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: “I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell ... whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index B > Category: Bow

Bow Quotes (15 quotes)

[Niels Bohr] is a national pride to his fellow Danes. In Denmark, Bohr’s standing is only slightly less than that of the royal family and Hans Christian Anderson. When the wife of an American physicist casually told a gentleman seated next to her on a Copenhagen streetcar that her husband was studying under Professor Bohr, the old man jumped to his feet, swept off his hat with a flourish and bowed deeply.
Quoted in Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Casual (9)  |  Christian (44)  |  Copenhagen (6)  |  Family (101)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Hat (9)  |  Husband (13)  |  Jump (31)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nation (208)  |  Next (238)  |  Old (499)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Pride (84)  |  Professor (133)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Family (2)  |  Seat (7)  |  Streetcar (2)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Telling (24)  |  Wife (41)

Question: Explain how to determine the time of vibration of a given tuning-fork, and state what apparatus you would require for the purpose.
Answer: For this determination I should require an accurate watch beating seconds, and a sensitive ear. I mount the fork on a suitable stand, and then, as the second hand of my watch passes the figure 60 on the dial, I draw the bow neatly across one of its prongs. I wait. I listen intently. The throbbing air particles are receiving the pulsations; the beating prongs are giving up their original force; and slowly yet surely the sound dies away. Still I can hear it, but faintly and with close attention; and now only by pressing the bones of my head against its prongs. Finally the last trace disappears. I look at the time and leave the room, having determined the time of vibration of the common “pitch” fork. This process deteriorates the fork considerably, hence a different operation must be performed on a fork which is only lent.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 176-7, Question 4. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Against (332)  |  Air (366)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beat (42)  |  Bone (101)  |  Close (77)  |  Common (447)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Dial (9)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Ear (69)  |  Examination (102)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Faint (10)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  Head (87)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Howler (15)  |  Last (425)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Listen (81)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mounting (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Operation (221)  |  Original (61)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Pressing (2)  |  Process (439)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Require (229)  |  Room (42)  |  Second (66)  |  Sensitivity (10)  |  Slow (108)  |  Sound (187)  |  Stand (284)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Sure (15)  |  Surely (101)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tuning Fork (2)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Watch (118)

A first step in the study of civilization is to dissect it into details, and to classify these in their proper groups. Thus, in examining weapons, they are to be classed under spear, club, sling, bow and arrow, and so forth; among textile arts are to be ranged matting, netting, and several grades of making and weaving threads; myths are divided under such headings as myths of sunrise and sunset, eclipse-myths, earthquake-myths, local myths which account for the names of places by some fanciful tale, eponymic myths which account for the parentage of a tribe by turning its name into the name of an imaginary ancestor; under rites and ceremonies occur such practices as the various kinds of sacrifice to the ghosts of the dead and to other spiritual beings, the turning to the east in worship, the purification of ceremonial or moral uncleanness by means of water or fire. Such are a few miscellaneous examples from a list of hundreds … To the ethnographer, the bow and arrow is the species, the habit of flattening children’s skulls is a species, the practice of reckoning numbers by tens is a species. The geographical distribution of these things, and their transmission from region to region, have to be studied as the naturalist studies the geography of his botanical and zoological species.
In Primitive Culture (1871), Vol. 1, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Botany (63)  |  Ceremony (6)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Club (8)  |  Death (406)  |  Detail (150)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Divided (50)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Geography (39)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kind (564)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Moral (203)  |  Myth (58)  |  Name (359)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purification (10)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Rite (3)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Skull (5)  |  Sling (4)  |  Spear (8)  |  Species (435)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Tale (17)  |  Textile (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thread (36)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Weaving (6)  |  Worship (32)  |  Zoological (5)

Anyone who thinks we can continue to have world wars but make them nice polite affairs by outlawing this weapon or that should meditate upon the outlawing of the cross-bow by Papal authority. Setting up the machinery for international law and order must surely precede disarmament. The Wild West did not abandon its shooting irons till after sheriffs and courts were established.
Speech, American Library Assiciation Conference (3 Jul 1947), as quoted by Lawrence E. Davies in 'Army's Atomic Bid Viewed in Making', New York Times (4 Jul 1947), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Affair (29)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Authority (99)  |  Continue (179)  |  Court (35)  |  Crossbow (2)  |  Disarmament (6)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Gun (10)  |  International (40)  |  Iron (99)  |  Law (913)  |  Law And Order (5)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nice (15)  |  Order (638)  |  Polite (9)  |  Pope (10)  |  Precede (23)  |  Setting (44)  |  Surely (101)  |  Think (1122)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wild West (2)  |  World (1850)

Bowing to the reality of harried lives, Rudwick recognizes that not everyone will read every word of the meaty second section; he even explicitly gives us permission to skip if we get ‘bogged down in the narrative.’ Readers absolutely must not do such a thing; it should be illegal. The publisher should lock up the last 60 pages, and deny access to anyone who doesn’t pass a multiple-choice exam inserted into the book between parts two and three.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Access (21)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Bog (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Choice (114)  |  Deny (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Exam (5)  |  Explicitly (2)  |  Give (208)  |  Illegal (2)  |  Insert (4)  |  Last (425)  |  Live (650)  |  Lock (14)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrative (9)  |  Page (35)  |  Part (235)  |  Pass (241)  |  Permission (7)  |  Publisher (3)  |  Read (308)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reality (274)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Second (66)  |  Section (11)  |  Skip (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Human language is in some ways similar to, but in other ways vastly different from, other kinds of animal communication. We simply have no idea about its evolutionary history, though many people have speculated about its possible origins. There is, for instance, the “bow-bow” theory, that language started from attempts to imitate animal sounds. Or the “ding-dong” theory, that it arose from natural sound-producing responses. Or the “pooh-pooh” theory, that it began with violent outcries and exclamations.
We have no way of knowing whether the kinds of men represented by the earliest fossils could talk or not…
Language does not leave fossils, at least not until it has become written.
Man in Nature (1961), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Communication (101)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exclamation (3)  |  Fossil (143)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imitate (18)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Language (308)  |  Natural (810)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcry (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Possible (560)  |  Represent (157)  |  Response (56)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Start (237)  |  Talk (108)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Violent (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Write (250)

I value science—none can prize it more,
It gives ten thousand motives to adore;
Be it religious, as it ought to be,
The heart humbles, and it bows the knee.
The Microcosm and Other Poems (1880), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Heart (243)  |  Humble (54)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (62)  |  Poem (104)  |  Religious (134)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Value (393)

In shades of black and blue the skies do bow as darkness falls the lights go out.
Nature softly immersed in glee as all mankind drifts off to sleep.
Water breathes a sigh of relief now aquatic creatures can do as they please.
Animals whether large or small regain the natural instincts that man has fought.
The moon shines bright he’s happy too people can’t over-ride his rules.
Midnight calms the wounds of the world the break of dawn disperses new hope...
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquatic (5)  |  Black (46)  |  Blue (63)  |  Break (109)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Bright (81)  |  Calm (32)  |  Creature (242)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drift (14)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fight (49)  |  Glee (2)  |  Happy (108)  |  Hope (321)  |  Immerse (6)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Moon (252)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Over-Ride (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Please (68)  |  Regain (2)  |  Relief (30)  |  Ride (23)  |  Rule (307)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shine (49)  |  Sigh (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Small (489)  |  Softly (6)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)  |  Wound (26)

Is evolution a theory, a system or a hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforth if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow. ... The consciousness of each of us is evolution looking at itself and reflecting upon itself....Man is not the center of the universe as once we thought in our simplicity, but something much more wonderful—the arrow pointing the way to the final unification of the world in terms of life. Man alone constitutes the last-born, the freshest, the most complicated, the most subtle of all the successive layers of life. ... The universe has always been in motion and at this moment continues to be in motion. But will it still be in motion tomorrow? ... What makes the world in which we live specifically modern is our discovery in it and around it of evolution. ... Thus in all probability, between our modern earth and the ultimate earth, there stretches an immense period, characterized not by a slowing-down but a speeding up and by the definitive florescence of the forces of evolution along the line of the human shoot.
In The Phenomenon of Man (1975), pp 218, 220, 223, 227, 228, 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Center (35)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continue (179)  |  Curve (49)  |  Definitive (3)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Final (121)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Immense (89)  |  Last (425)  |  Layer (41)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Line (100)  |  Live (650)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Period (200)  |  Pointing (4)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reflecting (3)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Successive (73)  |  System (545)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinkable (5)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  True (239)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unification (11)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

Others consider us superior because of our cultured ways and intellectual tendencies; our technology lets us drive cars, use word processors and travel great distances by air. Some of us live in air-conditioned houses and we are entertained by the media. We think that we are more intelligent than stone-agers, yet how many modern humans could live successfully in caves, or would know how to light wood fires for cooking, or make clothes and shoes from animal skins or bows and arrows good enough to keep their families fed?
In The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity (2006, 2007), 185
Science quotes on:  |  Airplane (43)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Car (75)  |  Cave (17)  |  Clothes (11)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cook (20)  |  Culture (157)  |  Distance (171)  |  Drive (61)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Family (101)  |  Feed (31)  |  Fire (203)  |  Great (1610)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Light (635)  |  Media (14)  |  Modern (402)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Skin (48)  |  Stone Age (14)  |  Successful (134)  |  Superior (88)  |  Technology (281)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Travel (125)  |  Wood (97)

The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Blindly (2)  |  Choose (116)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Courageously (2)  |  Express (192)  |  Honestly (10)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Instead (23)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mediocre (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful and most beautiful appearance. Every part of the water which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake was a milky train. As far as the eye reached the crest of every wave was bright; and from the reflected light, the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens. It was impossible to behold this plane of matter, as if it were melted and consumed by heat, without being reminded of Milton’s description of the regions of Chaos and Anarchy.
Science quotes on:  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Billow (3)  |  Bright (81)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Dark (145)  |  Description (89)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Eye (440)  |  Heat (180)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Light (635)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  John Milton (31)  |  Most (1728)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Present (630)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sky (174)  |  Train (118)  |  Two (936)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wonderful (155)

There were details like clothing, hair styles and the fragile objects that hardly ever survive for the archaeologist—musical instruments, bows and arrows, and body ornaments depicted as they were worn. … No amounts of stone and bone could yield the kinds of information that the paintings gave so freely
As quoted in Current Biography Yearbook (1985), 259.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Clothing (11)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Freely (13)  |  Giving (11)  |  Hair (25)  |  Information (173)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kind (564)  |  Music (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Painting (46)  |  Stone (168)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Yield (86)

Those who are good at archery learnt from the bow and not from Yi the Archer. Those who know how to manage boats learnt from boats and not from Wo (the legendary mighty boatman). Those who can think learnt for themselves and not from the sages.
Kuan-Yin
As quoted in Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2: History of Scientific Thought (1956), 73, citing “in the Kuan Yin Tzu, a Taoist book of Thang (perhaps + 8th century).” Also in Alan L. Mackay, A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991), 144, citing Needham.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Boat (17)  |  Boatman (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Manage (26)  |  Practice (212)  |  Sage (25)  |  Self-Taught (6)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)

Twin sister of natural and revealed religion, and of heavenly birth, science will never belie her celestial origin, nor cease to sympathize with all that emanates from the same pure home. Human ignorance and prejudice may for a time seem to have divorced what God has joined together; but human ignorance and prejudice shall at length pass away, and then science and religion shall be seen blending their particolored rays into one beautiful bow of light, linking heaven to earth and earth to heaven.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Belie (3)  |  Birth (154)  |  Blend (9)  |  Cease (81)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Divorce (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emanate (3)  |  God (776)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavenly (8)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Join (32)  |  Length (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Linking (8)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Pass (241)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Pure (299)  |  Ray (115)  |  Religion (369)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Same (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sister (8)  |  Sympathize (2)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Twin (16)  |  Will (2350)


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.