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: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index C > Category: Conservative

Conservative Quotes (16 quotes)

[Allowing embryonic stem cell research] … is also likely to lead to human cloning and the harvesting of body parts from babies conceived for this purpose.
An example of extreme prolife religious conservative opposition confusing public opinion.
Statement released 15 Jun 2004 from Focus on the Family organisation which he founded. Quoted in Eve Herold, George Daley, Stem Cell Wars (2007), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Baby (29)  |  Body (557)  |  Clon (3)  |  Cloning (8)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Embryonic (6)  |  Example (98)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Human (1512)  |  Lead (391)  |  Likely (36)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Part (235)  |  Prolife (2)  |  Public (100)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  Stem (31)  |  Stem Cell (11)

[Criticizing as “appalingly complacent” a Conservative Government report that by the '60s, Britain would be producing all the scientists needed] Of course we shall, if we don't give science its proper place in our national life. We shall no doubt be training all the bullfighters we need, because we don't use many.
Address at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London (28 Feb 1963). In 'Hailsham Chided on Science's Role', New York Times (1 Mar 1963), 2. Also in 'The Manhunters: British Minister Blames American Recruiters for Emigration of Scientists',Science Magazine (8 Mar 1963), 893.
Science quotes on:  |  Britain (26)  |  Course (413)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Government (116)  |  Great Britain (2)  |  Baron Quintin Hogg Hailsham of St. Marylebone (3)  |  Life (1870)  |  Need (320)  |  Proper (150)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Training (92)  |  Use (771)

A discovery in science, or a new theory, even when it appears most unitary and most all-embracing, deals with some immediate element of novelty or paradox within the framework of far vaster, unanalysed, unarticulated reserves of knowledge, experience, faith, and presupposition. Our progress is narrow; it takes a vast world unchallenged and for granted. This is one reason why, however great the novelty or scope of new discovery, we neither can, nor need, rebuild the house of the mind very rapidly. This is one reason why science, for all its revolutions, is conservative. This is why we will have to accept the fact that no one of us really will ever know very much. This is why we shall have to find comfort in the fact that, taken together, we know more and more.
Science and the Common Understanding (1954), 53-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Articulation (2)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Framework (33)  |  Grant (76)  |  Granted (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  House (143)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Presupposition (3)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rebuild (4)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scope (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Unitary (3)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

At times the mathematician has the passion of a poet or a conqueror, the rigor of his arguments is that of a responsible statesman or, more simply, of a concerned father, and his tolerance and resignation are those of an old sage; he is revolutionary and conservative, skeptical and yet faithfully optimistic.
Max Dehn
Address (18 Jan 1928) at the University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Trans. by Abe Schenitzer, and published in 'The Mentality of the Mathematician: A Characterization', The Mathematical Intelligencer (1983), 5, No. 2. As quoted in Michael Fitzgerald and Ioan James, The Mind of the Mathematician (2007), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conqueror (8)  |  Faithfully (3)  |  Father (113)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Poet (97)  |  Resignation (3)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Sage (25)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tolerance (11)

Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those brought up to tread therein.
'The Laws of Habit', The Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1887), 447.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Alone (324)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bound (120)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Desert (59)  |  Envy (15)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flywheel (2)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hard (246)  |  Life (1870)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ordnance (2)  |  Poor (139)  |  Precious (43)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Save (126)  |  Society (350)  |  Tread (17)  |  Walk (138)  |  Walk Of Life (2)  |  Wheel (51)

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run—and often in the short one—the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.
In The Exploration of Space (1951), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Daring (17)  |  Discovery (837)  |  History (716)  |  In The Long Run (18)  |  Invention (400)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Most (1728)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Short (200)  |  Thing (1914)

Innovations, free thinking is blowing like a storm; those that stand in front of it, ignorant scholars like you, false scientists, perverse conservatives, obstinate goats, resisting mules are being crushed under the weight of these innovations. You are nothing but ants standing in front of the giants; nothing but chicks trying to challenge roaring volcanoes!
From the play Galileo Galilei (2001) .
Science quotes on:  |  Ant (34)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blowing (22)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Chicken (12)  |  Crush (19)  |  False (105)  |  Free (239)  |  Freethinking (2)  |  Giant (73)  |  Goat (9)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obstinate (5)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Stand (284)  |  Storm (56)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Trying (144)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Weight (140)

Mathematics has often been characterized as the most conservative of all sciences. This is true in the sense of the immediate dependence of new upon old results. All the marvellous new advancements presuppose the old as indispensable steps in the ladder. … Inaccessibility of special fields of mathematics, except by the regular way of logically antecedent acquirements, renders the study discouraging or hateful to weak or indolent minds.
In Number and its Algebra (1896), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Discourage (14)  |  Field (378)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Inaccessible (18)  |  Indolent (2)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Logic (311)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Regular (48)  |  Render (96)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (785)  |  Special (188)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weak (73)

Our highest claim to respect, as a nation, rests not in the gold, nor in the iron and the coal, nor in inventions and discoveries, nor in agricultural productions, nor in our wealth, grown so great that a war debt of billions fades out under ministrations of the revenue collector without fretting the people; nor, indeed, in all these combined. That claim finds its true elements in our systems of education and of unconstrained religious worship; in our wise and just laws, and the purity of their administration; in the conservative spirit with which the minority submits to defeat in a hotly-contested election; in a free press; in that broad humanity which builds hospitals and asylums for the poor, sick, and insane on the confines of every city; in the robust, manly, buoyant spirit of a people competent to admonish others and to rule themselves; and in the achievements of that people in every department of thought and learning.
From his opening address at an annual exhibition of the Brooklyn Industrial Institute. As quoted in biographical preface by T. Bigelow to Austin Abbott (ed.), Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher (1875), Vol. 1, xiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Asylum (5)  |  Billion (104)  |  Build (211)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  City (87)  |  Claim (154)  |  Coal (64)  |  Competent (20)  |  Debt (15)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Department (93)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Education (423)  |  Election (7)  |  Element (322)  |  Find (1014)  |  Free (239)  |  Gold (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insane (9)  |  Invention (400)  |  Iron (99)  |  Law (913)  |  Learning (291)  |  Manly (3)  |  Minority (24)  |  Nation (208)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Poor (139)  |  Production (190)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rest (287)  |  Revenue (3)  |  Robust (7)  |  Rule (307)  |  Sick (83)  |  Spirit (278)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  War (233)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Wise (143)  |  Worship (32)

The Principia Mathematica developed an overall scheme of the universe, one far more elegant and enlightening than any the ancients had devised. And the Newtonian scheme was based on a set of assumptions, so few and so simple, developed through so clear and so enticing a line of mathematics that conservatives could scarcely find the heart and courage to fight it.
In Entry 231, 'Newton, Sir Isaac', Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (2nd rev ed., 1982), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Clear (111)  |  Courage (82)  |  Develop (278)  |  Devise (16)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Few (15)  |  Heart (243)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Principia Mathematica (2)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Simple (426)  |  Universe (900)

The conservative has but little to fear from the man whose reason is the servant of his passions, but let him beware of him in whom reason has become the greatest and most terrible of the passions.
In Daedalus, or Science and the Future (1923).
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Beware (16)  |  Fear (212)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Passion (121)  |  Reason (766)  |  Servant (40)  |  Terrible (41)

The intrinsic character of mathematical research and knowledge is based essentially on three properties: first, on its conservative attitude towards the old truths and discoveries of mathematics; secondly, on its progressive mode of development, due to the incessant acquisition of new knowledge on the basis of the old; and thirdly, on its self-sufficiency and its consequent absolute independence.
In Mathematical Essays and Recreations (1898), 87.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Basis (180)  |  Character (259)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Development (441)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Due (143)  |  First (1302)  |  Incessant (9)  |  Independence (37)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mode (43)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Property (177)  |  Research (753)  |  Self (268)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Truth (1109)

The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways.
In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (1946, 2006), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptable (2)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aggressive (4)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Degree (277)  |  Hospitable (3)  |  Insolent (2)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Loyal (5)  |  Military (45)  |  New (1273)  |  Polite (9)  |  Push (66)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Submissive (2)  |  Timid (6)  |  Treacherous (2)  |  Way (1214)

The more you’re in this business, the more conservative you get. I’ve been in it long enough to be very conservative, to want to improve what we’ve got rather than begin by building what we haven’t.
Expressing being wary of unproved new ideas. Quoted in 'Reach For The Stars', Time (17 Feb 1958), 71, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Building (158)  |  Business (156)  |  Enough (341)  |  Improve (64)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Want (504)

The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.
In Albert Bigelow Paine (ed.), Mark Twain's Notebook (1935, 1971), Chap. 31, 344, (1898 entry).
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Invent (57)  |  Radical (28)  |  View (496)

The religious conservatives make an important point when they oppose presenting evolution in a manner that suggests it has been proved to be entirely determined by random, mechanistic events, but they are wrong to oppose the teaching of evolution itself. Its occurrence, on Earth and in the Universe, is by now indisputable. Not so its processes, however. In this, there is need for a nuanced approach, with evidence of creative ordering presented as intrinsic both to what we call matter and to the unfolding story, which includes randomness and natural selection.
Epigraph, without citation, in Michael Dowd, Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (2008), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Creative (144)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Include (93)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanistic (3)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nuance (4)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Random (42)  |  Randomness (5)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Selection (130)  |  Story (122)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wrong (246)


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.