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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index B > Category: Blossom

Blossom Quotes (22 quotes)

Error has made man so deep, sensitive, and inventive that he has put forth such blossoms as religions and arts. Pure knowledge could not have been capable of it.
Human, All-To-Human, Vol. 1, 44-45. (1878), 140. In Willard Huntington Wright, What Nietzsche Taught? (1917), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Deep (241)  |  Error (339)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Pure (299)  |  Religion (369)  |  Sensitive (15)

Que faisons-nous ici-bas? Nous préparons les floraisons de demain. Nous sommes tous du fumier d'humanité future.
What are we doing on earth? We are preparing the blossoms of tomorrow. We are all the manure of future humanity.
Aphorism dated 28 Nov 1903, in Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 194. Google translation by Webmaster. You may choose to use “blooms” instead of “blossoms” depending on your context.
Science quotes on:  |  Doing (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flower (112)  |  Future (467)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manure (8)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Tomorrow (63)

All human affairs follow nature's great analogue, the growth of vegetation. There are three periods of growth in every plant. The first, and slowest, is the invisible growth by the root; the second and much accelerated is the visible growth by the stem; but when root and stem have gathered their forces, there comes the third period, in which the plant quickly flashes into blossom and rushes into fruit.
The beginnings of moral enterprises in this world are never to be measured by any apparent growth. ... At length comes the sudden ripeness and the full success, and he who is called in at the final moment deems this success his own. He is but the reaper and not the labourer. Other men sowed and tilled and he but enters into their labours.
Life Thoughts (1858), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogue (7)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Call (781)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entering (3)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Final (121)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gather (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Human (1512)  |  Invention (400)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Moment (260)  |  Moral (203)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Plant (320)  |  Reaper (4)  |  Research (753)  |  Ripeness (2)  |  Root (121)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Soil (98)  |  Sowing (9)  |  Stem (31)  |  Success (327)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Visible (87)  |  World (1850)

All programs on jungles had previously been filmed from the bottom up, with dead leaves and a dead animal or two. Suddenly, I realized that it’s at the top that everything is blossoming and populating and having a ball. So, I wrote it from the top. The director happened to be a young, ludicrously athletic fellow who decided to film me up a 200-foot kapok tree on a rope. Sheer vanity from elder to younger led me to say yes. At 5 feet off the ground it’s interesting. At 10 feet you say, “Hmmm a bit high.” At 50 feet it’s exhausting and at 90 feet terrifying because you realize that no one can get to you if you decide you don’t like it. To get down you have to retie all the ropes. You don’t just come down. I was so petrified I had forgotten I’d left my radio on, so everyone down below was falling about with laughter listening to me praying and swearing to myself in terror. By the time I came down I had recovered my cool and was going around saying it had all been fine without realizing they’d all heard me.
In Justine de Lacy, 'Around the World With Attenborough', New York Times (27 Jan 1985), Sec. 2, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Athletic (5)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Dead (65)  |  Decide (50)  |  Descend (49)  |  Director (3)  |  Exhausting (2)  |  Fear (212)  |  Film (12)  |  Fine (37)  |  Hear (144)  |  High (370)  |  Interest (416)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Like (23)  |  Listen (81)  |  Petrified (2)  |  Pray (19)  |  Program (57)  |  Radio (60)  |  Realize (157)  |  Recover (14)  |  Rope (9)  |  Swear (7)  |  Terror (32)  |  Tie (42)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Young (253)

Among all highly civilized peoples the golden age of art has always been closely coincident with the golden age of the pure sciences, particularly with mathematics, the most ancient among them.
This coincidence must not be looked upon as accidental, but as natural, due to an inner necessity. Just as art can thrive only when the artist, relieved of the anxieties of existence, can listen to the inspirations of his spirit and follow in their lead, so mathematics, the most ideal of the sciences, will yield its choicest blossoms only when life’s dismal phantom dissolves and fades away, when the striving after naked truth alone predominates, conditions which prevail only in nations while in the prime of their development.
From Die Entwickelung der Mathematik im Zusammenhange mit der Ausbreitung der Kultur (1893), 4. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 191-192. From the original German, “Bei allen Kulturvölkern ist die Blüthezeit der Kunst auch immer zeitlich eng verbunden mit einer Blüthezeit der reinen Wissenschaften, insbesondere der ältesten unter ihnen, der Mathematik.
Dieses Zusammentreffen dürfte auch nicht ein zufälliges, sondern ein natürliches, ein Ergebniss innerer Notwendigkeit sein. Wie die Kunst nur gedeihen kann, wenn der Künstler, unbekümmert um die Bedrängnisse des Daseins, den Eingebungen seines Geistes lauschen und ihnen folgen kann, so kann die idealste Wissenschaft, die Mathematik, erst dann ihre schönsten Blüthen treiben, wenn des Erdenlebens schweres Traumbild sinkt und sinkt und sinkt, wenn das Streben nach der nackten Wahrheit allein bestimmend ist, was nur bei Nationen in der Vollkraft ihrer Entwickelung vorkommt.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Coincident (2)  |  Condition (362)  |  Development (441)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Due (143)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fade (12)  |  Follow (389)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Inner (72)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listen (81)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessity (197)  |  People (1031)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Prime (11)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Relieve (6)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strive (53)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yield (86)

By the fruit one judges the tree; the tree of science grows exceedingly slowly; centuries elapse before one can pluck the ripe fruits; even today it is hardly possible for us to shell and appraise the kernel of the teachings that blossomed in the seventeenth century. He who sows cannot therefore judge the worth of the corn. He must have faith in the fruitfulness of the seed in order that he may follow untiringly his chosen furrow when he casts his ideas to the four winds of heaven.
As quoted in Philipp Frank, Modern Science and its Philosophy (1949), 62, which cites Évolution de la Mécanique (1903).
Science quotes on:  |  17th Century (20)  |  Appraise (2)  |  Cast (69)  |  Century (319)  |  Choose (116)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Corn (20)  |  Elapse (3)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Faith (209)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Fruitfulness (2)  |  Furrow (5)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Idea (881)  |  Judge (114)  |  Kernel (4)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Possible (560)  |  Ripe (5)  |  Seed (97)  |  Shell (69)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Sow (11)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Today (321)  |  Tree (269)  |  Wind (141)  |  Worth (172)

Guido was as much enchanted by the rudiments of algebra as he would have been if I had given him an engine worked by steam, with a methylated spirit lamp to heat the boiler; more enchanted, perhaps for the engine would have got broken, and, remaining always itself, would in any case have lost its charm, while the rudiments of algebra continued to grow and blossom in his mind with an unfailing luxuriance. Every day he made the discovery of something which seemed to him exquisitely beautiful; the new toy was inexhaustible in its potentialities.
In Young Archimedes: And Other Stories (1924), 299. The fictional character, Guido, is a seven year old boy. Methylated spirit is an alcohol fuel.
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Boiler (7)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Charm (54)  |  Continue (179)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enchanted (2)  |  Engine (99)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Give (208)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heat (180)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Potential (75)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Rudiment (6)  |  Something (718)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Toy (22)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  Work (1402)

How indispensable to a correct study of Nature is a perception of her true meaning. The fact will one day flower out into a truth. The season will mature and fructify what the understanding had cultivated. Mere accumulators of facts—collectors of materials for the master-workmen—are like those plants growing in dark forests, which “put forth only leaves instead of blossoms.”
(16 Dec 1837). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: I: 1837-1846 (1906), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Collector (8)  |  Correct (95)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Dark (145)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forest (161)  |  Growing (99)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Master (182)  |  Material (366)  |  Mature (17)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perception (97)  |  Plant (320)  |  Season (47)  |  Study (701)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)  |  Workman (13)

I feel like a white granular mass of amorphous crystals—my formula appears to be isomeric with Spasmotoxin. My aurochloride precipitates into beautiful prismatic needles. My Platinochloride develops octohedron crystals,—with fine blue florescence. My physiological action is not indifferent. One millionth of a grain injected under the skin of a frog produced instantaneous death accompanied by an orange blossom odor. The heart stopped in systole. A base—L3H9NG4—offers analogous reaction to phosmotinigstic acid.
In letter to George M. Gould (1889), collected in Elizabeth Bisland The Writings of Lafcadio Hearn (1922), Vol. 14, 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Action (342)  |  Amorphous (6)  |  Base (120)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blue (63)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Death (406)  |  Develop (278)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fluorescence (3)  |  Formula (102)  |  Frog (44)  |  Grain (50)  |  Granular (4)  |  Granule (3)  |  Heart (243)  |  Injection (9)  |  Isomer (6)  |  Mass (160)  |  Needle (7)  |  Odor (11)  |  Offer (142)  |  Orange (15)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Precipitate (3)  |  Prismatic (2)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Skin (48)  |  White (132)

I thought that the wisdom of our City had certainly designed the laudable practice of taking and distributing these accompts [parish records of christenings and deaths] for other and greater uses than [merely casual comments], or, at least, that some other uses might be made of them; and thereupon I ... could, and (to be short) to furnish myself with as much matter of that kind ... the which when I had reduced into tables ... so as to have a view of the whole together, in order to the more ready comparing of one Year, Season, Parish, or other Division of the City, with another, in respect of all Burials and Christnings, and of all the Diseases and Casualties happening in each of them respectively...
Moreover, finding some Truths and not-commonly-believed opinions to arise from my meditations upon these neglected Papers, I proceeded further to consider what benefit the knowledge of the same would bring to the world, ... with some real fruit from those ayrie blossoms.
From Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index and Made upon Bills of Mortality (1662), Preface. Reproduced in Cornelius Walford, The Insurance Cyclopaedia (1871), Vol. 1, 286-287.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arise (162)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Burial (8)  |  Casualty (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  City (87)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Consider (428)  |  Data (162)  |  Death (406)  |  Design (203)  |  Disease (340)  |  Division (67)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happening (59)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Record (161)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Season (47)  |  Short (200)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

If human thought is a growth, like all other growths, its logic is without foundation of its own, and is only the adjusting constructiveness of all other growing things. A tree cannot find out, as it were, how to blossom, until comes blossom-time. A social growth cannot find out the use of steam engines, until comes steam-engine-time.
Lo! (1931, 1941), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Engine (99)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  Human (1512)  |  Invention (400)  |  Logic (311)  |  Other (2233)  |  Progress (492)  |  Social (261)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Use (771)

In order that an inventory of plants may be begun and a classification of them correctly established, we must try to discover criteria of some sort for distinguishing what are called “species”. After a long and considerable investigation, no surer criterion for determining species had occurred to me than distinguishing features that perpetuate themselves in propagation from seed. Thus, no matter what variations occur in the individuals or the species, if they spring from the seed of one and the same plant, they are accidental variations and not such as to distinguish a species. For these variations do not perpetuate themselves in subsequent seeding. Thus, for example, we do not regard caryophylli with full or multiple blossoms as a species distinct from caryophylli with single blossoms, because the former owe their origin to the seed of the latter and if the former are sown from their own seed, they once more produce single-blossom caryophylli. But variations that never have as their source seed from one and the same species may finally be regarded as distinct species. Or, if you make a comparison between any two plants, plants which never spring from each other's seed and never, when their seed is sown, are transmuted one into the other, these plants finally are distinct species. For it is just as in animals: a difference in sex is not enough to prove a difference of species, because each sex is derived from the same seed as far as species is concerned and not infrequently from the same parents; no matter how many and how striking may be the accidental differences between them; no other proof that bull and cow, man and woman belong to the same species is required than the fact that both very frequently spring from the same parents or the same mother. Likewise in the case of plants, there is no surer index of identity of species than that of origin from the seed of one and the same plant, whether it is a matter of individuals or species. For animals that differ in species preserve their distinct species permanently; one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa.
John Ray
Historia Plantarum (1686), Vol. 1, 40. Trans. Edmund Silk. Quoted in Barbara G. Beddall, 'Historical Notes on Avian Classification', Systematic Zoology (1957), 6, 133-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Accidental (31)  |  Animal (651)  |  Belong (168)  |  Both (496)  |  Bull (3)  |  Call (781)  |  Classification (102)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Concern (239)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Cow (42)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Differ (88)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Former (138)  |  Identity (19)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inventory (7)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Likewise (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Mother (116)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Parent (80)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Perpetuation (4)  |  Plant (320)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Prove (261)  |  Regard (312)  |  Required (108)  |  Seed (97)  |  Sex (68)  |  Single (365)  |  Species (435)  |  Spring (140)  |  Striking (48)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vice (42)  |  Woman (160)

In the benzene nucleus we have been given a soil out of which we can see with surprise the already-known realm of organic chemistry multiply, not once or twice but three, four, five or six times just like an equivalent number of trees. What an amount of work had suddenly become necessary, and how quickly were busy hands found to carry it out! First the eye moves up the six stems opening out from the tremendous benzene trunk. But already the branches of the neighbouring stems have become intertwined, and a canopy of leaves has developed which becomes more spacious as the giant soars upwards into the air. The top of the tree rises into the clouds where the eye cannot yet follow it. And to what an extent is this wonderful benzene tree thronged with blossoms! Everywhere in the sea of leaves one can spy the slender hydroxyl bud: hardly rarer is the forked blossom [Gabelblüte] which we call the amine group, the most frequent is the beautiful cross-shaped blossom we call the methyl group. And inside this embellishment of blossoms, what a richness of fruit, some of them shining in a wonderful blaze of color, others giving off an overwhelming fragrance.
A. W. Hofmann, after-dinner speech at Kekulé Benzolfest (Mar 1890). Trans. in W. H. Brock, O. Theodor Benfrey and Susanne Stark, 'Hofmann's Benzene Tree at the Kekulé Festivities', Journal of Chemical Education (1991), 68, 887-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Already (226)  |  Amine (2)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Benzene (7)  |  Call (781)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Carry (130)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Color (155)  |  Develop (278)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Giant (73)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Radical (28)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Shining (35)  |  Soar (23)  |  Soil (98)  |  Spy (9)  |  Stem (31)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Upward (44)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)

It is difficult to conceive a grander mass of vegetation:—the straight shafts of the timber-trees shooting aloft, some naked and clean, with grey, pale, or brown bark; others literally clothed for yards with a continuous garment of epiphytes, one mass of blossoms, especially the white Orchids Caelogynes, which bloom in a profuse manner, whitening their trunks like snow. More bulky trunks were masses of interlacing climbers, Araliaceae, Leguminosae, Vines, and Menispermeae, Hydrangea, and Peppers, enclosing a hollow, once filled by the now strangled supporting tree, which has long ago decayed away. From the sides and summit of these, supple branches hung forth, either leafy or naked; the latter resembling cables flung from one tree to another, swinging in the breeze, their rocking motion increased by the weight of great bunches of ferns or Orchids, which were perched aloft in the loops. Perpetual moisture nourishes this dripping forest: and pendulous mosses and lichens are met with in profusion.
Himalayan Journals (1854), vol. 1, 110-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Botany (63)  |  Brown (23)  |  Cable (11)  |  Clean (52)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Decay (59)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fern (10)  |  Forest (161)  |  Garment (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himalayas (3)  |  Lichen (2)  |  Literally (30)  |  Long (778)  |  Loop (6)  |  Mass (160)  |  Moisture (21)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Orchid (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perch (7)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Profuse (3)  |  Rocking (2)  |  Side (236)  |  Snow (39)  |  Straight (75)  |  Summit (27)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Weight (140)  |  White (132)

Just as a tree constitutes a mass arranged in a definite manner, in which, in every single part, in the leaves as in the root, in the trunk as in the blossom, cells are discovered to be the ultimate elements, so is it also with the forms of animal life. Every animal presents itself as a sum of vital unities, every one of which manifests all the characteristics of life. The characteristics and unity of life cannot be limited to anyone particular spot in a highly developed organism (for example, to the brain of man), but are to be found only in the definite, constantly recurring structure, which every individual element displays. Hence it follows that the structural composition of a body of considerable size, a so-called individual, always represents a kind of social arrangement of parts, an arrangement of a social kind, in which a number of individual existences are mutually dependent, but in such a way, that every element has its own special action, and, even though it derive its stimulus to activity from other parts, yet alone effects the actual performance of its duties.
In Lecture I, 'Cells and the Cellular Theory' (1858), Rudolf Virchow and Frank Chance (trans.) ,Cellular Pathology (1860), 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Activity (218)  |  Actual (118)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Composition (86)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Derive (70)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Display (59)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Number (710)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Performance (51)  |  Present (630)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Represent (157)  |  Root (121)  |  Single (365)  |  Size (62)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Special (188)  |  Spot (19)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unity (81)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)

Nature is full of by-ends. A moth feeds on a petal, in a moment the pollen caught on its breast will be wedding this blossom to another in the next county.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-Book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 170.
Science quotes on:  |  Breast (9)  |  Caught (2)  |  End (603)  |  Feed (31)  |  Moment (260)  |  Moth (5)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Next (238)  |  Petal (4)  |  Pollen (6)  |  Research (753)  |  Wedding (7)  |  Will (2350)

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
From poem, 'Evangeline' collected in The Poetical Works of H.W. Longfellow (1855), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Forget (125)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Lovely (12)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Silently (4)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

Starres by the Sun are not inlarg’d but showne.
Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,
From loves awaken’d root doe bud out now.
If, as in water stir’d more circles bee
Produc’d by one, love such additions take,
Those like to many spheares, but one heaven make,
For, they are all concentrique unto thee.
From poem 'Loves Growth'in Poems on Several Occasions (1719), 23-24.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Awakened (2)  |  Bee (44)  |  Bough (10)  |  Bud (6)  |  Circle (117)  |  Deed (34)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Gentle (9)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Love (328)  |  More (2558)  |  Produced (187)  |  Root (121)  |  Shine (49)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Star (460)  |  Stir (23)  |  Stirred (3)  |  Sun (407)  |  Water (503)

The earliest of my childhood recollections is being taken by my grandfather when he set out in the first warm days of early spring with a grubbing hoe (we called it a mattock) on his shoulder to seek the plants, the barks and roots from which the spring medicine for the household was prepared. If I could but remember all that went into that mysterious decoction and the exact method of preparation, and with judicious advertisement put the product upon the market, I would shortly be possessed of wealth which might be made to serve the useful purpose of increasing the salaries of all pathologists. … But, alas! I remember only that the basic ingredients were dogwood bark and sassafras root, and to these were added q.s. bloodroot, poke and yellow dock. That the medicine benefited my grandfather I have every reason to believe, for he was a hale, strong old man, firm in body and mind until the infection came against which even spring medicine was of no avail. That the medicine did me good I well know, for I can see before me even now the green on the south hillside of the old pasture, the sunlight in the strip of wood where the dogwood grew, the bright blossoms and the delicate pale green of the leaf of the sanguinaria, and the even lighter green of the tender buds of the sassafras in the hedgerow, and it is good to have such pictures deeply engraved in the memory.
From address, 'A Medical Retrospect'. Published in Yale Medical Journal (Oct 1910), 17, No. 2, 57. [Note: q.s. in an abbreviation for quantum sufficit meaning “as much as is sufficient,” when used as a quantity specification in medicine and pharmacology. -Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Bark (19)  |  Basic (144)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Body (557)  |  Body And Mind (3)  |  Bright (81)  |  Call (781)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Early (196)  |  Exact (75)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Grandfather (14)  |  Green (65)  |  Hedgerow (2)  |  Hillside (4)  |  Household (8)  |  Infection (27)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Know (1538)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Memory (144)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Man (6)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Pathologist (6)  |  Picture (148)  |  Plant (320)  |  Poke (5)  |  Possess (157)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Product (166)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recollection (12)  |  Remember (189)  |  Root (121)  |  Salary (8)  |  See (1094)  |  Seek (218)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  South (39)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strong (182)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Useful (260)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Wood (97)  |  Yellow (31)

There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers: when a fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and hold it fast till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but they will close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of rain or a piece of stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its own interest.
In Erewhon: Or Over the Range (1880), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Curious (95)  |  Drop (77)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flower (112)  |  Fly (153)  |  Food (213)  |  Good (906)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Organic (161)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

This prime matter which is proper for the form of the Elixir is taken from a single tree which grows in the lands of the West. It has two branches, which are too high for whoso seeks to eat the fruit thereof to reach them without labour and trouble; and two other branches, but the fruit of these is drier and more tanned than that of the two preceding. The blossom of one of the two is red [corresponding to gold], and the blossom of the second is between white and black [corresponding to silver]. Then there are two other branches weaker and softer than the four preceding, and the blossom of one of them is black [referring to iron] and the other between white and yellow [probably tin]. And this tree grows on the surface of the ocean [the material prima from which all metals are formed] as plants grow on the surface of the earth. This is the tree of which whosoever eats, man and jinn obey him; it is also the tree of which Adam (peace be upon him!) was forbidden to eat, and when he ate thereof he was transformed from his angelic form to human form. And this tree may be changed into every animal shape.
Al- Iraqi
'Cultivation of Gold', trans. E. J. Holmyard (1923), 23. Quoted and annotated in Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (1968), 279.
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Animal (651)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eat (108)  |  Elixir (6)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gold (101)  |  Grow (247)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Iron (99)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Obey (46)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Plant (320)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reach (286)  |  Science In Islam (2)  |  Seek (218)  |  Silver (49)  |  Single (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Tin (18)  |  Transform (74)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trouble (117)  |  White (132)  |  Yellow (31)

Victory [in war] is the beautiful, bright-coloured flower. Transport is the stem without which it could never have blossomed. (1899)
In The River War (2004), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Bright (81)  |  Flower (112)  |  Never (1089)  |  Stem (31)  |  Transport (31)  |  Victory (40)  |  War (233)


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.