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: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Artificial

Artificial Quotes (38 quotes)

[My] numberless observations... made on the Strata... [have] made me confident of their uniformity throughout this Country & [have] led me to conclude that the same regularity... will be found to extend to every part of the Globe for Nature has done nothing by piecemeal. [T]here is no inconsistency in her productions. [T]he Horse never becomes an Ass nor the Crab an Apple by any intermixture or artificial combination whatever[. N]or will the Oak ever degenerate into an Ash or an Ash into an Elm. [H]owever varied by Soil or Climate the species will still be distinct on this ground. [T]hen I argue that what is found here may be found elsewhere[.] When proper allowances are made for such irregularities as often occur and the proper situation and natural agreement is well understood I am satisfied there will be no more difficulty in ascertaining the true quality of the Strata and the place of its possition [sic] than there is now in finding the true Class and Character of Plants by the Linean [sic] System.
Natural Order of the Strata in England and Wales Accurately Delineated and Described, unpublished manuscript, Department of Geology, University of Oxford, 1801, f. 7v.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Apple (46)  |  Ash (21)  |  Ass (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Climate (102)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Confident (25)  |  Country (269)  |  Crab (6)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Elm (4)  |  Extend (129)  |  Ground (222)  |  Horse (78)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Oak (16)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occur (151)  |  Piecemeal (3)  |  Plant (320)  |  Production (190)  |  Proper (150)  |  Quality (139)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soil (98)  |  Species (435)  |  Still (614)  |  Strata (37)  |  System (545)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Understood (155)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

Les faits scientifiques, et à fortiori, les lois sont l’œuvre artificielle du savant ; la science ne peut donc rien nous apprendre de la vérité, elle ne peut nous servir que de règle d’action.
The facts of science and, à fortiori, its laws are the artificial work of the scientist; science therefore can teach us nothing of the truth; it can only serve us as rule of action.
In La Valeur de la Science (1904), 214, translated by George Bruce Halsted, in The Value of Science (1907), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Law (913)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God.
In Religio Medici (1642, 1754), pt. 1, sec. 16, 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  God (776)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Thing (1914)

As man advances in civilisation, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Being (1276)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Community (111)  |  Extend (129)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Large (398)  |  Man (2252)  |  Member (42)  |  Nation (208)  |  Personally (7)  |  Point (584)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Same (166)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Social (261)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tribe (26)  |  United (15)  |  Unknown (195)

At the origin, the [space travel] pioneers of the greatest adventure of all times were motivated by the drive to explore, by the pure spirit of conquest, by the lofty desire to open up new fields to human genius. … From their exceptional journeys, they all came back with the revelation of beauty. Beauty of the black sky, beauty and variety of our planet, beauty of the Earth seen from the Moon, girdled by a scintillating belt of equatorial thunderstorms. They all emphasize that our planet is one, that borderlines are artificial, that humankind is one single community on board spaceship Earth. They all insist that this fragile gem is at our mercy and that we must all endeavor to protect it.
Written for 'Foreword' to Kevin W. Kelley (ed.), The Home Planet (1988), paragraphs 6-7 (unpaginated).
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belt (4)  |  Black (46)  |  Board (13)  |  Borderline (2)  |  Community (111)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Desire (212)  |  Drive (61)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Equatorial (3)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Field (378)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Gem (17)  |  Genius (301)  |  Girdle (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Insist (22)  |  Journey (48)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motivate (8)  |  New (1273)  |  Open Up (2)  |  Origin (250)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Planet (402)  |  Protect (65)  |  Pure (299)  |  Revelation (51)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Spaceship Earth (3)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thunderstorm (7)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vulnerable (7)

Boundaries which mark off one field of science from another are purely artificial, are set up only for temporary convenience. Let chemists and physicists dig deep enough, and they reach common ground.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-Book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (55)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Ground (4)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dig (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Field (378)  |  Ground (222)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Set (400)  |  Temporary (24)

Louis Pasteur quote: Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according
Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according to the spatial characteristic of its form. The distinction is between those substances that have a plane of symmetry and those that do not. The former belong to the mineral, the latter to the living world.
Pasteur Vallery-Radot (ed.), Oeuvres de Pasteur (1922-1939), Vol. I, 331. Quoted in Patrice Debré, Louis Pasteur, trans. Elborg Forster (1994), 261.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Belong (168)  |  Category (19)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fall (243)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Major (88)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Natural (810)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Plane (22)  |  Spatial (10)  |  Substance (253)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)

Food is at present obtained almost entirely from the energy of the sunlight. The radiation from the sun produces from the carbonic acid in the air more or less complicated carbon compounds which serve us in plants and vegetables. We use the latent chemical energy of these to keep our bodies warm, we convert it into muscular effort. We employ it in the complicated process of digestion to repair and replace the wasted cells of our bodies. … If the gigantic sources of power become available, food would be produced without recourse to sunlight. Vast cellars, in which artificial radiation is generated, may replace the cornfields and potato patches of the world.
From 'Fifty Years Hence', Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932), 57, No. 3, 396-397.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Air (366)  |  Available (80)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbonic Acid (4)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cellar (4)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Energy (3)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Compound (117)  |  Convert (22)  |  Corn (20)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Effort (243)  |  Employ (115)  |  Energy (373)  |  Field (378)  |  Food (213)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Latent (13)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Muscular (2)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Patch (9)  |  Plant (320)  |  Potato (11)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Repair (11)  |  Replace (32)  |  Source (101)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wasted (2)  |  World (1850)

Half a century ago Oswald (1910) distinguished classicists and romanticists among the scientific investigators: the former being inclined to design schemes and to use consistently the deductions from working hypotheses; the latter being more fit for intuitive discoveries of functional relations between phenomena and therefore more able to open up new fields of study. Examples of both character types are Werner and Hutton. Werner was a real classicist. At the end of the eighteenth century he postulated the theory of “neptunism,” according to which all rocks including granites, were deposited in primeval seas. It was an artificial scheme, but, as a classification system, it worked quite satisfactorily at the time. Hutton, his contemporary and opponent, was more a romanticist. His concept of “plutonism” supposed continually recurrent circuits of matter, which like gigantic paddle wheels raise material from various depths of the earth and carry it off again. This is a very flexible system which opens the mind to accept the possible occurrence in the course of time of a great variety of interrelated plutonic and tectonic processes.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 456-7.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  Accept (198)  |  According (236)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Carry (130)  |  Century (319)  |  Character (259)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Classicist (2)  |  Classification (102)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consistently (8)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Course (413)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (203)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Field (378)  |  Fit (139)  |  Flexible (7)  |  Former (138)  |  Functional (10)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Granite (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  James Hutton (22)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Open (277)  |  Opponent (23)  |  Wilhelm Ostwald (5)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Process (439)  |  Raise (38)  |  Recurrent (2)  |  Relation (166)  |  Rock (176)  |  Romanticist (2)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sea (326)  |  Study (701)  |  Suppose (158)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Various (205)  |  Abraham Werner (5)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Work (1402)  |  Working (23)

How did I discover saccharin? Well, it was partly by accident and partly by study. I had worked a long time on the compound radicals and substitution products of coal tar... One evening I was so interested in my laboratory that I forgot about my supper till quite late, and then rushed off for a meal without stopping to wash my hands. I sat down, broke a piece of bread, and put it to my lips. It tasted unspeakably sweet. I did not ask why it was so, probably because I thought it was some cake or sweetmeat. I rinsed my mouth with water, and dried my moustache with my napkin, when, to my surprise the napkin tasted sweeter than the bread. Then I was puzzled. I again raised my goblet, and, as fortune would have it, applied my mouth where my fingers had touched it before. The water seemed syrup. It flashed on me that I was the cause of the singular universal sweetness, and I accordingly tasted the end of my thumb, and found it surpassed any confectionery I had ever eaten. I saw the whole thing at once. I had discovered some coal tar substance which out-sugared sugar. I dropped my dinner, and ran back to the laboratory. There, in my excitement, I tasted the contents of every beaker and evaporating dish on the table.
Interview with American Analyst. Reprinted in Pacific Record of Medicine and Surgery (1886), 1, No. 3, 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Applied (176)  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Beaker (5)  |  Bread (42)  |  Cake (6)  |  Cause (561)  |  Coal (64)  |  Coal Tar (2)  |  Compound (117)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Dropped (17)  |  End (603)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Finger (48)  |  Flash (49)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Interest (416)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Late (119)  |  Long (778)  |  Meal (19)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Napkin (2)  |  Product (166)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Radical (28)  |  Research (753)  |  Saccharin (2)  |  Saw (160)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Singular (24)  |  Study (701)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Supper (10)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Sweetness (12)  |  Table (105)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Universal (198)  |  Wash (23)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)

I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of any individual or any society. I believe that whenever we substitute something man-made and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of man’s spiritual growth.
As quoted in Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (1997), 259.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belief (615)  |  Development (441)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Feature (49)  |  Growth (200)  |  Individual (420)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man-Made (10)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Beauty (5)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Retarded (5)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Substitute (47)  |  Whenever (81)

I made my own ABC of climbing. A is no artificial oxygen. B is no bolts. And C is no communication systems.
A bolt is an artificial anchor drilled into a rock to aid climbing. From interview with Rudraneil Sengupta, 'Reinhold Messner: When You’re Alone, Fear is All on You', Mint (1 Mar 2014). A business newspaper in India, also online at livemint.com website.
Science quotes on:  |  Bolt (11)  |  Climbing (9)  |  Communication (101)  |  Oxygen (77)

I should like to draw attention to the inexhaustible variety of the problems and exercises which it [mathematics] furnishes; these may be graduated to precisely the amount of attainment which may be possessed, while yet retaining an interest and value. It seems to me that no other branch of study at all compares with mathematics in this. When we propose a deduction to a beginner we give him an exercise in many cases that would have been admired in the vigorous days of Greek geometry. Although grammatical exercises are well suited to insure the great benefits connected with the study of languages, yet these exercises seem to me stiff and artificial in comparison with the problems of mathematics. It is not absurd to maintain that Euclid and Apollonius would have regarded with interest many of the elegant deductions which are invented for the use of our students in geometry; but it seems scarcely conceivable that the great masters in any other line of study could condescend to give a moment’s attention to the elementary books of the beginner.
In Conflict of Studies (1873), 10-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Admire (19)  |  Amount (153)  |  Apollonius (6)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beginner (11)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Book (413)  |  Branch (155)  |  Case (102)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Condescend (2)  |  Connect (126)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Draw (140)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Grammatical (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greek (109)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Insure (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invent (57)  |  Language (308)  |  Line (100)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Problem (731)  |  Propose (24)  |  Regard (312)  |  Retain (57)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Seem (150)  |  Stiff (3)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Suit (12)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vigorous (21)

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
In The Sense of Wonder (1956, 1984), 42-43. First published in 'Help Your Child to Wonder', Womans Home Companion (Jul 1956), 24-27 & 46-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alienation (2)  |  Antidote (9)  |  Ask (420)  |  Boredom (11)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Disenchantment (2)  |  Fairy (10)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Indestructible (12)  |  Influence (231)  |  Last (425)  |  Later (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Preoccupation (7)  |  Preside (3)  |  Sense (785)  |  Source (101)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Mankind has gone very far into an artificial world of his own creation. He has sought to insulate himself, in his cities of steel and concrete, from the realities of earth and water and the growing seed. Intoxicated with a sense of his own power, he seems to be going farther and farther into more experiments for the destruction of himself and his world.
From speech upon receiving the John Burroughs Medal (Apr 1952) in New York, awarded for her book, The Sea Around Us. As collected in Rachel Carson and Linda Lear (ed.), 'Design for Nature Writing', Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (1998, 2011), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Creation (350)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Intoxication (7)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Power (771)  |  Reality (274)  |  Seed (97)  |  Steel (23)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

Modern times breed modern phobias. Until the present age, for example, it has been impossible for any woman to suffer crippling fear of artificial insemination.
(1986).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Artificial Insemination (3)  |  Fear (212)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Modern (402)  |  Phobia (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Time (1911)  |  Woman (160)

One of the petty ideas of philosophers is to elaborate a classification, a hierarchy of sciences. They all try it, and they are generally so fond of their favorite scheme that they are prone to attach an absurd importance to it. We must not let ourselves be misled by this. Classifications are always artificial; none more than this, however. There is nothing of value to get out of a classification of science; it dissembles more beauty and order than it can possibly reveal.
In 'The Teaching of the History of Science', The Scientific Monthly (Sep 1918), 194.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Attach (57)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Classification (102)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Order (638)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Petty (9)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Try (296)  |  Value (393)

Particular and contingent inventions in the solution of problems, which, though many times more concise than a general method would allow, yet, in my judgment, are less proper to instruct a learner, as acrostics, and such kind of artificial poetry, though never so excellent, would be but improper examples to instruct one that aims at Ovidean poetry.
In Letter to Collins (Macclesfield, 1670), Correspondence of Scientific Men (1841), Vol. 2, 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Allow (51)  |  Concise (9)  |  Contingent (12)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellent (29)  |  General (521)  |  Improper (3)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Invention (400)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Learner (10)  |  Less (105)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Publius Ovid (15)  |  Particular (80)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proper (150)  |  Solution (282)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Time (1911)

Some months ago we discovered that certain light elements emit positrons under the action of alpha particles. Our latest experiments have shown a very striking fact: when an aluminium foil is irradiated on a polonium preparation [alpha ray emitter], the emission of positrons does not cease immediately when the active preparation is removed: the foil remains radioactive and the emission of radiation decays exponentially as for an ordinary radio-element. We observed the same phenomenon with boron and magnesium.
[Co-author with Irène Joliot-Curie. This one-page paper reported their discovery of artificial radioactivity for which they were awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.]
Letter to the Editor, 'Artificial Production of a New Kind of Radio-Element'(10 Jan 1934) published in Nature (1934), 133, 201-2. Cited in Mauro Dardo, Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics (2004), 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Active (80)  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Alpha Ray (4)  |  Aluminum (15)  |  Author (175)  |  Award (13)  |  Boron (4)  |  Cease (81)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Decay (59)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Emission (20)  |  Emit (15)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Exponential (3)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Foil (3)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnesium (4)  |  Month (91)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particle (200)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Polonium (5)  |  Positron (4)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Ray (115)  |  Remain (355)  |  Striking (48)

The chemist studies the effects produced by heat and by mixture, in all bodies, or mixtures of bodies, natural or artificial, and studies them with a view to the improvement of arts, and the knowledge of nature.
Restating his own definition in fewer words, from the first of a series of lectures on chemistry, collected in John Robison (ed.), Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry: Delivered in the University of Edinburgh (1807), Vol. 1, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Definition (238)  |  Effect (414)  |  Heat (180)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Study (701)  |  View (496)

The degree 48 … in my thermometers holds the middle between between the limit of the most intense cold obtained artificially in a mixture of water, of ice and of sal-ammoniac or even of sea-salt, and the limit of heat which is found in the blood of a healthy man.
From 'Experimenta circa gradum caloris liquorum nonnullorum ebullientium instituta', Philosophical Transactions (1724), 33, 1, as translated in William Francis Magie, A Source Book in Physics (1935), 131. Hence, Fahrenheit specified the upper and lower fixed points of his temperature scale, ranging from 0 to 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Blood (144)  |  Cold (115)  |  Degree (277)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Intense (22)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Sal Ammoniac (2)  |  Salt (48)  |  Sea (326)  |  Thermometer (11)  |  Water (503)

The division between life and nonlife is perhaps an artificial one.
Speaking at an international meeting on the origins of life, quoted in E. Eckholm, 'Search for the Origins is Widening', International Herald Tribune (7 Jul 1986). As cited in Stuart R. Hameroff, Ultimate Computing: Biomolecular Consciousness and Nanotechnology (1987), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Division (67)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nonlife (2)

The ends of scientific classification are best answered, when the objects are formed into groups respecting which a greater number of general propositions can be made, and those propositions more important, than could be made respecting any other groups into which the same things could be distributed. ... A classification thus formed is properly scientific or philosophical, and is commonly called a Natural, in contradistinction to a Technical or Artificial, classification or arrangement.
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 2, Book 4, Chapter 7, 302-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Classification (102)  |  End (603)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Greater (288)  |  Importance (299)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thing (1914)

The ingenious but nevertheless somewhat artificial assumptions of [Bohr’s model of the atom], … are replaced by a much more natural assumption in de Broglie’s wave phenomena. The wave phenomenon forms the real “body” of the atom. It replaces the individual punctiform electrons, which in Bohr’s model swarm around the nucleus.
From 'Our Image of Matter', collected in Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Erwin Schrödinger, Pierre Auger, On Modern Physics (1961), 50. Webmaster note: “punctiform” means composed of points.
Science quotes on:  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Body (557)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  DeBroglie_Maurice (2)  |  Electron (96)  |  Form (976)  |  Individual (420)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Wave (112)

The most revolutionary invention of the XIX century was the artificial sterilization of marriage.
In 'Maxims for Revolutionists: Marriage, Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy (1903), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Century (319)  |  Invention (400)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Most (1728)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Sterilization (2)

The native intellectual powers of men in different times, are not so much the causes of the different success of their labours, as the peculiar nature of the means and artificial resources in their possession‎. Independent of vessels of glass, there could have been no accurate manipulations in common chemistry: the air pump was necessary for live investigation of the properties of gaseous matter; and without the Voltaic apparatus, there was no possibility of examining the relations of electrical polarities to chemical attractions.
In Elements of Chemical Philosophy (1812), Vol. 1, Part 1, 28-29.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Air (366)  |  Air Pump (2)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Common (447)  |  Different (595)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Examine (84)  |  Gas (89)  |  Glass (94)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Labor (200)  |  Live (650)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Native (41)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Polarity (5)  |  Possession (68)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Property (177)  |  Relation (166)  |  Resource (74)  |  Success (327)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Voltaic (9)

The number of fixed stars which observers have been able to see without artificial powers of sight up to this day can be counted. It is therefore decidedly a great feat to add to their number, and to set distinctly before the eyes other stars in myriads, which have never been seen before, and which surpass the old, previously known stars in number more than ten times.
In pamphlet, The Sidereal Messenger (1610), reprinted in The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei: And a Part of the Preface to the Preface to Kepler's Dioptrics Containing the Original Account of Galileo's Astronomical Discoveries (1880), 7-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Count (107)  |  Distinctly (5)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feat (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Observer (48)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Time (1911)

The other line of argument, which leads to the opposite conclusion, arises from looking at artificial automata. Everyone knows that a machine tool is more complicated than the elements which can be made with it, and that, generally speaking, an automaton A, which can make an automaton B, must contain a complete description of B, and also rules on how to behave while effecting the synthesis. So, one gets a very strong impression that complication, or productive potentiality in an organization, is degenerative, that an organization which synthesizes something is necessarily more complicated, of a higher order, than the organization it synthesizes. This conclusion, arrived at by considering artificial automaton, is clearly opposite to our early conclusion, arrived at by considering living organisms.
From lecture series on self-replicating machines at the University of Illinois, Lecture 5 (Dec 1949), 'Re-evaluation of the Problems of Complicated Automata—Problems of Hierarchy and Evolution', Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Arise (162)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Complete (209)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contain (68)  |  Degenerative (2)  |  Description (89)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Impression (118)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Living (492)  |  Looking (191)  |  Machine (271)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Potentiality (9)  |  Productive (37)  |  Rule (307)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Strong (182)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Tool (129)

The progress of synthesis, or the building up of natural materials from their constituent elements, proceeds apace. Even some of the simpler albuminoids, a class of substances of great importance in the life process, have recently been artificially prepared. ... Innumerable entirely new compounds have been produced in the last century. The artificial dye-stuffs, prepared from materials occurring in coal-tar, make the natural colours blush. Saccharin, which is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, is a purely artificial substance. New explosives, drugs, alloys, photographic substances, essences, scents, solvents, and detergents are being poured out in a continuous stream.
In Matter and Energy (1912), 45-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Alloy (4)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blush (3)  |  Building (158)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Class (168)  |  Coal (64)  |  Coal Tar (2)  |  Color (155)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Detergent (3)  |  Drug (61)  |  Dye (10)  |  Element (322)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Essence (85)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Importance (299)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pour (9)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Progress (492)  |  Purely (111)  |  Recent (78)  |  Saccharin (2)  |  Scent (7)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solvent (7)  |  Stream (83)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Time (1911)

The ruthless destruction of their forests by the Chinese is one of the reasons why famine and plague today hold this nation in their sinister grasp. Denudation, wherever practiced, leaves naked soil; floods and erosion follow, and when the soil is gone men must also go—and the process does not take long. The great plains of Eastern China were centuries ago transformed from forest into agricultural land. The mountain plateau of Central China have also within a few hundred years been utterly devastated of tree growth, and no attempt made at either natural or artificial reforestation. As a result, the water rushes off the naked slopes in veritable floods, gullying away the mountain sides, causing rivers to run muddy with yellow soil, and carrying enormous masses of fertile earth to the sea. Water courses have also changed; rivers become uncontrollable, and the water level of the country is lowered perceptibly. In consequence, the unfortunate people see their crops wither and die for lack of water when it is most needed.
Statement (11 May 1921) by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) concerning the famine in China in seven out of every ten years. Reported in 'Blames Deforestation: Department of Agriculture Ascribes Chinese Famine to it', New York Times (12 May 1921), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Central (81)  |  Century (319)  |  Changed (2)  |  China (27)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Country (269)  |  Course (413)  |  Crop (26)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Denudation (2)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Die (94)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Erosion (20)  |  Famine (18)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Flood (52)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forest (161)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Lack (127)  |  Land (131)  |  Level (69)  |  Long (778)  |  Lowered (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Muddy (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Naked (10)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Need (320)  |  People (1031)  |  Perceptibly (2)  |  Plague (42)  |  Plain (34)  |  Plateau (8)  |  Process (439)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reforestation (6)  |  Result (700)  |  River (140)  |  Run (158)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Side (236)  |  Sinister (8)  |  Slope (10)  |  Soil (98)  |  Today (321)  |  Transform (74)  |  Tree (269)  |  Uncontrollable (5)  |  Unfortunate (19)  |  Utterly (15)  |  Water (503)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Why (491)  |  Wither (9)  |  Year (963)  |  Yellow (31)

Theorem I. The first and most simple manifestation and representation of things, non-existent as well as latent in the folds of Nature, happened by means of straight line and circle.
Theorem II. Yet the circle cannot be artificially produced without the straight line, or the straight line without the point. Hence, things first began to be by way of a point, and a monad. And things related to the periphery (however big they may be) can in no way exist without the aid of the central point.
John Dee
From Monas Hierogyphica: Ioannia Dee, Londinensis (The Hieroglyphic Monad of John Dee, of London) translated by C. H.Josten, in Ambix, vol. 12 (1964). As quoted and cited in Philip Davis with Reuben Hersh, in The Mathematical Experience (1981), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Central (81)  |  Circle (117)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Fold (9)  |  Latent (13)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Monad (2)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Periphery (3)  |  Point (584)  |  Produce (117)  |  Relate (26)  |  Representation (55)  |  Simple (426)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Theorem (116)

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.’” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature”—but beavers and their dams are.
In Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), 263.
Science quotes on:  |  Artifact (5)  |  Beaver (8)  |  Choice (114)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Dam (8)  |  Deplore (2)  |  Hide (70)  |  Imply (20)  |  Lie (370)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Part (235)  |  People (1031)  |  Spoil (8)  |  Word (650)

There is beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All illiterate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan, and the musician.
From address (1958), upon being appointed Chancellor of the University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Analyst (8)  |  Artisan (9)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Camp (12)  |  Description (89)  |  Different (595)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Economist (20)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Historian (59)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Kinship (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Music (133)  |  Musician (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Political (124)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Unity (81)

This investigation has yielded an unanticipated result that reaction of cyanic acid with ammonia gives urea, a noteworthy result in as much as it provides an example of the artificial production of an organic, indeed a so-called animal, substance from inorganic substances.
[The first report of the epoch-making discovery, that an organic compound can be produced from inorganic substances.]
In 'On the Artificial Formation of Urea'. In J.C. Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik und Chemie (1828), 88, 253. Alternate translation in 'Über Künstliche Bildung des Hamstoffs', Annalen der Physik und Chemie (1828), 12, 253, as translated in Quarterly Journal of Science (Apr-Jun 1828), 25, 491. Collected in Henry Marshall Leicester and Herbert S. Klickstein, A Source Book in Chemistry, 1400-1900 (1951), 310.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Ammonia (15)  |  Animal (651)  |  Call (781)  |  Compound (117)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Epoch (46)  |  First (1302)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inorganic (14)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Making (300)  |  Noteworthy (4)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Organic Compound (3)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Result (700)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Substance (253)  |  Unanticipated (2)  |  Urea (2)  |  Yield (86)

We are apt to consider that invention is the result of spontaneous action of some heavenborn genius, whose advent we must patiently wait for, but cannot artificially produce. It is unquestionable, however, that education, legal enactments, and general social conditions have a stupendous influence on the development of the originative faculty present in a nation and determine whether it shall be a fountain of new ideas or become simply a purchaser from others of ready-made inventions.
Epigraph, without citation, in Roger Cullisin, Patents, Inventions and the Dynamics of Innovation: A Multidisciplinary Study (2007), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Advent (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fountain (18)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Idea (881)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invention (400)  |  Law (913)  |  Legal (9)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patience (58)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Ready-Made (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  Wait (66)

We do whatever we can to deny intuition of the invisible realms. We clog up our senses with smog, jam our minds with media overload. We drown ourselves in alcohol or medicate ourselves into rigidly artificial states... we take pride in our cynicism and detachment. Perhaps we are terrified to discover that our “rationality” is itself a kind of faith, an artifice, that beneath it lies the vast territory of the unknown.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 29
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Artifice (4)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Clog (5)  |  Cynicism (4)  |  Deny (71)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drown (14)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Jam (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Media (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rigidly (4)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Terrified (4)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whatever (234)

We speak erroneously of “artificial” materials, “synthetics”, and so forth. The basis for this erroneous terminology is the notion that Nature has made certain things which we call natural, and everything else is “man-made”, ergo artificial. But what one learns in chemistry is that Nature wrote all the rules of structuring; man does not invent chemical structuring rules; he only discovers the rules. All the chemist can do is find out what Nature permits, and any substances that are thus developed or discovered are inherently natural. It is very important to remember that.
From 'The Comprehensive Man', Ideas and Integrities: A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure (1963), 75-76.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Everything (489)  |  Find (1014)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Invention (400)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man-Made (10)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Permit (61)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rule (307)  |  Speak (240)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Writing (192)

When someone with an artificial heart dies, I think they should take out the heart, hook it up to an artificial body, and let it go at that.
In Napalm and Silly Putty (2001), 276.
Science quotes on:  |  Artificial Heart (4)  |  Body (557)  |  Die (94)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hook (7)


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.