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: “Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index E > Category: Exciting

Exciting Quotes (50 quotes)

[About any invention] (1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal; (2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it; (3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.
In News Review section, Sunday Times (29 Aug 1999).
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Age (509)  |  Already (226)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Birth (154)  |  Career (86)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Creative (144)  |  End (603)  |  Everything (489)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Luck (44)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Order (6)  |  Normal (29)  |  Order (638)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thirty (6)  |  Turn (454)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

[Luis] Alvarez's whole approach to physics was that of an entrepreneur, taking big risks by building large new projects in the hope of large rewards, although his pay was academic rather than financial. He had drawn around him a group of young physicists anxious to try out the exciting ideas he was proposing.
As quoted in Walter Sullivan, 'Luis W. Alvarez, Nobel Physicist Who Explored Atom, Dies at 77: Obituary', New York Times (2 Sep 1988).
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  Luis W. Alvarez (24)  |  Approach (112)  |  Attract (25)  |  Building (158)  |  Entrepreneur (5)  |  Financial (5)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Large (398)  |  New (1273)  |  Pay (45)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Project (77)  |  Propose (24)  |  Reward (72)  |  Risk (68)  |  Try (296)  |  Whole (756)  |  Young (253)

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific enquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustable source of pure and exciting contemplations:— One would think that Shakespeare had such a mind in view when he describes a contemplative man as finding
    “Tongues in trees—books in running brooks—
    Sermons in stones—and good in everything.”
Accustomed to trace the operations of general causes and the exemplification of general laws, in circumstances where the uninformed and uninquiring eye, perceives neither novelty nor beauty, he walks in the midst of wonders; every object which falls in his way elucidates some principle, affords some instruction and impresses him with a sense of harmony and order. Nor is it a mere passive pleasure which is thus communicated. A thousand questions are continually arising in his mind, a thousand objects of enquiry presenting themselves, which keep his faculties in constant exercise, and his thoughts perpetually on the wing, so that lassitude is excluded from his life, and that craving after artificial excitement and dissipation of the mind, which leads so many into frivolous, unworthy, and destructive pursuits, is altogether eradicated from his bosom.
In Dionysius Lardner (ed.), Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Vol 1, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831), 14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Arising (22)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Book (413)  |  Bosom (14)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Describe (132)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Everything (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fall (243)  |  Frivolous (8)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Habit (174)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Lassitude (4)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Object (438)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (649)  |  Running (61)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sermon (9)  |  Stone (168)  |  Taste (93)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tree (269)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  View (496)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wing (79)  |  Wonder (251)

A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific enquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations.
In Dionysius Lardner (ed.), Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Vol 1, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831), 14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Habit (174)  |  Inexhaustible (26)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Occur (151)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pure (299)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Taste (93)

A multidisciplinary study group ... estimated that it would be 1980 before developments in artificial intelligence make it possible for machines alone to do much thinking or problem solving of military significance. That would leave, say, five years to develop man-computer symbiosis and 15 years to use it. The 15 may be 10 or 500, but those years should be intellectually the most creative and exciting in the history of mankind.
From article 'Man-Computer Symbiosis', in IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics (Mar 1960), Vol. HFE-1, 4-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Computer (131)  |  Creative (144)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mankind (15)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Military (45)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Say (989)  |  Significance (114)  |  Solving (6)  |  Study (701)  |  Symbiosis (4)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Use (771)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Duty (71)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionist (8)  |  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)

An undertaking of great magnitude and importance, the successful accomplishment of which, in so comparatively short a period, notwithstanding the unheard of unestimable difficulties and impediments which had to be encountered and surmounted, in an almost unexplored and uninhabited wilderness … evinced on your part a moral courage and an undaunted spirit and combination of science and management equally exciting our admiration and deserving our praise.
(In recognition of his achievement building the Rideau Canal.)
John By
Address by the Montreal Committee of Trade. Quoted in 'John By', University of Toronto Press, Dictionary of Canadian Biography (1966), vol.7, 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Building (158)  |  Canal (18)  |  Combination (150)  |  Courage (82)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equally (129)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Importance (299)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Management (23)  |  Moral (203)  |  Period (200)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Short (200)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Successful (134)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Wilderness (57)

As a scientist, I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect.
In The God Delusion (2007), 321. As cited in John C. Weaver and John David Weaver, Christianity and Science (1973, 1984), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Change (639)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Fundamentalist (4)  |  Hostile (8)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Subvert (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (504)

At this very minute, with almost absolute certainty, radio waves sent forth by other intelligent civilizations are falling on the earth. A telescope can be built that, pointed in the right place, and tuned to the right frequency, could discover these waves. Someday, from somewhere out among the stars, will come the answers to many of the oldest, most important, and most exciting questions mankind has asked.
In Intelligent Life in Space (1962), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Important (229)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Minute (129)  |  Most (1728)  |  Oldest (9)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Question (649)  |  Radio (60)  |  Right (473)  |  Someday (15)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Tune (20)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)

But the fact is that when wine is taken in moderation, it gives rise to a large amount of breath, whose character is balanced, and whose luminosity is strong and brilliant. Hence wine disposes greatly to gladness, and the person is subject to quite trivial exciting agents. The breath now takes up the impression of agents belonging to the present time more easily than it does those which relate to the future; it responds to agents conducive to delight rather than those conducive to a sense of beauty.
Avicenna
'The External Causes of Delight and Sadness', in The Canon of Medicine, adapted by L. Bakhtiar (19-99), 149-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Breath (61)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Character (259)  |  Delight (111)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Future (467)  |  Gladness (5)  |  Impression (118)  |  Large (398)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Person (366)  |  Present (630)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sense (785)  |  Strong (182)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Wine (39)

From the age of 13, I was attracted to physics and mathematics. My interest in these subjects derived mostly from popular science books that I read avidly. Early on I was fascinated by theoretical physics and determined to become a theoretical physicist. I had no real idea what that meant, but it seemed incredibly exciting to spend one's life attempting to find the secrets of the universe by using one's mind.
From 'Autobiography', in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.) Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2004, (2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Attempting (3)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  Career (86)  |  Determination (80)  |  Early (196)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Find (1014)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Interest (416)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Popular (34)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spend (97)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)

I approached the bulk of my schoolwork as a chore rather than an intellectual adventure. The tedium was relieved by a few courses that seem to be qualitatively different. Geometry was the first exciting course I remember. Instead of memorizing facts, we were asked to think in clear, logical steps. Beginning from a few intuitive postulates, far reaching consequences could be derived, and I took immediately to the sport of proving theorems.
Autobiography in Gösta Ekspong (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1996-2000 (2002), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Approach (112)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biography (254)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Different (595)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Logic (311)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Proof (304)  |  Remember (189)  |  School (227)  |  Sport (23)  |  Step (234)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Think (1122)

I can remember … starting to gather all sorts of things like rocks and beetles when I was about nine years old. There was no parental encouragement—nor discouragement either—nor any outside influence that I can remember in these early stages. By about the age of twelve, I had settled pretty definitely on butterflies, largely I think because the rocks around my home were limited to limestone, while the butterflies were varied, exciting, and fairly easy to preserve with household moth-balls. … I was fourteen, I remember, when … I decided to be scientific, caught in some net of emulation, and resolutely threw away all of my “childish” specimens, mounted haphazard on “common pins” and without “proper labels.” The purge cost me a great inward struggle, still one of my most vivid memories, and must have been forced by a conflict between a love of my specimens and a love for orderliness, for having everything just exactly right according to what happened to be my current standards.
In The Nature of Natural History (1950, 1990), 255.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Age (509)  |  Ball (64)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Child (333)  |  Childish (20)  |  Common (447)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Cost (94)  |  Current (122)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Early (196)  |  Easy (213)  |  Emulation (2)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Everything (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Fourteen (2)  |  Gather (76)  |  Great (1610)  |  Haphazard (3)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Home (184)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inward (6)  |  Label (11)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Love (328)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mount (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Old (499)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Outside (141)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pin (20)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purge (11)  |  Remember (189)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Rock (176)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Settled (34)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standard (64)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Twelve (4)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Year (963)

I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million light years away. This discovery showed that some galaxies were capable of producing radio emission about a million times more intense than that from our own Galaxy or the Andromeda nebula, and the mechanisms responsible were quite unknown. ... [T]he possibilities were so exciting even in 1952 that my colleagues and I set about the task of designing instruments capable of extending the observations to weaker and weaker sources, and of exploring their internal structure.
From Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1974). In Stig Lundqvist (ed.), Nobel Lectures, Physics 1971-1980 (1992), 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Andromeda (2)  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Constellation (18)  |  Design (203)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distance (171)  |  Emission (20)  |  Event (222)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extending (3)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Internal (69)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Observation (593)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radio Telescope (5)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Search (175)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Source (101)  |  Structure (365)  |  Task (152)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Year (963)

I thought it was a miracle that I got this faculty appointment and was so happy to be there for a few years that I just wanted to follow what was exciting for me. I didn’t have expectations of getting tenure. So this was an aspect of gender inequality that was extremely positive. It allowed me to be fearless.
As quoted in Anna Azvolinsky, 'Fearless About Folding', The Scientist (Jan 2016).
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fearless (7)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gender (3)  |  Happy (108)  |  Inequality (9)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Positive (98)  |  Tenure (8)  |  Thought (995)  |  Want (504)  |  Year (963)

I used to say the evening that I developed the first x-ray photograph I took of insulin in 1935 was the most exciting moment of my life. But the Saturday afternoon in late July 1969, when we realized that the insulin electron density map was interpretable, runs that moment very close.
'X-rays and the Structure of Insulin', British Medical Journal (1971), 4, 449.
Science quotes on:  |  Density (25)  |  Develop (278)  |  Electron (96)  |  First (1302)  |  Insulin (9)  |  Late (119)  |  Life (1870)  |  Map (50)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ray (115)  |  Run (158)  |  Saturday (11)  |  Say (989)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

I wasn’t aware of Chargaff’s rules when he said them, but the effect on me was quite electric because I realized immediately that if you had this sort of scheme that John Griffith was proposing, of adenine being paired with thymine, and guanine being paired with cytosine, then you should get Chargaff’s rules.
I was very excited, but I didn’t actually tell Chargaff because it was something I was doing with John Griffith. There was a sort of musical comedy effect where I forgot what the bases were and I had to go to the library to check, and I went back to John Griffith to find out which places he said. Low and behold, it turned out that John Griffith’s ideas fitted in with Chargaff’s rules!
This was very exciting, and we thought “ah ha!” and we realized—I mean what anyone who is familiar with the history of science ought to realize—that when you have one-to-one ratios, it means things go to together. And how on Earth no one pointed out this simple fact in those years, I don’t know.
From Transcript of documentary by VSM Productions, The DNA Story (1973). As excerpted on web page 'Chargaff’s Rules', Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA on website scarc.library.oregonstate.edu
Science quotes on:  |  Adenine (6)  |  Back (395)  |  Base (120)  |  Being (1276)  |  Comedy (4)  |  Cytosine (6)  |  Doing (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electric (76)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Guanine (5)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Know (1538)  |  Library (53)  |  Low (86)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Pair (10)  |  Point (584)  |  Propose (24)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Realize (157)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thymine (6)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Year (963)

If we ascribe the ejection of the proton to a Compton recoil from a quantum of 52 x 106 electron volts, then the nitrogen recoil atom arising by a similar process should have an energy not greater than about 400,000 volts, should produce not more than about 10,000 ions, and have a range in the air at N.T.P. of about 1-3mm. Actually, some of the recoil atoms in nitrogen produce at least 30,000 ions. In collaboration with Dr. Feather, I have observed the recoil atoms in an expansion chamber, and their range, estimated visually, was sometimes as much as 3mm. at N.T.P.
These results, and others I have obtained in the course of the work, are very difficult to explain on the assumption that the radiation from beryllium is a quantum radiation, if energy and momentum are to be conserved in the collisions. The difficulties disappear, however, if it be assumed that the radiation consists of particles of mass 1 and charge 0, or neutrons. The capture of the a-particle by the Be9 nucleus may be supposed to result in the formation of a C12 nucleus and the emission of the neutron. From the energy relations of this process the velocity of the neutron emitted in the forward direction may well be about 3 x 109 cm. per sec. The collisions of this neutron with the atoms through which it passes give rise to the recoil atoms, and the observed energies of the recoil atoms are in fair agreement with this view. Moreover, I have observed that the protons ejected from hydrogen by the radiation emitted in the opposite direction to that of the exciting a-particle appear to have a much smaller range than those ejected by the forward radiation.
This again receives a simple explanation on the neutron hypothesis.
'Possible Existence of a Neutron', Letter to the Editor, Nature, 1932, 129, 312.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Air (366)  |  Arising (22)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Atom (381)  |  Beryllium (3)  |  Charge (63)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Collision (16)  |  Consist (223)  |  Course (413)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Electron (96)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formation (100)  |  Forward (104)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Ion (21)  |  Mass (160)  |  Momentum (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Observed (149)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Process (439)  |  Proton (23)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Range (104)  |  Receive (117)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Simple (426)  |  Through (846)  |  Velocity (51)  |  View (496)  |  Work (1402)

If we denote excitation as an end-effect by the sign plus (+), and inhibition as end-effect by the sign minus (–), such a reflex as the scratch-reflex can be termed a reflex of double-sign, for it develops excitatory end-effect and then inhibitory end-effect even during the duration of the exciting stimulus.
The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1906), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Develop (278)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Excitation (9)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Plus (43)  |  Reflex (14)  |  Scratch (14)  |  Sign (63)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Term (357)

In the year 2000, the solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people: harnessing the power of the Sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.
[The next President, Republican Ronald Reagan, removed the solar panels and gutted renewable energy research budgets. The road was not taken, nationally, in the eight years of his presidency. Several of the panels are, indeed, now in museums. Most were bought as government surplus and put to good use on a college roof.]
Speech, at dedication of solar panels on the White House roof, 'Solar Energy Remarks Announcing Administration Proposals' (20 Jun 1979).
Science quotes on:  |  2000 (15)  |  Adventure (69)  |  American (56)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cheap (13)  |  College (71)  |  Crippling (2)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Example (98)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harnessing (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Museum (40)  |  Next (238)  |  Oil (67)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  President (36)  |  Renewable Energy (15)  |  Research (753)  |  Small (489)  |  Solar Power (10)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Supply (100)  |  Today (321)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It is exciting to think that it costs nothing to create a new particle,…
In Lectures on Gravitation: 1962-62, quoted by John Preskill and Kip S. Thorne, 'Foreword to Feynman Lectures on Gravitation' (15 May 1995). The authors of the Foreword explain: “Because the total energy of the universe could really be zero, … matter creation is possible because the rest energy of the matter is actually canceled by its gravitational potential energy.”
Science quotes on:  |  Cost (94)  |  Create (245)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Particle (200)  |  Think (1122)

Laughter is a most healthful exercise; it is one of the greatest helps to digestion with which I am acquainted; and the custom prevalent among our forefathers, of exciting it at table by jesters and buffoons, was in accordance with true medical principles.
In George Moody, The English Journal of Education (1858), New Series, 12 , 411.
Science quotes on:  |  Buffoon (3)  |  Custom (44)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Forefather (4)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Health (210)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Most (1728)  |  Principle (530)  |  Table (105)

Most of us who become experimental physicists do so for two reasons; we love the tools of physics because to us they have intrinsic beauty, and we dream of finding new secrets of nature as important and as exciting as those uncovered by our scientific heroes.
In Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1968), 'Recent Developments in Particle Physics', collected in Nobel Lectures: Physics 1963-1970 (1972), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dream (222)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hero (45)  |  Important (229)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Love (328)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reason (766)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secret (216)  |  Tool (129)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncover (20)

Occurrences that other men would have noted only with the most casual interest became for Whitney exciting opportunities to experiment. Once he became disturbed by a scientist's seemingly endless pursuit of irrelevant details in the course of an experiment, and criticized this as being as pointless as grabbing beans out of a pot, recording the numbers, and then analyzing the results. Later that day, after he had gone home, his simile began to intrigue him, and he asked himself whether it would really be pointless to count beans gathered in such a random manner. Another man might well have dismissed this as an idle fancy, but to Whitney an opportunity to conduct an experiment was not to be overlooked. Accordingly, he set a pot of beans beside his bed, and for several days each night before retiring he would take as many beans as he could grasp in one hand and make a note of how many were in the handful. After several days had passed he was intrigued to find that the results were not as unrewarding as he had expected. He found that each handful contained more beans than the one before, indicating that with practice he was learning to grasp more and more beans. “This might be called research in morphology, the science of animal structure,” he mused. “My hand was becoming webbed … so I said to myself: never label a real experiment useless, it may reveal something unthought of but worth knowing.”
'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 358-359.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bean (3)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Count (107)  |  Course (413)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dismissal (2)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Endless (60)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gather (76)  |  Grab (5)  |  Hand (149)  |  Handful (14)  |  Himself (461)  |  Home (184)  |  Idle (34)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intrigued (4)  |  Irrelevance (4)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Label (11)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pointless (7)  |  Pot (4)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Random (42)  |  Recording (13)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Set (400)  |  Simile (8)  |  Something (718)  |  Structure (365)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Worth (172)

Our natural way of thinking about these coarser emotions is that the mental perception of some fact excites the mental affection called the emotion, and that this latter state of mind gives rise to the bodily expression. My theory, on the contrary, is that the bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion. Common-sense says, we lose our fortune, are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by a rival, are angry and strike. The hypothesis here to be defended says that this order of sequence is incorrect, that the one mental state is not immediately induced by the other, that the bodily manifestations must first be interposed between, and that the more rational statement is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble, because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be. Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colorless, destitute of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear, and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it right to strike, but we should not actually feel afraid or angry.
The Principles or Psychology (1890), Vol. 2, 449-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Bear (162)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Cognitive (7)  |  Common (447)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cry (30)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feel Sorry (4)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Insult (16)  |  Judge (114)  |  Lose (165)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Purely (111)  |  Rational (95)  |  Receive (117)  |  Right (473)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rival (20)  |  Run (158)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Sorry (31)  |  State (505)  |  Statement (148)  |  Strike (72)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Way (1214)

Perhaps in the times of Ahmes the multiplication table was exciting.
In What I Believe (1925), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Table (105)  |  Time (1911)

Personally, learning about science has helped me to understand Buddhism more deeply. I agree with Einstein that if there is a religion that can go along with science, it is Buddhism. That is because Buddhism has the spirit of nonattachment to rules. You may have a view that you consider to be the truth, but if you cling to it, then that is the end of your free inquiring. You have to be aware that with the practice of looking deeply, you may see things more clearly. That is why you should not be so dogmatic about what you have found; you have to be ready to release your view in order to get a higher insight. That is very exciting.
In Melvin McLeod (ed.), 'Love without Limit: An Interview with Thich Nhat Hanh', The Best Buddhist Writing 2007 (2007), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Dogmatic (8)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Help (116)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Insight (107)  |  Learn (672)  |  Release (31)  |  Religion (369)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)

Science and mathematics [are] much more compelling and exciting than the doctrines of pseudoscience, whose practitioners were condemned as early as the fifth century B.C. by the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus as “night walkers, magicians, priests of Bacchus, priestesses of the wine-vat, mystery-mongers.” But science is more intricate and subtle, reveals a much richer universe, and powerfully evokes our sense of wonder. And it has the additional and important virtue—to whatever extent the word has any meaning—of being true.
Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1979, 1986), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Bacchus (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Century (319)  |  Compelling (11)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Condemnation (16)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Early (196)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Extent (142)  |  Heraclitus (15)  |  Important (229)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Magician (15)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practioner (2)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Priest (29)  |  Priestess (2)  |  Pseudoscience (17)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sense (785)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wine (39)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Word (650)

Scientific research is one of the most exciting and rewarding of occupations. It is like a voyage of discovery into unknown lands, seeking not for new territory but for new knowledge. It should appeal to those with a good sense of adventure.
From Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1980).
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Good (906)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Land (131)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Research (753)  |  Rewarding (2)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Sense (785)  |  Territory (25)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Voyage (13)

Scientists don’t really ever grow up. I read, as a 10-or-so-year-old, a book for kids by Einstein. I think it was The Meaning of Relativity. It was exciting! Science was compared to a detective story, replete with clues, and the solution was the search for a coherent account of all the known events. Then I remember some very entrapping biographies: Crucibles, by Bernard Jaffe, was the story of chemistry told through the lives of great chemists; Microbe Hunters, by Paul de Kruif, did the same for biologists. Also, the novel Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis, about a medical researcher. These books were a crucial component of getting hooked into science.
When asked by Discover magazine what books helped inspire his passion as a scientist.
In 'The 1998 Discover Science Gift Guide: Fantastic Voyages Children's Books That Mattered', Discover (Dec 1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Ask (420)  |  Biography (254)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Book (413)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Component (51)  |  Crucible (8)  |  Detective (11)  |  Discover (571)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Event (222)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Known (453)  |  Live (650)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Novel (35)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Read (308)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Remember (189)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Search (175)  |  Solution (282)  |  Story (122)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Year (963)

She [Rosalind Franklin] discovered in a series of beautifully executed researches the fundamental distinction between carbons that turned on heating into graphite and those that did not. Further she related this difference to the chemical constitution of the molecules from which carbon was made. She was already a recognized authority in industrial physico-chemistry when she chose to abandon this work in favour of the far more difficult and more exciting fields of biophysics.
Comment in The Times, 19 Apr 1958, shortly after Franklin's death. In Jenifer Glynn, 'Rosalind Franklin', in E. Shils and C. Blacker (eds.), Cambridge Women: Twelve Portraits (1996), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Already (226)  |  Authority (99)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Difference (355)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Field (378)  |  Rosalind Franklin (18)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Series (153)  |  Turn (454)  |  Work (1402)

Some of Feynman’s ideas about cosmology have a modern ring. A good example is his attitude toward the origin of matter. The idea of continuous matter creation in the steady state cosmology does not seriously offend him (and he notes … that the big bang cosmology has a problem just as bad, to explain where all the matter came from in the beginning). … He emphasizes that the total energy of the universe could really be zero, and that matter creation is possible because the rest energy of the matter is actually canceled by its gravitational potential energy. “It is exciting to think that it costs nothing to create a new particle, …”
In John Preskill and Kip S. Thorne, 'Foreword to Feynman Lectures on Gravitation' (15 May 1995). Feynman delivered his lectures in 1962–63.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bang (29)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Cancel (5)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Continuous Creation (2)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Cost (94)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Energy (373)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Richard P. Feynman (125)  |  Good (906)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Idea (881)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Offend (7)  |  Origin (250)  |  Particle (200)  |  Possible (560)  |  Potential (75)  |  Potential Energy (5)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rest (287)  |  State (505)  |  Steady (45)  |  Steady-State (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Total (95)  |  Universe (900)  |  Zero (38)

Something to do with a puzzle being solved—things fall into place and you see a different way of looking at things which suddenly makes sense. [Naming what is a most exciting moment in his career.]
Answering “What has been the most exciting moment in your career?” From 'Interview: Of Mind and Matter: David Attenborough Meets Richard Dawkins', The Guardian (11 Sep 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Career (86)  |  Different (595)  |  Moment (260)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solve (145)  |  Sudden (70)

The … publicity is always the same; only the blanks need to be filled in: “It was announced today by scientists at [Harvard, Vanderbilt, Stanford] Medical School that a gene responsible for [some, many, a common form of] [schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, arterio-sclerosis, prostate cancer] has been located and its DNA sequence determined. This exciting research, say scientists, is the first step in what may eventually turn out to be a possible cure for this disease.”
From review, 'Billions and Billions of Demons', of the book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan, in New York Review of Books (9 Jan 1997).
Science quotes on:  |  Announcement (15)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Common (447)  |  Cure (124)  |  Determine (152)  |  Disease (340)  |  DNA (81)  |  Eventual (9)  |  Eventually (64)  |  First (1302)  |  First Step (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Gene (105)  |  Locate (7)  |  Medical School (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prostate (2)  |  Publicity (7)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Schizophrenia (4)  |  School (227)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Step (234)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turn Out (9)

The act of discovery, the act of being confronted with a new phenomenon, is a very passionate and very exciting moment in everyone’s life. It’s the reward for many, many years of effort and, also, of failures.
From 'Asking Nature', collected in Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (eds.), Passionate Minds: The Inner World of Scientists (1997), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Being (1276)  |  Confront (18)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effort (243)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Failure (176)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moment (260)  |  New (1273)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Reward (72)  |  Year (963)

The Chinese are clearly inculcating the idea that science is exciting and important, and that’s why they, as a whole—they're graduating four times as many engineers as we are, and that's just happened over the last 20 years.
NPR Radio interview, Morning Edition, (29 Apr 2005). In Lisa Rogak (ed.) The Impatient Optimist: Bill Gates in his Words (2012), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  China (27)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Last (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

The discovery of an interaction among the four hemes made it obvious that they must be touching, but in science what is obvious is not necessarily true. When the structure of hemoglobin was finally solved, the hemes were found to lie in isolated pockets on the surface of the subunits. Without contact between them how could one of them sense whether the others had combined with oxygen? And how could as heterogeneous a collection of chemical agents as protons, chloride ions, carbon dioxide, and diphosphoglycerate influence the oxygen equilibrium curve in a similar way? It did not seem plausible that any of them could bind directly to the hemes or that all of them could bind at any other common site, although there again it turned out we were wrong. To add to the mystery, none of these agents affected the oxygen equilibrium of myoglobin or of isolated subunits of hemoglobin. We now know that all the cooperative effects disappear if the hemoglobin molecule is merely split in half, but this vital clue was missed. Like Agatha Christie, Nature kept it to the last to make the story more exciting. There are two ways out of an impasse in science: to experiment or to think. By temperament, perhaps, I experimented, whereas Jacques Monod thought.
From essay 'The Second Secret of Life', collected in I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier (1998), 263-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Binding (9)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Agatha Christie (7)  |  Clue (20)  |  Collection (68)  |  Combination (150)  |  Common (447)  |  Contact (66)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Curve (49)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Half (63)  |  Hemoglobin (5)  |  Heterogeneity (4)  |  Impasse (2)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Ion (21)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Lie (370)  |  Merely (315)  |  Miss (51)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Jacques Monod (22)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Plausibility (7)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Pocket (11)  |  Proton (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Site (19)  |  Solution (282)  |  Split (15)  |  Story (122)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  Temperament (18)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Touch (146)  |  Touching (16)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wrong (246)

The exciting about science and discovery, as much as how far we have come, is how far we still have to go. If we know what we do now, then the future truly is ours.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Far (158)  |  Future (467)  |  Know (1538)  |  Ours (4)  |  Still (614)  |  Truly (118)

The lives of scientists, considered as Lives, almost always make dull reading. For one thing, the careers of the famous and the merely ordinary fall into much the same pattern, give or take an honorary degree or two, or (in European countries) an honorific order. It could be hardly otherwise. Academics can only seldom lead lives that are spacious or exciting in a worldly sense. They need laboratories or libraries and the company of other academics. Their work is in no way made deeper or more cogent by privation, distress or worldly buffetings. Their private lives may be unhappy, strangely mixed up or comic, but not in ways that tell us anything special about the nature or direction of their work. Academics lie outside the devastation area of the literary convention according to which the lives of artists and men of letters are intrinsically interesting, a source of cultural insight in themselves. If a scientist were to cut his ear off, no one would take it as evidence of a heightened sensibility; if a historian were to fail (as Ruskin did) to consummate his marriage, we should not suppose that our understanding of historical scholarship had somehow been enriched.
'J.B.S: A Johnsonian Scientist', New York Review of Books (10 Oct 1968), reprinted in Pluto's Republic (1982), and inThe Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science (1996), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  According (236)  |  Artist (97)  |  Career (86)  |  Cogent (6)  |  Comic (5)  |  Company (63)  |  Consider (428)  |  Convention (16)  |  Culture (157)  |  Cut (116)  |  Degree (277)  |  Devastation (6)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distress (9)  |  Dull (58)  |  Ear (69)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Enrichment (7)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fame (51)  |  Historian (59)  |  Historical (70)  |  Insight (107)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lead (391)  |  Letter (117)  |  Library (53)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Live (650)  |  Man Of Letters (6)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Privacy (7)  |  Privation (5)  |  Reading (136)  |  John Ruskin (25)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensibility (5)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Special (188)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Tell (344)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unhappiness (9)  |  Unhappy (16)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

The most exciting part of any trip is reaching home again.
Aphorism as given by the fictional character Dezhnev Senior, in Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain (1987), 230.
Science quotes on:  |  Home (184)  |  Most (1728)

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny....'
In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 467
Science quotes on:  |  Eureka (13)  |  Hear (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Phrase (61)

The progress of science depends less than is usually believed on the efforts and performance of the individual genius ... many important discoveries have been made by men of ordinary talents, simply because chance had made them, at the proper time and in the proper place and circumstances, recipients of a body of doctrines, facts and techniques that rendered almost inevitable the recognition of an important phenomenon. It is surprising that some historian has not taken malicious pleasure in writing an anthology of 'one discovery' scientists. Many exciting facts have been discovered as a result of loose thinking and unimaginative experimentation, and described in wrappings of empty words. One great discovery does not betoken a great scientist; science now and then selects insignificant standard bearers to display its banners.
Louis Pasteur, Free Lance of Science (1986), 368
Science quotes on:  |  Banner (9)  |  Body (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Display (59)  |  Effort (243)  |  Empty (82)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historian (59)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Malicious (8)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Performance (51)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Proper (150)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Render (96)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Select (45)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Talent (99)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

The question of the origin of the universe is one of the most exciting topics for a scientist to deal with. It reaches far beyond its purely scientific significance, since it is related to human existence, to mythology, and to religion. Furthermore, it deals with questions are connected with the fundamental structure of matter, with elementary particles.
Opening sentences of 'The Origin of the Universe: An introduction to Recent Theoretical Developments That are Linking Cosmology and Particle Physics', American Scientist (Sep-Oct 1983), 71, No. 5, 473.
Science quotes on:  |  Existence (481)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Human (1512)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Religion (369)  |  Structure (365)

The rallying motto of a sectarian name is incapable of exciting to sober, calm, scientific investigation; it only rouses the explosive spirit of accusations of heresy to a fierce volcanic flame. Truth and the weal of humanity should be the only motto of the genuine elucidators of the art, and the watchword of their brotherly, peaceful bond of union, without slavish adherence to any sectarian leader, if we would not see the little good that we know completely sacrificed to party spirit and discord.
In 'View of Professional Liberality at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century' from the Allgemeiner Anzeiger d. D. No. 32 (1801), collected in R.E. Dudgeon (ed., trans.) The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann (1851), 363.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Art (680)  |  Bond (46)  |  Brother (47)  |  Calm (32)  |  Completely (137)  |  Discord (10)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Flame (44)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Good (906)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Leader (51)  |  Little (717)  |  Motto (29)  |  Name (359)  |  Party (19)  |  Peace (116)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sect (5)  |  See (1094)  |  Sober (10)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Union (52)  |  Watchword (2)

There is a great deal of emotional satisfaction in the elegant demonstration, in the elegant ordering of facts into theories, and in the still more satisfactory, still more emotionally exciting discovery that the theory is not quite right and has to be worked over again, very much as any other work of art—a painting, a sculpture has to be worked over in the interests of aesthetic perfection. So there is no scientist who is not to some extent worthy of being described as artist or poet.
'Scientist and Citizen', Speech to the Empire Club of Canada (29 Jan 1948), The Empire Club of Canada Speeches (29 Jan 1948), 209-221.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Being (1276)  |  Deal (192)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interest (416)  |  More (2558)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painting (46)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Poet (97)  |  Right (473)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Work (1402)

These neutrino observations are so exciting and significant that I think we're about to see the birth of an entirely new branch of astronomy: neutrino astronomy. Supernova explosions that are invisible to us because of dust clouds may occur in our galaxy as often as once every 10 years, and neutrino bursts could give us a way to study them.
New York Times (3 Apr 1987)
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Birth (154)  |  Branch (155)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Dust (68)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Neutrino (11)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occur (151)  |  See (1094)  |  Significant (78)  |  Study (701)  |  Supernova (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Way (1214)  |  Year (963)

This is the most exciting part of being human. It is using our brains in the highest way. Otherwise we are just healthy animals.
Quoted in Alix Kerr, 'What It Took: Intuition, Goo,' Life (25 Jan 1963), 54, No. 4, 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Human (1512)  |  Most (1728)  |  Way (1214)

We are very lucky to be living in an age in which we are still making discoveries. It is like the discovery of America—you only discover it once. The age in which we live is the age in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of nature, and that day will never come again. It is very exciting, it is marvelous, but this excitement will have to go.
From transcript of the seventh Messenger Lecture, Cornell University (1964), 'Seeking New Laws.' Published in The Character of Physical Law (1965, reprint 2001), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  America (143)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Law (913)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Making (300)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Still (614)  |  Will (2350)

We have simply arrived too late in the history of the universe to see this primordial simplicity easily ... But although the symmetries are hidden from us, we can sense that they are latent in nature, governing everything about us. That's the most exciting idea I know: that nature is much simpler than it looks. Nothing makes me more hopeful that our generation of human beings may actually hold the key to the universe in our hands—that perhaps in our lifetimes we may be able to tell why all of what we see in this immense universe of galaxies and particles is logically inevitable.
Quoted in Nigel Calder, The Key to the Universe: A Report on the New Physics (1978), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Everything (489)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Generation (256)  |  Governing (20)  |  Hidden (43)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inevitability (10)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Key (56)  |  Know (1538)  |  Late (119)  |  Latent (13)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Particle (200)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Tell (344)  |  Universe (900)  |  Why (491)

While there is still much to learn and discover through space exploration, we also need to pay attention to our unexplored world here on earth. Our next big leap into the unknown can be every bit as exciting and bold as our pioneering work in space. It possesses the same “wow” factor: alien worlds, dazzling technological feats and the mystery of the unknown.
In 'Why Exploring the Ocean is Mankind’s Next Giant Leap', contributed to CNN 'Lightyears Blog' (13 Mar 2012)
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (35)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bold (22)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Excite (17)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Factor (47)  |  Feat (11)  |  Leap (57)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Next (238)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Possess (157)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Still (614)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)


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.