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: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index H > Category: High

High Quotes (370 quotes)

…so slow is moral progress. True, we have the bicycle, the motor-car, the dirigible airship and other marvellous means of breaking our bones; but our morality is not one rung the higher for it all. One would even say that, the farther we proceed in our conquest of matter, the more our morality recedes. The most advanced of our inventions consists in bringing men down with grapeshot and explosives with the swiftness of the reaper mowing the corn.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Bone (101)  |  Break (109)  |  Car (75)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Consist (223)  |  Corn (20)  |  Dirigible (2)  |  Down (455)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Far (158)  |  Farther (51)  |  Invention (400)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motor (23)  |  Motor Car (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reaper (4)  |  Recede (11)  |  Ring (18)  |  Say (989)  |  Slow (108)  |  Swiftness (5)  |  True (239)

[At high school in Cape Town] my interests outside my academic work were debating, tennis, and to a lesser extent, acting. I became intensely interested in astronomy and devoured the popular works of astronomers such as Sir Arthur Eddington and Sir James Jeans, from which I learnt that a knowledge of mathematics and physics was essential to the pursuit of astronomy. This increased my fondness for those subjects.
'Autobiography of Allan M. Cormack,' Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures 1979, editted by Wilhelm Odelberg.
Science quotes on:  |  Acting (6)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Biography (254)  |  Debate (40)  |  Devour (29)  |  Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (135)  |  Essential (210)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Interest (416)  |  Sir James Jeans (34)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Outside (141)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  School (227)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tennis (8)  |  Work (1402)

[Engineering] is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings homes to men or women. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer’s high privilege.
Reprint of his 1916 statement in 'Engineering as a Profession', Engineer’s Week (1954).
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Home (184)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Metal (88)  |  Move (223)  |  Paper (192)  |  Plan (122)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Profession (108)  |  Realization (44)  |  Standard Of Living (5)  |  Stone (168)  |  Through (846)  |  Watching (11)

[In junior high school] I liked math—that was my favorite subject—and I was very interested in astronomy and in physical science.
Interview conducted on Scholastic website (20 Nov 1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Interest (416)  |  Junior (6)  |  Junior High (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  School (227)  |  Subject (543)

[The sun] … which alone we should judge to be worthy of the most high God, if He should be pleased with a material domicile, and choose a place in which to dwell with the blessed angels.
As translated in Edwin Arthur Burtt, 'Kepler’s Early Acceptance of the New World-Scheme', The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science: A Historical and and Critical Essay (1925), 48. From the Latin [as best as Webmaster can tell]: “[solem] … unum dignum omnes aestimaremus, in quo Deus Opt. Max., si corporeo domicilio delectaretur et capi loco posset, cum beatis angelis inhabitaret,” in Christian Frisch (ed.), Opera Omnia, Vol. 8, Part 1, 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Angel (47)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessed (20)  |  Choose (116)  |  Domicile (2)  |  Dwell (19)  |  God (776)  |  Judge (114)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Place (192)  |  Please (68)  |  Sun (407)  |  Worthy (35)

[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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  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)

The Mighty Task is Done

At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high;
Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.

On its broad decks in rightful pride,
The world in swift parade shall ride,
Throughout all time to be;
Beneath, fleet ships from every port,
Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,
And dwarfing all the sea.

To north, the Redwood Empires gates;
To south, a happy playground waits,
In Rapturous appeal;
Here nature, free since time began,
Yields to the restless moods of man,
Accepts his bonds of steel.

Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,
Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,
Yet Neer its course was stayed,
But ask of those who met the foe
Who stood alone when faith was low,
Ask them the price they paid.

Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,
Ask of the searching, purging fire,
That marked their natal hour;
Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,
Ask of each single, stalwart part,
What gave it force and power.

An Honored cause and nobly fought
And that which they so bravely wrought,
Now glorifies their deed,
No selfish urge shall stain its life,
Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,
Nor false, ignoble creed.

High overhead its lights shall gleam,
Far, far below lifes restless stream,
Unceasingly shall flow;
For this was spun its lithe fine form,
To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,
For Fate had meant it so.

Written upon completion of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, May 1937. In Allen Brown, Golden Gate: biography of a Bridge (1965), 229.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bay (6)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bond (46)  |  Bravery (2)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Cause (561)  |  Course (413)  |  Creed (28)  |  Deck (3)  |  Deed (34)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Envy (15)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flow (89)  |  Foe (11)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Fort (2)  |  Free (239)  |  Gate (33)  |  Golden Gate Bridge (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greed (17)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heart (243)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Last (425)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Loom (20)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Floor (6)  |  Parade (3)  |  Playground (6)  |  Poem (104)  |  Power (771)  |  Price (57)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rapture (8)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (326)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Ship (69)  |  Shore (25)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sneer (9)  |  South (39)  |  Steel (23)  |  Storm (56)  |  Stream (83)  |  Strut (2)  |  Sun (407)  |  Task (152)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tower (45)  |  Vast (188)  |  War (233)  |  Western (45)  |  Wire (36)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

The Redwoods

Here, sown by the Creator's hand,
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand;
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands their glory know.

The greatest of Earth's living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms;
Their challenge still unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.

The nations that with them were young,
Rich empires, with their forts far-flung,
Lie buried now—their splendor gone;
But these proud monarchs still live on.

So shall they live, when ends our day,
When our crude citadels decay;
For brief the years allotted man,
But infinite perennials' span.

This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here we pause with reverent eye,
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul;
For here we sense life's proper goal;

To be like these, straight, true and fine,
To make our world, like theirs, a shrine;
Sink down, oh traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.
In The Record: Volumes 60-61 (1938), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Awe (43)  |  Brief (37)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Citadel (4)  |  Conqueror (8)  |  Creator (97)  |  Crude (32)  |  Decay (59)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Glory (66)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Honor (57)  |  Infinite (243)  |  King (39)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nation (208)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perennial (9)  |  Poem (104)  |  Proper (150)  |  Rank (69)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shrine (8)  |  Sink (38)  |  Soul (235)  |  Sow (11)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Stand (284)  |  Still (614)  |  Storm (56)  |  Storms (18)  |  Straight (75)  |  Tall (11)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Tree (269)  |  Unanswered (8)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

[Recalling Professor Ira Remsen's remarks (1895) to a group of his graduate students about to go out with their degrees into the world beyond the university:]
He talked to us for an hour on what was ahead of us; cautioned us against giving up the desire to push ahead by continued study and work. He warned us against allowing our present accomplishments to be the high spot in our lives. He urged us not to wait for a brilliant idea before beginning independent research, and emphasized the fact the Lavoisier's first contribution to chemistry was the analysis of a sample of gypsum. He told us that the fields in which the great masters had worked were still fruitful; the ground had only been scratched and the gleaner could be sure of ample reward.
Quoted in Frederick Hutton Getman, The Life of Ira Remsen (1980), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Against (332)  |  Ample (4)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Brilliance (14)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Caution (24)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Graduate Student (13)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Gypsum (2)  |  Hour (192)  |  Idea (881)  |  Independent (74)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Live (650)  |  Master (182)  |  Present (630)  |  Professor (133)  |  Push (66)  |  Ira Remsen (6)  |  Research (753)  |  Reward (72)  |  Sample (19)  |  Scratch (14)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  University (130)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Chaos umpire sits
And by decision more embroils the fray
By which he reigns: next him high arbiter
Chance governs all.
In Richard Bentlet (ed.), Milton's Paradise Lost (1732), book 2, lines 907-910, 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Arbiter (5)  |  Chance (244)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Decision (98)  |  Govern (66)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Reign (24)  |  Sit (51)

Lyveris to-forn us
Useden to marke
For selkouthes that thei seighen,
Hir sones for to teche;
And helden it an heigh science
Hir wittes to knowe.
Ac thorugh hir science soothly
Was nevere no soule y-saved,
Ne broght by hir bokes
To blisse ne to joye;
For alle hir kynde knowynges
Come but of diverse sightes.
Patriarkes and prophetes
Repreveden hir science,
And seiden hir wordes and hir wisdomes
Nas but a folye
And to the clergie of Crist
Counted it but a trufle.

Our ancestors in olden days used to record
The strange things they saw, and teach them to their sons;
And they held it a high science, to have knowledge of such things.
But no soul was ever saved by all that science,
Nor brought by books into eternal bliss;
Their science was only a series of sundry observations.
So patriarchs and prophets disapproved of their science,
And said their so-called words of wisdom were but folly—
And compared with Christian philosophy, a contemptible thing.
In William Langland and B. Thomas Wright (ed.) The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman (1842), 235-236. Modern translation by Terrence Tiller in Piers Plowman (1981, 1999), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Bliss (3)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Christian (44)  |  Compared (8)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Count (107)  |  Disapproval (2)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Folly (44)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Observation (593)  |  Old (499)  |  Patriarch (4)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Record (161)  |  Saw (160)  |  Series (153)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Son (25)  |  Soul (235)  |  Strange (160)  |  Sundry (4)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Word (650)

Question: Explain why, in order to cook food by boiling, at the top of a high mountain, you must employ a different method from that used at the sea level.
Answer: It is easy to cook food at the sea level by boiling it, but once you get above the sea level the only plan is to fry it in its own fat. It is, in fact, impossible to boil water above the sea level by any amount of heat. A different method, therefore, would have to be employed to boil food at the top of a high mountain, but what that method is has not yet been discovered. The future may reveal it to a daring experimentalist.
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), 178-9, Question 11. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Answer (389)  |  Boil (24)  |  Boiling (3)  |  Cooking (12)  |  Daring (17)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Easy (213)  |  Employ (115)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experimentalist (20)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fat (11)  |  Food (213)  |  Frying (2)  |  Future (467)  |  Heat (180)  |  Howler (15)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Method (531)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Plan (122)  |  Question (649)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sea Level (5)  |  Top (100)  |  Water (503)  |  Why (491)

LEPIDUS: What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?
ANTONY: It is shaped, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth. It is just so high as it is, and moves with it own organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.
LEPIDUS: What colour is it of?
ANTONY:Of its own colour, too.
LEPIDUS:’Tis a strange serpent.
ANTONY:’Tis so, and the tears of it are wet.
In Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7), II, vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Breadth (15)  |  Crocodile (14)  |  Element (322)  |  Live (650)  |  Move (223)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Organ (118)  |  Serpent (5)  |  Small (489)  |  Strange (160)  |  Tear (48)  |  Thing (1914)

A bewildering assortment of (mostly microscopic) life-forms has been found thriving in what were once thought to be uninhabitable regions of our planet. These hardy creatures have turned up in deep, hot underground rocks, around scalding volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean, in the desiccated, super-cold Dry Valleys of Antarctica, in places of high acid, alkaline, and salt content, and below many meters of polar ice. ... Some deep-dwelling, heat-loving microbes, genetic studies suggest, are among the oldest species known, hinting that not only can life thrive indefinitely in what appear to us totally alien environments, it may actually originate in such places.
In Life Everywhere: the Maverick Science of Astrobiology (2002), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Alien (35)  |  Alkali (6)  |  Antarctica (8)  |  Assortment (5)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Cold (115)  |  Creature (242)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dry (65)  |  Environment (239)  |  Form (976)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ice (58)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life-Form (6)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microbes (14)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Originate (39)  |  Planet (402)  |  Polar (13)  |  Rock (176)  |  Salt (48)  |  Species (435)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Thriving (2)  |  Turn (454)  |  Underground (12)  |  Valley (37)  |  Vent (2)  |  Volcano (46)

A complete survey of life on Earth may appear to be a daunting task. But compared with what has been dared and achieved in high-energy physics, molecular genetics, and other branches of “big science,” it is in the second or third rank.
In 'Edward O. Wilson: The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science', Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985), 2, No. 1, 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Appear (122)  |  Biology (232)  |  Complete (209)  |  Dare (55)  |  Daunting (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Genetic (110)  |  High Energy Physics (3)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Molecular Genetics (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Rank (69)  |  Survey (36)  |  Task (152)

A fair number of people who go on to major in astronomy have decided on it certainly by the time they leave junior high, if not during junior high. I think it’s somewhat unusual that way. I think most children pick their field quite a bit later, but astronomy seems to catch early, and if it does, it sticks.
From interview by Rebecca Wright, 'Oral History Transcript' (15 Sep 2000), on NASA website.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Career (86)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Decide (50)  |  Early (196)  |  Field (378)  |  Junior (6)  |  Junior High (3)  |  Major (88)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Pick (16)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Way (1214)

A good theoretical physicist today might find it useful to have a wide range of physical viewpoints and mathematical expressions of the same theory (for example, of quantum electrodynamics) available to him. This may be asking too much of one man. Then new students should as a class have this. If every individual student follows the same current fashion in expressing and thinking about electrodynamics or field theory, then the variety of hypotheses being generated to understand strong interactions, say, is limited. Perhaps rightly so, for possibly the chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction—a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory—who will find it?
In his Nobel Prize Lecture (11 Dec 1965), 'The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics'. Collected in Stig Lundqvist, Nobel Lectures: Physics, 1963-1970 (1998), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chance (244)  |  Class (168)  |  Current (122)  |  Direction (185)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Generate (16)  |  Good (906)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Electrodynamics (3)  |  Range (104)  |  Say (989)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Today (321)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Unfashionable (2)  |  Useful (260)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

A great department of thought must have its own inner life, however transcendent may be the importance of its relations to the outside. No department of science, least of all one requiring so high a degree of mental concentration as Mathematics, can be developed entirely, or even mainly, with a view to applications outside its own range. The increased complexity and specialisation of all branches of knowledge makes it true in the present, however it may have been in former times, that important advances in such a department as Mathematics can be expected only from men who are interested in the subject for its own sake, and who, whilst keeping an open mind for suggestions from outside, allow their thought to range freely in those lines of advance which are indicated by the present state of their subject, untrammelled by any preoccupation as to applications to other departments of science. Even with a view to applications, if Mathematics is to be adequately equipped for the purpose of coping with the intricate problems which will be presented to it in the future by Physics, Chemistry and other branches of physical science, many of these problems probably of a character which we cannot at present forecast, it is essential that Mathematics should be allowed to develop freely on its own lines.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Advance (298)  |  Allow (51)  |  Application (257)  |  Branch (155)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Cope (9)  |  Degree (277)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Equip (6)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Essential (210)  |  Expect (203)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Former (138)  |  Freely (13)  |  Future (467)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Important (229)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mainly (10)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physics (564)  |  Preoccupation (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Range (104)  |  Relation (166)  |  Require (229)  |  Sake (61)  |  Specialize (4)  |  State (505)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transcendent (3)  |  True (239)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

A short, broad man of tremendous vitality, the physical type of Hereward, the last of the English, and his brother-in-arms, Winter, Sylvester’s capacious head was ever lost in the highest cloud-lands of pure mathematics. Often in the dead of night he would get his favorite pupil, that he might communicate the very last product of his creative thought. Everything he saw suggested to him something new in the higher algebra. This transmutation of everything into new mathematics was a revelation to those who knew him intimately. They began to do it themselves. His ease and fertility of invention proved a constant encouragement, while his contempt for provincial stupidities, such as the American hieroglyphics for π and e, which have even found their way into Webster’s Dictionary, made each young worker apply to himself the strictest tests.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  American (56)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Broad (28)  |  Brother (47)  |  Capacious (2)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Creative (144)  |  Dead (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ease (40)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  English (35)  |  Everything (489)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Head (87)  |  Hieroglyphic (6)  |  Himself (461)  |  Invention (400)  |  Last (425)  |  Lost (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Night (133)  |  Often (109)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pi (14)  |  Product (166)  |  Provincial (2)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Saw (160)  |  Short (200)  |  Something (718)  |  Strict (20)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Test (221)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Type (171)  |  Vitality (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Winter (46)  |  Worker (34)  |  Young (253)

A small cabin stands in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, about a hundred yards off a trail that crosses the Cascade Range. In midsummer, the cabin looked strange in the forest. It was only twelve feet square, but it rose fully two stories and then had a high and steeply peaked roof. From the ridge of the roof, moreover, a ten-foot pole stuck straight up. Tied to the top of the pole was a shovel. To hikers shedding their backpacks at the door of the cabin on a cold summer evening—as the five of us did—it was somewhat unnerving to look up and think of people walking around in snow perhaps thirty-five feet above, hunting for that shovel, then digging their way down to the threshold.
In Encounters with the Archdruid (1971), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Backpack (2)  |  Cabin (5)  |  Cascade (3)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cross (20)  |  Dig (25)  |  Digging (11)  |  Door (94)  |  Down (455)  |  Five (16)  |  Foot (65)  |  Forest (161)  |  Fully (20)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Look (584)  |  Midsummer (3)  |  Moreover (3)  |  Peak (20)  |  People (1031)  |  Pole (49)  |  Range (104)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Rise (169)  |  Roof (14)  |  Rose (36)  |  Shed (6)  |  Shovel (3)  |  Small (489)  |  Snow (39)  |  Square (73)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stick (27)  |  Story (122)  |  Straight (75)  |  Strange (160)  |  Summer (56)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thirty-Five (2)  |  Threshold (11)  |  Tie (42)  |  Top (100)  |  Trail (11)  |  Two (936)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Yard (10)

A theory with mathematical beauty is more likely to be correct than an ugly one that fits some experimental data. God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.
In Scientific American (May 1963). As quoted and cited in The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Science (1998), 468.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Construct (129)  |  Correct (95)  |  Data (162)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fit (139)  |  God (776)  |  Likely (36)  |  Mathematical Beauty (19)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Order (638)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Ugly (14)  |  Universe (900)

After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are always artists as well.
Remark (1923) as recalled in Archibald Henderson, Durham Morning Herald (21 Aug 1955) in Einstein Archive 33-257. Quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Certain (557)  |  Coalesce (5)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Level (69)  |  Plasticity (7)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Skill (116)  |  Technical (53)  |  Tend (124)

After all, we scientific workers … like women, are the victims of fashion: at one time we wear dissociated ions, at another electrons; and we are always loth to don rational clothing; some fixed belief we must have manufactured for us: we are high or low church, of this or that degree of nonconformity, according to the school in which we are brought up—but the agnostic is always rare of us and of late years the critic has been taboo.
'The Thirst of Salted Water or the Ions Overboard', Science Progress (1909), 3, 643.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Agnostic (10)  |  Belief (615)  |  Church (64)  |  Degree (277)  |  Electron (96)  |  Ion (21)  |  Late (119)  |  Low (86)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Must (1525)  |  Rare (94)  |  Rational (95)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Taboo (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Victim (37)  |  Year (963)

All frescoes are as high finished as miniatures or enamels, and they are known to be unchangeable; but oil, being a body itself, will drink or absorb very little colour, and changing yellow, and at length brown, destroys every colour it is mixed with, especially every delicate colour. It turns every permanent white to a yellow and brown putty, and has compelled the use of that destroyer of colour, white lead, which, when its protecting oil is evaporated, will become lead again. This is an awful thing to say to oil painters ; they may call it madness, but it is true. All the genuine old little pictures, called cabinet pictures, are in fresco and not in oil. Oil was not used except by blundering ignorance till after Vandyke’s time ; but the art of fresco painting being lost, oil became a fetter to genius and a dungeon to art.
In 'Opinions', The Poems: With Specimens of the Prose Writings of William Blake (1885), 276-277.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blunder (21)  |  Body (557)  |  Brown (23)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Compel (31)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Drink (56)  |  Evaporate (5)  |  Finish (62)  |  Genius (301)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Madness (33)  |  Miniature (7)  |  Oil (67)  |  Old (499)  |  Painter (30)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Picture (148)  |  Putty (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unchangeable (11)  |  Use (771)  |  White (132)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yellow (31)

All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more strongly the truths come from on high, and contained in the sacred writings.
Quoted in Marcel de Serres, 'On the Physical Facts in the Bible Compared with the Discoveries of the Modern Sciences', The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (1845), Vol. 38, 260.
Science quotes on:  |  Discovery (837)  |  Human (1512)  |  More (2558)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Writing (192)

All programs on jungles had previously been filmed from the bottom up, with dead leaves and a dead animal or two. Suddenly, I realized that it’s at the top that everything is blossoming and populating and having a ball. So, I wrote it from the top. The director happened to be a young, ludicrously athletic fellow who decided to film me up a 200-foot kapok tree on a rope. Sheer vanity from elder to younger led me to say yes. At 5 feet off the ground it’s interesting. At 10 feet you say, “Hmmm a bit high.” At 50 feet it’s exhausting and at 90 feet terrifying because you realize that no one can get to you if you decide you don’t like it. To get down you have to retie all the ropes. You don’t just come down. I was so petrified I had forgotten I’d left my radio on, so everyone down below was falling about with laughter listening to me praying and swearing to myself in terror. By the time I came down I had recovered my cool and was going around saying it had all been fine without realizing they’d all heard me.
In Justine de Lacy, 'Around the World With Attenborough', New York Times (27 Jan 1985), Sec. 2, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Athletic (5)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Dead (65)  |  Decide (50)  |  Descend (49)  |  Director (3)  |  Exhausting (2)  |  Fear (212)  |  Film (12)  |  Fine (37)  |  Hear (144)  |  Interest (416)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Like (23)  |  Listen (81)  |  Petrified (2)  |  Pray (19)  |  Program (57)  |  Radio (60)  |  Realize (157)  |  Recover (14)  |  Rope (9)  |  Swear (7)  |  Terror (32)  |  Tie (42)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Young (253)

Although the cooking of food presents some unsolved problems, the quick warming of cooked food and the thawing of frozen food both open up some attractive uses. ... There is no important reason why the the housewife of the future should not purchase completely frozen meals at the grocery store just as she buys quick frozen vegetables. With a quick heating, high-frequency unit in her kitchen, food preparation from a pre-cooked, frozen meal becomes a simple matter.
[Predicting home kitchen appliances could be developed from the radionic tube employed to jam enemy radar in World War II.]
In 'Physics of Today Become the Engineering of Tomorrow', Proceedings of the National Electronics Conference (1947), Vols. 1-2, 24-25. Note: by 1947 Ratheon was able to demonstrate a refrigerator-sized commercial microwave oven.
Science quotes on:  |  Appliance (9)  |  Attractive (25)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Completely (137)  |  Cooking (12)  |  Develop (278)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Food (213)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Future (467)  |  Home (184)  |  Kitchen (14)  |  Matter (821)  |  Meal (19)  |  Microwave (4)  |  Open (277)  |  Oven (5)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Radar (9)  |  Reason (766)  |  Simple (426)  |  Store (49)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Use (771)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  War (233)  |  Warming (24)  |  Why (491)  |  World (1850)

Although with the majority of those who study and practice in these capacities [engineers, builders, surveyors, geographers, navigators, hydrographers, astronomers], secondhand acquirements, trite formulas, and appropriate tables are sufficient for ordinary purposes, yet these trite formulas and familiar rules were originally or gradually deduced from the profound investigations of the most gifted minds, from the dawn of science to the present day. … The further developments of the science, with its possible applications to larger purposes of human utility and grander theoretical generalizations, is an achievement reserved for a few of the choicest spirits, touched from time to time by Heaven to these highest issues. The intellectual world is filled with latent and undiscovered truth as the material world is filled with latent electricity.
In Orations and Speeches, Vol. 3 (1870), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Acquirement (3)  |  Application (257)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Builder (16)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Development (441)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Far (158)  |  Fill (67)  |  Formula (102)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Geographer (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Grand (29)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hydrographer (3)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Issue (46)  |  Large (398)  |  Latent (13)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Material World (8)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originally (7)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Present (630)  |  Present Day (5)  |  Profound (105)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Rule (307)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Table (105)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Trite (5)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undiscovered (15)  |  Utility (52)  |  World (1850)

An old saying is “A penny for your thoughts.” The offer is not high enough: some thoughts would not be confessed for a million dollars.
In Sinner Sermons: A Selection of the Best Paragraphs of E. W. Howe (1926), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Confess (42)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Enough (341)  |  Million (124)  |  Offer (142)  |  Old (499)  |  Penny (6)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Thought (995)

And I do not take my medicines from the apothecaries; their shops are but foul sculleries, from which comes nothing but foul broths. As for you, you defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last? ... let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoebuckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges.
'Credo', in J. Jacobi (ed.), Paracelsus: Selected Writings (1951), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Apothecary (10)  |  Avicenna (19)  |  Beard (8)  |  Broth (2)  |  College (71)  |  Defense (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experience (494)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Foul (15)  |  Galen (20)  |  Hair (25)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Neck (15)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Scribe (3)  |  Shop (11)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)

And so, after many years, victory has come, and the romance of exploration, of high hopes and bitter disappointment, will in a few years simply be recorded in the text-books of organic chemistry in a few terse sentences.
Recent Developments in the Vitamin A Field', The Pedlar Lecture, 4 Dec 1947, Journal of the Chemical Society, Part I (1948), 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Bitter (30)  |  Book (413)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Hope (321)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Record (161)  |  Research (753)  |  Romance (18)  |  Victory (40)  |  Vitamin (13)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

André Weil suggested that there is a logarithmic law at work: first-rate people attract other first-rate people, but second-rate people tend to hire third-raters, and third-rate people hire fifth-raters. If a dean or a president is genuinely interested in building and maintaining a high-quality university (and some of them are), then he must not grant complete self-determination to a second-rate department; he must, instead, use his administrative powers to intervene and set things right. That’s one of the proper functions of deans and presidents, and pity the poor university in which a large proportion of both the faculty and the administration are second-raters; it is doomed to diverge to minus infinity.
In I Want to be a Mathematician: an Automathography (1985), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Administration (15)  |  Attract (25)  |  Both (496)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Complete (209)  |  Dean (2)  |  Department (93)  |  Determination (80)  |  Diverge (3)  |  Doom (34)  |  Faculty (76)  |  First (1302)  |  First-Rate (2)  |  Function (235)  |  Grant (76)  |  High-Quality (2)  |  Hire (7)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intervene (8)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Minus (7)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Poor (139)  |  Power (771)  |  President (36)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quality (139)  |  Right (473)  |  Second-Rate (4)  |  Self (268)  |  Set (400)  |  Tend (124)  |  Thing (1914)  |  University (130)  |  Use (771)  |  André Weil (3)  |  Work (1402)

Any demanding high technology tends to develop influential and dedicated constituencies of those who link its commercial success with both the public welfare and their own. Such sincerely held beliefs, peer pressures, and the harsh demands that the work i
Foreign Affairs (Oct 1976).
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Constituency (2)  |  Dedicate (12)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Demand (131)  |  Develop (278)  |  Harsh (9)  |  Hold (96)  |  Influential (4)  |  Link (48)  |  Peer (13)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Public (100)  |  Sincerely (3)  |  Success (327)  |  Technology (281)  |  Tend (124)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Work (1402)

Any policy is a success by sufficiently low standards and a failure by sufficiently high standards.
'Penetrating the Rhetoric', The Vision of the Anointed (1996), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Failure (176)  |  Low (86)  |  Policy (27)  |  Standard (64)  |  Success (327)

Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of highly scientific knowledge, that though these inventions [used to defend Syracuse against the Romans] had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration.
Plutarch
In John Dryden (trans.), Life of Marcellus.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affection (44)  |  Against (332)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Behind (139)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Defend (32)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Examine (84)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Highly (16)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignoble (2)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lend (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mere (86)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Possess (157)  |  Precision (72)  |  Profit (56)  |  Profound (105)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reference (33)  |  Renown (3)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Roman (39)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Knowledge (11)  |  Sordid (3)  |  Sort (50)  |  Soul (235)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Trade (34)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Use (771)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Whole (756)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Art is usually considered to be not of the highest quality if the desired object is exhibited in the midst of unnecessary lumber.
In Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Sciences (1938), 20. Bell is writing about the postulational method and the art of pruning a set of postulates to bare essentials without internal duplication.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Consider (428)  |  Desired (5)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Lumber (5)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Midst (8)  |  Object (438)  |  Quality (139)  |  Unnecessary (23)  |  Usually (176)

As a second year high school chemistry student, I still have a vivid memory of my excitement when I first saw a chart of the periodic table of elements. The order in the universe seemed miraculous, and I wanted to study and learn as much as possible about the natural sciences.
In Tore Frängsmyr and Jan E. Lindsten (eds.), Nobel Lectures: Physiology Or Medicine: 1981-1990 (1993), 555.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Chart (7)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Element (322)  |  Excitement (61)  |  First (1302)  |  High School (15)  |  Learn (672)  |  Memory (144)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Order (638)  |  Periodic (3)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Possible (560)  |  Saw (160)  |  School (227)  |  Seemed (3)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Table (105)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Want (504)  |  Year (963)

As an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents … I congratulate you [Nikola Tesla] on the great successes of your life’s work.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Current (122)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  Life (1870)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Realm (87)  |  Success (327)  |  Nikola Tesla (39)  |  Work (1402)

As children we all possess a natural, uninhibited curiosity, a hunger for explanation, which seems to die slowly as we age—suppressed, I suppose, by the high value we place on conformity and by the need not to appear ignorant.
It betokens a conviction that somehow science is innately incomprehensible. It precludes reaching deeper, thereby denying the profound truth that understanding enriches experience, that explanation vastly enhances the beauty of the natural world in the eye of the beholder.
In Toward the Habit of Truth (1990).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Children (201)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Experience (494)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Eye (440)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Natural (810)  |  Possess (157)  |  Profound (105)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  World (1850)

As he sat alone in a garden, he [Isaac Newton in 1666, age 24] fell into a speculation on the power of gravity; that as this power is not found sensibly diminished at the remotest distance from the centre of the earth to which we can rise, neither at the tops of the loftiest buildings, nor even on the summits of the highest mountains, it appeared to him reasonable to conclude that this power must extend much further than was usually thought: why not as high as the moon? said he to himself; and if so, her motion must be influenced by it; perhaps she is retained in her orbit thereby.
View of Newton's Philosophy (1728), preface. In William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences (1847), Vol. 2, 166. Pemberton's narrative is based on firsthand conversations with Newton himself.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Building (158)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extend (129)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Himself (461)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Power (771)  |  Retain (57)  |  Rise (169)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Summit (27)  |  Thought (995)  |  Top (100)  |  Usually (176)  |  Why (491)

As our researches have made clear, an animal high in the organic scale only reaches this rank by passing through all the intermediate states which separate it from the animals placed below it. Man only becomes man after traversing transitional organisatory states which assimilate him first to fish, then to reptiles, then to birds and mammals.
Annales des Sciences Naturelles (1834), 2 (ii), 248. Trans. in E. S. Russell, Form and Function (1916), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Become (821)  |  Below (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Clarification (8)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organization (120)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Research (753)  |  Scale (122)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  State (505)  |  Through (846)

Ask why God made the GEM so small,
And why so huge the granite?
Because God meant, mankind should set
That higher value on it.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Gem (17)  |  God (776)  |  Granite (8)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Value (393)  |  Why (491)

Astronomy teaches the correct use of the sun and the planets. These may be put on a frame of little sticks and turned round. This causes the tides. Those at the ends of the sticks are enormously far away. From time to time a diligent searching of the sticks reveals new planets. The orbit of the planet is the distance the stick goes round in going round. Astronomy is intensely interesting; it should be done at night, in a high tower at Spitzbergen. This is to avoid the astronomy being interrupted. A really good astronomer can tell when a comet is coming too near him by the warning buzz of the revolving sticks.
In Literary Lapses (1928), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Comet (65)  |  Coming (114)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Distance (171)  |  End (603)  |  Good (906)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Little (717)  |  Model (106)  |  New (1273)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Planet (402)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tide (37)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tower (45)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Warning (18)

At Gabriel College there was a very holy object on the high altar of the Oratory, covered with a black velvet cloth... At the height of the invocation the Intercessor lifted the cloth to reveal in the dimness a glass dome inside which there was something too distant to see, until he pulled a string attached to a shutter above, letting a ray of sunlight through to strike the dome exactly. Then it became clear: a little thing like a weathervane, with four sails black on one side and white on the other, began to whirl around as the light struck it. It illustrated a moral lesson, the Intercessor explained, for the black of ignorance fled from the light, whereas the wisdom of white rushed to embrace it.
[Alluding to Crookes's radiometer.]
Northern Lights (2001), 149.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Black (46)  |  College (71)  |  Sir William Crookes (10)  |  Dome (9)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Explain (334)  |  Glass (94)  |  Holy (35)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Lift (57)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Moral (203)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pull (43)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sail (37)  |  See (1094)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Whirl (10)  |  White (132)  |  Wisdom (235)

Beasts have not the high advantages which we possess; but they have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but then they have not our fears; they are subject like us to death, but it is without being aware of it; most of them are better able to preserve themselves than we are, and make a less bad use of their passions.
In Edwin Davies, Other Men's Minds, Or, Seven Thousand Choice Extracts (1800), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beast (58)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Death (406)  |  Fear (212)  |  Hope (321)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Passion (121)  |  Possess (157)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Subject (543)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Use (771)

Before any great scientific principle receives distinct enunciation by individuals, it dwells more or less clearly in the general scientific mind. The intellectual plateau is already high, and our discoverers are those who, like peaks above the plateau, rise a little above the general level of thought at the time.
In 'Faraday as a Discoverer', The American Journal of Science (Jul 1868), 2nd series, 46, No. 136, 194.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Enunciation (7)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Little (717)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Peak (20)  |  Plateau (8)  |  Principle (530)  |  Receive (117)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)

Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And Heav’n’s high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of Nature; if a face:
Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion’d, and unfram’d,
Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam’d.
As translated by John Dryden, et al. and Sir Samuel Garth (ed.), Metamorphoses (1998), 3. Ovid started writing the 14 books of Metamorphoses in about 1 a.d.. Dryden died in 1700. He had translated about one-third of the full Metamorphoses. His work was finished by others, and the translation was published in 1717.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Cover (40)  |  Digested (2)  |  Face (214)  |  Frame (26)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Jar (9)  |  Justly (7)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Lump (5)  |  Mass (160)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Rude (6)  |  Sea (326)  |  Seed (97)  |  Terrestrial (62)

Both died, ignored by most; they neither sought nor found public favour, for high roads never lead there. Laurent and Gerhardt never left such roads, were never tempted to peruse those easy successes which, for strongly marked characters, offer neither allure nor gain. Their passion was for the search for truth; and, preferring their independence to their advancement, their convictions to their interests, they placed their love for science above that of their worldly goods; indeed above that for life itself, for death was the reward for their pains. Rare example of abnegation, sublime poverty that deserves the name nobility, glorious death that France must not forget!
'Éloge de Laurent et Gerhardt', Moniteur Scientifique (1862), 4, 473-83, trans. Alan J. Rocke.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Allure (4)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Death (406)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fame (51)  |  Forget (125)  |  Gain (146)  |  Charles Gerhardt (3)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Good (906)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Independence (37)  |  Interest (416)  |  Auguste Laurent (5)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Marked (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nobility (5)  |  Offer (142)  |  Pain (144)  |  Passion (121)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Rare (94)  |  Reward (72)  |  Search (175)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Success (327)  |  Truth (1109)

Bradley is one of the few basketball players who have ever been appreciatively cheered by a disinterested away-from-home crowd while warming up. This curious event occurred last March, just before Princeton eliminated the Virginia Military Institute, the year’s Southern Conference champion, from the NCAA championships. The game was played in Philadelphia and was the last of a tripleheader. The people there were worn out, because most of them were emotionally committed to either Villanova or Temple-two local teams that had just been involved in enervating battles with Providence and Connecticut, respectively, scrambling for a chance at the rest of the country. A group of Princeton players shooting basketballs miscellaneously in preparation for still another game hardly promised to be a high point of the evening, but Bradley, whose routine in the warmup time is a gradual crescendo of activity, is more interesting to watch before a game than most players are in play. In Philadelphia that night, what he did was, for him, anything but unusual. As he does before all games, he began by shooting set shots close to the basket, gradually moving back until he was shooting long sets from 20 feet out, and nearly all of them dropped into the net with an almost mechanical rhythm of accuracy. Then he began a series of expandingly difficult jump shots, and one jumper after another went cleanly through the basket with so few exceptions that the crowd began to murmur. Then he started to perform whirling reverse moves before another cadence of almost steadily accurate jump shots, and the murmur increased. Then he began to sweep hook shots into the air. He moved in a semicircle around the court. First with his right hand, then with his left, he tried seven of these long, graceful shots-the most difficult ones in the orthodoxy of basketball-and ambidextrously made them all. The game had not even begun, but the presumably unimpressible Philadelphians were applauding like an audience at an opera.
A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Activity (218)  |  Air (366)  |  Appreciatively (2)  |  Audience (28)  |  Back (395)  |  Basket (8)  |  Basketball (4)  |  Battle (36)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bradley (2)  |  Cadence (2)  |  Champion (6)  |  Championship (2)  |  Chance (244)  |  Cheer (7)  |  Close (77)  |  Commit (43)  |  Conference (18)  |  Country (269)  |  Court (35)  |  Crescendo (3)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Curious (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disinterest (8)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Emotionally (3)  |  Event (222)  |  Exception (74)  |  First (1302)  |  Foot (65)  |  Game (104)  |  Graceful (3)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Group (83)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Home (184)  |  Hook (7)  |  Increase (225)  |  Institute (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Jump (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Leave (138)  |  Local (25)  |  Long (778)  |  March (48)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Military (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Murmur (4)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Net (12)  |  Night (133)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opera (3)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Philadelphia (3)  |  Play (116)  |  Player (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Presumably (3)  |  Princeton (4)  |  Promise (72)  |  Providence (19)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Right (473)  |  Routine (26)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Southern (3)  |  Start (237)  |  Steadily (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Team (17)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Virginia (2)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warming (24)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Worn Out (2)  |  Year (963)

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  41.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Brain (281)  |  Care (203)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exemption (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Government (116)  |  Great (1610)  |  Honor (57)  |  Humour (116)  |  Man (2252)  |  Office (71)  |  Pitchfork (2)  |  Reward (72)  |  Something (718)  |  Station (30)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wealth (100)

But for the persistence of a student of this university in urging upon me his desire to study with me the modern algebra I should never have been led into this investigation; and the new facts and principles which I have discovered in regard to it (important facts, I believe), would, so far as I am concerned, have remained still hidden in the womb of time. In vain I represented to this inquisitive student that he would do better to take up some other subject lying less off the beaten track of study, such as the higher parts of the calculus or elliptic functions, or the theory of substitutions, or I wot not what besides. He stuck with perfect respectfulness, but with invincible pertinacity, to his point. He would have the new algebra (Heaven knows where he had heard about it, for it is almost unknown in this continent), that or nothing. I was obliged to yield, and what was the consequence? In trying to throw light upon an obscure explanation in our text-book, my brain took fire, I plunged with re-quickened zeal into a subject which I had for years abandoned, and found food for thoughts which have engaged my attention for a considerable time past, and will probably occupy all my powers of contemplation advantageously for several months to come.
In Johns Hopkins Commemoration Day Address, Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 3, 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Advantageous (10)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beaten Track (4)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Brain (281)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Continent (79)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ellipse (8)  |  Engage (41)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Food (213)  |  Function (235)  |  Hear (144)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Hide (70)  |  Important (229)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Inquisitive (5)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Invincible (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Less (105)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modern (402)  |  Month (91)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obliged (6)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Pertinacity (2)  |  Plunge (11)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probably (50)  |  Quicken (7)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Represent (157)  |  Several (33)  |  Stick (27)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substitution (16)  |  Text-Book (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throw (45)  |  Time (1911)  |  Track (42)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  University (130)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Urge (17)  |  Vain (86)  |  Will (2350)  |  Womb (25)  |  Year (963)  |  Yield (86)  |  Zeal (12)

But I believe that there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. We do not find signposts at cross-roads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest.
Max Born
In Experiment and Theory in Physics (1943), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Do (1905)  |  Epistemological (2)  |  Erect (6)  |  Error (339)  |  Find (1014)  |  Help (116)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Rest (287)  |  Road (71)  |  Scout (3)  |  Signpost (3)  |  Trial (59)  |  Trial And Error (5)  |  Way (1214)

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask; why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
From Address at Rice Stadium (12 Sep 1962). On website of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. [This go-to-the-moon speech was largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen.]
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Atlantic (8)  |  Choose (116)  |  Climb (39)  |  Fly (153)  |  Goal (155)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Play (116)  |  Rice (5)  |  Say (989)  |  Texas (4)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

Call Archimedes from his buried tomb
Upon the plain of vanished Syracuse,
And feelingly the sage shall make report
How insecure, how baseless in itself,
Is the philosophy, whose sway depends
On mere material instruments—how weak
Those arts, and high inventions, if unpropped
By virtue.
In 'The Excursion', as quoted in review, 'The Excursion, Being a Portion of the Recluse, a Poem, The Edinburgh Review (Nov 1814), 24, No. 47, 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Bury (19)  |  Call (781)  |  Depend (238)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invention (400)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mere (86)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plain (34)  |  Report (42)  |  Sage (25)  |  Sway (5)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Vanish (19)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Weak (73)

Common sense always speaks too late. Common sense is the guy who tells you you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front end this week. Common sense is the Monday morning quarterback who could have won the ball game if he had been on the team. But he never is. He’s high up in the stands with a flask on his hip. Common sense is the little man in a grey suit who never makes a mistake in addition. But it’s always somebody else’s money he’s adding up.
In novel, Playback (1958), Chap. 14, 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Ball (64)  |  Brake (2)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  End (603)  |  Flask (2)  |  Front (16)  |  Game (104)  |  Grey (10)  |  Hip (3)  |  Last (425)  |  Late (119)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Money (178)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Repair (11)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smash (5)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stand (284)  |  Suit (12)  |  Team (17)  |  Tell (344)  |  Week (73)  |  Win (53)

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropomorphic (4)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Belong (168)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exceptionally (3)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  God (776)  |  Individual (420)  |  Level (69)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rise (169)  |  Stage (152)  |  Third (17)  |  Type (171)

Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.
In Science and Survival (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Catastrophic (10)  |  Common (447)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Despite (7)  |  Fault (58)  |  Food (213)  |  Great (1610)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Military (45)  |  Modern (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Provide (79)  |  Speed (66)  |  Success (327)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Supply (100)  |  Survival (105)  |  System (545)  |  Technology (281)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Unprecedented (11)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

Despite the high long-term probability of extinction, every organism alive today, including every person reading this paper, is a link in an unbroken chain of parent-offspring relationships that extends back unbroken to the beginning of life on earth. Every living organism is a part of an enormously long success story—each of its direct ancestors has been sufficiently well adapted to its physical and biological environments to allow it to mature and reproduce successfully. Viewed thus, adaptation is not a trivial facet of natural history, but a biological attribute so central as to be inseparable from life itself.
In 'Integrative Biology: An Organismic Biologist’s Point of View', Integrative and Comparative Biology (2005), 45, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alive (97)  |  Allow (51)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Central (81)  |  Chain (51)  |  Despite (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enormously (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Facet (9)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Link (48)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Mature (17)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organism (231)  |  Paper (192)  |  Parent (80)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Probability (135)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Story (122)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  Term (357)  |  Today (321)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  View (496)

Doubtless the reasoning faculty, the mind, is the leading and characteristic attribute of the human race. By the exercise of this, man arrives at the properties of the natural bodies. This is science, properly and emphatically so called. It is the science of pure mathematics; and in the high branches of this science lies the truly sublime of human acquisition. If any attainment deserves that epithet, it is the knowledge, which, from the mensuration of the minutest dust of the balance, proceeds on the rising scale of material bodies, everywhere weighing, everywhere measuring, everywhere detecting and explaining the laws of force and motion, penetrating into the secret principles which hold the universe of God together, and balancing worlds against worlds, and system against system. When we seek to accompany those who pursue studies at once so high, so vast, and so exact; when we arrive at the discoveries of Newton, which pour in day on the works of God, as if a second fiat had gone forth from his own mouth; when, further, we attempt to follow those who set out where Newton paused, making his goal their starting-place, and, proceeding with demonstration upon demonstration, and discovery upon discovery, bring new worlds and new systems of worlds within the limits of the known universe, failing to learn all only because all is infinite; however we may say of man, in admiration of his physical structure, that “in form and moving he is express and admirable,” it is here, and here without irreverence, we may exclaim, “In apprehension how like a god!” The study of the pure mathematics will of course not be extensively pursued in an institution, which, like this [Boston Mechanics’ Institute], has a direct practical tendency and aim. But it is still to be remembered, that pure mathematics lie at the foundation of mechanical philosophy, and that it is ignorance only which can speak or think of that sublime science as useless research or barren speculation.
In Works (1872), Vol. 1, 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Against (332)  |  Aim (175)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Balance (82)  |  Barren (33)  |  Body (557)  |  Boston (7)  |  Branch (155)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Course (413)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Detect (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Dust (68)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Epithet (3)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Explain (334)  |  Express (192)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fail (191)  |  Far (158)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  Hold (96)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Institution (73)  |  Irreverence (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mensuration (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Move (223)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Pause (6)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pour (9)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Properly (21)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remember (189)  |  Research (753)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Second (66)  |  Secret (216)  |  Seek (218)  |  Set (400)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Sublime (50)  |  System (545)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (118)  |  Universe (900)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vast (188)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Economists use the expression “opportunity costs” for losses incurred through certain choices made over others, including ignorance and inaction. For systematics, or more precisely the neglect of systematics and the biological research dependent upon it, the costs are very high.
In 'Edward O. Wilson: The Biological Diversity Crisis: A Challenge to Science', Issues in Science and Technology (Fall 1985), 2, No. 1, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Certain (557)  |  Choice (114)  |  Cost (94)  |  Economist (20)  |  Expression (181)  |  Funding (20)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Inaction (4)  |  Incur (4)  |  Loss (117)  |  More (2558)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Research (753)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)

Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilisation in high boots.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Boot (5)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Hide (70)  |  Lack (127)  |  Most (1728)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Wear (20)

Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds… to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Free (239)  |  Generation (256)  |  Last (425)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Plateau (8)  |  World (1850)

Every river appears to consist of a main trunk, fed from a variety of branches, each running in a valley proportional to its size, and all of them together forming a system of vallies, communicating with one another, and having such a nice adjustment of their declivities that none of them join the principal valley on too high or too low a level; a circumstance which would be infinitely improbable if each of these vallies were not the work of the stream that flows in it.
Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Adjustment (21)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Branch (155)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Communication (101)  |  Consist (223)  |  Feeding (7)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forming (42)  |  Improbability (11)  |  Level (69)  |  Low (86)  |  Principal (69)  |  Proportionality (2)  |  River (140)  |  Run (158)  |  Running (61)  |  Size (62)  |  Stream (83)  |  System (545)  |  Together (392)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Valley (37)  |  Variety (138)  |  Work (1402)

Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Assemble (14)  |  Authority (99)  |  Everything (489)  |  Happen (282)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Never (1089)  |  Pronouncement (2)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Theoretically (2)  |  Write (250)

First, as concerns the success of teaching mathematics. No instruction in the high schools is as difficult as that of mathematics, since the large majority of students are at first decidedly disinclined to be harnessed into the rigid framework of logical conclusions. The interest of young people is won much more easily, if sense-objects are made the starting point and the transition to abstract formulation is brought about gradually. For this reason it is psychologically quite correct to follow this course.
Not less to be recommended is this course if we inquire into the essential purpose of mathematical instruction. Formerly it was too exclusively held that this purpose is to sharpen the understanding. Surely another important end is to implant in the student the conviction that correct thinking based on true premises secures mastery over the outer world. To accomplish this the outer world must receive its share of attention from the very beginning.
Doubtless this is true but there is a danger which needs pointing out. It is as in the case of language teaching where the modern tendency is to secure in addition to grammar also an understanding of the authors. The danger lies in grammar being completely set aside leaving the subject without its indispensable solid basis. Just so in Teaching of Mathematics it is possible to accumulate interesting applications to such an extent as to stunt the essential logical development. This should in no wise be permitted, for thus the kernel of the whole matter is lost. Therefore: We do want throughout a quickening of mathematical instruction by the introduction of applications, but we do not want that the pendulum, which in former decades may have inclined too much toward the abstract side, should now swing to the other extreme; we would rather pursue the proper middle course.
In Ueber den Mathematischen Unterricht an den hoheren Schulen; Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, Bd. 11, 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Addition (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Attention (196)  |  Author (175)  |  Base (120)  |  Basis (180)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bring (95)  |  Case (102)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Correct (95)  |  Course (413)  |  Danger (127)  |  Decade (66)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extreme (78)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Formerly (5)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Framework (33)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Grammar (15)  |  Harness (25)  |  High School (15)  |  Hold (96)  |  Implant (5)  |  Important (229)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Kernel (4)  |  Language (308)  |  Large (398)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logic (311)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Middle (19)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Premise (40)  |  Proper (150)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Quicken (7)  |  Quickening (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Rigid (24)  |  School (227)  |  Secure (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Aside (4)  |  Share (82)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Side (236)  |  Solid (119)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Student (317)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Surely (101)  |  Swing (12)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Transition (28)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Florey was not an easy personality. His drive and ambition were manifest from the day he arrived ... He could be ruthless and selfish; on the other hand, he could show kindliness, a warm humanity and, at times, sentiment and a sense of humour. He displayed utter integrity and he was scathing of humbug and pretence. His attitude was always—&ldqo;You must take me as you find me” But to cope with him at times, you had to do battle, raise your voice as high as his and never let him shout you down. You had to raise your pitch to his but if you insisted on your right he was always, in the end, very fair. I must say that at times, he went out of his way to cut people down to size with some very destructive criticism. But I must also say in the years I knew him he did not once utter a word of praise about himself.
Personal communication (1970) to Florey's Australian biographer, Lennard Bickel. By letter, Drury described his experience as a peer, being a research collaborator while Florey held a Studentship at Cambridge in the 1920s. This quote appears without naming Drury, in Eric Lax, The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle (2004), 40. Dury is cited in Lennard Bickel, Rise Up to Life: A Biography of Howard Walter Florey Who Gave Penicillin to the World (1972), 24. Also in Eric Lax
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Battle (36)  |  Coping (4)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Cut (116)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Display (59)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Drive (61)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Fairness (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Sir Howard Walter Florey (3)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Humbug (6)  |  Humour (116)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Personality (66)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Praise (28)  |  Pretense (2)  |  Right (473)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Ruthlessness (3)  |  Say (989)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Selfishness (9)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense of Humour (2)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Shout (25)  |  Show (353)  |  Time (1911)  |  Voice (54)  |  Warm (74)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

For it is obvious to everybody, I think, that this study [of astronomy] compels the soul to look upward and leads it away from things here to higher things.
Plato
The Republic 7 529a ((5th-4th century B.C.), trans. P. Shorey (1935), Vol. 2, Book 7, 179-81. Another translation gives: “For everyone, as I think, must see that astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.”
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Compel (31)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Lead (391)  |  Look (584)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Soul (235)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Upward (44)

For NASA, space is still a high priority.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  NASA (12)  |  Priority (11)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)

For the better part of my last semester at Garden City High, I constructed a physical pendulum and used it to make a “precision” measurement of gravity. The years of experience building things taught me skills that were directly applicable to the construction of the pendulum. Twenty-five years later, I was to develop a refined version of this measurement using laser-cooled atoms in an atomic fountain interferometer.
[Outcome of high school physics teacher, Thomas Miner, encouraging Chu's ambitious laboratory project.]
Autobiography in Gösta Ekspong (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1996-2000 (2002), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Atom (381)  |  Better (493)  |  Building (158)  |  City (87)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Develop (278)  |  Education (423)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Laser (5)  |  Last (425)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precision (72)  |  Project (77)  |  School (227)  |  Skill (116)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Year (963)

Formerly one sought the feeling of the grandeur of man by pointing to his divine origin: this has now become a forbidden way, for at its portal stands the ape, together with other gruesome beasts, grinning knowingly as if to say: no further in this direction! One therefore now tries the opposite direction: the way mankind is going shall serve as proof of his grandeur and kinship with God. Alas this, too, is vain! At the end of this way stands the funeral urn of the last man and gravedigger (with the inscription “nihil humani a me alienum puto”). However high mankind may have evolved—and perhaps at the end it will stand even lower than at the beginning!— it cannot pass over into a higher order, as little as the ant and the earwig can at the end of its “earthly course” rise up to kinship with God and eternal life. The becoming drags the has-been along behind it: why should an exception to this eternal spectacle be made on behalf of some little star or for any little species upon it! Away with such sentimentalities!
Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (1881), trans. R. J. Hollingdale (1982), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Ant (34)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Behind (139)  |  Course (413)  |  Direction (185)  |  Divine (112)  |  End (603)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exception (74)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Funeral (5)  |  God (776)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Kinship (5)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Portal (9)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Species (435)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Together (392)  |  Vain (86)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a high-power transistor on the other.
Quoted in Richard R. Nelson, 'The Link Between Science and Invention: The Case of the Transistor,' The Rate and Direction of the Inventive Activity (1962). In Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science (1999), 32, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Importance (299)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Likelihood (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Purely (111)  |  Research (753)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Stability (28)  |  Transistor (6)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yield (86)

Gauss was not the son of a mathematician; Handel’s father was a surgeon, of whose musical powers nothing is known; Titian was the son and also the nephew of a lawyer, while he and his brother, Francesco Vecellio, were the first painters in a family which produced a succession of seven other artists with diminishing talents. These facts do not, however, prove that the condition of the nerve-tracts and centres of the brain, which determine the specific talent, appeared for the first time in these men: the appropriate condition surely existed previously in their parents, although it did not achieve expression. They prove, as it seems to me, that a high degree of endowment in a special direction, which we call talent, cannot have arisen from the experience of previous generations, that is, by the exercise of the brain in the same specific direction.
In 'On Heredity', Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1889), Vol. 1, 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Appear (122)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Artist (97)  |  Brain (281)  |  Brother (47)  |  Call (781)  |  Centre (31)  |  Condition (362)  |  Degree (277)  |  Determine (152)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Direction (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Family (101)  |  Father (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Generation (256)  |  Known (453)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Music (133)  |  Nephew (2)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Parent (80)  |  Power (771)  |  Previous (17)  |  Produced (187)  |  Prove (261)  |  Son (25)  |  Special (188)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succession (80)  |  Surely (101)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Talent (99)  |  Time (1911)  |  Titian (2)

Good applied science in medicine, as in physics, requires a high degree of certainty about the basic facts at hand, and especially about their meaning, and we have not yet reached this point for most of medicine.
The Medusa and the Snail (1979), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Basic (144)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Degree (277)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Good (906)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Reach (286)  |  Require (229)

Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God, and secret passages running deep beneath external nature give their thoughts intercourse with higher intelligences, which strengthens and consoles them, and of which the labourers on the surface do not even dream!
Opening paragraph of his prose work, Kavanagh: A Tale (1849), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Beneath (68)  |  Console (3)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dream (222)  |  External (62)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intercourse (5)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passage (52)  |  Secret (216)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tower (45)

Groves hated the weather, and the weathermen; they represented chaos and the messengers of chaos. Weather violated boundaries, ignored walls and gates, failed to adhere to deadlines, disobeyed orders. Weather caused delays. The weather forecasters had opposed the [atomic bomb] test date for months—it was set within a window of unfavorable conditions: thunderstorms, rain, high winds, inversion layers. Groves had overridden them. … Groves saw it as a matter of insubordination when the weather forecasters refused to forecast good weather for the test.
In Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project (1999), 312. For the attitude of Groves toward the weather see his, 'Some Recollections of July 16, 1945', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Jun 1970), 26, No. 6, 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Condition (362)  |  Delay (21)  |  Disobedience (4)  |  Fail (191)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Gate (33)  |  Good (906)  |  Leslie Richard Groves (13)  |  Layer (41)  |  Matter (821)  |  Month (91)  |  Order (638)  |  Rain (70)  |  Represent (157)  |  Saw (160)  |  Schedule (5)  |  Set (400)  |  Test (221)  |  Thunderstorm (7)  |  Trinity (9)  |  Wall (71)  |  Weather (49)  |  Wind (141)  |  Window (59)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  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)

Have you ever watched an eagle held captive in a zoo, fat and plump and full of food and safe from danger too?
Then have you seen another wheeling high up in the sky, thin and hard and battle-scarred, but free to soar and fly?
Well, which have you pitied the caged one or his brother? Though safe and warm from foe or storm, the captive, not the other!
There’s something of the eagle in climbers, don’t you see; a secret thing, perhaps the soul, that clamors to be free.
It’s a different sort of freedom from the kind we often mean, not free to work and eat and sleep and live in peace serene.
But freedom like a wild thing to leap and soar and strive, to struggle with the icy blast, to really be alive.
That’s why we climb the mountain’s peak from which the cloud-veils flow, to stand and watch the eagle fly, and soar, and wheel... below...
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Below (26)  |  Blast (13)  |  Brother (47)  |  Cage (12)  |  Captive (2)  |  Climb (39)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Different (595)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Eat (108)  |  Fat (11)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foe (11)  |  Food (213)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Full (68)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hold (96)  |  Icy (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leap (57)  |  Live (650)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Peak (20)  |  Pity (16)  |  Really (77)  |  Safe (61)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Serene (5)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Soar (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Sort (50)  |  Soul (235)  |  Stand (284)  |  Storm (56)  |  Strive (53)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thin (18)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Veil (27)  |  Warm (74)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Wheeling (3)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  Zoo (9)

He [Robert Boyle] is very tall (about six foot high) and straight, very temperate, and vertuouse, and frugall: a batcheler; keepes a Coach; sojournes with his sister, the Lady Ranulagh. His greatest delight is Chymistrey. He has at his sister’s a noble laboratory, and severall servants (Prentices to him) to look to it. He is charitable to ingeniose men that are in want, and foreigne Chymists have had large proofe of his bountie, for he will not spare for cost to get any rare Secret.
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (1680), edited by Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Robert Boyle (28)  |  Cost (94)  |  Delight (111)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Large (398)  |  Look (584)  |  Noble (93)  |  Rare (94)  |  Secret (216)  |  Servant (40)  |  Straight (75)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

He was not a mathematician–he never even took a maths class after high school–yet Martin Gardner, who has died aged 95, was arguably the most influential and inspirational figure in mathematics in the second half of the last century.
In 'Martin Gardner Obituary', The Guardian (27 May 2010)
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Century (319)  |  Class (168)  |  Die (94)  |  Figure (162)  |  Martin Gardner (50)  |  High School (15)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Last (425)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  School (227)

He will also find that the high and independent spirit, which usually dwells in the breast of those who are deeply versed in scientific pursuits, is ill adapted for administrative appointments; and that even if successful, he must hear many things he disapproves, and raise no voice against them.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and on Some of its Causes, (1830), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Against (332)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hear (144)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Framework (33)

High energy prices lead to lower energy prices because of the supply and demand side behavioral changes that they induce.
In transcript, 'Treasury Secretary Snow Optimistic on Economy', PBS Newshour (23 Mar 2005), on pbs.org website.
Science quotes on:  |  Behavior (95)  |  Change (639)  |  Economics (44)  |  Energy (373)  |  Induce (24)  |  Lead (391)  |  Low (86)  |  Price (57)  |  Supply And Demand (4)

High in the North in a land called Svithjod there is a mountain. It is a hundred miles long and a hundred miles high and once every thousand years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak. When the mountain has thus been worn away a single day of eternity will have passed
In The Story of America (1921). As cited in David Blatner, Spectrums: Our Mind-boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity (2012), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Beak (5)  |  Bird (163)  |  Call (781)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Mile (43)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Pass (241)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Single (365)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worn (5)  |  Year (963)

High technology has done us one great service: It has retaught us the delight of performing simple and primordial tasks—chopping wood, building a fire, drawing water from a spring.
In 'Science and Technology', A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1989), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Chop (7)  |  Delight (111)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Fire (203)  |  Great (1610)  |  Perform (123)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Service (110)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spring (140)  |  Task (152)  |  Technology (281)  |  Water (503)  |  Wood (97)

His [Faraday’s] third great discovery is the Magnetization of Light, which I should liken to the Weisshorn among mountains—high, beautiful, and alone.
In Faraday as a Discoverer (1868), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Great (1610)  |  Light (635)  |  Mountain (202)

How happy the lot of the mathematician! He is judged solely by his peers, and the standard is so high that no colleague or rival can ever win a reputation he does not deserve.
The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays (1965), Prologue, 'Writing', 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Colleague (51)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Happy (108)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Rival (20)  |  Win (53)

How many times did the sun shine, how many times did the wind howl over the desolate tundras, over the bleak immensity of the Siberian taigas, over the brown deserts where the Earth’s salt shines, over the high peaks capped with silver, over the shivering jungles, over the undulating forests of the tropics! Day after day, through infinite time, the scenery has changed in imperceptible features. Let us smile at the illusion of eternity that appears in these things, and while so many temporary aspects fade away, let us listen to the ancient hymn, the spectacular song of the seas, that has saluted so many chains rising to the light.
In Tectonics of Asia (1924, 1977), 165, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Brown (23)  |  Climate (102)  |  Desert (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Forest (161)  |  Hymn (6)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Listen (81)  |  Research (753)  |  Rising (44)  |  Salt (48)  |  Sea (326)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smile (34)  |  Song (41)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wind (141)

How would we express in terms of the statistical theory the marvellous faculty of a living organism, by which it delays the decay into thermodynamical equilibrium (death)? … It feeds upon negative entropy … Thus the device by which an organism maintains itself stationary at a fairly high level of orderliness (= fairly low level of entropy) really consists in continually sucking orderliness from its environment.
In 'Organization Maintained by Extracting “Order” from the Environment', What is Life? : The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (1944), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Consist (223)  |  Death (406)  |  Decay (59)  |  Delay (21)  |  Device (71)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Environment (239)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Express (192)  |  Level (69)  |  Living (492)  |  Low (86)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Negative (66)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Organism (231)  |  Stationary (11)  |  Suck (8)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)

However high we climb in the pursuit of knowledge we shall still see heights above us, and the more we extend our view, the more conscious we shall be of the immensity which lies beyond.
Address to the British Association (1863), in Report of the Thirty-Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1864), li
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Extend (129)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  More (2558)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  View (496)

I am of the decided opinion, that mathematical instruction must have for its first aim a deep penetration and complete command of abstract mathematical theory together with a clear insight into the structure of the system, and doubt not that the instruction which accomplishes this is valuable and interesting even if it neglects practical applications. If the instruction sharpens the understanding, if it arouses the scientific interest, whether mathematical or philosophical, if finally it calls into life an esthetic feeling for the beauty of a scientific edifice, the instruction will take on an ethical value as well, provided that with the interest it awakens also the impulse toward scientific activity. I contend, therefore, that even without reference to its applications mathematics in the high schools has a value equal to that of the other subjects of instruction.
In 'Ueber das Lehrziel im mathemalischen Unterricht der höheren Realanstalten', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, 2, 192. (The Annual Report of the German Mathematical Association. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstract Mathematics (9)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Activity (218)  |  Aesthetics (12)  |  Aim (175)  |  Application (257)  |  Arouse (13)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Call (781)  |  Clear (111)  |  Command (60)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contend (8)  |  Decide (50)  |  Deep (241)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Equal (88)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Finally (26)  |  First (1302)  |  High School (15)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Practical (225)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reference (33)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  Toward (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)

I am sorry the infernal Divinities, who visit mankind with diseases, and are therefore at perpetual war with Doctors, should have prevented my seeing all you great Men at Soho to-day-Lord! what inventions, what wit, what rhetoric, metaphysical, mechanical and pyrotecnical, will be on the wing, bandy'd like a shuttlecock from one to another of your troop of philosophers! while poor I, I by myself I, imprizon'd in a post chaise, am joggled, and jostled, and bump'd, and bruised along the King's high road, to make war upon a pox or a fever!
Letter to Matthew Boulton, 5 April 1778. Quoted in Desmond King-Hele (ed.), The Letters of Erasmus Darwin (1981), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Disease (340)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Fever (34)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invention (400)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Myself (211)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Poor (139)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Rhetoric (13)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sorry (31)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wing (79)  |  Wit (61)

I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman’s irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.
Address at The Physical Society, Berlin (1918) for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research', collected in Essays in Science (1934) 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Art (680)  |  Belief (615)  |  Built (7)  |  Compared (8)  |  Contour (3)  |  Crudity (4)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dreariness (3)  |  Escape (85)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Finely (3)  |  Freely (13)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Motive (62)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noisy (3)  |  Objective (96)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Personal (75)  |  Pure (299)  |  Range (104)  |  Restful (2)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Arthur Schopenhauer (19)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Still (614)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Tempered (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Trace (109)  |  World (1850)

I consider [H. G. Wells], as a purely imaginative writer, to be deserving of very high praise, but our methods are entirely different. I have always made a point in my romances of basing my so-called inventions upon a groundwork of actual fact, and of using in their construction methods and materials which are not entirely without the pale of contemporary engineering skill and knowledge. ... The creations of Mr. Wells, on the other hand, belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present, though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible.
Gordon Jones, 'Jules Verne at Home', Temple Bar (Jun 1904), 129, 670.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Age (509)  |  Belong (168)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Call (781)  |  Consider (428)  |  Construction (114)  |  Creation (350)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Material (366)  |  Method (531)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Present (630)  |  Purely (111)  |  Romance (18)  |  Say (989)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Skill (116)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (41)  |  Will (2350)  |  Writer (90)

I could never have known so well how paltry men are, and how little they care for really high aims, if I had not tested them by my scientific researches. Thus I saw that most men only care for science so far as they get a living by it, and that they worship even error when it affords them a subsistence.
Wed 12 Oct 1825. Johann Peter Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe, ed. J. K. Moorhead and trans. J. Oxenford (1971), 119-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Care (203)  |  Error (339)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Paltry (4)  |  Research (753)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Test (221)  |  Worship (32)

I despise people who depend on these things [heroin and cocaine]. If you really want a mind-altering experience, look at a tree.
Quoted in interview by Tim Adams, 'This much I know: A.C. Grayling', The Observer (4 Jul 2009).
Science quotes on:  |  Addiction (6)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependency (3)  |  Despise (16)  |  Drug (61)  |  Experience (494)  |  Heroin (2)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  People (1031)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Want (504)

I didn’t really decide that I wanted to be an astronaut for sure until the end of college. But even in elementary school and junior high, I was very interested in space and in the space program. I had both male and female heroes. One was a high school science teacher who was very important in encouraging me to pursue science. Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine. And the early astronauts, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, were heroes of mine as well.
Interview conducted on Scholastic website (20 Nov 1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Neil Armstrong (17)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Both (496)  |  College (71)  |  Decide (50)  |  Early (196)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elementary School (3)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  End (603)  |  Female (50)  |  John Glenn, Jr. (33)  |  Hero (45)  |  Important (229)  |  Interest (416)  |  Junior (6)  |  Junior High (3)  |  Male (26)  |  Mine (78)  |  Program (57)  |  Pursue (63)  |  School (227)  |  Space (523)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Tennis (8)  |  Want (504)

I have always consistently opposed high-tension and alternating systems of electric lighting, not only on account of danger, but because of their general unreliability and unsuitability for any general system of distribution.
In 'The Dangers of Electric Lighting', North American Review (Nov 1889), 149, No. 396, 633.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Alternating Current (5)  |  Consistently (8)  |  Danger (127)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Electric (76)  |  General (521)  |  High-Tension (2)  |  Lighting (5)  |  Oppose (27)  |  System (545)  |  Tension (24)  |  Unreliable (4)  |  Unsuitable (2)

I have always liked horticulturists, people who make their living from orchards and gardens, whose hands are familiar with the feel of the bark, whose eyes are trained to distinguish the different varieties, who have a form memory. Their brains are not forever dealing with vague abstractions; they are satisfied with the romance which the seasons bring with them, and have the patience and fortitude to gamble their lives and fortunes in an industry which requires infinite patience, which raise hopes each spring and too often dashes them to pieces in fall. They are always conscious of sun and wind and rain; must always be alert lest they lose the chance of ploughing at the right moment, pruning at the right time, circumventing the attacks of insects and fungus diseases by quick decision and prompt action. They are manufacturers of a high order, whose business requires not only intelligence of a practical character, but necessitates an instinct for industry which is different from that required by the city dweller always within sight of other people and the sound of their voices. The successful horticulturist spends much time alone among his trees, away from the constant chatter of human beings.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Action (342)  |  Alert (13)  |  Alone (324)  |  Attack (86)  |  Bark (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Business (156)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  City (87)  |  Constant (148)  |  Decision (98)  |  Different (595)  |  Disease (340)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feel (371)  |  Forever (111)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fungus (8)  |  Garden (64)  |  Hope (321)  |  Horticulture (10)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Industry (159)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Insect (89)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lose (165)  |  Memory (144)  |  Moment (260)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patience (58)  |  People (1031)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prompt (14)  |  Pruning (7)  |  Rain (70)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Right (473)  |  Romance (18)  |  Season (47)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spring (140)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sun (407)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vague (50)  |  Wind (141)

I have been branded with folly and madness for attempting what the world calls impossibilities, and even from the great engineer, the late James Watt, who said ... that I deserved hanging for bringing into use the high-pressure engine. This has so far been my reward from the public; but should this be all, I shall be satisfied by the great secret pleasure and laudable pride that I feel in my own breast from having been the instrument of bringing forward new principles and new arrangements of boundless value to my country, and however much I may be straitened in pecuniary circumstances, the great honour of being a useful subject can never be taken from me, which far exceeds riches.
From letter to Davies Gilbert, written a few months before Trevithick's last illness. Quoted in Francis Trevithick, Life of Richard Trevithick: With an Account of his Inventions (1872), Vol. 2, 395-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biography (254)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Call (781)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Country (269)  |  Engine (99)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Feel (371)  |  Folly (44)  |  Forward (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hanging (4)  |  Honour (58)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invention (400)  |  Late (119)  |  Madness (33)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Pride (84)  |  Principle (530)  |  Public (100)  |  Reward (72)  |  Riches (14)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Secret (216)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Subject (543)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  James Watt (11)  |  World (1850)

I hear one day the word “mountain,” and I ask someone “what is a mountain? I have never seen one.”
I join others in discussions of mountains.
One day I see in a book a picture of a mountain.
And I decide I must climb one.
I travel to a place where there is a mountain.
At the base of the mountain I see there are lots of paths to climb.
I start on a path that leads to the top of the mountain.
I see that the higher I climb, the more the paths join together.
After much climbing the many paths join into one.
I climb till I am almost exhausted but I force myself and continue to climb.
Finally I reach the top and far above me there are stars.
I look far down and the village twinkles far below.
It would be easy to go back down there but it is so beautiful up here.
I am just below the stars.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Base (120)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Below (26)  |  Book (413)  |  Climb (39)  |  Continue (179)  |  Decide (50)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Far (158)  |  Finally (26)  |  Force (497)  |  Hear (144)  |  Join (32)  |  Lead (391)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Picture (148)  |  Place (192)  |  Reach (286)  |  See (1094)  |  Someone (24)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Start (237)  |  Together (392)  |  Top (100)  |  Travel (125)  |  Twinkle (6)  |  Village (13)  |  Word (650)

I hear the scream of a great hawk, sailing with a ragged wing against the high wood-side, apparently to scare his prey and so detect it—shrill, harsh, fitted to excite terror in sparrows and to issue from his split and curved bill. I see his open bill the while against the sky. Spit with force from his mouth with an undulatory quaver imparted to it from his wings or motion as he flies.
(15 Jun 1852). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: IV: May 1, 1852-February 27,, 1853 (1906), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Bill (14)  |  Detect (45)  |  Excite (17)  |  Fly (153)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harsh (9)  |  Hawk (4)  |  Hear (144)  |  Impart (24)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Open (277)  |  Ornithology (21)  |  Prey (13)  |  Sailing (14)  |  Scare (6)  |  Scream (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Shrill (2)  |  Side (236)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sparrow (6)  |  Terror (32)  |  Wing (79)  |  Wood (97)

I like to do high-risk and high-payoff kind of research. And I had a gut feeling that MIT was a cool place to be with people who are fearless.
As quoted in Anna Azvolinsky, 'Fearless About Folding', The Scientist (Jan 2016).
Science quotes on:  |  Cool (15)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fearless (7)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Gut Feeling (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  M.I.T. (2)  |  Payoff (3)  |  People (1031)  |  Research (753)  |  Risk (68)

I pray every day and I think everybody should. I don’t think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and look out at the Earth from this vantage point. We’re not so high compared to people who went to the moon and back. But to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is, to me, impossible. It just strengthens my faith.
From NASA transcript of News Conference by downlink from Space Shuttle Discovery during its STS-95 Mission in Earth orbit (5 Nov 1998). In response to question from Paul Hoveston of USA Today asking John Glenn about how the space flight strengthened his faith and if he had any time to pray in orbit.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Belief (615)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Faith (209)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Kind (564)  |  Look (584)  |  Moon (252)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Pray (19)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Think (1122)  |  Window (59)

I shall never forget my first encounter with gorillas. Sound preceded sight. Odor preceded sound in the form of an overwhelming, musky-barnyard, humanlike scent. The air was suddenly rent by a high-pitched series of screams followed by the rhythmic rondo of sharp pok-pok chestbeats from a great silverbacked male obscured behind what seemed an impenetrable wall of vegetation.
Describing her 1963 trip to Kabara in Gorillas in the Mist (1983), 3. (The screams and chest-beating were of alarm, not ferocity.)
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Barnyard (2)  |  Behind (139)  |  Encounter (23)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forget (125)  |  Form (976)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impenetrable (7)  |  Musk (2)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Odor (11)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Scent (7)  |  Scream (7)  |  Series (153)  |  Sharp (17)  |  Sight (135)  |  Silverback (2)  |  Sound (187)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Vegetation (24)  |  Wall (71)

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:  |  Greater (288)  |  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 took biology in high school and didn't like it at all. It was focused on memorization. ... I didn't appreciate that biology also had principles and logic ... [rather than dealing with a] messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense. I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well.
Interview (23 May 1998), 'Creating the Code to Life', Academy of Achievement web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Biology (232)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Everything (489)  |  Focus (36)  |  Fun (42)  |  High School (15)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Like (23)  |  Logic (311)  |  Making (300)  |  Memorization (2)  |  Messy (6)  |  Nice (15)  |  Organization (120)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pristine (5)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sticking (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Want (504)  |  Wish (216)

I waited for Rob and, linking arms, we took our final steps together onto the rooftop of the world. It was 8.15 am on 24 May 2004; there was nowhere higher on the planet that we could go, the world lay at our feet. Holding each other tightly, we tried to absorb where we were. To be standing here, together, exactly three years since Rob’s cancer treatment, was nothing short of a miracle. Standing on top of Everest was more than just climbing a mountain - it was a gift of life. With Pemba and Nawang we crowded together, wrapping our arms around each other. They had been more than Sherpas, they had been our guardian angels.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Angel (47)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Climb (39)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Everest (10)  |  Exactly (14)  |  Final (121)  |  Foot (65)  |  Gift (105)  |  Guardian (3)  |  Hold (96)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Linking (8)  |  Miracle (85)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rob (6)  |  Short (200)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Tightly (2)  |  Together (392)  |  Top (100)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Try (296)  |  Wait (66)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrap (7)  |  Year (963)

I’m convinced that the best solutions are often the ones that are counterintuitive—that challenge conventional thinking—and end in breakthroughs. It is always easier to do things the same old way … why change? To fight this, keep your dissatisfaction index high and break with tradition. Don’t be too quick to accept the way things are being done. Question whether there’s a better way. Very often you will find that once you make this break from the usual way - and incidentally, this is probably the hardest thing to do—and start on a new track your horizon of new thoughts immediately broadens. New ideas flow in like water. Always keep your interests broad - don’t let your mind be stunted by a limited view.
1988
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Break (109)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Change (639)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Counterintuitive (4)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  End (603)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flow (89)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Question (649)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Start (237)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Track (42)  |  Tradition (76)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

If in a given community unchecked popular rule means unlimited waste and destruction of the natural resources—soil, fertility, waterpower, forests, game, wild-life generally—which by right belong as much to subsequent generations as to the present generation, then it is sure proof that the present generation is not yet really fit for self-control, that it is not yet really fit to exercise the high and responsible privilege of a rule which shall be both by the people and for the people. The term “for the people” must always include the people unborn as well as the people now alive, or the democratic ideal is not realized.
In A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open (1916), 319.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Belong (168)  |  Both (496)  |  Community (111)  |  Control (182)  |  Democratic (12)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Fit (139)  |  Forest (161)  |  Game (104)  |  Generation (256)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Include (93)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  People (1031)  |  Popular (34)  |  Present (630)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Proof (304)  |  Realization (44)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Right (473)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Soil (98)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Term (357)  |  Unborn (5)  |  Unchecked (4)  |  Unlimited (24)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water Power (6)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wildlife (16)

If one in twenty does not seem high enough odds, we may, if we prefer it, draw the line at one in fifty (the 2 per cent. point), or one in a hundred (the 1 per cent. point). Personally, the writer prefers to set a low standard of significance at the 5 per cent. point, and ignore entirely all results which fail to reach this level. A scientific fact should be regarded as experimentally established only if a properly designed experiment rarely fails to give this level of significance.
'The Arrangement of Field Experiments', The Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture, 1926, 33, 504.
Science quotes on:  |  Design (203)  |  Draw (140)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fail (191)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Low (86)  |  Point (584)  |  Reach (286)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Set (400)  |  Significance (114)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Writer (90)

If the love of surgery is a proof of a person’s being adapted for it, then certainly I am fitted to he a surgeon; for thou can’st hardly conceive what a high degree of enjoyment I am from day to day experiencing in this bloody and butchering department of the healing art. I am more and more delighted with my profession.
Letter to his father (1853). In John Vaughan, 'Lord Lister', The Living Age (1918), 297, 361. Reprinted from The Fortnightly Review (1918), 109, 417- .
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Degree (277)  |  Delight (111)  |  Department (93)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Healing (28)  |  Love (328)  |  More (2558)  |  Person (366)  |  Profession (108)  |  Proof (304)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)

If we factor in high-powered women in Europe as well, such as [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel, it seems we are witnessing a seismic shift for women to accede to high-level positions in politics and society. But there may still be a gap between those women achieving high public status and those in the private sector. I welcome these signs of women’s liberation.
From TV show interview with Piers Morgan, on ITV, 'Good Morning Britain'. Transcribed from online video, 'Stephen Hawking on Donald Trump's US: "I Fear I May Not Be Welcome" | Good Morning Britain' on youtube.com website. Also quoted online at huffingtonpost.com in Hayley Miller, 'Stephen Hawking Teaches Piers Morgan A Valuable Lesson In Gender Equality', Huffington Post (20 Mar 2017), but given there with sentences reordered as 1st, 3rd, 2nd.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Chancellor (8)  |  Europe (50)  |  Factor (47)  |  Gap (36)  |  German (37)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Politics (122)  |  Position (83)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Public (100)  |  Sector (7)  |  Seismic (2)  |  Shift (45)  |  Sign (63)  |  Society (350)  |  Status (35)  |  Still (614)  |  Welcome (20)  |  Witness (57)  |  Woman (160)

If you keep your standards high, people will always find a place for you.
Anonymous
Found in The NIH Catalyst (May-June 2003), 11, No. 3, 8, as part of list 'A Scientist’s Dozen,' cited as “culled and adapted…from a variety of sources” by Howard Young.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Keeping (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Standard (64)  |  Will (2350)

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Fly (153)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kite (4)

In [great mathematics] there is a very high degree of unexpectedness, combined with inevitability and economy.
In A Mathematician’s Apology (1940, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inevitability (10)  |  Mathematics (1395)

In fields of air he writes his name,
And treads the chambers of the sky;
He reads the stars, and grasps the flame
That quivers in the realms on high.
In poem 'Art', collected in Samuel Kettell (ed.), Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices (1829), Vol. 3, 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chamber (7)  |  Field (378)  |  Flame (44)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Name (359)  |  Quiver (3)  |  Read (308)  |  Realm (87)  |  Sky (174)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tread (17)  |  Write (250)

In India we have clear evidence that administrative statistics had reached a high state of organization before 300 B.C. In the Arthasastra of Kautilya … the duties of the Gopa, the village accountant, [include] “by setting up boundaries to villages, by numbering plots of grounds as cultivated, uncultivated, plains, wet lands, gardens, vegetable gardens, fences (váta), forests altars, temples of gods, irrigation works, cremation grounds, feeding houses (sattra), places where water is freely supplied to travellers (prapá), places of pilgrimage, pasture grounds and roads, and thereby fixing the boundaries of various villages, of fields, of forests, and of roads, he shall register gifts, sales, charities, and remission of taxes regarding fields.”
Editorial, introducing the new statistics journal of the Indian Statistical Institute, Sankhayā (1933), 1, No. 1. Also reprinted in Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics (Feb 2003), 65, No. 1, viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Accountant (4)  |  Administration (15)  |  Altar (11)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Charity (13)  |  Clear (111)  |  Cremation (2)  |  Cultivated (7)  |  Duty (71)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fence (11)  |  Field (378)  |  Fix (34)  |  Forest (161)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gift (105)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  House (143)  |  Include (93)  |  India (23)  |  Irrigation (12)  |  Land (131)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Pilgrimage (4)  |  Place (192)  |  Plain (34)  |  Plot (11)  |  Reach (286)  |  Register (22)  |  Remission (3)  |  Road (71)  |  Sale (3)  |  Setting (44)  |  State (505)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Tax (27)  |  Temple (45)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Uncultivated (2)  |  Various (205)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Village (13)  |  Water (503)  |  Wet (6)  |  Work (1402)

In my opinion, there is absolutely no trustworthy proof that talents have been improved by their exercise through the course of a long series of generations. The Bach family shows that musical talent, and the Bernoulli family that mathematical power, can be transmitted from generation to generation, but this teaches us nothing as to the origin of such talents. In both families the high-watermark of talent lies, not at the end of the series of generations, as it should do if the results of practice are transmitted, but in the middle. Again, talents frequently appear in some member of a family which has not been previously distinguished.
In 'On Heredity', Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1889), Vol. 1, 95-96.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Bach (7)  |  Bach_Johann (2)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Both (496)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Family (101)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Generation (256)  |  Improve (64)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Member (42)  |  Middle (19)  |  Musical (10)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Previous (17)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Talent (99)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Trustworthy (14)

In order to comprehend and fully control arithmetical concepts and methods of proof, a high degree of abstraction is necessary, and this condition has at times been charged against arithmetic as a fault. I am of the opinion that all other fields of knowledge require at least an equally high degree of abstraction as mathematics,—provided, that in these fields the foundations are also everywhere examined with the rigour and completeness which is actually necessary.
In 'Die Theorie der algebraischen Zahlkorper', Vorwort, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, Bd. 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Actually (27)  |  Against (332)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Charge (63)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Concept (242)  |  Condition (362)  |  Control (182)  |  Degree (277)  |  Equally (129)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Examine (84)  |  Fault (58)  |  Field (378)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fully (20)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Least (75)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proof (304)  |  Provide (79)  |  Require (229)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Time (1911)

In order to pursue chemotherapy successfully we must look for substances which possess a high affinity and high lethal potency in relation to the parasites, but have a low toxicity in relation to the body, so that it becomes possible to kill the parasites without damaging the body to any great extent. We want to hit the parasites as selectively as possible. In other words, we must learn to aim and to aim in a chemical sense. The way to do this is to synthesize by chemical means as many derivatives as possible of relevant substances.
'Ueber den jetzigen Stand der Chemotherapie'. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschagt, 1909, 42, 17-47. Translated in B. Holmstedt and G. Liljestrand (eds.), Readings in Pharmacology (1963), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Aim (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemotherapy (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extent (142)  |  Great (1610)  |  Kill (100)  |  Learn (672)  |  Look (584)  |  Low (86)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Potency (10)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Sense (785)  |  Substance (253)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

In order to survive, an animal must be born into a favoring or at least tolerant environment. Similarly, in order to achieve preservation and recognition, a specimen of fossil man must be discovered in intelligence, attested by scientific knowledge, and interpreted by evolutionary experience. These rigorous prerequisites have undoubtedly caused many still-births in human palaeontology and are partly responsible for the high infant mortality of discoveries of geologically ancient man.
Apes, Men and Morons (1938), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Animal (651)  |  Anthropology (61)  |  Birth (154)  |  Discover (571)  |  Environment (239)  |  Excavation (8)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Infant (26)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Still (614)  |  Survive (87)

In other branches of science, where quick publication seems to be so much desired, there may possibly be some excuse for giving to the world slovenly or ill-digested work, but there is no such excuse in mathematics. The form ought to be as perfect as the substance, and the demonstrations as rigorous as those of Euclid. The mathematician has to deal with the most exact facts of Nature, and he should spare no effort to render his interpretation worthy of his subject, and to give to his work its highest degree of perfection. “Pauca sed matura” was Gauss’s motto.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, (1890), Nature, 42, 467. [The Latin motto translates as “Few, but ripe”. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Branch (155)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Desire (212)  |  Effort (243)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Exact (75)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Give (208)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motto (29)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Publication (102)  |  Quick (13)  |  Render (96)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Seem (150)  |  Slovenly (2)  |  Spare (9)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Worthy (35)

In our daily lives, we enjoy the pervasive benefits of long-lived robotic spacecraft that provide high-capacity worldwide telecommunications; reconnaissance of Earth’s solid surface and oceans, with far-reaching cultural and environmental implications; much-improved weather and climatic forecasts; improved knowledge about the terrestrial effects of the Sun’s radiations; a revolutionary new global navigational system for all manner of aircraft and many other uses both civil and military; and the science of Earth itself as a sustainable abode of life.
In 'Is Human Spaceflight Obsolete?', Issues in Science and Technology (Summer 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Abode (2)  |  Aircraft (9)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Civil (26)  |  Climate (102)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Environment (239)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Positioning System (2)  |  GPS (2)  |  Implication (25)  |  Improve (64)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Manner (62)  |  Military (45)  |  New (1273)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Robot (14)  |  Solid (119)  |  Spacecraft (6)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Sustainable (14)  |  System (545)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Use (771)  |  Weather (49)  |  Worldwide (19)

In science it is a service of the highest merit to seek out those fragmentary truths attained by the ancients, and to develop them further.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Attain (126)  |  Develop (278)  |  Fragmentary (8)  |  Merit (51)  |  Seek (218)  |  Service (110)  |  Truth (1109)

In the beginning there was an explosion. Not an explosion like those familiar on earth, starting from a definite center and spreading out to engulf more and more of the circumambient air, but an explosion which occurred simultaneously everywhere, filling all space from the beginning, with every particle of matter rushing apart from every other particle. ‘All space’ in this context may mean either all of an infinite universe, or all of a finite universe which curves back on itself like the surface of a sphere. Neither possibility is easy to comprehend, but this will not get in our way; it matters hardly at all in the early universe whether space is finite or infinite. At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about which we can speak with any confidence, the temperature of the universe was about a hundred thousand million (1011) degrees Centigrade. This is much hotter than in the center of even the hottest star, so hot, in fact, that none of the components of ordinary matter, molecules, or atoms, or even the nuclei of atoms, could have held together. Instead, the matter rushing apart in this explosion consisted of various types of the so-called elementary particles, which are the subject of modern high­energy nuclear physics.
The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Back (395)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Call (781)  |  Component (51)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Context (31)  |  Curve (49)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (277)  |  Early (196)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Finite (60)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hottest (2)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Million (124)  |  Modern (402)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physics (6)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Particle Physics (13)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Space (523)  |  Speak (240)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Star (460)  |  Subject (543)  |  Surface (223)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Type (171)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

In the mathematical investigations I have usually employed such methods as present themselves naturally to a physicist. The pure mathematician will complain, and (it must be confessed) sometimes with justice, of deficient rigour. But to this question there are two sides. For, however important it may be to maintain a uniformly high standard in pure mathematics, the physicist may occasionally do well to rest content with arguments which are fairly satisfactory and conclusive from his point of view. To his mind, exercised in a different order of ideas, the more severe procedure of the pure mathematician may appear not more but less demonstrative. And further, in many cases of difficulty to insist upon the highest standard would mean the exclusion of the subject altogether in view of the space that would be required.
In Preface to second edition, The Theory of Sound (1894), Vol. 1, vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Argument (145)  |  Complain (10)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Confess (42)  |  Deficient (3)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Demonstrative (14)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Employ (115)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Idea (881)  |  Insist (22)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Justice (40)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Present (630)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Question (649)  |  Required (108)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Severe (17)  |  Side (236)  |  Space (523)  |  Standard (64)  |  Subject (543)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Two (936)  |  Usually (176)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

In the year 1666 he retired again from Cambridge... to his mother in Lincolnshire & whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (wch brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than was usually thought. Why not as high as the moon said he to himself & if so that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit, whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that supposition but being absent from books & taking the common estimate in use among Geographers & our seamen before Norwood had measured the earth, that 60 English miles were contained in one degree of latitude on the surface of the Earth his computation did not agree with his theory & inclined him then to entertain a notion that together with the force of gravity there might be a mixture of that force wch the moon would have if it was carried along in a vortex.
[The earliest account of Newton, gravity and an apple.]
Memorandum of a conversation with Newton in August 1726. Quoted in Richard Westfall, Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1980), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Absent (3)  |  Account (195)  |  Apple (46)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Computation (28)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Extend (129)  |  Farther (51)  |  Force (497)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Ground (222)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Influence (231)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Moon (252)  |  Mother (116)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Notion (120)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Power (771)  |  Retain (57)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Vortex (10)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

It [mathematics] is in the inner world of pure thought, where all entia dwell, where is every type of order and manner of correlation and variety of relationship, it is in this infinite ensemble of eternal verities whence, if there be one cosmos or many of them, each derives its character and mode of being,—it is there that the spirit of mathesis has its home and its life.
Is it a restricted home, a narrow life, static and cold and grey with logic, without artistic interest, devoid of emotion and mood and sentiment? That world, it is true, is not a world of solar light, not clad in the colours that liven and glorify the things of sense, but it is an illuminated world, and over it all and everywhere throughout are hues and tints transcending sense, painted there by radiant pencils of psychic light, the light in which it lies. It is a silent world, and, nevertheless, in respect to the highest principle of art—the interpenetration of content and form, the perfect fusion of mode and meaning—it even surpasses music. In a sense, it is a static world, but so, too, are the worlds of the sculptor and the architect. The figures, however, which reason constructs and the mathematic vision beholds, transcend the temple and the statue, alike in simplicity and in intricacy, in delicacy and in grace, in symmetry and in poise. Not only are this home and this life thus rich in aesthetic interests, really controlled and sustained by motives of a sublimed and supersensuous art, but the religious aspiration, too, finds there, especially in the beautiful doctrine of invariants, the most perfect symbols of what it seeks—the changeless in the midst of change, abiding things hi a world of flux, configurations that remain the same despite the swirl and stress of countless hosts of curious transformations.
In 'The Universe and Beyond', Hibbert Journal (1904-1906), 3, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Alike (60)  |  Architect (32)  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Behold (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Changeless (2)  |  Character (259)  |  Cold (115)  |  Color (155)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Content (75)  |  Control (182)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Countless (39)  |  Curious (95)  |  Delicacy (8)  |  Derive (70)  |  Despite (7)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Especially (31)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flux (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Glorify (6)  |  Grace (31)  |  Grey (10)  |  Home (184)  |  Host (16)  |  Hue (3)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intricacy (8)  |  Invariant (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Logic (311)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mode (43)  |  Mood (15)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Music (133)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Order (638)  |  Paint (22)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Poise (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Pure (299)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Really (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Respect (212)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Rich (66)  |  Same (166)  |  Sculptor (10)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensuous (5)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Silent (31)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solar (8)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Static (9)  |  Statue (17)  |  Stress (22)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Swirl (10)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Tint (3)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Transformation (72)  |  True (239)  |  Type (171)  |  Variety (138)  |  Verity (5)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hard (246)  |  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 a better world with some buffalo left in it, a richer world with some gorgeous canyons unmarred by signboards, hot-dog stands, super highways, or high-tension lines, undrowned by power or irrigation reservoirs. If we preserved as parks only those places that have no economic possibilities, we would have no parks. And in the decades to come, it will not be only the buffalo and the trumpeter swan who need sanctuaries. Our own species is going to need them too. It needs them now.
Conclusion of essay 'The Marks of Human Passage', collected in This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and its Magic Rivers (1955), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Buffalo (7)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Decade (66)  |  Dog (70)  |  Drown (14)  |  Economic (84)  |  Gorgeous (2)  |  High Voltage (2)  |  Hot (63)  |  Irrigation (12)  |  Leave (138)  |  Need (320)  |  Park (10)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Rich (66)  |  Sanctuary (12)  |  Species (435)  |  Stand (284)  |  Swan (3)  |  Tension (24)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

It is a peculiar feature in the fortune of principles of such high elementary generality and simplicity as characterise the laws of motion, that when they are once firmly established, or supposed to be so, men turn with weariness and impatience from all questionings of the grounds and nature of their authority. We often feel disposed to believe that truths so clear and comprehensive are necessary conditions, rather than empirical attributes of their subjects: that they are legible by their own axiomatic light, like the first truths of geometry, rather than discovered by the blind gropings of experience.
In An Introduction to Dynamics (1832), x.
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Authority (99)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Blind (98)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Condition (362)  |  Discover (571)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Ground (222)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Motion (14)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Light (635)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Principle (530)  |  Question (649)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Subject (543)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Weariness (6)

It is above all the duty of the methodical text-book to adapt itself to the pupil’s power of comprehension, only challenging his higher efforts with the increasing development of his imagination, his logical power and the ability of abstraction. This indeed constitutes a test of the art of teaching, it is here where pedagogic tact becomes manifest. In reference to the axioms, caution is necessary. It should be pointed out comparatively early, in how far the mathematical body differs from the material body. Furthermore, since mathematical bodies are really portions of space, this space is to be conceived as mathematical space and to be clearly distinguished from real or physical space. Gradually the student will become conscious that the portion of the real space which lies beyond the visible stellar universe is not cognizable through the senses, that we know nothing of its properties and consequently have no basis for judgments concerning it. Mathematical space, on the other hand, may be subjected to conditions, for instance, we may condition its properties at infinity, and these conditions constitute the axioms, say the Euclidean axioms. But every student will require years before the conviction of the truth of this last statement will force itself upon him.
In Methodisches Lehrbuch der Elementar-Mathemalik (1904), Teil I, Vorwort, 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Art (680)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (413)  |  Caution (24)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concern (239)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consequently (5)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Development (441)  |  Differ (88)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Duty (71)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Force (497)  |  Furthermore (2)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Instance (33)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logical (57)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Methodical (8)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pedagogy (2)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Portion (86)  |  Power (771)  |  Property (177)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Real (159)  |  Really (77)  |  Reference (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Space (523)  |  Statement (148)  |  Stellar (4)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tact (8)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Test (221)  |  Text-Book (5)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It is as great a mistake to maintain that a high development of the imagination is not essential to progress in mathematical studies as to hold with Ruskin and others that science and poetry are antagonistic pursuits.
In Sphere of Science (1898), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Antagonistic (3)  |  Development (441)  |  Essential (210)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  John Ruskin (25)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Study (701)

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men. About a hundred years ago a Russian landowner by the name of Petrashevsky recorded a remarkable conclusion: “Finding nothing worthy of my attachment either among women or among men, I have vowed myself to the service of mankind.” He became a follower of Fourier, and installed a phalanstery on his estate. The end of the experiment was sad, but what one might perhaps have expected: the peasants—Petrashevsky’s neighbors-burned the phalanstery.
In 'Brotherhood', The Ordeal of Change (1963), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Antagonism (6)  |  Attachment (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Brotherhood (6)  |  Burn (99)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Estate (5)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follower (11)  |  Fourier (5)  |  Hand In Hand (5)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idea (881)  |  Install (2)  |  Love (328)  |  Low (86)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Myself (211)  |  Name (359)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Often (109)  |  Peasant (9)  |  Receptivity (2)  |  Record (161)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Russian (3)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Service (110)  |  Vow (5)  |  Whole (756)  |  Woman (160)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.
Address at Rice University in Houston (12 Sep 1962). On website of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. [This go-to-the-moon speech was largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen.]
Science quotes on:  |  Decision (98)  |  Effort (243)  |  Gear (5)  |  Important (229)  |  Last (425)  |  Low (86)  |  Most (1728)  |  Office (71)  |  President (36)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Shift (45)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Race (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It is hard to tell what causes the pervasive timidity. One thinks of video-induced stupor, intake of tranquilizers, fear of not living to enjoy the many new possessions and toys, the example of our betters in cities and on campuses who high-mindedly surrender to threats of violence and make cowardice fashionable.
In 'Thoughts on the Present', First Things, Last Things (1971), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Cause (561)  |  City (87)  |  Cowardice (2)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Example (98)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Fear (212)  |  Hard (246)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  New (1273)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Possession (68)  |  Stupor (2)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Threat (36)  |  Timidity (5)  |  Toy (22)  |  Tranquilizer (4)  |  Violence (37)

It is high time that laymen abandoned the misleading belief that scientific enquiry is a cold dispassionate enterprise, bleached of imaginative qualities, and that a scientist is a man who turns the handle of discovery; for at every level of endeavour scientific research is a passionate undertaking and the Promotion of Natural Knowledge depends above all on a sortee into what can be imagined but is not yet known.
The Times Literary Supplement (London), 1963 October 25 (p. 850)
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bleach (3)  |  Cold (115)  |  Depend (238)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dispassionate (9)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Handle (29)  |  Imaginative (9)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Layman (21)  |  Level (69)  |  Man (2252)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Natural (810)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Promotion (8)  |  Quality (139)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Undertaking (17)

It is impossible not to feel stirred at the thought of the emotions of man at certain historic moments of adventure and discovery—Columbus when he first saw the Western shore, Pizarro when he stared at the Pacific Ocean, Franklin when the electric spark came from the string of his kite, Galileo when he first turned his telescope to the heavens. Such moments are also granted to students in the abstract regions of thought, and high among them must be placed the morning when Descartes lay in bed and invented the method of co-ordinate geometry.
Quoted in James Roy Newman, The World of Mathematics (2000), Vol. 1, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Christopher Columbus (16)  |  Coordinate Geometry (2)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Grant (76)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kite (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  Moment (260)  |  Morning (98)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pacific Ocean (5)  |  Saw (160)  |  Shore (25)  |  Spark (32)  |  Star (460)  |  String (22)  |  Student (317)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Thought (995)  |  Turn (454)  |  Western (45)

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms.
Concluding remarks in final chapter, The Origin of Species (1859), 490.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Bank (31)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bird (163)  |  Character (259)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Construct (129)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Divergence (6)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Food Web (8)  |  Form (976)  |  Growth (200)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indirect (18)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Insect (89)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Kind (564)  |  Largest (39)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Plant (320)  |  Produced (187)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Selection (130)  |  Sense (785)  |  Singing (19)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Worm (47)

It is known that the mathematics prescribed for the high school [Gymnasien] is essentially Euclidean, while it is modern mathematics, the theory of functions and the infinitesimal calculus, which has secured for us an insight into the mechanism and laws of nature. Euclidean mathematics is indeed, a prerequisite for the theory of functions, but just as one, though he has learned the inflections of Latin nouns and verbs, will not thereby be enabled to read a Latin author much less to appreciate the beauties of a Horace, so Euclidean mathematics, that is the mathematics of the high school, is unable to unlock nature and her laws.
In Die Mathematik die Fackelträgerin einer neuen Zeit (1889), 37-38. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 112.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Author (175)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Enable (122)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Function (235)  |  High School (15)  |  Horace (12)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Inflection (4)  |  Insight (107)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Latin (44)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Less (105)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noun (6)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Prescribe (11)  |  Read (308)  |  School (227)  |  Secure (23)  |  Secured (18)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unable (25)  |  Unlock (12)  |  Verb (4)  |  Will (2350)

It is not for us to say whether Inspiration revealed to the Psalmist the wonders of the modern astronomy. But even though the mind be a perfect stranger to the science of these enlightened times, the heavens present a great and an elevating spectacle—an immense concave reposing on the circular boundary of the world, and the innumerable lights which are suspended from on high, moving with solemn regularity along its surface.
From Discourse, 'A Sketch of Modern Astronomy', in The Works of Thomas Chalmers (1830), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Circular (19)  |  Concave (6)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Immense (89)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Light (635)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Present (630)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Say (989)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)

It is not merely as an investigator and discoverer, but as a high-principled and unassuming man, that Scheele merits our warmest admiration. His aim and object was the discovery of truth. The letters of the man reveal to us in the most pleasant way his high scientific ideal, his genuinely philosophic temper, and his simple mode of thought. “It is the truth alone that we desire to know, and what joy there is in discovering it!” With these words he himself characterizes his own efforts.
From History of Chemistry (1899). As quoted in Victor Robinson, Pathfinders in Medicine (1912), 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Aim (175)  |  Alone (324)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effort (243)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Joy (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Letter (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Merit (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Carl Wilhelm Scheele (5)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Simple (426)  |  Temper (12)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

It is not surprising, in view of the polydynamic constitution of the genuinely mathematical mind, that many of the major heros of the science, men like Desargues and Pascal, Descartes and Leibnitz, Newton, Gauss and Bolzano, Helmholtz and Clifford, Riemann and Salmon and Plücker and Poincaré, have attained to high distinction in other fields not only of science but of philosophy and letters too. And when we reflect that the very greatest mathematical achievements have been due, not alone to the peering, microscopic, histologic vision of men like Weierstrass, illuminating the hidden recesses, the minute and intimate structure of logical reality, but to the larger vision also of men like Klein who survey the kingdoms of geometry and analysis for the endless variety of things that flourish there, as the eye of Darwin ranged over the flora and fauna of the world, or as a commercial monarch contemplates its industry, or as a statesman beholds an empire; when we reflect not only that the Calculus of Probability is a creation of mathematics but that the master mathematician is constantly required to exercise judgment—judgment, that is, in matters not admitting of certainty—balancing probabilities not yet reduced nor even reducible perhaps to calculation; when we reflect that he is called upon to exercise a function analogous to that of the comparative anatomist like Cuvier, comparing theories and doctrines of every degree of similarity and dissimilarity of structure; when, finally, we reflect that he seldom deals with a single idea at a tune, but is for the most part engaged in wielding organized hosts of them, as a general wields at once the division of an army or as a great civil administrator directs from his central office diverse and scattered but related groups of interests and operations; then, I say, the current opinion that devotion to mathematics unfits the devotee for practical affairs should be known for false on a priori grounds. And one should be thus prepared to find that as a fact Gaspard Monge, creator of descriptive geometry, author of the classic Applications de l’analyse à la géométrie; Lazare Carnot, author of the celebrated works, Géométrie de position, and Réflections sur la Métaphysique du Calcul infinitesimal; Fourier, immortal creator of the Théorie analytique de la chaleur; Arago, rightful inheritor of Monge’s chair of geometry; Poncelet, creator of pure projective geometry; one should not be surprised, I say, to find that these and other mathematicians in a land sagacious enough to invoke their aid, rendered, alike in peace and in war, eminent public service.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 32-33.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Administrator (11)  |  Admit (49)  |  Affair (29)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alike (60)  |  Alone (324)  |  Analogous (7)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Application (257)  |  François Arago (15)  |  Army (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Author (175)  |  Balance (82)  |  Behold (19)  |  Bernhard Bolzano (2)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Lazare-Nicolas-Marguerite Carnot (4)  |  Celebrated (2)  |  Central (81)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chair (25)  |  Civil (26)  |  Classic (13)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Compare (76)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Current (122)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Deal (192)  |  Degree (277)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Descriptive Geometry (3)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dissimilar (6)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Division (67)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Due (143)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Empire (17)  |  Endless (60)  |  Engage (41)  |  Enough (341)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  False (105)  |  Fauna (13)  |  Field (378)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flora (9)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Baron Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (17)  |  Function (235)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Genuinely (4)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Ground (222)  |  Group (83)  |  Hero (45)  |  Hide (70)  |  Histology (4)  |  Host (16)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Industry (159)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Inheritor (2)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Invoke (7)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Felix Klein (15)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Land (131)  |  Large (398)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Letter (117)  |  Logical (57)  |  Major (88)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Monarch (6)  |  Gaspard Monge (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Office (71)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Blaise Pascal (81)  |  Peace (116)  |  Peer (13)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Henri Poincaré (99)  |  Jean-Victor Poncelet (2)  |  Position (83)  |  Practical (225)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Probability (135)  |  Projective Geometry (3)  |  Public Service (6)  |  Pure (299)  |  Range (104)  |  Reality (274)  |  Recess (8)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reducible (2)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Relate (26)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Bernhard Riemann (7)  |  Rightful (3)  |  Sagacious (7)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Service (110)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Single (365)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Survey (36)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tune (20)  |  Unfit (13)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  War (233)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Wield (10)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

It is now necessary to indicate more definitely the reason why mathematics not only carries conviction in itself, but also transmits conviction to the objects to which it is applied. The reason is found, first of all, in the perfect precision with which the elementary mathematical concepts are determined; in this respect each science must look to its own salvation .... But this is not all. As soon as human thought attempts long chains of conclusions, or difficult matters generally, there arises not only the danger of error but also the suspicion of error, because since all details cannot be surveyed with clearness at the same instant one must in the end be satisfied with a belief that nothing has been overlooked from the beginning. Every one knows how much this is the case even in arithmetic, the most elementary use of mathematics. No one would imagine that the higher parts of mathematics fare better in this respect; on the contrary, in more complicated conclusions the uncertainty and suspicion of hidden errors increases in rapid progression. How does mathematics manage to rid itself of this inconvenience which attaches to it in the highest degree? By making proofs more rigorous? By giving new rules according to which the old rules shall be applied? Not in the least. A very great uncertainty continues to attach to the result of each single computation. But there are checks. In the realm of mathematics each point may be reached by a hundred different ways; and if each of a hundred ways leads to the same point, one may be sure that the right point has been reached. A calculation without a check is as good as none. Just so it is with every isolated proof in any speculative science whatever; the proof may be ever so ingenious, and ever so perfectly true and correct, it will still fail to convince permanently. He will therefore be much deceived, who, in metaphysics, or in psychology which depends on metaphysics, hopes to see his greatest care in the precise determination of the concepts and in the logical conclusions rewarded by conviction, much less by success in transmitting conviction to others. Not only must the conclusions support each other, without coercion or suspicion of subreption, but in all matters originating in experience, or judging concerning experience, the results of speculation must be verified by experience, not only superficially, but in countless special cases.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 105. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arise (162)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Care (203)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Chain (51)  |  Check (26)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Computation (28)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Convince (43)  |  Correct (95)  |  Countless (39)  |  Danger (127)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fare (5)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Generally (15)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hide (70)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Thought (7)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Judge (114)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Less (105)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Manage (26)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metaphysic (7)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Originate (39)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Point (584)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realm (87)  |  Reason (766)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rid (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Rule (307)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Soon (187)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Support (151)  |  Survey (36)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmit (12)  |  True (239)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Use (771)  |  Verify (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

It is supposed that the ancients were ignorant of the law in hydraulics, by which water, in a tube, will rise as high as the fountain-head; and hence they carried their stupendous aqueducts horizontally, from hill-top to hill-top, upon lofty arches, with an incredible expenditure of labor and money. The knowledge of a single law, now familiar to every well-instructed school-boy,— namely, that water seeks a level, and, if not obstructed, will find it,—enables the poorest man of the present day to do what once demanded the wealth of an empire. The beautiful fragments of the ancient Roman aqueducts, which have survived the ravage of centuries, are often cited to attest the grandeur and power of their builders. To me, they are monuments, not of their power, but of their weakness.
In Thoughts Selected From the Writings of Horace Mann (1872), 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Aqueduct (4)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Boy (100)  |  Demand (131)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enable (122)  |  Expenditure (16)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Hydraulic (5)  |  Hydraulics (2)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Man (2252)  |  Money (178)  |  Monument (45)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Rise (169)  |  Roman (39)  |  School (227)  |  Seek (218)  |  Single (365)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Top (100)  |  Water (503)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Will (2350)

It is when physicians are bogged down … when they lack a clear understanding of disease mechanisms, that the deficiencies of the health-care system are most conspicuous. If I were a policy-maker, interested in saving money for health care over the long haul, I would regard it as an act of high prudence to give high priority to a lot more basic research in biologic science.
In 'The Technology of Medicine', The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974), 41-42.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Basic (144)  |  Basic Research (15)  |  Care (203)  |  Clear (111)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Deficiency (15)  |  Disease (340)  |  Down (455)  |  Health (210)  |  Health Care (10)  |  Human Biology (3)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interested (5)  |  Lack (127)  |  Long (778)  |  Lot (151)  |  Maker (34)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physician (284)  |  Priority (11)  |  Prudent (6)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Saving (20)  |  System (545)  |  Understanding (527)

It might be going too far to say that the modern scientific movement was tainted from its birth; but I think it would be true to say that it was born in an unhealthy neighborhood and at an inauspicious hour. Its triumphs may have been too rapid and purchased at too high a price: reconsideration, and something like repentance, may be required.
In The Abolition of Man (1978).
Science quotes on:  |  Birth (154)  |  Hour (192)  |  Modern (402)  |  Movement (162)  |  Neighborhood (12)  |  Price (57)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Required (108)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Taint (10)  |  Tainted (5)  |  Think (1122)  |  Triumph (76)

It must not be forgotten that although a high standard of morality gives a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe, yet an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Give (208)  |  Immense (89)  |  Individual (420)  |  Man (2252)  |  Morality (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Same (166)  |  Slight (32)  |  Standard (64)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Will (2350)

It... [can] be easily shown:
1. That all present mountains did not exist from the beginning of things.
2. That there is no growing of mountains.
3. That the rocks or mountains have nothing in common with the bones of animals except a certain resemblance in hardness, since they agree in neither matter nor manner of production, nor in composition, nor in function, if one may be permitted to affirm aught about a subject otherwise so little known as are the functions of things.
4. That the extension of crests of mountains, or chains, as some prefer to call them, along the lines of certain definite zones of the earth, accords with neither reason nor experience.
5. That mountains can be overthrown, and fields carried over from one side of a high road across to the other; that peaks of mountains can be raised and lowered, that the earth can be opened and closed again, and that other things of this kind occur which those who in their reading of history wish to escape the name of credulous, consider myths.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 232-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aught (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bone (101)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Closed (38)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Consider (428)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Definite (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Escape (85)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Function (235)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Myth (58)  |  Name (359)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reason (766)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rock (176)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wish (216)

It’s not the critic who counts; not the man which points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again … who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
In Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Inside: A Public and Private Life (2005), 356.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Arena (4)  |  Belong (168)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Blood (144)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cold (115)  |  Count (107)  |  Credit (24)  |  Critic (21)  |  Dare (55)  |  Daring (17)  |  Deed (34)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Dust (68)  |  End (603)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Error (339)  |  Face (214)  |  Fail (191)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marred (3)  |  Never (1089)  |  Point (584)  |  Short (200)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spend (97)  |  Strive (53)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Timidity (5)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Valiantly (2)  |  Victory (40)  |  Worst (57)

Junior high school seemed like a fine idea when we invented it but it turned out to be an invention of the devil. We’re catching our boys in a net in which they’re socially unprepared. We put them in junior high school with girls who are two years ahead of them. There isn’t a thing they should have to do with girls at this age except growl at them.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ahead (21)  |  Boy (100)  |  Catch (34)  |  Devil (34)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fine (37)  |  Girl (38)  |  Growl (3)  |  High School (15)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invent (57)  |  Invention (400)  |  Junior (6)  |  Net (12)  |  School (227)  |  Social (261)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turn Out (9)  |  Two (936)  |  Unprepared (2)  |  Year (963)

Just as it will never be successfully challenged that the French language, progressively developing and growing more perfect day by day, has the better claim to serve as a developed court and world language, so no one will venture to estimate lightly the debt which the world owes to mathematicians, in that they treat in their own language matters of the utmost importance, and govern, determine and decide whatever is subject, using the word in the highest sense, to number and measurement.
In 'Sprüche in Prosa', Natur, III, 868.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Claim (154)  |  Court (35)  |  Debt (15)  |  Decide (50)  |  Determine (152)  |  Develop (278)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  French (21)  |  Govern (66)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Importance (299)  |  Language (308)  |  Lightly (2)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Subject (543)  |  Successful (134)  |  Treat (38)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Venture (19)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Let him look at that dazzling light hung aloft as an eternal lamp to lighten the universe; let him behold the earth, a mere dot compared with the vast circuit which that orb describes, and stand amazed to find that the vast circuit itself is but a very fine point compared with the orbit traced by the stars as they roll their course on high. But if our vision halts there, let imagination pass beyond; it will fail to form a conception long before Nature fails to supply material. The whole visible world is but an imperceptible speck in the ample bosom of Nature. No notion comes near it. Though we may extend our thought beyond imaginable space, yet compared with reality we bring to birth mere atoms. Nature is an infinite sphere whereof the centre is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, imagination is brought to silence at the thought, and that is the most perceptible sign of the all-power of God.
Let man reawake and consider what he is compared with the reality of things; regard himself lost in this remote corner of Nature; and from the tiny cell where he lodges, to wit the Universe, weigh at their true worth earth, kingdoms, towns, himself. What is a man face to face with infinity?
Pensées (1670), Section 1, aphorism 43. In H. F. Stewart (ed.), Pascal’s Pensées (1950), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Aloft (5)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Ample (4)  |  Atom (381)  |  Behold (19)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Birth (154)  |  Bosom (14)  |  Cell (146)  |  Centre (31)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Corner (59)  |  Course (413)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Describe (132)  |  Dot (18)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Extend (129)  |  Face (214)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  God (776)  |  Halt (10)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imperceptibility (2)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Light (635)  |  Lodge (3)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Lost (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Orb (20)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perception (97)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Reality (274)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remote (86)  |  Roll (41)  |  Short (200)  |  Sign (63)  |  Silence (62)  |  Space (523)  |  Speck (25)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Town (30)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  Visibility (6)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vision (127)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wit (61)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

Let us ... consider the ovum [egg] as a physical system. Its potentialities are prodigious and one's first impulse is to expect that such vast potentialities would find expression in complexity of structure. But what do we find? The substance is clouded with particles, but these can be centrifuged away leaving it optically structureless but still capable of development.... On the surface of the egg there is a fine membrane, below it fluid of high viscosity, next fluid of relatively low viscosity, and within this the nucleus, which in the resting stage is simply a bag of fluid enclosed in a delicate membrane.... The egg's simplicity is not that of a machine or a crystal, but that of a nebula. Gathered into it are units relatively simple but capable by their combinations of forming a vast number of dynamical systems...
As guest of honour, closing day address (Jun 1928), Sixth Colloid Symposium, Toronto, Canada, 'Living Matter', printed in Harry Boyer Weiser (ed.), Colloid Symposium Monograph (1928), Vol. 6, 15. Quoted in Joseph Needham, Chemical Embryology (1931), Vol. 1, 612-613.
Science quotes on:  |  Capable (174)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Combination (150)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  Dynamical (15)  |  Egg (71)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expression (181)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Forming (42)  |  Gather (76)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Low (86)  |  Machine (271)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Next (238)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Ovum (4)  |  Particle (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Potential (75)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Stage (152)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Vast (188)  |  Viscosity (3)

Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings.
About the ambitious pursuit of knowledge, alluding to Icarus of the Greek myth.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1999), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Fly (153)  |  Greek (109)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Myth (58)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  See (1094)  |  Sun (407)  |  Wax (13)  |  Wing (79)

Life is order, death is disorder. A fundamental law of Nature states that spontaneous chemical changes in the universe tend toward chaos. But life has, during milliards of years of evolution, seemingly contradicted this law. With the aid of energy derived from the sun it has built up the most complicated systems to be found in the universe—living organisms. Living matter is characterized by a high degree of chemical organisation on all levels, from the organs of large organisms to the smallest constituents of the cell. The beauty we experience when we enjoy the exquisite form of a flower or a bird is a reflection of a microscopic beauty in the architecture of molecules.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Introductory Address'. Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1981-1990 (1992), 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Bird (163)  |  Build (211)  |  Cell (146)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Change (8)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Death (406)  |  Degree (277)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experience (494)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Flower (112)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organism (231)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Spontaneous (29)  |  State (505)  |  Sun (407)  |  System (545)  |  Tend (124)  |  Universe (900)  |  Year (963)

Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole Nature, and it doth instruct us concerning the differing and agreement of things amongst themselves, whence it produceth its wonderful effects, by uniting the virtues of things through the application of them one to the other.
In De Occulta Philosophia (1533), Vol. 1. Translation by J.F. (1651) reprinted as The Philosophy of Natural Magic (1913), 38-39.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Application (257)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Effect (414)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Magic (92)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Profound (105)  |  Quality (139)  |  Secret (216)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Unite (43)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)

Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work. … Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty,
(1907) As quoted in 'Closing In', Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham, Architect, Planner of Cities (1921), Vol. 2, 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Beacon (8)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Blood (144)  |  Hope (321)  |  Little (717)  |  Magic (92)  |  Order (638)  |  Plan (122)  |  Stir (23)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Making mathematics accessible to the educated layman, while keeping high scientific standards, has always been considered a treacherous navigation between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public misunderstanding.
In Rota's 'Introduction' written (1980) to preface Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh, The Mathematical Experience (1981, 2012), xxiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Educated (12)  |  Layman (21)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Professional (77)  |  Public (100)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Standard (64)  |  Treacherous (2)

Many persons have inquired concerning a recent message of mine that “a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels.”
From interview with Michael Amrine, 'The Real Problem is in the Hearts of Men', New York Times Magazine, (23 Jun 1946), 7. See more of the message from which Einstein quoted himself, see the longer quote that begins, “Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived…,” on the Albert Einstein Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Essential (210)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Level (69)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Message (53)  |  Mine (78)  |  Move (223)  |  New (1273)  |  Person (366)  |  Recent (78)  |  Survive (87)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Type (171)

March 24, 1672. I saw the surgeon cut off the leg of a wounded sailor, the stout and gallant man enduring it with incredible patience without being bound to his chair as usual on such painful occasions. I had hardly courage enough to be present. Not being cut off high enough, the gangrene prevailed, and the second operation cost the poor creature his life.
Science quotes on:  |  Amputation (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chair (25)  |  Cost (94)  |  Courage (82)  |  Creature (242)  |  Cut (116)  |  Enough (341)  |  Gangrene (3)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Leg (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  March (48)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Operation (221)  |  Patience (58)  |  Poor (139)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Sailor (21)  |  Saw (160)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Wound (26)

Mathematical knowledge, therefore, appears to us of value not only in so far as it serves as means to other ends, but for its own sake as well, and we behold, both in its systematic external and internal development, the most complete and purest logical mind-activity, the embodiment of the highest intellect-esthetics.
In 'Ueber Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, Bd. 13, 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Appear (122)  |  Both (496)  |  Complete (209)  |  Development (441)  |  Embodiment (9)  |  End (603)  |  External (62)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Internal (69)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pure (299)  |  Sake (61)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Mathematics because of its nature and structure is peculiarly fitted for high school instruction [Gymnasiallehrfach]. Especially the higher mathematics, even if presented only in its elements, combines within itself all those qualities which are demanded of a secondary subject.
In Die Mathematik die Fackelträgerin einer neuen Zeit (1889), 40. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Combine (58)  |  Demand (131)  |  Element (322)  |  Fit (139)  |  High School (15)  |  Higher Mathematics (7)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Peculiarly (4)  |  Present (630)  |  Quality (139)  |  School (227)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Mathematics gives the young man a clear idea of demonstration and habituates him to form long trains of thought and reasoning methodically connected and sustained by the final certainty of the result; and it has the further advantage, from a purely moral point of view, of inspiring an absolute and fanatical respect for truth. In addition to all this, mathematics, and chiefly algebra and infinitesimal calculus, excite to a high degree the conception of the signs and symbols—necessary instruments to extend the power and reach of the human mind by summarizing an aggregate of relations in a condensed form and in a kind of mechanical way. These auxiliaries are of special value in mathematics because they are there adequate to their definitions, a characteristic which they do not possess to the same degree in the physical and mathematical [natural?] sciences.
There are, in fact, a mass of mental and moral faculties that can be put in full play only by instruction in mathematics; and they would be made still more available if the teaching was directed so as to leave free play to the personal work of the student.
In 'Science as an Instrument of Education', Popular Science Monthly (1897), 253.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Addition (70)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Available (80)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Clear (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Condense (15)  |  Connect (126)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excite (17)  |  Extend (129)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fanatical (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Final (121)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Full (68)  |  Give (208)  |  Habituate (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (881)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leave (138)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mental (179)  |  Methodically (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Personal (75)  |  Physical (518)  |  Play (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Sign (63)  |  Special (188)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Summarize (10)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

Mathematics is a type of thought which seems ingrained in the human mind, which manifests itself to some extent with even the primitive races, and which is developed to a high degree with the growth of civilization. … A type of thought, a body of results, so essentially characteristic of the human mind, so little influenced by environment, so uniformly present in every civilization, is one of which no well-informed mind today can be ignorant.
In Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and the Secondary School (1906), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Degree (277)  |  Develop (278)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extent (142)  |  Growth (200)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inform (50)  |  Informed (5)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Present (630)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Race (278)  |  Result (700)  |  Thought (995)  |  Today (321)  |  Type (171)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Well-Informed (7)

Mathematics, like dialectics, is an organ of the inner higher sense; in its execution it is an art like eloquence. Both alike care nothing for the content, to both nothing is of value but the form. It is immaterial to mathematics whether it computes pennies or guineas, to rhetoric whether it defends truth or error.
From Wilhelm Meislers Wanderjahre (1829), Zweites Buch. Collected in Goethe’s Werke (1830), Vol. 22, 252. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 36-37. The same book has another translation on p.202: “Mathematics, like dialectics, is an organ of the higher sense, in its execution it is an art like eloquence. To both nothing but the form is of value; neither cares anything for content. Whether mathematics considers pennies or guineas, whether rhetoric defends truth or error, is perfectly immaterial to either.” From the original German, “Die Mathematik ist, wie die Dialektik, ein Organ des inneren höheren Sinnes, in der Ausübung ist sie eine Kunst wie die Beredsamkeit. Für beide hat nichts Wert als die Form; der Gehalt ist ihnen gleichgültig. Ob die Mathematik Pfennige oder oder Guineen berechne, die Rhetorik Wahres oder Falsches verteidige, ist beiden vollkommen gleich.”
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Art (680)  |  Both (496)  |  Care (203)  |  Compute (19)  |  Content (75)  |  Defend (32)  |  Dialectic (6)  |  Eloquence (7)  |  Error (339)  |  Execution (25)  |  Form (976)  |  Guinea (2)  |  Immaterial (6)  |  Inner (72)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Organ (118)  |  Penny (6)  |  Rhetoric (13)  |  Sense (785)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)

Mathematics, while giving no quick remuneration, like the art of stenography or the craft of bricklaying, does furnish the power for deliberate thought and accurate statement, and to speak the truth is one of the most social qualities a person can possess. Gossip, flattery, slander, deceit, all spring from a slovenly mind that has not been trained in the power of truthful statement, which is one of the highest utilities.
In Social Phases of Education in the School and the Home (1900), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Art (680)  |  Craft (11)  |  Deceit (7)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Gossip (10)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quick (13)  |  Remuneration (2)  |  Slander (3)  |  Slovenly (2)  |  Social (261)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spring (140)  |  Statement (148)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Men go into space to see whether it is the kind of place where other men, and their families and their children, can eventually follow them. A disturbingly high proportion of the intelligent young are discontented because they find the life before them intolerably confining. The moon offers a new frontier. It is as simple and splendid as that.
Editorial on the moon landing, The Economist (1969).
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Confine (26)  |  Discontented (2)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Family (101)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1273)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Proportion (140)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Young (253)

More and more of out colleagues fail to understand our work because of the high specialization of research problems. We must not be discouraged if the products of our labor are not read or even known to exist. The joy of research must be found in doing since every other harvest is uncertain.
Letter to Dr. E. B. Krumhaar (11 Oct 1933), in Journal of Bacteriology (Jan 1934), 27, No. 1, 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Colleague (51)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Doing (277)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Joy (117)  |  Known (453)  |  Labor (200)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Research (753)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

Mr. Hobbes told me that the cause of his Lordship's [Francis Bacon's] death was trying an Experiment: viz. as he was taking the aire in a Coach with Dr. Witherborne (a Scotchman, Physitian to the King) towards High-gate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into my Lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in Salt. They were resolved they would try the Experiment presently. They alighted out of the Coach and went into a poore woman's house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a Hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the body with Snow, and my Lord did help to doe it himselfe. The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging.
John Aubrey, Brief Lives (1680), edited by Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Death (406)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Gate (33)  |  Ground (222)  |  House (143)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Lord (97)  |  Pneumonia (8)  |  Refrigeration (3)  |  Return (133)  |  Salt (48)  |  Snow (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Why (491)  |  Woman (160)

My heart rate wasn’t as high as his [Robert Crippen], because I’m so dang old and it just wouldn’t go any faster.
As quoted on the nmspacemuseum.org website of the New Mexico Museum of Space History.
Science quotes on:  |   Robert Laurel Crippen, (2)  |  Fast (49)  |  Faster (50)  |  Heart (243)  |  Old (499)  |  Rate (31)

My interest in chemistry was started by reading Robert Kennedy Duncan’s popular books while a high school student in Des Moines, Iowa, so that after some delay when it was possible for me to go to college I had definitely decided to specialize in chemistry.
Letter (4 Apr 1932) to Pauline G. Beery. Hagley Museum and Library Collection, Wilmington, Delaware. 1784.) As cited in Matthew E. Hermes, Enough for One Lifetime: Wallace Carothers, Inventor of Nylon (1996), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Book (413)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  College (71)  |  Delay (21)  |  Robert Kennedy Duncan (3)  |  High School (15)  |  Interest (416)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reading (136)  |  School (227)  |  Specialize (4)  |  Start (237)  |  Student (317)  |  University (130)

My interest in the sciences started with mathematics in the very beginning, and later with chemistry in early high school and the proverbial home chemistry set.
In Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Les Prix Nobel/The Nobel Prizes 1992.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chemistry Set (3)  |  Early (196)  |  High School (15)  |  Home (184)  |  Interest (416)  |  Later (18)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Proverbial (8)  |  School (227)  |  Set (400)  |  Start (237)

My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely necessary. I always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Bring (95)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Distaste (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insuperable (3)  |  Justice (40)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Often (109)  |  Passion (121)  |  People (1031)  |  Regard (312)  |  Social (261)  |  Violence (37)

My position is that it is high time for a calm debate on more fundamental questions. Does human spaceflight continue to serve a compelling cultural purpose and/or our national interest?
In 'Is Human Spaceflight Obsolete?', Issues in Science and Technology (Summer 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Calm (32)  |  Compelling (11)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Debate (40)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Human (1512)  |  Interest (416)  |  More (2558)  |  National (29)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Serve (64)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Time (1911)

Natural Science treats of motion and force. Many of its teachings remain as part of an educated man's permanent equipment in life.
Such are:
(a) The harder you shove a bicycle the faster it will go. This is because of natural science.
(b) If you fall from a high tower, you fall quicker and quicker and quicker; a judicious selection of a tower will ensure any rate of speed.(c) If you put your thumb in between two cogs it will go on and on, until the wheels are arrested, by your suspenders. This is machinery.
(d) Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one kind comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it.
In Literary Lapses (1918), 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Cog (7)  |  Difference (355)  |  Durable (7)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Fall (243)  |  Faster (50)  |  Force (497)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Negative (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Positive (98)  |  Remain (355)  |  Selection (130)  |  Speed (66)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Tower (45)  |  Two (936)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Will (2350)

Natural selection is a mechanism for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability.
This is not a verbatim quote, but it is a summary of Fisher’s idea, as appearing without quotation marks in the words of the editor, Julian Huxley, in J.S. Huxley, A.C. Hardy and E.B. Ford (eds.), Evolution as a Process (1954), 5. The lengthier quote is from Fisher’s full essay 'Retrospect of the Criticisms of the Theory of Natural Selection' which appears in the same book on p.91. See it elsewhere in this site’s collection, as the Fisher quote that begins: “It was Darwin’s chief contribution…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Improbability (11)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Selection (130)

Newton’s theory is the circle of generalization which includes all the others [as Kepler’s laws, Ptolemy’s theory, etc.];—the highest point of the inductive ascent;—the catastrophe of the philosophic drama to which Plato had prologized;— the point to which men’s minds had been journeying for two thousand years.
In History of the Inductive Sciences, Bk. 7, chap. 2, sect. 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascent (7)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Circle (117)  |  Drama (24)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Include (93)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Journey (48)  |  Kepler (4)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophic (6)  |  Plato (80)  |  Point (584)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)

Ninety-nine and nine-tenths of the earth’s volume must forever remain invisible and untouchable. Because more than 97 per cent of it is too hot to crystallize, its body is extremely weak. The crust, being so thin, must bend, if, over wide areas, it becomes loaded with glacial ice, ocean water or deposits of sand and mud. It must bend in the opposite sense if widely extended loads of such material be removed. This accounts for … the origin of chains of high mountains … and the rise of lava to the earth’s surface.
Presidential speech to the Geological Society of America at Cambridge, Mass. (1932). As quoted in New York Times (20 Sep 1957), 23. Also summarized in Popular Mechanics (Apr 1933), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bend (13)  |  Body (557)  |  Chain (51)  |  Crust (43)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extend (129)  |  Forever (111)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ice (58)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Lava (12)  |  Load (12)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mud (26)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Origin (250)  |  Remain (355)  |  Removal (12)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sand (63)  |  Sense (785)  |  Surface (223)  |  Water (503)  |  Weak (73)  |  Wide (97)

No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.
Address, Convention Hall, Philadelphia (10 May 1915). In 'Text of President’s Speech: Tells New Citizens, They Must Think Themselves Only Americans', New York Times (11 May 1915), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Hope (321)  |  Man (2252)  |  Realize (157)  |  See (1094)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)

Nobody is calling for an end to fishing on the high seas but some techniques, for example bottom trawling, must be banned.
In 'Can We Stop Killing Our Oceans Now, Please?', Huffington Post (14 Aug 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Ban (9)  |  Bottom (36)  |  End (603)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Sea (326)  |  Technique (84)  |  Trawling (6)

Nothing I then learned [in high school] had any bearing at all on the big and real questions. Who am I? What am I doing here? What is the world? What is my relationship to it?
This View of Life: the World of an Evolutionist (1964), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Doing (277)  |  High School (15)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Relationship (114)  |  School (227)  |  World (1850)

Nothing in physics seems so hopeful to as the idea that it is possible for a theory to have a high degree of symmetry was hidden from us in everyday life. The physicist's task is to find this deeper symmetry.
In American Scientist (1977) (as cited in The Atlantic (1984), 254, 81.) As an epigraph in Crystal and Dragon: The Cosmic Dance of Symmetry and Chaos in Nature, Art and Consciousness (1993), 139.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Seem (150)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Task (152)  |  Theory (1015)

October 9, 1863
Always, however great the height of the balloon, when I have seen the horizon it has roughly appeared to be on the level of the car though of course the dip of the horizon is a very appreciable quantity or the same height as the eye. From this one might infer that, could the earth be seen without a cloud or anything to obscure it, and the boundary line of the plane approximately the same height as the eye, the general appearance would be that of a slight concavity; but I have never seen any part of the surface of the earth other than as a plane.
Towns and cities, when viewed from the balloon are like models in motion. I shall always remember the ascent of 9th October, 1863, when we passed over London about sunset. At the time when we were 7,000 feet high, and directly over London Bridge, the scene around was one that cannot probably be equalled in the world. We were still so low as not to have lost sight of the details of the spectacle which presented itself to our eyes; and with one glance the homes of 3,000,000 people could be seen, and so distinct was the view, that every large building was easily distinguishable. In fact, the whole of London was visible, and some parts most clearly. All round, the suburbs were also very distinct, with their lines of detached villas, imbedded as it were in a mass of shrubs; beyond, the country was like a garden, its fields, well marked, becoming smaller and smaller as the eye wandered farther and farther away.
Again looking down, there was the Thames, throughout its whole length, without the slightest mist, dotted over its winding course with innumerable ships and steamboats, like moving toys. Gravesend was visible, also the mouth of the Thames, and the coast around as far as Norfolk. The southern shore of the mouth of the Thames was not so clear, but the sea beyond was seen for many miles; when at a higher elevation, I looked for the coast of France, but was unable to see it. On looking round, the eye was arrested by the garden-like appearance of the county of Kent, till again London claimed yet more careful attention.
Smoke, thin and blue, was curling from it, and slowly moving away in beautiful curves, from all except one part, south of the Thames, where it was less blue and seemed more dense, till the cause became evident; it was mixed with mist rising from the ground, the southern limit of which was bounded by an even line, doubtless indicating the meeting of the subsoils of gravel and clay. The whole scene was surmounted by a canopy of blue, everywhere free from cloud, except near the horizon, where a band of cumulus and stratus extended all round, forming a fitting boundary to such a glorious view.
As seen from the earth, the sunset this evening was described as fine, the air being clear and the shadows well defined; but, as we rose to view it and its effects, the golden hues increased in intensity; their richness decreased as the distance from the sun increased, both right and left; but still as far as 90º from the sun, rose-coloured clouds extended. The remainder of the circle was completed, for the most part, by pure white cumulus of well-rounded and symmetrical forms.
I have seen London by night. I have crossed it during the day at the height of four miles. I have often admired the splendour of sky scenery, but never have I seen anything which surpassed this spectacle. The roar of the town heard at this elevation was a deep, rich, continuous sound the voice of labour. At four miles above London, all was hushed; no sound reached our ears.
Travels in the Air (1871), 99-100.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Attention (196)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Building (158)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Car (75)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circle (117)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Completed (30)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Country (269)  |  Course (413)  |  Curve (49)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detail (150)  |  Distance (171)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Down (455)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Farther (51)  |  Field (378)  |  Flight (101)  |  Form (976)  |  Forming (42)  |  Free (239)  |  Garden (64)  |  General (521)  |  Glance (36)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Golden (47)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Home (184)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Labor (200)  |  Large (398)  |  Limit (294)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Low (86)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mist (17)  |  Model (106)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  People (1031)  |  Present (630)  |  Pure (299)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Reach (286)  |  Remainder (7)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Rising (44)  |  Rose (36)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Ship (69)  |  Shrub (5)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Sound (187)  |  South (39)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Splendour (8)  |  Steamboat (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Suburb (7)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Thames (6)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toy (22)  |  View (496)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wander (44)  |  White (132)  |  Whole (756)  |  Winding (8)  |  World (1850)

Of agitating good roads there is no end, and perhaps this is as it should be, but I think you'll agree that it is high time to agitate less and build more. [Here is] a plan whereby the automobile industry of America can build a magnificent “Appian Way” from New York to San Francisco, having it completed by May 1, 1915 and present it to the people of the United States.
From letter (1912) to Elbert Hubbard. In the Lincoln Highway Association, The Lincoln Highway: the Story of a Crusade That Made Transportation History (1935), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Build (211)  |  Completed (30)  |  End (603)  |  Good (906)  |  Industry (159)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Present (630)  |  Road (71)  |  San Francisco (3)  |  State (505)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  U.S.A. (7)  |  Way (1214)

Of all regions of the earth none invites speculation more than that which lies beneath our feet, and in none is speculation more dangerous; yet, apart from speculation, it is little that we can say regarding the constitution of the interior of the earth. We know, with sufficient accuracy for most purposes, its size and shape: we know that its mean density is about 5½ times that of water, that the density must increase towards the centre, and that the temperature must be high, but beyond these facts little can be said to be known. Many theories of the earth have been propounded at different times: the central substance of the earth has been supposed to be fiery, fluid, solid, and gaseous in turn, till geologists have turned in despair from the subject, and become inclined to confine their attention to the outermost crust of the earth, leaving its centre as a playground for mathematicians.
'The Constitution of the Interior of the Earth, as Revealed by Earthquakes', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (1906), 62, 456.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Attention (196)  |  Become (821)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Central (81)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Crust (43)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Density (25)  |  Despair (40)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Increase (225)  |  Interior (35)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Playground (6)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Say (989)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Water (503)

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
my eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
where never lark, or even eagle flew
and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bond (46)  |  Burn (99)  |  Burning (49)  |  Chase (14)  |  Climb (39)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Craft (11)  |  Dance (35)  |  Delirious (2)  |  Dream (222)  |  Eager (17)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Face (214)  |  Fling (5)  |  Fly (153)  |  God (776)  |  Grace (31)  |  Hall (5)  |  Hand (149)  |  Height (33)  |  Hover (8)  |  Hovering (5)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Join (32)  |  Lark (2)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Lift (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirth (3)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sanctity (4)  |  Shout (25)  |  Silence (62)  |  Silent (31)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sky (174)  |  Slip (6)  |  Soar (23)  |  Space (523)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunlit (2)  |  Sunward (2)  |  Swing (12)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Top (100)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tread (17)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Tumbling (2)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Wind (141)  |  Wing (79)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hammer (26)  |  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)

On poetry and geometric truth,
And their high privilege of lasting life,
From all internal injury exempt,
I mused; upon these chiefly: and at length,
My senses yielding to the sultry air,
Sleep seized me, and I passed into a dream.
From 'The Prelude' in Book 5, collected in Henry Reed (ed.), The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth (1851), 497.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Dream (222)  |  Exempt (3)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Injury (36)  |  Internal (69)  |  Life (1870)  |  Muse (10)  |  Pass (241)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Seize (18)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Yield (86)

On the basis of the results recorded in this review, it can be claimed that the average sand grain has taken many hundreds of millions of years to lose 10 per cent. of its weight by abrasion and become subangular. It is a platitude to point to the slowness of geological processes. But much depends on the way things are put. For it can also be said that a sand grain travelling on the bottom of a river loses 10 million molecules each time it rolls over on its side and that representation impresses us with the high rate of this loss. The properties of quartz have led to the concentration of its grains on the continents, where they could now form a layer averaging several hundred metres thick. But to my mind the most astounding numerical estimate that follows from the present evaluations, is that during each and every second of the incredibly long geological past the number of quartz grains on earth has increased by 1,000 million.
'Sand-its Origin, Transportation, Abrasion and Accumulation', The Geological Society of South Africa (1959), Annexure to Volume 62, 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Astounding (9)  |  Average (89)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Claim (154)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Continent (79)  |  Depend (238)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Evaluation (10)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grain (50)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Layer (41)  |  Long (778)  |  Lose (165)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Past (355)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Quartz (2)  |  Record (161)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)  |  Review (27)  |  River (140)  |  Roll (41)  |  Sand (63)  |  Side (236)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Year (963)

One can argue that mathematics is a human activity deeply rooted in reality, and permanently returning to reality. From counting on one’s fingers to moon-landing to Google, we are doing mathematics in order to understand, create, and handle things, … Mathematicians are thus more or less responsible actors of human history, like Archimedes helping to defend Syracuse (and to save a local tyrant), Alan Turing cryptanalyzing Marshal Rommel’s intercepted military dispatches to Berlin, or John von Neumann suggesting high altitude detonation as an efficient tactic of bombing.
In 'Mathematical Knowledge: Internal, Social and Cultural Aspects', Mathematics As Metaphor: Selected Essays (2007), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Berlin (10)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Counting (26)  |  Create (245)  |  Defend (32)  |  Detonation (2)  |  Dispatch (2)  |  Doing (277)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Finger (48)  |  Google (4)  |  Handle (29)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intercept (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Military (45)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moon Landing (9)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Order (638)  |  Reality (274)  |  Root (121)  |  Save (126)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Alan M. Turing (7)  |  Tyrant (10)  |  Understand (648)

One of the many useful properties of giant nerve fibres is that samples of protoplasm or axoplasm as it is usually called can be obtained by squeezing out the contents from a cut end … As in many other cells there is a high concentration of potassium ions and relatively low concentration of sodium and chloride ions. This is the reverse of the situation in the animals’ blood or in sea water, where sodium and chloride are the dominant ions and potassium is relatively dilute.
The Conduction of the Nervous Impulse (1964), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Blood (144)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Cut (116)  |  Dominant (26)  |  End (603)  |  Giant (73)  |  Ion (21)  |  Low (86)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Sample (19)  |  Sea (326)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usually (176)  |  Water (503)

One of the most curious and interesting reptiles which I met with in Borneo was a large tree-frog, which was brought me by one of the Chinese workmen. He assured me that he had seen it come down in a slanting direction from a high tree, as if it flew. On examining it, I found the toes very long and fully webbed to their very extremity, so that when expanded they offered a surface much larger than the body. The forelegs were also bordered by a membrane, and the body was capable of considerable inflation. The back and limbs were of a very deep shining green colour, the undersurface and the inner toes yellow, while the webs were black, rayed with yellow. The body was about four inches long, while the webs of each hind foot, when fully expanded, covered a surface of four square inches, and the webs of all the feet together about twelve square inches. As the extremities of the toes have dilated discs for adhesion, showing the creature to be a true tree frog, it is difficult to imagine that this immense membrane of the toes can be for the purpose of swimming only, and the account of the Chinaman, that it flew down from the tree, becomes more credible. This is, I believe, the first instance known of a “flying frog,” and it is very interesting to Darwinians as showing that the variability of the toes which have been already modified for purposes of swimming and adhesive climbing, have been taken advantage of to enable an allied species to pass through the air like the flying lizard. It would appear to be a new species of the genus Rhacophorus, which consists of several frogs of a much smaller size than this, and having the webs of the toes less developed.
Malay Archipelago
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adhesion (6)  |  Adhesive (2)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Air (366)  |  Ally (7)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (122)  |  Assure (16)  |  Back (395)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Black (46)  |  Body (557)  |  Border (10)  |  Borneo (3)  |  Bring (95)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Climb (39)  |  Color (155)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cover (40)  |  Creature (242)  |  Credible (3)  |  Curious (95)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Deep (241)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direction (185)  |  Disk (3)  |  Down (455)  |  Enable (122)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expand (56)  |  Extremity (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Foot (65)  |  Frog (44)  |  Fully (20)  |  Genus (27)  |  Green (65)  |  Hind (3)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inch (10)  |  Inflation (6)  |  Inner (72)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Large (398)  |  Less (105)  |  Limb (9)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Long (778)  |  Meet (36)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Modify (15)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Offer (142)  |  Pass (241)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reptile (33)  |  See (1094)  |  Several (33)  |  Shine (49)  |  Shining (35)  |  Show (353)  |  Size (62)  |  Small (489)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Through (846)  |  Toe (8)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)  |  Tree Frog (2)  |  True (239)  |  Underside (2)  |  Variability (5)  |  Web (17)  |  Workman (13)  |  Yellow (31)

One reason which has led the organic chemist to avert his mind from the problems of Biochemistry is the obsession that the really significant happenings in the animal body are concerned in the main with substances of such high molecular weight and consequent vagueness of molecular structure as to make their reactions impossible of study by his available and accurate methods. There remains, I find, pretty widely spread, the feeling—due to earlier biological teaching—that, apart from substances which are obviously excreta, all the simpler products which can be found in cells or tissues are as a class mere objects, already too remote from the fundamental biochemical events to have much significance. So far from this being the case, recent progress points in the clearest way to the fact that the molecules with which a most important and significant part of the chemical dynamics of living tissues is concerned are of a comparatively simple character.
In 'The Dynamic Side of Biochemistry', Address (11 Sep 1913) in Report on the 83rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1914), 657-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Already (226)  |  Animal (651)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Biological (137)  |  Body (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Class (168)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Due (143)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Happening (59)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Living (492)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular Structure (9)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Object (438)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Organic (161)  |  Point (584)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recent (78)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Significance (114)  |  Significant (78)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spread (86)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Substance (253)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Vagueness (15)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)

Our earth is very old, an old warrior that has lived through many battles. Nevertheless, the face of it is still changing, and science sees no certain limit of time for its stately evolution. Our solid earth, apparently so stable, inert, and finished, is changing, mobile, and still evolving. Its major quakings are largely the echoes of that divine far-off event, the building of our noble mountains. The lava floods and intriguing volcanoes tell us of the plasticity, mobility, of the deep interior of the globe. The slow coming and going of ancient shallow seas on the continental plateaus tell us of the rhythmic distortion of the deep interior-deep-seated flow and changes of volume. Mountain chains prove the earth’s solid crust itself to be mobile in high degree. And the secret of it all—the secret of the earthquake, the secret of the “temple of fire,” the secret of the ocean basin, the secret of the highland—is in the heart of the earth, forever invisible to human eyes.
In Our Mobile Earth (1926), 320.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Building (158)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Coming (114)  |  Crust (43)  |  Deep (241)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Divine (112)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Eye (440)  |  Face (214)  |  Finish (62)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flood (52)  |  Flow (89)  |  Forever (111)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inert (14)  |  Interior (35)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Lava (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Lithosphere (2)  |  Magma (4)  |  Major (88)  |  Mobility (11)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Noble (93)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Old (499)  |  Plasticity (7)  |  Prove (261)  |  Sea (326)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Slow (108)  |  Solid (119)  |  Stable (32)  |  Stately (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Tell (344)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Volcano (46)

Our time is distinguished by wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the inquiring constructive mind.
(Sep 1937). In Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman (eds.), Albert Einstein, the Human Side (1979), 70. The editors state that except being unrelated to “a ‘Preaching Mission’, nothing of any consequence is known of the circumstances that prompted its composition.”
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Alone (324)  |  Application (257)  |  Cheer (7)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Field (378)  |  Forget (125)  |  Happy (108)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Insight (107)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lead (391)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Objective (96)  |  Owe (71)  |  Place (192)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reason (766)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Skill (116)  |  Standard (64)  |  Technical (53)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value (393)  |  Wonderful (155)

Owing to their [minor planets or asteroids] small size; … The force of gravity on their surfaces must be very small. A man placed on one of them would spring with ease 60 feet high, and sustain no greater shock in his descent than he does on the Earth from leaping a yard. On such planets giants may exist; and those enormous animals which here require the buoyant power of water to counteract their weight, may there inhabit the land.
In Elements of Astronomy (1870), 153. The ellipsis reads “the largest minor planet is but 228 miles in diameter, and many of the smaller ones are less than 50.”
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Asteroid (19)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Counteract (5)  |  Descent (30)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ease (40)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Exist (458)  |  Force (497)  |  Giant (73)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inhabit (18)  |  Land (131)  |  Leap (57)  |  Power (771)  |  Require (229)  |  Shock (38)  |  Small (489)  |  Spring (140)  |  Surface (223)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Water (503)  |  Weight (140)  |  Yard (10)

Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life.
Carl Jung
In The Development of Personality (1953), 171. https://books.google.com/books?id= Carl Gustav Jung - 195
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Being (1276)  |  Courage (82)  |  Face (214)  |  Fling (5)  |  Idiosyncrasy (3)  |  Innate (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Living Being (3)  |  Personality (66)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Realization (44)  |  Supreme (73)

Pervasive depletion and overuse of water supplies, the high capital cost of new large water projects, rising pumping costs and worsening ecological damage call for a shift in the way water is valued, used and managed.
From a study Postel wrote for Worldwatch Institute, quoted in New York Times (22 Sep 1985), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Capital (16)  |  Cost (94)  |  Dam (8)  |  Damage (38)  |  Depletion (4)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Large (398)  |  Management (23)  |  New (1273)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Project (77)  |  Pump (9)  |  Rising (44)  |  Shift (45)  |  Supply (100)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)

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

Philosophy would long ago have reached a high level if our predecessors and fathers had put this into practice; and we would not waste time on the primary difficulties, which appear now as severe as in the first centuries which noticed them. We would have the experience of assured phenomena, which would serve as principles for a solid reasoning; truth would not be so deeply sunken; nature would have taken off most of her envelopes; one would see the marvels she contains in all her individuals. ...
Les Préludes de l'Harmonie Universelle (1634), 135-139. In Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1974), Vol. 9, 316.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Century (319)  |  Contain (68)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Envelope (6)  |  Experience (494)  |  Father (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Individual (420)  |  Long (778)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notice (81)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Practice (212)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  See (1094)  |  Severity (6)  |  Sinking (6)  |  Solid (119)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Waste (109)

Physical science comes nearest to that complete system of exact knowledge which all sciences have before them as an ideal. Some fall far short of it. The physicist who inveighs against the lack of coherence and the indefiniteness of theological theories, will probably speak not much less harshly of the theories of biology and psychology. They also fail to come up to his standard of methodology. On the other side of him stands an even superior being—the pure mathematician—who has no high opinion of the methods of deduction used in physics, and does not hide his disapproval of the laxity of what is accepted as proof in physical science. And yet somehow knowledge grows in all these branches. Wherever a way opens we are impelled to seek by the only methods that can be devised for that particular opening, not over-rating the security of our finding, but conscious that in this activity of mind we are obeying the light that is in our nature.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends’ House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 77-78.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Activity (218)  |  Against (332)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (232)  |  Coherence (13)  |  Complete (209)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fall (243)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hide (70)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lack (127)  |  Light (635)  |  Method (531)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Open (277)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Proof (304)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Pure (299)  |  Security (51)  |  Seek (218)  |  Short (200)  |  Side (236)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stand (284)  |  Superior (88)  |  System (545)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Will (2350)

Physicists do, of course, show a healthy respect for High Voltage, Radiation, and Liquid Hydrogen signs. They are not reckless. I can think of only six who have been killed on the job.
In Adventures of a Physicist (1987), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Course (413)  |  Death (406)  |  Do (1905)  |  Healthy (70)  |  High Voltage (2)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Job (86)  |  Kill (100)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Reckless (6)  |  Respect (212)  |  Show (353)  |  Think (1122)  |  Voltage (3)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Present (630)  |  Required (108)  |  Share (82)  |  Variety (138)

Ponder all things, and stablish high thy mind.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Mind (1377)  |  Ponder (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thou (9)

Professor [Max] Planck, of Berlin, the famous originator of the Quantum Theory, once remarked to me that in early life he had thought of studying economics, but had found it too difficult! Professor Planck could easily master the whole corpus of mathematical economics in a few days. He did not mean that! But the amalgam of logic and intuition and the wide knowledge of facts, most of which are not precise, which is required for economic interpretation in its highest form is, quite truly, overwhelmingly difficult for those whose gift mainly consists in the power to imagine and pursue to their furthest points the implications and prior conditions of comparatively simple facts which are known with a high degree of precision.
'Alfred Marshall: 1842-1924' (1924). In Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), Essays in Biography (1933), 191-2
Science quotes on:  |  Condition (362)  |  Consist (223)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Early (196)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Gift (105)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Intution (2)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Logic (311)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Originator (7)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Professor (133)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Required (108)  |  Simple (426)  |  Studying (70)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truly (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)

Professor Sylvester’s first high class at the new university Johns Hopkins consisted of only one student, G. B. Halsted, who had persisted in urging Sylvester to lecture on the modem algebra. The attempt to lecture on this subject led him into new investigations in quantics.
In Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 264.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Class (168)  |  Consist (223)  |  First (1302)  |  George B. Halsted (8)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Johns Hopkins (7)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modem (3)  |  New (1273)  |  Persist (13)  |  Professor (133)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  University (130)  |  Urge (17)

PROJECTILE, n. The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerly these disputes were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times could supply —the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth of prudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. Its capital defect is that it requires personal attendance at the point of propulsion.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  268.
Science quotes on:  |  Ammunition (2)  |  Argument (145)  |  Contact (66)  |  Defect (31)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Favor (69)  |  Final (121)  |  Growth (200)  |  Humour (116)  |  International (40)  |  Logic (311)  |  Military (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Projectile (3)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Require (229)  |  Settled (34)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spear (8)  |  Supply (100)  |  Sword (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  War (233)

Quite distinct from the theoretical question of the manner in which mathematics will rescue itself from the perils to which it is exposed by its own prolific nature is the practical problem of finding means of rendering available for the student the results which have been already accumulated, and making it possible for the learner to obtain some idea of the present state of the various departments of mathematics. … The great mass of mathematical literature will be always contained in Journals and Transactions, but there is no reason why it should not be rendered far more useful and accessible than at present by means of treatises or higher text-books. The whole science suffers from want of avenues of approach, and many beautiful branches of mathematics are regarded as difficult and technical merely because they are not easily accessible. … I feel very strongly that any introduction to a new subject written by a competent person confers a real benefit on the whole science. The number of excellent text-books of an elementary kind that are published in this country makes it all the more to be regretted that we have so few that are intended for the advanced student. As an example of the higher kind of text-book, the want of which is so badly felt in many subjects, I may mention the second part of Prof. Chrystal’s Algebra published last year, which in a small compass gives a great mass of valuable and fundamental knowledge that has hitherto been beyond the reach of an ordinary student, though in reality lying so close at hand. I may add that in any treatise or higher text-book it is always desirable that references to the original memoirs should be given, and, if possible, short historic notices also. I am sure that no subject loses more than mathematics by any attempt to dissociate it from its history.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A (1890), Nature, 42, 466.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Add (42)  |  Advance (298)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Already (226)  |  Approach (112)  |  At Hand (7)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Available (80)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Badly (32)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  Branch (155)  |  George Chrystal (8)  |  Close (77)  |  Compass (37)  |  Competent (20)  |  Confer (11)  |  Contain (68)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissociate (2)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Far (158)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historic (7)  |  History (716)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intend (18)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Journal (31)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Learner (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Literature (116)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lying (55)  |  Making (300)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mention (84)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  Part (235)  |  Peril (9)  |  Person (366)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prof (2)  |  Prolific (5)  |  Publish (42)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Real (159)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reference (33)  |  Regard (312)  |  Regret (31)  |  Render (96)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Second (66)  |  Short (200)  |  Small (489)  |  State (505)  |  Strongly (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Technical (53)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Various (205)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Deep (241)  |  Dream (222)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hide (70)  |  Lie (370)  |  Precede (23)  |  Reach (286)  |  Soul (235)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

Reagents are regarded as acting by virtue of a constitutional affinity either for electrons or for nuclei... the terms electrophilic (electron-seeking) and nucleophilic (nucleus-seeking) are suggested... and the organic molecule, in the activation necessary for reaction, is therefore required to develop at the seat of attack either a high or low electron density as the case may be.
'Significance of Tautomerism and of the Reactions of Aromatic Compounds in the Electronic Theory of Organic Relations', Journal of the Chemical Society (1933), 136, 1121, fn.
Science quotes on:  |  Activation (6)  |  Affinity (27)  |  Attack (86)  |  Density (25)  |  Develop (278)  |  Electron (96)  |  Low (86)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Organic (161)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Regard (312)  |  Required (108)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Virtue (117)

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.
From a History Channel TV show, (?) The Universe.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Better (493)  |  Biologically (4)  |  Body (557)  |  Center (35)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connected (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Crucible (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Enriching (2)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Feel (371)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Gas (89)  |  Guts (2)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mass (160)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Pristine (5)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rich (66)  |  Smile (34)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Traceable (5)  |  Universe (900)

Religion and science ... constitute deep-rooted and ancient efforts to find richer experience and deeper meaning than are found in the ordinary biological and social satisfactions. As pointed out by Whitehead, religion and science have similar origins and are evolving toward similar goals. Both started from crude observations and fanciful concepts, meaningful only within a narrow range of conditions for the people who formulated them of their limited tribal experience. But progressively, continuously, and almost simultaneously, religious and scientific concepts are ridding themselves of their coarse and local components, reaching higher and higher levels of abstraction and purity. Both the myths of religion and the laws of science, it is now becoming apparent, are not so much descriptions of facts as symbolic expressions of cosmic truths.
'On Being Human,' A God Within, Scribner (1972).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Coarse (4)  |  Component (51)  |  Concept (242)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deep (241)  |  Description (89)  |  Effort (243)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Local (25)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Observation (593)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  People (1031)  |  Point (584)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Purity (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (286)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rich (66)  |  Rid (14)  |  Root (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Social (261)  |  Start (237)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toward (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Alfred North Whitehead (140)

Research lifts teaching to a high plane. No one can be a really great educator unless he himself is an investigator.
As quoted in Vincent T. Andriole, 'Florence Rena Sabin—Teacher, Scientist, Citizen', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (Jul 1959), 14, No. 3, (July 1959), 325. Cited as from 'F. R. Sabin', Current Biography (Apr 1945).
Science quotes on:  |  Educator (7)  |  Great (1610)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Lift (57)  |  Plane (22)  |  Research (753)  |  Teach (299)

Science in England is not a profession: its cultivators are scarcely recognised even as a class. Our language itself contains no single term by which their occupation can be expressed. We borrow a foreign word [Savant] from another country whose high ambition it is to advance science, and whose deeper policy, in accord with more generous feelings, gives to the intellectual labourer reward and honour, in return for services which crown the nation with imperishable renown, and ultimately enrich the human race.
The Exposition of 1851: Or the Views of Industry, Science and Government of England (1851), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Borrow (31)  |  Class (168)  |  Country (269)  |  Crown (39)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Express (192)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Generous (17)  |  Honour (58)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Language (308)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Nation (208)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Profession (108)  |  Race (278)  |  Return (133)  |  Reward (72)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Service (110)  |  Single (365)  |  Term (357)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Word (650)

Science, the partisan of no country, but the beneficent patroness of all, has liberally opened a temple where all may meet. Her influence on the mind, like the sun on the chilled earth, has long been preparing it for higher cultivation and further improvement. The philosopher of one country sees not an enemy in the philosopher of another; he takes his seat in the temple of science, and asks not who sits beside him.
In Letter to the Abbé Reynal, on the 'Affairs of North America in which the Mistakes in the Abbé’s Account of the Revolution of America are Corrected and Cleared Up', collected in The Works of Thomas Paine (1797), Vol. 1, 295. Originally published in the Pennsylvania magazine (1775).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Beneficent (9)  |  Chill (10)  |  Country (269)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Influence (231)  |  Long (778)  |  Meet (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Open (277)  |  Partisan (5)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Seat (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temple (45)  |  Temple Of Science (8)

Science, unguided by a higher abstract principle, freely hands over its secrets to a vastly developed and commercially inspired technology, and the latter, even less restrained by a supreme culture saving principle, with the means of science creates all the instruments of power demanded from it by the organization of Might.
In the Shadow of Tomorrow, ch. 9 (1936).
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Commercially (3)  |  Create (245)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demand (131)  |  Develop (278)  |  Freely (13)  |  Hand (149)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Latter (21)  |  Less (105)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Organization (120)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Restrain (6)  |  Save (126)  |  Secret (216)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Technology (281)  |  Vastly (8)

Science, which now offers us a golden age with one hand, offers at the same time with the other the doom of all that we have built up inch by inch since the Stone Age and the dawn of any human annals. My faith is in the high progressive destiny of man. I do not believe we are to be flung back into abysmal darkness by those fiercesome discoveries which human genius has made. Let us make sure that they are servants, but not our masters.
In The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill by James C. Humes (1994).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Back (395)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doom (34)  |  Faith (209)  |  Genius (301)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Human (1512)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Servant (40)  |  Stone (168)  |  Stone Age (14)  |  Time (1911)

Scientific training gives its votaries freedom from the impositions of modern quackery. Those who know nothing of the laws and processes of Nature fall an easy prey to quacks and impostors. Perfectionism in the realm of religion; a score of frauds in the realm of medicine, as electric shoe soles, hair brushes and belts, electropises, oxydonors, insulating bed casters, and the like; Christian science, in the presence of whose unspeakable stillness and self-stultifying idealism a wise man knows not whether to laugh or cry; Prof. Weltmer’s magnetic treatment of disease; divine healing and miracle working by long-haired peripatetics—these and a score of other contagious fads and rank impostures find their followers among those who have no scientific training. Among their deluded victims are thousands of men and women of high character, undoubted piety, good intentions, charitable impulses and literary culture, but none trained to scientific research. Vaccinate the general public with scientific training and these epidemics will become a thing of the past.
As quoted by S.D. Van Meter, Chairman, closing remarks for 'Report of Committee on Public Policy and Legislation', to the Colorado State Medical Society in Denver, printed in Colorado Medicine (Oct 1904), 1, No. 12, 363. Van Meter used the quote following his statement, “In conclusion, allow me to urge once more the necessity of education of the public as well as the profession if we ever expect to correct the evils we are striving to reach by State and Society legislation. Much can be accomplished toward this end by the publication of well edited articles in the secular press upon medical subjects the public is eager to know about.” Prof. Weltmer is presumably Sidney A. Weltmer, founder of The Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics, who offered a Course in Magnetic Healing by mail order correspondence (1899). [The word printed as “electropises” in the article is presumably a typo for “electropoises”. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Bed (25)  |  Belt (4)  |  Brush (5)  |  Character (259)  |  Charity (13)  |  Christian (44)  |  Christian Science (3)  |  Contagious (5)  |  Cry (30)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deluded (7)  |  Disease (340)  |  Divine (112)  |  Eager (17)  |  Easy (213)  |  Education (423)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Epidemic (8)  |  Fad (10)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follower (11)  |  Fraud (15)  |  Freedom (145)  |  General (521)  |  General Public (7)  |  Good (906)  |  Good Intention (2)  |  Hair (25)  |  Healing (28)  |  Idealism (4)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Imposition (5)  |  Impostor (4)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insulating (3)  |  Intelligent Design (5)  |  Intention (46)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Law (913)  |  Literary (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Modern (402)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfectionism (2)  |  Peripatetic (3)  |  Piety (5)  |  Presence (63)  |  Prey (13)  |  Process (439)  |  Quack (18)  |  Quackery (4)  |  Rank (69)  |  Realm (87)  |  Religion (369)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Self (268)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Sole (50)  |  Stillness (5)  |  Stultify (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Train (118)  |  Trained (5)  |  Training (92)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Victim (37)  |  Votary (3)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wise Man (17)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)

Scientists have reaped rich rewards, they have sat high in government councils and have been blinded by the attractiveness of public life—all this because they happen to have been good killers.
'Science in the Age of Aquarius', EOS—Transactions of the American Geophysical Union (1974), 55, 1026.
Science quotes on:  |  Attractiveness (2)  |  Blind (98)  |  Blindness (11)  |  Council (9)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Happen (282)  |  Killer (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Public (100)  |  Reap (19)  |  Reaping (4)  |  Reward (72)  |  Scientist (881)

Scientists, especially when they leave the particular field in which they are specialized, are just as ordinary, pig-headed, and unreasonable as everybody else, and their unusually high intelligence only makes their prejudices all the more dangerous.
Sense and Nonsense in Psychology (1957), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Field (378)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Unreasonable (5)

See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being, which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect! what no eye can see,
No glass can reach! from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing—On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
'An Essay on Man' (1733-4), Epistle I. In John Butt (ed.), The Poems of Alexander Pope (1965), 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Alike (60)  |  Angel (47)  |  Beast (58)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Below (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Birth (154)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Burst (41)  |  Chain (51)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deep (241)  |  Depth (97)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ether (37)  |  Ethereal (9)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fish (130)  |  Glass (94)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Inferiority (7)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Might (3)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Power (771)  |  Press (21)  |  Progress (492)  |  Quickness (5)  |  Reach (286)  |  Scale (122)  |  See (1094)  |  Step (234)  |  Strike (72)  |  Superior (88)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastness (15)  |  Void (31)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wide (97)  |  Width (5)

She has the sort of body you go to see in marble. She has golden hair. Quickly, deftly, she reaches with both hands behind her back and unclasps her top. Setting it on her lap, she swivels ninety degrees to face the towboat square. Shoulders back, cheeks high, she holds her pose without retreat. In her ample presentation there is defiance of gravity. There is no angle of repose. She is a siren and these are her songs.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ample (4)  |  Angle (25)  |  Back (395)  |  Behind (139)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Cheek (3)  |  Defiance (7)  |  Degree (277)  |  Face (214)  |  Golden (47)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Hair (25)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hold (96)  |  Lap (9)  |  Marble (21)  |  Ninety (2)  |  Pose (9)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Reach (286)  |  Repose (9)  |  Retreat (13)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Siren (4)  |  Song (41)  |  Sort (50)  |  Square (73)  |  Top (100)

Siphonophores do not convey the message–a favorite theme of unthinking romanticism–that nature is but one gigantic whole, all its parts intimately connected and interacting in some higher, ineffable harmony. Nature revels in boundaries and distinctions; we inhabit a universe of structure. But since our universe of structure has evolved historically, it must present us with fuzzy boundaries, where one kind of thing grades into another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Boundary (55)  |  Connect (126)  |  Convey (17)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fuzzy (5)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Grade (12)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Historically (3)  |  Ineffable (4)  |  Inhabit (18)  |  Interact (8)  |  Intimately (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Message (53)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Part (235)  |  Present (630)  |  Revel (6)  |  Romanticism (5)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unthinking (3)  |  Whole (756)

So long as new ideas are created, sales will continue to reach new highs.
In Forbes (1946), 57, 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Continue (179)  |  Idea (881)  |  Long (778)  |  New (1273)  |  Reach (286)  |  Will (2350)

So long as the fur of the beaver was extensively employed as a material for fine hats, it bore a very high price, and the chase of this quadruped was so keen that naturalists feared its speedy consideration. When a Parisian manufacturer invented the silk hat, which soon came into almost universal use, the demand for beavers' fur fell off, and this animal–whose habits, as we have seen, are an important agency in the formation of bogs and other modifications of forest nature–immediately began to increase, reappeared in haunts which we had long abandoned, and can no longer be regarded as rare enough to be in immediate danger of extirpation. Thus the convenience or the caprice of Parisian fashion has unconsciously exercised an influence which may sensibly affect the physical geography of a distant continent.
In Man and Nature, (1864), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beaver (8)  |  Bog (5)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Chase (14)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Continent (79)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Danger (127)  |  Demand (131)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enough (341)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Extirpation (2)  |  Fear (212)  |  Forest (161)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fur (7)  |  Geography (39)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hat (9)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Increase (225)  |  Influence (231)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Modification (57)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paris (11)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Geography (3)  |  Price (57)  |  Quadruped (4)  |  Rare (94)  |  Regard (312)  |  Silk (14)  |  Soon (187)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)

Some guns were fired to give notice that the departure of the balloon was near. ... Means were used, I am told, to prevent the great balloon's rising so high as might endanger its bursting. Several bags of sand were taken on board before the cord that held it down was cut, and the whole weight being then too much to be lifted, such a quantity was discharged as would permit its rising slowly. Thus it would sooner arrive at that region where it would be in equilibrio with the surrounding air, and by discharging more sand afterwards, it might go higher if desired. Between one and two o’clock, all eyes were gratified with seeing it rise majestically from above the trees, and ascend gradually above the buildings, a most beautiful spectacle. When it was about two hundred feet high, the brave adventurers held out and waved a little white pennant, on both sides of their car, to salute the spectators, who returned loud claps of applause. The wind was very little, so that the object though moving to the northward, continued long in view; and it was a great while before the admiring people began to disperse. The persons embarked were Mr. Charles, professor of experimental philosophy, and a zealous promoter of that science; and one of the Messrs Robert, the very ingenious constructors of the machine.
While U.S. ambassador to France, writing about witnessing, from his carriage outside the garden of Tuileries, Paris, the first manned balloon ascent using hydrogen gas on the afternoon of 1 Dec 1783. A few days earlier, he had watched the first manned ascent in Montgolfier's hot-air balloon, on 21 Nov 1783.
Letter to Sir Charles Banks (1 Dec 1783). In The Writings of Benjamin Franklin: 1783-1788 (1906), Vol. 9, 119-120.
Science quotes on:  |  Aeronautics (15)  |  Air (366)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Building (158)  |  Car (75)  |  Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles (2)  |  Clock (51)  |  Cut (116)  |  Down (455)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Lift (57)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (438)  |  Outside (141)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Person (366)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Professor (133)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Return (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Salute (3)  |  Sand (63)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Side (236)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Tree (269)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Watch (118)  |  Weight (140)  |  White (132)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wind (141)  |  Writing (192)

Some see a clear line between genetic enhancement and other ways that people seek improvement in their children and themselves. Genetic manipulation seems somehow worse—more intrusive, more sinister—than other ways of enhancing performance and seeking success. But, morally speaking, the difference is less significant than it seems. Bioengineering gives us reason to question the low-tech, high-pressure child-rearing practices we commonly accept. The hyperparenting familiar in our time represents an anxious excess of mastery and dominion that misses the sense of life as a gift. This draws it disturbingly close to eugenics... Was the old eugenics objectionable only insofar as it was coercive? Or is there something inherently wrong with the resolve to deliberately design our progeny’s traits... But removing coercion does not vindicate eugenics. The problem with eugenics and genetic engineering is that they represent a one-sided triumph of willfulness over giftedness, of dominion over reverence, of molding over beholding.
Michael J. Sandel, 'The Case Against Perfection', The Atlantic Monthly (Apr 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Bioengineering (5)  |  Bioethics (12)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Design (203)  |  Difference (355)  |  Draw (140)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enhancement (5)  |  Eugenics (6)  |  Excess (23)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetic Engineering (16)  |  Gift (105)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Low (86)  |  Manipulation (19)  |  Mastery (36)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Performance (51)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Problem (731)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Represent (157)  |  Resolve (43)  |  See (1094)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significant (78)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Sports (3)  |  Success (327)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wrong (246)

Speaking of libraries: A big open-stack academic or public library is no small pleasure to work in. You’re, say, trying to do a piece on something in Nevada, and you go down to C Floor, deep in the earth, and out to what a miner would call a remote working face. You find 10995.497S just where the card catalog and the online computer thought it would be, but that is only the initial nick. The book you knew about has led you to others you did not know about. To the ceiling the shelves are loaded with books about Nevada. You pull them down, one at a time, and sit on the floor and look them over until you are sitting on a pile five feet high, at which point you are late home for dinner and you get up and walk away. It’s an incomparable boon to research, all that; but it is also a reason why there are almost no large open-stack libraries left in the world.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  Big (55)  |  Book (413)  |  Boon (7)  |  C (2)  |  Call (781)  |  Card (5)  |  Catalog (5)  |  Ceiling (5)  |  Computer (131)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dinner (15)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Five (16)  |  Floor (21)  |  Foot (65)  |  Get Up (5)  |  Home (184)  |  Incomparable (14)  |  Initial (17)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leave (138)  |  Library (53)  |  Load (12)  |  Look (584)  |  Miner (9)  |  Nick (2)  |  Online (4)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Piece (39)  |  Pile (12)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Public (100)  |  Pull (43)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remote (86)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Shelve (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Walk (138)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Such is the character of mathematics in its profounder depths and in its higher and remoter zones that it is well nigh impossible to convey to one who has not devoted years to its exploration a just impression of the scope and magnitude of the existing body of the science. An imagination formed by other disciplines and accustomed to the interests of another field may scarcely receive suddenly an apocalyptic vision of that infinite interior world. But how amazing and how edifying were such a revelation, if it only could be made.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Apocalyptic (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Convey (17)  |  Depth (97)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Exist (458)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Field (378)  |  Form (976)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impression (118)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interior (35)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Other (2233)  |  Profound (105)  |  Receive (117)  |  Remote (86)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scope (44)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Zone (5)

Suddenly there was an enormous explosion, like a violent volcano. The nuclear reactions had led to overheating in the underground burial grounds. The explosion poured radioactive dust and materials high up into the sky. It was just the wrong weather for such a tragedy. Strong winds blew the radioactive clouds hundreds of miles away. It was difficult to gauge the extent of the disaster immediately, and no evacuation plan was put into operation right away. Many villages and towns were only ordered to evacuate when the symptoms of radiation sickness were already quite apparent. Tens of thousands of people were affected, hundreds dying, though the real figures have never been made public. The large area, where the accident happened, is still considered dangerous and is closed to the public.
'Two Decades of Dissidence', New Scientist (4 Nov 1976), 72, No. 72, 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Affected (3)  |  Already (226)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Area (33)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Burial (8)  |  Closed (38)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considered (12)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Die (94)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Dust (68)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Evacuation (3)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Extent (142)  |  Figure (162)  |  Gauge (2)  |  Ground (222)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Large (398)  |  Material (366)  |  Mile (43)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Operation (221)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Public (100)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Real (159)  |  Right (473)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Sky (174)  |  Still (614)  |  Strong (182)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Total (95)  |  Town (30)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Underground (12)  |  Village (13)  |  Violent (17)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Weather (49)  |  Wind (141)  |  Wrong (246)

Sufficient for us is the testimony of things produced in the salt waters and now found again in the high mountains, sometimes far from the sea.
Manuscript held by the Earl of Leicester, 31 a [R984]. In Edward McCurdy (ed.), Leonardo da Vinci's note-books: arranged and rendered into English with introductions (1908), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Produced (187)  |  Salt (48)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Water (503)

Suppose the results of a line of study are negative. It might save a lot of otherwise wasted money to know a thing won’t work. But how do you accurately evaluate negative results? ... The power plant in [the recently developed streamline trains] is a Diesel engine of a type which was tried out many [around 25] years ago and found to be a failure. … We didn’t know how to build them. The principle upon which it operated was sound. [Since then much has been] learned in metallurgy [and] the accuracy with which parts can be manufactured
When this type of engine was given another chance it was an immediate success [because now] an accuracy of a quarter of a tenth of a thousandth of an inch [prevents high-pressure oil leaks]. … If we had taken the results of past experience without questioning the reason for the first failure, we would never have had the present light-weight, high-speed Diesel engine which appears to be the spark that will revitalize the railroad business.
'Industrial Prospecting', an address to the Founder Societies of Engineers (20 May 1935). In National Research Council, Reprint and Circular Series of the National Research Council (1933), No. 107, 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Build (211)  |  Business (156)  |  Chance (244)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Engine (99)  |  Experience (494)  |  Failure (176)  |  First (1302)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Know (1538)  |  Leak (4)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Lot (151)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Metallurgy (3)  |  Money (178)  |  Negative (66)  |  Never (1089)  |  Oil (67)  |  Past (355)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Save (126)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spark (32)  |  Speed (66)  |  Study (701)  |  Success (327)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Train (118)  |  Type (171)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Suppose then I want to give myself a little training in the art of reasoning; suppose I want to get out of the region of conjecture and probability, free myself from the difficult task of weighing evidence, and putting instances together to arrive at general propositions, and simply desire to know how to deal with my general propositions when I get them, and how to deduce right inferences from them; it is clear that I shall obtain this sort of discipline best in those departments of thought in which the first principles are unquestionably true. For in all our thinking, if we come to erroneous conclusions, we come to them either by accepting false premises to start with—in which case our reasoning, however good, will not save us from error; or by reasoning badly, in which case the data we start from may be perfectly sound, and yet our conclusions may be false. But in the mathematical or pure sciences,—geometry, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, the calculus of variations or of curves,— we know at least that there is not, and cannot be, error in our first principles, and we may therefore fasten our whole attention upon the processes. As mere exercises in logic, therefore, these sciences, based as they all are on primary truths relating to space and number, have always been supposed to furnish the most exact discipline. When Plato wrote over the portal of his school. “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here,” he did not mean that questions relating to lines and surfaces would be discussed by his disciples. On the contrary, the topics to which he directed their attention were some of the deepest problems,— social, political, moral,—on which the mind could exercise itself. Plato and his followers tried to think out together conclusions respecting the being, the duty, and the destiny of man, and the relation in which he stood to the gods and to the unseen world. What had geometry to do with these things? Simply this: That a man whose mind has not undergone a rigorous training in systematic thinking, and in the art of drawing legitimate inferences from premises, was unfitted to enter on the discussion of these high topics; and that the sort of logical discipline which he needed was most likely to be obtained from geometry—the only mathematical science which in Plato’s time had been formulated and reduced to a system. And we in this country [England] have long acted on the same principle. Our future lawyers, clergy, and statesmen are expected at the University to learn a good deal about curves, and angles, and numbers and proportions; not because these subjects have the smallest relation to the needs of their lives, but because in the very act of learning them they are likely to acquire that habit of steadfast and accurate thinking, which is indispensable to success in all the pursuits of life.
In Lectures on Teaching (1906), 891-92.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Act (278)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Angle (25)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Art (680)  |  Attention (196)  |  Badly (32)  |  Base (120)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Case (102)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clergy (4)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Curve (49)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deep (241)  |  Department (93)  |  Desire (212)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disciple (8)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Duty (71)  |  England (43)  |  Enter (145)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exact (75)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Expect (203)  |  False (105)  |  First (1302)  |  Follower (11)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Free (239)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Habit (174)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Inference (45)  |  Instance (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Least (75)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  Line (100)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Logic (311)  |  Logical (57)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Need (320)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Perfectly (10)  |  Plato (80)  |  Political (124)  |  Portal (9)  |  Premise (40)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Region (40)  |  Relate (26)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Save (126)  |  School (227)  |  Simply (53)  |  Small (489)  |  Social (261)  |  Sort (50)  |  Sound (187)  |  Space (523)  |  Stand (284)  |  Start (237)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Steadfast (4)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Surface (223)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Task (152)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Topic (23)  |  Training (92)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  True (239)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Unfitted (3)  |  University (130)  |  Unquestionably (3)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Variation (93)  |  Want (504)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)

Taking … the mathematical faculty, probably fewer than one in a hundred really possess it, the great bulk of the population having no natural ability for the study, or feeling the slightest interest in it*. And if we attempt to measure the amount of variation in the faculty itself between a first-class mathematician and the ordinary run of people who find any kind of calculation confusing and altogether devoid of interest, it is probable that the former could not be estimated at less than a hundred times the latter, and perhaps a thousand times would more nearly measure the difference between them.
[* This is the estimate furnished me by two mathematical masters in one of our great public schools of the proportion of boys who have any special taste or capacity for mathematical studies. Many more, of course, can be drilled into a fair knowledge of elementary mathematics, but only this small proportion possess the natural faculty which renders it possible for them ever to rank high as mathematicians, to take any pleasure in it, or to do any original mathematical work.]
In Darwinism, chap. 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Altogether (9)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Boy (100)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Class (168)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Course (413)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drill (12)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fair (16)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fewer (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First-Class (2)  |  Former (138)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latter (21)  |  Less (105)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  People (1031)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Population (115)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Probable (24)  |  Probably (50)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Public School (4)  |  Rank (69)  |  Really (77)  |  Render (96)  |  Run (158)  |  School (227)  |  Slight (32)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Study (701)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Work (1402)

That ability to impart knowledge … what does it consist of? … a deep belief in the interest and importance of the thing taught, a concern about it amounting to a sort of passion. A man who knows a subject thoroughly, a man so soaked in it that he eats it, sleeps it and dreams it—this man can always teach it with success, no matter how little he knows of technical pedagogy. That is because there is enthusiasm in him, and because enthusiasm is almost as contagious as fear or the barber’s itch. An enthusiast is willing to go to any trouble to impart the glad news bubbling within him. He thinks that it is important and valuable for to know; given the slightest glow of interest in a pupil to start with, he will fan that glow to a flame. No hollow formalism cripples him and slows him down. He drags his best pupils along as fast as they can go, and he is so full of the thing that he never tires of expounding its elements to the dullest.
This passion, so unordered and yet so potent, explains the capacity for teaching that one frequently observes in scientific men of high attainments in their specialties—for example, Huxley, Ostwald, Karl Ludwig, Virchow, Billroth, Jowett, William G. Sumner, Halsted and Osler—men who knew nothing whatever about the so-called science of pedagogy, and would have derided its alleged principles if they had heard them stated.
In Prejudices: third series (1922), 241-2.
For a longer excerpt, see H.L. Mencken on Teaching, Enthusiasm and Pedagogy.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Barber (5)  |  Belief (615)  |  Best (467)  |  Theodor Billroth (2)  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contagion (9)  |  Deep (241)  |  Derision (8)  |  Down (455)  |  Dream (222)  |  Eat (108)  |  Element (322)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fan (3)  |  Fear (212)  |  Flame (44)  |  Formalism (7)  |  Glow (15)  |  William Stewart Halsted (2)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Impart (24)  |  Imparting (6)  |  Importance (299)  |  Interest (416)  |  Itch (11)  |   Benjamin Jowett (11)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Sir William Osler (48)  |  Ostwald_Carl (2)  |  Passion (121)  |  Pedagogy (2)  |  Potent (15)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Slow (108)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specialty (13)  |  Start (237)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Value (393)  |  Rudolf Virchow (50)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Willing (44)

That mathematics “do not cultivate the power of generalization,”; … will be admitted by no person of competent knowledge, except in a very qualified sense. The generalizations of mathematics, are, no doubt, a different thing from the generalizations of physical science; but in the difficulty of seizing them, and the mental tension they require, they are no contemptible preparation for the most arduous efforts of the scientific mind. Even the fundamental notions of the higher mathematics, from those of the differential calculus upwards are products of a very high abstraction. … To perceive the mathematical laws common to the results of many mathematical operations, even in so simple a case as that of the binomial theorem, involves a vigorous exercise of the same faculty which gave us Kepler’s laws, and rose through those laws to the theory of universal gravitation. Every process of what has been called Universal Geometry—the great creation of Descartes and his successors, in which a single train of reasoning solves whole classes of problems at once, and others common to large groups of them—is a practical lesson in the management of wide generalizations, and abstraction of the points of agreement from those of difference among objects of great and confusing diversity, to which the purely inductive sciences cannot furnish many superior. Even so elementary an operation as that of abstracting from the particular configuration of the triangles or other figures, and the relative situation of the particular lines or points, in the diagram which aids the apprehension of a common geometrical demonstration, is a very useful, and far from being always an easy, exercise of the faculty of generalization so strangely imagined to have no place or part in the processes of mathematics.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 612-13.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Admit (49)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Aid (101)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Binomial (6)  |  Binomial Theorem (5)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Competent (20)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Far (158)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Higher Mathematics (7)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Involve (93)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Line (100)  |  Management (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Particular (80)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Purely (111)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Qualify (6)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relative (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rose (36)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Seize (18)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solve (145)  |  Strangely (5)  |  Successor (16)  |  Superior (88)  |  Tension (24)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Useful (260)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

The aim of poetry is to give a high and voluptuous plausibility to what is palpably not true. I offer the Twenty-third Psalm as an example: ‘The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.’ It is immensely esteemed by the inmates of almshouses, and by gentlemen waiting to be hanged. I have to limit my own reading of it, avoiding soft and yielding moods, for I too, in my way, am a gentleman waiting to be hanged, as you are.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Esteem (18)  |  Example (98)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Give (208)  |  Hang (46)  |  Inmate (3)  |  Limit (294)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mood (15)  |  Offer (142)  |  Palpably (2)  |  Plausibility (7)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Shepherd (6)  |  Soft (30)  |  True (239)  |  Voluptuous (3)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Yield (86)

The Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms are to nearly join’d, that if you will take the lowest of one, and the highest of the other, there will scarce be perceived any great difference between them.
In An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1689, 1706, 5th ed.), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Difference (355)  |  Great (1610)  |  Join (32)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Low (86)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Will (2350)

The Atomic Age was born in secrecy, and for two decades after Hiroshima, the high priests of the cult of the atom concealed vital information about the risks to human health posed by radiation. Dr. Alice Stewart, an audacious and insightful medical researcher, was one of the first experts to alert the world to the dangers of low-level radiation.
(Udeall is a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior.)
Quoted in Gayle Jacoba Greene, The Woman Who Knew Too Much (1999), back cover.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Alert (13)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Age (6)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Danger (127)  |  Decade (66)  |  Expert (67)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Health (210)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Information (173)  |  Interior (35)  |  Low (86)  |  Priest (29)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Risk (68)  |  Alice Stewart (5)  |  Two (936)  |  Vital (89)  |  World (1850)

The attainment of knowledge is the high and exclusive attribute of man, among the numberless myriads of animated beings, inhabitants of the terrestrial globe. On him alone is bestowed, by the bounty of the Creator of the universe, the power and the capacity of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is the attribute of his nature which at once enables him to improve his condition upon earth, and to prepare him for the enjoyment of a happier existence hereafter.
Report, as chairman of a committee, on the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution (Jan 1836). In Josiah Quincy, Memoir of the life of John Quincy Adams (1858), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquiring (5)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animated (5)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Bounty (2)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creator (97)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Existence (481)  |  Globe (51)  |  Improve (64)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Numberless (3)  |  Power (771)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Universe (900)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  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 beauty of physics lies in the extent which seemingly complex and unrelated phenomena can be explained and correlated through a high level of abstraction by a set of laws which are amazing in their simplicity.
In Principles of Electrodynamics (1972, 1987), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Complex (202)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Law (913)  |  Lie (370)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Set (400)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Through (846)  |  Unrelated (6)

The belief that mathematics, because it is abstract, because it is static and cold and gray, is detached from life, is a mistaken belief. Mathematics, even in its purest and most abstract estate, is not detached from life. It is just the ideal handling of the problems of life, as sculpture may idealize a human figure or as poetry or painting may idealize a figure or a scene. Mathematics is precisely the ideal handling of the problems of life, and the central ideas of the science, the great concepts about which its stately doctrines have been built up, are precisely the chief ideas with which life must always deal and which, as it tumbles and rolls about them through time and space, give it its interests and problems, and its order and rationality. That such is the case a few indications will suffice to show. The mathematical concepts of constant and variable are represented familiarly in life by the notions of fixedness and change. The concept of equation or that of an equational system, imposing restriction upon variability, is matched in life by the concept of natural and spiritual law, giving order to what were else chaotic change and providing partial freedom in lieu of none at all. What is known in mathematics under the name of limit is everywhere present in life in the guise of some ideal, some excellence high-dwelling among the rocks, an “ever flying perfect” as Emerson calls it, unto which we may approximate nearer and nearer, but which we can never quite attain, save in aspiration. The supreme concept of functionality finds its correlate in life in the all-pervasive sense of interdependence and mutual determination among the elements of the world. What is known in mathematics as transformation—that is, lawful transfer of attention, serving to match in orderly fashion the things of one system with those of another—is conceived in life as a process of transmutation by which, in the flux of the world, the content of the present has come out of the past and in its turn, in ceasing to be, gives birth to its successor, as the boy is father to the man and as things, in general, become what they are not. The mathematical concept of invariance and that of infinitude, especially the imposing doctrines that explain their meanings and bear their names—What are they but mathematicizations of that which has ever been the chief of life’s hopes and dreams, of that which has ever been the object of its deepest passion and of its dominant enterprise, I mean the finding of the worth that abides, the finding of permanence in the midst of change, and the discovery of a presence, in what has seemed to be a finite world, of being that is infinite? It is needless further to multiply examples of a correlation that is so abounding and complete as indeed to suggest a doubt whether it be juster to view mathematics as the abstract idealization of life than to regard life as the concrete realization of mathematics.
In 'The Humanization of Teaching of Mathematics', Science, New Series, 35, 645-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Abound (17)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Cease (81)  |  Central (81)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Chief (99)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Constant (148)  |  Content (75)  |  Correlate (7)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detach (5)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (222)  |  Element (322)  |  Ralph Waldo Emerson (161)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Equation (138)  |  Especially (31)  |  Estate (5)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Far (158)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Flux (21)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Functionality (2)  |  General (521)  |  Give (208)  |  Gray (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guise (6)  |  Handle (29)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Impose (22)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinitude (3)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Name (359)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Needless (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Painting (46)  |  Partial (10)  |  Passion (121)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realization (44)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Restriction (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Roll (41)  |  Save (126)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Serving (15)  |  Show (353)  |  Space (523)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Stately (12)  |  Static (9)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unto (8)  |  Variability (5)  |  Variable (37)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greenhouse Gas (4)  |  Sensitivity (10)  |  Thermonuclear (4)  |  Turn (454)  |  Warming (24)

The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors. … In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket, and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the Earth. These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring idealism, we will miss them all the more. … The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.
Address to the Nation on the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, from the Cabinet Room (1 Feb 2003). In William J. Federer, A Treasury of Presidential Quotations (2004), 437.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cause (561)  |  Continue (179)  |  Courage (82)  |  Danger (127)  |  Daring (17)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Death (406)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Flight (101)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Journey (48)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Life (1870)  |  Longing (19)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Miss (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Noble (93)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Routine (26)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Flight (26)  |  Space Shuttle (12)  |  Travel (125)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The discovery of the conic sections, attributed to Plato, first threw open the higher species of form to the contemplation of geometers. But for this discovery, which was probably regarded in Plato’s tune and long after him, as the unprofitable amusement of a speculative brain, the whole course of practical philosophy of the present day, of the science of astronomy, of the theory of projectiles, of the art of navigation, might have run in a different channel; and the greatest discovery that has ever been made in the history of the world, the law of universal gravitation, with its innumerable direct and indirect consequences and applications to every department of human research and industry, might never to this hour have been elicited.
In 'A Probationary Lecture on Geometry, Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2 (1908), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Brain (281)  |  Channel (23)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Course (413)  |  Department (93)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Elicit (2)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Indirect (18)  |  Industry (159)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Universal Gravitation (3)  |  Long (778)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Never (1089)  |  Open (277)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Practical (225)  |  Present (630)  |  Present Day (5)  |  Probably (50)  |  Projectile (3)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Run (158)  |  Species (435)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Throw (45)  |  Tune (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unprofitable (7)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The domain of mathematics is the sole domain of certainty. There and there alone prevail the standards by which every hypothesis respecting the external universe and all observation and all experiment must be finally judged. It is the realm to which all speculation and thought must repair for chastening and sanitation, the court of last resort, I say it reverently, for all intellection whatsoever, whether of demon, or man, or deity. It is there that mind as mind attains its highest estate.
In 'The Universe and Beyond', Hibbert Journal (1904-1906), 3, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Attain (126)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chasten (2)  |  Court (35)  |  Deity (22)  |  Demon (8)  |  Domain (72)  |  Estate (5)  |  Experiment (736)  |  External (62)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Judge (114)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Observation (593)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Realm (87)  |  Repair (11)  |  Sanitation (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Sole (50)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Standard (64)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whatsoever (41)

The earliest signs of living things, announcing as they do a high complexity of organization, entirely exclude the hypothesis of a transmutation from lower to higher grades of being. The first fiat of Creation which went forth, doubtlessly ensured the perfect adaptation of animals to the surrounding media; and thus, whilst the geologist recognizes a beginning, he can see in the innumerable facts of the eye of the earliest crustacean, the same evidences of Omniscience as in the completion of the vertebrate form.
Siluria (1854), 469.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Announcement (15)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Completion (23)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crustacean (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fiat (7)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Grade (12)  |  Higher (37)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Living (492)  |  Living Thing (4)  |  Lower (11)  |  Media (14)  |  Organization (120)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Recognize (136)  |  See (1094)  |  Sign (63)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Vertebrate (22)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  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 errors of a wise man are literally more instructive than the truths of a fool. The wise man travels in lofty, far-seeing regions; the fool in low-lying, high-fenced lanes; retracing the footsteps of the former, to discover where he diviated, whole provinces of the universe are laid open to us; in the path of the latter, granting even that he has not deviated at all, little is laid open to us but two wheel-ruts and two hedges.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 425:26.
Science quotes on:  |  Discover (571)  |  Error (339)  |  Far-Seeing (3)  |  Fool (121)  |  Former (138)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Literally (30)  |  Little (717)  |  Low (86)  |  Lying (55)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Open (277)  |  Path (159)  |  Province (37)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Travel (125)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wise Man (17)

The existence of an extensive Science of Mathematics, requiring the highest scientific genius in those who contributed to its creation, and calling for the most continued and vigorous exertion of intellect in order to appreciate it when created, etc.
In System of Logic, Bk. 2, chap. 4, sect. 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Call (781)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Genius (301)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Order (638)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Vigorous (21)

The faculty of resolution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis.
In The Murders in Rue Morgue.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Branch (155)  |  Call (781)  |  Especially (31)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Invigorate (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Par Excellence (2)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Retrograde (8)  |  Study (701)  |  Unjustly (2)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

The feeling of understanding is as private as the feeling of pain. The act of understanding is at the heart of all scientific activity; without it any ostensibly scientific activity is as sterile as that of a high school student substituting numbers into a formula. For this reason, science, when I push the analysis back as far as I can, must be private.
Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Activity (218)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Back (395)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Formula (102)  |  Heart (243)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Pain (144)  |  Push (66)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Student (317)  |  Understanding (527)

The first atomic warhead I saw was … like a piece of beautiful sculpture, a work of the highest level of technological skill. It’s the point of a spear.
In Raymond Mungo, 'Dixy Lee Ray: How Madame Nuke Took Over Washington', Mother Jones (May 1977), 2, No. 4, 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  First (1302)  |  Level (69)  |  Point (584)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spear (8)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Work (1402)

The first objection to Darwinism is that it is only a guess and was never anything more. It is called a “hypothesis,” but the word “hypothesis,” though euphonioous, dignified and high-sounding, is merely a scientific synonym for the old-fashioned word “guess.” If Darwin had advanced his views as a guess they would not have survived for a year, but they have floated for half a century, buoyed up by the inflated word “hypothesis.” When it is understood that “hypothesis” means “guess,” people will inspect it more carefully before accepting it.
'God and Evolution', New York Times (26 Feb 1922), 84. Rebuttals were printed a few days later from Henry Fairfield Osborn and Edwin Grant Conklin.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Call (781)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Century (319)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Evolution (635)  |  First (1302)  |  Float (31)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objection (34)  |  Old (499)  |  Old-Fashioned (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Survival (105)  |  Synonym (2)  |  Understood (155)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, “What is the use of climbing Mount Everest ?” and my answer must at once be, “It is no use.” There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adventure (69)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Aviation (8)  |  Back (395)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Bit (21)  |  Body (557)  |  Bring (95)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Climb (39)  |  Coal (64)  |  Crop (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eat (108)  |  End (603)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Food (213)  |  Foot (65)  |  Forever (111)  |  Gain (146)  |  Gem (17)  |  Gold (101)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Iron (99)  |  Joy (117)  |  Learn (672)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medical (31)  |  Meet (36)  |  Money (178)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount Everest (6)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Raise (38)  |  Respond (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Sheer (9)  |  Silver (49)  |  Single (365)  |  Slight (32)  |  Something (718)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Try (296)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Upward (44)  |  Use (771)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

The flight of most members of a profession to the high empyrean, where they can work peacefully on purely scientific problems, isolated from the turmoil of real life, was perhaps quite appropriate at an earlier stage of science; but in today's world it is a luxury we cannot afford.
The Scientific Imagination: Case Studies (1978), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Empyrean (3)  |  Flight (101)  |  Life (1870)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Problem (731)  |  Profession (108)  |  Purely (111)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stage (152)  |  Today (321)  |  Turmoil (8)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The function of mutation is to maintain the stock of genetic variance at a high level.
(1930).
Science quotes on:  |  Function (235)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mutation (40)  |  Variance (12)

The fundamental characteristic of the scientific method is honesty. In dealing with any question, science asks no favors. ... I believe that constant use of the scientific method must in the end leave its impress upon him who uses it. ... A life spent in accordance with scientific teachings would be of a high order. It would practically conform to the teachings of the highest types of religion. The motives would be different, but so far as conduct is concerned the results would be practically identical.
Address as its retiring president, to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis (28 Dec 1903). 'Scientific Investigation and Progress', Nature 928 Jan 1904), 69:1787, 309.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Constant (148)  |  Dealing (11)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  End (603)  |  Favor (69)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Identical (55)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impression (118)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (531)  |  Motive (62)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Question (649)  |  Religion (369)  |  Result (700)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Spent (85)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Type (171)  |  Use (771)

The general knowledge of our author [Leonhard Euler] was more extensive than could well be expected, in one who had pursued, with such unremitting ardor, mathematics and astronomy as his favorite studies. He had made a very considerable progress in medical, botanical, and chemical science. What was still more extraordinary, he was an excellent scholar, and possessed in a high degree what is generally called erudition. He had attentively read the most eminent writers of ancient Rome; the civil and literary history of all ages and all nations was familiar to him; and foreigners, who were only acquainted with his works, were astonished to find in the conversation of a man, whose long life seemed solely occupied in mathematical and physical researches and discoveries, such an extensive acquaintance with the most interesting branches of literature. In this respect, no doubt, he was much indebted to an uncommon memory, which seemed to retain every idea that was conveyed to it, either from reading or from meditation.
In Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary (1815), 493-494.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Ardor (5)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Author (175)  |  Botany (63)  |  Branch (155)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Civil (26)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Convey (17)  |  Degree (277)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Erudition (7)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expect (203)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  General (521)  |  Generally (15)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indebted (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literary (15)  |  Literature (116)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Memory (144)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possess (157)  |  Progress (492)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Research (753)  |  Respect (212)  |  Retain (57)  |  Rome (19)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Uncommon (14)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

The Good Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though all men and boys were now drilled in Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, it had quite left these shells high on the beach, and was creating and feeding other matters [science] at other ends of the world.
The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870), 553.
Science quotes on:  |  Beach (23)  |  Boy (100)  |  Car (75)  |  College (71)  |  Education (423)  |  End (603)  |  Europe (50)  |  Good (906)  |  Greek (109)  |  Latin (44)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Shell (69)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  World (1850)

The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right.
In Nature: An Essay, to Which is Added, Orations, Lectures, and Addresses (1845), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Better (493)  |  Bough (10)  |  Deem (7)  |  Delight (111)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Field (378)  |  Great (1610)  |  Justly (7)  |  Minister (10)  |  New (1273)  |  Occult (9)  |  Old (499)  |  Relation (166)  |  Right (473)  |  Storm (56)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unacknowledged (2)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wood (97)

The greatest enemy, however, to true arithmetic work is found in so-called practical or illustrative problems, which are freely given to our pupils, of a degree of difficulty and complexity altogether unsuited to their age and mental development. … I am, myself, no bad mathematician, and all the reasoning powers with which nature endowed me have long been as fully developed as they are ever likely to be; but I have, not infrequently, been puzzled, and at times foiled, by the subtle logical difficulty running through one of these problems, given to my own children. The head-master of one of our Boston high schools confessed to me that he had sometimes been unable to unravel one of these tangled skeins, in trying to help his own daughter through her evening’s work. During this summer, Dr. Fairbairn, the distinguished head of one of the colleges of Oxford, England, told me that not only had he himself encountered a similar difficulty, in the case of his own children, but that, on one occasion, having as his guest one of the first mathematicians of England, the two together had been completely puzzled by one of these arithmetical conundrums.
Address before the Grammar-School Section of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association (25 Nov 1887), 'The Teaching of Arithmetic in the Boston Schools', printed The Academy (Jan 1888). Collected in Francis Amasa Walker, Discussions in Education (1899), 253.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Bad (185)  |  Boston (7)  |  Call (781)  |  Children (201)  |  College (71)  |  Completely (137)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Confess (42)  |  Conundrum (3)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Degree (277)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Enemy (86)  |  First (1302)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Himself (461)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Mental (179)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Oxford (16)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Running (61)  |  School (227)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Summer (56)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  True (239)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)  |  Unravel (16)  |  Work (1402)

The High-Elves, … the Noldor or Loremasters, were always on the side of ‘science and technology’, as we should call it: they wanted to have the knowledge that Sauron genuinely had.
From Letter draft to Peter Hastings (manager of a Catholic bookshop in Oxford, who wrote about his enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings) (Sep 1954). In Humphrey Carpenter (ed.) assisted by Christopher Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995, 2014), 190, Letter No. 153.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Elf (7)  |  Genuinely (4)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lord Of The Rings (6)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Side (236)  |  Technology (281)  |  Want (504)

The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  People (1031)  |  Spontaneous (29)

The highest of the world’s mountains, it seems, has to make but a single gesture of magnificence to be the lord of all, vast in unchallenged and isolated supremacy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Gesture (4)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Lord (97)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Seem (150)  |  Single (365)  |  Supremacy (4)  |  Vast (188)  |  World (1850)

The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition. It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Christian (44)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Give (208)  |  Goal (155)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reach (286)  |  Religious (134)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Valuation (4)  |  Weak (73)

The highest result of education is tolerance.
In Optimism: An Essay (1903), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Education (423)  |  Result (700)  |  Tolerance (11)

The Himalayas are the crowning achievement of the Indo-Australian plate. India in the Oligocene crashed head on into Tibet, hit so hard that it not only folded and buckled the plate boundaries but also plowed into the newly created Tibetan plateau and drove the Himalayas five and a half miles into the sky. The mountains are in some trouble. India has not stopped pushing them, and they are still going up. Their height and volume are already so great they are beginning to melt in their own self-generated radioactive heat. When the climbers in 1953 planted their flags on the highest mountain, they set them in snow over the skeletons of creatures that had lived in a warm clear ocean that India, moving north, blanked out. Possibly as much as 20,000 feet below the sea floor, the skeletal remains had turned into rock. This one fact is a treatise in itself on the movements of the surface of the earth.
If by some fiat, I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence; this is the one I would choose: the summit of Mount Everest is marine limestone.
Annals of the Former World
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Already (226)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Below (26)  |  Blank (14)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Buckle (5)  |  Choose (116)  |  Clear (111)  |  Climber (7)  |  Crash (9)  |  Create (245)  |  Creature (242)  |  Crown (39)  |  Drive (61)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Five (16)  |  Flag (12)  |  Floor (21)  |  Fold (9)  |  Foot (65)  |  Great (1610)  |  Half (63)  |  Hard (246)  |  Head (87)  |  Heat (180)  |  Height (33)  |  Himalayas (3)  |  Hit (20)  |  India (23)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Live (650)  |  Marine (9)  |  Melt (16)  |  Mile (43)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount Everest (6)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Newly (4)  |  North (12)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Plant (320)  |  Plate (7)  |  Plateau (8)  |  Plow (7)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Push (66)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Remain (355)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sea (326)  |  Self (268)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Set (400)  |  Skeletal (2)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Sky (174)  |  Snow (39)  |  Still (614)  |  Stop (89)  |  Summit (27)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Tibet (4)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Turn (454)  |  Volume (25)  |  Warm (74)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

The history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought.
In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890, 1900), Vol. 3, 460.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Best (467)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Devise (16)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Explain (334)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Generalization (61)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parlance (2)  |  Phantasmagoria (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warn (7)  |  World (1850)

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learned especially from the wonderful writings of Schopenhauer, contains a much stronger element of this. The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Akin (5)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (122)  |  Atheist (16)  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beginnings (5)  |  Both (496)  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Case (102)  |  Central (81)  |  Church (64)  |  Closely (12)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  David (6)  |  Democritus of Abdera (17)  |  Desire (212)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Especially (31)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Francis (2)  |  Futility (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  God (776)  |  Heretic (8)  |  Human (1512)  |  Image (97)  |  Impress (66)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prison (13)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Saint (17)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Significant (78)  |  Single (365)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Writings (6)

The Jewish scriptures admirably illustrate the development from the religion of fear to moral religion, a development continued in the New Testament. The religions of all civilized peoples, especially the peoples of the Orient, are primarily moral religions. The development from a religion of fear to moral religion is a great step in peoples’ lives. And yet, that primitive religions are based entirely on fear and the religions of civilized peoples purely on morality is a prejudice against which we must be on our guard. The truth is that all religions are a varying blend of both types, with this differentiation: that on the higher levels of social life the religion of morality predominates.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admirably (3)  |  Against (332)  |  Base (120)  |  Blend (9)  |  Both (496)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Continue (179)  |  Development (441)  |  Differentiation (28)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Especially (31)  |  Fear (212)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guard (19)  |  Illustrate (14)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Level (69)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  New Testament (3)  |  Orient (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Primarily (12)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Purely (111)  |  Religion (369)  |  Scripture (14)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Life (8)  |  Step (234)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Type (171)  |  Vary (27)

The lower you fall, the higher you’ll fly.
In Fight Club: A Novel (1996, 1997), 141.
Science quotes on:  |  Fall (243)  |  Fly (153)  |  Low (86)  |  Optimism (17)

The mathematician has reached the highest rung on the ladder of human thought.
In The Dance of Life (1923), 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Thought (7)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Reach (286)  |  Ring (18)  |  Thought (995)

The mathematician requires tact and good taste at every step of his work, and he has to learn to trust to his own instinct to distinguish between what is really worthy of his efforts and what is not; he must take care not to be the slave of his symbols, but always to have before his mind the realities which they merely serve to express. For these and other reasons it seems to me of the highest importance that a mathematician should be trained in no narrow school; a wide course of reading in the first few years of his mathematical study cannot fail to influence for good the character of the whole of his subsequent work.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, (1890), Nature, 42, 467.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Character (259)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Effort (243)  |  Express (192)  |  Fail (191)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Importance (299)  |  Influence (231)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reality (274)  |  Really (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  Require (229)  |  School (227)  |  Seem (150)  |  Serve (64)  |  Slave (40)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tact (8)  |  Taste (93)  |  Train (118)  |  Trust (72)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

The mathematician’s best work is art, a high and perfect art, as daring as the most secret dreams of imagination, clear, and limpid. Mathematical genius and artistic genius touch each other.
As quoted in Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life (1923), 139.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Best (467)  |  Clear (111)  |  Daring (17)  |  Dream (222)  |  Genius (301)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Limpid (3)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Secret (216)  |  Touch (146)  |  Work (1402)

The mathematician’s best work is art, a high perfect art, as daring as the most secret dreams of imagination, clear and limpid. Mathematical genius and artistic genius touch one another.
As quoted, without citation, in Havelock Ellis, The Dance of Life (1923), 139.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Best (467)  |  Clear (111)  |  Dare (55)  |  Daring (17)  |  Dream (222)  |  Genius (301)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Limpid (3)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics And Art (8)  |  Most (1728)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Secret (216)  |  Touch (146)  |  Work (1402)

The moral faculties are generally and justly esteemed as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should bear in mind that the activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This affords the strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways the intellectual faculties of every human being.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Afford (19)  |  Argument (145)  |  Base (120)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Educate (14)  |  Esteem (18)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Generally (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Impression (118)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justly (7)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Recall (11)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Stimulate (21)  |  Strong (182)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Value (393)  |  Vividly (11)  |  Way (1214)

The more efficient causes of progress seem to consist of a good education during youth whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, embodied in the laws, customs and traditions of the nation, and enforced by public opinion. It should, however, be borne in mind, that the enforcement of public opinion depends on our appreciation of the approbation and disapprobation of others; and this appreciation is founded on our sympathy, which it can hardly be doubted was originally developed through natural selection as one of the most important elements of the social instincts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Bear (162)  |  Best (467)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cause (561)  |  Consist (223)  |  Custom (44)  |  Depend (238)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Education (423)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Element (322)  |  Embody (18)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Enforcement (2)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Founded (22)  |  Good (906)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Important (229)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Law (913)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Originally (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Progress (492)  |  Public (100)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selection (130)  |  Social (261)  |  Standard (64)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Through (846)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Whilst (3)  |  Youth (109)

The novelties in the fish line this week are two—brook trout and California salmon. … Long Island cultivated trout, alive, sell for $1.50 a pound; killed $1 a pound; trout from other portions of the state, 75 cents; wild trout from the Adirondacks, 50 cents; Canada trout 25 to 35 cents. … Certainly ten times as many trout are eaten in New-York as in former years. California salmon … brought 45 cents a pound. … This is rather a high price for California fish, but the catch is very light, caused by overfishing. (1879)
In 'Features of the Markets', New York Times (6 Apr 1879), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Brook (6)  |  California (9)  |  Canada (6)  |  Catch (34)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cent (5)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Cultivated (7)  |  Eat (108)  |  Fish (130)  |  Former (138)  |  Island (49)  |  Kill (100)  |  Killed (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Long (778)  |  New (1273)  |  New York (17)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Portion (86)  |  Price (57)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Sell (15)  |  State (505)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trout (4)  |  Two (936)  |  Week (73)  |  Wild (96)  |  Year (963)

The opinion of Bacon on this subject [geometry] was diametrically opposed to that of the ancient philosophers. He valued geometry chiefly, if not solely, on account of those uses, which to Plato appeared so base. And it is remarkable that the longer Bacon lived the stronger this feeling became. When in 1605 he wrote the two books on the Advancement of Learning, he dwelt on the advantages which mankind derived from mixed mathematics; but he at the same time admitted that the beneficial effect produced by mathematical study on the intellect, though a collateral advantage, was “no less worthy than that which was principal and intended.” But it is evident that his views underwent a change. When near twenty years later, he published the De Augmentis, which is the Treatise on the Advancement of Learning, greatly expanded and carefully corrected, he made important alterations in the part which related to mathematics. He condemned with severity the pretensions of the mathematicians, “delidas et faslum mathematicorum.” Assuming the well-being of the human race to be the end of knowledge, he pronounced that mathematical science could claim no higher rank than that of an appendage or an auxiliary to other sciences. Mathematical science, he says, is the handmaid of natural philosophy; she ought to demean herself as such; and he declares that he cannot conceive by what ill chance it has happened that she presumes to claim precedence over her mistress.
In 'Lord Bacon', Edinburgh Review (Jul 1837). Collected in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Contributed to the Edinburgh Review (1857), Vol. 1, 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Admit (49)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alteration (31)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appear (122)  |  Appendage (2)  |  Assume (43)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Bacon (4)  |  Base (120)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneficial (16)  |  Book (413)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Chance (244)  |  Change (639)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Claim (154)  |  Collateral (4)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Correct (95)  |  Declare (48)  |  Derive (70)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Evident (92)  |  Expand (56)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Handmaid (6)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Important (229)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intend (18)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Late (119)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Less (105)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mistress (7)  |  Mix (24)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Precedence (4)  |  Presume (9)  |  Pretension (6)  |  Principal (69)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Publish (42)  |  Race (278)  |  Rank (69)  |  Relate (26)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Severity (6)  |  Solely (9)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Well-Being (5)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

The oppressive weight of disaster and tragedy in our lives does not arise from a high percentage of evil among the summed total of all acts, but from the extraordinary power of exceedingly rare incidents of depravity to inflict catastrophic damage, especially in our technological age when airplanes can become powerful bombs. (An even more evil man, armed only with a longbow, could not have wreaked such havoc at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.)
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Age (509)  |  Airplane (43)  |  Arise (162)  |  Arm (82)  |  Battle (36)  |  Become (821)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Catastrophic (10)  |  Damage (38)  |  Depravity (3)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Especially (31)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Havoc (7)  |  Incident (4)  |  Inflict (4)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Oppressive (2)  |  Percentage (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Rare (94)  |  Sum (103)  |  Technological (62)  |  Total (95)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wreak (2)

The persons who have been employed on these problems of applying the properties of matter and the laws of motion to the explanation of the phenomena of the world, and who have brought to them the high and admirable qualities which such an office requires, have justly excited in a very eminent degree the admiration which mankind feels for great intellectual powers. Their names occupy a distinguished place in literary history; and probably there are no scientific reputations of the last century higher, and none more merited, than those earned by great mathematicians who have laboured with such wonderful success in unfolding the mechanism of the heavens; such for instance as D ’Alembert, Clairaut, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace.
In Astronomy and General Physics (1833), Bk. 3, chap. 4, 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Apply (170)  |  Bring (95)  |  Century (319)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Earn (9)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Excited (8)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Feel (371)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  History (716)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justly (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Motion (14)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Literary (15)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Merit (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Name (359)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Office (71)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Place (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Properties Of Matter (7)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Unfold (15)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

The Pleistocene spearhead flaked from pink flint that I display on my coffee table was the high technology of its day, as sophisticated and efficient as a samuri sword or a fighter jet.
In Visions of Technology (1999), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Coffee (21)  |  Display (59)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Flake (7)  |  Flint (7)  |  Pleistocene (4)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Spearhead (2)  |  Sword (16)  |  Table (105)  |  Technology (281)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Ground (222)  |  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 present theory of relativity is based on a division of physical reality into a metric field (gravitation) on the one hand and into an electromagnetic field and matter on the other hand. In reality space will probably be of a uniform character and the present theory will be valid only as a limiting case. For large densities of field and of matter, the field equations and even the field variables which enter into them will have no real significance. One may not therefore assume the validity of the equations for very high density of field and matter, and one may not conclude that the 'beginning of the expansion' must mean a singularity in the mathematical sense. All we have to realise is that the equations may not be continued over such regions.
In O. Nathan and H. Norden (eds.), Einstein on Peace (1960), 640.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Character (259)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Density (25)  |  Division (67)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equation (138)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Field (378)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Present (630)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Singularity (4)  |  Space (523)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Validity (50)  |  Variable (37)  |  Will (2350)

The price of progress is trouble, and I don’t think the price is too high.
As quoted in book review, T.A. Boyd, 'Charles F. Kettering: Prophet of Progress', Science (30 Jan 1959), 256.
Science quotes on:  |  Price (57)  |  Progress (492)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trouble (117)

The pursuit of science has often been compared to the scaling of mountains, high and not so high. But who amongst us can hope, even in imagination, to scale the Everest and reach its summit when the sky is blue and the air is still, and in the stillness of the air survey the entire Himalayan range in the dazzling white of the snow stretching to infinity? None of us can hope for a comparable vision of nature and of the universe around us. But there is nothing mean or lowly in standing in the valley below and awaiting the sun to rise over Kinchinjunga.
Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science (1987), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Hope (321)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Range (104)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scale (122)  |  Sky (174)  |  Snow (39)  |  Still (614)  |  Summit (27)  |  Sun (407)  |  Survey (36)  |  Universe (900)  |  Valley (37)  |  Vision (127)  |  White (132)

The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.
In The Temper of Our Time (1967), 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Communist (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Half (63)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Other (2233)  |  Population (115)  |  Power (771)  |  Produce (117)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Supervise (2)

The results have exhibited one striking feature which has been frequently emphasized, namely that at high pressures all twelve liquids become more nearly like each other. This suggests that it might be useful in developing a theory of liquids to arbitrarily construct a 'perfect liquid' and to discuss its properties. Certainly the conception of a 'perfect gas' has been of great service in the kinetic theory of gases; and the reason is that all actual gases approximate closely to the 'perfect gas.' In the same way, at high pressures all liquids approximate to one and the same thing, which may be called by analogy the 'perfect liquid.' It seems to offer at least a promising line of attack to discuss the properties of this 'perfect liquid,' and then to invent the simplest possible mechanism to explain them.
'Thermodynamic Properties of Twelve Liquids Between 200 and 800 and up to 1200 KGM. Per Sq. Cm.', Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1913, 49, 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Attack (86)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conception (160)  |  Construct (129)  |  Explain (334)  |  Gas (89)  |  Great (1610)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Theory (7)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Service (110)  |  Striking (48)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Useful (260)  |  Way (1214)

The ridge of the Lammer-muir hills... consists of primary micaceous schistus, and extends from St Abb's head westward... The sea-coast affords a transverse section of this alpine tract at its eastern extremity, and exhibits the change from the primary to the secondary strata... Dr HUTTON wished particularly to examine the latter of these, and on this occasion Sir JAMES HALL and I had the pleasure to accompany him. We sailed in a boat from Dunglass ... We made for a high rocky point or head-land, the SICCAR ... On landing at this point, we found that we actually trode [sic] on the primeval rock... It is here a micaceous schistus, in beds nearly vertical, highly indurated, and stretching from S.E. to N. W. The surface of this rock... has thin covering of red horizontal sandstone laid over it, ... Here, therefore, the immediate contact of the two rocks is not only visible, but is curiously dissected and laid open by the action of the waves... On us who saw these phenomena for the first time, the impression will not easily be forgotten. The palpable evidence presented to us, of one of the most extraordinary and important facts in the natural history of the earth, gave a reality and substance to those theoretical speculations, which, however probable had never till now been directly authenticated by the testimony of the senses... What clearer evidence could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? ... The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow.
'Biographical Account of the Late Dr James Hutton, F.R.S. Edin.' (read 1803), Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1805), 5, 71-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Accompany (22)  |  Action (342)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Bosom (14)  |  Change (639)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contact (66)  |  Covering (14)  |  Deep (241)  |  Different (595)  |  Earnestness (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examine (84)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Extremity (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Farther (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Formation (100)  |  Grow (247)  |  History (716)  |  Horizontal (9)  |  James Hutton (22)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Impression (118)  |  Listen (81)  |  Long (778)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Palpable (8)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Primary (82)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sandstone (3)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sense (785)  |  Series (153)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Strata (37)  |  Stratum (11)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Wonderful (155)

The science of medicine is a barbarous jargon and the effects of our medicine on the human system are in the highest degree uncertain, except indeed that they have already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and famine combined.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Barbarous (4)  |  Combine (58)  |  Degree (277)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Effect (414)  |  Famine (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jargon (13)  |  Live (650)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  System (545)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  War (233)

The sea is not all that responds to the moon. Twice a day the solid earth bobs up and down, as much as a foot. That kind of force and that kind of distance are more than enough to break hard rock. Wells will flow faster during lunar high tides.
Annals of the Former World
Science quotes on:  |  Bob (2)  |  Break (109)  |  Distance (171)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fast (49)  |  Faster (50)  |  Flow (89)  |  Foot (65)  |  Force (497)  |  Hard (246)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lunar (9)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Respond (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sea (326)  |  Solid (119)  |  Tide (37)  |  Twice (20)  |  Will (2350)

The self is the class (not the collection) of the experiences (or autopsychological states). The self does not belong to the expression of the basic experience, but is constructed only on a very high level.
The Logical Structure of the World, trans. by Rolf A. George (1967), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Belong (168)  |  Class (168)  |  Collection (68)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Level (69)  |  Self (268)  |  State (505)

The signs of liver inflammation [hepatitis] are eight in number, as follows: high fever, thirst, complete anorexia, a tongue which is initially red and then turns black, biliary vomitus initially yellow egg yolk in color, which later turns dark green, pain on the right side which ascends up to the clavicle. … Occasionally a mild cough may occur and a sensation of heaviness which is first felt on the right side and then spreads widely.
As quoted in Fred Rosner, The Medical Legacy of Moses Maimonides (1998), 53-54.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascend (30)  |  Color (155)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cough (8)  |  Dark (145)  |  Egg (71)  |  Fever (34)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Green (65)  |  Inflammation (7)  |  Liver (22)  |  Mild (7)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pain (144)  |  Right (473)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Side (236)  |  Spread (86)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vomit (4)  |  Yellow (31)

The solution, as all thoughtful people recognize, must lie in properly melding the themes of inborn predisposition and shaping through life’s experiences. This fruitful joining cannot take the false form of percentages adding to 100–as in ‘intelligence is 80 percent nature and 20 percent nurture,’ or ‘homosexuality is 50 percent inborn and 50 percent learned,’ and a hundred other harmful statements in this foolish format. When two ends of such a spectrum are commingled, the result is not a separable amalgam (like shuffling two decks of cards with different backs), but an entirely new and higher entity that cannot be decomposed (just as adults cannot be separated into maternal and paternal contributions to their totality).
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Adult (24)  |  Back (395)  |  Card (5)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Deck (3)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Different (595)  |  End (603)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Entity (37)  |  Experience (494)  |  False (105)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Harmful (13)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Inborn (4)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Join (32)  |  Joining (11)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maternal (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paternal (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Percent (5)  |  Percentage (9)  |  Predisposition (4)  |  Properly (21)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Result (700)  |  Separable (3)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shape (77)  |  Shuffle (7)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Statement (148)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Through (846)  |  Totality (17)  |  Two (936)

The Spacious Firmament on high,
With all the blue Etherial Sky,
And spangled Heav’ns, a Shining Frame, Their great Original proclaim:
Th’unwearied Sun, from day to day
Does his Creator’s Pow’r display,
And publishes to every Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.
Soon as the Evening Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous Tale,
And nightly to the listning Earth Repeats the Story of her Birth:
Whilst all the Stars that round her burn,
And all the Planets, in their turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they rowl,
And spread the Truth from Pole to Pole.
What though, in solemn Silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial Ball?
What tho’ nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found?
In Reason’s Ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
“The Hand that made us is Divine”.
The Spectator, no. 465, Saturday 23 August 1712. In D. F. Bond (ed.) The Spectator (1965), Vol. 4, 144-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Ball (64)  |  Birth (154)  |  Burn (99)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Creator (97)  |  Dark (145)  |  Display (59)  |  Divine (112)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Moon (252)  |  Move (223)  |  Orb (20)  |  Planet (402)  |  Pole (49)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Reason (766)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shining (35)  |  Silence (62)  |  Singing (19)  |  Sky (174)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spread (86)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Story (122)  |  Sun (407)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  Work (1402)

The standard of proof is not very high for an investigation that announces that a plume is responsible for a bit of magma or a bit of chemistry found in, or near, or away from a volcano. The standard is being lowered all the time. Plumes were invented to explain small-scale features such as volcanoes. They were 100 kilometers wide. Then they were used to provide magmas 600 km away from a volcano, or to interact with distant ridges. Then the whole North Atlantic, from Canada to England needed to be serviced by a single plume. Then all of Africa. Then a bit of basalt on the East Pacific Rise was found to be similar to a Hawaiian basalt, so the plume influence was stretched to 5000 kilometers! No reviewer or editor has been found to complain yet. Superplumes are now routinely used to affect geology all around the Pacific. This is called creeping incredulity. It can also be called a Just-So Story.
Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source for this quote.
Science quotes on:  |  Africa (38)  |  Announce (13)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Canada (6)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Explain (334)  |  Geology (240)  |  Incredulity (5)  |  Influence (231)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kilometer (10)  |  Magma (4)  |  Mantle (4)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scale (122)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Story (122)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Time (1911)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)

The state exists for man, not man for the state. The same may be said of science. These are old phrases, coined by people who saw in human individuality the highest human value. I would hesitate to repeat them, were it not for the ever recurring danger that they may be forgotten, especially in these days of organization and stereotypes.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Coin (13)  |  Danger (127)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exist (458)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Hesitate (24)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Man (2252)  |  Old (499)  |  Organization (120)  |  People (1031)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Recur (4)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Same (166)  |  Saw (160)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  State (505)  |  Stereotype (4)  |  Value (393)

The strata of the earth are frequently very much bent, being raised in some places, and depressed in others, and this sometimes with a very quick ascent or descent; but as these ascents and descents, in a great measure, compensate one another, if we take a large extent of country together, we may look upon the whole set of strata, as lying nearly horizontally. What is very remarkable, however, in their situation, is, that from most, if not all, large tracts of high and mountainous countries, the strata lie in a situation more inclined to the horizon, than the country itself, the mountainous countries being generally, if not always, formed out of the lower strata of earth. This situation of the strata may be not unaptly represented in the following manner. Let a number of leaves of paper, of several different sorts or colours, be pasted upon one another; then bending them up together into a ridge in the middle, conceive them to be reduced again to a level surface, by a plane so passing through them, as to cut off all the part that had been raised; let the middle now be again raised a little, and this will be a good general representation of most, if not of all, large tracts of mountainous countries, together with the parts adjacent, throughout the whole world.
'Conjectures Concerning the Cause, and Observations upon the Phenomena of Earthquakes', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1760), 51, 584-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Country (269)  |  Cut (116)  |  Descent (30)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Lying (55)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Passing (76)  |  Past (355)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Set (400)  |  Situation (117)  |  Strata (37)  |  Surface (223)  |  Through (846)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Together (392)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The Struggle for Existence amongst all organic beings throughout the world, which inevitably follows from their high geometrical powers of increase ... This is the doctrine of Malthus, applied to the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.
From On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1861), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Chance (244)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condition (362)  |  Existence (481)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Increase (225)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  New (1273)  |  Organic (161)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Recurring (12)  |  Select (45)  |  Species (435)  |  Strong (182)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Survive (87)  |  Tend (124)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The student of biology is often struck with the feeling that historians, when dealing with the rise and fall of nations, do not generally view the phenomena from a sufficiently high biological standpoint. To me, at least, they seem to attach too much importance to individual rulers and soldiers, and to particular wars, policies, religions, and customs; while at the same time they make little attempt to extract the fundamental causes of national success or failure.
Introduction written by Ross for William Henry Samuel Jones, Malaria, a Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome (1907), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cause (561)  |  Custom (44)  |  Do (1905)  |  Extract (40)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fall (243)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Historian (59)  |  Importance (299)  |  Individual (420)  |  Little (717)  |  Nation (208)  |  Policy (27)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rise (169)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Striking (48)  |  Student (317)  |  Success (327)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)

The student should read his author with the most sustained attention, in order to discover the meaning of every sentence. If the book is well written, it will endure and repay his close attention: the text ought to be fairly intelligible, even without illustrative examples. Often, far too often, a reader hurries over the text without any sincere and vigorous effort to understand it; and rushes to some example to clear up what ought not to have been obscure, if it had been adequately considered. The habit of scrupulously investigating the text seems to me important on several grounds. The close scrutiny of language is a very valuable exercise both for studious and practical life. In the higher departments of mathematics the habit is indispensable: in the long investigations which occur there it would be impossible to interpose illustrative examples at every stage, the student must therefore encounter and master, sentence by sentence, an extensive and complicated argument.
In 'Private Study of Mathematics', Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequately (4)  |  Argument (145)  |  Attention (196)  |  Author (175)  |  Book (413)  |  Both (496)  |  Clear (111)  |  Close (77)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Department (93)  |  Discover (571)  |  Effort (243)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Endure (21)  |  Example (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fairly (4)  |  Far (158)  |  Ground (222)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Important (229)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Occur (151)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Practical (225)  |  Read (308)  |  Reader (42)  |  Repay (3)  |  Rush (18)  |  Scrupulous (7)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Several (33)  |  Sincere (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Student (317)  |  Studious (5)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Text (16)  |  Understand (648)  |  Value (393)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

The study of economics does not seem to require any specialised gifts of an unusually high order. Is it not, intellectually regarded, a very easy subject compared with the higher branches of philosophy and pure science? Yet good, or even competent, economists are the rarest of birds. An easy subject, at which very few excel! The paradox finds its explanation, perhaps, in that the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must reach a high standard in several different directions and must combine talents not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician.
'Alfred Marshall: 1842-1924' (1924). In Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), Essays in Biography (1933), 170.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Artist (97)  |  Bird (163)  |  Combination (150)  |  Combine (58)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flight (101)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Historian (59)  |  Institution (73)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Politician (40)  |  Possess (157)  |  Present (630)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rare (94)  |  Reach (286)  |  Regard (312)  |  Require (229)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Speak (240)  |  Statesman (20)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Talent (99)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understand (648)  |  Word (650)

The testimony of our common sense is suspect at high velocities.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Sense (785)  |  Suspect (18)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Velocity (51)

The truth is, the Science of Nature has been already too long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is now high time that it should return to the plainness and soundness of Observations on material and obvious things.
Micrographia (1665). In Extracts from Micrographia (1906), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Brain (281)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Plainness (2)  |  Return (133)  |  Soundness (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

The uniformity of the earth’s life, more astonishing than its diversity, is accountable by the high probability that we derived, originally, from some single cell, fertilized in a bolt of lightning as the earth cooled. It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is a family resemblance.
In The Lives of a Cell (1974), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Bolt (11)  |  Cell (146)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Family (101)  |  Fertilization (15)  |  Gene (105)  |  Grass (49)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Parent (80)  |  Probability (135)  |  Progeny (16)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Share (82)  |  Sharing (11)  |  Single (365)  |  Still (614)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Whale (45)

The value of mathematical instruction as a preparation for those more difficult investigations, consists in the applicability not of its doctrines but of its methods. Mathematics will ever remain the past perfect type of the deductive method in general; and the applications of mathematics to the simpler branches of physics furnish the only school in which philosophers can effectually learn the most difficult and important of their art, the employment of the laws of simpler phenomena for explaining and predicting those of the more complex. These grounds are quite sufficient for deeming mathematical training an indispensable basis of real scientific education, and regarding with Plato, one who is … as wanting in one of the most essential qualifications for the successful cultivation of the higher branches of philosophy
In System of Logic, Bk. 3, chap. 24, sect. 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicability (7)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Basis (180)  |  Branch (155)  |  Complex (202)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Deem (7)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Education (423)  |  Effectually (2)  |  Employment (34)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explain (334)  |  Furnish (97)  |  General (521)  |  Ground (222)  |  Important (229)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plato (80)  |  Predict (86)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Real (159)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Simple (426)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Training (92)  |  Type (171)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)

The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate. Consider, for example, two of them: mere insatiable curiosity and the desire to do good. The latter is put high above the former, and yet it is the former that moves some of the greatest men the human race has yet produced: the scientific investigators. What animates a great pathologist? Is it the desire to cure disease, to save life? Surely not, save perhaps as an afterthought. He is too intelligent, deep down in his soul, to see anything praiseworthy in such a desire. He knows by life-long observation that his discoveries will do quite as much harm as good, that a thousand scoundrels will profit to every honest man, that the folks who most deserve to be saved will probably be the last to be saved. No man of self-respect could devote himself to pathology on such terms. What actually moves him is his unquenchable curiosity–his boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but the dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes.
In 'Types of Men: The Scientist', Prejudices (1923), 269-70.
Science quotes on:  |  Afterthought (6)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cure (124)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deep (241)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Down (455)  |  Find (1014)  |  Former (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harm (43)  |  Himself (461)  |  Honest (53)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Inaccurate (4)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinite Series (8)  |  Insatiable (7)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Liberator (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Move (223)  |  Observation (593)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathologist (6)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Praise (28)  |  Produced (187)  |  Profit (56)  |  Prototype (9)  |  Race (278)  |  Rat (37)  |  Rat-Hole (2)  |  Respect (212)  |  Save (126)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scoundrel (8)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Respect (3)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Slave (40)  |  Society (350)  |  Soul (235)  |  Surely (101)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Unjust (6)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The whole inherent pride of human nature revolts at the idea that the lord of the creation is to be treated like any other natural object. No sooner does the naturalist discover the resemblance of some higher mammals, such as the ape, to man, than there is a general outcry against the presumptuous audacity that ventures to touch man in his inmost sanctuary. The whole fraternity of philosophers, who have never seen monkeys except in zoological gardens, at once mount the high horse, and appeal to the mind, the soul, to reason, to consciousness, and to all the rest of the innate faculties of man, as they are refracted in their own philosophical prisms.
Carl Vogt
From Carl Vogt and James Hunt (ed.), Lectures on Man: His Place in Creation, and in the History of the Earth (1861), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Ape (54)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Audacity (7)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creation (350)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fraternity (4)  |  Garden (64)  |  General (521)  |  Horse (78)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Innate (14)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Mount (43)  |  Natural (810)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcry (3)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Pride (84)  |  Prism (8)  |  Reason (766)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rest (287)  |  Revolt (3)  |  Sanctuary (12)  |  Soul (235)  |  Touch (146)  |  Whole (756)

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.
In 'Great Thought' (19 Feb 1938), The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer: A Gothic Romance, (1976), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Crude (32)  |  First (1302)  |  Heart (243)  |  Kind (564)  |  Light (635)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Second (66)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (74)  |  Way (1214)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  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 no existing ‘standard of protein intake’ that is based on the sure ground of experimental evidence. ... Between the two extremes of a very high and a very low protein intake it is difficult to prove that one level of intake is preferable to another. ... Physiologists, in drawing up dietary standards, are largely influenced by the dietary habits of their time and country.
Nutrition and Public Health', League of Nations Health Organization Quarterly Bulletin (1935) 4, 323–474. In Kenneth J. Carpenter, 'The Work of Wallace Aykroyd: International Nutritionist and Author', The Journal of Nutrition (2007), 137, 873-878.
Science quotes on:  |  Country (269)  |  Diet (56)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Ground (222)  |  Habit (174)  |  Low (86)  |  Nutrition (25)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Protein (56)  |  Prove (261)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)

There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties ... The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Difference (355)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestly (11)  |  Mental (179)  |  Misery (31)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)

There is no plea which will justify the use of high-tension and alternating currents, either in a scientific or a commercial sense. They are employed solely to reduce investment in copper wire and real estate.
In 'The Dangers of Electric Lighting', North American Review (Nov 1889), 149, No. 396, 633.
Science quotes on:  |  Alternating Current (5)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Copper (25)  |  Current (122)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Employ (115)  |  High-Tension (2)  |  Investment (15)  |  Justify (26)  |  Plea (2)  |  Real Estate (2)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Tension (24)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)

There's a tendency these days to use science as a religion, and to see geneticists as the high priests of that religion. But, the irony is that, as geneticists know more, they get less and less confident.
Quoted by Sean O'Hagan, in 'End of sperm report', The Observer (14 Sep 2002).
Science quotes on:  |  Confident (25)  |  Day (43)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Irony (9)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Less (105)  |  More (2558)  |  Priest (29)  |  Religion (369)  |  See (1094)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Use (771)

Think, In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us, and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence.
From poem, 'Sonnets From the Portuguese' (1826), XXII. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Harriet Waters Preston (ed.), The Complete Poetical Works of Mrs. Browning (1900), 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Deep (241)  |  Drop (77)  |  Golden (47)  |  Mount (43)  |  Orb (20)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Press On (2)  |  Silence (62)  |  Song (41)  |  Think (1122)

This is the element that distinguishes applied science from basic. Surprise is what makes the difference. When you are organized to apply knowledge, set up targets, produce a usable product, you require a high degree of certainty from the outset. All the facts on which you base protocols must be reasonably hard facts with unambiguous meaning. The challenge is to plan the work and organize the workers so that it will come out precisely as predicted. For this, you need centralized authority, elaborately detailed time schedules, and some sort of reward system based on speed and perfection. But most of all you need the intelligible basic facts to begin with, and these must come from basic research. There is no other source. In basic research, everything is just the opposite. What you need at the outset is a high degree of uncertainty; otherwise it isn’t likely to be an important problem. You start with an incomplete roster of facts, characterized by their ambiguity; often the problem consists of discovering the connections between unrelated pieces of information. You must plan experiments on the basis of probability, even bare possibility, rather than certainty.
The Planning of Science, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, (1974) .
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Apply (170)  |  Authority (99)  |  Bare (33)  |  Base (120)  |  Basic (144)  |  Basic Research (15)  |  Basis (180)  |  Begin (275)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consist (223)  |  Degree (277)  |  Detail (150)  |  Difference (355)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Hard (246)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Information (173)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Plan (122)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Predict (86)  |  Probability (135)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Require (229)  |  Research (753)  |  Reward (72)  |  Set (400)  |  Speed (66)  |  Start (237)  |  Surprise (91)  |  System (545)  |  Target (13)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

This is what nonscientists don’t know, and this is what scientists are too bashful to talk about publicly, at least until they grow old enough to be shameless. Science at its highest level is ultimately the organization of, the systematic pursuit of, and the enjoyment of wonder, awe, and mystery.
In The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance (1966), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Enough (341)  |  Grow (247)  |  Know (1538)  |  Least (75)  |  Level (69)  |  Nonscientist (3)  |  Old (499)  |  Organization (120)  |  Publicly (3)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Talk (108)  |  Ultimately (56)

This prime matter which is proper for the form of the Elixir is taken from a single tree which grows in the lands of the West. It has two branches, which are too high for whoso seeks to eat the fruit thereof to reach them without labour and trouble; and two other branches, but the fruit of these is drier and more tanned than that of the two preceding. The blossom of one of the two is red [corresponding to gold], and the blossom of the second is between white and black [corresponding to silver]. Then there are two other branches weaker and softer than the four preceding, and the blossom of one of them is black [referring to iron] and the other between white and yellow [probably tin]. And this tree grows on the surface of the ocean [the material prima from which all metals are formed] as plants grow on the surface of the earth. This is the tree of which whosoever eats, man and jinn obey him; it is also the tree of which Adam (peace be upon him!) was forbidden to eat, and when he ate thereof he was transformed from his angelic form to human form. And this tree may be changed into every animal shape.
Al- Iraqi
'Cultivation of Gold', trans. E. J. Holmyard (1923), 23. Quoted and annotated in Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (1968), 279.
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Animal (651)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eat (108)  |  Elixir (6)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Gold (101)  |  Grow (247)  |  Human (1512)  |  Iron (99)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Obey (46)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Plant (320)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reach (286)  |  Science In Islam (2)  |  Seek (218)  |  Silver (49)  |  Single (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Tin (18)  |  Transform (74)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trouble (117)  |  White (132)  |  Yellow (31)

This property of human languages—their resistance to algorithmic processing— is perhaps the ultimate reason why only mathematics can furnish an adequate language for physics. It is not that we lack words for expressing all this E = mc² and ∫eiS(Φ)DΦ … stuff … , the point is that we still would not be able to do anything with these great discoveries if we had only words for them. … Miraculously, it turns out that even very high level abstractions can somehow reflect reality: knowledge of the world discovered by physicists can be expressed only in the language of mathematics.
In 'Mathematical Knowledge: Internal, Social, And Cultural Aspects', Mathematics As Metaphor: Selected Essays (2007), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Express (192)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lack (127)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Processing (2)  |  Property (177)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Still (614)  |  Turn (454)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

This quality of genius is, sometimes, difficult to be distinguished from talent, because high genius includes talent. It is talent, and something more. The usual distinction between genius and talent is, that one represents creative thought, the other practical skill: one invents, the other applies. But the truth is, that high genius applies its own inventions better than talent alone can do. A man who has mastered the higher mathematics, does not, on that account, lose his knowledge of arithmetic. Hannibal, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Newton, Scott, Burke, Arkwright, were they not men of talent as well as men of genius?
In 'Genius', Wellman’s Miscellany (Dec 1871), 4, No. 6, 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Alone (324)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Sir Richard Arkwright (3)  |  Better (493)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Edmund Burke (14)  |  Creative (144)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Genius (301)  |  Include (93)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lose (165)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Napoleon (16)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practical (225)  |  Quality (139)  |  Represent (157)  |  Scott_Walter (2)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Skill (116)  |  Something (718)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)

Those who are fruitful in useful inventions and discoveries, in the practical mechanical arts, are men, not only of the greatest utility, but possess an understanding, which should be most highly estimated.
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)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possess (157)  |  Practical (225)  |  Regard (312)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Useful (260)  |  Utility (52)

Those who knew that the judgements of many centuries had reinforced the opinion that the Earth is placed motionless in the middle of heaven, as though at its centre, if I on the contrary asserted that the Earth moves, I hesitated for a long time whether to bring my treatise, written to demonstrate its motion, into the light of day, or whether it would not be better to follow the example of the Pythagoreans and certain others, who used to pass on the mysteries of their philosophy merely to their relatives and friends, not in writing but by personal contact, as the letter of Lysis to Hipparchus bears witness. And indeed they seem to me to have done so, not as some think from a certain jealousy of communicating their doctrines, but so that their greatest splendours, discovered by the devoted research of great men, should not be exposed to the contempt of those who either find it irksome to waste effort on anything learned, unless it is profitable, or if they are stirred by the exhortations and examples of others to a high-minded enthusiasm for philosophy, are nevertheless so dull-witted that among philosophers they are like drones among bees.
'To His Holiness Pope Paul III', in Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543), trans. A. M. Duncan (1976), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Bear (162)  |  Bee (44)  |  Better (493)  |  Certain (557)  |  Contact (66)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Discover (571)  |  Drone (4)  |  Dull (58)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effort (243)  |  Enthusiasm (59)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Hipparchus (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Letter (117)  |  Light (635)  |  Long (778)  |  Lysis (4)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Research (753)  |  Splendour (8)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Waste (109)  |  Witness (57)  |  Writing (192)

Those who nod sagely and quote the tragedy of the commons in relation to environmental problems from pollution of the atmosphere to poaching of national parks tend to forget that Garrett Hardin revised his conclusions many times…. He recognized, most importantly, that anarchy did not prevail on the common pastures of medieval England in the way he had described…. “A managed commons, though it may have other defects, is not automatically subject to the tragic fate of the unmanaged commons,” wrote Hardin…. At sea, where a common exists in most waters… None of Hardin’s requirements for a successfully managed common is fulfilled by high-seas fishery regimes.
In The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and what We Eat (2004), 153-155.
Science quotes on:  |  Air Pollution (13)  |  Anarchy (8)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Automatic (16)  |  Common (447)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Defect (31)  |  England (43)  |  Environment (239)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fishery (3)  |  Forget (125)  |  Fulfilled (2)  |  Garrett Hardin (2)  |  Medieval (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  National Park (4)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quote (46)  |  Recognized (3)  |  Regime (3)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Sea (326)  |  Subject (543)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tend (124)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tragedy Of The Commons (2)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)  |  Way (1214)  |  Write (250)

Thought-economy is most highly developed in mathematics, that science which has reached the highest formal development, and on which natural science so frequently calls for assistance. Strange as it may seem, the strength of mathematics lies in the avoidance of all unnecessary thoughts, in the utmost economy of thought-operations. The symbols of order, which we call numbers, form already a system of wonderful simplicity and economy. When in the multiplication of a number with several digits we employ the multiplication table and thus make use of previously accomplished results rather than to repeat them each time, when by the use of tables of logarithms we avoid new numerical calculations by replacing them by others long since performed, when we employ determinants instead of carrying through from the beginning the solution of a system of equations, when we decompose new integral expressions into others that are familiar,—we see in all this but a faint reflection of the intellectual activity of a Lagrange or Cauchy, who with the keen discernment of a military commander marshalls a whole troop of completed operations in the execution of a new one.
In Populär-wissenschafliche Vorlesungen (1903), 224-225.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Activity (218)  |  Already (226)  |  Assistance (23)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Avoidance (11)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (11)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Digit (4)  |  Discernment (4)  |  Economy (59)  |  Employ (115)  |  Equation (138)  |  Execution (25)  |  Expression (181)  |  Faint (10)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Form (976)  |  Formal (37)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Highly (16)  |  Instead (23)  |  Integral (26)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Keen (10)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Long (778)  |  Marshal (4)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Military (45)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Previously (12)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Replace (32)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Several (33)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solution (282)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strength (139)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Troop (4)  |  Unnecessary (23)  |  Use (771)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)

Through countless dimensions, riding high the winds of intellectual adventure and filled with the zest of discovery, the mathematician tracks the heavens for harmony and eternal verity.
In The American Mathematical Monthly (1949), 56, 19. Excerpted in John Ewing (ed,), A Century of Mathematics: Through the Eyes of the Monthly (1996), 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Countless (39)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Fill (67)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Ride (23)  |  Through (846)  |  Track (42)  |  Verity (5)  |  Wind (141)  |  Zest (4)

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness. There is no escape from this dilemma—either all matter is conscious, or consciousness is something distinct from matter, and in the latter case, its presence in material forms is a proof of the existence of conscious beings, outside of, and independent of, what we term matter. The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable. When we touch matter, we only really experience sensations of resistance, implying repulsive force; and no other sense can give us such apparently solid proofs of the reality of matter, as touch does. This conclusion, if kept constantly present in the mind, will be found to have a most important bearing on almost every high scientific and philosophical problem, and especially on such as relate to our own conscious existence.
In 'The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man', last chapter of Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), 365-366.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complex (202)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Escape (85)  |  Especially (31)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Force (497)  |  Foregoing (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Found (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Independent (74)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reality (274)  |  Really (77)  |  Relate (26)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Term (357)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

To unfold the secret laws and relations of those high faculties of thought by which all beyond the merely perceptive knowledge of the world and of ourselves is attained or matured, is a object which does not stand in need of commendation to a rational mind.
An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Commendation (3)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Matured (2)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Ourself (21)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Perception (97)  |  Perceptive (3)  |  Rational (95)  |  Relation (166)  |  Secret (216)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unfold (15)  |  World (1850)

Twenty centuries of “progress” have brought the average citizen a vote, a national anthem, a Ford, a bank account, and a high opinion of himself, but not the capacity to live in high density without befouling and denuding his environment, nor a conviction that such capacity, rather than such density, is the true test of whether he is civilized.
In Game Management (1933), 423.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Average (89)  |  Bank (31)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Density (25)  |  Environment (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Live (650)  |  Money (178)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Progress (492)  |  Test (221)  |  Vote (16)

Two extreme views have always been held as to the use of mathematics. To some, mathematics is only measuring and calculating instruments, and their interest ceases as soon as discussions arise which cannot benefit those who use the instruments for the purposes of application in mechanics, astronomy, physics, statistics, and other sciences. At the other extreme we have those who are animated exclusively by the love of pure science. To them pure mathematics, with the theory of numbers at the head, is the only real and genuine science, and the applications have only an interest in so far as they contain or suggest problems in pure mathematics.
Of the two greatest mathematicians of modern tunes, Newton and Gauss, the former can be considered as a representative of the first, the latter of the second class; neither of them was exclusively so, and Newton’s inventions in the science of pure mathematics were probably equal to Gauss’s work in applied mathematics. Newton’s reluctance to publish the method of fluxions invented and used by him may perhaps be attributed to the fact that he was not satisfied with the logical foundations of the Calculus; and Gauss is known to have abandoned his electro-dynamic speculations, as he could not find a satisfying physical basis. …
Newton’s greatest work, the Principia, laid the foundation of mathematical physics; Gauss’s greatest work, the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, that of higher arithmetic as distinguished from algebra. Both works, written in the synthetic style of the ancients, are difficult, if not deterrent, in their form, neither of them leading the reader by easy steps to the results. It took twenty or more years before either of these works received due recognition; neither found favour at once before that great tribunal of mathematical thought, the Paris Academy of Sciences. …
The country of Newton is still pre-eminent for its culture of mathematical physics, that of Gauss for the most abstract work in mathematics.
In History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1903), 630.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Academy (37)  |  Academy Of Sciences (4)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Animated (5)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Mathematics (15)  |  Arise (162)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Basis (180)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Cease (81)  |  Class (168)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contain (68)  |  Country (269)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deterrent (3)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Due (143)  |  Easy (213)  |  Equal (88)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Favor (69)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fluxion (7)  |  Fluxions (2)  |  Form (976)  |  Former (138)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Head (87)  |  Hold (96)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invent (57)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Laid (7)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logical (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematical Physics (12)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paris (11)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Preeminent (6)  |  Principia (14)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Publish (42)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reader (42)  |  Real (159)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Representative (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Second (66)  |  Snake (29)  |  Soon (187)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Style (24)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Numbers (7)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tribunal (2)  |  Tune (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Underneath his sweetness and gentleness was the heat of a volcano. [Michael Faraday] was a man of excitable and fiery nature; but through high self-discipline he had converted the fire into a central glow and motive power of life, instead of permitting it to waste itself in useless passion.
In Faraday as a Discoverer (1868), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Central (81)  |  Conversion (17)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Fire (203)  |  Gentleness (4)  |  Glow (15)  |  Heat (180)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Motive (62)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passion (121)  |  Permit (61)  |  Power (771)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Discipline (2)  |  Sweetness (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Waste (109)

Until its results have gone through the painful process of publication, preferably in a refereed journal of high standards, scientific research is just play. Publication is an indispensable part of science. “Publish or perish” is not an indictment of the system of academia; it is a partial prescription for creativity and innovation. Sustained and substantial publication favors creativity. Novelty of conception has a large component of unpredictability. ... One is often a poor judge of the relative value of his own creative efforts. An artist’s ranking of his own works is rarely the same as that of critics or of history. Most scientists have had similar experiences. One’s supply of reprints for a pot-boiler is rapidly exhausted, while a major monograph that is one’s pride and joy goes unnoticed. The strategy of choice is to increase the odds favoring creativity by being productive.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 233-234.
Science quotes on:  |  Academia (4)  |  Artist (97)  |  Being (1276)  |  Choice (114)  |  Component (51)  |  Conception (160)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Critic (21)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Experience (494)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  History (716)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indictment (2)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Journal (31)  |  Joy (117)  |  Judge (114)  |  Large (398)  |  Major (88)  |  Monograph (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Odds (6)  |  Often (109)  |  Painful (12)  |  Part (235)  |  Partial (10)  |  Perish (56)  |  Play (116)  |  Poor (139)  |  Preferably (2)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Pride (84)  |  Process (439)  |  Productive (37)  |  Publication (102)  |  Publish (42)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Referee (8)  |  Relative (42)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Similar (36)  |  Standard (64)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Supply (100)  |  Sustain (52)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Unnoticed (5)  |  Unpredictability (7)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

Untruth naturally afflicts historical information. There are various reasons that make this unavoidable. One of them is partisanship for opinions and schools … Another reason making untruth unavoidable in historical information is reliance upon transmitters … Another reason is unawareness of the purpose of an event … Another reason is unfounded assumption as to the truth of a thing. … Another reason is ignorance of how conditions conform with reality … Another reason is the fact that people as a rule approach great and high-ranking persons with praise and encomiums … Another reason making untruth unavoidable—and this one is more powerful than all the reasons previously mentioned—is ignorance of the nature of the various conditions arising in civilization. Every event (or phenomenon), whether (it comes into being in connection with some) essence or (as the result of an) action, must inevitably possess a nature peculiar to its essence as well as to the accidental conditions that may attach themselves to it.
In Ibn Khaldûn, Franz Rosenthal (trans.) and N.J. Dawood (ed.), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (1967, 1969), Vol. 1, 35-36.
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Action (342)  |  Approach (112)  |  Arising (22)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Attach (57)  |  Being (1276)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Condition (362)  |  Connection (171)  |  Essence (85)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Information (173)  |  Making (300)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possess (157)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  School (227)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Various (205)

We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals. We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual’s instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man’s actions. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us. Though our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher animals, the primary instincts are much alike in them and in us. The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices. Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions. In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the part of servants of the primary instincts. But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Causal (7)  |  Cease (81)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Death (406)  |  Describe (132)  |  Desire (212)  |  Device (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elemental (4)  |  Enter (145)  |  Escape (85)  |  Evident (92)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Hate (68)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Important (229)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inner (72)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intersect (5)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Less (105)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Need (320)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pain (144)  |  Part (235)  |  Pity (16)  |  Play (116)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Pride (84)  |  Primary (82)  |  Race (278)  |  Relation (166)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  Same (166)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seem (150)  |  Self (268)  |  Servant (40)  |  Serve (64)  |  Social (261)  |  Spring (140)  |  Stir (23)  |  Strong (182)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  True (239)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reach (286)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Thing (1914)

We are told that “Mathematics is that study which knows nothing of observation, nothing of experiment, nothing of induction, nothing of causation.” I think no statement could have been made more opposite to the facts of the case; that mathematical analysis is constantly invoking the aid of new principles, new ideas, and new methods, not capable of being defined by any form of words, but springing direct from the inherent powers and activities of the human mind, and from continually renewed introspection of that inner world of thought of which the phenomena are as varied and require as close attention to discern as those of the outer physical world (to which the inner one in each individual man may, I think, be conceived to stand somewhat in the same relation of correspondence as a shadow to the object from which it is projected, or as the hollow palm of one hand to the closed fist which it grasps of the other), that it is unceasingly calling forth the faculties of observation and comparison, that one of its principal weapons is induction, that it has frequent recourse to experimental trial and verification, and that it affords a boundless scope for the exercise of the highest efforts of the imagination and invention.
In Presidential Address to British Association, Exeter British Association Report (1869), pp. 1-9, in Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2, 654.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Afford (19)  |  Aid (101)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Call (781)  |  Capable (174)  |  Case (102)  |  Causation (14)  |  Close (77)  |  Closed (38)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Continually (17)  |  Correspondence (24)  |  Define (53)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discern (35)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fist (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hollow (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Individual (420)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Inner (72)  |  Introspection (6)  |  Invention (400)  |  Invoke (7)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematical Analysis (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1273)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Palm (5)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Power (771)  |  Principal (69)  |  Principle (530)  |  Project (77)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Relation (166)  |  Renew (20)  |  Require (229)  |  Same (166)  |  Scope (44)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Spring (140)  |  Stand (284)  |  Statement (148)  |  Study (701)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trial (59)  |  Unceasingly (2)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verification (32)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

We cannot hope to fill the schools with persons of high intelligence, for persons of high intelligence simply refuse to spend their lives teaching such banal things as spelling and arithmetic. Among the teachers male we may safely assume that 95% are of low mentality, else they would depart for more appetizing pastures. And even among the teachers female the best are inevitably weeded out by marriage, and only the worst (with a few romantic exceptions) survive. The task before us, as I say, is … to search out and put to use the value lying concealed in it.
In 'Education' Prejudices: Third Series (1922), 3, 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Assume (43)  |  Bad (185)  |  Best (467)  |  Depart (5)  |  Exception (74)  |  Female (50)  |  Fill (67)  |  Hope (321)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Live (650)  |  Low (86)  |  Male (26)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Mentality (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Person (366)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Romantic (13)  |  School (227)  |  Simply (53)  |  Spell (9)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Spend (97)  |  Survive (87)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)  |  Weed (19)  |  Worst (57)

We have made many glass vessels... with tubes two cubits long. These were filled with mercury, the open end was closed with the finger, and the tubes were then inverted in a vessel where there was mercury. We saw that an empty space was formed and that nothing happened in the vessel where this space was formed ... I claim that the force which keeps the mercury from falling is external and that the force comes from outside the tube. On the surface of the mercury which is in the bowl rests the weight of a column of fifty miles of air. Is it a surprise that into the vessel, in which the mercury has no inclination and no repugnance, not even the slightest, to being there, it should enter and should rise in a column high enough to make equilibrium with the weight of the external air which forces it up?
Quoted in Archana Srinivasan, Great Inventors (2007), 27-28.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Barometer (7)  |  Being (1276)  |  Claim (154)  |  Closed (38)  |  Empty (82)  |  End (603)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Glass (94)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Long (778)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (141)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rise (169)  |  Saw (160)  |  Space (523)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Two (936)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Weight (140)

We have really, that I know of, no philosophical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vegetable kingdom does not culminate, as the animal kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common-wealth; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and unaccountable from the former point of view.
Asa Gray
Letter to Charles Darwin (27 Jan 1863), collected in Letters of Asa Gray (1893), Vol. 2, 496. Gray was replying to Darwin’s question, “If flowers of an Oak or Beech tree had fine well-colored corolla & calyx, would they still be classed as low in the Vegetable Kingdom?”
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Basis (180)  |  Common (447)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Former (138)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Low (86)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Puzzling (8)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  View (496)  |  Wealth (100)

We need to learn the lessons of the real cost of production. We need to ask ourselves not just why organic prices are so high, but why conventional prices are so low.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Ask (420)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Cost (94)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Low (86)  |  Organic (161)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Price (57)  |  Production (190)  |  Real (159)  |  Why (491)

We pass with admiration along the great series of mathematicians, by whom the science of theoretical mechanics has been cultivated, from the time of Newton to our own. There is no group of men of science whose fame is higher or brighter. The great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, had fixed all eyes on those portions of human knowledge on which their successors employed their labors. The certainty belonging to this line of speculation seemed to elevate mathematicians above the students of other subjects; and the beauty of mathematical relations and the subtlety of intellect which may be shown in dealing with them, were fitted to win unbounded applause. The successors of Newton and the Bernoullis, as Euler, Clairaut, D’Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, not to introduce living names, have been some of the most remarkable men of talent which the world has seen.
In History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1, Bk. 4, chap. 6, sect. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Applause (9)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Bright (81)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fame (51)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fix (34)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Line (100)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Portion (86)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Successor (16)  |  Talent (99)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unbounded (5)  |  Win (53)  |  World (1850)

We should have positive expectations of what is in the universe, not fears and dreads. We are made with the realization that we’re not Earthbound, and that our acceptance of the universe offers us room to explore and extend outward. It’s like being in a dark room and imagining all sorts of terrors. But when we turn on the light – technology - suddenly it’s just a room where we can stretch out and explore. If the resources here on Earth are limited, they are not limited in the universe. We are not constrained by the limitations of our planet. As children have to leave the security of family and home life to insure growth into mature adults, so also must humankind leave the security and familiarity of Earth to reach maturity and obtain the highest attainment possible for the human race.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Adult (24)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Being (1276)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Dark (145)  |  Dread (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthbound (4)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Extend (129)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Family (101)  |  Fear (212)  |  Growth (200)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Insure (4)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mature (17)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Offer (142)  |  Outward (7)  |  Planet (402)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Realization (44)  |  Resource (74)  |  Room (42)  |  Security (51)  |  Sort (50)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Technology (281)  |  Terror (32)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)

We start off confused and end up confused on a higher level.
What is This Thing Called Science? (1982), Introduction, xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Confused (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  End (603)  |  Level (69)  |  Research (753)  |  Start (237)

We talk about our high standard of living in this country. What we have is a high standard of work. Usually the peaks of civilization have been periods when a large proportion of the population had time to live. I don’t think we’re doing this today. I think the people who could live are still spending their time and supplementary resources on making a living.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Country (269)  |  Doing (277)  |  Large (398)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Make A Living (2)  |  Making (300)  |  Peak (20)  |  People (1031)  |  Period (200)  |  Population (115)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Resource (74)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Standard Of Living (5)  |  Still (614)  |  Supplementary (4)  |  Talk (108)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Usual (6)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1402)

We took on things which people might think would take a year or two. They weren't particularly hard. What was hard was believing they weren't hard.
[Recalling high-pressure, short-deadline problem solving leading up to planned release date of Polaroid instant color film.]
Quoted in Alix Kerr, 'What It Took: Intuition, Goo,' Life (25 Jan 1963), 54, No. 4, 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Color (155)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Hard (246)  |  Instant (46)  |  People (1031)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Problem (731)  |  Release (31)  |  Research (753)  |  Short (200)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Marketplace (4)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Petroleum (8)  |  Price (57)  |  Renewable Energy (15)  |  Supply (100)  |  Useful (260)

What a delight it is to think that you are quietly & philosophically at work in the pursuit of science... rather than fighting amongst the crowd of black passions & motives that seem now a days to urge men every where into action. What incredible scenes every where, what unworthy motives ruled for the moment, under high sounding phrases and at the last what disgusting revolutions.
Letter to C. Schrenbein, 15 Dec 1848. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1996), Vol. 3, 742.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Delight (111)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Last (425)  |  Moment (260)  |  Motive (62)  |  Passion (121)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Research (753)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scene (36)  |  Think (1122)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Work (1402)

What has been done is little—scarcely a beginning; yet it is much in comparison with the total blank of a century past. And our knowledge will, we are easily persuaded, appear in turn the merest ignorance to those who come after us. Yet it is not to be despised, since by it we reach up groping to touch the hem of the garment of the Most High.
In A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century (1893), 528. Also quoted in Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain (1986), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Century (319)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Garment (13)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Most (1728)  |  Past (355)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reach (286)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Total (95)  |  Touch (146)  |  Turn (454)  |  Will (2350)

What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind. What these blessed men have given us we must guard and try to keep alive with all our strength if humanity is not to lose its dignity, the security of its existence, and its joy in living.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Alive (97)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessed (20)  |   Buddha (5)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Enquire (4)  |  Existence (481)  |  Give (208)  |  Guard (19)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Jesus (9)  |  Joy (117)  |  Keep (104)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lose (165)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moses (8)  |  Must (1525)  |  Owe (71)  |  Personality (66)  |  Rank (69)  |  Security (51)  |  Strength (139)  |  Try (296)

What is art
But life upon the larger scale, the higher,
When, graduating up in a spiral line
Of still expanding and ascending gyres,
It pushed toward the intense significance
Of all things, hungry for the Infinite?
From poem, 'Aurora Leigh' (1856), Book 4. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Harriet Waters Preston (ed.), The Complete Poetical Works of Mrs. Browning (1900), 323.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Expand (56)  |  Hungry (5)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intense (22)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Line (100)  |  Push (66)  |  Scale (122)  |  Significance (114)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)

What is it to see, in an Eagle glide
Which fills a human heart with so much pride?
Is it that it soars effortless above the Earth
That steals us from our own limits & dearth?
Trapped in our seas of befuddling sludge
We try and try but cannot budge.
And then to see a mortal; with such ease take wing
Up in a breeze that makes our failing spirits sing?
Do we, vicarious birds, search in it our childishness -
When we too were young & yearned in heart to fly?
Taking flights of fancy through adolescent nights
Listening little, heeding less, knowing not why?
From its highest perch in the forest of snow
Majestic - the Eagle soars alone.
Riding thermals, lording clouds
Till dropping silent from the sky as a stone
But we, so quick and ready to fold
Give up our wings at the whiff of age
Losing years, cursing time, wasting spirit
Living out entire lives in futile rage!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adolescent (4)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Bird (163)  |  Breeze (8)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Curse (20)  |  Dearth (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropping (8)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ease (40)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Entire (50)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Fill (67)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Fold (9)  |  Forest (161)  |  Futile (13)  |  Give Up (10)  |  Glide (4)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heed (12)  |  Human (1512)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Less (105)  |  Limit (294)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lord (97)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Night (133)  |  Perch (7)  |  Pride (84)  |  Quick (13)  |  Rage (10)  |  Ready (43)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (326)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sing (29)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sludge (3)  |  Snow (39)  |  Soar (23)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steal (14)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thermal (15)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trap (7)  |  Try (296)  |  Vicarious (2)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whiff (2)  |  Why (491)  |  Wing (79)  |  Year (963)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Young (253)

What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of the mathematics?
In 'On the Usefulness of Mathematics', Works (1840), Vol. 2, 69.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Demonstrative (14)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Noble (93)  |  Useful (260)

What we’re dealing with is so vast and so global that it really does need to be energized and kicked into high gear. Basically what’s going on is we are overfishing–the biggest danger–there are lots of things going on with the oceans that are threatening them.
From transcript of PBS TV interview by Tavis Smiley (28 Mar 2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Biggest (8)  |  Danger (127)  |  Energize (2)  |  Global (39)  |  Kick (11)  |  Lot (151)  |  Need (320)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Threat (36)  |  Vast (188)

What, then, is it in particular that can be learned from teachers of special distinction? Above all, what they teach is high standards. We measure everything, including ourselves, by comparisons; and in the absence of someone with outstanding ability there is a risk that we easily come to believe that we are excellent and much better than the next man. Mediocre people may appear big to themselves (and to others) if they are surrounded by small circumstances. By the same token, big people feel dwarfed in the company of giants, and this is a most useful feeling. So what the giants of science teach us is to see ourselves modestly and not to overrate ourselves.
Reminiscences and Reflections (1981), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Better (493)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Company (63)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Everything (489)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Giant (73)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Man (2252)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mediocre (14)  |  Modesty (18)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  People (1031)  |  Risk (68)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Token (10)  |  Useful (260)

When I read an Italian letter [Saggio by Voltaire] on changes which had occurred on the surface of the earth, published in Paris this year (1746), I believed that these facts were reported by La Loubère. Indeed, they correspond perfectly with the author’s ideas. Petrified fish are according to him merely rare fish thrown away by Roman cooks because they were spoiled; and with respect to shells, he said that they were from the sea of the Levant and brought back by pilgrims from Syria at the time of the crusades. These shells are found today petrified in France, in Italy and in other Christian states. Why did he not add that monkeys transported shells on top of high mountains and to every place where humans cannot live? It would not have harmed his story but made his explanation even more plausible.
In 'Preuves de la Théorie de la Terre', Histoire Naturelle, Générale et Particuliere, Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi (1749), Vol. I, 281. Trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Author (175)  |  Back (395)  |  Change (639)  |  Christian (44)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Italian (13)  |  Letter (117)  |  Live (650)  |  Merely (315)  |  Monkey (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Rare (94)  |  Read (308)  |  Respect (212)  |  Roman (39)  |  Sea (326)  |  Shell (69)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Top (100)  |  Transport (31)  |  Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (42)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

When I was a small boy [my father] used to sit me on his lap and read to me from the [Encyclopaedia] Britannica … say, about … the Tyrannosaurus rex, and it would say something like, “This dinosaur is twenty-five feet high and its head is six feet across.” My father would stop reading and say, “Now, let’s see what that means. That would mean that if he stood in our front yard, he would be tall enough to put his head through our window up here.” (We were on the second floor.) “But his head would be too wide to fit in the window.” Everything he read to me he would translate as best he could into some reality. …
In 'The Making of a Scientist', What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (2001), 12-13. I learned from my father to translate: everything I read I try to figure out what it really means, what it’s really saying.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Boy (100)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Father (113)  |  Fit (139)  |  Head (87)  |  Height (33)  |  Lap (9)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reality (274)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Through (846)  |  Translate (21)  |  Tyrannosaurus Rex (2)  |  Wide (97)  |  Width (5)  |  Window (59)

When the climbers in 1953 planted their flags on the highest mountain, they set them in snow over the skeletons of creatures that had lived in the warm clear ocean that India, moving north, blanked out. Possibly as much as twenty thousand feet below the seafloor, the skeletal remains had turned into rock. This one fact is a treatise in itself on the movements of the surface of the earth. If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.
Annals of the Former World
Science quotes on:  |  Below (26)  |  Blank (14)  |  Choose (116)  |  Clear (111)  |  Climber (7)  |  Creature (242)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everest (10)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Flag (12)  |  Foot (65)  |  India (23)  |  Limestone (6)  |  Live (650)  |  Marine (9)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  North (12)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Remain (355)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Rock (176)  |  Seafloor (2)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Set (400)  |  Skeletal (2)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Snow (39)  |  Summit (27)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Turn (454)  |  Warm (74)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

When the great truth accidentally revealed and experimentally confirmed is fully recognized, that this planet, with all its appalling immensity, is to electric currents virtually no more than a small metal ball and that by this fact many possibilities, each baffling imagination and of incalculable consequence, are rendered absolutely sure of accomplishment; when the first plant is inaugurated and it is shown that a telegraphic message, almost as secret and non-interferable as a thought, can be transmitted to any terrestrial distance, the sound of the human voice, with all its intonations and inflections, faithfully and instantly reproduced at any other point of the globe, the energy of a waterfall made available for supplying light, heat or motive power, anywhere—on sea, or land, or high in the air—humanity will be like an ant heap stirred up with a stick: See the excitement coming!
In 'The Transmission of Electric Energy Without Wires', Electrical World and Engineer (5 Mar 1904), 43, No. 10, 431.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Accidentally (2)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Air (366)  |  Ant (34)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Available (80)  |  Baffle (6)  |  Ball (64)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Current (122)  |  Distance (171)  |  Electric (76)  |  Energy (373)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faithful (13)  |  First (1302)  |  Globe (51)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heap (15)  |  Heat (180)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Incalculable (4)  |  Inflection (4)  |  Instantly (20)  |  Interference (22)  |  Land (131)  |  Light (635)  |  Message (53)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (62)  |  Planet (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Render (96)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sea (326)  |  Secret (216)  |  Small (489)  |  Sound (187)  |  Stick (27)  |  Stir (23)  |  Supply (100)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Virtually (6)  |  Voice (54)  |  Waterfall (5)

When two minds of a high order, interested in kindred subjects, come together, their conversation is chiefly remarkable for the summariness of its allusions and the rapidity of its transitions. Before one of them is half through a sentence the other knows his meaning and replies. ... His mental lungs breathe more deeply, in an atmosphere more broad and vast...
In The Principles of Psychology (1918), Vol. 2, 370.
Science quotes on:  |  Allusion (2)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Broad (28)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Deep (241)  |  Finish (62)  |  Genius (301)  |  Half (63)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lung (37)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reply (58)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Subject (543)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Transition (28)  |  Two (936)  |  Vast (188)

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)  |  Greater (288)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hardly (19)  |  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)

While electric railroading is perhaps the most important branch of electrical engineering, at least as regards commercial importance, considering the amount capital invested therein, nevertheless it is a remarkable fact that while most other branches of electrical engineering had been developed to a very high degree of perfection, even a few years ago theoretical investigation of electric railroading was still conspicuous by its almost entire absence.
All the work was done by some kind of empirical experimenting, that is, some kind of motor was fitted up with some gearing or some sort of railway car, and then run, and if the motor burned out frequently it was replaced with a larger motor, and if it did not burn out, a trailer was put on the car, and perhaps a second trailer, until the increase of the expense account in burn-outs of the motors balanced the increased carrying capacity of the train.
'The Electric Railway', Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (1902), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Branch (155)  |  Burn (99)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Car (75)  |  Carrying capacity (3)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Develop (278)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrical Engineering (12)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Empirical Science (9)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Importance (299)  |  Increase (225)  |  Invest (20)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kind (564)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motor (23)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Railroad (36)  |  Railway (19)  |  Regard (312)  |  Run (158)  |  Still (614)  |  Train (118)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Who has studied the works of such men as Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Riemann, Sophus Lie, and Weierstrass, can doubt that a great mathematician is a great artist? The faculties possessed by such men, varying greatly in kind and degree with the individual, are analogous with those requisite for constructive art. Not every mathematician possesses in a specially high degree that critical faculty which finds its employment in the perfection of form, in conformity with the ideal of logical completeness; but every great mathematician possesses the rarer faculty of constructive imagination.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogous (7)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (11)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Critical (73)  |  Degree (277)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Employment (34)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Possess (157)  |  Rare (94)  |  Requisite (12)  |  Bernhard Riemann (7)  |  Specially (3)  |  Study (701)  |  Vary (27)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Work (1402)

Whoever despises the high wisdom of mathematics nourishes himself on delusion.
As quoted, without citation, in Nicholas J. Rose, Mathematical Maxims and Minims (1988).
Science quotes on:  |  Delusion (26)  |  Despise (16)  |  Himself (461)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nourish (18)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Wisdom (235)

Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?
'Physical Geography', in The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, trans. E. MacCurdy (1938), Vol. 1, 361.
Science quotes on:  |  Bone (101)  |  Coral (10)  |  Depth (97)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sea-Snail (2)  |  Shell (69)  |  Snail (11)  |  Top (100)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)

With a tone control at a single touch
I can make Caruso sound like Hutch,
I never did care for music much—
It’s the high fidelity!
A parody of the hi-fi addict. From lyrics of 'Song of Reproduction', in the Michael Flanders and Donald Swann revue, At the Drop of a Hat (1959). As quoted in Steven D. Lubar, InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions (1993), 186. “Hutch” was the popularly used name of Leslie Hutchinson (1900-1969), one of the biggest London cabaret entertainers of the 1920s-30s.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Control (182)  |  Music (133)  |  Never (1089)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Tone (22)  |  Touch (146)

With all reserve we advance the view that a supernova represents the transition of an ordinary star into a neutron star consisting mainly of neutrons. Such a star may possess a very small radius and an extremely high density. As neutrons can be packed much more closely than ordinary nuclei and electrons, the gravitational packing energy in a cold neutron star may become very large, and under certain conditions may far exceed the ordinary nuclear packing fractions...
[Co-author with Walter Baade]
Paper presented to American Physical Society meeting at Stanford (15-16 Dec 1933). Published in Physical Review (15 Jan 1934). Cited in P. Haensel, Paweł Haensel and A. Y. Potekhin, D. G. Yakovlev, Neutron Stars: Equation of State and Structure (2007), 2-3. Longer version of quote from Freeman Dyson, From Eros to Gaia (1992), 34. The theoretical prediction of neutron stars was made after analyzing observations of supernovae and proposed as an explanation of the enormous energy released in such explosions. It was written just two years after Chadwick discovered the neutron.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Certain (557)  |  Closely (12)  |  Cold (115)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consisting (5)  |  Density (25)  |  Electron (96)  |  Energy (373)  |  Final (121)  |  Large (398)  |  More (2558)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Neutron Star (3)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Packing (3)  |  Possess (157)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Small (489)  |  Stage (152)  |  Star (460)  |  Supernova (7)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transition (28)  |  View (496)

Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.
In 'Great Thought' (19 Feb 1938), The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler and English Summer: A Gothic Romance, (1976), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Become (821)  |  Crude (32)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Folklore (2)  |  Forceps (2)  |  Hand (149)  |  Mess (14)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Quackery (4)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Useless (38)

You’ve climbed the highest mountain in the world. What’s left? It’s all downhill from there. You’ve got to set your sights on something higher than Everest.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Climb (39)  |  Downhill (3)  |  Everest (10)  |  Leave (138)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Something (718)  |  World (1850)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.