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 Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index D > Category: Democratic

Democratic Quotes (12 quotes)

Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the “the game belongs to the people.” So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The “greatest good for the greatest number” applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.
'Bird Reserves at the Mouth of the Mississippi', A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open (1920), 300-301.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Belong (168)  |  Charm (54)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Country (269)  |  Defender (5)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Form (976)  |  Game (104)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greed (17)  |  Heritage (22)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Life (1870)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Minority (24)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Present (630)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Seek (218)  |  Short (200)  |  Short-Sighted (5)  |  Sight (135)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Useful (260)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wild (96)  |  Will (2350)  |  Womb (25)

I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual appeared to me always as the important communal aims of the state.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adherent (6)  |  Aim (175)  |  Appear (122)  |  Communal (7)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Economic (84)  |  Equality (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Government (116)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Important (229)  |  Individual (420)  |  Know (1538)  |  Protection (41)  |  Social (261)  |  State (505)  |  Weakness (50)

I have a friendly feeling towards pigs generally, and consider them the most intelligent of beasts, not excepting the elephant and the anthropoid ape—the dog is not to be mentioned in this connection. I also like his disposition and attitude towards all other creatures, especially man. He is not suspicious, or shrinkingly submissive, like horses, cattle, and sheep; nor an impudent devil-may-care like the goat; nor hostile like the goose; nor condescending like the cat; nor a flattering parasite like the dog. He views us from a totally different, a sort of democratic, standpoint as fellow-citizens and brothers, and takes it for granted, or grunted, that we understand his language, and without servility or insolence he has a natural, pleasant, camerados-all or hail-fellow-well-met air with us.
In The Book of a Naturalist (1919), 295-296.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Anthropoid (9)  |  Ape (54)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beast (58)  |  Brother (47)  |  Care (203)  |  Cat (52)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Comrade (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cow (42)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devil (34)  |  Different (595)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Dog (70)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Goat (9)  |  Goose (13)  |  Grant (76)  |  Grunt (3)  |  Horse (78)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Pig (8)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Sheep (13)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Understand (648)  |  View (496)

I know Teddy Kennedy had fun at the Democratic convention when he said that I said that trees and vegetation caused 80 percent of the air pollution in this country. ... Well, now he was a little wrong about what I said. I didn't say 80 percent. I said 92 percent—93 percent, pardon me. And I didn’t say air pollution, I said oxides of nitrogen. Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93 percent of the oxides of nitrogen. ... If we are totally successful and can eliminate all the manmade oxides of nitrogen, we’ll still have 93 percent as much as we have in the air today.
[Reagan reconfirming his own pathetic lack of understanding of air pollutants.]
Address to senior citizens at Sea World, Orlando, Florida (9 Oct 1980). As quoted later in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Air Pollution (13)  |  Cause (561)  |  Country (269)  |  Decay (59)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lack (127)  |  Little (717)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Say (989)  |  Still (614)  |  Successful (134)  |  Today (321)  |  Tree (269)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Wrong (246)

If in a given community unchecked popular rule means unlimited waste and destruction of the natural resources—soil, fertility, waterpower, forests, game, wild-life generally—which by right belong as much to subsequent generations as to the present generation, then it is sure proof that the present generation is not yet really fit for self-control, that it is not yet really fit to exercise the high and responsible privilege of a rule which shall be both by the people and for the people. The term “for the people” must always include the people unborn as well as the people now alive, or the democratic ideal is not realized.
In A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open (1916), 319.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Belong (168)  |  Both (496)  |  Community (111)  |  Control (182)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fit (139)  |  Forest (161)  |  Game (104)  |  Generation (256)  |  High (370)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Include (93)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  People (1031)  |  Popular (34)  |  Present (630)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Proof (304)  |  Realization (44)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Soil (98)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Term (357)  |  Unborn (5)  |  Unchecked (4)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water Power (6)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wildlife (16)

In science, all facts no matter how trivial, enjoy democratic equality.
In 'The Fact in Fiction', On the Contrary: Articles of Belief (1961, 1966), 266.
Science quotes on:  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Equality (34)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Matter (821)  |  Trivial (59)

Indeed, the ideal for a well-functioning democratic state is like the ideal for a gentleman’s well-cut suit—it is not noticed. For the common people of Britain, Gestapo and concentration camps have approximately the same degree of reality as the monster of Loch Ness. Atrocity propaganda is helpless against this healthy lack of imagination.
In 'A Challenge to “Knights in Rusty Armor”', The New York Times (14 Feb 1943), Sunday Magazine, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Atrocity (6)  |  Britain (26)  |  Camp (12)  |  Common (447)  |  Common People (2)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Cut (116)  |  Degree (277)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Helpless (14)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Lack (127)  |  Loch Ness Monster (2)  |  Monster (33)  |  People (1031)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Reality (274)  |  State (505)  |  Suit (12)

Iron, the Democratic Metal
Chapter II heading in Men, Machines and History: A Short History of Tools and Machines in Relation to Social Progress (1948), 20. Quote included as an example. Webmaster found the phrase used half a century earlier in The South Stafforshire Institute of Iron & Steel Works' Managers, Proceedings for the Session 1898-1899 (1900), 14, 13. One explanation of the phrase is: “Iron was the ‘democratic’ metal because a rise in the living standards among larger masses of population was obtainable through its application in tools and implements,” in the Iron Age compared to the earlier Bronze Age. From National Academy of Sciences, Materials and Man's Needs (1975), Vol. 1, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Iron (99)  |  Metal (88)

Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralisation of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Achievement (187)  |  All-Powerful (2)  |  Assure (16)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Bureaucracy (8)  |  Complete (209)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enslavement (3)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Far-Reaching (9)  |  Individual (420)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Plan (122)  |  Political (124)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Problem (731)  |  Protect (65)  |  Remember (189)  |  Require (229)  |  Right (473)  |  Socialism (4)  |  Solution (282)  |  View (496)

Technocrats are turning us into daredevils. The haphazard gambles they are imposing on us too often jeopardize our safety for goals that do not advance the human cause but undermine it. By staking our lives on their schemes, decision makers are not meeting the mandate of a democratic society; they are betraying it. They are not ennobling us; they are victimizing us. And, in acquiescing to risks that have resulted in irreversible damage to the environment, we ourselves are not only forfeiting our own rights as citizens. We are, in turn, victimizing the ultimate nonvolunteers: the defenseless, voiceless—voteless—children of the future.
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquiesce (2)  |  Advance (298)  |  Betray (8)  |  Cause (561)  |  Children (201)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Damage (38)  |  Decision (98)  |  Defenseless (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ennoble (8)  |  Environment (239)  |  Forfeit (2)  |  Future (467)  |  Gamble (3)  |  Goal (155)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impose (22)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Jeopardize (2)  |  Live (650)  |  Maker (34)  |  Often (109)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Risk (68)  |  Safety (58)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Society (350)  |  Stake (20)  |  Turn (454)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Undermine (6)  |  Volunteer (7)  |  Vote (16)

The century after the Civil War was to be an Age of Revolution—of countless, little-noticed revolutions, which occurred not in the halls of legislatures or on battlefields or on the barricades but in homes and farms and factories and schools and stores, across the landscape and in the air—so little noticed because they came so swiftly, because they touched Americans everywhere and every day. Not merely the continent but human experience itself, the very meaning of community, of time and space, of present and future, was being revised again and again, a new democratic world was being invented and was being discovered by Americans wherever they lived.
In The Americans: The Democratic Experience (1973, 1974), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Air (366)  |  Battlefield (9)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil War (4)  |  Community (111)  |  Continent (79)  |  Countless (39)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Experience (494)  |  Factory (20)  |  Farm (28)  |  Future (467)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Invention (400)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Legislature (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Merely (315)  |  New (1273)  |  Present (630)  |  Revise (6)  |  Revolution (133)  |  School (227)  |  Space (523)  |  Store (49)  |  Swiftly (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Touch (146)  |  War (233)  |  Wherever (51)  |  World (1850)

When … a large number of renegade specialists and amateurs believe contrary to the most prestigious experts, the latter say, well science is not democratic, it is what the people who know the most say—that is what counts!
In Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science (1998), 273.
Science quotes on:  |  Amateur (22)  |  Belief (615)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Count (107)  |  Expert (67)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Say (989)  |  Specialist (33)


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.