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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index B > James Burke Quotes

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James Burke
(22 Dec 1936 - )

Science historian best known for his 1979 TV series, Connections, and real-time reporting on the Apollo space program in the 1960s and 70s.


Science Quotes by James Burke (8 quotes)


All that can accurately be said about a man who thinks he is a poached egg is that he is in the minority.
— James Burke
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 310.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Egg (71)  |  Man (2252)  |  Minority (24)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

Nature is disordered, powerful and chaotic, and through fear of the chaos we impose system on it. We abhor complexity, and seek to simplify things whenever we can by whatever means we have at hand. We need to have an overall explanation of what the universe is and how it functions. In order to achieve this overall view we develop explanatory theories which will give structure to natural phenomena: we classify nature into a coherent system which appears to do what we say it does.
— James Burke
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Abhorrence (8)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Classification (102)  |  Coherence (13)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fear (212)  |  Function (235)  |  Imposition (5)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Order (638)  |  Overall (10)  |  Phenomena (8)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Simplify (14)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)

Scientists are the true driving force of civilization.
— James Burke
As stated in Cosmic Search (Fall 1981), 3 No. 4, 18, which cites James Burke, Connections. It seems to be a paraphrase. Compare narration in TV program 'Yesterday, Tomorrow and You', episode 10 of Connections (1979): “The scientists and the technologists … are the true driving force of humanity.” If you know a primary source for the short form, please contact webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Driving (28)  |  Force (497)  |  Scientist (881)

Somebody once observed to the eminent philosopher Wittgenstein how stupid medieval Europeans living before the time of Copernicus must have been that they could have looked at the sky and thought that the sun was circling the earth. Surely a modicum of astronomical good sense would have told them that the reverse was true. Wittgenstein is said to have replied: “I agree. But I wonder what it would have looked like if the sun had been circling the earth.”
— James Burke
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Circling (2)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eminent (20)  |  European (5)  |  Geocentric (6)  |  Good (906)  |  Heliocentric (4)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Medieval (12)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surely (101)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Ludwig Wittgenstein (16)  |  Wonder (251)

The moment man first picked up a stone or a branch to use as a tool, he altered irrevocably the balance between him and his environment. From this point on, the way in which the world around him changed was different. It was no longer regular or predictable. New objects appeared that were not recognizable as a mutation of something that existed before, and as each one merged it altered the environment not for one season, but for ever.
— James Burke
from Introduction to Connections by James Burke, Macmillan (1978)
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Altering (3)  |  Balance (82)  |  Branch (155)  |  Change (639)  |  Different (595)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exist (458)  |  First (1302)  |  Irrevocable (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Mutation (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Point (584)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Regular (48)  |  Season (47)  |  Something (718)  |  Stone (168)  |  Tool (129)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

We in the modern world expect that tomorrow will be better than today.
— James Burke
In Day the Universe Changed (1985), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Future (467)  |  Modern (402)  |  Present (630)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

When you read a book, you hold another’s mind in your hands.
— James Burke
Appears, without citation, in Helen Grenat, Wisdom Through the Ages (1998), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hold (96)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Read (308)

Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.
— James Burke
In Connections (1978, 1979), 287.
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Look (584)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Order (638)  |  Past (355)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Why (491)


See also:
  • 22 Dec - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Burke's birth.
  • James Burke - context of quote “Scientists are the true driving force of civilization” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • James Burke - context of quote “Scientists are the true driving force of civilization” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Connections, by James Burke. - book suggestion.

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)
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