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: “Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index A > Category: Astray

Astray Quotes (13 quotes)

[There] are cases where there is no dishonesty involved but where people are tricked into false results by a lack of understanding about what human beings can do to themselves in the way of being led astray by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions. These are examples of pathological science. These are things that attracted a great deal of attention. Usually hundreds of papers have been published upon them. Sometimes they have lasted for fifteen or twenty years and then they gradually die away.
[Coining the term “pathological science” for the self-deceiving application of science to a phenomenon that doesn't exist.]
From a Colloquium at The Knolls Research Laboratory (18 Dec 1953). Transcribed and edited by R. N. Hall. In General Electric Laboratories, Report No. 68-C-035 (April 1968).
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deceiving (5)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exist (458)  |  False (105)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Involved (90)  |  Lack (127)  |  Last (425)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pathological (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Deception (2)  |  Subjective (20)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Threshold (11)  |  Trick (36)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Usually (176)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wishful (6)  |  Year (963)

All those who think it paradoxical that so great a weight as the earth should not waver or move anywhere seem to me to go astray by making their judgment with an eye to their own affects and not to the property of the whole. For it would not still appear so extraordinary to them, I believe, if they stopped to think that the earth’s magnitude compared to the whole body surrounding it is in the ratio of a point to it. For thus it seems possible for that which is relatively least to be supported and pressed against from all sides equally and at the same angle by that which is absolutely greatest and homogeneous.
Ptolemy
'The Almagest 1', in Ptolemy: the Almagest; Nicolaus Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres; Johannes Kepler: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy: IV - V The Harmonies of the World: V, trans. R. Catesby Taliaferro (1952), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Body (557)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equally (129)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Eye (440)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Making (300)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Property (177)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Side (236)  |  Still (614)  |  Support (151)  |  Think (1122)  |  Waver (2)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)

An experiment is an observation that can be repeated, isolated and varied. The more frequently you can repeat an observation, the more likely are you to see clearly what is there and to describe accurately what you have seen. The more strictly you can isolate an observation, the easier does your task of observation become, and the less danger is there of your being led astray by irrelevant circumstances, or of placing emphasis on the wrong point. The more widely you can vary an observation, the more clearly will the uniformity of experience stand out, and the better is your chance of discovering laws.
In A Text-Book of Psychology (1909), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Chance (244)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Clear (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Easier (53)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Law (913)  |  Likely (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Point (584)  |  Repeat (44)  |  See (1094)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stand Out (5)  |  Strict (20)  |  Task (152)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

Even in populous districts, the practice of medicine is a lonely road which winds up-hill all the way and a man may easily go astray and never reach the Delectable Mountains unless he early finds those shepherd guides of whom Bunyan tells, Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere.
In Aequanimitas (1904), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Early (196)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  Guide (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Reach (286)  |  Tell (344)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wind (141)

He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. … State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.
Letter to Peter Carr (10 Aug 1787). Quoted in James H. Hutson (ed.), The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations (2009), 147-148; citing edited by In Boyd, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 12:14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Bungler (3)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Decide (50)  |  Moral (203)  |  Ploughman (4)  |  Professor (133)  |  Rule (307)

I do not think it is possible really to understand the successes of science without understanding how hard it is—how easy it is to be led astray, how difficult it is to know at any time what is the next thing to be done.
In The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easy (213)  |  Hard (246)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Next (238)  |  Possible (560)  |  Really (77)  |  Success (327)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence in such a theory is certainly justified. There is less danger of going completely astray, particularly since it takes so much less time and effort to disprove such theories by experience. Yet more and more, as the depth of our knowledge increases, we must give up this advantage in our quest for logical simplicity in the foundations of physical theory...
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950), 13. In David H. Levy (Ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Basic (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Danger (127)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Effort (243)  |  Experience (494)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Proof (304)  |  Quest (39)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)

Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.
Pensées d'un Biologiste (1939). Translated in The Substance of Man (1962), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Lead (391)  |  Leading (17)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Premature (22)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Truth (1109)

Our spirit is often led astray by its own delusions; it is even frightened by its own work, believes that it sees what it fears, and in the horror of night sees at last the objects which itself has produced.
Translation of the original French, “Souvent de ses erreurs notre âme est obsedée; De son ouvrage même elle est intimidée, Croit voir ce qu’elle craint, et dans l’horreur des nuits, Voit enfin les objets qu’elle-même a produits.” From Sémiramis, Act 1, Scene 5. Accompanied with the translation in Craufurd Tait Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (1866), 364.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fright (11)  |  Horror (15)  |  Last (425)  |  Lead (391)  |  Night (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Psychology (166)  |  See (1094)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Work (1402)

Physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teach us the actual value and right use of the Imagination—of that wondrous faculty, which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads us astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land of mists and shadows; but which, properly controlled by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute of man; the source of poetic genius, the instrument of discovery in Science, without the aid of which Newton would never have invented fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found another Continent.
Presidential Address to Anniversary meeting of the Royal Society (30 Nov 1859), Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (1860), 10, 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alkali (6)  |  America (143)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Become (821)  |  Christopher Columbus (16)  |  Continent (79)  |  Sir Humphry Davy (49)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fluxion (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mist (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Physical (518)  |  Ramble (3)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Right (473)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Teach (299)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Wondrous (22)

Oscar Wilde quote: The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emo
The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Lead (391)

The imagination is … the most precious faculty with which a scientist can be equipped. It is a risky possession, it is true, for it leads him astray a hundred times for once that it conducts him to truth; but without it he has no chance at all of getting at the meaning of the facts he has learned or discovered.
In Respiratory Proteids: Researches in Biological Chemistry (1897), Preface, iv.
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Discover (571)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possession (68)  |  Precious (43)  |  Risky (4)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)

The productive research worker is usually one who is not afraid to venture and risk going astray, but who makes a rigorous test for error before reporting his findings.
In The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Fear (212)  |  Finding (34)  |  Production (190)  |  Report (42)  |  Research (753)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Risk (68)  |  Test (221)


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.