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

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I was going to record talking... the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb',... and the machine reproduced it perfectly.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index I > Category: Idle

Idle Quotes (34 quotes)

[The] seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides, and is like a Prince or Emperour, whose prescripts both Elements and matter must obey; and it is never idle, but always in action, producing and maintaining natural substances, untill they have fulfilled their destiny.
A Discourse of Natural Bathes, and Mineral Waters (1669), 104.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Both (496)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Element (322)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obey (46)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reside (25)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Substance (253)  |  Womb (25)

All talk about science purely for its practical and wealth-producing results is … idle. … Practical results will follow right enough. No real knowledge is sterile. … With this faith in the ultimate usefulness of all real knowledge a man may proceed to devote himself to a study of first causes without apology, and without hope of immediate return.
A.V. Hill
Quoted in Larry R. Squire (ed.), The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography (1996), Vol. 1, 350-351. The above is a highlight excerpted from a longer quote beginning “To prove to an indignant questioner ….” in this same collection for A. V. Hill.
Science quotes on:  |  Apology (8)  |  Devote (45)  |  Faith (209)  |  Hope (321)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Practical (225)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Real (159)  |  Return (133)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Study (701)  |  Talk (108)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Wealth (100)

Applied research generates improvements, not breakthroughs. Great scientific advances spring from pure research. Even scientists renowned for their “useful” applied discoveries often achieved success only when they abandoned their ostensible applied-science goal and allowed their minds to soar—as when Alexander Fleming, “just playing about,” refrained from throwing away green molds that had ruined his experiment, studied them, and discovered penicillin. Or when C. A. Clarke, a physician affiliated with the University of Liverpool, became intrigued in the 1950s by genetically created color patterns that emerged when he cross-bred butterflies as a hobby. His fascination led him—“by the pleasant route of pursuing idle curiosity”—to the successful idea for preventing the sometimes fatal anemia that threatened babies born of a positive-Rhesus-factor father and a negative-Rhesus-factor mother.
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 214-215.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Advance (298)  |  Anemia (4)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Research (3)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Color (155)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Father (113)  |  Sir Alexander Fleming (19)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Goal (155)  |  Great (1610)  |  Green (65)  |  Idea (881)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Intrigued (4)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mold (37)  |  Mother (116)  |  Negative (66)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Penicillin (18)  |  Physician (284)  |  Playing (42)  |  Positive (98)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Research (753)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Soar (23)  |  Spring (140)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Throwing (17)  |  University (130)  |  Useful (260)

But the dreams about the modes of creation, enquiries whether our globe has been formed by the agency of fire or water, how many millions of years it has cost Vulcan or Neptune to produce what the fiat of the Creator would effect by a single act of will, is too idle to be worth a single hour of any man’s life.
Letter (2 May 1826) to Doctor John P. Emmet. Collected in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1854), Vol. 7, 443.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Cost (94)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Dream (222)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Fiat (7)  |  Fire (203)  |  Form (976)  |  Globe (51)  |  Hour (192)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Million (124)  |  Neptune (13)  |  Origin Of Life (37)  |  Single (365)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

Everyone now agrees that a Physics where you banish all relationship with mathematics, to confine itself to a mere collection of observations and experiences, would be but an historical amusement, more fitting to entertain idle people, than to engage the mind of a true philosopher.
In 'Préface Contenant l’Exposition du Système', Dictionnaire de Physique (1761), Vol. 1, iii. English version via Google Translate, tweaked by Webmaster. From the original French, “Tout le monde convient maintenant qu’une Physique d’où l'on banniroit tout ce qui peut avoir quelque rapport avec les mathématiques, pour se borner à un simple recueil d’observations & d’experiences, ne seroit qu’un amusement historique, plus propre à récréer un cercle de personnes oisives, qu’à occuper un esprit véritablement philosophique.” Also seen translated as—“Everyone now agrees that a physics lacking all connection with mathematics…would only be an historical amusement, fitter for entertaining the idle than for occupying the mind of a philosopher,” in John L. Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (1979), 74. In the latter source, the subject quote immediately follows a different one by Franz Karl Achard. An editor misreading that paragraph is the likely reason the subject quote will be found in Oxford Dictionary of Science Quotations attributed to Achard. Webmaster checked the original footnoted source, and corrected the author of this entry to Paulian (16 May 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Banish (11)  |  Collection (68)  |  Engage (41)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  Historical (70)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plus (43)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Simple (426)

Go on, fair Science; soon to thee
Shall Nature yield her idle boast;
Her vulgar lingers formed a tree,
But thou hast trained it to a post.
'The meeting of the Dryads' (1830), Poems (1891), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Form (976)  |  Linger (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Poem (104)  |  Soon (187)  |  Train (118)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Yield (86)

He that knows the secrets of nature with Albertus Magnus, or the motions of the heavens with Galileo, or the cosmography of the moon with Hevelius, or the body of man with Galen, or the nature of diseases with Hippocrates, or the harmonies in melody with Orpheus, or of poesy with Homer, or of grammar with Lilly, or of whatever else with the greatest artist; he is nothing if he knows them merely for talk or idle speculation, or transient and external use. But he that knows them for value, and knows them his own, shall profit infinitely.
In Bertram Doben (ed.), Centuries of Meditations (1908), The Third Century, No. 41, 189-190.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Body (557)  |  Cosmography (4)  |  Disease (340)  |  External (62)  |  Galen (20)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Grammar (15)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Hippocrates (49)  |  Homer (11)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Melody (2)  |  Merely (315)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Orpheus (2)  |  Poesy (2)  |  Profit (56)  |  Secret (216)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Talk (108)  |  Transient (13)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Whatever (234)

I should object to any experimentation which can justly be called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction ... [but I regret] a condition of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the web of the foot. ... [Maybe the frog is] inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his toes tied out ... But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that way for gain or for sport) without due licence of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, granted under the authority of the Vivisection Act.
... [Yet, in] 1877, two persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for hours; the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would be pained by tying strings round his fingers, and keeping him in the position of a hydropathic patient. The first offender says, 'I did it because I find fishing very amusing,' and the magistrate bids him depart in peace; nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second pleads, 'I wanted to impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness attainable in no other way, on the minds of my scholars,' and the magistrate fines him five pounds.
I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly creditable state of things.
'On Elementary Instruction in Physiology'. Science and Culture (1882), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Animal (651)  |  Authority (99)  |  Bait (2)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boy (100)  |  Call (781)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Creditable (3)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  Deal (192)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Department (93)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fine (37)  |  First (1302)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gain (146)  |  Good (906)  |  Grant (76)  |  Home (184)  |  Hour (192)  |  Impress (66)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Law (913)  |  Live (650)  |  Magistrate (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Patient (209)  |  Peace (116)  |  Permit (61)  |  Person (366)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Regret (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Set (400)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Sport (23)  |  State (505)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trial (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Vivisection (7)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)

I would not be confident in everything I say about the argument: but one thing I would fight for to the end, both in word and in deed if I were able—that if we believe we should try to find out what is not known, we should be better and braver and less idle than if we believed that what we do not know is impossible to find out and that we need not even try.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Belief (615)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Confident (25)  |  Deed (34)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fight (49)  |  Find (1014)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Less (105)  |  Need (320)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Word (650)

If it is impossible to judge merit and guilt in the field of natural science, then it is not possible in any field, and historical research becomes an idle, empty activity.
Reden und Abhandlungen (1874). Trans. W. H. Brock.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Become (821)  |  Empty (82)  |  Field (378)  |  Guilt (13)  |  Historical (70)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Judge (114)  |  Merit (51)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Possible (560)  |  Research (753)

It is characteristic of our age to endeavour to replace virtues by technology. That is to say, wherever possible we strive to use methods of physical or social engineering to achieve goals which our ancestors thought attainable only by the training of character. Thus, we try so far as possible to make contraception take the place of chastity, and anaesthetics to take the place of fortitude; we replace resignation by insurance policies and munificence by the Welfare State. It would be idle romanticism to deny that such techniques and institutions are often less painful and more efficient methods of achieving the goods and preventing the evils which unaided virtue once sought to achieve and avoid. But it would be an equal and opposite folly to hope that the take-over of virtue by technology may one day be complete, so that the necessity for the laborious acquisition of the capacity for rational choice by individuals can be replaced by the painless application of the fruits of scientific discovery over the whole field of human intercourse and enterprise.
'Mental Health in Plato's Republic', in The Anatomy of the Soul: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Mind (1973), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Age (509)  |  Anaesthetic (2)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Application (257)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Choice (114)  |  Complete (209)  |  Contraception (2)  |  Deny (71)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Evil (122)  |  Field (378)  |  Folly (44)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (906)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Individual (420)  |  Institution (73)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Munificence (2)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Physical (518)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rational (95)  |  Romanticism (5)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Engineering (2)  |  State (505)  |  Technique (84)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thought (995)  |  Training (92)  |  Try (296)  |  Use (771)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Whole (756)

It is idle to dispute with old men. Their opinions, like their cranial sutures, are ossified.
In Charlas de Café as cited in Peter McDonald (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations (2004), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Cranial (2)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Ossified (2)

It is idle to expect any great advancement in science from the superinducing and engrafting of new things upon old. We must begin anew from the very foundations, unless we would revolve for ever in a circle with mean and contemptible progress.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 31. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Anew (19)  |  Begin (275)  |  Circle (117)  |  Expect (203)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mean (810)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Progress (492)  |  Research (753)  |  Revolve (26)  |  Thing (1914)

It may be true that people who are merely mathematicians have certain specific shortcomings; however that is not the fault of mathematics, but is true of every exclusive occupation. Likewise a mere linguist, a mere jurist, a mere soldier, a mere merchant, and so forth. One could add such idle chatter that when a certain exclusive occupation is often connected with certain specific shortcomings, it is on the other hand always free of certain other shortcomings.
Letter to Heinrich Schumacher (1-5 Jan 1845). Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 414.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Connect (126)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fault (58)  |  Free (239)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Specific (98)

It may be true, that men, who are mere mathematicians, have certain specific shortcomings, but that is not the fault of mathematics, for it is equally true of every other exclusive occupation. So there are mere philologists, mere jurists, mere soldiers, mere merchants, etc. To such idle talk it might further be added: that whenever a certain exclusive occupation is coupled with specific shortcomings, it is likewise almost certainly divorced from certain other shortcomings.
In Gauss-Schumacher Briefwechsel, Bd. 4, (1862), 387.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Couple (9)  |  Divorce (7)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fault (58)  |  Jurist (6)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merchant (7)  |  Mere (86)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philologist (3)  |  Shortcoming (5)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Specific (98)  |  Talk (108)  |  True (239)  |  Whenever (81)

Occurrences that other men would have noted only with the most casual interest became for Whitney exciting opportunities to experiment. Once he became disturbed by a scientist's seemingly endless pursuit of irrelevant details in the course of an experiment, and criticized this as being as pointless as grabbing beans out of a pot, recording the numbers, and then analyzing the results. Later that day, after he had gone home, his simile began to intrigue him, and he asked himself whether it would really be pointless to count beans gathered in such a random manner. Another man might well have dismissed this as an idle fancy, but to Whitney an opportunity to conduct an experiment was not to be overlooked. Accordingly, he set a pot of beans beside his bed, and for several days each night before retiring he would take as many beans as he could grasp in one hand and make a note of how many were in the handful. After several days had passed he was intrigued to find that the results were not as unrewarding as he had expected. He found that each handful contained more beans than the one before, indicating that with practice he was learning to grasp more and more beans. “This might be called research in morphology, the science of animal structure,” he mused. “My hand was becoming webbed … so I said to myself: never label a real experiment useless, it may reveal something unthought of but worth knowing.”
'Willis Rodney Whitney', National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs (1960), 358-359.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bean (3)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Count (107)  |  Course (413)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dismissal (2)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Endless (60)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gather (76)  |  Grab (5)  |  Hand (149)  |  Handful (14)  |  Himself (461)  |  Home (184)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intrigued (4)  |  Irrelevance (4)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Label (11)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pointless (7)  |  Pot (4)  |  Practice (212)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Random (42)  |  Recording (13)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Set (400)  |  Simile (8)  |  Something (718)  |  Structure (365)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Worth (172)

Once it happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the single, idle, uncontributing part in the entire body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labor to supply and minister to its appetites. However, the stomach merely ridiculed the fatuity of the members, who appeared not to be aware that the stomach certainly does receive the general nourishment, but only to return it again and distribute it amongst the rest.
Fable related by Menenius Agrippa to resolve a grievance of plebeians against the social hierarchy, described in 'Life of Coriolanus', collected in A.H. Clough (ed.), Plutarch’s Lives of Illustrious Men (1859, 1881), 155.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuse (4)  |  Against (332)  |  Appetite (20)  |  Aware (36)  |  Body (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Dietetics (4)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Entire (50)  |  Expense (21)  |  General (521)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Hardship (4)  |  Labor (200)  |  Man (2252)  |  Member (42)  |  Merely (315)  |  Minister (10)  |  Mutiny (3)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Other (2233)  |  Receive (117)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Single (365)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Supply (100)

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 178
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Most (1728)  |  Old (499)  |  Potent (15)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Properly (21)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  Woman (160)

Science does not mean an idle resting upon a body of certain knowledge; it means unresting endeavor and continually progressing development toward an end which the poetic intuition may apprehend, but which the intellect can never fully grasp.
In The Philosophy of Physics (1936). Collected in The New Science: 3 Complete Works (1959), 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Continual (44)  |  Development (441)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Never (1089)  |  Poetic (7)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rest (287)

Study the hindrances, acquaint yourself with the causes which have led up to the disease. Don’t guess at them, but know them through and through if you can; and if you do not know them, know that you do not, and still inquire. “Cannot” is a word for the idle, the indifferent, the self-satisfied, but it is not admissible in science. “I do not know” is manly if it does not stop there, but to say “I cannot” is a judgment both entirely illogical, and in itself bad as favouring rest in ignorance.
In Sir William Withey Gull and Theodore Dyke Acland (ed.), A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull (1896), lix.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Admissible (6)  |  Bad (185)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Favor (69)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hindrance (9)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Illogical (2)  |  Indifferent (17)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Manly (3)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Satisfied (2)  |  Still (614)  |  Stop (89)  |  Study (701)  |  Through (846)  |  Word (650)

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it so as to become habits ready on all occasions.
In The Morals of Chess. As quoted in The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle (1787), 590.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Become (821)  |  Chess (27)  |  Course (413)  |  Game (104)  |  Habit (174)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Life (1870)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Ready (43)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)

The ponderous instrument of synthesis, so effective in his [Newton’s] hands, has never since been grasped by one who could use it for such purposes; and we gaze at it with admiring curiosity, as on some gigantic implement of war, which stands idle among the memorials of ancient days, and makes us wonder what manner of man he was who could wield as a weapon what we can hardly lift as a burden.
In History of the Inductive Sciences (1857), Vol. 2, 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Effective (68)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Implement (13)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Lift (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memorial (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Ponderous (2)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Stand (284)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Use (771)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Wonder (251)

The pursuits of the greatest trifles may sometimes have a very good effect. The search after the philosopher’s stone has preserved chemistry; and the following astrology so much in former ages has been the cause of astronomy’s being so much advanced in ours. Sir Isaac Newton himself has owned that he began with studying judicial astrology, and that it was his pursuits of that idle and vain study which led him into the beauties and love of astronomy.
As recalled and recorded in Joseph Spence and Edmund Malone (ed.) Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters of Books and Men (1858), 159-160.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Effect (414)  |  Former (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Himself (461)  |  Love (328)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosopher�s Stone (8)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Search (175)  |  Stone (168)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Trifle (18)  |  Vain (86)

The questions we ask are "What?" and "How?" What are the facts and how are they related? If sometimes, in a moment of absent-mindedness or idle diversion, we ask the question "Why?" the answer escapes us.
In The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932, 2003), 16
Science quotes on:  |  Absent-Minded (4)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Diversion (10)  |  Escape (85)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Moment (260)  |  Question (649)  |  Related (5)  |  Why (491)

The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one. Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics; that is mixed mathematics.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 381-382.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Larger (14)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mix (24)  |  Petty (9)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Star (460)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)

There are four classes of Idols which beset men’s minds. To these for distinction’s sake I have assigned names,—calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theatre
The Idols of the Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For every one (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolours the light of nature; owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like.
There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market-place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate; and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar, and therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations where with in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.
Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men’s minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theatre; because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage-plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorisms 39, 41-44. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 53-55.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Account (195)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Associate (25)  |  Association (49)  |  Authority (99)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Choice (114)  |  Class (168)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Common (447)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Creation (350)  |  Definition (238)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distort (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Education (423)  |  Empty (82)  |  Error (339)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idol (5)  |  Impression (118)  |  Individual (420)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owing (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Perception (97)  |  Proper (150)  |  Race (278)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reading (136)  |  Right (473)  |  Sake (61)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Settled (34)  |  Stage (152)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

There is no doubt that human survival will continue to depend more and more on human intellect and technology. It is idle to argue whether this is good or bad. The point of no return was passed long ago, before anyone knew it was happening.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Argue (25)  |  Bad (185)  |  Continue (179)  |  Depend (238)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Pass (241)  |  Point (584)  |  Return (133)  |  Survival (105)  |  Technology (281)  |  Will (2350)

There is no power of law that can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.
In Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859, 1861), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Drunken (2)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Law (913)  |  Power (771)  |  Sober (10)

Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Analyse (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Concept (242)  |  Depend (238)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Experience (494)  |  Game (104)  |  Givens (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Individually (2)  |  Justification (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Practice (212)  |  Show (353)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Will (2350)

This is the question
Marry
Children—(if it Please God)—Constant companion (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one—object to be beloved and played with—better than a dog anyhow. Home, & someone to take care of house—Charms of music and female chit-chat.—These things good for one’s health.—but terrible loss of time.—
My God, it is Intolerable to think of spending ones whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working—& nothing after all.—No, no, won’t do. Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House.—Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps-—Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro’ Street.
Not Marry
Freedom to go where one liked—choice of Society and little of it. —Conversation of clever men at clubs—Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle. —to have the expense and anxiety of children—perhaps quarreling—Loss of time. —cannot read in the Evenings—fatness & idleness—Anxiety & responsibility—less money for books &c—if many children forced to gain one’s bread. —(but then it is very bad for ones health to work too much)
Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent, idle fool.
Marry—Marry—Marry Q.E.D.
It being proved necessary to Marry When? Soon or late?
Notes on Marriage, July 1838. In F. Burkhardt and S. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin 1837-1843 (1986), Vol. 2, 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bee (44)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Biography (254)  |  Book (413)  |  Bread (42)  |  Care (203)  |  Charm (54)  |  Children (201)  |  Choice (114)  |  Clever (41)  |  Companion (22)  |  Compare (76)  |  Constant (148)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dog (70)  |  Feel (371)  |  Female (50)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fool (121)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gain (146)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Home (184)  |  House (143)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Interest (416)  |  Late (119)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Living (492)  |  Loss (117)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Money (178)  |  Music (133)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Picture (148)  |  Please (68)  |  Question (649)  |  Read (308)  |  Reality (274)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Society (350)  |  Soft (30)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spending (24)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vision (127)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wife (41)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Thus God himself was too kind to remain idle, and began to play the game of signatures, signing his likeness into the world; therefore I chance to think that all nature and the graceful sky are symbolized in the art of geometry.
In Tertius Interveniens (1610), as quoted in Freeman Dyson, 'Mathematics in the Physical Sciences', Scientific American (Sep 1964), 211, No. 3, 129.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Chance (244)  |  Game (104)  |  Geometry (271)  |  God (776)  |  Graceful (3)  |  Himself (461)  |  Kind (564)  |  Likeness (18)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Play (116)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sign (63)  |  Signature (4)  |  Sky (174)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Think (1122)  |  World (1850)

To prove to an indignant questioner on the spur of the moment that the work I do was useful seemed a thankless task and I gave it up. I turned to him with a smile and finished, “To tell you the truth we don’t do it because it is useful but because it’s amusing.” The answer was thought of and given in a moment: it came from deep down in my soul, and the results were as admirable from my point of view as unexpected. My audience was clearly on my side. Prolonged and hearty applause greeted my confession. My questioner retired shaking his head over my wickedness and the newspapers next day, with obvious approval, came out with headlines “Scientist Does It Because It’s Amusing!” And if that is not the best reason why a scientist should do his work, I want to know what is. Would it be any good to ask a mother what practical use her baby is? That, as I say, was the first evening I ever spent in the United States and from that moment I felt at home. I realised that all talk about science purely for its practical and wealth-producing results is as idle in this country as in England. Practical results will follow right enough. No real knowledge is sterile. The most useless investigation may prove to have the most startling practical importance: Wireless telegraphy might not yet have come if Clerk Maxwell had been drawn away from his obviously “useless” equations to do something of more practical importance. Large branches of chemistry would have remained obscure had Willard Gibbs not spent his time at mathematical calculations which only about two men of his generation could understand. With this faith in the ultimate usefulness of all real knowledge a man may proceed to devote himself to a study of first causes without apology, and without hope of immediate return.
A.V. Hill
From lecture to a scientific society in Philadelphia on “The Mechanism of the Muscle” given by invitation after he received a Nobel Prize for that work. The quote is Hill’s response to a post-talk audience question asking disapprovingly what practical use the speaker thought there was in his research. The above quoted answer, in brief, is—for the intellectual curiosity. As quoted about Hill by Bernard Katz in his own autobiographical chapter, 'Sir Bernard Katz', collected in Larry R. Squire (ed.), The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography (1996), Vol. 1, 350-351. Two excerpts from the above have been highlighted as standalone quotes here in this same quote collection for A. V. Hill. They begin “All talk about science…” and “The most useless investigation may prove…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Apology (8)  |  Ask (420)  |  Audience (28)  |  Baby (29)  |  Best (467)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Clerk (13)  |  Confession (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Deep (241)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Enough (341)  |  Equation (138)  |  Faith (209)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Generation (256)  |  J. Willard Gibbs (9)  |  Good (906)  |  Headline (8)  |  Himself (461)  |  Home (184)  |  Hope (321)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Importance (299)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Man (2252)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mother (116)  |  Next (238)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Practical (225)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Prove (261)  |  Purely (111)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Return (133)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Side (236)  |  Smile (34)  |  Something (718)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spent (85)  |  Startling (15)  |  State (505)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Study (701)  |  Task (152)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understand (648)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  View (496)  |  Want (504)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

We are not to think that Jupiter has four satellites given him by nature, in order, by revolving round him, to immortalize the name of the Medici, who first had notice of the observation. These are the dreams of idle men, who love ludicrous ideas better than our laborious and industrious correction of the heavens.—Nature abhors so horrible a chaos, and to the truly wise, such vanity is detestable.
From Nodus Gordius, Appendix, as cited in John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, Life of Galileo Galilei: With Illustrations of the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1832), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Abhor (8)  |  Better (493)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Correction (42)  |  Dream (222)  |  First (1302)  |  Gift (105)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Idea (881)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Immortalize (2)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Love (328)  |  Ludicrous (7)  |  Moon (252)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truly (118)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Wise (143)

With respect to Committees as you would perceive I am very jealous of their formation. I mean working committees. I think business is always better done by few than by many. I think also the working few ought not to be embarrassed by the idle many and further I think the idle many ought not to be honoured by association with the working few.—I do not think that my patience has ever come nearer to an end than when compelled to hear … long rambling malapropros enquiries of members who still have nothing in consequence to propose that shall advance the business.
Letter to John William Lubbock (6 Dec 1833). In Frank A.J.L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday: Volume 2, 1832-1840 (1993), 160. The original text spelling of “embarrased” has been edited for ease of reading in the above quote.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Association (49)  |  Better (493)  |  Business (156)  |  Committee (16)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Formation (100)  |  Hear (144)  |  Honour (58)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Patience (58)  |  Respect (212)  |  Still (614)  |  Think (1122)  |  Work (1402)


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.