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: “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index H > Category: Hasten

Hasten Quotes (13 quotes)

~~[Misattributed ?]~~ Mathematical discoveries, like springtime violets in the woods, have their season which no human can hasten or retard.
Webmaster believes this quote is likely a misattributed paraphrase. The subject quote is as given in Israel Kleiner, 'Thinking the Unthinkable: The Story of Complex Numbers (with a Moral)', Mathematics Teacher (Oct 1988), 81, No. 7, 590. In Kleiner’s paper, alongside the quote is a citation, thus: “(Kline 1972)?” Notice the appended question mark. The reference at the end of the paper gives: Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972), but without page number. Webmaster checked a later edition, Vol. 3 (1990), 861, in which Kline has an epigraph, with different wording about violets, attributed - not to János - but to his father, “Wolfgang Bolyai” (who is also known as Farkas Bolyai). Translator Abe Shenitzer wrote an ambiguous passage in Herbert Meschkowski, NonEuclidean Geometry (1964), 33. In a discussion posted in the NCTM online Math Forum in 1998, Shenitzer clarified that the proper reading is that the “violet talk” is a simile used in advice given by the father to his son. Note that in the passage, János (Johann/John) reports about that advice in narrative form. Thus, one should also note that even in the original language, perhaps the father’s words are not verbatim. See Farkas Bolyai Quotes on another page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Human (1512)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Misattributed (19)  |  Retard (4)  |  Season (47)  |  Spring (140)  |  Springtime (5)  |  Violet (11)  |  Wood (97)

After having a wash I proceeded to the bar where—believe it or not—there was a white-coated barman who was not only serving drinks but also cigarettes! I hastened forward and rather timidly said ‘Can I have some cigarettes?’
‘What’s your rank?’ was the slightly unexpected reply.
‘I am afraid I haven’t got one,’ I answered.
‘Nonsense—everyone who comes here has a rank.’
‘I’m sorry but I just don’t have one.’
‘Now that puts me in a spot,’ said the barman, ‘for orders about cigarettes in this camp are clear—twenty for officers and ten for other ranks. Tell me what exactly are you?’
Now I really wanted those cigarettes so I drew myself up and said ‘I am the Professor of Chemistry at Manchester University.’
The barman contemplated me for about thirty seconds and then said ‘I’ll give you five.’
Since that day I have had few illusions about the importance of professors!
In A Time to Remember: The Autobiography of a Chemist (1983), 59. This event took place after a visit to the Defence Research Establishment at Porton to observe a demonstration of a new chemical anti-tank weapon (1941).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bar (9)  |  Belief (615)  |  Camp (12)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Defence (16)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Drink (56)  |  Forward (104)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Importance (299)  |  Manchester (6)  |  Myself (211)  |  New (1273)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Officer (12)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Professor (133)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reply (58)  |  Second (66)  |  Serving (15)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Tell (344)  |  Timid (6)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  University (130)  |  Want (504)  |  Wash (23)  |  White (132)

All truths wait in all things,
They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,
They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon.
In Leaves of Grass (1855), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Delivery (7)  |  Do (1905)  |  Forceps (2)  |  Haste (6)  |  Need (320)  |  Obstetrics (3)  |  Resist (15)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wait (66)

At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit many millions of men swarmed to the East; the words of an hallucinated person … have created the force necessary to triumph over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther set Europe ablaze and bathed in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius transform a civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history.
From Les Premières Civilisations (1889), 171. English in The Psychology of Peoples (1898), Book 1, Chap. 1, 204, tweaked by Webmaster. Original French text: “A la voix d'un Pierre l'Ermite, plusieurs millions d'hommes se sont précipités sur l'Orient; les paroles d'un halluciné … ont créé la force nécessaire pour triompher du vieux monde gréco-romain; un moine obscur, comme Luther, a mis l'Europe à feu et à sang. Ce n’est pas parmi les foules que la voix d’un Galilée ou d’un Newton aura jamais le plus faible écho. Les inventeurs de génie transforment une civilisation. Les fanatiques et les hallucinés créent l’histoire.”
Science quotes on:  |  Bathe (3)  |  Bidding (2)  |  Blood (144)  |  Capable (174)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Create (245)  |  East (18)  |  Echo (12)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Europe (50)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Genius (301)  |  Greece (9)  |  History (716)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Martin Luther (9)  |  March (48)  |  Million (124)  |  Monk (5)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Orient (5)  |  Person (366)  |  Roman (39)  |  Rome (19)  |  Set (400)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Transform (74)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Voice (54)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Ay, driven no more by passion's gale,
Nor impulse unforeseen,
Humanity shall faint and fail,
And on her ruins will prevail
The Conquering Machine!
Responsibility begone!
Let Freedom's flag be furled;
Oh, coming ages, hasten on,
And bring the true Automaton,
The monarch of the world.
'The Conquering Machine', Dreams to Sell (1887), 29-30.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Automaton (12)  |  Coming (114)  |  Fail (191)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Machine (271)  |  More (2558)  |  Passion (121)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Heat energy of uniform temperature [is] the ultimate fate of all energy. The power of sunlight and coal, electric power, water power, winds and tides do the work of the world, and in the end all unite to hasten the merry molecular dance.
Matter and Energy (1911), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Coal (64)  |  Dance (35)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Fate (76)  |  Haste (6)  |  Heat (180)  |  Merry (3)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Power (771)  |  Solar Power (10)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Tidal Power (4)  |  Tide (37)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Unite (43)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Power (6)  |  Wind (141)  |  Wind Power (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

In these researches I followed the principles of the experimental method that we have established, i.e., that, in presence of a well-noted, new fact which contradicts a theory, instead of keeping the theory and abandoning the fact, I should keep and study the fact, and I hastened to give up the theory.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 164.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Following (16)  |  Give Up (10)  |  Keeping (9)  |  Method (531)  |  New (1273)  |  Presence (63)  |  Principle (530)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Study (701)  |  Theory (1015)

Let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilization, and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and goodwill among all men.
Concluding paragraph, Progress in Flying Machines (1894), 269.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Advance (298)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Closer (43)  |  Distance (171)  |  Era (51)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Good (906)  |  Goodwill (6)  |  Hope (321)  |  Machine (271)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Possible (560)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thought (995)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Mathematical discoveries, like springtime violets in the woods, have their season which no human can hasten or retard.
Quoted in E.T. Bell, The Development of Mathematics (1945).
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Human (1512)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Season (47)  |  Springtime (5)  |  Violet (11)  |  Wood (97)

Some one once asked Rutherford how it was that he always managed to keep on the crest of the wave. “Well” said Rutherford “that isn’t difficult. I made the wave, why shouldn’t I be at the top of it.” I hasten to say that my own subject is a very minor ripple compared to Rutherford’s.
From Speech (10 Dec 1963) at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, Sweden. Collected inGöran Liljestrand (ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1963, (1964).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Crest (2)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Minor (12)  |  Ripple (12)  |  Sir Ernest Rutherford (55)  |  Say (989)  |  Subject (543)  |  Top (100)  |  Wave (112)  |  Why (491)

When I was living with the Indians, my hostess, a fine looking woman, who wore numberless bracelets, and rings in her ears and on her fingers, and painted her face like a brilliant sunset, one day gave away a very fine horse. I was surprised, for I knew there had been no family talk on the subject, so I asked: “Will your husband like to have you give the horse away?” Her eyes danced, and, breaking into a peal of laughter, she hastened to tell the story to the other women gathered in the tent, and I became the target of many merry eyes. I tried to explain how a white woman would act, but laughter and contempt met my explanation of the white man’s hold upon his wife’s property.
Speech on 'The Legal Conditions of Indian Women', delivered to Evening Session (Thur 29 Mar 1888), collected in Report of the International Council of Women: Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, D.C., U.S. of America, March 25 to April 1, 1888 (1888), Vol. 1, 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bracelet (2)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Ear (69)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Eye (440)  |  Face (214)  |  Family (101)  |  Finger (48)  |  Gather (76)  |  Give (208)  |  Horse (78)  |  Hostess (2)  |  Husband (13)  |  Indian (32)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paint (22)  |  Property (177)  |  Ring (18)  |  Story (122)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Talk (108)  |  Target (13)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tent (13)  |  White (132)  |  Wife (41)  |  Will (2350)  |  Woman (160)

When you do not know the nature of the malady, leave it to nature; do not strive to hasten matters. For either nature will bring about the cure or it will itself reveal clearly what the malady really is.
Avicenna
'General Therapeutics', in The Canon of Medicine, adapted byL. Bakhtiar (1999), 468.
Science quotes on:  |  Cure (124)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Malady (8)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Therapy (14)  |  Will (2350)

With terminal illness, your fate is sealed. Morally, we're more comfortable with a situation where you don't cause death, but you hasten it. We think that's a bright line.
Comparing the U.S. with Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal for patients suffering 'intolerable health problems.'
Quoted in Amanda Ripley, 'True Freedom', Time magazine (20 Apr 2003).
Science quotes on:  |  Bioethics (12)  |  Bright (81)  |  Cause (561)  |  Death (406)  |  Fate (76)  |  Health (210)  |  Illness (35)  |  More (2558)  |  Patient (209)  |  Problem (731)  |  Seal (19)  |  Situation (117)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Think (1122)


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.