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: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Ahead

Ahead Quotes (21 quotes)

Act as if you are going to live for ever and cast your plans way ahead. You must feel responsible without time limitations, and the consideration of whether you may or may not be around to see the results should never enter your thoughts.
In Theodore Rockwell, The Rickover Effect: How One Man Made A Difference (2002), 342.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Cast (69)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Death (406)  |  Enter (145)  |  Ever (4)  |  Feel (371)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Live (650)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Plan (122)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)

Ah, the architecture of this world. Amoebas may not have backbones, brains, automobiles, plastic, television, Valium or any other of the blessings of a technologically advanced civilization; but their architecture is two billion years ahead of its time.
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977), 15-16.
Science quotes on:  |  Advanced (12)  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Billion (104)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Blessings (17)  |  Brain (281)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Technology (281)  |  Television (33)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Cosmology does, I think, affect the way that we perceive humanity’s role in nature. One thing we’ve learnt from astronomy is that the future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past. Even our sun is less than halfway through its life.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Affect (19)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Future (467)  |  Halfway (2)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Learn (672)  |  Less (105)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lying (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Past (355)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Prolonged (7)  |  Role (86)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)

I always keep two legs going, with one trying to reach ahead.
Quoted in James Gleick, Genius: the Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1993), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Keep (104)  |  Leg (35)  |  Reach (286)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)

I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.
In The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity (2006, 2007), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Correct (95)  |  Danger (127)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Gaia (15)  |  Irritate (4)  |  Lethal (4)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Personalize (2)  |  Scientist (881)  |  System (545)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)  |  Widespread (23)

I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Arent (6)  |  Begin (275)  |  Belief (615)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Dreamer (14)  |  Enough (341)  |  Full (68)  |  Important (229)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Think (1122)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has nine thousand matches. The other has seven thousand matches. Each of them is concerned about who's ahead, who's stronger. Well that's the kind of situation we are actually in. The amount of weapons that are available to the United States and the Soviet Union are so bloated, so grossly in excess of what's needed to dissuade the other, that if it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable. What is necessary is to reduce the matches and to clean up the gasoline.
From Sagan's analogy about the nuclear arms race and the need for disarmament, during a panel discussion in ABC News Viewpoint following the TV movie The Day After (20 Nov 1983). Transcribed by Webmaster from a video recording. It is seen misquoted in summary form as “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Arms Race (3)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Available (80)  |  Clean (52)  |  Clean Up (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Excess (23)  |  Gasoline (4)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Implacable (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Laughable (4)  |  Match (30)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Need (320)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soviet (10)  |  Soviet Union (4)  |  State (505)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  United States (31)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

In every phase of business life, keep at least one year ahead of the other fellow.
As quoted by H.M. Davidson, in System: The Magazine of Business (Apr 1922), 41, 412.
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Keep (104)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Other (2233)  |  Phase (37)  |  Year (963)

In fulfilling the wants of the public, a manufacturer should keep as far ahead as his imagination and his knowledge of his buying public will let him. One should never wait to see what it is a customer is going to want. Give him, rather, what he needs, before he has sensed that need himself.
As quoted by H.M. Davidson, in System: The Magazine of Business (Apr 1922), 41, 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Customer (8)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Manufacturer (10)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Public (100)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Wait (66)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

It has been a fortunate fact in the modern history of physical science that the scientist constructing a new theoretical system has nearly always found that the mathematics he required for his system had already been worked out by pure mathematicians for their own amusement. … The moral for statesmen would seem to be that, for proper scientific “planning”, pure mathematics should be endowed fifty years ahead of scientists.
In 'Scientific Deductive Systems and Their Representations', Scientific Explanation: A Study of the Function of Theory, Probability and Law in Science (1968), 48-49. This book is elaborated and developed from his series of Tarner lectures (Lent 1946).
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Construct (129)  |  Endow (17)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fifty (17)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  History (716)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Moral (203)  |  New (1273)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Plan (122)  |  Proper (150)  |  Pure Mathematician (2)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Statesman (20)  |  System (545)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Junior high school seemed like a fine idea when we invented it but it turned out to be an invention of the devil. We’re catching our boys in a net in which they’re socially unprepared. We put them in junior high school with girls who are two years ahead of them. There isn’t a thing they should have to do with girls at this age except growl at them.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Boy (100)  |  Catch (34)  |  Devil (34)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fine (37)  |  Girl (38)  |  Growl (3)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invent (57)  |  Invention (400)  |  Junior (6)  |  Net (12)  |  School (227)  |  Social (261)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turn Out (9)  |  Two (936)  |  Unprepared (2)  |  Year (963)

My entire life consisted of musings, calculations, practical works and trials. Many questions remain unanswered; many works are incomplete or unpublished. The most important things still lie ahead.
As quoted in Air & Space Smithsonian (2002), 17, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculation (134)  |  Consist (223)  |  Important (229)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Most (1728)  |  Practical (225)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trial (59)  |  Unanswered (8)  |  Unpublished (2)  |  Work (1402)

Poets are always ahead of science; all the great discoveries of science have been stated before in poetry.
In Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (2007), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Great (1610)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Stated (3)

Science and technology, like all original creations of the human spirit, are unpredictable. If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.
In Disturbing the Universe (1979), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Big (55)  |  Concern (239)  |  Creation (350)  |  Damnation (4)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enough (341)  |  Far (158)  |  Forward (104)  |  Good (906)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Know (1538)  |  Label (11)  |  Lead (391)  |  Live (650)  |  Push (66)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Regulate (11)  |  Reliable (13)  |  Road (71)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  See (1094)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Technology (281)  |  Toy (22)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Wisely (2)

There is no one who equals him [Edward Teller] for sheer, speed of thought. There may be better scientists, but none more brilliant. You always find him a thousand feet ahead of you.
As quoted in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Equal (88)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foot (65)  |  More (2558)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Speed (66)  |  Edward Teller (43)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.
City Aphorisms, Tenth Selection (1991).
Science quotes on:  |  Little (717)  |  Successful (134)  |  Time (1911)

We must somehow keep the dreams of space exploration alive, for in the long run they will prove to be of far more importance to the human race than the attainment of material benefits. Like Darwin, we have set sail upon an ocean: the cosmic sea of the Universe. There can be no turning back. To do so could well prove to be a guarantee of extinction. When a nation, or a race or a planet turns its back on the future, to concentrate on the present, it cannot see what lies ahead. It can neither plan nor prepare for the future, and thus discards the vital opportunity for determining its evolutionary heritage and perhaps its survival.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Back (395)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Darwin (14)  |  Determine (152)  |  Discard (32)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Far (158)  |  Future (467)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Heritage (22)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Importance (299)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Keep (104)  |  Lie (370)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Plan (122)  |  Planet (402)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Present (630)  |  Prove (261)  |  Race (278)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Survival (105)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)

We need people who can see straight ahead and deep into the problems. Those are the experts. But we also need peripheral vision and experts are generally not very good at providing peripheral vision.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Deep (241)  |  Expert (67)  |  Generally (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Need (320)  |  People (1031)  |  Peripheral (3)  |  Problem (731)  |  Provide (79)  |  See (1094)  |  Straight (75)  |  Vision (127)

When a scientist is ahead of his times, it is often through misunderstanding of current, rather than intuition of future truth. In science there is never any error so gross that it won't one day, from some perspective, appear prophetic.
Pensées d'un Biologiste (1939). Translated in The Substance of Man (1962), Chap. 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Current (122)  |  Error (339)  |  Future (467)  |  Gross (7)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Never (1089)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Prophetic (4)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)

When going ahead in space, it is also important to go back in time.
Gordon Lill and Arthur Maxwell, quoting a proverb of the American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC, which Lill co-founded), 'The Earth's Mantle', Science (22 May 1959), 129, No. 3360, 1410.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Importance (299)  |  Space (523)  |  Time (1911)

When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large, scientific method in most cases fails us. One need only think of the weather, in which case prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us.
Out of My Later Years (1995), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Case (102)  |  Causal (7)  |  Coming (114)  |  Complex (202)  |  Component (51)  |  Confront (18)  |  Connection (171)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Main (29)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Play (116)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Think (1122)  |  Weather (49)


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.