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Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
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Thumbnail of Lord George Gordon Byron (source)
Lord George Gordon Byron
(22 Jan 1788 - 19 Apr 1824)

British romantic poet who is noted for his Romantic narrative poems. A daughter, Augusta Ada, was born during a brief marriage to Annabella Milbanke (1815) who left him the following year, because of an abusive relationship. Byron never saw them again. His daughter became renowned as Ada Lovelace, a mathematician credited with writing the world's first computer programme while associated with George Babbage.

Lord Byron - Illustrated Quote
On Isaac Newton's “Playing on the Seashore”

Ocean Background - Large (800 x 500 px)

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Lord Byron Quote: Newton declared himself “like a youth Picking up shells by the great ocean—Truth.”
Background of ocean and rocky outcrop with kelp on sandy shore in foreground, at Channel Islands NMS, California. , Photo by Claire Fackler, NOAA (source)

“Newton, (that proverb of the mind,) alas!
Declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,
That he himself felt only ‘like a youth
Picking up shells by the great ocean—Truth.’”
— Lord Byron
Lines from poem, “Don Juan.”

For more information on the text, see the Today in Science History page for Isaac Newton quotes. (source)


See also:
  • Science Quotes by Lord George Gordon Byron.
  • Lord Byron - On Newton's “Playing on the Seashore” illustrated quote - Pebble Background - Medium 500px.
  • Lord Byron - On Newton's “Playing on the Seashore” illustrated quote - Pebble Background - Large 800px.
  • Lord Byron - On Newton's “Playing on the Seashore” illustrated quote - Ocean Background - Medium 500px.

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.
Carl Sagan Thumbnail Carl Sagan: 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) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)
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