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: “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index V > Category: Validity

Validity Quotes (50 quotes)

... an analysis that puts the final link in the chain, for here we see correlations between cytological evidence and genetic results that are so strong and obvious that their validity cannot be denied. This paper has been called a landmark in experimental genetics. It is more than that—it is a cornerstone.
Describing the paper 'A Correlation of Cytological and Genetic Crossings-over in Zea mays' published by Barbara McClintock and her student Harriet Creighton in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1931), demonstrating that the exchange of genetic information that occurs during the production of sex cells is accompanied by an exchange of chromosomal material.
Classic Papers in Genetics (1959), 156.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Call (781)  |  Cornerstone (8)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Final (121)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Information (173)  |  Landmark (9)  |  Material (366)  |  Barbara McClintock (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Occur (151)  |  Paper (192)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Production (190)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Sex (68)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)

...they have never affirm'd any thing, concerning the Cause, till the Trial was past: whereas, to do it before, is a most venomous thing in the making of Sciences; for whoever has fix'd on his Cause, before he experimented; can hardly avoid fitting his Experiment to his Observations, to his own Cause, which he had before imagin'd; rather than the Cause to the Truth of the Experiment itself.
Referring to experiments of the Aristotelian mode, whereby a preconceived truth would be illustrated merely to convince people of the validity of the original thought.
Thomas Sprat, Abraham Cowley, History of the Royal Society (1667, 1734), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Bias (22)  |  Cause (561)  |  Convince (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Making (300)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Preconceive (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trial (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Venom (2)  |  Whoever (42)

[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. … But you don’t reply to critics: “Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I’m very fond of it. It’s done you no harm. Please don’t attack it.” That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn’t work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.
In 'Wonder and Skepticism', Skeptical Enquirer (Jan-Feb 1995), 19, No. 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Better (493)  |  Critic (21)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Data (162)  |  Doing (277)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Favor (69)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Good (906)  |  Hard (246)  |  Harm (43)  |  Idea (881)  |  Minute (129)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neuron (10)  |  New (1273)  |  Please (68)  |  Reply (58)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

La théorie est l’hypothèse vérifiée, après qu’elle a été soumise au contrôle du raisonnement et de la critique expérimentale. La meilleure théorie est celle qui a été vérifiée par le plus grand nombre de faits. Mais une théorie, pour rester bonne, doit toujours se modifier avec les progrès de la science et demeurer constamment soumise à la vérification et à la critique des faits nouveaux qui apparaissent.
A theory is a verified hypothesis, after it has been submitted to the control of reason and experimental criticism. The soundest theory is one that has been verified by the greatest number of facts. But to remain valid, a theory must be continually altered to keep pace with the progress of science and must be constantly resubmitted to verification and criticism as new facts appear.
Original work in French, Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865), 385. English translation by Henry Copley Green in An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Continually (17)  |  Control (182)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Pace (18)  |  Plus (43)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remain (355)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Verification (32)

Mathematical truth has validity independent of place, personality, or human authority. Mathematical relations are not established, nor can they be abrogated, by edict. The multiplication table is international and permanent, not a matter of convention nor of relying upon authority of state or church. The value of π is not amenable to human caprice. The finding of a mathematical theorem may have been a highly romantic episode in the personal life of the discoverer, but it cannot be expected of itself to reveal the race, sex, or temperament of this discoverer. With modern means of widespread communication even mathematical notation tends to be international despite all nationalistic tendencies in the use of words or of type.
Anonymous
In 'Light Thrown on the Nature of Mathematics by Certain Aspects of Its Development', Mathematics in General Education (1940), 256. This is the Report of the Committee on the Function of Mathematics in General Education of the Commission on Secondary School Curriculum, which was established by the Executive Board of the Progressive Education Association in 1932.
Science quotes on:  |  Amenable (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Church (64)  |  Communication (101)  |  Convention (16)  |  Despite (7)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Episode (5)  |  Establish (63)  |  Expect (203)  |  Human (1512)  |  Independent (74)  |  International (40)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Modern (402)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Nation (208)  |  Notation (28)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Personal (75)  |  Personality (66)  |  Place (192)  |  Race (278)  |  Relation (166)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Sex (68)  |  State (505)  |  Table (105)  |  Temperament (18)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Widespread (23)  |  Word (650)

Ron Hutcheson, a Knight-Ridder reporter: [Mr. President, what are your] personal views [about the theory of] intelligent design?
President George W. Bush: [Laughing. You're] doing a fine job of dragging me back to the past [days as governor of Texas]. ... Then, I said that, first of all, that decision should be made to local school districts, but I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught...”
Hutcheson: Both sides ought to be properly taught?
President: Yes ... so people can understand what the debate is about.
Hutcheson: So the answer accepts the validity of “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution?
President: I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought, and I'm not suggesting—you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.
Hutcheson: So we've got to give these groups—...
President: [interrupting] Very interesting question, Hutch. [Laughter from other reporters]
From conversation with reporters at the White House (1 Aug 2005), as quoted by Matthew Cooper in 'Fanning the Controversy Over “Intelligent Design”', Time (3 Aug 2005). The Time writer stated, “The president has gone farther in questioning the widely-taught theories of evolution and natural selection than any president since Ronald Reagan, who advocated teaching creationism in public schools alongside evolution.” Just a few months later, in the nation's first case on that point, on 20 Dec 2005, “a federal judge [John E. Jones] ruled it was unconstitutional for a Pennsylvania school district to present intelligent design as an alternative in high school biology courses, because it is a religious viewpoint,” as reported by Laurie Goodstein in 'Judge Rejects Teaching Intelligent Design', New York Times (21 Dec 2005). Goodstein also wrote “Judge Jones, a Republican appointed by President Bush, concluded that intelligent design was not science,” and that “the evidence in the trial proved that intelligent design was 'creationism relabeled.' The Supreme Court has already ruled that creationism ... cannot be taught as science in a public school.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Answer (389)  |  Asking (74)  |  Back (395)  |  Both (496)  |  Debate (40)  |  Decision (98)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  District (11)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dragging (6)  |  Education (423)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  First (1302)  |  Governor (13)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Intelligent Design (5)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Job (86)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Local (25)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Personal (75)  |  President (36)  |  Question (649)  |  School (227)  |  Side (236)  |  Teach (299)  |  Texas (4)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Understand (648)  |  View (496)

A natural science is one whose propositions on limited domains of nature can have only a correspondingly limited validity; and that science is not a philosophy developing a world-view of nature as a whole or about the essence of things.
In The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (1958), 152. Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans from Das Naturbild der Heutigen Physik (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Correspond (13)  |  Develop (278)  |  Domain (72)  |  Essence (85)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Thing (1914)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

Being in love with the one parent and hating the other are among the essential constituents of the stock of psychical impulses which is formed at that time and which is of such importance in determining the symptoms of the later neurosis... This discovery is confirmed by a legend that has come down to us from classical antiquity: a legend whose profound and universal power to move can only be understood if the hypothesis I have put forward in regard to the psychology of children has an equally universal validity. What I have in mind is the legend of King Oedipus and Sophocles' drama which bears his name.
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), In James Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953), Vol. 4, 260-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Children (201)  |  Classical (49)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Drama (24)  |  Equally (129)  |  Essential (210)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Legend (18)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Move (223)  |  Name (359)  |  Neurosis (9)  |  Oedipus (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Power (771)  |  Profound (105)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Regard (312)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understood (155)  |  Universal (198)

For terrestrial vertebrates, the climate in the usual meteorological sense of the term would appear to be a reasonable approximation of the conditions of temperature, humidity, radiation, and air movement in which terrestrial vertebrates live. But, in fact, it would be difficult to find any other lay assumption about ecology and natural history which has less general validity. … Most vertebrates are much smaller than man and his domestic animals, and the universe of these small creatures is one of cracks and crevices, holes in logs, dense underbrush, tunnels, and nests—a world where distances are measured in yards rather than miles and where the difference between sunshine and shadow may be the difference between life and death. Actually, climate in the usual sense of the term is little more than a crude index to the physical conditions in which most terrestrial animals live.
From 'Interaction of physiology and behavior under natural conditions', collected in R.I. Bowman (ed.), The Galapagos (1966), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appear (122)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Climate (102)  |  Condition (362)  |  Crack (15)  |  Creature (242)  |  Crude (32)  |  Death (406)  |  Dense (5)  |  Difference (355)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Distance (171)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Hole (17)  |  Humidity (3)  |  Index (5)  |  Less (105)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Log (7)  |  Man (2252)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mile (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nest (26)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Small (489)  |  Sunshine (12)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Tunnel (13)  |  Underbrush (2)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  World (1850)  |  Yard (10)

Freud becomes one of the dramatis personae, in fact, as discoverer of the great and beautiful modern myth of psychoanalysis. By myth, I mean a poetic, dramatic expression of a hidden truth; and in placing this emphasis, I do not intend to put into question the scientific validity of psychoanalysis.
The White Hotel (1981,1993), vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mean (810)  |  Modern (402)  |  Myth (58)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Truth (1109)

Genetics is the first biological science which got in the position in which physics has been in for many years. One can justifiably speak about such a thing as theoretical mathematical genetics, and experimental genetics, just as in physics. There are some mathematical geniuses who work out what to an ordinary person seems a fantastic kind of theory. This fantastic kind of theory nevertheless leads to experimentally verifiable prediction, which an experimental physicist then has to test the validity of. Since the times of Wright, Haldane, and Fisher, evolutionary genetics has been in a similar position.
Oral history memoir. Columbia University, Oral History Research Office, New York, 1962. Quoted in William B. Provine, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (1989), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Fischer_Ronald (2)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Person (366)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Speak (240)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)  |  Sewall Wright (9)  |  Year (963)

Geologists have not been slow to admit that they were in error in assuming that they had an eternity of past time for the evolution of the earth’s history. They have frankly acknowledged the validity of the physical arguments which go to place more or less definite limits to the antiquity of the earth. They were, on the whole, disposed to acquiesce in the allowance of 100 millions of years granted to them by Lord Kelvin, for the transaction of the whole of the long cycles of geological history. But the physicists have been insatiable and inexorable. As remorseless as Lear’s daughters, they have cut down their grant of years by successive slices, until some of them have brought the number to something less than ten millions. In vain have the geologists protested that there must somewhere be a flaw in a line of argument which tends to results so entirely at variance with the strong evidence for a higher antiquity, furnished not only by the geological record, but by the existing races of plants and animals. They have insisted that this evidence is not mere theory or imagination, but is drawn from a multitude of facts which become hopelessly unintelligible unless sufficient time is admitted for the evolution of geological history. They have not been able to disapprove the arguments of the physicists, but they have contended that the physicists have simply ignored the geological arguments as of no account in the discussion.
'Twenty-five years of Geological Progress in Britain', Nature, 1895, 51, 369.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Animal (651)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Argument (145)  |  Become (821)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Definite (114)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Error (339)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Grant (76)  |  History (716)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Insatiable (7)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Lord (97)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Past (355)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Plant (320)  |  Protest (9)  |  Race (278)  |  Record (161)  |  Result (700)  |  Slow (108)  |  Something (718)  |  Strong (182)  |  Successive (73)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Vain (86)  |  Variance (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (963)

I think a strong claim can be made that the process of scientific discovery may be regarded as a form of art. This is best seen in the theoretical aspects of Physical Science. The mathematical theorist builds up on certain assumptions and according to well understood logical rules, step by step, a stately edifice, while his imaginative power brings out clearly the hidden relations between its parts. A well constructed theory is in some respects undoubtedly an artistic production. A fine example is the famous Kinetic Theory of Maxwell. ... The theory of relativity by Einstein, quite apart from any question of its validity, cannot but be regarded as a magnificent work of art.
Responding to the toast, 'Science!' at the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1932.)
Quoted in Lawrence Badash, 'Ernest Rutherford and Theoretical Physics,' in Robert Kargon and Peter Achinstein (eds.) Kelvin's Baltimore Lectures and Modern Theoretical Physics: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives (1987), 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  According (236)  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Best (467)  |  Build (211)  |  Certain (557)  |  Claim (154)  |  Construct (129)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Form (976)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Theory (7)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Question (649)  |  Regard (312)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Respect (212)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Academy (3)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stately (12)  |  Step (234)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Strong (182)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Think (1122)  |  Toast (8)  |  Understood (155)  |  Work (1402)

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)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Wit (61)

If there is anything in the world which I do firmly believe in, it is the universal validity of the law of causation.
'Science and Morals' (1886). In Collected Essays (1994), Vol. 9, 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Causation (14)  |  Do (1905)  |  Law (913)  |  Universal (198)  |  World (1850)

In the conception of a machine or the product of a machine there is a point where one may leave off for parsimonious reasons, without having reached aesthetic perfection; at this point perhaps every mechanical factor is accounted for, and the sense of incompleteness is due to the failure to recognize the claims of the human agent. Aesthetics carries with it the implications of alternatives between a number of mechanical solutions of equal validity; and unless this awareness is present at every stage of the process … it is not likely to come out with any success in the final stage of design.
From 'The Esthetic Assimilation of the Machine', Technics and Civilization (1934), 349.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Agent (73)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conception (160)  |  Design (203)  |  Due (143)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Failure (176)  |  Final (121)  |  Human (1512)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Number (710)  |  Parsimonious (3)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Stage (152)  |  Success (327)

It is hard to know what you are talking about in mathematics, yet no one questions the validity of what you say. There is no other realm of discourse half so queer.
In J.R. Newman (ed.), 'Commentary on The Foundations of Mathematics', The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1614.
Science quotes on:  |  Discourse (19)  |  Half (63)  |  Hard (246)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Other (2233)  |  Queer (9)  |  Question (649)  |  Realm (87)  |  Say (989)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)

It is perhaps difficult for a modern student of Physics to realize the basic taboo of the past period (before 1956) … it was unthinkable that anyone would question the validity of symmetries under “space inversion,” “charge conjugation” and “time reversal.” It would have been almost sacrilegious to do experiments to test such unholy thoughts.
In paper presented to the International Conference on the History of Original Ideas and Basic Discoveries, Erice, Sicily (27 Jul-4 Aug 1994), 'Parity Violation' collected in Harvey B. Newman, Thomas Ypsilantis History of Original Ideas and Basic Discoveries in Particle Physics (1996), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Charge (63)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Modern (402)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Realize (157)  |  Space (523)  |  Student (317)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Taboo (5)  |  Test (221)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unthinkable (8)

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Affair (29)  |  Best (467)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Duty (71)  |  Give (208)  |  Political (124)

It seems that the rivers know the theory. It only remains to convince the engineers of the validity of this analysis.
Epigraph, without citation, in Péter Érdi, Complexity Explained (2007), 339. In French, “Il semble que les rivières connaissent déjà la théorie Il ne reste qu'à convaincre les ingénieurs de la validité de cette analyse.”
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Convince (43)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Know (1538)  |  Remain (355)  |  River (140)  |  Seem (150)  |  Theory (1015)

Let us dismiss the question, “Have you proven that your model is valid?” with a quick NO. Then let us take up the more rewarding and far more challenging question: “Have you proven that your model is useful for learning more… ” [Co-author]
In J.B. Mankin, R.V. O’Neill, H.H. Shugart and B.W. Rust, 'The Importance of Validation in Ecosystem Analysis', in: G.S. Innis (ed.), New Directions in the Analysis of Ecological Systems (1977), Part I, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Dismissal (2)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Learning (291)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  Reward (72)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

Man has never been a particularly modest or self-deprecatory animal, and physical theory bears witness to this no less than many other important activities. The idea that thought is the measure of all things, that there is such a thing as utter logical rigor, that conclusions can be drawn endowed with an inescapable necessity, that mathematics has an absolute validity and controls experience—these are not the ideas of a modest animal. Not only do our theories betray these somewhat bumptious traits of self-appreciation, but especially obvious through them all is the thread of incorrigible optimism so characteristic of human beings.
In The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 135-136.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Betray (8)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Control (182)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endow (17)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Experience (494)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Inescapable (7)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Modest (19)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Self (268)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thread (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Trait (23)  |  Utter (8)  |  Witness (57)

Mathematical reasoning is deductive in the sense that it is based upon definitions which, as far as the validity of the reasoning is concerned (apart from any existential import), needs only the test of self-consistency. Thus no external verification of definitions is required in mathematics, as long as it is considered merely as mathematics.
In Universal Algebra (1898), Preface, vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Definition (238)  |  Existential (3)  |  External (62)  |  Far (158)  |  Import (5)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Need (320)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Test (221)  |  Verification (32)

Mathematics … above all other subjects, makes the student lust after knowledge, fills him, as it were, with a longing to fathom the cause of things and to employ his own powers independently; it collects his mental forces and concentrates them on a single point and thus awakens the spirit of individual inquiry, self-confidence and the joy of doing; it fascinates because of the view-points which it offers and creates certainty and assurance, owing to the universal validity of its methods. Thus, both what he receives and what he himself contributes toward the proper conception and solution of a problem, combine to mature the student and to make him skillful, to lead him away from the surface of things and to exercise him in the perception of their essence. A student thus prepared thirsts after knowledge and is ready for the university and its sciences. Thus it appears, that higher mathematics is the best guide to philosophy and to the philosophic conception of the world (considered as a self-contained whole) and of one’s own being.
In Die Mathematik die Fackelträgerin einer neuen Zeit (1889), 40. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Collect (19)  |  Combine (58)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Conception (160)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Create (245)  |  Doing (277)  |  Employ (115)  |  Essence (85)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Fill (67)  |  Force (497)  |  Guide (107)  |  Himself (461)  |  Independently (24)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Joy (117)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Lust (7)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mature (17)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophic (6)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proper (150)  |  Ready (43)  |  Receive (117)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Confidence (11)  |  Self-Contained (3)  |  Single (365)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Universal (198)  |  University (130)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

Mathematics is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents it needs only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession, but which fill only a limited number of veins and lodes; it is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests; it is not a continent or an ocean, whose area can be mapped out and its contour defined: it is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer’s gaze; it is as incapable of being restricted within assigned boundaries or being reduced to definitions of permanent validity, as the consciousness of life, which seems to slumber in each monad, in every atom of matter, in each leaf and bud cell, and is forever ready to burst forth into new forms of vegetable and animal existence.
From Commemoration Day Address (22 Feb 1877) at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, collected in The Collected Mathematical Papers: (1870-1883) (1909), 77-78.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Area (33)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Assign (15)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bind (26)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Brass (5)  |  Bud (6)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cell (146)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Content (75)  |  Continent (79)  |  Contour (3)  |  Cover (40)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Define (53)  |  Definition (238)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Lode (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mine (78)  |  Monad (2)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Patience (58)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Possession (68)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Ransack (2)  |  Ready (43)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Seem (150)  |  Slumber (6)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (523)  |  Successive (73)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vein (27)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

Nobody knows more than a tiny fragment of science well enough to judge its validity and value at first hand. For the rest he has to rely on views accepted at second hand on the authority of a community of people accredited as scientists. But this accrediting depends in its turn on a complex organization. For each member of the community can judge at first hand only a small number of his fellow members, and yet eventually each is accredited by all. What happens is that each recognizes as scientists a number of others by whom he is recognized as such in return, and these relations form chains which transmit these mutual recognitions at second hand through the whole community. This is how each member becomes directly or indirectly accredited by all. The system extends into the past. Its members recognize the same set of persons as their masters and derive from this allegiance a common tradition, of which each carries on a particular strand.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Chain (51)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Derive (70)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strand (9)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Turn (454)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

One may characterize physics as the doctrine of the repeatable, be it a succession in time or the co-existence in space. The validity of physical theorems is founded on this repeatability.
In Geschichte der physikalischen Begriffe (1972), 274. Quoted in Erhard Scheibe and Brigitte Falkenburg (ed), Between Rationalism and Empiricism: Selected Papers in the Philosophy of Physics (2001), 276
Science quotes on:  |  Existence (481)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Space (523)  |  Succession (80)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Time (1911)

Reality is a fabrication slapped together by an often bumbling inner team. ...The proclamation that "there can be no such thing as an objective fact" has a great deal of validity.
In 'A Trip Through the Perception Factory', Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century (2000),70.
Science quotes on:  |  Deal (192)  |  Fabrication (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inner (72)  |  Objective (96)  |  Proclamation (3)  |  Reality (274)  |  Slap (3)  |  Team (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)

Science is a speculative enterprise. The validity of a new idea and the significance of a new experimental finding are to be measured by the consequences—consequences in terms of other ideas and other experiments. Thus conceived, science is not a quest for certainty; it is rather a quest which is successful only to the degree that it is continuous.
In Science and Common Sense (1951), 25-26.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainty (180)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Degree (277)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Idea (881)  |  Measure (241)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Quest (39)  |  Significance (114)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)

Science, then, is the attentive consideration of common experience; it is common knowledge extended and refined. Its validity is of the same order as that of ordinary perception; memory, and understanding. Its test is found, like theirs, in actual intuition, which sometimes consists in perception and sometimes in intent. The flight of science is merely longer from perception to perception, and its deduction more accurate of meaning from meaning and purpose from purpose. It generates in the mind, for each vulgar observation, a whole brood of suggestions, hypotheses, and inferences. The sciences bestow, as is right and fitting, infinite pains upon that experience which in their absence would drift by unchallenged or misunderstood. They take note, infer, and prophesy. They compare prophesy with event, and altogether they supply—so intent are they on reality—every imaginable background and extension for the present dream.
The Life of Reason, or the Phases of Human Progress (1954), 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Actual (118)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Background (44)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Common (447)  |  Compare (76)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Consist (223)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Dream (222)  |  Event (222)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Flight (101)  |  Human Progress (18)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inference (45)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intent (9)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Memory (144)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Present (630)  |  Prophesy (11)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Right (473)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Supply (100)  |  Test (221)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Whole (756)

Scientists tend to be skeptical, but the weakness of the community of science is that it tends to move into preformed establishment modes that say this is the only way of doing science, the only valid view.
From interview with Anthony Liversidge, in 'Walter Gilbert', Omni (Nov 1992), 15, No. 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Community (111)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Mode (43)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Weakness (50)

The arguments for the two substances [mind and body] have, we believe, entirely lost their validity; they are no longer compatible with ascertained science and clear thinking. The one substance with two sets of properties, two sides, the physical and the mental—a double-faced unity—would appear to comply with all the exigencies of the case. … The mind is destined to be a double study—to conjoin the mental philosopher with the physical philosopher.
From concluding paragraph in Mind and Body: The Theories of their Relation (1872), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Body (557)  |  Destined (42)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physical (518)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Study (701)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)  |  Unity (81)

The assumption we have made … is that marriages and the union of gametes occur at random. The validity of this assumption may now be examined. “Random mating” obviously does not mean promiscuity; it simply means, as already explained above, that in the choice of mates for marriage there is neither preference for nor aversion to the union of persons similar or dissimilar with respect to a given trait or gene. Not all gentlemen prefer blondes or brunettes. Since so few people know what their blood type is, it is even safer to say that the chances of mates being similar or dissimilar in blood type are determined simply by the incidence of these blood types in a given Mendelian population.
[Co-author with Theodosius Dobzhansky]
In Radiation, Genes and Man (1960), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Author (175)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chance (244)  |  Choice (114)  |  Determined (9)  |  Dissimilar (6)  |  Examined (3)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Gamete (5)  |  Gene (105)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Incidence (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Mate (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Occur (151)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Population (115)  |  Preference (28)  |  Promiscuity (3)  |  Random (42)  |  Respect (212)  |  Safety (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Trait (23)  |  Type (171)  |  Union (52)

The functional validity of a working hypothesis is not a priori certain, because often it is initially based on intuition. However, logical deductions from such a hypothesis provide expectations (so-called prognoses) as to the circumstances under which certain phenomena will appear in nature. Such a postulate or working hypothesis can then be substantiated by additional observations ... The author calls such expectations and additional observations the prognosis-diagnosis method of research. Prognosis in science may be termed the prediction of the future finding of corroborative evidence of certain features or phenomena (diagnostic facts). This method of scientific research builds up and extends the relations between the subject and the object by means of a circuit of inductions and deductions.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 454-5.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Author (175)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Corroboration (2)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Functional (10)  |  Future (467)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Induction (81)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Prognosis (5)  |  Relation (166)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substantiate (4)  |  Term (357)  |  Will (2350)  |  Working (23)

The general acceptance of the validity of science is a very recent phenomenon. As late as 1880, Huxley complained that “no reply to a troublesome argument tells so well as calling its author a ‘mere scientific specialist.’”
The Nature of Science and Other Lectures (1954), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Argument (145)  |  Author (175)  |  Call (781)  |  Complain (10)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Mere (86)  |  Reply (58)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Tell (344)  |  Troublesome (8)

The geologist applies a certain number of general views and concepts which are the rules for his scientific practice. Such premises, however, are less fixed than the natural laws postulated by the basic sciences of physics and chemistry. The geologist is therefore forced to test the validity of the greatest possible number of presuppositions (method of multiple working hypotheses).
The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic Science (5)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Concept (242)  |  General (521)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Method (531)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Physics (564)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Premise (40)  |  Presupposition (3)  |  Rule (307)  |  Test (221)  |  View (496)

The institutional goal of science is the extension of certified knowledge. The technical methods employed toward this end provide the relevant definition of knowledge: empirically confirmed and logically consistent predictions. The institutional imperatives (mores) derive from the goal and the methods. The entire structure of technical and moral norms implements the final objective. The technical norm of empirical evidence, adequate, valid and reliable, is a prerequisite for sustained true prediction; the technical norm of logical consistency, a prerequisite for systematic and valid prediction. The mores of science possess a methodologic rationale but they are binding, not only because they are procedurally efficient, but because they are believed right and good. They are moral as well as technical prescriptions. Four sets of institutional imperatives–universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized scepticism–comprise the ethos of modern science.
Social Theory and Social Structure (1957), 552-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Belief (615)  |  Binding (9)  |  Certification (2)  |  Communism (11)  |  Comprise (2)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Definition (238)  |  Derive (70)  |  Disinterest (8)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empiricism (21)  |  Employ (115)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extension (60)  |  Final (121)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (906)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Implement (13)  |  Institution (73)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Method (531)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Objective (96)  |  Organisation (7)  |  Possess (157)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Relevance (18)  |  Reliability (18)  |  Right (473)  |  Scepticism (17)  |  Set (400)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Technical (53)

The Newton of drift theory has not yet appeared. His absence need cause no anxiety; the theory is still young and still often treated with suspicion. In the long run, one cannot blame a theoretician for hesitating to spend time and trouble on explaining a law about whose validity no unanimity prevails.
In The Origins of Continents and Oceans (4th ed. 1929), trans. John Biram (1966), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Blame (31)  |  Cause (561)  |  Continental Drift (15)  |  Explanation (246)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Law (913)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Spend (97)  |  Still (614)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Unanimity (4)  |  Young (253)

The philosopher of science is not much interested in the thought processes which lead to scientific discoveries; he looks for a logical analysis of the completed theory, including the establishing its validity. That is, he is not interested in the context of discovery, but in the context of justification.
'The Philosophical Significance of the Theory of Relativity' (1938). Collected in P.A. Schillp (ed.). Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1970), 292. Cited in G. Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought (1973), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Completed (30)  |  Completion (23)  |  Context (31)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Interest (416)  |  Justification (52)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Process (439)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)

The philosopher of science is not much interested in the thought processes which lead to scientific discoveries; he looks for a logical analysis of the completed theory, including the relationships establishing its validity. That is, he is not interested in the context of discovery, but in the context of justification.
In'The Philosophical Significance of the Theory of Relativity' (1949), collected in P.A. Schilpp (ed), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1969), 292. As quoted and cited in Stanley Goldberg, Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution (1984, 2013), 306.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Completed (30)  |  Context (31)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Interest (416)  |  Justification (52)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Process (439)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Science And Philosophy (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)

The present theory of relativity is based on a division of physical reality into a metric field (gravitation) on the one hand and into an electromagnetic field and matter on the other hand. In reality space will probably be of a uniform character and the present theory will be valid only as a limiting case. For large densities of field and of matter, the field equations and even the field variables which enter into them will have no real significance. One may not therefore assume the validity of the equations for very high density of field and matter, and one may not conclude that the 'beginning of the expansion' must mean a singularity in the mathematical sense. All we have to realise is that the equations may not be continued over such regions.
In O. Nathan and H. Norden (eds.), Einstein on Peace (1960), 640.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Density (25)  |  Division (67)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equation (138)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Field (378)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  High (370)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Present (630)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Singularity (4)  |  Space (523)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Variable (37)  |  Will (2350)

The publication of the Darwin and Wallace papers in 1858, and still more that of the 'Origin' in 1859, had the effect upon them of the flash of light, which to a man who has lost himself in a dark night, suddenly reveals a road which, whether it takes him straight home or not, certainly goes his way. That which we were looking for, and could not find, was a hypothesis respecting the origin of known organic forms, which assumed the operation of no causes but such as could be proved to be actually at work. We wanted, not to pin our faith to that or any other speculation, but to get hold of clear and definite conceptions which could be brought face to face with facts and have their validity tested. The 'Origin' provided us with the working hypothesis we sought.
'On the Reception of the Origin of Species'. In F. Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter (1888), Vol 2, 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conception (160)  |  Dark (145)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Definite (114)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flash (49)  |  Form (976)  |  Himself (461)  |  Home (184)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Operation (221)  |  Organic (161)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pin (20)  |  Proof (304)  |  Publication (102)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Still (614)  |  Straight (75)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Test (221)  |  Alfred Russel Wallace (41)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true. The specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning. … Such are the perversities of social logic.
In article, 'The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy', The Antioch Review (Summer 1948), 8, No. 2, 195-196. Included as Chap. 7 of Social Theory and Social Structure (1949), 181-195. Note: Merton coined the expression “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Cite (8)  |  Conception (160)  |  Course (413)  |  Definition (238)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  False (105)  |  Logic (311)  |  New (1273)  |  Original (61)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Perversity (2)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Reign (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Self (268)  |  Situation (117)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Specious (3)  |  Will (2350)

The synthetic theory of evolution has always seemed to me to be one of the most impressive achievements of the human intellect, a collective scientific product of indubitable validity.
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Collective (24)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Indubitable (3)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Most (1728)  |  Product (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Evolution (5)

The validity of all the Inductive Methods depends on the assumption that every event, or the beginning of every phenomenon, must have some cause; some antecedent, upon the existence of which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 2, 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Depend (238)  |  Event (222)  |  Existence (481)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Phenomenon (334)

The validity of mathematical propositions is independent of the actual world—the world of existing subject-matters—is logically prior to it, and would remain unaffected were it to vanish from being. Mathematical propositions, if true, are eternal verities.
In The Pastures of Wonder: The Realm of Mathematics and the Realm of Science (1929), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Being (1276)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Remain (355)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subject-Matter (8)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  World (1850)

There are diverse views as to what makes a science, but three constituents will be judged essential by most, viz: (1) intellectual content, (2) organization into an understandable form, (3) reliance upon the test of experience as the ultimate standard of validity. By these tests, mathematics is not a science, since its ultimate standard of validity is an agreed-upon sort of logical consistency and provability.
In 'The Future of Data Analysis', Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1962), 33, No. 1, 5-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Content (75)  |  Definition (238)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experience (494)  |  Form (976)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organization (120)  |  Reliance (11)  |  Standard (64)  |  Test (221)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understandable (12)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

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)  |  Show (353)  |  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)  |  Verify (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

This theme of mutually invisible life at widely differing scales bears an important implication for the ‘culture wars’ that supposedly now envelop our universities and our intellectual discourse in general ... One side of this false dichotomy features the postmodern relativists who argue that all culturally bound modes of perception must be equally valid, and that no factual truth therefore exists. The other side includes the benighted, old-fashioned realists who insist that flies truly have two wings, and that Shakespeare really did mean what he thought he was saying. The principle of scaling provides a resolution for the false parts of this silly dichotomy. Facts are facts and cannot be denied by any rational being. (Often, facts are also not at all easy to determine or specify–but this question raises different issues for another time.) Facts, however, may also be highly scale dependent–and the perceptions of one world may have no validity or expression in the domain of another. The one-page map of Maine cannot recognize the separate boulders of Acadia, but both provide equally valid representations of a factual coastline.
The World as I See It (1999)
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benighted (2)  |  Bind (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Boulder (8)  |  Bound (120)  |  Coastline (2)  |  Culturally (2)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deny (71)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Determine (152)  |  Dichotomy (4)  |  Differ (88)  |  Different (595)  |  Discourse (19)  |  Domain (72)  |  Easy (213)  |  Envelop (5)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Factual (8)  |  False (105)  |  Feature (49)  |  Fly (153)  |  General (521)  |  Highly (16)  |  Implication (25)  |  Important (229)  |  Include (93)  |  Insist (22)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Issue (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Map (50)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mode (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutually (7)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Old-Fashioned (9)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Perception (97)  |  Principle (530)  |  Provide (79)  |  Question (649)  |  Raise (38)  |  Rational (95)  |  Realist (3)  |  Really (77)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Relativist (2)  |  Representation (55)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shakespeare (6)  |  Side (236)  |  Silly (17)  |  Specify (6)  |  Supposedly (2)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  University (130)  |  Valid (12)  |  War (233)  |  Widely (9)  |  Wing (79)  |  World (1850)

When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself.
In Is Shakespeare Dead?: From My Autobiography (1909), 127-128.
Science quotes on:  |  Brightest (12)  |  Cast (69)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Conscientious (7)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  Kind (564)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Sincerity (8)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)


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.