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Robert Burns
(25 Jan 1759 - 21 Jul 1796)
Scottish poet known for his poetry celebrating the lowlands of Scotland, and also familiar songs including Auld Lang Syne and Comin' thro' the Rye.
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Science Quotes by Robert Burns (7 quotes)
Ask why God made the GEM so small,
And why so huge the granite?
Because God meant, mankind should set
That higher value on it.
And why so huge the granite?
Because God meant, mankind should set
That higher value on it.
— Robert Burns
But facts are chiels that winna ding,
An' downa be disputed.
An' downa be disputed.
— Robert Burns
From poem, 'A Dream', (1786), in The Complete Works of Robert Burns (1826), 23.
Facts are things which cannot be altered or disputed.
— Robert Burns
God help the teacher, if a man of sensibility and genius, when a booby father presents him with his booby son, and insists on lighting up the rays of science in a fellow's head whose skull is impervious and inaccessible by any other way than a positive fracture with a cudgel.
— Robert Burns
In a letter to Mr. Cunningham, 11 Jun 1791. Quoted in James Wood Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 126:18.
It is the moon, I ken her horn
That’s blinkin in the lift sae hie;
She shines sae bright to wyle us hame,
But by my sooth she’ll wait a wee!
That’s blinkin in the lift sae hie;
She shines sae bright to wyle us hame,
But by my sooth she’ll wait a wee!
— Robert Burns
Mankind is a science that defies definitions.
— Robert Burns
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 267:30.
Ye ugly, creepin’, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn’d by saunt an’ sinner!
How dare ye set your fit upon her,
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else, and seek your dinner
On some poor body.
Detested, shunn’d by saunt an’ sinner!
How dare ye set your fit upon her,
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else, and seek your dinner
On some poor body.
— Robert Burns
From poem, 'To A Louse: On Seeing One On A Lady’s Bonnet, At Church' (1786).
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) -- 
