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 was going to record talking... the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb',... and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Christmas

Christmas Quotes (13 quotes)

For Christmas, 1939, a girl friend gave me a book token which I used to buy Linus Pauling's recently published Nature of the Chemical Bond. His book transformed the chemical flatland of my earlier textbooks into a world of three-dimensional structures.
'What Holds Molecules Together', in I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier (1998), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Bond (46)  |  Book (413)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Bond (7)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Friend (180)  |  Girl (38)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Linus Pauling (60)  |  Structure (365)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Token (10)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transformation (72)  |  World (1850)

I ... express a wish that you may, in your generation, be fit to compare to a candle; that you may, like it, shine as lights to those about you; that, in all your actions, you may justify the beauty of the taper by making your deeds honourable and effectual in the discharge of your duty to your fellow-men.
[Concluding remarks for the final lecture (Christmas 1860-61) for children at the Royal Institution. These six lectures were the first series in the tradition of Christmas lectures continued to the present day.]
A Course of Six Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle (1861), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Candle (32)  |  Children (201)  |  Compare (76)  |  Deed (34)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Express (192)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Final (121)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Generation (256)  |  Institution (73)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Light (635)  |  Making (300)  |  Present (630)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Institution (4)  |  Series (153)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Wish (216)

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
Second stanza of poem 'On Turning 70'. The poem is printed in Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, Annual Report 2004 (2005), no page number.
Science quotes on:  |  Handle (29)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lot (151)  |  Luggage (5)  |  Person (366)  |  Rain (70)  |  Tangle (8)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Way (1214)

Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire, on Christmas Day, 1642: a weakly and diminutive infant, of whom it is related that, at his birth, he might have found room in a quart mug. He died on March the 20th, 1727, after more than eighty-four years of more than average bodily health and vigour; it is a proper pendant to the story of the quart mug to state that he never lost more than one of his second teeth.
In Essays on the life and work of Newton (), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Birth (154)  |  Diminutive (3)  |  Health (210)  |  Infant (26)  |  March (48)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Pendant (2)  |  Proper (150)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Year (963)

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago. Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonder child to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage.
In 'Newton, the Man' (1946). In Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), Essays in Biography, 2nd edition (1951), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Birth (154)  |  Build (211)  |  Child (333)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eye (440)  |  Father (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Last (425)  |  Look (584)  |  Magician (15)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Reason (766)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Not to destroy but to construct,
I hold the unconquerable belief
that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war
that nations will come together
not to destroy but to construct
and that the future belongs to those
who accomplish most for humanity.
[His 1956 Christmas card.]
In Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1980), 366-367. The card used a variant of Louis Pasteur's earlier remark in 1892 (q.v.)
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Belief (615)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Future (467)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Peace (116)  |  Together (392)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Unconquerable (3)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)

One day when the whole family had gone to a circus to see some extraordinary performing apes, I remained alone with my microscope, observing the life in the mobile cells of a transparent star-fish larva, when a new thought suddenly flashed across my brain. It struck me that similar cells might serve in the defence of the organism against intruders. Feeling that there was in this something of surpassing interest, I felt so excited that I began striding up and down the room and even went to the seashore in order to collect my thoughts.
I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of blood-vessels or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into his finger. This was no sooner said than done.
There was a small garden to our dwelling, in which we had a few days previously organised a 'Christmas tree' for the children on a little tangerine tree; I fetched from it a few rose thorns and introduced them at once under the skin of some beautiful star-fish larvae as transparent as water.
I was too excited to sleep that night in the expectation of the result of my experiment, and very early the next morning I ascertained that it had fully succeeded.
That experiment formed the basis of the phagocyte theory, to the development of which I devoted the next twenty-five years of my life.
In Olga Metchnikoff, Life of Elie Metchnikoff 1845-1916 (1921), 116-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ape (54)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Basis (180)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cell (146)  |  Children (201)  |  Circus (3)  |  Defence (16)  |  Development (441)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Family (101)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fish (130)  |  Flash (49)  |  Form (976)  |  Garden (64)  |  Interest (416)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Larva (8)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Morning (98)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Nervous System (35)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Phagocyte (2)  |  Remain (355)  |  Result (700)  |  Rose (36)  |  Run (158)  |  Seashore (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Skin (48)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Star (460)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Surpassing (12)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transparent (16)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (963)

Successful—four flights on Thursday morning—took off with motors from level ground—average speed thirty miles an hour—longest flight 59 seconds—inform press—home for Christmas—Orville.
Telegram (17 Dec 1903) to his father, Bishop Wright, about the first flight in an airplane, at Kitty Hawk, N.C. As quoted in Heinz Gartmann, Rings Around the World: Man’s Progress From Steam Engine to Satellite (1959), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Flight (101)  |  Ground (222)  |  Home (184)  |  Hour (192)  |  Inform (50)  |  Level (69)  |  Morning (98)  |  Motor (23)  |  Press (21)  |  Speed (66)  |  Successful (134)  |  Telegram (5)

The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blackness (4)  |  Change (639)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crumble (5)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Far (158)  |  Farther (51)  |  Finally (26)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fragile (26)  |  God (776)  |  Hang (46)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Look (584)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marble (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Remind (16)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Size (62)  |  Space (523)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tree (269)  |  Warm (74)

The student skit at Christmas contained a plaintive line: “Give us Master’s exams that our faculty can pass, or give us a faculty that can pass our Master’s exams.”
In I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography (1985), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Exam (5)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Master (182)  |  Pass (241)  |  Student (317)

This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.
Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.
Broadcast while he was in Washington D.C. (24 Dec 1941). As collected in Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Churchill Speaks in Peace and War: Collected Speeches 1897-1963 (), 780. In Hong Kong, the situation was hopeless, despite a valiant resistance, and the British forces surrendered the next day (25 Dec 1941). Churchill was in the U.S. visiting Pres. Roosevelt, to discuss coordinating strategy following the Pearl Harbor attack (7 Dec 1941).
Science quotes on:  |  Children (201)  |  Father Christmas (2)  |  Fun (42)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Home (184)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Peace (116)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Strange (160)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)

Thursday, December 17 [1903]. In the afternoon about 5:30 we received the following telegram from Orvill[e], dated Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17. “Bishop M. Wright: “Success four flights Thursday morning all against a twenty-one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through the air thirty one miles—longest 57 seconds. XXX home Christmas. Orville Wright.”
From Milton’s handwritten Diary entry for Thur, 17 Dec 1903. Milton is now age 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Engine (99)  |  Flight (101)  |  Home (184)  |  Kitty Hawk (5)  |  Morning (98)  |  Power (771)  |  Speed (66)  |  Success (327)  |  Telegram (5)  |  Wind (141)  |  Orville Wright (10)

We spend our years as a tale that is told, but the tale varies in a hundred different ways, varies between man and man, between year and year, between youth and age, sorrow and joy, laughter and tears. How different the story of the child’s year from the man’s; how much longer it seems; how far apart seem the vacations, and the Christmases, and the New Years! But let the child become a man, and he will find that he can tell full fast enough these stories of a year; that if he is disposed to make good use of them he has no hours to wish away; the plot develops very rapidly, and the conclusion gallops on the very heels of that first chapter which records the birth of a new year.
In Edward Parsons Day (ed.), Day’s Collacon: An Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884), 1050.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Become (821)  |  Birth (154)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Child (333)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Develop (278)  |  Different (595)  |  Dispose (10)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fast (49)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Full (68)  |  Good (906)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Joy (117)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Longer (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1273)  |  Plot (11)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Record (161)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Spend (97)  |  Story (122)  |  Tale (17)  |  Tear (48)  |  Tell (344)  |  Use (771)  |  Vacation (4)  |  Vary (27)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Year (963)  |  Youth (109)


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.