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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index F > James Anthony Froude Quotes

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James Anthony Froude
(23 Apr 1818 - 20 Oct 1894)

English historian and biographer whose History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of the Spanish Armada was covered in ten volumes published 1856-70. Of his biographical works, that of Thomas Carlyle was his most extensive (4 vols., 1882-84). Though his work had a vividly descriptive but orderly narrative style, it was often criticized by other historians for inaccurate use of documents and careless use of facts.

Science Quotes by James Anthony Froude (7 quotes)

As soon … as it was observed that the stars retained their relative places, that the times of their rising and setting varied with the seasons, that sun, moon, and planets moved among them in a plane, … then a new order of things began.… Science had begun, and the first triumph of it was the power of foretelling the future; eclipses were perceived to recur in cycles of nineteen years, and philosophers were able to say when an eclipse was to be looked for. The periods of the planets were determined. Theories were invented to account for their eccentricities; and, false as those theories might be, the position of the planets could be calculated with moderate certainty by them.
— James Anthony Froude
Lecture delivered to the Royal Institution (5 Feb 1864), 'On the Science of History'. Collected in Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with Abstracts of the Discourses (1866), Vol. 4, 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  First (1302)  |  Foretelling (4)  |  Future (467)  |  Look (584)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Period (200)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Plane (22)  |  Planet (402)  |  Power (771)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Retain (57)  |  Rising (44)  |  Say (989)  |  Season (47)  |  Setting (44)  |  Soon (187)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Year (963)

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.
— James Anthony Froude
Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St. Andrews, March 19, 1869 (1869), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Advance (298)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)

It often seems to me as if History was like a child’s box of letters, with which we can spell any word we please. We have only to pick out such letters as we want, arrange them as we like, and say nothing about those which do not suit our purpose.
— James Anthony Froude
Lecture delivered to the Royal Institution (5 Feb 1864), 'On the Science of History'. Collected in Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain with Abstracts of the Discourses (1866), Vol. 4, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrange (33)  |  Box (22)  |  Child (333)  |  Do (1905)  |  History (716)  |  Letter (117)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pick (16)  |  Please (68)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Say (989)  |  Spell (9)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

Nature is not a partisan, but out of her ample treasue house she produces children in infinite variety, of which she is equally the mother, and disowns none of them…
— James Anthony Froude
Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, 1834-1881 (1884), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Children (201)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Equally (129)  |  House (143)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Mother (116)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Partisan (5)  |  Variety (138)

Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; [but] a creed is always sensitive.
— James Anthony Froude
Thomas Carlyle: a History of his Life in London, 1834-1881 (1884), Vol. 2, 207.
Science quotes on:  |  Calm (32)  |  Creed (28)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Opponent (23)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sensitive (15)

The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.
— James Anthony Froude
Attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Faith (209)  |  Scoff (8)  |  Superstition (70)

We must have the real thing before we can have a science of a thing.
— James Anthony Froude
Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, 1834-1881 (1884), 173.
Science quotes on:  |  Must (1525)  |  Thing (1914)


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
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