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

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

Unquestionable Quotes (10 quotes)

Facts are certainly the solid and true foundation of all sectors of nature study ... Reasoning must never find itself contradicting definite facts; but reasoning must allow us to distinguish, among facts that have been reported, those that we can fully believe, those that are questionable, and those that are false. It will not allow us to lend faith to those that are directly contrary to others whose certainty is known to us; it will not allow us to accept as true those that fly in the face of unquestionable principles.
Memoires pour Servir a l'Histoire des Insectes (1736), Vol. 2, xxxiv. Quoted in Jacques Roger, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, ed. Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Definite (114)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faith (209)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Known (453)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Questionable (3)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Report (42)  |  Sector (7)  |  Solid (119)  |  Solidity (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)

For the saving the long progression of the thoughts to remote and first principles in every case, the mind should provide itself several stages; that is to say, intermediate principles, which it might have recourse to in the examining those positions that come in its way. These, though they are not self-evident principles, yet, if they have been made out from them by a wary and unquestionable deduction, may be depended on as certain and infallible truths, and serve as unquestionable truths to prove other points depending upon them, by a nearer and shorter view than remote and general maxims. … And thus mathematicians do, who do not in every new problem run it back to the first axioms through all the whole train of intermediate propositions. Certain theorems that they have settled to themselves upon sure demonstration, serve to resolve to them multitudes of propositions which depend on them, and are as firmly made out from thence as if the mind went afresh over every link of the whole chain that tie them to first self-evident principles.
In The Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Afresh (4)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chain (51)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Depend (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evident (92)  |  Examine (84)  |  Firmly (6)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Provide (79)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Remote (86)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Run (158)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Serve (64)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Several (33)  |  Short (200)  |  Stage (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)  |  Wary (3)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

If the finding of Coines, Medals, Urnes, and other Monuments of famous Persons, or Towns, or Utensils, be admitted for unquestionable Proofs, that such Persons or things have, in former Times, had a being, certainly those Petrifactions may be allowed to be of equal Validity and Evidence, that there have been formerly such Vegetables or Animals. These are truly Authentick Antiquity not to be counterfeited, the Stamps, and Impressions, and Characters of Nature that are beyond the Reach and Power of Humane Wit and Invention, and are true universal Characters legible to all rational Men.
Lectures and Discourses of Earthquakes (1668). In The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, containing his Cutlerian Lectures and other Discourses read at the Meetings of the Illustrious Royal Society (1705), 449.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Character (259)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Former (138)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Humane (19)  |  Impression (118)  |  Invention (400)  |  Monument (45)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Power (771)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reach (286)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Universal (198)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Wit (61)

It is unquestionably no slight advantage to be placed, at that early stage of life, when the mind collects its facts with greatest avidity, and the curiosity is most active, in localities where there is much to attract observation that has, escaped the notice of others. … I…was born on the Old Red Sandstone [of Scotland].
In front matter, The Old Red Sandstone: Or, New Walks in an Old Field (1851), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Attract (25)  |  Avid (2)  |  Born (37)  |  Collect (19)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Early (196)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Life (1870)  |  Locality (8)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Sandstone (3)  |  Stage (152)

Organs, faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them; grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that they will continue to do so. And if this inference is unquestionable, then is the one above deduced from it—that humanity must in the end become completely adapted to its conditions—unquestionable also. Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
Social Statics: Or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of them Developed (1851), 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Completely (137)  |  Condition (362)  |  Continue (179)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Diminution (5)  |  Disuse (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Inference (45)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Organ (118)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Use (771)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

The propositions of mathematics have, therefore, the same unquestionable certainty which is typical of such propositions as “All bachelors are unmarried,” but they also share the complete lack of empirical content which is associated with that certainty: The propositions of mathematics are devoid of all factual content; they convey no information whatever on any empirical subject matter.
From 'On the Nature of Mathematical Truth', collected in Carl Hempel and James H. Fetzer (ed.), The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality (2001), Chap. 1, 13. Also Carl Hempel, 'On the Nature of Mathematical Truth', collected in J.R. Newman (ed.), The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1631.
Science quotes on:  |  Bachelor (3)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Complete (209)  |  Content (75)  |  Convey (17)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Information (173)  |  Lack (127)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Share (82)  |  Subject (543)  |  Typical (16)  |  Unmarried (3)  |  Whatever (234)

There has come about a general public awareness that America is not automatically, and effortlessly, and unquestionably the leader of the world in science and technology. This comes as no surprise to those of us who have watched and tried to warn against the steady deterioration in the teaching of science and mathematics in the schools for the past quarter century. It comes as no surprise to those who have known of dozens of cases of scientists who have been hounded out of jobs by silly disloyalty charges, and kept out of all professional employment by widespread blacklisting practices.
Banquet speech at American Physical Society, St. Louis, Missouri. (29 Nov 1957). In "Time to Stop Baiting Scientists", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Feb 1958), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  America (143)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Blacklist (2)  |  Case (102)  |  Century (319)  |  Charge (63)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Dozen (10)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Employment (34)  |  General (521)  |  Job (86)  |  Known (453)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Past (355)  |  Practice (212)  |  Profession (108)  |  Professional (77)  |  Public (100)  |  School (227)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Silly (17)  |  Steady (45)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Technology (281)  |  Watch (118)  |  Widespread (23)  |  World (1850)

We are apt to consider that invention is the result of spontaneous action of some heavenborn genius, whose advent we must patiently wait for, but cannot artificially produce. It is unquestionable, however, that education, legal enactments, and general social conditions have a stupendous influence on the development of the originative faculty present in a nation and determine whether it shall be a fountain of new ideas or become simply a purchaser from others of ready-made inventions.
Epigraph, without citation, in Roger Cullisin, Patents, Inventions and the Dynamics of Innovation: A Multidisciplinary Study (2007), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Advent (7)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Become (821)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fountain (18)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Idea (881)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Legal (9)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patience (58)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Ready-Made (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Wait (66)

We have very strong physical and chemical evidence for a large impact; this is the most firmly established part of the whole story. There is an unquestionable mass extinction at this time, and in the fossil groups for which we have the best record, the extinction coincides with the impact to a precision of a centimeter or better in the stratigraphic record. This exact coincidence in timing strongly argues for a causal relationship.
Referring to the theory that he, and his father (physicist Luis W. Alvarez), held that dinosaurs abruptly went extinct as a result of a 6-mile-wide asteroid or comet struck the earth. In American Geophysical Union, EOS (2 Sep 1986), as quoted and cited in John Noble Wilford, 'New Data Extend Era of Dinosaurs' New York Times (9 Nov 1986), A41.
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Causal (7)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Coincide (6)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exact (75)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Impact (45)  |  Large (398)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mass Extinction (4)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Precision (72)  |  Record (161)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Story (122)  |  Strong (182)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)

What is called science today consists of a haphazard heap of information, united by nothing, often utterly unnecessary, and not only failing to present one unquestionable truth, but as often as not containing the grossest errors, today put forward as truths, and tomorrow overthrown.
In Leo Tolstoy and Charles R. Joy (ed.), Lyof Tolstoy: An Anthology (1958), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Consist (223)  |  Error (339)  |  Failing (5)  |  Forward (104)  |  Haphazard (3)  |  Heap (15)  |  Information (173)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Present (630)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Truth (1109)  |  United (15)  |  Unnecessary (23)


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.