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: “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it... That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That�s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Cheap

Cheap Quotes (13 quotes)

[Lecturing:] This has been done elegantly by Minkowski; but chalk is cheaper than grey matter, and we will do it as it comes.
Via George Pólya, present at an early lecture on Special Relativity by Einstein, who at the time preferred to show his own old formulation, not yet embracing Minkowski’s geometrical reformulation. Quote given as Pólya’s recollection in J.E. Littlewood, A Mathematician’s Miscellany, (1953). Also in the expanded edition, Béla Bollobás (ed.), 'Odds and Ends', Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Chalk (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Matter (821)  |  Hermann Minkowski (4)  |  Special Relativity (5)  |  Will (2350)

As regards railways, it is certain that nothing is so profitable, because nothing is so cheaply transported, as passenger traffic. Goods traffic, of whatsoever description, must be more or less costly. Every article conveyed by railway requires handling and conveyance beyond the limit of the railway stations; but passengers take care of themselves, and find their own way.
From 'Railway System and its Results' (Jan 1856) read to the Institution of Civil Engineers, reprinted in Samuel Smiles, Life of George Stephenson (1857), 520.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Care (203)  |  Certain (557)  |  Convey (17)  |  Conveyance (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Goods (9)  |  Handling (7)  |  Limit (294)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Passenger (10)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Require (229)  |  Station (30)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Transport (31)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatsoever (41)

Cheap drugs would be dear if they were cheap and nasty. Nasty to the palate many drugs are bound to be; but worse is the nastiness of bad quality.
As quoted in Charles Margerison, Amazing People of England: Inspirational Stories (2010), 270.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Bound (120)  |  Drug (61)  |  Nasty (8)  |  Palate (3)  |  Quality (139)  |  Worse (25)

Education is the cheap defence of nations.
In Hialmer Day Gould, New Practical Spelling (1905), 27
Science quotes on:  |  Defence (16)  |  Education (423)  |  Nation (208)

How have people come to be taken in by The Phenomenon of Man? Just as compulsory primary education created a market catered for by cheap dailies and weeklies, so the spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought … [The Phenomenon of Man] is written in an all but totally unintelligible style, and this is construed as prima-facie evidence of profundity.
Medawar’s book review of The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin first appeared as 'Critical Notice' in the journal Mind (1961), 70, No. 277, 105. The book review was reprinted in The Art of the Soluble: Creativity and Originality in Science (1967).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Compulsory (8)  |  Construed (2)  |  Created (6)  |  Daily (91)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Educated (12)  |  Education (423)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Large (398)  |  Literary (15)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Population (115)  |  Prima Facie (2)  |  Primary (82)  |  Profundity (6)  |  Scholarly (2)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Spread (86)  |  Style (24)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tertiary (4)  |  Thought (995)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Written (6)

I am convinced, gentlemen, that unless some method of printing can be designed which requires no type at all, the method embodied in our invention will be the one used in the future; not alone because it is cheaper, but mainly because it is destined to secure superior quality.
From short Speech at the Chamberlain Hotel, Washington, D.C. (Feb 1885), concluding the exhibition of his own Linotype invention. As given in Carl Schlesinger (ed.), 'Mr. Mergenthaler’s Speech', The Biography of Ottmar Merganthaler: Inventor of the Linotype (1989), 20. [Accurately predicting the future of photo and digital typesetting. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Confidence (75)  |  Design (203)  |  Embody (18)  |  Future (467)  |  Invention (400)  |  Method (531)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Printing (25)  |  Quality (139)  |  Require (229)  |  Superior (88)  |  Type (171)  |  Typesetting (2)

In the year 2000, the solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people: harnessing the power of the Sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.
[The next President, Republican Ronald Reagan, removed the solar panels and gutted renewable energy research budgets. The road was not taken, nationally, in the eight years of his presidency. Several of the panels are, indeed, now in museums. Most were bought as government surplus and put to good use on a college roof.]
Speech, at dedication of solar panels on the White House roof, 'Solar Energy Remarks Announcing Administration Proposals' (20 Jun 1979).
Science quotes on:  |  2000 (15)  |  Adventure (69)  |  American (56)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  College (71)  |  Crippling (2)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Example (98)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harnessing (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Museum (40)  |  Next (238)  |  Oil (67)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  President (36)  |  Renewable Energy (15)  |  Research (753)  |  Small (489)  |  Solar Power (10)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supply (100)  |  Today (321)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It took us only a few days to understand why we in the United States used so much energy; oil and gas were as cheap as dirt or water, and so they were treated like dirt or water.
An early insight at a 1974 summer study at Princeton, on efficient use of energy, with experts in buildings, industry, transportation, and utilities. In 'The Art of Energy Efficiency: Protecting the Environment with Better Technology', Annual Review of Energy and the Environment (Nov 1999), 24, 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Dirt (17)  |  Energy (373)  |  Gas (89)  |  Oil (67)  |  Treat (38)  |  Understand (648)  |  United States (31)  |  Water (503)

Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap.
From an address (7 Mar 1997) at the discussion on 'Teaching of Mathematics' in Palais de Découverte, Paris. Quoted in Mathematical Understanding of Nature: Essays on Amazing Physical Phenomena and Their Understanding by Mathematicians (2014), Foreword, x.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Part (235)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)

Not greatly moved with awe am I
To learn that we may spy
Five thousand firmaments beyond our own.
The best that's known
Of the heavenly bodies does them credit small.
View'd close, the Moon's fair ball
Is of ill objects worst,
A corpse in Night's highway, naked, fire-scarr'd, accurst;
And now they tell
That the Sun is plainly seen to boil and burst
Too horribly for hell.
So, judging from these two,
As we must do,
The Universe, outside our living Earth,
Was all conceiv'd in the Creator's mirth,
Forecasting at the time Man's spirit deep,
To make dirt cheap.
Put by the Telescope!
Better without it man may see,
Stretch'd awful in the hush'd midnight,
The ghost of his eternity.
'The Two Deserts' (1880-85). Poems, Introduction Basil Champneys (1906), 302.
Science quotes on:  |  Awe (43)  |  Ball (64)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boil (24)  |  Burst (41)  |  Conception (160)  |  Corpse (7)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Fire (203)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Hell (32)  |  Highway (15)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Judge (114)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Moon (252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Naked (10)  |  Night (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Outside (141)  |  Poem (104)  |  Scar (8)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spy (9)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Sun (407)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Worst (57)

Surely it must be admitted that if the conceptions of Physics are presented to the beginner in erroneous language, there is a danger that in many instances these conceptions will never be properly acquired. And is not accurate language as cheap as inaccurate?
A paper read at the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching (19 Jan 1889), 'The Vices of our Scientific Education', in Nature (6 Jun 1889), 40, 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Beginner (11)  |  Conception (160)  |  Danger (127)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Inaccuracy (4)  |  Language (308)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Present (630)  |  Proper (150)  |  Surely (101)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Will (2350)

The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 261.
Science quotes on:  |  Cow (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Meat (19)  |  Milk (23)  |  More (2558)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Principle (530)  |  Public (100)  |  Water (503)  |  Watered (2)

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!
First of eight lectures on ‘Pragmatism: A New Name For an Old Way of Thinking’ given at the Lowell Institute, Boston and the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, Columbia University. In The Popular Science Monthly (Mar 1907), 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Anything (9)  |  Belief (615)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discourse (19)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lengthy (3)  |  Must (1525)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Something (718)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Whatever (234)


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.