TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index D > Category: Drown

Drown Quotes (14 quotes)

[Reporting after the now infamous 22 Jun 1969 burning of the Cuyahoga River:] Some River! Chocolate-brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows. “Anyone who falls into the Cuyahoga does not drown,” Cleveland’s citizens joke grimly. “He decays” … The Federal Water Pollution Control Administration dryly notes: “The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms that usually thrive on wastes.” It is also—literally—a fire hazard.
As reported in Time magazine (1 Aug 1969).
Science quotes on:  |  Brown (23)  |  Burning (49)  |  Chocolate (5)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Cleveland (3)  |  Control (182)  |  Cuyahoga River (3)  |  Decay (59)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flow (89)  |  Form (976)  |  Grim (6)  |  Hazard (21)  |  Joke (90)  |  Leech (6)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literally (30)  |  Low (86)  |  Oil (67)  |  Ooze (2)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Reporting (9)  |  River (140)  |  Sludge (3)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Usually (176)  |  Visible (87)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Worm (47)

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow,
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th' world,
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That makes ingrateful man.
King Lear (1605-61, III, ii.
Science quotes on:  |  Blow (45)  |  Cataract (4)  |  Cheek (3)  |  Cock (6)  |  Crack (15)  |  Drench (2)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flat (34)  |  Head (87)  |  Hurricane (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Oak (16)  |  Rage (10)  |  Singe (2)  |  Spout (2)  |  Steeple (4)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thunder (21)  |  Thunderbolt (7)  |  White (132)  |  Wind (141)  |  World (1850)

Delusions are often functional. A mother’s opinions about her children’s beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
In 'From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long', Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), 257.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Birth (154)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Functional (10)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Keep (104)  |  Mother (116)  |  Opinion (291)

However, the small probability of a similar encounter [of the earth with a comet], can become very great in adding up over a huge sequence of centuries. It is easy to picture to oneself the effects of this impact upon the Earth. The axis and the motion of rotation changed; the seas abandoning their old position to throw themselves toward the new equator; a large part of men and animals drowned in this universal deluge, or destroyed by the violent tremor imparted to the terrestrial globe.
Exposition du Système du Monde, 2nd edition (1799), 208, trans. Ivor Grattan-Guinness.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Axis (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Comet (65)  |  Deluge (14)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Equator (6)  |  Globe (51)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impact (45)  |  Impart (24)  |  Large (398)  |  Man (2252)  |  Motion (320)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Picture (148)  |  Probability (135)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Small (489)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Tremor (3)  |  Universal (198)

I do not think words alone will solve humanity’s present problems. The sound of bombs drowns out men’s voices. In times of peace I have great faith in the communication of ideas among thinking men, but today, with brute force dominating so many millions of lives, I fear that the appeal to man’s intellect is fast becoming virtually meaningless.
In 'I Am an American' (22 Jun 1940), Einstein Archives 29-092. Excerpted in David E. Rowe and Robert J. Schulmann, Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb (2007), 470. It was during a radio broadcast for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, interviewed by a State Department Official. Einstein spoke following an examination on his application for American citizenship in Trenton, New Jersey. The attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war on Japan was still over a year in the future.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Brute (30)  |  Brute Force (4)  |  Communication (101)  |  Do (1905)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fear (212)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaningless (17)  |  Million (124)  |  Peace (116)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solve (145)  |  Sound (187)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Voice (54)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

It is a better world with some buffalo left in it, a richer world with some gorgeous canyons unmarred by signboards, hot-dog stands, super highways, or high-tension lines, undrowned by power or irrigation reservoirs. If we preserved as parks only those places that have no economic possibilities, we would have no parks. And in the decades to come, it will not be only the buffalo and the trumpeter swan who need sanctuaries. Our own species is going to need them too. It needs them now.
Conclusion of essay 'The Marks of Human Passage', collected in This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and its Magic Rivers (1955), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Buffalo (7)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Decade (66)  |  Dog (70)  |  Economic (84)  |  Gorgeous (2)  |  High (370)  |  High Voltage (2)  |  Hot (63)  |  Irrigation (12)  |  Leave (138)  |  Need (320)  |  Park (10)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sanctuary (12)  |  Species (435)  |  Stand (284)  |  Swan (3)  |  Tension (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

It is sometimes helpful to differentiate between the God of Miracles and the God of Order. When scientists use the word God, they usually mean the God of Order. …The God of Miracles intervenes in our affairs, performs miracles, destroys wicked cities, smites enemy armies, drowns the Pharaoh's troops, and avenges the pure and noble. …This is not to say that miracles cannot happen, only that they are outside what is commonly called science.
In 'Conclusion', Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension (1995), 330-331.
Science quotes on:  |  Affair (29)  |  Army (35)  |  Avenge (2)  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  City (87)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Enemy (86)  |  God (776)  |  Happen (282)  |  Intervene (8)  |  Mean (810)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Noble (93)  |  Order (638)  |  Outside (141)  |  Perform (123)  |  Pharaoh (4)  |  Pure (299)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Smite (4)  |  Troop (4)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Wicked (5)  |  Word (650)

Peter Atkins, in his wonderful book Creation Revisited, uses a … personification when considering the refraction of a light beam, passing into a medium of higher refractive index which slows it down. The beam behaves as if trying to minimize the time taken to travel to an end point. Atkins imagines it as a lifeguard on a beach racing to rescue a drowning swimmer. Should he head straight for the swimmer? No, because he can run faster than he can swim and would be wise to increase the dry-land proportion of his travel time. Should he run to a point on the beach directly opposite his target, thereby minimizing his swimming time? Better, but still not the best. Calculation (if he had time to do it) would disclose to the lifeguard an optimum intermediate angle, yielding the ideal combination of fast running followed by inevitably slower swimming. Atkins concludes:
That is exactly the behaviour of light passing into a denser medium. But how does light know, apparently in advance, which is the briefest path? And, anyway, why should it care?
He develops these questions in a fascinating exposition, inspired by quantum theory.
In 'Introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition', The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition (1976, 2006), xi-xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Angle (25)  |  Anyway (3)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Peter William Atkins (43)  |  Beach (23)  |  Beam (26)  |  Behave (18)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Book (413)  |  Brief (37)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Care (203)  |  Combination (150)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creation (350)  |  Develop (278)  |  Directly (25)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fast (49)  |  Head (87)  |  High (370)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Increase (225)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lifeguard (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Medium (15)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Optimum (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Path (159)  |  Personification (4)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Question (649)  |  Race (278)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Revisit (3)  |  Run (158)  |  Slow (108)  |  Straight (75)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimmer (4)  |  Target (13)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Try (296)  |  Wise (143)

Samuel Pierpoint Langley, at that time regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists in the United States … evidently believed that a full sized airplane could be built and flown largely from theory alone. This resulted in two successive disastrous plunges into the Potomac River, the second of which almost drowned his pilot. This experience contrasts with that of two bicycle mechanics Orville and Wilbur Wright who designed, built and flew the first successful airplane. But they did this after hundreds of experiments extending over a number of years.
In article Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future (1995), published at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Science quotes on:  |  Airplane (43)  |  Alone (324)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Build (211)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Design (203)  |  Disastrous (3)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Fly (153)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Samuel Pierpont Langley (6)  |  Largely (14)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Plunge (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Regarded (4)  |  Result (700)  |  River (140)  |  Scientist (881)  |  State (505)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Successive (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  United States (31)  |  Orville Wright (10)  |  Year (963)

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.
In The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951) Section 69
Science quotes on:  |  Guilt (13)  |  Loud (9)  |  Raise (38)  |  Righteousness (6)  |  Self (268)  |  Voice (54)

The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries.
In 'Table-Talk', The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Volume 3 (1883), 1354.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Burn (99)  |  Bury (19)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consume (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Fire (203)  |  Forbearance (3)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Mercy (12)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Water (503)  |  Weak (73)

The voice of the intelligence … is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance.
The Progressive Oct 55
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Bias (22)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Desire (212)  |  Extinguish (8)  |  Fear (212)  |  Hate (68)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Most (1728)  |  Roar (6)  |  Shame (15)  |  Silence (62)  |  Voice (54)

We are drowning in information, and starved for knowledge.
Megatrends (1982), 24. In Lawrence W. Green and Marshall W. Kreuter, Health Promotion Planning: an Educational and Ecological Approach (1999), xxviii.
Science quotes on:  |  Information (173)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Starve (3)

We do whatever we can to deny intuition of the invisible realms. We clog up our senses with smog, jam our minds with media overload. We drown ourselves in alcohol or medicate ourselves into rigidly artificial states... we take pride in our cynicism and detachment. Perhaps we are terrified to discover that our “rationality” is itself a kind of faith, an artifice, that beneath it lies the vast territory of the unknown.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 29
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Artifice (4)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Clog (5)  |  Cynicism (4)  |  Deny (71)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Faith (209)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Jam (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Media (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realm (87)  |  Rigidly (4)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Terrified (4)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whatever (234)


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.