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

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

Greeting Quotes (10 quotes)

[Blackett] came one morning, deep in thought, into the G (technical) Office at Stanmore. It was a bitterly cold day, and the staff were shivering in a garret warmed over only with an oil-stove. Without a word of greeting, Blackett stepped silently up on to the table and stood there pondering with his feet among the plans. After ten minutes somebody coughed uneasily and said, diffidently: “Wouldn’t you like a chair, sir … or something?” “No, thank you,” said Professor Blackett, “it is necessary to apply scientific methods. Hot air rises. The warmest spot in this room, therefore, will be near the ceiling.” At this, Colonel Krohn, my technical G.S.O., stepped up on the table beside the Professor, and for the next half-hour, the two stayed there in silence. At the end of this period Professor Blackett stepped down from the table saying: “Well! That’s that problem solved.” And so it was.
Anecdote as told by General Sir Frederick Pile, in Frederick Pile, Ack-Ack: Britain’s Defence Against Air Attack During Second World War (1949), 161. As cited by Maurice W. Kirby and Jonathan Rosenhead, 'Patrick Blackett (1897)' in Arjang A. Assad (ed.) and Saul I. Gass (ed.),Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators (2011), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Apply (170)  |  Ceiling (5)  |  Chair (25)  |  Cold (115)  |  Deep (241)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hour (192)  |  Method (531)  |  Minute (129)  |  Morning (98)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Next (238)  |  Office (71)  |  Oil (67)  |  Period (200)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plan (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Professor (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Silence (62)  |  Something (718)  |  Standing (11)  |  Stove (3)  |  Table (105)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thank You (8)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

[The compass needle] as the guide of Vasco de Gama to the East Indies, and of Columbus to the West Indies and the New World, it was pre-eminently the precursor and pioneer of the telegraph. Silently, and as with finger on its lips, it led them across the waste of waters to the new homes of the world; but when these were largely filled, and houses divided between the old and new hemispheres longed to exchange affectionate greetings, it removed its finger and broke silence. The quivering magnetic needle which lies in the coil of the galvanometer is the tongue of the electric telegraph, and already engineers talk of it as speaking.
'Progress of the Telegraph.' In Jesse Aitken Wilson, Memoirs of George Wilson. Quoted in Natural History Society of Montreal, 'Reviews and Notices of Books,' The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist (1861) Vol. 6, 392.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Compass (37)  |  Divided (50)  |  Electric (76)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Galvanometer (4)  |  Guide (107)  |  Home (184)  |  House (143)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Precursor (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

As usual, the author in his thorough, unobjective fashion has marshalled up all the good, indifferent and bad arguments ... I offer the following detailed comments ... though I realize that many of them will arouse him to a vigorous, if not violent rebuttal. In order to preserve the pH of Dr. Brown's digestive system I would not require a rebuttal as a condition of publication...
With heartiest greetings of the season to you and yours! Jack Roberts
PS The above comments should (help) to reduce your winter heating bill!
Jack Roberts' referee's report on Herbert Charles Brown's paper with Rachel Kornblum on the role of steric strain in carbonium ion reactions.
As quoted by D. A. Davenport, in 'On the Comparative Unimportance of the Invective Effect', Chemtech (Sep 1987), 17, 530.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Author (175)  |  Bad (185)  |  Brown (23)  |  Condition (362)  |  Detail (150)  |  Good (906)  |  Ion (21)  |  Offer (142)  |  Order (638)  |  Paper (192)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Publication (102)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Referee (8)  |  Require (229)  |  Role (86)  |  Season (47)  |  System (545)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Will (2350)  |  Winter (46)

At the entrance to the observatory Stjerneborg located underground, Tycho Brahe built a Ionic portal. On top of this were three sculptured lions. On both sides were inscriptions and on the backside was a longer inscription in gold letters on a porfyr stone: Consecrated to the all-good, great God and Posterity. Tycho Brahe, Son of Otto, who realized that Astronomy, the oldest and most distinguished of all sciences, had indeed been studied for a long time and to a great extent, but still had not obtained sufficient firmness or had been purified of errors, in order to reform it and raise it to perfection, invented and with incredible labour, industry, and expenditure constructed various exact instruments suitable for all kinds of observations of the celestial bodies, and placed them partly in the neighbouring castle of Uraniborg, which was built for the same purpose, partly in these subterranean rooms for a more constant and useful application, and recommending, hallowing, and consecrating this very rare and costly treasure to you, you glorious Posterity, who will live for ever and ever, he, who has both begun and finished everything on this island, after erecting this monument, beseeches and adjures you that in honour of the eternal God, creator of the wonderful clockwork of the heavens, and for the propagation of the divine science and for the celebrity of the fatherland, you will constantly preserve it and not let it decay with old age or any other injury or be removed to any other place or in any way be molested, if for no other reason, at any rate out of reverence to the creator’s eye, which watches over the universe. Greetings to you who read this and act accordingly. Farewell!
(Translated from the original in Latin)
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Age (509)  |  Application (257)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Both (496)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Constant (148)  |  Construct (129)  |  Creator (97)  |  Decay (59)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Divine (112)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Error (339)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  Finish (62)  |  Glorious (49)  |  God (776)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Honour (58)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Industry (159)  |  Injury (36)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Island (49)  |  Kind (564)  |  Labor (200)  |  Letter (117)  |  Lion (23)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Portal (9)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rare (94)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reform (22)  |  Research (753)  |  Side (236)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Underground (12)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useful (260)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)

For the evolution of science by societies the main requisite is the perfect freedom of communication between each member and anyone of the others who may act as a reagent.
The gaseous condition is exemplified in the soiree, where the members rush about confusedly, and the only communication is during a collision, which in some instances may be prolonged by button-holing.
The opposite condition, the crystalline, is shown in the lecture, where the members sit in rows, while science flows in an uninterrupted stream from a source which we take as the origin. This is radiation of science. Conduction takes place along the series of members seated round a dinner table, and fixed there for several hours, with flowers in the middle to prevent any cross currents.
The condition most favourable to life is an intermediate plastic or colloidal condition, where the order of business is (1) Greetings and confused talk; (2) A short communication from one who has something to say and to show; (3) Remarks on the communication addressed to the Chair, introducing matters irrelevant to the communication but interesting to the members; (4) This lets each member see who is interested in his special hobby, and who is likely to help him; and leads to (5) Confused conversation and examination of objects on the table.
I have not indicated how this programme is to be combined with eating.
Letter to William Grylls Adams (3 Dec 1873). In P. M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1995), Vol. 2, 1862-1873, 949-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Business (156)  |  Chair (25)  |  Collision (16)  |  Colloid (5)  |  Communication (101)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conduction (8)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Current (122)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Examination (102)  |  Flow (89)  |  Flower (112)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Gas (89)  |  Hobby (14)  |  Hour (192)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Program (57)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Remark (28)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Short (200)  |  Show (353)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Something To Say (4)  |  Special (188)  |  Stream (83)  |  Table (105)  |  Talk (108)  |  Uninterrupted (7)

Here I am: My brain is open.
[As an itinerant scholar, this was greeting he often gave, ready to collaborate, upon arrival at the home of any mathematician colleague.]
Quoted by Béla Bollobás, 'The Life and Work of Paul Erdos", in Shiing-Shen Chern and Friedrich Hirzebruch, Wolf Prize in Mathematics (2000), 293.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrival (15)  |  Brain (281)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Home (184)  |  Open (277)  |  Scholar (52)

I cannot let the year run out without sending you a sign of my continued existence and to extend my sincere wishes for the well-being of you and your dear ones in the New Year. We will not be able to send New Year greetings much longer; but even when we have passed away and have long since decomposed, the bonds that united us in life will remain and we shall be remembered as a not too common example of two men, who truly without envy and jealousy, contended and struggled in the same field, yet nevertheless remained always closely bound in friendship.
Letter from Liebig to Wohler (31 Dec 1871). Quoted in Ralph Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Bond (46)  |  Bound (120)  |  Common (447)  |  Envy (15)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extend (129)  |  Field (378)  |  Friend (180)  |  Friendship (18)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  New (1273)  |  Pass (241)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remember (189)  |  Run (158)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Truly (118)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Looking upon you [Richard Owen] as the Cuvier of England.
Greeting in letter (1848) to Richard Owen. As quoted, without citation, in Henry Fairfield Osborn, 'Biographical Memoir of Joseph Leidy', collected in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs: Volume 7 (1913), 345.
Science quotes on:  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  England (43)  |  Sir Richard Owen (17)

The Moon by us to you her greeting sends,
But bids us say that she’s an ill-used moon,
And takes it much amiss that you should still
Shuffle her days, and turn them topsy-turvy;
And that the gods (who know their feast-days well),
By your false count are sent home supperless,
And scold and storm at her for your neglect.
From poem, 'The Clouds', quoted in William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences (1837), 126. Concerning the imperfect calendar used in ancient Greece in which multiples of the lunar cycles did not exactly correspond to the solar year.
Science quotes on:  |  Count (107)  |  Day (43)  |  False (105)  |  Feast (5)  |  God (776)  |  Greet (7)  |  Home (184)  |  Know (1538)  |  Moon (252)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Say (989)  |  Scold (6)  |  Shuffle (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Storm (56)  |  Supper (10)  |  Turn (454)

The only equipment lack in the modern hospital? Somebody to meet you at the entrance with a handshake!
Science quotes on:  |  Entrance (16)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Handshake (3)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Lack (127)  |  Modern (402)


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.