Dismal Science Quotes (3 quotes)
And the Social Science … a dreary, desolate, and indeed quite abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.
'Occasional Discourse', Fraser's Magazine (Dec 1849). Reprinted as a separate pamphlet (1853), reproduced in The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle (1864), Vol. 13, 5.
Professors of the Dismal Science, I perceive the length of your tether is now pretty well run; and I must request you to talk a little lower in the future.
'The Present Time', Latter Day Pamphlets (1850), in Collected Works (1850), Vol.19, 54.
…persons, with big wigs many of them and austere aspect, whom I take to be Professors of the Dismal Science…
Coining “Dismal Science” as a nickname for Political Economy (though used earlier referring to social science in an article, Dec 1849).
Coining “Dismal Science” as a nickname for Political Economy (though used earlier referring to social science in an article, Dec 1849).
'The Present Time', Latter Day Pamphlets, No. 1—Feb 1850, (1850), 43.
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) -- 
