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: “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index D > Category: Doubt

Doubt Quotes (314 quotes)

... finding that in [the Moon] there is a provision of light and heat; also in appearance, a soil proper for habitation fully as good as ours, if not perhaps better who can say that it is not extremely probable, nay beyond doubt, that there must be inhabitants on the Moon of some kind or other?
Letter to Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne (1780). Quoted in Patrick Moore, Patrick Moore on the Moon (2006), 144.
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (35)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Good (906)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Heat (180)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Kind (564)  |  Light (635)  |  Moon (252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proper (150)  |  Say (989)  |  Soil (98)

… the definition of irrational numbers, on which geometric representations have often had a confusing influence. … I take in my definition a purely formal point of view, calling some given symbols numbers, so that the existence of these numbers is beyond doubt.
(1872). As quoted in Ernst Hairer and Gerhard Wanner, Analysis by Its History (2008), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Confuse (22)  |  Definition (238)  |  Existence (481)  |  Formal (37)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Irrational Number (4)  |  Number (710)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Representation (55)  |  Symbol (100)

… There can be no doubt about faith and not reason being the ultima ratio. Even Euclid, who has laid himself as little open to the charge of credulity as any writer who ever lived, cannot get beyond this. He has no demonstrable first premise. He requires postulates and axioms which transcend demonstration, and without which he can do nothing. His superstructure indeed is demonstration, but his ground his faith. Nor again can he get further than telling a man he is a fool if he persists in differing from him. He says “which is absurd,” and declines to discuss the matter further. Faith and authority, therefore, prove to be as necessary for him as for anyone else.
In The Way of All Flesh (1917), 319-320.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Authority (99)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Charge (63)  |  Credulity (16)  |  Decline (28)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Faith (209)  |  First (1302)  |  Fool (121)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Premise (40)  |  Prove (261)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Reason (766)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (989)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Writer (90)

’Tis evident, that as common Air when reduc’d to half Its wonted extent, obtained near about twice as forcible a Spring as it had before; so this thus- comprest Air being further thrust into half this narrow room, obtained thereby a Spring about as strong again as that It last had, and consequently four times as strong as that of the common Air. And there is no cause to doubt, that If we had been here furnisht with a greater quantity of Quicksilver and a very long Tube, we might by a further compression of the included Air have made It counter-balance “the pressure” of a far taller and heavier Cylinder of Mercury. For no man perhaps yet knows how near to an infinite compression the Air may be capable of, If the compressing force be competently increast.
A Defense of the Doctrine Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air (1662), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balance (82)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boyle�s Law (2)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cause (561)  |  Common (447)  |  Compression (7)  |  Cylinder (11)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extent (142)  |  Force (497)  |  Greater (288)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Quicksilver (8)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strong (182)  |  Thrust (13)  |  Time (1911)

[about Fourier] It was, no doubt, partially because of his very disregard for rigor that he was able to take conceptual steps which were inherently impossible to men of more critical genius.
As quoted in P. Davis and R. Hersh The Mathematical Experience (1981).
Science quotes on:  |  Conceptual (11)  |  Critical (73)  |  Disregard (12)  |  Fourier (5)  |  Genius (301)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inherently (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Partially (8)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Step (234)

[I doubt that in today's world, I and Francis Crick would ever have had our Eureka moment.] I recently went to my staircase at Clare College, Cambridge and there were women there! he said, with an enormous measure of retrospective sexual frustration. There have been a lot of convincing studies recently about the loss of productivity in the Western male. It may be that entertainment culture now is so engaging that it keeps people satisfied. We didn't have that. Science was much more fun than listening to the radio. When you are 16 or 17 and in that inherently semi-lonely period when you are deciding whether to be an intellectual, many now don't bother.
(Response when asked how he thought the climate of scientific research had changed since he made his discovery of the structure of life in 1953.)
Quoted by Tim Adams in 'The New Age of Ignorance', The Observer (30 Jun 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Biography (254)  |  Climate (102)  |  College (71)  |  Culture (157)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Eureka (13)  |  Frustration (14)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listening (26)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Loss (117)  |  Lot (151)  |  Measure (241)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Period (200)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Radio (60)  |  Research (753)  |  Response (56)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sexual (27)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (995)  |  Today (321)  |  Western (45)  |  World (1850)

[I]f in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics, in so far as disposed through it we are able to reach certainty in other sciences and truth by the exclusion of error. (c.1267)
Translation by Robert Burke, Opus Majus of Roger Bacon (1928), vol 1, 124. In Fred R. Shapiro, The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Behoove (6)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Error (339)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reach (286)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)

[Magic] enables man to carry out with confidence his important tasks, to maintain his poise and his mental integrity in fits of anger, in the throes of hate, of unrequited love, of despair and anxiety. The function of magic is to ritualize man's optimism, to enhance his faith in the victory of hope over fear. Magic expresses the greater value for man of confidence over doubt, of steadfastness over vacillation, of optimism over pessimism.
Magic, Science and Religion (1925), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Carry (130)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Despair (40)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hate (68)  |  Hope (321)  |  Importance (299)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Love (328)  |  Magic (92)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Pessimism (4)  |  Poise (4)  |  Ritual (9)  |  Steadfastness (2)  |  Task (152)  |  Value (393)  |  Victory (40)

[My study of the universe] leaves little doubt that life has occurred on other planets. I doubt if the human race is the most intelligent form of life.
Speech to University of Miami students. Quoted in article, 'Notions in Motion,' Time (24 Nov 1952).
Science quotes on:  |  Extraterrestrial Life (20)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Race (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Universe (900)

[On the 11th day of November 1572], in the evening, after sunset, when, according to my habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed that a new and unusual star, surpassing all others in brilliancy, was shining almost directly over my head; and since I had, almost from boyhood, known all the stars of the heavens perfectly (there is no great difficulty in gaining that knowledge), it was quite evident to me that there had never before been any star in that place in the sky, even the smallest, to say nothing of a star so conspicuously bright as this. I was so astonished at this sight that I was not ashamed to doubt the trustworthiness of my own eyes. But when I observed that others, too, on having the place pointed out to them, could see that there was a star there, I had no further doubts. A miracle indeed, either the greatest of all that have occurred in the whole range of nature since the beginning of the world, or one certainly that is to be classed with those attested by the Holy Oracles.
De Stello. Nova (On the New Star) (1573). Quoted in H. Shapley and A. E. Howarth (eds.), Source Book in Astronomy (1929), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bright (81)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Class (168)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Evident (92)  |  Eye (440)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Habit (174)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Holy (35)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nova (7)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Range (104)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Shining (35)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Surpassing (12)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

[Other than fossils,] the most important of these other records of creation is, without doubt, ontogeny, that is, the history of the developmment of the organic individual (embryology and motamorphology). It briefly repeats in great and marked features the series of forms which the ancestors of the respective individuals have passed through from the beginning of their tribe. We have designated the palaeontological history of the development of the ancestors of a living form as the history of a tribe, or phylogeny, and we may therefore thus enunciate this exceedingly important biogenetic fundamental principle: “Ontogeny is a short and quick repetition, or recapitulation, of Phylogeny, determined by the laws of Inheritance and Adaptation.”
In Ernst Haeckel and E. Ray Lankester (trans.), The History of Creation (1876), Vol. 2, 33. Seen shortened to “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” This was Haeckel's (incorrect) answer to the vexing question of his time: what is the relationship between individual development (ontogeny) and the evolution of species and lineages (phylogeny)?
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Creation (350)  |  Development (441)  |  Embryology (18)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heredity (62)  |  History (716)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Law (913)  |  Living (492)  |  Marked (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ontogeny (10)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Phylogeny (10)  |  Principle (530)  |  Recapitulation (6)  |  Record (161)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Series (153)  |  Short (200)  |  Through (846)  |  Tribe (26)

[Richard Feynman] believed in the primacy of doubt, not as a blemish upon our ability to know but as the essence of knowing. The alternative to uncertainty is authority, against which science has fought for centuries.
In Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992), 371-372.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Against (332)  |  Alternative (32)  |  Authority (99)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blemish (2)  |  Century (319)  |  Essence (85)  |  Richard P. Feynman (125)  |  Fight (49)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Primacy (3)  |  Uncertainty (58)

[Shawn Lawrence Otto describes the damaging] strategy used to undermine science in the interest of those industries where science has pointed out the dangers of their products to individuals and human life in general … [It was] used a generation ago by the tobacco industry… First they manufacture uncertainty by raising doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence. Then they launder information by using seemingly independent front organizations to promote their desired message and thereby confuse the public. And finally they recruit unscrupulous scientific spokespeople to misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings and cherry-pick facts in an attempt to persuade the media and the public that there is still serious debate among scientists on the issue at hand.
In 'Science Is Politics', Huffington Post (28 May 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attempting (3)  |  Cherry-Pick (2)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Damage (38)  |  Danger (127)  |  Debate (40)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Desired (5)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Finding (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Front (16)  |  General (521)  |  Generation (256)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Human (1512)  |  Independent (74)  |  Indisputable (8)  |  Individual (420)  |  Industry (159)  |  Information (173)  |  Interest (416)  |  Issue (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Media (14)  |  Message (53)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organization (120)  |  Peer Review (4)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Product (166)  |  Promote (32)  |  Promoting (7)  |  Public (100)  |  Raising (4)  |  Recruiting (3)  |  Review (27)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Serious (98)  |  Still (614)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Undermining (2)  |  Unscrupulous (2)  |  Using (6)

[While in school, before university,] I, like almost all chemists I know, was also attracted by the smells and bangs that endowed chemistry with that slight but charismatic element of danger which is now banned from the classroom. I agree with those of us who feel that the wimpish chemistry training that schools are now forced to adopt is one possible reason that chemistry is no longer attracting as many talented and adventurous youngsters as it once did. If the decline in hands-on science education is not redressed, I doubt that we shall survive the 21st century.
Nobel laureate autobiography in Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures 1996 (1997), 191.
Science quotes on:  |  21st Century (11)  |  Adoption (7)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Ban (9)  |  Bang (29)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Classroom (11)  |  Danger (127)  |  Decline (28)  |  Education (423)  |  Element (322)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Force (497)  |  Hands-On (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Smell (29)  |  Survive (87)  |  Talent (99)  |  Training (92)  |  University (130)  |  Youngster (4)

[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)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Course (413)  |  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 famous anecdote concerning Cuvier involves the tale of his visitation from the devil—only it was not the devil but one of his students dressed up with horns on his head and shoes shaped like cloven hooves. This frightening apparition burst into Cuvier’s bedroom when he was fast asleep and claimed:
“Wake up thou man of catastrophes. I am the Devil. I have come to devour you!”
Cuvier studied the apparition carefully and critically said,
“I doubt whether you can. You have horns and hooves. You eat only plants.”
Quoted in Glyn Daniel, The Idea of Pre-History (1962), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Burst (41)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Claim (154)  |  Devil (34)  |  Devour (29)  |  Eat (108)  |  Horn (18)  |  Involve (93)  |  Man (2252)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Plant (320)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Student (317)

Dogbert (advice to Boss): Every credible scientist on earth says your products harm the environment. I recommend paying weasels to write articles casting doubt on the data. Then eat the wrong kind of foods and hope you die before the earth does.
Dilbert cartoon strip (30 Oct 2007).
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Article (22)  |  Casting (10)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Credibility (4)  |  Data (162)  |  Death (406)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eat (108)  |  Environment (239)  |  Food (213)  |  Harm (43)  |  Hope (321)  |  Kind (564)  |  Product (166)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Recommendation (12)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)  |  Wrong (246)

Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions également commodes, qui l’une et l’autre nous dispensent de défléchir.
To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking.
From 'Introduction', La Science et l’Hypothèse (1902), 2. Translation by George Bruce Halsted, 'Introduction', Science and Hypothesis (New York, 1905), 1. In 'Author’s Preface', Science and Hypothesis (London 1905), xxii, it is translated more closely as “To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.”
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everything (489)  |  Save (126)  |  Saving (20)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)

Doutons même du doute.
Even doubt the doubt.
'Discours d’A. France à la Société des Etudes Rabelaisiennes 21 mars 1912' as cited in Edith Tendron, Anatole France Inconnu (1995), 26 & footnote 222.

Goldsmith: If you put a tub full of blood into a stable, the horses are like to go mad.
Johnson: I doubt that.
Goldsmith: Nay, sir, it is a fact well authenticated.
Thrale: You had better prove it before you put it into your book on natural history. You may do it in my stable if you will.
Johnson: Nay, sir, I would not have him prove it. If he is content to take his information from others, he may get through his book with little trouble, and without much endangering his reputation. But if he makes experiments for so comprehensive a book as his, there would be no end to them; his erroneous assertions would then fall upon himself: and he might be blamed for not having made experiments as to every particular.
In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works (1785, 1830), 229-230.
Science quotes on:  |  Assertion (35)  |  Better (493)  |  Blame (31)  |  Blood (144)  |  Book (413)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Content (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Endanger (3)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Oliver Goldsmith (14)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (716)  |  Horse (78)  |  Information (173)  |  Little (717)  |  Mad (54)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Stable (32)  |  Through (846)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Will (2350)

Haec quippe prima sapientiae clavis definitur, assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio … Dubitando enim ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus.
For this is the first key to wisdom, assiduous and frequent questioning. ... By doubting we come to inquiry; by inquiry we perceive the truth.
Sic et Non (c. 1120). Latin text in Peter Abelard, E.L.T. Henke and G.S. Lindenkohl (eds.), Sic et Non (1851), 16-17. Title translates as Yes or No. As translated in Frederick Denison Maurice, Mediaeval Philosophy; Or, A Treatise of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy (1870), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Enquiry (89)  |  First (1302)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wisdom (235)

Le savoir scientifique avance à pas trébuchants, sous le fouet de la contention et du doute.
Scientific knowledge advances haltingly and is stimulated by contention and doubt.
Original French in Mythologiques, Vol. 1, Le Cru et le Cuit (1964), 15. As translated by John and Doreen Weightman, The Raw and the Cooked (1969, 1990), 7. A more literal translation could be: “Scientific knowledge advances with stumbling steps, under the whip of contention and doubt.”
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Contention (14)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Scientific (955)

Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason—Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge.
Letter to George and Thomas Keats (21 Dec 1817). In H. E. Rollins (ed.), Letters of John Keats (1958), Vol. 1, 193-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Content (75)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Negative (66)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Uncertainty (58)

Pour réussir dans la science, il faut douter; pour réussir dans la vie, il faut être sûr.
To succeed in science, one must doubt; to succeed in life, one must be sure.
In Recueil d'Œuvres de Léo Errera: Botanique Générale (1908), 193. Google translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Sure (15)

~~[Misattributed]~~ A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.
Anonymous
Misattributed to Morris Kline. He did not originate this aphorism. He only quoted it as an example of sarcastic remarks by anonymous skeptical mathematicians. In Lecture (11 Apr 1958) to the 36th Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Cleveland, Ohio. Published in Morris Kline, 'The Ancients Versus the Moderns, a New Battle of the Books', The Mathematics Teacher (Oct 1958), 51, No. 6, 423. Webmaster strongly believes this quote was not originated by Morris Kline, who only popularized it when it was printed in his later books. He merely quoted it as an aphorism already in circulation. In this work, it is one of a sentence listing three aphorisms, each separated with its own quotation marks, divided by semicolons. One of these Kline himself in fact attributes to “Anonymous” in a later work. Another error seen is the concatenation of two of these quotes. Thus “The virtue of a logical proof is not that it compels belief but that it suggests doubts. The proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts,” should be written as two separate aphorisms, as they were by Kline in the work cited here. The third aphorism, “Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence,” traces back to at least the 1920s. See quote beginning “Metaphysics may be…” on the Joseph Wood Krutch Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Misattributed (19)  |  Proof (304)  |  Tell (344)

Sigmund Freud quote: A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be el
A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by 'mere' words. He will feel that he is being asked to believe in magic. And he will not be so very wrong, for the words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic. But we shall have to follow a roundabout path in order to explain how science sets about restoring to words a part at least of their former magical power.
Psychical (or Mental) Treatment (1905), In James Strachey (ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953), Vol. 7, 283.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Down (455)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Explain (334)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Hard (246)  |  Layman (21)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Power (771)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Set (400)  |  Speech (66)  |  Understand (648)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Wrong (246)

A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content and the depth of the conviction concerning its overpowering meaningfulness, regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Accordingly (5)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appear (122)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |   Buddha (5)  |  Capable (174)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Cling (6)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Content (75)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Count (107)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Desire (212)  |  Devout (5)  |  Divine (112)  |  Domain (72)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  Himself (461)  |  Important (229)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Loftiness (3)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Outside (141)  |  Person (366)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rational (95)  |  Regardless (8)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Same (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Superpersonal (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unite (43)  |  Value (393)

A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men of other tribes, how to restrain his passions, what to believe in and what not to believe in, and much else. And what does our science say to him on these matters?
It triumphantly tells him: how many million miles it is from the earth to the sun; at what rate light travels through space; how many million vibrations of ether per second are caused by light, and how many vibrations of air by sound; it tells of the chemical components of the Milky Way, of a new element—helium—of micro-organisms and their excrements, of the points on the hand at which electricity collects, of X rays, and similar things.
“But I don't want any of those things,” says a plain and reasonable man—“I want to know how to live.”
In 'Modern Science', Essays and Letters (1903), 221-222.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Component (51)  |  Depend (238)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Ether (37)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Family (101)  |  Helium (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Micro-Organism (3)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passion (121)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Question (649)  |  Ray (115)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solve (145)  |  Sound (187)  |  Space (523)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Spend (97)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Sun (407)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Will (2350)  |  X-ray (43)

A tree nowhere offers a straight line or a regular curve, but who doubts that root, trunk, boughs, and leaves embody geometry?
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-Book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Bough (10)  |  Curve (49)  |  Embody (18)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Offer (142)  |  Regular (48)  |  Root (121)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trunk (23)

A very sincere and serious freshman student came to my office with a question that had clearly been troubling him deeply. He said to me, ‘I am a devout Christian and have never had any reason to doubt evolution, an idea that seems both exciting and well documented. But my roommate, a proselytizing evangelical, has been insisting with enormous vigor that I cannot be both a real Christian and an evolutionist. So tell me, can a person believe both in God and in evolution?’ Again, I gulped hard, did my intellectual duty, a nd reassured him that evolution was both true and entirely compatible with Christian belief –a position that I hold sincerely, but still an odd situation for a Jewish agnostic.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agnostic (10)  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Christian (44)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compatible (4)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Devout (5)  |  Document (7)  |  Duty (71)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionist (8)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Freshman (3)  |  God (776)  |  Gulp (3)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Insist (22)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Nd (2)  |  Never (1089)  |  Odd (15)  |  Office (71)  |  Person (366)  |  Position (83)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reassure (7)  |  Roommate (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Seem (150)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sincere (4)  |  Sincerely (3)  |  Situation (117)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Tell (344)  |  Trouble (117)  |  True (239)  |  Vigor (12)

After the discovery of spectral analysis no one trained in physics could doubt the problem of the atom would be solved when physicists had learned to understand the language of spectra. So manifold was the enormous amount of material that has been accumulated in sixty years of spectroscopic research that it seemed at first beyond the possibility of disentanglement. An almost greater enlightenment has resulted from the seven years of Röntgen spectroscopy, inasmuch as it has attacked the problem of the atom at its very root, and illuminates the interior. What we are nowadays hearing of the language of spectra is a true 'music of the spheres' in order and harmony that becomes ever more perfect in spite of the manifold variety. The theory of spectral lines will bear the name of Bohr for all time. But yet another name will be permanently associated with it, that of Planck. All integral laws of spectral lines and of atomic theory spring originally from the quantum theory. It is the mysterious organon on which Nature plays her music of the spectra, and according to the rhythm of which she regulates the structure of the atoms and nuclei.
Atombau und Spektrallinien (1919), viii, Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines, trans. Henry L. Brose (1923), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Amount (153)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Attack (86)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enlightenment (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Integral (26)  |  Interior (35)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Music Of The Spheres (3)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Order (638)  |  Organon (2)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Wilhelm Röntgen (8)  |  Root (121)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spectral Analysis (4)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Spite (55)  |  Spring (140)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Among people I have met, the few whom I would term “great” all share a kind of unquestioned, fierce dedication; an utter lack of doubt about the value of their activities (or at least an internal impulse that drives through any such angst); and above all, a capacity to work (or at least to be mentally alert for unexpected insights) at every available moment of every day of their lives.
From The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History (2000), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Alert (13)  |  Angst (2)  |  Available (80)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Drive (61)  |  Fierce (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Internal (69)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lack (127)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mentally (3)  |  Met (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Share (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Utter (8)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician find themselves in an anecdote, indeed an anecdote quite similar to many that you have no doubt already heard.
After some observations and rough calculations the engineer realizes the situation and starts laughing.
A few minutes later the physicist understands too and chuckles to himself happily, as he now has enough experimental evidence to publish a paper.
This leaves the mathematician somewhat perplexed, as he had observed right away that he was the subject of an anecdote, and deduced quite rapidly the presence of humor from similar anecdotes, but considers this anecdote to be too trivial a corollary to be significant, let alone funny.
Anonymous
In 'Zero Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science' APS News (Jun 2003), 12 No. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Already (226)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Consider (428)  |  Corollary (5)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Enough (341)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Find (1014)  |  Funny (11)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humor (10)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Joke (90)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Minute (129)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Paper (192)  |  Perplex (6)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Presence (63)  |  Publish (42)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Realize (157)  |  Right (473)  |  Significant (78)  |  Situation (117)  |  Start (237)  |  Subject (543)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Understand (648)

An involuntary return to the point of departure is, without doubt, the most disturbing of all journeys.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Departure (9)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Involuntary (4)  |  Journey (48)  |  Most (1728)  |  Point (584)  |  Return (133)

And for mathematical sciences, he that doubts their certainty hath need of a dose of Hellebore.
The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661), ch. xxi, 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainty (180)  |  Dose (17)

And new philosophy calls all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th’earth, and no mans wit
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confesse that this world’s spent,
When in the Planets, and the Firmament
They seeke so many new; and then see that this
Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies.
’Tis all in pieces, all cohaerence gone;
All just supply, and all Relation;
Prince, Subject, Father, Sonne, are things forgot,
For every man alone thinkes he hath got
To be a phoenix, and that then can bee
None of that kinde, of which he is, but hee.
An Anatomie of the World, I. 205-18. The Works of John Donne (Wordsworth edition 1994), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Atom (381)  |  Bee (44)  |  Call (781)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Father (113)  |  Fire (203)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  New (1273)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Planet (402)  |  Poem (104)  |  See (1094)  |  Spent (85)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wit (61)  |  World (1850)

And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state.
In Galileo’s handwriting is his personal copy of Dialogue on the Great World Systems, x. As quoted in Edward Aloysius Pace and James Hugh Ryan, The New Scholasticism (1954),
Science quotes on:  |  Authority (99)  |  Commonwealth (5)  |  Competence (13)  |  Deny (71)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Expert (67)  |  God (776)  |  Judge (114)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Sense (785)  |  Slave (40)  |  State (505)  |  Submit (21)  |  Subversion (3)  |  Will (2350)

Anybody who has any doubt about the ingenuity or the resourcefulness of a plumber never got a bill from one.
On CBS television (8 Jan 1954). As quoted in Julia Vitullo-Martin and J. Robert Moskin, The Executive's Book of Quotations (2002), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Bill (14)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Never (1089)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Resourcefulness (2)

Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of highly scientific knowledge, that though these inventions [used to defend Syracuse against the Romans] had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration.
Plutarch
In John Dryden (trans.), Life of Marcellus.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affection (44)  |  Against (332)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Behind (139)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Defend (32)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Examine (84)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  High (370)  |  Highly (16)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignoble (2)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lend (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mere (86)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Possess (157)  |  Precision (72)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profound (105)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reference (33)  |  Renown (3)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Roman (39)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Knowledge (11)  |  Sordid (3)  |  Sort (50)  |  Soul (235)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Trade (34)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Use (771)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Whole (756)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Are the atoms of the dextroacid (tartaric) grouped in the spirals of a right-hand helix or situated at the angles of an irregular tetrahedron, or arranged in such or such particular unsymmetrical fashion? We are unable to reply to these questions. But there can be no reason for doubting that the grouping of the atoms has an unsymmetrical arrangement with a non-superimposable image. It is not less certain that the atoms of the laevo-acid realize precisely an unsymmetrical arrangement of the inverse of the above.
Leçons de Chemie (1860), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Angle (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Group (83)  |  Helix (10)  |  Image (97)  |  Inverse (7)  |  Irregular (7)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Question (649)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reply (58)  |  Right (473)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Superimposition (2)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Tetrahedron (4)

As scientific men we have all, no doubt, felt that our fellow men have become more and more satisfying as fish have taken up their work which has been put often to base uses, which must lead to disaster. But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance. On our plane, knowledge and ignorance are the immemorial adversaries. Scientific men can hardly escape the charge of ignorance with regard to the precise effect of the impact of modern science upon the mode of living of the people and upon their civilisation. For them, such a charge is worse than that of crime.
From Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1922), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, collected in Carl Gustaf Santesson (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1921-1922 (1923).
Science quotes on:  |  Adversary (7)  |  Base (120)  |  Become (821)  |  Charge (63)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Crime (39)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Effect (414)  |  Escape (85)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fish (130)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Immemorial (3)  |  Impact (45)  |  Jurist (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mode (43)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Moralist (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  People (1031)  |  Precise (71)  |  Regard (312)  |  Satisfying (5)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sin (45)  |  Use (771)  |  Work (1402)

As scientists the two men were contrasting types—Einstein all calculation, Rutherford all experiment ... There was no doubt that as an experimenter Rutherford was a genius, one of the greatest. He worked by intuition and everything he touched turned to gold. He had a sixth sense.
(Reminiscence comparing his friend, Ernest Rutherford, with Albert Einstein, whom he also knew.)
Trial and Error: The Autobiography of Chaim Weizman (1949), 118. Quoted in A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford (2007), 65-66.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculation (134)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Everything (489)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Friend (180)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gold (101)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Reminiscence (4)  |  Sir Ernest Rutherford (55)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Touch (146)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Work (1402)

Attempt the end and never stand to doubt;
Nothing's so hard, but search will find it out.
'Seeke and Finde', Hesperides: Or, the Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick Esq. (1648). In J. Max Patrick (ed.), The Complete Poetry of Robert Herrick (1963), 411.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  End (603)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hard (246)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Stand (284)  |  Will (2350)

Because a fact seems strange to you, you conclude that it is not one. ... All science, however, commences by being strange. Science is successive. It goes from one wonder to another. It mounts by a ladder. The science of to-day would seem extravagant to the science of a former time. Ptolemy would believe Newton mad.
In Victor Hugo and Lorenzo O'Rourke (trans.) Victor Hugo's Intellectual Autobiography: (Postscriptum de ma vie) (1907), 322.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Commencement (14)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Former (138)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Mad (54)  |  Madness (33)  |  Mount (43)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Progress (492)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strangeness (10)  |  Succession (80)  |  Successive (73)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Wonder (251)

But, you might say, “none of this shakes my belief that 2 and 2 are 4.” You are quite right, except in marginal cases—and it is only in marginal cases that you are doubtful whether a certain animal is a dog or a certain length is less than a meter. Two must be two of something, and the proposition “2 and 2 are 4” is useless unless it can be applied. Two dogs and two dogs are certainly four dogs, but cases arise in which you are doubtful whether two of them are dogs. “Well, at any rate there are four animals,” you may say. But there are microorganisms concerning which it is doubtful whether they are animals or plants. “Well, then living organisms,” you say. But there are things of which it is doubtful whether they are living organisms or not. You will be driven into saying: “Two entities and two entities are four entities.” When you have told me what you mean by “entity,” we will resume the argument.
In Basic Writings, 1903-1959 (1961), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arise (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Concern (239)  |  Correct (95)  |  Dog (70)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Entity (37)  |  Length (24)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Marginal (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meter (9)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Must (1525)  |  Organism (231)  |  Plant (320)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Resume (4)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Shake (43)  |  Something (718)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Useless (38)  |  Will (2350)

Characteristically skeptical of the idea that living things would faithfully follow mathematical formulas, [Robert Harper] seized upon factors in corn which seemed to blend in the hybrid—rather than be represented by plus or minus signs, and put several seasons into throwing doubt upon the concept of immutable hypothetical units of inheritance concocted to account for selected results.
In 'Robert Almer Harper', National Academy Biographical Memoirs (1948), 25, 233-234.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Blend (9)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concoct (3)  |  Corn (20)  |  Factor (47)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formula (102)  |  Robert Harper (2)  |  Hybrid (14)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Minus (7)  |  Plus (43)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)  |  Season (47)  |  Seize (18)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Skeptic (8)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throwing (17)

Concerning the alchemist, Mamugnano, no one harbors doubts any longer about his daily experiments in changing quicksilver into gold. It was realized that his craft did not go beyond one pound of quicksilver… . Thus the belief is now held that his allegations to produce a number of millions have been a great fraud.
Anonymous
'Further Successes by Bragadini. From Vienna on the 26th day of January 1590'. As quoted in George Tennyson Matthews (ed.) News and Rumor in Renaissance Europe: The Fugger Newsletters (1959), 179. A handwritten collection of news reports (1568-1604) by the powerful banking and merchant house of Fugger in Ausburg.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Change (639)  |  Daily (91)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fraud (15)  |  Gold (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mamugnano (2)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Million (124)  |  Mineralogy (24)  |  Number (710)  |  Produce (117)  |  Quicksilver (8)

Considering that, among all those who up to this time made discoveries in the sciences, it was the mathematicians alone who had been able to arrive at demonstrations—that is to say, at proofs certain and evident—I did not doubt that I should begin with the same truths that they have investigated, although I had looked for no other advantage from them than to accustom my mind to nourish itself upon truths and not to be satisfied with false reasons.
In Discourse upon Method, Part 2, in Henry A. Torrey (ed., trans. )Philosophy of Descartes in Extracts from His Writings , (1892), 47-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Begin (275)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consider (428)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Evident (92)  |  False (105)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nourish (18)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reason (766)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Say (989)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)

Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and evil tendencies of man may have come about; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before. Some day, I doubt not, we shall arrive at an understanding of the evolution of the aesthetic faculty; but all the understanding in the world will neither increase nor diminish the force of the intuition that this is beautiful and that is ugly.
'Evolution and Ethics' (1893). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 9, 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Better (493)  |  Call (781)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Evil (122)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Force (497)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Good (906)  |  Increase (225)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Man (2252)  |  Reason (766)  |  Teach (299)  |  Ugly (14)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Cuvier had even in his address & manner the character of a superior Man, much general power & eloquence in conversation & great variety of information on scientific as well as popular subjects. I should say of him that he is the most distinguished man of talents I have ever known on the continent: but I doubt if He be entitled to the appellation of a Man of Genius.
J. Z. Fullmer, 'Davy's Sketches of his Contemporaries', Chymia, 1967, 12, 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Character (259)  |  Continent (79)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Information (173)  |  Known (453)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Power (771)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superior (88)  |  Talent (99)  |  Variety (138)

Darwin's characteristic perspicacity is nowhere better illustrated than in his prophecy of the reaction of the world of science. He admitted at once that it would be impossible to convince those older men '...whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts, all viewed ... from a point of view directly opposite to mine ... A few naturalists endowed with much flexibility of mind and who have already begun to doubt the immutability of species, may be influenced by this volume; but I look with confidence to the young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides with equal impartiality.
'The Reaction of American scientists to Darwinism', American Historical Review 1932), 38, 687. Quoted in David L. Hull, Science as Process (), 379.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Convince (43)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Impartiality (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Rising (44)  |  Side (236)  |  Species (435)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Direct observation of the testimony of the earth … is a matter of the laboratory, of the field naturalist, of indefatigable digging among the ancient archives of the earth’s history. If Mr. Bryan, with an open heart and mind, would drop all his books and all the disputations among the doctors and study first hand the simple archives of Nature, all his doubts would disappear; he would not lose his religion; he would become an evolutionist.
'Evolution and Religion', New York Times (5 Mar 1922), 91. Written in response to an article a few days earlier in which William Jennings Bryan challenged the theory of evolution as lacking proof.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Archive (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  William Jennings Bryan (20)  |  Digging (11)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Drop (77)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionist (8)  |  Field (378)  |  Field Naturalist (3)  |  First (1302)  |  First Hand (2)  |  Heart (243)  |  History (716)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lose (165)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Open (277)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Proof (304)  |  Religion (369)  |  Research (753)  |  Simple (426)  |  Study (701)  |  Testimony (21)

Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cut Off (3)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dissent (8)  |  Good (906)  |  Last (425)  |  Leave (138)  |  Man (2252)  |  Native (41)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Do not expect to be hailed as a hero when you make your great discovery. More likely you will be a ratbag—maybe failed by your examiners. Your statistics, or your observations, or your literature study, or your something else will be patently deficient. Do not doubt that in our enlightened age the really important advances are and will be rejected more often than acclaimed. Nor should we doubt that in our own professional lifetime we too will repudiate with like pontifical finality the most significant insight ever to reach our desk.
Theories of the Earth and Universe (1988), 365.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Career (86)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Examiner (5)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fail (191)  |  Finality (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hero (45)  |  Insight (107)  |  Literature (116)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  Patently (4)  |  Professional (77)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Significant (78)  |  Something (718)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Study (701)  |  Will (2350)

Does the harmony the human intelligence thinks it discovers in nature exist outside of this intelligence? No, beyond doubt, a reality completely independent of the mind which conceives it, sees or feels it, is an impossibility.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Discover (571)  |  Exist (458)  |  Feel (371)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Outside (141)  |  Reality (274)  |  See (1094)  |  Think (1122)

Does there truly exist an insuperable contradiction between religion and science? Can religion be superseded by science? The answers to these questions have, for centuries, given rise to considerable dispute and, indeed, bitter fighting. Yet, in my own mind there can be no doubt that in both cases a dispassionate consideration can only lead to a negative answer. What complicates the solution, however, is the fact that while most people readily agree on what is meant by ‘science,’ they are likely to differ on the meaning of ‘religion.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Answer (389)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Both (496)  |  Case (102)  |  Century (319)  |  Complicate (4)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Differ (88)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fight (49)  |  Give (208)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insuperable (3)  |  Lead (391)  |  Likely (36)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Negative (66)  |  People (1031)  |  Question (649)  |  Readily (10)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rise (169)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Solution (282)  |  Supersede (8)  |  Truly (118)

Doubt comes in at the window, when Inquiry is denied at the door.
In 'On the Interpretation of Scripture', Essays and Reviews (1860), 373.
Science quotes on:  |  Deny (71)  |  Door (94)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Window (59)

Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  End (603)  |  Wisdom (235)

Doubt is the offspring of knowledge: the savage never doubts at all.
In The Martyrdom of Man (1876), 242.
Science quotes on:  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Never (1089)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Savage (33)

Each of us has read somewhere that in New Guinea pidgin the word for 'piano' is (I use English spelling) 'this fellow you hit teeth belonging to him he squeal all same pig'. I am inclined to doubt whether this expression is authentic; it looks just like the kind of thing a visitor to the Islands would facetiously invent. But I accept 'cut grass belong head belong me' for 'haircut' as genuine... Such phrases seem very funny to us, and make us feel very superior to the ignorant foreigners who use long winded expressions for simple matters. And then it is our turn to name quite a simple thing, a small uncomplicated molecule consisting of nothing more than a measly 11 carbons, seven hydrogens, one nitrogen and six oxygens. We sharpen our pencils, consult our rule books and at last come up with 3-[(1, 3- dihydro-1, 3-dioxo-2H-isoindol-2-yl) oxy]-3-oxopropanoic acid. A name like that could drive any self-respecting Papuan to piano-playing.
The Chemist's English (1990), 3rd Edition, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acid (83)  |  Authentic (9)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Book (413)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Complication (30)  |  Cut (116)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  Funny (11)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Invention (400)  |  Island (49)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  New Guinea (4)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Piano (12)  |  Playing (42)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Superior (88)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Wind (141)  |  Word (650)

Education must be subversive if it is to be meaningful. By this I mean that it must challenge all the things we take for granted, examine all accepted assumptions, tamper with every sacred cow, and instil a desire to question and doubt.
As quoted, without citation, in Ronald William Clark, The Life of Bertrand Russell (1976), 423.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepted (6)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Cow (42)  |  Desire (212)  |  Education (423)  |  Examine (84)  |  Grant (76)  |  Instil (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Question (649)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Sacred Cow (3)  |  Subversive (2)  |  Tamper (7)  |  Thing (1914)

Einstein, twenty-six years old, only three years away from crude privation, still a patent examiner, published in the Annalen der Physik in 1905 five papers on entirely different subjects. Three of them were among the greatest in the history of physics. One, very simple, gave the quantum explanation of the photoelectric effect—it was this work for which, sixteen years later, he was awarded the Nobel prize. Another dealt with the phenomenon of Brownian motion, the apparently erratic movement of tiny particles suspended in a liquid: Einstein showed that these movements satisfied a clear statistical law. This was like a conjuring trick, easy when explained: before it, decent scientists could still doubt the concrete existence of atoms and molecules: this paper was as near to a direct proof of their concreteness as a theoretician could give. The third paper was the special theory of relativity, which quietly amalgamated space, time, and matter into one fundamental unity.
This last paper contains no references and quotes no authority. All of them are written in a style unlike any other theoretical physicist’s. They contain very little mathematics. There is a good deal of verbal commentary. The conclusions, the bizarre conclusions, emerge as though with the greatest of ease: the reasoning is unbreakable. It looks as though he had reached the conclusions by pure thought, unaided, without listening to the opinions of others. To a surprisingly large extent, that is precisely what he had done.
In Variety of Men (1966), 100-101. First published in Commentary magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Authority (99)  |  Award (13)  |  Bizarre (6)  |  Brownian Motion (2)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Concreteness (5)  |  Conjuring (3)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decent (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Ease (40)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Erratic (4)  |  Examiner (5)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Physics (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particle (200)  |  Patent (34)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Photoelectric Effect (2)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Privation (5)  |  Proof (304)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (299)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quote (46)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Special (188)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suspension (7)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Trick (36)  |  Unbreakable (3)  |  Unity (81)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Every Man being conscious to himself, That he thinks, and that which his Mind is employ'd about whilst thinking, being the Ideas, that are there, 'tis past doubt, that Men have in their Minds several Ideas, such as are those expressed by the words, Whiteness, Hardness, Sweetness, Thinking, Motion, Man, Elephant, Army, Drunkenness, and others: It is in the first place then to be inquired, How he comes by them? I know it is a received Doctrine, That Men have native Ideas, and original Characters stamped upon their Minds, in their very first Being.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book 2, Chapter 1, Section 1, 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Army (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Employ (115)  |  Express (192)  |  First (1302)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idea (881)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Native (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Sweetness (12)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Word (650)

Evidence of this [transformation of animals into fossils] is that parts of aquatic animals and perhaps of naval gear are found in rock in hollows on mountains, which water no doubt deposited there enveloped in sticky mud, and which were prevented by coldness and dryness of the stone from petrifying completely. Very striking evidence of this kind is found in the stones of Paris, in which one very often meets round shells the shape of the moon.
De Causis Proprietatum Elementorum (On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements) [before 1280], Book II, tract 3, chapter 5, quoted in A. C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo (1959), Vol. 1, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aquatic (5)  |  Completely (137)  |  Dryness (5)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Kind (564)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mud (26)  |  Petrification (5)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Rock (176)  |  Shell (69)  |  Stone (168)  |  Striking (48)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Water (503)

Faced with a new mutation in an organism, or a fundamental change in its living conditions, the biologist is frequently in no position whatever to predict its future prospects. He has to wait and see. For instance, the hairy mammoth seems to have been an admirable animal, intelligent and well-accoutered. Now that it is extinct, we try to understand why it failed. I doubt that any biologist thinks he could have predicted that failure. Fitness and survival are by nature estimates of past performance.
In Scientific American (Sep 1958). As cited in '50, 100 & 150 years ago', Scientific American (Sep 2008), 299, No. 3, 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Animal (651)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Change (639)  |  Condition (362)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Future (467)  |  Hairy (2)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mammoth (9)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Organism (231)  |  Past (355)  |  Performance (51)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Prospect (31)  |  See (1094)  |  Survival (105)  |  Think (1122)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)

Few people doubt that the Apollo missions to the Moon as well as the precursory Mercury and Gemini missions not only had a valuable role for the United States in its Cold War with the Soviet Union but also lifted the spirits of humankind. In addition, the returned samples of lunar surface material fueled important scientific discoveries.
In 'Is Human Spaceflight Obsolete?', Issues in Science and Technology (Summer 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Apollo (9)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cold War (2)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Important (229)  |  Lift (57)  |  Lunar (9)  |  Material (366)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mission (23)  |  Moon (252)  |  People (1031)  |  Return (133)  |  Role (86)  |  Sample (19)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Soviet (10)  |  Soviet Union (4)  |  Spirit (278)  |  State (505)  |  Surface (223)  |  Union (52)  |  United States (31)  |  Value (393)  |  War (233)

Finally, I aim at giving denominations to things, as agreeable to truth as possible. I am not ignorant that words, like money, possess an ideal value, and that great danger of confusion may be apprehended from a change of names; in the mean time it cannot be denied that chemistry, like the other sciences, was formerly filled with improper names. In different branches of knowledge, we see those matters long since reformed: why then should chemistry, which examines the real nature of things, still adopt vague names, which suggest false ideas, and favour strongly of ignorance and imposition? Besides, there is little doubt but that many corrections may be made without any inconvenience.
Physical and Chemical Essays (1784), Vol. I, xxxvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Aim (175)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Correction (42)  |  Danger (127)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Different (595)  |  Error (339)  |  Examine (84)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Money (178)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reform (22)  |  Reformed (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vague (50)  |  Value (393)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)

For me, a rocket is only a means--only a method of reaching the depths of space—and not an end in itself… There’s no doubt that it’s very important to have rocket ships since they will help mankind to settle elsewhere in the universe. But what I’m working for is this resettling… The whole idea is to move away from the Earth to settlements in space.
Science quotes on:  |  Depth (97)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Method (531)  |  Migration (12)  |  Move (223)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Settle (23)  |  Ship (69)  |  Space (523)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
From 'Progress of philosophical speculations. Preface to intended treatise De Interpretatione Naturæ (1603), in Francis Bacon and James Spedding (ed.), Works of Francis Bacon (1868), Vol. 3, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affectation (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chief (99)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Enough (341)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fix (34)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Hate (68)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nimble (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Patience (58)  |  Point (584)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Steady (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Versatile (6)

For there are two modes of acquiring knowledge, namely, by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience; since many have the arguments relating to what can be known, but because they lack experience they neglect the arguments, and neither avoid what is harmful nor follow what is good. For if a man who has never seen fire should prove by adequate reasoning that fire burns and injures things and destroys them, his mind would not be satisfied thereby, nor would he avoid fire, until he placed his hand or some combustible substance in the fire, so that he might prove by experience that which reasoning taught. But when he has had actual experience of combustion his mind is made certain and rests in the full light of truth. Therefore reasoning does not suffice, but experience does.
Opus Majus [1266-1268], Part VI, chapter I, trans. R. B. Burke, The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon (1928), Vol. 2, 583.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Argument (145)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Burn (99)  |  Certain (557)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Discover (571)  |  Draw (140)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fire (203)  |  Follow (389)  |  Good (906)  |  Grant (76)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Lack (127)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Path (159)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remove (50)  |  Rest (287)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)

For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favour.
'The Black Cottage'. In Edward Connery Latham (ed.), The Poetry of Robert Frost (1971), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cease (81)  |  Change (639)  |  Due (143)  |  Enough (341)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  See (1094)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

From a long view of the history of mankind—seen from, say, ten thousand years from now—there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell’s discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will pale into provincial insignificance in comparison with this important scientific event of the same decade.
In The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964), Vol. 2, page 1-11.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Century (319)  |  Civil (26)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Decade (66)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Event (222)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mankind (15)  |  Insignificance (12)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Most (1728)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Significant (78)  |  Thousand (340)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 129. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Art (680)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Command (60)  |  Country (269)  |  Depend (238)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Extend (129)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Kind (564)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Native (41)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noble (93)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wholesome (12)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

Goethe's devil is a cultivated personage and acquainted with the modern sciences; sneers at witchcraft and the black art even while employing them, and doubts most things, nay, half disbelieves even his own existence.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 128:24.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Devil (34)  |  Existence (481)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Personage (4)  |  Sneer (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Witchcraft (6)

However much the pits may be apparent, yet none, as far as can be comprehended by the senses, passes through the septum of the heart from the right ventricle into the left. I have not seen even the most obscure passages by which the septum of the ventricles is pervious, although they are mentioned by professors of anatomy since they are convinced that blood is carried from the right ventricle into the left. As a result—as I shall declare more openly elsewhere—I am in no little doubt regarding the function of the heart in this part.
In De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem [Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body] (revised ed. 1555), 734. Quoted and trans. in Charles Donald O'Malley, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514-1564 (1964), 281.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Blood (144)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Declare (48)  |  Function (235)  |  Heart (243)  |  Left (15)  |  Little (717)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mentioned (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Passage (52)  |  Pit (20)  |  Professor (133)  |  Regarding (4)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Sense (785)  |  Through (846)  |  Ventricle (7)

Human knowledge is the parent of doubt.
In Maxims, Characters, and Reflections, Critical, Satyrical and Moral (2nd ed., 1757), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Parent (80)

Humanity certainly needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without the slightest doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organised society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie (1938, 2007), 344.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Captivating (4)  |  Care (203)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Desire (212)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dreamer (14)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Interest (416)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Practical (225)  |  Profit (56)  |  Research (753)  |  Safeguard (8)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Society (350)  |  Task (152)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Work (1402)

I am ashamed to say that C. P. Snow's “two cultures” debate smoulders away. It is an embarrassing and sterile debate, but at least it introduced us to Medawar's essays. Afterwards, not even the most bigoted aesthete doubted that a scientist could be every inch as cultivated and intellectually endowed as a student of the humanities.
From 'Words of Hope', The Times (17 May 1988). Quoted in Neil Calver, 'Sir Peter Medawar: Science, Creativity and the Popularization of Karl Popper', Notes and Records of the Royal Society (May 2013), 67, 303.
Science quotes on:  |  Bigot (6)  |  Cultivated (7)  |  Culture (157)  |  Debate (40)  |  Embarrassing (3)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Essay (27)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Inch (10)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Sir Peter B. Medawar (57)  |  Most (1728)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Snow (39)  |  Baron C.P. Snow (21)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Student (317)  |  Two (936)

I am convinced that it is impossible to expound the methods of induction in a sound manner, without resting them upon the theory of probability. Perfect knowledge alone can give certainty, and in nature perfect knowledge would be infinite knowledge, which is clearly beyond our capacities. We have, therefore, to content ourselves with partial knowledge—knowledge mingled with ignorance, producing doubt.
The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method, 2nd edition (1877), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Alone (324)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Probability (135)  |  Sound (187)  |  Theory (1015)

I am of the decided opinion, that mathematical instruction must have for its first aim a deep penetration and complete command of abstract mathematical theory together with a clear insight into the structure of the system, and doubt not that the instruction which accomplishes this is valuable and interesting even if it neglects practical applications. If the instruction sharpens the understanding, if it arouses the scientific interest, whether mathematical or philosophical, if finally it calls into life an esthetic feeling for the beauty of a scientific edifice, the instruction will take on an ethical value as well, provided that with the interest it awakens also the impulse toward scientific activity. I contend, therefore, that even without reference to its applications mathematics in the high schools has a value equal to that of the other subjects of instruction.
In 'Ueber das Lehrziel im mathemalischen Unterricht der höheren Realanstalten', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, 2, 192. (The Annual Report of the German Mathematical Association. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstract Mathematics (9)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Activity (218)  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Aim (175)  |  Application (257)  |  Arouse (13)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Call (781)  |  Clear (111)  |  Command (60)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contend (8)  |  Decide (50)  |  Deep (241)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Equal (88)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Finally (26)  |  First (1302)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Practical (225)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reference (33)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Toward (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

I believe that the useful methods of mathematics are easily to be learned by quite young persons, just as languages are easily learned in youth. What a wondrous philosophy and history underlie the use of almost every word in every language—yet the child learns to use the word unconsciously. No doubt when such a word was first invented it was studied over and lectured upon, just as one might lecture now upon the idea of a rate, or the use of Cartesian co-ordinates, and we may depend upon it that children of the future will use the idea of the calculus, and use squared paper as readily as they now cipher. … When Egyptian and Chaldean philosophers spent years in difficult calculations, which would now be thought easy by young children, doubtless they had the same notions of the depth of their knowledge that Sir William Thomson might now have of his. How is it, then, that Thomson gained his immense knowledge in the time taken by a Chaldean philosopher to acquire a simple knowledge of arithmetic? The reason is plain. Thomson, when a child, was taught in a few years more than all that was known three thousand years ago of the properties of numbers. When it is found essential to a boy’s future that machinery should be given to his brain, it is given to him; he is taught to use it, and his bright memory makes the use of it a second nature to him; but it is not till after-life that he makes a close investigation of what there actually is in his brain which has enabled him to do so much. It is taken because the child has much faith. In after years he will accept nothing without careful consideration. The machinery given to the brain of children is getting more and more complicated as time goes on; but there is really no reason why it should not be taken in as early, and used as readily, as were the axioms of childish education in ancient Chaldea.
In Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Actually (27)  |  Afterlife (3)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Belief (615)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brain (281)  |  Bright (81)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Careful (28)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Chaldea (4)  |  Child (333)  |  Childish (20)  |  Children (201)  |  Cipher (3)  |  Close (77)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Coordinate (5)  |  Depend (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Easily (36)  |  Easy (213)  |  Education (423)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essential (210)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Gain (146)  |  Give (208)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immense (89)  |  Invent (57)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (308)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memory (144)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Paper (192)  |  Person (366)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plain (34)  |  Property (177)  |  Rate (31)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reason (766)  |  Same (166)  |  Second Nature (3)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Square (73)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconsciously (9)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

I believed that, instead of the multiplicity of rules that comprise logic, I would have enough in the following four, as long as I made a firm and steadfast resolution never to fail to observe them.
The first was never to accept anything as true if I did not know clearly that it was so; that is, carefully to avoid prejudice and jumping to conclusions, and to include nothing in my judgments apart from whatever appeared so clearly and distinctly to my mind that I had no opportunity to cast doubt upon it.
The second was to subdivide each on the problems I was about to examine: into as many parts as would be possible and necessary to resolve them better.
The third was to guide my thoughts in an orderly way by beginning, as if by steps, to knowledge of the most complex, and even by assuming an order of the most complex, and even by assuming an order among objects in! cases where there is no natural order among them.
And the final rule was: in all cases, to make such comprehensive enumerations and such general review that I was certain not to omit anything.
The long chains of inferences, all of them simple and easy, that geometers normally use to construct their most difficult demonstrations had given me an opportunity to think that all the things that can fall within the scope of human knowledge follow from each other in a similar way, and as long as one avoids accepting something as true which is not so, and as long as one always observes the order required to deduce them from each other, there cannot be anything so remote that it cannot be reached nor anything so hidden that it cannot be uncovered.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 2, 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Better (493)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Cast (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Complex (202)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Construct (129)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enough (341)  |  Examine (84)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fall (243)  |  Final (121)  |  Firm (47)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  General (521)  |  Guide (107)  |  Human (1512)  |  Include (93)  |  Inference (45)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiplicity (14)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Observe (179)  |  Omit (12)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reach (286)  |  Remote (86)  |  Required (108)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Review (27)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scope (44)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)

I came from Paris in the Spring of 1884, and was brought in intimate contact with him [Thomas Edison]. We experimented day and night, holidays not excepted. His existence was made up of alternate periods of work and sleep in the laboratory. He had no hobby, cared for no sport or amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene. There can be no doubt that, if he had not married later a woman of exceptional intelligence, who made it the one object of her life to preserve him, he would have died many years ago from consequences of sheer neglect. So great and uncontrollable was his passion for work.
As quoted in 'Tesla Says Edison Was an Empiricist', The New York Times (19 Oct 1931), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Car (75)  |  Care (203)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contact (66)  |  Death (406)  |  Disregard (12)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hobby (14)  |  Holiday (12)  |  Hygiene (13)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Kind (564)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Life (1870)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Night (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Passion (121)  |  Period (200)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Rule (307)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Sport (23)  |  Spring (140)  |  Uncontrollable (5)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I can live with doubt and uncertainty. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
From transcript of a BBC television program, 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out' (1981). In Richard Phillips Feynman and Jeffrey Robbins (ed.), The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: the Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman (2000), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  More (2558)  |  Think (1122)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Wrong (246)

I do ... humbly conceive (tho' some possibly may think there is too much notice taken of such a trivial thing as a rotten Shell, yet) that Men do generally rally too much slight and pass over without regard these Records of Antiquity which Nature have left as Monuments and Hieroglyphick Characters of preceding Transactions in the like duration or Transactions of the Body of the Earth, which are infinitely more evident and certain tokens than any thing of Antiquity that can be fetched out of Coins or Medals, or any other way yet known, since the best of those ways may be counterfeited or made by Art and Design, as may also Books, Manuscripts and Inscriptions, as all the Learned are now sufficiently satisfied, has often been actually practised; but those Characters are not to be Counterfeited by all the Craft in the World, nor can they be doubted to be, what they appear, by anyone that will impartially examine the true appearances of them: And tho' it must be granted, that it is very difficult to read them, and to raise a Chronology out of them, and to state the intervalls of the Times wherein such, or such Catastrophies and Mutations have happened; yet 'tis not impossible, but that, by the help of those joined to ' other means and assistances of Information, much may be done even in that part of Information also.
Lectures and Discourses of Earthquakes (1668). In The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, containing his Cutlerian Lectures and other Discourses read at the Meetings of the Illustrious Royal Society (1705), 411.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Art (680)  |  Assistance (23)  |  Best (467)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (413)  |  Certain (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Chronology (9)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Design (203)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evident (92)  |  Examine (84)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grant (76)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Humbly (8)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Information (173)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notice (81)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Read (308)  |  Record (161)  |  Regard (312)  |  Shell (69)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Token (10)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity. Science in itself appears to me neutral, that is to say, it increases men’s power whether for good or for evil. An appreciation of the ends of life is something which must be superadded to science if it is to bring happiness, but only the kind of society to which science is apt to give rise. I am afraid you may be disappointed that I am not more of an apostle of science, but as I grow older, and no doubt—as a result of the decay of my tissues, I begin to see the good life more and more as a matter of balance and to dread all over-emphasis upon anyone ingredient.
Letter to W. W. Norton, Publisher (27 Jan 1931). In The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944 (1968), Vol. 2, 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Age (509)  |  Apostle (3)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Balance (82)  |  Begin (275)  |  Belief (615)  |  Decay (59)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dread (13)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  End (603)  |  Evil (122)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Increase (225)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neutral (15)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Power (771)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Source (101)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tissue (51)

I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements. The highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the Greeks and ourselves call by the same name, air. It is by the force of this vital principle, pervading all things and mingling with all, that the earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in the middle of space.
In The Natural History of Pliny (1855), Vol. 1, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balance (82)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Eye (440)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Force (497)  |  Fourth (8)  |  Glittering (2)  |  Greek (109)  |  Middle (19)  |  Mingle (9)  |  Name (359)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Pervading (7)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Space (523)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Vital (89)  |  Water (503)

I do not forget that Medicine and Veterinary practice are foreign to me. I desire judgment and criticism upon all my contributions. Little tolerant of frivolous or prejudiced contradiction, contemptuous of that ignorant criticism which doubts on principle, I welcome with open arms the militant attack which has a method of doubting and whose rule of conduct has the motto “More light.”
In Louis Pasteur and Harold Clarence Ernst (trans), The Germ Theory and Its Application to Medicine and Surgery, Chap. 12. Reprinted in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics: Scientific Papers: Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology (1897, 1910), Vol. 38, 401-402. Cited as read before French Academy of Science (20 Apr 1878), published in Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 84, 1037-43.
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Attack (86)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Desire (212)  |  Do (1905)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Forget (125)  |  Frivolous (8)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Method (531)  |  Militant (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Motto (29)  |  Open (277)  |  Practice (212)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rule (307)  |  Tolerant (4)  |  Veterinary (2)  |  Welcome (20)

I doubt that Fleming could have obtained a grant for the discovery of penicillin on that basis [a requirement for highly detailed research plans] because he could not have said, 'I propose to have an accident in a culture so that it will be spoiled by a mould falling on it, and I propose to recognize the possibility of extracting an antibiotic from this mould.'
Remarks to the Canadian Senate on Science Policy, in From Dream to Discovery: On Being a Scientist (1964). In Ken G. Smith (ed.) and Michael A. Hitt (ed), Great Minds in Management: the Theory of Process Development (2005), 368
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Antibiotic (2)  |  Basis (180)  |  Culture (157)  |  Detail (150)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Extract (40)  |  Sir Alexander Fleming (19)  |  Grant (76)  |  Mold (37)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Penicillin (18)  |  Plan (122)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Propose (24)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Research (753)  |  Will (2350)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that “the world” would decline to recognize them.
In Postscript to the Outsider (1967), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Decline (28)  |  Never (1089)  |  Recognize (136)  |  World (1850)

I had no books as a child. I had real machines, and I went out to work in the fields. I was driving farm machinery at five, and fixing it at age seven or eight. It’s no accident that I worked on Hubble 50 to 60 years later. My books were nature; it was very important to how I related to the Earth, and the Earth from space. No doubt when I go into space, I go back into the cool soil of Earth. I’m always thinking of it. Nature was my book. Other people come from that tradition - Emerson, Thoreau, and especially Whitman. Look at what they said in their philosophy - go out and have a direct relationship with nature.
When asked by Discover magazine what books helped inspire his passion as an astronaut.
'The 1998 Discover Science Gift Guide: Fantastic Voyages Children's Books That Mattered', Discover (Dec 1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Age (509)  |  Ask (420)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Back (395)  |  Biography (254)  |  Book (413)  |  Child (333)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (571)  |  Driving (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Farm (28)  |  Field (378)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passion (121)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (523)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I have no doubt but that my engines will propel boats against the current of the Mississippi, and wagons on turnpike roads, with great profit.
Address to Lancaster turnpike company (25 Sep 1804). As cited in 'On the Origin of Steam Boats and Steam Wagons', Thomas Cooper (ed.), The Emporium of Arts and Sciences (Feb 1814), 2, No. 2, 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Current (122)  |  Engine (99)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mississippi (7)  |  Profit (56)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Road (71)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Steamboat (7)  |  Turnpike (2)  |  Wagon (10)  |  Will (2350)

I have no doubt that certain learned men, now that the novelty of the hypotheses in this work has been widely reported—for it establishes that the Earth moves, and indeed that the Sun is motionless in the middle of the universe—are extremely shocked, and think that the scholarly disciplines, rightly established once and for all, should not be upset. But if they are willing to judge the matter thoroughly, they will find that the author of this work has committed nothing which deserves censure. For it is proper for an astronomer to establish a record of the motions of the heavens with diligent and skilful observations, and then to think out and construct laws for them, or rather hypotheses, whatever their nature may be, since the true laws cannot be reached by the use of reason; and from those assumptions the motions can be correctly calculated, both for the future and for the past. Our author has shown himself outstandingly skilful in both these respects. Nor is it necessary that these hypotheses should be true, nor indeed even probable, but it is sufficient if they merely produce calculations which agree with the observations. … For it is clear enough that this subject is completely and simply ignorant of the laws which produce apparently irregular motions. And if it does work out any laws—as certainly it does work out very many—it does not do so in any way with the aim of persuading anyone that they are valid, but only to provide a correct basis for calculation. Since different hypotheses are sometimes available to explain one and the same motion (for instance eccentricity or an epicycle for the motion of the Sun) an astronomer will prefer to seize on the one which is easiest to grasp; a philosopher will perhaps look more for probability; but neither will grasp or convey anything certain, unless it has been divinely revealed to him. Let us therefore allow these new hypotheses also to become known beside the older, which are no more probable, especially since they are remarkable and easy; and let them bring with them the vast treasury of highly learned observations. And let no one expect from astronomy, as far as hypotheses are concerned, anything certain, since it cannot produce any such thing, in case if he seizes on things constructed for another other purpose as true, he departs from this discipline more foolish than he came to it.
Although this preface would have been assumed by contemporary readers to be written by Copernicus, it was unsigned. It is now believed to have been written and added at press time by Andreas Osiander (who was then overseeing the printing of the book). It suggests the earth’s motion as described was merely a mathematical device, and not to be taken as absolute reality. Text as given in 'To the Reader on the Hypotheses in this Work', Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), translated by ‎Alistair Matheson Duncan (1976), 22-3. By adding this preface, Osiander wished to stave off criticism by theologians. See also the Andreas Osiander Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Author (175)  |  Available (80)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Censure (5)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concern (239)  |  Construct (129)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Different (595)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enough (341)  |  Expect (203)  |  Explain (334)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Future (467)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Judge (114)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Record (161)  |  Respect (212)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Shock (38)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Sun (407)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Universe (900)  |  Upset (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Willing (44)  |  Work (1402)

I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
In Possible Worlds and Other Papers (1927), 298.
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Imagine (176)  |  More (2558)  |  Queer (9)  |  Reality (274)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other, when they came in contact with the more civilised.
In Walden: or, Life in the Woods (1854, 1899), 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Contact (66)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Improvement (117)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Race (278)  |  Savage (33)  |  Surely (101)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Vegetarianism (2)

I have no doubt that it is possible to give a new direction to technological development, a direction that shall lead it back to the real needs of man, and that also means: to the actual size of man. Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful. To go
Small is Beautiful (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Back (395)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Development (441)  |  Direction (185)  |  Give (208)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Possible (560)  |  Real (159)  |  Size (62)  |  Small (489)  |  Technological (62)

I have no doubt that many small strikes of a hammer will finally have as much effect as one very heavy blow: I say as much in quantity, although they may be different in mode, but in my opinion, everything happens in nature in a mathematical way, and there is no quantity that is not divisible into an infinity of parts; and Force, Movement, Impact etc. are types of quantities.
From the original French, “Ie ne doute point que plusieurs petits coups de Marteau ne fassent enfin autant d’effet qu’vn fort grand coup, ie dis autant en quantité, bien qu’ils puissent estre différents, in modo; mais apud me omnia fiunt Mathematicè in Natura, & il n’y a point de quantité qui ne soit divisible en une infinité de parties; Or la Force, le Mouuement, la Percussion, &c. sont des Especes de quantitez,” in letter (11 Mar 1640) to Père Marin Mersenne (AT III 36), collected in Lettres de Mr Descartes (1659), Vol. 2, 211-212. English version by Webmaster using online resources.
Science quotes on:  |  Blow (45)  |  Different (595)  |  Divisible (5)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everything (489)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Happen (282)  |  Impact (45)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Part (235)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Say (989)  |  Small (489)  |  Strike (72)  |  Type (171)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

I have no doubt that the fundamental problem the planet faces is the enormous increase in the human population. You see it overrunning everywhere. Places that were very remote when I went there 50 years ago are now overrun.
From interview with Michael Bond, 'It’s a Wonderful Life', New Scientist (14 Dec 2002), 176, No. 2373, 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Face (214)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Human (1512)  |  Increase (225)  |  Overpopulation (6)  |  Planet (402)  |  Population (115)  |  Problem (731)  |  Remote (86)  |  See (1094)  |  Year (963)

I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy. … If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.
'Sayings of the Week.' The Observer, London (26 Aug 1973). Quoted in Barbara K. Rodes and Rice Odell, A Dictionary of Environmental Quotations (1992), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Energy (373)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Solar Power (10)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sun (407)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Will (2350)

I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former letters, a young one and a female with young, both of which I have preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript [not known to science]. They are much smaller and more slender than the mus domesticus medius of Ray; and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour ... They never enter into houses; are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves; abound in harvest, and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles.
[Part of his observations on the harvest mouse, which he was the first to describe as a new species.]
Letter XII (4 Nov 1767) in The Natural History of Selborne (1789, 1899), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Barn (6)  |  Both (496)  |  Brandy (3)  |  Build (211)  |  Corn (20)  |  Describe (132)  |  Enter (145)  |  Female (50)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Ground (222)  |  Harvest (28)  |  House (143)  |  Known (453)  |  Letter (117)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Nest (26)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Ray (115)  |  John Ray (8)  |  Sheaf (2)  |  Species (435)  |  Squirrel (11)  |  Straw (7)  |  Thistle (5)  |  Young (253)

I have said that the investigation for which the teeth of the shark had furnished an opportunity, was very near an end... But thereafter, while I was examining more carefully these details of both places and bodies [sedimentary deposits and shells], these day by day presented points of doubt to me as they followed one another in indissoluble connection, so that I saw myself again and again brought back to the starting-place, as it were, when I thought I was nearest the goal. I might compare those doubts to the heads of the Lernean Hydra, since when one of them had been got rid of, numberless others were born; at any rate, I saw that I was wandering about in a sort of labyrinth, where the nearer one approaches the exit, the wider circuits does one tread.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Care (203)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Compare (76)  |  Connection (171)  |  Detail (150)  |  End (603)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exit (4)  |  Follow (389)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hydra (3)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Labyrinth (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sediment (9)  |  Shark (11)  |  Shell (69)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Tread (17)  |  Wandering (6)

I love to read the dedications of old books written in monarchies—for they invariably honor some (usually insignificant) knight or duke with fulsome words of sycophantic insincerity, praising him as the light of the universe (in hopes, no doubt, for a few ducats to support future work); this old practice makes me feel like such an honest and upright man, by comparison, when I put a positive spin, perhaps ever so slightly exaggerated, on a grant proposal.
From essay 'The Razumovsky Duet', collected in The Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History (1995, 1997), 263.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Duke (2)  |  Exaggerate (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Future (467)  |  Grant (76)  |  Honest (53)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hope (321)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Insincerity (2)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Knight (6)  |  Light (635)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Old (499)  |  Positive (98)  |  Practice (212)  |  Praise (28)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Read (308)  |  Slightly (3)  |  Spin (26)  |  Support (151)  |  Universe (900)  |  Upright (2)  |  Usually (176)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)

I mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of a mathematician, where half proof = 0, and it is demanded for proof that every doubt becomes impossible.
Quoted in G. Simmons, Calculus Gems (1992).
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Demand (131)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Mean (810)  |  Proof (304)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

I must admit that when I chose the name, “vitamine,” I was well aware that these substances might later prove not to be of an amine nature. However, it was necessary for me to choose a name that would sound well and serve as a catchword, since I had already at that time no doubt about the importance and the future popularity of the new field.
The Vitamines translated by Harry Ennis Dubin (1922), 26, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Amine (2)  |  Catchword (3)  |  Choose (116)  |  Field (378)  |  Future (467)  |  Importance (299)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Prove (261)  |  Sound (187)  |  Substance (253)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vitamin (13)

I presume that few who have paid any attention to the history of the Mathematical Analysis, will doubt that it has been developed in a certain order, or that that order has been, to a great extent, necessary—being determined, either by steps of logical deduction, or by the successive introduction of new ideas and conceptions, when the time for their evolution had arrived. And these are the causes that operate in perfect harmony. Each new scientific conception gives occasion to new applications of deductive reasoning; but those applications may be only possible through the methods and the processes which belong to an earlier stage.
Explaining his choice for the exposition in historical order of the topics in A Treatise on Differential Equations (1859), Preface, v-vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Application (257)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conception (160)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Earlier (9)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extent (142)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Order (638)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (234)  |  Successive (73)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)

I saw [Linus Pauling] as a brilliant lecturer and a man with a fantastic memory, and a great, great showman. I think he was the century’s greatest chemist. No doubt about it.
From transcript of audio of Max Perutz in BBC programme, 'Lifestory: Linus Pauling' (1997). On 'Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA' webpage 'I Wish I Had Made You Angry Earlier.'
Science quotes on:  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memory (144)  |  Linus Pauling (60)  |  Saw (160)  |  Think (1122)

I shall explain a System of the World differing in many particulars from any yet known, answering in all things to the common Rules of Mechanical Motions: This depends upon three Suppositions. First, That all Cœlestial Bodies whatsoever, have an attraction or gravitating power towards their own Centers, whereby they attract not only their own parts, and keep them from flying from them, as we may observe the Earth to do, but that they do also attract all the other Cœlestial bodies that are within the sphere of their activity; and consequently that not only the Sun and Moon have an influence upon the body and motion the Earth, and the Earth upon them, but that Mercury also Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter by their attractive powers, have a considerable influence upon its motion in the same manner the corresponding attractive power of the Earth hath a considerable influence upon every one of their motions also. The second supposition is this, That all bodies whatsoever that are put into a direct and simple motion, will continue to move forward in a streight line, till they are by some other effectual powers deflected and bent into a Motion, describing a Circle, Ellipse, or some other more compounded Curve Line. The third supposition is, That these attractive powers are so much the more powerful in operating, by how much the nearer the body wrought upon is to their own Centers. Now what these several degrees are I have not yet experimentally verified; but it is a notion, which if fully prosecuted as it ought to be, will mightily assist the Astronomer to reduce all the Cœlestial Motions to a certain rule, which I doubt will never be done true without it. He that understands the nature of the Circular Pendulum and Circular Motion, will easily understand the whole ground of this Principle, and will know where to find direction in Nature for the true stating thereof. This I only hint at present to such as have ability and opportunity of prosecuting this Inquiry, and are not wanting of Industry for observing and calculating, wishing heartily such may be found, having myself many other things in hand which I would first compleat and therefore cannot so well attend it. But this I durst promise the Undertaker, that he will find all the Great Motions of the World to be influenced by this Principle, and that the true understanding thereof will be the true perfection of Astronomy.
An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations (1674), 27-8. Based on a Cutlerian Lecture delivered by Hooke at the Royal Society four years earlier.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Activity (218)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Attractive (25)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circular (19)  |  Circular Motion (7)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Continue (179)  |  Curve (49)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Direct (228)  |  Direction (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ellipse (8)  |  Explain (334)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Flying (74)  |  Forward (104)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hint (21)  |  Industry (159)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Mars (47)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Observe (179)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Planet (402)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Promise (72)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Rule (307)  |  Saturn (15)  |  Simple (426)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supposition (50)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Venus (21)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

I shall no doubt be blamed by certain scientists, and, I am afraid, by some philosophers, for having taken serious account of the alleged facts which are investigated by Psychical Researchers. I am wholly impenitent about this. The scientists in question seem to me to confuse the Author of Nature with the Editor of Nature; or at any rate to suppose that there can be no productions of the former which would not be accepted for publication by the latter. And I see no reason to believe this.
The Mind and its Place in Nature (1925), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Account (195)  |  Author (175)  |  Certain (557)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Former (138)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Production (190)  |  Psychical Research (3)  |  Publication (102)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Serious (98)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Wholly (88)

I submit a body of facts which cannot be invalidated. My opinions may be doubted, denied, or approved, according as they conflict or agree with the opinions of each individual who may read them; but their worth will be best determined by the foundation on which they rest—the incontrovertible facts.
Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion (1833), Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Best (467)  |  Body (557)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Incontrovertible (8)  |  Individual (420)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Read (308)  |  Rest (287)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worth (172)

Josiah Dwight Whitney quote: Liebig is a remarkable man, who has done much for organic Chemistry
I suppose I should be run after for a professorship if I had studied at Giessen, as it seems to be a settled point that no young man can be expected to know anything of chemistry unless he has studied with Liebig; while the truth is, that any one who goes there and does not afterwards correct the bad habits acquired there, in some other laboratory, is almost unfitted for doing things in Chemistry. No doubt Liebig is a remarkable man, who has done much for organic Chemistry, not to speak of his having quarreled with all the Chemists in Europe...
Letter to his brother, William Dwight Whitney (25 Apr 1846). In Edwin Tenney Brewster and Josiah Dwight Whitney, Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney (1909), 79-80.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Bad (185)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Doing (277)  |  Expect (203)  |  Habit (174)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Justus von Liebig (39)  |  Man (2252)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Run (158)  |  Settled (34)  |  Speak (240)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Young (253)

I think the facts leave no doubt that the very mightiest among the chemical forces are of electric origin. The atoms cling to their electric charges, and opposite electric charges cling to each other.
'On the Modern Development of Faraday's Conception of Electricity', Journal of the Chemical Society 1881, 39, 302.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Charge (63)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Electric (76)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Force (497)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Think (1122)

Thomas Edison quote “Afraid of things that worked”, record track background+colorized photo of Edison & tinfoil phonograph
derivative art and colorization © todayinsci.com (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.

I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.
[Recalling astonishment when his tin-foil cylinder phonograph first played back his voice recording of “Mary had a little lamb.”]
Quoted in Frank Lewis Dyer, Thomas Commerford Martin, Edison: His Life and Inventions (1910), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Afraid (24)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Back (395)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Cylinder (11)  |  Drawback (4)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (400)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Phonograph (8)  |  Recording (13)  |  Something (718)  |  Success (327)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tin (18)  |  Work (1402)

I was there when Abbe Georges Lemaître first proposed this [Big Bang] theory. ... There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely, for an infinite time. .... It is only myth that attempts to say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years ago.
[Expressing his belief that the Big Bang is a myth devised to explain creation. He said he heard Lemaître (who was, at the time both a member of the Catholic hierarchy and an accomplished scientist) say in private that this theory was a way to reconcile science with St. Thomas Aquinas' theological dictum of creatio ex nihilo—creation out of nothing.]
Quoted in Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', Washington Times, supplement: The World and I (May 1988),196.
Science quotes on:  |  Saint Thomas Aquinas (18)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Bang (29)  |  Belief (615)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Billion (104)  |  Both (496)  |  Catholic (18)  |  Creatio Ex Nihilo (2)  |  Creation (350)  |  Dictum (10)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explain (334)  |  First (1302)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Monsignor Georges Lemaître (7)  |  Myth (58)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reconcile (19)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Theology (54)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Year (963)

If a hundred or a thousand people, all of the same age, of the same constitution and habits, were suddenly seized by the same illness, and one half of them were to place themselves under the care of doctors, such as they are in our time, whilst the other half entrusted themselves to Nature and to their own discretion, I have not the slightest doubt that there would be more cases of death amongst the former, and more cases of recovery among the latter.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Among (3)  |  Care (203)  |  Case (102)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Death (406)  |  Discretion (3)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Entrust (3)  |  Former (138)  |  Habit (174)  |  Half (63)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Illness (35)  |  Latter (21)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Recovery (24)  |  Same (166)  |  Seize (18)  |  Slight (32)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whilst (3)

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
The Advancement of Learning (1605) in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1887-1901), Vol. 3, 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  End (603)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Will (2350)

If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call in question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it—the life of that man is one long sin against mankind.
In 'The Ethics of Belief', Contemporary Review (Jan 1877), collected in Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays: By the Late William Kingdon Clifford, F.R.S. (1886), 346.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Arise (162)  |  Ask (420)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Belief (615)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Company (63)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Down (455)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Persuade (11)  |  Question (649)  |  Reading (136)  |  Regard (312)  |  Sin (45)

If a nonnegative quantity was so small that it is smaller than any given one, then it certainly could not be anything but zero. To those who ask what the infinitely small quantity in mathematics is, we answer that it is actually zero. Hence there are not so many mysteries hidden in this concept as they are usually believed to be. These supposed mysteries have rendered the calculus of the infinitely small quite suspect to many people. Those doubts that remain we shall thoroughly remove in the following pages, where we shall explain this calculus.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Belief (615)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Concept (242)  |  Explain (334)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mystery (188)  |  People (1031)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remove (50)  |  Render (96)  |  Small (489)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Suspect (18)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Usually (176)  |  Zero (38)

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
In unpublished manuscript, 'Is There a God', (5 Mar 1952) written for the magazine, Illustrated. Collected in Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater (ed.) and Peter Köllner (ed.) The Collected Papers of Bertran Russell: Volume II: Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68 (1997), 547-548.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Attention (196)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  Children (201)  |  China (27)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Existence (481)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inquisitor (6)  |  Mars (47)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Psychiatrist (16)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Say (989)  |  School (227)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Small (489)  |  Sun (407)  |  Talking (76)  |  Teapot (3)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)

If knowledge is my God, doubt would be my religion.
Quotations: Superultramodern Science and Philosophy (2005), 3
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Religion (369)

If some race of quadrumanous animals, especially one of the most perfect of them, were to lose, by force of circumstances or some other cause, the habit of climbing trees and grasping the branches with its feet in the same way as with its hands, in order to hold on to them; and if the individuals of this race were forced for a series of generations to use their feet only for walking, and to give up using their hands like feet; there is no doubt, according to the observations detailed in the preceding chapter, that these quadrumanous animals would at length be transformed into bimanous, and that the thumbs on their feet would cease to be separated from the other digits, when they only used their feet for walking.
Philosophie Zoologique (1809), Vol. 1, 349, trans. Hugh Elliot (1914), 170.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cease (81)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Climb (39)  |  Detail (150)  |  Force (497)  |  Generation (256)  |  Habit (174)  |  Individual (420)  |  Lose (165)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Race (278)  |  Series (153)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Transform (74)  |  Tree (269)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)

If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.
The Pleasures of Life (1887, 2007), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Ask (420)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (906)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Rule (307)  |  Wish (216)

If we reflect that a small creature such as this is provided, not only with external members, but also with intestines and other organs, we have no reason to doubt that a like creature, even if a thousand million times smaller, may already be provided with all its external and internal organs... though they may be hidden from our eyes. For, if we consider the external and internal organs of animalcules which are so small that a thousand million of them together would amount to the size of a coarse grain of sand, it may well be, however incomprehensible and unsearchable it may seem to us, that an animalcule from the male seed of whatever members of the animal kingdom, contains within itself... all the limbs and organs which an animal has when it is born.
Letter to the Gentlemen of the Royal Society, 30 Mar 1685. In The Collected Letters of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1957), Vol. 5, 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Animalcule (12)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creature (242)  |  Eye (440)  |  Grain (50)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Internal (69)  |  Intestine (16)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Sand (63)  |  Seed (97)  |  Small (489)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Whatever (234)

If you ask me whether science has solved, or is likely to solve, the problem of this universe, I must shake my head in doubt. We have been talking of matter and force; but whence came matter, and whence came force? You remember the first Napoleon’s question, when the savans who accompanied him to Egypt discussed in his presence the problem of the universe, and solved it to their apparent satisfaction. He looked aloft to the starry heavens, and said—“It is all very well, gentlemen, but who made all these!” That question still remains unanswered, and science makes no attempt to answer it.
Lecture 'On Matter and Force', to nearly 3,000 working men, at the Dundee Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Sep 1867), reported in 'Dundee Meeting, 1867', Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (Nov 1867)
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Aloft (5)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Egypt (31)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Head (87)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Look (584)  |  Make (25)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Napoleon (16)  |  Presence (63)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remember (189)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Shake (43)  |  Solve (145)  |  Star (460)  |  Still (614)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Unanswered (8)  |  Universe (900)

In a class I was taking there was one boy who was much older than the rest. He clearly had no motive to work. I told him that, if he could produce for me, accurately to scale, drawings of the pieces of wood required to make a desk like the one he was sitting at, I would try to persuade the Headmaster to let him do woodwork during the mathematics hours—in the course of which, no doubt, he would learn something about measurement and numbers. Next day, he turned up with this task completed to perfection. This I have often found with pupils; it is not so much that they cannot do the work, as that they see no purpose in it.
In Mathematician's Delight (1943), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Boy (100)  |  Class (168)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Course (413)  |  Desk (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Hour (192)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Motive (62)  |  Next (238)  |  Number (710)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Persuade (11)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Required (108)  |  Rest (287)  |  Scale (122)  |  See (1094)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Something (718)  |  Task (152)  |  Try (296)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wood (97)  |  Woodwork (2)  |  Work (1402)

In a famous passage, René Descartes tells us that he considered himself to be placed in three simultaneous domiciles, patiently recognizing his loyalties to the social past, fervidly believing in a final solution of nature’s secrets and in the meantime consecrated to the pursuit of scientific doubt. Here we have the half way house of the scientific laboratory, of the scientific mind in the midst of its campaign.
In 'The Three Dimensions of Time', Part I, 'The Classic of Science', A Classic and a Founder (1937), collected in Rosenstock-Huessy Papers (1981), Vol. 1, 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Campaign (6)  |  Consecrate (3)  |  Consider (428)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Domicile (2)  |  Final (121)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Loyalty (10)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passage (52)  |  Past (355)  |  Patiently (3)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Secret (216)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (261)  |  Solution (282)  |  Tell (344)  |  Way (1214)

In a sense, genetics grew up as an orphan. In the beginning botanists and zoologists were often indifferent and sometimes hostile toward it. “Genetics deals only with superficial characters”, it was often said. Biochemists likewise paid it little heed in its early days. They, especially medical biochemists, knew of Garrod’s inborn errors of metabolism and no doubt appreciated them in the biochemical sense and as diseases; but the biological world was inadequately prepared to appreciate fully the significance of his investigations and his thinking. Geneticists, it should be said, tended to be preoccupied mainly with the mechanisms by which genetic material is transmitted from one generation to, the next.
'Genes and Chemical Reactions In Neurospora', Nobel Lecture, 11 Dec 1958. In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964), 598.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biochemist (9)  |  Biological (137)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Character (259)  |  Deal (192)  |  Disease (340)  |  Early (196)  |  Error (339)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Heed (12)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Little (717)  |  Material (366)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Next (238)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thinking (425)  |  World (1850)  |  Zoologist (12)

In all spheres of science, art, skill, and handicraft it is never doubted that, in order to master them, a considerable amount of trouble must be spent in learning and in being trained. As regards philosophy, on the contrary, there seems still an assumption prevalent that, though every one with eyes and fingers is not on that account in a position to make shoes if he only has leather and a last, yet everybody understands how to philosophize straight away, and pass judgment on philosophy, simply because he possesses the criterion for doing so in his natural reason.
From Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807) as translated by J.B. Baillie in 'Preface', The Phenomenology of Mind (1910), Vol. 1, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Art (680)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Doing (277)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Eye (440)  |  Finger (48)  |  Handicraft (3)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Leather (4)  |  Master (182)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Order (638)  |  Pass (241)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possess (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spent (85)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Straight (75)  |  Train (118)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)

In describing the honourable mission I charged him with, M. Pernety informed me that he made my name known to you. This leads me to confess that I am not as completely unknown to you as you might believe, but that fearing the ridicule attached to a female scientist, I have previously taken the name of M. LeBlanc in communicating to you those notes that, no doubt, do not deserve the indulgence with which you have responded.
Explaining her use of a male psuedonym.
Letter to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1807)
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Biography (254)  |  Completely (137)  |  Confess (42)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Female (50)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Indulgence (6)  |  Inform (50)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mission (23)  |  Name (359)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Use (771)

In experimental science it’s always a mistake not to doubt when facts do not compel you to affirm.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Affirm (3)  |  Compel (31)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Mistake (180)

In fact, no opinion should be with fervour. No one holds with fervour that seven times eight is fifty-six, because it can be shown to be the case. Fervour is only necessary in commending an opinion which is doubtful or demonstrably false.
In Institut et Musée Voltaire, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (1994), 314. Also quoted in Max Perutz, Is Science Necessary? (1991), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Commendation (3)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Fact (1257)  |  False (105)  |  Fervor (8)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Time (1911)

In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.
From the original Latin: “Veritatem inquirenti, semel in vita de omnibus, quantum fieri potest, esse dubitandum,” Principles of Philosophy (1644). Pars Prima, as collected in Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, Œuvres de Descartes (1905), Vol. 8, Proposition I, 5. English version as given in John Veitch (trans.), The Method, Meditations, and Selections from the Principles of Descartes (1880), 193. Also seen translated as: “If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
Science quotes on:  |  Course (413)  |  Far (158)  |  Life (1870)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Order (638)  |  Possible (560)  |  Seek (218)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)

In science nothing can be permanently accepted but that which is true, and whatever is accepted as true is challenged again and again. It is an axiom in science that no truth can be so sacred that it may not be questioned. When that which has been accepted as true has the least doubt thrown upon it, scientific men at once re-examine the subject. No opinion is sacred. “It ought to be” is never heard in scientific circles. “It seems to be” and “we think it is” is the modest language of scientific literature.
From address (1 Oct 1884), at inauguration of the Corcoran School of Science and Arts, Columbian University, Washington, D.C. Published in 'The Larger Import of Scientific Education', Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1885), 26, 455.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Examination (102)  |  Language (308)  |  Literature (116)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Modest (19)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Question (649)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Seem (150)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)

In science, self-satisfaction is death. Personal self-satisfaction is the death of the scientist. Collective self-satisfaction is the death of the research. It is restlessness, anxiety, dissatisfaction, agony of mind that nourish science.
Quoted in 'Ariadne', New Scientist (17 Jun 1976) 70, 680, which states it comes from Le Nouvel Observateur which revived the quote, “from an earlier interview.” If you know this primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Agony (7)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Death (406)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Research (753)  |  Restlessness (8)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)

In the last fifteen years we have witnessed an event that, I believe, is unique in the history of the natural sciences: their subjugation to and incorporation into the whirls and frenzies of disgusting publicity and propaganda. This is no doubt symptomatic of the precarious position assigned by present-day society to any form of intellectual activity. Such intellectual pursuits have at all times been both absurd and fragile; but they become ever more ludicrous when, as is now true of science, they become mass professions and must, as homeless pretentious parasites, justify their right to exist in a period devoted to nothing but the rapid consumption of goods and amusements. These sciences were always a divertissement in the sense in which Pascal used the word; but what is their function in a society living under the motto lunam et circenses? Are they only a band of court jesters in search of courts which, if they ever existed, have long lost their desire to be amused?
Voices in the Labyrinth: Nature, Man, and Science (1979), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Activity (218)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Consumption (16)  |  Court (35)  |  Desire (212)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Function (235)  |  Good (906)  |  History (716)  |  Incorporation (5)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Last (425)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Ludicrous (7)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Blaise Pascal (81)  |  Period (200)  |  Present (630)  |  Pretentious (4)  |  Profession (108)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Publicity (7)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Society (350)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unique (72)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Witness (57)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

Is man a peculiar organism? Does he originate in a wholly different way from a dog, bird, frog, or fish? and does he thereby justify those who assert that he has no place in nature, and no real relationship with the lower world of animal life? Or does he develop from a similar embryo, and undergo the same slow and gradual progressive modifications? The answer is not for an instant doubtful, and has not been doubtful for the last thirty years. The mode of man’s origin and the earlier stages of his development are undoubtedly identical with those of the animals standing directly below him in the scale; without the slightest doubt, he stands in this respect nearer the ape than the ape does to the dog. (1863)
As quoted in Ernst Haeckel and E. Ray Lankester (trans.) as epigraph for Chap. 12, The History of Creation (1886), Vol. 1, 364.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ape (54)  |  Assert (69)  |  Bird (163)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Dog (70)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Fish (130)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Identical (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Justify (26)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lower (11)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Man (9)  |  Originate (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Place (192)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Respect (212)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similar (36)  |  Slow (108)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stand (284)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

It has been asserted … that the power of observation is not developed by mathematical studies; while the truth is, that; from the most elementary mathematical notion that arises in the mind of a child to the farthest verge to which mathematical investigation has been pushed and applied, this power is in constant exercise. By observation, as here used, can only be meant the fixing of the attention upon objects (physical or mental) so as to note distinctive peculiarities—to recognize resemblances, differences, and other relations. Now the first mental act of the child recognizing the distinction between one and more than one, between one and two, two and three, etc., is exactly this. So, again, the first geometrical notions are as pure an exercise of this power as can be given. To know a straight line, to distinguish it from a curve; to recognize a triangle and distinguish the several forms—what are these, and all perception of form, but a series of observations? Nor is it alone in securing these fundamental conceptions of number and form that observation plays so important a part. The very genius of the common geometry as a method of reasoning—a system of investigation—is, that it is but a series of observations. The figure being before the eye in actual representation, or before the mind in conception, is so closely scrutinized, that all its distinctive features are perceived; auxiliary lines are drawn (the imagination leading in this), and a new series of inspections is made; and thus, by means of direct, simple observations, the investigation proceeds. So characteristic of common geometry is this method of investigation, that Comte, perhaps the ablest of all writers upon the philosophy of mathematics, is disposed to class geometry, as to its method, with the natural sciences, being based upon observation. Moreover, when we consider applied mathematics, we need only to notice that the exercise of this faculty is so essential, that the basis of all such reasoning, the very material with which we build, have received the name observations. Thus we might proceed to consider the whole range of the human faculties, and find for the most of them ample scope for exercise in mathematical studies. Certainly, the memory will not be found to be neglected. The very first steps in number—counting, the multiplication table, etc., make heavy demands on this power; while the higher branches require the memorizing of formulas which are simply appalling to the uninitiated. So the imagination, the creative faculty of the mind, has constant exercise in all original mathematical investigations, from the solution of the simplest problems to the discovery of the most recondite principle; for it is not by sure, consecutive steps, as many suppose, that we advance from the known to the unknown. The imagination, not the logical faculty, leads in this advance. In fact, practical observation is often in advance of logical exposition. Thus, in the discovery of truth, the imagination habitually presents hypotheses, and observation supplies facts, which it may require ages for the tardy reason to connect logically with the known. Of this truth, mathematics, as well as all other sciences, affords abundant illustrations. So remarkably true is this, that today it is seriously questioned by the majority of thinkers, whether the sublimest branch of mathematics,—the infinitesimal calculus—has anything more than an empirical foundation, mathematicians themselves not being agreed as to its logical basis. That the imagination, and not the logical faculty, leads in all original investigation, no one who has ever succeeded in producing an original demonstration of one of the simpler propositions of geometry, can have any doubt. Nor are induction, analogy, the scrutinization of premises or the search for them, or the balancing of probabilities, spheres of mental operations foreign to mathematics. No one, indeed, can claim preeminence for mathematical studies in all these departments of intellectual culture, but it may, perhaps, be claimed that scarcely any department of science affords discipline to so great a number of faculties, and that none presents so complete a gradation in the exercise of these faculties, from the first principles of the science to the farthest extent of its applications, as mathematics.
In 'Mathematics', in Henry Kiddle and Alexander J. Schem, The Cyclopedia of Education, (1877.) As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 27-29.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Act (278)  |  Actual (118)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Mathematics (15)  |  Arise (162)  |  Assert (69)  |  Attention (196)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Build (211)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Child (333)  |  Claim (154)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Auguste Comte (24)  |  Conception (160)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consider (428)  |  Constant (148)  |  Count (107)  |  Counting (26)  |  Creative (144)  |  Culture (157)  |  Curve (49)  |  Demand (131)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difference (355)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Form (976)  |  Formula (102)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gradation (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Infinitesimal Calculus (2)  |  Inspection (7)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memorize (4)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preeminence (3)  |  Premise (40)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (299)  |  Push (66)  |  Question (649)  |  Range (104)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Representation (55)  |  Require (229)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scope (44)  |  Scrutinize (7)  |  Search (175)  |  Series (153)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Step (234)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Suppose (158)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Today (321)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Verge (10)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Writer (90)

It has hitherto been a serious impediment to the progress of knowledge, that is in investigating the origin or causes of natural productions, recourse has generally been had to the examination, both by experiment and reasoning, of what might be rather than what is. The laws or processes of nature we have every reason to believe invariable. Their results from time to time vary, according to the combinations of influential circumstances; but the process remains the same. Like the poet or the painter, the chemist may, and no doubt often' does, create combinations which nature never produced; and the possibility of such and such processes giving rise to such and such results, is no proof whatever that they were ever in natural operation.
Considerations on Volcanoes (1825), 243.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Combination (150)  |  Create (245)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invariability (6)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Operation (221)  |  Origin (250)  |  Painter (30)  |  Poet (97)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Remain (355)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Serious (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whatever (234)

It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the philosophising? Such might indeed be the right thing to do a time when the physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental laws which are so well that waves of doubt can't reach them; but it cannot be right at a time when the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they are now … when experience forces us to seek a newer and more solid foundation.
‘Physics and Reality’, Franklin Institute Journal (Mar 1936). Collected in Out of My Later Years (1950), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experience (494)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Justification (52)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reach (286)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Seek (218)  |  Solid (119)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wave (112)  |  Why (491)

It has sometimes been said that the success of the Origin proved “that the subject was in the air,” or “that men's minds were prepared for it.” I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Do (1905)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Species (435)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)

It is ... indisputable that the orogenic movements which uplift the hills have been at the basis of geological history. To them the great accumulation of sediments which now form so large a part of continental land are mainly due. There can be no doubt of the fact that these movements have swayed the entire history, both inorganic and organic, of the world in which we live.
John Joly
Radioactivity and Geology (1909), 115-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Basis (180)  |  Both (496)  |  Due (143)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Large (398)  |  Live (650)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Movement (162)  |  Organic (161)  |  Sediment (9)  |  Uplift (6)  |  World (1850)

It is very remarkable that while the words Eternal, Eternity, Forever, are constantly in our mouths, and applied without hesitation, we yet experience considerable difficulty in contemplating any definite term which bears a very large proportion to the brief cycles of our petty chronicles. There are many minds that would not for an instant doubt the God of Nature to have existed from all Eternity, and would yet reject as preposterous the idea of going back a million of years in the History of His Works. Yet what is a million, or a million million, of solar revolutions to an Eternity?
Memoir on the Geology of Central France (1827), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Back (395)  |  Bear (162)  |  Brief (37)  |  Chronicle (6)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Definite (114)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Forever (111)  |  God (776)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Instant (46)  |  Large (398)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Petty (9)  |  Preposterous (8)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reject (67)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sun (407)  |  Term (357)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

It may be appropriate to quote a statement of Poincare, who said (partly in jest no doubt) that there must be something mysterious about the normal law since mathematicians think it is a law of nature whereas physicists are convinced that it is a mathematical theorem.
Quoted in Mark Kac, Statistical Independence in Probability, Analysis and Number Theory (1959), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Appropriateness (7)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Jest (5)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Quotation (19)  |  Quote (46)  |  Something (718)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Think (1122)

It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Constant (148)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Name (359)  |  Race (278)

It may be observed of mathematicians that they only meddle with such things as are certain, passing by those that are doubtful and unknown. They profess not to know all things, neither do they affect to speak of all things. What they know to be true, and can make good by invincible arguments, that they publish and insert among their theorems. Of other things they are silent and pass no judgment at all, chusing [choosing] rather to acknowledge their ignorance, than affirm anything rashly. They affirm nothing among their arguments or assertions which is not most manifestly known and examined with utmost rigour, rejecting all probable conjectures and little witticisms. They submit nothing to authority, indulge no affection, detest subterfuges of words, and declare their sentiments, as in a Court of Judicature [Justice], without passion, without apology; knowing that their reasons, as Seneca testifies of them, are not brought to persuade, but to compel.
Mathematical Lectures (1734), 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Affection (44)  |  Affirm (3)  |  Apology (8)  |  Argument (145)  |  Authority (99)  |  Certain (557)  |  Choose (116)  |  Compel (31)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Court (35)  |  Declare (48)  |  Detest (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Good (906)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Indulge (15)  |  Invincible (6)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Justice (40)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Meddle (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Passion (121)  |  Persuade (11)  |  Probable (24)  |  Profess (21)  |  Publish (42)  |  Rashly (2)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Lucius Annaeus Seneca (21)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Silent (31)  |  Speak (240)  |  Submit (21)  |  Testify (7)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Witticism (2)  |  Word (650)

It may well be doubted whether, in all the range of science, there is any field so fascinating to the explorer—so rich in hidden treasures—so fruitful in delightful surprises—as that of Pure Mathematics. The charm lies chiefly, I think, in the absolute certainty of its results; for that is what, beyond all mental treasures, the human intellect craves for. Let us only be sure of something! More light, more light!
Written without pseudonym as Charles L. Dodgson. Opening remarks in Introduction to A New Theory of Parallels (1888, 1890), xv.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Charm (54)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Crave (10)  |  Delightful (18)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Field (378)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  More (2558)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Range (104)  |  Result (700)  |  Science And Mathematics (10)  |  Something (718)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Think (1122)  |  Treasure (59)

It may well be doubted whether, in all the range of Science, there is any field so fascinating to the explorer—so rich in hidden treasures—so fruitful in delightful surprises—as that of Pure Mathematics. The charm lies chiefly, I think, in the absolute certainty of its results: for that is what, beyond all mental treasures, the human intellect craves for. Let us only be sure of something! More light, more light … “And if our fate be death, give light and let us die” This is the cry that, through all the ages, is going up from perplexed Humanity, and Science has little else to offer, that will really meet the demands of its votaries, than the conclusions of Pure Mathematics.
Opening of 'Introduction', A New Theory of Parallels (1890), xv. As a non-fiction work, the author’s name on the title page of this book was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Being better known for his works of fiction as Lewis Carroll, all quotes relating to this one person, published under either name, are gathered on this single web page under his pen name.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Age (509)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Charm (54)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Crave (10)  |  Cry (30)  |  Death (406)  |  Delightful (18)  |  Demand (131)  |  Die (94)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fate (76)  |  Field (378)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Give (208)  |  Hide (70)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Let (64)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  More (2558)  |  Offer (142)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Range (104)  |  Result (700)  |  Rich (66)  |  Something (718)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Votary (3)  |  Will (2350)

It seeming impossible in any other manner to properly restrict the use of this powerful agent [calomel, a mercury compound, mercurous chloride], it is directed that it be struck from the supply table, and that no further requisitions for this medicine be approved by Medical Directors. ... modern pathology has proved the impropriety of the use of mercury in very many of those diseases in which it was formerly unfailingly administered. ... No doubt can exist that more harm has resulted from the misuse [of this agent], in the treatment of disease, than benefit from their proper administration.
W.A. Hammond, Surgeon General, Washington D.C., 4 May 1863
'Circular No. 6,', in William Grace, The Army Surgeon's Manual (1864), 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Compound (117)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disease (340)  |  Exist (458)  |  General (521)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impropriety (4)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Proper (150)  |  Result (700)  |  Supply (100)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Table (105)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Use (771)

It seems that the increased number of scientific workers, their being split up into groups whose studies are limited to a small subject, and over-specialization have brought about a shrinking of intelligence. There is no doubt that the quality of any human group decreases when the number of the individuals composing this group increases beyond certain limits… The best way to increase the intelligence of scientists would be to decrease their number.
Man the Unknown (1935), 48-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certain (557)  |  Human (1512)  |  Increase (225)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Number (710)  |  Quality (139)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Small (489)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Subject (543)  |  Way (1214)

It seems to me that the physical constitution of the valley, on which I am reporting, must cast doubt in the minds of those who may have accepted the assumptions of any of the geologic systems hitherto proposed; and that those who delight in science would do better to enrich themselves with empirical facts than take upon themselves the burden of defending and applying general hypotheses.
Della valle vulcanico-marina di Roncà nel Territorio Veronese (1778), trans. Ezio Vaccari, vii-viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Better (493)  |  Cast (69)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Delight (111)  |  Do (1905)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  General (521)  |  Geology (240)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Reporting (9)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Valley (37)

It seems to me, he says, that the test of “Do we or not understand a particular subject in physics?” is, “Can we make a mechanical model of it?” I have an immense admiration for Maxwell’s model of electromagnetic induction. He makes a model that does all the wonderful things that electricity docs in inducing currents, etc., and there can be no doubt that a mechanical model of that kind is immensely instructive and is a step towards a definite mechanical theory of electromagnetism.
From stenographic report by A.S. Hathaway of the Lecture 20 Kelvin presented at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, on 'Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light' (1884), 132. (Hathaway was a Mathematics fellow there.) This remark is not included in the first typeset publication—a revised version, printed twenty years later, in 1904, as Lord Kelvin’s Baltimore Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light. The original notes were reproduced by the “papyrograph” process. They are excerpted in Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem, Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science (1996), 54-55.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Current (122)  |  Definite (114)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Immense (89)  |  Induction (81)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Kind (564)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Model (106)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Say (989)  |  Step (234)  |  Subject (543)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wonderful (155)

John Dalton was a very singular Man, a quaker by profession & practice: He has none of the manners or ways of the world. A tolerable mathematician He gained his livelihood I believe by teaching the mathematics to young people. He pursued science always with mathematical views. He seemed little attentive to the labours of men except when they countenanced or confirmed his own ideas... He was a very disinterested man, seemed to have no ambition beyond that of being thought a good Philosopher. He was a very coarse Experimenter & almost always found the results he required.—Memory & observation were subordinate qualities in his mind. He followed with ardour analogies & inductions & however his claims to originality may admit of question I have no doubt that he was one of the most original philosophers of his time & one of the most ingenious.
J. Z. Fullmer, 'Davy's Sketches of his Contemporaries', Chymia, 1967, 12, 133-134.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biography (254)  |  Claim (154)  |  Confirm (58)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gain (146)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Induction (81)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Labor (200)  |  Little (717)  |  Livelihood (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practice (212)  |  Profession (108)  |  Question (649)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Singular (24)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Just as in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, an individual comes into being, so to speak, grows, remains in being, declines and passes on, will it not be the same for entire species? If our faith did not teach us that animals left the Creator's hands just as they now appear and, if it were permitted to entertain the slightest doubt as to their beginning and their end, may not a philosopher, left to his own conjectures, suspect that, from time immemorial, animal life had its own constituent elements, scattered and intermingled with the general body of matter, and that it happened when these constituent elements came together because it was possible for them to do so; that the embryo formed from these elements went through innumerable arrangements and developments, successively acquiring movement, feeling, ideas, thought, reflection, consciousness, feelings, emotions, signs, gestures, sounds, articulate sounds, language, laws, arts and sciences; that millions of years passed between each of these developments, and there may be other developments or kinds of growth still to come of which we know nothing; that a stationary point either has been or will be reached; that the embryo either is, or will be, moving away from this point through a process of everlasting decay, during which its faculties will leave it in the same way as they arrived; that it will disappear for ever from nature-or rather, that it will continue to exist there, but in a form and with faculties very different from those it displays at this present point in time? Religion saves us from many deviations, and a good deal of work. Had religion not enlightened us on the origin of the world and the universal system of being, what a multitude of different hypotheses we would have been tempted to take as nature's secret! Since these hypotheses are all equally wrong, they would all have seemed almost equally plausible. The question of why anything exists is the most awkward that philosophy can raise- and Revelation alone provides the answer.
Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature and Other Philosophical Works (1753/4), ed. D. Adams (1999), Section LVIII, 75-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Art (680)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Continue (179)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decline (28)  |  Development (441)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Different (595)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Display (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Element (322)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Emotion (106)  |  End (603)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exist (458)  |  Faith (209)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Individual (420)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Kind (564)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remain (355)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Save (126)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Stationary (11)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Universal (198)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

Kirchhoff’s whole tendency, and its true counterpart, the form of his presentation, was different [from Maxwell’s “dramatic bulk”]. … He is characterized by the extreme precision of his hypotheses, minute execution, a quiet rather than epic development with utmost rigor, never concealing a difficulty, always dispelling the faintest obscurity. … he resembled Beethoven, the thinker in tones. — He who doubts that mathematical compositions can be beautiful, let him read his memoir on Absorption and Emission … or the chapter of his mechanics devoted to Hydrodynamics.
In Ceremonial Speech (15 Nov 1887) celebrating the 301st anniversary of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. Published as Gustav Robert Kirchhoff: Festrede zur Feier des 301. Gründungstages der Karl-Franzens-Universität zu Graz (1888), 30, as translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 187. From the original German, “Kirchhoff … seine ganze Richtung war eine andere, und ebenso auch deren treues Abbild, die Form seiner Darstellung. … Ihn charakterisirt die schärfste Präcisirung der Hypothesen, feine Durchfeilung, ruhige mehr epische Fortentwicklung mit eiserner Consequenz ohne Verschweigung irgend einer Schwierigkeit, unter Aufhellung des leisesten Schattens. … er glich dem Denker in Tönen: Beethoven. – Wer in Zweifel zieht, dass mathematische Werke künstlerisch schön sein können, der lese seine Abhandlung über Absorption und Emission oder den der Hydrodynamik gewidmeten Abschnitt seiner Mechanik.” The memoir reference is Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1882), 571-598.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorption (13)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beethoven (14)  |  Beethoven_Ludwig (8)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Composition (86)  |  Conceal (19)  |  Counterpart (11)  |  Development (441)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Dispel (5)  |  Dispelling (4)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Emission (20)  |  Epic (12)  |  Execution (25)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Faint (10)  |  Form (976)  |  Hydrodynamics (5)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (4)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Minute (129)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Precision (72)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Read (308)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Tone (22)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Whole (756)

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
... Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal Man unfold all Nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And shew'd a NEWTON as we shew an Ape.
'An Essay on Man' (1733-4), Epistle II. In John Butt (ed.), The Poems of Alexander Pope (1965), 516-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Act (278)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Alike (60)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Being (1276)  |  Birth (154)  |  Body (557)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Creation (350)  |  Death (406)  |  Endless (60)  |  Error (339)  |  Fall (243)  |  Glory (66)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hang (46)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hurling (2)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Isthmus (2)  |  Jest (5)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Late (119)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Passion (121)  |  Preference (28)  |  Prey (13)  |  Pride (84)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rest (287)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Rise (169)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sceptic (5)  |  Shape (77)  |  Show (353)  |  Side (236)  |  Sole (50)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Stoic (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Superior (88)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)

Knowledge and ability must be combined with ambition as well as with a sense of honesty and a severe conscience. Every analyst occasionally has doubts about the accuracy of his results, and also there are times when he knows his results to be incorrect. Sometimes a few drops of the solution were spilt, or some other slight mistake made. In these cases it requires a strong conscience to repeat the analysis and to make a rough estimate of the loss or apply a correction. Anyone not having sufficient will-power to do this is unsuited to analysis no matter how great his technical ability or knowledge. A chemist who would not take an oath guaranteeing the authenticity, as well as the accuracy of his work, should never publish his results, for if he were to do so, then the result would be detrimental not only to himself, but to the whole of science.
Anleitung zur Quantitativen Analyse (1847), preface. F. Szabadvary, History of Analytical Chemistry (1966), trans. Gyula Svehla, 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Apply (170)  |  Authenticity (5)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Correction (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Loss (117)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Oath (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Publication (102)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solution (282)  |  Strong (182)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Let us now declare the means whereby our understanding can rise to knowledge without fear of error. There are two such means: intuition and deduction. By intuition I mean not the varying testimony of the senses, nor the deductive judgment of imagination naturally extravagant, but the conception of an attentive mind so distinct and so clear that no doubt remains to it with regard to that which it comprehends; or, what amounts to the same thing, the self-evidencing conception of a sound and attentive mind, a conception which springs from the light of reason alone, and is more certain, because more simple, than deduction itself. …
It may perhaps be asked why to intuition we add this other mode of knowing, by deduction, that is to say, the process which, from something of which we have certain knowledge, draws consequences which necessarily follow therefrom. But we are obliged to admit this second step; for there are a great many things which, without being evident of themselves, nevertheless bear the marks of certainty if only they are deduced from true and incontestable principles by a continuous and uninterrupted movement of thought, with distinct intuition of each thing; just as we know that the last link of a long chain holds to the first, although we can not take in with one glance of the eye the intermediate links, provided that, after having run over them in succession, we can recall them all, each as being joined to its fellows, from the first up to the last. Thus we distinguish intuition from deduction, inasmuch as in the latter case there is conceived a certain progress or succession, while it is not so in the former; … whence it follows that primary propositions, derived immediately from principles, may be said to be known, according to the way we view them, now by intuition, now by deduction; although the principles themselves can be known only by intuition, the remote consequences only by deduction.
In Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Philosophy of Descartes. [Torrey] (1892), 64-65.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Add (42)  |  Admit (49)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amount (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chain (51)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Declare (48)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Derive (70)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Draw (140)  |  Error (339)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Incontestable (3)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Join (32)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Latter (21)  |  Let (64)  |  Light (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obliged (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recall (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (169)  |  Run (158)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Step (234)  |  Succession (80)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Therefrom (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whereby (2)  |  Why (491)

Let's put it this way: I wouldn't buy gene-splicing stock for my grandmother.
Commenting to a reporter in 1981 on his doubt for the short-term possibilities of new gene-splicing companies.
'Shaping Life in the Lab'. In Time (9 Mar 1981).
Science quotes on:  |  Buy (21)  |  Company (63)  |  Gene (105)  |  Gene Splicing (5)  |  Grandmother (4)  |  Invest (20)  |  New (1273)  |  Short (200)  |  Stock (7)  |  Term (357)  |  Way (1214)

Many climate sceptics seem to review scientific data and studies not as scientists but as attorneys, magnifying doubts and treating incomplete explanations as falsehoods rather than signs of progress towards the truth.
Editorial, Nature (28 Jul 2011), 475, 423-424.
Science quotes on:  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Data (162)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Falsehood (30)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Magnify (4)  |  Progress (492)  |  Review (27)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sign (63)  |  Skeptic (8)  |  Study (701)  |  Treating (2)  |  Truth (1109)

Many thanks for the sending me the book Biology of the Striped Skunk ... Frankly, I doubt whether I shall read it or not, unless I happen to have some intimate contact with a skunk which may induce me to learn more about him.
Undated letter to a member of the Natural History Survey. In D. S. Tarbell and A. Tarbell, Roger Adams, Scientist and Statesman (1981), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Book (413)  |  Contact (66)  |  Happen (282)  |  Induce (24)  |  Learn (672)  |  More (2558)  |  Read (308)  |  Skunk (4)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thanks (26)

Many will, no doubt, prefer to retain old unsystematic names as far as possible, but it is easy to see that the desire to avoid change may carry us too far in this direction; it will undoubtedly be very inconvenient to the present generation of chemists to abandon familiar and cherished names, but nevertheless it may be a wise course to boldly face the difficulty, rather than inflict on coming generations a partially illogical and unsystematic nomenclature.
'International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature', Nature (19 May 1892), 46, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Carry (130)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Coming (114)  |  Course (413)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Easy (213)  |  Face (214)  |  Generation (256)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Name (359)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Old (499)  |  Partially (8)  |  Possible (560)  |  Preference (28)  |  Present (630)  |  Retain (57)  |  See (1094)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (143)

May we attribute to the color of the herbage and plants, which no doubt clothe the plains of Mars, the characteristic hue of that planet, which is noticeable by the naked eye, and which led the ancients to personify it as a warrior?
In 'Mars, by the Latest Observations', Popular Science (Dec 1873), 4, 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Attribution (4)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Color (155)  |  Eye (440)  |  Hue (3)  |  Mars (47)  |  Naked Eye (12)  |  Personification (4)  |  Plain (34)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Warrior (6)

Medicines heals doubts as well as diseases.
Karl Marx
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Disease (340)  |  Heal (7)  |  Medicine (392)

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Willingness (10)

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact. The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity. They began with the fact of sin—a fact as practical as potatoes. Whether or not man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing.
In Orthodoxy (1908), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Equally (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Modern (402)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Need (320)  |  Potato (11)  |  Practical (225)  |  Religion (369)  |  Sin (45)  |  Want (504)  |  Wash (23)  |  Water (503)

Modern science is necessarily a double-edged tool, a tool that cuts both ways. ... There is no doubt that a Zeppelin is a wonderful thing; but that did not prevent it from becoming a horrible thing.
'The Efficiency of the Police', Illustrated London News (1 Apr 1922). Collected in G. K. Chesterton and Dale Ahlquist (ed.), In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton (2011), 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Becoming (96)  |  Both (496)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cutting (6)  |  Double-Edged (2)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tool (129)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Zeppelin (4)

Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you’ll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won’t get started. It requires a lovely balance.
'You and Your Research', Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar, 7 Mar 1986.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Balance (82)  |  Belief (615)  |  Create (245)  |  Enough (341)  |  Error (339)  |  Fault (58)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Forward (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  People (1031)  |  Replacement (13)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Step (234)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Toleration (7)  |  Truth (1109)

Mr Justus Liebig is no doubt a very clever gentleman and a most profound chemist, but in our opinion he knows as much of agriculture as the horse that ploughs the ground, and there is not an old man that stands between the stilts of a plough in Virginia, that cannot tell him of facts totally at variance with his finest spun theories.
The Southern Planter (1845), 3, 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Clever (41)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Ground (222)  |  Horse (78)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Know (1538)  |  Justus von Liebig (39)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Plough (15)  |  Profound (105)  |  Stand (284)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Variance (12)  |  Virginia (2)

My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I have heard it said that the success of a work abroad is the best test of its enduring value. I doubt whether this is at all trustworthy; but judged by this standard my name ought to last for a few years.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1896), 81-82.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Language (308)  |  Last (425)  |  Name (359)  |  Pass (241)  |  Success (327)  |  Test (221)  |  Through (846)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Natural historians tend to avoid tendentious preaching in this philosophical mode (although I often fall victim to such temptations in these essays). Our favored style of doubting is empirical: if I wish to question your proposed generality, I will search for a counterexample in flesh and blood. Such counterexamples exist in abundance, for the form a staple in a standard genre of writing in natural history–the “wonderment of oddity” or “strange ways of the beaver” tradition.
In 'Reversing Established Orders', Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (2011), 394.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Beaver (8)  |  Blood (144)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Essay (27)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fall (243)  |  Favor (69)  |  Flesh (28)  |  Form (976)  |  Generality (45)  |  Genre (3)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Mode (43)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Historian (2)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Oddity (4)  |  Often (109)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Preach (11)  |  Propose (24)  |  Question (649)  |  Search (175)  |  Standard (64)  |  Staple (3)  |  Strange (160)  |  Style (24)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Victim (37)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Wonderment (2)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lion (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Show (353)  |  Size (62)  |  Tail (21)

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Although this quote is frequently seen, “the quotation does not appear in any of Mead’s published work, and may have first appeared in one of her public speeches, perhaps, some say, in her speech at the first Earth Day celebration in 1970.” As stated by Nancy Lutkehaus, 'Margaret Mead: Public Anthropologist', Anthropology Now (Apr 2009), 1, No. 1, 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Commitment (28)  |  Group (83)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Never (1089)  |  Small (489)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  World (1850)

No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even then be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement? On the contrary, has not science the noble privilege of carrying on its controversies without personal quarrels?
In his collected writings of 1861, preface. Quoted in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 75, 300.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Complete (209)  |  Compromise (12)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Noble (93)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Statement (148)  |  Truth (1109)

No doubt, a scientist isn’t necessarily penalized for being a complex, versatile, eccentric individual with lots of extra-scientific interests. But it certainly doesn't help him a bit.
'The Historical Background to the Anti-Science Movement'. In Gordon Ethelbert Ward Wolstenholme, Civilization & Science in Conflict or Collaboration? (1972), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Complex (202)  |  Eccentric (11)  |  Help (116)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lot (151)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Penalty (7)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Versatile (6)

No history of civilization can be tolerably complete which does not give considerable space to the explanation of scientific progress. If we had any doubts about this, it would suffice to ask ourselves what constitutes the essential difference between our and earlier civilizations. Throughout the course of history, in every period, and in almost every country, we find a small number of saints, of great artists, of men of science. The saints of to-day are not necessarily more saintly than those of a thousand years ago; our artists are not necessarily greater than those of early Greece; they are more likely to be inferior; and of course, our men of science are not necessarily more intelligent than those of old; yet one thing is certain, their knowledge is at once more extensive and more accurate. The acquisition and systematization of positive knowledge is the only human activity which is truly cumulative and progressive. Our civilization is essentially different from earlier ones, because our knowledge of the world and of ourselves is deeper, more precise, and more certain, because we have gradually learned to disentangle the forces of nature, and because we have contrived, by strict obedience to their laws, to capture them and to divert them to the gratification of our own needs.
Introduction to the History of Science (1927), Vol. 1, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Activity (218)  |  Artist (97)  |  Ask (420)  |  Capture (11)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Country (269)  |  Course (413)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Disentangle (4)  |  Early (196)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greece (9)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Need (320)  |  Number (710)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Old (499)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Period (200)  |  Positive (98)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Progress (492)  |  Saint (17)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Truly (118)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

No one believes the results of the computational modeler except the modeler, for only he understands the premises. No one doubts the experimenter’s results except the experimenter, for only he knows his mistakes.
Anonymous
See a similar idea expressed by W.I.B. Beveredge, beginning “No one believes an hypothesis…” on the W.I.B. Beveredge Quotes web page on this site.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Computation (28)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Model (106)  |  Premise (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Understand (648)

No, Sir, I am not a botanist; and (alluding, no doubt, to his near sightedness) should I wish to become a botanist, I must first turn myself into a reptile.
Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1820), Vol. 1, 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Botanist (25)  |  First (1302)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wish (216)

Nor need you doubt that Pythagoras, a long time before he found the demonstration for the Hecatomb, had been certain that the square of the side subtending the right angle in a rectangular triangle was equal to the square of the other two sides; the certainty of the conclusion helped not a little in the search for a demonstration. But whatever was the method of Aristotle, and whether his arguing a priori preceded sense a posteriori, or the contrary, it is sufficient that the same Aristotle (as has often been said) put sensible experiences before all discourses. As to the arguments a priori, their force has already been examined.
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632). Revised and Annotated by Giorgio De Santillana (1953), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  A Posteriori (2)  |  A Priori (26)  |  Already (226)  |  Argument (145)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Experience (494)  |  Force (497)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (531)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Side (236)  |  Square (73)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1911)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Whatever (234)

Now, that this whiteness is a Mixture of the severally colour’d rays, falling confusedly on the paper, I see no reason to doubt of.
In 'Answer to some Considerations upon his Doctrine of Light and Colors', Philosophical Transactions (18 Nov 1672), 7, No. 88, 5100. The considerations were from Robert Hooke.
Science quotes on:  |  Color (155)  |  Light (635)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Paper (192)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reason (766)  |  See (1094)  |  White (132)

Ohm found that the results could be summed up in such a simple law that he who runs may read it, and a schoolboy now can predict what a Faraday then could only guess at roughly. By Ohm's discovery a large part of the domain of electricity became annexed by Coulomb's discovery of the law of inverse squares, and completely annexed by Green's investigations. Poisson attacked the difficult problem of induced magnetisation, and his results, though differently expressed, are still the theory, as a most important first approximation. Ampere brought a multitude of phenomena into theory by his investigations of the mechanical forces between conductors supporting currents and magnets. Then there were the remarkable researches of Faraday, the prince of experimentalists, on electrostatics and electrodynamics and the induction of currents. These were rather long in being brought from the crude experimental state to a compact system, expressing the real essence. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Faraday was not a mathematician. It can scarely be doubted that had he been one, he would have anticipated much later work. He would, for instance, knowing Ampere's theory, by his own results have readily been led to Neumann’s theory, and the connected work of Helmholtz and Thomson. But it is perhaps too much to expect a man to be both the prince of experimentalists and a competent mathematician.
From article 'Electro-magnetic Theory II', in The Electrician (16 Jan 1891), 26, No. 661, 331.
Science quotes on:  |  André-Marie Ampère (11)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attack (86)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Compact (13)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Connect (126)  |  Charles-Augustin Coulomb (3)  |  Crude (32)  |  Current (122)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Domain (72)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Electrostatics (6)  |  Essence (85)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimentalist (20)  |  Express (192)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Green (65)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hermann von Helmholtz (32)  |  Induction (81)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Ohm (5)  |  Georg Simon Ohm (3)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Siméon-Denis Poisson (7)  |  Predict (86)  |  Problem (731)  |  Read (308)  |  Result (700)  |  Run (158)  |  Simple (426)  |  Square (73)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Sir J.J. Thomson (18)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Work (1402)

On 17th July there came to us at Potsdam the eagerly-awaited news of the trial of the atomic bomb in the [New] Mexican desert. Success beyond all dreams crowded this sombre, magnificent venture of our American allies. The detailed reports ... could leave no doubt in the minds of the very few who were informed, that we were in the presence of a new factor in human affairs, and possessed of powers which were irresistible.
From Churchill's final review of the war and his first major speech as Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons (16 Aug 1945). In Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963 (1974), Vol. 1, 7210.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Ally (7)  |  American (56)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Desert (59)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dream (222)  |  Factor (47)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inform (50)  |  Information (173)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Los Alamos (6)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Presence (63)  |  Report (42)  |  Sombre (2)  |  Success (327)  |  Test (221)  |  Trial (59)  |  Trinity (9)  |  Venture (19)

On becoming very intimate with Fitz-Roy, I heard that I had run a very narrow risk of being rejected, on account of the shape of my nose! He was an ardent disciple of Lavater, and was convinced that he could judge a man's character by the outline of his features. He doubted whether anyone with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination for the voyage. I think he was well-satisfied that my nose had spoken falsely.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: Including an Autobiographical Chapter (1896), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Determination (80)  |  Energy (373)  |  Robert Fitzroy (4)  |  Judge (114)  |  Man (2252)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Possess (157)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Risk (68)  |  Run (158)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Think (1122)

One of the main causes of our artistic decline lies beyond doubt in the separation of art and science.
In Marco Treves, Artists on art, from the XIV to the XX century (1945), 437.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cause (561)  |  Decline (28)  |  Lie (370)  |  Separation (60)

Our mistake is that we doubt what is certain and want to establish what is uncertain. My maxim in the study of Nature is this: hold fast what is certain and keep a watch on what is uncertain.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Establish (63)  |  Hold (96)  |  Maxim (19)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Study (701)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Want (504)  |  Watch (118)

Personally I think there is no doubt that sub-atomic energy is available all around us, and that one day man will release and control its almost infinite power. We cannot prevent him from doing so and can only hope that he will not use it exclusively in blowing up his next door neighbour. (1936)
Concluding remark in Lecture (1936) on 'Forty Years of Atomic Theory', collected in Needham and Pagel (eds.) in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge Arranged by the History of Science Committee, (1938), 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Around (7)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Available (80)  |  Blowing (22)  |  Control (182)  |  Doing (277)  |  Door (94)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Hope (321)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Man (2252)  |  Neighbour (7)  |  Next (238)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Release (31)  |  Subatomic (10)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)

Philosophy gets on my nerves. If we analyze the ultimate ground of everything, then everything finally falls into nothingness. But I have decided to resume my lectures again and look the Hydra of doubt straight into the eye, and it be quite ominous if one values one’s life.
Given as “fashioned from Boltzmann’s notes for his lecture on natural philosophy on October 24, 1904” and translated in John Blackmore (ed.), Ludwig Boltzmann: His Later Life and Philosophy, 1900-1906 (1995), 136. Blackmore indicates (p.133) that since Boltzmann spoke freely, this may not be verbatim for what he actually said, because he did not read his lectures from his notes. However, it does “rather accurately represent his thinking” at the time he wrote his lecture. His Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1903-1906) were reconstructed from Boltzmann’s shorthand notes by Ilse M. Fasol-Boltzmann (ed.), in Ludwig Boltzmann Principien der Naturfolosofti (1990). This quote is translated from p.107.
Science quotes on:  |  Analyze (12)  |  Decide (50)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hydra (3)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ominous (5)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Resume (4)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Value (393)

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.
In 'The Value of Philosophy', The Problems of Philosophy (1912), 157.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Custom (44)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Free (239)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tyranny (15)

Pressure, no doubt, has always been a most important factor in the metamorphism of rocks; but there is, I think, at present some danger in over-estimating this, and representing a partial statement of truth as the whole truth. Geology, like many human beings, suffered from convulsions in its infancy; now, in its later years, I apprehend an attack of pressure on the brain.
In 'The Foundation-Stones of the Earth’s Crust', Nature, 1888, 39, 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Danger (127)  |  Geology (240)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Present (630)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Rock (176)  |  Statement (148)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (963)

Professor Cayley has since informed me that the theorem about whose origin I was in doubt, will be found in Schläfli’s De Eliminatione. This is not the first unconscious plagiarism I have been guilty of towards this eminent man whose friendship I am proud to claim. A more glaring case occurs in a note by me in the Comptes Rendus, on the twenty-seven straight lines of cubic surfaces, where I believe I have followed (like one walking in his sleep), down to the very nomenclature and notation, the substance of a portion of a paper inserted by Schlafli in the Mathematical Journal, which bears my name as one of the editors upon the face.
In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1864), 642.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Case (102)  |  Arthur Cayley (17)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cubic (2)  |  Down (455)  |  Editor (10)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Friendship (18)  |  Glare (3)  |  Guilty (8)  |  Inform (50)  |  Insert (4)  |  Journal (31)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notation (28)  |  Note (39)  |  Occur (151)  |  Origin (250)  |  Paper (192)  |  Plagiarism (10)  |  Portion (86)  |  Pride (84)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Culture (157)  |  Faith (209)  |  Religion (369)

Rocks have, no doubt, their grandeur, and there is a beauty in running waters, and even in placid lakes; but, let the rock be naked of vegetation down to and around its base, and its grandeur is painful,—it seems a ruin.
Using pseudonym Peter Parley, in Peter Parley’s Cyclopedia of Botany (1838), Chap. 1, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Down (455)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Lake (36)  |  Naked (10)  |  Painful (12)  |  Rock (176)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Running (61)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Water (503)

Rutherford was as straightforward and unpretentious as a physicist as he was elsewhere in life, and that no doubt was one of the secrets of his success. “I was always a believer in simplicity, being a simple man myself,” he said. If a principle of physics could not be explained to a barmaid, he insisted, the problem was with the principle, not the barmaid.
In Great Physicists (2001), 328.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Believer (26)  |  Explain (334)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Sir Ernest Rutherford (55)  |  Secret (216)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Straightforward (10)  |  Success (327)

Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends.
Quoted in interview by Tim Adams, 'This much I know: A.C. Grayling', The Observer (4 Jul 2009).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Embrace (47)  |  End (603)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Mark (47)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Without (13)

Science moves, but slowly, slowly, creeping on from point to point. ...
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.…
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers…
In poem, 'Locksley Hall', collected in Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1842), Vol. 1, 105-106.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Creep (15)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Linger (14)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Point (584)  |  Process (439)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Run (158)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Widen (10)  |  Wisdom (235)

Scientists are not robotic inducing machines that infer structures of explanation only from regularities observed in natural phenomena (assuming, as I doubt, that such a style of reasoning could ever achieve success in principle). Scientists are human beings, immersed in culture, and struggling with all the curious tools of inference that mind permits ... Culture can potentiate as well as constrain–as Darwin’s translation of Adam Smith’s laissez-faire economic models into biology as the theory of natural selection. In any case, objective minds do not exist outside culture, so we must make the best of our ineluctable embedding.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Assume (43)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Biology (232)  |  Case (102)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Culture (157)  |  Curious (95)  |  Darwins (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economic (84)  |  Embed (7)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Immerse (6)  |  Induce (24)  |  Infer (12)  |  Inference (45)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Model (106)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Outside (141)  |  Permit (61)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Potentiate (2)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Selection (130)  |  Structure (365)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Style (24)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tool (129)  |  Translation (21)

Self-esteem must be earned! When you dare to dream, dare to follow that dream, dare to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-doubts, and friction from the world, you will genuinely impress yourself.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Dare (55)  |  Dream (222)  |  Earn (9)  |  Follow (389)  |  Friction (14)  |  Genuinely (4)  |  Impress (66)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pain (144)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Esteem (7)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Several times every day I observed the portions of the polyp with a magnifying glass. On the 4th December, that is to say on the ninth day after having cut the polyp, I seemed in the morning to be able to perceive, on the edges of the anterior end of the second part (the part that had neither head nor arms), three little points arising from those edges. They immediately made me think of the horns that serve as the legs and arms of the polyp. Nevertheless I did not want to decide at once that these were actually arms that were beginning to grow. Throughout the next day I continually observed these points: this excited me extremely, and awaited with impatience the moment when I should know with certainty what they were. At last, on the following day, they were so big that there was no longer any room for doubt that they were actually arms growing at the anterior extremity of this second part. The next day two more arms started to grow out, and a few days later three more. The second part thus had eight of them, and they were all in a short time as long as those of the first part, that is to say as long as those the polyp possessed before it was cut. I then no longer found any difference between the second part and a polyp that had never been cut. I had remarked the same thing about the first part since the day after the operation. When I observed them with the magnifying glass with all the attention of which I was capable, each of the two appeared perceptibly to be a complete polyp, and they performed all the functions that were known to me: they extended, contracted, and walked.
Mémoires, pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de polyps d'eau douce à bras en forme de cornes (1744), 7-16. Trans. John R. Baker, in Abraham Trembley of Geneva: Scientist and Philosopher 1710-1784 (1952), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Anterior (4)  |  Appeared (4)  |  Arising (22)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cut (116)  |  Difference (355)  |  Edge (51)  |  End (603)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extremity (7)  |  First (1302)  |  Function (235)  |  Glass (94)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Horn (18)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Leg (35)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnifying (2)  |  Magnifying Glass (3)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Next (238)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Operation (221)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performed (3)  |  Point (584)  |  Polyp (4)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possess (157)  |  Remark (28)  |  Room (42)  |  Say (989)  |  Short (200)  |  Start (237)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Walk (138)  |  Want (504)

Sir W. Ramsay has striven to show that radium is in process of transformation, that it contains a store of energy enormous but not inexhaustible. The transformation of radium then would produce a million times more heat than all known transformations; radium would wear itself out in 1,250 years; this is quite short, and you see that we are at least certain to have this point settled some hundreds of years from now. While waiting, our doubts remain.
In La Valeur de la Science (1904), 199, as translated by George Bruce Halsted, in The Value of Science (1907), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Known (453)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Point (584)  |  Process (439)  |  Radium (29)  |  Sir William Ramsay (7)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Settled (34)  |  Short (200)  |  Show (353)  |  Store (49)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Year (963)  |  Years (5)

Some of my cousins who had the great advantage of University education used to tease me with arguments to prove that nothing has any existence except what we think of it. … These amusing mental acrobatics are all right to play with. They are perfectly harmless and perfectly useless. ... I always rested on the following argument. … We look up to the sky and see the sun. Our eyes are dazzled and our senses record the fact. So here is this great sun standing apparently on no better foundation than our physical senses. But happily there is a method, apart altogether from our physical senses, of testing the reality of the sun. It is by mathematics. By means of prolonged processes of mathematics, entirely separate from the senses, astronomers are able to calculate when an eclipse will occur. They predict by pure reason that a black spot will pass across the sun on a certain day. You go and look, and your sense of sight immediately tells you that their calculations are vindicated. So here you have the evidence of the senses reinforced by the entirely separate evidence of a vast independent process of mathematical reasoning. We have taken what is called in military map-making “a cross bearing.” When my metaphysical friends tell me that the data on which the astronomers made their calculations, were necessarily obtained originally through the evidence of the senses, I say, “no.” They might, in theory at any rate, be obtained by automatic calculating-machines set in motion by the light falling upon them without admixture of the human senses at any stage. When it is persisted that we should have to be told about the calculations and use our ears for that purpose, I reply that the mathematical process has a reality and virtue in itself, and that onie discovered it constitutes a new and independent factor. I am also at this point accustomed to reaffirm with emphasis my conviction that the sun is real, and also that it is hot— in fact hot as Hell, and that if the metaphysicians doubt it they should go there and see.
In My Early Life (1930).
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Argument (145)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Data (162)  |  Discover (571)  |  Ear (69)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Education (423)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hot (63)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mental (179)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Method (531)  |  Military (45)  |  Motion (320)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pass (241)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Predict (86)  |  Process (439)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Prove (261)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Record (161)  |  Reply (58)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  University (130)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Will (2350)

Sometimes I doubt whether there is divine justice; all parts of the human body get tired eventually—except the tongue. And I feel this is unjust.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Divine (112)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Feel (371)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Justice (40)  |  Tired (13)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Unjust (6)

Students who have attended my [medical] lectures may remember that I try not only to teach them what we know, but also to realise how little this is: in every direction we seem to travel but a very short way before we are brought to a stop; our eyes are opened to see that our path is beset with doubts, and that even our best-made knowledge comes but too soon to an end.
In Notes on the Composition of Scientific Papers (1904), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Best (467)  |  Direction (185)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Little (717)  |  Open (277)  |  Opening (15)  |  Path (159)  |  Realize (157)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Soon (187)  |  Stop (89)  |  Student (317)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Travel (125)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Way (1214)

Tedious as it may appear to some to dwell on the discovery of odds and ends that have, no doubt, been thrown away by the owner as rubbish ... yet it is by the study of such trivial details that Archaeology is mainly dependent for determining the date of earthworks. ... Next to coins fragments of pottery afford the most reliable of all evidence ... In my judgement, a fragment of pottery, if it throws light on the history of our own country and people, is of more interest to the scientific collector of evidence in England, than even a work of art and merit that is associated only with races that we are remotely connected with.
On the importance of pottery to an archaeologist.
Excavations in Bokerly and Wansdyke, vol. 3, ix-30. Quoted in Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Proceedings (1895), vol. 8, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Art (680)  |  Connect (126)  |  Country (269)  |  Detail (150)  |  Discovery (837)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fragment (58)  |  History (716)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interest (416)  |  Light (635)  |  Merit (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  People (1031)  |  Pottery (4)  |  Race (278)  |  Rubbish (12)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Study (701)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Work (1402)

That mathematics “do not cultivate the power of generalization,”; … will be admitted by no person of competent knowledge, except in a very qualified sense. The generalizations of mathematics, are, no doubt, a different thing from the generalizations of physical science; but in the difficulty of seizing them, and the mental tension they require, they are no contemptible preparation for the most arduous efforts of the scientific mind. Even the fundamental notions of the higher mathematics, from those of the differential calculus upwards are products of a very high abstraction. … To perceive the mathematical laws common to the results of many mathematical operations, even in so simple a case as that of the binomial theorem, involves a vigorous exercise of the same faculty which gave us Kepler’s laws, and rose through those laws to the theory of universal gravitation. Every process of what has been called Universal Geometry—the great creation of Descartes and his successors, in which a single train of reasoning solves whole classes of problems at once, and others common to large groups of them—is a practical lesson in the management of wide generalizations, and abstraction of the points of agreement from those of difference among objects of great and confusing diversity, to which the purely inductive sciences cannot furnish many superior. Even so elementary an operation as that of abstracting from the particular configuration of the triangles or other figures, and the relative situation of the particular lines or points, in the diagram which aids the apprehension of a common geometrical demonstration, is a very useful, and far from being always an easy, exercise of the faculty of generalization so strangely imagined to have no place or part in the processes of mathematics.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 612-13.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Admit (49)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Aid (101)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Binomial (6)  |  Binomial Theorem (5)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Competent (20)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Far (158)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  High (370)  |  Higher Mathematics (7)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Involve (93)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Line (100)  |  Management (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Particular (80)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Purely (111)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Qualify (6)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relative (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rose (36)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Seize (18)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solve (145)  |  Strangely (5)  |  Successor (16)  |  Superior (88)  |  Tension (24)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Useful (260)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

The Author of nature has not given laws to the universe, which, like the institutions of men, carry in themselves the elements of their own destruction; he has not permitted in his works any symptom of infancy or of old age, or any sign by which we may estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end, as he no doubt gave a beginning, to the present system at some determinate period of time; but we may rest assured, that this great catastrophe will not be brought about by the laws now existing, and that it is not indicated by any thing which we perceive.
'Biographical Account of the Late Dr James Hutton, F.R.S. Edin.' (read 1803), Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1805), 5, 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Author (175)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Carry (130)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Determination (80)  |  Duration (12)  |  Element (322)  |  End (603)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Estimation (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Institution (73)  |  Law (913)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Past (355)  |  Perception (97)  |  Period (200)  |  Permission (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sign (63)  |  Symptom (38)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The barrenness of doubt had to make itself felt before it could be supplanted by knowledge. It was not until Hume, by carrying scepticism to its uttermost extent, had shown its unsatisfactory character and vain results, that the germs of scientific method, implanted by Bacon and Descartes, could develop and bear fruit in the positive philosophy of Comte.
In 'Mr. Buckle’s Fallacies', Darwinism and Other Essays (1893), 190.
Science quotes on:  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Barren (33)  |  Character (259)  |  Auguste Comte (24)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Develop (278)  |  Germ (54)  |   David Hume (34)  |  Implant (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Positive (98)  |  Result (700)  |  Scepticism (17)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Unsatisfactory (4)  |  Vain (86)

The belief that mathematics, because it is abstract, because it is static and cold and gray, is detached from life, is a mistaken belief. Mathematics, even in its purest and most abstract estate, is not detached from life. It is just the ideal handling of the problems of life, as sculpture may idealize a human figure or as poetry or painting may idealize a figure or a scene. Mathematics is precisely the ideal handling of the problems of life, and the central ideas of the science, the great concepts about which its stately doctrines have been built up, are precisely the chief ideas with which life must always deal and which, as it tumbles and rolls about them through time and space, give it its interests and problems, and its order and rationality. That such is the case a few indications will suffice to show. The mathematical concepts of constant and variable are represented familiarly in life by the notions of fixedness and change. The concept of equation or that of an equational system, imposing restriction upon variability, is matched in life by the concept of natural and spiritual law, giving order to what were else chaotic change and providing partial freedom in lieu of none at all. What is known in mathematics under the name of limit is everywhere present in life in the guise of some ideal, some excellence high-dwelling among the rocks, an “ever flying perfect” as Emerson calls it, unto which we may approximate nearer and nearer, but which we can never quite attain, save in aspiration. The supreme concept of functionality finds its correlate in life in the all-pervasive sense of interdependence and mutual determination among the elements of the world. What is known in mathematics as transformation—that is, lawful transfer of attention, serving to match in orderly fashion the things of one system with those of another—is conceived in life as a process of transmutation by which, in the flux of the world, the content of the present has come out of the past and in its turn, in ceasing to be, gives birth to its successor, as the boy is father to the man and as things, in general, become what they are not. The mathematical concept of invariance and that of infinitude, especially the imposing doctrines that explain their meanings and bear their names—What are they but mathematicizations of that which has ever been the chief of life’s hopes and dreams, of that which has ever been the object of its deepest passion and of its dominant enterprise, I mean the finding of the worth that abides, the finding of permanence in the midst of change, and the discovery of a presence, in what has seemed to be a finite world, of being that is infinite? It is needless further to multiply examples of a correlation that is so abounding and complete as indeed to suggest a doubt whether it be juster to view mathematics as the abstract idealization of life than to regard life as the concrete realization of mathematics.
In 'The Humanization of Teaching of Mathematics', Science, New Series, 35, 645-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Abound (17)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Cease (81)  |  Central (81)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Chief (99)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Constant (148)  |  Content (75)  |  Correlate (7)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detach (5)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Dream (222)  |  Element (322)  |  Ralph Waldo Emerson (161)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Equation (138)  |  Especially (31)  |  Estate (5)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Far (158)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Flux (21)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Functionality (2)  |  General (521)  |  Give (208)  |  Gray (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guise (6)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Impose (22)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinitude (3)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Needless (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Painting (46)  |  Partial (10)  |  Passion (121)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realization (44)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Restriction (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Roll (41)  |  Save (126)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Serving (15)  |  Show (353)  |  Space (523)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Stately (12)  |  Static (9)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unto (8)  |  Variability (5)  |  Variable (37)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

The believer has the whole world of wealth (Prov. 17: 6 LXX) and “possesses all things as if he had nothing” (2 Cor. 6: 10) by virtue of his attachment to you whom all things serve; yet he may know nothing about the circuits of the Great Bear. It is stupid to doubt that he is better than the person who measures the heaven and counts the stars and weighs the elements, but neglects you who have disposed everything “by measure and number and weight” (Wisd. 11: 21).
Confessions [c.397], Book V, chapter 4 (7), trans. H. Chadwick (1991), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Bear (162)  |  Believer (26)  |  Better (493)  |  Bible (105)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Count (107)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Know (1538)  |  Measure (241)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Person (366)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The cause of rain is now, I consider, no longer an object of doubt. If two masses of air of unequal temperatures, by the ordinary currents of the winds, are intermixed, when saturated with vapour, a precipitation ensues. If the masses are under saturation, then less precipitation takes place, or none at all, according to the degree. Also, the warmer the air, the greater is the quantity of vapour precipitated in like circumstances. ... Hence the reason why rains are heavier in summer than in winter, and in warm countries than in cold.
Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester (1819), 3, 507. Quoted in George Drysdale Dempsey and Daniel Kinnear Clark, On the Drainage of Lands, Towns, & Buildings (1887), 246.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Air (366)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Cold (115)  |  Consider (428)  |  Current (122)  |  Degree (277)  |  Greater (288)  |  Intermix (3)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Object (438)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Precipitation (7)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rain (70)  |  Reason (766)  |  Saturation (9)  |  Summer (56)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Two (936)  |  Unequal (12)  |  Vapour (16)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Why (491)  |  Wind (141)  |  Winter (46)

The complacent manner in which geologists have produced their theories has been extremely amusing; for often with knowledge (and that frequently inaccurate) not extending beyond a given province, they have described the formation of a world with all the detail and air of eye-witnesses. That much good ensues, and that the science is greatly advanced, by the collision of various theories, cannot be doubted. Each party is anxious to support opinions by facts. Thus, new countries are explored, and old districts re-examined; facts come to light that do not suit either party; new theories spring up; and, in the end, a greater insight into the real structure of the earth's surface is obtained.
Sections and Views Illustrative of Geological Phenomena (1830), iii.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Collision (16)  |  Detail (150)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Formation (100)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Good (906)  |  Greater (288)  |  Insight (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Produced (187)  |  Province (37)  |  Spring (140)  |  Structure (365)  |  Support (151)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Various (205)  |  World (1850)

The contents of this section will furnish a very striking illustration of the truth of a remark, which I have more than once made in my philosophical writings, and which can hardly be too often repeated, as it tends greatly to encourage philosophical investigations viz. That more is owing to what we call chance, that is, philosophically speaking, to the observation of events arising from unknown causes, than to any proper design, or pre-conceived theory in this business. This does not appear in the works of those who write synthetically upon these subjects; but would, I doubt not, appear very strikingly in those who are the most celebrated for their philosophical acumen, did they write analytically and ingenuously.
'On Dephlogisticated Air, and the Constitution of the Atmosphere', in The Discovery of Oxygen, Part I, Experiments by Joseph Priestley 1775 (Alembic Club Reprint, 1894), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arising (22)  |  Business (156)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chance (244)  |  Design (203)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Event (222)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Investigation (250)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  Owing (39)  |  Proper (150)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Striking (48)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

The determination of the value of an item must not be based on its price, but rather on the utility it yields. The price of the item is dependent only on the thing itself and is equal for everyone; the utility, however, is dependent on the particular circumstances of the person making the estimate. Thus there is no doubt that a gain of one thousand ducats is more significant to a pauper than to a rich man though both gain the same amount.
Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk (1738), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Both (496)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Determination (80)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Gain (146)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Person (366)  |  Price (57)  |  Significant (78)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value (393)  |  Yield (86)

The difficulties connected with my criterion of demarcation (D) are important, but must not be exaggerated. It is vague, since it is a methodological rule, and since the demarcation between science and nonscience is vague. But it is more than sharp enough to make a distinction between many physical theories on the one hand, and metaphysical theories, such as psychoanalysis, or Marxism (in its present form), on the other. This is, of course, one of my main theses; and nobody who has not understood it can be said to have understood my theory.
The situation with Marxism is, incidentally, very different from that with psychoanalysis. Marxism was once a scientific theory: it predicted that capitalism would lead to increasing misery and, through a more or less mild revolution, to socialism; it predicted that this would happen first in the technically highest developed countries; and it predicted that the technical evolution of the 'means of production' would lead to social, political, and ideological developments, rather than the other way round.
But the (so-called) socialist revolution came first in one of the technically backward countries. And instead of the means of production producing a new ideology, it was Lenin's and Stalin's ideology that Russia must push forward with its industrialization ('Socialism is dictatorship of the proletariat plus electrification') which promoted the new development of the means of production.
Thus one might say that Marxism was once a science, but one which was refuted by some of the facts which happened to clash with its predictions (I have here mentioned just a few of these facts).
However, Marxism is no longer a science; for it broke the methodological rule that we must accept falsification, and it immunized itself against the most blatant refutations of its predictions. Ever since then, it can be described only as nonscience—as a metaphysical dream, if you like, married to a cruel reality.
Psychoanalysis is a very different case. It is an interesting psychological metaphysics (and no doubt there is some truth in it, as there is so often in metaphysical ideas), but it never was a science. There may be lots of people who are Freudian or Adlerian cases: Freud himself was clearly a Freudian case, and Adler an Adlerian case. But what prevents their theories from being scientific in the sense here described is, very simply, that they do not exclude any physically possible human behaviour. Whatever anybody may do is, in principle, explicable in Freudian or Adlerian terms. (Adler's break with Freud was more Adlerian than Freudian, but Freud never looked on it as a refutation of his theory.)
The point is very clear. Neither Freud nor Adler excludes any particular person's acting in any particular way, whatever the outward circumstances. Whether a man sacrificed his life to rescue a drowning, child (a case of sublimation) or whether he murdered the child by drowning him (a case of repression) could not possibly be predicted or excluded by Freud's theory; the theory was compatible with everything that could happen—even without any special immunization treatment.
Thus while Marxism became non-scientific by its adoption of an immunizing strategy, psychoanalysis was immune to start with, and remained so. In contrast, most physical theories are pretty free of immunizing tactics and highly falsifiable to start with. As a rule, they exclude an infinity of conceivable possibilities.
'The Problem of Demarcation' (1974). Collected in David Miller (ed.) Popper Selections (1985), 127-128.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alfred Adler (3)  |  Against (332)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blatant (4)  |  Break (109)  |  Call (781)  |  Capitalism (12)  |  Child (333)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Connect (126)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Course (413)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Falsification (11)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Free (239)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Immunization (3)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marxism (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mention (84)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Mild (7)  |  Misery (31)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Non-Science (2)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plus (43)  |  Point (584)  |  Political (124)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Production (190)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Push (66)  |  Reality (274)  |  Refutation (13)  |  Remain (355)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Sense (785)  |  Situation (117)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Special (188)  |  Start (237)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vague (50)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)

The discoveries of Newton have done more for England and for the race, than has been done by whole dynasties of British monarchs; and we doubt not that in the great mathematical birth of 1853, the Quaternions of Hamilton, there is as much real promise of benefit to mankind as in any event of Victoria’s reign.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 85, 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Benefit (123)  |  Birth (154)  |  British (42)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dynasty (8)  |  England (43)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Event (222)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hamilton (2)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Monarch (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Promise (72)  |  Quaternion (9)  |  Race (278)  |  Real (159)  |  Reign (24)  |  Whole (756)

The discovery of the telephone has made us acquainted with many strange phenomena. It has enabled us, amongst other things, to establish beyond a doubt the fact that electric currents actually traverse the earth’s crust. The theory that the earth acts as a great reservoir for electricity may be placed in the physicist's waste-paper basket, with phlogiston, the materiality of light, and other old-time hypotheses.
From Recent Progress in Telephony: British Association Report (1882). Excerpted in John Joseph Fahie, A History of Wireless Telegraphy (1902), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Basket (8)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Crust (43)  |  Current (122)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Enabling (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Light (635)  |  Materiality (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Phlogiston (9)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Strange (160)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Traverse (5)  |  Waste (109)

The doubter is a true man of science: he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science.
In Fielding Hudson Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine (1929), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Himself (461)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)

The electrical matter consists of particles extremely subtile, since it can permeate common matter, even the densest metals, with such ease and freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance.
If anyone should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will probably convince him.
Electrical matter differs from common matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other.
'Opinions and Conjectures, Concerning the Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter, arising from Experiments and Observations, made at Philadelphia, 1749.' In I. Bernard Cohen (ed.), Benjamin Franklin's Experiments (1941), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Consist (223)  |  Convince (43)  |  Differ (88)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Former (138)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Glass (94)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Receive (117)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Shock (38)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)

The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a woman, who because of her sex and our prejudices encounters infinitely more obstacles that an man in familiarizing herself with complicated problems, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius.
in a letter to Sophie Germain (c.April 1807)
Science quotes on:  |  Charm (54)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Courage (82)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Genius (301)  |  Sophie Germain (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sex (68)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Superior (88)  |  Talent (99)  |  Woman (160)  |  Women Scientists (18)

The essential unity of ecclesiastical and secular institutions was lost during the 19th century, to the point of senseless hostility. Yet there was never any doubt as to the striving for culture. No one doubted the sacredness of the goal. It was the approach that was disputed.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Approach (112)  |  Century (319)  |  Culture (157)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Ecclesiastical (3)  |  Essential (210)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Institution (73)  |  Lose (165)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nineteenth (5)  |  Point (584)  |  Secular (11)  |  Senseless (4)  |  Strive (53)  |  Unity (81)

The experiment left no doubt that, as far as accuracy of measurement went, the resistance disappeared. At the same time, however, something unexpected occurred. The disappearance did not take place gradually but abruptly. From 1/500 the resistance at 4.2K, it could be established that the resistance had become less than a thousand-millionth part of that at normal temperature. Thus the mercury at 4.2K has entered a new state, which, owing to its particular electrical properties, can be called the state of superconductivity.
'Investigations into the Properties of Substances at low Temperatures, which have led, amongst other Things, to the Preparation of Liquid Helium', Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1913). In Nobel Lectures in Physics 1901-1921 (1967), 333.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mercury (54)  |  New (1273)  |  Owing (39)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Something (718)  |  State (505)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unexpected (55)

The explosive component in the contemporary scene is not the clamor of the masses but the self-righteous claims of a multitude of graduates from schools and universities. This army of scribes is clamoring for a society in which planning, regulation, and supervision are paramount and the prerogative of the educated. They hanker for the scribe’s golden age, for a return to something like the scribe-dominated societies of ancient Egypt, China, and Europe of the Middle Ages. There is little doubt that the present trend in the new and renovated countries toward social regimentation stems partly from the need to create adequate employment for a large number of scribes. And since the tempo of the production of the literate is continually increasing, the prospect is of ever-swelling bureaucracies.
In 'Scribe, Writer, and Rebel', The Ordeal of Change (1963), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Ancient Egypt (4)  |  Army (35)  |  Bureaucracy (8)  |  China (27)  |  Claim (154)  |  Clamor (7)  |  Clamoring (2)  |  Component (51)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Continually (17)  |  Country (269)  |  Create (245)  |  Educate (14)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Employment (34)  |  Europe (50)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Increase (225)  |  Large (398)  |  Literate (2)  |  Little (717)  |  Mass (160)  |  Middle Age (19)  |  Middle Ages (12)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Need (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Paramount (11)  |  Partly (5)  |  Plan (122)  |  Planning (21)  |  Prerogative (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Regimentation (2)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Renovate (3)  |  Return (133)  |  Scene (36)  |  School (227)  |  Scribe (3)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Righteous (2)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Stem (31)  |  Supervision (4)  |  Tempo (3)  |  Toward (45)  |  Trend (23)  |  University (130)

The extracellular genesis of cells in animals seemed to me, ever since the publication of the cell theory [of Schwann], just as unlikely as the spontaneous generation of organisms. These doubts produced my observations on the multiplication of blood cells by division in bird and mammalian embryos and on the division of muscle bundles in frog larvae. Since then I have continued these observations in frog larvae, where it is possible to follow the history of tissues back to segmentation.
'Ueber extracellulare Eutstehung thierischer Zelleu und üüber Vermehrung derselben durch Theilung', Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und Wissenschaftliche Medicin (1852), 1, 49-50. Quoted in Erwin H. Ackerknecht, Rudolf Virchow: Doctor Statesman Anthropologist (1953), 83-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Back (395)  |  Bird (163)  |  Blood (144)  |  Bundle (7)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cell Theory (4)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Division (67)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Follow (389)  |  Frog (44)  |  Generation (256)  |   Genesis (26)  |  History (716)  |  Larva (8)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Observation (593)  |  Organism (231)  |  Possible (560)  |  Produced (187)  |  Publication (102)  |  Theodor Schwann (12)  |  Segmentation (2)  |  Spontaneity (7)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Spontaneous Generation (9)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tissue (51)

The fact is that there are few more “popular” subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people can enjoy a pleasant tune; and there are probably more people really interested in mathematics than in music. Appearances may suggest the contrary, but there are easy explanations. Music can be used to stimulate mass emotion, while mathematics cannot; and musical incapacity is recognized (no doubt rightly) as mildly discreditable, whereas most people are so frightened of the name of mathematics that they are ready, quite unaffectedly, to exaggerate their own mathematical stupidity.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Easy (213)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fear (212)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Name (359)  |  People (1031)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tune (20)

The fear of meeting the opposition of envy, or the illiberality of ignorance is, no doubt, the frequent cause of preventing many ingenious men from ushering opinions into the world which deviate from common practice. Hence for want of energy, the young idea is shackled with timidity and a useful thought is buried in the impenetrable gloom of eternal oblivion.
A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation (1796), preface, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Bury (19)  |  Cause (561)  |  Common (447)  |  Deviation (21)  |  Energy (373)  |  Envy (15)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Fear (212)  |  Gloom (11)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Impenetrable (7)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Practice (212)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Shackle (4)  |  Thought (995)  |  Timidity (5)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Want (504)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action.
In a letter to a minister in Brooklyn, N.Y. (20 Nov 1950), third paragraph, as quoted in Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann (eds.), Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979, 1981), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Authority (99)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Legitimacy (5)  |  Morality (55)  |  Myth (58)  |  Sound (187)

The fundamental biological variant is DNA. That is why Mendel's definition of the gene as the unvarying bearer of hereditary traits, its chemical identification by Avery (confirmed by Hershey), and the elucidation by Watson and Crick of the structural basis of its replicative invariance, are without any doubt the most important discoveries ever made in biology. To this must be added the theory of natural selection, whose certainty and full significance were established only by those later theories.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Oswald Avery (6)  |  Basis (180)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Confirmation (25)  |  Francis Crick (62)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discovery (837)  |  DNA (81)  |  Elucidation (7)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gene (105)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Identification (20)  |  Importance (299)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Replication (10)  |  Selection (130)  |  Significance (114)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Trait (23)  |  Variant (9)  |  James Watson (33)  |  Why (491)

THE fundamental questions in chemistry,—those questions the answers to which would convert chemistry into a branch of exact science, and enable us to predict with absolute certainty the result of every reaction—are (1) What is the nature of the forces which retain the several molecules or atoms of a compound together? and (2) How may their direction and amount be determined? We may safely say that, in the present state of the science, these questions cannot be answered; and it is extremely doubtful whether any future advances will render their solution possible.
Opening paragraph of his University of Edinburgh M.D. thesis, 'On the Theory of Chemical Combination' (1861).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Answer (389)  |  Atom (381)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chemical Bond (7)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Direction (185)  |  Exact (75)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Question (649)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Result (700)  |  Solution (282)

The general knowledge of our author [Leonhard Euler] was more extensive than could well be expected, in one who had pursued, with such unremitting ardor, mathematics and astronomy as his favorite studies. He had made a very considerable progress in medical, botanical, and chemical science. What was still more extraordinary, he was an excellent scholar, and possessed in a high degree what is generally called erudition. He had attentively read the most eminent writers of ancient Rome; the civil and literary history of all ages and all nations was familiar to him; and foreigners, who were only acquainted with his works, were astonished to find in the conversation of a man, whose long life seemed solely occupied in mathematical and physical researches and discoveries, such an extensive acquaintance with the most interesting branches of literature. In this respect, no doubt, he was much indebted to an uncommon memory, which seemed to retain every idea that was conveyed to it, either from reading or from meditation.
In Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary (1815), 493-494.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Ardor (5)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Author (175)  |  Botany (63)  |  Branch (155)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Civil (26)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Convey (17)  |  Degree (277)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Erudition (7)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expect (203)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  General (521)  |  Generally (15)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indebted (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Memory (144)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possess (157)  |  Progress (492)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Research (753)  |  Respect (212)  |  Retain (57)  |  Rome (19)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Uncommon (14)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

The great experimental principle, then, is doubt, that philosophic doubt which leaves to the mind its freedom and initiative, and from which the virtues most valuable to investigators in physiology and medicine are derived.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Great (1610)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Principle (530)  |  Virtue (117)

The great mathematician, like the great poet or naturalist or great administrator, is born. My contention shall be that where the mathematic endowment is found, there will usually be found associated with it, as essential implications in it, other endowments in generous measure, and that the appeal of the science is to the whole mind, direct no doubt to the central powers of thought, but indirectly through sympathy of all, rousing, enlarging, developing, emancipating all, so that the faculties of will, of intellect and feeling learn to respond, each in its appropriate order and degree, like the parts of an orchestra to the “urge and ardor” of its leader and lord.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Administrator (11)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Ardor (5)  |  Associate (25)  |  Bear (162)  |  Central (81)  |  Contention (14)  |  Degree (277)  |  Develop (278)  |  Direct (228)  |  Emancipate (2)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Enlarge (37)  |  Essential (210)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Generous (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Implication (25)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Leader (51)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mathematic (3)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Orchestra (3)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Poet (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Respond (14)  |  Rouse (4)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Urge (17)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

The history of civilization proves beyond doubt just how sterile the repeated attempts of metaphysics to guess at nature’s laws have been. Instead, there is every reason to believe that when the human intellect ignores reality and concentrates within, it can no longer explain the simplest inner workings of life’s machinery or of the world around us.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Concentrate (28)  |  Explain (334)  |  Guess (67)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Inner (72)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Repeated (5)  |  Simplest (10)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Working (23)  |  World (1850)

The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians.
The Descent of Man (1871), Vol. 2, 404.
Science quotes on:  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Descend (49)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Man (2252)  |  Person (366)  |  Regret (31)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The Microbe is so very small,
You cannot make him out at all.
But many sanguine people hope
To see him down a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us they must be so ...
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!
In More Beasts for Worse Children (1897), 47-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Beneath (68)  |  Curious (95)  |  Down (455)  |  Green (65)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Joint (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lot (151)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Pattern (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Small (489)  |  Stand (284)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Tongue (44)

The mind God is looking for in man is a doubting, questioning mind, not a dogmatic mind; dogmatic reasoning is wrong reasoning. Dogmatic reason ties a huge rock to a man’s foot and stops him forever from advancing.
From the play Galileo Galilei (2001) .
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Foot (65)  |  Forever (111)  |  God (776)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Progress (492)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rock (176)  |  Tie (42)  |  Wrong (246)

The moon landing will, no doubt, be an epoch-making event—a phenomena of awe, unrestrained excitement and sensation. But, the most wondrous event would be if man could relinquish all the stains and defilements of the untamed mind and progress toward achieving the real mental peace and satisfaction when he reaches the moon.
In 'Reactions to Man’s Landing on the Moon Show Broad Variations in Opinions', The New York Times (21 Jul 1969), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Awe (43)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Event (222)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moon Landing (9)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peace (116)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reach (286)  |  Real (159)  |  Relinquish (2)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Stain (10)  |  Unrestrained (4)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wondrous (22)

The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion. It should, however, be borne in mind, that the enforcement of public opinion depends on our appreciation of the approbation and disapprobation of others; and this appreciation is founded on our sympathy, which it can hardly be doubted was originally developed through natural selection as one of the most important elements of the social instincts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Bear (162)  |  Best (467)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consist (223)  |  Custom (44)  |  Depend (238)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Education (423)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Element (322)  |  Embody (18)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Enforcement (2)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Founded (22)  |  Good (906)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  Important (229)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Law (913)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Originally (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Progress (492)  |  Public (100)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selection (130)  |  Social (261)  |  Standard (64)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Through (846)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Whilst (3)  |  Youth (109)

The most distinctive characteristic which differentiates mathematics from the various branches of empirical science, and which accounts for its fame as the queen of the sciences, is no doubt the peculiar certainty and necessity of its results.
First sentence of 'Geometry and Empirical Science', collected in Carl Hempel and James H. Fetzer (ed.), The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality (2001), Chap. 2, 18. Also Carl Hempel, 'Geometry and Empirical Science', collected in J.R. Newman (ed.), The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1635.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Branch (155)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empirical Science (9)  |  Fame (51)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Queen Of The Sciences (6)  |  Result (700)  |  Various (205)

The mystery of life is certainly the most persistent problem ever placed before the thought of man. There is no doubt that from the time humanity began to think it has occupied itself with the problem of its origin and its future which undoubtedly is the problem of life. The inability of science to solve it is absolute. This would be truly frightening were it not for faith.
Address (10 Sep 1934) to the International Congress of Electro-Radio Biology, Venice. In Associated Press, 'Life a Closed Book, Declares Marconi', New York Times (11 Sep 1934), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Faith (209)  |  Frightening (3)  |  Future (467)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Inability (11)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Problem (731)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Limit (294)  |  Realization (44)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Will (2350)

The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards—and even then I have my doubts.
As quoted in epigraph to A.K. Dewdney, 'Computer Recreations: Of Worms, Viruses and Core War' by A. K. Dewdney in Scientific American (Mar 1989), 110. Also on the koth.org website.
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  Block (13)  |  Cast (69)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Guard (19)  |  Lead (391)  |  Power (771)  |  Room (42)  |  Seal (19)  |  Secure (23)  |  System (545)  |  Truly (118)

The origin of what we call civilization is not due to religion but to skepticism. … The modern world is the child of doubt and inquiry, as the ancient world was the child of fear and faith.
In Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson (1997).
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Call (781)  |  Child (333)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Due (143)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fear (212)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Modern (402)  |  Origin (250)  |  Religion (369)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  World (1850)

The power of man to do work—one man-power—is, in its purely physical sense, now an insignificant accomplishment, and could only again justify his existence if other sources of power failed. … Curious persons in cloisteral seclusion are experimenting with new sources of energy, which, if ever harnessed, would make coal and oil as useless as oars and sails. If they fail in their quest, or are too late, so that coal and oil, everywhere sought for, are no longer found, and the only hope of men lay in their time-honoured traps to catch the sunlight, who doubts that galley-slaves and helots would reappear in the world once more?
Science and Life (1920), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Coal (64)  |  Curious (95)  |  Do (1905)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fail (191)  |  Harness (25)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hope (321)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Late (119)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Purely (111)  |  Quest (39)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sense (785)  |  Slave (40)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The power of the eye could not be extended further in the opened living animal, hence I had believed that this body of the blood breaks into the empty space, and is collected again by a gaping vessel and by the structure of the walls. The tortuous and diffused motion of the blood in divers directions, and its union at a determinate place offered a handle to this. But the dried lung of the frog made my belief dubious. This lung had, by chance, preserved the redness of the blood in (what afterwards proved to be) the smallest vessels, where by means of a more perfect lens, no more there met the eye the points forming the skin called Sagrino, but vessels mingled annularly. And, so great is the divarication of these vessels as they go out, here from a vein, there from an artery, that order is no longer preserved, but a network appears made up of the prolongations of both vessels. This network occupies not only the whole floor, but extends also to the walls, and is attached to the outgoing vessel, as I could see with greater difficulty but more abundantly in the oblong lung of a tortoise, which is similarly membranous and transparent. Here it was clear to sense that the blood flows away through the tortuous vessels, that it is not poured into spaces but always works through tubules, and is dispersed by the multiplex winding of the vessels.
De Pulmonibus (1661), trans. James Young, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (1929-30), 23, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Artery (10)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Break (109)  |  Call (781)  |  Capillary (4)  |  Chance (244)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Empty (82)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forming (42)  |  Frog (44)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Handle (29)  |  Lens (15)  |  Living (492)  |  Lung (37)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Microscope (85)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Network (21)  |  Offer (142)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skin (48)  |  Space (523)  |  Structure (365)  |  Through (846)  |  Tortoise (10)  |  Transparency (7)  |  Transparent (16)  |  Union (52)  |  Vein (27)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Wall (71)  |  Whole (756)  |  Winding (8)  |  Work (1402)

The pragmatist knows that doubt is an art which has to be acquired with difficulty.
In Charles S. Peirce, ‎Charles Hartshorne (ed.), ‎Paul Weiss (ed.), Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (1931), Vol. 6, 498. Also published in combined volumes 5 & 6 (1974), 343.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Know (1538)  |  Pragmatist (2)

The present state of atomic theory is characterized by the fact that we not only believe the existence of atoms to be proved beyond a doubt, but also we even believe that we have an intimate knowledge of the constituents of the individual atoms.
'The structure of the atom', Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1922. In Nobel Lectures: Physics 1922-1941 (1998), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Present (630)  |  State (505)  |  Theory (1015)

The pursuit of mathematical science makes its votary appear singularly indifferent to the ordinary interests and cares of men. Seeking eternal truths, and finding his pleasures in the realities of form and number, he has little interest in the disputes and contentions of the passing hour. His views on social and political questions partake of the grandeur of his favorite contemplations, and, while careful to throw his mite of influence on the side of right and truth, he is content to abide the workings of those general laws by which he doubts not that the fluctuations of human history are as unerringly guided as are the perturbations of the planetary hosts.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 85, 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Appear (122)  |  Care (203)  |  Careful (28)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Content (75)  |  Contention (14)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Guide (107)  |  History (716)  |  Host (16)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human History (7)  |  Indifferent (17)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interest (416)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mite (5)  |  Number (710)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Perturbation (7)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Political (124)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (649)  |  Reality (274)  |  Right (473)  |  Seek (218)  |  Side (236)  |  Social (261)  |  Throw (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)  |  Votary (3)

The pursuit of pretty formulas and neat theorems can no doubt quickly degenerate into a silly vice, but so can the quest for austere generalities which are so very general indeed that they are incapable of application to any particular.
In Men of Mathematics (1937), Vol. 2, 488.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Austere (7)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Formula (102)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Neat (5)  |  Particular (80)  |  Pretty (21)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Quest (39)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Silly (17)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Vice (42)

The scientific thinker becomes accustomed to withholding judgment and remaining in doubt when the evidence is insufficient.
In The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Evidence (267)  |  Insufficient (10)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Research (753)  |  Thinking (425)

The second law of thermodynamics is, without a doubt, one of the most perfect laws in physics. Any reproducible violation of it, however small, would bring the discoverer great riches as well as a trip to Stockholm. The world’s energy problems would be solved at one stroke… . Not even Maxwell’s laws of electricity or Newton’s law of gravitation are so sacrosanct, for each has measurable corrections coming from quantum effects or general relativity. The law has caught the attention of poets and philosophers and has been called the greatest scientific achievement of the nineteenth century.
In Thermodynamics (1964). As cited in The Mathematics Devotional: Celebrating the Wisdom and Beauty of Physics (2015), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Attention (196)  |  Call (781)  |  Century (319)  |  Coming (114)  |  Correction (42)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Energy (373)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poet (97)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Sacrosanct (3)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Second Law Of Thermodynamics (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Violation (7)  |  World (1850)

René Descartes quote: The seeker after truth must, once in the course of his life, doubt everything, as far as is possible.
The seeker after truth must, once in the course of his life, doubt everything, as far as is possible.
In Principles of Philosophy Part 1, 1, As translated by Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch in Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings (1988, 1999), 160.
Science quotes on:  |  Course (413)  |  Everything (489)  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Once (4)  |  Possible (560)  |  Seeker (8)  |  Truth (1109)

The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. The one is the man who studies the problem and the other is the man who gives us a formula, correct or incorrect, as the solution of it.
'My Religion', Essays and Soliloquies, translated by John Ernest Crawford Flitch (1925), 56. In Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 844:9.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Formula (102)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Research (753)  |  Solution (282)  |  Think (1122)

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace,
Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.
Yo ho, it’s hot, the sun is not a place where we could live.
But here on earth there’d be no life without the light it gives.
We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy.
Without the sun, without a doubt, there’d be no you and me.
Hy Zaret
From song 'Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)' on LP record album Space Songs (1961), in the series Ballads for the Age of Science. Music by Louis Singer, and sung by Tom Glazer. Also recorded by the group They Might Be Giants (1998) who followed up with 'Why Does The Sun Really Shine? (The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma)' on CD album Here Comes Science (2009), which corrects several scientific inaccuracies in the lyrics
Science quotes on:  |  Built (7)  |  Degree (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Furnace (13)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Heat (180)  |  Helium (11)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Incandescent (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Live (650)  |  Mass (160)  |  Million (124)  |  Need (320)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temperature (82)

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. In this methodological uncertainty, one might suppose that there were any number of possible systems of theoretical physics all equally well justified; and this opinion is no doubt correct, theoretically. But the development of physics has shown that at any given moment, out of all conceivable constructions, a single one has always proved itself decidedly superior to all the rest.
Address (1918) for Max Planck's 60th birthday, at Physical Society, Berlin, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Development (441)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Equally (129)  |  Experience (494)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Law (913)  |  Logic (311)  |  Moment (260)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Path (159)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rest (287)  |  Single (365)  |  Superior (88)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  System (545)  |  Task (152)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.
Essay, originally published in the Hearst chain of newspapers, 'The Triumph of Stupidity' (10 May 1933). Collected in Mortals and Others, Volume II: American Essays 1931-1935 (2014), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  Trouble (117)  |  World (1850)

The virtue of a logical proof is not that it compels belief but that it suggests doubts.
In Foundations of Euclidean Geometry (1927), viii. This quote is often seen mis-attributed to Morris Kline, who merely quoted it without citation in his books. The idea was expressed earlier by Bertrand Russell as, “It is one of the chief merits of proofs that they instill a certain skepticism about the result proved.” See the Bertrand Russell Quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Compel (31)  |  Logical (57)  |  Proof (304)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Virtue (117)

The way in which the persecution of Galileo has been remembered is a tribute to the quiet commencement of the most intimate change in outlook which the human race had yet encountered. Since a babe was born in a manger, it may be doubted whether so great a thing has happened with so little stir
In Science and the Modern World (1925), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Baby (29)  |  Birth (154)  |  Change (639)  |  Commencement (14)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Little (717)  |  Most (1728)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Persecution (14)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Race (278)  |  Remember (189)  |  Stir (23)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tribute (10)  |  Way (1214)

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Apparently apocryphal. Although found widely quoted, Webmaster has as yet not found when or where he is purported to have uttered these exact words. Webmaster believes the idea may have existed as an aphorism that predates Russell. (If you know the primary source, please make contact.)
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Fool (121)  |  Full (68)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)

The word “definition” has come to have a dangerously reassuring sound, owing no doubt to its frequent occurrence in logical and mathematical writings.
In 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism', From a Logical Point of View: Nine Logico-Philosophical Essays (1953, 1961), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Definition (238)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Owing (39)  |  Reassure (7)  |  Sound (187)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)  |  Writings (6)

There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.
Manhood of Humanity (1921), 4. Sometimes seen misquoted as 'slice through life.'
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Everything (489)  |  Life (1870)  |  Save (126)  |  Slide (5)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)

There can be no doubt that science is in many ways the natural enemy of language. Language, either literary or colloquial, demands a rich store of living and vivid words—words that are “thoughtpictures,” and appeal to the senses, and also embody our feelings about the objects they describe. But science cares nothing about emotion or vivid presentation; her ideal is a kind of algebraic notation, to be used simply as an instrument of analysis; and for this she rightly prefers dry and abstract terms, taken from some dead language, and deprived of all life and personality.
In The English Language (1912), 124-125.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Care (203)  |  Dead (65)  |  Demand (131)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Describe (132)  |  Dry (65)  |  Embody (18)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kind (564)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Live (650)  |  Natural (810)  |  Notation (28)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Personality (66)  |  Picture (148)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Store (49)  |  Term (357)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Word (650)

There is no doubt but men of genius and leisure may carry our method to greater perfection, but, having had long experience, we have found none equal to it for the commodiousness it affords in working with the Understanding.
In 'Scala Intellectus', The Works of Francis Bacon (1815), Vol. 11, 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Carry (130)  |  Experience (494)  |  Genius (301)  |  Greater (288)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (531)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Understanding (527)

There is no doubt that human survival will continue to depend more and more on human intellect and technology. It is idle to argue whether this is good or bad. The point of no return was passed long ago, before anyone knew it was happening.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Argue (25)  |  Bad (185)  |  Continue (179)  |  Depend (238)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Idle (34)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Pass (241)  |  Point (584)  |  Return (133)  |  Survival (105)  |  Technology (281)  |  Will (2350)

There is no doubt that many expensive national projects may add to our prestige or serve science. But none of them must take precedence over human needs. As long as Congress does not revise its priorities, our crisis is not just material, it is a crisis of the spirit.
Considering the city of New York's financial shortfall.
Letter as governor of New York to Mayor John V. Lindsay (24 Apr 1971), New York Times (25 Apr 1971), 69
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Congress (20)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Government (116)  |  Human (1512)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Prestige (16)  |  Project (77)  |  Spirit (278)

There is no permanence in doubt; it incites the mind to closer inquiry and experiment, from which, if rightly managed, certainty proceeds, and in this alone can man find thorough satisfaction.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 474:2.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Closer (43)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Incite (3)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Thorough (40)

There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. ... Our political life is also predicated on openness. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress.
Life (10 Oct 1949), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Detect (45)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Openness (8)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Question (649)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Think (1122)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

There must be some bond of union between mass and the chemical elements; and as the mass of a substance is ultimately expressed (although not absolutely, but only relatively) in the atom, a functional dependence should exist and be discoverable between the individual properties of the elements and their atomic weights. But nothing, from mushrooms to a scientific dependence can be discovered without looking and trying. So I began to look about and write down the elements with their atomic weights and typical properties, analogous elements and like atomic weights on separate cards, and soon this convinced me that the properties of the elements are in periodic dependence upon their atomic weights; and although I had my doubts about some obscure points, yet I have never doubted the universality of this law, because it could not possibly be the result of chance.
Principles of Chemistry (1905), Vol. 2, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Card (5)  |  Chance (244)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Element (322)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Express (192)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (913)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mass (160)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Property (177)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Separate (151)  |  Soon (187)  |  Substance (253)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Union (52)  |  Universality (22)  |  Weight (140)  |  Write (250)

There was some doubt whether the heat shield had been damaged … This could have been a bad day all the way around if this had been the case.
From post-flight news conference at Cape Canaveral (24 Feb 1962). 'Transcript of Glenn's News Conference Relating His Experiences on Orbital Flight', New York Times (24 Feb 1962), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Damage (38)  |  Day (43)  |  Heat (180)  |  Shield (8)  |  Way (1214)

They tend to be suspicious, bristly, paranoid-type people with huge egos they push around like some elephantiasis victim with his distended testicles in a wheelbarrow terrified no doubt that some skulking ingrate of a clone student will sneak into his very brain and steal his genius work.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Clone (8)  |  Ego (17)  |  Genius (301)  |  Huge (30)  |  People (1031)  |  Push (66)  |  Skulk (2)  |  Sneak (3)  |  Steal (14)  |  Student (317)  |  Suspicious (3)  |  Tend (124)  |  Terrified (4)  |  Testicle (2)  |  Type (171)  |  Victim (37)  |  Wheelbarrow (3)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

This Academy [at Lagado] is not an entire single Building, but a Continuation of several Houses on both Sides of a Street; which growing waste, was purchased and applied to that Use.
I was received very kindly by the Warden, and went for many Days to the Academy. Every Room hath in it ' one or more Projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five Hundred Rooms.
The first Man I saw was of a meagre Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, his Hair and Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. His Clothes, Shirt, and Skin were all of the same Colour. He had been Eight Years upon a Project for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, which were to be put into Vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the Air in raw inclement Summers. He told me, he did not doubt in Eight Years more, that he should be able to supply the Governor's Gardens with Sunshine at a reasonable Rate; but he complained that his Stock was low, and interested me to give him something as an Encouragement to Ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear Season for Cucumbers. I made him a small Present, for my Lord had furnished me with Money on purpose, because he knew their Practice of begging from all who go to see them.
I saw another at work to calcine Ice into Gunpowder; who likewise shewed me a Treatise he had written concerning the Malleability of Fire, which he intended to publish.
There was a most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for building Houses, by beginning at the Roof, and working downwards to the Foundation; which he justified to me by the life Practice of those two prudent Insects the Bee and the Spider.
In another Apartment I was highly pleased with a Projector, who had found a device of plowing the Ground with Hogs, to save the Charges of Plows, Cattle, and Labour. The Method is this: In an Acre of Ground you bury at six Inches Distance, and eight deep, a quantity of Acorns, Dates, Chestnuts, and other Masts or Vegetables whereof these Animals are fondest; then you drive six Hundred or more of them into the Field, where in a few Days they will root up the whole Ground in search of their Food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time manuring it with their Dung. It is true, upon Experiment they found the Charge and Trouble very great, and they had little or no Crop. However, it is not doubted that this Invention may be capable of great Improvement.
I had hitherto seen only one Side of the Academy, the other being appropriated to the Advancers of speculative Learning.
Some were condensing Air into a dry tangible Substance, by extracting the Nitre, and letting the acqueous or fluid Particles percolate: Others softening Marble for Pillows and Pin-cushions. Another was, by a certain Composition of Gums, Minerals, and Vegetables outwardly applied, to prevent the Growth of Wool upon two young lambs; and he hoped in a reasonable Time to propagate the Breed of naked Sheep all over the Kingdom.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, Penguin ed. 1967), Part III, Chap. 5, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Acorn (5)  |  Acre (13)  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Architect (32)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bee (44)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Breed (26)  |  Building (158)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Certain (557)  |  Charge (63)  |  Chestnut (2)  |  Composition (86)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Crop (26)  |  Cucumber (4)  |  Date (14)  |  Deep (241)  |  Device (71)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dry (65)  |  Dung (10)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Face (214)  |  Field (378)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Food (213)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Garden (64)  |  Governor (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Hermetic Seal (2)  |  Hog (4)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ice (58)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lamb (6)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Lord (97)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marble (21)  |  Mast (3)  |  Method (531)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pillow (4)  |  Pin (20)  |  Plow (7)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Project (77)  |  Projector (3)  |  Publish (42)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Raw (28)  |  Root (121)  |  Save (126)  |  Saw (160)  |  Seal (19)  |  Search (175)  |  Season (47)  |  See (1094)  |  Sheep (13)  |  Side (236)  |  Single (365)  |  Skin (48)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Soot (11)  |  Sowing (9)  |  Spider (14)  |  Substance (253)  |  Summer (56)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunbeam (3)  |  Supply (100)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vial (4)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wool (4)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

Those who have dissected or inspected many [bodies] have at least learnt to doubt; while others who are ignorant of anatomy and do not take the trouble to attend it are in no doubt at all.
Letter xvi, Art. 25, as translated by Benjamin Alexander. Cited in Edward W. Adams, 'Founders of Modern Medicine II: Giovanni Battista Morgagni', Medical Library and Historical Journal (1903), Vol. 1, 276.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Attend (67)  |  Autopsy (3)  |  Body (557)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inspection (7)  |  Learning (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scientific Illiteracy (8)  |  Trouble (117)

Thus there can be no doubt that the world was not created in time but with time. An event in time happens after one time and before another, after the past and before the future. But at the time of creation there could have been no past, because there was nothing created to provide the change and movement which is the condition of time.
De Civitate Dei (The City of God) [413-426], Book XI, chapter 6, trans. H. Bettenson (1972), 436.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creation (350)  |  Event (222)  |  Future (467)  |  Happen (282)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Past (355)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

Thus with every advance in our scientific knowledge new elements come up, often forcing us to recast our entire picture of physical reality. No doubt, theorists would much prefer to perfect and amend their theories rather than be obliged to scrap them continually. But this obligation is the condition and price of all scientific progress.
New Perspectives in Physics (1962), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Condition (362)  |  Element (322)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  New (1273)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physical (518)  |  Picture (148)  |  Price (57)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reality (274)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)

To be genuinely thoughtful, we must be willing to sustain and protract that state of doubt which is the stimulus to thorough enquiry, so as not to accept an idea or make a positive assertion of a belief, until justifying reasons have been found.
In How We Think (1933), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Assertion (35)  |  Belief (615)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Justify (26)  |  Reason (766)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thoughtful (16)

To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man what the race is to a horse.
In Pensées (1670), Section 25, No. 49. As translated in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 260, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 95. A similar translation is in W.H. Auden and L. Kronenberger (eds.) The Viking Book of Aphorisms (1966), 354. From the original French, “Nier, croire, et douter bien, sont à l’homme ce que le courir est au cheval.” in Ernest Havet (ed.), Pensées de Pascal (1892), 513-514.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Deny (71)  |  Horse (78)  |  Man (2252)  |  Race (278)

To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
'Ideals and Doubts,' Illinois Law Review (1915), 10. In Collected Legal Papers (1920), 307.
Science quotes on:  |  First (1302)  |  Man (2252)  |  Principle (530)

To make up for all I have forgotten, there is this that I have acquired, and I call it sophistication since it is not quite the same thing as learning. It is the flexible armour of doubt in an age when too many people are certain.
In To You Mr. Chips (1938), in Goodbye, Mr. Chips; and, To You, Mr. Chips (1995), 119-120.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Armor (5)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Education (423)  |  Forget (125)  |  Learning (291)  |  Sophistication (12)

To show, therefore, that we are capable of knowing, i.e. being certain that there is a God, and how we may come by this certainty, I think we need go no further than ourselves, and that undoubted knowledge we have of our own existence... For man knows that he himself exists... If any one pretends to be so sceptical as to deny his own existence, (for really to doubt of it is manifestly impossible,) let him for me enjoy his beloved happiness of being nothing, until hunger or some other pain convince him of the contrary... He knows also that nothing cannot produce a being; therefore something must have existed from eternity... Next, it is evident, that what had its being and beginning from another, must also have all that which is in and belongs to its being from another too. All the powers it has must be owing to and received from the same source. This eternal source, then, of all being must also be the source and original of all power; and so this eternal Being must be also the most powerful... And most knowing. Again, a man finds in himself perception and knowledge. We have then got one step further; and we are certain now that there is not only some being, but some knowing, intelligent being in the world. There was a time, then, when there was no knowing being, and when knowledge began to be; or else there has been also a knowing being from eternity...And therefore God.
Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), book 4, ch. 10, sec 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Convince (43)  |  Deny (71)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  God (776)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Owing (39)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Show (353)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

To teach doubt and Experiment Certainly was not what Christ meant.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  Christ (17)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Teach (299)

To teach vain Wits that Science little known,
T' admire Superior Sense, and doubt their own!
In An Essay on Criticism (1711), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Admire (19)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Sense (785)  |  Superior (88)  |  Teach (299)  |  Vain (86)  |  Wit (61)

True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Teach (299)  |  True (239)  |  True Science (25)

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.
Tragic Sense of Life (1913), translated by John Ernest Crawford Flitch (1954), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Ignorant (91)  |  True Science (25)  |  Truth (1109)

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.
Quoted in Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Justification (52)  |  Part (235)  |  Something (718)  |  Truth (1109)

Truth travels down from the heights of philosophy to the humblest walks of life, and up from the simplest perceptions of an awakened intellect to the discoveries which almost change the face of the world. At every stage of its progress it is genial, luminous, creative. When first struck out by some distinguished and fortunate genius, it may address itself only to a few minds of kindred power. It exists then only in the highest forms of science; it corrects former systems, and authorizes new generalizations. Discussion, controversy begins; more truth is elicited, more errors exploded, more doubts cleared up, more phenomena drawn into the circle, unexpected connexions of kindred sciences are traced, and in each step of the progress, the number rapidly grows of those who are prepared to comprehend and carry on some branches of the investigation,— till, in the lapse of time, every order of intellect has been kindled, from that of the sublime discoverer to the practical machinist; and every department of knowledge been enlarged, from the most abstruse and transcendental theory to the daily arts of life.
In An Address Delivered Before the Literary Societies of Amherst College (25 Aug 1835), 16-17.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Art (680)  |  Authorize (5)  |  Awakened (2)  |  Begin (275)  |  Carry (130)  |  Change (639)  |  Circle (117)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Connection (171)  |  Controversy (30)  |  Creative (144)  |  Daily (91)  |  Department (93)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Down (455)  |  Error (339)  |  Exist (458)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Face (214)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Genial (3)  |  Genius (301)  |  Grow (247)  |  Height (33)  |  Humblest (4)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Luminous (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Simplest (10)  |  Stage (152)  |  Step (234)  |  Sublime (50)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transcendental (11)  |  Travel (125)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Walk (138)  |  Walk Of Life (2)  |  World (1850)

Unavoidably, physics is usually expensive, and too many physicists find themselves with outdated or incomplete apparatus. The average factory worker in the United States has his productivity supported by a capital investment of $25,000 in machines and equipment. If physicists engaged in small science were as well supported as the average factory worker, they would share a total of ¾ billion dollars of depreciated equipment. I seriously doubt that they are that well supported.
In 'Physics and the APS in 1979', Physics Today (Apr 1980), 33, No. 4, 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Average (89)  |  Billion (104)  |  Capital (16)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Expense (21)  |  Factory (20)  |  Find (1014)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Investment (15)  |  Machine (271)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Share (82)  |  Small (489)  |  State (505)  |  Support (151)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Total (95)  |  Usually (176)  |  Worker (34)

We are … led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call “hard” data and “soft” data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by “hard” data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by “soft” data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.
Our Knowledge of the External World (1925), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Clear (111)  |  Critical (73)  |  Data (162)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Hard (246)  |  Influence (231)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Operation (221)  |  Process (439)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Seriousness (10)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soft (30)  |  Solvent (7)  |  Vague (50)  |  Vagueness (15)

President Clinton at podium + Quote “We are here to celebrate…entire human genome…most wondrous map ever produced by human kind”
President Clinton at the Human Genome Announcement at the White House (20 Jun 2000), with Francis S. Collins (left) and Craig Ventner. (source)
We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.
From White House Announcement of the Completion of the First Survey of the Entire Human Genome Project, broadcast on the day of the publication of the first draft of the human genome. Quoted in transcript on the National Archives, Clinton White House web site, 'Text of Remarks on the Completion of the First Survey of the Entire Human Genome Project' (26 Jun 2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Completion (23)  |  First (1302)  |  Genome (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Genome (13)  |  Human Genome Project (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Map (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  Produced (187)  |  Survey (36)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wondrous (22)

We cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt, and that this is the first knowledge we acquire when we philosophize in order. … The knowledge, I think, therefore I am, is the first and most certain that occurs to one who philosophizes orderly.
From the original Latin: “Non posse à nobis dubitari, quin existamus dum dubitamus; atque quod ordine philosophando cognoscimus. … Ac proinde hæc cognitio, ego cognito, ergo sum, est omnium | prima & certissima, quæ cuilibet ordine philosophanti occurant,” in Principia Philosophiæ (1644), Pars Prima, as collected in Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, Œuvres de Descartes (1905), Vol. 8, Proposition VII, 6-7. English version as given in John Veitch (trans.), The Method, Meditations, and Selections from the Principles of Descartes (1880), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Certain (557)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Think (1122)

We cannot doubt the existence of an ultimate reality. It is the universe forever masked. We are a part of it, and the masks figured by us are the universe observing and understanding itself from a human point of view.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Existence (481)  |  Figure (162)  |  Forever (111)  |  Human (1512)  |  Mask (12)  |  Observe (179)  |  Part (235)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Reality (274)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)

We do live in a conceptual trough that encourages such yearning for unknown and romanticized greener pastures of other times. The future doesn’t seem promising, if only because we can extrapolate some disquieting present trends in to further deterioration: pollution, nationalism, environmental destruction, and aluminum bats. Therefore, we tend to take refuge in a rose-colored past ... I do not doubt the salutary, even the essential, properties of this curiously adaptive human trait, but we must also record the down side. Legends of past golden ages become impediments when we try to negotiate our current dilemma.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptive (3)  |  Age (509)  |  Aluminum (15)  |  Bat (10)  |  Become (821)  |  Color (155)  |  Conceptual (11)  |  Current (122)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Environment (239)  |  Essential (210)  |  Extrapolate (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Future (467)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Green (65)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Legend (18)  |  Live (650)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nationalism (5)  |  Negotiate (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Present (630)  |  Promise (72)  |  Property (177)  |  Record (161)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Romanticize (2)  |  Rose (36)  |  Salutary (5)  |  Seem (150)  |  Side (236)  |  Tend (124)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trait (23)  |  Trend (23)  |  Try (296)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Yearning (13)

We do not doubt to assert, that air does not serve for the motion of the lungs, but rather to communicate something to the blood ... It is very likely that it is the fine nitrous particles, with which the air abounds, that are communicated to the blood through the lungs.
Tractatus duo. Quorum prior agit de respiratione: alter de rachitude (1668), 43. Quoted in Robert G. Frank Jr., Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists (1980), 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Abound (17)  |  Air (366)  |  Assert (69)  |  Blood (144)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Do (1905)  |  Lung (37)  |  Motion (320)  |  Particle (200)  |  Something (718)  |  Through (846)

We had a clear, unmistakable, specific objective. Although at first there was considerable doubt whether we could attain this objective, there was never any doubt about what it was. Consequently the people in responsible positions were able to tailor their every action to its accomplishment.
In And Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project (1962), 414.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Action (342)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Clear (111)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Considerable (75)  |  First (1302)  |  Manhattan Project (15)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  People (1031)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Specific (98)  |  Tailor (3)  |  Unmistakable (6)

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.
Dean Inge
From Romanes Lecture (27 May 1920), 'The Idea of Progress', collected in Outspoken Essays: Second Series (1922), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Badly (32)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Creation (350)  |  Depict (3)  |  Devil (34)  |  Enslave (2)  |  Feather (13)  |  Form (976)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Fur (7)  |  Human (1512)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rest (287)

We sometimes are inclined to look into a science not our own as into a catalogue of results. In Faraday’s Diary, it becomes again what it really is, a campaign of mankind, balancing in any given moment, past experience, present speculation, and future experimentation, in a unique concoction of scepticism, faith, doubt, and expectation.
In 'The Scientific Grammar of Michael Faraday’s Diaries', Part I, 'The Classic of Science', A Classic and a Founder (1937), collected in Rosenstock-Huessy Papers (1981), Vol. 1, 1. The context is that Faraday, for “more than four decades. He was in the habit of describing each experiment and every observation inside and outside his laboratory, in full and accurate detail, on the very day they were made. Many of the entries discuss the consequences which he drew from what he observed. In other cases they outline the proposed course of research for the future.”
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Become (821)  |  Campaign (6)  |  Catalogue (5)  |  Diary (2)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experimentation (7)  |  Faith (209)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Future (467)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Look (584)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Moment (260)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Result (700)  |  Scepticism (17)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Unique (72)

We used to be a source of fuel; we are increasingly becoming a sink. These supplies of foreign liquid fuel are no doubt vital to our industry, but our ever-increasing dependence upon them ought to arouse serious and timely reflection. The scientific utilisation, by liquefaction, pulverisation and other processes, or our vast and magnificent deposits of coal, constitutes a national object of prime importance.
Parliamentary Debate (24 Apr 1928). Quoted in Winston Churchill and Richard Langworth (ed.), Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2008), 469.
Science quotes on:  |  Becoming (96)  |  Coal (64)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Energy (373)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Importance (299)  |  Industry (159)  |  Liquefaction (2)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Object (438)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sink (38)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vital (89)

What is important is the gradual development of a theory, based on a careful analysis of the ... facts. ... Its first applications are necessarily to elementary problems where the result has never been in doubt and no theory is actually required. At this early stage the application serves to corroborate the theory. The next stage develops when the theory is applied to somewhat more complicated situations in which it may already lead to a certain extent beyond the obvious and familiar. Here theory and application corroborate each other mutually. Beyond lies the field of real success: genuine prediction by theory. It is well known that all mathematized sciences have gone through these successive stages of evolution.
'Formulation of the Economic Problem' in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1964), 8. Reprinted in John Von Neumann, F. Bródy (ed.) and Tibor Vámos (ed.), The Neumann Compendium (2000), 416.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certain (557)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Corroborate (2)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Early (196)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Problem (731)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Situation (117)  |  Stage (152)  |  Success (327)  |  Successive (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)

Whatever else astronomy may or may not be who can doubt it to be the most beautiful of the sciences?
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Most (1728)  |  Whatever (234)

When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself.
In Is Shakespeare Dead?: From My Autobiography (1909), 127-128.
Science quotes on:  |  Brightest (12)  |  Cast (69)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Conscientious (7)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  Kind (564)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Sincerity (8)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Validity (50)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes.
Science quotes on:  |  Eye (440)  |  Faith (209)  |  Kind (564)  |  Myself (211)  |  Star (460)  |  Supernova (7)  |  Thing (1914)

When I was about 13, I cycled from Leicester to the Lake District and back again, collecting fossils and staying in youth hostels. I was away for three weeks, and my mother and father didn’t know where I was. I doubt many parents would let children do that now.
It is about 200 miles each way between his hometown (Leicester) and the Lake District. As reported by Adam Lusher in 'Sir David Attenborough', Daily Mail (28 Feb 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Collect (19)  |  Do (1905)  |  Father (113)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lake (36)  |  Lake District (2)  |  Mother (116)  |  Parent (80)  |  Week (73)  |  Youth (109)

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brilliantly (2)  |  Creative (144)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fool (121)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Hell (32)  |  Idiot (22)  |  Leap (57)  |  Line (100)  |  Most (1728)  |  Thin (18)

When one ponders on the tremendous journey of evolution over the past three billion years or so, the prodigious wealth of structures it has engendered, and the extraordinarily effective teleonomic performances of living beings from bacteria to man, one may well find oneself beginning to doubt again whether all this could conceiveably be the product of an enormous lottery presided over by natural selection, blindly picking the rare winners from among numbers drawn at random. [Nevertheless,] a detailed review of the accumulated modern evidence [shows] that this conception alone is compatible with the facts.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Billion (104)  |  Chance (244)  |  Conception (160)  |  Detail (150)  |  Effective (68)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1014)  |  Journey (48)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Past (355)  |  Performance (51)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Product (166)  |  Random (42)  |  Rare (94)  |  Review (27)  |  Selection (130)  |  Show (353)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Year (963)

When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large, scientific method in most cases fails us. One need only think of the weather, in which case prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us.
Out of My Later Years (1995), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Ahead (21)  |  Case (102)  |  Causal (7)  |  Coming (114)  |  Complex (202)  |  Component (51)  |  Confront (18)  |  Connection (171)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Main (29)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Play (116)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Think (1122)  |  Weather (49)

When the old and bewhiskered alchemist mentally planned his transmutations from lead to gold, he no doubt considered his reagent “spiritus vitroli” second only to his trusty Philosopher’s Stone in power and usefulness; for we read of sulphuric acid back through Alchemical times.
Co-author with E.L. Larison, American Sulphuric Acid Practice (1921), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Back (395)  |  Consider (428)  |  Gold (101)  |  Lead (391)  |  Old (499)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosopher�s Stone (8)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Read (308)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sulphuric Acid (2)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Whisker (2)

When... the biologist is confronted with the fact that in the organism the parts are so adapted to each other as to give rise to a harmonious whole; and that the organisms are endowed with structures and instincts calculated to prolong their life and perpetuate their race, doubts as to the adequacy of a purely physiochemical viewpoint in biology may arise. The difficulties besetting the biologist in this problem have been rather increased than diminished by the discovery of Mendelian heredity, according to which each character is transmitted independently of any other character. Since the number of Mendelian characters in each organism is large, the possibility must be faced that the organism is merely a mosaic of independent hereditary characters. If this be the case the question arises: What moulds these independent characters into a harmonious whole? The vitalist settles this question by assuming the existence of a pre-established design for each organism and of a guiding 'force' or 'principle' which directs the working out of this design. Such assumptions remove the problem of accounting for the harmonious character of the organism from the field of physics or chemistry. The theory of natural selection invokes neither design nor purpose, but it is incomplete since it disregards the physiochemical constitution of living matter about which little was known until recently.
The Organism as a Whole: From a Physiochemical Viewpoint (1916), v-vi.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Arise (162)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Design (203)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Independently (24)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Number (710)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Purely (111)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Remove (50)  |  Rise (169)  |  Selection (130)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  Whole (756)

Who has studied the works of such men as Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Riemann, Sophus Lie, and Weierstrass, can doubt that a great mathematician is a great artist? The faculties possessed by such men, varying greatly in kind and degree with the individual, are analogous with those requisite for constructive art. Not every mathematician possesses in a specially high degree that critical faculty which finds its employment in the perfection of form, in conformity with the ideal of logical completeness; but every great mathematician possesses the rarer faculty of constructive imagination.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogous (7)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (11)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Critical (73)  |  Degree (277)  |  Employment (34)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possess (157)  |  Rare (94)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Bernhard Riemann (7)  |  Specially (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Vary (27)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Work (1402)

Who runs may read the scroll which reason has placed as a warning over the human menageries: “chained, not tamed.” And yet who can doubt that the leaven of science, working in the individual, leavens in some slight degree the whole social fabric. Reason is at least free, or nearly so; the shackles of dogma have been removed, and faith herself, freed from a morganatic alliance, finds in the release great gain.
Address to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology of the University of Pennsylvania (1894). Collected in 'The Leaven of Science', Aequanimitas (1904), 100. A “morganatic” alliance is one between persons of unequal rank, the noble and the common.
Science quotes on:  |  Alliance (5)  |  Chain (51)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Free (239)  |  Gain (146)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Release (31)  |  Run (158)  |  Shackle (4)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Warning (18)  |  Whole (756)

William James used to preach the “will to believe.” For my part, I should wish to preach the “will to doubt.” … What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.
From Conway Memorial Lecture, South Place Institute, London (24 Mar 1922), printed as Free Thought and Official Propaganda (1922), 14. Collected in Sceptical Essays (1928, 2004), 129.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Find (1014)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind.
Letter to W. Graham (3 Jul 1881). In Francis Darwin (ed.) The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1959), 285. In Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World (2008), 182-183.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Arise (162)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Develop (278)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Trust (72)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Value (393)

Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes place in all phenomena. The trajectory of a simple molecule of air or vapour is regulated in a manner as certain as that of the planetary orbits; the only difference between them is that which is contributed by our ignorance. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge.
Philosophical Essay on Probabilities (1814), 5th edition (1825), trans. Andrew I. Dale (1995), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Certain (557)  |  Comet (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Movement (162)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Plant (320)  |  Probability (135)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Trajectory (5)  |  Vapour (16)

Without doubt one of the most characteristic features of mathematics in the last century is the systematic and universal use of the complex variable. Most of its great theories received invaluable aid from it, and many owe their very existence to it.
In 'History of Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century', Congress of Arts and Sciences (1905), Vol. 1, 474. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Century (319)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Complex (202)  |  Existence (481)  |  Feature (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Last (425)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  Owe (71)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Variable (37)

Without the slightest doubt there is something through which material and spiritual energy hold togehter and are complementary. In the last analysis, somehow or other, there must be a single energy operating in the world. And the first idea that occurs to us is that the 'soul' must be as it were the focal point of transformation at which, from all the points of nature, the forces of bodies converge, to become interiorised and sublimated in beauty and truth.
In Teilhard de Chardin and Bernard Wall (trans.), The Phenomenon of Man (1959, 2008), 63. Originally published in French as Le Phénomene Humain (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Converge (10)  |  Energy (373)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Last (425)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operating (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Single (365)  |  Slightest (2)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Something (718)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

Worry affects circulation, the heart, the glands, the whole nervous system, and profoundly affects the heart. I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt.
Leonard Louis Levinson, Bartlett's Unfamiliar Quotations (1972). Cited in Bill Swainson, Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 624.
Science quotes on:  |  Circulation (27)  |  Death (406)  |  Gland (14)  |  Heart (243)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nervous System (35)  |  Never (1089)  |  Overwork (2)  |  System (545)  |  Whole (756)  |  Worry (34)

Yet as I cast my eye over the whole course of science I behold instances of false science, even more pretentious and popular than that of Einstein gradually fading into ineptitude under the searchlight; and I have no doubt that there will arise a new generation who will look with a wonder and amazement, deeper than now accompany Einstein, at our galaxy of thinkers, men of science, popular critics, authoritative professors and witty dramatists, who have been satisfied to waive their common sense in view of Einstein's absurdities.
In Elizabeth Dilling, A "Who's Who" and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots (1934), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Accompany (22)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Arise (162)  |  Authority (99)  |  Cast (69)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Course (413)  |  Critic (21)  |  Dramatist (2)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fading (3)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Ineptitude (2)  |  Instance (33)  |  Look (584)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Popular (34)  |  Pretention (2)  |  Pretentious (4)  |  Professor (133)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Searchlight (5)  |  Sense (785)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Thinker (41)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wit (61)  |  Wonder (251)

You believe in the God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world that objectively exists, and which I, in a wildly speculative way, am trying to capture. … Even the great initial success of the quantum theory does not make me believe in the fundamental dice-game, although I am well aware that our younger colleagues interpret this as a consequence of senility. No doubt the day will come when we will see whose instinctive attitude was the correct one.
Letter to Max Born (7 Sep 1944). In Born-Einstein Letters, 146. Einstein Archives 8-207. In Albert Einstein, Alice Calaprice, Freeman Dyson, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2011), 393-394. Often seen paraphrased as “I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos.” Also see a related quote about God playing dice on the Stephen W. Hawking Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Belief (615)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Dice (21)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Game (104)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Law (913)  |  Objective (96)  |  Order (638)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  See (1094)  |  Senility (2)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Trying (144)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Younger (21)

Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Equal (88)  |  Goal (155)  |  Minus (7)  |  Reality (274)

Your Grace will no doubt have learnt from the weekly reports of one Marco Antonio Bragadini, called Mamugnano. … He is reported to be able to turn base metal into gold… . He literally throws gold about in shovelfuls. This is his recipe: he takes ten ounces of quicksilver, puts it into the fire, and mixes it with a drop of liquid, which he carries in an ampulla. Thus it promptly turns into good gold. He has no other wish but to be of good use to his country, the Republic. The day before yesterday he presented to the Secret Council of Ten two ampullas with this liquid, which have been tested in his absence. The first test was found to be successful and it is said to have resulted in six million ducats. I doubt not but that this will appear mighty strange to your Grace.
Anonymous
'The Famous Alchemist Bragadini. From Vienna on the 1st day of November 1589'. As quoted in George Tennyson Matthews (ed.) News and Rumor in Renaissance Europe: The Fugger Newsletters (1959), 173. A handwritten collection of news reports (1568-1604) by the powerful banking and merchant house of Fugger in Ausburg.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Call (781)  |  Council (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Drop (77)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Grace (31)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Literally (30)  |  Mamugnano (2)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Metal (88)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Quicksilver (8)  |  Recipe (8)  |  Republic (16)  |  Result (700)  |  Secret (216)  |  Strange (160)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (221)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Yesterday (37)


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.