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 was going to record talking... the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb',... and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index G > Category: Greater

Greater Quotes (288 quotes)

…comparing the capacity of computers to the capacity of the human brain, I’ve often wondered, where does our success come from? The answer is synthesis, the ability to combine creativity and calculation, art and science, into whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts.
In How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom (2007), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Answer (389)  |  Art (680)  |  Brain (281)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Combination (150)  |  Combine (58)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Computer (131)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Human (1512)  |  Part (235)  |  Success (327)  |  Sum (103)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonder (251)

...to many it is not knowledge but the quest for knowledge that gives greater interest to thought—to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
Last sentences, Physics and Philosophy (1943, 2003), 217
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Quest (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Travel (125)

’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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extent (142)  |  Force (497)  |  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)

“I’m not so sure he’s wrong about automobiles,” he said, “With all their speed forward they may be a step backward for civilization—that is, spiritual civilization … But automobiles have come, and they bring a greater change in our life than most of us expect. They are here, and almost all outward things are going to be different because of what they bring. They are going to alter war, and they are going to alter peace.”
Spoken by character Eugene, in the novel, The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), 275
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Change (639)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Different (595)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Forward (104)  |  Life (1870)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peace (116)  |  Speed (66)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Step (234)  |  Thing (1914)  |  War (233)  |  Wrong (246)

[Alchemists] finde out men so covetous of so much happiness, whom they easily perswade that they shall finde greater Riches in Hydargyrie [mercury], than Nature affords in Gold. Such, whom although they have twice or thrice already been deluded, yet they have still a new Device wherewith to deceive um again; there being no greater Madness…. So that the smells of Coles, Sulphur, Dung, Poyson, and Piss, are to them a greater pleasure than the taste of Honey; till their Farms, Goods, and Patrimonies being wasted, and converted into Ashes and Smoak, when they expect the rewards of their Labours, births of Gold, Youth, and Immortality, after all their Time and Expences; at length, old, ragged, famisht, with the continual use of Quicksilver [mercury] paralytick, onely rich in misery, … a laughing-stock to the people: … compell’d to live in the lowest degree of poverty, and … at length compell’d thereto by Penury, they fall to Ill Courses, as Counterfeiting of Money.
In The Vanity of the Arts and Sciences (1530), translation (1676), 313.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Already (226)  |  Being (1276)  |  Birth (154)  |  Coal (64)  |  Continual (44)  |  Counterfeit (2)  |  Course (413)  |  Covetous (2)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Degree (277)  |  Delude (3)  |  Deluded (7)  |  Device (71)  |  Dung (10)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fall (243)  |  Farm (28)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Honey (15)  |  Labor (200)  |  Live (650)  |  Madness (33)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Misery (31)  |  Money (178)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Penury (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Persuade (11)  |  Piss (3)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Poison (46)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Quicksilver (8)  |  Reward (72)  |  Smell (29)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Still (614)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Taste (93)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Youth (109)

[Decimal currency is desirable because] by that means all calculations of interest, exchange, insurance, and the like are rendered much more simple and accurate, and, of course, more within the power of the great mass of people. Whenever such things require much labor, time, and reflection, the greater number who do not know, are made the dupes of the lesser number who do.
Letter to Congress (15 Jan 1782). 'Coinage Scheme Proposed by Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance', from MS. letters and reports of the Superintendent of Finance, No, 137, Vol. 1, 289-300. Reprinted as Appendix, in Executive Documents, Senate of the U.S., Third Session of the Forty-Fifth Congress, 1878-79 (1879), 430.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Course (413)  |  Currency (3)  |  Decimal (21)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dupe (5)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Great (1610)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whenever (81)

[Louis Rendu, Bishop of Annecy] collects observations, makes experiments, and tries to obtain numerical results; always taking care, however, so to state his premises and qualify his conclusions that nobody shall be led to ascribe to his numbers a greater accuracy than they merit. It is impossible to read his work, and not feel that he was a man of essentially truthful mind and that science missed an ornament when he was appropriated by the Church.
In The Glaciers of the Alps (1860), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Appropriation (5)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Care (203)  |  Church (64)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Man (2252)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Merit (51)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Miss (51)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Premise (40)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Read (308)  |  Louis le Chanoine Rendu (2)  |  Result (700)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  State (505)  |  Statement (148)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

[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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  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)

[Relativist] Rel. There is a well-known proposition of Euclid which states that “Any two sides of a triangle are together greater than the third side.” Can either of you tell me whether nowadays there is good reason to believe that this proposition is true?
[Pure Mathematician] Math. For my part, I am quite unable to say whether the proposition is true or not. I can deduce it by trustworthy reasoning from certain other propositions or axioms, which are supposed to be still more elementary. If these axioms are true, the proposition is true; if the axioms are not true, the proposition is not true universally. Whether the axioms are true or not I cannot say, and it is outside my province to consider.
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consider (428)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Good (906)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Province (37)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Side (236)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Tell (344)  |  Together (392)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Two (936)

[The] complex pattern of the misallocation of credit for scientific work must quite evidently be described as “the Matthew effect,” for, as will be remembered, the Gospel According to St. Matthew puts it this way: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Put in less stately language, the Matthew effect consists of the accruing of greater increments of recognition for particular scientific contributions to scientists of considerable repute and the withholding of such recognition from scientists who have not yet made their mark.
'The Matthew Effect in Science', Science (1968), 159, 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  According (236)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Credit (24)  |  Description (89)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Give (208)  |  Gospel (8)  |  Hath (2)  |  Increment (2)  |  Language (308)  |  Mark (47)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Stately (12)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

[Thomas Henry] Huxley, I believe, was the greatest Englishman of the Nineteenth Century—perhaps the greatest Englishman of all time. When one thinks of him, one thinks inevitably of such men as Goethe and Aristotle. For in him there was that rich, incomparable blend of intelligence and character, of colossal knowledge and high adventurousness, of instinctive honesty and indomitable courage which appears in mankind only once in a blue moon. There have been far greater scientists, even in England, but there has never been a scientist who was a greater man.
'Thomas Henry Huxley.' In the Baltimore Evening Sun (4 May 1925). Reprinted in A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: A New Selection from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit (2006), 157.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Century (319)  |  Character (259)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Courage (82)  |  England (43)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Greatest (330)  |  High (370)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Indomitable (4)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Moon (252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)

Are coral reefs growing from the depths of the oceans? ... [The] reply is a simple negative; and a single fact establishes its truth. The reef-forming coral zoophytes, as has been shown, cannot grow at greater depths than 100 or 120 feet; and therefore in seas deeper than this, the formation or growth of reefs over the bottom is impossible.
On Coral Reefs and Islands (1853), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Formation (100)  |  Forming (42)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Island (49)  |  Negative (66)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Reply (58)  |  Sea (326)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Zoophyte (5)

Die Wissenschaft ist ein Land, welches die Eigenschaft hat, um so mehr Menschen beherbergen zu können, je mehr Bewohner sich darin sammeln; sie ist ein Schatz, der um so grösser wird, je mehr man ihn teilt. Darum kann jeder von uns in seiner Art seine Arbeit tun, und die Gemeinsamkeit bedeutet nicht Gleichförmigkeit.
Science is one land, having the ability to accommodate even more people, as more residents gather in it; it is a treasure that is the greater the more it is shared. Because of that, each of us can do his work in his own way, and the common ground does not mean conformity.
Speaking (in German) at the Banquet to Past Presidents, the Chemical Society, as published in William Crookes (ed.) The Chemical News (16 Dec 1898), 78, 298. Also used as epigraph, in Paul Walden, Wilhelm Ostwald (1904), 1. Translation by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accommodate (17)  |  Art (680)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Ground (4)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Do (1905)  |  Gather (76)  |  Ground (222)  |  Land (131)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Share (82)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

Question: A hollow indiarubber ball full of air is suspended on one arm of a balance and weighed in air. The whole is then covered by the receiver of an air pump. Explain what will happen as the air in the receiver is exhausted.
Answer: The ball would expand and entirely fill the vessell, driving out all before it. The balance being of greater density than the rest would be the last to go, but in the end its inertia would be overcome and all would be expelled, and there would be a perfect vacuum. The ball would then burst, but you would not be aware of the fact on account of the loudness of a sound varying with the density of the place in which it is generated, and not on that in which it is heard.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 181, Question 21. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Air (366)  |  Air Pump (2)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arm (82)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Balance (82)  |  Ball (64)  |  Being (1276)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cover (40)  |  Density (25)  |  Drive (61)  |  Driving (28)  |  End (603)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expulsion (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Generation (256)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Hollow (6)  |  Howler (15)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Last (425)  |  Loudness (3)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Overcoming (3)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Place (192)  |  Question (649)  |  Receiver (5)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sound (187)  |  Suspend (11)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Varying (2)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weighing (2)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

That the general characters of the big group to which the embryo belongs appear in development earlier than the special characters. In agreement with this is the fact that the vesicular form is the most general form of all; for what is common in a greater degree to all animals than the opposition of an internal and an external surface?
The less general structural relations are formed after the more general, and so on until the most special appear.
The embryo of any given form, instead of passing through the state of other definite forms, on the contrary separates itself from them.

Fundamentally the embryo of a higher animal form never resembles the adult of another animal form, but only its embryo.
Über Entwicklungsgeschichte der Thiere: Beobachtung und Reflexion (1828), 224. Trans. E. S. Russell, Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology (1916), 125-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Animal (651)  |  Belong (168)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (277)  |  Development (441)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Internal (69)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passing (76)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Separate (151)  |  Special (188)  |  State (505)  |  Structural (29)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)

A primâ facie argument in favour of the efficacy of prayer is therefore to be drawn from the very general use of it. The greater part of mankind, during all the historic ages, have been accustomed to pray for temporal advantages. How vain, it may be urged, must be the reasoning that ventures to oppose this mighty consensus of belief! Not so. The argument of universality either proves too much, or else it is suicidal.
'Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer', Fortnightly Review, 1872, 12, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Age (509)  |  Argument (145)  |  Belief (615)  |  Consensus (8)  |  General (521)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Must (1525)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Universality (22)  |  Use (771)  |  Vain (86)

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
In Poor Richard's Almanack (1734).
Science quotes on:  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)

A pound of energy with an ounce of talent will achieve greater results than a pound of talent with an ounce of energy.
In Getting on in the World; Or, Hints on Success in Life (1873), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Energy (373)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Ounce (9)  |  Pound (15)  |  Result (700)  |  Talent (99)  |  Will (2350)

A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that within the framework of the applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown.
Autobiographical Notes (1946), 33. Quoted in Gerald Holton and Yehuda Elkana, Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives (1997), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicability (7)  |  Area (33)  |  Basic (144)  |  Classical (49)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Content (75)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Deep (241)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Framework (33)  |  Impression (118)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Impressiveness (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Physical (518)  |  Premise (40)  |  Relation (166)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universal (198)  |  Will (2350)

Adrenalin does not excite sympathetic ganglia when applied to them directly, as does nicotine. Its effective action is localised at the periphery. The existence upon plain muscle of a peripheral nervous network, that degenerates only after section of both the constrictor and inhibitory nerves entering it, and not after section of either alone, has been described. I find that even after such complete denervation, whether of three days' or ten months' duration, the plain muscle of the dilatator pupillae will respond to adrenalin, and that with greater rapidity and longer persistence than does the iris whose nervous relations are uninjured. Therefore it cannot be that adrenalin excites any structure derived from, and dependent for its persistence on, the peripheral neurone. But since adrenalin does not evoke any reaction from muscle that has at no time of its life been innervated by the sympathetic, the point at which the stimulus of the chemical excitant is received, and transformed into what may cause the change of tension of the muscle fibre, is perhaps a mechanism developed out of the muscle cell in response to its union with the synapsing sympathetic fibre, the function of which is to receive and transform the nervous impulse. Adrenalin might then be the chemical stimulant liberated on each occasion when the impulse arrives at the periphery.
'On the Action of Adrenalin', Proceedings of the Physiological Society, 21 May 1904, in The Journal of Physiology 1904, 31, xxi.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Adrenaline (5)  |  Alone (324)  |  Applied (176)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complete (209)  |  Develop (278)  |  Effective (68)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Function (235)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Month (91)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Network (21)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Point (584)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Receive (117)  |  Response (56)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  Tension (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transform (74)  |  Union (52)  |  Will (2350)

Advocacy of leaf protein as a human food is based on the undisputed fact that forage crops (such as lucerne) give a greater yield of protein than other types of crops. Even with connventional food crops there is more protein in the leafy parts than in the seeds or tubs that are usually harvested.
Quoted in 'India Children to Eat Leaf Protein in a Diet Test', New York Times (16 Dec 1973), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Crop (26)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Food (213)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Human (1512)  |  Leaf (73)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Protein (56)  |  Seed (97)  |  Type (171)  |  Usually (176)  |  Yield (86)

After the birth of printing books became widespread. Hence everyone throughout Europe devoted himself to the study of literature... Every year, especially since 1563, the number of writings published in every field is greater than all those produced in the past thousand years. Through them there has today been created a new theology and a new jurisprudence; the Paracelsians have created medicine anew and the Copernicans have created astronomy anew. I really believe that at last the world is alive, indeed seething, and that the stimuli of these remarkable conjunctions did not act in vain.
De Stella Nova, On the New Star (1606), Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke (1937- ), Vol. 1, 330-2. Quoted in N. Jardine, The Birth of History and Philosophy of Science: Kepler's A Defence of Tycho Against Ursus With Essays on its Provenance and Significance (1984), 277-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Alive (97)  |  Anew (19)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Birth (154)  |  Book (413)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Field (378)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Last (425)  |  Literature (116)  |  Medicine (392)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (19)  |  Past (355)  |  Printing (25)  |  Produced (187)  |  Publication (102)  |  Study (701)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Today (321)  |  Vain (86)  |  Widespread (23)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enlightenment (21)  |  First (1302)  |  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)

All the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and...however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties.
A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1888), introduction, xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Lie (370)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passage (52)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Power (771)  |  Religion (369)  |  Return (133)  |  Run (158)  |  Still (614)  |  Wide (97)

Although Rick [Richard Smalley] made enormous contributions to science, I believe his worldwide contributions in making so many of us aware of the huge energy problem is even greater and longer-lasting than the beautiful science that he discovered.
As quoted in Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle (28 Oct 2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Aware (36)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Energy (373)  |  Making (300)  |  Problem (731)  |  Richard E. Smalley (19)  |  Worldwide (19)

An inducement must be offered to those who are engaged in the industrial exploitation of natural sources of power, as waterfalls, by guaranteeing greater returns on the capital invested than they can secure by local development of the property.
In 'The Problem of Increasing Human Energy', Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (Jun 1900), 210. Collected in My Inventions: And Other Writings (2016), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Capital (16)  |  Development (441)  |  Engage (41)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  Furthermore (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Inducement (3)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Invest (20)  |  Local (25)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Offer (142)  |  Power (771)  |  Prop (6)  |  Return (133)  |  Secure (23)  |  Source (101)  |  Waterfall (5)

And God made two great lights, great for their use
To man, the greater to have rule by day, The less by night…
Paradise Lost: A poem, in Twelve Books (1750), Book 7, 36-37.
Science quotes on:  |  Day (43)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  Night (133)  |  Rule (307)  |  Sun (407)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Firmament (18)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Let There Be Light (4)  |  Light (635)  |  Night (133)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rule (307)  |  Season (47)  |  Separate (151)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)

And so the great truth, now a paradox, may become a commonplace, that man is greater than his surroundings, and that the production of a breed of men and women, even in our great cities, less prone to disease, and pain, more noble in aspect, more rational in habits, more exultant in the pure joy of living, is not only scientifically possible, but that even the partial fulfillment of this dream, if dream it be, is the most worthy object towards which the lover of his kind can devote the best energies of his life.
In 'The Breed of Man', The Nineteenth Century, (Oct 1900), 669, as collected in Martin Polley (ed.), The History of Sport in Britain, 1880-1914: Sport, Education, and Improvement (2004), Vol. 2, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Become (821)  |  Best (467)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fulfillment (20)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habit (174)  |  Joy (117)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noble (93)  |  Object (438)  |  Pain (144)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Possible (560)  |  Production (190)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rational (95)  |  Truth (1109)

As a matter of fact, an ordinary desert supports a much greater variety of plants than does either a forest or a prairie.
The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal America (1919), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Desert (59)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Forest (161)  |  Matter (821)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Plant (320)  |  Prairie (4)  |  Support (151)  |  Variety (138)

As an investigator [Robert Bunsen] was great, as a teacher he was greater, as a man and friend he was greatest.
Concluding remark in obituary, "Professor Bunsen', Nature, (31 Aug 1899), 60, No. 1557, 425.
Science quotes on:  |  Robert Bunsen (8)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Man (2252)  |  Teacher (154)

As the issues are greater than men ever sought to realize before, the recriminations will be fiercer and pride more desperately hurt. It may help to recall that many recognized before the bomb ever feel that the time had already come when we must learn to live in One World.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fierce (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Help (116)  |  Hurt (14)  |  Issue (46)  |  Learn (672)  |  Live (650)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pride (84)  |  Realize (157)  |  Recall (11)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Seek (218)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

As there is no study which may be so advantageously entered upon with a less stock of preparatory knowledge than mathematics, so there is none in which a greater number of uneducated men have raised themselves, by their own exertions, to distinction and eminence. … Many of the intellectual defects which, in such cases, are commonly placed to the account of mathematical studies, ought to be ascribed to the want of a liberal education in early youth.
In Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Sec. 3, 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Defect (31)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Early (196)  |  Education (423)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Enter (145)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Liberal Education (2)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Number (710)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Study (701)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Uneducated (9)  |  Want (504)  |  Youth (109)

As, pricked out with less and greater lights, between the poles of the universe, the Milky Way so gleameth white as to set very sages questioning.
In The Paradiso of Dante Alighieri (1899, 1904), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Gleam (13)  |  Less (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Pole (49)  |  Pricking (2)  |  Question (649)  |  Sage (25)  |  Set (400)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  White (132)

At the end of the book [Zoonomia] he sums up his [Erasmus Darwin] views in the following sentences: “The world has been evolved, not created: it has arisen little by little from a small beginning, and has increased through the activity of the elemental forces embodied in itself, and so has rather grown than come into being at an almighty word.” “What a sublime idea of the infinite might of the great Architect, the Cause of all causes, the Father of all fathers, the Ens Entium! For if we would compare the Infinite, it would surely require a greater Infinite to cause the causes of effects than to produce the effects themselves.”
[This is a restatement, not a verbatim quote of the original words of Erasmus Darwin, who attributed the idea he summarized to David Hume.]
In August Weismann, John Arthur Thomson (trans.), Margaret R. Thomson (trans.) The Evolution Theory (1904), Vol. 1, 17-18. The verbatim form of the quote from Zoonomia, in context, can be seen on the webpage here for Erasmus Darwin. Later authors have quoted from Weismann's translated book, and given the reworded passage as a direct quote by Erasmus Darwin. Webmaster has found a verbatim form in Zoonomia (1794), but has been unable to find the wording used by Weismann in any primary source by Erasmus Darwin. The rewording is perhaps due to the translation of the quote into German for Weismann's original book, Vorträge über Descendenztheorie (1902) followed by another translation for the English edition.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Almighty (23)  |  Architect (32)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Cause (561)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Creation (350)  |  Erasmus Darwin (40)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Father (113)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Idea (881)  |  Increase (225)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Little (717)  |  Quote (46)  |  Require (229)  |  Small (489)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Sum (103)  |  Surely (101)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Verbatim (4)  |  View (496)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Because intelligence is our own most distinctive feature, we may incline to ascribe superior intelligence to the basic primate plan, or to the basic plan of the mammals in general, but this point requires some careful consideration. There is no question at all that most mammals of today are more intelligent than most reptiles of today. I am not going to try to define intelligence or to argue with those who deny thought or consciousness to any animal except man. It seems both common and scientific sense to admit that ability to learn, modification of action according to the situation, and other observable elements of behavior in animals reflect their degrees of intelligence and permit us, if only roughly, to compare these degrees. In spite of all difficulties and all the qualifications with which the expert (quite properly) hedges his conclusions, it also seems sensible to conclude that by and large an animal is likely to be more intelligent if it has a larger brain at a given body size and especially if its brain shows greater development of those areas and structures best developed in our own brains. After all, we know we are intelligent, even though we wish we were more so.
In The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  According (236)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Area (33)  |  Argument (145)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Basic (144)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Best (467)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Care (203)  |  Common (447)  |  Compare (76)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Element (322)  |  Expert (67)  |  Feature (49)  |  General (521)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Larger (14)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observable (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permit (61)  |  Plan (122)  |  Point (584)  |  Primate (11)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Question (649)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Situation (117)  |  Size (62)  |  Spite (55)  |  Structure (365)  |  Superior (88)  |  Thought (995)  |  Today (321)  |  Try (296)  |  Wish (216)

Beyond these are other suns, giving light and life to systems, not a thousand, or two thousand merely, but multiplied without end, and ranged all around us, at immense distances from each other, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid motion; yet calm, regular and harmonious—all space seems to be illuminated, and every particle of light a world. ... all this vast assemblages of suns and worlds may bear no greater proportion to what lies beyond the utmost boundaries of human vision, than a drop of water to the ocean.
In The Geography of the Heavens and Class-Book of Astronomy (1874), 148 That knowledge is not happiness.
Science quotes on:  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Attend (67)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Calm (32)  |  Distance (171)  |  Drop (77)  |  End (603)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immense (89)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Merely (315)  |  Motion (320)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Regular (48)  |  Space (523)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vision (127)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

But here it may be objected, that the present Earth looks like a heap of Rubbish and Ruines; And that there are no greater examples of confusion in Nature than Mountains singly or jointly considered; and that there appear not the least footsteps of any Art or Counsel either in the Figure and Shape, or Order and Disposition of Mountains and Rocks. Wherefore it is not likely they came so out of God's hands ... To which I answer, That the present face of the Earth with all its Mountains and Hills, its Promontaries and Rocks, as rude and deformed as they appear, seems to me a very beautiful and pleasant object, and with all the variety of Hills, and Valleys, and Inequalities far more grateful to behold, than a perfectly level Countrey without any rising or protuberancy, to terminate the sight: As anyone that hath but seen the Isle of Ely, or any the like Countrey must need acknowledge.
John Ray
Miscellaneous Discourses Concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World (1692), 165-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Answer (389)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Art (680)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Counsel (11)  |  Country (269)  |  Deformation (3)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Example (98)  |  Face (214)  |  Figure (162)  |  Footstep (5)  |  God (776)  |  Gratitude (14)  |  Hand (149)  |  Heap (15)  |  Hill (23)  |  Inequality (9)  |  Isle (6)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Objection (34)  |  Order (638)  |  Pleasantness (3)  |  Present (630)  |  Promontory (3)  |  Protuberance (3)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rubbish (12)  |  Rudeness (5)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Shape (77)  |  Sight (135)  |  Termination (4)  |  Valley (37)  |  Variety (138)

But if you have seen the soil of India with your own eyes and meditate on its nature - if you consider the rounded stones found in the earth however deeply you dig, stones that are huge near the mountains and where the rivers have a violent current; stones that are of smaller size at greater distance from the mountains, and where the streams flow more slowly; stones that appear pulverised in the shape of sand where the streams begin to stagnate near their mouths and near the sea - if you consider all this, you could scarcely help thinking that India has once been a sea which by degrees has been filled up by the alluvium of the streams.
Alberuni's India, trans. E. C. Sachau (1888), Vol. 1, 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Consider (428)  |  Current (122)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dig (25)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flow (89)  |  India (23)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  River (140)  |  Sand (63)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Sea (326)  |  Soil (98)  |  Stone (168)  |  Stream (83)  |  Thinking (425)

But it will be found... that one universal law prevails in all these phenomena. Where two portions of the same light arrive in the eye by different routes, either exactly or very nearly in the same direction, the appearance or disappearance of various colours is determined by the greater or less difference in the lengths of the paths.
Lecture XIV. 'Of Physical Optics'. In A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1802), 112-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Color (155)  |  Determination (80)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Eye (440)  |  Law (913)  |  Length (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Path (159)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Portion (86)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Route (16)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (198)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

But science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation.
Decadence: Henry Sidgwick Memorial Lecture (1908), 55-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriation (5)  |  Change (639)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Development (441)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Function (235)  |  Great (1610)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Marked (55)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Political (124)  |  Religious (134)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Social (261)  |  Vital (89)

But the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.
'On Suicide' (written 1755, published postumously). In Essays On Suicide And The Immortality Of The Soul: (1777, New Ed. 1799), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Importance (299)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Universe (900)

But the Presidence of that mighty Power … its particular Agency and Concern therein: and its Purpose and Design … will more evidently appear, when I shall have proved … That the said Earth, though not indifferently and alike fertil in all parts of it, was yet generally much more fertil than ours is … That its Soil was more luxuriant, and teemed forth its Productions in far greater plenty and abundance than the present Earth does … That when Man was fallen, and had abandoned his primitive Innocence, the Case was much altered: and a far different Scene of Things presented; that generous Vertue, masculine Bravery, and prudent Circumspection which he was before Master of, now deserting him … and a strange imbecility immediately seized and laid hold of him: he became pusillanimous, and was easily ruffled with every little Passion within: supine, and as openly exposed to any Temptation or Assault from without. And now these exuberant Productions of the Earth became a continued Decoy and Snare unto him.
In An Essay Toward A Natural History of the Earth (1695), 84-86.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Abundance (26)  |  Alike (60)  |  Alter (64)  |  Altered (32)  |  Circumspection (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Generous (17)  |  Imbecility (5)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Masculine (4)  |  Master (182)  |  More (2558)  |  Passion (121)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Production (190)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scene (36)  |  Soil (98)  |  Strange (160)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)

But there is another alchemy, operative and practical, which teaches how to make the noble metals and colours and many other things better and more abundantly by art than they are made in nature. And science of this kind is greater than all those preceding because it produces greater utilities. For not only can it yield wealth and very many other things for the public welfare, but it also teaches how to discover such things as are capable of prolonging human life for much longer periods than can be accomplished by nature … Therefore this science has special utilities of that nature, while nevertheless it confirms theoretical alchemy through its works.
Opus Tertium [1266-1268], chapter 12, quoted in A. C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo (1959), Vol. I, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Art (680)  |  Better (493)  |  Capable (174)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Discover (571)  |  Human (1512)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Metal (88)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Noble (93)  |  Operative (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Practical (225)  |  Special (188)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.
Speech (12 Jan 1897) at a gala inaugurating power service from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, NY. Printed in 'Tesla on Electricity', The Electrical Review (27 Jan 1897), 30, No. 3, 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Battery (12)  |  Better (493)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engine (99)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Forever (111)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Great (1610)  |  Improve (64)  |  Invent (57)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Simply (53)  |  Something (718)  |  Steam (81)  |  Store (49)  |  Task (152)  |  Work (1402)

Carbon is, as may easily be shown and as I shall explain in greater detail later, tetrabasic or tetratomic, that is 1 atom of carbon = C = 12 is equivalent to 4 At.H. The simplest connection of C with an element of the first Group, with H or Cl for example, is therefore: CH4 and CCl4.
Footnote in 'On the so-called Copulated Compounds and the Theory of Polyatomic Radicals', Annalen (1857), 104, No. 2, 133. The symbol Kekulé used for an atom of carbon, (C) is a capital C with a bar (not to be confused with the euro symbol). First sentence as translated and cited in J. R. Partington, A History of Chemistry (1964), Vol. 4, 536. Second sentence trans. by Webmaster/Google Translate. From the original German: “Der Kohlenstoff ist, wie sich leicht zeigen lässt und worauf ich später ausführlich eingehen werde, vierbasisch oder vieratomig; d.h. 1 Atom Kohlenstoff = C = 12 ist äquivalent 4 At. H. Die einfachste Verbindung des C mit einem Element der ersten Gruppe, mit H oder Cl z. B., ist daher: CH4 und CCl4”. The title of the paper in the original German is: “Ueber die s. g. gepaarten Verbindungen und die Theorie der mehratomigen Radicale”. The words “gepaarten” and “mehratomigen” are translated above as “Copulated” and “Polyatomic”.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Bond (46)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Compound (117)  |  Detail (150)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Explain (334)  |  Strike (72)

Certainly, speaking for the United States of America, I pledge that, as we sign this treaty in an era of negotiation, we consider it only one step toward a greater goal: the control of nuclear weapons on earth and the reduction of the danger that hangs over all nations as long as those weapons are not controlled.
'Remarks at the Signing Ceremony of the Seabed Arms Control Treaty' (11 Feb 1971), Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon (1972), 150.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Consider (428)  |  Control (182)  |  Danger (127)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Era (51)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hang (46)  |  Long (778)  |  Nation (208)  |  Negotiation (3)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Weapon (17)  |  Pledge (4)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Sign (63)  |  Speaking (118)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Treaty (3)  |  United States (31)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

Chemical signs ought to be letters, for the greater facility of writing, and not to disfigure a printed book ... I shall take therefore for the chemical sign, the initial letter of the Latin name of each elementary substance: but as several have the same initial letter, I shall distinguish them in the following manner:— 1. In the class which I shall call metalloids, I shall employ the initial letter only, even when this letter is common to the metalloid and to some metal. 2. In the class of metals, I shall distinguish those that have the same initials with another metal, or a metalloid, by writing the first two letters of the word. 3. If the first two letters be common to two metals, I shall, in that case, add to the initial letter the first consonant which they have not in common: for example, S = sulphur, Si = silicium, St = stibium (antimony), Sn = stannum (tin), C = carbonicum, Co = colbaltum (colbalt), Cu = cuprum (copper), O = oxygen, Os = osmium, &c.
'Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy method of expressing them', Annals of Philosophy, 1814, 3,51-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Antimony (7)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Case (102)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Class (168)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Common (447)  |  Consonant (3)  |  Copper (25)  |  Disfigure (2)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Employ (115)  |  Facility (14)  |  First (1302)  |  Initial (17)  |  Latin (44)  |  Letter (117)  |  Metal (88)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Osmium (3)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Print (20)  |  Sign (63)  |  Silicon (4)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tin (18)  |  Two (936)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

DIGESTION, n. The conversion of victuals into virtues. When the process is imperfect, vices are evolved instead—a circumstance from which that wicked writer, Dr. Jeremiah Blenn, infers that the ladies are the greater sufferers from dyspepsia.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  72.
Science quotes on:  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Humour (116)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Process (439)  |  Sufferer (7)  |  Vice (42)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Writer (90)

Divers of Hermetic Books have such involv’d Obscuritys that they may justly be compar’d to Riddles written in Cyphers. For after a Man has surmounted the difficulty of decyphering the Words & Terms, he finds a new & greater difficulty to discover ye meaning of the seemingly plain Expression.
Fragment In Boyle papers. Cited by Lawrence Principe, 'Boyle's Alchemical Pursuits', In M. Hunter (ed.), Robert Boyle Reconsidered (1994), 95
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Book (413)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discover (571)  |  Expression (181)  |  Find (1014)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  New (1273)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Word (650)

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
In letter (7 Jan 1943) to Barbara Wilson, a junior high school student, who had difficulties in school with mathematics. In Einstein Archives, 42-606. Quoted in Alice Calaprice, Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children (2002), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Assure (16)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mine (78)  |  Still (614)  |  Worry (34)

Do not worry about your problems in mathematics. I assure you, my problems with mathematics are much greater than yours.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Assure (16)  |  Do (1905)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Problem (731)  |  Worry (34)

Even bigger machines, entailing even bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.
In Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973).
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Big (55)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Demand (131)  |  Denial (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economic (84)  |  Entail (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exert (40)  |  Great (1610)  |  Machine (271)  |  New (1273)  |  Orientation (4)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Represent (157)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Technology (281)  |  Violence (37)  |  Wisdom (235)

Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding, can expect only to improve a single science. In every other part of learning, they must be content to follow opinions, which they are not able to examine; and, even in that which they claim as peculiarly their own, can seldom add more than some small particle of knowledge, to the hereditary stock devolved to them from ancient times, the collective labour of a thousand intellects.
In Samuel Johnson and W. Jackson Bate (Ed.), ',The Rambler, No. 121, Tuesday, 14 May 1751.' The Selected Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler (1968), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Claim (154)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expect (203)  |  Follow (389)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learning (291)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Providence (19)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understanding (527)

Ever since we arrived on this planet as a species, we’ve cut them down, dug them up, burnt them and poisoned them. Today we’re doing so on a greater scale than ever.
As quoted in Jack Shepherd, "David Attenborough: 15 of the naturalist’s best quotes: In celebration of his 94th birthday", Independent (8 May 2017), on independent.co.uk website.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrive (40)  |  Burn (99)  |  Cut Down (4)  |  Dig (25)  |  Planet (402)  |  Poison (46)  |  Scale (122)  |  Species (435)  |  Today (321)

Every discipline must be honored for reason other than its utility, otherwise it yields no enthusiasm for industry.
For both reasons, I consider mathematics the chief subject for the common school. No more highly honored exercise for the mind can be found; the buoyancy [Spannkraft] which it produces is even greater than that produced by the ancient languages, while its utility is unquestioned.
In 'Mathematischer Lehrplan für Realschulen' Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 167. (Mathematics Curriculum for Secondary Schools). As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Both (496)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Chief (99)  |  Common (447)  |  Consider (428)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Honor (57)  |  Honored (3)  |  Industry (159)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Subject (543)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Yield (86)

Every discovery opens a new field for investigation of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories. It has justly been said, that the greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by which it is surrounded.
Humphry Davy and John Davy, 'Consolations in Travel—Dialogue V—The Chemical Philosopher', The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (1840), Vol. 9, 362.
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (55)  |  Circle (117)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (378)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Light (635)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Research (753)  |  Show (353)  |  Theory (1015)

Exper. I. I made a small hole in a window-shutter, and covered it with a piece of thick paper, which I perforated with a fine needle. For greater convenience of observation I placed a small looking-glass without the window-shutter, in such a position as to reflect the sun's light, in a direction nearly horizontal, upon the opposite wall, and to cause the cone of diverging light to pass over a table on which were several little screens of card-paper. I brought into the sunbeam a slip of card, about one-thirtieth of an inch in breadth, and observed its shadow, either on the wall or on other cards held at different distances. Besides the fringes of colour on each side of the shadow, the shadow itself was divided by similar parallel fringes, of smaller dimensions, differing in number, according to the distance at which the shadow was observed, but leaving the middle of the shadow always white. Now these fringes were the joint effects of the portions of light passing on each side of the slip of card and inflected, or rather diffracted, into the shadow. For, a little screen being placed a few inches from the card, so as to receive either edge of the shadow on its margin, all the fringes which had before been observed in the shadow on the wall, immediately disappeared, although the light inflected on the other side was allowed to retain its course, and although this light must have undergone any modification that the proximity of the other edge of the slip of card might have been capable of occasioning... Nor was it for want of a sufficient intensity of light that one of the two portions was incapable of producing the fringes alone; for when they were both uninterrupted, the lines appeared, even if the intensity was reduced to one-tenth or one-twentieth.
'Experiments and Calculations Relative to Physical Optics' (read in 1803), Philosophical Transactions (1804), 94, 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Alone (324)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Breadth (15)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cone (8)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Course (413)  |  Different (595)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Distance (171)  |  Divided (50)  |  Edge (51)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fringe (7)  |  Glass (94)  |  Hole (17)  |  Horizontal (9)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Interference (22)  |  Joint (31)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Looking (191)  |  Modification (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Portion (86)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Retain (57)  |  Screen (8)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Side (236)  |  Small (489)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunbeam (3)  |  Table (105)  |  Two (936)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Wall (71)  |  Want (504)  |  White (132)  |  Window (59)

Experience is never at fault; it is only your judgment that is in error in promising itself such results from experience as are not caused by our experiments. For having given a beginning, what follows from it must necessarily be a natural development of such a beginning, unless it has been subject to a contrary influence, while, if it is affected by any contrary influence, the result which ought to follow from the aforesaid beginning will be found to partake of this contrary influence in a greater or less degree in proportion as the said influence is more or less powerful than the aforesaid beginning.
'Philosophy', in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, trans. E. MacCurdy (1938), Vol. 1, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Degree (277)  |  Development (441)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fault (58)  |  Follow (389)  |  Influence (231)  |  Judgment (140)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Result (700)  |  Subject (543)  |  Will (2350)

Experiments in geology are far more difficult than in physics and chemistry because of the greater size of the objects, commonly outside our laboratories, up to the earth itself, and also because of the fact that the geologic time scale exceeds the human time scale by a million and more times. This difference in time allows only direct observations of the actual geologic processes, the mind having to imagine what could possibly have happened in the past.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 455-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Difference (355)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Geology (240)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Million (124)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Outside (141)  |  Past (355)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Process (439)  |  Scale (122)  |  Size (62)  |  Time (1911)

For any two portions of fire, small or great, will exhibit the same ratio of solid to void; but the upward movement of the greater is quicker than that of the less, just as the downward movement of a mass of gold or lead, or of any other body endowed with weight, is quicker in proportion to its size.
Aristotle
On the Heavens, 309b, 11-5. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. I, 505.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Fire (203)  |  Gold (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Movement (162)  |  Other (2233)  |  Portion (86)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Small (489)  |  Solid (119)  |  Two (936)  |  Upward (44)  |  Void (31)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)

For centuries we have dreamt of flying; recently we made that come true: we have always hankered for speed; now we have speeds greater than we can stand: we wanted to speak to far parts of the Earth; we can: we wanted to explore the sea bottom; we have: and so on, and so on. And, too, we wanted the power to smash our enemies utterly; we have it. If we had truly wanted peace, we should have had that as well. But true peace has never been one of the genuine dreams—we have got little further than preaching against war in order to appease out consciences.
The Outward Urge (1959)
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Appease (6)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Dream (222)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flying (74)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Little (717)  |  Never (1089)  |  Order (638)  |  Peace (116)  |  Power (771)  |  Sea (326)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speed (66)  |  Stand (284)  |  Truly (118)  |  Want (504)  |  War (233)

For it is owing to their wonder that men now both begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun and the stars, and about the genesis of the universe. And a man who is puzzled and wonders thinks himself ignorant (whence even the lover of myth is in a sense a lover of wisdom, for myth is composed of wonders); therefore since they philosophized in order to escape from ignorance, evidently they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end. And this is confirmed by the facts; for it was when almost all the necessities of life and the things that make for comfort and recreation were present, that such knowledge began to be sought. Evidently then we do not seek it for the sake of any advantage; but as the man is free, we say, who exists for himself and not for another, so we pursue this as the only free science, for it alone exists for itself.
Aristotle
Metaphysics, 982b, 12-27. In Jonathan Baines (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 2, 1554.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alone (324)  |  Begin (275)  |  Both (496)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Escape (85)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moon (252)  |  Myth (58)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Order (638)  |  Owing (39)  |  Present (630)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Sake (61)  |  Say (989)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (251)

For many planet hunters, though, the ultimate goal is still greater (or actually, smaller) prey: terrestrial planets, like Earth, circling a star like the Sun. Astronomers already know that three such planets orbit at least one pulsar. But planet hunters will not rest until they are in sight of a small blue world, warm and wet, in whose azure skies and upon whose wind-whipped oceans shines a bright yellow star like our own.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Already (226)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Azure (2)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bright (81)  |  Circle (117)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Goal (155)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hunter (28)  |  Know (1538)  |  Least (75)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Planet (402)  |  Prey (13)  |  Pulsar (3)  |  Rest (287)  |  Shine (49)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Small (489)  |  Star (460)  |  Still (614)  |  Sun (407)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Warm (74)  |  Wet (6)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)  |  World (1850)  |  Yellow (31)

For, however much we may clench our teeth in anger, we cannot but confess, in opposition to Galen’s teaching but in conformity with the might of Aristotle’s opinion, that the size of the orifice of the hollow vein at the right chamber of the heart is greater than that of the body of the hollow vein, no matter where you measure the latter. Then the following chapter will show the falsity of Galen’s view that the hollow vein is largest at the point where it joins the hump of the liver.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem (1543), Book III, 275, as translated by William Frank Richardson and John Burd Carman, in 'The Arguments Advanced by Galen in Opposition to Aristotl’s Views about the Origin of the Hollow Vein Do Not Have Oracular Authority', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book III: The Veins And Arteries; Book IV: The Nerves (1998), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Anger (21)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Body (557)  |  Chamber (7)  |  Chapter (11)  |  Clench (3)  |  Confess (42)  |  Falsity (16)  |  Galen (20)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hump (3)  |  Join (32)  |  Largest (39)  |  Liver (22)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Orifice (2)  |  Point (584)  |  Right (473)  |  Show (353)  |  Size (62)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Vein (27)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Generally speaking, geologists seem to have been much more intent on making little worlds of their own, than in examining the crust of that which they inhabit. It would be much more desirable that facts should be placed in the foreground and theories in the distance, than that theories should be brought forward at the expense of facts. So that, in after times, when the speculations of the present day shall have passed away, from a greater accumulation of information, the facts may be readily seized and converted to account.
Sections and Views Illustrative of Geological Phenomena (1830), iv.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Crust (43)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Distance (171)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forward (104)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Information (173)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  Pass (241)  |  Present (630)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

God has not revealed all things to man and has entrusted us with but a fragment of His mighty work. But He who directs all things, who has established and laid the foundation of the world, who has clothed Himself with Creation, He is greater and better than that which He has wrought. Hidden from our eyes, He can only be reached by the spirit.
From Quaestiones Naturales as translated in Charles Singer, From Magic to Science (1958), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Creation (350)  |  Direct (228)  |  Eye (440)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fragment (58)  |  God (776)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Himself (461)  |  Man (2252)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Science And God (5)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trust (72)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn have, greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
[He was imitating: 'So, naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum.' Poetry, a Rhapsody, by Jonathan Swift.]
A Budget of Paradoxes (1915), first published 1872, Vol. 2, 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bite (18)  |  Flea (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Little (717)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observe (179)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Still (614)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Turn (454)

Happy the men who made the first essay,
And to celestial regions found the way!
No earthly vices clogg’d their purer souls,
That they could soar so high as touch the poles:
Sublime their thoughts and from pollution clear,
Bacchus and Venus held no revels there;
From vain ambition free; no love of war
Possess’d their minds, nor wranglings at the bar;
No glaring grandeur captivates their eyes,
For such see greater glory in the skies:
Thus these to heaven attain.
In Craufurd Tait Ramage (ed., trans.), Beautiful Thoughts From Latin Authors, with English Translations (1864),
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Attain (126)  |  Bacchus (2)  |  Captivate (5)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Essay (27)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |  Glare (3)  |  Glory (66)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  High (370)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Pole (49)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Possess (157)  |  Revel (6)  |  See (1094)  |  Sky (174)  |  Soar (23)  |  Soul (235)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Thought (995)  |  Touch (146)  |  Vain (86)  |  Venus (21)  |  Vice (42)  |  War (233)  |  Way (1214)

He who appropriates land to himself by his labor, does not lessen but increases the common stock of mankind. For the provisions serving to the support of human life, produced by one acre of inclosed and cultivated land, are … ten times more than those which are yielded by an acre of land, of an equal richness lying waste in common. And therefore he that incloses land and has a greater plenty of the conveniences of life from ten acres than he could have from a hundred left to nature, may truly be said to give ninety acres to mankind.
In John Locke and Thomas Preston Peardon (ed.), The Second Treatise of Civil Government: An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government (Dec 1689, 1952), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Acre (13)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Common (447)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Increase (225)  |  Labor (200)  |  Land (131)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Produced (187)  |  Provision (17)  |  Serving (15)  |  Support (151)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Waste (109)  |  Yield (86)

He who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is the benefactor of mankind, but he who obscurely worked to find the laws of such growth is the intellectual superior as well as the greater benefactor of mankind.
Presidential Address (28 Oct 1899) to the Physical Society of America Meeting, New York. Printed in American Journal of Science (Dec 1899). Reprinted in the The Johns Hopkins University Circular (Mar 1900), 19, No. 143, 17. Compare earlier remark by Jonathan Swift, beginning “whoever could make two ears of corn…” on the Jonathan Swift Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Benefactor (6)  |  Blade (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  Grass (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growth (200)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Law (913)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Superior (88)  |  Two (936)  |  Work (1402)

Here is the distinct trail of a fox stretching [a] quarter of a mile across the pond…. The pond his journal, and last night’s snow made a tabula rasa for him. I know which way a mind wended this morning, what horizon it faced, by the setting of these tracks; whether it moved slowly or rapidly, by the greater or less intervals and distinctness, for the swiftest step leaves yet a lasting trace.
(30 Jan 1841). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: I: 1837-1846 (1906), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinct (98)  |  Fox (9)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Journal (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Pond (17)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Setting (44)  |  Snow (39)  |  Step (234)  |  Tabula Rasa (2)  |  Trace (109)  |  Track (42)  |  Trail (11)  |  Way (1214)  |  Zoology (38)

I consider the differences between man and animals in propensities, feelings, and intellectual faculties, to be the result of the same cause as that which we assign for the variations in other functions, viz. difference of organization; and that the superiority of man in rational endowments is not greater than the more exquisite, complicated, and perfectly developed structure of his brain, and particularly of his ample cerebral hemispheres, to which the rest of the animal kingdom offers no parallel, nor even any near approximation, is sufficient to account for.
Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man (1819), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difference (355)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Function (235)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man And Animals (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Offer (142)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Rational (95)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Structure (365)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Variation (93)

I do hate sums. There is no greater mistake than to call arithmetic an exact science. There are permutations and aberrations discernible to minds entirely noble like mine; subtle variations which ordinary accountants fail to discover; hidden laws of number which it requires a mind like mine to perceive. For instance, if you add a sum from the bottom up, and then from the top down, the result is always different. Again if you multiply a number by another number before you have had your tea, and then again after, the product will be different. It is also remarkable that the Post-tea product is more likely to agree with other people’s calculations than the Pre-tea result.
Letter to Mrs Arthur Severn (Jul 1878), collected in The Letters of a Noble Woman (Mrs. La Touche of Harristown) (1908), 50. Also in 'Gleanings Far and Near', Mathematical Gazette (May 1924), 12, 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Accountant (4)  |  Add (42)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Different (595)  |  Discernible (9)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Fail (191)  |  Hate (68)  |  Hide (70)  |  Law (913)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Noble (93)  |  Number (710)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Permutation (5)  |  Product (166)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tea (13)  |  Top (100)  |  Variation (93)  |  Will (2350)

I esteem his understanding and subtlety highly, but I consider that they have been put to ill use in the greater part of his work, where the author studies things of little use or when he builds on the improbable principle of attraction.
Writing about Newton's Principia. Huygens had some time earlier indicated he did not believe the theory of universal gravitation, saying it 'appears to me absurd.'
Quoted in Archana Srinivasan, Great Inventors (2007), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Author (175)  |  Build (211)  |  Consider (428)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Little (717)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Principia (14)  |  Principle (530)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

I happened to read recently a remark by American nuclear physicist W. Davidson, who noted that the explosion of one hydrogen bomb releases a greater amount of energy than the explosions set off by all countries in all wars known in the entire history of mankind. And he, apparently, is right.
[The quoted physicist was, in fact, William Davidon, Argonne National Laboratory.]
Address to the United Nations, New York City, 18 Sep 1959. Quoted in 'Texts of Khrushchev's Address at United Nations and the Soviet Declaration', New York Times (19 Sep 1959), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Energy (373)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mankind (15)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bomb (16)  |  Known (453)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physicist (5)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Read (308)  |  Release (31)  |  Right (473)  |  Set (400)  |  War (233)

I know of scarcely anything so apt to impress the imagination as the wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the “Law of Frequency of Error.” The law would have been personified by the Greeks and deified, if they had known of it. It reigns with serenity and in complete self-effacement, amidst the wildest confusion. The huger the mob, and the greater the apparent anarchy, the more perfect is its sway. It is the supreme law of Unreason. Whenever a large sample of chaotic elements are taken in hand and marshaled in the order of their magnitude, an unsuspected and most beautiful form of regularity proves to have been latent all along.
In Natural Inheritance (1894), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Complete (209)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Element (322)  |  Error (339)  |  Express (192)  |  Form (976)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Greek (109)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impress (66)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Latent (13)  |  Law (913)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mob (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Order (638)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Prove (261)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Reign (24)  |  Sample (19)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Self (268)  |  Serenity (11)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Unsuspected (7)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wonderful (155)

I like to think that when Medawar and his colleagues showed that immunological tolerance could be produced experimentally the new immunology was born. This is a science which to me has far greater potentialities both for practical use in medicine and for the better understanding of living process than the classical immunochemistry which it is incorporating and superseding.
'Immunological Recognition of Self', Nobel Lecture, 12 December 1960. In Nobel Lectures Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964), 689.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Classical (49)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Living (492)  |  Sir Peter B. Medawar (57)  |  Medicine (392)  |  New (1273)  |  Practical (225)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Show (353)  |  Superseding (2)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tolerance (11)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)

I refrained from writing another one, thinking to myself: Never mind, I will prove that I am able to become a greater scientist than some of you, even without the title of doctor.
Reaction when his thesis (1922) on rocket experiments was rejected as too cursory. In Astronautics (1959), 4, No. 6, 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Degree (277)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  PhD (10)  |  Prove (261)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

I remember my first look at the great treatise of Maxwell’s when I was a young man… I saw that it was great, greater and greatest, with prodigious possibilities in its power… I was determined to master the book and set to work. I was very ignorant. I had no knowledge of mathematical analysis (having learned only school algebra and trigonometry which I had largely forgotten) and thus my work was laid out for me. It took me several years before I could understand as much as I possibly could. Then I set Maxwell aside and followed my own course. And I progressed much more quickly… It will be understood that I preach the gospel according to my interpretation of Maxwell.
From translations of a letter (24 Feb 1918), cited in Paul J. Nahin, Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age (2002), 24. Nahin footnotes that the words are not verbatim, but are the result of two translations. Heaviside's original letter in English was quoted, translated in to French by J. Bethenode, for the obituary he wrote, "Oliver Heaviside", in Annales des Posies Telegraphs (1925), 14, 521-538. The quote was retranslated back to English in Nadin's book. Bethenode footnoted that he made the original translation "as literally as possible in order not to change the meaning." Nadin assures that the retranslation was done likewise. Heaviside studyied Maxwell's two-volume Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Book (413)  |  Course (413)  |  Determination (80)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Gospel (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  More (2558)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Power (771)  |  Preach (11)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Progress (492)  |  Remember (189)  |  Saw (160)  |  School (227)  |  Set (400)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

I suspect that the changes that have taken place during the last century in the average man's fundamental beliefs, in his philosophy, in his concept of religion. in his whole world outlook, are greater than the changes that occurred during the preceding four thousand years all put together. ... because of science and its applications to human life, for these have bloomed in my time as no one in history had had ever dreamed could be possible.
In The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan (1951, 1980), xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Average (89)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blooming (2)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Concept (242)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Preceding (8)  |  Religion (369)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I tell young people to reach for the stars. And I can't think of a greater high than you could possibly get than by inventing something.
From audio on MIT video '1999 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award Winner', on 'Innovative Lives: Stephanie Kwolek and Kevlar, The Wonder Fiber' on the Smithsonian website.
Science quotes on:  |  High (370)  |  Invention (400)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Something (718)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tell (344)  |  Telling (24)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Young (253)

I think that the unity we can seek lies really in two things. One is that the knowledge which comes to us at such a terrifyingly, inhumanly rapid rate has some order in it. We are allowed to forget a great deal, as well as to learn. This order is never adequate. The mass of ununderstood things, which cannot be summarized, or wholly ordered, always grows greater; but a great deal does get understood.
The second is simply this: we can have each other to dinner. We ourselves, and with each other by our converse, can create, not an architecture of global scope, but an immense, intricate network of intimacy, illumination, and understanding. Everything cannot be connected with everything in the world we live in. Everything can be connected with anything.
Concluding paragraphs of 'The Growth of Science and the Structure of Culture', Daedalus (Winter 1958), 87, No. 1, 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connected (8)  |  Converse (9)  |  Create (245)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Everything (489)  |  Forget (125)  |  Global (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Illumination (15)  |  Immense (89)  |  Intimacy (6)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lie (370)  |  Live (650)  |  Mass (160)  |  Network (21)  |  Never (1089)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Rate (31)  |  Scope (44)  |  Seek (218)  |  Summarize (10)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)  |  Unity (81)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)

I thought that the wisdom of our City had certainly designed the laudable practice of taking and distributing these accompts [parish records of christenings and deaths] for other and greater uses than [merely casual comments], or, at least, that some other uses might be made of them; and thereupon I ... could, and (to be short) to furnish myself with as much matter of that kind ... the which when I had reduced into tables ... so as to have a view of the whole together, in order to the more ready comparing of one Year, Season, Parish, or other Division of the City, with another, in respect of all Burials and Christnings, and of all the Diseases and Casualties happening in each of them respectively...
Moreover, finding some Truths and not-commonly-believed opinions to arise from my meditations upon these neglected Papers, I proceeded further to consider what benefit the knowledge of the same would bring to the world, ... with some real fruit from those ayrie blossoms.
From Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index and Made upon Bills of Mortality (1662), Preface. Reproduced in Cornelius Walford, The Insurance Cyclopaedia (1871), Vol. 1, 286-287.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Arise (162)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Burial (8)  |  Casualty (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  City (87)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Consider (428)  |  Data (162)  |  Death (406)  |  Design (203)  |  Disease (340)  |  Division (67)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Happening (59)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Record (161)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Season (47)  |  Short (200)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I will not now discuss the Controversie betwixt some of the Modern Atomists, and the Cartesians; the former of whom think, that betwixt the Earth and the Stars, and betwixt these themselves there are vast Tracts of Space that are empty, save where the beams of Light do pass through them; and the later of whom tell us, that the Intervals betwixt the Stars and Planets (among which the Earth may perhaps be reckon'd) are perfectly fill'd, but by a Matter far subtiler than our Air, which some call Celestial, and others Æther. I shall not, I say, engage in this controversie, but thus much seems evident, That If there be such a Celestial Matter, it must ' make up far the Greatest part of the Universe known to us. For the Interstellar part of the world (If I may so stile it) bears so very great a proportion to the Globes, and their Atmospheres too, (If other Stars have any as well as the Earth,) that It Is almost incomparably Greater in respect of them, than all our Atmosphere is in respect of the Clouds, not to make the comparison between the Sea and the Fishes that swim in it.
A Continuation of New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and their Effects (1669), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bear (162)  |  Call (781)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dark Matter (4)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Empty (82)  |  Engage (41)  |  Ether (37)  |  Evident (92)  |  Former (138)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Interstellar (8)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Planet (402)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Respect (212)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Swim (32)  |  Tell (344)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

I’m one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results.
Science quotes on:  |  Advocate (20)  |  Cost (94)  |  Do (1905)  |  Durable (7)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fervent (6)  |  Most (1728)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Result (700)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Space Travel (23)

If my efforts have led to greater success than usual, this is due, I believe, to the fact that during my wanderings in the field of medicine, I have strayed onto paths where the gold was still lying by the wayside. It takes a little luck to be able to distinguish gold from dross, but that is all.
'Robert Koch', Journal of Outdoor Life (1908), 5, 164-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Due (143)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  Gold (101)  |  Little (717)  |  Luck (44)  |  Lying (55)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Path (159)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)

If one proves the equality of two numbers a and b by showing first that “a is less than or equal to b” and then “a is greater than or equal to b”, it is unfair, one should instead show that they are really equal by disclosing the inner ground for their equality.
As quoted, without citation, in biography by Hermann Wehl, Emmy Noether (1935), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Equality (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Ground (222)  |  Inner (72)  |  Number (710)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Show (353)  |  Showing (6)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfair (9)

If there is no intelligence in the universe, then the universe has created something greater than itself—for it has created you and me.
In 'If A Man Die, Shall He Live again?', More Power To You: Fifty Editorials From Every Week (1917), 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Creation (350)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Something (718)  |  Universe (900)

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)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formation (100)  |  Forward (104)  |  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 examine the accomplishments of man in his most advanced endeavors, in theory and in practice, we find that the cell has done all this long before him, with greater resourcefulness and much greater efficiency.
Nobel Lecture, The Coming Age of the Cell, 12 Dec 1974
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Cell (146)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Examine (84)  |  Find (1014)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Practice (212)  |  Resourcefulness (2)  |  Theory (1015)

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact or the description of one actual phenomenon to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect, but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through, it is not comprehended in its entireness.
In Walden (1878), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (118)  |  Bored (5)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Concur (2)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Course (413)  |  Description (89)  |  Detect (45)  |  Element (322)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infer (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instance (33)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Outline (13)  |  Particular (80)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Really (77)  |  Result (700)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Wonderful (155)

If we sink to the biochemical level, then the human being has lost a great many synthetic abilities possessed by other species and, in particular, by plants and microorganisms. Our loss of ability to manufacture a variety of vitamins makes us dependent on our diet and, therefore, on the greater synthetic versatility of other creatures. This is as much a “degenerative” change as the tapeworm’s abandonment of a stomach it no longer needs, but since we are prejudiced in our own favor, we don’t mention it.
In 'The Modern Demonology' (Jan 1962). Collected in Asimov on Physics (1976), 150.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Ability (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Change (639)  |  Creature (242)  |  Degenerative (2)  |  Diet (56)  |  Favor (69)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Loss (117)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Mention (84)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possess (157)  |  Sink (38)  |  Species (435)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Tapeworm (2)  |  Variety (138)  |  Versatility (5)  |  Vitamin (13)

If, as I have reason to believe, I have disintegrated the nucleus of the atom, this is of greater significance than the war.
[Apology to the international anti-submarine committee for being absent from several meetings during World War I.]
(Jun 1919). Quoted in D. Wilson, Rutherford: Simple Genius (1983), 405, as cited in Laurie M. Brown, Abraham Pais, Brian Pippard, Twentieth Century Physics (1995), Vol. 1, 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Apology (8)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Disintegration (8)  |  International (40)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Reason (766)  |  Significance (114)  |  Submarine (12)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

In August, 1896, I exposed the sodium flame to large magnetic forces by placing it between the poles of a strong electromagnet. Again I studied the radiation of the flame by means of Rowland's mirror, the observations being made in the direction perpendicular to the lines of force. Each line, which in the absence of the effect of the magnetic forces was very sharply defined, was now broadened. This indicated that not only the original oscillations, but also others with greater and again others with smaller periods of oscillation were being radiated by the flame. The change was however very small. In an easily produced magnetic field it corresponded to a thirtieth of the distance between the two sodium lines, say two tenths of an Angstrom, a unit of measure whose name will always recall to physicists the meritorious work done by the father of my esteemed colleague.
'Light Radiation in a Magnetic Field', Nobel Lecture, 2 May 1903. In Nobel Lectures: Physics 1901-1921 (1967), 34-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Father (113)  |  Field (378)  |  Flame (44)  |  Force (497)  |  Large (398)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetic Field (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Name (359)  |  Observation (593)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Pole (49)  |  Produced (187)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Say (989)  |  Small (489)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Strong (182)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

In diabetes the thirst is greater for the fluid dries the body ... For the thirst there is need of a powerful remedy, for in kind it is the greatest of all sufferings, and when a fluid is drunk, it stimulates the discharge of urine.
Therapeutics of chronic diseases II, Ch. II, 485-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Diabetes (5)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Drunk (10)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Kind (564)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Urine (18)

In discussing the state of the atmosphere following a nuclear exchange, we point especially to the effects of the many fires that would be ignited by the thousands of nuclear explosions in cities, forests, agricultural fields, and oil and gas fields. As a result of these fires, the loading of the atmosphere with strongly light absorbing particles in the submicron size range (1 micron = 10-6 m) would increase so much that at noon solar radiation at the ground would be reduced by at least a factor of two and possibly a factor of greater than one hundred.
Paul J. Crutzen -and John W. Birks (1946-, American chemist), 'The Atmosphere after a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon', Ambio, 1982, 11, 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Field (378)  |  Fire (203)  |  Forest (161)  |  Gas (89)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Increase (225)  |  Light (635)  |  Noon (14)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Oil (67)  |  Particle (200)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Range (104)  |  Result (700)  |  State (505)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  War (233)

In general I would be cautious against … plays of fancy and would not make way for their reception into scientific astronomy, which must have quite a different character. Laplace’s cosmogenic hypotheses belong in that class. Indeed, I do not deny that I sometimes amuse myself in a similar manner, only I would never publish the stuff. My thoughts about the inhabitants of celestial bodies, for example, belong in that category. For my part, I am (contrary to the usual opinion) convinced … that the larger the cosmic body, the smaller are the inhabitants and other products. For example, on the sun trees, which in the same ratio would be larger than ours, as the sun exceeds the earth in magnitude, would not be able to exist, for on account of the much greater weight on the surface of the sun, all branches would break themselves off, in so far as the materials are not of a sort entirely heterogeneous with those on earth.
Letter to Heinrich Schumacher (7 Nov 1847). Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 411.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Against (332)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Belong (168)  |  Body (557)  |  Break (109)  |  Category (19)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Deny (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fancy (50)  |  General (521)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Product (166)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Reception (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tree (269)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)

In man, then, let us take the amount that is extruded by the individual beats, and that cannot return into the heart because of the barrier set in its way by the valves, as half an ounce, or three drachms, or at least one drachm. In half an hour the heart makes over a thousand beats; indeed, in some individuals, and on occasion, two, three, or four thousand. If you multiply the drachms per beat by the number of beats you will see that in half an hour either a thousand times three drachms or times two drachms, or five hundred ounces, or other such proportionate quantity of blood has been passed through the heart into the arteries, that is, in all cases blood in greater amount than can be found in the whole of the body. Similarly in the sheep or the dog. Let us take it that one scruple passes in a single contraction of the heart; then in half an hour a thousand scruples, or three and a half pounds of blood, do so. In a body of this size, as I have found in the sheep, there is often not more than four pounds of blood.
In the above sort of way, by calculating the amount of blood transmitted [at each heart beat] and by making a count of the beats, let us convince ourselves that the whole amount of the blood mass goes through the heart from the veins to the arteries and similarly makes the pulmonary transit.
Even if this may take more than half an hour or an hour or a day for its accomplishment, it does nevertheless show that the beat of the heart is continuously driving through that organ more blood than the ingested food can supply, or all the veins together at any time contain.
De Motu Cordis (1628), The Circulation of the Blood and Other Writings, trans. Kenneth J. Franklin (1957), Chapter 9, 62-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Amount (153)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Beat (42)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Contraction (18)  |  Convince (43)  |  Count (107)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Driving (28)  |  Food (213)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Number (710)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pulmonary (3)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Return (133)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Single (365)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Vein (27)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

In my estimation it was obvious that Jansky had made a fundamental and very important discovery. Furthermore, he had exploited it to the limit of his equipment facilities. If greater progress were to be made it would be necessary to construct new and different equipment especially designed to measure the cosmic static.
Reber explaining his own motivation to build the first radio telescope.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Limit (294)  |  Measure (241)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Progress (492)  |  Radio Telescope (5)

In New England they once thought blackbirds useless, and mischievous to the corn. They made efforts to destroy them. The consequence was, the blackbirds were diminished; but a kind of worm, which devoured their grass, and which the blackbirds used to feed on, increased prodigiously; then, finding their loss in grass much greater than their saving in corn, they wished again for their blackbirds.
Letter to Richard Jackson, 5 May 1753. In Albert Henry Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (1905), Vol. 3, 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Consequence (220)  |  Corn (20)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Devour (29)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Effort (243)  |  Grass (49)  |  Kind (564)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mischievous (12)  |  New (1273)  |  Thought (995)  |  Wish (216)  |  Worm (47)

In reality the origin of the notion of derivatives is in the vague feeling of the mobility of things, and of the greater or less speed with which phenomena take place; this is well expressed by the terms fluent and fluxion, which were used by Newton and which we may believe were borrowed from the ancient mathematician Heraclitus.
From address to the section of Algebra and Analysis, International Congress of Arts and Sciences, St. Louis (22 Sep 1904), 'On the Development of Mathematical Analysis and its Relation to Certain Other Sciences,' as translated by M.W. Haskell in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (May 1905), 11, 407.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Borrow (31)  |  Derivative (6)  |  Express (192)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fluent (2)  |  Fluxion (7)  |  Heraclitus (15)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mobility (11)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notion (120)  |  Origin (250)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Reality (274)  |  Speed (66)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vague (50)

In science men have discovered an activity of the very highest value in which they are no longer, as in art, dependent for progress upon the appearance of continually greater genius, for in science the successors stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors; where one man of supreme genius has invented a method, a thousand lesser men can apply it. … In art nothing worth doing can be done without genius; in science even a very moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement.
Essay, 'The Place Of Science In A Liberal Education.' In Mysticism and Logic: and Other Essays (1919), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Activity (218)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Application (257)  |  Apply (170)  |  Art (680)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doing (277)  |  Genius (301)  |  Invention (400)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Moderate (6)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Progress (492)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Stand (284)  |  Successor (16)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Value (393)  |  Worth (172)

In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.'
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Awe (43)  |  Better (493)  |  Dream (222)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Elegant (37)  |  God (776)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Religion (369)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Size (62)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

In the infancy of physical science, it was hoped that some discovery might be made that would enable us to emancipate ourselves from the bondage of gravity, and, at least, pay a visit to our neighbour the moon. The poor attempts of the aeronaut have shewn the hopelessness of the enterprise. The success of his achievement depends on the buoyant power of the atmosphere, but the atmosphere extends only a few miles above the earth, and its action cannot reach beyond its own limits. The only machine, independent of the atmosphere, we can conceive of, would be one on the principle of the rocket. The rocket rises in the air, not from the resistance offered by the atmosphere to its fiery stream, but from the internal reaction. The velocity would, indeed, be greater in a vacuum than in the atmosphere, and could we dispense with the comfort of breathing air, we might, with such a machine, transcend the boundaries of our globe, and visit other orbs.
God's Glory in the Heavens (1862, 3rd Ed. 1867) 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Action (342)  |  Air (366)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bondage (6)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Buoyancy (7)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emancipate (2)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extend (129)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Machine (271)  |  Moon (252)  |  Offer (142)  |  Orb (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Stream (83)  |  Success (327)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Velocity (51)

In this country all a man need to do is to attain a little eminence and immediately he begins to talk. Usually his eminence is financial, and the greater this eminence the more he talks and the further his voice reaches. I don't blame the rich people for talking; many of them don’t know what else to do with themselves. The fault is with these who listen. If no one would listen no harm would he done. But the American people are willing to listen to any one who has attained prominence. The main fact is that we've heard a man's name a great many times; that makes us ready to accept whatever he says. … We listen to the one who talks the most and loudest.
As quoted in 'Electricity Will Keep The World From Freezing Up', New York Times (12 Nov 1911), SM4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  America (143)  |  Attain (126)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blame (31)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fault (58)  |  Great (1610)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Know (1538)  |  Listen (81)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  People (1031)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Ready (43)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Willing (44)

Incompetency is a greater obstacle to perfection than one would think.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Incompetency (2)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Think (1122)

Inspiration in the field of science by no means plays any greater role, as academic conceit fancies, than it does in the field of mastering problems of practical life by a modern entrepreneur. On the other hand, and this also is often misconstrued, inspiration plays no less a role in science than it does in the realm of art.
Max Weber
From a Speech (1918) presented at Munich University, published in 1919, and collected in 'Wissenschaft als Beruf', Gessammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (1922), 524-525. As given in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright-Mills (translators and eds.), 'Science as a Vocation', Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  Art (680)  |  Conceit (15)  |  Entrepreneur (5)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Field (378)  |  Hand (149)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Less (105)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mastering (11)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Modern (402)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Play (116)  |  Practical (225)  |  Problem (731)  |  Realm (87)  |  Role (86)

It cannot be that axioms established by argumentation should avail for the discovery of new works, since the subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily discover the way to new particulars, and thus render sciences active.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 24. 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, 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Argument (145)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Form (976)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Render (96)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

It has been recognized that hydrogen bonds restrain protein molecules to their native configurations, and I believe that as the methods of structural chemistry are further applied to physiological problems it will be found that the significance of the hydrogen bond for physiology is greater than that of any other single structural feature.
Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals (1939), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bond (46)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Feature (49)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Hydrogen Bond (3)  |  Method (531)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Native (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (731)  |  Protein (56)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Significance (114)  |  Single (365)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Will (2350)

It has been said that science is opposed to, and in conflict with revelation. But the history of the former shown that the greater its progress, and the more accurate its investigations and results, the more plainly it is seen not only not to clash with the Latter, but in all things to confirm it. The very sciences from which objections have been brought against religion have, by their own progress, removed those objections, and in the end furnished fall confirmation of the inspired Word of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Against (332)  |  Bring (95)  |  Clash (10)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Confirmation (25)  |  Conflict (77)  |  End (603)  |  Fall (243)  |  Former (138)  |  Furnish (97)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Latter (21)  |  More (2558)  |  Objection (34)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Plainly (5)  |  Progress (492)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remove (50)  |  Result (700)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

It has long been a complaint against mathematicians that they are hard to convince: but it is a far greater disqualification both for philosophy, and for the affairs of life, to be too easily convinced; to have too low a standard of proof. The only sound intellects are those which, in the first instance, set their standards of proof high. Practice in concrete affairs soon teaches them to make the necessary abatement: but they retain the consciousness, without which there is no sound practical reasoning, that in accepting inferior evidence because there is no better to be had, they do not by that acceptance raise it to completeness.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 611.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Affair (29)  |  Against (332)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Convince (43)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Disqualification (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easily (36)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  High (370)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Low (86)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proof (304)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Retain (57)  |  Set (400)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Standard (64)  |  Teach (299)

It is arguable whether the human race have been gainers by the march of science beyond the steam engine. Electricity opens a field of infinite conveniences to ever greater numbers, but they may well have to pay dearly for them. But anyhow in my thought I stop short of the internal combustion engine which has made the world so much smaller. Still more must we fear the consequences of entrusting a human race so little different from their predecessors of the so-called barbarous ages such awful agencies as the atomic bomb. Give me the horse.
Address to the Royal College of Surgeons (10 Jul 1951). Collected in Stemming the Tide: Speeches 1951 and 1952 (1953), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Call (781)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Different (595)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Engine (99)  |  Fear (212)  |  Field (378)  |  Horse (78)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Internal (69)  |  Internal Combustion Engine (4)  |  Invention (400)  |  Little (717)  |  March (48)  |  March Of Science (4)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Open (277)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Progress (492)  |  Race (278)  |  Short (200)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Still (614)  |  Thought (995)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

It is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, and this, not only hand to hand, but from a distance even, by the aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines, now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with feathery wings. This last I regard as the most criminal artifice that has been devised by the human mind; for, as if to bring death upon man with still greater rapidity, we have given wings to iron and taught it to fly. ... Nature, in conformity with her usual benevolence, has limited the power of iron, by inflicting upon it the punishment of rust; and has thus displayed her usual foresight in rendering nothing in existence more perishable, than the substance which brings the greatest dangers upon perishable mortality.
Natural History of Pliny, translation (1857, 1898) by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 205-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Arm (82)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Cleave (2)  |  Construct (129)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Danger (127)  |  Death (406)  |  Display (59)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Engine (99)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greatest (330)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Iron (99)  |  Last (425)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Missile (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Most (1728)  |  Murder (16)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Office (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Perish (56)  |  Power (771)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Regard (312)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rust (9)  |  Spear (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Useful (260)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wing (79)

It is clear that in maize, seemingly blending is really segregating inheritance, but with entire absence of dominance, and it seems probably that the same will be found to be true among rabbits and other mammals; failure to observe it hitherto is probably due to the fact that the factors concerned are numerous. For the greater the number of factors concerned, the more nearly will the result obtained approximate a complete and permanent blend. As the number of factors approaches infinity, the result will become identical with a permanent blend.
Heredity: In Relation to Evolution and Animal Breeding (1911), 138-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Approximate (25)  |  Become (821)  |  Complete (209)  |  Concern (239)  |  Due (143)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Factor (47)  |  Failure (176)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Identical (55)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Maize (4)  |  Mammal (41)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Observe (179)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Result (700)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Will (2350)

It is difficult to imagine a greater imposition [than adding] genes to future generations that changes the nature of future people.
in The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Future (467)  |  Gene (105)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genetic Engineering (16)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)

It is from this absolute indifference and tranquility of the mind, that mathematical speculations derive some of their most considerable advantages; because there is nothing to interest the imagination; because the judgment sits free and unbiased to examine the point. All proportions, every arrangement of quantity, is alike to the understanding, because the same truths result to it from all; from greater from lesser, from equality and inequality.
In On the Sublime and Beautiful, Part 3, sect. 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alike (60)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Derive (70)  |  Equality (34)  |  Examine (84)  |  Free (239)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Indifference (16)  |  Inequality (9)  |  Interest (416)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Lesser (6)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Point (584)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Sit (51)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Tranquility (8)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unbiased (7)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

It is good to recall that three centuries ago, around the year 1660, two of the greatest monuments of modern history were erected, one in the West and one in the East; St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Between them, the two symbolize, perhaps better than words can describe, the comparative level of architectural technology, the comparative level of craftsmanship and the comparative level of affluence and sophistication the two cultures had attained at that epoch of history. But about the same time there was also created—and this time only in the West—a third monument, a monument still greater in its eventual import for humanity. This was Newton’s Principia, published in 1687. Newton's work had no counterpart in the India of the Mughuls.
'Ideals and Realities' (1975). Reprinted in Ideals and Realities (1984), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Affluence (3)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Attain (126)  |  Better (493)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Counterpart (11)  |  Craftsmanship (4)  |  Culture (157)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  Humanity (186)  |  London (15)  |  Modern (402)  |  Monument (45)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Principia (14)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Technology (281)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

It is hard to think of fissionable materials when fashioned into bombs as being a source of happiness. However this may be, if with such destructive weapons men are to survive, they must grow rapidly in human greatness. A new level of human understanding is needed. The reward for using the atom’s power towards man’s welfare is great and sure. The punishment for its misuse would seem to be death and the destruction of the civilization that has been growing for a thousand years. These are the alternatives that atomic power, as the steel of Daedalus, presents to mankind. We are forced to grow to greater manhood.
Atomic Quest: A Personal Narrative (1956), xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Atomic Power (9)  |  Being (1276)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Death (406)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Fission (10)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Hard (246)  |  Human (1512)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Material (366)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Reward (72)  |  Steel (23)  |  Survive (87)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Understanding (527)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Year (963)

It is not therefore the business of philosophy, in our present situation in the universe, to attempt to take in at once, in one view, the whole scheme of nature; but to extend, with great care and circumspection, our knowledge, by just steps, from sensible things, as far as our observations or reasonings from them will carry us, in our enquiries concerning either the greater motions and operations of nature, or her more subtile and hidden works. In this way Sir Isaac Newton proceeded in his discoveries.
An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries, in Four Books (1748), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Carry (130)  |  Circumspection (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Extend (129)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Observation (593)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Situation (117)  |  Step (234)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

It is the destiny of the sciences, which must necessarily be in the hands of a few, that the utility of their progress should be invisible to the greater part of mankind, especially if those sciences are associated with unobtrusive pursuits. Let a greater facility in using our navigable waters and opening new lines of communication but once exist, simply because at present we know vastly better how to level the ground and construct locks and flood-gates—what does it amount to? The workmen have had their labors lightened, but they themselves have not the least idea of the skill of the geometer who directed them; they have been put in motion nearly as the body is by a soul of which it knows nothing; the rest of the world has even less perception of the genius which presided over the enterprise, and enjoys the success it has attained only with a species of ingratitude.
As quoted in Joseph Henry, 'Report of the Secretary', Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1859 (1860), 16-17. Webmaster has not yet been able to locate a primary source for this quote.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Attain (126)  |  Better (493)  |  Body (557)  |  Canal (18)  |  Communication (101)  |  Construct (129)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Direct (228)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Exist (458)  |  Flood (52)  |  Gate (33)  |  Genius (301)  |  Ground (222)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Know (1538)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Perception (97)  |  Present (630)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rest (287)  |  Skill (116)  |  Soul (235)  |  Species (435)  |  Success (327)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Utility (52)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

It is well to observe the force and virtue and consequence of discoveries, and these are to be seen nowhere more conspicuously than in those three which were unknown to the ancients, and of which the origins, although recent, are obscure and inglorious; namely, printing, gunpowder, and the magnet. For these three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, insomuch that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.
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:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Change (639)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Exert (40)  |  Face (214)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Influence (231)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Invention (400)  |  Literature (116)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Observe (179)  |  Origin (250)  |  Power (771)  |  Printing (25)  |  Recent (78)  |  Star (460)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Warfare (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence in such a theory is certainly justified. There is less danger of going completely astray, particularly since it takes so much less time and effort to disprove such theories by experience. Yet more and more, as the depth of our knowledge increases, we must give up this advantage in our quest for logical simplicity in the foundations of physical theory...
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950), 13. In David H. Levy (Ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Astray (13)  |  Basic (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Danger (127)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Effort (243)  |  Experience (494)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Proof (304)  |  Quest (39)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)

It must not be thought that it is ever possible to reach the interior earth by any perseverance in mining: both because the exterior earth is too thick, in comparison with human strength; and especially because of the intermediate waters, which would gush forth with greater impetus, the deeper the place in which their veins were first opened; and which would drown all miners.
Principles of Philosophy (1644), trans. V. R. and R. P. Miller (1983), 217-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impetus (5)  |  Interior (35)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Mining (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Open (277)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reach (286)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vein (27)  |  Water (503)

It was a great thing to open the eyes of a blind man, but it is a greater thing to open the eyes of a blind soul.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 17
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Eye (440)  |  Great (1610)  |  Man (2252)  |  Open (277)  |  Soul (235)  |  Thing (1914)

It would appear... that moral phenomena, when observed on a great scale, are found to resemble physical phenomena; and we thus arrive, in inquiries of this kind, at the fundamental principle, that the greater the number of individuals observed, the more do individual peculiarities, whether physical or moral, become effaced, and leave in a prominent point of view the general facts, by virtue of which society exists and is preserved.
A Treatise on Man and the Development of his Faculties (1842). Reprinted with an introduction by Solomon Diamond (1969), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Do (1905)  |  Efface (6)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Principle (530)  |  Prominent (6)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Scale (122)  |  Society (350)  |  View (496)  |  Virtue (117)

It’s that moment, that brief epiphany when the universe opens up and shows us something, and in that instant we get just a sense of an order greater than Heaven and, as yet at least, beyond the grasp of Stephen Hawking.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 109
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Brief (37)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Great (1610)  |  Stephen W. Hawking (62)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Instant (46)  |  Least (75)  |  Moment (260)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Something (718)  |  Universe (900)

Leibnitz’s discoveries lay in the direction in which all modern progress in science lies, in establishing order, symmetry, and harmony, i.e., comprehensiveness and perspicuity,—rather than in dealing with single problems, in the solution of which followers soon attained greater dexterity than himself.
In Leibnitz (1884), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dexterity (8)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Establish (63)  |  Follower (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modern (402)  |  Order (638)  |  Perspicuity (2)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progress (492)  |  Single (365)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soon (187)  |  Symmetry (44)

Let me describe briefly how a black hole might be created. Imagine a star with a mass 10 times that of the sun. During most of its lifetime of about a billion years the star will generate heat at its center by converting hydrogen into helium. The energy released will create sufficient pressure to support the star against its own gravity, giving rise to an object with a radius about five times the radius of the sun. The escape velocity from the surface of such a star would be about 1,000 kilometers per second. That is to say, an object fired vertically upward from the surface of the star with a velocity of less than 1,000 kilometers per second would be dragged back by the gravitational field of the star and would return to the surface, whereas an object with a velocity greater than that would escape to infinity.
When the star had exhausted its nuclear fuel, there would be nothing to maintain the outward pressure, and the star would begin to collapse because of its own gravity. As the star shrank, the gravitational field at the surface would become stronger and the escape velocity would increase. By the time the radius had got down to 10 kilometers the escape velocity would have increased to 100,000 kilometers per second, the velocity of light. After that time any light emitted from the star would not be able to escape to infinity but would be dragged back by the gravitational field. According to the special theory of relativity nothing can travel faster than light, so that if light cannot escape, nothing else can either. The result would be a black hole: a region of space-time from which it is not possible to escape to infinity.
'The Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes', Scientific American, 1977, 236, 34-40.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Against (332)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Billion (104)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Create (245)  |  Describe (132)  |  Down (455)  |  Energy (373)  |  Escape (85)  |  Faster (50)  |  Field (378)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Heat (180)  |  Helium (11)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Increase (225)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Kilometer (10)  |  Light (635)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mass (160)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Object (438)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Result (700)  |  Return (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Space (523)  |  Space-Time (20)  |  Special (188)  |  Star (460)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Sun (407)  |  Support (151)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Upward (44)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Man, by reason of his greater intellect, can more reasonably hope to equal birds in knowledge than to equal nature in the perfection of her machinery.
In The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright: 1899-1905 (1953), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Equal (88)  |  Hope (321)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Reason (766)

May the Gods confound that man who first disclosed the hours, and who first, in fact, erected a sun-dial here; who, for wretched me, minced the day up into pieces. For when I was a boy, this stomach was the sun-dial, one much better and truer than all of these; when that used to warn me to eat. Except when there was nothing to eat. Now, even when there is something to eat, it’s not eaten, unless the sun chooses; and to such a degree now, in fact, is the city filled with sun-dials, that the greater part of the people are creeping along the streets shrunk up with famine.
Plautus
A fragment, preserved in the works of Aulus Gellius, as translated by Henry Thomas Riley, in The Comedies of Plautus (1890), Vol. 2, 517.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Boy (100)  |  Choose (116)  |  City (87)  |  Confound (21)  |  Day (43)  |  Degree (277)  |  Dial (9)  |  Eat (108)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Famine (18)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  Hour (192)  |  Man (2252)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Something (718)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sundial (6)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wretched (8)

Might one not say that in the chance combination of nature's production, since only those endowed with certain relations of suitability could survive, it is no cause for wonder that this suitability is found in all species that exist today? Chance, one might say, produced an innumerable multitude of individuals; a small number turned out to be constructed in such fashion that the parts of the animal could satisfy its needs; in another, infinitely greater number, there was neither suitability nor order: all of the later have perished; animals without a mouth could not live, others lacking organs for reproduction could not perpetuate themselves: the only ones to have remained are those in which were found order and suitability; and these species, which we see today, are only the smallest part of what blind fate produced.
'Essai de Cosmologie' in Oeuvres de Mr. De Maupertuis (1756), Vol. 1, 11-12. Quoted in Jacques Roger, The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought, ed. Keith R. Benson and trans. Robert Ellrich (1997), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Blind (98)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Combination (150)  |  Construct (129)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fate (76)  |  Individual (420)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Live (650)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perish (56)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Remain (355)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Species (435)  |  Suitability (11)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Survive (87)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wonder (251)

Modern Physics impresses us particularly with the truth of the old doctrine which teaches that there are realities existing apart from our sense-perceptions, and that there are problems and conflicts where these realities are of greater value for us than the richest treasures of the world of experience.
In The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics (1931), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Conflict (77)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Impress (66)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Old (499)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Reality (274)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sense (785)  |  Teach (299)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)  |  World (1850)

Mr. Dalton's aspect and manner were repulsive. There was no gracefulness belonging to him. His voice was harsh and brawling; his gait stiff and awkward; his style of writing and conversation dry and almost crabbed. In person he was tall, bony, and slender. He never could learn to swim: on investigating this circumstance he found that his spec. grav. as a mass was greater than that of water; and he mentioned this in his lectures on natural philosophy in illustration of the capability of different persons for attaining the art of swimming. Independence and simplicity of manner and originality were his best qualities. Though in comparatively humble circumstances he maintained the dignity of the philosophical character. As the first distinct promulgator of the doctrine that the elements of bodies unite in definite proportions to form chemical compounds, he has acquired an undying fame.
Dr John Davy's (brother of Humphry Davy) impressions of Dalton written in c.1830-31 in Malta.
John Davy
Quoted in W. C. Henry, Memoirs of the Life and Scientific Researches of John Dalton (1854), 217-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Best (467)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brother (47)  |  Capability (44)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conversation (46)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Definite (114)  |  Different (595)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Dry (65)  |  Element (322)  |  Fame (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Humble (54)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Impression (118)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mention (84)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Never (1089)  |  Person (366)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Unite (43)  |  Water (503)  |  Writing (192)

Mssr. Fermat—what have you done?
Your simple conjecture has everyone
Churning out proofs,
Which are nothing but goofs!
Could it be that your statement’s an erudite spoof?
A marginal hoax
That you’ve played on us folks?
But then you’re really not known for your practical jokes.
Or is it then true
That you knew what to do
When n was an integer greater than two?
Oh then why can’t we find
That same proof…are we blind?
You must be reproved, for I’m losing my mind.
In 'Fermat's Last Theorem', Mathematics Magazine (Apr 1986), 59, No. 2, 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Churn (4)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Do (1905)  |  Erudite (2)  |  Fermat�s Last Theorem (3)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Folk (10)  |  Goof (2)  |  Hoax (6)  |  Integer (12)  |  Joke (90)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lose (165)  |  Marginal (3)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parody (4)  |  Play (116)  |  Practical (225)  |  Proof (304)  |  Really (77)  |  Reprove (2)  |  Simple (426)  |  Statement (148)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Why (491)

Nature prefers the more probable states to the less probable because in nature processes take place in the direction of greater probability. Heat goes from a body at higher temperature to a body at lower temperature because the state of equal temperature distribution is more probable than a state of unequal temperature distribution.
'The Atomic Theory of Matter', third lecture at Columbia University (1909), in Max Planck and A. P. Wills (trans.), Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics (1915), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Equal (88)  |  Heat (180)  |  Higher (37)  |  Less (105)  |  Lower (11)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Preference (28)  |  Probability (135)  |  Process (439)  |  Second Law Of Thermodynamics (14)  |  State (505)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Unequal (12)

Nature when more shy in one, hath more freely confest and shewn herself in another; and a Fly sometimes hath given greater light towards the true knowledge of the structure and the uses of the Parts in Humane Bodies, than an often repeated dissection of the same might have done … We must not therefore think the meanest of the Creation vile or useless, since that in them in lively Characters (if we can but read) we may find the knowledge of a Deity and ourselves … In every Animal there is a world of wonders; each is a Microcosme or a world in it self.
Phocrena, or the Anatomy of a Porpess, dissected at Gresham College: With a Prreliminary Discourse Concerning Anatomy, and a Natural History of Animals (1680), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Body (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deity (22)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fly (153)  |  Humane (19)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Lively (17)  |  Microcosm (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Read (308)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Self (268)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)

Nature, the parent of all things, designed the human backbone to be like a keel or foundation. It is because we have a backbone that we can walk upright and stand erect. But this was not the only purpose for which Nature provided it; here, as elsewhere, she displayed great skill in turning the construction of a single member to a variety of different uses.
It Provides a Path for the Spinal Marrow, Yet is Flexible.
Firstly, she bored a hole through the posterior region of the bodies of all the vertebrae, thus fashioning a suitable pathway for the spinal marrow which would descend through them.
Secondly, she did not make the backbone out of one single bone with no joints. Such a unified construction would have afforded greater stability and a safer seat for the spinal marrow since, not having joints, the column could not have suffered dislocations, displacements, or distortions. If the Creator of the world had paid such attention to resistance to injury and had subordinated the value and importance of all other aims in the fabric of parts of the body to this one, he would certainly have made a single backbone with no joints, as when someone constructing an animal of wood or stone forms the backbone of one single and continuous component. Even if man were destined only to bend and straighten his back, it would not have been appropriate to construct the whole from one single bone. And in fact, since it was necessary that man, by virtue of his backbone, be able to perform a great variety of movements, it was better that it be constructed from many bones, even though as a result of this it was rendered more liable to injury.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem: (1543), Book I, 57-58, as translated by William Frank Richardson, in 'Nature’s Skill in Creating a Backbone to Hold Us Erect', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book I: The Bones and Cartilages (1998), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Attention (196)  |  Back (395)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Bend (13)  |  Better (493)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Bored (5)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Column (15)  |  Component (51)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Creator (97)  |  Descend (49)  |  Design (203)  |  Destined (42)  |  Different (595)  |  Dislocation (4)  |  Displacement (9)  |  Display (59)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flexible (7)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Importance (299)  |  Injury (36)  |  Joint (31)  |  Keel (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marrow (5)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Path (159)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Perform (123)  |  Posterior (7)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Render (96)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Single (365)  |  Skill (116)  |  Someone (24)  |  Stability (28)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stone (168)  |  Straight (75)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Unified (10)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vertebra (4)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Walk (138)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wood (97)  |  World (1850)

New sources of power … will surely be discovered. Nuclear energy is incomparably greater than the molecular energy we use today. The coal a man can get in a day can easily do five hundred times as much work as himself. Nuclear energy is at least one million times more powerful still. If the hydrogen atoms in a pound of water could be prevailed upon to combine and form helium, they would suffice to drive a thousand-horsepower engine for a whole year. If the electrons, those tiny planets of the atomic systems, were induced to combine with the nuclei in hydrogen, the horsepower would be 120 times greater still. There is no question among scientists that this gigantic source of energy exists. What is lacking is the match to set the bonfire alight, or it may be the detonator to cause the dynamite to explode. The scientists are looking for this.
[In his last major speech to the House of Commons on 1 Mar 1955, Churchill quoted from his original printed article, nearly 25 years earlier.]
'Fifty Years Hence'. Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932), 57:3, 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Cause (561)  |  Coal (64)  |  Combine (58)  |  Common (447)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dynamite (8)  |  Electron (96)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engine (99)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explode (15)  |  Form (976)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Helium (11)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Last (425)  |  Looking (191)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Bomb (6)  |  Nuclear Energy (18)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Planet (402)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Speech (66)  |  Still (614)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Today (321)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Early (196)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Great (1610)  |  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 person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Advance (298)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Labor (200)  |  Last (425)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Person (366)  |  Precision (72)  |  Require (229)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)

Not everything is an idea. Otherwise psychology would contain all the sciences within it or at least it would be the highest judge over all the sciences. Otherwise psychology would rule over logic and mathematics. But nothing would be a greater misunderstanding of mathematics than its subordination to psychology.
In Elmer Daniel Klemke, Essays on Frege (1968), 531.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Idea (881)  |  Judge (114)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Rule (307)  |  Subordination (5)

Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—and occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do.
In Amelia Earhart and George Palmer Putnam (ed.), Last Flight (1937), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Already (226)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Do (1905)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Establishing (7)  |  Independence (37)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Reason (766)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Want (504)  |  Women (9)

Now the American eagle is verging on extinction. Even the polar bear on its ice floes has become easy game for flying sportsmen. A peninsula named Udjung Kulon holds the last two or three dozen Javan rhinoceroses. The last known herd of Arabian oryx has been machine-gunned by a sheik. Blue whales have nearly been harpooned out of their oceans. Pollution ruins bays and rivers. Refuse litters beaches. Dam projects threaten Colorado canyons, Hudson valleys, every place of natural beauty that can be a reservoir for power. Obviously the scientific progress so alluring to me is destroying qualities of greater worth.
In 'The Wisdom of Wilderness', Life (22 Dec 1967), 63, No. 25, 8-9. (Note: the Arabian oryx is no longer listed as extinct.)
Science quotes on:  |  Alluring (5)  |  Arabian (2)  |  Beach (23)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Blue Whale (3)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Colorado (5)  |  Dam (8)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Easy (213)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Floe (3)  |  Flying (74)  |  Game (104)  |  Harpoon (3)  |  Herd (17)  |  Hudson (3)  |  Ice (58)  |  Java (2)  |  Known (453)  |  Last (425)  |  Litter (5)  |  Machine (271)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Beauty (5)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Peninsula (2)  |  Polar (13)  |  Polar Bear (3)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Project (77)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Rhinoceros (2)  |  River (140)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Threat (36)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Two (936)  |  Valley (37)  |  Whale (45)  |  Worth (172)

Now this supreme wisdom, united to goodness that is no less infinite, cannot but have chosen the best. For as a lesser evil is a kind of good, even so a lesser good is a kind of evil if it stands in the way of a greater good; and the would be something to correct in the actions of God if it were possible to the better. As in mathematics, when there is no maximum nor minimum, in short nothing distinguished, everything is done equally, or when that is not nothing at all is done: so it may be said likewise in respect of perfect wisdom, which is no less orderly than mathematics, that if there were not the best (optimum) among all possible worlds, God would not have produced any.
Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God and Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil (1710), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evil (122)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maximum (16)  |  Minimum (13)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Possible (560)  |  Produced (187)  |  Respect (212)  |  Short (200)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (284)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)

Nuclear energy and foreign policy cannot coexist on the planet. The more deep the secret, the greater the determination of every nation to discover and exploit it. Nuclear energy insists on global government, on law, on order, and on the willingness of the community to take the responsibility for the acts of the individual. And to what end? Why, for liberty, first of blessings. Soldier, we await you, and if the
In 'The Talk of the Town', The New Yorker (18 Aug 1945), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Blessings (17)  |  Coexist (4)  |  Community (111)  |  Deep (241)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discover (571)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exploit (19)  |  First (1302)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Foreign Policy (2)  |  Global (39)  |  Government (116)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insist (22)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Energy (18)  |  Order (638)  |  Planet (402)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Secret (216)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Why (491)  |  Willingness (10)

Obvious facts are apt to be over-rated. System-makers see the gravitation of history, and fail to observe its chemistry, of greater though less evident power.
From chapter 'Jottings from a Note-book', in Canadian Stories (1918), 179.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Evident (92)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Gravity (140)  |  History (716)  |  Less (105)  |  Maker (34)  |  Observe (179)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Power (771)  |  Rat (37)  |  See (1094)  |  System (545)

Of all man’s works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.
In Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Majesty (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vast (188)  |  Work (1402)

Old King Coal was a merry old soul:
“I’ll move the world,” quoth he;
“My England’s high, and rich, and great,
But greater she shall be !”
And he call’d for the pick, and he call’d for the spade,
And he call’d for his miners bold;
“ And it’s dig,” he said, “in the deep, deep earth;
You’ll find my treasures better worth
Than mines of Indian gold!”

Old King Coal was a merry old soul,
Yet not content was he;
And he said, “I’ve found what I’ve desired,
Though ’tis but one of three.”
And he call’d for water, he call’d for fire,
For smiths and workmen true:
“Come, build me engines great and strong ;
We’ll have,” quoth he, “a change ere long;
We’ll try what Steam can do.”

Old King Coal was a merry old soul:
“’Tis fairly done,” quoth he,
When he saw the myriad wheels at work
O’er all the land and sea.
They spared the bones and strength of men,
They hammer’d, wove, and spun;
There was nought too great, too mean, or small,
The giant Steam had power for all;—
His task was never done.
From song, 'Old King Coal' (1846), collected in The Poetical Works of Charles Mackay: Now for the First Time Collected Complete in One Volume (1876), 565. To the melody of 'Old King Cole'.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Blacksmith (5)  |  Bold (22)  |  Bone (101)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Coal (64)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dig (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Engine (99)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gold (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hammer (26)  |  High (370)  |  Indian (32)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Long (778)  |  Loom (20)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mine (78)  |  Miner (9)  |  Move (223)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Never (1089)  |  Old (499)  |  Pick (16)  |  Power (771)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sea (326)  |  Small (489)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spade (3)  |  Steam (81)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Task (152)  |  Transport (31)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Try (296)  |  Water (503)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

One of my guiding principles is don’t do anything that other people are doing. Always do something a little different if you can. The concept is that if you do it a little differently there is a greater potential for reward than if you the same thing that other people are doing. I think that this kind of goal for one’s work, having obviously the maximum risk, would have the maximum reward no matter what the field may be.
In transcript of a video history interview with Seymour Cray by David K. Allison at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, (9 May 1995), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Field (378)  |  Goal (155)  |  Guide (107)  |  Kind (564)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Potential (75)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reward (72)  |  Risk (68)  |  Same (166)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Work (1402)

One of the most constant characteristics of beliefs is their intolerance. It is even more uncompromising as the belief is stronger. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it.
From Les Opinions et les Croyances: Genèse—Évolution (1911), 235. As translated in review of that book by: Samuel N. Reep, The American Journal of Sociology (1913), 18, No. 6, 814 (first and last sentences). Original French text: “Un des caractères généraux les plus constants des croyances est leur intolérance. Elle est d’autant plus intransigeante que la croyance est plus forte. Les hommes dominés par une certitude ne peuvent tolérer ceux qui ne l’acceptent pas.” The second sentence as translated by Webmaster from the original French. Also seen translated as, “The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certitude (6)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Constant (148)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Intolerance (8)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Tolerate (8)

One should guard against inculcating a young man with the idea that success is the aim of life, for a successful man normally receives from his peers an incomparably greater portion than the services he has been able to render them deserve. The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. The most important motive for study at school, at the university, and in life is the pleasure of working and thereby obtaining results which will serve the community. The most important task for our educators is to awaken and encourage these psychological forces in a young man {or woman}. Such a basis alone can lead to the joy of possessing one of the most precious assets in the world - knowledge or artistic skill.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Aim (175)  |  Alone (324)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Asset (6)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Basis (180)  |  Capable (174)  |  Community (111)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Educator (7)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Force (497)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guard (19)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Incomparable (14)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Joy (117)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Normally (2)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Peer (13)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possess (157)  |  Precious (43)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Receive (117)  |  Render (96)  |  Reside (25)  |  Result (700)  |  School (227)  |  Serve (64)  |  Service (110)  |  Skill (116)  |  Study (701)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Task (152)  |  Thereby (5)  |  University (130)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life’s pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways.
In The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (1987, 2010), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Billiard (4)  |  Complex (202)  |  Constrain (11)  |  External (62)  |  Force (497)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Measurable (3)  |  Myriad (32)  |  New (1273)  |  Organism (231)  |  Pool (16)  |  Position (83)  |  Predictable (10)  |  Propel (2)  |  Richness (15)  |  Simple (426)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Way (1214)

Our knowledge must always be limited, but the knowable is limitless. The greater the sphere of our knowledge the greater the surface of contact with our infinite ignorance.
Conclusion of the James Forrest Lecture (3 May 1894) at an Extra Meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 'The Relation of Mathematics to Engineering', collected in Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (1894), 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Contact (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)

People ask me often [whether] the Nobel Prize [was] the thing you were aiming for all your life, and I say that would be crazy. Nobody would aim for a Nobel Prize because, if you didn’t get it, your whole life would be wasted. What we were aiming at was getting people well, and the satisfaction of that is much greater than any prize you can get.
Quoted in interview by Mary Ellen Avery (1997).
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Ask (420)  |  Biography (254)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Disease (340)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Nobody (103)  |  People (1031)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Whole (756)

Perhaps today there is a greater kindness of tone, as there is greater ingenuity of expression to make up for the fact that all the real, solid, elemental jests against doctors were uttered some one or two thousand years ago.
In 'The Evil Spoken of Physicians', The Proceedings of the Charaka Club (1902), 1, 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ingenuity (42)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Solid (119)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Tone (22)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)

Plants, again, inasmuch as they are without locomotion, present no great variety in their heterogeneous pacts. For, when the functions are but few, few also are the organs required to effect them. ... Animals, however, that not only live but perceive, present a great multiformity of pacts, and this diversity is greater in some animals than in others, being most varied in those to whose share has fallen not mere life but life of high degree. Now such an animal is man.
Aristotle
Parts of Animals, 655b, 37-656a, 7. In Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. I, 1021-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Degree (277)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Effect (414)  |  Function (235)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Present (630)  |  Required (108)  |  Share (82)  |  Variety (138)

Plasticity is a double-edged sword; the more flexible an organism is the greater the variety of maladaptive, as well as adaptive, behaviors it can develop; the more teachable it is the more fully it can profit from the experiences of its ancestors and associates and the more it risks being exploited by its ancestors and associates.
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 361.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Associate (25)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Develop (278)  |  Experience (494)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Flexibility (6)  |  Learning (291)  |  More (2558)  |  Organism (231)  |  Plasticity (7)  |  Profit (56)  |  Risk (68)  |  Teachable (2)  |  Variety (138)

Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 179
Science quotes on:  |  Fit (139)  |  Great (1610)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Work (1402)

Research may start from definite problems whose importance it recognizes and whose solution is sought more or less directly by all forces. But equally legitimate is the other method of research which only selects the field of its activity and, contrary to the first method, freely reconnoitres in the search for problems which are capable of solution. Different individuals will hold different views as to the relative value of these two methods. If the first method leads to greater penetration it is also easily exposed to the danger of unproductivity. To the second method we owe the acquisition of large and new fields, in which the details of many things remain to be determined and explored by the first method.
In Zum Gedächtniss an Julius Plucker', Göttinger Abhandlungen (1871), 16, Mathematische Classe, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Activity (218)  |  Capable (174)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Danger (127)  |  Definite (114)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Easy (213)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Freely (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Importance (299)  |  Individual (420)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Problem (731)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reconnoitre (2)  |  Relative (42)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Search (175)  |  Select (45)  |  Solution (282)  |  Start (237)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Science and knowledge are subject, in their extension and increase, to laws quite opposite to those which regulate the material world. Unlike the forces of molecular attraction, which cease at sensible distances; or that of gravity, which decreases rapidly with the increasing distance from the point of its origin; the farther we advance from the origin of our knowledge, the larger it becomes, and the greater power it bestows upon its cultivators, to add new fields to its dominions.
In 'Future Prospects', On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1st ed., 1832), chap. 32, 277-278.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Become (821)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Cease (81)  |  Decrease (16)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dominion (11)  |  Extension (60)  |  Farther (51)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Material (366)  |  Material World (8)  |  Molecular (7)  |  New (1273)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Origin (250)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of Origin (2)  |  Power (771)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Regulate (11)  |  Subject (543)  |  Unlike (9)  |  World (1850)

Science may be a boon if war can be abolished and democracy and cultural liberty preserved. If this cannot be done, science will precipitate evils greater than any that mankind has ever experienced.
In 'Boredom or Doom in a Scientific World', United Nations World (Sep 1948), Vol. 2, No. 8, 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Boon (7)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Evil (122)  |  Experience (494)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Precipitate (3)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)

Scientific modes of thought cannot be developed and become generally accepted unless people renounce their primary, unreflecting, and spontaneous attempt to understand all their experience in terms of its purpose and meaning for themselves. The development that led to more adequate knowledge and increasing control of nature was therefore, considered from one aspect, also a development toward greater self-control by men.
The Civilizing Process: The Development of Manners—Changes in the Code of Conduct and Feeling in Early Modern Times (1939), trans. Edmund Jephcott (1978), 225. Originally published as Über den Prozess der Zivilisation.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Consider (428)  |  Control (182)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Experience (494)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)  |  Primary (82)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Renounce (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Self (268)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Understand (648)

Scientists have long been baffled by the existence of spontaneous order in the universe. The laws of thermodynamics seem to dictate the opposite, that nature should inexorably degenerate toward a state of greater disorder, greater entropy. Yet all around
John Mitchinson and John Lloyd, If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People?: Smart Quotes for Dumb Times (2009), 274.
Science quotes on:  |  Baffle (6)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Dictate (11)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inexorably (2)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seem (150)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  State (505)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Toward (45)  |  Universe (900)

Signs and symptoms indicate the present, past and future states of the three states of the body (health, illness, neutrality). According to Galen, knowledge of the present state is of advantage only to the patient as it helps him to follow the proper course of management. Knowledge of the past state is useful only to the physician inasmuch as its disclosure by him to the patient brings him a greater respect for his professional advice. Knowledge of the future state is useful to both. It gives an opportunity to the patient to be forewarned to adopt necessary preventative measures and it enhances the reputation of the physician by correctly forecasting the future developments.
Avicenna
'The Signs and Symptoms (Diagnosis): General Remarks,' in The Canon of Medicine, adapted by L. Bakhtiar (1999), 259.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Advice (57)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Course (413)  |  Development (441)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Disclosure (7)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Follow (389)  |  Future (467)  |  Health (210)  |  Illness (35)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Management (23)  |  Measure (241)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Neutrality (5)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Past (355)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Present (630)  |  Professional (77)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Respect (212)  |  State (505)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Useful (260)

Spherical space is not very easy to imagine. We have to think of the properties of the surface of a sphere—the two-dimensional case—and try to conceive something similar applied to three-dimensional space. Stationing ourselves at a point let us draw a series of spheres of successively greater radii. The surface of a sphere of radius r should be proportional to r2; but in spherical space the areas of the more distant spheres begin to fall below the proper proportion. There is not so much room out there as we expected to find. Ultimately we reach a sphere of biggest possible area, and beyond it the areas begin to decrease. The last sphere of all shrinks to a point—our antipodes. Is there nothing beyond this? Is there a kind of boundary there? There is nothing beyond and yet there is no boundary. On the earth’s surface there is nothing beyond our own antipodes but there is no boundary there
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 158-159.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Draw (140)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reach (286)  |  Series (153)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1122)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimately (56)

Suppose a number of equal waves of water to move upon the surface of a stagnant lake, with a certain constant velocity, and to enter a narrow channel leading out of the lake. Suppose then another similar cause to have excited another equal series of waves, which arrive at the same time, with the first. Neither series of waves will destroy the other, but their effects will be combined: if they enter the channel in such a manner that the elevations of one series coincide with those of the other, they must together produce a series of greater joint elevations; but if the elevations of one series are so situated as to correspond to the depressions of the other, they must exactly fill up those depressions. And the surface of the water must remain smooth; at least I can discover no alternative, either from theory or from experiment.
A Reply to the Animadversions of the Edinburgh Reviewers on Some Papers Published in the Philosophical Transactions (1804), 17-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Alternative (32)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Channel (23)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Combination (150)  |  Constant (148)  |  Depression (26)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Discover (571)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Interference (22)  |  Joint (31)  |  Lake (36)  |  Move (223)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Remain (355)  |  Series (153)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Stagnant (4)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)

That our being should consist of two fundamental elements [physical and psychical] offers I suppose no greater inherent improbability than that it should rest on one only.
The Integrative Action of the Nervous System (1947), Foreword to 1947 Edition, xx.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Consist (223)  |  Element (322)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Improbability (11)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Offer (142)  |  Physical (518)  |  Rest (287)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Two (936)

The absolute extent of land in the Archipelago is not greater than that contained by Western Europe from Hungary to Spain; but, owing to the manner in which the land is broken up and divided, the variety of its productions is rather in proportion to the immense surface over which the islands are spread, than to the quantity of land which they contain.
Malay Archipelago
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Archipelago (7)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Contain (68)  |  Divide (77)  |  Divided (50)  |  Europe (50)  |  Extent (142)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hungary (3)  |  Immense (89)  |  Island (49)  |  Land (131)  |  Manner (62)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Production (190)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Spain (4)  |  Spread (86)  |  Surface (223)  |  Variety (138)  |  Western (45)

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered other things [of greater value].
With the phrase “of greater value” in James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 415. The more specific description '—gunpowder, china, medicines, the laws of nature' is given for 'of greater value' in Counsels and Maxims: Being the Second Part of Arthur Schopenhauer's Aphorismen Zur Lebensweisheit translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders (2nd Ed., 1890), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemist (23)  |  China (27)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Gold (101)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Law (913)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Search (175)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)

The anatomy of a little child, representing all parts thereof, is accounted a greater rarity than the skeleton of a man in full stature.
In The Church History of Britain (1842), Vol. 1, 165. Fuller’s context was to compare being studious in antiquity with after-ages when perfected.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adult (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Child (333)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Rare (94)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Represent (157)  |  Skeleton (25)

The ancients thought as clearly as we do, had greater skills in the arts and in architecture, but they had never learned the use of the great instrument which has given man control over nature—experiment.
Address at the opening of the new Pathological Institute of the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow (4 Oct 1911). Printed in 'The Pathological Institute of a General Hospital', Glasgow Medical Journal (1911), 76, 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Art (680)  |  Control (182)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Great (1610)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Skill (116)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. Life refuses to be embalmed alive. The more prolonged the halt in some unrelieved system of order, the greater the crash of the dead society.
In Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929), 515. As cited in Paul Grimley Kuntz, Alfred North Whitehead (1984), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Amid (2)  |  Art (680)  |  Change (639)  |  Halt (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  More (2558)  |  Order (638)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Progress (492)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Society (350)  |  System (545)

The automatic computing engine now being designed at N.P.L. [National Physics Laboratory] is atypical large scale electronic digital computing machine. In a single lecture it will not be possible to give much technical detail of this machine, and most of what I shall say will apply equally to any other machine of this type now being planned. From the point of view of the mathematician the property of being digital should be of greater interest than that of being electronic. That it is electronic is certainly important because these machines owe their high speed to this, and without the speed it is doubtful if financial support for their construction would be forthcoming. But this is virtually all that there is to be said on that subject. That the machine is digital however has more subtle significance. It means firstly that numbers are represented by sequences of digits which can be as long as one wishes. One can therefore work to any desired degree of accuracy. This accuracy is not obtained by more careful machining of parts, control of temperature variations, and such means, but by a slight increase in the amount of equipment in the machine.
Lecture to the London Mathematical Society, 20 February 1947. Quoted in B. E. Carpenter and R. W. Doran (eds.), A. M. Turing's Ace Report of 1946 and Other Papers (1986), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Amount (153)  |  Apply (170)  |  Atypical (2)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Being (1276)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Computer (131)  |  Construction (114)  |  Control (182)  |  Degree (277)  |  Design (203)  |  Designed (2)  |  Desired (5)  |  Detail (150)  |  Digital (10)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Electronics (21)  |  Engine (99)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equally (129)  |  Equipment (45)  |  High (370)  |  Increase (225)  |  Interest (416)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Large (398)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Long (778)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Property (177)  |  Represent (157)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Significance (114)  |  Single (365)  |  Speed (66)  |  Subject (543)  |  Support (151)  |  Technology (281)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Type (171)  |  Variation (93)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The average English author [of mathematical texts] leaves one under the impression that he has made a bargain with his reader to put before him the truth, the greater part of the truth, and nothing but the truth; and that if he has put the facts of his subject into his book, however difficult it may be to unearth them, he has fulfilled his contract with his reader. This is a very much mistaken view, because effective teaching requires a great deal more than a bare recitation of facts, even if these are duly set forth in logical order—as in English books they often are not. The probable difficulties which will occur to the student, the objections which the intelligent student will naturally and necessarily raise to some statement of fact or theory—these things our authors seldom or never notice, and yet a recognition and anticipation of them by the author would be often of priceless value to the student. Again, a touch of humour (strange as the contention may seem) in mathematical works is not only possible with perfect propriety, but very helpful; and I could give instances of this even from the pure mathematics of Salmon and the physics of Clerk Maxwell.
In Perry, Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 59-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Author (175)  |  Average (89)  |  Bare (33)  |  Bargain (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Clerk (13)  |  Contention (14)  |  Contract (11)  |  Deal (192)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Effective (68)  |  English (35)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forth (14)  |  Fulfill (19)  |  Great (1610)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Humour (116)  |  Impression (118)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Leave (138)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Objection (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Priceless (9)  |  Probable (24)  |  Propriety (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reader (42)  |  Recitation (2)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Require (229)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Seem (150)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Set (400)  |  Statement (148)  |  Strange (160)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Text (16)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Touch (146)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unearth (2)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The average gambler will say “The player who stakes his whole fortune on a single play is a fool, and the science of mathematics can not prove him to be otherwise.” The reply is obvious: “The science of mathematics never attempts the impossible, it merely shows that other players are greater fools.”
Concluding remarks to his mathematical proof, with certain assumptions, that the best betting strategy for “Gambler’s Ruin” would be to always make his largest stake on his first play. In 'Gambler’s Ruin', Annals of Mathematics (Jul 1909), 2nd Series, 10, No. 4, 189. This is also seen, without primary source, quoted as “It is true that a man who does this is a fool. I have only proved that a man who does anything else is an even bigger fool,” in Harold Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles (1988), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Average (89)  |  Fool (121)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Gambler (7)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Play (116)  |  Player (9)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reply (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Single (365)  |  Stake (20)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

The best class of scientific mind is the same as the best class of business mind. The great desideratum in either case is to know how much evidence is enough to warrant action. It is as unbusiness-like to want too much evidence before buying or selling as to be content with too little. The same kind of qualities are wanted in either case. The difference is that if the business man makes a mistake, he commonly has to suffer for it, whereas it is rarely that scientific blundering, so long as it is confined to theory, entails loss on the blunderer. On the contrary it very often brings him fame, money and a pension. Hence the business man, if he is a good one, will take greater care not to overdo or underdo things than the scientific man can reasonably be expected to take.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Best (467)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Class (168)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  Difference (355)  |  Enough (341)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fame (51)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Money (178)  |  Overdo (2)  |  Pension (2)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rare (94)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Selling (6)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (504)  |  Warrant (8)  |  Will (2350)

The big damages come if the climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases turns out to be high [causing greater global warming than current projections.] Then it’s not a bullet headed at us, but a thermonuclear warhead.
Quoted by Justin Gillis in 'Temperature Rising: Clouds’ Effect on Climate Change Is Last Bastion for Dissenters', New York Times (1 May 2012), A1.
Science quotes on:  |  Bullet (6)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Current (122)  |  Damage (38)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  Greenhouse Gas (4)  |  High (370)  |  Sensitivity (10)  |  Thermonuclear (4)  |  Turn (454)  |  Warming (24)

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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Formation (100)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Good (906)  |  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 crown and glory of life is Character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general goodwill; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honour without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proved honour, rectitude, and consistency—qualities which, perhaps more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind.
In Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859, 1861), 396.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Command (60)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Crown (39)  |  Estate (5)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fame (51)  |  General (521)  |  Glory (66)  |  Goodwill (6)  |  Honour (58)  |  Influence (231)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Noble (93)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Rank (69)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Society (350)  |  Station (30)  |  Tell (344)  |  Wealth (100)

The development of mathematics toward greater precision has led, as is well known, to the formalization of large tracts of it, so that one can prove any theorem using nothing but a few mechanical rules... One might therefore conjecture that these axioms and rules of inference are sufficient to decide any mathematical question that can at all be formally expressed in these systems. It will be shown below that this is not the case, that on the contrary there are in the two systems mentioned relatively simple problems in the theory of integers that cannot be decided on the basis of the axioms.
'On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems I' (193 1), in S. Feferman (ed.), Kurt Gödel Collected Works: Publications 1929-1936 (1986), Vol. I, 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Basis (180)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Development (441)  |  Express (192)  |  Inference (45)  |  Integer (12)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mention (84)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Precision (72)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prove (261)  |  Question (649)  |  Rule (307)  |  Simple (426)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

The due cultivation of practical manual arts in a nation, has a greater tendency to polish, and humanize mankind, than mere speculative science, however refined and sublime it may be.
From 'Artist and Mechanic', The artist & Tradesman’s Guide: embracing some leading facts & principles of science, and a variety of matter adapted to the wants of the artist, mechanic, manufacturer, and mercantile community (1827), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Due (143)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Manual (7)  |  Nation (208)  |  Polish (17)  |  Practical (225)  |  Refined (8)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tendency (110)

The earth in its rapid motion round the sun possesses a degree of living force so vast that, if turned into the equivalent of heat, its temperature would be rendered at least one thousand times greater than that of red-hot iron, and the globe on which we tread would in all probability be rendered equal in brightness to the sun itself.
'On Matter, Living Force, and Heat' (1847). In The Scientific Papers of James Prescott Joule (1884), Vol. 1, 271.
Science quotes on:  |  Brightness (12)  |  Degree (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Force (497)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Iron (99)  |  Living (492)  |  Motion (320)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Probability (135)  |  Render (96)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tread (17)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vast (188)

The educated man is a greater nuisance than the uneducated one.
Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch (1921), xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Education (423)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nuisance (10)  |  Uneducated (9)

The ends of scientific classification are best answered, when the objects are formed into groups respecting which a greater number of general propositions can be made, and those propositions more important, than could be made respecting any other groups into which the same things could be distributed. ... A classification thus formed is properly scientific or philosophical, and is commonly called a Natural, in contradistinction to a Technical or Artificial, classification or arrangement.
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 2, Book 4, Chapter 7, 302-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Classification (102)  |  End (603)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Importance (299)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thing (1914)

The enthusiasm of Sylvester for his own work, which manifests itself here as always, indicates one of his characteristic qualities: a high degree of subjectivity in his productions and publications. Sylvester was so fully possessed by the matter which for the time being engaged his attention, that it appeared to him and was designated by him as the summit of all that is important, remarkable and full of future promise. It would excite his phantasy and power of imagination in even a greater measure than his power of reflection, so much so that he could never marshal the ability to master his subject-matter, much less to present it in an orderly manner.
Considering that he was also somewhat of a poet, it will be easier to overlook the poetic flights which pervade his writing, often bombastic, sometimes furnishing apt illustrations; more damaging is the complete lack of form and orderliness of his publications and their sketchlike character, … which must be accredited at least as much to lack of objectivity as to a superfluity of ideas. Again, the text is permeated with associated emotional expressions, bizarre utterances and paradoxes and is everywhere accompanied by notes, which constitute an essential part of Sylvester’s method of presentation, embodying relations, whether proximate or remote, which momentarily suggested themselves. These notes, full of inspiration and occasional flashes of genius, are the more stimulating owing to their incompleteness. But none of his works manifest a desire to penetrate the subject from all sides and to allow it to mature; each mere surmise, conceptions which arose during publication, immature thoughts and even errors were ushered into publicity at the moment of their inception, with utmost carelessness, and always with complete unfamiliarity of the literature of the subject. Nowhere is there the least trace of self-criticism. No one can be expected to read the treatises entire, for in the form in which they are available they fail to give a clear view of the matter under contemplation.
Sylvester’s was not a harmoniously gifted or well-balanced mind, but rather an instinctively active and creative mind, free from egotism. His reasoning moved in generalizations, was frequently influenced by analysis and at times was guided even by mystical numerical relations. His reasoning consists less frequently of pure intelligible conclusions than of inductions, or rather conjectures incited by individual observations and verifications. In this he was guided by an algebraic sense, developed through long occupation with processes of forms, and this led him luckily to general fundamental truths which in some instances remain veiled. His lack of system is here offset by the advantage of freedom from purely mechanical logical activity.
The exponents of his essential characteristics are an intuitive talent and a faculty of invention to which we owe a series of ideas of lasting value and bearing the germs of fruitful methods. To no one more fittingly than to Sylvester can be applied one of the mottos of the Philosophic Magazine:
“Admiratio generat quaestionem, quaestio investigationem investigatio inventionem.”
In Mathematische Annalen (1898), 50, 155-160. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 176-178.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Active (80)  |  Activity (218)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attention (196)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Creative (144)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Develop (278)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Error (339)  |  Essential (210)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Expect (203)  |  Exponent (6)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fail (191)  |  Flight (101)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Genius (301)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  High (370)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inception (3)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Invention (400)  |  Lack (127)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mature (17)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Production (190)  |  Promise (72)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  Read (308)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Series (153)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subject-Matter (8)  |  Summit (27)  |  Surmise (7)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  System (545)  |  Talent (99)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unfamiliarity (5)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Value (393)  |  Veil (27)  |  Verification (32)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writing (192)

The fact that the general incidence of leukemia has doubled in the last two decades may be due, partly, to the increasing use of x-rays for numerous purposes. The incidence of leukemia in doctors, who are likely to be so exposed, is twice that of the general public. In radiologists … the incidence is ten times greater.
(1965). In Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 233.
Science quotes on:  |  Decade (66)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Due (143)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  Last (425)  |  Leukemia (4)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Ray (115)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  X-ray (43)

The first attribute that characterizes the greater man from the moron is his thicker layer of inhibition."
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  First (1302)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Layer (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moron (2)

The glory of medicine is that it is constantly moving forward, that there is always more to learn. The ills of today do not cloud the horizon of tomorrow, but act as a spur to greater effort.
Address 'The Aims and Ideals of the American Medical Association', collected in Proceedings of the 66th Annual Meeting of the National Education Association of the United States (1928), 163. As cited in epigraph to Thomas M. Habermann (ed.), Mayo Clinic Internal Medicine Review (2006), Foreward.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Forward (104)  |  Glory (66)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Ill (12)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Moving (11)  |  Spur (4)  |  Today (321)  |  Tomorrow (63)

The great age of the earth will appear greater to man when he understands the origin of living organisms and the reasons for the gradual development and improvement of their organization. This antiquity will appear even greater when he realizes the length of time and the particular conditions which were necessary to bring all the living species into existence. This is particularly true since man is the latest result and present climax of this development, the ultimate limit of which, if it is ever reached, cannot be known.
Hydrogéologie (1802), trans. A. V. Carozzi (1964), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Condition (362)  |  Development (441)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Known (453)  |  Limit (294)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Present (630)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Species (435)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
In Pascal’s Pensées (1958), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Find (1014)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originality (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
In Pensées (1670), Section 7, No. 1. As translated in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 7, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 10. Also seen translated as, “The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men.” From the original French, “A mesure qu’on a plus d’esprit, on trouve qu’il y a plus d’hommes originaux. Les gens du commun ne trouvent pas de différence entre les hommes,” in Ernest Havet (ed.), Pensées de Pascal (1892), 205.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Find (1014)  |  Intellect (251)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Person (366)

The greater is the circle of light, the greater is the boundary of the darkness by which it is confined. But, notwithstanding this, the more light we get, the more thankful we ought to be, for by this means we have the greater range for satisfactory contemplation. In time the bounds of light will be still farther extended; and from the infinity of the divine nature, and the divine works, we may promise ourselves an endless progress in our investigation of them: a prospect truly sublime and glorious.
In Experiments and Observations with a Continuation of the Observations on Air (1781), Vol. 2, Preface, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Bounds (8)  |  Circle (117)  |  Confinement (4)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Divine (112)  |  Divinity (23)  |  Endless (60)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Farther (51)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Light (635)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Progress (492)  |  Promise (72)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Range (104)  |  Still (614)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Thankful (4)  |  Thankfulness (2)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The greater part of it, I shall show, is nonsense, tricked out with a variety of tedious metaphysical conceits, and its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself. … it is the style that creates the illusion of content, and which is a cause as well as merely a symptom of Teilhard's alarming apocalyptic seizures.
Medawar’s acerbic book review of The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin first appeared as 'Critical Notice' in the journal Mind (1961), 70, No. 277, 99. The book review was reprinted in The Art of the Soluble: Creativity and Originality in Science (1967), 71. Medawar thus strongly contradicted other reviewers of the book, which he said was “widely held to be of the utmost profundity and significance; it created something like a sensation upon its publication in France, and some reviewers hereabouts called it the Book of the Year—one, the Book of the Century.”
Science quotes on:  |  Alarming (4)  |  Author (175)  |  Cause (561)  |  Conceit (15)  |  Create (245)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Deceiving (5)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Show (353)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (30)  |  Trick (36)  |  Variety (138)

The greater part of our daily actions are the result of hidden motives which escape our observation.
From original French, “La plupart de nos actions journalières ne sont que l’effet de mobiles cachés qui nous échappent,” in Psychologie des Foules (1895), 16. English text in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1897), Book 1, Chap. 1, 7. [A closer translation could be: “Most of our daily actions are just the effect of hidden motives that we don’t notice.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Daily (91)  |  Effect (414)  |  Escape (85)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Motive (62)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Result (700)

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
In Montréal Médical Journal (1902). Collected in Aequanimitas, with Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine (1904), 279. Osler was referring to the ignorant dogmatism in literature from pharmaceutical houses and the hucksterism of some of their representatives.
Science quotes on:  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Ignorance (254)

The greater the man, the more he is soaked in the atmosphere of his time; only thus can he get a wide enough grasp of it to be able to change substantially the pattern of knowledge and action.
Science in History (1954), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Change (639)  |  Enough (341)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wide (97)

The greater the tension, the greater the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.
Carl Jung
In 'Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,' Alchemical Studies (1967).
Science quotes on:  |  Energy (373)  |  Great (1610)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Potential (75)  |  Spring (140)  |  Tension (24)

The growing complexity of civilized life demands with each age broader and more exact knowledge as to the material surroundings and greater precision in our recognition of the invisible forces or tendencies about us.
From Presidential Address (5 Dec 1896) to the Biological Society of Washington, 'The Malarial Parasite and Other Pathogenic Protozoa', Popular Science Monthly (Mar 1897), 642.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Broader (3)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Demand (131)  |  Exact (75)  |  Force (497)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Precision (72)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Tendency (110)

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.
From Aphorism 46, Novum Organum, Book I (1620). Collected in James Spedding (ed.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1858), Vol. 4, 56.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Authority (99)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Draw (140)  |  Former (138)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pernicious (9)  |  Reject (67)  |  Remain (355)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Support (151)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Weight (140)

The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.
Address in memory of Karl Weierstrass. As quoted in Journal of the University of Bombay (1933), 2, 201. Also in Tobias Dantzig, Number: The Language of Science (1937), 237. Also partially quoted as epigraph in in James Roy Newman, The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1593. which dates the address as 1921. Another translation for perhaps the same address ('On the Infinite'), in honor of Weierstrass, dates it as 4 Jun 1925, in Paul Benacerraf (ed.) Philosophy of Mathematics (1983), 183. See this alternate version elsewhere on this page, beginning, “From time immemorial…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Clarification (8)  |  Concept (242)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Man (2252)  |  Move (223)  |  Need (320)  |  Other (2233)  |  Profound (105)  |  Question (649)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stimulate (21)

The influence of his [Leibnitz’s] genius in forming that peculiar taste both in pure and in mixed mathematics which has prevailed in France, as well as in Germany, for a century past, will be found, upon examination, to have been incomparably greater than that of any other individual.
In Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Sec. 3, 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Century (319)  |  Examination (102)  |  Forming (42)  |  France (29)  |  Genius (301)  |  Germany (16)  |  Great (1610)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Leibnitz_Gottfried (2)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Pure (299)  |  Taste (93)  |  Will (2350)

The inspirational value of the space program is probably of far greater importance to education than any input of dollars... A whole generation is growing up which has been attracted to the hard disciplines of science and engineering by the romance of space.
Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Edwin E. Aldrin et al., First on the Moon (1970), 376.
Science quotes on:  |  Discipline (85)  |  Education (423)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Generation (256)  |  Growing (99)  |  Hard (246)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Romance (18)  |  Science And Engineering (16)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Program (9)  |  Value (393)  |  Whole (756)

The land! That is where our roots are. There is the basis of our physical life. The farther we get away from the land, the greater our insecurity. From the land comes everything that supports life, everything we use for the service of physical life. The land has not collapsed or shrunk in either extent or productivity. It is there waiting to honor all the labor we are willing to invest in it, and able to tide us across any dislocation of economic conditions.
Advice during the Great Depression, placed in an advertisement, 'Henry Ford on Self-Help', Literary Digest (29 Jun 1932), 113, No. 12, 29, and various other magazines.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Basis (180)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Condition (362)  |  Depression (26)  |  Dislocation (4)  |  Distance (171)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Everything (489)  |  Extent (142)  |  Farther (51)  |  Food Security (7)  |  Honor (57)  |  Insecurity (4)  |  Invest (20)  |  Labor (200)  |  Land (131)  |  Life (1870)  |  Physical (518)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Root (121)  |  Service (110)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Support (151)  |  Tide (37)  |  Use (771)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Willing (44)

The late Mr. David Hume, in his posthumous works, places the powers of generation much above those of our boasted reason; and adds, that reason can only make a machine, as a clock or a ship, but the power of generation makes the maker of the machine; … he concludes, that the world itself might have been generated, rather than created; that is, it might have been gradually produced from very small beginnings, increasing by the activity of its inherent principles, rather than by a sudden evolution of the whole by the Almighty fiat.—What a magnificent idea of the infinite power of THE GREAT ARCHITECT! THE CAUSE OF CAUSES! PARENT OF PARENTS! ENS ENTIUM!
For if we may compare infinities, it would seem to require a greater infinity of power to cause the causes of effects, than to cause the effects themselves.
'Generation', Zoonomia (1794), Vol. 1, 509. Note that this passage was restated in a 1904 translation of a book by August Weismann. That rewording was given in quotation marks and attributed to Erasumus Darwin without reference to David Hume. In the reworded form, it is seen in a number of later works as a direct quote made by Erasmus Darwin. For that restated form see the webpage for August Weismann. Webmaster has checked the quotation on this webpage in the original Zoonomia, and is the only verbatim form found so far.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Almighty (23)  |  Arent (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Boast (22)  |  Cause (561)  |  Clock (51)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Creation (350)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gradually (102)  |   David Hume (34)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Late (119)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Maker (34)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reason (766)  |  Require (229)  |  Ship (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Themselves (433)  |   August Weismann, (11)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The members of the department became like the Athenians who, according to the Apostle Paul, “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” Anyone who thought he had a bright idea rushed out to try it out on a colleague. Groups of two or more could be seen every day in offices, before blackboards or even in corridors, arguing vehemently about these 'brain storms.' It is doubtful whether any paper ever emerged for publication that had not run the gauntlet of such criticism. The whole department thus became far greater than the sum of its individual members.
Obituary of Gilbert Newton Lewis, Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science (1958), 31, 212.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Blackboard (11)  |  Brain (281)  |  Brainstorm (2)  |  Bright (81)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Department (93)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Hear (144)  |  Idea (881)  |  Individual (420)  |  Gilbert Newton Lewis (11)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obituary (11)  |  Office (71)  |  Paper (192)  |  Publication (102)  |  Run (158)  |  Spent (85)  |  Storm (56)  |  Storms (18)  |  Sum (103)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

The more we resist the steam the greater is the effect of the engine. On these principles, very light, but powerful engines, can be made, suitable for propelling boats and land-carriages, without the great incumbrance of their own weight
From 'On the Origin of Steam Boats and Steam Wagons', Thomas Cooper (ed.), The Emporium of Arts and Sciences (Feb 1814), 2, No. 2, 212.
Science quotes on:  |  Boat (17)  |  Carriage (11)  |  Effect (414)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Engine (99)  |  Great (1610)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principle (530)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Resist (15)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Suitable (10)  |  Weight (140)

The new naval treaty permits the United States to spend a billion dollars on warships—a sum greater than has been accumulated by all our endowed institutions of learning in their entire history. Unintelligence could go no further! … [In Great Britain, the situation is similar.] … Until the figures are reversed, … nations deceive themselves as to what they care about most.
Universities: American, English, German (1930), 302.
Science quotes on:  |  Billion (104)  |  Britain (26)  |  Care (203)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Education (423)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Figure (162)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Institution (73)  |  Learning (291)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1273)  |  Permit (61)  |  Situation (117)  |  Spend (97)  |  State (505)  |  Sum (103)  |  Themselves (433)  |  War (233)

The opinion I formed from attentive observation of the facts and phenomena, is as follows. When ice, for example, or any other solid substance, is changing into a fluid by heat, I am of opinion that it receives a much greater quantity of heat than that what is perceptible in it immediately after by the thermometer. A great quantity of heat enters into it, on this occasion, without making it apparently warmer, when tried by that instrument. This heat, however, must be thrown into it, in order to give it the form of a fluid; and I affirm, that this great addition of heat is the principal, and most immediate cause of the fluidity induced. And, on the other hand, when we deprive such a body of its fluidity again, by a diminution of its heat, a very great quantity of heat comes out of it, while it is assuming a solid form, the loss of which heat is not to be perceived by the common manner of using the thermometer. The apparent heat of the body, as measured by that instrument, is not diminished, or not in proportion to the loss of heat which the body actually gives out on this occasion; and it appears from a number of facts, that the state of solidity cannot be induced without the abstraction of this great quantity of heat. And this confirms the opinion, that this quantity of heat, absorbed, and, as it were, concealed in the composition of fluids, is the most necessary and immediate cause of their fluidity.
Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry, delivered in the University of Edinburgh (1803), Vol. I, 116-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Addition (70)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change Of State (2)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Enter (145)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Loss (117)  |  Making (300)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principal (69)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Receive (117)  |  Solid (119)  |  State (505)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thermometer (11)

The outlook seems grim. Natural selection under civilized conditions may lead mankind to evolve towards a state of genetic overspecialization for living in gadget-ridden environments. It is certainly up to man to decide whether this direction of his evolution is or is not desirable. If it is not, man has, or soon will have, the knowledge requisite to redirect the evolution of his species pretty much as he sees fit. Perhaps we should not be too dogmatic about this choice of direction. We may be awfully soft compared to paleolithic men when it comes to struggling, unaided by gadgets, with climatic difficulties and wild beasts. Most of us feel most of the time that this is not a very great loss. If our remote descendants grow to be even more effete than we are, they may conceivably be compensated by acquiring genotypes conducive to kindlier dispositions and greater intellectual capacities than those prevalent in mankind today.
[Co-author with American statistician Gordon Allen.]
Theodosius Dobzhansky and Gordon Allen, 'Does Natural Selection Continue to Operate in Modern Mankind?', American Anthropologist, 1956, 58 599.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Beast (58)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Choice (114)  |  Condition (362)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fit (139)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Genotype (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Living (492)  |  Loss (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Paleolithic (2)  |  Remote (86)  |  See (1094)  |  Selection (130)  |  Soft (30)  |  Soon (187)  |  Species (435)  |  State (505)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Wild (96)  |  Will (2350)

The point [is] largely scientific in character …[concerning] the methods which can be invented or adopted or discovered to enable the Earth to control the Air, to enable defence from the ground to exercise control—indeed dominance—upon aeroplanes high above its surface. … science is always able to provide something. We were told that it was impossible to grapple with submarines, but methods were found … Many things were adopted in war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men’s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands.
[Remarks made in the House of Commons on 7 June 1935. His speculation was later proved correct with the subsequent development of radar during World War II, which was vital in the air defence of Britain.]
Quoting himself in The Second World War: The Gathering Storm (1948, 1986), Vol. 1, 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Air (366)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Brain (281)  |  Britain (26)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (182)  |  Defence (16)  |  Defense (26)  |  Demand (131)  |  Development (441)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enable (122)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Grapple (11)  |  Ground (222)  |  High (370)  |  House (143)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invention (400)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Patience (58)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Point (584)  |  Radar (9)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Sonar (2)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vital (89)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

The position of the anthropologist of to-day resembles in some sort the position of classical scholars at the revival of learning. To these men the rediscovery of ancient literature came like a revelation, disclosing to their wondering eyes a splendid vision of the antique world, such as the cloistered of the Middle Ages never dreamed of under the gloomy shadow of the minster and within the sound of its solemn bells. To us moderns a still wider vista is vouchsafed, a greater panorama is unrolled by the study which aims at bringing home to us the faith and the practice, the hopes and the ideals, not of two highly gifted races only, but of all mankind, and thus at enabling us to follow the long march, the slow and toilsome ascent, of humanity from savagery to civilization. And as the scholar of the Renaissance found not merely fresh food for thought but a new field of labour in the dusty and faded manuscripts of Greece and Rome, so in the mass of materials that is steadily pouring in from many sides—from buried cities of remotest antiquity as well as from the rudest savages of the desert and the jungle—we of to-day must recognise a new province of knowledge which will task the energies of generations of students to master.
'Author’s Introduction' (1900). In Dr Theodor H. Gaster (ed.), The New Golden Bough (1959), xxv-xxvi.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Bell (35)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Classical (49)  |  Desert (59)  |  Dream (222)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fad (10)  |  Faith (209)  |  Field (378)  |  Follow (389)  |  Food (213)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Home (184)  |  Hope (321)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Learning (291)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  March (48)  |  Mass (160)  |  Master (182)  |  Material (366)  |  Merely (315)  |  Middle Age (19)  |  Middle Ages (12)  |  Modern (402)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Panorama (5)  |  Practice (212)  |  Province (37)  |  Race (278)  |  Rediscovery (2)  |  Renaissance (16)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Rome (19)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Side (236)  |  Slow (108)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Sound (187)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Vision (127)  |  Vista (12)  |  Will (2350)  |  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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Empty (82)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forming (42)  |  Frog (44)  |  Great (1610)  |  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 powers which tend to preserve, and those which tend to change the condition of the earth's surface, are never in equilibrio; the latter are, in all cases, the most powerful, and, in respect of the former, are like living in comparison of dead forces. Hence the law of decay is one which suffers no exception: The elements of all bodies were once loose and unconnected, and to the same state nature has appointed that they should all return... TIME performs the office of integrating the infinitesimal parts of which this progression is made up; it collects them into one sum, and produces from them an amount greater than any that can be assigned.
Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), 116-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Assignment (12)  |  Change (639)  |  Collection (68)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Condition (362)  |  Decay (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Exception (74)  |  Force (497)  |  Former (138)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Integration (21)  |  Law (913)  |  Living (492)  |  Loose (14)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Office (71)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Production (190)  |  Progression (23)  |  Respect (212)  |  Return (133)  |  State (505)  |  Sum (103)  |  Surface (223)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconnected (10)

The proof given by Wright, that non-adaptive differentiation will occur in small populations owing to “drift,” or the chance fixation of some new mutation or recombination, is one of the most important results of mathematical analysis applied to the facts of neo-mendelism. It gives accident as well as adaptation a place in evolution, and at one stroke explains many facts which puzzled earlier selectionists, notably the much greater degree of divergence shown by island than mainland forms, by forms in isolated lakes than in continuous river-systems.
Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942), 199-200.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Applied (176)  |  Chance (244)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Degree (277)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Divergence (6)  |  Drift (14)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fixation (5)  |  Form (976)  |  Island (49)  |  Lake (36)  |  Mainland (3)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutation (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Owing (39)  |  Population (115)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  River (140)  |  Small (489)  |  Stroke (19)  |  System (545)  |  Will (2350)

The rapid growth of industry, the ever increasing population and the imperative need for more varied, wholesome and nourishing foodstuff makes it all the more necessary to exhaust every means at our command to fill the empty dinner pail, enrich our soils, bring greater wealth and influence to our beautiful South land, which is synonymous to a healthy, happy and contented people.
Letter to Marlin E. Penn (18 Jun 1927), Box 17, George Washington Carver Papers. Cited in Linda O. McMurry, George Washington Carver, Scientist and Symbol (1982), 264-5. Smith's book is about his recollections of G.W. Carver's Sunday School classes at Tuskegee, some 40 years earlier. Webmaster, who has not yet been able to see the original book, cautions this quote may be the gist of Carver's words, rather than an exact quote.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Command (60)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Empty (82)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Enrichment (7)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Fill (67)  |  Food (213)  |  Growth (200)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Increase (225)  |  Industry (159)  |  Influence (231)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Need (320)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Pail (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Population (115)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Soil (98)  |  South (39)  |  Variation (93)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Wholesome (12)

The Reason of making Experiments is, for the Discovery of the Method of Nature, in its Progress and Operations. Whosoever, therefore doth rightly make Experiments, doth design to enquire into some of these Operations; and, in order thereunto, doth consider what Circumstances and Effects, in the Experiment, will be material and instructive in that Enquiry, whether for the confirming or destroying of any preconceived Notion, or for the Limitation and Bounding thereof, either to this or that Part of the Hypothesis, by allowing a greater Latitude and Extent to one Part, and by diminishing or restraining another Part within narrower Bounds than were at first imagin'd, or hypothetically supposed. The Method therefore of making Experiments by the Royal Society I conceive should be this.
First, To propound the Design and Aim of the Curator in his present Enquiry.
Secondly, To make the Experiment, or Experiments, leisurely, and with Care and Exactness.
Thirdly, To be diligent, accurate, and curious, in taking Notice of, and shewing to the Assembly of Spectators, such Circumstances and Effects therein occurring, as are material, or at least, as he conceives such, in order to his Theory .
Fourthly, After finishing the Experiment, to discourse, argue, defend, and further explain, such Circumstances and Effects in the preceding Experiments, as may seem dubious or difficult: And to propound what new Difficulties and Queries do occur, that require other Trials and Experiments to be made, in order to their clearing and answering: And farther, to raise such Axioms and Propositions, as are thereby plainly demonstrated and proved.
Fifthly, To register the whole Process of the Proposal, Design, Experiment, Success, or Failure; the Objections and Objectors, the Explanation and Explainers, the Proposals and Propounders of new and farther Trials; the Theories and Axioms, and their Authors; and, in a Word the history of every Thing and Person, that is material and circumstantial in the whole Entertainment of the said Society; which shall be prepared and made ready, fairly written in a bound Book, to be read at the Beginning of the Sitting of the Society: The next Day of their Meeting, then to be read over and further discoursed, augmented or diminished, as the Matter shall require, and then to be sign'd by a certain Number of the Persons present, who have been present, and Witnesses of all the said Proceedings, who, by Subscribing their names, will prove undoubted testimony to Posterity of the whole History.
'Dr Hooke's Method of Making Experiments' (1664-5). In W. Derham (ed.), Philosophical Experiments and Observations Of the Late Eminent Dr. Robert Hooke, F.R.S. And Geom. Prof. Gresh. and Other Eminent Virtuoso's in his Time (1726), 26-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Aim (175)  |  Assembly (13)  |  Augment (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Care (203)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Curious (95)  |  Design (203)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Failure (176)  |  Farther (51)  |  First (1302)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Making (300)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notice (81)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Objection (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Register (22)  |  Require (229)  |  Research (753)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Society (350)  |  Success (327)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trial (59)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The reason that, having started as a chemist, I became a statistician was that Statistics seemed to me of much greater importance. It was about the catalysis of scientific method itself.
In article Total Quality: Its Origins and its Future (1995), published at the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement.
Science quotes on:  |  Catalysis (7)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Importance (299)  |  Method (531)  |  Reason (766)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Start (237)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)

The responsibility which rests upon man is proportional to the ability which he possesses and the opportunity which he faces. Perhaps that responsibility is no greater for him than was that of Notharctus or Eohippus or a trilobite, each in his own day, but because of man’s unique abilities it is the greatest responsibility that has ever rested upon any of the earth’s offspring.
In Sons of the Earth: The Geologist’s View of History (1930), 258.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Man (2252)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Rest (287)  |  Trilobite (6)  |  Unique (72)

The species does not grow in perfection: the weak again and again get the upper hand of the strong,—and their large number and their greater cunning are the cause of it. Darwin forgot the intellect (that was English!); the weak have more intellect. ... One must need intellect in order to acquire it; one loses it when it is no longer necessary.
[Criticism of Darwin’s Origin of Species.]
In The Twilight of the Idols (1886) collected in Thomas Common (trans.), The Works of Nietzsche (1896), Vol. 11, 177. Also see alternate translations.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Crafty (3)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Cunning (17)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Grow (247)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Large (398)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majority (68)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Survival (105)  |  Weak (73)

The specific character of the greater part of the toxins which are known to us (I need only instance such toxins as those of tetanus and diphtheria) would suggest that the substances produced for effecting the correlation of organs within the body, through the intermediation of the blood stream, might also belong to this class, since here also specificity of action must be a distinguishing characteristic. These chemical messengers, however, or 'hormones' (from όρμάω, I excite or arouse), as we might call them, have to be carried from the organ where they are produced to the organ which they affect by means of the blood stream and the continually recurring physiological needs of the organism must determine their repeated production and circulation through the body.
'The Chemical Correlation of the Functions of the Body', The Lancet (1905), ii, 340.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Arouse (13)  |  Belong (168)  |  Blood (144)  |  Body (557)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Class (168)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diphtheria (2)  |  Excite (17)  |  Hormone (11)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Messenger (4)  |  Must (1525)  |  Need (320)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organism (231)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Specific (98)  |  Stream (83)  |  Substance (253)  |  Through (846)  |  Toxin (8)

The stationary state would make fewer demands on our environmental resources, but much greater demands on our moral resources.
In J. Harte and R. Socolow, 'Toward a Stationary-State Economy', Patient Earth (1971), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Demand (131)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fewer (11)  |  Moral (203)  |  Resource (74)  |  State (505)  |  Stationary (11)

The synthesis of substances occurring in Nature, perhaps in greater measure than activities in any other area of organic chemistry, provides a measure of the conditions and powers of science.
'Synthesis', in A. Todd (ed.), Perspectives in Organic Chemistry (1956), 155.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Condition (362)  |  Measure (241)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Substance (253)  |  Synthesis (58)

The thirteen books of Euclid must have been a tremendous advance, probably even greater than that contained in the Principia of Newton.
In Article 'Eucleides', in Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biology and Mythology (1902).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Book (413)  |  Contain (68)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Principia (14)  |  Probably (50)  |  Tremendous (29)

The Unexpected stalks a farm in big boots like a vagrant bent on havoc. Not every farmer is an inventor, but the good ones have the seeds of invention within them. Economy and efficiency move their relentless tinkering and yet the real motive often seems to be aesthetic. The mind that first designed a cutter bar is not far different from a mind that can take the intractable steel of an outsized sickle blade and make it hum in the end. The question is how to reduce the simplicity that constitutes a problem (“It's simple; it’s broke.”) to the greater simplicity that constitutes a solution.
In Making Hay (2003), 33-34.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aestheticism (2)  |  Blade (11)  |  Boot (5)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Cutter (2)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  Economy (59)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  End (603)  |  Farm (28)  |  Farmer (35)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Havoc (7)  |  Hum (4)  |  Intractable (3)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motive (62)  |  Move (223)  |  Problem (731)  |  Question (649)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Relentless (9)  |  Seed (97)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solution (282)  |  Stalk (6)  |  Steel (23)  |  Tinkering (6)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Vagrant (5)

The velocity of light is one of the most important of the fundamental constants of Nature. Its measurement by Foucault and Fizeau gave as the result a speed greater in air than in water, thus deciding in favor of the undulatory and against the corpuscular theory. Again, the comparison of the electrostatic and the electromagnetic units gives as an experimental result a value remarkably close to the velocity of light–a result which justified Maxwell in concluding that light is the propagation of an electromagnetic disturbance. Finally, the principle of relativity gives the velocity of light a still greater importance, since one of its fundamental postulates is the constancy of this velocity under all possible conditions.
Studies in Optics (1927), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Air (366)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constancy (12)  |  Constant (148)  |  Corpuscle (14)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Electromagnetic (2)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Favor (69)  |  Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault (3)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Importance (299)  |  Light (635)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Possible (560)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Principle (530)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Result (700)  |  Speed (66)  |  Speed Of Light (18)  |  Still (614)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unit (36)  |  Value (393)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)

The world probably being of much greater antiquity than physical science has thought to be possible, it is interesting and harmless to speculate whether man has shared with the world its more remote history. … Some of the beliefs and legends which have come down to us from antiquity are so universal and deep-rooted that we have are accustomed to consider them almost as old as the race itself. One is tempted to inquire how far the unsuspected aptness of some of these beliefs and sayings to the point of view so recently disclosed is the result of mere chance or coincidence, and how far it may be evidence of a wholly unknown and unsuspected ancient civilization of which all other relic has disappeared.
In 'The Elixir of Life', The Interpretation of Radium: Being the Substance of Six Free Popular Lectures Delivered at the University of Glasgow (1909, 1912), 248-250. The original lectures of early 1908, were greatly edited, rearranged and supplemented by the author for the book form.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Chance (244)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Consider (428)  |  Deep (241)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Down (455)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Harmless (9)  |  History (716)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Legend (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possible (560)  |  Race (278)  |  Relic (8)  |  Remote (86)  |  Result (700)  |  Root (121)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unknown (195)  |  View (496)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)

Theology, Mr. Fortune found, is a more accommodating subject than mathematics; its technique of exposition allows greater latitude. For instance when you are gravelled for matter there is always the moral to fall back upon. Comparisons too may be drawn, leading cases cited, types and antetypes analysed and anecdotes introduced. Except for Archimedes mathematics is singularly naked of anecdotes.
In Mr. Fortune’s Maggot (1927), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Analyze (12)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Back (395)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Subject (543)  |  Technique (84)  |  Theology (54)  |  Type (171)

There are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies wholly beyond us and completely outside the province of science.
Quoted in J.R. Newman, The World of Mathematics (1956), 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Completely (137)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Future (467)  |  God (776)  |  Importance (299)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Outside (141)  |  Problem (731)  |  Province (37)  |  Solution (282)  |  Touching (16)  |  Wholly (88)

There are two types of mind … the mathematical, and what might be called the intuitive. The former arrives at its views slowly, but they are firm and rigid; the latter is endowed with greater flexibility and applies itself simultaneously to the diverse lovable parts of that which it loves.
In Discours sur les passions de l’amour (1653).
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Call (781)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Endow (17)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Firm (47)  |  Flexibility (6)  |  Former (138)  |  Intuitive (14)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Part (235)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Slowly (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  View (496)

There are, as we have seen, a number of different modes of technological innovation. Before the seventeenth century inventions (empirical or scientific) were diffused by imitation and adaption while improvement was established by the survival of the fittest. Now, technology has become a complex but consciously directed group of social activities involving a wide range of skills, exemplified by scientific research, managerial expertise, and practical and inventive abilities. The powers of technology appear to be unlimited. If some of the dangers may be great, the potential rewards are greater still. This is not simply a matter of material benefits for, as we have seen, major changes in thought have, in the past, occurred as consequences of technological advances.
Concluding paragraph of "Technology," in Dictionary of the History of Ideas (1973), Vol. 4, 364.
Science quotes on:  |  17th Century (20)  |  Ability (162)  |  Activity (218)  |  Advance (298)  |  Appear (122)  |  Become (821)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consciously (6)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Danger (127)  |  Different (595)  |  Diffuse (5)  |  Direct (228)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Establish (63)  |  Exemplify (5)  |  Expertise (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Involve (93)  |  Major (88)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mode (43)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Past (355)  |  Potential (75)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Range (104)  |  Research (753)  |  Reward (72)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Simply (53)  |  Skill (116)  |  Social (261)  |  Still (614)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Wide (97)

There can be no greater ignominy for an enlightened rationalist than to perish in consequence of some incident involving spirits.
Notebooks from New Guinea
Science quotes on:  |  Consequence (220)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  Incident (4)  |  Involve (93)  |  Perish (56)  |  Rationalist (5)  |  Spirit (278)

There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country. Just as we must conserve our men, women and children, so we must conserve the resources of the land on which they live. We must conserve the soil so that our children shall have a land that is more and not less fertile than our fathers dwelt in. We must conserve the forests, not by disuse, but by use, making them more valuable at the same time that we use them. We must conserve the mines. Moreover, we must insure so far as possible the use of certain types of great natural resources for the benefit of the people as a whole.
Confession of Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention, Chicago, Illinois, 6 Aug 1912. In Marion Mills Miller (Ed.) Great Debates in American History (1913), Vol. 10, 111-112.
Science quotes on:  |  Benefit (123)  |  Certain (557)  |  Children (201)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Country (269)  |  Father (113)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Forest (161)  |  Great (1610)  |  Live (650)  |  Making (300)  |  Mine (78)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  People (1031)  |  Possible (560)  |  Soil (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)

There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application .
In Lecture 'Electrical Units of Measurement' delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers (3 May 1883). Collected in Popular Lectures and Addresses (1889), Vol. 1, 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Life (1870)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Practical (225)  |  Soul (235)  |  Supercilious (2)

There have, however, always been men of high and disciplined spirituality who have insisted on their direct experience of something greater than themselves. Their conviction of the reality of a spiritual life apart from and transcending the life of the body may not lend itself to scientific proof or disproof; nevertheless the remarkable transformation in personality seen in those who rightfully lay claim to such experience is as objective as tomorrow's sunrise. Millions of lesser men draw strength from the contacts they can make through prayer and meditation with this aspect of the inner life.
at a convention of scientists in 1967 at the University of Notre Dame
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Body (557)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contact (66)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Direct (228)  |  Draw (140)  |  Experience (494)  |  High (370)  |  Inner (72)  |  Life (1870)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Objective (96)  |  Personality (66)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reality (274)  |  Religion (369)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Strength (139)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Transformation (72)

There is another approach to the extraterrestrial hypothesis of UFO origins. This assessment depends on a large number of factors about which we know little, and a few about which we know literally nothing. I want to make some crude numerical estimate of the probability that we are frequently visited by extraterrestrial beings.
Now, there is a range of hypotheses that can be examined in such a way. Let me give a simple example: Consider the Santa Claus hypothesis, which maintains that, in a period of eight hours or so on December 24-25 of each year, an outsized elf visits one hundred million homes in the United States. This is an interesting and widely discussed hypothesis. Some strong emotions ride on it, and it is argued that at least it does no harm.
We can do some calculations. Suppose that the elf in question spends one second per house. This isn't quite the usual picture—“Ho, Ho, Ho,” and so on—but imagine that he is terribly efficient and very speedy; that would explain why nobody ever sees him very much-only one second per house, after all. With a hundred million houses he has to spend three years just filling stockings. I have assumed he spends no time at all in going from house to house. Even with relativistic reindeer, the time spent in a hundred million houses is three years and not eight hours. This is an example of hypothesis-testing independent of reindeer propulsion mechanisms or debates on the origins of elves. We examine the hypothesis itself, making very straightforward assumptions, and derive a result inconsistent with the hypothesis by many orders of magnitude. We would then suggest that the hypothesis is untenable.
We can make a similar examination, but with greater uncertainty, of the extraterrestrial hypothesis that holds that a wide range of UFOs viewed on the planet Earth are space vehicles from planets of other stars.
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective (1973), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crude (32)  |  Debate (40)  |  Depend (238)  |  Derive (70)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elf (7)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Examination (102)  |  Examine (84)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extraterrestrial Life (20)  |  Home (184)  |  Hour (192)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Literally (30)  |  Little (717)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Making (300)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Picture (148)  |  Plane (22)  |  Planet (402)  |  Probability (135)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Question (649)  |  Range (104)  |  Reindeer (2)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Result (700)  |  Ride (23)  |  Santa Claus (2)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  State (505)  |  Straightforward (10)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Test (221)  |  Time (1911)  |  UFO (4)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Untenable (5)  |  Vehicle (11)  |  View (496)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wide (97)  |  Year (963)

There is no absurdity in theology so great that you cannot parallel it by a greater absurdity in Nature.
Letter to Charles Kingsley (5 May 1863). In L. Huxley, The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (1903), Vol. 1, 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Great (1610)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Theology (54)

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)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Experience (494)  |  Genius (301)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Long (778)  |  Method (531)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Understanding (527)

There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
Aphorism 72 in Notebook K, as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990).
Science quotes on:  |  Desire (212)  |  Impediment (12)  |  Progress (492)  |  Quickness (5)  |  See (1094)

There is no instrument for measuring the pressure of the Ether, which is probably millions of times greater: it is altogether too uniform for direct apprehension. A deep-sea fish has probably no means of apprehending the existence of water, it is too uniformly immersed in it: and that is our condition in regard to the Ether.
Ether and Reality: A Series of Discourses on the Many Functions of the Ether of Space (1925), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Condition (362)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Deep (241)  |  Direct (228)  |  Ether (37)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fish (130)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Regard (312)  |  Sea (326)  |  Time (1911)  |  Water (503)

There is not, we believe, a single example of a medicine having been received permanently into the Materia Medica upon the sole ground of its physical, chemical, or physiological properties. Nearly every one has become a popular remedy before being adopted or even tried by physicians; by far the greater number were first employed in countries which were and are now in a state of scientific ignorance....
Therapeutics and Materia Medica (2006), 31
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Country (269)  |  Employ (115)  |  Example (98)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Number (710)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Popular (34)  |  Property (177)  |  Receive (117)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Single (365)  |  Sole (50)  |  State (505)  |  Try (296)

There is perhaps no science of which the development has been carried so far, which requires greater concentration and will power, and which by the abstract height of the qualities required tends more to separate one from daily life.
In 'Provisional Report of the American Subcommittee of the International Commission on Teaching of Mathematics', Bulletin American Society (Nov 1910), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Development (441)  |  Life (1870)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Power (771)  |  Quality (139)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Separate (151)  |  Tend (124)  |  Will (2350)  |  Will Power (3)

Therefore the solid body of the earth is reasonably considered as being the largest relative to those moving against it and as remaining unmoved in any direction by the force of the very small weights, and as it were absorbing their fall. And if it had some one common movement, the same as that of the other weights, it would clearly leave them all behind because of its much greater magnitude. And the animals and other weights would be left hanging in the air, and the earth would very quickly fallout of the heavens. Merely to conceive such things makes them appear ridiculous.
Ptolemy
'The Almagest 1', in Ptolemy: the Almagest; Nicolaus Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres; Johannes Kepler: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy: IV - V The Harmonies of the World: V, trans. R. Catesby Taliaferro (1952), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Direction (185)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Largest (39)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Merely (315)  |  Movement (162)  |  Other (2233)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Small (489)  |  Solid (119)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Weight (140)

This is the reason why all attempts to obtain a deeper knowledge of the foundations of physics seem doomed to me unless the basic concepts are in accordance with general relativity from the beginning. This situation makes it difficult to use our empirical knowledge, however comprehensive, in looking for the fundamental concepts and relations of physics, and it forces us to apply free speculation to a much greater extent than is presently assumed by most physicists.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accordance (10)  |  Apply (170)  |  Assume (43)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Basic (144)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Concept (242)  |  Deep (241)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Doom (34)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Extent (142)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Great (1610)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Looking (191)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relation (166)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Seem (150)  |  Situation (117)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Use (771)  |  Why (491)

Those individuals who give moral considerations a much greater weight than considerations of expediency represent a comparatively small minority, five percent of the people perhaps. But, In spite of their numerical inferiority, they play a major role in our society because theirs is the voice of the conscience of society.
In J. Robert Moskin, Morality in America (1966), 17. Otherwise unconfirmed in this form. Please contact webmaster if you know a primary print source.
Science quotes on:  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Expediency (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inferiority (7)  |  Major (88)  |  Minority (24)  |  Moral (203)  |  Numerical (39)  |  People (1031)  |  Represent (157)  |  Role (86)  |  Small (489)  |  Society (350)  |  Spite (55)  |  Voice (54)  |  Weight (140)

Thou canst not make water flow uphill but by expenditure of greater force than draws it down. The spirit of fire can do this,—converting it to steam. Spiritualise water, and it ascends in spite of itself.
In Sir William Withey Gull and Theodore Dyke Acland (ed.), A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull (1896), lxv.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascend (30)  |  Convert (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (140)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flow (89)  |  Force (497)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spite (55)  |  Steam (81)  |  Uphill (3)  |  Water (503)

Time is in itself [not] a difficulty, but a time-rate, assumed on very insufficient grounds, is used as a master-key, whether or not it fits, to unravel all difficulties. What if it were suggested that the brick-built Pyramid of Hawara had been laid brick by brick by a single workman? Given time, this would not be beyond the bounds of possibility. But Nature, like the Pharaohs, had greater forces at her command to do the work better and more expeditiously than is admitted by Uniformitarians.
'The Position of Geology', The Nineteenth Century (1893), 34, 551.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bound (120)  |  Brick (20)  |  Command (60)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fit (139)  |  Force (497)  |  Ground (222)  |  Key (56)  |  Master (182)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pharaoh (4)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Rate (31)  |  Single (365)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uniformitarianism (9)  |  Unravel (16)  |  Unraveling (3)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

To have a railroad, there must have been first the discoverers, who found out the properties of wood and iron, fire and water, and their latent power to carry men over the earth; next the organizers, who put these elements together, surveyed the route, planned the structure, set men to grade the hill, to fill the valley, and pave the road with iron bars; and then the administrators, who after all that is done, procure the engines, engineers, conductors, ticket-distributors, and the rest of the “hands;” they buy the coal and see it is not wasted, fix the rates of fare, calculate the savings, and distribute the dividends. The discoverers and organizers often fare hard in the world, lean men, ill-clad and suspected, often laughed at, while the administrator is thought the greater man, because he rides over their graves and pays the dividends, where the organizer only called for the assessments, and the discoverer told what men called a dream. What happens in a railroad happens also in a Church, or a State.
Address at the Melodeon, Boston (5 Mar 1848), 'A Discourse occasioned by the Death of John Quincy Adams'. Collected in Discourses of Politics: The Collected Works of Theodore Parker: Part 4 (1863), 139. Note: Ralph Waldo Emerson earlier used the phrase “pave the road with iron bars,” in Nature (1836), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Administrator (11)  |  Assessment (3)  |  Bar (9)  |  Buy (21)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Church (64)  |  Coal (64)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Dividend (3)  |  Dream (222)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Engine (99)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Fare (5)  |  Fill (67)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Fix (34)  |  Grade (12)  |  Grave (52)  |  Hand (149)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hill (23)  |  Iron (99)  |  Latent (13)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Pave (8)  |  Pay (45)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Procure (6)  |  Property (177)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Rate (31)  |  Rest (287)  |  Ride (23)  |  Road (71)  |  Route (16)  |  Saving (20)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Survey (36)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thought (995)  |  Ticket (5)  |  Together (392)  |  Valley (37)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water (503)  |  Wood (97)  |  World (1850)

To insult someone we call him “bestial.” For deliberate cruelty and malice, “human” might be the greater insult.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal Behavior (10)  |  Bestial (3)  |  Call (781)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Human (1512)  |  Insult (16)  |  Malice (6)

To me, there is no greater calling. If I can inspire young people to dedicate themselves to the good of mankind, I’ve accomplished something.
As quoted by Howard Wilkinson in 'John Glenn Had the Stuff U.S. Heroes are Made of', The Cincinnati Enquirer (20 Feb 2002), explaining his pride and interest in helping the goals of the John H. Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy, at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Calling (3)  |  Dedicate (12)  |  Good (906)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Mankind (356)  |  People (1031)  |  Something (718)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Young (253)

To pick a hole–say in the 2nd law of Ωcs, that if two things are in contact the hotter cannot take heat from the colder without external agency.
Now let A & B be two vessels divided by a diaphragm and let them contain elastic molecules in a state of agitation which strike each other and the sides. Let the number of particles be equal in A & B but let those in A have equal velocities, if oblique collisions occur between them their velocities will become unequal & I have shown that there will be velocities of all magnitudes in A and the same in B only the sum of the squares of the velocities is greater in A than in B.
When a molecule is reflected from the fixed diaphragm CD no work is lost or gained.
If the molecule instead of being reflected were allowed to go through a hole in CD no work would be lost or gained, only its energy would be transferred from the one vessel to the other.
Now conceive a finite being who knows the paths and velocities of all the molecules by simple inspection but who can do no work, except to open and close a hole in the diaphragm, by means of a slide without mass.
Let him first observe the molecules in A and when lie sees one coming the square of whose velocity is less than the mean sq. vel. of the molecules in B let him open a hole & let it go into B. Next let him watch for a molecule in B the square of whose velocity is greater than the mean sq. vel. in A and when it comes to the hole let him draw and slide & let it go into A, keeping the slide shut for all other molecules.
Then the number of molecules in A & B are the same as at first but the energy in A is increased and that in B diminished that is the hot system has got hotter and the cold colder & yet no work has been done, only the intelligence of a very observant and neat fingered being has been employed. Or in short if heat is the motion of finite portions of matter and if we can apply tools to such portions of matter so as to deal with them separately then we can take advantage of the different motion of different portions to restore a uniformly hot system to unequal temperatures or to motions of large masses. Only we can't, not being clever enough.
Letter to Peter Guthrie Tait (11 Dec 1867). In P. M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 331-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Agitation (10)  |  Apply (170)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Clever (41)  |  Cold (115)  |  Collision (16)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Contact (66)  |  Deal (192)  |  Different (595)  |  Divided (50)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Employ (115)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enough (341)  |  Finite (60)  |  First (1302)  |  Gain (146)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Lie (370)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  Maxwell�s Demon (2)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Motion (320)  |  Next (238)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Path (159)  |  Portion (86)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Shut (41)  |  Side (236)  |  Simple (426)  |  Square (73)  |  State (505)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sum (103)  |  System (545)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Tool (129)  |  Two (936)  |  Unequal (12)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Watch (118)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Typical of the fundamental scientific problems whose solution should lead to important industrial consequences are, for example, the release of atomic energy, which experiment has shown to exist in quantities millions of times greater than is liberated by combustion.
An early speculation on using the amount of energy that could be released from uranium atoms. In a letter to Henry Ford (18 May 1931). He recorded earlier thoughts on the subject in his Research Notebook, entry for 23 Jul 1930, in Arthur H. Compton Notebooks, Washington University, St. Louis, and AIP. Cited by Stanley Coben, in 'The Scientific Establishment and the Transmission of Quantum Mechanics to the United States, 1919-32', The American Historical Review (Apr 1971), 76, No. 2, 466.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Industry (159)  |  Lead (391)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Million (124)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Release (31)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Solution (282)  |  Time (1911)  |  Typical (16)

Under the... new hypothesis [of Continental Drift] certain geological concepts come to acquire a new significance amounting in a few cases to a complete inversion of principles, and the inquirer will find it necessary to re-orient his ideas. For the first time he will get glimpses... of a pulsating restless earth, all parts of which are in greater or less degree of movement in respect to the axis of rotation, having been so, moreover, throughout geological time. He will have to leave behind him—perhaps reluctantly—the dumbfounding spectacle of the present continental masses, firmly anchored to a plastic foundation yet remaining fixed in space; set thousands of kilometres apart, it may be, yet behaving in almost identical fashion from epoch to epoch and stage to stage like soldiers, at drill; widely stretched in some quarters at various times and astoundingly compressed in others, yet retaining their general shapes, positions and orientations; remote from one another through history, yet showing in their fossil remains common or allied forms of terrestrial life; possessed during certain epochs of climates that may have ranged from glacial to torrid or pluvial to arid, though contrary to meteorological principles when their existing geographical positions are considered -to mention but a few such paradoxes!
Our Wandering Continents: An Hypothesis of Continental Drifting (1937), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Arid (6)  |  Behind (139)  |  Certain (557)  |  Climate (102)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (428)  |  Continental Drift (15)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Degree (277)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Foundation (177)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Identical (55)  |  Inquirer (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mention (84)  |  Movement (162)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Possess (157)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Remote (86)  |  Respect (212)  |  Rotation (13)  |  Set (400)  |  Significance (114)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Space (523)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

Unless science is controlled by a greater moral force, it will become the Antichrist prophesied by the early Christians.
Quoted in 'Antiseptic Christianity', book review of Lindbergh, Of Flight and Life in Time magazine, (6 Sep 1948).
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Christian (44)  |  Control (182)  |  Early (196)  |  Force (497)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Prophesy (11)  |  Will (2350)

Vision, in my view, is the cause of the greatest benefit to us, inasmuch as none of the accounts now given concerning the Universe would ever have been given if men had not seen the stars or the sun or the heavens. But as it is, the vision of day and night and of months and circling years has created the art of number and has given us not only the notion of Time but also means of research into the nature of the Universe. From these we have procured Philosophy in all its range, than which no greater boon ever has come or will come, by divine bestowal, unto the race of mortals.
Plato
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Art (680)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Boon (7)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circle (117)  |  Concern (239)  |  Create (245)  |  Day And Night (3)  |  Divine (112)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Month (91)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Procure (6)  |  Race (278)  |  Range (104)  |  Research (753)  |  See (1094)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Sun (407)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unto (8)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Visualize yourself confronted with the task of killing, one after the other, a cabbage, a fly, a fish, a lizard, a guinea pig, a cat, a dog, a monkey and a baby chimpanzee. In the unlikely case that you should experience no greater inhibitions in killing the chimpanzee than in destroying the cabbage or the fly, my advice to you is to commit suicide at your earliest possible convenience, because you are a weird monstrosity and a public danger.
'The Enmity Between Generations and Its Probable Ethological Causes'. In Richard I. Evans, Konrad Lorenz: The Man and his Ideas (1975), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Baby (29)  |  Cabbage (5)  |  Cat (52)  |  Chimpanzee (14)  |  Commit (43)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dog (70)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fly (153)  |  Guinea Pig (3)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Kill (100)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Monster (33)  |  Monstrosity (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Task (152)

Volcanic action is essentially paroxysmal; yet Mr. Lyell will admit no greater paroxysms than we ourselves have witnessed—no periods of feverish spasmodic energy, during which the very framework of nature has been convulsed and torn asunder. The utmost movements that he allows are a slight quivering of her muscular integuments.
'Address to the Geological Society, delivered on the Evening of the 18th of February 1831', Proceedings of the Geological Society (1834), 1, 307.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Asunder (4)  |  Convulsion (5)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fever (34)  |  Feverish (6)  |  Framework (33)  |  Integument (4)  |  Movement (162)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Period (200)  |  Quiver (3)  |  Slight (32)  |  Torn (17)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Will (2350)  |  Witness (57)

We all know that enforced propinquity often leads on to greater intimacy.
In 'Recent Advances in the Chemistry of Natural Products', Pure and Applied Chemistry (1968), 17, 545.
Science quotes on:  |  Intimacy (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)

We are at that very point in time when a four-hundred-year-old age is rattling in its deathbed and another is struggling to be born. A shifting of culture, science, society and institutions enormously greater and swifter than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, lies the possibility of regeneration of individuality, liberty, community and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another and with the divine intelligence such as the world has always dreamed.
Birth of the Chaordic Age (1999), 310-311.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Community (111)  |  Culture (157)  |  Divine (112)  |  Dream (222)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Institution (73)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Known (453)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Lie (370)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Regeneration (5)  |  Shift (45)  |  Society (350)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

We are faced today with a social decision resulting from our progress in molecular genetics at least equal to, and probably greater than, that required of us twenty years ago with the maturity of nuclear power.
In 'Abstract' The Impurity of Science (19 Apr 1962), the printed version of the Robbins Lecture (27 Feb 1962) given at Pomona College, Claremont, California, as published by Ernest O. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Decision (98)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Molecular Genetics (3)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Power (16)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (700)  |  Social (261)  |  Today (321)  |  Year (963)

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.
Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Certainly (185)  |  DNA (81)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Grain (50)  |  Human (1512)  |  Include (93)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Possible (560)  |  Potential (75)  |  Sand (63)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Will (2350)

We are like dwarfs [the moderns] sitting on the shoulders of giants [the ancients]. Our glance can thus take in more things and reach farther than theirs. It is not because our sight is sharper nor our height greater than theirs; it is that we are carried and elevated by the high stature of the giants.
Attributed to Bernard of Chartres in John of Salisbury, Metalogicon [1159], Book III, chapter 4, quoted in E. Jeaneau, “Bernard of Chartres”, in C. C. Gillispie, Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1971), Vol. 3, 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Farther (51)  |  Giant (73)  |  Glance (36)  |  High (370)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reach (286)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Thing (1914)

We are placed here with certain talents and capabilities. It is up to each of us to use those talents and capabilities as best you can. If you do that, I think there is a power greater than any of us that will place the opportunities in our way, and if we use our talents properly, we will be living the kind of life we should live.
At NASA press conference (9 Apr 1959) to introduce the Mercury 7 astronauts. As quoted in Joseph N. Bell, Seven Into Space: The Story of the Mercury Astronauts (1960), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Capability (44)  |  Certain (557)  |  Do (1905)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Place (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Properly (21)  |  Talent (99)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

We have little more personal stake in cosmic destiny than do sunflowers or butterflies. The transfiguration of the universe lies some 50 to 100 billion years in the future; snap your fingers twice and you will have consumed a greater fraction of your life than all human history is to such a span. ... We owe our lives to universal processes ... and as invited guests we might do better to learn about them than to complain about them. If the prospect of a dying universe causes us anguish, it does so only because we can forecast it, and we have as yet not the slightest idea why such forecasts are possible for us. ... Why should nature, whether hostile or benign, be in any way intelligible to us? All the mysteries of science are but palace guards to that mystery.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anguish (2)  |  Benign (2)  |  Better (493)  |  Billion (104)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complain (10)  |  Consume (13)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Die (94)  |  Do (1905)  |  Finger (48)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guard (19)  |  Guest (5)  |  History (716)  |  Hostile (8)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Invite (10)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  More (2558)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Owe (71)  |  Palace (8)  |  Personal (75)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Slight (32)  |  Snap (7)  |  Span (5)  |  Stake (20)  |  Sunflower (2)  |  Twice (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

We have seen that a proton of energy corresponding to 30,000 volts can effect the transformation of lithium into two fast α-particles, which together have an energy equivalent of more than 16 million volts. Considering the individual process, the output of energy in the transmutation is more than 500 times greater than the energy carried by the proton. There is thus a great gain of energy in the single transmutation, but we must not forget that on an average more than 1000 million protons of equal energy must be fired into the lithium before one happens to hit and enter the lithium nucleus. It is clear in this case that on the whole the energy derived from transmutation of the atom is small compared with the energy of the bombarding particles. There thus seems to be little prospect that we can hope to obtain a new source of power by these processes. It has sometimes been suggested, from analogy with ordinary explosives, that the transmutation of one atom might cause the transmutation of a neighbouring nucleus, so that the explosion would spread throughout all the material. If this were true, we should long ago have had a gigantic explosion in our laboratories with no one remaining to tell the tale. The absence of these accidents indicates, as we should expect, that the explosion is confined to the individual nucleus and does not spread to the neighbouring nuclei, which may be regarded as relatively far removed from the centre of the explosion.
The Transmutation of the Atom (1933), 23-4
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Accident (92)  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Average (89)  |  Bombardment (3)  |  Cause (561)  |  Centre (31)  |  Chain Reaction (2)  |  Confinement (4)  |  Effect (414)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Expect (203)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Forget (125)  |  Gain (146)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hope (321)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Individual (420)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lithium (3)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  New (1273)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Output (12)  |  Particle (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Proton (23)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Source (101)  |  Spread (86)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Tell (344)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

We know enough to be sure that the scientific achievements of the next fifty years will be far greater, more rapid, and more surprising, than those we have already experienced. … Wireless telephones and television, following naturally upon the their present path of development, would enable their owner to connect up to any room similarly equipped and hear and take part in the conversation as well as if he put his head in through the window.
From 'Fifty Years Hence', Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932), 57, No. 3, 394-396.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Already (226)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Development (441)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enough (341)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Experienced (2)  |  Head (87)  |  Hear (144)  |  Know (1538)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Path (159)  |  Present (630)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Room (42)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Surprising (4)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Television (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)  |  Window (59)  |  Wireless (7)  |  Year (963)

We may be sure, that if Lyell were now living he would frankly recognize new facts, as soon as they were established, and would not shrink from any modification of his theory which these might demand. Great as were his services to geology, this, perhaps, is even greater—for the lesson applies to all sciences and to all seekers alter knowledge—that his career, from first to lost, was the manifestation of a judicial mind, of a noble spirit, raised far above all party passions and petty considerations, of an intellect great in itself, but greater still in its grand humility; that he was a man to whom truth was as the “pearl of price,” worthy of the devotion and, if need be, the sacrifice of a life.
Conclusion in Charles Lyell and Modern Geology (1895), 213.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Biography (254)  |  Career (86)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Demand (131)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Humility (31)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Sir Charles Lyell (42)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modification (57)  |  New (1273)  |  Noble (93)  |  Passion (121)  |  Petty (9)  |  Price (57)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Service (110)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Still (614)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)

We may be well be justified in saying that quantum theory is of greater importance to chemistry than physics. For where there are large fields of physics that can be discussed in a completely penetrating way without reference to Planck's constant and to quantum theory at all, there is no part of chemistry that does not depend, in its fundamental theory, upon quantum principles.
As quoted in Leonard W. Fine, Chemistry (1972), 537. Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Completely (137)  |  Constant (148)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Field (378)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Importance (299)  |  Large (398)  |  Part (235)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Principle (530)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Way (1214)

We must make the following remark: a proof, that after a certain time t1, the spheres must necessarily be mixed uniformly, whatever may be the initial distribution of states, cannot be given. This is in fact a consequence of probability theory, for any non-uniform distribution of states, no matter how improbable it may be, is still not absolutely impossible. Indeed it is clear that any individual uniform distribution, which might arise after a certain time from some particular initial state, is just as improbable as an individual non-uniform distribution; just as in the game of Lotto, any individual set of five numbers is as improbable as the set 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It is only because there are many more uniform distributions than non-uniform ones that the distribution of states will become uniform in the course of time. One therefore cannot prove that, whatever may be the positions and velocities of the spheres at the beginning, the distributions must become uniform after a long time; rather one can only prove that infinitely many more initial states will lead to a uniform one after a definite length of time than to a non-uniform one. Loschmidt's theorem tells us only about initial states which actually lead to a very non-uniform distribution of states after a certain time t1; but it does not prove that there are not infinitely many more initial conditions that will lead to a uniform distribution after the same time. On the contrary, it follows from the theorem itself that, since there are infinitely many more uniform distributions, the number of states which lead to uniform distributions after a certain time t1, is much greater than the number that leads to non-uniform ones, and the latter are the ones that must be chosen, according to Loschmidt, in order to obtain a non-uniform distribution at t1.
From 'On the Relation of a General Mechanical Theorem to the Second Law of Thermodynamics' (1877), in Stephen G. Brush (ed.), Selected Readings in Physics (1966), Vol. 2, Irreversible Processes, 191-2.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Arise (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Course (413)  |  Definite (114)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Game (104)  |  Gas (89)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kinetic Theory (7)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Order (638)  |  Probability (135)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Set (400)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

We must really agree with Bamberger, who thinks that the greater part of patients who die, of endocarditis even, have succumbed not to the disease, but to the remedy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Die (94)  |  Disease (340)  |  Great (1610)  |  Must (1525)  |  Part (235)  |  Patient (209)  |  Really (77)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Think (1122)

Well, there’s no doubt about the fact that, that higher energy prices lead to greater conservation, greater energy efficiency, and they also, of course, play a useful role on the supply side. They encourage more exploration, and they make non-conventional fuels more attractive in the marketplace. So it’s not entirely without a silver lining.
In transcript, 'Treasury Secretary Snow Optimistic on Economy', PBS Newshour (23 Mar 2005), on pbs.org website. Quoted in Gene Beck, 'Production Tax Credits', Grid Parity: The Art of Financing Renewable Energy Projects in the U.S. (2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Attractive (25)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Economics (44)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Energy (373)  |  Energy Efficiency (7)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fuel (39)  |  High (370)  |  Marketplace (4)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Petroleum (8)  |  Price (57)  |  Renewable Energy (15)  |  Supply (100)  |  Useful (260)

What struck me most in England was the perception that only those works which have a practical tendency awake attention and command respect, while the purely scientific, which possess far greater merit are almost unknown. And yet the latter are the proper source from which the others flow. Practice alone can never lead to the discovery of a truth or a principle. In Germany it is quite the contrary. Here in the eyes of scientific men no value, or at least but a trifling one, is placed upon the practical results. The enrichment of science is alone considered worthy attention.
Letter to Michael Faraday (19 Dec 1844). In Bence Jones (ed.), The life and letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 2, 188-189.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Attention (196)  |  Awake (19)  |  Command (60)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Discovery (837)  |  England (43)  |  Enrichment (7)  |  Eye (440)  |  Flow (89)  |  Germany (16)  |  Lead (391)  |  Merit (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Possess (157)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purely (111)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

What, in fact, is mathematical discovery? It does not consist in making new combinations with mathematical entities that are already known. That can be done by anyone, and the combinations that could be so formed would be infinite in number, and the greater part of them would be absolutely devoid of interest. Discovery consists precisely in not constructing useless combinations, but in constructing those that are useful, which are an infinitely small minority. Discovery is discernment, selection.
In Science et Méthode (1920), 48, as translated by Francis Maitland, in Science and Method (1908, 1952), 50-51. Also seen elsewhere translated with “invention” in place of “discovery”.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Combination (150)  |  Consist (223)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discernment (4)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Minority (24)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Selection (130)  |  Small (489)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

When an element A has an affinity for another substance B, I see no mechanical reason why it should not take as many atoms of B as are presented to it, and can possibly come into contact with it (which may probably be 12 in general), except so far as the repulsion of the atoms of B among themselves are more than a match for the attraction of an atom of A. Now this repulsion begins with 2 atoms of B to 1 atom of A, in which case the 2 atoms of B are diametrically opposed; it increases with 3 atoms of B to 1 of A, in which case the atoms are only 120° asunder; with 4 atoms of B it is still greater as the distance is then only 90; and so on in proportion to the number of atoms. It is evident from these positions, that, as far as powers of attraction and repulsion are concerned (and we know of no other in chemistry), binary compounds must first be formed in the ordinary course of things, then ternary and so on, till the repulsion of the atoms of B (or A, whichever happens to be on the surface of the other), refuse to admit any more.
Observations on Dr. Bostock's Review of the Atomic Principles of Chemistry', Nicholson's Journal, 1811, 29, 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Begin (275)  |  Binary (12)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Compound (117)  |  Concern (239)  |  Contact (66)  |  Course (413)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Distance (171)  |  Element (322)  |  Evident (92)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Happen (282)  |  Increase (225)  |  Know (1538)  |  Match (30)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reason (766)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)

When one considers how hard it is to write a computer program even approaching the intellectual scope of a good paper, and how much greater time and effort have to be put in to make it “almost” formally correct, it is preposterous to claim that mathematics as we practice it is anywhere near formally correct.
In 'On Proof and Progress in Mathematics', For the Learning of Mathematics (Feb 1995), 15, No. 1, 33. Reprinted from Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (1994), 30, No. 2, 170-171.
Science quotes on:  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Approach (112)  |  Claim (154)  |  Computer (131)  |  Consider (428)  |  Correct (95)  |  Effort (243)  |  Formal (37)  |  Good (906)  |  Hard (246)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Paper (192)  |  Practice (212)  |  Preposterous (8)  |  Program (57)  |  Scope (44)  |  Time (1911)  |  Write (250)

When science makes minor mysteries disappear, greater mysteries stand confessed. For one object of delight whose emotional value science has inevitably lessened—as Newton damaged the rainbow for Keats—science gives back double. To the grand primary impressions of the world­power, the immensities, the pervading order, and the universal flux, with which the man of feeling has been nurtured from of old, modern science has added thrilling impressions of manifoldness, intricacy, uniformity, inter-relatedness, and evolution. Science widens and clears the emotional window. There are great vistas to which science alone can lead, and they make for elevation of mind. The opposition between science and feeling is largely a misunderstanding. As one of our philosophers has remarked, science is in a true sense 'one of the humanities.'
J. Arthur Thomson (ed.), The Outline of Science: A Plain Story Simply Told (1921/2), Vol. 2, Science and Modern Thought, 787.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Back (395)  |  Confess (42)  |  Delight (111)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Flux (21)  |  Great (1610)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inter (12)  |  Intricacy (8)  |  Lead (391)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Order (638)  |  Pervading (7)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Power (771)  |  Primary (82)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stand (284)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Universal (198)  |  Value (393)  |  Vista (12)  |  Widen (10)  |  Window (59)  |  World (1850)

When the ability to have movement across social class becomes virtually impossible, I think it is the beginning of the end of a country. And because education is so critical to success in this country, if we don't figure out a way to create greater mobility across social class, I do think it will be the beginning of the end.
In a segment from PBS TV program, Newshour (9 Sep 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Class (168)  |  Country (269)  |  Create (245)  |  Critical (73)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  End (603)  |  Figure (162)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Mobility (11)  |  Movement (162)  |  Social (261)  |  Success (327)  |  Think (1122)  |  U.S.A. (7)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

When the disease is stronger than the patient, the physician will not be able to help him at all, and if the strength of the patient is greater than the strength of the disease, he does not need a physician at all. But when both are equal, he needs a physician who will support the patient’s strength and help him against the disease.
Rhazes
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Both (496)  |  Disease (340)  |  Equal (88)  |  Great (1610)  |  Help (116)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Need (320)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Support (151)  |  Will (2350)

When we survey our lives and endeavours we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Admit (49)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beast (58)  |  Beast-Like (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bind (26)  |  Birth (154)  |  Bound (120)  |  Build (211)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Clothes (11)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Comparable (7)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Create (245)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Direct (228)  |  Eat (108)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Food (213)  |  Grave (52)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Society (14)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Leave (138)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Medium (15)  |  Member (42)  |  Mental (179)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Part (235)  |  People (1031)  |  Poor (139)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principal (69)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resemble (65)  |  See (1094)  |  Significance (114)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Survey (36)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wear (20)  |  Whole (756)

Where the flow carries a large quantity of water, the speed of the flow is greater and vice versa.
As quoted in G.A. Tokaty, A History and Philosophy of Fluid Mechanics (1994), 39. This is a precursor of the continuity equation.
Science quotes on:  |  Carry (130)  |  Flow (89)  |  Great (1610)  |  Large (398)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Speed (66)  |  Vice (42)  |  Vice Versa (6)  |  Water (503)

Whether we like it or not, quantification in history is here to stay for reasons which the quantifiers themselves might not actively approve. We are becoming a numerate society: almost instinctively there seems now to be a greater degree of truth in evidence expressed numerically than in any literary evidence, no matter how shaky the statistical evidence, or acute the observing eye.
Is History Sick? (1973), 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Acuity (3)  |  Approval (12)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Degree (277)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Express (192)  |  Eye (440)  |  History (716)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Liking (4)  |  Literature (116)  |  Matter (821)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Quantification (2)  |  Reason (766)  |  Society (350)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Truth (1109)

Whoever limits his exertions to the gratification of others, whether by personal exhibition, as in the case of the actor and of the mimic, or by those kinds of literary composition which are calculated for no end but to please or to entertain, renders himself, in some measure, dependent on their caprices and humours. The diversity among men, in their judgments concerning the objects of taste, is incomparably greater than in their speculative conclusions; and accordingly, a mathematician will publish to the world a geometrical demonstration, or a philosopher, a process of abstract reasoning, with a confidence very different from what a poet would feel, in communicating one of his productions even to a friend.
In Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Vol. 3, Chap. 1, Sec. 3, 202.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Actor (9)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Composition (86)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  End (603)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Exhibition (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Friend (180)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humour (116)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mimic (2)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Please (68)  |  Poet (97)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Publish (42)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Render (96)  |  Taste (93)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheeles as doth a watch) have an artificiall life? For what is the Heart, but a Spring; and the Nerves, but so many Strings; and the Joynts, but so many Wheeles, giving motion to the whole Body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further, imitating the rationall and most excellent worke of Nature, Man. For by Art is created the great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body.
Leviathan (1651), ed. C. B. Macpherson (1968), Part I, Introduction, 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artificer (5)  |  Body (557)  |  Call (781)  |  Common (447)  |  Defence (16)  |  Engine (99)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (243)  |  Joint (31)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Protection (41)  |  Say (989)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spring (140)  |  State (505)  |  Strength (139)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)

Without undervaluing any other human agency, it may be safely affirmed that the Common School, improved and energized, as it can easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of all the forces of civilization. Two reasons sustain this position. In the first place, there is a universality in its operation, which can be affirmed of no other institution whatever... And, in the second place, the materials upon which it operates are so pliant and ductile as to be susceptible of assuming a greater variety of forms than any other earthly work of the Creator.
Twelfth Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education (1948). Life and Works of Horace Mann (1891), Vol. 4, 232-233.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Common (447)  |  Creator (97)  |  Effective (68)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Institution (73)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Two (936)  |  Universality (22)  |  Variety (138)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Work (1402)

You hear headlines from time to time about the Amazon rainforest disappearing at a greater or lesser rate.... The real story is that over time the rate has stayed just the same. Year after year, decade after decade, we have failed to stop or really even decrease deforestation...
Online transcript of interview, segment 'Amazon Deforestation' on NPR radio program, Living on Earth (25 Feb 2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Amazon (11)  |  Decade (66)  |  Decrease (16)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Headline (8)  |  Hear (144)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Rate (31)  |  Stop (89)  |  Story (122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Year (963)

You may take it as an instance of male injustice if I assert that envy and jealousy play an even greater part in the mental life of women than of men. It is not that I think these characteristics are absent in men or that I think they have no other roots in women than envy for the penis; but I am inclined to attribute their greater amount in women to this latter influence.
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1933), in James Strachey (ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1964), Vol. 22, 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Assert (69)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Envy (15)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Influence (231)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mental (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Root (121)  |  Sexuality (11)  |  Think (1122)

You see, if the height of the mercury [barometer] column is less on the top of a mountain than at the foot of it (as I have many reasons for believing, although everyone who has so far written about it is of the contrary opinion), it follows that the weight of the air must be the sole cause of the phenomenon, and not that abhorrence of a vacuum, since it is obvious that at the foot of the mountain there is more air to have weight than at the summit, and we cannot possibly say that the air at the foot of the mountain has a greater aversion to empty space than at the top.
In letter to brother-in-law Perier (Nov 1647) as given in Daniel Webster Hering, Physics: the Science of the Forces of Nature (1922), 114. As also stated by Hering, Perier conducted an experiment on 19 Sep 1648 comparing readings on two barometers, one at the foot, and another at the top of 4,000-ft Puy-de-Dôme neighboring mountain.
Science quotes on:  |  Abhorrence (8)  |  Air (366)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Barometer (7)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Column (15)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Empty (82)  |  Follow (389)  |  Height (33)  |  Mercury (54)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Reason (766)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sole (50)  |  Space (523)  |  Summit (27)  |  Top (100)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Weight (140)


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.