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: “We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index H > Category: Honest

Honest Quotes (53 quotes)

'Tis certain that a serious attention to the sciences and liberal arts softens and humanizes the temper, and cherishes those fine emotions in which true virtue and honor consist. It rarely, very rarely happens that a man of taste and learning is not, at least, an honest man, whatever frailties may attend him.
Essay XVIII, 'The Sceptic', Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects (1742, New ed. 1767), Vol. 1, 193.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attention (196)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consist (223)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Happen (282)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Honor (57)  |  Learning (291)  |  Liberal Arts (5)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Serious (98)  |  Taste (93)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Whatever (234)

“Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances full before me. Well done! Let me touch the axis.” So saying, with extended arm, he grasped the three level, radiating lances at their crossed centre; while so doing, suddenly and nervously twitched them; meanwhile, glancing intently from Starbuck to Stubb; from Stubb to Flask. It seemed as though, by some nameless, interior volition, he would fain have shocked into them the same fiery emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained, and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from him; the honest eye of Starbuck fell downright.
“In vain!&rsdquo; cried Ahab; “but, maybe, ’tis well. For did ye three but once take the full-forced shock, then mine own electric thing, that had perhaps expired from out me. Perchance, too, it would have dropped ye dead.…”
[Commentary by Henry Schlesinger: Electricity—mysterious and powerful as it seemed at the time—served as a perfect metaphor for Captain Ahab’s primal obsession and madness, which he transmits through the crew as if through an electrical circuit in Moby-Dick.]
Extract from Herman Melville, Moby-Dick and comment by Henry Schlesinger from his The Battery: How Portable Power Sparked a Technological Revolution (2010), 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Advance (298)  |  Arm (82)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Captain (16)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Death (406)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Extend (129)  |  Eye (440)  |  Interior (35)  |  Leyden Jar (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Madness (33)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Mine (78)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystic (23)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Quail (2)  |  Shock (38)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Vain (86)  |  Volition (3)

[T]he yeoman’s work in any science, and especially physics, is done by the experimentalist, who must keep the theoreticians honest.
In Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and The Tenth Dimension (1994), 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Experimentalist (20)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Research (753)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Work (1402)

A great nation is any mob of people which produces at least one honest man a century.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Great (1610)  |  Least (75)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mob (10)  |  Nation (208)  |  People (1031)  |  Produce (117)

After an honest day’s work a mathematician goes off duty. Mathematics is very hard work, and dons tend to be above average in health and vigor. Below a certain threshold a man cracks up; but above it, hard mental work makes for health and vigor (also—on much historical evidence throughout the ages—for longevity). I have noticed lately that when I am working really hard I wake around 5.30 a.m. ready and eager to start; if I am slack, I sleep till I am called.
In 'The Mathematician’s Art of Work' (1967), collected in Béla Bollobás (ed.), Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Average (89)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Duty (71)  |  Eager (17)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Health (210)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Ready (43)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Start (237)  |  Tend (124)  |  Threshold (11)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Vigor (12)  |  Wake (17)  |  Work (1402)

All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aware (36)  |  Concern (239)  |  Event (222)  |  Exert (40)  |  Field (378)  |  Good (906)  |  Influence (231)  |  Justice (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Peace (116)  |  Political (124)  |  Reason (766)  |  Small (489)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Will (2350)

An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going. But this should not be taken to imply that there are good reasons to believe that it could not have started on the earth by a perfectly reasonable sequence of fairly ordinary chemical reactions. The plain fact is that the time available was too long, the many microenvironments on the earth’s surface too diverse, the various chemical possibilities too numerous and our own knowledge and imagination too feeble to allow us to be able to unravel exactly how it might or might not have happened such a long time ago, especially as we have no experimental evidence from that era to check our ideas against.
In Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (1981), 88.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Arm (82)  |  Available (80)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Condition (362)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Era (51)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Moment (260)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Start (237)  |  State (505)  |  Surface (223)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unravel (16)  |  Various (205)

As a nation, we are too young to have true mythic heroes, and we must press real human beings into service. Honest Abe Lincoln the legend is quite a different character from Abraham Lincoln the man. And so should they be. And so should both be treasured, as long as they are distinguished. In a complex and confusing world, the perfect clarity of sports provides a focus for legitimate, utterly unambiguous support or disdain. The Dodgers are evil, the Yankees good. They really are, and have been for as long as anyone in my family can remember.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Complex (202)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Different (595)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Evil (122)  |  Family (101)  |  Focus (36)  |  Good (906)  |  Hero (45)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Legend (18)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Abraham Lincoln (13)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Press (21)  |  Provide (79)  |  Real (159)  |  Really (77)  |  Remember (189)  |  Service (110)  |  Sport (23)  |  Support (151)  |  Treasure (59)  |  True (239)  |  Unambiguous (6)  |  Utterly (15)  |  World (1850)  |  Yankee (2)  |  Young (253)

As for France and England, with all their pre-eminence in science, the one is a den of robbers, and the other of pirates. If science produces no better fruits than tyranny, murder, rapine, and destitution of national morality, I would rather wish our country to be ignorant, honest, and estimable as our neighboring savages are.
Letter (21 Jan 1812) to John Adams. Collected in Thomas Jefferson Randolph (ed.), Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers (1829), Vol. 4, 173.
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Country (269)  |  Destitution (2)  |  Eminence (25)  |  England (43)  |  Estimable (2)  |  France (29)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Morality (55)  |  Murder (16)  |  National (29)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pirate (2)  |  Pre-eminence (4)  |  Savage (33)  |  Tyranny (15)  |  Wish (216)

Common sense, the half-truths of a deceitful society, is honored as the honest truths of a frank world.
In Social Amnesia (1975), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Deceit (7)  |  Frank (4)  |  Honor (57)  |  Sense (785)  |  Society (350)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

Every honest researcher I know admits he’s just a professional amateur. He’s doing whatever he’s doing for the first time. That makes him an amateur. He has sense enough to know that he’s going to have a lot of trouble, so that makes him a professional.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (49)  |  Amateur (22)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enough (341)  |  First (1302)  |  First Time (14)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lot (151)  |  Professional (77)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Sense (785)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Whatever (234)

Good, old-fashioned common sense iz one ov the hardest things in the world to out-wit, out-argy, or beat in enny way, it iz az honest az a loaf ov good domestik bread, alwus in tune, either hot from the oven or 8 days old.
In The Complete Works of Josh Billings (1876), 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Beat (42)  |  Bread (42)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Good (906)  |  Hot (63)  |  Loaf (5)  |  Old (499)  |  Old-Fashioned (9)  |  Outwit (6)  |  Oven (5)  |  Sense (785)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tune (20)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wit (61)  |  World (1850)

He who criticises, be he ever so honest, must suggest a practical remedy or he soon descends from the height of a critic to the level of a common scold.
Aphorism in The Philistine (Jan 1905), 20, No. 2, 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Critic (21)  |  Criticise (2)  |  Descend (49)  |  Must (1525)  |  Practical (225)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Scold (6)  |  Soon (187)  |  Suggest (38)

Honest investigation is but the application of common sense to the solution of the unknown. Science does not wait on Genius, but is the companion of Industry.
From address (1 Oct 1884), at inauguration of the Corcoran School of Science and Arts, Columbian University, Washington, D.C. Published in 'The Larger Import of Scientific Education', Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1885), 26, 453.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Companion (22)  |  Genius (301)  |  Industry (159)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Research (753)  |  Solution (282)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Wait (66)

Honest pioneer work in the field of science has always been, and will continue to be, life’s pilot. On all sides, life is surrounded by hostility. This puts us under an obligation.
In Function of the Orgasm: Discovery of the Orgone (1927, 1973), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Continue (179)  |  Field (378)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Life (1870)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Side (236)  |  Surround (33)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Hypotheses are cradle-songs by which the teacher lulls his scholars to sleep. The thoughtful and honest observer is always learning more and more of his limitations; he sees that the further knowledge spreads, the more numerous are the problems that make their appearance.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Lull (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Observer (48)  |  Problem (731)  |  Scholar (52)  |  See (1094)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Song (41)  |  Spread (86)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thoughtful (16)

I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavour themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto. This is performed, in some degree, by the honest and liberal practice of a profession; where men shall carry a respect not to descend into any course that is corrupt and unworthy thereof, and preserve themselves free from the abuses wherewith the same profession is noted to be infected: but much more is this performed, if a man be able to visit and strengthen the roots and foundation of the science itself; thereby not only gracing it in reputation and dignity, but also amplifying it in profession and substance.
Opening sentences of Preface, Maxims of Law (1596), in The Works of Francis Bacon: Law tracts. Maxims of the Law (1803), Vol. 4, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Amplification (3)  |  Carry (130)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Countenance (9)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Descend (49)  |  Descent (30)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Grace (31)  |  Help (116)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Infection (27)  |  Liberal (8)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Practice (212)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Profession (108)  |  Profit (56)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Respect (212)  |  Root (121)  |  Seek (218)  |  Substance (253)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Visit (27)  |  Way (1214)

I love to read the dedications of old books written in monarchies—for they invariably honor some (usually insignificant) knight or duke with fulsome words of sycophantic insincerity, praising him as the light of the universe (in hopes, no doubt, for a few ducats to support future work); this old practice makes me feel like such an honest and upright man, by comparison, when I put a positive spin, perhaps ever so slightly exaggerated, on a grant proposal.
From essay 'The Razumovsky Duet', collected in The Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History (1995, 1997), 263.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Duke (2)  |  Exaggerate (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Future (467)  |  Grant (76)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hope (321)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Insincerity (2)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Knight (6)  |  Light (635)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Old (499)  |  Positive (98)  |  Practice (212)  |  Praise (28)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Read (308)  |  Slightly (3)  |  Spin (26)  |  Support (151)  |  Universe (900)  |  Upright (2)  |  Usually (176)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)

I think each individual is never a plane but a polyhedron. Naturally, whenever a ray of light falls on a face, a vertex, an edge of this polyhedron; the arc that it reflects is undoubtedly variable, very complex and single or multicoloured. I don’t believe in plane men, I think we’re all multiple. We don’t have a double life, we have a multiple life. However, it is no less true that we’re thought to have a common denominator. I think I am or I aspire to be an honest man that tries not to bother too many people in this valley of tears.
From Cela Foundation biography webpage.
Science quotes on:  |  Arc (14)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bother (8)  |  Complex (202)  |  Double (18)  |  Edge (51)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Multiple (19)  |  People (1031)  |  Plane (22)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Single (365)  |  Tear (48)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  True (239)  |  Valley (37)  |  Variable (37)  |  Vortex (10)

I would like to be rather more special, and I would like to be understood in an honest way rather than in a vague way.
In The Character of Physical Law (1965, 2001), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  More (2558)  |  Special (188)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vague (50)  |  Way (1214)

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Atheist (16)  |  Basis (180)  |  Belief (615)  |  Choose (116)  |  God (776)  |  Live (650)  |  Pattern (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Preacher (13)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Save (126)  |  Think (1122)  |  Totality (17)  |  TV (2)  |  Word (650)

In the realm of science all attempts to find any evidence of supernatural beings, of metaphysical conceptions, as God, immortality, infinity, etc., thus far have failed, and if we are honest we must confess that in science there exists no God, no immortality, no soul or mind as distinct from the body.
In 'Religion and Modern Science', The Christian Register (16 Nov 1922), 101, 1089. The article is introduced as “the substance of an address to the Laymen’s League in All Soul’s Church (5 Nov 1922).
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Conception (160)  |  Confess (42)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failed (3)  |  Find (1014)  |  God (776)  |  Immortality (11)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Realm (87)  |  Soul (235)  |  Supernatural (26)

In the sphere of natural science let us remember that we have always to deal with an insoluble problem. Let us prove keen and honest in attending to anything which is in any way brought to our notice, most of all when it does not fit in with our previous ideas. For it is only thereby that we perceive the problem, which does indeed lie in nature, but still more in man.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Deal (192)  |  Fit (139)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Keen (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notice (81)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Previous (17)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prove (261)  |  Remember (189)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Way (1214)

Investigators are commonly said to be engaged in a search for the truth. I think they themselves would usually state their aims less pretentiously. What the experimenter is really trying to do is to learn whether facts can be established which will be recognized as facts by others and which will support some theory that in imagination he has projected. But he must be ingenuously honest. He must face facts as they arise in the course of experimental procedure, whether they are favourable to his idea or not. In doing this he must be ready to surrender his theory at any time if the facts are adverse to it.
The Way of an Investigator: A Scientist's Experiences in Medical Research (1945), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Arise (162)  |  Course (413)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Learn (672)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Project (77)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Search (175)  |  State (505)  |  Support (151)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Trying (144)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

It is no crime to accumulate wealth, provided it was attained by honest and proper means, but it is a crime to devote it to an improper use.
As quoted in Edward J. Wheeler (ed.), 'The Demeanor of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Under Fire,' Current Opinion (Jul 1914), 57, No. 1, 21. This quote was one out of a collation in the article, “from his many talks to the Bible Class he formerly conducted and from various interviews.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Attain (126)  |  Crime (39)  |  Improper (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Proper (150)  |  Use (771)  |  Wealth (100)

It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so far as he can. If he makes an honest attempt in this direction without being crushed and trampled under foot by his contemporaries, he may consider himself and the community to which he belongs lucky.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Community (111)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Crush (19)  |  Direction (185)  |  Duty (71)  |  Far (158)  |  Foot (65)  |  Force (497)  |  Good (906)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Pure (299)  |  Strive (53)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Trample (3)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

It’s only through honesty and courage that science can work at all. The Ptolemaic understanding of the solar system was undermined and corrected by the constant pressure of more and more honest reporting.
In essay, 'The Origin of the Universe,' 6. Written after hearing Stephen Hawking's lecture (2006) at Oxford, about the origin of the universe.
Science quotes on:  |  Constant (148)  |  Correct (95)  |  Courage (82)  |  Honesty (29)  |  More (2558)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Reporting (9)  |  Solar System (81)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Undermine (6)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.
In The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson (1948, 1993), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Character (259)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Danger (127)  |  Depend (238)  |  Benjamin Franklin (95)  |  Government (116)  |  Governor (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hope (321)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Thomas Jefferson (70)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pin (20)  |  Rise (169)  |  Success (327)  |  George Washington (4)  |  Welfare (30)

Men have been talking now for a week at the post office about the age of the great elm, as a matter interesting but impossible to be determined. The very choppers and travelers have stood upon its prostrate trunk and speculated upon its age, as if it were a profound mystery. I stooped and read its years to them (127 at nine and a half feet), but they heard me as the wind that once sighed through its branches. They still surmised that it might be two hundred years old, but they never stooped to read the inscription. Truly they love darkness rather than light. One said it was probably one hundred and fifty, for he had heard somebody say that for fifty years the elm grew, for fifty it stood still, and for fifty it was dying. (Wonder what portion of his career he stood still!) Truly all men are not men of science. They dwell within an integument of prejudice thicker than the bark of the cork-tree, but it is valuable chiefly to stop bottles with. Tied to their buoyant prejudices, they keep themselves afloat when honest swimmers sink.
(26 Jan 1856). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: VIII: November 1, 1855-August 15, 1856 (1906), 145-146.
Science quotes on:  |  Afloat (4)  |  Age (509)  |  Bark (19)  |  Bottle (17)  |  Buoyant (6)  |  Career (86)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Cork (2)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Elm (4)  |  Forestry (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Integument (4)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Light (635)  |  Love (328)  |  Matter (821)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Never (1089)  |  Office (71)  |  Old (499)  |  Portion (86)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Profound (105)  |  Read (308)  |  Say (989)  |  Sink (38)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Still (614)  |  Swimmer (4)  |  Talking (76)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Tree (269)  |  Truly (118)  |  Trunk (23)  |  Two (936)  |  Week (73)  |  Wind (141)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Year (963)

My profession often gets bad press for a variety of sins, both actual and imagined: arrogance, venality, insensitivity to moral issues about the use of knowledge, pandering to sources of funding with insufficient worry about attendant degradation of values. As an advocate for science, I plead ‘mildly guilty now and then’ to all these charges. Scientists are human beings subject to all the foibles and temptations of ordinary life. Some of us are moral rocks; others are reeds. I like to think (though I have no proof) that we are better, on average, than members of many other callings on a variety of issues central to the practice of good science: willingness to alter received opinion in the face of uncomfortable data, dedication to discovering and publicizing our best and most honest account of nature’s factuality, judgment of colleagues on the might of their ideas rather than the power of their positions.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Actual (118)  |  Advocate (20)  |  Alter (64)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Attendant (3)  |  Average (89)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Central (81)  |  Charge (63)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Data (162)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Discover (571)  |  Face (214)  |  Factuality (2)  |  Foible (2)  |  Fund (19)  |  Funding (20)  |  Good (906)  |  Guilty (8)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Insufficient (10)  |  Issue (46)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Member (42)  |  Mildly (2)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Often (109)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pander (3)  |  Plead (3)  |  Position (83)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Press (21)  |  Profession (108)  |  Proof (304)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reed (8)  |  Rock (176)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sin (45)  |  Source (101)  |  Subject (543)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Think (1122)  |  Uncomfortable (7)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)  |  Willingness (10)  |  Worry (34)

Nobody in the world of policy appears to be asking what is best for society, wild fish or farmed fish. And what sort of farmed fish, anyway? Were this question to be asked, and answered honestly, we might find that our interests lay in prioritizing wild fish and making their ecosystems more productive by leaving them alone enough of the time.
In The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat (2008), 313.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Answer (389)  |  Appear (122)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Best (467)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Ecosystem (33)  |  Enough (341)  |  Farm (28)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fish (130)  |  Honestly (10)  |  Interest (416)  |  Leave Alone (3)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Policy (27)  |  Productive (37)  |  Question (649)  |  Society (350)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wild (96)  |  World (1850)

Nothing holds me ... I will indulge in my sacred fury; I will triumph over mankind by the honest confession that I have stolen the golden vases of the Egyptians to build up a tabernacle for my God, far away from the confines of Egypt. If you forgive me, I rejoice ; if you are angry, I can bear it. The die is cast; the book is written, to be read either now or by posterity, I care not which. It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
As given in David Brewster, The Martyrs of Science (1841), 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Book (413)  |  Build (211)  |  Care (203)  |  Cast (69)  |  Century (319)  |  Confession (9)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Forgive (12)  |  God (776)  |  Golden (47)  |  Indulge (15)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Read (308)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Tabernacle (5)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Wait (66)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
In Change! (1983). Quoted in Reader's Digest (1987), 131, Nos. 783-787, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Completely (137)  |  Computer (131)  |  Inhumanity (3)  |  Program (57)  |  Smooth (34)

Science is a method for testing claims about the natural world, not an immutable compendium of absolute truths. The fundamentalists, by ‘knowing’ the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science–or of any honest intellectual inquiry.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Answer (389)  |  Claim (154)  |  Compendium (5)  |  Discredit (8)  |  Domain (72)  |  Force (497)  |  Fundamentalist (4)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Lie (370)  |  Method (531)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Outside (141)  |  Preconception (13)  |  Start (237)  |  Straitjacket (2)  |  Test (221)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.
From Commencement Address, Caltech (1974), 'Cargo Cult Science'. On Caltech library website. This quote may be the origin of a paraphrase (which by itself seems to have no verbatim source): “Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself.” Also seen as, “Science is a way to not fool ourselves,” or “Science is a long history of learning how not to fool ourselves.”
Science quotes on:  |  Careful (28)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Easy (213)  |  First (1302)  |  Fool (121)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Principle (530)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Way (1214)

The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time will be found to improve, and not much inferior in eloquence, science, and dignity, to the British Commons. They are patriotic enough, and I believe there are more stupid (as well as more shining) people in the latter, in proportion.
Letter to George Richard Minot (27 May 1789). Quoted in Set Ames (Ed.) Works of Fisher Ames (1854), Vol. 1, 45.
Science quotes on:  |  British (42)  |  Common (447)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Enough (341)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  House (143)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Inform (50)  |  More (2558)  |  People (1031)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Shining (35)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Time (1911)  |  Well-Informed (7)  |  Will (2350)

The method of “postulating” what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
In Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Method (531)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Same (166)  |  Toil (29)  |  Want (504)

The most important and lasting truths are the most obvious ones. Nature cheats us with her mysteries, one after another, like a juggler with his tricks; but shews us her plain honest face, without our paying for it.
Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1837), 149.
Science quotes on:  |  Cheat (13)  |  Face (214)  |  Important (229)  |  Juggler (3)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Trick (36)  |  Truth (1109)

The spirit of science is not to prejudge, but to give any honest query a fair shake.
In How People Change (1975), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Fair (16)  |  Give (208)  |  Prejudge (2)  |  Query (4)  |  Shake (43)  |  Spirit (278)

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)  |  High (370)  |  Himself (461)  |  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)

There are a few honest anti-vivisectionists … I have not met any of them, but I am quite prepared to believe that they exist.
In Possible Worlds (1945), 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Exist (458)  |  Meet (36)  |  Prepare (44)

There is much to be said for being a mathematician. To begin with, he has to be completely honest in his work, not from any superior morality, but because he simply cannot get away with a fake.
In 'The Mathematician’s Art of Work' (1967), collected in Béla Bollobás (ed.), Littlewood’s Miscellany (1986), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Completely (137)  |  Fake (3)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Morality (55)  |  Superior (88)  |  Work (1402)

There is no substitute for honest, thorough, scientific effort to get correct data (no matter how much of it clashes with preconceived ideas). There is no substitute for actually reaching a correct claim of reasoning. Poor data and good reasoning give poor results. Good data and poor reasoning give poor results. Poor data and poor reasoning give rotten results.
In 'Right Answers—A Short Guide for Obtaining Them,' Computers and Automation, September 1969.
Science quotes on:  |  Claim (154)  |  Data (162)  |  Effort (243)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Matter (821)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Substitute (47)  |  Thorough (40)

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors—this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.
In 'Positions to be Examined', The Works of Benjamin Franklin Consisting of Essays, Humorous, Moral and Literary (1824), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Cheating (2)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Continual (44)  |  Favor (69)  |  First (1302)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  Increase (225)  |  Industry (159)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Nation (208)  |  Plunder (6)  |  Real (159)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reward (72)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Roman (39)  |  Seed (97)  |  Throw (45)  |  Virtuous (9)  |  War (233)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wealth (100)

These days at ten o’clock at night a most alarming wonder has manifested itself in the skies. The firmament was rent asunder and through this gap one could distinguish chariots and armies, riders with yellow, white, red and black standards, though to do battle against each other. This awesome and unusual vision continued from ten at night till about two of the morning, and was witnessed with alarm and dismay by many honest and trustworthy people. The significance thereof is known but to God Almighty, Who may graciously prevent the shedding of innocent blood.
Anonymous
'Frightful Apparition in the Sky at Vienna. From Vienna, the 11th day of August 1590'. As quoted in George Tennyson Matthews (ed.) News and Rumor in Renaissance Europe: The Fugger Newsletters (1959), 188. A handwritten collection of news reports (1568-1604) by the powerful banking and merchant house of Fugger in Ausburg.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alarm (19)  |  Alarming (4)  |  Almighty (23)  |  Army (35)  |  Asunder (4)  |  Awesome (15)  |  Battle (36)  |  Black (46)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chariot (9)  |  Clock (51)  |  Dismay (5)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Do (1905)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Gap (36)  |  God (776)  |  Graciously (2)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Known (453)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Night (133)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Red (38)  |  Rent (2)  |  Rider (3)  |  Shedding (3)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sky (174)  |  Standard (64)  |  Through (846)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Two (936)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Vision (127)  |  White (132)  |  Witness (57)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Yellow (31)

Though Darwin may proclaim the law,
And spread it far abroad, O!
The man that first the secret saw,
Was honest old Monboddo.
The Architect precedence takes
Of him that bears the hod, 0!
So up and at them, Land of Cakes!
We’ll vindicate Monboddo.
Anonymous
From Ballad, 'The Memory of Monboddo', in Blackwood’s Magazine (Sep 1861), 90, No. 551, 364, Verse 5 (of 6). Written to the Air, The Looking Glass. It is footnoted to explain that Lord (James Burnett) Monboddo “has written a book about the origin of language, in which he traces monkeys up to men.” The note is quoted and cited from Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Vol. 4, 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Architect (32)  |  Bear (162)  |  Cake (6)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  First (1302)  |  Land (131)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Lord James Burnett Monboddo (2)  |  Old (499)  |  Precedence (4)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Saw (160)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spread (86)  |  Vindicate (4)

We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.
The Process of Education (1960), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Begin (275)  |  Child (333)  |  Curriculum (11)  |  Development (441)  |  Education (423)  |  Form (976)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Stage (152)  |  Subject (543)

We must protect each other against the attacks of those self-appointed watchdogs of patriotism now abroad in the land who irresponsibly pin red labels on anyone whom they wish to destroy. ... [Academic professionals are the only person competant to differentiate between honest independents and the Communists.] This is our responsibility. It is not a pleasant task. But if it is left to outsiders, the distinction is not likely to be made and those independent critics of social institutions among us who are one of the glories of a true university could be silenced.
As quoted by William L. Laurence in 'Professors Urged to Guard Freedom', New York Times (19 Sep 1952), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Against (332)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Attack (86)  |  Communist (9)  |  Critic (21)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Glory (66)  |  Institution (73)  |  Irresponsibility (5)  |  Label (11)  |  Like (23)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Patriotism (9)  |  Person (366)  |  Pin (20)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Professional (77)  |  Protect (65)  |  Red (38)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Self (268)  |  Silence (62)  |  Social (261)  |  Task (152)  |  University (130)  |  Wish (216)

We need to look, I suppose, for some good PR people to help us get our messages across in an honest and open and sensible way, without causing the sort of furore, the sort of polarisation that has occurred because of the people who are trying to deny it, and trying to deny it so vehemently that the media is taking so much notice of them.
On BBC website, 'Climate change scientists losing “PR war”' (11 Feb 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Deny (71)  |  Good (906)  |  Help (116)  |  Look (584)  |  Media (14)  |  Message (53)  |  Need (320)  |  Notice (81)  |  Open (277)  |  People (1031)  |  Public Relations (5)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Trying (144)  |  Vehement (2)  |  Way (1214)

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 in his soul, to see anything praiseworthy in such a desire. He knows from 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. ... 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. ... [like] the dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes. ... And yet he stands in the very front rank of the race
In 'The Scientist', Prejudices: third series (1922), 269-70.
Science quotes on:  |  Afterthought (6)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Cure (124)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deep (241)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinite Series (8)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Move (223)  |  Observation (593)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathologist (6)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Praiseworthy (2)  |  Profit (56)  |  Race (278)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rat (37)  |  Rat-Hole (2)  |  Save (126)  |  Saving (20)  |  Scoundrel (8)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Soul (235)  |  Stand (284)  |  Surely (101)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Uncovering (2)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)

Where there is fear you do not get honest figures.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Fear (212)  |  Figure (162)

Why we love science. It’s more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world, and to share this accumulated knowledge. It’s a mindset that says we that can use reason and logic and honest inquiry to reach new conclusions and solve big problems.
From remarks at the fifth White House Science Fair, in Press Release (23 Mar 2015).
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Approach (112)  |  Big (55)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Change (639)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Critical (73)  |  Engage (41)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Love (328)  |  Mindset (2)  |  New (1273)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Problem (731)  |  Property (177)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  School (227)  |  Share (82)  |  Solve (145)  |  Subject (543)  |  Understand (648)  |  Wave (112)  |  World (1850)

Wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery.
The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life (1997), Introduction, x.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Deep (241)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Require (229)  |  Wisdom (235)


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.