TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Center

Center Quotes (35 quotes)

[In 1909,] Paris was the center of the aviation world. Aeronautics was neither an industry nor even a science; both were yet to come. It was an “art” and I might say a “passion”. Indeed, at that time it was a miracle. It meant the realization of legends and dreams that had existed for thousands of years and had been pronounced again and again as impossible by scientific authorities. Therefore, even the brief and unsteady flights of that period were deeply impressive. Many times I observed expressions of joy and tears in the eyes of witnesses who for the first time watched a flying machine carrying a man in the air.
In address (16 Nov 1964) presented to the Wings Club, New York City, Recollections and Thoughts of a Pioneer (1964), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Aeronautics (15)  |  Air (366)  |  Art (680)  |  Aviation (8)  |  Both (496)  |  Brief (37)  |  Carry (130)  |  Dream (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expression (181)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Industry (159)  |  Joy (117)  |  Legend (18)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Paris (11)  |  Passion (121)  |  Period (200)  |  Realization (44)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Tear (48)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Watch (118)  |  Witness (57)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Archimedes [indicates] that there can be no true levelling by means of water, because he holds that water has not a level surface, but is of a spherical form, having its centre at the centre of the earth.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 8, Chap 5, Sec. 3. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 243.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Form (976)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Level (69)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)  |  Water (503)

City wisdom became almost entirely centered on the problems of human relationships, in contrast to the wisdom of any natural tribal group, where relationships with the rest of the animate and inanimate world are still given due place.
In Gaia, a New Look at Life on Earth (1979), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Animate (8)  |  City (87)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Due (143)  |  Human Relationship (2)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Natural (810)  |  Place (192)  |  Problem (731)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)

Forests are a fundamental component of our planet’s recovery. They are the best technology nature has for locking away carbon. And they are centers of biodiversity. Again, the two features work together. The wilder and more diverse forests are, the more effective they are at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere
From narration to Netflix TV program, A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future (4 Oct 2020).
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Best (467)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Component (51)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Effective (68)  |  Feature (49)  |  Forest (161)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Lock (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Planet (402)  |  Recovery (24)  |  Technology (281)  |  Together (392)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)

Here man is no longer the center of the world, only a witness, but a witness who is also a partner in the silent life of nature, bound by secret affinities to the trees.
From Presidential Address (20 Dec 1957), to the Annual Meeting of the Swedish Academy, 'The Linnaeus Tradition and Our Time', collected in Servant of Peace: A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1953-1961 (1962), 153. Also in Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations (1973), Vol. 3, 703.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Bound (120)  |  Forest (161)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Partner (5)  |  Secret (216)  |  Silent (31)  |  Tree (269)  |  Witness (57)  |  World (1850)

Humanity, in the course of time, had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages against its naive self-love. The first was when humanity discovered that our earth was not the center of the universe…. The second occurred when biological research robbed man of his apparent superiority under special creation, and rebuked him with his descent from the animal kingdom, and his ineradicable animal nature.
From a series of 28 lectures for laymen, Part Three, 'General Theory of the Neurons', Lecture 18, 'Traumatic Fixation—the Unconscious' collected in Sigmund Freud and G. Stanley Hall (trans.), A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1920), 246-247.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Course (413)  |  Creation (350)  |  Descent (30)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endure (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand (149)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Naive (13)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Outrage (3)  |  Research (753)  |  Rob (6)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  Self (268)  |  Special (188)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)

I am not ... asserting that humans are either genial or aggressive by inborn biological necessity. Obviously, both kindness and violence lie with in the bounds of our nature because we perpetrate both, in spades. I only advance a structural claim that social stability rules nearly all the time and must be based on an overwhelmingly predominant (but tragically ignored) frequency of genial acts, and that geniality is therefore our usual and preferred response nearly all the time ... The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.
In Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History (1993), 282.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Advance (298)  |  Aggressive (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Base (120)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bounds (8)  |  Claim (154)  |  Define (53)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Genial (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Inborn (4)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Lie (370)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Obviously (11)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Overwhelmingly (3)  |  Perpetrate (3)  |  Predominant (4)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Response (56)  |  Root (121)  |  Rule (307)  |  Social (261)  |  Spade (3)  |  Stability (28)  |  Structural (29)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Violence (37)

I am not insensible to natural beauty, but my emotional joys center on the improbable yet sometimes wondrous works of that tiny and accidental evolutionary twig called Homo sapiens. And I find, among these works, nothing more noble than the history of our struggle to understand nature—a majestic entity of such vast spatial and temporal scope that she cannot care much for a little mammalian afterthought with a curious evolutionary invention, even if that invention has, for the first time in so me four billion years of life on earth, produced recursion as a creature reflects back upon its own production and evolution. Thus, I love nature primarily for the puzzles and intellectual delights that she offers to the first organ capable of such curious contemplation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Afterthought (6)  |  Back (395)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Billion (104)  |  Call (781)  |  Capable (174)  |  Care (203)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Creature (242)  |  Curious (95)  |  Delight (111)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Entity (37)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First Time (14)  |  History (716)  |  Homo Sapiens (23)  |  Improbable (15)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invention (400)  |  Joy (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mammalian (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Beauty (5)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noble (93)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Offer (142)  |  Organ (118)  |  Primarily (12)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Scope (44)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Spatial (10)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Temporal (4)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Twig (15)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I learned a lot of different things from different schools. MIT is a very good place…. It has developed for itself a spirit, so that every member of the whole place thinks that it’s the most wonderful place in the world—it’s the center, somehow, of scientific and technological development in the United States, if not the world … and while you don’t get a good sense of proportion there, you do get an excellent sense of being with it and in it, and having motivation and desire to keep on…
From Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character (1985), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Desire (212)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Good (906)  |  Keep (104)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Lot (151)  |  M.I.T. (2)  |  Member (42)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Place (192)  |  Proportion (140)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Spirit (278)  |  State (505)  |  Technological (62)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  United States (31)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

In a sense, the galaxy hardest for us to see is our own. For one thing, we are imprisoned within it, while the others can be viewed as a whole from outside… . Furthermore, we are far out from the center, and to make matters worse, we lie in a spiral arm clogged with dust. In other words, we are on a low roof on the outskirts of the city on a foggy day.
In The Intelligent Man's Guide to the Physical Sciences (1960, 1968), 64. Also in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  City (87)  |  Clog (5)  |  Dust (68)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Hardest (3)  |  Imprison (11)  |  Lie (370)  |  Low (86)  |  Matter (821)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Outskirts (2)  |  Roof (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

In the center of everything rules the sun; for who in this most beautiful temple could place this luminary at another better place whence it can light up the whole at once? … In fact, the sun sitting on his royal throne guides the family of stars surrounding him. … In this arrangement we thus find an admirable harmony of the world, and a constant harmonious connection between the motion and the size of the orbits as could not be found otherwise.
In De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (1543), Book 1, Ch. 10. As translated in Hermann Kesten, Copernicus and his World (1945), 182-183. From the original Latin: “In medio vero omnium residet Sol. Quis enim in hoc pulcherrimo templo lampadem hanc in alio vel meliori loco poneret, quam unde totum simul possit illuminare? … Ita profecto tanquam in solio regali Sol residens circum agentem gubernat Astrorum familiam. … Invenimus igitur sub hac ordinatione admirandam mundi symmetriam, ac certum harmoniae nexum motus et magnitudinis orbium: qualis alio modo reperiri non potest.” Corresponding translations also found in Charles Glenn Wallis (trans.), On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres (1939, 1995), 24-25, which gives: “In the center of all rests the sun. For who would place this lamp of a very beautiful temple in another or better place than this wherefrom it can illuminate everything at the same time? … And so the sun, as if resting on a kingly throne, governs the family of stars which wheel around. … Therefore in this ordering we find that the world has a wonderful commensurability and that there is a sure bond of harmony for the movement and magnitude of the orbital circles such as cannot be found in any other way.” The passage is translated in Robert Reinhold, 'After 500 Years, Now the Year of Copernicus', New York Times (28 Dec 1972), 33, as: “At rest in the middle of everything is the sun, for in this most beautiful temple, who would place this lamp in another or better position than that from which it can light up the whole thing at the same time? … As though seated on a royal throne, the sun governs the family of planets revolving around it.” Also seen translated in Edwin Arthur Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science (1925), 45, as: “Then in the middle of all stands the sun. For who, in our most beautiful temple, could set this light in another or better place, than that from which it can at once illuminate the whole? … And in fact does the sun, seated on his royal throne, guide his family of planets as they circle round him.” [Notice the original Latin reads “Astrorum familiam”, so the literal translation is “family of stars” rather than what we now call “planets.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Better (493)  |  Connection (171)  |  Constant (148)  |  Everything (489)  |  Find (1014)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Luminary (4)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Place (192)  |  Rule (307)  |  Size (62)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temple (45)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

In the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom.
Vitruvius
Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of a man with outstretched limbs inscribed in a circle is thus called the Vitruvian Man (c. 1490). In De Architectura, Book 3, Chap 1, Sec. 3. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Body (557)  |  Central (81)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Compass (37)  |  Extend (129)  |  Finger (48)  |  Flat (34)  |  Foot (65)  |  Hand (149)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Navel (2)  |  Point (584)  |  Toe (8)  |  Touch (146)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

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)  |  Bow (15)  |  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)

It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.
In Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony(1984), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Code (31)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ought (3)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Seven (5)  |   Wallace Stevens (3)  |  Strangeness (10)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Time (1911)  |  Type (171)  |  Wait (66)

It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a “thinking center” that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and ... a network of such centers, connected to one another by wide-band communication lines and to individual users by leased-wire services.
From article 'Man-Computer Symbiosis', in IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics (Mar 1960), Vol. HFE-1, 4-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Communication (101)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connected (8)  |  Envision (3)  |  Function (235)  |  Incorporate (9)  |  Individual (420)  |  Information (173)  |  Library (53)  |  Network (21)  |  Present (630)  |  Present Day (5)  |  Service (110)  |  Storage (6)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  User (5)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)  |  Year (963)

Knowledge conceald and not broached for a publicke use, is like to a pearelesse gemme interred in the center of the earth, whereof no man knows but he that hid it.
In 'To the Reader', The Optick Glass of Humors (1607), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceal (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Gem (17)  |  Inter (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Public (100)  |  Use (771)

Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
In 'Prop. 47: The human mind possesses an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God', Ethic, translated by William Hale White (1883), 93-94. Collected in The English and Foreign Philosophical Library, Vol. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Consist (223)  |  Definition (238)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Else (4)  |  Equal (88)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wrong (246)

Nature … is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
In Pensées (1670), Section 16, No. 26. From Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 26. From the French, “La nature … est une sphère infinie dont le centre est partout, la circonférence nulle part,” in Pensées de Blaise Pascal (1847), 227-228.
Science quotes on:  |  Circumference (23)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Sphere (118)

No one in his senses, or imbued with the slightest knowledge of physics, will ever think that the earth, heavy and unwieldy from its own weight and mass, staggers up and down around its own center and that of the sun; for at the slightest jar of the earth, we would see cities and fortresses, towns and mountains thrown down.
Universae Naturae Theatrum (1597). In Dorothy Stimson, The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe (1917), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Copernican Theory (3)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fortress (4)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Imbue (2)  |  Jar (9)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Slight (32)  |  Stagger (4)  |  Sun (407)  |  Think (1122)  |  Throw (45)  |  Town (30)  |  Unwieldy (2)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)

Nothing could be more obvious than that the earth is stable and unmoving, and that we are in the center of the universe. Modern Western science takes its beginning from the denial of this common sense axiom.
In The Discoverers (2011), 294.
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Denial (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stable (32)  |  Universe (900)  |  Western (45)

One of the great triumphs of 20th Century astrophysics, was tracing the elements of your body, of all the elements around us, to the actions of stars—that crucible in the centers of stars that cooked basic elements into heavier elements, light elements into heavy elements. (I say “cooked”—I mean thermonuclear fusion.) The heat brings them together, gets you bigger atoms, that then do other interesting chemical things, fleshing out the contents of the Periodic Table.
From interview, The Science Studio video series of The Science Network website, episode 'The Moon, the Tides and why Neil DeGrasse Tyson is Colbert’s God' (20 Jan 2011), time 20:53-21:25.
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  Action (342)  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Atom (381)  |  Basic (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Cook (20)  |  Crucible (8)  |  Do (1905)  |  Element (322)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heat (180)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Light (635)  |  Mean (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Table (105)  |  Thermonuclear (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Trace (109)  |  Triumph (76)

Perhaps the central problem we face in all of computer science is how we are to get to the situation where we build on top of the work of others rather than redoing so much of it in a trivially different way.
From Turing Award lecture (1968), 'One Man's View of Computer Science', collected in ACM Turing Award Lectures: The First Twenty Years, 1966 to 1985 (1987), 216. ACM is the Association for Computing Machinery. The lecture is also published in Journal of the ACM (Jan 1969), 16, No. 1, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Central (81)  |  Computer (131)  |  Computer Science (11)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Face (214)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Situation (117)  |  Top (100)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.
From a History Channel TV show, (?) The Universe.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Better (493)  |  Biologically (4)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connected (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Crucible (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Enriching (2)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Feel (371)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Gas (89)  |  Guts (2)  |  High (370)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mass (160)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Pristine (5)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rich (66)  |  Smile (34)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Traceable (5)  |  Universe (900)

Some think that the earth remains at rest. But Philolaus the Pythagorean believes that, like the sun and moon, it revolves around the fire in an oblique circle. Heraclides of Pontus, and Ephantus the Pythagorean make the earth move, not in a progressive motion, but like a wheel in a rotation from west to east about its own center.
From Preface to Book on the Revolutions.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Circle (117)  |  Earth (1076)  |  East (18)  |  Fire (203)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Remain (355)  |  Rest (287)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Sun (407)  |  Think (1122)  |  West (21)  |  Wheel (51)

The earth, formed out of the same debris of which the sun was born, is extraordinarily rich in iron—iron which once may have existed at the center of a star that exploded many billions of years ago.
(1965). In Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Billion (104)  |  Birth (154)  |  Debris (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explode (15)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Form (976)  |  Iron (99)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rich (66)  |  Star (460)  |  Sun (407)  |  Year (963)

The golden age of mathematics—that was not the age of Euclid, it is ours. Ours is the age when no less than six international congresses have been held in the course of nine years. It is in our day that more than a dozen mathematical societies contain a growing membership of more than two thousand men representing the centers of scientific light throughout the great culture nations of the world. It is in our time that over five hundred scientific journals are each devoted in part, while more than two score others are devoted exclusively, to the publication of mathematics. It is in our time that the Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik, though admitting only condensed abstracts with titles, and not reporting on all the journals, has, nevertheless, grown to nearly forty huge volumes in as many years. It is in our time that as many as two thousand books and memoirs drop from the mathematical press of the world in a single year, the estimated number mounting up to fifty thousand in the last generation. Finally, to adduce yet another evidence of a similar kind, it requires not less than seven ponderous tomes of the forthcoming Encyclopaedie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften to contain, not expositions, not demonstrations, but merely compact reports and bibliographic notices sketching developments that have taken place since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Admit (49)  |  Age (509)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bibliography (3)  |  Book (413)  |  Century (319)  |  Compact (13)  |  Condense (15)  |  Congress (20)  |  Course (413)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Development (441)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Dozen (10)  |  Drop (77)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Generation (256)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Huge (30)  |  Hundred (240)  |  International (40)  |  Journal (31)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Membership (6)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Mount (43)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Ponderous (2)  |  Press (21)  |  Publication (102)  |  Report (42)  |  Reporting (9)  |  Represent (157)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Score (8)  |  Single (365)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Title (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Volume (25)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.
As quoted in Philip Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times (1947), chap. 12, sec. 5 - “Einstein’s Attitude Toward Religion.”
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Death (406)  |  Dull (58)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (976)  |  Good (906)  |  Impenetrable (7)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rapt (5)  |  Religious (134)  |  Religiousness (3)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stranger (16)  |  True (239)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (251)

The purpose of the history of science is to establish the genesis and the development of scientific facts and ideas, taking into account all intellectual exchanges and all influences brought into play by the very progress of civilization. It is indeed a history of civilization considered from its highest point of view. The center of interest is the evolution of science, but general history remains always in the background.
In 'The History of Science', The Monist (July 1916), 26, No. 3, 333.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Background (44)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considered (12)  |  Development (441)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  General (521)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Highest (19)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interest (416)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Progress (492)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remains (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  View (496)

The Sun is all in all to us, the center from which all arises, but look wider, and it is only one of countless billions.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 315.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Billion (104)  |  Countless (39)  |  Look (584)  |  Sun (407)

The Sun is at the center of the Universe.
From the original Latin: “In medio vero omnium residet Sol.” Although, “omnium” which literally translates as “all”, is here freely translated as “Universe”, note that is in the limited sense of all that could be observed in his time—but certainly not meaning the Universe as it is known now. The word “vero”, meaning “however” when in the full context, is ignored here.) See the longer quote, with citation and more discussion on this web page, beginning, “In the center of everything rules the sun….”
Science quotes on:  |  Sun (407)  |  Universe (900)

The universe, then, has no circumference, for, if it had a center and a circumference, it would thus have in itself its beginning and its end, and the universe itself would be terminated by relation to something else; there would be outside the universe another thing and a place—but all this contains no truth.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Circumference (23)  |  End (603)  |  Outside (141)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)

The weight of any heavy body of known weight at a particular distance from the center of the world varies according to the variation of its distance therefrom: so that as often as it is removed from the center, it becomes heavier, and when brought near to it, is lighter. On this account, the relation of gravity to gravity is as the relation of distance to distance from the center.
From Book of the Balance of Wisdom. As cited in an epigraph in Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne and John Archibald Wheeler, Gravity (1973), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Account (195)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Bring (95)  |  Distance (171)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Often (109)  |  Particular (80)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remove (50)  |  Therefrom (2)  |  Variation (93)  |  Vary (27)  |  Weight (140)  |  World (1850)

To encounter the sacred is to be alive at the deepest center of human existence.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 164
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Deep (241)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Existence (481)  |  Human (1512)  |  Sacred (48)

We live on an obscure hunk of rock and metal circling a humdrum sun, which is on the outskirts of a perfectly ordinary galaxy comprised of 400 billion other suns, which, in turn, is one of some hundred billion galaxies that make up the universe, which, current thinking suggests, is one of a huge number—perhaps an infinite number—of other closed-off universes. From that perspective, the idea that we’re at the center, that we have some cosmic importance, is ludicrous.
From interview with Linda Obst in her article 'Valentine to Science', in Interview (Feb 1996). Quoted and cited in Tom Head (ed.), Conversations with Carl Sagan (2006), ix, and cited on p.xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Billion (104)  |  Closed (38)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Current (122)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Humdrum (3)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Live (650)  |  Ludicrous (7)  |  Metal (88)  |  Number (710)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outskirts (2)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)

Yet the widespread [planetary theories], advanced by Ptolemy and most other [astronomers], although consistent with the numerical [data], seemed likewise to present no small difficulty. For these theories were not adequate unless they also conceived certain equalizing circles, which made the planet appear to move at all times with uniform velocity neither on its deferent sphere nor about its own [epicycle's] center … Therefore, having become aware of these [defects], I often considered whether there could perhaps be found a more reasonable arrangement of circles, from which every apparent irregularity would be derived while everything in itself would move uniformly, as is required by the rule of perfect motion.
From Nicholaus Copernicus, Edward Rosen (trans.), Pawel Czartoryski (ed.) 'Commentariolus', in Nicholas Copernicus: Minor Works (1985), 81-83. Excerpted in Lisa M. Dolling, Arthur F. Gianelli and Glenn N. Statile (eds.) The Tests of Time: Readings in the Development of Physical Theory (2003), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Advanced (12)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Appear (122)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Aware (36)  |  Become (821)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circle (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considered (12)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Data (162)  |  Defect (31)  |  Derived (5)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Epicycle (4)  |  Everything (489)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Planet (402)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Present (630)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Required (108)  |  Rule (307)  |  Small (489)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Uniformly (2)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Widespread (23)


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.