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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index S > French Saying Quotes

French Saying
( - )

.

Science Quotes by French Saying (4 quotes)

Le mur murant Paris rend Paris murmurant.
The wall surrounding Paris is making Paris grumble.
Parisian saying after the Farmers-General of taxes, acting on a proposal by Lavoisier, erected a customs wall around Paris.
— French Saying
Quoted in D. McKie, Antoine Lavoisier: Scientist, Economist, Social Reformer (1952), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Custom (44)  |  Farmer (35)  |  General (521)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Making (300)  |  Paris (11)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Tax (27)  |  Wall (71)

Empty wagons make the most noise.
— French Saying
Seen, for example, in 'Home and Foreign Gossip', Harpers Weekly: A Journal of Civilization (1869), 13, 187, identified with other examples as a "Danish proverb".
Science quotes on:  |  Empty (82)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noise (40)  |  Wagon (10)

God gives every bird his food, but does not throw it into the nest.
— French Saying
Seen, for example, in 'Home and Foreign Gossip', Harpers Weekly: A Journal of Civilization (1869), 13, 187, identified with other examples as a "Danish proverb".
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Food (213)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Nest (26)  |  Ornithology (21)  |  Throw (45)

He who lacks a sense of the past is condemned to live in the narrow darkness of his own generation
— French Saying
Quoted, and described as “an old Armenian saying”, in Differential Equations: With Applications and Historical Notes (1972), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Condemn (44)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Generation (256)  |  Lack (127)  |  Live (650)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Past (355)  |  Sense (785)



Quotes by others about French Saying (63)

Post coitum omne animal triste.
After coition every animal is sad.
Anonymous
Post-classical saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Coition (2)

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
After this, therefore because of this.
Anonymous
Latin Proverb.

Experiment adds to knowledge, Credulity leads to error.
Anonymous
Arabic Proverb.
Science quotes on:  |  Credulity (16)  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Scientific Method (200)

Fiction tends to become “fact” simply by serial passage via the printed page.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fiction (23)  |  Page (35)  |  Passage (52)  |  Printing (25)  |  Serial (4)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tendency (110)

Garbage in, garbage out.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Garbage (10)

Half of the secret of resistance to disease is cleanliness; the other half is dirtiness.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Cleanliness (6)  |  Disease (340)  |  Other (2233)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Secret (216)

Here are the opinions on which my facts are based.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Scientific Method (200)

Gnothi seauton.
Know thyself.
Anonymous
From The Temple of Apollo at Delphi; Pausanias 10.24.1; Juvenal 11.27.
Science quotes on:  |  Know (1538)

Laws of Thermodynamics
1) You cannot win, you can only break even.
2) You can only break even at absolute zero.
3) You cannot reach absolute zero.
Anonymous
Folklore amongst physicists.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Break (109)  |  Law (913)  |  Reach (286)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Win (53)  |  Zero (38)

Like the statistician who was drowned in a lake of average depth six inches.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Depth (97)  |  Lake (36)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)

Man occasionally stumbles on the truth, but then just picks himself up and hurries on regardless.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Himself (461)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Man (2252)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Truth (1109)

The most powerful antigen in human biology is a new idea.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Antigen (5)  |  Biology (232)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Biology (3)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Idea (881)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Powerful (145)

Nature is by nature perverse.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Nature (2017)

A physicist learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing; whereas a philosopher learns less and less about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)

Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu.
There is nothing in the mind that has not previously been in the senses.
Anonymous
Saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Sense (785)

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.
Anonymous
The Nation, 15 April 1943.
Science quotes on:  |  Idea (881)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time Has Come (8)  |  World (1850)

Hie locus est ubi mars gaudet succurere vitae.
This place is where death rejoices to come to the aid of life.
Anonymous
In the anatomical dissection theatre of the University of Bologna.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Death (406)  |  Life (1870)  |  Locus (5)  |  Mars (47)

Magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates eius.
The works of the Lord are great; sought out of all those that have pleasure therein.
Anonymous
Over the entrance to the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
Science quotes on:  |  Great (1610)  |  Lord (97)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Work (1402)

Give me a place to stand, and I will move the earth.
F. Hultsch (ed.) Pappus Alexandrinus: Collectio (1876-8), Vol. 3, book 8, section 10, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes Lever (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Lever (13)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Move (223)  |  Stand (284)  |  Will (2350)

Experience is a comb that Nature gives man after he has gone bald.
Anonymous
Thai saying. In Dr. N Sreedharan, Quotations of Wit and Wisdom (2007), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Experience (494)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)

Everybody loves a fat man.
Anonymous
American saying
Science quotes on:  |  Everybody (72)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Obesity (5)

It will never get well if you pick it.
Anonymous
American saying
Science quotes on:  |  Healing (28)  |  Never (1089)  |  Will (2350)

Nobody loves a fat man.
Anonymous
American saying
Science quotes on:  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Obesity (5)

Dauer in Wechsel.
Duration in change.
Favourite expression.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)

God created, Linnaeus ordered.
Quoting the witticism current in the late eighteenth century in 'The Two Faces of Linnaeus', in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Linnaeus: The Man and his Work (1983), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Classification (102)  |  God (776)  |  Carolus Linnaeus (36)  |  Order (638)

Temporis fila.
Child of time.
A favourite expression of Linnaeus.
Quoted in Tore Frängsmyr, 'Linnaeus as a Geologist', in Tore Frangsmyr (ed.), Linnaeus: The Man and his Work (1983), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Expression (181)  |  Time (1911)

The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe that it is other than a very valuable posession, however infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger?
'Instruction in Physiology', in Science and Culture and Other Essays (1882), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Adage (4)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Do (1905)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possession (68)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Real (159)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)

I think modern science should graft functional wings on a pig, simply so no one can ever use that stupid saying again.
Anonymous
In K. D. Sullivan, A Cure for the Common Word (2007), 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Functional (10)  |  Graft (4)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Pig (8)  |  Quip (81)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Wing (79)

It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving; and also every man may draw comfort from Lessing's fine saying, that the search for truth is more precious than its possession.
From 'E=mc2', in Science Illustrated (Apr 1946). In Albert Einstein, The Einstein Reader (2006), 99.
Science quotes on:  |  Choose (116)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Direction (185)  |  Draw (140)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Open (277)  |  Possession (68)  |  Precious (43)  |  Search (175)  |  Strive (53)  |  Truth (1109)

Frustra fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora.
It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.
Ockham’s Razor.Summa logicae (The Sum of All Logic)(prior to 1324), Part I, Chap. 12. [The village of Ockham is in Surrey. The saying (which was applied for diminishing the number of religious truths that can be proved by reason) is not Ockham's own. As given in Joseph Rickaby, Scholasticism (1908), 54, footnote, it is found a generation before Ockham in Petrus Aureolus, The Eloquent Doctor, 2 Sent. dist. 12, q.1.]
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Fit (139)  |  Logic (311)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Vain (86)

The doctrine of Darwinism had been tritely summed up in the saying, “from mud to monkey, from monkey up to man.”
Anonymous
Quoted by J.J. Morse in a lecture at Cardiff, reported by A.J. Smith in 'Spiritualism in the Principality: Mr Morse at Cardiff', The Medium and Daybreak (17 May 1878), 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Man (2252)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Mud (26)

Superficially, it might be said that the function of the kidneys is to make urine; but in a more considered view one can say that the kidneys make the stuff of philosophy itself.
'The Evolution of the Kidney', Lectures on the Kidney (1943), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Function (235)  |  Kidney (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Say (989)  |  Stuff (24)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Urine (18)  |  View (496)

There are those who say that the human kidney was created to keep the blood pure, or more precisely, to keep our internal environment in an ideal balanced state. This I must deny. I grant that the human kidney is a marvelous organ, but I cannot grant that it was purposefully designed to excrete urine or to regulate the composition of the blood or to subserve the physiological welfare of Homo sapiens in any sense. Rather I contend that the human kidney manufactures the kind of urine that it does, and it maintains the blood in the composition which that fluid has, because this kidney has a certain functional architecture; and it owes that architecture not to design or foresight or to any plan, but to the fact that the earth is an unstable sphere with a fragile crust, to the geologic revolutions that for six hundred million years have raised and lowered continents and seas, to the predacious enemies, and heat and cold, and storms and droughts; to the unending succession of vicissitudes that have driven the mutant vertebrates from sea into fresh water, into desiccated swamps, out upon the dry land, from one habitation to another, perpetually in search of the free and independent life, perpetually failing, for one reason or another, to find it.
From Fish to Philosopher (1953), 210-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Architecture (50)  |  Balance (82)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certain (557)  |  Cold (115)  |  Composition (86)  |  Contention (14)  |  Continent (79)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crust (43)  |  Denial (20)  |  Deny (71)  |  Design (203)  |  Drought (14)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Environment (239)  |  Excretion (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Fragility (2)  |  Free (239)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Function (235)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grant (76)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Heat (180)  |  Homo Sapiens (23)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Independent (74)  |  Internal (69)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Kind (564)  |  Land (131)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lowering (4)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutant (2)  |  Organ (118)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Plan (122)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Predator (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purity (15)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Storm (56)  |  Storms (18)  |  Succession (80)  |  Swamp (9)  |  Unstable (9)  |  Urine (18)  |  Vertebrate (22)  |  Vicissitude (6)  |  Water (503)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Year (963)

Ostwald was a great protagonist and an inspiring teacher. He had the gift of saying the right thing in the right way. When we consider the development of chemistry as a whole, Ostwald's name like Abou ben Adhem's leads all the rest ... Ostwald was absolutely the right man in the right place. He was loved and followed by more people than any chemist of our time.
'Ostwald', Journal of Chemical Education, 1933, 10, 612, as cited by Erwin N. Hiebert and Hans-Gunther Korber in article on Ostwald in Charles Coulston Gillespie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography Supplement 1, Vol 15-16, 466, which also says Wilder Bancroft "received his doctorate under Ostwald in 1892."
Science quotes on:  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Consider (428)  |  Development (441)  |  Follow (389)  |  Follower (11)  |  Gift (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leading (17)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  Wilhelm Ostwald (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Protagonist (2)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

After that cancellation [of the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas, after $2 billion had been spent on it], we physicists learned that we have to sing for our supper. ... The Cold War is over. You can't simply say “Russia!” to Congress, and they whip out their checkbook and say, “How much?” We have to tell the people why this atom-smasher is going to benefit their lives.
As quoted in Alan Boyle, 'Discovery of Doom? Collider Stirs Debate', article (8 Sep 2008) on a msnbc.com web page.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atom Smasher (2)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Billion (104)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cold War (2)  |  Congress (20)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  People (1031)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Russia (14)  |  Say (989)  |  Singing (19)  |  Spent (85)  |  Supper (10)  |  Tell (344)  |  Telling (24)  |  Texas (4)  |  War (233)  |  Why (491)

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation but as a question.
[A caution he gives his students, to be wary of dogmatism.]
In Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Affirmation (8)  |  Caution (24)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Every (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Question (649)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Student (317)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)  |  Utterance (11)

“The Universe repeats itself, with the possible exception of history.” Of all earthly studies history is the only one that does not repeat itself. ... Astronomy repeats itself; botany repeats itself; trigonometry repeats itself; mechanics repeats itself; compound long division repeats itself. Every sum if worked out in the same way at any time will bring out the same answer. ... A great many moderns say that history is a science; if so it occupies a solitary and splendid elevation among the sciences; it is the only science the conclusions of which are always wrong.
In 'A Much Repeated Repetition', Daily News (26 Mar 1904). Collected in G. K. Chesterton and Dale Ahlquist (ed.), In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton (2011), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Botany (63)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Division (67)  |  Earthly (8)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Evaluation (10)  |  Exception (74)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Long (778)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Modern (402)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Say (989)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Study (701)  |  Sum (103)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)

This [the opening of the Vatican City radio station built by Marconi earlier in 1931] was a new demonstration of the harmony between science and religion that each fresh conquest of science ever more luminously confirms, so that one may say that those who speak of the incompatibility of science and religion either make science say that which it never said or make religion say that which it never taught.
Address to Pontifical Academy of Sciences (20 Dec 1931).In Associated Press, 'Pope Sees Harmony in Faith and Science', New York Times (21 Dec 1931), p.9. The pontiff said the opening of the radio station was “crowned by the publication of a radiophonic newspaper.”
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Incompatibility (3)  |  Luminous (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Radio (60)  |  Religion (369)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Station (30)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Vatican (3)

I am entitled to say, if I like, that awareness exists in all the individual creatures on the planet—worms, sea urchins, gnats, whales, subhuman primates, superprimate humans, the lot. I can say this because we do not know what we are talking about: consciousness is so much a total mystery for our own species that we cannot begin to guess about its existence in others.
In Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony(1984), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Awareness (42)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cannot (8)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (242)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Gnat (7)  |  Guess (67)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Primate (11)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sea Urchin (3)  |  Species (435)  |  Subhuman (2)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Total (95)  |  Whale (45)  |  Worm (47)

Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
In 'Prop. 47: The human mind possesses an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God', Ethic, translated by William Hale White (1883), 93-94. Collected in The English and Foreign Philosophical Library, Vol. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Center (35)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Consist (223)  |  Definition (238)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Else (4)  |  Equal (88)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wrong (246)

Genetics as a whole is the great over-hyped science, and geneticists know that even if they don't say it. All that genetics really is is anatomy plus an enormous research group grant. It's what anatomists did in the fifteenth century-looking at the heart and seeing how it worked. Now, we are doing the same with DNA
Quoted by Sean O'Hagan, in 'End of sperm report', The Observer (14 Sep 2002).
Science quotes on:  |  15th Century (5)  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Century (319)  |  DNA (81)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Grant (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Heart (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Looking (191)  |  Now (5)  |  Plus (43)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Working (23)

Entropy theory is indeed a first attempt to deal with global form; but it has not been dealing with structure. All it says is that a large sum of elements may have properties not found in a smaller sample of them.
In Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order (1974), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Deal (192)  |  Element (322)  |  Entropy (46)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Global (39)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Large (398)  |  Property (177)  |  Sample (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Smaller (4)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sum (103)  |  Theory (1015)

It may be said “In research, if you know what you are doing, then you shouldn't be doing it.” In a sense, if the answer turns out to be exactly what you expected, then you have learned nothing new, although you may have had your confidence increased somewhat.
In Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers (1973), 704.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Doing (277)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Increase (225)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Research (753)  |  Sense (785)  |  Turn (454)

It is very difficult to say nowadays where the suburbs of London come to an end and where the country begins. The railways, instead of enabling Londoners to live in the country have turned the countryside into a city.
In The Three Clerks (1857, 1904), 30-31.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  City (87)  |  Country (269)  |  Countryside (5)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Enabling (7)  |  End (603)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  London (15)  |  Nowadays (6)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Suburb (7)  |  Turn (454)

I will venture to say there is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit [in London], than in all the rest of the kingdom.
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1820), Vol. 1, 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Circumference (23)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Learning (291)  |  London (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Venture (19)  |  Will (2350)

The traditional mathematics professor of the popular legend is absentminded. He usually appears in public with a lost umbrella in each hand. He prefers to face a blackboard and to turn his back on the class. He writes a, he says b, he means c, but it should be d. Some of his sayings are handed down from generation to generation:
“In order to solve this differential equation you look at it till a solution occurs to you.”
“This principle is so perfectly general that no particular application of it is possible.”
“Geometry is the science of correct reasoning on incorrect figures.”
“My method to overcome a difficulty is to go round it.”
“What is the difference between method and device? A method is a device which you used twice.”
In How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (2004), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Absent-Minded (4)  |  Application (257)  |  Back (395)  |  Blackboard (11)  |  Class (168)  |  Correct (95)  |  Device (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Differential Equation (18)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Down (455)  |  Equation (138)  |  Face (214)  |  Figure (162)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generation (256)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Handed Down (2)  |  Incorrect (6)  |  Legend (18)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Occur (151)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Order (638)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Overcoming (3)  |  Particular (80)  |  Popular (34)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Principle (530)  |  Professor (133)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Turn (454)  |  Twice (20)  |  Umbrella (4)  |  Using (6)  |  Usually (176)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Every great scientist becomes a great scientist because of the inner self-abnegation with which he stands before truth, saying: “Not my will, but thine, be done.” What, then, does a man mean by saying, Science displaces religion, when in this deep sense science itself springs from religion?
In 'The Real Point of Conflict between Science and Religion', collected in Living Under Tension: Sermons On Christianity Today (1941), 148.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Deep (241)  |  Displace (9)  |  Done (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inner (72)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Spring (140)  |  Stand (284)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)

As the saying goes, the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones; we transitioned to better solutions. The same opportunity lies before us with energy efficiency and clean energy.
In letter (1 Feb 2013) to Energy Department employees announcing his decision not to serve a second term.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Better (493)  |  Clean (52)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Energy Efficiency (7)  |  Lie (370)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Stone (168)  |  Stone Age (14)  |  Transition (28)

Notwithstanding all that has been discovered since Newton’s time, his saying that we are little children picking up pretty pebbles on the beach while the whole ocean lies before us unexplored remains substantially as true as ever, and will do so though we shovel up the pebbles by steam shovels and carry them off in carloads.
From 'Lessons from the History of Science: The Scientific Attitude' (c.1896), in Collected Papers (1931), Vol. 1, 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Beach (23)  |  Carload (2)  |  Carry (130)  |  Children (201)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Picking (2)  |  Pretty (21)  |  Remain (355)  |  Steam (81)  |  Time (1911)  |  True (239)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, “We’ve always done it this way.” I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.
As quoted, without citation, by Kurt W. Beyer, 'Grace Murray Hopper', in Joseph J. Thomas, Leadership Embodied: The Secrets to Success of the Most Effective Navy and Marine Corps Leaders (2005), 160.
Science quotes on:  |  Allergy (2)  |  Change (639)  |  Clock (51)  |  Fight (49)  |  Human (1512)  |  Love (328)  |  Run (158)  |  Say (989)  |  Try (296)  |  Wall (71)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)

A work of genius is something like the pie in the nursery song, in which the four and twenty blackbirds are baked. When the pie is opened, the birds begin to sing. Hereupon three fourths of the company run away in a fright; and then after a time, feeling ashamed, they would fain excuse themselves by declaring, the pie stank so, they could not sit near it. Those who stay behind, the men of taste and epicures, say one to another, We came here to eat. What business have birds, after they have been baked, to be alive and singing? This will never do. We must put a stop to so dangerous an innovation: for who will send a pie to an oven, if the birds come to life there? We must stand up to defend the rights of all the ovens in England. Let us have dead birds..dead birds for our money. So each sticks his fork into a bird, and hacks and mangles it a while, and then holds it up and cries, Who will dare assert that there is any music in this bird’s song?
Co-author with his brother Augustus William Hare Guesses At Truth, By Two Brothers: Second Edition: With Large Additions (1848), Second Series, 86. (The volume is introduced as “more than three fourths new.” This quote is identified as by Julius; Augustus had died in 1833.)
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Ashamed (3)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Baking (2)  |  Begin (275)  |  Behind (139)  |  Bird (163)  |  Blackbird (4)  |  Business (156)  |  Company (63)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Dare (55)  |  Death (406)  |  Defend (32)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  England (43)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fork (2)  |  Fright (11)  |  Genius (301)  |  Hacking (2)  |  Holding (3)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Life (1870)  |  Money (178)  |  Music (133)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nursery (4)  |  Open (277)  |  Opening (15)  |  Oven (5)  |  Pie (4)  |  Right (473)  |  Run (158)  |  Say (989)  |  Sing (29)  |  Singing (19)  |  Something (718)  |  Song (41)  |  Stand (284)  |  Standing (11)  |  Stink (8)  |  Stop (89)  |  Taste (93)  |  Themself (4)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Do not say hypothesis, and even less theory: say way of thinking.
Aphorism 263 in Notebook J (1789-1793), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Say (989)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Way (1214)

In a scientific journal, a major consideration is whether the book reviewed has made a contribution to medical science. Cynics may well say that they know of no psychiatric text that would meet such conditions, and they may be right.
Myre Sim
In book review by Myre Sim, about 'Ending the Cycle of Abuse', The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (May 1997), 42:4, 425.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Cynic (7)  |  Journal (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Major (88)  |  Making (300)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Psychiatry (26)  |  Review (27)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Text (16)

The psychiatric interviewer is supposed to be doing three things: considering what the patient could mean by what he says; considering how he himself can best phrase what he wishes to communicate to the patient; and, at the same time, observing the general pattern of the events being communicated. In addition to that, to make notes which will be of more than evocative value, or come anywhere near being a verbatim record of what is said, in my opinion is beyond the capacity of most human beings.
From The Psychiatric Interview (1954, 1970), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Communication (101)  |  Considering (6)  |  Doing (277)  |  Event (222)  |  Evocative (2)  |  General (521)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Note (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Psychiatry (26)  |  Record (161)  |  Say (989)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Value (393)  |  Verbatim (4)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

It is … a sign of the times—though our brothers of physics and chemistry may smile to hear me say so—that biology is now a science in which theories can be devised: theories which lead to predictions and predictions which sometimes turn out to be correct. These facts confirm me in a belief I hold most passionately—that biology is the heir of all the sciences.
From Nobel Banquet speech (10 Dec 1960).
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Biology (232)  |  Brother (47)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Confirmation (25)  |  Correct (95)  |  Devised (3)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Heir (12)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leading (17)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Say (989)  |  Sign (63)  |  Smile (34)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)

In this country all a man need to do is to attain a little eminence and immediately he begins to talk. Usually his eminence is financial, and the greater this eminence the more he talks and the further his voice reaches. I don't blame the rich people for talking; many of them don’t know what else to do with themselves. The fault is with these who listen. If no one would listen no harm would he done. But the American people are willing to listen to any one who has attained prominence. The main fact is that we've heard a man's name a great many times; that makes us ready to accept whatever he says. … We listen to the one who talks the most and loudest.
As quoted in 'Electricity Will Keep The World From Freezing Up', New York Times (12 Nov 1911), SM4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  America (143)  |  Attain (126)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blame (31)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fault (58)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Know (1538)  |  Listen (81)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  People (1031)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Ready (43)  |  Say (989)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Willing (44)

We can’t define anything precisely. If we attempt to, we get into that paralysis of thought that comes to philosophers… one saying to the other: “You don’t know what you are talking about!” The second one says: “What do you mean by know? What do you mean by talking? What do you mean by you?
In 'Motion', The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1961), Vol. 1, 8-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Definition (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paralysis (9)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Precision (72)  |  Say (989)  |  Talking (76)  |  Thought (995)

All that can accurately be said about a man who thinks he is a poached egg is that he is in the minority.
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 310.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Egg (71)  |  Man (2252)  |  Minority (24)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

It is like the man who became short-sighted and refused to wear glasses, saying there was nothing wrong with him, but that the trouble was that the recent papers were so badly printed.
In Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff (1972), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Badly (32)  |  Glasses (2)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Paper (192)  |  Printed (3)  |  Recent (78)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Short (200)  |  Short-Sighted (5)  |  Sight (135)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Wrong (246)

The world is to me my proposition of it; and so is the pig’s world, the pig’s proposition of it; or, to use a common saying, “the pig sees with pig’s eyes.”
In Sir William Withey Gull and Theodore Dyke Acland (ed.), A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull (1896), xlviii.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Eye (440)  |  Pig (8)  |  Proposition (126)  |  See (1094)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

Mathematical economics is old enough to be respectable, but not all economists respect it. It has powerful supporters and impressive testimonials, yet many capable economists deny that mathematics, except as a shorthand or expository device, can be applied to economic reasoning. There have even been rumors that mathematics is used in economics (and in other social sciences) either for the deliberate purpose of mystification or to confer dignity upon commonplaces as French was once used in diplomatic communications. …. To be sure, mathematics can be extended to any branch of knowledge, including economics, provided the concepts are so clearly defined as to permit accurate symbolic representation. That is only another way of saying that in some branches of discourse it is desirable to know what you are talking about.
In J.R. Newman (ed.), Commentary on Cournot, Jevons and the Mathematics of Money', The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 2, 1200.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Branch (155)  |  Capable (174)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Communication (101)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confer (11)  |  Defined (4)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Deny (71)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Device (71)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Discourse (19)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Economist (20)  |  Enough (341)  |  Expository (2)  |  Extend (129)  |  French (21)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Representation (55)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectable (8)  |  Rumor (2)  |  Shorthand (5)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Supporter (4)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Talking (76)  |  Testimonial (3)  |  Way (1214)

An old saying is “A penny for your thoughts.” The offer is not high enough: some thoughts would not be confessed for a million dollars.
In Sinner Sermons: A Selection of the Best Paragraphs of E. W. Howe (1926), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Confess (42)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Enough (341)  |  High (370)  |  Million (124)  |  Offer (142)  |  Old (499)  |  Penny (6)  |  Thought (995)

It is said, sometimes, that common sense is very rare.
From the original French, “On dit quelquefois, Le sens commun est fort rare.” in Dictionnaire Philosophique Portatif (1765), New Edition, Vol. 2, 276. As, translated in A Philosophical Dictionary: From the French of M. de Voltaire (1824), Vol. 2, 242.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Rare (94)  |  Sense (785)


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.