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: “Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index B > Sir Francis Bacon Quotes > Mind

Thumbnail of Sir Francis Bacon (source)
Sir Francis Bacon
(22 Jan 1561 - 9 Apr 1626)

English philosopher remembered for his influence promoting a scientific method. He held that the aim of scientific investigation is practical application of the understanding of nature to improve man’s condition.



But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...
— Sir Francis Bacon
The First Book of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning (1605). In Francis Bacon and Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England (1852), 174
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Appetite (20)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Delight (111)  |  Desire (212)  |  Enable (122)  |  End (603)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Error (339)  |  Gift (105)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Profession (108)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Rest (287)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Victory (40)  |  Wit (61)

Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
— Sir Francis Bacon
'Essays or Counsels: Civil and Moral. I. Of Truth'. In Francis Bacon, James Spedding, The Works of Francis Bacon (1864), Vol. 6, 378.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  Charity (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Move (223)  |  Pole (49)  |  Providence (19)  |  Rest (287)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)

For it being the nature of the mind of man (to the extreme prejudice of knowledge) to delight in the spacious liberty of generalities, as in a champion region, and not in the enclosures of particularity; the Mathematics were the goodliest fields to satisfy that appetite.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In De Augmentis, Bk. 8; Advancement of Learning, Bk. 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Appetite (20)  |  Being (1276)  |  Champion (6)  |  Delight (111)  |  Enclosure (4)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Field (378)  |  Generality (45)  |  Good (906)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mind Of Man (7)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Region (40)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Spacious (2)

For man being the minister and interpreter of nature, acts and understands so far as he has observed of the order, the works and mind of nature, and can proceed no further; for no power is able to loose or break the chain of causes, nor is nature to be conquered but by submission: whence those twin intentions, human knowledge and human power, are really coincident; and the greatest hindrance to works is the ignorance of causes.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In The Great lnstauration.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Being (1276)  |  Break (109)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chain (51)  |  Coincident (2)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hindrance (9)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Intention (46)  |  Interpreter (8)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Loose (14)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minister (10)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Power (771)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Submission (4)  |  Twin (16)  |  Understand (648)  |  Work (1402)

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
— Sir Francis Bacon
From 'Progress of philosophical speculations. Preface to intended treatise De Interpretatione Naturæ (1603), in Francis Bacon and James Spedding (ed.), Works of Francis Bacon (1868), Vol. 3, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affectation (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chief (99)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enough (341)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fix (34)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Hate (68)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nimble (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Patience (58)  |  Point (584)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Steady (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Versatile (6)

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, then that this universall Frame, is without a Minde. And therefore, God never wrought Miracle, to convince Atheisme, because his Ordinary Works Convince it. It is true, that a little Philosophy inclineth Mans Minde to Atheisme; But depth in Philosophy, bringeth Mens Mindes about to Religion.
— Sir Francis Bacon
'Of Atheisme' (1625) in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1887-1901), Vol. 6, 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Atheism (11)  |  Convince (43)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fable (12)  |  God (776)  |  Legend (18)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Religion (369)  |  Work (1402)

If one be bird-witted, that is easily distracted and unable to keep his attention as long as he should, mathematics provides a remedy; for in them if the mind be caught away but a moment, the demonstration has to be commenced anew.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In De Augmentis, Bk. 6; Advancement of Learning, Bk. 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Anew (19)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bird (163)  |  Catch (34)  |  Commence (5)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Distract (6)  |  Easily (36)  |  Keep (104)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  Provide (79)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Unable (25)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wit (61)

It is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.
— Sir Francis Bacon
'Essays or Counsels: Civil and Moral. I. Of Truth'. In Francis Bacon, James Spedding, The Works of Francis Bacon (1864), Vol. 6, 378.
Science quotes on:  |  Hurt (14)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Pass (241)  |  Settle (23)  |  Sink (38)  |  Through (846)

It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the mind of man, so weak, but it mates, and masters, the fear of death; and therefore, death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him, that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupieth it.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In 'Of Death', Essays (1625, 1883), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspire (15)  |  Attendant (3)  |  Combat (16)  |  Death (406)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Fear (212)  |  Grief (20)  |  Honor (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mate (7)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mind Of Man (7)  |  Observe (179)  |  Passion (121)  |  Preoccupy (4)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Slight (32)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Weak (73)  |  Win (53)  |  Worthy (35)

Let every student of nature take this as his rule, that whatever the mind seizes upon with particular satisfaction is to be held in suspicion.
— Sir Francis Bacon
Novum Organum (1620). In Jerome Kagan, Three Seductive Ideas (1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Particular (80)  |  Rule (307)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Seize (18)  |  Student (317)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Whatever (234)

Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left to itself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done, which are as much wanted for the understanding as for the hand. And as the instruments of the hand either give motion or guide it, so the instruments of the mind supply either suggestions for the understanding or cautions.
— Sir Francis Bacon
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 2. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Caution (24)  |  Effect (414)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hand (149)  |  Help (116)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nakedness (2)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Supply (100)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Work (1402)

No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In Novum Organum (1620), Book 2, Aphorism 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Apply (170)  |  Childish (20)  |  Common (447)  |  Compel (31)  |  Credulity (16)  |  Examination (102)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Happen (282)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Notion (120)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Understanding (527)

Science is the labor and handicraft of the mind; poetry can only be considered its recreation.
— Sir Francis Bacon
As quoted in Nathaniel Holmes, The Authorship of Shakespeare (1867), 198. Footnoted as Int. Globe, Works (Mont.), XV. 150.
Science quotes on:  |  Consider (428)  |  Handicraft (3)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Recreation (23)  |  Science And Art (195)

Since my logic aims to teach and instruct the understanding, not that it may with the slender tendrils of the mind snatch at and lay hold of abstract notions (as the common logic does), but that it may in very truth dissect nature, and discover the virtues and actions of bodies, with their laws as determined in matter; so that this science flows not merely from the nature of the mind, but also from the nature of things.
— Sir Francis Bacon
In Novum Organum (1620), Book 2, Aphorism 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Action (342)  |  Aim (175)  |  Common (447)  |  Discover (571)  |  Flow (89)  |  Law (913)  |  Logic (311)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Notion (120)  |  Snatch (14)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Virtue (117)

The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this—that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.
— Sir Francis Bacon
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 9. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Evil (122)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Power (771)  |  Root (121)  |  Seek (218)

The human understanding is moved by those things most which strike and enter the mind simultaneously and suddenly, and so fill the imagination; and then it feigns and supposes all other things to be somehow, though it cannot see how, similar to those few things by which it is surrounded.
— Sir Francis Bacon
Translation of Novum Organum, XLVII. In Francis Bacon, James Spedding, The Works of Francis Bacon (1864), Vol. 8, 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Enter (145)  |  Fill (67)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  See (1094)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Surround (33)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)

There are four classes of Idols which beset men’s minds. To these for distinction’s sake I have assigned names,—calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theatre
The Idols of the Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For every one (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolours the light of nature; owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like.
There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market-place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate; and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar, and therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations where with in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.
Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men’s minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theatre; because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage-plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.
— Sir Francis Bacon
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorisms 39, 41-44. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 53-55.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Account (195)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Associate (25)  |  Association (49)  |  Authority (99)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Choice (114)  |  Class (168)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Common (447)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Creation (350)  |  Definition (238)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distort (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Education (423)  |  Empty (82)  |  Error (339)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idle (34)  |  Idol (5)  |  Impression (118)  |  Individual (420)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owing (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Perception (97)  |  Proper (150)  |  Race (278)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reading (136)  |  Right (473)  |  Sake (61)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Settled (34)  |  Stage (152)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course; it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the memory whole, as it finds it; but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested. Therefore from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental and the rational (such as has never yet been made), much may be hoped.
— Sir Francis Bacon
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 95. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 92-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Ant (34)  |  Bee (44)  |  Business (156)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Closer (43)  |  Cobweb (6)  |  Course (413)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flower (112)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gather (76)  |  History (716)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Memory (144)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Never (1089)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Power (771)  |  Rational (95)  |  Research (753)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Spider (14)  |  Substance (253)  |  Transform (74)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)

Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury. For as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts than good by their own. Those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course, and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known — whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists, or from uncertainty and fluctuation of mind, or even from a kind of fullness of learning, that they fell upon this opinion — have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised; but yet they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion, zeal and affectation having carried them much too far...
Now my method, though hard to practice, is easy to explain; and it is this. I propose to establish progressive stages of certainty. The evidence of the sense, helped and guarded by a certain process of correction, I retain. But the mental operation which follows the act of sense I for the most part reject; and instead of it I open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in, starting directly from the simple sensuous perception.
— Sir Francis Bacon
Novum Organum (1620)
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Already (226)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Correction (42)  |  Course (413)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Follow (389)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Injury (36)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Operation (221)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Professional (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rest (287)  |  Retain (57)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stage (152)  |  Start (237)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understood (155)

We come therefore now to that knowledge whereunto the ancient oracle directeth us, which is the knowledge of ourselves; which deserveth the more accurate handling, by how much it toucheth us more nearly. This knowledge, as it is the end and term of natural philosophy in the intention of man, so notwithstanding it is but a portion of natural philosophy in the continent of nature. And generally let this be a rule, that all partitions of knowledges be accepted rather for lines and veins, than for sections and separations; and that the continuance and entireness of knowledge be preserved. For the contrary hereof hath made particular sciences to become barren, shallow, and erroneous; while they have not been nourished and maintained from the common fountain. So we see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and his school, that he was the first that separated philosophy and rhetoric; whereupon rhetoric became an empty and verbal art. So we may see that the opinion of Copernicus touching the rotation of the earth, which astronomy itself cannot correct because it is not repugnant to any of the phenomena, yet natural philosophy may correct. So we see also that the science of medicine, if it be destituted and forsaken by natural philosophy, it is not much better than an empirical practice. With this reservation therefore we proceed to Human Philosophy or Humanity, which hath two parts: the one considereth man segregate, or distributively; the other congregate, or in society. So as Human Philosophy is either Simple and Particular, or Conjugate and Civil. Humanity Particular consisteth of the same parts whereof man consisteth; that is, of knowledges that respect the Body, and of knowledges that respect the Mind. But before we distribute so far, it is good to constitute. For I do take the consideration in general and at large of Human Nature to be fit to be emancipate and made a knowledge by itself; not so much in regard of those delightful and elegant discourses which have been made of the dignity of man, of his miseries, of his state and life, and the like adjuncts of his common and undivided nature; but chiefly in regard of the knowledge concerning the sympathies and concordances between the mind and body, which, being mixed, cannot be properly assigned to the sciences of either.
— Sir Francis Bacon
The Advancement of Learning (1605) in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1887-1901), Vol. 3, 366-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Art (680)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Barren (33)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Body (557)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Civil (26)  |  Common (447)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continent (79)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Delightful (18)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empty (82)  |  End (603)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Intention (46)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Portion (86)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Regard (312)  |  Repugnant (8)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rhetoric (13)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Rule (307)  |  School (227)  |  See (1094)  |  Separation (60)  |  Simple (426)  |  Society (350)  |  State (505)  |  Term (357)  |  Touching (16)  |  Two (936)  |  Vein (27)


See also:

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.