. W. Howe (1926), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Buy (21)  |  Continue (179)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Habit (174)  |  Health (210)  |  Long (778)  |  Natural (810)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Use (771)  |  Weaken (5)  |  Wear (20)  |  Young (253)

Professor von Pirquet has come to this country exactly at the right time to aid us. He has shown us how to detect tuberculosis before it has become so developed as to be contagious and has so taken hold of the individual as to be recognized by any other means. In thousands of cases I for my part am unable to detect tuberculosis in infancy or early childhood without the aid of the tuberculin test which Prof. von Pirquet has shown to be the best. He has taught us how by tubercular skin tests, to detect it. ... What Dr. von Pirquet has done already will make his name go down to posterity as one of the great reformers in tuberculin tests and as one who has done an immense amount of good to humanity. The skin test in twenty-four hours will show you whether the case is tubercular.
Discussion on 'The Relation of Tuberculosis to Infant Mortality', read at the third mid-year meeting of the American Academy of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, (4 Nov 1909). In Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine (1910), 11, 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Already (226)  |  Amount (153)  |  Become (821)  |  Best (467)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Contagion (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Develop (278)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Hour (192)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immense (89)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Name (359)  |  Other (2233)  |  Baron Clemens von Pirquet (3)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Professor (133)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Reformer (5)  |  Right (473)  |  Skin (48)  |  Test (221)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tuberculosis (9)  |  Will (2350)

Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Bug (10)  |  Effective (68)  |  Hopelessly (3)  |  Inadequate (20)  |  Presence (63)  |  Program (57)  |  Test (221)  |  Way (1214)

Quantitative work shows clearly that natural selection is a reality, and that, among other things, it selects Mendelian genes, which are known to be distributed at random through wild populations, and to follow the laws of chance in their distribution to offspring. In other words, they are an agency producing variation of the kind which Darwin postulated as the raw material on which selection acts.
'Natural Selection', Nature, 1929, 124, 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gene (105)  |  Genes (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Population (115)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Random (42)  |  Raw (28)  |  Reality (274)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Variation (93)  |  Wild (96)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated “building blocks,” but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object’s interaction with the observer.
In The Tao of Physics (1975), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Atom (381)  |  Basic (144)  |  Building (158)  |  Building Block (9)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Essential (210)  |  Final (121)  |  Human (1512)  |  Include (93)  |  Independence (37)  |  Independently (24)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Observational (15)  |  Observer (48)  |  Oneness (6)  |  Part (235)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Process (439)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relation (166)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Small (489)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Understood (155)  |  Unit (36)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Web (17)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: first for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle, as in natural science, where sufficient proof can be brought to show that the movement of the heavens is always of uniform velocity. Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astrology the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained; not, however, as if this reason were sufficient, since some other theory might explain them.
Summa Theologica [1266-1273], Part I, question 32, article 2 (reply to objection 2), trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (i.e. L. Shapeote), revised D. J. Sullivan (1952), Vol. I, 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Consider (428)  |  Employ (115)  |  Explain (334)  |  First (1302)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proof (304)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Way (1214)

Religion now has degenerated and it has turned into a wolf; it has opened its mouth to show his ugly teeth; its spreading fear instead of love; and science has hidden in a corner like a lamb, trembling with fear!
From the play Galileo Galilei (2001) .
Science quotes on:  |  Corner (59)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Fear (212)  |  Lamb (6)  |  Love (328)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Open (277)  |  Religion (369)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Tremble (8)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wolf (11)

Religion shows a pattern of heredity which I think is similar to genetic heredity. ... There are hundreds of different religious sects, and every religious person is loyal to just one of these. ... The overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one their parents belonged to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained-glass, the best music when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing compared to the matter of heredity.
From edited version of a speech, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (15 Apr 1992), as reprinted from the Independent newspaper in Alec Fisher, The Logic of Real Arguments (2004), 82-83.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Best (467)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Choose (116)  |  Code (31)  |  Count (107)  |  Different (595)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Favor (69)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Glass (94)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Loyal (5)  |  Majority (68)  |  Matter (821)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Moral (203)  |  Music (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Person (366)  |  Potential (75)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Sect (5)  |  Similar (36)  |  Stained Glass (2)  |  Think (1122)  |  Virtue (117)

Sarcastic Science, she would like to know,
In her complacent ministry of fear,
How we propose to get away from here
When she has made things so we have to go
Or be wiped out. Will she be asked to show
Us how by rocket we may hope to steer
To some star off there, say, a half light-year
Through temperature of absolute zero?
Why wait for Science to supply the how
When any amateur can tell it now?
The way to go away should be the same
As fifty million years ago we came—
If anyone remembers how that was
I have a theory, but it hardly does.
'Why Wait for Science?' In Edward Connery Latham (ed.), The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged (1979), 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Fear (212)  |  Hope (321)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Say (989)  |  Space Flight (26)  |  Star (460)  |  Supply (100)  |  Tell (344)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)  |  Zero (38)

Science can be thought of as a large pool of knowledge, fed by a steady flow from the tap of basic research. Every now and then the water is dipped out and put to use, but one never knows which part of the water will be needed. This confuses the funding situation for basic science, because usually no specific piece of scientific work can be justified in advance; one cannot know which is going to be decisive. Yet history shows that keeping water flowing into the pool is a very worthwhile enterprise.
In 'Technology Development', Science (1983), 220, 576-580. As quoted and cited in H. Charles Romesburg, Best Research Practices (2009), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Basic (144)  |  Basic Research (15)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fund (19)  |  Funding (20)  |  History (716)  |  Justify (26)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Piece (39)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Situation (117)  |  Specific (98)  |  Steady (45)  |  Tap (10)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthwhile (18)

Science differs from politics or religion, in precisely this one discipline: we agree in advance to simply reject our own findings when they have been shown to be in error.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Agree (31)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Error (339)  |  Findings (6)  |  Politics (122)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Reject (67)  |  Religion (369)  |  Simply (53)

Science has gone down into the mines and coal-pits, and before the safety-lamp the Gnomes and Genii of those dark regions have disappeared… Sirens, mermaids, shining cities glittering at the bottom of quiet seas and in deep lakes, exist no longer; but in their place, Science, their destroyer, shows us whole coasts of coral reef constructed by the labours of minute creatures; points to our own chalk cliffs and limestone rocks as made of the dust of myriads of generations of infinitesimal beings that have passed away; reduces the very element of water into its constituent airs, and re-creates it at her pleasure.
Book review of Robert Hunt, Poetry of Science (1848), in the London Examiner (1848). Although uncredited in print, biographers identified his authorship from his original handwritten work. Collected in Charles Dickens and Frederic George Kitton (ed.) Old Lamps for New Ones: And Other Sketches and Essays (1897), 86-87.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Chalk (9)  |  City (87)  |  Cliff (22)  |  Coal (64)  |  Coast (13)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Construct (129)  |  Constructing (3)  |  Coral (10)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Create (245)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deep (241)  |  Destroyer (5)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Down (455)  |  Dust (68)  |  Element (322)  |  Exist (458)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genius (301)  |  Glitter (10)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lake (36)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Mermaid (5)  |  Mine (78)  |  Minute (129)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pit (20)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Pointing (4)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reef (7)  |  Region (40)  |  Rock (176)  |  Safety (58)  |  Safety Lamp (3)  |  Sea (326)  |  Shining (35)  |  Siren (4)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

Science is not the enemy of humanity but one of the deepest expressions of the human desire to realize that vision of infinite knowledge. Science shows us that the visible world is neither matter nor spirit; the visible world is the invisible organization of energy.
The Cosmic Code (1982), 348.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Desire (212)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expression (181)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Organization (120)  |  Realize (157)  |  Respect (212)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

Science too proceeds by lantern-flashes; it explores nature’s inexhaustible mosaic piece by piece. Too often the wick lacks oil; the glass panes of the lantern may not be clean. No matter: his work is not in vain who first recognizes and shows to others one speck of the vast unknown.
Science quotes on:  |  Clean (52)  |  Exploration (161)  |  First (1302)  |  Flash (49)  |  Glass (94)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Lack (127)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mosaic (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pane (2)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Speck (25)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vain (86)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wick (4)  |  Work (1402)

Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, “I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated,” we could say, “Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you.” But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.
'The Science to Save us from Science', New York Times Magazine (19 Mar 1950). Collected in M. Gardner (ed.), Great Essays in Science (1950), 396-397.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Amount (153)  |  Argument (145)  |  Begin (275)  |  Choice (114)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Decision (98)  |  End (603)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Good (906)  |  Hate (68)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Process (439)  |  Prove (261)  |  Purely (111)  |  Race (278)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)

Science, which gave us this dread power, shows that it can be made a giant help to humanity, but science does not show us how to prevent its baleful use. So we have been appointed to obviate that peril by finding a meeting of the minds and the hearts of our people. Only in the will of mankind lies the answer.
In a plan presented to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission, June 14, 1946.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Giant (73)  |  Heart (243)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mind (1377)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)

Scientific studies on marine reserves around the world show that if you close a place to fishing, the number of species increases 20 percent, the average size of a fish increases by a third, and the total weight of fish per hectare increases almost five times—in less than a decade.
From interview with Terry Waghorn, 'Can We Eat Our Fish and Protect Them Too?', Forbes (21 Feb 2012)
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Close (77)  |  Decade (66)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Increase (225)  |  Marine (9)  |  Number (710)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Size (62)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Time (1911)  |  Total (95)  |  Weight (140)  |  World (1850)

Scientists like myself merely use their gifts to show up that which already exists, and we look small compared to the artists who create works of beauty out of themselves. If a good fairy came and offered me back my youth, asking me which gifts I would rather have, those to make visible a thing which exists but which no man has ever seen before, or the genius needed to create, in a style of architecture never imagined before, the great Town Hall in which we are dining tonight, I might be tempted to choose the latter.
Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1962).
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Artist (97)  |  Asking (74)  |  Back (395)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fairy (10)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Offer (142)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tonight (9)  |  Town Hall (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Visibility (6)  |  Visible (87)  |  Work (1402)  |  Youth (109)

Secondly, the study of mathematics would show them the necessity there is in reasoning, to separate all the distinct ideas, and to see the habitudes that all those concerned in the present inquiry have to one another, and to lay by those which relate not to the proposition in hand, and wholly to leave them out of the reckoning. This is that which, in other respects besides quantity is absolutely requisite to just reasoning, though in them it is not so easily observed and so carefully practised. In those parts of knowledge where it is thought demonstration has nothing to do, men reason as it were in a lump; and if upon a summary and confused view, or upon a partial consideration, they can raise the appearance of a probability, they usually rest content; especially if it be in a dispute where every little straw is laid hold on, and everything that can but be drawn in any way to give color to the argument is advanced with ostentation. But that mind is not in a posture to find truth that does not distinctly take all the parts asunder, and, omitting what is not at all to the point, draws a conclusion from the result of all the particulars which in any way influence it.
In Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Advance (298)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Argument (145)  |  Asunder (4)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Color (155)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confused (13)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Content (75)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Easily (36)  |  Especially (31)  |  Everything (489)  |  Find (1014)  |  Give (208)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laid (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Lump (5)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Omit (12)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Partial (10)  |  Particular (80)  |  Point (584)  |  Posture (7)  |  Practise (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Straw (7)  |  Study (701)  |  Summary (11)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Usually (176)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)

Show me an archaeologist, and I'll show you a man who practices skull drugery.
Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings (1993), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Man (2252)  |  Practice (212)  |  Quip (81)

Show me an archaeologist, and I’ll show you a man who practices skull drudgery.
Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings (1993), 25
Science quotes on:  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Practice (212)

Sir W. Ramsay has striven to show that radium is in process of transformation, that it contains a store of energy enormous but not inexhaustible. The transformation of radium then would produce a million times more heat than all known transformations; radium would wear itself out in 1,250 years; this is quite short, and you see that we are at least certain to have this point settled some hundreds of years from now. While waiting, our doubts remain.
In La Valeur de la Science (1904), 199, as translated by George Bruce Halsted, in The Value of Science (1907), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Known (453)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Point (584)  |  Process (439)  |  Radium (29)  |  Sir William Ramsay (7)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Settled (34)  |  Short (200)  |  Store (49)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Year (963)  |  Years (5)

Sir,—The Planet [Neptune] whose position you marked out actually exists. On the day on which your letter reached me, I found a star of the eighth magnitude, which was not recorded in the excellent map designed by Dr. Bremiker, containing the twenty-first hour of the collection published by the Royal Academy of Berlin. The observation of the succeeding day showed it to be the Planet of which we were in quest.
Letter, from Berlin (25 Sep 1846). In John Pringle Nichol, The Planet Neptune: An Exposition and History (1848), 89. Galle thus confirmed the existence of the planet Neptune, found at the position predicted in a letter he had just received from Urbain Le Verrier.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Collection (68)  |  Design (203)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Hour (192)  |  Letter (117)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Map (50)  |  Mark (47)  |  Marked (55)  |  Neptune (13)  |  Observation (593)  |  Planet (402)  |  Position (83)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Quest (39)  |  Reach (286)  |  Record (161)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Academy (3)  |  Star (460)  |  Succeeding (14)

So when, by various turns of the Celestial Dance,
In many thousand years,
A Star, so long unknown, appears,
Tho’ Heaven itself more beauteous by it grow,
It troubles and alarms the World below,
Does to the Wise a Star, to Fools a Meteor show.
Science quotes on:  |  Alarm (19)  |  Appear (122)  |  Beauteous (4)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Dance (35)  |  Fool (121)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Long (778)  |  Meteor (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Nova (7)  |  Star (460)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Various (205)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Sodium thymonucleate fibres give two distinct types of X-ray diagram … [structures A and B]. The X-ray diagram of structure B (see photograph) shows in striking manner the features characteristic of helical structures, first worked out in this laboratory by Stokes (unpublished) and by Crick, Cochran and Vand2. Stokes and Wilkins were the first to propose such structures for nucleic acid as a result of direct studies of nucleic acid fibres, although a helical structure had been previously suggested by Furberg (thesis, London, 1949) on the basis of X-ray studies of nucleosides and nucleotides.
While the X-ray evidence cannot, at present, be taken as direct proof that the structure is helical, other considerations discussed below make the existence of a helical structure highly probable.
From Rosalind Franklin and R. G. Gosling,'Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate', Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, No. 4356, 740.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Basis (180)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Francis Crick (62)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Helix (10)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Nucleotide (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proof (304)  |  Ray (115)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Striking (48)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Work (1402)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

Sometimes truth frightens us. And in fact we know that it is sometimes deceptive, that it is a phantom never showing itself for a moment except to ceaselessly flee, that it must be pursued further and ever further without ever being attained. … Yet truth should not be feared, for it alone is beautiful.
As translated by George Bruce Halsted, in 'The Value of Science', Popular Science Monthly (Sep 1906), 69 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Attain (126)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Ceaseless (6)  |  Deceptive (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fear (212)  |  Flee (9)  |  Fright (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Moment (260)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Truth (1109)

Somewhere in the arrangement of this world there seems to be a great concern about giving us delight, which shows that, in the universe, over and above the meaning of matter and forces, there is a message conveyed through the magic touch of personality. ...
Is it merely because the rose is round and pink that it gives me more satisfaction than the gold which could buy me the necessities of life, or any number of slaves. ... Somehow we feel that through a rose the language of love reached our hearts.
The Religion of Man (1931), 102. Quoted in H. E. Hunter, The Divine Proportion (1970), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Concern (239)  |  Delight (111)  |  Feel (371)  |  Force (497)  |  Gold (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (243)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Magic (92)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Merely (315)  |  Message (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Number (710)  |  Personality (66)  |  Pink (4)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rose (36)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Slave (40)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Through (846)  |  Touch (146)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

Speaking concretely, when we say “making experiments or making observations,” we mean that we devote ourselves to investigation and to research, that we make attempts and trials in order to gain facts from which the mind, through reasoning, may draw knowledge or instruction.
Speaking in the abstract, when we say “relying on observation and gaining experience,” we mean that observation is the mind's support in reasoning, and experience the mind's support in deciding, or still better, the fruit of exact reasoning applied to the interpretation of facts. It follows from this that we can gain experience without making experiments, solely by reasoning appropriately about well-established facts, just as we can make experiments and observations without gaining experience, if we limit ourselves to noting facts.
Observation, then, is what shows facts; experiment is what teaches about facts and gives experience in relation to anything.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Better (493)  |  Concretely (4)  |  Draw (140)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gain (146)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Support (151)  |  Through (846)  |  Trial (59)

Subatomic particles do not exist but rather show “tendencies to exist”, and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show “tendencies to occur”.
In The Tao of Physics (1975), 133.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Definite (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Occur (151)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Particle (200)  |  Subatomic (10)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)

Success is achievable without public recognition, and the world has many unsung heroes. The teacher who inspires you to pursue your education to your ultimate ability is a success. The parents who taught you the noblest human principles are a success. The coach who shows you the importance of teamwork is a success. The spiritual leader who instills in you spiritual values and faith is a success. The relatives, friends, and neighbors with whom you develop a reciprocal relationship of respect and support - they, too, are successes. The most menial workers can properly consider themselves successful if they perform their best and if the product of their work is of service to humanity.
From 'Getting to the Heart of Success', in Jim Stovall, Success Secrets of Super Achievers: Winning Insights from Those Who Are at the Top (1999), 42-43.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Best (467)  |  Coach (5)  |  Consider (428)  |  Develop (278)  |  Education (423)  |  Faith (209)  |  Friend (180)  |  Hero (45)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Leader (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Parent (80)  |  Perform (123)  |  Principle (530)  |  Product (166)  |  Public (100)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Reciprocal (7)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Relative (42)  |  Respect (212)  |  Service (110)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Support (151)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teamwork (6)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unsung (4)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)  |  World (1850)

Such is professional jealousy; a scientist will never show any kindness for a theory which he did not start himself.
In A Tramp Abroad (1880), 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Himself (461)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Never (1089)  |  Profession (108)  |  Professional (77)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Start (237)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)

Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief and he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor for convincing and converting other people to his view.
In When Prophecy Fails (1956), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Belief (615)  |  Commitment (28)  |  Convert (22)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fervor (8)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heart (243)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Present (630)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Something (718)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to scorn upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight?
Yet, it is a very plain and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without remorse.
Address to the South London Working Men’s College. 'A Liberal Education; and Where to Find It', in David Masson, (ed.), Macmillan’s Magazine (Mar 1868), 17, 369. Also in 'A Liberal Education and Where to Find it' (1868). In Collected Essays (1893), Vol. 3, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Check (26)  |  Checkmate (2)  |  Chess (27)  |  Chessboard (2)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cost (94)  |  Delight (111)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Eye (440)  |  Father (113)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Game (104)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Haste (6)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ill (12)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Knight (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Loss (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Member (42)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Move (223)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pawn (2)  |  Payment (6)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Player (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Remorse (9)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Son (25)  |  Stake (20)  |  State (505)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Win (53)  |  Winning (19)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

Symbolism is useful because it makes things difficult. Now in the beginning everything is self-evident, and it is hard to see whether one self-evident proposition follows from another or not. Obviousness is always the enemy to correctness. Hence we must invent a new and difficult symbolism in which nothing is obvious. … Thus the whole of Arithmetic and Algebra has been shown to require three indefinable notions and five indemonstrable propositions.
In International Monthly (1901), 4, 85-86.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Correct (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evident (92)  |  Follow (389)  |  Hard (246)  |  Indefinable (5)  |  Invent (57)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Obviousness (3)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Require (229)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Symbolism (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Useful (260)  |  Whole (756)

Teleology is a lady without whom no biologist can live. Yet he is ashamed to show himself with her in public.
Quoted in W.I.B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Himself (461)  |  Live (650)  |  Teleology (2)  |  Telescope (106)

That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show; (if only my breathing & some other etceteras do not make too rapid a progress towards instead of from mortality).
Before ten years are over, the Devil’s in it if I haven’t sucked out some of the life-blood from the mysteries of this universe, in a way that no purely mortal lips or brains could do.
In letter to Charles Babbage (5 Jul 1843). British Library Additional Manuscripts, MSS 37192, folio 349. As quoted and cited in Dorothy Stein (ed.), 'This First Child of Mine', Ada: A Life and a Legacy (1985), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Blood (144)  |  Brain (281)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Devil (34)  |  Do (1905)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifeblood (4)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mine (78)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Other (2233)  |  Progress (492)  |  Purely (111)  |  Something (718)  |  Suck (8)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Salt (48)  |  State (505)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)

The advantage is that mathematics is a field in which one’s blunders tend to show very clearly and can be corrected or erased with a stroke of the pencil. It is a field which has often been compared with chess, but differs from the latter in that it is only one’s best moments that count and not one’s worst. A single inattention may lose a chess game, whereas a single successful approach to a problem, among many which have been relegated to the wastebasket, will make a mathematician’s reputation.
In Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth (1953), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Approach (112)  |  Bad (185)  |  Best (467)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Chess (27)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compare (76)  |  Correct (95)  |  Count (107)  |  Differ (88)  |  Erase (7)  |  Field (378)  |  Game (104)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Single (365)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tend (124)  |  Wastebasket (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worst (57)

The air of caricature never fails to show itself in the products of reason applied relentlessly and without correction. The observation of clinical facts would seem to be a pursuit of the physician as harmless as it is indispensable. [But] it seemed irresistibly rational to certain minds that diseases should be as fully classifiable as are beetles and butterflies. This doctrine … bore perhaps its richest fruit in the hands of Boissier de Sauvauges. In his Nosologia Methodica published in 1768 … this Linnaeus of the bedside grouped diseases into ten classes, 295 genera, and 2400 species.
In 'General Ideas in Medicine', The Lloyd Roberts lecture at House of the Royal Society of Medicine (30 Sep 1935), British Medical Journal (5 Oct 1935), 2, 609. In The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Bedside (3)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Caricature (6)  |  Certain (557)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Clinical (18)  |  Correction (42)  |  Disease (340)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Genus (27)  |  Harmless (9)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Carolus Linnaeus (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physician (284)  |  Product (166)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rational (95)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relentless (9)  |  Richness (15)  |  Seem (150)  |  Species (435)

The animal kingdom exhibits a series of mental developments which may be regarded as antecedents to the mental development of man, for the mental life of animals shows itself to be throughout, in its elements and in the general laws governing the combination of the elements, the same as the mental life of man.
Outline of Psychology (1902)
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Combination (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Element (322)  |  General (521)  |  Governing (20)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Regard (312)  |  Series (153)  |  Throughout (98)

The attitude which the man in the street unconsciously adopts towards science is capricious and varied. At one moment he scorns the scientist for a highbrow, at another anathematizes him for blasphemously undermining his religion; but at the mention of a name like Edison he falls into a coma of veneration. When he stops to think, he does recognize, however, that the whole atmosphere of the world in which he lives is tinged by science, as is shown most immediately and strikingly by our modern conveniences and material resources. A little deeper thinking shows him that the influence of science goes much farther and colors the entire mental outlook of modern civilised man on the world about him.
Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Capricious (9)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Color (155)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Fall (243)  |  Farther (51)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Influence (231)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mention (84)  |  Modern (402)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Religion (369)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The autopsy of a person who had died from phosphorus poisoning would reveal inflammation and haemorrhage in the stomach and bowel, the liver would show fatty changes and both it, and the kidneys would be enlarged, greasy and of a yellow colour. But the most convincing proof of death due to phosphorus exposure would be to turn off all the lights in the mortuary and see its tell-tale glow...
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorus (U.S., 2000), 191. Also published in Great Britain as The Shocking History of Phosphorus (2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Autopsy (3)  |  Both (496)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Change (639)  |  Death (406)  |  Due (143)  |  Inflammation (7)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Light (635)  |  Liver (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reveal (152)  |  See (1094)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Tell (344)  |  Turn (454)  |  Yellow (31)

The average gambler will say “The player who stakes his whole fortune on a single play is a fool, and the science of mathematics can not prove him to be otherwise.” The reply is obvious: “The science of mathematics never attempts the impossible, it merely shows that other players are greater fools.”
Concluding remarks to his mathematical proof, with certain assumptions, that the best betting strategy for “Gambler’s Ruin” would be to always make his largest stake on his first play. In 'Gambler’s Ruin', Annals of Mathematics (Jul 1909), 2nd Series, 10, No. 4, 189. This is also seen, without primary source, quoted as “It is true that a man who does this is a fool. I have only proved that a man who does anything else is an even bigger fool,” in Harold Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles (1988), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Average (89)  |  Fool (121)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Gambler (7)  |  Greater (288)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Play (116)  |  Player (9)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reply (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Single (365)  |  Stake (20)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

The beaver is an animal which has feet like those of a goose for swimming and front teeth like a dog, since it frequently walks on land. It is called the castor from “castration,” but not because it castrates itself as Isodore says, but because it is especially sought for castration purposes. As has been ascertained frequently in our regions, it is false that when it is bothered by a hunter, it castrates itself with its teeth and hurls its musk [castoreum] away and that if one has been castrated on another occasion by a hunter, it raises itself up and shows that it lacks its musk.
De Animalibus (On Animals) [1258/62], Book XXII, tract 2, chapter 1 (22), trans. K. F. Kitchell Jr. and I. M. Resnick (1999), Vol. 2, 1467.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Beaver (8)  |  Call (781)  |  Dog (70)  |  Goose (13)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Lack (127)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Say (989)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Walk (138)

The belief that mathematics, because it is abstract, because it is static and cold and gray, is detached from life, is a mistaken belief. Mathematics, even in its purest and most abstract estate, is not detached from life. It is just the ideal handling of the problems of life, as sculpture may idealize a human figure or as poetry or painting may idealize a figure or a scene. Mathematics is precisely the ideal handling of the problems of life, and the central ideas of the science, the great concepts about which its stately doctrines have been built up, are precisely the chief ideas with which life must always deal and which, as it tumbles and rolls about them through time and space, give it its interests and problems, and its order and rationality. That such is the case a few indications will suffice to show. The mathematical concepts of constant and variable are represented familiarly in life by the notions of fixedness and change. The concept of equation or that of an equational system, imposing restriction upon variability, is matched in life by the concept of natural and spiritual law, giving order to what were else chaotic change and providing partial freedom in lieu of none at all. What is known in mathematics under the name of limit is everywhere present in life in the guise of some ideal, some excellence high-dwelling among the rocks, an “ever flying perfect” as Emerson calls it, unto which we may approximate nearer and nearer, but which we can never quite attain, save in aspiration. The supreme concept of functionality finds its correlate in life in the all-pervasive sense of interdependence and mutual determination among the elements of the world. What is known in mathematics as transformation—that is, lawful transfer of attention, serving to match in orderly fashion the things of one system with those of another—is conceived in life as a process of transmutation by which, in the flux of the world, the content of the present has come out of the past and in its turn, in ceasing to be, gives birth to its successor, as the boy is father to the man and as things, in general, become what they are not. The mathematical concept of invariance and that of infinitude, especially the imposing doctrines that explain their meanings and bear their names—What are they but mathematicizations of that which has ever been the chief of life’s hopes and dreams, of that which has ever been the object of its deepest passion and of its dominant enterprise, I mean the finding of the worth that abides, the finding of permanence in the midst of change, and the discovery of a presence, in what has seemed to be a finite world, of being that is infinite? It is needless further to multiply examples of a correlation that is so abounding and complete as indeed to suggest a doubt whether it be juster to view mathematics as the abstract idealization of life than to regard life as the concrete realization of mathematics.
In 'The Humanization of Teaching of Mathematics', Science, New Series, 35, 645-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Abound (17)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Cease (81)  |  Central (81)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Chief (99)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Constant (148)  |  Content (75)  |  Correlate (7)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detach (5)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (222)  |  Element (322)  |  Ralph Waldo Emerson (161)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Equation (138)  |  Especially (31)  |  Estate (5)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Far (158)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Flux (21)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Functionality (2)  |  General (521)  |  Give (208)  |  Gray (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guise (6)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Impose (22)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinitude (3)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Needless (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Painting (46)  |  Partial (10)  |  Passion (121)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realization (44)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Restriction (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Roll (41)  |  Save (126)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Serving (15)  |  Space (523)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Stately (12)  |  Static (9)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unto (8)  |  Variability (5)  |  Variable (37)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

The chances for favorable serendipity are increased if one studies an animal that is not one of the common laboratory species. Atypical animals, or preparations, force one to use non-standard approaches and non-standard techniques, and even to think nonstandard ideas. My own preference is to seek out species which show some extreme of adaptation. Such organisms often force one to abandon standard methods and standard points of view. Almost inevitably they lead one to ask new questions, and most importantly in trying to comprehend their special and often unusual adaptations one often serendipitously stumbles upon new insights.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 234.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Approach (112)  |  Ask (420)  |  Atypical (2)  |  Chance (244)  |  Common (447)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Force (497)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importantly (3)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Insight (107)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lead (391)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Often (109)  |  Organism (231)  |  Point (584)  |  Preference (28)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Question (649)  |  Seek (218)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Standard (64)  |  Study (701)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Technique (84)  |  Think (1122)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)

The childhood shows the man
As morning shows the day.
From 'Paradise Regain’d', Book 4, collected in Samuel Johnson (ed.), The Works of the English Poets: Volume the Fourth: The Poems of Milton: Volume II (1779), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Childhood (42)  |  Day (43)  |  Man (2252)  |  Morning (98)  |  Psychology (166)

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Belief (615)  |  Century (319)  |  Christian (44)  |  Church (64)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Cure (124)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Fail (191)  |  Flat (34)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Still (614)  |  Thirteenth (2)  |  Toward (45)

The combination in time and space of all these thoughtful conceptions [of Nature] exhibits not only thought, it shows also premeditation, power, wisdom, greatness, prescience, omniscience, providence. In one word, all these facts in their natural connection proclaim aloud the One God, whom man may know, adore, and love; and Natural History must in good time become the analysis of the thoughts of the Creator of the Universe….
In Essay on Classification (1851), 205.
Science quotes on:  |  Adore (3)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Become (821)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conception (160)  |  Connection (171)  |  Creator (97)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatness (55)  |  History (716)  |  Know (1538)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Omniscience (3)  |  Power (771)  |  Prescience (2)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Providence (19)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Space (523)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Word (650)

The concept of an independent system is a pure creation of the imagination. For no material system is or can ever be perfectly isolated from the rest of the world. Nevertheless it completes the mathematician’s “blank form of a universe” without which his investigations are impossible. It enables him to introduce into his geometrical space, not only masses and configurations, but also physical structure and chemical composition. Just as Newton first conclusively showed that this is a world of masses, so Willard Gibbs first revealed it as a world of systems.
The Order of Nature: An Essay (1917), 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complete (209)  |  Composition (86)  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Enable (122)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  J. Willard Gibbs (9)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Material (366)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rest (287)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Space (523)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

The concepts of ‘soul’ or ‘life’ do not occur in atomic physics, and they could not, even indirectly, be derived as complicated consequences of some natural law. Their existence certainly does not indicate the presence of any fundamental substance other than energy, but it shows only the action of other kinds of forms which we cannot match with the mathematical forms of modern atomic physics ... If we want to describe living or mental processes, we shall have to broaden these structures. It may be that we shall have to introduce yet other concepts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Atomic Physics (7)  |  Broaden (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Derive (70)  |  Describe (132)  |  Do (1905)  |  Energy (373)  |  Existence (481)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Kind (564)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Presence (63)  |  Process (439)  |  Soul (235)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Want (504)

The curiosity remains… to grasp more clearly how the same matter, which in physics and chemistry displays orderly and reproducible and relatively simple properties, arranges itself in the most astounding fashions as soon as it is drawn into the orbit of the living organism. The closer one looks at these performances of matter in living organisms the more impressive the show becomes. The meanest living cell becomes a magic puzzle box full of elaborate and changing molecules.
From 'Life: The Magic Puzzle Box', Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (Dec 1949), 38, 173-190.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrange (33)  |  Astound (9)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Magic (92)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Performance (51)  |  Physics (564)  |  Property (177)  |  Puzzle Box (2)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Simple (426)

The development of civilization and industry in general has always shown itself so active in the destruction of forests that everything that has been done for their conservation and production is completely insignificant in comparison.
Karl Marx
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Development (441)  |  Everything (489)  |  Forest (161)  |  General (521)  |  Industry (159)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Production (190)

The Einsteinian and the Newtonian vision of the world are two faithful reflectors of it: just as the two images, polarized in opposite directions, which Iceland spar shows us in its strange crystal both share the light of the same object.
In Einstein and the Universe; A Popular Exposition of the Famous Theory (1922), 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Direction (185)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Faithful (13)  |  Iceland (3)  |  Image (97)  |  Light (635)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Object (438)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Polarize (2)  |  Reflector (4)  |  Share (82)  |  Strange (160)  |  Two (936)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

The energy of a covalent bond is largely the energy of resonance of two electrons between two atoms. The examination of the form of the resonance integral shows that the resonance energy increases in magnitude with increase in the overlapping of the two atomic orbitals involved in the formation of the bond, the word ‘overlapping” signifying the extent to which regions in space in which the two orbital wave functions have large values coincide... Consequently it is expected that of two orbitals in an atom the one which can overlap more with an orbital of another atom will form the stronger bond with that atom, and, moreover, the bond formed by a given orbital will tend to lie in that direction in which the orbital is concentrated.
Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals (1939), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Conincidence (4)  |  Covalent (2)  |  Direction (185)  |  Electron (96)  |  Energy (373)  |  Examination (102)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Function (235)  |  Increase (225)  |  Integral (26)  |  Involved (90)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Orbital (4)  |  Orbitals (2)  |  Overlap (9)  |  Region (40)  |  Resonance (7)  |  Significance (114)  |  Space (523)  |  Strength (139)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Tend (124)  |  Two (936)  |  Value (393)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The Epicureans, according to whom animals had no creation, doe suppose that by mutation of one into another, they were first made; for they are the substantial part of the world; like as Anaxagoras and Euripides affirme in these tearmes: nothing dieth, but in changing as they doe one for another they show sundry formes.
Plutarch
Fom Morals, translated by Philemon Holland, The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, the Moral Written by the Learned Philosopher Plutarch of Chæronea (1603), 846. As cited in Harris Hawthorne Wilder, History of the Human Body (1909), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Anaxagoras (11)  |  Animal (651)  |  Change (639)  |  Creation (350)  |  Epicurean (2)  |  Euripides (4)  |  Evolution (635)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Sundry (4)  |  Suppose (158)  |  World (1850)

The evening was calm, the calmest we had known above the North Col. The smooth, outward dipping slabs glowed in the fast setting sun and, at an immense distance beneath, clouds concealed the valleys and lesser peaks. There was nothing to obstruct the tremendous prospect. Seen from Everest, great peaks that dominate the climber as he toils along the East Rongbuk Glacier, and up the slopes of the North Col, show like insignificant ripples at the base of a great ocean roller. Even the North Peak was but a stepping-stone to quick-footed vision.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Calm (32)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Conceal (19)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Dip (3)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dominate (20)  |  East (18)  |  Everest (10)  |  Fast (49)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Glow (15)  |  Great (1610)  |  Immense (89)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lesser (6)  |  North (12)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obstruct (3)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Outward (7)  |  Peak (20)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Ripple (12)  |  Roller (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slope (10)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sun (407)  |  Toil (29)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Valley (37)  |  Vision (127)

The familiar idea of a god who is omniscient: someone who knows everything … does not immediately ring alarm bells in our brains; it is plausible that such a being could exist. Yet, when it is probed more closely one can show that omniscience of this sort creates a logical paradox and must, by the standards of human reason, therefore be judged impossible or be qualified in some way. To see this consider this test statement:
This statement is not known to be true by anyone.
Now consider the plight of our hypothetical Omniscient Being (“Big O”). Suppose first that this statement is true and Big O does not know it. Then Big O would not be omniscient. So, instead, suppose our statement is false. This means that someone must know the statement to be true; hence it must be true. So regardless of whether we assume at the outset that this statement is true or false, we are forced to conclude that it must be true! And therefore, since the statement is true, nobody (including Big O) can know that it is true. This shows that there must always be true statements that no being can know to be true. Hence there cannot be an Omniscient Being who knows all truths. Nor, by the same argument, could we or our future successors, ever attain such a state of omniscience. All that can be known is all that can be known, not all that is true.
In Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits (1999), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Alarm (19)  |  Argument (145)  |  Attain (126)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bell (35)  |  Brain (281)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Consider (428)  |  Create (245)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exist (458)  |  False (105)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Omniscient (6)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Plight (5)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Reason (766)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  See (1094)  |  State (505)  |  Statement (148)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Test (221)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Way (1214)

The fertilized ovum of a mouse and a whale look much alike, but differences quickly show up in the course of their development. If we could study their molecules with the naked eyes, we would see the differences from the start.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Course (413)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Embryology (18)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fertilize (4)  |  Look (584)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Naked Eye (12)  |  Ovum (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Start (237)  |  Study (701)  |  Whale (45)

The fertilized ovum of a mouse and a whale look much alike, but differences quickly show up in the course of their development. If we could study their molecules with the naked eyes, we would see the differences from the start.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Course (413)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Eye (440)  |  Look (584)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Naked Eye (12)  |  See (1094)  |  Start (237)  |  Study (701)  |  Whale (45)

The first nonabsolute number is the number of people for whom the table is reserved. This will vary during the course of the first three telephone calls to the restaurant, and then bear no apparent relation to the number of people who actually turn up, or to the number of people who subsequently join them after the show/match/party/gig, or to the number of people who leave when they see who else has turned up.
The second nonabsolute number is the given time of arrival, which is now known to be one of the most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexcluson, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself. In other words, the given time of arrival is the one moment of time at which it is impossible that any member of the party will arrive. Recipriversexclusons now play a vital part in many branches of math, including statistics and accountancy and also form the basic equations used to engineer the Somebody Else’s Problem field.
The third and most mysterious piece of nonabsoluteness of all lies in the relationship between the number of items on the check [bill], the cost of each item, the number of people at the table and what they are each prepared to pay for. (The number of people who have actually brought any money is only a subphenomenon of this field.)
Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, 1995), 47-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Arrival (15)  |  Basic (144)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bill (14)  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Cost (94)  |  Course (413)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equation (138)  |  Existence (481)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Problem (731)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Reservation (7)  |  Restaurant (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The following story (here a little softened from the vernacular) was narrated by Lord Kelvin himself when dining at Trinity Hall:
A certain rough Highland lad at the university had done exceedingly well, and at the close of the session gained prizes both in mathematics and in metaphysics. His old father came up from the farm to see his son receive the prizes, and visited the College. Thomson was deputed to show him round the place. “Weel, Mr. Thomson,” asked the old man, “and what may these mathematics be, for which my son has getten a prize?” “I told him,” replied Thomson, “that mathematics meant reckoning with figures, and calculating.” “Oo ay,” said the old man, “he’ll ha’ getten that fra’ me: I were ever a braw hand at the countin’.” After a pause he resumed: “And what, Mr. Thomson, might these metapheesics be?” “I endeavoured,” replied Thomson, “to explain how metaphysics was the attempt to express in language the indefinite.” The old Highlander stood still and scratched his head. “Oo ay: may be he’ll ha’ getten that fra’ his mither. She were aye a bletherin’ body."
As given in Life of Lord Kelvin (1910), Vol. 2, 1124, footnote. [Note: William Thomson, later became Lord Kelvin. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  College (71)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Explain (334)  |  Express (192)  |  Farm (28)  |  Farmer (35)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Gain (146)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Language (308)  |  Little (717)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Old (499)  |  Prize (13)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Scottish (4)  |  Scratch (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Story (122)  |  Trinity (9)  |  University (130)

The forces which displace continents are the same as those which produce great fold-mountain ranges. Continental drift, faults and compressions, earthquakes, volcanicity, transgression cycles and polar wandering are undoubtedly connected causally on a grand scale. Their common intensification in certain periods of the earth’s history shows this to be true. However, what is cause and what effect, only the future will unveil.
In The Origins of Continents and Oceans (4th ed. 1929), trans. John Biram (1966), 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Compression (7)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Continent (79)  |  Continental Drift (15)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Displace (9)  |  Displacement (9)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fault (58)  |  Fold (9)  |  Force (497)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Intensification (2)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Period (200)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  Polar (13)  |  Pole (49)  |  Range (104)  |  Scale (122)  |  Transgression (3)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unveiling (2)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Will (2350)

The great heroes and heroines of our society are of course the teachers, and in particular the teachers of kids in their first years. Once a child has been shown what the natural world is, it will live with them forever.
As quoted in Alexandra Pope, 'Attenborough Awarded RCGS Gold', Canadian Geographic, (May 2017), 137, No. 3, 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Course (413)  |  First (1302)  |  Forever (111)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hero (45)  |  Heroine (2)  |  Live (650)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Society (350)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The great testimony of history shows how often in fact the development of science has emerged in response to technological and even economic needs, and how in the economy of social effort, science, even of the most abstract and recondite kind, pays for itself again and again in providing the basis for radically new technological developments. In fact, most people—when they think of science as a good thing, when they think of it as worthy of encouragement, when they are willing to see their governments spend substance upon it, when they greatly do honor to men who in science have attained some eminence—have in mind that the conditions of their life have been altered just by such technology, of which they may be reluctant to be deprived.
In 'Contemporary World', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Feb 1948), 4, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Altered (32)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Basis (180)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deprivation (5)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Effort (243)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  Honour (58)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Pay (45)  |  People (1031)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Providing (5)  |  Radical (28)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Response (56)  |  See (1094)  |  Social (261)  |  Spend (97)  |  Substance (253)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Willing (44)  |  Worthy (35)

The greater part of it, I shall show, is nonsense, tricked out with a variety of tedious metaphysical conceits, and its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself. … it is the style that creates the illusion of content, and which is a cause as well as merely a symptom of Teilhard's alarming apocalyptic seizures.
Medawar’s acerbic book review of The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin first appeared as 'Critical Notice' in the journal Mind (1961), 70, No. 277, 99. The book review was reprinted in The Art of the Soluble: Creativity and Originality in Science (1967), 71. Medawar thus strongly contradicted other reviewers of the book, which he said was “widely held to be of the utmost profundity and significance; it created something like a sensation upon its publication in France, and some reviewers hereabouts called it the Book of the Year—one, the Book of the Century.”
Science quotes on:  |  Alarming (4)  |  Author (175)  |  Cause (561)  |  Conceit (15)  |  Create (245)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Deceiving (5)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (30)  |  Trick (36)  |  Variety (138)

The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: At first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.
In 'Field Theory and the Phase Space', collected in Melvin Herman Marx, Psychological Theory: Contemporary Readings (1951), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contradictory (8)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Finally (26)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Following (16)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Last (425)  |  Looking (191)  |  Merely (315)  |  Multitude (50)  |  New (1273)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Objection (34)  |  Pure (299)  |  Raised (3)  |  Reach (286)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Usually (176)  |  Worth (172)  |  Wrong (246)

The history of mathematics may be instructive as well as agreeable; it may not only remind us of what we have, but may also teach us to increase our store. Says De Morgan, “The early history of the mind of men with regards to mathematics leads us to point out our own errors; and in this respect it is well to pay attention to the history of mathematics.” It warns us against hasty conclusions; it points out the importance of a good notation upon the progress of the science; it discourages excessive specialization on the part of the investigator, by showing how apparently distinct branches have been found to possess unexpected connecting links; it saves the student from wasting time and energy upon problems which were, perhaps, solved long since; it discourages him from attacking an unsolved problem by the same method which has led other mathematicians to failure; it teaches that fortifications can be taken by other ways than by direct attack, that when repulsed from a direct assault it is well to reconnoiter and occupy the surrounding ground and to discover the secret paths by which the apparently unconquerable position can be taken.
In History of Mathematics (1897), 1-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Assault (12)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attention (196)  |  Branch (155)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Connect (126)  |  Augustus De Morgan (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discourage (14)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Early (196)  |  Energy (373)  |  Error (339)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fortification (6)  |  Good (906)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hasty (7)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mathematics (7)  |  Importance (299)  |  Increase (225)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lead (391)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Notation (28)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Path (159)  |  Pay (45)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Out (9)  |  Position (83)  |  Possess (157)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reconnoitre (2)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remind (16)  |  Repulse (2)  |  Respect (212)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Secret (216)  |  Solve (145)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Store (49)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Surround (33)  |  Teach (299)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconquerable (3)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Warn (7)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)

The history of men of science has one peculiar advantage, as it shows the importance of little things in producing great results. Smeaton learned his principle of constructing a lighthouse, by noticing the trunk of a tree to be diminished from a curve to a cyclinder ... and Newton, turning an old box into a water-clock, or the yard of a house into a sundial, are examples of those habits of patient observation which scientific biography attractively recommends.
Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature (1855), 129.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Biography (254)  |  Box (22)  |  Clock (51)  |  Curve (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habit (174)  |  History (716)  |  House (143)  |  Importance (299)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lighthouse (6)  |  Little (717)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Observation (593)  |  Old (499)  |  Patient (209)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Principle (530)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  John Smeaton (5)  |  Sundial (6)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Water (503)

The history of science shows so many examples of the 'irrational' notions and theories of to-day becoming the 'rational' notions and theories of to-morrow, that it seems largely a matter of being accustomed to them whether they are considered rational or not, natural or not.
Natural Law and Divine Miracle: The Principle of Uniformity in Geology, Biology and Theology (1963),167.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Consider (428)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Matter (821)  |  Natural (810)  |  Notion (120)  |  Rational (95)  |  Theory (1015)

The history of the word sankhyā shows the intimate connection which has existed for more than 3000 years in the Indian mind between ‘adequate knowledge’ and ‘number.’ As we interpret it, the fundamental aim of statistics is to give determinate and adequate knowledge of reality with the help of numbers and numerical analysis. The ancient Indian word Sankhyā embodies the same idea, and this is why we have chosen this name for the Indian Journal of Statistics.
Editorial, Vol. 1, Part 1, in the new statistics journal of the Indian Statistical Institute, Sankhayā (1933). Also reprinted in Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics (Feb 2003), 65, No. 1, xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aim (175)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Connection (171)  |  Determinate (7)  |  Embody (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Help (116)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  India (23)  |  Indian (32)  |  Interpret (25)  |  Journal (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Reality (274)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, no one fails entirely, but every one says something true about the nature of things, and while individually they contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed. Therefore, since the truth seems to be like the proverbial door, which no one can fail to hit, in this way it is easy, but the fact that we can have a whole truth and not the particular part we aim at shows the difficulty of it. Perhaps, as difficulties are of two kinds, the cause of the present difficulty is not in the facts but in us.
Aristotle
Metaphysics, 993a, 30-993b, 9. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1569-70.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Amass (6)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attain (126)  |  Cause (561)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Door (94)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Hard (246)  |  Indication (33)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kind (564)  |  Little (717)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Proverbial (8)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

The large collection of problems which our modern Cambridge books supply will be found to be almost an exclusive peculiarity of these books; such collections scarcely exist in foreign treatises on mathematics, nor even in English treatises of an earlier date. This fact shows, I think, that a knowledge of mathematics may be gained without the perpetual working of examples. … Do not trouble yourselves with the examples, make it your main business, I might almost say your exclusive business, to understand the text of your author.
In 'Private Study of Mathematics', Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Book (413)  |  Business (156)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Collection (68)  |  Date (14)  |  Do (1905)  |  Early (196)  |  English (35)  |  Example (98)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gain (146)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Main (29)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Problem (731)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Supply (100)  |  Text (16)  |  Think (1122)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The logic of the subject [algebra], which, both educationally and scientifically speaking, is the most important part of it, is wholly neglected. The whole training consists in example grinding. What should have been merely the help to attain the end has become the end itself. The result is that algebra, as we teach it, is neither an art nor a science, but an ill-digested farrago of rules, whose object is the solution of examination problems. … The result, so far as problems worked in examinations go, is, after all, very miserable, as the reiterated complaints of examiners show; the effect on the examinee is a well-known enervation of mind, an almost incurable superficiality, which might be called Problematic Paralysis—a disease which unfits a man to follow an argument extending beyond the length of a printed octavo page.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science (1885), Nature, 32, 447-448.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Argument (145)  |  Art (680)  |  Attain (126)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Consist (223)  |  Digest (10)  |  Disease (340)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Enervation (2)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examiner (5)  |  Example (98)  |  Far (158)  |  Follow (389)  |  Grind (11)  |  Help (116)  |  Important (229)  |  Incurable (10)  |  Known (453)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Miserable (8)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Object (438)  |  Page (35)  |  Paralysis (9)  |  Part (235)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reiterate (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Solution (282)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Training (92)  |  Unfit (13)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Work (1402)

The main steps of my argument may be summarized thus:
1. Organisms are highly coordinated structures.
2. Only certain avenues of change are compatible with their conditions of coordination.
3. The formative and selective action of these internal conditions is theoretically and empirically different from that of Darwinian selection.
4. Mutations in the mode of coordination of the genetic system lie outside the scope of the classical arguments purporting to show that natural selection is the only directive agency.
5. The coordinative conditions constitute a second directive agency.
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Argument (145)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Classical (49)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Coordination (11)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Formation (100)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Internal (69)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Organism (231)  |  Outside (141)  |  Scope (44)  |  Selection (130)  |  Selective (21)  |  Step (234)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)

The majority of evolutive movements are degenerative. Progressive cases are exceptional. Characters appear suddenly that have no meaning in the atavistic series. Evolution in no way shows a general tendency toward progress… . The only thing that could be accomplished by slow changes would be the accumulation of neutral characteristics without value for survival. Only important and sudden mutations can furnish the material which can be utilized by selection.
As quoted in Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 91. Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Appear (122)  |  Atavistic (2)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Degeneration (11)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exception (74)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Furnish (97)  |  General (521)  |  Important (229)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Movement (162)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Neutral (15)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reversion (3)  |  Selection (130)  |  Series (153)  |  Slow (108)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Survival (105)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)

The mathematical formulation of the physicist’s often crude experience leads in an uncanny number of cases to an amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena. This shows that the mathematical language has more to commend it than being the only language which we can speak; it shows that it is, in a very real sense, the correct language.
In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 542.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Commend (7)  |  Correct (95)  |  Crude (32)  |  Description (89)  |  Experience (494)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Language (308)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Sense (785)  |  Speak (240)  |  Uncanny (5)

The mathematically formulated laws of quantum theory show clearly that our ordinary intuitive concepts cannot be unambiguously applied to the smallest particles. All the words or concepts we use to describe ordinary physical objects, such as position, velocity, color, size, and so on, become indefinite and problematic if we try to use them of elementary particles.
In Across the Frontiers (1974), 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Become (821)  |  Color (155)  |  Concept (242)  |  Describe (132)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Intuitive (14)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Particle (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Position (83)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Size (62)  |  Small (489)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Try (296)  |  Unambiguously (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Word (650)

The mercury light doesn't show red. It makes the blood in your skin look blue-black. But see how splendidly it brings out the green in the plants.
From George MacAdam, 'Steinmetz, Electricity's Mastermind, Enters Politics', New York Times (2 Nov 1913), SM3. Answering the reporter’s question about why he lit the cactus collection in his conservatory with the blue light from a mercury lamp, which makes a man look like a corpse.
Science quotes on:  |  Black (46)  |  Blood (144)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bring (95)  |  Green (65)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Plant (320)  |  Red (38)  |  See (1094)  |  Skin (48)

The methods of science aren’t foolproof, but they are indefinitely perfectible. Just as important: there is a tradition of criticism that enforces improvement whenever and wherever flaws are discovered. The methods of science, like everything else under the sun, are themselves objects of scientific scrutiny, as method becomes methodology, the analysis of methods. Methodology in turn falls under the gaze of epistemology, the investigation of investigation itself—nothing is off limits to scientific questioning. The irony is that these fruits of scientific reflection, showing us the ineliminable smudges of imperfection, are sometimes used by those who are suspicious of science as their grounds for denying it a privileged status in the truth-seeking department—as if the institutions and practices they see competing with it were no worse off in these regards. But where are the examples of religious orthodoxy being simply abandoned in the face of irresistible evidence? Again and again in science, yesterday’s heresies have become today’s new orthodoxies. No religion exhibits that pattern in its history.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arent (6)  |  Badly (32)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Compete (6)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Deny (71)  |  Department (93)  |  Discover (571)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foolproof (5)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Ground (222)  |  Heresy (9)  |  History (716)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Important (229)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Institution (73)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Irony (9)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Limit (294)  |  Method (531)  |  Methodology (14)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Practice (212)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Question (649)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1094)  |  Simply (53)  |  Smudge (2)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Status (35)  |  Sun (407)  |  Suspicious (3)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (321)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Yesterday (37)

The monstrous evils of the twentieth century have shown us that the greediest money grubbers are gentle doves compared with money-hating wolves like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, who in less than three decades killed or maimed nearly a hundred million men, women, and children and brought untold suffering to a large portion of mankind.
In 'Money', In Our Time (1976), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  Bring (95)  |  Century (319)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Compare (76)  |  Decade (66)  |  Dove (3)  |  Evil (122)  |  Gentle (9)  |  Greed (17)  |  Hate (68)  |  Adolf Hitler (20)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Kill (100)  |  Large (398)  |  Lenin (2)  |  Less (105)  |  Maim (3)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Million (124)  |  Money (178)  |  Monstrous (7)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Portion (86)  |  Stalin_Joseph (5)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Untold (6)  |  Wolf (11)  |  Woman (160)

The morning stars sang together.
And a person of delicate ear and nice judgment discussed the singing at length, and showed how and wherein one star differed from another, and which was great and which was not.
And still the morning stars sang together.
'Classification' in Little Stings (1907, 1908), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Classification (102)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Ear (69)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Morning (98)  |  Nice (15)  |  Person (366)  |  Singing (19)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Together (392)

The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.
In Arthur Schopenhauer and T. Bailey Saunders (ed., trans), The Wisdom of Life (1897), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Boredom (11)  |  Foe (11)  |  General (521)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Human (1512)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pain (144)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Survey (36)  |  Two (936)

The most remarkable thing was his [Clifford’s] great strength as compared with his weight, as shown in some exercises. At one time he could pull up on the bar with either hand, which is well known to be one of the greatest feats of strength. His nerve at dangerous heights was extraordinary. I am appalled now to think that he climbed up and sat on the cross bars of the weathercock on a church tower, and when by way of doing something worse I went up and hung by my toes to the bars he did the same.
Anonymous
Quoted from a letter by one of Clifford’s friends to F. Pollock, in Clifford’s Lectures and Essays (1901), Vol. 1, Introduction, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Appalled (3)  |  Badly (32)  |  Bar (9)  |  Church (64)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Climb (39)  |  Compare (76)  |  Cross (20)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Doing (277)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Feat (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hang (46)  |  Height (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Pull (43)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Sit (51)  |  Something (718)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toe (8)  |  Tower (45)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)

The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhere near to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries—the first appearance of new beings on this earth.
Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, 2nd edn. (1845), 377-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Aboriginal (3)  |  America (143)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Archipelago (7)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Colonist (2)  |  Continent (79)  |  Crater (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crown (39)  |  Curious (95)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Island (49)  |  Lava (12)  |  Little (717)  |  Marked (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Open (277)  |  Organic (161)  |  Period (200)  |  Production (190)  |  Range (104)  |  Recent (78)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Spread (86)  |  Still (614)  |  Stream (83)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

The oldest empires,—what we called venerable antiquity, now that we have true measures of duration, show like creations of yesterday. … The old six thousand years of chronology become a kitchen clock,—no more a measure of time than an hour-glass or an egg-glass,—since the duration of geologic periods has come into view.
In 'Progress of Culture', an address read to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, 18 July 1867. Collected in Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883), 475.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Chronology (9)  |  Clock (51)  |  Creation (350)  |  Duration (12)  |  Egg (71)  |  Empire (17)  |  Geologic (2)  |  Glass (94)  |  Hour (192)  |  Kitchen (14)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Oldest (9)  |  Period (200)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  True (239)  |  Venerable (7)  |  View (496)  |  Year (963)  |  Yesterday (37)

The other book you may have heard of and perhaps read, but it is not one perusal which will enable any man to appreciate it. I have read it through five or six times, each time with increasing admiration. It will live as long as the ‘Principia’ of Newton. It shows that nature is, as I before remarked to you, a study that yields to none in grandeur and immensity. The cycles of astronomy or even the periods of geology will alone enable us to appreciate the vast depths of time we have to contemplate in the endeavour to understand the slow growth of life upon the earth. The most intricate effects of the law of gravitation, the mutual disturbances of all the bodies of the solar system, are simplicity itself compared with the intricate relations and complicated struggle which have determined what forms of life shall exist and in what proportions. Mr. Darwin has given the world a new science, and his name should, in my opinion, stand above that of every philosopher of ancient or modem times. The force of admiration can no further go!!!
Letter to George Silk (1 Sep 1860), in My Life (1905), Vol. I, 372-373.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Book (413)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enable (122)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Exist (458)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Growth (200)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Perusal (2)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Principia (14)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Read (308)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Slow (108)  |  Solar (8)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Stand (284)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

The precise equivalence of the chromosomes contributed by the two sexes is a physical correlative of the fact that the two sexes play, on the whole, equal parts in hereditary transmission, and it seems to show that the chromosomal substance, the chromatin, is to be regarded as the physical basis of inheritance. Now, chromatin is known to be closely similar to, if not identical with, a substance known as nuclein (C29H49N9O22, according to Miescher), which analysis shows to be a tolerably definite chemical compased of nucleic acid (a complex organic acid rich in phosphorus) and albumin. And thus we reach the remarkable conclusion that inheritance may, perhaps, be effected by the physical transmission of a particular chemical compound from parent to offspring.
In An Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyokinesis of the Ovum (1895), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Acid (83)  |  Albumin (2)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Basis (180)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chromatin (4)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Complex (202)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Definite (114)  |  Effect (414)  |  Equivalence (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Identical (55)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Known (453)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organic (161)  |  Parent (80)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Physical (518)  |  Precise (71)  |  Reach (286)  |  Regard (312)  |  Sex (68)  |  Substance (253)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

The profound mathematical ability of Bolyai János showed itself physically not only in his handling of the violin, where he was a master, but also of arms, where he was unapproachable.
In János Bolyai, Science Absolute of Space, translated from the Latin by George Bruce Halsted (1896), Translator's Introduction, xxix. [Bolyai was the victor in many duels. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  János Bolyai (6)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Physical (518)  |  Profound (105)  |  Violin (6)

The Question is what is The Question?
Is it all a Magic Show?
Is Reality an Illusion?
What is the framework of The Machine?
Darwin’s Puzzle: Natural Selection?
Where does Space-Time come from?
Is there any answer except that it comes from consciousness?
What is Out There?
T’is Ourselves?
Or, is IT all just a Magic Show?
Einstein told me:
“If you would learn, teach!”
Speaking at the American Physical Society, Philadelphia (Apr 2003). As quoted and cited in Jack Sarfatti, 'Wheeler's World: It From Bit?', collected in Frank H. Columbus and Volodymyr Krasnoholovets (eds.), Developments in Quantum Physics (2004), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Framework (33)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Learn (672)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magic (92)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Question (649)  |  Reality (274)  |  Selection (130)  |  Space (523)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Teach (299)  |  Time (1911)

The rule for life in the sea can be summed up in the well known expression “big fish eat little fish”. … Research shows that great losses occur in the fish cycle because small fish are eaten by larger ones, and in many cases the larger fish are not fit for human consumption.
In 'Man Explores the Sea', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (Sep 1963), 111, No. 5086, 787-789.
Science quotes on:  |  Big (55)  |  Consumption (16)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Eat (108)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fit (139)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Loss (117)  |  Occur (151)  |  Research (753)  |  Rule (307)  |  Sea (326)  |  Small (489)

The school of Plato has advanced the interests of the race as much through geometry as through philosophy. The modern engineer, the navigator, the astronomer, built on the truths which those early Greeks discovered in their purely speculative investigations. And if the poetry, statesmanship, oratory, and philosophy of our day owe much to Plato’s divine Dialogues, our commerce, our manufactures, and our science are equally indebted to his Conic Sections. Later instances may be abundantly quoted, to show that the labors of the mathematician have outlasted those of the statesman, and wrought mightier changes in the condition of the world. Not that we would rank the geometer above the patriot, but we claim that he is worthy of equal honor.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 85, 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundantly (2)  |  Advance (298)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Build (211)  |  Change (639)  |  Claim (154)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Dialogue (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Divine (112)  |  Early (196)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equally (129)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Greek (109)  |  Honor (57)  |  Indebted (8)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Labor (200)  |  Late (119)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Modern (402)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Outlast (3)  |  Owe (71)  |  Patriot (5)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Purely (111)  |  Quote (46)  |  Race (278)  |  Rank (69)  |  School (227)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Statesmanship (2)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Worthy (35)

The scientist takes off from the manifold observations of predecessors, and shows his intelligence, if any, by his ability to discriminate between the important and the negligible, by selecting here and there the significant steppingstones that will lead across the difficulties to new understanding. The one who places the last stone and steps across to the terra firma of accomplished discovery gets all the credit.
In As I Remember Him (1940).
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Last (425)  |  Lead (391)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Negligible (5)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Significant (78)  |  Step (234)  |  Stone (168)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

The sociological context of the times [affects education]. Some people call it television culture—you’re supposed to be able to get everything in 30 seconds, a sort of quiz-show attitude.
Recognizing in education a declining “dedication to rigorous thinking and the fact that things are really hard to understand.” In interview, Rushworth M. Kidder, 'Grounded in Space Science', Christian Science Monitor (22 Dec 1989).
Science quotes on:  |  Affect (19)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Call (781)  |  Context (31)  |  Culture (157)  |  Education (423)  |  Everything (489)  |  People (1031)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Supposed (5)  |  Television (33)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)

The story is told of Lord Kelvin, a famous Scotch physicist of the last century, that after he had given a lecture on atoms and molecules, one of his students came to him with the question, “Professor, what is your idea of the structure of the atom.”
“What,” said Kelvin, “The structure of the atom? Why, don’t you know, the very word ‘atom’ means the thing that can’t be cut. How then can it have a structure?”
“That,” remarked the facetious young man, “shows the disadvantage of knowing Greek.”
As described in 'Assault on Atoms' (Read 23 Apr 1931 at Symposium—The Changing World) Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1931), 70, No. 3, 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Century (319)  |  Cut (116)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Facetious (2)  |  Greek (109)  |  Idea (881)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Last (425)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Professor (133)  |  Question (649)  |  Scottish (4)  |  Story (122)  |  Structure (365)  |  Student (317)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  Young (253)

The success of Apollo was mainly due to the fact that the project was conceived and honestly presented to the public as an international sporting event and not as a contribution to science. The order of priorities in Apollo was accurately reflected by the first item to be unloaded after each landing on the Moon's surface, the television camera. The landing, the coming and going of the astronauts, the exploring of the moon's surface, the gathering of Moon rocks and the earthward departure, all were expertly choreographed with the cameras placed in the right positions to make a dramatic show on television. This was to me the great surprise of the Apollo missions. There was nothing surprising in the fact that astronauts could walk on the Moon and bring home Moon rocks. There were no big scientific surprises in the chemistry of the Moon rocks or in the results of magnetic and seismic observations that the astronauts carried out. The big surprise was the quality of the public entertainment that the missions provided. I had never expected that we would see in real time astronauts hopping around in lunar gravity and driving their Rover down the Lincoln- Lee scarp to claim a lunar speed record of eleven miles per hour. Intensive television coverage was the driving force of Apollo. Von Braun had not imagined the possibilities of television when he decided that one kilohertz would be an adequate communication bandwidth for his Mars Project.
From a Danz lecture at University of Washington, 'Sixty Years of Space Science 1958-2018' (1988), collected in From Eros to Gaia (1992), Vol. 5, 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Apollo (9)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Bandwidth (2)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Claim (154)  |  Coming (114)  |  Communication (101)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Down (455)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Driving (28)  |  Due (143)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Event (222)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Home (184)  |  Honestly (10)  |  Hour (192)  |  International (40)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Mars (47)  |  Mission (23)  |  Moon (252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Present (630)  |  Project (77)  |  Quality (139)  |  Record (161)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (176)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Speed (66)  |  Success (327)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Television (33)  |  Time (1911)  |  Walk (138)

The terror of the thunderstorm led primitive man to the conception of a Supreme Being whose attribute was the thunderbolt. But when Franklin brought the lightning from the clouds and showed it to he a mere electric spark, when we learned to make the lightning harmless by the lightning-rod, and when finally we harnessed electricity to do our work, naturally our reverence for the thrower of the thunderbolt decayed. So the gods of experience vanished.
In 'Religion and Modern Science', The Christian Register (16 Nov 1922), 101, 1089. The article is introduced as “the substance of an address to the Laymen’s League in All Soul’s Church (5 Nov 1922).
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bring (95)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Decay (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experience (494)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  God (776)  |  Harmless (9)  |  Harness (25)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Lightning-Rod (2)  |  Man (2252)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Primitive Man (5)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Spark (32)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Supreme Being (8)  |  Terror (32)  |  Thunderbolt (7)  |  Thunderstorm (7)  |  Vanish (19)  |  Work (1402)

The trend of mathematics and physics towards unification provides the physicist with a powerful new method of research into the foundations of his subject. … The method is to begin by choosing that branch of mathematics which one thinks will form the basis of the new theory. One should be influenced very much in this choice by considerations of mathematical beauty. It would probably be a good thing also to give a preference to those branches of mathematics that have an interesting group of transformations underlying them, since transformations play an important role in modern physical theory, both relativity and quantum theory seeming to show that transformations are of more fundamental importance than equations.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Branch (155)  |  Choice (114)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Equation (138)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Mathematical Beauty (19)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preference (28)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Research (753)  |  Role (86)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Trend (23)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Unification (11)  |  Will (2350)

The truly scientific mind is altogether unafraid of the new, and while having no mercy for ideas which have served their turn or shown their uselessness, it will not grudge to any unfamiliar conception its moment of full and friendly attention, hoping to expand rather than to minimize what small core of usefulness it may happen to contain.
In 'Observation and Experiment and Their Use in the Medical Sciences', British Medical Journal (1930), 2, 129-34. As cited in Edward J. Huth and T.J. Murray, Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages (2006), 357 and 512.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Conception (160)  |  Content (75)  |  Core (20)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Friend (180)  |  Grudge (2)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mercy (12)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  New (1273)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Service (110)  |  Small (489)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unfamiliar (17)  |  Unfamiliarity (5)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Will (2350)

The typical nature photograph shows a butterfly on a pretty flower. The conservation photograph shows the same thing, but with a bulldozer coming at it in the background.
As quoted in Jaymi Heimbuch, 'How One Photographer's Foolishness is Saving Endangered Wildlife' (23 Jan 2014) on Mother Nature Network webpage.
Science quotes on:  |  Background (44)  |  Bulldozer (6)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Flower (112)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Thing (1914)

The ultimate aim of those who are devoted to science is to penetrate beyond the phenomena observed on the surface to the ultimate causes, and to reduce the whole … to a simple deductive system of mechanics, in which the phenomena observed shall be shown to flow naturally from the few simple laws that underlie the structure of the universe.
In article, 'Meteorolgy', Encyclopaedia Britannica, (11th ed., 1911), Vol. 18, 281
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Cause (561)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Flow (89)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Observe (179)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Simple (426)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)

The United States is the most powerful technically advanced country in the world to-day. Its influence on the shaping of international relations is absolutely incalculable. But America is a large country and its people have so far not shown much interest in great international problems, among which the problem of disarmament occupies first place today. This must be changed, if only in the essential interests of the Americans. The last war has shown that there are no longer any barriers between the continents and that the destinies of all countries are closely interwoven. The people of this country must realize that they have a great responsibility in the sphere of international politics. The part of passive spectator is unworthy of this country and is bound in the end to lead to disaster all round.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Advance (298)  |  America (143)  |  American (56)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Bind (26)  |  Bound (120)  |  Change (639)  |  Closely (12)  |  Continent (79)  |  Country (269)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Disarmament (6)  |  Disaster (58)  |  End (603)  |  Essential (210)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Incalculable (4)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interest (416)  |  International (40)  |  Interwoven (10)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Part (235)  |  Passive (8)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Politics (122)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Problem (731)  |  Realize (157)  |  Relation (166)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Round (26)  |  Shape (77)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Technically (5)  |  To-Day (6)  |  Today (321)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  United States (31)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

The United States this week will commit its national pride, eight years of work and $24 billion of its fortune to showing the world it can still fulfill a dream. It will send three young men on a human adventure of mythological proportions with the whole of the civilized world invited to watch—for better or worse.
In 'Prestige of U.S. Rides on Apollo', Los Angeles Times (13 Jul 1969). As quoted and cited in Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journey (2001), 315.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Better (493)  |  Billion (104)  |  Commit (43)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Human (1512)  |  Invite (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  National (29)  |  Pride (84)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Send (23)  |  Space (523)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  United States (31)  |  Watch (118)  |  Week (73)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

The universe shows us the life of God, or rather it is in itself the life of God… . God is not out of the universe any more than the universe is out of God. God is the principle, the universe is the consequence.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 40
Science quotes on:  |  Consequence (220)  |  God (776)  |  Life (1870)  |  More (2558)  |  Principle (530)  |  Universe (900)

The unprecedented identification of the spectrum of an apparently stellar object in terms of a large red-shift suggests either of the two following explanations.
The stellar object is a star with a large gravitational red-shift. Its radius would then be of the order of 10km. Preliminary considerations show that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to account for the occurrence of permitted lines and a forbidden line with the same red-shift, and with widths of only 1 or 2 per cent of the wavelength.
The stellar object is the nuclear region of a galaxy with a cosmological red-shift of 0.158, corresponding to an apparent velocity of 47,400 km/sec. The distance would be around 500 megaparsecs, and the diameter of the nuclear region would have to be less than 1 kiloparsec. This nuclear region would be about 100 times brighter optically than the luminous galaxies which have been identified with radio sources thus far. If the optical jet and component A of the radio source are associated with the galaxy, they would be at a distance of 50 kiloparsecs implying a time-scale in excess of 105 years. The total energy radiated in the optical range at constant luminosity would be of the order of 1059 ergs.
Only the detection of irrefutable proper motion or parallax would definitively establish 3C 273 as an object within our Galaxy. At the present time, however, the explanation in terms of an extragalactic origin seems more direct and less objectionable.
'3C 273: A Star-like Object with Large Red-Shift', Nature (1963), 197, 1040.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Component (51)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constant (148)  |  Cosmological (11)  |  Detection (19)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distance (171)  |  Energy (373)  |  Excess (23)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Identification (20)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Large (398)  |  Line (100)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  Luminous (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Object (438)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Optical (11)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Parallax (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Proper (150)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radius (5)  |  Range (104)  |  Red-Shift (4)  |  Scale (122)  |  Shift (45)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Star (460)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Time (1911)  |  Total (95)  |  Two (936)  |  Unprecedented (11)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Wavelength (10)  |  Year (963)

The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me - a small disk, 240,000 miles away… Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don’t show from that distance.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Disk (3)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Famine (18)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mile (43)  |  Moon (252)  |  Nationalistic (2)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  Rage (10)  |  Small (489)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)

Then if the first argument remains secure (for nobody will produce a neater one, than the length of the periodic time is a measure of the size of the spheres), the order of the orbits follows this sequence, beginning from the highest: The first and highest of all is the sphere of the fixed stars, which contains itself and all things, and is therefore motionless. It is the location of the universe, to which the motion and position of all the remaining stars is referred. For though some consider that it also changes in some respect, we shall assign another cause for its appearing to do so in our deduction of the Earth’s motion. There follows Saturn, the first of the wandering stars, which completes its circuit in thirty years. After it comes Jupiter which moves in a twelve-year long revolution. Next is Mars, which goes round biennially. An annual revolution holds the fourth place, in which as we have said is contained the Earth along with the lunar sphere which is like an epicycle. In fifth place Venus returns every nine months. Lastly, Mercury holds the sixth place, making a circuit in the space of eighty days. In the middle of all is the seat of the Sun. For who in this most beautiful of temples would put this lamp in any other or better place than the one from which it can illuminate everything at the same time? Aptly indeed is he named by some the lantern of the universe, by others the mind, by others the ruler. Trismegistus called him the visible God, Sophocles' Electra, the watcher over all things. Thus indeed the Sun as if seated on a royal throne governs his household of Stars as they circle around him. Earth also is by no means cheated of the Moon’s attendance, but as Aristotle says in his book On Animals the Moon has the closest affinity with the Earth. Meanwhile the Earth conceives from the Sun, and is made pregnant with annual offspring. We find, then, in this arrangement the marvellous symmetry of the universe, and a sure linking together in harmony of the motion and size of the spheres, such as could be perceived in no other way. For here one may understand, by attentive observation, why Jupiter appears to have a larger progression and retrogression than Saturn, and smaller than Mars, and again why Venus has larger ones than Mercury; why such a doubling back appears more frequently in Saturn than in Jupiter, and still more rarely in Mars and Venus than in Mercury; and furthermore why Saturn, Jupiter and Mars are nearer to the Earth when in opposition than in the region of their occultation by the Sun and re-appearance. Indeed Mars in particular at the time when it is visible throughout the night seems to equal Jupiter in size, though marked out by its reddish colour; yet it is scarcely distinguishable among stars of the second magnitude, though recognized by those who track it with careful attention. All these phenomena proceed from the same course, which lies in the motion of the Earth. But the fact that none of these phenomena appears in the fixed stars shows their immense elevation, which makes even the circle of their annual motion, or apparent motion, vanish from our eyes.
'Book One. Chapter X. The Order of the Heavenly Spheres', in Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), trans. A. M. Duncan (1976), 49-51.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Back (395)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Course (413)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Everything (489)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  God (776)  |  Govern (66)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Immense (89)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Lantern (8)  |  Lie (370)  |  Linking (8)  |  Location (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Making (300)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mars (47)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Month (91)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Next (238)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Observation (593)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progression (23)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Retrogression (6)  |  Return (133)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Royal (56)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Say (989)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Track (42)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Venus (21)  |  Visible (87)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.
In North to the Orient (1935, 1963), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Break (109)  |  Channel (23)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mark (47)  |  Marked (55)  |  New (1273)  |  Pass (241)  |  Sea (326)  |  Second (66)  |  Signpost (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Uncharted (10)  |  Way (1214)

There are something like ten million million million million million million million million million million million million million million (1 with eighty zeroes after it) particles in the region of the universe that we can observe. Where did they all come from? The answer is that, in quantum theory, particles can be created out of energy in the form of particle/antiparticle pairs. But that just raises the question of where the energy came from. The answer is that the total energy of the universe is exactly zero. The matter in the universe is made out of positive energy. However, the matter is all attracting itself by gravity. Two pieces of matter that are close to each other have less energy than the same two pieces a long way apart, because you have to expend energy to separate them against the gravitational force that is pulling them together. Thus, in a sense, the gravitational field has negative energy. In the case of a universe that is approximately uniform in space, one can show that this negative gravitational energy exactly cancels the positive energy represented by the matter. So the total energy of the universe is zero.
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988), 129.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Answer (389)  |  Antiparticle (4)  |  Energy (373)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Negative (66)  |  Nuclear Particle (2)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Positive (98)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Question (649)  |  Represent (157)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Total (95)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Zero (38)

There are three reasons why, quite apart from scientific considerations, mankind needs to travel in space. The first reason is garbage disposal; we need to transfer industrial processes into space so that the earth may remain a green and pleasant place for our grandchildren to live in. The second reason is to escape material impoverishment; the resources of this planet are finite, and we shall not forgo forever the abundance of solar energy and minerals and living space that are spread out all around us. The third reason is our spiritual need for an open frontier. The ultimate purpose of space travel is to bring to humanity, not only scientific discoveries and an occasional spectacular show on television, but a real expansion of our spirit.
In Disturbing the Universe (1979).
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Escape (85)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Finite (60)  |  First (1302)  |  Forever (111)  |  Forgo (4)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Garbage (10)  |  Green (65)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Material (366)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Open (277)  |  Planet (402)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remain (355)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Spread (86)  |  Television (33)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Travel (125)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Why (491)

There is a genuine thirst for scientific knowledge in most homes. Satisfying that thirst will, I believe, create a friendly attitude toward science and scientists which will favor the cause of science in the future. Science needs an informed and friendly public to back it up.
[Stating the goals of his NBC TV show, Nature of Things, which first aired on 5 Feb 1948.]
'Televising Science'. Physics Today (Jan 1949), 2, 26. Quoted in Marcel Chotkowski LaFollette, Science on the Air (2008), 215.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Back (395)  |  Cause (561)  |  Create (245)  |  Favor (69)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Goal (155)  |  Home (184)  |  Inform (50)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

There is a story which shows his ready wit, dating from the meeting of the British Association in Canada before the war. Tizard and a colleague inadvertently crossed over into the United States, near Niagara. When challenged by a policeman, and not having their passports with them, they produced their British Association membership cards. When the policeman told them that “The American Government doesn't recognise British Science,” the lightning reply came from Tizard, “Oh, that's all right, neither does the British Government.”
In Studies of War, Nuclear and Conventional (1962), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Association (49)  |  British (42)  |  British Association (2)  |  Canada (6)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Government (116)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Membership (6)  |  Niagara (8)  |  Policeman (2)  |  Produced (187)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Reply (58)  |  Right (473)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Sir Henry Tizard (5)  |  War (233)  |  Wit (61)

There is an influence which is getting strong and stronger day by day, which shows itself more and more in all departments of human activity, and influence most fruitful and beneficial—the influence of the artist. It was a happy day for the mass of humanity when the artist felt the desire of becoming a physician, an electrician, an engineer or mechanician or—whatnot—a mathematician or a financier; for it was he who wrought all these wonders and grandeur we are witnessing. It was he who abolished that small, pedantic, narrow-grooved school teaching which made of an aspiring student a galley-slave, and he who allowed freedom in the choice of subject of study according to one's pleasure and inclination, and so facilitated development.
'Roentgen Rays or Streams', Electrical Review (12 Aug 1896). Reprinted in The Nikola Tesla Treasury (2007), 307. By Nikola Tesla
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Activity (218)  |  Artist (97)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Choice (114)  |  Department (93)  |  Desire (212)  |  Development (441)  |  Electrician (6)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Happy (108)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Influence (231)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanician (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Pedantic (4)  |  Pedantry (5)  |  Physician (284)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  School (227)  |  Slave (40)  |  Small (489)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Witness (57)  |  Wonder (251)

There is no art so difficult as the art of observation: it requires a skillful, sober spirit and a well-trained experience, which can only be acquired by practice; for he is not an observer who only sees the thing before him with his eyes, but he who sees of what parts the thing consists, and in what connexion the parts stand to the whole. One person overlooks half from inattention; another relates more than he sees while he confounds it with that which he figures to himself; another sees the parts of the whole, but he throws things together that ought to be separated. ... When the observer has ascertained the foundation of a phenomenon, and he is able to associate its conditions, he then proves while he endeavours to produce the phenomena at his will, the correctness of his observations by experiment. To make a series of experiments is often to decompose an opinion into its individual parts, and to prove it by a sensible phenomenon. The naturalist makes experiments in order to exhibit a phenomenon in all its different parts. When he is able to show of a series of phenomena, that they are all operations of the same cause, he arrives at a simple expression of their significance, which, in this case, is called a Law of Nature. We speak of a simple property as a Law of Nature when it serves for the explanation of one or more natural phenomena.
'The Study of the Natural Sciences: An Introductory Lecture to the Course of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Munich, for the Winter Session of 1852-53,' as translated and republished in The Medical Times and Gazette (22 Jan 1853), N.S. Vol. 6, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Associate (25)  |  Call (781)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Cause (561)  |  Component (51)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Consist (223)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expression (181)  |  Eye (440)  |  Figure (162)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observer (48)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Practice (212)  |  Produce (117)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Prove (261)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Report (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Series (153)  |  Significance (114)  |  Simple (426)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Sober (10)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Validity (50)  |  Verify (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

There is one experiment which I always like to try, because it proves something whichever way it goes. A solution of iodine in water is shaken with bone-black, filtered and tested with starch paste. If the colorless solution does not turn the starch blue, the experiment shows how completely charcoal extracts iodine from aqueous solution. If the starch turns blue, the experiment shows that the solution, though apparently colorless, still contains iodine which can be detected by means of a sensitive starch test.
Applied Colloid Chemistry (1921), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Aqueous (8)  |  Bone (101)  |  Charcoal (10)  |  Completely (137)  |  Detect (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extract (40)  |  Iodine (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Paste (4)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Test (221)  |  Try (296)  |  Turn (454)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)

There might have been a hundred or a thousand life-bearing planets, had the course of evolution of the universe been a little different, or there might have been none at all. They would probably add, that, as life and man have been produced, that shows that their production was possible; and therefore, if not now then at some other time, if not here then in some other planet of some other sun, we should be sure to have come into existence; or if not precisely the same as we are, then something a little better or a little worse.
From Conclusion to Man's Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research (1903), 315.
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Appear (122)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Body (557)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Control (182)  |  Course (413)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Force (497)  |  Hold (96)  |  Holding (3)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Larger (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Probably (50)  |  Produced (187)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Something (718)  |  Sun (407)  |  Superior (88)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)

There’s a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says. And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It ... teaches us how to run all our public policy.
[Demonstrating the uncompromising substitution of his religious ideology for centuries of scientific facts while he is responsible for setting important public policy on matters of science.]
From speech (27 Sep 2012) to a sportman's banquet at Liberty Baptist Church, Hartwell, Georgia, as quoted in Matt Pearce, 'U.S. Rep. Paul Broun: Evolution a lie ‘from the pit of hell’', Los Angeles Times (7 Oct 2012).
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Bible (105)  |  Call (781)  |  Data (162)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lot (151)  |  Manufacturer (10)  |  Matter (821)  |  Old (499)  |  Public Policy (2)  |  Religious (134)  |  Run (158)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Setting (44)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Analyse (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Concept (242)  |  Depend (238)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Experience (494)  |  Game (104)  |  Givens (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Idle (34)  |  Individually (2)  |  Justification (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Practice (212)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Will (2350)

This compassion, or sympathy with the pains of others, ought also to extend to the brute creation, as far as our necessities will admit; for we cannot exist long without the destruction of other animal or vegetable beings either in their mature or embryon state. Such is the condition of mortality, that the first law of nature is “eat, or be eaten.” Hence for the preservation of our existence we may be supposed to have a natural right to kill those brute creatures, which we want to eat, or which want to eat us; but to destroy even insects wantonly shows an unreflecting mind, or a depraved heart.
In A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education in Boarding Schools (1797), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brute (30)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Eat (108)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extend (129)  |  First (1302)  |  Heart (243)  |  Insect (89)  |  Kill (100)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Long (778)  |  Mature (17)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Right (473)  |  State (505)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

This irrelevance of molecular arrangements for macroscopic results has given rise to the tendency to confine physics and chemistry to the study of homogeneous systems as well as homogeneous classes. In statistical mechanics a great deal of labor is in fact spent on showing that homogeneous systems and homogeneous classes are closely related and to a considerable extent interchangeable concepts of theoretical analysis (Gibbs theory). Naturally, this is not an accident. The methods of physics and chemistry are ideally suited for dealing with homogeneous classes with their interchangeable components. But experience shows that the objects of biology are radically inhomogeneous both as systems (structurally) and as classes (generically). Therefore, the method of biology and, consequently, its results will differ widely from the method and results of physical science.
Atom and Organism: A New Approach to Theoretical Biology (1966), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Biology (232)  |  Both (496)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Deal (192)  |  Differ (88)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Irrelevance (4)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (531)  |  Object (438)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physics (564)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statistical Mechanics (7)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)

This part of optics [perspectiva], when well understood, shows us how we may make things a very long way off appear to be placed very close, and large near things appear very small, and how we may make small things placed at a distance appear as large as we want, so that it is possible for us to read the smallest letters at an incredible distance, or to count sand, or grain, or seeds, or any sort of minute objects.
Describing the use of a lens for magnification.
De iride, in Baur, Die philosophischen Werke, 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Count (107)  |  Distance (171)  |  Grain (50)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Large (398)  |  Lens (15)  |  Letter (117)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnification (10)  |  Minute (129)  |  Object (438)  |  Optics (24)  |  Possible (560)  |  Read (308)  |  Sand (63)  |  Seed (97)  |  Small (489)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

This work [an essay by Thomson, ‘On the method of analysing sulphate of zinc’] belongs to those few productions from which science will derive no advantage whatever. Much of the experimental part, even of the fundamental experiments, appears to have been made at the writing-desk; and the greatest civility which his contemporaries can show its author, is to forget it was ever published. … love of science makes it imperative to detect quackery, and expose it to the judgement of every one as it merits
In Jahresbericht (1827), 6, 77 and 181. Woehler's translation quoted in 'Attack of Berzelius on Dr. Thomson's Attempt to Establish the First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment', Philosophical Magazine (Dec 1828), 4, No. 24, 451. The latter article comments, “It well becomes Berzelius to expose fallacy in argument, or detect error in analysis; but let him not pass beyond the limits of fair criticism: let him not arraign the character of the individual., who may be actuated by motives and principles as pure as his own. Intemperate attacks, such as this, reflect back upon their author, and indicate a mind inflamed by pique, jealousy, or some unworthy passion.”
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Author (175)  |  Belong (168)  |  Derive (70)  |  Detect (45)  |  Essay (27)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Expose (28)  |  Forget (125)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Love (328)  |  Merit (51)  |  Method (531)  |  Production (190)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

Those intervening ideas, which serve to show the agreement of any two others, are called proofs; and where the agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called demonstration; it being shown to the understanding, and the mind made to see that it is so. A quickness in the mind to find out these intermediate ideas, (that shall discover the agreement or disagreement of any other) and to apply them right, is, I suppose, that which is called sagacity.
In An Essay concerning Human Understanding, Bk. 6, chaps. 2, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Apply (170)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Disagreement (14)  |  Discover (571)  |  Find (1014)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Intervene (8)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Plainly (5)  |  Proof (304)  |  Quickness (5)  |  Right (473)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  See (1094)  |  Serve (64)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

Through fear of being shown to be vacuous, religion denies the awesome power of human comprehension. It seeks to thwart, by encouraging awe in things unseen, the disclosure of the emptiness of faith.
Essay collected in John Cornwell (ed.), 'The Limitless Power of Science', Nature's Imagination: The Frontiers of Scientific Vision (1995), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Awe (43)  |  Awesome (15)  |  Being (1276)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Deny (71)  |  Disclosure (7)  |  Emptiness (13)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fear (212)  |  Human (1512)  |  Power (771)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Seek (218)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Vacuous (3)

Thus far I have produced a various and, in my judgement, incontrovertible body of facts, to show that the whole earth has been subjected to a recent and universal inundation.
Reliquire Diluvianae (1824), 224.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Flood (52)  |  Incontrovertible (8)  |  Produced (187)  |  Recent (78)  |  Subject (543)  |  Universal (198)  |  Various (205)  |  Whole (756)

To apply an experimental test would be to show ignorance of the difference between human nature and divine.
Plato
In Timaeus and Critias (1971), 95, as translated by H.D.P. (Desmond) Lee.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Applying (3)  |  Difference (355)  |  Divine (112)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Test (221)

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
In Lily Splane, Quantum Consciousness (2004), 309
Science quotes on:  |  Expect (203)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Modern (402)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Unexpected (55)

To fully understand the mathematical genius of Sophus Lie, one must not turn to books recently published by him in collaboration with Dr. Engel, but to his earlier memoirs, written during the first years of his scientific career. There Lie shows himself the true geometer that he is, while in his later publications, finding that he was but imperfectly understood by the mathematicians accustomed to the analytic point of view, he adopted a very general analytic form of treatment that is not always easy to follow.
In Lectures on Mathematics (1911), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adopt (22)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Book (413)  |  Career (86)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Early (196)  |  Easy (213)  |   Ernst Engel, (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Fully (20)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Late (119)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Publication (102)  |  Publish (42)  |  Recently (3)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Treatment (135)  |  True (239)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  View (496)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness. There is no escape from this dilemma—either all matter is conscious, or consciousness is something distinct from matter, and in the latter case, its presence in material forms is a proof of the existence of conscious beings, outside of, and independent of, what we term matter. The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable. When we touch matter, we only really experience sensations of resistance, implying repulsive force; and no other sense can give us such apparently solid proofs of the reality of matter, as touch does. This conclusion, if kept constantly present in the mind, will be found to have a most important bearing on almost every high scientific and philosophical problem, and especially on such as relate to our own conscious existence.
In 'The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man', last chapter of Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), 365-366.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complex (202)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Escape (85)  |  Especially (31)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Force (497)  |  Foregoing (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Found (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  High (370)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Independent (74)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reality (274)  |  Really (77)  |  Relate (26)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Term (357)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

To show, therefore, that we are capable of knowing, i.e. being certain that there is a God, and how we may come by this certainty, I think we need go no further than ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge we have of our own existence... For man knows that he himself exists... If any one pretends to be so sceptical as to deny his own existence, (for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible,) let him for me enjoy his beloved happiness of being nothing, until hunger or some other pain convince him of the contrary... He knows also that nothing cannot produce a being; therefore something must have existed from eternity... Next, it is evident, that what had its being and beginning from another, must also have all that which is in and belongs to its being from another too. All the powers it has must be owing to and received from the same source. This eternal source, then, of all being must also be the source and original of all power; and so this eternal Being must be also the most powerful... And most knowing. Again, a man finds in himself perception and knowledge. We have then got one step further; and we are certain now that there is not only some being, but some knowing, intelligent being in the world. There was a time, then, when there was no knowing being, and when knowledge began to be; or else there has been also a knowing being from eternity...And therefore God.
Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), book 4, ch. 10, sec 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Convince (43)  |  Deny (71)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  God (776)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Owing (39)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

To state a theorem and then to show examples of it is literally to teach backwards.
As quoted, without citation, in Howard W. Eves Return to Mathematical Circles, (1988), 159. [Note: E. Kim Nebeuts is probably a pen name since reversed it reads Mike Stueben —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Backward (10)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Example (98)  |  Literal (12)  |  Literally (30)  |  State (505)  |  Teach (299)  |  Theorem (116)

To take those fools in clerical garb seriously is to show them too much honor.
Letter to Joseph Levy (20 Jun 1945), declining invitation to join a Jewish Citizens Committee to protest the excommunication of Dr. Mordecai Kaplan by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis because of his disbelief in God as a personal entity. As reproduced in Fred Jerome, Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East (2009).
Science quotes on:  |  Clerical (2)  |  Fool (121)  |  Garb (6)  |  Honor (57)  |  Seriously (20)

To the east was our giant neighbor Makalu, unexplored and unclimbed, and even on top of Everest the mountaineering instinct was sufficient strong to cause me to spend some moments conjecturing as to whether a route up that mountain might not exist. Far away across the clouds the great bulk of Kangchenjunga loomed on the horizon. To the west, Cho Oyu, our old adversary from 1952, dominated the scene and we could see the great unexplored ranges of Nepal stretching off into the distance. The most important photograph, I felt, was a shot down the north ridge, showing the North Col and the old route that had been made famous by the struggles of those great climbers of the 1920s and 1930s. I had little hope of the results being particularly successful, as I had a lot of difficulty in holding the camera steady in my clumsy gloves, but I felt that they would at least serve as a record. After some ten minutes of this, I realized that I was becoming rather clumsy-fingered and slow-moving, so I quickly replaced my oxygen set and experience once more the stimulating effect of even a few liters of oxygen. Meanwhile, Tenzing had made a little hole in the snow and in it he placed small articles of food – a bar of chocolate, a packet of biscuits and a handful of lollies. Small offerings, indeed, but at least a token gifts to the gods that all devoted Buddhists believe have their home on this lofty summit. While we were together on the South Col two days before, Hunt had given me a small crucifix that he had asked me to take to the top. I, too, made a hole in the snow and placed the crucifix beside Tenzing’s gifts.
As quoted in Whit Burnett, The Spirit of Adventure: The Challenge (1955), 349.
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Adversary (7)  |  Article (22)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bar (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Buddhist (5)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Camera (7)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chocolate (5)  |  Climb (39)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Clumsy (7)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Down (455)  |  East (18)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everest (10)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Famous (12)  |  Far (158)  |  Feel (371)  |  Food (213)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gift (105)  |  Give (208)  |  Glove (4)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Handful (14)  |  Hold (96)  |  Hole (17)  |  Home (184)  |  Hope (321)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Important (229)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Least (75)  |  Little (717)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Loom (20)  |  Lot (151)  |  Meanwhile (2)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mountaineering (5)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Nepal (2)  |  North (12)  |  Offering (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Packet (3)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Place (192)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Range (104)  |  Realize (157)  |  Record (161)  |  Replace (32)  |  Result (700)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Route (16)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Serve (64)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Slow (108)  |  Small (489)  |  Snow (39)  |  South (39)  |  Spend (97)  |  Steady (45)  |  Stimulate (21)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Strong (182)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Summit (27)  |  Together (392)  |  Token (10)  |  Top (100)  |  Two (936)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  West (21)

To the exact descriptions he gave of the crystalline forms, he added the measure of their angles, and, which was essential, showed that these angles were constant for each variety. In one word, his crystallography was the fruit of an immense work, almost entirely new and most precious in its usefulness.<[About Jean-Baptiste Romé de l’Isle.]
(1795). As quoted in André Authier, Early Days of X-ray Crystallography (2013), 313.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Constant (148)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Description (89)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Immense (89)  |  Measure (241)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Precious (43)  |  Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l’lsle (2)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Variety (138)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide,
First strip off all her equipage of Pride,
Deduct what is but Vanity or Dress,
Or Learning's Luxury or idleness,
Or tricks, to show the stretch of the human brain
Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain.
'Essay On Man', The Works of Alexander Pope (1751), Vol. 3, 31-32.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Curious (95)  |  First (1302)  |  Guide (107)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Learning (291)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Modesty (18)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Pride (84)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Trace (109)  |  Trick (36)

Very great charm of shadow and light is to be found in the faces of those who sit in the doors of dark houses. The eye of the spectator sees that part of the face which is in shadow lost in the darkness of the house, and that part of the face which is lit draws its brilliancy from the splendor of the sky. From this intensification of light and shade the face gains greatly in relief and beauty by showing the subtlest shadows in the light part and the subtlest lights in the dark part.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Brilliancy (3)  |  Charm (54)  |  Dark (145)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Door (94)  |  Draw (140)  |  Eye (440)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatly (12)  |  House (143)  |  Intensification (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Lose (165)  |  Part (235)  |  Relief (30)  |  See (1094)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sky (174)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Subtl (2)

Walking the streets of Tokyo with Hawking in his wheelchair ... I felt as if I were taking a walk through Galilee with Jesus Christ [as] crowds of Japanese silently streamed after us, stretching out their hands to touch Hawking's wheelchair. ... The crowds had streamed after Einstein [on Einstein's visit to Japan in 1922] as they streamed after Hawking seventy years later. ... They showed exquisite choice in their heroes. ... Somehow they understood that Einstein and Hawking were not just great scientists, but great human beings.
Foreward to Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), xiii-xiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Choice (114)  |  Christ (17)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Great (1610)  |  Stephen W. Hawking (62)  |  Hero (45)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Japan (9)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Stream (83)  |  Through (846)  |  Tokyo (3)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Walk (138)  |  Year (963)

Watching baseball under the lights is like observing dogs indoors, at a pedigree show. In both instances, the environment is too controlled to suit the species.
Baseball The Difference between Night and Day Christian Science Monitor, 3 Apr 85
Science quotes on:  |  Baseball (3)  |  Both (496)  |  Control (182)  |  Dog (70)  |  Environment (239)  |  Indoors (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Observation (593)  |  Pedigree (3)  |  Species (435)  |  Suitable (10)  |  Watching (11)

We can see that there is only one substance in the universe and that man is the most perfect one. He is to the ape and the cleverest animals what Huygens's planetary clock is to one of Julien Leroy's watches. If it took more instruments, more cogs, more springs to show or tell the time, if it took Vaucanson more artistry to make his flautist than his duck, he would have needed even more to make a speaking machine, which can no longer be considered impossible, particularly at the hands of a new Prometheus. Thus, in the same way, nature needed more artistry and machinery to construct and maintain a machine which could continue for a whole century to tell all the beats of the heart and the mind; for we cannot tell the time from the pulse, it is at least the barometer of heat and liveliness, from which we can judge the nature of the soul.
Machine Man (1747), in Ann Thomson (ed.), Machine Man and Other Writings (1996), 33-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Barometer (7)  |  Beat (42)  |  Century (319)  |  Clever (41)  |  Clock (51)  |  Cog (7)  |  Consider (428)  |  Construct (129)  |  Continue (179)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heat (180)  |  Christiaan Huygens (11)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Judge (114)  |  Machine (271)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Prometheus (7)  |  Pulse (22)  |  See (1094)  |  Soul (235)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Spring (140)  |  Substance (253)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Watch (118)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

We do not know of any enzymes or other chemical defined organic substances having specifically acting auto-catalytic properties such as to enable them to construct replicas of themselves. Neither was there a general principle known that would result in pattern-copying; if there were, the basis of life would be easier to come by. Moreover, there was no evidence to show that the enzymes were not products of hereditary determiners or genes, rather than these genes themselves, and they might even be products removed by several or many steps from the genes, just as many other known substances in the cell must be. However, the determiners or genes themselves must conduct, or at least guide, their own replication, so as to lead to the formation of genes just like themselves, in such wise that even their own mutations become .incorporated in the replicas. And this would probably take place by some kind of copying of pattern similar to that postulated by Troland for the enzymes, but requiring some distinctive chemical structure to make it possible. By virtue of this ability of theirs to replicate, these genes–or, if you prefer, genetic material–contained in the nuclear chromosomes and in whatever other portion of the cell manifests this property, such as the chloroplastids of plants, must form the basis of all the complexities of living matter that have arisen subsequent to their own appearance on the scene, in the whole course of biological evolution. That is, this genetic material must underlie all evolution based on mutation and selective multiplication.
'Genetic Nucleic Acid', Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1961), 5, 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Construct (129)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Gene (105)  |  General (521)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Guide (107)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Plant (320)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Product (166)  |  Property (177)  |  Replication (10)  |  Result (700)  |  Scene (36)  |  Selective (21)  |  Step (234)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)

We pass with admiration along the great series of mathematicians, by whom the science of theoretical mechanics has been cultivated, from the time of Newton to our own. There is no group of men of science whose fame is higher or brighter. The great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, had fixed all eyes on those portions of human knowledge on which their successors employed their labors. The certainty belonging to this line of speculation seemed to elevate mathematicians above the students of other subjects; and the beauty of mathematical relations and the subtlety of intellect which may be shown in dealing with them, were fitted to win unbounded applause. The successors of Newton and the Bernoullis, as Euler, Clairaut, D’Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, not to introduce living names, have been some of the most remarkable men of talent which the world has seen.
In History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1, Bk. 4, chap. 6, sect. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Applause (9)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Bright (81)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fame (51)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fix (34)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Line (100)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Portion (86)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Series (153)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Successor (16)  |  Talent (99)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unbounded (5)  |  Win (53)  |  World (1850)

We see only the simple motion of descent, since that other circular one common to the Earth, the tower, and ourselves remains imperceptible. There remains perceptible to us only that of the stone, which is not shared by us; and, because of this, sense shows it as by a straight line, always parallel to the tower, which is built upright and perpendicular upon the terrestrial surface.
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632). Revised and Annotated by Giorgio De Santillana (1953), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Circular (19)  |  Common (447)  |  Descent (30)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Motion (320)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stone (168)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Surface (223)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Tower (45)

We speak of it [astrology] as an extinct science; yet let but an eclipse of the sun happen, or a comet visit the evening sky, and in a moment we all believe in astrology. In vain do you tell the gazers on such spectacles that a solar eclipse is only the moon acting for the time as a candle-extinguisher to the sun, and give them bits of smoked glass to look through, and draw diagrams on the blackboard to explain it all. They listen composedly, and seem convinced, but in their secret hearts they are saying—“What though you can see it through a glass darkly, and draw it on a blackboard, does that show that it has no moral significance? You can draw a gallows or a guillotine, or write the Ten Commandments on a blackboard, but does that deprive them of meaning?” And so with the comet. No man will believe that the splendid stranger is hurrying through the sky solely on a momentous errand of his own. No! he is plainly signalling, with that flashing sword of his, something of importance to men,—something at all events that, if we could make it out, would be found of huge concern to us.
From 'Introductory Lecture on Technology for 1858-59', published as The Progress of the Telegraph (1859), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrology (46)  |  Blackboard (11)  |  Candle (32)  |  Comet (65)  |  Commandment (8)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Event (222)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Glass (94)  |  Guillotine (5)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heart (243)  |  Importance (299)  |  Listen (81)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Moment (260)  |  Momentous (7)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moral (203)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sky (174)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vain (86)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

What [man landing on the moon] is doing up there is indulging his obsession with the impossible. The impossible infuriates and tantalizes him. Show him an impossible job and he will reduce it to a possibility so trite that eventually it bores him.
'Why on Earth Are We There? Because It's Impossible', New York Times (21 Jul 1969), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Apollo 11 (7)  |  Bore (3)  |  Doing (277)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indulge (15)  |  Infuriate (2)  |  Job (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Trite (5)  |  Will (2350)

What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary. (17 Oct 1988)
Der Spiegel (17 Oct 1988). Quoted in Clifford A. Pickover, Archimedes to Hawking (2008), 483.
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Law (913)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prove (261)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)

When Galileo caused balls, the weights of which he had himself previously determined, to roll down an inclined plane; when Torricelli made the air carry a weight which he had calculated beforehand to be equal to that of a definite volume of water; or in more recent times, when Stahl changed metal into lime, and lime back into metal, by withdrawing something and then restoring it, a light broke upon all students of nature. They learned that reason has insight only into that which it produces after a plan of its own, and that it must not allow itself to be kept, as it were, in nature's leading-strings, but must itself show the way with principles of judgement based upon fixed laws, constraining nature to give answer to questions of reason's own determining. Accidental observations, made in obedience to no previously thought-out plan, can never be made to yield a necessary law, which alone reason is concerned to discover.
Critique of Pure Reason (1781), trans. Norman Kemp Smith (1929), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Air (366)  |  Alone (324)  |  Answer (389)  |  Back (395)  |  Ball (64)  |  Carry (130)  |  Concern (239)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Insight (107)  |  Judgement (8)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Observation (593)  |  Plan (122)  |  Principle (530)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recent (78)  |  Roll (41)  |  Something (718)  |  Georg Ernst Stahl (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |   Evangelista Torricelli, (6)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Yield (86)

When I saw the alpha-helix and saw what a beautiful, elegant structure it was, I was thunderstruck and was furious with myself for not having built this, but on the other hand, I wondered, was it really right?
So I cycled home for lunch and was so preoccupied with the turmoil in my mind that didn’t respond to anything. Then I had an idea, so I cycled back to the lab. I realized that I had a horse hair in a drawer. I set it up on the X-ray camera and gave it a two hour exposure, then took the film to the dark room with my heart in my mouth, wondering what it showed, and when I developed it, there was the 1.5 angstrom reflection which I had predicted and which excluded all structures other than the alpha-helix.
So on Monday morning I stormed into my professor’s office, into Bragg’s office and showed him this, and Bragg said, 'Whatever made you think of that?' And I said, 'Because I was so furious with myself for having missed that beautiful structure.' To which Bragg replied coldly, 'I wish I had made you angry earlier.'
From transcript of audio of Max Perutz in BBC programme, 'Lifestory: Linus Pauling' (1997). On 'Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA' webpage 'I Wish I Had Made You Angry Earlier.'
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Back (395)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Sir William Bragg (9)  |  Dark (145)  |  Develop (278)  |  Earlier (9)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Fury (6)  |  Heart (243)  |  Helix (10)  |  Home (184)  |  Horse (78)  |  Hour (192)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lunch (6)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Miss (51)  |  Morning (98)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Myself (211)  |  Office (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predict (86)  |  Professor (133)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Right (473)  |  Saw (160)  |  Set (400)  |  Storm (56)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Turmoil (8)  |  Two (936)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wish (216)  |  Wonder (251)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

When I undertake the dissection of a human cadaver I pass a stout rope tied like a noose beneath the lower jaw and through the two zygomas up to the top of the head, either more toward the forehead or more toward the occiput according as I want the cadaver to hang with its head up or down. The longer end of the noose I run through a pulley fixed to a beam in the room so that I may raise or lower the cadaver as it hangs there or may turn it round in any direction to suit my purpose; and should I so wish I can allow it to recline at an angle upon a table, since a table can easily be placed underneath the pulley. This is how the cadaver was suspended for drawing all the muscle tables... though while that one was being drawn the rope was passed around the occiput so as to show the muscles in the neck. If the lower jaw has been removed in the course of dissection, or the zygomas have been broken, the hollows for the temporal muscles will nonetheless hold the noose sufficiently firmly. You must take care not to put the noose around the neck, unless some of the muscles connected to the occipital bone have already been cut away. It is best to suspend the cadaver like this because a human body lying on a table is very difficult to turn over on to its chest or its back.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543), Book II, 268, as translated by William Frank Richardson and John Burd Carman, in 'How the Cadaver Can Be Held Erect While These Muscles are Dissected', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book II: The Ligaments and Muscles (1998), 234.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Already (226)  |  Back (395)  |  Beam (26)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Best (467)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Broken (56)  |  Cadaver (2)  |  Care (203)  |  Connect (126)  |  Course (413)  |  Cut (116)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direction (185)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Down (455)  |  Drawing (56)  |  End (603)  |  Hang (46)  |  Head (87)  |  Human (1512)  |  Jaw (4)  |  Lying (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neck (15)  |  Noose (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rope (9)  |  Run (158)  |  Suspended (5)  |  Table (105)  |  Through (846)  |  Top (100)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

When one ponders on the tremendous journey of evolution over the past three billion years or so, the prodigious wealth of structures it has engendered, and the extraordinarily effective teleonomic performances of living beings from bacteria to man, one may well find oneself beginning to doubt again whether all this could conceiveably be the product of an enormous lottery presided over by natural selection, blindly picking the rare winners from among numbers drawn at random. [Nevertheless,] a detailed review of the accumulated modern evidence [shows] that this conception alone is compatible with the facts.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Billion (104)  |  Chance (244)  |  Conception (160)  |  Detail (150)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Effective (68)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1014)  |  Journey (48)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Past (355)  |  Performance (51)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Product (166)  |  Random (42)  |  Rare (94)  |  Review (27)  |  Selection (130)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Year (963)

Whether one show one's self a man of genius in science or compose a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, the deed, is living and can live on.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 549:41.
Science quotes on:  |  Deed (34)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Genius (301)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Point (584)  |  Self (268)  |  Song (41)  |  Thought (995)

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)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Safe (61)  |  Store (49)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Work (1402)

While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries of nature, he showed at the same time the imperfections of the mechanical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain.
The History Of Great Britain, Containing the Commonwealth and the Reigns of Charles II. and James II. (2nd ed. 1759), Vol. 2, 450.
Science quotes on:  |  Draw (140)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Remain (355)  |  Secret (216)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Veil (27)  |  Will (2350)

While the biological properties of deoxypentose nucleic acid suggest a molecular structure containing great complexity, X-ray diffraction studies described here … show the basic molecular configuration has great simplicity. [Co-author with A.R. Stokes, H.R. Wilson. Thanks include to “… our colleagues R.E. Franklin, R.G. Gosling … for discussion.”]
From 'Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids', Nature (25 Apr 1953), 171, No. 4356, 738. (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, 741.” However, the Franklin and Gosling article on p.741 is the second of two pages titled 'Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate'.)
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Author (175)  |  Basic (144)  |  Biological (137)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Diffraction (5)  |  Discussion (78)  |  DNA (81)  |  Rosalind Franklin (18)  |  Great (1610)  |  Include (93)  |  Molecular Structure (9)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Ray (115)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thanks (26)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)  |  X-ray Diffraction (5)

While the method of the natural sciences is... analytic, the method of the social sciences is better described as compositive or synthetic. It is the so-called wholes, the groups of elements which are structurally connected, which we learn to single out from the totality of observed phenomena... Insofar as we analyze individual thought in the social sciences the purpose is not to explain that thought, but merely to distinguish the possible types of elements with which we shall have to reckon in the construction of different patterns of social relationships. It is a mistake... to believe that their aim is to explain conscious action ... The problems which they try to answer arise only insofar as the conscious action of many men produce undesigned results... If social phenomena showed no order except insofar as they were consciously designed, there would indeed be no room for theoretical sciences of society and there would be, as is often argued, only problems of psychology. It is only insofar as some sort of order arises as a result of individual action but without being designed by any individual that a problem is raised which demands a theoretical explanation... people dominated by the scientistic prejudice are often inclined to deny the existence of any such order... it can be shown briefly and without any technical apparatus how the independent actions of individuals will produce an order which is no part of their intentions... The way in which footpaths are formed in a wild broken country is such an instance. At first everyone will seek for himself what seems to him the best path. But the fact that such a path has been used once is likely to make it easier to traverse and therefore more likely to be used again; and thus gradually more and more clearly defined tracks arise and come to be used to the exclusion of other possible ways. Human movements through the region come to conform to a definite pattern which, although the result of deliberate decision of many people, has yet not be consciously designed by anyone.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Aim (175)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Analyze (12)  |  Answer (389)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arise (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Break (109)  |  Briefly (5)  |  Broken (56)  |  Call (781)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Conform (15)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciously (6)  |  Construction (114)  |  Country (269)  |  Decision (98)  |  Define (53)  |  Definite (114)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Demand (131)  |  Deny (71)  |  Describe (132)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  Element (322)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Group (83)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Independent (74)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intention (46)  |  Learn (672)  |  Likely (36)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Path (159)  |  Pattern (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Problem (731)  |  Produce (117)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Region (40)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Result (700)  |  Room (42)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seem (150)  |  Single (365)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Society (350)  |  Sort (50)  |  Structurally (2)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Technical (53)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Theoretical Science (4)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Totality (17)  |  Track (42)  |  Traverse (5)  |  Try (296)  |  Type (171)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wild (96)  |  Will (2350)

Why, then, are we surprised that comets, such a rare spectacle in the universe, are not known, when their return is at vast intervals?. … The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject … And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them …. Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate … Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all. Someday there will be a man who will show in what regions comets have their orbit, why they travel so remote from other celestial bodies, how large they are and what sort they are.
Natural Questions, Book 7. As translated by Thomas H. Corcoran in Seneca in Ten Volumes: Naturales Quaestiones II (1972), 279 and 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Age (509)  |  Amaze (5)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Comet (65)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Efface (6)  |  Enough (341)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Plain (34)  |  Rare (94)  |  Remote (86)  |  Research (753)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Return (133)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Someday (15)  |  Something (718)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (543)  |  Successive (73)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Unfold (15)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes place in all phenomena. The trajectory of a simple molecule of air or vapour is regulated in a manner as certain as that of the planetary orbits; the only difference between them is that which is contributed by our ignorance. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge.
Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1814), 5th edition (1825), trans. Andrew I. Dale (1995), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Certain (557)  |  Comet (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Movement (162)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Plant (320)  |  Probability (135)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Simple (426)  |  Trajectory (5)  |  Vapour (16)

You must simply show the thing so truthfully that it lends strength to people’s awareness of what you might call the politics of the environment. … People do not want to sit in their armchairs and be made to feel that everything is awful and it's all their fault.
Attenborough felt—in the reporter’s narrative words—it would be a misuse of his position to waggle his finger at people and put across film-laden messages. In Justine de Lacy, 'Around the World With Attenborough', New York Times (27 Jan 1985), Sec. 2, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Armchair (7)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Awful (9)  |  Call (781)  |  Environment (239)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fault (58)  |  Feel (371)  |  People (1031)  |  Politics (122)  |  Sit (51)  |  Strength (139)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Want (504)


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.