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 seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell ... whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index L > Category: Last

Last Quotes (425 quotes)

’Tis evident, that as common Air when reduc’d to half Its wonted extent, obtained near about twice as forcible a Spring as it had before; so this thus- comprest Air being further thrust into half this narrow room, obtained thereby a Spring about as strong again as that It last had, and consequently four times as strong as that of the common Air. And there is no cause to doubt, that If we had been here furnisht with a greater quantity of Quicksilver and a very long Tube, we might by a further compression of the included Air have made It counter-balance “the pressure” of a far taller and heavier Cylinder of Mercury. For no man perhaps yet knows how near to an infinite compression the Air may be capable of, If the compressing force be competently increast.
A Defense of the Doctrine Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air (1662), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balance (82)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boyle�s Law (2)  |  Capable (174)  |  Cause (561)  |  Common (447)  |  Compression (7)  |  Cylinder (11)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extent (142)  |  Force (497)  |  Greater (288)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Quicksilver (8)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strong (182)  |  Thrust (13)  |  Time (1911)

“Daddy,” she says, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Steadfastly, even desperately, we have been refusing to commit ourselves. But our questioner is insistent. The truth alone will satisfy her. Nothing less. At long last we gather up courage and issue our solemn pronouncement on the subject: “Yes!”
So it is here.
“Daddy, is it a wave or a particle?”
“Yes.”
“Daddy, is the electron here or is it there?”
“Yes.”
“Daddy, do scientists really know what they are talking about?”
“Yes!”
The Strange Story of the Quantum (1947), 156-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Commit (43)  |  Courage (82)  |  Do (1905)  |  Egg (71)  |  Electron (96)  |  First (1302)  |  Gather (76)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Particle (200)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Subject (543)  |  Talking (76)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)

“Time’s noblest offspring is the last.” This line of Bishop Berkeley’s expresses the real cause of the belief in progress in the animal creation.
Leonard G. Wilson (ed.), Sir Charles Lyell’s Scientific Journals on the Species Question (1970), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Creation (350)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Progress (492)  |  Time (1911)

[1665-06-15] ...The town grows very sickly, and people to be afeared of it - there dying this last week of the plague 112, from 43 the week before - whereof, one in Fanchurch-street and one in Broadstreete by the Treasurer's office.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (15 Jun 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Grow (247)  |  Office (71)  |  People (1031)  |  Plague (42)  |  Week (73)

[1665-06-17] It stroke me very deep this afternoon, going with a hackney-coach from my Lord Treasurer's down Holborne - the coachman I found to drive easily and easily; at last stood still, and came down hardly able to stand; and told me that he was suddenly stroke very sick and almost blind. So I light and went into another coach, with a sad heart for the poor man and trouble for myself, lest he should have been stroke with the plague - being at that end of the town that I took him up. But God have mercy upon us all.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (17 Jun 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Blind (98)  |  Deep (241)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  God (776)  |  Heart (243)  |  Light (635)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Sick (83)  |  Stand (284)  |  Still (614)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Trouble (117)

[1665-06-20] ...This day I informed myself that there died four or five at Westminster of the Plague, in one alley in several houses upon Sunday last - Bell Alley, over against the Palace gate. yet people do think that the number will be fewer in the town then it was last week. ...
Diary of Samuel Pepys (20 Jun 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Bell (35)  |  Do (1905)  |  Gate (33)  |  House (143)  |  Inform (50)  |  Myself (211)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Plague (42)  |  Think (1122)  |  Week (73)  |  Will (2350)

[1665-07-31] ...Thus we end this month, as I said, after the greatest glut of content that ever I had; only, under some difficulty because of the plague, which grows mightily upon us, the last week being about 1700 or 1800 of the plague. ...
Diary of Samuel Pepys (31 Jul 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  End (603)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Grow (247)  |  Month (91)  |  Plague (42)  |  Week (73)

[1665-08-22] I went on a walk to Greenwich, on my way seeing a coffin with a dead body in it, dead of plague. It lay in an open yeard. ... It was carried there last night, and the parish has not told anyone to bury it. This disease makes us more cruel to one another than we are to dogs.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (22 Aug 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Coffin (7)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dog (70)  |  More (2558)  |  Open (277)  |  Plague (42)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)

[1665-09-14] ...my finding that although the Bill [total of dead] in general is abated, yet the City within the walls is encreasd and likely to continue so (and is close to our house there) - my meeting dead corps's of the plague, carried to be buried close to me at noonday through the City in Fanchurch-street - to see a person sick of the sores carried close by me by Grace-church in a hackney-coach - my finding the Angell tavern at the lower end of Tower-hill shut up; and more then that, the alehouse at the Tower-stairs; and more then that, that the person was then dying of the plague when I was last there, a little while ago at night, to write a short letter there, and I overheard the mistress of the house sadly saying to her husband somebody was very ill, but did not think it was of the plague - to hear that poor Payne my waterman hath buried a child and is dying himself - to hear that a labourer I sent but the other day to Dagenhams to know how they did there is dead of the plague and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday morning last, when I had been all night upon the water ... is now dead of the plague - to hear ... that Mr Sidny Mountagu is sick of a desperate fever at my Lady Carteret's at Scott's hall - to hear that Mr. Lewes hath another daughter sick - and lastly, that both my servants, W Hewers and Tom Edwards, have lost their fathers, both in St. Sepulcher's parish, of the plague this week - doth put me into great apprehensions of melancholy, and with good reason. But I put off the thoughts of sadness as much as I can, and the rather to keep my wife in good heart and family also.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (14 Sep 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Child (333)  |  Church (64)  |  City (87)  |  Continue (179)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daughter (30)  |  End (603)  |  Family (101)  |  Father (113)  |  Fever (34)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Grace (31)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hear (144)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Know (1538)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sadness (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Servant (40)  |  Short (200)  |  Shut (41)  |  Sick (83)  |  Soon (187)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Total (95)  |  Tower (45)  |  Wall (71)  |  Water (503)  |  Week (73)  |  Wife (41)  |  Write (250)

[About the great synthesis of atomic physics in the 1920s:] It was a heroic time. It was not the doing of any one man; it involved the collaboration of scores of scientists from many different lands. But from the first to last the deeply creative, subtle and critical spirit of Niels Bohr guided, restrained, deepened and finally transmuted the enterprise.
Quoted in Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Physics (7)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Critical (73)  |  Deep (241)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guide (107)  |  Involved (90)  |  Land (131)  |  Man (2252)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Restrain (6)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transmutation (24)

[American] Motherhood is like being a crack tennis player or ballet dancer—it lasts just so long, then it’s over. We’ve made an abortive effort to turn women into people. We’ve sent them to school and put them in slacks. But we’ve focused on wifehood and reproductivity with no clue about what to do with mother after the children have left home. We’ve found no way of using the resources of women in the 25 years of post-menopausal zest. As a result many women seem to feel they should live on the recognition and care of society.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Abortive (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Care (203)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Clue (20)  |  Crack (15)  |  Dancer (4)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Feel (371)  |  Focus (36)  |  Home (184)  |  Leave (138)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Menopause (2)  |  Mother (116)  |  Motherhood (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Player (9)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Resource (74)  |  Result (700)  |  School (227)  |  Society (350)  |  Tennis (8)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Woman (160)  |  Year (963)  |  Zest (4)

[Davy's] March of Glory, which he has run for the last six weeks—within which time by the aid and application of his own great discovery, of the identity of electricity and chemical attractions, he has placed all the elements and all their inanimate combinations in the power of man; having decomposed both the Alkalies, and three of the Earths, discovered as the base of the Alkalies a new metal... Davy supposes there is only one power in the world of the senses; which in particles acts as chemical attractions, in specific masses as electricity, & on matter in general, as planetary Gravitation... when this has been proved, it will then only remain to resolve this into some Law of vital Intellect—and all human knowledge will be Science and Metaphysics the only Science.
In November 1807 Davy gave his famous Second Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society, in which he used Voltaic batteries to “decompose, isolate and name” several new chemical elements, notably sodium and potassium.
Letter to Dorothy Wordsworth, 24 November 1807. In Earl Leslie Griggs (ed.), The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1956), Vol. 3, 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Aid (101)  |  Application (257)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Base (120)  |  Both (496)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (150)  |  Sir Humphry Davy (49)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  General (521)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Identity (19)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Man (2252)  |  March (48)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Power (771)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Run (158)  |  Sense (785)  |  Society (350)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Specific (98)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vital (89)  |  Voltaic (9)  |  Week (73)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

[I] browsed far outside science in my reading and attended public lectures - Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells, Huxley, and Shaw being my favorite speakers. (The last, in a meeting at King's College, converted me to vegetarianism - for most of two years!).
Autobiography collected in Gardner Lindzey (ed.), A History of Psychology in Autobiography (1973), Vol. 6, 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Attended (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  College (71)  |  Converted (2)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Aldous (Leonard) Huxley (28)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Outside (141)  |  Reading (136)  |  Bertrand Russell (198)  |  George Bernard Shaw (84)  |  Speaker (6)  |  Two (936)  |  Vegetarianism (2)  |  Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (41)  |  Year (963)

[In childhood, to overcome fear, the] need took me back again and again to a sycamore tree rising from the earth at the edge of a ravine. It was a big, old tree that had grown out over the ravine, so that when you climbed it, you looked straight down fifty feet or more. Every time I climbed that tree, I forced myself to climb to the last possible safe limb and then look down. Every time I did it, I told myself I’d never do it again. But I kept going back because it scared me and I had to know I could overcome that.
In John Glenn and Nick Taylor, John Glenn: A Memoir (2000), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Climb (39)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Edge (51)  |  Fear (212)  |  Force (497)  |  Know (1538)  |  Limb (9)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  Old (499)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Possible (560)  |  Ravine (5)  |  Rising (44)  |  Safe (61)  |  Scared (2)  |  Straight (75)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)

[J.J.] Sylvester’s methods! He had none. “Three lectures will be delivered on a New Universal Algebra,” he would say; then, “The course must be extended to twelve.” It did last all the rest of that year. The following year the course was to be Substitutions-Théorie, by Netto. We all got the text. He lectured about three times, following the text closely and stopping sharp at the end of the hour. Then he began to think about matrices again. “I must give one lecture a week on those,” he said. He could not confine himself to the hour, nor to the one lecture a week. Two weeks were passed, and Netto was forgotten entirely and never mentioned again. Statements like the following were not unfrequent in his lectures: “I haven’t proved this, but I am as sure as I can be of anything that it must be so. From this it will follow, etc.” At the next lecture it turned out that what he was so sure of was false. Never mind, he kept on forever guessing and trying, and presently a wonderful discovery followed, then another and another. Afterward he would go back and work it all over again, and surprise us with all sorts of side lights. He then made another leap in the dark, more treasures were discovered, and so on forever.
As quoted by Florian Cajori, in Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 265-266.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Back (395)  |  Confine (26)  |  Course (413)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  End (603)  |  Extend (129)  |  False (105)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forever (111)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Go Back (4)  |  Guess (67)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hour (192)  |  Keep (104)  |  Leap (57)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mentioned (3)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Pass (241)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Side (236)  |  Statement (148)  |  Surprise (91)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Trying (144)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turn Out (9)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (198)  |  Week (73)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

[My dream dinner guest is] Charles Darwin. It’s an obvious answer, but it’s the truth. Think of any problem and before you start theorising, just check up whether Charles Darwin mentioned it in one of those green books sitting on your shelf. Whether it’s earthworms, human gestures or the origin of species, the observations that man made are unbelievable. He touched on so many subjects. Then, Alexander von Humboldt, the last polymath. There was no aspect of the natural world that he wasn’t curious about or didn’t write about in Kosmos, an extraordinary book.
From interview with Alice Roberts, 'Attenborough: My Life on Earth', The Biologist (Aug 2015), 62, No. 4, 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Book (413)  |  Check (26)  |  Curious (95)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Dream (222)  |  Earthworm (8)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Gesture (4)  |  Green (65)  |  Guest (5)  |  Human (1512)  |  Baron Alexander von Humboldt (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Problem (731)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Species (435)  |  Start (237)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  Touch (146)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unbelievable (7)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)

[There] are cases where there is no dishonesty involved but where people are tricked into false results by a lack of understanding about what human beings can do to themselves in the way of being led astray by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions. These are examples of pathological science. These are things that attracted a great deal of attention. Usually hundreds of papers have been published upon them. Sometimes they have lasted for fifteen or twenty years and then they gradually die away.
[Coining the term “pathological science” for the self-deceiving application of science to a phenomenon that doesn't exist.]
From a Colloquium at The Knolls Research Laboratory (18 Dec 1953). Transcribed and edited by R. N. Hall. In General Electric Laboratories, Report No. 68-C-035 (April 1968).
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Astray (13)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deceiving (5)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exist (458)  |  False (105)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Involved (90)  |  Lack (127)  |  Paper (192)  |  Pathological (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Deception (2)  |  Subjective (20)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Threshold (11)  |  Trick (36)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Usually (176)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wishful (6)  |  Year (963)

The Mighty Task is Done

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Written upon completion of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, May 1937. In Allen Brown, Golden Gate: biography of a Bridge (1965), 229.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bay (6)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bond (46)  |  Bravery (2)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Cause (561)  |  Course (413)  |  Creed (28)  |  Deck (3)  |  Deed (34)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Envy (15)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flow (89)  |  Foe (11)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Fort (2)  |  Free (239)  |  Gate (33)  |  Golden Gate Bridge (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greed (17)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heart (243)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Loom (20)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Floor (6)  |  Parade (3)  |  Playground (6)  |  Poem (104)  |  Power (771)  |  Price (57)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rapture (8)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (326)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Ship (69)  |  Shore (25)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sneer (9)  |  South (39)  |  Steel (23)  |  Storm (56)  |  Stream (83)  |  Strut (2)  |  Sun (407)  |  Task (152)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tower (45)  |  Vast (188)  |  War (233)  |  Western (45)  |  Wire (36)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

[Describing the effects of over-indulgence in wine:]
But most too passive, when the blood runs low
Too weakly indolent to strive with pain,
And bravely by resisting conquer fate,
Try Circe's arts; and in the tempting bowl
Of poisoned nectar sweet oblivion swill.
Struck by the powerful charm, the gloom dissolves
In empty air; Elysium opens round,
A pleasing frenzy buoys the lightened soul,
And sanguine hopes dispel your fleeting care;
And what was difficult, and what was dire,
Yields to your prowess and superior stars:
The happiest you of all that e'er were mad,
Or are, or shall be, could this folly last.
But soon your heaven is gone: a heavier gloom
Shuts o'er your head; and, as the thundering stream,
Swollen o'er its banks with sudden mountain rain,
Sinks from its tumult to a silent brook,
So, when the frantic raptures in your breast
Subside, you languish into mortal man;
You sleep, and waking find yourself undone,
For, prodigal of life, in one rash night
You lavished more than might support three days.
A heavy morning comes; your cares return
With tenfold rage. An anxious stomach well
May be endured; so may the throbbing head;
But such a dim delirium, such a dream,
Involves you; such a dastardly despair
Unmans your soul, as maddening Pentheus felt,
When, baited round Citheron's cruel sides,
He saw two suns, and double Thebes ascend.
The Art of Preserving Health: a Poem in Four Books (2nd. ed., 1745), Book IV, 108-110.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Art (680)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Bank (31)  |  Blood (144)  |  Care (203)  |  Charm (54)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Delirium (3)  |  Despair (40)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dire (6)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Dream (222)  |  Drunk (10)  |  Effect (414)  |  Empty (82)  |  Fate (76)  |  Find (1014)  |  Folly (44)  |  Frenzy (6)  |  Gloom (11)  |  Headache (5)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Hope (321)  |  Indulgence (6)  |  Involve (93)  |  Life (1870)  |  Low (86)  |  Mad (54)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Night (133)  |  Open (277)  |  Pain (144)  |  Poison (46)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prodigal (2)  |  Rain (70)  |  Rapture (8)  |  Rash (15)  |  Return (133)  |  Run (158)  |  Saw (160)  |  Shut (41)  |  Side (236)  |  Sink (38)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Soon (187)  |  Soul (235)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Stream (83)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Sun (407)  |  Superior (88)  |  Support (151)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Tempting (10)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Waking (17)  |  Wine (39)  |  Yield (86)

Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose; ce que nous ignorons est immense.
What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense.
Commonly said to be his last words. However, different true last words are stated by Augustus De Morgan.
Quoted in Augustus De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes (1915), Vol. 2, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Immense (89)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Last Words (6)  |  Word (650)

Dans les sciences physiques en général, on ait souvent supposé au lieu de conclure; que les suppositions transmises d’âge en âge, soient devenues de plus en plus imposantes par le poids des autorités qu'elles ont acquises , & qu'elles ayent enfin été adoptées & regardées comme des vérités fondamentales, même par de très-bons esprits.
In the science of physics in general, men have so often formed suppositions, instead of drawing conclusions. These suppositions, handed down from one age to another, acquire additional weight from the authorities by which they are supported, till at last they are received, even by men of genius, as fundamental truths.
From the original French in Traité élémentaire de chimie (1789, 1793), discours préliminaire, x; and from edition translated into English by Robert Kerr, as Elements of Chemistry (1790), Preface, xvi.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Authority (99)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Down (455)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plus (43)  |  Support (151)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Weight (140)

Der bis zur Vorrede, die ihn abweist, gelangte Leser hat das Buch für baares Geld gekauft und frägt, was ihn schadlos hält? – Meine letzte Zuflucht ist jetzt, ihn zu erinnern, daß er ein Buch, auch ohne es gerade zu lesen, doch auf mancherlei Art zu benutzen weiß. Es kann, so gut wie viele andere, eine Lücke seiner Bibliothek ausfüllen, wo es sich, sauber gebunden, gewiß gut ausnehmen wird. Oder auch er kann es seiner gelehrten Freundin auf die Toilette, oder den Theetisch legen. Oder endlich er kann ja, was gewiß das Beste von Allem ist und ich besonders rathe, es recensiren.
The reader who has got as far as the preface and is put off by that, has paid money for the book, and wants to know how he is to be compensated. My last refuge now is to remind him that he knows of various ways of using a book without precisely reading it. It can, like many another, fill a gap in his library, where, neatly bound, it is sure to look well. Or he can lay it on the dressing-table or tea-table of his learned lady friend. Or finally he can review it; this is assuredly the best course of all, and the one I specially advise.
In Preface, written at Dresden in August 1818, first German edition, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, 4 Bücher nebst einem Anhange der die Kritik der Kentischen Philosophie (1819), xv-xvi. As translated by E.F.J. Payne in The World as Will and Representation (1958, 1969), Vol. 1, xvii. In the preface, Schopenhauer is joking that some readers of his book may find his work does not interest them.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Compensation (8)  |  Course (413)  |  Dressing (3)  |  Filling (6)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gap (36)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lady (12)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Library (53)  |  Look (584)  |  Money (178)  |  Neatly (2)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Preface (9)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reading (136)  |  Recommendation (12)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Reminder (13)  |  Review (27)  |  Table (105)  |  Tea (13)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)

Forging differs from hoaxing, inasmuch as in the later the deceit is intended to last for a time, and then be discovered, to the ridicule of those who have credited it; whereas the forger is one who, wishing to acquire a reputation for science, records observations which he has never made.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830). In Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, Statistics and Truth (1997), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Deceit (7)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discover (571)  |  Forgery (3)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Record (161)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Time (1911)

Question: A hollow indiarubber ball full of air is suspended on one arm of a balance and weighed in air. The whole is then covered by the receiver of an air pump. Explain what will happen as the air in the receiver is exhausted.
Answer: The ball would expand and entirely fill the vessell, driving out all before it. The balance being of greater density than the rest would be the last to go, but in the end its inertia would be overcome and all would be expelled, and there would be a perfect vacuum. The ball would then burst, but you would not be aware of the fact on account of the loudness of a sound varying with the density of the place in which it is generated, and not on that in which it is heard.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 181, Question 21. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Air (366)  |  Air Pump (2)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arm (82)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Balance (82)  |  Ball (64)  |  Being (1276)  |  Burst (41)  |  Cover (40)  |  Density (25)  |  Drive (61)  |  Driving (28)  |  End (603)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Examination (102)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expulsion (2)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Generation (256)  |  Greater (288)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Hollow (6)  |  Howler (15)  |  Inertia (17)  |  Loudness (3)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Overcoming (3)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Place (192)  |  Question (649)  |  Receiver (5)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sound (187)  |  Suspend (11)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Varying (2)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weighing (2)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

Question: Explain how to determine the time of vibration of a given tuning-fork, and state what apparatus you would require for the purpose.
Answer: For this determination I should require an accurate watch beating seconds, and a sensitive ear. I mount the fork on a suitable stand, and then, as the second hand of my watch passes the figure 60 on the dial, I draw the bow neatly across one of its prongs. I wait. I listen intently. The throbbing air particles are receiving the pulsations; the beating prongs are giving up their original force; and slowly yet surely the sound dies away. Still I can hear it, but faintly and with close attention; and now only by pressing the bones of my head against its prongs. Finally the last trace disappears. I look at the time and leave the room, having determined the time of vibration of the common “pitch” fork. This process deteriorates the fork considerably, hence a different operation must be performed on a fork which is only lent.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 176-7, Question 4. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Against (332)  |  Air (366)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beat (42)  |  Bone (101)  |  Bow (15)  |  Close (77)  |  Common (447)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Determination (80)  |  Determine (152)  |  Dial (9)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Ear (69)  |  Examination (102)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Faint (10)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  Head (87)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Howler (15)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Listen (81)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mounting (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Operation (221)  |  Original (61)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performance (51)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Pressing (2)  |  Process (439)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Question (649)  |  Require (229)  |  Room (42)  |  Second (66)  |  Sensitivity (10)  |  Slow (108)  |  Sound (187)  |  Stand (284)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Sure (15)  |  Surely (101)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tuning Fork (2)  |  Vibration (26)  |  Watch (118)

Question: State the relations existing between the pressure, temperature, and density of a given gas. How is it proved that when a gas expands its temperature is diminished?
Answer: Now the answer to the first part of this question is, that the square root of the pressure increases, the square root of the density decreases, and the absolute temperature remains about the same; but as to the last part of the question about a gas expanding when its temperature is diminished, I expect I am intended to say I don't believe a word of it, for a bladder in front of a fire expands, but its temperature is not at all diminished.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 175, Question 1. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Answer (389)  |  Bladder (3)  |  Density (25)  |  Diminution (5)  |  Examination (102)  |  Existence (481)  |  Expand (56)  |  Expansion (43)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Gas (89)  |  Howler (15)  |  Increase (225)  |  Intention (46)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remain (355)  |  Root (121)  |  Say (989)  |  Square (73)  |  Square Root (12)  |  State (505)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Word (650)

Quinquies exscriptus, maneat tot millibus annis.
(I wrote it out five times, may it last the same number of millennia.)
final line of Ars magna
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Number (710)  |  Time (1911)

Third Fisherman: Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.
First Fisherman: Why, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones: I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a whale; a’ plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last devours them all at a mouthful: such whales have I heard on o’ the land, who never leave gaping till they’ve swallowed the whole parish, church, steeple, bells, and all.
In Pericles (1609), Act 2, Scene 1, line 29-38.
Science quotes on:  |  Bell (35)  |  Church (64)  |  Compare (76)  |  Devour (29)  |  Do (1905)  |  Driving (28)  |  Eat (108)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fisherman (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Marvel (37)  |  Master (182)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Poor (139)  |  Sea (326)  |  Steeple (4)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Whale (45)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)

1122 … Thereafter there were many sailors on the sea and on inland water who said that they had seen a great and extensive fire near the ground in the northeast which continuously increased in width as it mounted to the sky. And the heavens opened into four parts and fought against it as if determined to put it out, and the fire stopped rising upwards. They saw that fire at the first streak of dawn, and it lasted until full daylight: this happened on 7 December.
From the 'Peterborough Chronicle (Laud Manuscript)', The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as translated in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Issue 1624 (1975), 250. The Chronicle is the work of many successive hands at several monasteries across England.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Daylight (23)  |  December (3)  |  Determined (9)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fight (49)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ground (222)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Increase (225)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Mount (43)  |  Open (277)  |  Part (235)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Sailor (21)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stop (89)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Water (503)

A ... hypothesis may be suggested, which supposes the word 'beginning' as applied by Moses in the first of the Book of Genesis, to express an undefined period of time which was antecedent to the last great change that affected the surface of the earth, and to the creation of its present animal and vegetable inhabitants; during which period a long series of operations and revolutions may have been going on, which, as they are wholly unconnected with the history of the human race, are passed over in silence by the sacred historian, whose only concern with them was largely to state, that the matter of the universe is not eternal and self-existent but was originally created by the power of the Almighty.
Vindiciae Geologicae (1820), 31-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Almighty (23)  |  Animal (651)  |  Applied (176)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Book (413)  |  Change (639)  |  Concern (239)  |  Creation (350)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Express (192)  |  First (1302)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Pass (241)  |  Period (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Race (278)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Self (268)  |  Series (153)  |  Silence (62)  |  State (505)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconnected (10)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Word (650)

A mathematician … has no material to work with but ideas, and so his patterns are likely to last longer, since ideas wear less with time than words.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, 2012), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Idea (881)  |  Lasting (7)  |  Longer (10)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wear (20)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

John Ray quote: A multitude of words doth rather obscure than illustrate, they being a burden to the memory, and the first apt t
A multitude of words doth rather obscure than illustrate, they being a burden to the memory, and the first apt to be forgotten, before we come to the last. So that he that uses many words for the explaining of any subject, doth, like the cuttle-fish, hide himself, for the most part, in his own ink.
John Ray
The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691).
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Burden (30)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Forgetting (13)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Hide (70)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Ink (11)  |  Memory (144)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Subject (543)  |  Use (771)  |  Word (650)

A painter makes patterns with shapes and colours, a poet with words. A painting may embody an “idea,” but the idea is usually commonplace and unimportant. In poetry, ideas count for a good deal more; but, as Housman insisted, the importance of ideas in poetry is habitually exaggerated. … The poverty of ideas seems hardly to affect the beauty of the verbal pattern. A mathematician, on the other hand, has no material to work with but ideas, and so his patterns are likely to last longer, since ideas wear less with time than words.
In A Mathematician’s Apology (1940, 2012), 84-85.
Science quotes on:  |  Affect (19)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Color (155)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Count (107)  |  Deal (192)  |  Embody (18)  |  Exaggerate (7)  |  Good (906)  |  Habitually (2)  |  A. E. Housman (2)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Insist (22)  |  Less (105)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  More (2558)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Painting (46)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Shape (77)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unimportant (6)  |  Usually (176)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Wear (20)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

A paper cut — A tree's last laugh!
Anonymous
Adapted from the title of a web page.
Science quotes on:  |  Cut (116)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Paper (192)  |  Paper Cut (2)  |  Tree (269)  |  Wound (26)

A paper cut — A tree's last revenge!
Anonymous
Title of a web page.
Science quotes on:  |  Cut (116)  |  Paper (192)  |  Paper Cut (2)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Tree (269)  |  Wound (26)

A science is any discipline in which the fool of this generation can go beyond the point reached by the genius of the last generation.
Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society (1965), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Fool (121)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genius (301)  |  Point (584)  |  Reach (286)

A short, broad man of tremendous vitality, the physical type of Hereward, the last of the English, and his brother-in-arms, Winter, Sylvester’s capacious head was ever lost in the highest cloud-lands of pure mathematics. Often in the dead of night he would get his favorite pupil, that he might communicate the very last product of his creative thought. Everything he saw suggested to him something new in the higher algebra. This transmutation of everything into new mathematics was a revelation to those who knew him intimately. They began to do it themselves. His ease and fertility of invention proved a constant encouragement, while his contempt for provincial stupidities, such as the American hieroglyphics for π and e, which have even found their way into Webster’s Dictionary, made each young worker apply to himself the strictest tests.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  American (56)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Broad (28)  |  Brother (47)  |  Capacious (2)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Creative (144)  |  Dead (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ease (40)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  English (35)  |  Everything (489)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Head (87)  |  Hieroglyphic (6)  |  High (370)  |  Himself (461)  |  Invention (400)  |  Lost (34)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  New (1273)  |  Night (133)  |  Often (109)  |  Physical (518)  |  Pi (14)  |  Product (166)  |  Provincial (2)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Saw (160)  |  Short (200)  |  Something (718)  |  Strict (20)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Test (221)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Type (171)  |  Vitality (24)  |  Way (1214)  |  Winter (46)  |  Worker (34)  |  Young (253)

Abstruse mathematical researches … are … often abused for having no obvious physical application. The fact is that the most useful parts of science have been investigated for the sake of truth, and not for their usefulness. A new branch of mathematics, which has sprung up in the last twenty years, was denounced by the Astronomer Royal before the University of Cambridge as doomed to be forgotten, on account of its uselessness. Now it turns out that the reason why we cannot go further in our investigations of molecular action is that we do not know enough of this branch of mathematics.
In 'Conditions of Mental Development', Lectures and Essays (1901), Vol. 1, 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Abuse (25)  |  Account (195)  |  Action (342)  |  Application (257)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Branch (155)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Denounce (6)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doom (34)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Often (109)  |  Part (235)  |  Physical (518)  |  Reason (766)  |  Research (753)  |  Royal (56)  |  Sake (61)  |  Spring (140)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turn Out (9)  |  University (130)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

According to Democritus, atoms had lost the qualities like colour, taste, etc., they only occupied space, but geometrical assertions about atoms were admissible and required no further analysis. In modern physics, atoms lose this last property, they possess geometrical qualities in no higher degree than colour, taste, etc. The atom of modern physics can only be symbolized by a partial differential equation in an abstract multidimensional space. Only the experiment of an observer forces the atom to indicate a position, a colour and a quantity of heat. All the qualities of the atom of modern physics are derived, it has no immediate and direct physical properties at all, i.e. every type of visual conception we might wish to design is, eo ipso, faulty. An understanding of 'the first order' is, I would almost say by definition, impossible for the world of atoms.
Philosophic Problems of Nuclear Science, trans. F. C. Hayes (1952), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  According (236)  |  Admissible (6)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Atom (381)  |  Conception (160)  |  Definition (238)  |  Degree (277)  |  Design (203)  |  Differential Equation (18)  |  Direct (228)  |  Equation (138)  |  Experiment (736)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Heat (180)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Lose (165)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Order (638)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possess (157)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Required (108)  |  Say (989)  |  Space (523)  |  Taste (93)  |  Type (171)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

Accordingly the primordial state of things which I picture is an even distribution of protons and electrons, extremely diffuse and filling all (spherical) space, remaining nearly balanced for an exceedingly long time until its inherent instability prevails. We shall see later that the density of this distribution can be calculated; it was about one proton and electron per litre. There is no hurry for anything to begin to happen. But at last small irregular tendencies accumulate, and evolution gets under way. The first stage is the formation of condensations ultimately to become the galaxies; this, as we have seen, started off an expansion, which then automatically increased in speed until it is now manifested to us in the recession of the spiral nebulae.
As the matter drew closer together in the condensations, the various evolutionary processes followed—evolution of stars, evolution of the more complex elements, evolution of planets and life.
The Expanding Universe (1933), 56-57.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Closer (43)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condensation (12)  |  Density (25)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Electron (96)  |  Element (322)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Expansion (43)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formation (100)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Picture (148)  |  Planet (402)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Proton (23)  |  Remaining (45)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Speed (66)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Stage (152)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Start (237)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)

Adam is fading out. It is on account of Darwin and that crowd. I can see that he is not going to last much longer. There's a plenty of signs. He is getting belittled to a germ—a little bit of a speck that you can't see without a microscope powerful enough to raise a gnat to the size of a church. They take that speck and breed from it: first a flea; then a fly, then a bug, then cross these and get a fish, then a raft of fishes, all kinds, then cross the whole lot and get a reptile, then work up the reptiles till you've got a supply of lizards and spiders and toads and alligators and Congressmen and so on, then cross the entire lot again and get a plant of amphibiums, which are half-breeds and do business both wet and dry, such as turtles and frogs and ornithorhyncuses and so on, and cross-up again and get a mongrel bird, sired by a snake and dam'd by a bat, resulting in a pterodactyl, then they develop him, and water his stock till they've got the air filled with a million things that wear feathers, then they cross-up all the accumulated animal life to date and fetch out a mammal, and start-in diluting again till there's cows and tigers and rats and elephants and monkeys and everything you want down to the Missing Link, and out of him and a mermaid they propagate Man, and there you are! Everything ship-shape and finished-up, and nothing to do but lay low and wait and see if it was worth the time and expense.
'The Refuge of the Derelicts' collected in Mark Twain and John Sutton Tuckey, The Devil's Race-Track: Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings (1980), 340-41. - 1980
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Adam (7)  |  Air (366)  |  Amphibian (7)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Bat (10)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Bug (10)  |  Business (156)  |  Church (64)  |  Cow (42)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Dry (65)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expense (21)  |  Feather (13)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Fish (130)  |  Flea (11)  |  Fly (153)  |  Frog (44)  |  Germ (54)  |  Gnat (7)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Lot (151)  |  Low (86)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mermaid (5)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Missing (21)  |  Missing Link (4)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Plant (320)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Pterodactyl (2)  |  Rat (37)  |  Reptile (33)  |  See (1094)  |  Ship (69)  |  Snake (29)  |  Speck (25)  |  Spider (14)  |  Start (237)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tiger (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toad (10)  |  Turtle (8)  |  Wait (66)  |  Want (504)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

After the birth of printing books became widespread. Hence everyone throughout Europe devoted himself to the study of literature... Every year, especially since 1563, the number of writings published in every field is greater than all those produced in the past thousand years. Through them there has today been created a new theology and a new jurisprudence; the Paracelsians have created medicine anew and the Copernicans have created astronomy anew. I really believe that at last the world is alive, indeed seething, and that the stimuli of these remarkable conjunctions did not act in vain.
De Stella Nova, On the New Star (1606), Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke (1937- ), Vol. 1, 330-2. Quoted in N. Jardine, The Birth of History and Philosophy of Science: Kepler's A Defence of Tycho Against Ursus With Essays on its Provenance and Significance (1984), 277-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Alive (97)  |  Anew (19)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Birth (154)  |  Book (413)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Field (378)  |  Greater (288)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Literature (116)  |  Medicine (392)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (19)  |  Past (355)  |  Printing (25)  |  Produced (187)  |  Publication (102)  |  Study (701)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Today (321)  |  Vain (86)  |  Widespread (23)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Year (963)

After the German occupation of Holland in May 1940, the [last] two dark years of the war I spent hiding indoors from the Nazis, eating tulip bulbs to fill the stomach and reading Kramers' book “Quantum Theorie des Elektrons und der Strahlung” by the light of a storm lamp.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Bulb (10)  |  Dark (145)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  German (37)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Holland (2)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Light (635)  |  Nazi (10)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Spent (85)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Storm (56)  |  Tulip (3)  |  Two (936)  |  War (233)  |  World War II (9)  |  Year (963)

Alcoholism, the opium habit and tobaccoism are a trio of poison habits which have been weighty handicaps to human progress during the last three centuries. In the United States, the subtle spell of opium has been broken by restrictive legislation; the grip of the rum demon has been loosened by the Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution, but the tobacco habit still maintains its strangle-hold and more than one hundred million victims of tobaccoism daily burn incense to the smoke god.
In Tobaccoism: or, How Tobacco Kills (1922), Preface, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Alcoholism (6)  |  Amendment (2)  |  Broken (56)  |  Burn (99)  |  Century (319)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Daily (91)  |  Demon (8)  |  God (776)  |  Grip (10)  |  Habit (174)  |  Handicap (7)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Progress (18)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Legislation (10)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Opium (7)  |  Poison (46)  |  Progress (492)  |  Prohibition (3)  |  Restrictive (4)  |  Rum (3)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Spell (9)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Stranglehold (2)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  United States (31)  |  Victim (37)

Alike fantastic, if too new, or old;
Be not the first by whom the new are try'd,
Not yet the last to lay the old aside.
In An Essay on Criticism. With notes by Mr. Warburton (1749), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Innovation (49)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Try (296)

All admit that the mountains of the globe are situated mostly along the border regions of the continents (taking these regions as 300 to 1000 miles or more in width), and that over these same areas the sedimentary deposits have, as a general thing, their greatest thickness. At first thought, it would seem almost incredible that the upliftings of mountains, whatever their mode of origin, should have taken place just where the earth’s crust, through these sedimentary accumulations, was the thickest, and where, therefore, there was the greatest weight to be lifted. … Earthquakes show that even now, in this last of the geological ages, the same border regions of the continents, although daily thickening from the sediments borne to the ocean by rivers, are the areas of the greatest and most frequent movements of the earth’s crust. (1866)
[Thus, the facts were known long ago; the explanation by tectonic activity came many decades later.]
In 'Observations on the Origin of Some of the Earth’s Features', The American Journal of Science (Sep 1866), Second Series, 42, No. 125, 210-211.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Activity (218)  |  Age (509)  |  Border (10)  |  Continent (79)  |  Crust (43)  |  Daily (91)  |  Decade (66)  |  Deposit (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Known (453)  |  Lift (57)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Movement (162)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  River (140)  |  Sediment (9)  |  Show (353)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Uplift (6)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whatever (234)

All change is relative. The universe is expanding relatively to our common material standards; our material standards are shrinking relatively to the size of the universe. The theory of the “expanding universe” might also be called the theory of the “shrinking atom”. …
:Let us then take the whole universe as our standard of constancy, and adopt the view of a cosmic being whose body is composed of intergalactic spaces and swells as they swell. Or rather we must now say it keeps the same size, for he will not admit that it is he who has changed. Watching us for a few thousand million years, he sees us shrinking; atoms, animals, planets, even the galaxies, all shrink alike; only the intergalactic spaces remain the same. The earth spirals round the sun in an ever-decreasing orbit. It would be absurd to treat its changing revolution as a constant unit of time. The cosmic being will naturally relate his units of length and time so that the velocity of light remains constant. Our years will then decrease in geometrical progression in the cosmic scale of time. On that scale man’s life is becoming briefer; his threescore years and ten are an ever-decreasing allowance. Owing to the property of geometrical progressions an infinite number of our years will add up to a finite cosmic time; so that what we should call the end of eternity is an ordinary finite date in the cosmic calendar. But on that date the universe has expanded to infinity in our reckoning, and we have shrunk to nothing in the reckoning of the cosmic being.
We walk the stage of life, performers of a drama for the benefit of the cosmic spectator. As the scenes proceed he notices that the actors are growing smaller and the action quicker. When the last act opens the curtain rises on midget actors rushing through their parts at frantic speed. Smaller and smaller. Faster and faster. One last microscopic blurr of intense agitation. And then nothing.
In The Expanding Universe (1933) , 90-92.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Agitation (10)  |  Alike (60)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Animal (651)  |  Atom (381)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Body (557)  |  Calendar (9)  |  Call (781)  |  Change (639)  |  Common (447)  |  Constancy (12)  |  Constant (148)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Drama (24)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Expand (56)  |  Faster (50)  |  Finite (60)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Growing (99)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Open (277)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Owing (39)  |  Planet (402)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Progression (23)  |  Property (177)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Remain (355)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Space (523)  |  Speed (66)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Velocity (51)  |  View (496)  |  Walk (138)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

All geologic history is full of the beginning and the ends of species–of their first and last days; but it exhibits no genealogies of development.
Lecture to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, 'Geology in its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Part 1', collected in The Testimony of the Rocks: or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed (1857), 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Development (441)  |  End (603)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extinction (80)  |  First (1302)  |  Genealogy (4)  |  Geology (240)  |  History (716)  |  Species (435)

All of our experience indicates that life can manifest itself only in a concrete form, and that it is bound to certain substantial loci. These loci are cells and cell formations. But we are far from seeking the last and highest level of understanding in the morphology of these loci of life. Anatomy does not exclude physiology, but physiology certainly presupposes anatomy. The phenomena that the physiologist investigates occur in special organs with quite characteristic anatomical arrangements; the various morphological parts disclosed by the anatomist are the bearers of properties or, if you will, of forces probed by the physiologist; when the physiologist has established a law, whether through physical or chemical investigation, the anatomist can still proudly state: This is the structure in which the law becomes manifest.
In 'Cellular-Pathologie', Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fur klinische Medizin (1855), 8, 19, as translated in LellandJ. Rather, 'Cellular Pathology', Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays by Rudolf Virchow (1958), 84.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Become (821)  |  Bound (120)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Experience (494)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Law (913)  |  Level (69)  |  Life (1870)  |  Locus (5)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Occur (151)  |  Organ (118)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Presuppose (15)  |  Pride (84)  |  Probe (12)  |  Property (177)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Special (188)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Through (846)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
Attributed in Richard Garnett, Life of Emerson (1888), 165. It is given without citation and without quotation marks, as: It is a shrewd remark of Arbuthnot’s, that all political parties die ….
Science quotes on:  |  Lie (370)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)

All revolutionary advances in science may consist less of sudden and dramatic revelations than a series of transformations, of which the revolutionary significance may not be seen (except afterwards, by historians) until the last great step. In many cases the full potentiality and force of a most radical step in such a sequence of transformations may not even be manifest to its author.
The Newtonian Revolution (1980), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Author (175)  |  Consist (223)  |  Consisting (5)  |  Dramatic (19)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Historian (59)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Potentiality (9)  |  Radical (28)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Series (153)  |  Significance (114)  |  Step (234)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Transformation (72)

All successful men have agreed to one thing,—they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck, but by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things.
From 'Power', The Conduct of Life (1860), collected in The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870), 343.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  First (1302)  |  Law (913)  |  Luck (44)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Weak (73)

All that can be said upon the number and nature of elements is, in my opinion, confined to discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature. The subject only furnishes us with indefinite problems, which may be solved in a thousand different ways, not one of which, in all probability, is consistent with nature. I shall therefore only add upon this subject, that if, by the term elements, we mean to express those simple and indivisible atoms of which matter is composed, it is extremely probable we know nothing at all about them; but, if we apply the term elements, or principles of bodies, to express our idea of the last point which analysis is capable of reaching, we must admit, as elements, all the substances into which we are capable, by any means, to reduce bodies by decomposition.
Elements of Chemistry (1790), trans. R. Kerr, Preface, xxiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Apply (170)  |  Atom (381)  |  Capable (174)  |  Composition (86)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Different (595)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Element (322)  |  Express (192)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indefinite (21)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Point (584)  |  Principle (530)  |  Probability (135)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)  |  Term (357)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Way (1214)

All truth is a shadow except the last—yet every Truth is true in its kind. It is substance in its own place, though it be but a shadow in another place, (for it is but a shadow from an intenser substance;) and the shadow is a true shadow, as the substance is a true substance.
The Life of a Christian (1653), first page (unnumbered). In Elizabeth Waterhouse, et al., A Little Book of Life and Death (1902), 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Kind (564)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Substance (253)  |  Truth (1109)

Among the current discussions, the impact of new and sophisticated methods in the study of the past occupies an important place. The new 'scientific' or 'cliometric' history—born of the marriage contracted between historical problems and advanced statistical analysis, with economic theory as bridesmaid and the computer as best man—has made tremendous advances in the last generation.
Co-author with Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (1921-94), British historian. Which Road to the Past? Two Views of History (1983), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Best (467)  |  Computer (131)  |  Current (122)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Generation (256)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Impact (45)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Method (531)  |  New (1273)  |  Past (355)  |  Problem (731)  |  Science History (4)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Study (701)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tremendous (29)

An acquaintance of mine, a notary by profession, who, by perpetual writing, began first to complain of an excessive wariness of his whole right arm which could be removed by no medicines, and which was at last succeeded by a perfect palsy of the whole arm. … He learned to write with his left hand, which was soon thereafter seized with the same disorder.
Concerning a notary, a scribe skilled in rapid writing, in a translation published by the University of Chicago Press (1940).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Arm (82)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Excessive (24)  |  First (1302)  |  Health (210)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mine (78)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Profession (108)  |  Right (473)  |  Soon (187)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Whole (756)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

An inventor is an opportunist, one who takes occasion by the hand; who, having seen where some want exists, successfully applies the right means to attain the desired end. The means may be largely, or even wholly, something already known, or there may be a certain originality or discovery in the means employed. But in every case the inventor uses the work of others. If I may use a metaphor, I should liken him to the man who essays the conquest of some virgin alp. At the outset he uses the beaten track, and, as he progresses in the ascent, he uses the steps made by those who have preceded him, whenever they lead in the right direction; and it is only after the last footprints have died out that he takes ice-axe in hand and cuts the remaining steps, few or many, that lift him to the crowning height which is his goal.
In Kenneth Raydon Swan, Sir Joseph Swan (1946), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Alp (9)  |  Already (226)  |  Application (257)  |  Ascent (7)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Beaten Track (4)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Crown (39)  |  Cut (116)  |  Death (406)  |  Desire (212)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Employ (115)  |  End (603)  |  Essay (27)  |  Exist (458)  |  Footprint (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  Height (33)  |  Ice (58)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leading (17)  |  Lift (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Opportunist (3)  |  Originality (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outset (7)  |  Preceded (2)  |  Progress (492)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Right (473)  |  Something (718)  |  Step (234)  |  Success (327)  |  Track (42)  |  Use (771)  |  Virgin (11)  |  Want (504)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Work (1402)

And from this such small difference of eight minutes [of arc] it is clear why Ptolemy, since he was working with bisection [of the linear eccentricity], accepted a fixed equant point… . For Ptolemy set out that he actually did not get below ten minutes [of arc], that is a sixth of a degree, in making observations. To us, on whom Divine benevolence has bestowed the most diligent of observers, Tycho Brahe, from whose observations this eight-minute error of Ptolemy’s in regard to Mars is deduced, it is fitting that we accept with grateful minds this gift from God, and both acknowledge and build upon it. So let us work upon it so as to at last track down the real form of celestial motions (these arguments giving support to our belief that the assumptions are incorrect). This is the path I shall, in my own way, strike out in what follows. For if I thought the eight minutes in [ecliptic] longitude were unimportant, I could make a sufficient correction (by bisecting the [linear] eccentricity) to the hypothesis found in Chapter 16. Now, because they could not be disregarded, these eight minutes alone will lead us along a path to the reform of the whole of Astronomy, and they are the matter for a great part of this work.
Astronomia Nova, New Astronomy (1609), ch. 19, 113-4, Johannes Kepler Gesammelte Werke (1937-), Vol. 3, 177-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arc (14)  |  Argument (145)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Belief (615)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Both (496)  |  Tycho Brahe (24)  |  Build (211)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Correction (42)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difference (355)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Divine (112)  |  Down (455)  |  Error (339)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Gift (105)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Lead (391)  |  Linear (13)  |  Longitude (8)  |  Making (300)  |  Mars (47)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Observation (593)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Path (159)  |  Point (584)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Reform (22)  |  Regard (312)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Support (151)  |  Thought (995)  |  Track (42)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

And I do not take my medicines from the apothecaries; their shops are but foul sculleries, from which comes nothing but foul broths. As for you, you defend your kingdom with belly-crawling and flattery. How long do you think this will last? ... let me tell you this: every little hair on my neck knows more than you and all your scribes, and my shoebuckles are more learned than your Galen and Avicenna, and my beard has more experience than all your high colleges.
'Credo', in J. Jacobi (ed.), Paracelsus: Selected Writings (1951), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Apothecary (10)  |  Avicenna (19)  |  Beard (8)  |  Broth (2)  |  College (71)  |  Defense (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Experience (494)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Foul (15)  |  Galen (20)  |  Hair (25)  |  High (370)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Neck (15)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Scribe (3)  |  Shop (11)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)

Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life; ...
'So careful of the type', but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, 'A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go' ...
Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law—
Tho’ Nature red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed...
In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850), Cantos 56-57. Collected in Alfred Tennyson and William James Rolfe (ed.) The Poetic and Dramatic works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1898), 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Care (203)  |  Claw (8)  |  Cliff (22)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creed (28)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dream (222)  |  Evil (122)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fairness (2)  |  Final (121)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  God (776)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quarry (14)  |  Ravine (5)  |  Red (38)  |  Roll (41)  |  Rolling (4)  |  Scarp (2)  |  Shriek (4)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strife (9)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tooth (32)  |  Trust (72)  |  Type (171)  |  Winter (46)  |  Work (1402)

Armed with all the powers, enjoying all the wealth they owe to science, our societies are still trying to practice and to teach systems of values already destroyed at the roots by that very science. Man knows at last that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe, whence which he has emerged by chance. His duty, like his fate, is written nowhere.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Already (226)  |  Arm (82)  |  Chance (244)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Fate (76)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Owe (71)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Religion (369)  |  Root (121)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Teach (299)  |  Trying (144)  |  Universe (900)  |  Value (393)  |  Wealth (100)

As a progressive discipline [biochemistry] belongs to the present century. From the experimental physiologists of the last century it obtained a charter, and, from a few pioneers of its own, a promise of success; but for the furtherance of its essential aim that century left it but a small inheritance of facts and methods. By its essential or ultimate aim I myself mean an adequate and acceptable description of molecular dynamics in living cells and tissues.
'Some Chemical Aspects of Life', Address (Sep 1933) in Report on the 103rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1933), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptable (14)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aim (175)  |  Belong (168)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Century (319)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Furtherance (4)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Living (492)  |  Mean (810)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (531)  |  Myself (211)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Present (630)  |  Promise (72)  |  Small (489)  |  Success (327)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Ultimate (152)

As to how far in advance of the first flight the man should know he’s going. I’m not in agreement with the argument that says word should be delayed until the last possible moment to save the pilot from developing a bad case of the jitters. If we don’t have the confidence to keep from getting clutched at that time, we have no business going at all. If I’m the guy going, I’ll be glad to get the dope as soon as possible. As for keeping this a big secret from us and having us all suited up and then saying to one man “you go” and stuffing him in and putting the lid on that thing and away he goes, well, we’re all big boys now.
As he wrote in an article for Life (14 Sep 1959), 38. In fact, he was the first to fly in Earth orbit on 20 Feb 1962, though Alan Shepard was picked for the earlier first suborbital flight.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Argument (145)  |  Bad (185)  |  Big (55)  |  Boy (100)  |  Business (156)  |  Case (102)  |  Clutch (4)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Delay (21)  |  Develop (278)  |  Dope (3)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Glad (7)  |  Go (6)  |  Going (6)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Possible (560)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Secret (216)  |  Soon (187)  |  Stuff (24)  |  Suit (12)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Word (650)

As to what Simplicius said last, that to contend whether the parts of the Sun, Moon, or other celestial body, separated from their whole, should naturally return to it, is a vanity, for that the case is impossible, it being clear by the demonstrations of Aristotle that the celestial bodies are impassible, impenetrable, unpartable, etc., I answer that none of the conditions whereby Aristotle distinguishes the celestial bodies from the elementary has any foundation other than what he deduces from the diversity of their natural motions; so that, if it is denied that the circular motion is peculiar to celestial bodies, and affirmed instead that it is agreeable to all naturally moveable bodies, one is led by necessary confidence to say either that the attributes of generated or ungenerated, alterable or unalterable, partable or unpartable, etc., equally and commonly apply to all bodies, as well to the celestial as to the elementary, or that Aristotle has badly and erroneously deduced those from the circular motion which he has assigned to celestial bodies.
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632). Revised and Annotated by Giorgio De Santillana (1953), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Answer (389)  |  Apply (170)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Badly (32)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Circular (19)  |  Circular Motion (7)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Equally (129)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Return (133)  |  Say (989)  |  Star (460)  |  Sun (407)  |  Whole (756)

Asthma is a disease that has practically the same symptoms as passion except that with asthma it lasts longer.
Anonymous
Journal of the American Medical Association (1964), 190, 392.
Science quotes on:  |  Disease (340)  |  Passion (121)  |  Symptom (38)

At last gleams of light have come, and I am almost convinced (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable. Heaven forfend me from Lamarck nonsense of a “tendency to progression”, “adaptations from the slow willing of animals”, &c! But the conclusions I am led to are not widely different from his; though the means of change are wholly so. I think I have found out (here’s presumption!) the simple way by which species become exquisitely adapted to various ends.
Letter to Sir Joseph Hooker (11 Jan 1844). In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 173-174.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Become (821)  |  Change (639)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Different (595)  |  End (603)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Progression (23)  |  Simple (426)  |  Slow (108)  |  Species (435)  |  Start (237)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Various (205)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Willing (44)

At last have made wonderful discovery in valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulations.
Telegram (6 Nov 1922) sent to Lord Carnarvon. In The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen (1923, 1977), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrival (15)  |  Congratulation (5)  |  Congratulations (3)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Intact (9)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Seal (19)  |  Tomb (15)  |  Valley (37)  |  Wonderful (155)

At last such field studies have been put on a sound basis which should result in the hunting of information rather than specimens.
Concluding line of Allee’s Review (of Hiram Bingham’s 1932 book, Gorillas in a Native Habitat), in journal, Ecology (1933), 14, No. 3, 320. Note that the quote is authored by the reviewer, W.C. Allee, and any source attributing it directly to Bingham himself is incorrect.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Field (378)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Information (173)  |  Result (700)  |  Sound (187)  |  Specimen (32)

At least once per year, some group of scientists will become very excited and announce that:
•The universe is even bigger than they thought!
•There are even more subatomic particles than they thought!
•Whatever they announced last year about global warming is wrong.
From newspaper column '25 Things I Have Learned in 50 Years' (Oct 1998), collected in Dave Barry Turns Fifty (2010), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Announce (13)  |  Announcement (15)  |  Become (821)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Warming (29)  |  More (2558)  |  Particle (200)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Subatomic (10)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warming (24)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Year (963)

At your next breath each of you will probably inhale half a dozen or so of the molecules of Caesar’s last breath.
'Assault on Atoms' (Read 23 Apr 1931 at Symposium—The Changing World) Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1931), 70, No. 3, 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Breath (61)  |  Caesar_Julius (2)  |  Inhale (3)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Next (238)  |  Probably (50)  |  Will (2350)

Bacon himself was very ignorant of all that had been done by mathematics; and, strange to say, he especially objected to astronomy being handed over to the mathematicians. Leverrier and Adams, calculating an unknown planet into a visible existence by enormous heaps of algebra, furnish the last comment of note on this specimen of the goodness of Bacon’s view… . Mathematics was beginning to be the great instrument of exact inquiry: Bacon threw the science aside, from ignorance, just at the time when his enormous sagacity, applied to knowledge, would have made him see the part it was to play. If Newton had taken Bacon for his master, not he, but somebody else, would have been Newton.
In Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 53-54.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Comment (12)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Exact (75)  |  Existence (481)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heap (15)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  LeVerrier_Urbain (3)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Note (39)  |  Object (438)  |  Part (235)  |  Planet (402)  |  Play (116)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Strange (160)  |  Throw (45)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unknown (195)  |  View (496)  |  Visible (87)

Because words pass away as soon as they strike upon the air, and last no longer than their sound, men have by means of letters formed signs of words. Thus the sounds of the voice are made visible to the eye, not of course as sounds, but by means of certain signs.
In 'Origin of Writing', Christian Doctrine, Book 2, as translated by J.F. Shaw, collected in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: Volume II: St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine (1907), 536.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Certain (557)  |  Course (413)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Letter (117)  |  Linguistics (39)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Pass (241)  |  Sign (63)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Strike (72)  |  Visible (87)  |  Voice (54)  |  Word (650)

Bowing to the reality of harried lives, Rudwick recognizes that not everyone will read every word of the meaty second section; he even explicitly gives us permission to skip if we get ‘bogged down in the narrative.’ Readers absolutely must not do such a thing; it should be illegal. The publisher should lock up the last 60 pages, and deny access to anyone who doesn’t pass a multiple-choice exam inserted into the book between parts two and three.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Access (21)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Bog (5)  |  Book (413)  |  Bow (15)  |  Choice (114)  |  Deny (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Exam (5)  |  Explicitly (2)  |  Give (208)  |  Illegal (2)  |  Insert (4)  |  Live (650)  |  Lock (14)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrative (9)  |  Page (35)  |  Part (235)  |  Pass (241)  |  Permission (7)  |  Publisher (3)  |  Read (308)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reality (274)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Second (66)  |  Section (11)  |  Skip (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Bradley is one of the few basketball players who have ever been appreciatively cheered by a disinterested away-from-home crowd while warming up. This curious event occurred last March, just before Princeton eliminated the Virginia Military Institute, the year’s Southern Conference champion, from the NCAA championships. The game was played in Philadelphia and was the last of a tripleheader. The people there were worn out, because most of them were emotionally committed to either Villanova or Temple-two local teams that had just been involved in enervating battles with Providence and Connecticut, respectively, scrambling for a chance at the rest of the country. A group of Princeton players shooting basketballs miscellaneously in preparation for still another game hardly promised to be a high point of the evening, but Bradley, whose routine in the warmup time is a gradual crescendo of activity, is more interesting to watch before a game than most players are in play. In Philadelphia that night, what he did was, for him, anything but unusual. As he does before all games, he began by shooting set shots close to the basket, gradually moving back until he was shooting long sets from 20 feet out, and nearly all of them dropped into the net with an almost mechanical rhythm of accuracy. Then he began a series of expandingly difficult jump shots, and one jumper after another went cleanly through the basket with so few exceptions that the crowd began to murmur. Then he started to perform whirling reverse moves before another cadence of almost steadily accurate jump shots, and the murmur increased. Then he began to sweep hook shots into the air. He moved in a semicircle around the court. First with his right hand, then with his left, he tried seven of these long, graceful shots-the most difficult ones in the orthodoxy of basketball-and ambidextrously made them all. The game had not even begun, but the presumably unimpressible Philadelphians were applauding like an audience at an opera.
A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Activity (218)  |  Air (366)  |  Appreciatively (2)  |  Audience (28)  |  Back (395)  |  Basket (8)  |  Basketball (4)  |  Battle (36)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bradley (2)  |  Cadence (2)  |  Champion (6)  |  Championship (2)  |  Chance (244)  |  Cheer (7)  |  Close (77)  |  Commit (43)  |  Conference (18)  |  Country (269)  |  Court (35)  |  Crescendo (3)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Curious (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disinterest (8)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Emotionally (3)  |  Event (222)  |  Exception (74)  |  First (1302)  |  Foot (65)  |  Game (104)  |  Graceful (3)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Group (83)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Hook (7)  |  Increase (225)  |  Institute (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Jump (31)  |  Leave (138)  |  Local (25)  |  Long (778)  |  March (48)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Military (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Murmur (4)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Net (12)  |  Night (133)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opera (3)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Philadelphia (3)  |  Play (116)  |  Player (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Presumably (3)  |  Princeton (4)  |  Promise (72)  |  Providence (19)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Right (473)  |  Routine (26)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Southern (3)  |  Start (237)  |  Steadily (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Team (17)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Virginia (2)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warming (24)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Worn Out (2)  |  Year (963)

But I think that in the repeated and almost entire changes of organic types in the successive formations of the earth—in the absence of mammalia in the older, and their very rare appearance (and then in forms entirely. unknown to us) in the newer secondary groups—in the diffusion of warm-blooded quadrupeds (frequently of unknown genera) through the older tertiary systems—in their great abundance (and frequently of known genera) in the upper portions of the same series—and, lastly, in the recent appearance of man on the surface of the earth (now universally admitted—in one word, from all these facts combined, we have a series of proofs the most emphatic and convincing,—that the existing order of nature is not the last of an uninterrupted succession of mere physical events derived from laws now in daily operation: but on the contrary, that the approach to the present system of things has been gradual, and that there has been a progressive development of organic structure subservient to the purposes of life.
'Address to the Geological Society, delivered on the Evening of the 18th of February 1831', Proceedings of the Geological Society (1834), 1, 305-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Abundance (26)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Approach (112)  |  Blood (144)  |  Change (639)  |  Combination (150)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Convincing (9)  |  Daily (91)  |  Development (441)  |  Diffusion (13)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Genus (27)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Great (1610)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Operation (221)  |  Order (638)  |  Organic (161)  |  Physical (518)  |  Portion (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Progression (23)  |  Proof (304)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quadruped (4)  |  Rare (94)  |  Recent (78)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Series (153)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subservience (4)  |  Succession (80)  |  Successive (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  System (545)  |  Tertiary (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Type (171)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warm-Blooded (3)  |  Word (650)

But no other theory can explain so much. Continental drift is without a cause or a physical theory. It has never been applied to any but the last part of geological time.
In 'Geophysics and Continental Growth', American Scientist (1959), 47, 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Cause (561)  |  Continental Drift (15)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Geology (240)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plate Tectonics (22)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)

But nothing of a nature foreign to the duties of my profession [clergyman] engaged my attention while I was at Leeds so much as the, prosecution of my experiments relating to electricity, and especially the doctrine of air. The last I was led into a consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where first amused myself with making experiments on fixed air [carbon dioxide] which found ready made in the process of fermentation. When I removed from that house, I was under the necessity making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind. When I began these experiments I knew very little of chemistry, and had in a manner no idea on the subject before I attended a course of chymical lectures delivered in the Academy at Warrington by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought that upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; as in this situation I was led to devise an apparatus and processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views. Whereas, if I had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I should not have so easily thought of any other; and without new modes of operation I should hardly have discovered anything materially new.
Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley, in the Year 1795 (1806), Vol. 1, 61-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adjoining (3)  |  Air (366)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Attend (67)  |  Attention (196)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Duty (71)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fermentation (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Fixed Air (2)  |  Foreign (45)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Mode (43)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Process (439)  |  Profession (108)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Situation (117)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thought (995)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men...
The First Book of Francis Bacon of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning (1605). In Francis Bacon and Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England (1852), 174
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Appetite (20)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Delight (111)  |  Desire (212)  |  Enable (122)  |  End (603)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Error (339)  |  Gift (105)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Profession (108)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Rest (287)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Victory (40)  |  Wit (61)

By research in pure science I mean research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the Laws of Nature. I will give just one example of the ‘utility’ of this kind of research, one that has been brought into great prominence by the War—I mean the use of X-rays in surgery. Now, not to speak of what is beyond money value, the saving of pain, or, it may be, the life of the wounded, and of bitter grief to those who loved them, the benefit which the state has derived from the restoration of so many to life and limb, able to render services which would otherwise have been lost, is almost incalculable. Now, how was this method discovered? It was not the result of a research in applied science starting to find an improved method of locating bullet wounds. This might have led to improved probes, but we cannot imagine it leading to the discovery of X-rays. No, this method is due to an investigation in pure science, made with the object of discovering what is the nature of Electricity. The experiments which led to this discovery seemed to be as remote from ‘humanistic interest’ —to use a much misappropriated word—as anything that could well be imagined. The apparatus consisted of glass vessels from which the last drops of air had been sucked, and which emitted a weird greenish light when stimulated by formidable looking instruments called induction coils. Near by, perhaps, were great coils of wire and iron built up into electro-magnets. I know well the impression it made on the average spectator, for I have been occupied in experiments of this kind nearly all my life, notwithstanding the advice, given in perfect good faith, by non-scientific visitors to the laboratory, to put that aside and spend my time on something useful.
In Speech made on behalf of a delegation from the Conjoint Board of Scientific Studies in 1916 to Lord Crewe, then Lord President of the Council. In George Paget Thomson, J. J. Thomson and the Cavendish Laboratory in His Day (1965), 167-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Air (366)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Average (89)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Call (781)  |  Consist (223)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Drop (77)  |  Due (143)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  Glass (94)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grief (20)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Induction (81)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Iron (99)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Looking (191)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Method (531)  |  Money (178)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Object (438)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Probe (12)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Ray (115)  |  Remote (86)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Service (110)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spend (97)  |  State (505)  |  Suck (8)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value (393)  |  Vessel (63)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)  |  Word (650)  |  Wound (26)  |  X-ray (43)

Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
As co-author with Richard Durham, in The Greatest: My Own Story (1975), 365.
Science quotes on:  |  Champion (6)  |  Deep (241)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fast (49)  |  Faster (50)  |  Gym (3)  |  Inside (30)  |  Little (717)  |  Make (25)  |  Minute (129)  |  Must (1525)  |  Skill (116)  |  Something (718)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)

Common sense always speaks too late. Common sense is the guy who tells you you ought to have had your brakes relined last week before you smashed a front end this week. Common sense is the Monday morning quarterback who could have won the ball game if he had been on the team. But he never is. He’s high up in the stands with a flask on his hip. Common sense is the little man in a grey suit who never makes a mistake in addition. But it’s always somebody else’s money he’s adding up.
In novel, Playback (1958), Chap. 14, 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Addition (70)  |  Ball (64)  |  Brake (2)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  End (603)  |  Flask (2)  |  Front (16)  |  Game (104)  |  Grey (10)  |  High (370)  |  Hip (3)  |  Late (119)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Money (178)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Repair (11)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smash (5)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stand (284)  |  Suit (12)  |  Team (17)  |  Tell (344)  |  Week (73)  |  Win (53)

Developmental Biology, in capitals, is the wave of the future. The creeping reductionism of biochemistry and molecular biology has taken over the cell and heredity, and looks covetously toward the heights of development and evolution. Recent literature is last year. Ancient literature is a decade ago. The rest is history, doubtfully alive. There is no time and often no opportunity to find and study the work of experimental biologists of 50 or 100 years ago, yet that was a time when the world was fresh.
Developmental biology was a lowercase phrase that graduated about 1950 and had previously lived under the cloak of Experimental Zoology
In obituary by Charles R. Scriver, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1999), 45, 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Capital (16)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cloak (5)  |  Creep (15)  |  Decade (66)  |  Development (441)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Future (467)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Height (33)  |  Heredity (62)  |  History (716)  |  Literature (116)  |  Live (650)  |  Look (584)  |  Molecular Biology (27)  |  Often (109)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Previously (12)  |  Recent (78)  |  Reductionism (8)  |  Rest (287)  |  Study (701)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toward (45)  |  Wave (112)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Zoology (38)

Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Cut (116)  |  Cut Off (3)  |  Deal (192)  |  Dissent (8)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Good (906)  |  Leave (138)  |  Man (2252)  |  Native (41)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

During a conversation with the writer in the last weeks of his life, Sylvester remarked as curious that notwithstanding he had always considered the bent of his mind to be rather analytical than geometrical, he found in nearly every case that the solution of an analytical problem turned upon some quite simple geometrical notion, and that he was never satisfied until he could present the argument in geometrical language.
In Proceedings London Royal Society, 63, 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Argument (145)  |  Consider (428)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Curious (95)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Remark (28)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Turn (454)  |  Week (73)  |  Writer (90)

During my stay in London I resided for a considerable time in Clapham Road in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common... One fine summer evening I was returning by the last bus 'outside' as usual, through the deserted streets of the city, which are at other times so full of life. I fell into a reverie (Träumerei), and 10, the atoms were gambolling before my eyes! Whenever, hitherto, these diminutive beings had appeared to me, they had always been in motion: but up to that time I had never been able to discern the nature of their motion. Now, however, I saw how, frequently, two smaller atoms united to form a pair: how the larger one embraced the two smaller ones: how still larger ones kept hold of three or even four of the smaller: whilst the whole kept whirling in a giddy dance. I saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them but only at the ends of the chain. I saw what our past master, Kopp, my highly honoured teacher and friend has depicted with such charm in his Molekular-Welt: but I saw it long before him. The cry of the conductor 'Clapham Road', awakened me from my dreaming: but I spent part of the night in putting on paper at least sketches of these dream forms. This was the origin of the 'Structural Theory'.
Kekule at Benzolfest in Berichte (1890), 23, 1302.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chain (51)  |  Charm (54)  |  City (87)  |  Common (447)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dance (35)  |  Desert (59)  |  Discern (35)  |  Dragging (6)  |  Dream (222)  |  End (603)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Friend (180)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Master (182)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paper (192)  |  Past (355)  |  Saw (160)  |  Spent (85)  |  Still (614)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Summer (56)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Whole (756)

During the half-century that has elapsed since the enunciation of the cell-theory by Schleiden and Schwann, in 1838-39, it has became ever more clearly apparent that the key to all ultimate biological problems must, in the last analysis, be sought in the cell. It was the cell-theory that first brought the structure of plants and animals under one point of view by revealing their common plan of organization. It was through the cell-theory that Kolliker and Remak opened the way to an understanding of the nature of embryological development, and the law of genetic continuity lying at the basis of inheritance. It was the cell-­theory again which, in the hands of Virchaw and Max Schultze, inaugurated a new era in the history of physiology and pathology, by showing that all the various functions of the body, in health and in disease, are but the outward expression of cell­-activities. And at a still later day it was through the cell-theory that Hertwig, Fol, Van Beneden, and Strasburger solved the long-standing riddle of the fertilization of the egg, and the mechanism of hereditary transmission. No other biological generalization, save only the theory of organic evolution, has brought so many apparently diverse phenomena under a common point of view or has accomplished more far the unification of knowledge. The cell-theory must therefore be placed beside the evolution-theory as one of the foundation stones of modern biology.
In The Cell in Development and Inheritance (1896), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Basis (180)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Body (557)  |  Cell Theory (4)  |  Century (319)  |  Common (447)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Development (441)  |  Disease (340)  |  Egg (71)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Enunciation (7)  |  Era (51)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fertilization (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Function (235)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Health (210)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Oskar Hertwig (2)  |  History (716)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Key (56)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Lying (55)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Plan (122)  |  Plant (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Problem (731)  |  Robert Remak (2)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Save (126)  |  Theodor Schwann (12)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (168)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unification (11)  |  Various (205)  |  View (496)  |  Rudolf Virchow (50)  |  Way (1214)

During the last two centuries and a half, physical knowledge has been gradually made to rest upon a basis which it had not before. It has become mathematical. The question now is, not whether this or that hypothesis is better or worse to the pure thought, but whether it accords with observed phenomena in those consequences which can be shown necessarily to follow from it, if it be true
In Augustus De Morgan and Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan (ed.), A Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Better (493)  |  Century (319)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Follow (389)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Pure (299)  |  Question (649)  |  Rest (287)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Worse (25)

Each of us has read somewhere that in New Guinea pidgin the word for 'piano' is (I use English spelling) 'this fellow you hit teeth belonging to him he squeal all same pig'. I am inclined to doubt whether this expression is authentic; it looks just like the kind of thing a visitor to the Islands would facetiously invent. But I accept 'cut grass belong head belong me' for 'haircut' as genuine... Such phrases seem very funny to us, and make us feel very superior to the ignorant foreigners who use long winded expressions for simple matters. And then it is our turn to name quite a simple thing, a small uncomplicated molecule consisting of nothing more than a measly 11 carbons, seven hydrogens, one nitrogen and six oxygens. We sharpen our pencils, consult our rule books and at last come up with 3-[(1, 3- dihydro-1, 3-dioxo-2H-isoindol-2-yl) oxy]-3-oxopropanoic acid. A name like that could drive any self-respecting Papuan to piano-playing.
The Chemist's English (1990), 3rd Edition, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acid (83)  |  Authentic (9)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Book (413)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Complication (30)  |  Cut (116)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  Funny (11)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Invention (400)  |  Island (49)  |  Kind (564)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  Name (359)  |  New (1273)  |  New Guinea (4)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Piano (12)  |  Playing (42)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Superior (88)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Wind (141)  |  Word (650)

Edison was by far the most successful and, probably, the last exponent of the purely empirical method of investigation. Everything he achieved was the result of persistent trials and experiments often performed at random but always attesting extraordinary vigor and resource. Starting from a few known elements, he would make their combinations and permutations, tabulate them and run through the whole list, completing test after test with incredible rapidity until he obtained a clue. His mind was dominated by one idea, to leave no stone unturned, to exhaust every possibility.
As quoted in 'Tesla Says Edison Was an Empiricist', The New York Times (19 Oct 1931), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Clue (20)  |  Combination (150)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Element (322)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Exponent (6)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Known (453)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Perform (123)  |  Permutation (5)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Purely (111)  |  Random (42)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Resource (74)  |  Result (700)  |  Run (158)  |  Stone (168)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tabulate (3)  |  Test (221)  |  Through (846)  |  Trial (59)  |  Vigor (12)  |  Whole (756)

Einstein, twenty-six years old, only three years away from crude privation, still a patent examiner, published in the Annalen der Physik in 1905 five papers on entirely different subjects. Three of them were among the greatest in the history of physics. One, very simple, gave the quantum explanation of the photoelectric effect—it was this work for which, sixteen years later, he was awarded the Nobel prize. Another dealt with the phenomenon of Brownian motion, the apparently erratic movement of tiny particles suspended in a liquid: Einstein showed that these movements satisfied a clear statistical law. This was like a conjuring trick, easy when explained: before it, decent scientists could still doubt the concrete existence of atoms and molecules: this paper was as near to a direct proof of their concreteness as a theoretician could give. The third paper was the special theory of relativity, which quietly amalgamated space, time, and matter into one fundamental unity.
This last paper contains no references and quotes no authority. All of them are written in a style unlike any other theoretical physicist’s. They contain very little mathematics. There is a good deal of verbal commentary. The conclusions, the bizarre conclusions, emerge as though with the greatest of ease: the reasoning is unbreakable. It looks as though he had reached the conclusions by pure thought, unaided, without listening to the opinions of others. To a surprisingly large extent, that is precisely what he had done.
In Variety of Men (1966), 100-101. First published in Commentary magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Authority (99)  |  Award (13)  |  Bizarre (6)  |  Brownian Motion (2)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Concreteness (5)  |  Conjuring (3)  |  Crude (32)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decent (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Direct (228)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Ease (40)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Erratic (4)  |  Examiner (5)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Physics (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particle (200)  |  Patent (34)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Photoelectric Effect (2)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Privation (5)  |  Proof (304)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (299)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quote (46)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Space (523)  |  Special (188)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suspension (7)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Trick (36)  |  Unbreakable (3)  |  Unity (81)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

England was nothing, compared to continental nations until she had become commercial … until about the middle of the last century, when a number of ingenious and inventive men, without apparent relation to each other, arose in various parts of the kingdom, succeeded in giving an immense impulse to all the branches of the national industry; the result of which has been a harvest of wealth and prosperity, perhaps without a parallel in the history of the world.
In Lives of the Engineers (1862, 1874), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Become (821)  |  Branch (155)  |  Century (319)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Continent (79)  |  England (43)  |  Harvest (28)  |  History (716)  |  Immense (89)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Industry (159)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Nation (208)  |  National (29)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Result (700)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Various (205)  |  Wealth (100)  |  World (1850)

Ethnologists regard man as the primitive element of tribes, races, and peoples. The anthropologist looks at him as a member of the fauna of the globe, belonging to a zoölogical classification, and subject to the same laws as the rest of the animal kingdom. To study him from the last point of view only would be to lose sight of some of his most interesting and practical relations; but to be confined to the ethnologist’s views is to set aside the scientific rule which requires us to proceed from the simple to the compound, from the known to the unknown, from the material and organic fact to the functional phenomenon.
'Paul Broca and the French School of Anthropology'. Lecture delivered in the National Museum, Washington, D.C., 15 April 1882, by Dr. Robert Fletcher. In The Saturday Lectures (1882), 118.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Classification (102)  |  Compound (117)  |  Element (322)  |  Ethnology (9)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Look (584)  |  Lose (165)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organic (161)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Practical (225)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Race (278)  |  Regard (312)  |  Require (229)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Simple (426)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Unknown (195)  |  View (496)

Euler could repeat the Aeneid from the beginning to the end, and he could even tell the first and last lines in every page of the edition which he used. In one of his works there is a learned memoir on a question in mechanics, of which, as he himself informs us, a verse of Aeneid gave him the first idea. [“The anchor drops, the rushing keel is staid.”]
In Letters of Euler (1872), Vol. 1, 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Anchor (10)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Drop (77)  |  Edition (5)  |  End (603)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  First (1302)  |  Give (208)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inform (50)  |  Keel (4)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Line (100)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Page (35)  |  Question (649)  |  Refer (14)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Rush (18)  |  Tell (344)  |  Verse (11)  |  Work (1402)

Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds… to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Free (239)  |  Generation (256)  |  High (370)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Plateau (8)  |  World (1850)

Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced, if only rarely, the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously… this feeling may last for hours at a time, even for days. Once you have experienced it, you are eager to repeat it but unable to do it at will, unless perhaps by dogged work….
In The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician (1992), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Eager (17)  |  Exaltation (5)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hour (192)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Name (359)  |  Repeat (44)  |  State (505)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unable (25)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

Every new theory as it arises believes in the flush of youth that it has the long sought goal; it sees no limits to its applicability, and believes that at last it is the fortunate theory to achieve the 'right' answer. This was true of electron theory—perhaps some readers will remember a book called The Electrical Theory of the Universe by de Tunzelman. It is true of general relativity theory with its belief that we can formulate a mathematical scheme that will extrapolate to all past and future time and the unfathomed depths of space. It has been true of wave mechanics, with its first enthusiastic claim a brief ten years ago that no problem had successfully resisted its attack provided the attack was properly made, and now the disillusionment of age when confronted by the problems of the proton and the neutron. When will we learn that logic, mathematics, physical theory, are all only inventions for formulating in compact and manageable form what we already know, like all inventions do not achieve complete success in accomplishing what they were designed to do, much less complete success in fields beyond the scope of the original design, and that our only justification for hoping to penetrate at all into the unknown with these inventions is our past experience that sometimes we have been fortunate enough to be able to push on a short distance by acquired momentum.
The Nature of Physical Theory (1936), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Age (509)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Arise (162)  |  Attack (86)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  Brief (37)  |  Call (781)  |  Claim (154)  |  Compact (13)  |  Complete (209)  |  Depth (97)  |  Design (203)  |  Disillusionment (2)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enough (341)  |  Experience (494)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Goal (155)  |  Invention (400)  |  Justification (52)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Limit (294)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Momentum (10)  |  Neutron (23)  |  New (1273)  |  Past (355)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Physical (518)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proton (23)  |  Push (66)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Remember (189)  |  Right (473)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Scope (44)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Space (523)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)  |  Youth (109)

Thomas Robert Malthus quote Famine … the most dreadful resource of nature.
colorization © todayinsci (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.

Famine seems to be the last, the most dreadful resource of nature. The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction; and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague, advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and ten thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow, levels the population with the food of the world.
In An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), 140, and in new enlarged edition (1803), 350.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Active (80)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Army (35)  |  Array (5)  |  Blow (45)  |  Death (406)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Epidemic (8)  |  Extermination (14)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Famine (18)  |  Finish (62)  |  Food (213)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Inevitability (10)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Minister (10)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  Plague (42)  |  Population (115)  |  Power (771)  |  Precursor (5)  |  Premature (22)  |  Production (190)  |  Race (278)  |  Resource (74)  |  Season (47)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Stalk (6)  |  Still (614)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Success (327)  |  Superior (88)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Terrific (4)  |  Themself (4)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Vice (42)  |  War (233)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

For a billion years the patient earth amassed documents and inscribed them with signs and pictures which lay unnoticed and unused. Today, at last, they are waking up, because man has come to rouse them. Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them. Layers become history and, released from the enchanted sleep of eternity, life’s motley, never-ending dance rises out of the black depths of the past into the light of the present.
In 'Prologue', Conversation with the Earth (1954), 4. As translated by E.B. Garside from Gespräch mit der Erde (1947).
Science quotes on:  |  Amass (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Billion (104)  |  Dance (35)  |  Depth (97)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Geology (240)  |  Hear (144)  |  History (716)  |  Layer (41)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Past (355)  |  Patient (209)  |  Picture (148)  |  Present (630)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Speak (240)  |  Stone (168)  |  Today (321)  |  Waking (17)  |  Year (963)

For a stone, when it is examined, will be found a mountain in miniature. The fineness of Nature’s work is so great, that, into a single block, a foot or two in diameter, she can compress as many changes of form and structure, on a small scale, as she needs for her mountains on a large one; and, taking moss for forests, and grains of crystal for crags, the surface of a stone, in by far the plurality of instances, is more interesting than the surface of an ordinary hill; more fantastic in form and incomparably richer in colour—the last quality being, in fact, so noble in most stones of good birth (that is to say, fallen from the crystalline mountain ranges).
Modern Painters, 4, Containing part 5 of Mountain Beauty (1860), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Birth (154)  |  Block (13)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Compression (7)  |  Crag (6)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  Forest (161)  |  Form (976)  |  Good (906)  |  Grain (50)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hill (23)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Large (398)  |  Miniature (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Moss (14)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noble (93)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Plurality (5)  |  Quality (139)  |  Range (104)  |  Richness (15)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Single (365)  |  Small (489)  |  Stone (168)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

For a while he [Charles S. Mellen] trampled with impunity on laws human and divine but, as he was obsessed with the delusion that two and two makes five, he fell, at last a victim to the relentless rules of humble Arithmetic.
Remember, O stranger: “Arithmetic is the first of the sciences and the mother of safety.”
In a private letter (29 Sep 1911) to Norman Hapgood, editor of Harper’s Weekly, referenced in Hapgood’s editorial, 'Arithmetic', which was quoted in Hapgood’s Preface to Louis Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How The Bankers Use It (1914), xli. Brandeis was describing Mellen, president of the New Haven Railroad, whom he correctly predicted would resign in the face of reduced dividends caused by his bad financial management. The embedded quote, “Arithmetic…”, is footnoted in Louis D. Brandeis, Letters of Louis D. Brandeis: Volume II, 1907-1912: People's Attorney (1971), 501, citing its source as from a novel by Victor Cherbuliez, Samuel Brohl and Partner (probably 1881 edition), which LDB had transcribed “into his literary notebook at an early age.”
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Divine (112)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humble (54)  |  Impunity (6)  |  Law (913)  |  Mother (116)  |  Obsessed (2)  |  Relentless (9)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rule (307)  |  Safety (58)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Trample (3)  |  Two (936)  |  Victim (37)

For me, [John Wheeler] was the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing.
Quoted in Dennis Overbye, 'John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term Black Hole, Is Dead at 96', New York Times (14 Apr 2008).
Science quotes on:  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Still (614)  |  Superhero (3)  |  John Wheeler (40)

For the better part of my last semester at Garden City High, I constructed a physical pendulum and used it to make a “precision” measurement of gravity. The years of experience building things taught me skills that were directly applicable to the construction of the pendulum. Twenty-five years later, I was to develop a refined version of this measurement using laser-cooled atoms in an atomic fountain interferometer.
[Outcome of high school physics teacher, Thomas Miner, encouraging Chu's ambitious laboratory project.]
Autobiography in Gösta Ekspong (ed.), Nobel Lectures: Physics 1996-2000 (2002), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Atom (381)  |  Better (493)  |  Building (158)  |  City (87)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Develop (278)  |  Education (423)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gravity (140)  |  High (370)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Laser (5)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precision (72)  |  Project (77)  |  School (227)  |  Skill (116)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Year (963)

For the most part, statistics is a method of investigation that is used when other methods are of no avail; it is often a last resort and a forlorn hope.
In Facts from Figures (1951), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Forlorn (5)  |  Hope (321)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Resort (8)  |  Statistics (170)

For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change. Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But the fact is the 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15. Heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods—all are now more frequent and more intense. We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence. Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.
From second State of the Union Address (12 Feb 2013) at the U.S. Capitol.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Belief (615)  |  Change (639)  |  Children (201)  |  Choose (116)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Combat (16)  |  Decade (66)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drought (14)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flood (52)  |  Freak (6)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Future (467)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hottest (2)  |  Intense (22)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Late (119)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Record (161)  |  Sake (61)  |  Sandy (3)  |  Severe (17)  |  Single (365)  |  State (505)  |  Trend (23)  |  Wave (112)  |  Worst (57)  |  Year (963)

For those [observations] that I made in Leipzig in my youth and up to my 21st year, I usually call childish and of doubtful value. Those that I took later until my 28th year [i.e., until 1574] I call juvenile and fairly serviceable. The third group, however, which I made at Uraniborg during approximately the last 21 years with the greatest care and with very accurate instruments at a more mature age, until I was fifty years of age, those I call the observations of my manhood, completely valid and absolutely certain, and this is my opinion of them.
In H. Raeder, E. and B. Stromgren (eds. and trans.), Tycho Brahe’s Description of his Instruments and Scientific Work: as given in Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica, Wandesburgi 1598 (1946), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Age (509)  |  Call (781)  |  Care (203)  |  Certain (557)  |  Childish (20)  |  Completely (137)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Mature (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Usually (176)  |  Value (393)  |  Year (963)  |  Youth (109)

Formerly one sought the feeling of the grandeur of man by pointing to his divine origin: this has now become a forbidden way, for at its portal stands the ape, together with other gruesome beasts, grinning knowingly as if to say: no further in this direction! One therefore now tries the opposite direction: the way mankind is going shall serve as proof of his grandeur and kinship with God. Alas this, too, is vain! At the end of this way stands the funeral urn of the last man and gravedigger (with the inscription “nihil humani a me alienum puto”). However high mankind may have evolved—and perhaps at the end it will stand even lower than at the beginning!— it cannot pass over into a higher order, as little as the ant and the earwig can at the end of its “earthly course” rise up to kinship with God and eternal life. The becoming drags the has-been along behind it: why should an exception to this eternal spectacle be made on behalf of some little star or for any little species upon it! Away with such sentimentalities!
Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (1881), trans. R. J. Hollingdale (1982), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Ant (34)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Behind (139)  |  Course (413)  |  Direction (185)  |  Divine (112)  |  End (603)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exception (74)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Funeral (5)  |  God (776)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  High (370)  |  Inscription (12)  |  Kinship (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Portal (9)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Species (435)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Together (392)  |  Vain (86)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

Fragments of the natural method must be sought with the greatest care. This is the first and last desideratum among botanists.
Nature makes no jumps.
[Natura non facit saltus]
All taxa show relationships on all sides like the countries on a map of the world.
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 77. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Botanist (25)  |  Care (203)  |  Country (269)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Jump (31)  |  Map (50)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Show (353)  |  Side (236)  |  World (1850)

From first to last the civilization of America has been bound up with its physical environment.
The Red Man's Continent: A Chronicle of Aboriginal America (1919), 171.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Bound (120)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Environment (239)  |  First (1302)  |  Physical (518)

Genius always gives its best at first, prudence at last.
Louis Klopsch, Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1896), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  First (1302)  |  Genius (301)

Having to squeeze the last drop of utility out of the land has the same desperate finality as having to chop up the furniture to keep warm.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Chop (7)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Desperate (5)  |  Drop (77)  |  Finality (8)  |  Furniture (8)  |  Keep (104)  |  Land (131)  |  Same (166)  |  Squeeze (7)  |  Utility (52)  |  Warm (74)

He was 40 yeares old before he looked on Geometry; which happened accidentally. Being in a Gentleman's Library, Euclid's Elements lay open, and 'twas the 47 El. Libri 1 [Pythagoras' Theorem]. He read the proposition. By G-, sayd he (he would now and then sweare an emphaticall Oath by way of emphasis) this is impossible! So he reads the Demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a Proposition; which proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. Et sic deinceps [and so on] that at last he was demonstratively convinced of that trueth. This made him in love with Geometry .
Of Thomas Hobbes, in 1629.
Brief Lives (1680), edited by Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), 150.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Being (1276)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Element (322)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Library (53)  |  Look (584)  |  Love (328)  |  Oath (10)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Read (308)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Way (1214)

He was not a mathematician–he never even took a maths class after high school–yet Martin Gardner, who has died aged 95, was arguably the most influential and inspirational figure in mathematics in the second half of the last century.
In 'Martin Gardner Obituary', The Guardian (27 May 2010)
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Century (319)  |  Class (168)  |  Die (94)  |  Figure (162)  |  Martin Gardner (50)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  School (227)

He who has mastered the Darwinian theory, he who recognizes the slow and subtle process of evolution as the way in which God makes things come to pass, … sees that in the deadly struggle for existence that has raged throughout countless aeons of time, the whole creation has been groaning and travailing together in order to bring forth that last consummate specimen of God’s handiwork, the Human Soul
In The Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of his Origin (1884), 32. Collected in Studies in Religion (1902), 19–20.
Science quotes on:  |  Bring Forth (2)  |  Consummate (5)  |  Countless (39)  |  Creation (350)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Eon (12)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  God (776)  |  Groan (6)  |  Handiwork (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Master (182)  |  Order (638)  |  Pass (241)  |  Process (439)  |  Rage (10)  |  Recognize (136)  |  See (1094)  |  Slow (108)  |  Soul (235)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Travail (5)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

Her [Rosalind Franklin] devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end.
In his obituary for Rosalind Franklin, Nature, 1958, 182, 154. As given in Andrew Brown, J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science (2005), 359.
Science quotes on:  |  Devotion (37)  |  End (603)  |  Rosalind Franklin (18)  |  Illness (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Month (91)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Show (353)  |  Work (1402)

Here is the distinct trail of a fox stretching [a] quarter of a mile across the pond…. The pond his journal, and last night’s snow made a tabula rasa for him. I know which way a mind wended this morning, what horizon it faced, by the setting of these tracks; whether it moved slowly or rapidly, by the greater or less intervals and distinctness, for the swiftest step leaves yet a lasting trace.
(30 Jan 1841). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: I: 1837-1846 (1906), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinct (98)  |  Fox (9)  |  Greater (288)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Journal (31)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Pond (17)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Setting (44)  |  Snow (39)  |  Step (234)  |  Tabula Rasa (2)  |  Trace (109)  |  Track (42)  |  Trail (11)  |  Way (1214)  |  Zoology (38)

HOMŒOPATHY, n. A school of medicine midway between Allopathy and Christian Science. To the last both the others are distinctly inferior, for Christian Science will cure imaginary diseases, and they can 
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  139.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Christian (44)  |  Christian Science (3)  |  Cure (124)  |  Disease (340)  |  Homopathy (2)  |  Humour (116)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Other (2233)  |  School (227)  |  Will (2350)

Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery. A mystery is a phenomenon that people don’t know how to think about—yet. There have been other great mysteries: the mystery of the origin of the universe, the mystery of life and reproduction, the mystery of the design to be found in nature, the mysteries of time, space, and gravity. These were not just areas of scientific ignorance, but of utter bafflement and wonder. We do not yet have the final answers to any of the questions of cosmology and particle physics, molecular genetics and evolutionary theory, but we do know how to think about them. The mysteries haven't vanished, but they have been tamed. They no longer overwhelm our efforts to think about the phenomena, because now we know how to tell the misbegotten questions from the right questions, and even if we turn out to be dead wrong about some of the currently accepted answers, we know how to go about looking for better answers. With consciousness, however, we are still in a terrible muddle. Consciousness stands alone today as a topic that often leaves even the most sophisticated thinkers tongue-tied and confused. And, as with all the earlier mysteries, there are many who insist—and hope—that there will never be a demystification of consciousness.
Consciousness Explained (1991), 21-22.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alone (324)  |  Answer (389)  |  Bafflement (3)  |  Better (493)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Final (121)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Looking (191)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of The Universe (20)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Particle Physics (13)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Space (523)  |  Stand (284)  |  Still (614)  |  Tell (344)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Topic (23)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wrong (246)

Humanity is at the very beginning of its existence—a new-born babe, with all the unexplored potentialities of babyhood; and until the last few moments its interest has been centred, absolutely and exclusively, on its cradle and feeding bottle.
EOS: Or the Wider Aspects of Cosmology (1928), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Existence (481)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Interest (416)  |  Moment (260)  |  New (1273)

I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can't say; it may be a weed instead of a fish that after all my labour I may at last pull up.
Letter to Richard Phillips, 23 Sep 1831. In Michael Faraday, Bence Jones (ed.), The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 2, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Fish (130)  |  Good (906)  |  Labor (200)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Pull (43)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Weed (19)

I am of opinion, then, ... that, if there is any circumstance thoroughly established in geology, it is, that the crust of our globe has been subjected to a great and sudden revolution, the epoch of which cannot be dated much farther back than five or six thousand years ago; that this revolution had buried all the countries which were before inhabited by men and by the other animals that are now best known; that the same revolution had laid dry the bed of the last ocean, which now forms all the countries at present inhabited; that the small number of individuals of men and other animals that escaped from the effects of that great revolution, have since propagated and spread over the lands then newly laid dry; and consequently, that the human race has only resumed a progressive state of improvement since that epoch, by forming established societies, raising monuments, collecting natural facts, and constructing systems of science and of learning.
'Preliminary discourse', to Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles (1812), trans. R. Kerr Essay on the Theory of the Earth (1813), 171-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Back (395)  |  Best (467)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Crust (43)  |  Dry (65)  |  Effect (414)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Farther (51)  |  Form (976)  |  Forming (42)  |  Geology (240)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Individual (420)  |  Known (453)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Monument (45)  |  Natural (810)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Present (630)  |  Race (278)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Small (489)  |  Spread (86)  |  State (505)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sudden (70)  |  System (545)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Year (963)

I am tired of all this thing called science here. … We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.
Seeking to deny any government funding to the Smithsonian Institution. Speaking to the 36th Congress Senate (26 Jan 1860), from Congressional Proceedings reprinted in The Smithsonian Institution: Documents Relative to Its Origin and History (1879), 671.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Million (124)  |  Spending (24)  |  Spent (85)  |  Stop (89)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tired (13)  |  Year (963)

I came into the room, which was half dark, and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me! Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the earth, provided no new source was discovered. That prophetic utterance refers to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! the old boy beamed upon me.
The italicized phrase refers to “no new source” of energy. Concerning a Lecture by Rutherford, at the Royal Institution, dealing with the energy of subterranean radium, which had an effect prolonging the heat of the Earth. Arthur S. Eve wrote that Rutherford “used to tell humorous stories about this lecture long afterwards:” — followed by the subject quote above, as its own paragraph. As given in Arthur S. Eve, Rutherford: Being the Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O.M. (1939), 107. The story lacks quotation marks, and thus should be regarded as perhaps Eve’s own words giving a faithful recollection, rather than Rutherford’s verbatim words. (However, note that the style used throughout the book is to omit quotation marks from their own separate paragraph.)
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Audience (28)  |  Beam (26)  |  Bird (163)  |  Boy (100)  |  Cock (6)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Dark (145)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Eye (440)  |  Glance (36)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Lord (97)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Point (584)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  Relief (30)  |  Saw (160)  |  Speech (66)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Tonight (9)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Utterance (11)  |  View (496)

I can see him [Sylvester] now, with his white beard and few locks of gray hair, his forehead wrinkled o’er with thoughts, writing rapidly his figures and formulae on the board, sometimes explaining as he wrote, while we, his listeners, caught the reflected sounds from the board. But stop, something is not right, he pauses, his hand goes to his forehead to help his thought, he goes over the work again, emphasizes the leading points, and finally discovers his difficulty. Perhaps it is some error in his figures, perhaps an oversight in the reasoning. Sometimes, however, the difficulty is not elucidated, and then there is not much to the rest of the lecture. But at the next lecture we would hear of some new discovery that was the outcome of that difficulty, and of some article for the Journal, which he had begun. If a text-book had been taken up at the beginning, with the intention of following it, that text-book was most likely doomed to oblivion for the rest of the term, or until the class had been made listeners to every new thought and principle that had sprung from the laboratory of his mind, in consequence of that first difficulty. Other difficulties would soon appear, so that no text-book could last more than half of the term. In this way his class listened to almost all of the work that subsequently appeared in the Journal. It seemed to be the quality of his mind that he must adhere to one subject. He would think about it, talk about it to his class, and finally write about it for the Journal. The merest accident might start him, but once started, every moment, every thought was given to it, and, as much as possible, he read what others had done in the same direction; but this last seemed to be his real point; he could not read without finding difficulties in the way of understanding the author. Thus, often his own work reproduced what had been done by others, and he did not find it out until too late.
A notable example of this is in his theory of cyclotomic functions, which he had reproduced in several foreign journals, only to find that he had been greatly anticipated by foreign authors. It was manifest, one of the critics said, that the learned professor had not read Rummer’s elementary results in the theory of ideal primes. Yet Professor Smith’s report on the theory of numbers, which contained a full synopsis of Kummer’s theory, was Professor Sylvester’s constant companion.
This weakness of Professor Sylvester, in not being able to read what others had done, is perhaps a concomitant of his peculiar genius. Other minds could pass over little difficulties and not be troubled by them, and so go on to a final understanding of the results of the author. But not so with him. A difficulty, however small, worried him, and he was sure to have difficulties until the subject had been worked over in his own way, to correspond with his own mode of thought. To read the work of others, meant therefore to him an almost independent development of it. Like the man whose pleasure in life is to pioneer the way for society into the forests, his rugged mind could derive satisfaction only in hewing out its own paths; and only when his efforts brought him into the uncleared fields of mathematics did he find his place in the Universe.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 266-267.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Adhere (3)  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Appear (122)  |  Article (22)  |  Author (175)  |  Beard (8)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Board (13)  |  Book (413)  |  Bring (95)  |  Class (168)  |  Companion (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contain (68)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Critic (21)  |  Derive (70)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doom (34)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Error (339)  |  Example (98)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Figure (162)  |  Final (121)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forehead (3)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Forest (161)  |  Formula (102)  |  Full (68)  |  Function (235)  |  Genius (301)  |  Give (208)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Hair (25)  |  Half (63)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hear (144)  |  Help (116)  |  Hew (3)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intention (46)  |  Journal (31)  |  Ernst Eduard Kummer (3)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listener (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notable (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Oversight (4)  |  Pass (241)  |  Path (159)  |  Pause (6)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Place (192)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prime (11)  |  Principle (530)  |  Professor (133)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Read (308)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Report (42)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Rugged (7)  |  Rum (3)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Several (33)  |  Small (489)  |  Smith (3)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Start (237)  |  Stop (89)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subsequently (2)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Synopsis (2)  |  Talk (108)  |  Term (357)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Numbers (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)  |  White (132)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)  |  Wrinkle (4)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

I cannot but be astonished that Sarsi should persist in trying to prove by means of witnesses something that I may see for myself at any time by means of experiment. Witnesses are examined in doutbful matters which are past and transient, not in those which are actual and present. A judge must seek by means of witnesses to determine whether Peter injured John last night, but not whether John was injured, since the judge can see that for himself.
'The Assayer' (1623), trans. Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), 271.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Determine (152)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Himself (461)  |  Judge (114)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myself (211)  |  Observation (593)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Prove (261)  |  See (1094)  |  Seek (218)  |  Something (718)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transient (13)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Trying (144)

I carried this problem around in my head basically the whole time. I would wake up with it first thing in the morning, I would be thinking about it all day, and I would be thinking about it when I went to sleep. Without distraction I would have the same thing going round and round in my mind.
Recalling the degree of focus and determination that eventually yielded the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.
Quoted in interview for PBS TV program Nova. In William Byers, How Mathematicians Think (2007), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Determination (80)  |  Distraction (7)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  First (1302)  |  Focus (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proof (304)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Yield (86)

I did not expect to find the electric cable in its primitive state, such as it was on leaving the manufactory. The long serpent, covered with the remains of shells, bristling with foraminiferae, was encrusted with a strong coating which served as a protection against all boring mollusks. It lay quietly sheltered from the motions of the sea, and under a favorable pressure for the transmission of the electric spark which passes from Europe to America in .32 of a second. Doubtless this cable will last for a great length of time, for they find that the gutta-percha covering is improved by the sea water.
[Referring to the Transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1866, as viewed from the fictional submarine Nautilus.]
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas, (1874), 285. Translated from the original French edition, Vingt Mille Lieues Sous Les Mers (1870).
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  America (143)  |  Boring (7)  |  Cable (11)  |  Covering (14)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Europe (50)  |  Expect (203)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Find (1014)  |  Great (1610)  |  Gutta-Percha (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Mollusk (6)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nautilus (2)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Protection (41)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sea (326)  |  Shell (69)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Spark (32)  |  State (505)  |  Strong (182)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transatlantic (4)  |  Transmission (34)  |  View (496)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)

I feel that I have at last struck the solution of a great problem—and the day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas—and friends converse with each other without leaving home.
Letter (10 Mar 1876) to his father on the day his first words were sent by wire to Mr. Watson. As quoted in Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (1973, 1990), 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Coming (114)  |  Converse (9)  |  Feel (371)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gas (89)  |  Great (1610)  |  Home (184)  |  House (143)  |  Other (2233)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solution (282)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Utility (52)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wire (36)

I had a Meccano set with which I “played” endlessly. Meccano which was invented by Frank Hornby around 1900, is called Erector Set in the US. New toys (mainly Lego) have led to the extinction of Meccano and this has been a major disaster as far as the education of our young engineers and scientists is concerned. Lego is a technically trivial plaything and kids love it partly because it is so simple and partly because it is seductively coloured. However it is only a toy, whereas Meccano is a real engineering kit and it teaches one skill which I consider to be the most important that anyone can acquire: This is the sensitive touch needed to thread a nut on a bolt and tighten them with a screwdriver and spanner just enough that they stay locked, but not so tightly that the thread is stripped or they cannot be unscrewed. On those occasions (usually during a party at your house) when the handbasin tap is closed so tightly that you cannot turn it back on, you know the last person to use the washroom never had a Meccano set.
Nobel laureate autobiography in Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures 1996 (1997), 189.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Back (395)  |  Bolt (11)  |  Call (781)  |  Closed (38)  |  Color (155)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consider (428)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Education (423)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enough (341)  |  Extinction (80)  |  House (143)  |  Important (229)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kid (18)  |  Kit (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lock (14)  |  Love (328)  |  Major (88)  |  Meccano (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nut (7)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Party (19)  |  Person (366)  |  Play (116)  |  Plaything (3)  |  Real (159)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Screwdriver (2)  |  Seduction (3)  |  Sensitive (15)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spanner (2)  |  Strip (7)  |  Tap (10)  |  Teach (299)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thread (36)  |  Tight (4)  |  Touch (146)  |  Toy (22)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Young (253)

I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things; and a most perplexing problem it is. Many men who are very clever - much cleverer than the discoverers - never originate anything.
A Century of Family Letters, 1792-1896
Science quotes on:  |  Clever (41)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Originate (39)  |  Problem (731)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Undiscovered (15)

I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens out on our West Coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about.
Address in Steubenville, Ohio (7 Oct 1980). As quoted in Douglas E. Kneeland, 'Teamsters Back Republican', New York Times (10 Oct 1980), D14. The article also stated that according to an E.P.A. spokesman, “all American manmade emissions of sulfur dioxide amounted to 81,000 tons a day, and the emissions from the volcano ranged from 500 to 2,000 tons a day.”
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Concern (239)  |  Driving (28)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fly (153)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Mount (43)  |  Mount St. Helens (2)  |  Mountain (202)  |  People (1031)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Probably (50)  |  Release (31)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sulfur (5)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thing (1914)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I have found a wonderful solution to Fermats’ Last Theorem—but my train is leaving.
Anonymous
Graffiti on wall of subway, New York. As quoted in William Reville, 'The Science of Writing a Good Joke', The Irish Times (5 Jun 2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Leave (138)  |  Solution (282)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Train (118)  |  Wonderful (155)

I have just finished my sketch of my species theory. If as I believe that my theory is true & if it be accepted even by one competent judge, it will be a considerable step in science. I therefore write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote 400£ to its publication & further will yourself, or through Hensleigh [Wedgwood], take trouble in promoting it.
Letter to Emma Darwin, 5 July 1844. In F. Burkhardt and S. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin 1844-1846 (1987), Vol. 3, 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Book (413)  |  Consider (428)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Death (406)  |  Enter (145)  |  Finish (62)  |  Judge (114)  |  Most (1728)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Publication (102)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Species (435)  |  Step (234)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

I have no patience with attempts to identify science with measurement, which is but one of its tools, or with any definition of the scientist which would exclude a Darwin, a Pasteur or a Kekulé. The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. His are not those beautiful structures so delicately designed that a single flaw may cause the collapse of the whole. The scientist builds slowly and with a gross but solid kind of masonry. If dissatisfied with any of his work, even if it be near the very foundations, he can replace that part without damage to the remainder. On the whole, he is satisfied with his work, for while science may never be wholly right it certainly is never wholly wrong; and it seems to be improving from decade to decade.
The Anatomy of Science (1926), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Approximation (32)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Build (211)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Damage (38)  |  Decade (66)  |  Definition (238)  |  Design (203)  |  Dissatisfaction (13)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Improvement (117)  |  August Kekulé (14)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Masonry (4)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Next (238)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Patience (58)  |  Practical (225)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Remainder (7)  |  Right (473)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Single (365)  |  Solid (119)  |  Speak (240)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tool (129)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Work (1402)  |  Wrong (246)

I have repeatedly had cause to refer to certain resemblances between the phenomena of irritability in the vegetable kingdom and those of the animal body, thus touching a province of investigation which has hitherto been far too little cultivated. In the last instance, indeed, I might say animal and vegetable life must of necessity agree in all essential points, including the phenomena of irritability also, since it is established that the animal organism is constructed entirely and simply from the properties of these substances that all vital movements both of plants and animals are to be explained.
Lectures on the Physiology of Plants (1887), 600.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreement (55)  |  Animal (651)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Irritability (4)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Movement (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Organism (231)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Plant (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Province (37)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Say (989)  |  Substance (253)  |  Touch (146)  |  Touching (16)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Vital (89)

I have said that mathematics is the oldest of the sciences; a glance at its more recent history will show that it has the energy of perpetual youth. The output of contributions to the advance of the science during the last century and more has been so enormous that it is difficult to say whether pride in the greatness of achievement in this subject, or despair at his inability to cope with the multiplicity of its detailed developments, should be the dominant feeling of the mathematician. Few people outside of the small circle of mathematical specialists have any idea of the vast growth of mathematical literature. The Royal Society Catalogue contains a list of nearly thirty- nine thousand papers on subjects of Pure Mathematics alone, which have appeared in seven hundred serials during the nineteenth century. This represents only a portion of the total output, the very large number of treatises, dissertations, and monographs published during the century being omitted.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 285.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Advance (298)  |  Alone (324)  |  Appear (122)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catalogue (5)  |  Century (319)  |  Circle (117)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Cope (9)  |  Despair (40)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissertation (2)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Glance (36)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Growth (200)  |  History (716)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inability (11)  |  Large (398)  |  List (10)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Monograph (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiplicity (14)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nineteenth (5)  |  Number (710)  |  Oldest (9)  |  Omit (12)  |  Output (12)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Portion (86)  |  Pride (84)  |  Publish (42)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Recent (78)  |  Represent (157)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Say (989)  |  Serial (4)  |  Show (353)  |  Small (489)  |  Society (350)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thirty (6)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Total (95)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)  |  Youth (109)

I have taken your advice, and the names used are anode cathode anions cations and ions; the last I shall have but little occasion for. I had some hot objections made to them here and found myself very much in the condition of the man with his son and ass who tried to please every body; but when I held up the shield of your authority, it was wonderful to observe how the tone of objection melted away.
Letter to William Whewell, 15 May 1834. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1993), Vol. 2, 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Anion (3)  |  Anode (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Body (557)  |  Cation (3)  |  Condition (362)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ion (21)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Name (359)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Objection (34)  |  Observe (179)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Please (68)  |  Shield (8)  |  Tone (22)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Wonderful (155)

I have tried to improve telescopes and practiced continually to see with them. These instruments have play'd me so many tricks that I have at last found them out in many of their humours.
Quoted in Constance Anne Lubbock, The Herschel Chronicle: the Life-story of William Herschel and his Sister, Caroline Herschel (1933), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Humour (116)  |  Instrument (158)  |  See (1094)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Trick (36)

I heard Professor Cannon lecture last night, going partly on your account. His subject was a physiological substitute for war—which is international sports and I suppose motorcycle races—to encourage the secretion of the adrenal glands!
Letter from James McKeen Cattell to his son, McKeen. In S. Benison, A. C. Barger and E. L. Wolfe, Walter B Cannon: The Life and Times of a Young Scientist (1987), 319.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Adrenaline (5)  |  Walter Bradford Cannon (13)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Gland (14)  |  International (40)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Motorcycle (2)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Professor (133)  |  Race (278)  |  Sport (23)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substitute (47)  |  Suppose (158)  |  War (233)

I ought to say that one of our first joint researches, so far as publication was concerned, had the peculiar effect of freeing me forever from the wiles of college football, and if that is a defect, make the most of it! Dr. Noyes and I conceived an idea on sodium aluminate solutions on the morning of the day of a Princeton-Harvard game (as I recall it) that we had planned to attend. It looked as though a few days' work on freezing-point determinations and electrical conductivities would answer the question. We could not wait, so we gave up the game and stayed in the laboratory. Our experiments were successful. I think that this was the last game I have ever cared about seeing. I mention this as a warning, because this immunity might attack anyone. I find that I still complainingly wonder at the present position of football in American education.
Address upon receiving the Perkin Medal Award, 'The Big Things in Chemistry', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Feb 1921), 13, No. 2, 162-163.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Answer (389)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attend (67)  |  Car (75)  |  Care (203)  |  College (71)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conductivity (4)  |  Defect (31)  |  Determination (80)  |  Education (423)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Football (11)  |  Forever (111)  |  Freeing (6)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Freezing Point (3)  |  Game (104)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immunity (8)  |  Joint (31)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Look (584)  |  Mention (84)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Present (630)  |  Publication (102)  |  Question (649)  |  Research (753)  |  Say (989)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Still (614)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wait (66)  |  Warning (18)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Work (1402)

I said that there is something every man can do, if he can only find out what that something is. Henry Ford has proved this. He has installed in his vast organization a system for taking hold of a man who fails in one department, and giving him a chance in some other department. Where necessary every effort is made to discover just what job the man is capable of filling. The result has been that very few men have had to be discharged, for it has been found that there was some kind of work each man could do at least moderately well. This wonderful system adopted by my friend Ford has helped many a man to find himself. It has put many a fellow on his feet. It has taken round pegs out of square holes and found a round hole for them. I understand that last year only 120 workers out of his force of 50,000 were discharged.
As quoted from an interview by B.C. Forbes in The American Magazine (Jan 1921), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chance (244)  |  Department (93)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Henry Ford (23)  |  Friend (180)  |  Himself (461)  |  Job (86)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Result (700)  |  Something (718)  |  Square (73)  |  System (545)  |  Talent (99)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I see with much pleasure that you are working on a large work on the integral Calculus [ ... ] The reconciliation of the methods which you are planning to make, serves to clarify them mutually, and what they have in common contains very often their true metaphysics; this is why that metaphysics is almost the last thing that one discovers. The spirit arrives at the results as if by instinct; it is only on reflecting upon the route that it and others have followed that it succeeds in generalising the methods and in discovering its metaphysics.
Letter to S. F. Lacroix, 1792. Quoted in S. F. Lacroix, Traité du calcul differentiel et du calcul integral (1797), Vol. 1, xxiv, trans. Ivor Grattan-Guinness.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculus (65)  |  Clarification (8)  |  Common (447)  |  Discover (571)  |  Follow (389)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Integral (26)  |  Integral Calculus (7)  |  Integration (21)  |  Large (398)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Method (531)  |  Other (2233)  |  Planning (21)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Result (700)  |  Route (16)  |  See (1094)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)

I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Place (192)  |  Secret (216)  |  Tell (344)  |  Wait (66)

I should be the last to discard the law of organic heredity ... but the single word “heredity” cannot dispense science from the duty of making every possible inquiry into the mechanism of organic growth and of organic formation. To think that heredity will build organic beings without mechanical means is a piece of unscientific mysticism.
In 'On the Principles of Animal Morphology', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1888), 15, 294-295. Original as Letter to Mr John Murray, communicated to the Society by Professor Sir William Turner. Page given as in collected volume published 1889.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Build (211)  |  Discard (32)  |  Duty (71)  |  Formation (100)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Law (913)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Mysticism (14)  |  Organic (161)  |  Possible (560)  |  Single (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Unscientific (13)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

I should not think of devoting less than 20 years to an Epic Poem. Ten to collect materials and warm my mind with universal science. I would be a tolerable Mathematician, I would thoroughly know Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Optics, and Astronomy, Botany, Metallurgy, Fossilism, Chemistry, Geology, Anatomy, Medicine—then the mind of man—then the minds of men—in all Travels, Voyages and Histories. So I would spend ten years—the next five to the composition of the poem—and the five last to the correction of it. So I would write haply not unhearing of the divine and rightly-whispering Voice, which speaks to mighty minds of predestinated Garlands, starry and unwithering.
Letter to Joseph Cottle, early April 1797. In Earl Leslie Griggs (ed.), The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1956), Vol. 1, 320-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Botany (63)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Composition (86)  |  Correction (42)  |  Divine (112)  |  Epic (12)  |  Geology (240)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Metallurgy (3)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Next (238)  |  Optics (24)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spend (97)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Travel (125)  |  Universal (198)  |  Warm (74)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

I suspect that the changes that have taken place during the last century in the average man's fundamental beliefs, in his philosophy, in his concept of religion. in his whole world outlook, are greater than the changes that occurred during the preceding four thousand years all put together. ... because of science and its applications to human life, for these have bloomed in my time as no one in history had had ever dreamed could be possible.
In The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan (1951, 1980), xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Average (89)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blooming (2)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Concept (242)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possible (560)  |  Preceding (8)  |  Religion (369)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

I think if a physician wrote on a death certificate that old age was the cause of death, he’d be thrown out of the union. There is always some final event, some failure of an organ, some last attack of pneumonia, that finishes off a life. No one dies of old age.
In talk, 'Origin of Death' (1970). Evolution began with one-celled organisms reproducing indefinitely by cell division.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Attack (86)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certificate (3)  |  Death (406)  |  Event (222)  |  Failure (176)  |  Final (121)  |  Finish (62)  |  Life (1870)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Organ (118)  |  Physician (284)  |  Pneumonia (8)  |  Think (1122)  |  Union (52)

I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was 'It won the fight!'
Quoted in George Wald, 'The Origin of Optical Activity', Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (1957), 60, 352-68.
Science quotes on:  |  Charge (63)  |  Electron (96)  |  Long (778)  |  Negative (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Positive (98)  |  Reason (766)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Wonder (251)

I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring Godful beauty.
[Shortly after leaving university in 1863, without completing a degree, at age 25, he began his first botanical foot journey along the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi.]
John Muir
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Botany (63)  |  Completed (30)  |  Degree (277)  |  Diploma (2)  |  Endless (60)  |  Excursion (12)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Geology (240)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Happy (108)  |  Journey (48)  |  Making (300)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Poor (139)  |  River (140)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  University (130)  |  Wander (44)  |  Year (963)

I well know what a spendidly great difference there is [between] a man and a bestia when I look at them from a point of view of morality. Man is the animal which the Creator has seen fit to honor with such a magnificent mind and has condescended to adopt as his favorite and for which he has prepared a nobler life; indeed, sent out for its salvation his only son; but all this belongs to another forum; it behooves me like a cobbler to stick to my last, in my own workshop, and as a naturalist to consider man and his body, for I know scarcely one feature by which man can be distinguished from apes, if it be not that all the apes have a gap between their fangs and their other teeth, which will be shown by the results of further investigation.
T. Fredbärj (ed.), Menniskans Cousiner (Valda Avhandlingar av Carl von Linné nr, 21) (1955), 4. Trans. Gunnar Broberg, 'Linnaeus's Classification of Man', in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Linnaeus: The Man and his Work (1983), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ape (54)  |  Beast (58)  |  Behoove (6)  |  Belong (168)  |  Body (557)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creator (97)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Favorite (37)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gap (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Honor (57)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Result (700)  |  Salvation (13)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Teeth (43)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  Workshop (14)

I would be the last to deny that the greatest scientific pioneers belonged to an aristocracy of the spirit and were exceptionally intelligent, something that we as modest investigators will never attain, no matter how much we exert ourselves. Nevertheless … I continue to believe that there is always room for anyone with average intelligence … to utilize his energy and … any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain, and that even the least gifted may, like the poorest land that has been well-cultivated and fertilized, produce an abundant harvest..
From Preface to the second edition, Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), xv.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Aristocracy (7)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Average (89)  |  Belief (615)  |  Belong (168)  |  Brain (281)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cultivated (7)  |  Deny (71)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exert (40)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Fertilized (2)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Land (131)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modest (19)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Poorest (2)  |  Produce (117)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sculptor (10)  |  Something (718)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Utilize (10)  |  Will (2350)

I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.
In epigraph, without citation, in The Great American Sports Book: A Casual But Voluminous Look at American Spectator Sports from the Civil War to the Present Time (1978), 282.
Science quotes on:  |  Bed (25)  |  Dark (145)  |  Fast (49)  |  Hotel (2)  |  Light (635)  |  Night (133)  |  Room (42)  |  Switch (10)  |  Turn (454)

If [science] tends to thicken the crust of ice on which, as it were, we are skating, it is all right. If it tries to find, or professes to have found, the solid ground at the bottom of the water it is all wrong. Our business is with the thickening of this crust by extending our knowledge downward from above, as ice gets thicker while the frost lasts; we should not try to freeze upwards from the bottom.
Samuel Bulter, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 329.
Science quotes on:  |  Bottom (36)  |  Business (156)  |  Crust (43)  |  Downward (4)  |  Extend (129)  |  Find (1014)  |  Freezing (16)  |  Frost (15)  |  Ground (222)  |  Ice (58)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Profess (21)  |  Right (473)  |  Solid (119)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Thickness (5)  |  Try (296)  |  Upward (44)  |  Water (503)  |  Wrong (246)

If a solution fails to appear … and yet we feel success is just around the corner, try resting for a while. … Like the early morning frost, this intellectual refreshment withers the parasitic and nasty vegetation that smothers the good seed. Bursting forth at last is the flower of truth.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Burst (41)  |  Corner (59)  |  Early (196)  |  Fail (191)  |  Feel (371)  |  Flower (112)  |  Frost (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Morning (98)  |  Nasty (8)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Refreshment (3)  |  Rest (287)  |  Seed (97)  |  Solution (282)  |  Success (327)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Vegetation (24)

If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
In The Sense of Wonder (1956, 1984), 42-43. First published in 'Help Your Child to Wonder', Womans Home Companion (Jul 1956), 24-27 & 46-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alienation (2)  |  Antidote (9)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Ask (420)  |  Boredom (11)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Disenchantment (2)  |  Fairy (10)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Indestructible (12)  |  Influence (231)  |  Later (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Preoccupation (7)  |  Preside (3)  |  Sense (785)  |  Source (101)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

If the great story of the last century was the conflict among various political ideologies—communism, fascism and democracy—then the great narrative of this century will be the changes wrought by astonishing scientific breakthroughs
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, column also distributed by United Press Syndicate, American Know-How Hobbled by Know-Nothings (9 Aug 2005). In Eve Herold, George Daley, Stem Cell Wars (2007), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Breakthrough (18)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Communism (11)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Fascism (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Narrative (9)  |  Political (124)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Story (122)  |  Various (205)  |  Will (2350)

If there is such a thing as luck, then I must be the most unlucky fellow in the world. I’ve never once made a lucky strike in all my life. When I get after something that I need, I start finding everything in the world that I don’t need—one damn thing after another. I find ninety-nine things that I don’t need, and then comes number one hundred, and that—at the very last—turns out to be just what I had been looking for.
In Martin André Rosanoff, 'Edison in His Laboratory', Harper’s Magazine (Sep 1932), 406.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Life (1870)  |  Looking (191)  |  Luck (44)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Strike (72)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  World (1850)

If you could see what I almost daily see in my practice … persons … in the very last stages of wretched existence, emaciated to a skeleton, with both tables of the skull almost completely perforated in many places, half the nose gone, with rotten jaws, ulerated throats, breaths most pestiferous more intolerable than poisonous upas, limbs racked with the pains of the Inquisition, minds as imbecile as the puling babe, a grievous burden to themselves and a disgusting spectacle to others, you would exclaim as I have often done, 'O! the lamentable want of science that dictates the abuse (use) of that noxious drug calomel!'
[Calomel is the mercury compound, Hg2Cl2.]
Quoted in Wooster Beach, A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Health (1848), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Both (496)  |  Breath (61)  |  Completely (137)  |  Compound (117)  |  Daily (91)  |  Drug (61)  |  Emaciated (2)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Existence (481)  |  Inquisition (9)  |  Lamentable (5)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Person (366)  |  Poison (46)  |  Practice (212)  |  See (1094)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Stage (152)  |  Table (105)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (504)  |  Wretched (8)

If you dream of something worth doing and then simply go to work on it and don't think anything of personalities, or emotional conflicts, or of money, or of family distractions; if you think of, detail by detail, what you have to do next, it is a wonderful dream even though the end is a long way off, for there are about five thousand steps to be taken before we realize it; and [when you] start taking the first ten, and ... twenty after that, it is amazing how quickly you get through through the four thousand [nine hundred] and ninety. The last ten steps you never seem to work out. But you keep on coming nearer to giving the world something.
Victor K. McElheny, Insisting on the Impossible (1999), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Amazing (35)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Detail (150)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dream (222)  |  End (603)  |  Family (101)  |  First (1302)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Long (778)  |  Money (178)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Realize (157)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Step (234)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.
From Back to Methuselah: A Metabiological Pentateuch (1921), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Desire (212)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Will (2350)

In all science error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.
In H. Southgate (ed.), Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862), 195. Widely repeated, but with a primary source—can you help? [Since this publication predates the birth of novelist Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole on 13 Mar 1884, any attribution to Hugh Walpole cannot be correct. That includes seeing it on the cover of Hugh Walpole’s, The Wooden Horse (republished by Horse’s Mouth, 2016) —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Error (339)  |  First (1302)  |  Truth (1109)

In all spheres of science, art, skill, and handicraft it is never doubted that, in order to master them, a considerable amount of trouble must be spent in learning and in being trained. As regards philosophy, on the contrary, there seems still an assumption prevalent that, though every one with eyes and fingers is not on that account in a position to make shoes if he only has leather and a last, yet everybody understands how to philosophize straight away, and pass judgment on philosophy, simply because he possesses the criterion for doing so in his natural reason.
From Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807) as translated by J.B. Baillie in 'Preface', The Phenomenology of Mind (1910), Vol. 1, 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Art (680)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Doing (277)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Eye (440)  |  Finger (48)  |  Handicraft (3)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Leather (4)  |  Master (182)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Order (638)  |  Pass (241)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possess (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shoe (12)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spent (85)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Still (614)  |  Straight (75)  |  Train (118)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)

In every section of the entire area where the word science may properly be applied, the limiting factor is a human one. We shall have rapid or slow advance in this direction or in that depending on the number of really first-class men who are engaged in the work in question. ... So in the last analysis, the future of science in this country will be determined by our basic educational policy.
Quoted in Vannevar Bush, Science, the Endless Frontier: A Report to the President, July 1945. In Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science: Volumes 48-49, 246.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Basic (144)  |  Class (168)  |  Country (269)  |  Depending (2)  |  Direction (185)  |  Education (423)  |  First (1302)  |  First-Class (2)  |  Future (467)  |  Human (1512)  |  Number (710)  |  Policy (27)  |  Question (649)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Section (11)  |  Slow (108)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)

In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be, preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Being (1276)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Formation (100)  |  Habit (174)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Long (778)  |  Thomas Robert Malthus (13)  |  Month (91)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Plant (320)  |  Population (115)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Read (308)  |  Result (700)  |  Species (435)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Variation (93)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)

In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  First (1302)  |  Pass (241)  |  Present (630)  |  River (140)  |  Time (1911)  |  Touch (146)  |  Water (503)

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. It’s very rare that a senator, say, replies, “That’s a good argument. I will now change my political affiliation.”
From keynote address at CSICOP conference, Pasadena, California (3 Apr 1987). Printed in 'The Burden of Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer (1987), 12, No. 1. Collected in Kendrick Frazier (ed.), The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal (1991), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Change (639)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (906)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Hear (144)  |  Human (1512)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Old (499)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Rare (94)  |  Religion (369)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Something (718)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

In science, attempts at formulating hierarchies are always doomed to eventual failure. A Newton will always be followed by an Einstein, a Stahl by a Lavoisier; and who can say who will come after us? What the human mind has fabricated must be subject to all the changes—which are not progress—that the human mind must undergo. The 'last words' of the sciences are often replaced, more often forgotten. Science is a relentlessly dialectical process, though it suffers continuously under the necessary relativation of equally indispensable absolutes. It is, however, possible that the ever-growing intellectual and moral pollution of our scientific atmosphere will bring this process to a standstill. The immense library of ancient Alexandria was both symptom and cause of the ossification of the Greek intellect. Even now I know of some who feel that we know too much about the wrong things.
Voices in the Labyrinth: Nature, Man, and Science (1979), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Doom (34)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Equally (129)  |  Failure (176)  |  Feel (371)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Greek (109)  |  Growing (99)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Immense (89)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Last Words (6)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Library (53)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Georg Ernst Stahl (9)  |  Subject (543)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Wrong (246)

In science, each of us knows that what he has accomplished will be antiquated in ten, twenty, fifty years. That is the fate to which science is subjected; it is the very meaning of scientific work, to which it is devoted in a quite specific sense, as compared with other spheres of culture for which in general the same holds. Every scientific “fulfilment” raises new “questions”; it asks to be “surpassed” and outdated. Whoever wishes to serve science has to resign himself to this fact. Scientific works certainly can last as “gratifications” because of their artistic quality, or they may remain important as a means of training. Yet they will be surpassed scientifically—let that be repeated—for it is our common fate and, more our common goal. We cannot work without hoping that others will advance further than we have. In principle, this progress goes on ad infinitum.
Max Weber
From a Speech (1918) presented at Munich University, published in 1919, and collected in 'Wissenschaft als Beruf', Gessammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (1922), 524-525. As given in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright-Mills (translators and eds.), 'Science as a Vocation', Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946), 138. A different translation of a shorter excerpt from this quote, beginning “[In] the realm of science, …” is also on the Max Weber Quotes web page on this site.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Ad Infinitum (5)  |  Advance (298)  |  Antiquated (3)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Ask (420)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Common (447)  |  Culture (157)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fifty (17)  |  Fulfillment (20)  |  General (521)  |  Goal (155)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Progress (492)  |  Quality (139)  |  Question (649)  |  Remain (355)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sense (785)  |  Specific (98)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Subject (543)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Surpassing (12)  |  Training (92)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

In scientific matters there was a common language and one standard of values; in moral and political problems there were many. … Furthermore, in science there is a court of last resort, experiment, which is unavailable in human affairs.
In Enrico Fermi: Physicist (1970), 149. Segrè refers to the issues regarding the consequences of mastering the release of atomic energy.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Common (447)  |  Court (35)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Affairs (6)  |  Language (308)  |  Matter (821)  |  Moral (203)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Problem (731)  |  Resort (8)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Standard (64)  |  Value (393)

In the case of elements, as in that of individuals, the determination of character is often attended with very great difficulty, a true estimate being only slowly arrived at, and when at last such an estimate is found, it can only be very partially expressed in words.
In The Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ninth Edition (1877), Vol. 5, 714.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Attended (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Character (259)  |  Determination (80)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Element (322)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Express (192)  |  Expressed (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Individual (420)  |  Partially (8)  |  Slowly (19)  |  True (239)  |  Word (650)

In the course of the last century science has become so dizzy with its successes, that it has forgotten to ask the pertinent questions—or refused to ask them under the pretext that they are meaningless, and in any case not the scientists concern.
In The Ghost in the Machine (1967), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Become (821)  |  Case (102)  |  Century (319)  |  Concern (239)  |  Course (413)  |  Dizzy (4)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Meaningless (17)  |  Pertinent (4)  |  Question (649)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Success (327)

In the last analysis the best guarantee that a thing should happen is that it appears to us as vitally necessary.
In Teilhard de Chardin and Sara Appleton-Weber (trans.), The Human Phenomenon (1999, 2003), 163. Originally published in French as Le Phénomene Humain (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Best (467)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vital (89)

In the last fifteen years we have witnessed an event that, I believe, is unique in the history of the natural sciences: their subjugation to and incorporation into the whirls and frenzies of disgusting publicity and propaganda. This is no doubt symptomatic of the precarious position assigned by present-day society to any form of intellectual activity. Such intellectual pursuits have at all times been both absurd and fragile; but they become ever more ludicrous when, as is now true of science, they become mass professions and must, as homeless pretentious parasites, justify their right to exist in a period devoted to nothing but the rapid consumption of goods and amusements. These sciences were always a divertissement in the sense in which Pascal used the word; but what is their function in a society living under the motto lunam et circenses? Are they only a band of court jesters in search of courts which, if they ever existed, have long lost their desire to be amused?
Voices in the Labyrinth: Nature, Man, and Science (1979), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Activity (218)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Consumption (16)  |  Court (35)  |  Desire (212)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Event (222)  |  Exist (458)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Function (235)  |  Good (906)  |  History (716)  |  Incorporation (5)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Ludicrous (7)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Blaise Pascal (81)  |  Period (200)  |  Present (630)  |  Pretentious (4)  |  Profession (108)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Publicity (7)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Sense (785)  |  Society (350)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unique (72)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Witness (57)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

In the last four days I have got the spectrum given by Tantalum. Chromium. Manganese. Iron. Nickel. Cobalt. and Copper and part of the Silver spectrum. The chief result is that all the elements give the same kind of spectrum, the result for any metal being quite easy to guess from the results for the others. This shews that the insides of all the atoms are very much alike, and from these results it will be possible to find out something of what the insides are made up of.
Letter to his mother (2 Nov 1913). In J. L. Heilbron (ed.), H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist 1887-1915 (1974), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chief (99)  |  Chromium (2)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Copper (25)  |  Easy (213)  |  Element (322)  |  Find (1014)  |  Guess (67)  |  Iron (99)  |  Kind (564)  |  Manganese (2)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nickel (3)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Result (700)  |  Silver (49)  |  Something (718)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Tantalum (2)  |  Will (2350)

In the last two months I have been very busy with my own mathematical speculations, which have cost me much time, without my having reached my original goal. Again and again I was enticed by the frequently interesting prospects from one direction to the other, sometimes even by will-o'-the-wisps, as is not rare in mathematic speculations.
Letter to Ernst Weber (21 May 1843). Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 416.
Science quotes on:  |  Cost (94)  |  Direction (185)  |  Goal (155)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Month (91)  |  Other (2233)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Rare (94)  |  Reach (286)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)

In the past century, there were more changes than in the previous thousand years. The new century will see changes that will dwarf those of the last.
Referring to the 19th and 20th centuries.
Lecture, 'Discovery of the Future' at the Royal Institution (1902). Quoted in Martin J. Rees, Our Final Hour: a Scientist's Warning (2004), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Dwarf (7)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Past (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

In the pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths which existed in the divine mind before the morning stars sang together, and which will continue to exist there when the last of their radiant host shall have fallen from heaven.
From Address (22 Apr 1857) for Inauguration of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, collected in 'Academical Education', Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions (1870), Vol. 3, 514. This is seen misattributed to Eric Temple Bell, who only quoted it, attributing it to Everett, in for example, Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Sciences (1938), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Continue (179)  |  Divine (112)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fall (243)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Host (16)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Sing (29)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)

In the vast cosmical changes, the universal life comes and goes in unknown quantities ... sowing an animalcule here, crumbling a star there, oscillating and winding, ... entangling, from the highest to the lowest, all activities in the obscurity of a dizzying mechanism, hanging the flight of an insect upon the movement of the earth... Enormous gearing, whose first motor is the gnat, and whose last wheel is the zodiac.
Victor Hugo and Charles E. Wilbour (trans.), Les Misérables (1862), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animalcule (12)  |  Change (639)  |  Come (4)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Crumbling (2)  |  Dizzy (4)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enormity (4)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Gear (5)  |  Gnat (7)  |  Go (6)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Motor (23)  |  Movement (162)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sowing (9)  |  Star (460)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vast (188)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Winding (8)

Included in this ‘almost nothing,’ as a kind of geological afterthought of the last few million years, is the first development of self-conscious intelligence on this planet–an odd and unpredictable invention of a little twig on the mammalian evolutionary bush. Any definition of this uniqueness, embedded as it is in our possession of language, must involve our ability to frame the world as stories and to transmit these tales to others. If our propensity to grasps nature as story has distorted our perceptions, I shall accept this limit of mentality upon knowledge, for we receive in trade both the joys of literature and the core of our being.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accept (198)  |  Afterthought (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Bush (11)  |  Core (20)  |  Definition (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Distort (22)  |  Embed (7)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  First (1302)  |  Frame (26)  |  Geological (11)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Include (93)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Invention (400)  |  Involve (93)  |  Joy (117)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Limit (294)  |  Literature (116)  |  Little (717)  |  Mammalian (3)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Million (124)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Odd (15)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Planet (402)  |  Possession (68)  |  Propensity (9)  |  Receive (117)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Conscious (3)  |  Story (122)  |  Tale (17)  |  Trade (34)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Twig (15)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

John Muir quote Indians walk softly
Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park (source)
Indians walk softly and hurt the landscape hardly more than the birds and squirrels, and their brush and bark huts last hardly longer than those of wood rats, while their more enduring monuments, excepting those wrought on the forests by the fires they made to improve their hunting grounds, vanish in a few centuries.
John Muir
In My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), 73. Based on Muir’s original journals and sketches of his 1869 stay in the Sierra.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Bird (163)  |  Brush (5)  |  Century (319)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Endurance (8)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fire (203)  |  Forest (161)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Hurt (14)  |  Hut (2)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Indian (32)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Rat (37)  |  Softly (6)  |  Squirrel (11)  |  Vanishing (11)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wood (97)

Is evolution a theory, a system or a hypothesis? It is much more: it is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforth if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow. ... The consciousness of each of us is evolution looking at itself and reflecting upon itself....Man is not the center of the universe as once we thought in our simplicity, but something much more wonderful—the arrow pointing the way to the final unification of the world in terms of life. Man alone constitutes the last-born, the freshest, the most complicated, the most subtle of all the successive layers of life. ... The universe has always been in motion and at this moment continues to be in motion. But will it still be in motion tomorrow? ... What makes the world in which we live specifically modern is our discovery in it and around it of evolution. ... Thus in all probability, between our modern earth and the ultimate earth, there stretches an immense period, characterized not by a slowing-down but a speeding up and by the definitive florescence of the forces of evolution along the line of the human shoot.
In The Phenomenon of Man (1975), pp 218, 220, 223, 227, 228, 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Bow (15)  |  Center (35)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Continue (179)  |  Curve (49)  |  Definitive (3)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Final (121)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Immense (89)  |  Layer (41)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Line (100)  |  Live (650)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Period (200)  |  Pointing (4)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reflecting (3)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Successive (73)  |  System (545)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinkable (5)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  True (239)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unification (11)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

Is it not evident, in these last hundred years (when the Study of Philosophy has been the business of all the Virtuosi in Christendome) that almost a new Nature has been revealed to us? that more errours of the School have been detected, more useful Experiments in Philosophy have been made, more Noble Secrets in Opticks, Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, discover'd, than in all those credulous and doting Ages from Aristotle to us? So true it is that nothing spreads more fast than Science, when rightly and generally cultivated.
Of Dramatic Poesie (1684 edition), lines 258-67, in James T. Boulton (ed.) (1964), 44
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Business (156)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Detect (45)  |  Discover (571)  |  Error (339)  |  Evident (92)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Noble (93)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Optics (24)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  School (227)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spread (86)  |  Study (701)  |  Useful (260)  |  Year (963)

Is man a peculiar organism? Does he originate in a wholly different way from a dog, bird, frog, or fish? and does he thereby justify those who assert that he has no place in nature, and no real relationship with the lower world of animal life? Or does he develop from a similar embryo, and undergo the same slow and gradual progressive modifications? The answer is not for an instant doubtful, and has not been doubtful for the last thirty years. The mode of man’s origin and the earlier stages of his development are undoubtedly identical with those of the animals standing directly below him in the scale; without the slightest doubt, he stands in this respect nearer the ape than the ape does to the dog. (1863)
As quoted in Ernst Haeckel and E. Ray Lankester (trans.) as epigraph for Chap. 12, The History of Creation (1886), Vol. 1, 364.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ape (54)  |  Assert (69)  |  Bird (163)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Dog (70)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Fish (130)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Identical (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Justify (26)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lower (11)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Man (9)  |  Originate (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Place (192)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Respect (212)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similar (36)  |  Slow (108)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stand (284)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.
Perhaps one of the reasons for this silence is that you have to know how to read music. For instance, the scientific article may say, “The radioactive phosphorus content of the cerebrum of the rat decreases to one-half in a period of two weeks.” Now what does that mean?
It means that phosphorus that is in the brain of a rat—and also in mine, and yours—is not the same phosphorus as it was two weeks ago. It means the atoms that are in the brain are being replaced: the ones that were there before have gone away.
So what is this mind of ours: what are these atoms with consciousness? Last week’s potatoes! They now can remember what was going on in my mind a year ago—a mind which has long ago been replaced. To note that the thing I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance, that is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms of the brain to be replaced by other atoms. The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out—there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday.
'What do You Care What Other People Think?' Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988), 244.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Atom (381)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Cerebrum (10)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Dance (35)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doing (277)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  Music (133)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Period (200)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Picture (148)  |  Poem (104)  |  Present (630)  |  Radioactive (24)  |  Rat (37)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remember (189)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Silence (62)  |  Song (41)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unsung (4)  |  Value (393)  |  Week (73)  |  Year (963)  |  Yesterday (37)

It did not last: the Devil howling “Ho, Let Einstein be,” restored the status quo.
Adding to earlier Epitaph by Alexander Pope for Isaac Newton, 'In Continuation of Pope on Newton', in J.C. Squire, Poems in One Volume (1926), 218.
Science quotes on:  |  Devil (34)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Alexander Pope (45)  |  Restoration (5)  |  Status (35)  |  Status Quo (5)

It did not take atomic weapons to make man want peace. But the atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.
Commencement address (1946). As quoted in book review (of Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb), by William J. Broad, ‘The Men Who Made the Sun Rise', New York Times Book Review (8 Feb 1987), 39. Cited as from 'The Atomic Bomb and College Education' (1946), in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (18th ed., 2014). as quoted, without citation, in . Please contact Webmaster if you know a primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Country (269)  |  Different (595)  |  Future (467)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Pass (241)  |  Peace (116)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Screw (17)  |  Step (234)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unendurable (2)  |  Want (504)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

It has been said by a distinguished philosopher that England is “usually the last to enter into the general movement of the European mind.” The author of the remark probably meant to assert that a man or a system may have become famous on the continent, while we are almost ignorant of the name of the man and the claims of his system. Perhaps, however, a wider range might be given to the assertion. An exploded theory or a disadvantageous practice, like a rebel or a patriot in distress, seeks refuge on our shores to spend its last days in comfort if not in splendour.
Opening from essay, 'Elementary Geometry', included in The Conflict of Studies and Other Essays (1873), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Claim (154)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Continent (79)  |  Disadvantageous (2)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distress (9)  |  England (43)  |  Enter (145)  |  European (5)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Famous (12)  |  General (521)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Movement (162)  |  Name (359)  |  Patriot (5)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practice (212)  |  Range (104)  |  Rebel (7)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Remark (28)  |  Seek (218)  |  Spend (97)  |  Splendour (8)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Usually (176)

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

It is always observable that the physical and the exact sciences are the last to suffer under despotisms.
To Cuba and Back (1859), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Observable (21)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)

It is always the nearest, plainest and simplest principles that learned men comprehend last.
In Elbert Hubbard (ed. and publ.), The Philistine (Mar 1908), 26, No. 4, cover.
Science quotes on:  |  Always (7)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Nearest (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Simplicity (175)

It is both a sad and a happy fact of engineering history that disasters have been powerful instruments of change. Designers learn from failure. Industrial society did not invent grand works of engineering, and it was not the first to know design failure. What it did do was develop powerful techniques for learning from the experience of past disasters. It is extremely rare today for an apartment house in North America, Europe, or Japan to fall down. Ancient Rome had large apartment buildings too, but while its public baths, bridges and aqueducts have lasted for two thousand years, its big residential blocks collapsed with appalling regularity. Not one is left in modern Rome, even as ruin.
In Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (1997), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apartment (4)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Aqueduct (4)  |  Bath (11)  |  Both (496)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Building (158)  |  Change (639)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Design (203)  |  Designer (7)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fall (243)  |  First (1302)  |  Grand (29)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  History (716)  |  House (143)  |  Industry (159)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Lasting (7)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Modern (402)  |  Past (355)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Rare (94)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Residence (3)  |  Rome (19)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Society (350)  |  Technique (84)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Today (321)  |  Two (936)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

It is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, and this, not only hand to hand, but from a distance even, by the aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines, now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with feathery wings. This last I regard as the most criminal artifice that has been devised by the human mind; for, as if to bring death upon man with still greater rapidity, we have given wings to iron and taught it to fly. ... Nature, in conformity with her usual benevolence, has limited the power of iron, by inflicting upon it the punishment of rust; and has thus displayed her usual foresight in rendering nothing in existence more perishable, than the substance which brings the greatest dangers upon perishable mortality.
Natural History of Pliny, translation (1857, 1898) by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 205-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Arm (82)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Cleave (2)  |  Construct (129)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Danger (127)  |  Death (406)  |  Display (59)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Engine (99)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Greater (288)  |  Greatest (330)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Iron (99)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Missile (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Most (1728)  |  Murder (16)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Office (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Perish (56)  |  Power (771)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Regard (312)  |  Robbery (6)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rust (9)  |  Spear (8)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (253)  |  Useful (260)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wing (79)

It is clear that we cannot go up another two orders of magnitude as we have climbed the last five. If we did, we should have two scientists for every man, woman, child, and dog in the population, and we should spend on them twice as much money as we had. Scientific doomsday is therefore less than a century distant.
Little Science, Big Science (1963), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Child (333)  |  Dog (70)  |  Doomsday (5)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Money (178)  |  Order (638)  |  Population (115)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Two (936)  |  Woman (160)

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.
Address at Rice University in Houston (12 Sep 1962). On website of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. [This go-to-the-moon speech was largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen.]
Science quotes on:  |  Decision (98)  |  Effort (243)  |  Gear (5)  |  High (370)  |  Important (229)  |  Low (86)  |  Most (1728)  |  Office (71)  |  President (36)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Shift (45)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Race (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It is like the difference between a specialist and a philosopher. A specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until at last he knows everything about nothing. A philosopher is someone who knows less and less about more and more until at last he knows nothing about everything. Physics is now too philosophical. In my work I would like to reverse the process, and to try to limit the things to be found out and to make some modest discoveries which may later be useful.
As quoted in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Everything (489)  |  Find Out (25)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Later (18)  |  Less (105)  |  Limit (294)  |  Modest (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Process (439)  |  Research (753)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Useful (260)  |  Work (1402)

It is not failure but success that is forcing man off this earth. It is not sickness but the triumph of health... Our capacity to survive has expanded beyond the capacity of Earth to support us. The pains we are feeling are growing pains. We can solve growth problems in direct proportion to our capacity to find new worlds... If man stays on Earth, his extinction is sure even if he lasts till the sun expands and destroys him... It is no longer reasonable to assume that the meaning of life lies on this earth alone. If Earth is all there is for man, we are reaching the foreseeable end of man.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Assume (43)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Expand (56)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Failure (176)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Foreseeable (3)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  Health (210)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  New (1273)  |  New Worlds (5)  |  Pain (144)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Solve (145)  |  Stay (26)  |  Success (327)  |  Sun (407)  |  Support (151)  |  Survive (87)  |  Triumph (76)  |  World (1850)

It is often hazardous to marry an heiress, as she is not unfrequently the last of a diseased family.
The Temple of Nature (1803), notes, 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Family (101)  |  Marriage (39)

It is the reciprocity of these appearances—that each party should think the other has contracted—that is so difficult to realise. Here is a paradox beyond even the imagination of Dean Swift. Gulliver regarded the Lilliputians as a race of dwarfs; and the Lilliputians regarded Gulliver as a giant. That is natural. If the Lilliputians had appeared dwarfs to Gulliver, and Gulliver had appeared a dwarf to the Lilliputians—but no! that is too absurd for fiction, and is an idea only to be found in the sober pages of science. …It is not only in space but in time that these strange variations occur. If we observed the aviator carefully we should infer that he was unusually slow in his movements; and events in the conveyance moving with him would be similarly retarded—as though time had forgotten to go on. His cigar lasts twice as long as one of ours. …But here again reciprocity comes in, because in the aviator’s opinion it is we who are travelling at 161,000 miles a second past him; and when he has made all allowances, he finds that it is we who are sluggish. Our cigar lasts twice as long as his.
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 23-24.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Event (222)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Giant (73)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Long (778)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Observed (149)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Past (355)  |  Race (278)  |  Regard (312)  |  Slow (108)  |  Space (523)  |  Strange (160)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Variation (93)

It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.
In Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (35)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Community (111)  |  Control (182)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Form (976)  |  Human (1512)  |  Law (913)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Servant (40)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Useful (260)  |  Water (503)  |  Wild (96)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)

It is, however, an argument of no weight to say that natural bodies are first generated or compounded out of those things into which they are at the last broken down or dissolved.
Disputations Touching the Generation of Animals (1651), trans. Gweneth Whitteridge (1981), Chapter 72, 389.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Broken (56)  |  Compound (117)  |  Down (455)  |  First (1302)  |  Matter (821)  |  Natural (810)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Weight (140)

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere has been cited as a statement that precedes the last three sentences here, but this might have originated in a paraphrase, a transcription error, or a misquotation; it does not appear in any editions of the essay which have thus far been checked.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropological (2)  |  Appear (122)  |  Check (26)  |  Cite (8)  |  Concept (242)  |  Edition (5)  |  Error (339)  |  Essay (27)  |  Far (158)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Misquotation (4)  |  Originate (39)  |  Outside (141)  |  Paraphrase (4)  |  Personal (75)  |  Precede (23)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Statement (148)  |  Transcription (2)  |  Will (2350)

It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.
As quoted in Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium, Nobel Lecture
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Know (1538)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  World (1850)

It was shortly after midday on December 12, 1901, [in a hut on the cliffs at St. John’s, Newfoundland] that I placed a single earphone to my ear and started listening. The receiver on the table before me was very crude—a few coils and condensers and a coherer—no valves [vacuum tubes], no amplifiers, not even a crystal. I was at last on the point of putting the correctness of all my beliefs to test. … [The] answer came at 12:30. … Suddenly, about half past twelve there sounded the sharp click of the “tapper” … Unmistakably, the three sharp clicks corresponding to three dots sounded in my ear. “Can you hear anything, Mr. Kemp?” I asked, handing the telephone to my assistant. Kemp heard the same thing as I. … I knew then that I had been absolutely right in my calculations. The electric waves which were being sent out from Poldhu [Cornwall, England] had travelled the Atlantic, serenely ignoring the curvature of the earth which so many doubters considered a fatal obstacle. … I knew that the day on which I should be able to send full messages without wires or cables across the Atlantic was not far distant.
As quoted in Degna Marconi, My Father, Marconi (2000), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Amplifier (3)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Atlantic Ocean (7)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cable (11)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Click (4)  |  Cliff (22)  |  Coil (4)  |  Condenser (4)  |  Consider (428)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Crude (32)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Curvature (8)  |  Dot (18)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electric (76)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Hear (144)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  Listening (26)  |  Message (53)  |  Midday (4)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Past (355)  |  Point (584)  |  Radio (60)  |  Receiver (5)  |  Right (473)  |  Single (365)  |  Sound (187)  |  Start (237)  |  Success (327)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Table (105)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Vacuum (41)  |  Vacuum Tube (2)  |  Valve (2)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wire (36)

It would be a very wonderful, but not an absolutely incredible result, that volcanic action has never been more violent on the whole than during the last two or three centuries; but it is as certain that there is now less volcanic energy in the whole earth than there was a thousand years ago, as it is that there is less gunpowder in a ‘Monitor’ after she has been seen to discharge shot and shell, whether at a nearly equable rate or not, for five hours without receiving fresh supplies, than there was at the beginning of the action.
In 'On the Secular Cooling of the Earth', Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1864), 23, 159.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Certain (557)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Hour (192)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Monitor (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Result (700)  |  Shell (69)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Year (963)

It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crop.
In Adam Bede (1862), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Crop (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (906)  |  Irrigation (12)  |  Little (717)  |  Water (503)  |  Year (963)

It’s the lies that undo us. It’s the lies we think we need to survive. When was the last time you told the truth?
Character in TV series, Homeland.
Science quotes on:  |  Lie (370)  |  Need (320)  |  Survive (87)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undo (4)

Just a rock, a dome of snow, the deep blue sky, and a hunk of orange-painted metal from which a shredded American flag cracked in the wind. Nothing more. Except two tiny figures walking together those last few feet to the top of the Earth.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Blue (63)  |  Crack (15)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dome (9)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Figure (162)  |  Flag (12)  |  Foot (65)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Orange (15)  |  Rock (176)  |  Shred (7)  |  Sky (174)  |  Snow (39)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Top (100)  |  Two (936)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wind (141)

Last night I invented a new pleasure, and as I was giving it the first trial an angel and a devil came rushing toward my house. They met at my door and fought with each other over my newly created pleasure; the one crying, “It is a sin!” - the other, “It is a virtue!”
In Kahlil Gibran: The Collected Works (2007), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Angel (47)  |  Created (6)  |  Devil (34)  |  Door (94)  |  Fight (49)  |  First (1302)  |  House (143)  |  Invent (57)  |  New (1273)  |  Night (133)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Rush (18)  |  Sin (45)  |  Trial (59)  |  Virtue (117)

Last year, I co-sponsored the Highlands Conservation Act and in a bipartisan effort we passed the bill through Congress.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Bill (14)  |  Congress (20)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Effort (243)  |  Highland (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Sponsor (5)  |  Through (846)  |  Year (963)

Let us now declare the means whereby our understanding can rise to knowledge without fear of error. There are two such means: intuition and deduction. By intuition I mean not the varying testimony of the senses, nor the deductive judgment of imagination naturally extravagant, but the conception of an attentive mind so distinct and so clear that no doubt remains to it with regard to that which it comprehends; or, what amounts to the same thing, the self-evidencing conception of a sound and attentive mind, a conception which springs from the light of reason alone, and is more certain, because more simple, than deduction itself. …
It may perhaps be asked why to intuition we add this other mode of knowing, by deduction, that is to say, the process which, from something of which we have certain knowledge, draws consequences which necessarily follow therefrom. But we are obliged to admit this second step; for there are a great many things which, without being evident of themselves, nevertheless bear the marks of certainty if only they are deduced from true and incontestable principles by a continuous and uninterrupted movement of thought, with distinct intuition of each thing; just as we know that the last link of a long chain holds to the first, although we can not take in with one glance of the eye the intermediate links, provided that, after having run over them in succession, we can recall them all, each as being joined to its fellows, from the first up to the last. Thus we distinguish intuition from deduction, inasmuch as in the latter case there is conceived a certain progress or succession, while it is not so in the former; … whence it follows that primary propositions, derived immediately from principles, may be said to be known, according to the way we view them, now by intuition, now by deduction; although the principles themselves can be known only by intuition, the remote consequences only by deduction.
In Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Philosophy of Descartes. [Torrey] (1892), 64-65.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Add (42)  |  Admit (49)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amount (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chain (51)  |  Clear (111)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Declare (48)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Derive (70)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Draw (140)  |  Error (339)  |  Evident (92)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Glance (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hold (96)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Incontestable (3)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Join (32)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Latter (21)  |  Let (64)  |  Light (635)  |  Link (48)  |  Long (778)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Naturally (11)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Obliged (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Provide (79)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recall (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (169)  |  Run (158)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Step (234)  |  Succession (80)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Therefrom (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Uninterrupted (7)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whereby (2)  |  Why (491)

Logic is the last scientific ingredient of Philosophy; its extraction leaves behind only a confusion of non-scientific, pseudo problems.
The Unity of Science, trans. Max Black (1934), 22.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Extraction (10)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Leave (138)  |  Logic (311)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Problem (731)  |  Scientific (955)

Looking back over the geological record it would seem that Nature made nearly every possible mistake before she reached her greatest achievement Man—or perhaps some would say her worst mistake of all. ... At last she tried a being of no great size, almost defenseless, defective in at least one of the more important sense organs; one gift she bestowed to save him from threatened extinction—a certain stirring, a restlessness, in the organ called the brain.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Brain (281)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Defective (4)  |  Defenseless (3)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Geological Record (2)  |  Gift (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Important (229)  |  Least (75)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Organ (118)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reach (286)  |  Record (161)  |  Restlessness (8)  |  Save (126)  |  Say (989)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Size (62)  |  Stir (23)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Try (296)  |  Worst (57)

Looking back over the last thousand years, one can divide the development of the machine and the machine civilization into three successive but over-lapping and interpenetrating phases: eotechnic, paleotechnic, neotechnic … Speaking in terms of power and characteristic materials, the eotechnic phase is a water-and-wood complex: the paleotechnic phase is a coal-and-wood complex… The dawn-age of our modern technics stretches roughly from the year 1000 to 1750. It did not, of course, come suddenly to an end in the middle of the eighteenth century. A new movement appeared in industrial society which had been gathering headway almost unnoticed from the fifteenth century on: after 1750 industry passed into a new phase, with a different source of power, different materials, different objectives.
Technics and Civilisation (1934), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  Age (509)  |  Back (395)  |  Century (319)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Coal (64)  |  Complex (202)  |  Course (413)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Divide (77)  |  End (603)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Headway (2)  |  Industry (159)  |  Looking (191)  |  Machine (271)  |  Material (366)  |  Modern (402)  |  Movement (162)  |  New (1273)  |  Objective (96)  |  Paleotechnic (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Phase (37)  |  Power (771)  |  Society (350)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Successive (73)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Technics (2)  |  Technology (281)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Water (503)  |  Wood (97)  |  Year (963)

Man … begins life as an ambiguous speck of matter which can in no way be distinguished from the original form of the lowest animal or plant. He next becomes a cell; his life is precisely that of the animalcule. Cells cluster round this primordial cell, and the man is so far advanced that he might be mistaken for an undeveloped oyster; he grows still more, and it is clear that he might even be a fish; he then passes into a stage which is common to all quadrupeds, and next assumes a form which can only belong to quadrupeds of the higher type. At last the hour of birth approaches; coiled within the dark womb he sits, the image of an ape; a caricature of the man that is to be. He is born, and for some time he walks only on all fours; he utters only inarticulate sounds; and even in his boyhood his fondness for climbing trees would seem to be a relic of the old arboreal life.
In The Martyrdom of Man (1876), 393.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animalcule (12)  |  Ape (54)  |  Arboreal (8)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Belong (168)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Caricature (6)  |  Cell (146)  |  Climbing (9)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Common (447)  |  Dark (145)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fish (130)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Form (976)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hour (192)  |  Image (97)  |  Inarticulate (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Old (499)  |  Oyster (12)  |  Plant (320)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Quadruped (4)  |  Relic (8)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speck (25)  |  Stage (152)  |  Still (614)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Type (171)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)  |  Womb (25)

Man at last knows that he is alone in the unfeeling immensity of the universe, out of which he emerged only by chance. Neither his destiny nor his duty have been written down. The kingdom above or the darkness below: it is for him to choose.
Concluding remarks in Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1972), 180. Also seen translated as, “The ancient covenant is in pieces; man knows at last that he is alone in the universe’s unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged only by chance. His destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below: it is time for him to choose.”
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Chance (244)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Down (455)  |  Duty (71)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Universe (900)  |  Writing (192)

Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature to such a pitch that by using them they could now very easily exterminate one another to the last man.
In Sigmund Freud and Joan Riviere (trans.), Civilization and Its Discontents (1930, 1994), 70.
Science quotes on:  |  Bring (95)  |  Easily (36)  |  Exterminate (10)  |  Force (497)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Power (771)  |  Subdue (7)

More than ever before in the history of science and invention, it is safe now to say what is possible and what is impossible. No one would claim for a moment that during the next five hundred years the accumulated stock of knowledge of geography will increase as it has during the last five hundred In the same way it may safely be affirmed that in electricity the past hundred years is not likely to be duplicated in the next, at least as to great, original, and far-reaching discoveries, or novel and almost revolutionary applications.
In A Century of Electricity (1890), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Application (257)  |  Claim (154)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Geography (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Increase (225)  |  Invention (400)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Novel (35)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Safe (61)  |  Say (989)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I have heard it said that the success of a work abroad is the best test of its enduring value. I doubt whether this is at all trustworthy; but judged by this standard my name ought to last for a few years.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1896), 81-82.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Language (308)  |  Name (359)  |  Pass (241)  |  Success (327)  |  Test (221)  |  Through (846)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

My soul is an entangled knot,
Upon a liquid vortex wrought
By Intellect in the Unseen residing,
And thine doth like a convict sit,
With marline-spike untwisting it,
Only to find its knottiness abiding;
Since all the tools for its untying
In four-dimensional space are lying,
Wherein they fancy intersperses
Long avenues of universes,
While Klein and Clifford fill the void
With one finite, unbounded homoloid,
And think the Infinite is now at last destroyed. (1878)
A parody of Shelley as 'A Paradoxical Ode', quoted in Lewis Campbell and William Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell (1882), 649-650.
Science quotes on:  |  Avenue (14)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knot (11)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Long (778)  |  Lying (55)  |  Poem (104)  |  Soul (235)  |  Space (523)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tool (129)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Void (31)  |  Vortex (10)

Nearly anyone in this line of work would take a bullet for the last pregnant dodo. But should we not admire the person who, when faced with an overwhelmingly sad reality beyond and personal blame or control, strives valiantly to rescue what ever can be salvaged, rather than retreating to the nearest corner to weep or assign fault?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admire (19)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Assign (15)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blame (31)  |  Bullet (6)  |  Control (182)  |  Corner (59)  |  Dodo (7)  |  Face (214)  |  Fault (58)  |  Line (100)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Overwhelmingly (3)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (75)  |  Pregnant (4)  |  Reality (274)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Retreat (13)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Salvage (2)  |  Strive (53)  |  Valiantly (2)  |  Weep (5)  |  Work (1402)

New sources of power … will surely be discovered. Nuclear energy is incomparably greater than the molecular energy we use today. The coal a man can get in a day can easily do five hundred times as much work as himself. Nuclear energy is at least one million times more powerful still. If the hydrogen atoms in a pound of water could be prevailed upon to combine and form helium, they would suffice to drive a thousand-horsepower engine for a whole year. If the electrons, those tiny planets of the atomic systems, were induced to combine with the nuclei in hydrogen, the horsepower would be 120 times greater still. There is no question among scientists that this gigantic source of energy exists. What is lacking is the match to set the bonfire alight, or it may be the detonator to cause the dynamite to explode. The scientists are looking for this.
[In his last major speech to the House of Commons on 1 Mar 1955, Churchill quoted from his original printed article, nearly 25 years earlier.]
'Fifty Years Hence'. Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932), 57:3, 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Cause (561)  |  Coal (64)  |  Combine (58)  |  Common (447)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dynamite (8)  |  Electron (96)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engine (99)  |  Exist (458)  |  Explode (15)  |  Form (976)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Greater (288)  |  Helium (11)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Looking (191)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Bomb (6)  |  Nuclear Energy (18)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Planet (402)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Speech (66)  |  Still (614)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Today (321)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

Newton made a universe which lasted 300 years. Einstein has made a universe, which I suppose you want me to say will never stop, but I don't know how long it will last.
Speech (28 Oct 1930) at the Savoy Hotel, London in Einstein’s honor sponsored by a committee to help needy Jews in Eastern Europe. In Albert Einstein, Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Existence (481)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Say (989)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago. Isaac Newton, a posthumous child born with no father on Christmas Day, 1642, was the last wonder child to whom the Magi could do sincere and appropriate homage.
In 'Newton, the Man' (1946). In Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), Essays in Biography, 2nd edition (1951), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Birth (154)  |  Build (211)  |  Child (333)  |  Christmas (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eye (440)  |  Father (113)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Look (584)  |  Magician (15)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Reason (766)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

No hypothesis concerning the nature of this 'something' shall be advanced thereby or based thereon. Therefore it appears as most simple to use the last syllable 'gen' taken from Darwin's well-known word pangene since it alone is of interest to use, in order thereby to replace the poor, more ambiguous word, 'Anlage'. Thus, we will say for 'das pangene' and 'die pangene' simply 'Das Gen' and 'Die Gene,' The word Gen is fully free from every hypothesis; it expresses only the safely proved fact that in any case many properties of organisms are conditioned by separable and hence independent 'Zustiinde,' 'Grundlagen,' 'Anlagen'—in short what we will call 'just genes'—which occur specifically in the gametes.
Elemente der Exakten Erblichkeitslehre (1909), 124. Trans. G. E. Allen and quoted in G. E. Allen, Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Man and His Science (1978), 209-10 (Footnote 79).
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Call (781)  |  Condition (362)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Free (239)  |  Gamete (5)  |  Gene (105)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Interest (416)  |  Known (453)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Poor (139)  |  Say (989)  |  Short (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Something (718)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

No one, it has been said, will ever look at the Moon in the same way again. More significantly can one say that no one will ever look at the earth in the same way. Man had to free himself from earth to perceive both its diminutive place in a solar system and its inestimable value as a life-fostering planet. As earthmen, we may have taken another step into adulthood. We can see our planet earth with detachment, with tenderness, with some shame and pity, but at last also with love.
In Earth Shine (1969). As quoted and cited in Joseph J. Kerski, Interpreting Our World: 100 Discoveries That Revolutionized Geography (2016), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Detachment (8)  |  Diminutive (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fostering (4)  |  Free (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Inestimable (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Pity (16)  |  Place (192)  |  Planet (402)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Shame (15)  |  Significantly (2)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Step (234)  |  System (545)  |  Tenderness (2)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Advance (298)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Greater (288)  |  Labor (200)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Person (366)  |  Precision (72)  |  Require (229)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a publick library; for who can see the wall crouded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditation, and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue, and preserved only to encrease the pomp of learning, without considering how many hours have been wasted in vain endeavours, how often imagination has anticipated the praises of futurity, how many statues have risen to the eye of vanity, how many ideal converts have elevated zeal, how often wit has exulted in the eternal infamy of his antagonists, and dogmatism has delighted in the gradual advances of his authority, the immutability of his decrees, and the perpetuity of his power.
Non unquam dedit
Documenta fors majora, quam fragili loco
Starent superbi.

Seneca, Troades, II, 4-6
Insulting chance ne'er call'd with louder voice,
On swelling mortals to be proud no more.
Of the innumerable authors whose performances are thus treasured up in magnificent obscurity, most are forgotten, because they never deserved to be remembered, and owed the honours which they have once obtained, not to judgment or to genius, to labour or to art, but to the prejudice of faction, the stratagem of intrigue, or the servility of adulation.
Nothing is more common than to find men whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries, as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science. Curiosity is naturally excited, their volumes after long enquiry are found, but seldom reward the labour of the search. Every period of time has produced these bubbles of artificial fame, which are kept up a while by the breath of fashion and then break at once and are annihilated. The learned often bewail the loss of ancient writers whose characters have survived their works; but perhaps if we could now retrieve them we should find them only the Granvilles, Montagus, Stepneys, and Sheffields of their time, and wonder by what infatuation or caprice they could be raised to notice.
It cannot, however, be denied, that many have sunk into oblivion, whom it were unjust to number with this despicable class. Various kinds of literary fame seem destined to various measures of duration. Some spread into exuberance with a very speedy growth, but soon wither and decay; some rise more slowly, but last long. Parnassus has its flowers of transient fragrance as well as its oaks of towering height, and its laurels of eternal verdure.
The Rambler, Number 106, 23 Mar 1751. In W. J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (eds.), The Rambler (1969), Vol. 2, 200-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Art (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Authority (99)  |  Break (109)  |  Breath (61)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Call (781)  |  Caprice (10)  |  Chance (244)  |  Character (259)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Decay (59)  |  Decree (9)  |  Delight (111)  |  Destined (42)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eye (440)  |  Faction (4)  |  Fame (51)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Genius (301)  |  Growth (200)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Library (53)  |  Long (778)  |  Loss (117)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Measure (241)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Oak (16)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Performance (51)  |  Period (200)  |  Perpetuity (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Produced (187)  |  Remember (189)  |  Reward (72)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Side (236)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spread (86)  |  Statue (17)  |  Striking (48)  |  Time (1911)  |  Towering (11)  |  Transient (13)  |  Vain (86)  |  Various (205)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wit (61)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work, or that the person studying is particularly interested in the subject; which last can seldom be the case with young men in any rank of life.
In The Statistical Breviary: Shewing, on a Principle Entirely New, the Resources of Every State and Kingdom in Europe (1801), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Alluring (5)  |  Dry (65)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Interest (416)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Person (366)  |  Rank (69)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Set (400)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

Now if we want poets to interpret physical science as Milton and Shelley did (Shelley and Keats were the last English poets who were at all up-to-date in their chemical knowledge), we must see that our possible poets are instructed, as their masters were, in science and economics.
In Daedalus or Science and the Future (1924). Reprinted in Haldane's Daedalus Revisited (1995), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  English (35)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interpret (25)  |  John Keats (12)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  John Milton (31)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Poet (97)  |  Possible (560)  |  See (1094)  |  Percy Shelley (7)  |  Want (504)

Now the American eagle is verging on extinction. Even the polar bear on its ice floes has become easy game for flying sportsmen. A peninsula named Udjung Kulon holds the last two or three dozen Javan rhinoceroses. The last known herd of Arabian oryx has been machine-gunned by a sheik. Blue whales have nearly been harpooned out of their oceans. Pollution ruins bays and rivers. Refuse litters beaches. Dam projects threaten Colorado canyons, Hudson valleys, every place of natural beauty that can be a reservoir for power. Obviously the scientific progress so alluring to me is destroying qualities of greater worth.
In 'The Wisdom of Wilderness', Life (22 Dec 1967), 63, No. 25, 8-9. (Note: the Arabian oryx is no longer listed as extinct.)
Science quotes on:  |  Alluring (5)  |  Arabian (2)  |  Beach (23)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Blue Whale (3)  |  Canyon (9)  |  Colorado (5)  |  Dam (8)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Easy (213)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Floe (3)  |  Flying (74)  |  Game (104)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harpoon (3)  |  Herd (17)  |  Hudson (3)  |  Ice (58)  |  Java (2)  |  Known (453)  |  Litter (5)  |  Machine (271)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Beauty (5)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  Peninsula (2)  |  Polar (13)  |  Polar Bear (3)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Power (771)  |  Progress (492)  |  Project (77)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Reservoir (9)  |  Rhinoceros (2)  |  River (140)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Threat (36)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Two (936)  |  Valley (37)  |  Whale (45)  |  Worth (172)

Of all the departments of science no one seems to have been less advanced for the last hundred years than that of meteorology.
Letter (5 Sep 1822) to George F. Hopkins. Collected in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1854), Vol. 7, 259.
Science quotes on:  |  Advanced (12)  |  Department (93)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Meteorology (36)  |  Year (963)

Of all the intellectual faculties, judgment is the last to arrive at maturity. The child should give its attention either to subjects where no error is possible at all, such as mathematics, or to those in which there is no particular danger in making a mistake, such as languages, natural science, history, and so on.
In Arthur Schopenhauer and T. Bailey (ed., trans.) Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer (1902), 67.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Child (333)  |  Danger (127)  |  Error (339)  |  Faculty (76)  |  History (716)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Language (308)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Possible (560)  |  Subject (543)

On the afternoon of October 19, 1899, I climbed a tall cherry tree and, armed with a saw which I still have, and a hatchet, started to trim the dead limbs from the cherry tree. It was one of the quiet, colorful afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England, and as I looked towards the fields at the east, I imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars. I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended for existence at last seemed very purposive.
In The Papers of Robert H. Goddard: 1898-1924 (1970), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Afternoon (5)  |  Arm (82)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Boy (100)  |  Climb (39)  |  Colorful (2)  |  Dead (65)  |  Descend (49)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Existence (481)  |  Field (378)  |  Hatchet (2)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Limb (9)  |  Look (584)  |  Mars (47)  |  New (1273)  |  New England (2)  |  October (5)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Saw (160)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Tall (11)  |  Tree (269)  |  Trim (4)  |  Wonderful (155)

On the way back [from the moon] we had an EVA [extra-vehicular activity, or spacewalk] I had a chance to look around while I was outside and Earth was off to the right, 180,000 miles away, a little thin sliver of blue and white like a new moon surrounded by this blackness of space. Back over my left shoulder was almost a full moon. I didn’t feel like I was a participant. It was like sitting in the last row of the balcony, looking down at all of that play going on down there. I had that insignificant feeling of the immensity of this, God’s creation.
Reflecting on his participation on the Apollo 16 moon mission. Contributed to Kevin W. Kelley (ed.), The Home Planet (1988), unpaginated, with photo 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Back (395)  |  Balcony (2)  |  Blackness (4)  |  Blue (63)  |  Chance (244)  |  Creation (350)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Full (68)  |  God (776)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Leave (138)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mile (43)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1273)  |  Outside (141)  |  Participant (6)  |  Play (116)  |  Right (473)  |  Row (9)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Sliver (2)  |  Space (523)  |  Surround (33)  |  Thin (18)  |  Way (1214)  |  White (132)

Once a molecule is asymmetric, its extension proceeds also in an asymmetrical sense. This concept completely eliminates the difference between natural and artificial synthesis. The advance of science has removed the last chemical hiding place for the once so highly esteemed vis vitalis.
‘Synthesen in der Zuckergruppe', Berichte der deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 1894, 27, 3189.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Difference (355)  |  Extension (60)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Life (1870)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Natural (810)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stereochemistry (2)  |  Synthesis (58)

One day at Fenner's (the university cricket ground at Cambridge), just before the last war, G. H. Hardy and I were talking about Einstein. Hardy had met him several times, and I had recently returned from visiting him. Hardy was saying that in his lifetime there had only been two men in the world, in all the fields of human achievement, science, literature, politics, anything you like, who qualified for the Bradman class. For those not familiar with cricket, or with Hardy's personal idiom, I ought to mention that “the Bradman class” denoted the highest kind of excellence: it would include Shakespeare, Tolstoi, Newton, Archimedes, and maybe a dozen others. Well, said Hardy, there had only been two additions in his lifetime. One was Lenin and the other Einstein.
Variety of Men (1966), 87. First published in Commentary magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Addition (70)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Class (168)  |  Cricket (8)  |  Denote (6)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Field (378)  |  Ground (222)  |  G. H. Hardy (71)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idiom (5)  |  Include (93)  |  Kind (564)  |  Vladimir Lenin (3)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mention (84)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Personal (75)  |  Politics (122)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Return (133)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Talking (76)  |  Time (1911)  |  Count Leo Tolstoy (18)  |  Two (936)  |  University (130)  |  Visit (27)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

One is almost tempted to say... at last I can almost see a bond. But that will never be, for a bond does not really exist at all: it is a most convenient fiction which, as we have seen, is convenient both to experimental and theoretical chemists.
'What is a Chemical Bond?', Coulson Papers, 25, Bodleian Library, Oxford. In Mary-Jo Nye, From Chemical Philosophy to Theoretical Chemistry (1993), 261.
Science quotes on:  |  Bond (46)  |  Both (496)  |  Chemical Bond (7)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Will (2350)

One must expect a war between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. which will begin with the total destruction of London. I think the war will last 30 years, and leave a world without civilised people, from which everything will have to build afresh—a process taking (say) 500 years.
Stated just one month after the Hiroshima atomic explosion. Russell became one of the best-known antinuclear activists of his era.
Letter to Gamel Brenan (1 Sep 1945). In Nicholas Griffin (Ed.), The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell (2002), 410.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Begin (275)  |  Best (467)  |  Build (211)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Era (51)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expect (203)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Known (453)  |  Month (91)  |  Must (1525)  |  People (1031)  |  Process (439)  |  Say (989)  |  Think (1122)  |  Total (95)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

One tragic example of the loss of forests and then water is found in Ethiopia. The amount of its forested land has decreased from 40 to 1 percent in the last four decades. Concurrently, the amount of rainfall has declined to the point where the country is rapidly becoming a wasteland.
Al Gore
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (2006), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Country (269)  |  Decade (66)  |  Environment (239)  |  Forest (161)  |  Loss (117)  |  Point (584)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Wasteland (2)  |  Water (503)

Only a fool would leave the enjoyment of rainbows to the opticians. Or give the science of optics the last word on the matter.
In 'Philosophy, Religion, and So Forth', A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (1989), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Fool (121)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Matter (821)  |  Optics (24)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Word (650)

Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
Cree
Cree Indian prophecy. Quoted by the United Nations Director for the Environment at a conference in Geneva. Recalled by a writer in Ann: Zoologische wetenschappen Issues 275-276 (1984), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Cannot (8)  |  Catch (34)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Down (455)  |  Eat (108)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fish (130)  |  Food (213)  |  Money (178)  |  Poison (46)  |  River (140)  |  Tree (269)  |  Will (2350)

Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler, but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat.
Religion without Revelation (1957), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Cat (52)  |  Cheshire Cat (3)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  God (776)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Ruler (21)  |  Smile (34)

Our abiding belief is that just as the workmen in the tunnel of St. Gothard, working from either end, met at last to shake hands in the very central root of the mountain, so students of nature and students of Christianity will yet join hands in the unity of reason and faith, in the heart of their deepest mysteries.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Belief (615)  |  Central (81)  |  Christianity (11)  |  Deep (241)  |  End (603)  |  Faith (209)  |  Hand (149)  |  Heart (243)  |  Join (32)  |  Meet (36)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Reason (766)  |  Root (121)  |  Shake (43)  |  St (2)  |  Student (317)  |  Tunnel (13)  |  Unity (81)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

Our exploration of the planets represents a triumph of imagination and will for the human race. The events of the last twenty years are perhaps too recent for us to adequately appreciate their proper historical significance.
We can, however, appraise the scientific significance of these voyages of exploration: They have been nothing less than revolutionary both in providing a new picture of the nature of the solar system, its likely origin and evolution, and in giving us a new perspective on our own planet Earth.
NASA
NASA Advisory Committee, report of Solar System Exploration Committee, Planetary Exploration Through Year 2000: A Core Program (1983).
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Both (496)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Historical (70)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Origin (250)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Picture (148)  |  Planet (402)  |  Proper (150)  |  Race (278)  |  Recent (78)  |  Represent (157)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Significance (114)  |  Solar System (81)  |  System (545)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Our lifetime may be the last that will be lived out in a technological society.
Interview in The Christian Science Monitor (27 Mar 1974), F1.
Science quotes on:  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Live (650)  |  Society (350)  |  Technological (62)  |  Will (2350)

Our spirit is often led astray by its own delusions; it is even frightened by its own work, believes that it sees what it fears, and in the horror of night sees at last the objects which itself has produced.
Translation of the original French, “Souvent de ses erreurs notre âme est obsedée; De son ouvrage même elle est intimidée, Croit voir ce qu’elle craint, et dans l’horreur des nuits, Voit enfin les objets qu’elle-même a produits.” From Sémiramis, Act 1, Scene 5. Accompanied with the translation in Craufurd Tait Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (1866), 364.
Science quotes on:  |  Astray (13)  |  Belief (615)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fright (11)  |  Horror (15)  |  Lead (391)  |  Night (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Psychology (166)  |  See (1094)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Work (1402)

Over the last century, physicists have used light quanta, electrons, alpha particles, X-rays, gamma-rays, protons, neutrons and exotic sub-nuclear particles for this purpose [scattering experiments]. Much important information about the target atoms or nuclei or their assemblage has been obtained in this way. In witness of this importance one can point to the unusual concentration of scattering enthusiasts among earlier Nobel Laureate physicists. One could say that physicists just love to perform or interpret scattering experiments.
Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1994), in Tore Frängsmyr (ed.), Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1994 (1995).
Science quotes on:  |  Alpha Particle (5)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Atom (381)  |  Century (319)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Electron (96)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Gamma Ray (3)  |  Gamma-Ray (2)  |  Importance (299)  |  Information (173)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Light (635)  |  Love (328)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Nobel Laureate (3)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perform (123)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Proton (23)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Ray (115)  |  Say (989)  |  Scattering (4)  |  Target (13)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Way (1214)  |  Witness (57)  |  X-ray (43)

People have wracked their brains for an explanation of benzene and how the celebrated man [Kekulé] managed to come up with the concept of the benzene theory. With regard to the last point especially, a friend of mine who is a farmer and has a lively interest in chemistry has asked me a question which I would like to share with you. My “agricultural friend” apparently believes he has traced the origins of the benzene theory. “Has Kekulé,” so ran the question, “once been a bee-keeper? You certainly know that bees too build hexagons; they know well that they can store the greatest amount of honey that way with the least amount of wax. I always liked it,” my agricultural friend went on, “When I received a new issue of the Berichte; admittedly, I don't read the articles, but I like the pictures very much. The patterns of benzene, naphthalene and especially anthracene are indeed wonderful. When I look at the pictures I always have to think of the honeycombs of my bee hives.”
A. W. Hofmann, after-dinner speech at Kekulé Benzolfest (Mar 1890). Trans. in W. H. Brock, O. Theodor Benfrey and Susanne Stark, 'Hofmann's Benzene Tree at the Kekulé Festivities', Journal of Chemical Education (1991), 68, 888.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bee (44)  |  Benzene (7)  |  Brain (281)  |  Build (211)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Concept (242)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Farmer (35)  |  Friend (180)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hexagon (4)  |  Honey (15)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Interest (416)  |  August Kekulé (14)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lively (17)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mine (78)  |  New (1273)  |  Origin (250)  |  Pattern (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Picture (148)  |  Point (584)  |  Question (649)  |  Read (308)  |  Regard (312)  |  Share (82)  |  Store (49)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wax (13)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonderful (155)

People were getting ridiculous amounts [of bluefin tuna]. Somebody got on the radio and said, “Guys, maybe we should leave some for tomorrow.” Another guy came on and said, “Hey, they didn't leave any buffalo for me.” [Heard from fishermen crowding off Fire Island in 1998, which he cites as his source for the phrase “the last buffalo hunt” inspiring his writings on overfishing.]
As quoted by William J. Broad in 'High-Seas Hunter Pleads for Preservation of Fish', New York Times (22 Sep 1998), F1.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Buffalo (7)  |  Cite (8)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fisherman (9)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Island (49)  |  Overfishing (27)  |  People (1031)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Radio (60)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Writing (192)

Physical misery is great everywhere out here [Africa]. Are we justified in shutting our eyes and ignoring it because our European newspapers tell us nothing about it? We civilised people have been spoilt. If any one of us is ill the doctor comes at once. Is an operation necessary, the door of some hospital or other opens to us immediately. But let every one reflect on the meaning of the fact that out here millions and millions live without help or hope of it. Every day thousands and thousands endure the most terrible sufferings, though medical science could avert them. Every day there prevails in many and many a far-off hut a despair which we could banish. Will each of my readers think what the last ten years of his family history would have been if they had been passed without medical or surgical help of any sort? It is time that we should wake from slumber and face our responsibilities!
In On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, trans. C. T. Campion (1948, 1998), 126-127.
Science quotes on:  |  Africa (38)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Banish (11)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Despair (40)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Door (94)  |  Europe (50)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Eye (440)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Family (101)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  Illness (35)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Justification (52)  |  Live (650)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Million (124)  |  Misery (31)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Newspaper (39)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Operation (221)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  People (1031)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Slumber (6)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Tell (344)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Physical pain is easily forgotten, but a moral chagrin lasts indefinitely.
In Charlas de Café: pensamientos, anécdotas y confidencias (1920). (Café Chats: Thoughts, Anecdotes and Confidences). As translated in Peter McDonald (ed.) Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations (2004), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Chagrin (2)  |  Easily (36)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Moral (203)  |  Pain (144)  |  Physical (518)

Poincaré was the last man to take practically all mathematics, pure and applied, as his province. … Few mathematicians have had the breadth of philosophic vision that Poincaré had, and none is his superior in the gift of clear exposition.
In Eric Temple Bell, Men of Mathematics (1937, 1986), 527.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Breadth (15)  |  Gift (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Henri Poincaré (99)  |  Province (37)  |  Pure (299)  |  Superior (88)  |  Vision (127)

Proofs are the last thing looked for by a truly religious mind which feels the imaginative fitness of its faith.
Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Faith (209)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Look (584)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Proof (304)  |  Religious (134)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truly (118)

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

Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut [animals] up, alive, into small pieces, drop them from a great height to see if they are shattered by the fall, or deprive them of sleep for sixteen days and nights continuously for the purposes of an iniquitous monograph... Animal trust, undeserved faith, when at last will you turn away from us? Shall we never tire of deceiving, betraying, tormenting animals before they cease to trust us?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Animal (651)  |  Authority (99)  |  Betray (8)  |  Cease (81)  |  Continuously (7)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Deceiving (5)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Drop (77)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fall (243)  |  Great (1610)  |  Height (33)  |  Monograph (5)  |  Never (1089)  |  Night (133)  |  Piece (39)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Researcher (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Shatter (8)  |  Shattered (8)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Small (489)  |  Tire (7)  |  Torment (18)  |  Trust (72)  |  Turn (454)  |  Undeserved (3)  |  Will (2350)

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve. Music and art are, to an extent, also attempts to solve or at least express the mystery. But to my mind the more we progress with either the more we are brought into harmony with all nature itself. And that is one of the great services of science to the individual.
In Max Planck and James Vincent Murphy (trans.), Where is Science Going?, (1932), Epilogue, 217.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Express (192)  |  Extent (142)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Part (235)  |  Progress (492)  |  Service (110)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Trying (144)  |  Ultimate (152)

Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.
In Victor Hugo and Lorenzo O’Rourke (trans.) Victor Hugo’s Intellectual Autobiography: (Postscriptum de ma vie) (1907), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  First (1302)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Say (989)  |  Word (650)

Science, especially natural and medical science, is always undergoing evolution, and one can never hope to have said the last word upon any branch of it.
From Introduction to Alphonse Laveran and Felix Etienne Pierre Mesnil Trypanosomes and Trypanosomiasis (1904). English edition translated and much enlarged by David Nabarro, (1907), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Branch (155)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Hope (321)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Never (1089)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Word (650)

Scripture and Nature agree in this, that all things were covered with water; how and when this aspect began, and how long it lasted, Nature says not, Scripture relates. That there was a watery fluid, however, at a time when animals and plants were not yet to be found, and that the fluid covered all things, is proved by the strata of the higher mountains, free from all heterogeneous material. And the form of these strata bears witness to the presence of a fluid, while the substance bears witness to the absence of heterogeneous bodies. But the similarity of matter and form in the strata of mountains which are different and distant from each other, proves that the fluid was universal.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 263-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Bear (162)  |  Covering (14)  |  Different (595)  |  Distance (171)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Heterogeneous (4)  |  Long (778)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Presence (63)  |  Prove (261)  |  Say (989)  |  Scripture (14)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Strata (37)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universal (198)  |  Universality (22)  |  Water (503)  |  Witness (57)

Several times every day I observed the portions of the polyp with a magnifying glass. On the 4th December, that is to say on the ninth day after having cut the polyp, I seemed in the morning to be able to perceive, on the edges of the anterior end of the second part (the part that had neither head nor arms), three little points arising from those edges. They immediately made me think of the horns that serve as the legs and arms of the polyp. Nevertheless I did not want to decide at once that these were actually arms that were beginning to grow. Throughout the next day I continually observed these points: this excited me extremely, and awaited with impatience the moment when I should know with certainty what they were. At last, on the following day, they were so big that there was no longer any room for doubt that they were actually arms growing at the anterior extremity of this second part. The next day two more arms started to grow out, and a few days later three more. The second part thus had eight of them, and they were all in a short time as long as those of the first part, that is to say as long as those the polyp possessed before it was cut. I then no longer found any difference between the second part and a polyp that had never been cut. I had remarked the same thing about the first part since the day after the operation. When I observed them with the magnifying glass with all the attention of which I was capable, each of the two appeared perceptibly to be a complete polyp, and they performed all the functions that were known to me: they extended, contracted, and walked.
Mémoires, pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de polyps d'eau douce à bras en forme de cornes (1744), 7-16. Trans. John R. Baker, in Abraham Trembley of Geneva: Scientist and Philosopher 1710-1784 (1952), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Anterior (4)  |  Appeared (4)  |  Arising (22)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Attention (196)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cut (116)  |  Difference (355)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Edge (51)  |  End (603)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extremity (7)  |  First (1302)  |  Function (235)  |  Glass (94)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Horn (18)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impatience (13)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Leg (35)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnifying (2)  |  Magnifying Glass (3)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Next (238)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Operation (221)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Perform (123)  |  Performed (3)  |  Point (584)  |  Polyp (4)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possess (157)  |  Remark (28)  |  Room (42)  |  Say (989)  |  Short (200)  |  Start (237)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Walk (138)  |  Want (504)

So numerous are the objects which meet our view in the heavens, that we cannot imagine a point of space where some light would not strike the eye;—innumerable stars, thousands of double and multiple systems, clusters in one blaze with their tens of thousands of stars, and the nebulae amazing us by the strangeness of their forms and the incomprehensibility of their nature, till at last, from the limit of our senses, even these thin and airy phantoms vanish in the distance.
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1858), 420.
Science quotes on:  |  Airy (2)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Amazing (35)  |  Blaze (14)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Distance (171)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Incomprehensibility (2)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nebula (16)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Object (438)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Sense (785)  |  Space (523)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Strangeness (10)  |  Strike (72)  |  System (545)  |  Thin (18)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Vanish (19)  |  View (496)

So says the most ancient book of the Earth; thus it is written on its leaves of marble, lime, sand, slate, and clay: ... that our Earth has fashioned itself, from its chaos of substances and powers, through the animating warmth of the creative spirit, to a peculiar and original whole, by a series of preparatory revolutions, till at last the crown of its creation, the exquisite and tender creature man, was enabled to appear.
Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man (1803). Translated from 1784 Original, Vol. I, Book 10, 465-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Book (413)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creature (242)  |  Crown (39)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Geology (240)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marble (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Power (771)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sand (63)  |  Say (989)  |  Series (153)  |  Slate (6)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Substance (253)  |  Through (846)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Whole (756)

So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.
[Written when the first manned mission to the Moon, Apollo 11, landed (20 Jul 1969).]
'Why on Earth Are We There? Because It's Impossible', New York Times (21 Jul 1969), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Agony (7)  |  Apollo 11 (7)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Billion (104)  |  Bungler (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Damned (4)  |  First (1302)  |  Little (717)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mission (23)  |  Money (178)  |  Moon (252)  |  Office (71)  |  Poor (139)  |  Rock (176)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Sky (174)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Wire (36)

Society is a republic. When an individual endeavors to lift himself above his fellows, he is dragged down by the mass, either by means of ridicule or of calumny. No one shall be more virtuous or more intellectually gifted than others. Whoever, by the irresistible force of genius, rises above the common herd is certain to be ostracized by society, which will pursue him with such merciless derision and detraction that at last he will be compelled to retreat into the solitude of his thoughts.
In Heinrich Heine: His Wit, Wisdom, Poetry (1892), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Calumny (3)  |  Certain (557)  |  Common (447)  |  Compel (31)  |  Derision (8)  |  Down (455)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Force (497)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Himself (461)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Lift (57)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Republic (16)  |  Retreat (13)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Rise (169)  |  Society (350)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Solitude (20)  |  Thought (995)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Virtuous (9)  |  Whoever (42)  |  Will (2350)

Some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve. There's no reason why these problems shouldn't be easy, and yet they turn out to be extremely intricate. [Fermat's] Last Theorem is the most beautiful example of this.
From interview for PBS website on the NOVA program, 'The Proof'.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Easy (213)  |  Example (98)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Fermat�s Last Theorem (3)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reason (766)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solve (145)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Try (296)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turns Out (4)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration. …
In the course of the last four months it has been made probable … that it may become possible to set up nuclear chain reactions in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.
This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable—though much less certain—that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat or exploded in a port, might well destroy the whole port altogether with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air.
Letter to President Franklin P. Roosevelt, (2 Aug 1939, delivered 11 Oct 1939). In Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden (Eds.) Einstein on Peace (1960, reprinted 1981), 294-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Air (366)  |  Amount (153)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Course (413)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Element (322)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expect (203)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Future (467)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mass (160)  |  Month (91)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Prove (261)  |  Radium (29)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Recent (78)  |  Set (400)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Territory (25)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Turn (454)  |  Type (171)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

Some writers, rejecting the idea which science had reached, that reefs of rocks could be due in any way to “animalcules,” have talked of electrical forces, the first and last appeal of ignorance.
In Corals and Coral Islands (1879), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Animalcule (12)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Due (143)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reef (7)  |  Rejection (36)  |  Rock (176)  |  Talk (108)  |  Way (1214)  |  Writer (90)

Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste.
Letter (3 Dec 1960) written to David E. Pesonen of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. Collected in 'Coda: Wilderness Letter', The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West (1969), 146.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  American (56)  |  Book (413)  |  Case (102)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Clean (52)  |  Comic (5)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Country (269)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Dirty (17)  |  Drive (61)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Forest (161)  |  Free (239)  |  Human (1512)  |  Let (64)  |  Member (42)  |  Never (1089)  |  Noise (40)  |  Pave (8)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Push (66)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Road (71)  |  Silence (62)  |  Something (718)  |  Species (435)  |  Stink (8)  |  Stream (83)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Virgin (11)  |  Waste (109)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zoo (9)

Sooner or later in every talk, [David] Brower describes the creation of the world. He invites his listeners to consider the six days of Genesis as a figure of speech for what has in fact been 4 billion years. On this scale, one day equals something like six hundred and sixty-six million years, and thus, all day Monday and until Tuesday noon, creation was busy getting the world going. Life began Tuesday noon, and the beautiful organic wholeness of it developed over the next four days. At 4 p.m. Saturday, the big reptiles came on. At three minutes before midnight on the last day, man appeared. At one-fourth of a second before midnight Christ arrived. At one-fortieth of a second before midnight, the Industrial Revolution began. We are surrounded with people who think that what we have been doing for that one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely. They are considered normal, but they are stark. raving mad.
In Encounters with the Archdruid (1971), 79-80.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Arrive (40)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Begin (275)  |  Big (55)  |  Billion (104)  |  Brower (2)  |  Busy (32)  |  Christ (17)  |  Consider (428)  |  Creation (350)  |  David (6)  |  Describe (132)  |  Develop (278)  |  Doing (277)  |  Equal (88)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Figure (162)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Invite (10)  |  Late (119)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listener (7)  |  Mad (54)  |  Man (2252)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Million (124)  |  Minute (129)  |  Monday (3)  |  Next (238)  |  Noon (14)  |  Normal (29)  |  Organic (161)  |  P (2)  |  People (1031)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Saturday (11)  |  Scale (122)  |  Second (66)  |  Something (718)  |  Sooner (6)  |  Speech (66)  |  Stark (3)  |  Surround (33)  |  Talk (108)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tuesday (3)  |  Wholeness (9)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Spherical space is not very easy to imagine. We have to think of the properties of the surface of a sphere—the two-dimensional case—and try to conceive something similar applied to three-dimensional space. Stationing ourselves at a point let us draw a series of spheres of successively greater radii. The surface of a sphere of radius r should be proportional to r2; but in spherical space the areas of the more distant spheres begin to fall below the proper proportion. There is not so much room out there as we expected to find. Ultimately we reach a sphere of biggest possible area, and beyond it the areas begin to decrease. The last sphere of all shrinks to a point—our antipodes. Is there nothing beyond this? Is there a kind of boundary there? There is nothing beyond and yet there is no boundary. On the earth’s surface there is nothing beyond our own antipodes but there is no boundary there
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 158-159.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Draw (140)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fall (243)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greater (288)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Kind (564)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reach (286)  |  Series (153)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Surface (223)  |  Think (1122)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimately (56)

Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement. Just as the electron is the last unit of matter discernible to the scientist. DESIRE is the seed of all achievement; the starting place, back of which there is nothing, or at least there is nothing of which we have any knowledge.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Back (395)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Desire (212)  |  Discernible (9)  |  Electron (96)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Least (75)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Root (121)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seed (97)  |  Start (237)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Strong (182)  |  Unit (36)

Suddenly, there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bored its way into you. It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. You would wish it would stop; altogether it lasted about two seconds.
[Witnessing the first atomic bomb test explosion.]
Science: the Center of Culture (1970), 139.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Blast (13)  |  Bore (3)  |  Brightest (12)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Flash (49)  |  Forever (111)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Pounce (4)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)

Superstring theories provide a framework in which the force of gravity may be united with the other three forces in nature: the weak, electromagnetic and strong forces. Recent progress has shown that the most promising superstring theories follow from a single theory. For the last generation, physicists have studied five string theories and one close cousin. Recently it has become clear that these five or six theories are different limiting cases of one theory which, though still scarcely understood, is the candidate for superunification of the forces of nature.
His synopsis of lecture, University of Maryland Distinguished Lecture Series (2 Mar 1998), on web page.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Candidate (8)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Different (595)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Framework (33)  |  Generation (256)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Progress (492)  |  Recent (78)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Single (365)  |  Still (614)  |  String Theory (14)  |  Strong (182)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Understood (155)  |  Weak (73)

Taking a very gloomy view of the future of the human race, let us suppose that it can only expect to survive for two thousand millions years longer, a period about equal to the past age of the earth. Then, regarded as a being destined to live for three-score years and ten, humanity although it has been born in a house seventy years old, is itself only three days old. But only in the last few minutes has it become conscious that the whole world does not centre round its cradle and its trappings, and only in the last few ticks of the clock has any adequate conception of the size of the external world dawned upon it. For our clock does not tick seconds, but years; its minutes are the lives of men.
EOS: Or the Wider Aspects of Cosmology (1928), 12-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Clock (51)  |  Conception (160)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Destined (42)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Expect (203)  |  Future (467)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Live (650)  |  Minute (129)  |  Old (499)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Race (278)  |  Regard (312)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Survive (87)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tick (9)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Telescopes are in some ways like time machines. They reveal galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We in astronomy have an advantage in studying the universe, in that we can actually see the past.
We owe our existence to stars, because they make the atoms of which we are formed. So if you are romantic you can say we are literally starstuff. If you’re less romantic you can say we’re the nuclear waste from the fuel that makes stars shine.
We’ve made so many advances in our understanding. A few centuries ago, the pioneer navigators learnt the size and shape of our Earth, and the layout of the continents. We are now just learning the dimensions and ingredients of our entire cosmos, and can at last make some sense of our cosmic habitat.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atom (381)  |  Billion (104)  |  Billions (7)  |  Century (319)  |  Continent (79)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entire (50)  |  Existence (481)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Layout (2)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Less (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Literally (30)  |  Machine (271)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Waste (4)  |  Owe (71)  |  Past (355)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shape (77)  |  Shine (49)  |  Size (62)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Starstuff (5)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time Machine (4)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Year (963)

That small word “Force,” they make a barber's block,
Ready to put on
Meanings most strange and various, fit to shock
Pupils of Newton....
The phrases of last century in this
Linger to play tricks—
Vis viva and Vis Mortua and Vis Acceleratrix:
Those long-nebbed words that to our text books still
Cling by their titles,
And from them creep, as entozoa will,
Into our vitals.
But see! Tait writes in lucid symbols clear
One small equation;
And Force becomes of Energy a mere
Space-variation.
'Report on Tait's Lecture on Force:— B.A., 1876', reproduced in Bruce Clarke, Energy Forms: Allegory and Science in the Era of Classical Thermodynamics (2001), 19. Maxwell's verse was inspired by a paper delivered at the British Association (B.A.. He was satirizing a “considerable cofusion of nomenclature” at the time, and supported his friend Tait's desire to establish a redefinition of energy on a thermnodynamic basis.
Science quotes on:  |  Barber (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Block (13)  |  Book (413)  |  Century (319)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Clinging (3)  |  Creep (15)  |  Creeping (4)  |  Energy (373)  |  Equation (138)  |  Fit (139)  |  Force (497)  |  Linger (14)  |  Lingering (2)  |  Long (778)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Lucidity (7)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Play (116)  |  Poem (104)  |  Pupil (62)  |  See (1094)  |  Shock (38)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)  |  Strange (160)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Peter Guthrie Tait (11)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Title (20)  |  Trick (36)  |  Variation (93)  |  Various (205)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Write (250)

The advancement of science is slow; it is effected only by virtue of hard work and perseverance. And when a result is attained, should we not in recognition connect it with the efforts of those who have preceded us, who have struggled and suffered in advance? Is it not truly a duty to recall the difficulties which they vanquished, the thoughts which guided them; and how men of different nations, ideas, positions, and characters, moved solely by the love of science, have bequeathed to us the unsolved problem? Should not the last comer recall the researches of his predecessors while adding in his turn his contribution of intelligence and of labor? Here is an intellectual collaboration consecrated entirely to the search for truth, and which continues from century to century.
[Respecting how the work of prior researchers had enabled his isolation of fluorine.]
Proceedings of the Royal Institution (1897). In Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to July 1897 (1898), 262.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Century (319)  |  Character (259)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consecration (3)  |  Continuation (20)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Duty (71)  |  Effect (414)  |  Effort (243)  |  Fluorine (5)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Labor (200)  |  Love (328)  |  Nation (208)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Position (83)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Problem (731)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recollection (12)  |  Research (753)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Result (700)  |  Search (175)  |  Slow (108)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truly (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unsolved (15)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Work (1402)

The analysis of Nature into its individual parts, the grouping of the different natural processes and natural objects in definite classes, the study of the internal anatomy of organic bodies in their manifold forms—these were the fundamental conditions of the gigantic strides in our knowledge of Nature which have been made during the last four hundred years. But this method of investigation has also left us as a legacy the habit of observing natural objects and natural processes in their isolation, detached from the whole vast interconnection of things; and therefore not in their motion, but in their repose; not as essentially changing, but fixed constants; not in their life, but in their death.
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (Anti-Dühring), First Publication (1878). Trans. Emile Burns and ed. C.P. Dutt (1935), 27-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constant (148)  |  Death (406)  |  Definite (114)  |  Different (595)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Internal (69)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Legacy (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Method (531)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Organic (161)  |  Stride (15)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vast (188)  |  Whole (756)  |  Year (963)

The Arctic has a call that is compelling. The distant mountains [of the Brooks Range in Alaska] make one want to go on and on over the next ridge and over the one beyond. The call is that of a wilderness known only to a few…. This last American wilderness must remain sacrosanct.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alaska (3)  |  American (56)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Brook (6)  |  Call (781)  |  Compel (31)  |  Compelling (11)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Distant (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Range (104)  |  Remain (355)  |  Ridge (9)  |  Sacrosanct (3)  |  Want (504)  |  Wilderness (57)

The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer, but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.
In The Bird: Its Form and Function (1906), Vol. 1, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Composer (7)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Expression (181)  |  Extinction (80)  |  First (1302)  |  Genius (301)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pass (241)  |  Race (278)  |  Species (435)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vanishing (11)  |  Work (1402)

The blood, the fountain whence the spirits flow,
The generous stream that waters every part,
And motion, vigour, and warm life conveys
To every Particle that moves or lives;
This vital fluid, thro' unnumber'd tubes
Pour'd by the heart, and to the heart again
Refunded; scourg'd forever round and round;
Enrag'd with heat and toil, at last forgets
Its balmy nature; virulent and thin
It grows; and now, but that a thousand gates
Are open to its flight, it would destroy
The parts it cherish' d and repair'd before.
Besides, the flexible and tender tubes
Melt in the mildest, most nectareous tide
That ripening Nature rolls; as in the stream
Its crumbling banks; but what the vital force
Of plastic fluids hourly batters down,
That very force, those plastic particles
Rebuild: so mutable the state of man.
For this the watchful appetite was given,
Daily with fresh materials to repair
This unavoidable expense of life,
This necessary waste of flesh and blood.
Hence the concoctive powers, with various art,
Subdue the cruder aliments to chyle;
The chyle to blood; the foamy purple tide
To liquors, which through finer arteries
To different parts their winding course pursue;
To try new changes, and new forms put on,
Or for the public, or some private use.
The Art of Preserving Health (1744), book 2, I. 12-23, p.15-16.
Science quotes on:  |  Appetite (20)  |  Art (680)  |  Bank (31)  |  Blood (144)  |  Change (639)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Course (413)  |  Daily (91)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Different (595)  |  Down (455)  |  Flight (101)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Force (497)  |  Forever (111)  |  Forget (125)  |  Form (976)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Gate (33)  |  Generous (17)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heat (180)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Particle (200)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Power (771)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Roll (41)  |  Spirit (278)  |  State (505)  |  Stream (83)  |  Subdue (7)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Tide (37)  |  Toil (29)  |  Try (296)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vital (89)  |  Vital Force (7)  |  Warm (74)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water (503)  |  Winding (8)

The Chinese are clearly inculcating the idea that science is exciting and important, and that’s why they, as a whole—they're graduating four times as many engineers as we are, and that's just happened over the last 20 years.
NPR Radio interview, Morning Edition, (29 Apr 2005). In Lisa Rogak (ed.) The Impatient Optimist: Bill Gates in his Words (2012), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  China (27)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

The conception of the atom stems from the concepts of subject and substance: there has to be “something” to account for any action. The atom is the last descendant of the concept of the soul.
Epigraph, without citation, in Edward C. Stark, Essential Chemistry (1979), 97. Also without citation in Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman (eds.), Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 32. Webmaster has not yet been able to identify the primary source (can you help?).
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Action (342)  |  Atom (381)  |  Concept (242)  |  Conception (160)  |  Descendant (18)  |  Something (718)  |  Soul (235)  |  Stem (31)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substance (253)

The discovery of an interaction among the four hemes made it obvious that they must be touching, but in science what is obvious is not necessarily true. When the structure of hemoglobin was finally solved, the hemes were found to lie in isolated pockets on the surface of the subunits. Without contact between them how could one of them sense whether the others had combined with oxygen? And how could as heterogeneous a collection of chemical agents as protons, chloride ions, carbon dioxide, and diphosphoglycerate influence the oxygen equilibrium curve in a similar way? It did not seem plausible that any of them could bind directly to the hemes or that all of them could bind at any other common site, although there again it turned out we were wrong. To add to the mystery, none of these agents affected the oxygen equilibrium of myoglobin or of isolated subunits of hemoglobin. We now know that all the cooperative effects disappear if the hemoglobin molecule is merely split in half, but this vital clue was missed. Like Agatha Christie, Nature kept it to the last to make the story more exciting. There are two ways out of an impasse in science: to experiment or to think. By temperament, perhaps, I experimented, whereas Jacques Monod thought.
From essay 'The Second Secret of Life', collected in I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier (1998), 263-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Binding (9)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Agatha Christie (7)  |  Clue (20)  |  Collection (68)  |  Combination (150)  |  Common (447)  |  Contact (66)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Curve (49)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Half (63)  |  Hemoglobin (5)  |  Heterogeneity (4)  |  Impasse (2)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Ion (21)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lie (370)  |  Merely (315)  |  Miss (51)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Jacques Monod (22)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Plausibility (7)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Pocket (11)  |  Proton (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Site (19)  |  Solution (282)  |  Split (15)  |  Story (122)  |  Structure (365)  |  Surface (223)  |  Temperament (18)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Touch (146)  |  Touching (16)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wrong (246)

The domain of mathematics is the sole domain of certainty. There and there alone prevail the standards by which every hypothesis respecting the external universe and all observation and all experiment must be finally judged. It is the realm to which all speculation and thought must repair for chastening and sanitation, the court of last resort, I say it reverently, for all intellection whatsoever, whether of demon, or man, or deity. It is there that mind as mind attains its highest estate.
In 'The Universe and Beyond', Hibbert Journal (1904-1906), 3, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Attain (126)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Chasten (2)  |  Court (35)  |  Deity (22)  |  Demon (8)  |  Domain (72)  |  Estate (5)  |  Experiment (736)  |  External (62)  |  High (370)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Judge (114)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Observation (593)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Realm (87)  |  Repair (11)  |  Sanitation (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Sole (50)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Standard (64)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whatsoever (41)

THE DYING AIRMAN
A handsome young airman lay dying,
As on the aerodrome he lay,
To the mechanics who round him came sighing,
These last words he did say.
“Take the cylinders out of my kidneys,
The connecting-rod out of my brain,
Take the cam-shaft from out of my backbone,
And assemble the engine again.”
Anonymous
From Edith L. Tiempo, Introduction to Poetry: Poetry Through Image and Statement (1993), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Assemble (14)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Brain (281)  |  Crash (9)  |  Cylinder (11)  |  Death (406)  |  Engine (99)  |  Handsome (4)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Last Words (6)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Rod (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Word (650)  |  Young (253)

The end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century were remarkable for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this country, especially in its more exact departments. ... Mathematics were at the last gasp, and Astronomy nearly so—I mean in those members of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had begun to spread itself over all those branches of Science which wanted the excitement of experimental research.
Quoted in Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan, Memoir of Augustus De Morgan (1882), 41
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (41)  |  Amount (153)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Century (319)  |  Chill (10)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Depend (238)  |  End (603)  |  Exact (75)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Gasp (6)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Research (753)  |  Routine (26)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Small (489)  |  Spread (86)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Want (504)

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.
In Thomas Hobbes and William Molesworth (ed.) Leviathan: Or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil (1839), Vol. 3, 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Anew (19)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Definition (238)  |  Error (339)  |  Lead (391)  |  Multiply (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  See (1094)  |  Themselves (433)

The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.
In 'A Journey Without Journeying', The Everything and the Nothing (1963), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Destination (16)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Interminable (3)  |  Journey (48)  |  Never (1089)  |  Reach (286)  |  Sight (135)  |  Travel (125)  |  Vary (27)  |  Wonder (251)

The extraordinary development of mathematics in the last century is quite unparalleled in the long history of this most ancient of sciences. Not only have those branches of mathematics which were taken over from the eighteenth century steadily grown, but entirely new ones have sprung up in almost bewildering profusion, and many of them have promptly assumed proportions of vast extent.
In The History of Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century', Congress of Arts and Sciences (1905), Vol. 1, 474. As cited and wuoted in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Bewildering (5)  |  Branch (155)  |  Century (319)  |  Development (441)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  History (716)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Profusion (3)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Spring (140)  |  Vast (188)

The fact that the general incidence of leukemia has doubled in the last two decades may be due, partly, to the increasing use of x-rays for numerous purposes. The incidence of leukemia in doctors, who are likely to be so exposed, is twice that of the general public. In radiologists … the incidence is ten times greater.
(1965). In Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 233.
Science quotes on:  |  Decade (66)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Due (143)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  Greater (288)  |  Leukemia (4)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Ray (115)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  X-ray (43)

The first [quality] to be named must always be the power of attention, of giving one's whole mind to the patient without the interposition of anything of oneself. It sounds simple but only the very greatest doctors ever fully attain it. … The second thing to be striven for is intuition. This sounds an impossibility, for who can control that small quiet monitor? But intuition is only interference from experience stored and not actively recalled. … The last aptitude I shall mention that must be attained by the good physician is that of handling the sick man's mind.
In 'Art and Science in Medicine', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Attention (196)  |  Control (182)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Handling (7)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Interference (22)  |  Interposition (2)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Monitor (10)  |  Must (1525)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Power (771)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Recall (11)  |  Sick (83)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Small (489)  |  Sound (187)  |  Store (49)  |  Strive (53)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Whole (756)

The first and last thing demanded of Genius is love of truth.
In George Henry Lewes, Life of J.W. von Goethe (1902), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Demand (131)  |  First (1302)  |  Genius (301)  |  Love (328)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)

The function of Latin literature is its expression of Rome. When to England and France your imagination can add Rome in the background, you have laid firm the foundations of culture. The understanding of Rome leads back to the Mediterranean civilisation of which Rome was the last phase, and it automatically exhibits the geography of Europe, and the functions of seas and rivers and mountains and plains. The merit of this study in the education of youth is its concreteness, its inspiration to action, and the uniform greatness of persons, in their characters and their staging. Their aims were great, their virtues were great, and their vices were great. They had the saving merit of sinning with cart ropes.
In 'The Place of Classics in Education', The Aims of Education: & Other Essays (1917), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Aim (175)  |  Back (395)  |  Background (44)  |  Character (259)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Concreteness (5)  |  Culture (157)  |  Education (423)  |  England (43)  |  Europe (50)  |  Expression (181)  |  Firm (47)  |  Foundation (177)  |  France (29)  |  Function (235)  |  Geography (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Latin (44)  |  Lead (391)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mediterranean (9)  |  Merit (51)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Person (366)  |  Phase (37)  |  Plain (34)  |  River (140)  |  Rome (19)  |  Rope (9)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sin (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vice (42)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Youth (109)

The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
Source uncertain. Usually seen on the web, identified as Anonymous (and, rarely, attributed to Carl William Brown.) If you know a primary print source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Computer (131)  |  Computer Science (11)  |  Finish (62)  |  Goal (155)  |  Something (718)  |  Will (2350)

The golden age of mathematics—that was not the age of Euclid, it is ours. Ours is the age when no less than six international congresses have been held in the course of nine years. It is in our day that more than a dozen mathematical societies contain a growing membership of more than two thousand men representing the centers of scientific light throughout the great culture nations of the world. It is in our time that over five hundred scientific journals are each devoted in part, while more than two score others are devoted exclusively, to the publication of mathematics. It is in our time that the Jahrbuch über die Fortschritte der Mathematik, though admitting only condensed abstracts with titles, and not reporting on all the journals, has, nevertheless, grown to nearly forty huge volumes in as many years. It is in our time that as many as two thousand books and memoirs drop from the mathematical press of the world in a single year, the estimated number mounting up to fifty thousand in the last generation. Finally, to adduce yet another evidence of a similar kind, it requires not less than seven ponderous tomes of the forthcoming Encyclopaedie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften to contain, not expositions, not demonstrations, but merely compact reports and bibliographic notices sketching developments that have taken place since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Admit (49)  |  Age (509)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bibliography (3)  |  Book (413)  |  Center (35)  |  Century (319)  |  Compact (13)  |  Condense (15)  |  Congress (20)  |  Course (413)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Development (441)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Dozen (10)  |  Drop (77)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Generation (256)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Huge (30)  |  Hundred (240)  |  International (40)  |  Journal (31)  |  Kind (564)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Membership (6)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Mount (43)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Ponderous (2)  |  Press (21)  |  Publication (102)  |  Report (42)  |  Reporting (9)  |  Represent (157)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Score (8)  |  Single (365)  |  Sketch (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Title (20)  |  Two (936)  |  Volume (25)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The gradual advance of Geology, during the last twenty years, to the dignity of a science, has arisen from the laborious and extensive collection of facts, and from the enlightened spirit in which the inductions founded on those facts have been deduced and discussed. To those who are unacquainted with this science, or indeed to any person not deeply versed in the history of this and kindred subjects, it is impossible to convey a just impression of the nature of that evidence by which a multitude of its conclusions are supported:—evidence in many cases so irresistible, that the records of the past ages, to which it refers, are traced in language more imperishable than that of the historian of any human transactions; the relics of those beings, entombed in the strata which myriads of centuries have heaped upon their graves, giving a present evidence of their past existence, with which no human testimony can compete.
The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (1838), 47-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Being (1276)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grave (52)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impression (118)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Induction (81)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Language (308)  |  More (2558)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Past (355)  |  Person (366)  |  Present (630)  |  Record (161)  |  Research (753)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strata (37)  |  Subject (543)  |  Support (151)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Year (963)

The great truths with which it [mathematics] deals, are clothed with austere grandeur, far above all purposes of immediate convenience or profit. It is in them that our limited understandings approach nearest to the conception of that absolute and infinite, towards which in most other things they aspire in vain. In the pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths, which existed in the divine mind before the morning stars sang together, and which will continue to exist there, when the last of their radiant host shall have fallen from heaven. They existed not merely in metaphysical possibility, but in the actual contemplation of the supreme reason. The pen of inspiration, ranging all nature and life for imagery to set forth the Creator’s power and wisdom, finds them best symbolized in the skill of the surveyor. "He meted out heaven as with a span;" and an ancient sage, neither falsely nor irreverently, ventured to say, that “God is a geometer”.
In Orations and Speeches (1870), Vol. 3, 614.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Actual (118)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Austere (7)  |  Best (467)  |  Conception (160)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Continue (179)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deal (192)  |  Divine (112)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fall (243)  |  Falsely (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forth (14)  |  Geometer (24)  |  God (776)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Host (16)  |  Imagery (3)  |  Immediate (98)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Irreverent (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pen (21)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Profit (56)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Range (104)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sage (25)  |  Say (989)  |  Set (400)  |  Sing (29)  |  Skill (116)  |  Span (5)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Symbolize (8)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vain (86)  |  Venture (19)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)

The history of acceptance of new theories frequently shows the following steps: At first the new idea is treated as pure nonsense, not worth looking at. Then comes a time when a multitude of contradictory objections are raised, such as: the new theory is too fancy, or merely a new terminology; it is not fruitful, or simply wrong. Finally a state is reached when everyone seems to claim that he had always followed this theory. This usually marks the last state before general acceptance.
In 'Field Theory and the Phase Space', collected in Melvin Herman Marx, Psychological Theory: Contemporary Readings (1951), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Claim (154)  |  Contradictory (8)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Finally (26)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Following (16)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Looking (191)  |  Merely (315)  |  Multitude (50)  |  New (1273)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Objection (34)  |  Pure (299)  |  Raised (3)  |  Reach (286)  |  Show (353)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Usually (176)  |  Worth (172)  |  Wrong (246)

The history of the cosmos
is the history of the struggle of becoming.
When the dim flux of unformed life
struggled, convulsed back and forth upon itself,
and broke at last into light and dark
came into existence as light,
came into existence as cold shadow
then every atom of the cosmos trembled with delight.
God is Born', David Herbert Lawrence, The Works of D.H. Lawrence (1994), 571.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Back (395)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Dark (145)  |  Delight (111)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flux (21)  |  God (776)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Poem (104)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Universe (900)

The history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought.
In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890, 1900), Vol. 3, 460.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Best (467)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Devise (16)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Explain (334)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Generalization (61)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parlance (2)  |  Phantasmagoria (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warn (7)  |  World (1850)

The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory glance at the history of the biological sciences during the last quarter of a century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge which has come into men’s hands, since the publication of Newton's ‘Principia’, is Darwin's ‘Origin of Species.’
From concluding remarks to a chapter by Thomas Huxley, 'On the Reception of the ‘Origin of Species’', the last chapter in Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887), Vol. 1, 557.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Business (156)  |  Century (319)  |  Extension (60)  |  Extent (142)  |  Finite (60)  |  Generation (256)  |  Glance (36)  |  History (716)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Origin (250)  |  Possession (68)  |  Potent (15)  |  Principia (14)  |  Publication (102)  |  Realm (87)  |  Something (718)  |  Species (435)  |  Stand (284)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Unknown (195)

The last few centuries have seen the world freed from several scourges—slavery, for example; death by torture for heretics; and, most recently, smallpox. I am optimistic enough to believe that the next scourge to disappear will be large-scale warfare—killed by the existence and nonuse of nuclear weapons.
Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist (1987), 152.
Science quotes on:  |  Death (406)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Enough (341)  |  Existence (481)  |  Heretic (8)  |  Kill (100)  |  Large (398)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Weapon (17)  |  Scale (122)  |  Slavery (13)  |  Smallpox (14)  |  Torture (30)  |  War (233)  |  Warfare (12)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The last few meters up to the summit no longer seem so hard. On reaching the top, I sit down and let my legs dangle into space. I don’t have to climb anymore. I pull my camera from my rucksack and, in my down mittens, fumble a long time with the batteries before I have it working properly. Then I film Peter. Now, after the hours of torment, which indeed I didn’t recognize as torment, now, when the monotonous motion of plodding upwards is at an end, and I have nothing more to do than breathe, a great peace floods my whole being. I breathe like someone who has run the race of his life and knows that he may now rest forever. I keep looking all around, because the first time I didn’t see anything of the panorama I had expected from Everest, neither indeed did I notice how the wind was continually chasing snow across the summit. In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single, narrow, gasping lung, floating over the mists and the summits.
In Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate (1979), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Across (32)  |  Anymore (5)  |  Battery (12)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belong (168)  |  Breathe (49)  |  Camera (7)  |  Chase (14)  |  Climb (39)  |  Continually (17)  |  Dangle (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  Everest (10)  |  Expect (203)  |  Eyesight (5)  |  Film (12)  |  First (1302)  |  First Time (14)  |  Float (31)  |  Flood (52)  |  Forever (111)  |  Gasp (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hour (192)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  Leg (35)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Looking (191)  |  Lung (37)  |  Meter (9)  |  Mist (17)  |  Monotonous (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Myself (211)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notice (81)  |  Panorama (5)  |  Peace (116)  |  Plod (3)  |  Properly (21)  |  Pull (43)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rest (287)  |  Rucksack (3)  |  Run (158)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Single (365)  |  Sit (51)  |  Snow (39)  |  Someone (24)  |  Space (523)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  State (505)  |  Summit (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Torment (18)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wind (141)  |  Work (1402)

The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician. At the heart of things science finds only a mad, never-ending quadrille of Mock Turtle Waves and Gryphon Particles. For a moment the waves and particles dance in grotesque, inconceivably complex patterns capable of reflecting on their own absurdity.
In 'Introduction', The Annotated Alice (1974), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Appear (122)  |  Book (413)  |  Capable (174)  |  Complex (202)  |  Dance (35)  |  Find (1014)  |  Grotesque (6)  |  Gryphon (2)  |  Heart (243)  |  Idiot (22)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mad (54)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Mock Turtle (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  Never (1089)  |  Never-Ending (3)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Particle (200)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Tale (17)  |  Thing (1914)  |  View (496)  |  Wave (112)

The last person who left the lab will be the one held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
Anonymous
Found in The NIH Catalyst (May-June 2003), 11, No. 3, 8, as part of list 'A Scientist’s Dozen,' cited as “culled and adapted…from a variety of sources” by Howard Young.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Person (366)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there an infinity of things which are beyond it.
Pensées (1670), Section 5, 1. As translated in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 267, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 97. Also seen translated as, “Reason’s last step is the recognition that…”. From the original French, “La dernière démarche de la raison est de reconnaître qu’il y a une infinité de choses qui la surpassent; elle n’est que faible, si elle ne va jusqu’à connaître cela,” in Pensées de Blaise Pascal (1847), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Number (710)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Reason (766)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Step (234)  |  Thing (1914)

The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put first.
In Pensées (1670), Section 7, No. 29. As translated in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 19, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 14. Also seen translated as, “The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.” From the original French, “La dernière chose qu’on trouve en faisant un ouvrage, est de savoir celle qu’il faut mettre la première,” in Ernest Havet (ed.), Pensées de Pascal (1892), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  First (1302)  |  Last Thing (3)  |  Settle (23)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first.
In Pensées. As translated by W.F. Trotter in Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, Letters, and Minor Works (1910), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  First (1302)  |  Last Thing (3)  |  Settle (23)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

The last twenty-nine days of the month are the toughest!
Because, while in Paris, his income “was spent as soon as received.” In 'The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer', My Inventions: And Other Writings (2016), 30. Originally published in serial form in Part 4, 'The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer', Electrical Experimenter magazine (1919), 7, No. 73, 16 . Sometimes seen with the word “hardest” instead of the original “toughest”.
Science quotes on:  |  Hard (246)  |  Month (91)

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.
From 'Conservation' (c.1938), Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold (1953), 141. Collected in The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries (1999), 142.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Good (906)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Land (131)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Part (235)  |  Plant (320)  |  Say (989)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

The laws expressing the relations between energy and matter are, however, not solely of importance in pure science. They necessarily come first in order ... in the whole record of human experience, and they control, in the last resort, the rise or fall of political systems, the freedom or bondage of nations, the movements of commerce and industry, the origin of wealth and poverty, and the general physical welfare of the race.
In Matter and Energy (1912), 10-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Bondage (6)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Control (182)  |  Energy (373)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fall (243)  |  First (1302)  |  Freedom (145)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Importance (299)  |  Industry (159)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nation (208)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Order (638)  |  Origin (250)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Race (278)  |  Record (161)  |  Relation (166)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rise And Fall (2)  |  Solely (9)  |  System (545)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Whole (756)

The long summer was over. For ages a tropical climate had prevailed over a great part of the earth, and animals whose home is now beneath the Equator roamed over the world from the far South to the very borders of the Arctics ... But their reign was over. A sudden intense winter, that was also to last for ages, fell upon our globe.
Geological Sketches (1866), 208.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Climate (102)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equator (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Home (184)  |  Ice Age (10)  |  Long (778)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Reign (24)  |  South (39)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Summer (56)  |  Winter (46)  |  World (1850)

The love of mathematics is daily on the increase, not only with us but in the army. The result of this was unmistakably apparent in our last campaigns. Bonaparte himself has a mathematical head, and though all who study this science may not become geometricians like Laplace or Lagrange, or heroes like Bonaparte, there is yet left an influence upon the mind which enables them to accomplish more than they could possibly have achieved without this training.
In Letter (26 Jan 1798) to Von Zach. As quoted in translation in Karl Bruhns (ed.), Jane Lassell (trans.) and Caroline Lassell (trans.), Life of Alexander von Humboldt (1872), Vol. 1, 232. [Webmaster assigns this quote to Jérôme Lalande as an informed guess for the following reasons. The cited text gives only the last names, Lalande and von Zach, but it does also give a source footnote to a Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden, 1, 340. The journal editor, Franz Xaver von Zach, was a Hungarian astronomer. Jérôme Lalande was a French astronomer, living at the same time, who called himself Jérôme Le Français de la Lande. Their names are seen referred to together in the same journal, Vol. 6, 360.]
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Achieve (75)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Army (35)  |  Become (821)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Campaign (6)  |  Daily (91)  |  Enable (122)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Head (87)  |  Hero (45)  |  Himself (461)  |  Increase (225)  |  Influence (231)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Leave (138)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Result (700)  |  Study (701)  |  Training (92)  |  Unmistakable (6)

The meaning of geography is as much a sealed book to the person of ordinary intelligence and education as the meaning of a great cathedral would be to a backwoodsman, and yet no cathedral can be more suggestive of past history in its many architectural forms than is the land about us, with its innumerable and marvellously significant geographic forms. It makes one grieve to think of opportunity for mental enjoyment that is last because of the failure of education in this respect.
'Geographic Methods in Geologic Investigation', The National Geographic Magazine, 1889, 1, 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Education (423)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Failure (176)  |  Form (976)  |  Geographic (10)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geomorphology (3)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mental (179)  |  More (2558)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Past (355)  |  Person (366)  |  Respect (212)  |  Seal (19)  |  Sealed Book (2)  |  Significant (78)  |  Think (1122)

The moment after, I began to respire 20 quarts of unmingled nitrous oxide. A thrilling, extending from the chest to the extremities, was almost immediately produced. I felt a sense of tangible extension highly pleasurable in every limb; my visible impressions were dazzling, and apparently magnified, I heard distinctly every sound in the room and was perfectly aware of my situation. By degrees, as the pleasurable sensations increased, I last all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind, and were connected with words in such a manner, as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas. I theorised—I imagined that I made discoveries. When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr. Kinglake, who took the bag from my mouth, indignation and pride were the first feelings produced by the sight of the persons about me. My emotions were enthusiastic and sublime; and for a minute I walked round the room, perfectly regardless of what was said to me. As I recovered my former state of mind, I felt an inclination to communicate the discoveries I had made during the experiment. I endeavoured to recall the ideas, they were feeble and indistinct; one collection of terms, however, presented itself: and with the most intense belief and prophetic manner, I exclaimed to Dr Kinglake, 'Nothing exists but thoughts!—the universe is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains!'
Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800), in J. Davy (ed.), The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (1839-40), Vol 3, 289-90.
Science quotes on:  |  Anaesthetic (2)  |  Belief (615)  |  Biography (254)  |  Collection (68)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extension (60)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Idea (881)  |  Image (97)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Nitrous Oxide (5)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Novel (35)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perception (97)  |  Person (366)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Present (630)  |  Pride (84)  |  Produced (187)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sight (135)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sound (187)  |  State (505)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Walk (138)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The moment you encounter string theory and realise that almost all of the major developments in physics over the last hundred years emerge—and emerge with such elegance—from such a simple starting point, you realise that this incredibly compelling theory is in a class of its own.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Class (168)  |  Compel (31)  |  Compelling (11)  |  Development (441)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Encounter (23)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Incredibly (3)  |  Major (88)  |  Moment (260)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Realize (157)  |  Simple (426)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  String Theory (14)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Year (963)

The most distinct and beautiful statement of any truth [in science] must take at last the mathematical form.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Form (976)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Statement (148)  |  Truth (1109)

The most extensive computation known has been conducted over the last billion years on a planet-wide scale: it is the evolution of life. The power of this computation is illustrated by the complexity and beauty of its crowning achievement, the human brain.
In Gary William Flake, The Computational Beauty of Nature (2000), 415.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Billion (104)  |  Brain (281)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Computation (28)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Human (1512)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Most (1728)  |  Planet (402)  |  Power (771)  |  Scale (122)  |  Wide (97)  |  Year (963)

The most suggestive and notable achievement of the last century is the discovery of Non-Euclidean geometry.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Century (319)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Most (1728)  |  Non-Euclidean (7)  |  Notable (6)  |  Suggestive (4)

The oceans are the planet’s last great living wilderness, man’s only remaining frontier on Earth, and perhaps his last chance to prove himself as a rational species.
The Forests of the Sea
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Planet (402)  |  Prove (261)  |  Rational (95)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Species (435)  |  Wilderness (57)

The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express its resentments by hissing; and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden; however, in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried it-self in the loose mound, and continues still concealed … When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of its existence in joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months together in the profoundest of slumbers.
In Letter to Daines Barrington, (21 Apr 1780) in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Box (22)  |  Cold (115)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Continue (179)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enough (341)  |  Existence (481)  |  Express (192)  |  Find (1014)  |  Garden (64)  |  Hibernation (3)  |  Hurry (16)  |  Journey (48)  |  Little (717)  |  Longevity (6)  |  March (48)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mention (84)  |  Month (91)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Property (177)  |  Providence (19)  |  Relish (4)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Self (268)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Slumber (6)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Strange (160)  |  Stupor (2)  |  Together (392)  |  Tortoise (10)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Walk (138)  |  Waste (109)  |  Weather (49)  |  Winter (46)  |  Wonder (251)

The only important thing to realise about history is that it all took place in the last five minutes.
In The Decline and Fall of Science (1976), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  History (716)  |  Important (229)  |  Minute (129)  |  Realize (157)  |  Thing (1914)

The only thing harder to understand than a law of statistical origin would be a law that is not of statistical origin, for then there would be no way for it—or its progenitor principles—to come into being. On the other hand, when we view each of the laws of physics—and no laws are more magnificent in scope or better tested—as at bottom statistical in character, then we are at last able to forego the idea of a law that endures from everlasting to everlasting.
In 'Law without Law' (1979), in John Archibald Wheeler and Wojciech Hubert Zurek (eds.), Quantum Theory and Measurement (1983), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Character (259)  |  Idea (881)  |  Law (913)  |  Magnificent (46)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Progenitor (5)  |  Scope (44)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)

The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try.
Science quotes on:  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Success (327)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)

The persons who have been employed on these problems of applying the properties of matter and the laws of motion to the explanation of the phenomena of the world, and who have brought to them the high and admirable qualities which such an office requires, have justly excited in a very eminent degree the admiration which mankind feels for great intellectual powers. Their names occupy a distinguished place in literary history; and probably there are no scientific reputations of the last century higher, and none more merited, than those earned by great mathematicians who have laboured with such wonderful success in unfolding the mechanism of the heavens; such for instance as D ’Alembert, Clairaut, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace.
In Astronomy and General Physics (1833), Bk. 3, chap. 4, 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Apply (170)  |  Bring (95)  |  Century (319)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Earn (9)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Excited (8)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Feel (371)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justly (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Motion (14)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Literary (15)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Merit (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Name (359)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Office (71)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Place (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Properties Of Matter (7)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Unfold (15)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

The phosphorous smell which is developed when electricity (to speak the profane language) is passing from the points of a conductor into air, or when lightning happens to fall upon some terrestrial object, or when water is electrolysed, has been engaging my attention the last couple of years, and induced me to make many attempts at clearing up that mysterious phenomenon. Though baffled for a long time, at last, I think, I have succeeded so far as to have got the clue which will lead to the discovery of the true cause of the smell in question.
[His first reference to investigating ozone, for which he is remembered.]
Letter to Michael Faraday (4 Apr 1840), The Letters of Faraday and Schoenbein, 1836-1862 (1899), 73. This letter was communicated to the Royal Society on 7 May, and an abstract published in the Philosophical Magazine.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attention (196)  |  Baffle (6)  |  Cause (561)  |  Clue (20)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Develop (278)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Fall (243)  |  First (1302)  |  Happen (282)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Language (308)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Long (778)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Object (438)  |  Ozone (7)  |  Passing (76)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Point (584)  |  Profane (6)  |  Question (649)  |  Remember (189)  |  Research (753)  |  Smell (29)  |  Speak (240)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

The present state of the earth and of the organisms now inhabiting it, is but the last stage of a long and uninterrupted series of changes which it has undergone, and consequently, that to endeavour to explain and account for its present condition without any reference to those changes (as has frequently been done) must lead to very imperfect and erroneous conclusions.
In 'On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species', The Annals and Magazine of Natural History (1855), 16, No. 93, 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Change (639)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Explain (334)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Inhabit (18)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Organism (231)  |  Present (630)  |  Reference (33)  |  Series (153)  |  Stage (152)  |  State (505)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Uninterrupted (7)

The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature, causes the unknown to reveal themselves. Almost any mode of observation will be successful at last, for what is most wanted is method.
In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 382.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Cause (561)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Method (531)  |  Mode (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Process (439)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Want (504)  |  Weariness (6)  |  Will (2350)

The progress of synthesis, or the building up of natural materials from their constituent elements, proceeds apace. Even some of the simpler albuminoids, a class of substances of great importance in the life process, have recently been artificially prepared. ... Innumerable entirely new compounds have been produced in the last century. The artificial dye-stuffs, prepared from materials occurring in coal-tar, make the natural colours blush. Saccharin, which is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, is a purely artificial substance. New explosives, drugs, alloys, photographic substances, essences, scents, solvents, and detergents are being poured out in a continuous stream.
In Matter and Energy (1912), 45-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Alloy (4)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blush (3)  |  Building (158)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Class (168)  |  Coal (64)  |  Coal Tar (2)  |  Color (155)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Detergent (3)  |  Drug (61)  |  Dye (10)  |  Element (322)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Essence (85)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Importance (299)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  Natural (810)  |  New (1273)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pour (9)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Production (190)  |  Progress (492)  |  Purely (111)  |  Recent (78)  |  Saccharin (2)  |  Scent (7)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solvent (7)  |  Stream (83)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sugar (26)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Time (1911)

The result of all these experiments has given place to a new division of the parts of the human body, which I shall follow in this short essay, by distinguishing those which are susceptible of Irritability and Sensibility, from those which are not. But the theory, why some parts of the human body are endowed with these properties, while others are not, I shall not at all meddle with. For I am persuaded that the source of both lies concealed beyond the reach of the knife and microscope, beyond which I do not chuse to hazard many conjectures, as I have no desire of teaching what I am ignorant of myself. For the vanity of attempting to guide others in paths where we find ourselves in the dark, shews, in my humble opinion, the last degree of arrogance and ignorance.
'A Treatise on the Sensible and Irritable Parts of Animals' (Read 1752). Trans. 1755 and reprinted in Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, 1936, 4(2), 657-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Dark (145)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Essay (27)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hazard (21)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humble (54)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Irritability (4)  |  Knife (24)  |  Lie (370)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nerve (82)  |  New (1273)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Path (159)  |  Reach (286)  |  Result (700)  |  Short (200)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Why (491)

The rich man, gasping for breath … feels at last the impotence of gold; that death which he dreaded at a distance as an enemy, he now hails when he is near, as a friend; a friend that alone can bring the peace his treasures cannot purchase, and remove the pain his physicians cannot cure.
In Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think (1832), 125. [Part of this quote (after the semicolon) is often seen attributed to Mortimer Collins, who was born in 1827. That date makes it clearly impossible for Collins to be the author of this quote, published in 1832 by Colton.]
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Breath (61)  |  Cure (124)  |  Death (406)  |  Distance (171)  |  Dread (13)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Feel (371)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gasp (6)  |  Gold (101)  |  Hail (4)  |  Impotence (8)  |  Man (2252)  |  Pain (144)  |  Peace (116)  |  Physician (284)  |  Purchase (8)  |  Remove (50)  |  Rich (66)  |  Treasure (59)

The science of alchemy I like very well. I like it not only for the profits it brings in melting metals, in decocting, preparing, extracting, and distilling herbs, roots; I like it also for the sake of the allegory and secret signification, which is exceedingly fine, touching the resurrection of the dead at the last day.
In The Table Talk (1569).
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Allegory (8)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Dead (65)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Extract (40)  |  Herb (6)  |  Melt (16)  |  Metal (88)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Profit (56)  |  Resurrection (4)  |  Root (121)  |  Sake (61)  |  Secret (216)  |  Signification (2)  |  Touch (146)  |  Touching (16)

The science of metaphysics promises more than it performs. The study of … metaphysics begins with a torrent of tropes, and a copious current of words, yet loses itself at last, in obscurity and conjecture, like the Niger in his barren deserts of sand.
Reflection 342, in Lacon: or Many things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think (1820), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Barren (33)  |  Begin (275)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Copious (6)  |  Current (122)  |  Desert (59)  |  Lose (165)  |  Metaphysic (7)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Perform (123)  |  Promise (72)  |  Sand (63)  |  Study (701)  |  Torrent (5)  |  Word (650)

The Scientific Revolution turns us away from the older sayings to discover the lost authorization in Nature. What we have been through in these last four millennia is the slow inexorable profaning of our species. And in the last part of the second millennium A.D., that process is apparently becoming complete. It is the Great Human Irony of our noblest and greatest endeavor on this planet that in the quest for authorization, in our reading of the language of God in Nature, we should read there so clearly that we have been so mistaken.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Authorization (3)  |  Become (821)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complete (209)  |  Discover (571)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Irony (9)  |  Language (308)  |  Lose (165)  |  Millennia (4)  |  Millennium (5)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Old (499)  |  Part (235)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Profane (6)  |  Quest (39)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Sayings (2)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Second (66)  |  Slow (108)  |  Species (435)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)

The scientist takes off from the manifold observations of predecessors, and shows his intelligence, if any, by his ability to discriminate between the important and the negligible, by selecting here and there the significant steppingstones that will lead across the difficulties to new understanding. The one who places the last stone and steps across to the terra firma of accomplished discovery gets all the credit.
In As I Remember Him (1940).
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Lead (391)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Negligible (5)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Show (353)  |  Significant (78)  |  Step (234)  |  Stone (168)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

The sense for style … is an aesthetic sense, based on admiration for the direct attainment of a foreseen end, simply and without waste. Style in art, style in literature, style in science, style in logic, style in practical execution have fundamentally the same aesthetic qualities, namely, attainment and restraint. The love of a subject in itself and for itself, where it is not the sleepy pleasure of pacing a mental quarter-deck, is the love of style as manifested in that study. Here we are brought back to the position from which we started, the utility of education. Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole being. The administrator with a sense for style hates waste; the engineer with a sense for style economises his material; the artisan with a sense for style prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of the mind.
In 'The Aims of Education', The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1929), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Administrator (11)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Art (680)  |  Artisan (9)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Back (395)  |  Being (1276)  |  Direct (228)  |  Economy (59)  |  Education (423)  |  End (603)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Execution (25)  |  Good (906)  |  Hate (68)  |  Literature (116)  |  Logic (311)  |  Love (328)  |  Material (366)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Practical (225)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Sense (785)  |  Start (237)  |  Study (701)  |  Style (24)  |  Subject (543)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Useful (260)  |  Utility (52)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

The slowest goat sees the last sunset last.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Goat (9)  |  See (1094)  |  Slow (108)  |  Sunset (27)

The spiritual and intellectual decline which has overtaken us in the last thirty years … [may be due] to the diversion of all the best brains to technology.
In London Review of Books, 1984.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Brain (281)  |  Decline (28)  |  Diversion (10)  |  Due (143)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Technology (281)  |  Year (963)

The story is told of Lord Kelvin, a famous Scotch physicist of the last century, that after he had given a lecture on atoms and molecules, one of his students came to him with the question, “Professor, what is your idea of the structure of the atom.”
“What,” said Kelvin, “The structure of the atom? Why, don’t you know, the very word ‘atom’ means the thing that can’t be cut. How then can it have a structure?”
“That,” remarked the facetious young man, “shows the disadvantage of knowing Greek.”
As described in 'Assault on Atoms' (Read 23 Apr 1931 at Symposium—The Changing World) Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1931), 70, No. 3, 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Century (319)  |  Cut (116)  |  Disadvantage (10)  |  Facetious (2)  |  Greek (109)  |  Idea (881)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Professor (133)  |  Question (649)  |  Scottish (4)  |  Show (353)  |  Story (122)  |  Structure (365)  |  Student (317)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  Young (253)

The succession of individuals, connected by reproduction and belonging to a species, makes it possible for the specific form itself to last for ages. In the end, however, the species is temporary; it has no “eternal life.” After existing for a certain period, it either dies or is converted by modification into other forms.
As translated by Joseph McCabe in Haeckel's The Wonders of Life: a Popular Study of Biological Philosophy (1904), 248.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Certain (557)  |  Connect (126)  |  Convert (22)  |  Die (94)  |  End (603)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Form (976)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Modification (57)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Species (435)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succession (80)  |  Temporary (24)

The Sun truly “comes up like thunder,” and it sets just as fast. Each sunrise and sunset lasts only a few seconds. But in that time you see at least eight different bands of color come and go, from a brilliant red to the brightest and deepest blue. And you see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every day you’re in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Band (9)  |  Blue (63)  |  Bright (81)  |  Brightest (12)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Color (155)  |  Deep (241)  |  Different (595)  |  Fast (49)  |  Least (75)  |  Red (38)  |  Same (166)  |  Second (66)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Thunder (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)

The tendency of the sciences has long been an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment … The mathematician turns away from the chemist; the chemist from the naturalist; the mathematician, left to himself divides himself into a pure mathematician and a mixed mathematician, who soon part company … And thus science, even mere physical science, loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppressively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their meetings at York, Oxford and Cambridge, in the last three summers. There was no general term by which these gentlemen could describe themselves with reference to their pursuits … some ingenious gentleman [William Whewell] proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form Scientist, and added that there could be no scruple … when we have words such as sciolist, economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable.
In Review of Mrs Somerville, 'On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences', The Quarterly Review (1834), 51, 58-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Artist (97)  |  Association (49)  |  Atheist (16)  |  British (42)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Company (63)  |  Curious (95)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Designation (13)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Dismemberment (3)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Economist (20)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Inform (50)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Lose (165)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Name (359)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oxford (16)  |  Palatable (3)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sciolist (2)  |  Separation (60)  |  Soon (187)  |  Student (317)  |  Summer (56)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unity (81)  |  Want (504)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The theory which I would offer, is simply, that as the land with the attached reefs subsides very gradually from the action of subterranean causes, the coral-building polypi soon raise again their solid masses to the level of the water: but not so with the land; each inch lost is irreclaimably gone; as the whole gradually sinks, the water gains foot by foot on the shore, till the last and highest peak is finally submerged.
Journal of Researches: into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World (1839), ch. XXll, 557.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Beagle (14)  |  Building (158)  |  Cause (561)  |  Gain (146)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Offer (142)  |  Reef (7)  |  Sink (38)  |  Solid (119)  |  Soon (187)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)

The two fortresses which are the last to yield in the human heart, are hope and pride.
Quoted, without citation, in front matter to T. A. Edison Foundation, Lewis Howard Latimer: A Black Inventor: a Biography and Related Experiments You Can Do (1973). If you know the primary eource, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Fortress (4)  |  Heart (243)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Pride (84)  |  Two (936)  |  Yield (86)

The understanding must not however be allowed to jump and fly from particulars to axioms remote and of almost the highest generality (such as the first principles, as they are called, of arts and things), and taking stand upon them as truths that cannot be shaken, proceed to prove and frame the middle axioms by reference to them; which has been the practice hitherto, the understanding being not only carried that way by a natural impulse, but also by the use of syllogistic demonstration trained and inured to it. But then, and then only, may we hope well of the sciences when in a just scale of ascent, and by successive steps not interrupted or broken, we rise from particulars to lesser axioms; and then to middle axioms, one above the other; and last of all to the most general. For the lowest axioms differ but slightly from bare experience, while the highest and most general (which we now have) are notional and abstract and without solidity. But the middle are the true and solid and living axioms, on which depend the affairs and fortunes of men; and above them again, last of all, those which are indeed the most general; such, I mean, as are not abstract, but of which those intermediate axioms are really limitations.
The understanding must not therefore be supplied with wings, but rather hung with weights, to keep it from leaping and flying. Now this has never yet been done; when it is done, we may entertain better hopes of science.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 104. 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, 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Art (680)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Bare (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Broken (56)  |  Call (781)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Depend (238)  |  Differ (88)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1302)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Fortune (50)  |  General (521)  |  Generality (45)  |  Hope (321)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Jump (31)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Living (492)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Prove (261)  |  Remote (86)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scale (122)  |  Solid (119)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Successive (73)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wing (79)

The United States is the most powerful technically advanced country in the world to-day. Its influence on the shaping of international relations is absolutely incalculable. But America is a large country and its people have so far not shown much interest in great international problems, among which the problem of disarmament occupies first place today. This must be changed, if only in the essential interests of the Americans. The last war has shown that there are no longer any barriers between the continents and that the destinies of all countries are closely interwoven. The people of this country must realize that they have a great responsibility in the sphere of international politics. The part of passive spectator is unworthy of this country and is bound in the end to lead to disaster all round.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Advance (298)  |  America (143)  |  American (56)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Bind (26)  |  Bound (120)  |  Change (639)  |  Closely (12)  |  Continent (79)  |  Country (269)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Disarmament (6)  |  Disaster (58)  |  End (603)  |  Essential (210)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Incalculable (4)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interest (416)  |  International (40)  |  Interwoven (10)  |  Large (398)  |  Lead (391)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Part (235)  |  Passive (8)  |  People (1031)  |  Place (192)  |  Politics (122)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Problem (731)  |  Realize (157)  |  Relation (166)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Round (26)  |  Shape (77)  |  Show (353)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Technically (5)  |  To-Day (6)  |  Today (321)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  United States (31)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Honest (53)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Inaccurate (4)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinite Series (8)  |  Insatiable (7)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Know (1538)  |  Liberator (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Move (223)  |  Observation (593)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Pathologist (6)  |  Pathology (19)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Praise (28)  |  Produced (187)  |  Profit (56)  |  Prototype (9)  |  Race (278)  |  Rat (37)  |  Rat-Hole (2)  |  Respect (212)  |  Save (126)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scoundrel (8)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Respect (3)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Slave (40)  |  Society (350)  |  Soul (235)  |  Surely (101)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Unjust (6)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The whole strenuous intellectual work of an industrious research worker would appear, after all, in vain and hopeless, if he were not occasionally through some striking facts to find that he had, at the end of all his criss-cross journeys, at last accomplished at least one step which was conclusively nearer the truth.
Nobel Lecture (2 Jun 1920), in Nobel Lectures in Physics, 1901-1921 (1998), 407.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  End (603)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  In Vain (12)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Journey (48)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Research (753)  |  Step (234)  |  Strenuous (5)  |  Striking (48)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vain (86)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)

The world is not as it was when it came from its Maker’s hands. It has been modified by many great revolutions, brought about by an inner mechanism of which we very imperfectly comprehend the movements; but of which we gain a glimpse by studying their effects: and their many causes still acting on the surface of our globe with undiminished power, which are changing, and will continue to change it, as long as it shall last.
Letter 1 to William Wordsworth. Quoted in the appendix to W. Wordsworth, A Complete Guide to the Lakes, Comprising Minute Direction for the Tourist, with Mr Wordsworth's Description of the Scenery of the County and Three Letters upon the Geology of the Lake District (1841), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Cause (561)  |  Change (639)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Continue (179)  |  Effect (414)  |  Gain (146)  |  Globe (51)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Inner (72)  |  Long (778)  |  Maker (34)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Modification (57)  |  Movement (162)  |  Power (771)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Surface (223)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The world’s first spaceship, Vostok (East), with a man on board was launched into orbit from the Soviet Union on April 12, 1961. The pilot space-navigator of the satellite-spaceship Vostok is a citizen of the U.S.S.R., Flight Major Yuri Gagarin.
The launching of the multistage space rocket was successful and, after attaining the first escape velocity and the separation of the last stage of the carrier rocket, the spaceship went in to free flight on around-the-earth orbit. According to preliminary data, the period of revolution of the satellite spaceship around the earth is 89.1 min. The minimum distance from the earth at perigee is 175 km (108.7 miles) and the maximum at apogee is 302 km (187.6 miles), and the angle of inclination of the orbit plane to the equator is 65º 4’. The spaceship with the navigator weighs 4725 kg (10,418.6 lb), excluding the weight of the final stage of the carrier rocket.
The first man in space was announced by the Soviet newsagency Tass on 12 April 1961, 9:59 a.m. Moscow time.
Tass
Quoted in John David Anderson, Jr., Hypersonic and High Temperature Gas Dynamics (2000), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  April (9)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Data (162)  |  Distance (171)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Equator (6)  |  Escape (85)  |  Final (121)  |  First (1302)  |  Flight (101)  |  Free (239)  |  Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (13)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Launch (21)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Period (200)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Separation (60)  |  Soviet (10)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Flight (26)  |  Stage (152)  |  Successful (134)  |  Time (1911)  |  Union (52)  |  Velocity (51)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weight (140)  |  World (1850)

The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern “knowledge” is that it is wrong.
The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. “If I am the wisest man,” said Socrates, “it is because I alone know that I know nothing.” The implication was that I was very foolish because I was under the impression I knew a great deal.
Alas, none of this was new to me. (There is very little that is new to me; I wish my correspondents would realize this.) This particular theme was addressed to me a quarter of a century ago by John Campbell, who specialized in irritating me. He also told me that all theories are proven wrong in time.
My answer to him was, “John, when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.”
In The Relativity of Wrong (1989), 214.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Answer (389)  |  Both (496)  |  Century (319)  |  Deal (192)  |  Delphic (4)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flat (34)  |  Follow (389)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impression (118)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Realize (157)  |  Say (989)  |   Socrates, (17)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Theme (17)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Understood (155)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Wish (216)  |  Wrong (246)  |  Young (253)

Then we upon our globe’s last verge shall go,
And view the ocean leaning on the sky:
From thence our rolling Neighbours we shall know,
And on the Lunar world securely pry.
'Annus Mirabilis The year of Wonders, 1666' (1667), lines 653-6, in James Kinsley (ed.), The Poems and Fables of John Dryden (1962), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Know (1538)  |  Moon (252)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Poem (104)  |  Sky (174)  |  Verge (10)  |  View (496)  |  World (1850)

There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 20. 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, 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Derive (70)  |  Discovery (837)  |  General (521)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Rising (44)  |  Sense (785)  |  Settled (34)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)

There are many different styles of composition. I characterize them always as Mozart versus Beethoven. When Mozart began to write at that time he had the composition ready in his mind. He wrote the manuscript and it was ‘aus einem Guss’ (casted as one). And it was also written very beautiful. Beethoven was an indecisive and a tinkerer and wrote down before he had the composition ready and plastered parts over to change them. There was a certain place where he plastered over nine times and one did remove that carefully to see what happened and it turned out the last version was the same as the first one.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beethoven (14)  |  Begin (275)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Cast (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Composition (86)  |  Different (595)  |  Down (455)  |  First (1302)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Manuscript (10)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mozart (3)  |  Part (235)  |  Place (192)  |  Plaster (5)  |  Ready (43)  |  Remove (50)  |  Same (166)  |  See (1094)  |  Style (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turned Out (5)  |  Version (7)  |  Write (250)

There are three leading objects in the study of truth:—one, to discover it; another, to demonstrate it when discovered; the last, to separate it from all admixture of falsehood.
As translated in Blaise Pascal and M.P. Faugère (trans.), 'On The Geometrical Spirit', collected in The Miscellaneous Writings of Pascal; Consisting of Letters, Essays, Conversations, and Miscellaneous Thoughts (1849), 73. From the original French, “On peut avoir trois principaux objets dans l’etude de la vérité: l’un, de la découvrir quand on la cherche; l’autre, de la démontrer quand on la possède; le dernier, de la discerner d'avec le faux quand on l’examine,” in 'De l'Esprit Géométrique', Pascal: Opuscules Philosophiques (1887), 82. For an alternative translation, see the quote beginning, “We may have three principal objects…” on the Blaise Pascal Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Discover (571)  |  Falsehood (30)  |  Leading (17)  |  Mixture (44)  |  Object (438)  |  Separate (151)  |  Study (701)  |  Truth (1109)

There can be no final truth in ethics any more than in physics, until the last man has had his experience and his say.
In 'The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life,' The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1910).
Science quotes on:  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Experience (494)  |  Final (121)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Say (989)  |  Truth (1109)

There is no question but that man’s heart outperforms all other hearts in existence. (The tortoise’s heart may last longer but it lives nowhere near as intensely.) Why man should be so long-lived is not known, but man, being what he is, is far more interested in asking why he does not live still longer.
In The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation (1963), 321. Also in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 216.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Being (1276)  |  Existence (481)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Interest (416)  |  Known (453)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Lived (2)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Question (649)  |  Still (614)  |  Tortoise (10)  |  Why (491)

There was a loudspeaker that reported on the time left before the blast: “T-minus ten minutes”—something like that. The last few seconds were counted off one by one. We had all turned away. At zero there was the flash. I counted and then turned around. The first thing I saw was a yellow-orange fireball that kept getting larger. As it grew, it turned more orange and then red. A mushroom-shaped cloud of glowing magenta began to rise over the desert where the explosion had been. My first thought was, “My God, that is beautiful!”
(1982).
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Blast (13)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Count (107)  |  Desert (59)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Fireball (3)  |  First (1302)  |  Flash (49)  |  Glow (15)  |  God (776)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Mushroom (4)  |  Orange (15)  |  Rise (169)  |  Saw (160)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Yellow (31)  |  Zero (38)

These estimates may well be enhanced by one from F. Klein (1849-1925), the leading German mathematician of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. “Mathematics in general is fundamentally the science of self-evident things.” ... If mathematics is indeed the science of self-evident things, mathematicians are a phenomenally stupid lot to waste the tons of good paper they do in proving the fact. Mathematics is abstract and it is hard, and any assertion that it is simple is true only in a severely technical sense—that of the modern postulational method which, as a matter of fact, was exploited by Euclid. The assumptions from which mathematics starts are simple; the rest is not.
Mathematics: Queen and Servant of Science (1952),19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Century (319)  |  Do (1905)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Euclid (60)  |  Evident (92)  |  Exploit (19)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  German (37)  |  Good (906)  |  Hard (246)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Felix Klein (15)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Paper (192)  |  Rest (287)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Start (237)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Ton (25)  |  Waste (109)

They may say what they like; everything is organized matter. The tree is the first link of the chain; man is the last. Men are young; the earth is old. Vegetable and animal chemistry are still in their infancy. Electricity, galvanism,—what discoveries in a few years!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Chain (51)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Everything (489)  |  First (1302)  |  Galvanism (9)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Link (48)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Old (499)  |  Organize (33)  |  Say (989)  |  Still (614)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

They say,
The solid earth whereon we tread
In tracts of fluent heat began,
And grew to seeming-random forms,
The seeming prey of cyclic storms,
Till at the last arose the Man. …
From poem, 'In Memoriam A.H.H.' written between 1833-50, and first published anonymously in 1850. Collected in Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson (1860), Vol.2, 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Begin (275)  |  Cyclic (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fluent (2)  |  Form (976)  |  Grow (247)  |  Heat (180)  |  Man (2252)  |  Prey (13)  |  Random (42)  |  Say (989)  |  Seem (150)  |  Solid (119)  |  Storm (56)  |  Storms (18)  |  Tract (7)  |  Tread (17)

This [the fact that the pursuit of mathematics brings into harmonious action all the faculties of the human mind] accounts for the extraordinary longevity of all the greatest masters of the Analytic art, the Dii Majores of the mathematical Pantheon. Leibnitz lived to the age of 70; Euler to 76; Lagrange to 77; Laplace to 78; Gauss to 78; Plato, the supposed inventor of the conic sections, who made mathematics his study and delight, who called them the handles or aids to philosophy, the medicine of the soul, and is said never to have let a day go by without inventing some new theorems, lived to 82; Newton, the crown and glory of his race, to 85; Archimedes, the nearest akin, probably, to Newton in genius, was 75, and might have lived on to be 100, for aught we can guess to the contrary, when he was slain by the impatient and ill mannered sergeant, sent to bring him before the Roman general, in the full vigour of his faculties, and in the very act of working out a problem; Pythagoras, in whose school, I believe, the word mathematician (used, however, in a somewhat wider than its present sense) originated, the second founder of geometry, the inventor of the matchless theorem which goes by his name, the pre-cognizer of the undoubtedly mis-called Copernican theory, the discoverer of the regular solids and the musical canon who stands at the very apex of this pyramid of fame, (if we may credit the tradition) after spending 22 years studying in Egypt, and 12 in Babylon, opened school when 56 or 57 years old in Magna Græcia, married a young wife when past 60, and died, carrying on his work with energy unspent to the last, at the age of 99. The mathematician lives long and lives young; the wings of his soul do not early drop off, nor do its pores become clogged with the earthy particles blown from the dusty highways of vulgar life.
In Presidential Address to the British Association, Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2 (1908), 658.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Akin (5)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Apex (6)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Aught (6)  |  Babylon (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blow (45)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Canon (3)  |  Carry (130)  |  Clog (5)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Copernican Theory (3)  |  Credit (24)  |  Crown (39)  |  Delight (111)  |  Die (94)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dusty (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Energy (373)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fame (51)  |  Founder (26)  |  Full (68)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Glory (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Guess (67)  |  Handle (29)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Highway (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Impatient (4)  |  Invent (57)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Manner (62)  |  Marry (11)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Musical (10)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Originate (39)  |  Pantheon (2)  |  Particle (200)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Pore (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Pyramid (9)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Race (278)  |  Regular (48)  |  Roman (39)  |  Say (989)  |  School (227)  |  Second (66)  |  Send (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sergeant (2)  |  Solid (119)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Stand (284)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Undoubtedly (3)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wife (41)  |  Wing (79)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

This also explains how it is that truths which have been recognised are at first tacitly admitted, and then gradually spread, so that the very thing which was obstinately denied appears at last as something quite natural.
In The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe (1906), 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (49)  |  Appear (122)  |  Deny (71)  |  Explain (334)  |  First (1302)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Natural (810)  |  Obstinately (2)  |  Something (718)  |  Spread (86)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)

This boulder seemed like a curious volume, regularly paged, with a few extracts from older works. Bacon tells us that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Of the last honour I think the boulder fully worthy.
In The Story of a Boulder: or, Gleanings from the Note-book of a Field Geologist (1858), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Book (413)  |  Boulder (8)  |  Curious (95)  |  Extract (40)  |  Geology (240)  |  Honour (58)  |  Other (2233)  |  Page (35)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

This Excellent Mathematician having given us, in the Transactions of February last, an account of the cause, which induced him to think upon Reflecting Telescopes, instead of Refracting ones, hath thereupon presented the curious world with an Essay of what may be performed by such Telescopes; by which it is found, that Telescopical Tubes may be considerably shortened without prejudice to their magnifiying effect.
On his invention of the catadioptrical telescope, as he communicated to the Royal Society.
'An Account of a New Catadioptrical Telescope Invented by Mr Newton', Philosophical Transactions (1672), 7, 4004.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Cause (561)  |  Curious (95)  |  Effect (414)  |  Essay (27)  |  Invention (400)  |  Magnification (10)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Perform (123)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Present (630)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Society (350)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Think (1122)  |  Transaction (13)  |  World (1850)

This guy's not an ordinary, garden-variety drunk. Far from it. Last year he donated his body to science, and he's preserving it in alcohol until they can use it.
Anonymous
In Ashton Applewhite, William R. Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (2003), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Alcoholic (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Drunk (10)  |  Garden (64)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Year (963)

This is a mighty wonder: in the discharge from the lungs alone, which is not particularly dangerous, the patients do not despair of themselves, even although near the last.
Concerning Tuberculosis.
On the Causes and Symptoms of Acute Diseases, II, ii,18.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Death (406)  |  Despair (40)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Disease (340)  |  Do (1905)  |  Lung (37)  |  Patient (209)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Tuberculosis (9)  |  Wonder (251)

Those who dwell as scientists … among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
In The Sense of Wonder (1956, 1965), 88-89.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Endure (21)  |  Find (1014)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Never (1089)  |  Reserve (26)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Strength (139)  |  Weary (11)  |  Will (2350)

Three engineering students were discussing who designed the human body. One said, “It was a mechanical engineer. Just look at all the joints and levers.” The second said, “No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has thousands of electrical connections.” The last said, “Obviously, it was a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a major recreation area?”
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil Engineer (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Design (203)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrical Engineer (5)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Joint (31)  |  Joke (90)  |  Lever (13)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanical Engineer (2)  |  Nervous System (35)  |  Run (158)  |  Student (317)  |  System (545)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Through (846)  |  Toxic Waste (4)  |  Waste (109)

Throughout his last half-dozen books, for example, Arthur Koestler has been conducting a campaign against his own misunderstanding of Darwinism. He hopes to find some ordering force, constraining evolution to certain directions and overriding the influence of natural selection ... Darwinism is not the theory of capricious change that Koestler imagines. Random variation may be the raw material of change, but natural selection builds good design by rejecting most variants while accepting and accumulating the few that improve adaptation to local environments.
In The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (1990, 2010), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Against (332)  |  Book (413)  |  Build (211)  |  Campaign (6)  |  Capricious (9)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Darwinism (3)  |  Design (203)  |  Direction (185)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Example (98)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Good (906)  |  Hope (321)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Improve (64)  |  Influence (231)  |  Arthur Koestler (39)  |  Local (25)  |  Material (366)  |  Misunderstanding (13)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Order (638)  |  Random (42)  |  Raw (28)  |  Reject (67)  |  Selection (130)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Variant (9)  |  Variation (93)

Throughout the last four hundred years, during which the growth of science had gradually shown men how to acquire knowledge of the ways of nature and mastery over natural forces, the clergy have fought a losing battle against science, in astronomy and geology, in anatomy and physiology, in biology and psychology and sociology. Ousted from one position, they have taken up another. After being worsted in astronomy, they did their best to prevent the rise of geology; they fought against Darwin in biology, and at the present time they fight against scientific theories of psychology and education. At each stage, they try to make the public forget their earlier obscurantism, in order that their present obscurantism may not be recognized for what it is.
From An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1937, 1943), 6. Collected in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (2009), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Battle (36)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Biology (232)  |  Clergy (4)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Earlier (9)  |  Education (423)  |  Fight (49)  |  Force (497)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgeting (2)  |  Geology (240)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Growth (200)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Loss (117)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Forces (6)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscurantism (3)  |  Order (638)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Public (100)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Rise (169)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Stage (152)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Worst (57)  |  Year (963)

Thus identified with astronomy, in proclaiming truths supposed to be hostile to Scripture, Geology has been denounced as the enemy of religion. The twin sisters of terrestrial and celestial physics have thus been joint-heirs of intolerance and persecution—unresisting victims in the crusade which ignorance and fanaticism are ever waging against science. When great truths are driven to make an appeal to reason, knowledge becomes criminal, and philosophers martyrs. Truth, however, like all moral powers, can neither be checked nor extinguished. When compressed, it but reacts the more. It crushes where it cannot expand—it burns where it is not allowed to shine. Human when originally divulged, it becomes divine when finally established. At first, the breath of a rage—at last it is the edict of a god. Endowed with such vital energy, astronomical truth has cut its way through the thick darkness of superstitious times, and, cheered by its conquests, Geology will find the same open path when it has triumphed over the less formidable obstacles of a civilized age.
More Worlds than One: The Creed of the Philosopher and the Hope of the Christian (1854), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Age (509)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Become (821)  |  Breath (61)  |  Burn (99)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Cut (116)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Divine (112)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Energy (373)  |  Expand (56)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Geology (240)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heir (12)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Joint (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Open (277)  |  Path (159)  |  Persecution (14)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Twin (16)  |  Victim (37)  |  Vital (89)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Thus one becomes entangled in contradictions if one speaks of the probable position of the electron without considering the experiment used to determine it ... It must also be emphasized that the statistical character of the relation depends on the fact that the influence of the measuring device is treated in a different manner than the interaction of the various parts of the system on one another. This last interaction also causes changes in the direction of the vector representing the system in the Hilbert space, but these are completely determined. If one were to treat the measuring device as a part of the system—which would necessitate an extension of the Hilbert space—then the changes considered above as indeterminate would appear determinate. But no use could be made of this determinateness unless our observation of the measuring device were free of indeterminateness. For these observations, however, the same considerations are valid as those given above, and we should be forced, for example, to include our own eyes as part of the system, and so on. The chain of cause and effect could be quantitatively verified only if the whole universe were considered as a single system—but then physics has vanished, and only a mathematical scheme remains. The partition of the world into observing and observed system prevents a sharp formulation of the law of cause and effect. (The observing system need not always be a human being; it may also be an inanimate apparatus, such as a photographic plate.)
The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, trans. Carl Eckart and Frank C. Hoyt (1949), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Change (639)  |  Character (259)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Depend (238)  |  Determine (152)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Effect (414)  |  Electron (96)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extension (60)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Free (239)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Include (93)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Law (913)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Quantum Physics (19)  |  Remain (355)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Single (365)  |  Space (523)  |  Speak (240)  |  System (545)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Vector (6)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

Thus, we have three principles for increasing adequacy of data: if you must work with a single object, look for imperfections that record historical descent; if several objects are available, try to render them as stages of a single historical process; if processes can be directly observed, sum up their effects through time. One may discuss these principles directly or recognize the ‘little problems’ that Darwin used to exemplify them: orchids, coral reefs, and worms–the middle book, the first, and the last.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Available (80)  |  Book (413)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Darwin (14)  |  Data (162)  |  Descent (30)  |  Directly (25)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exemplify (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Historical (70)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Increase (225)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Middle (19)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Orchid (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Record (161)  |  Render (96)  |  Several (33)  |  Single (365)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sum (103)  |  Sum Up (3)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worm (47)

Time flies when you're having fun, and I've been having fun for the last thirty years.
Reflecting on the upcoming 30th anniversary of Apollo 11.
As quoted in Peter Bond, 'Obituary: Charles Conrad, Jnr.', The Independent (10 Jul 1999)
Science quotes on:  |  Fun (42)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time Flies (3)  |  Year (963)

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization.
The Conquest of Happiness
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Product (166)

To call ourselves a Microcosme, or little world, I thought it onely a pleasant trope of Rhetorick, till my neare judgement and second thoughts told me there was a reall truth therein: for first wee are a rude masse, and in the ranke of creatures, which only are, and have a dull kinde of being not yet priviledged with life, or preferred to sense or reason; next we live the life of plants, the life of animals, the life of men, and at last the life of spirits, running on in one mysterious nature those five kinds of existence, which comprehend the creatures not onely of world, but of the Universe.
Religio Medici (1642), Part I, Section 34. In L. C. Martin (ed.), Thomas Browne: Religio Medici and Other Works (1964), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Creature (242)  |  Dull (58)  |  Existence (481)  |  First (1302)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Plant (320)  |  Reason (766)  |  Running (61)  |  Sense (785)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

To day we made the grand experiment of burning the diamond and certainly the phenomena presented were extremely beautiful and interesting… The Duke’s burning glass was the instrument used to apply heat to the diamond. It consists of two double convex lenses … The instrument was placed in an upper room of the museum and having arranged it at the window the diamond was placed in the focus and anxiously watched. The heat was thus continued for 3/4 of an hour (it being necessary to cool the globe at times) and during that time it was thought that the diamond was slowly diminishing and becoming opaque … On a sudden Sir H Davy observed the diamond to burn visibly, and when removed from the focus it was found to be in a state of active and rapid combustion. The diamond glowed brilliantly with a scarlet light, inclining to purple and, when placed in the dark, continued to burn for about four minutes. After cooling the glass heat was again applied to the diamond and it burned again though not for nearly so long as before. This was repeated twice more and soon after the diamond became all consumed. This phenomenon of actual and vivid combustion, which has never been observed before, was attributed by Sir H Davy to be the free access of air; it became more dull as carbonic acid gas formed and did not last so long.
Entry (Florence, 27 Mar 1814) in his foreign journal kept whilst on a continental tour with Sir Humphry Davy. In Michael Faraday, Bence Jones (ed.), The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870), Vol. 1, 119. Silvanus Phillips Thompson identifies the Duke as the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Michael Faraday, His Life and Work (1901), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Access (21)  |  Acid (83)  |  Active (80)  |  Actual (118)  |  Air (366)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1276)  |  Burn (99)  |  Burning (49)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Consist (223)  |  Convex (6)  |  Cooling (10)  |  Dark (145)  |  Sir Humphry Davy (49)  |  Diamond (21)  |  Dull (58)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Focus (36)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Gas (89)  |  Glass (94)  |  Heat (180)  |  Hour (192)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Light (635)  |  Long (778)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Museum (40)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observed (149)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Present (630)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Watch (118)  |  Window (59)

To deride the hope of progress is the ultimate fatuity, the last word in poverty of spirit and meanness of mind.
From The Hope of Progress (1973), 137. Medawar defends science against the attacks of critics who claim that science cannot enrich our lives.
Science quotes on:  |  Deride (2)  |  Hope (321)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Meanness (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Progress (492)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Word (650)

To discover a Conception of the mind which will justly represent a train of observed facts is, in some measure, a process of conjecture, ... and the business of conjecture is commonly conducted by calling up before our minds several suppositions, selecting that one which most agrees with what we know of the observed facts. Hence he who has to discover the laws of nature may have to invent many suppositions before he hits upon the right one; and among the endowments which lead to his success, we must reckon that fertility of invention which ministers to him such imaginary schemes, till at last he finds the one which conforms to the true order of nature.
Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1847), Vol. 2, 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Find (1014)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Process (439)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Represent (157)  |  Right (473)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Success (327)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Train (118)  |  Will (2350)

To emphasize this opinion that mathematicians would be unwise to accept practical issues as the sole guide or the chief guide in the current of their investigations, ... let me take one more instance, by choosing a subject in which the purely mathematical interest is deemed supreme, the theory of functions of a complex variable. That at least is a theory in pure mathematics, initiated in that region, and developed in that region; it is built up in scores of papers, and its plan certainly has not been, and is not now, dominated or guided by considerations of applicability to natural phenomena. Yet what has turned out to be its relation to practical issues? The investigations of Lagrange and others upon the construction of maps appear as a portion of the general property of conformal representation; which is merely the general geometrical method of regarding functional relations in that theory. Again, the interesting and important investigations upon discontinuous two-dimensional fluid motion in hydrodynamics, made in the last twenty years, can all be, and now are all, I believe, deduced from similar considerations by interpreting functional relations between complex variables. In the dynamics of a rotating heavy body, the only substantial extension of our knowledge since the time of Lagrange has accrued from associating the general properties of functions with the discussion of the equations of motion. Further, under the title of conjugate functions, the theory has been applied to various questions in electrostatics, particularly in connection with condensers and electrometers. And, lastly, in the domain of physical astronomy, some of the most conspicuous advances made in the last few years have been achieved by introducing into the discussion the ideas, the principles, the methods, and the results of the theory of functions. … the refined and extremely difficult work of Poincare and others in physical astronomy has been possible only by the use of the most elaborate developments of some purely mathematical subjects, developments which were made without a thought of such applications.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, (1897), Nature, 56, 377.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accrue (3)  |  Achieve (75)  |  Advance (298)  |  Appear (122)  |  Applicability (7)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Associate (25)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Belief (615)  |  Body (557)  |  Build (211)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chief (99)  |  Choose (116)  |  Complex (202)  |  Condenser (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Construction (114)  |  Current (122)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Deem (7)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discontinuous (6)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Domain (72)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Dynamics (11)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Electrostatics (6)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Equation (138)  |  Extension (60)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Far (158)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Fluid Motion (2)  |  Function (235)  |  Functional (10)  |  General (521)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Guide (107)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Hydrodynamics (5)  |  Idea (881)  |  Important (229)  |  Initiate (13)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Interpret (25)  |  Interpreting (5)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Issue (46)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Least (75)  |  Let (64)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plan (122)  |  Henri Poincaré (99)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (530)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Purely (111)  |  Question (649)  |  Refine (8)  |  Regard (312)  |  Region (40)  |  Relation (166)  |  Representation (55)  |  Result (700)  |  Rotate (8)  |  Score (8)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sole (50)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Title (20)  |  Turn (454)  |  Turned Out (5)  |  Two (936)  |  Unwise (4)  |  Use (771)  |  Variable (37)  |  Various (205)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

To seek in the great accumulation of the already-said the text that resembles "in advance" a later text, to ransack history in order to rediscover the play of anticipations or echoes, to go right back to the first seeds or to go forward to the last traces, to reveal in a work its fidelity to tradition or its irreducible uniqueness, to raise or lower its stock of originality, to say that the Port -Royal grammarians invented nothing, or to discover that Cuvier had more predecessors than one thought, these are harmless enough amusements for historians who refuse to grow up.
The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), trans. M. Sheridan Smith (1972), 144.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Advance (298)  |  Already (226)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Back (395)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Discover (571)  |  Enough (341)  |  First (1302)  |  Forward (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grow (247)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Order (638)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Right (473)  |  Royal (56)  |  Say (989)  |  Seed (97)  |  Seek (218)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Uniqueness (11)  |  Work (1402)

To us, men of the West, a very strange thing happened at the turn of the century; without noticing it, we lost science, or at least the thing that had been called by that name for the last four centuries. What we now have in place of it is something different, radically different, and we don’t know what it is. Nobody knows what it is.
From La Science et Nous (1941), translated as 'Classical Science and After', in Richard Rees (ed.), On Science, Necessity and the Love of God (1968), as quoted and cited in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 809-810. Also seen translated as, “Something happened to the people of the Western world at the beginning of the century, something quite strange: we lost science without even being aware of it, or at least, what had been called science for the last four centuries. What we now have under this name is something else, something radically different, and we do not know what it is. Probably no one knows what it is”, collected in Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings (2015), Chap. 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Century (319)  |  Different (595)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Know (1538)  |  Least (75)  |  Lose (165)  |  Name (359)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Notice (81)  |  Place (192)  |  Radically (5)  |  Something (718)  |  Strange (160)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  West (21)

Tyndall, ... I must remain plain Michael Faraday to the last; and let me now tell you, that if accepted the honour which the Royal Society desires to confer upon me, I would not answer for the integrity of my intellect for a single year.
On being offered the Presidency of the Royal Society.
John Tyndall, Faraday as a Discoverer (1868), 157-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Answer (389)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biography (254)  |  Desire (212)  |  Honour (58)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Must (1525)  |  Offer (142)  |  Remain (355)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Single (365)  |  Society (350)  |  Tell (344)  |  Year (963)

Typhoons are a sort of violent whirlwinds. Before these whirlwinds come on... there appears a heavy cloud to the northeast which is very black near the horizon, but toward the upper part is a dull reddish color. The tempest came with great violence, but after a while, the winds ceased all at once and a calm succeeded. This lasted... an hour, more or less, then the gales were turned around, blowing with great fury from the southwest.
from A New Voyage Round the World (1697)
Science quotes on:  |  Blowing (22)  |  Calm (32)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Color (155)  |  Dull (58)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Hour (192)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Turn (454)  |  Violence (37)  |  Weather (49)  |  Wind (141)

Very few, even among those who have taken the keenest interest in the progress of the revolution in natural knowledge set afoot by the publication of the “Origin of Species”; and who have watched, not without astonishment, the rapid and complete change which has been effected both inside and outside the boundaries of the scientific world in the attitude of men’s minds towards the doctrines which are expounded in that great work, can have been prepared for the extraordinary manifestation of affectionate regard for the man, and of profound reverence for the philosopher, which followed the announcement, on Thursday last, of the death of Mr Darwin.
'Obituary [of Charles Darwin]' (1882). In Collected Essays (1893), Vol. 2, 244.
Science quotes on:  |  Announcement (15)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Both (496)  |  Change (639)  |  Complete (209)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Death (406)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Effect (414)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Follow (389)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interest (416)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Natural (810)  |  Obituary (11)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Outside (141)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Profound (105)  |  Progress (492)  |  Publication (102)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Set (400)  |  Species (435)  |  Watch (118)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
In Foundation: Foundation and Empire: Second Foundation (1951, 2010), 104
Science quotes on:  |  Incompetent (4)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Violence (37)

We are too ready to accept others and ourselves as we are and to assume that we are incapable of change. We forget the idea of growth, or we do not take it seriously. There is no good reason why we should not develop and change until the last day we live. Psychoanalysis is one of the most powerful means of helping us to realize this aim.
In 'Dedication', American Journal of Psychoanalysis (1942), 35, 99-100. As quoted and cited in Milton M. Berger, Women Beyond Freud: New Concepts Of Feminine Psychology (2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Aim (175)  |  Change (639)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Forget (125)  |  Good (906)  |  Growth (200)  |  Help (116)  |  Idea (881)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Live (650)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reason (766)  |  Why (491)

We can distinguish three groups of scientific men. In the first and very small group we have the men who discover fundamental relations. Among these are van’t Hoff, Arrhenius and Nernst. In the second group we have the men who do not make the great discovery but who see the importance and bearing of it, and who preach the gospel to the heathen. Ostwald stands absolutely at the head of this group. The last group contains the rest of us, the men who have to have things explained to us.
'Ostwald', Journal of Chemical Education, 1933, 10, 612, as cited by Erwin N. Hiebert and Hans-Gunther Korber in article on Ostwald in Charles Coulston Gillespie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography Supplement 1, Vol 15-16, 466, which also says Wilder Bancroft "received his doctorate under Ostwald in 1892."
Science quotes on:  |  Svante Arrhenius (11)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Do (1905)  |  Explain (334)  |  First (1302)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Walther Hermann Nernst (5)  |  Rest (287)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Jacobus Henricus Van't Hoff (4)

We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind has put into nature.
We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. And Lo! it is our own.
Concluding sentences in Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1921), 200-201
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Creature (242)  |  Devising (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  Footprint (16)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Origin (250)  |  Profound (105)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Shore (25)  |  Strange (160)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unknown (195)

We have heard much about the poetry of mathematics, but very little of it has yet been sung. The ancients had a juster notion of their poetic value than we. The most distinct and beautiful statements of any truth must take at last the mathematical form.
In A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1862), 381.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Form (976)  |  Hear (144)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Notion (120)  |  Poetic (7)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Sing (29)  |  Statement (148)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)

We have reason not to be afraid of the machine, for there is always constructive change, the enemy of machines, making them change to fit new conditions.
We suffer not from overproduction but from undercirculation. You have heard of technocracy. I wish I had those fellows for my competitors. I'd like to take the automobile it is said they predicted could be made now that would last fifty years. Even if never used, this automobile would not be worth anything except to a junkman in ten years, because of the changes in men's tastes and ideas. This desire for change is an inherent quality in human nature, so that the present generation must not try to crystallize the needs of the future ones.
We have been measuring too much in terms of the dollar. What we should do is think in terms of useful materials—things that will be of value to us in our daily life.
In 'Quotation Marks: Against Technocracy', New York Times (1 Han 1933), E4.
Science quotes on:  |  Afraid (24)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Change (639)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Competitor (4)  |  Condition (362)  |  Construction (114)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Crystallization (2)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Desire (212)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fifty (17)  |  Fit (139)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Junk (6)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Material (366)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Taste (93)  |  Technocracy (2)  |  Ten (3)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Try (296)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

We may also draw a very important additional conclusion from the gradual dissolution of the milky way; for the state into which the incessant action of the clustering power [presumably, gravity] has brought it at present, is a kind of chronometer that may be used to measure the time of its past and future existence; and although we do not know the rate of going of this mysterious chronometer, it is nevertheless certain, that since the breaking up of the parts of the milky way affords a proof that it cannot last for ever, it equally bears witness that its past duration cannot be admitted to the infinite.
'Astronomical Observations... ' Philosophical Transactions (1814), 104, 284.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Bear (162)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chronometer (2)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dissolution (11)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Equally (129)  |  Existence (481)  |  Future (467)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Measure (241)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Past (355)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Proof (304)  |  State (505)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Witness (57)

We may assume the existence of an aether; only we must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it, I.e. we must by abstraction take from it the last mechanical characteristic which Lorentz had still left it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Aether (13)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Assume (43)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Definite (114)  |  Existence (481)  |  Give Up (10)  |  Leave (138)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)

We see, then, that the elements of the scientific method are interrelated. Facts are necessary materials; but their working up by experimental reasoning, i.e., by theory, is what establishes and really builds up science. Ideas, given form by facts, embody science. A scientific hypothesis is merely a scientific idea, preconceived or previsioned. A theory is merely a scientific idea controlled by experiment. Reasoning merely gives a form to our ideas, so that everything, first and last, leads back to an idea. The idea is what establishes, as we shall see, the starting point or the primum movens of all scientific reasoning, and it is also the goal in the mind's aspiration toward the unknown.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Back (395)  |  Build (211)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Point (584)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  See (1094)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Unknown (195)

Well-observed facts, though brought to light by passing theories, will never die; they are the material on which alone the house of science will at last be built.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Building (158)  |  Death (406)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  House (143)  |  Light (635)  |  Material (366)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Passing (76)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)

What a delight it is to think that you are quietly & philosophically at work in the pursuit of science... rather than fighting amongst the crowd of black passions & motives that seem now a days to urge men every where into action. What incredible scenes every where, what unworthy motives ruled for the moment, under high sounding phrases and at the last what disgusting revolutions.
Letter to C. Schrenbein, 15 Dec 1848. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1996), Vol. 3, 742.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Delight (111)  |  High (370)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Moment (260)  |  Motive (62)  |  Passion (121)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Research (753)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scene (36)  |  Think (1122)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Work (1402)

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)  |  Honest (53)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinite Series (8)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  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)

What are they doing, examining last month's costs with a microscope when they should be surveying the horizon with a telescope?
[Acerbic comment about directors of Brunner Mond, where he worked.]
As quoted by Peter Allen in obituary, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1976), 22, 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Cost (94)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Doing (277)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Money (178)  |  Month (91)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Research (753)  |  Surveying (6)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Work (1402)

What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains, and studying night and day how to fly? ... wearying himself with climbing upon every ascent, ... bruising himself with continual falls, and at last breaking his neck? And all this, from an imagination that it would be glorious to have the eyes of people looking up at him, and mighty happy to eat, and drink, and sleep, at the top of the highest trees in the kingdom.
In A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1732), 168. This was written before Montgolfier brothers, pioneer balloonists, were born.
Science quotes on:  |  Aeronautics (15)  |  Ascent (7)  |  Brain (281)  |  Break (109)  |  Bruise (2)  |  Climb (39)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Continual (44)  |  Day (43)  |  Drink (56)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fall (243)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Glory (66)  |  Happy (108)  |  Highest (19)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Neck (15)  |  Night (133)  |  People (1031)  |  Silly (17)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)

What counts ... in science is not so much the first as the last.
In Science, 1971.
Science quotes on:  |  Count (107)  |  First (1302)

What is truth? In matters of religion it is simply the opinion that has survived. In matters of science it is the ultimate sensation. In matters of art it is one’s last mood.
In 'The Critic As Artist', Oscariana: Epigrams (1895), 8. Also in Sebastian Melmoth (1908), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mood (15)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Survive (87)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Ultimate (152)

Whatever the common-sense of earlier generations may have held in this respect, modern common-sense holds that the scientist’s answer is the only ultimately true one. In the last resort enlightened common-sense sticks by the opaque truth and refuses to go behind the returns given by the tangible facts.
From 'The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation', American Journal of Sociology (Mar 1906), 11, collected in The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation and Other Essays (1919), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Behind (139)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Early (196)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Generation (256)  |  Modern (402)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Whatever (234)

When students hear the story of Andrew J. Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, it is not the result itself that stirs their emotions, but the revelation that a mathematician was driven by the same passion as any creative artist.
In 'Loving Math Infinitely', The Chronicle of Higher Education (19 Jan 2001).
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Creative (144)  |  Drive (61)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Fermat�s Last Theorem (3)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Hear (144)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Passion (121)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  Revelation (51)  |  Same (166)  |  Stir (23)  |  Story (122)  |  Student (317)  |  Theorem (116)

When the last Puritan has disappeared from the earth, the man of science will take his place as a killjoy, and we shall be given the same old advice but for different reasons.
Attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Different (595)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Old (499)  |  Puritan (3)  |  Reason (766)  |  Will (2350)

When was the last time you did something for the first time?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  First (1302)  |  First Time (14)  |  Something (718)  |  Time (1911)

When we look back beyond one hundred years over the long trails of history, we see immediately why the age we live in differs from all other ages in human annals. … It remained stationary in India and in China for thousands of years. But now it is moving very fast. … A priest from Thebes would probably have felt more at home at the council of Trent, two thousand years after Thebes had vanished, than Sir Isaac Newton at a modern undergraduate physical society, or George Stephenson in the Institute of Electrical Engineers. The changes have have been so sudden and so gigantic, that no period in history can be compared with the last century. The past no longer enables us even dimly to measure the future.
From 'Fifty Years Hence', Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932), 57, No. 3, 393.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  20th Century (40)  |  Age (509)  |  Annal (3)  |  Back (395)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  China (27)  |  Compared (8)  |  Council (9)  |  Differ (88)  |  Dimly (6)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrical Engineer (5)  |  Electrical Engineering (12)  |  Enable (122)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Fast (49)  |  Future (467)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  History (716)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immediately (115)  |  India (23)  |  Institute (8)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Measure (241)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Moving (11)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Period (200)  |  Physical (518)  |  Priest (29)  |  Probably (50)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remained (2)  |  See (1094)  |  Society (350)  |  Stationary (11)  |  George Stephenson (10)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Trail (11)  |  Two (936)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Vanished (3)  |  Why (491)  |  Year (963)

When you believe you have found an important scientific fact, and are feverishly curious to publish it, constrain yourself for days, weeks, years sometimes, fight yourself, try and ruin your own experiments, and only proclaim your discovery after having exhausted all contrary hypotheses. But when, after so many efforts you have at last arrived at a certainty, your joy is one of the greatest which can be felt by a human soul.
From Speech (14 Nov 1888) at the Inauguration of the Pasteur Institute, as translated in René Vallery-Radot and Mrs R.L. Devonshire (trans.), The Life of Pasteur (1915), 443.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrive (40)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Curious (95)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exhaust (22)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Important (229)  |  Joy (117)  |  Proclaim (31)  |  Publish (42)  |  Ruin (44)  |  Science And Journalism (3)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Soul (235)  |  Try (296)  |  Week (73)  |  Year (963)

Whether or not you agree that trimming and cooking are likely to lead on to downright forgery, there is little to support the argument that trimming and cooking are less reprehensible and more forgivable. Whatever the rationalization is, in the last analysis one can no more than be a bit dishonest than one can be a little bit pregnant. Commit any of these three sins and your scientific career is in jeopardy and deserves to be.
Honour in Science (1984), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Argument (145)  |  Career (86)  |  Commit (43)  |  Cooking (12)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Dishonest (7)  |  Dishonesty (9)  |  Forgery (3)  |  Forgive (12)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Pregnant (4)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sin (45)  |  Support (151)  |  Whatever (234)

While natural science up to the end of the last century was predominantly a collecting science, a science of finished things, in our century it is essentially a classifying science, a science of processes, of the origin and development of these things and of the interconnection which binds these processes into one great whole.
Speaking of the 18th (last) and 19th (our) centuries, in Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy (1886, 1941).
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Development (441)  |  End (603)  |  Finish (62)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Origin (250)  |  Process (439)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Whole (756)

Who … is not familiar with Maxwell’s memoirs on his dynamical theory of gases? … from one side enter the equations of state; from the other side, the equations of motion in a central field. Ever higher soars the chaos of formulae. Suddenly we hear, as from kettle drums, the four beats “put n=5.” The evil spirit v vanishes; and … that which had seemed insuperable has been overcome as if by a stroke of magic … One result after another follows in quick succession till at last … we arrive at the conditions for thermal equilibrium together with expressions for the transport coefficients.
In Ceremonial Speech (15 Nov 1887) celebrating the 301st anniversary of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. Published as Gustav Robert Kirchhoff: Festrede zur Feier des 301. Gründungstages der Karl-Franzens-Universität zu Graz (1888), 29, as translated in Michael Dudley Sturge, Statistical and Thermal Physics (2003), 343. A more complete alternate translation also appears on the Ludwig Boltzmann Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Beat (42)  |  Central (81)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Coefficient (6)  |  Condition (362)  |  Drum (8)  |  Dynamical (15)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equation (138)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Evil (122)  |  Expression (181)  |  Field (378)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formula (102)  |  Hear (144)  |  Kettle (3)  |  Magic (92)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  Motion (320)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Side (236)  |  Soar (23)  |  Spirit (278)  |  State (505)  |  Stroke (19)  |  Succession (80)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thermal (15)  |  Together (392)  |  Transport (31)

Why should an hypothesis, suggested by a scientist, be accepted as true until its truth is established? Science should be the last to make such a demand because science to be truly science is classified knowledge; it is the explanation of facts. Tested by this definition, Darwinism is not science at all; it is guesses strung together.
In chapter, 'The Origin of Man', In His Image (1922), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Classification (102)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Definition (238)  |  Demand (131)  |  Establishing (7)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Scientist (881)  |  String (22)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Test (221)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Why (491)

Why, only last term we sent a man who had never been in a laboratory in his life as a senior Science Master to one of our leading public schools. He came [to our agency] wanting to do private coaching in music. He’s doing very well, I believe.
In Decline and Fall (1928), 1962 edn., 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Agency (14)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Leading (17)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Music (133)  |  Never (1089)  |  Private (29)  |  Public School (4)  |  School (227)  |  Senior (7)  |  Term (357)  |  Wanting (2)  |  Why (491)

Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there, we can also know that we are still a rich nation, tending our resources as we should—not a people in despair searching every last nook and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a blade of grass, or a tank of water.
From 'Statement of Hon. Stewart L. Udall, Secretary of the Department of the Interior', in Hearings before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate, Eighty-Eighth Congress, First Session on S.4, A Bill to Establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the Permanent Good of the Whole People and For Other Purposes (28 Feb-1 Mar 1963), 19. Udall read a statement he attributed to “the chairman of this committee” [which was Anderson P. Clinton] from “an article that he [Anderson] wrote a year or two ago about wilderness legislation.” So, this lengthy citation is a secondary source. This quote can be found elsewhere attributed to Udall, which is an error; Udall was only reading into the record words written earlier by Anderson Clinton. If a reader can identify the primary source—the article by Anderson Clinton—please contact Webmaster to improve this citation.
Science quotes on:  |  Anchor (10)  |  Barrel (5)  |  Blade (11)  |  Board (13)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Despair (40)  |  Grass (49)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Land (131)  |  Lumber (5)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nook And Cranny (2)  |  Oil (67)  |  People (1031)  |  Resource (74)  |  Rich (66)  |  Search (175)  |  Still (614)  |  Tank (7)  |  Tend (124)  |  Water (503)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Windward (2)

Winter opened its vaults last night, flinging fistfuls of crystalline diamonds into the darkening sky. Like white-tulled ballerinas dancing gracefully on heaven’s stage, silent stars stood entranced by their intricate beauty. Motionless, I watched each lacy gem drift softly by my upturned face, as winter’s icy hands guided them gently on their swirling lazy way, and blanketed the waiting earth in cold splendor. The shivering rustling of reeds, the restless fingers of the trees snapping in the frosty air, broke the silent stillness, as winter quietly pulled up its white coverlet over the sleepy earth.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Ballerina (2)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Blanket (10)  |  Break (109)  |  Cold (115)  |  Crystalline (3)  |  Dance (35)  |  Darken (2)  |  Diamond (21)  |  Drift (14)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Face (214)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fling (5)  |  Frosty (3)  |  Gem (17)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hand (149)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Icy (3)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Lazy (10)  |  Motionless (4)  |  Night (133)  |  Open (277)  |  Pull (43)  |  Quietly (5)  |  Reed (8)  |  Restless (13)  |  Rustle (2)  |  Shiver (2)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sky (174)  |  Snap (7)  |  Softly (6)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stillness (5)  |  Swirl (10)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vault (2)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Watch (118)  |  Way (1214)  |  White (132)  |  Winter (46)

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of every one to the last moment.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Asylum (5)  |  Body (557)  |  Build (211)  |  Check (26)  |  Civilised (4)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Elimination (26)  |  Exert (40)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Health (210)  |  Imbecile (4)  |  Institute (8)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maim (3)  |  Medical (31)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poor (139)  |  Process (439)  |  Savage (33)  |  Save (126)  |  Sick (83)  |  Skill (116)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Survive (87)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Weak (73)

Within the last five or six years [from 1916], from a common wild species of fly, the fruit fly, Drosophila ampelophila, which we have brought into the laboratory, have arisen over a hundred and twenty-five new types whose origin is completely known.
In A Critique of the Theory of Evolution (1916), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Completely (137)  |  Drosophila (10)  |  Fly (153)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Fruit Fly (6)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  New (1273)  |  Origin (250)  |  Species (435)  |  Type (171)  |  Wild (96)  |  Year (963)

Without doubt one of the most characteristic features of mathematics in the last century is the systematic and universal use of the complex variable. Most of its great theories received invaluable aid from it, and many owe their very existence to it.
In 'History of Mathematics in the Nineteenth Century', Congress of Arts and Sciences (1905), Vol. 1, 474. As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Century (319)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Complex (202)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Existence (481)  |  Feature (49)  |  Great (1610)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1728)  |  Owe (71)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Universal (198)  |  Use (771)  |  Variable (37)

Without the concepts, methods and results found and developed by previous generations right down to Greek antiquity one cannot understand either the aims or achievements of mathematics in the last fifty years.
In 'A Half-Century of Mathematics', The American Mathematical Monthly, 58, No. 8, 523.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Aim (175)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Concept (242)  |  Develop (278)  |  Down (455)  |  Find (1014)  |  Generation (256)  |  Greek (109)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Previous (17)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Understand (648)  |  Year (963)

Without the slightest doubt there is something through which material and spiritual energy hold togehter and are complementary. In the last analysis, somehow or other, there must be a single energy operating in the world. And the first idea that occurs to us is that the 'soul' must be as it were the focal point of transformation at which, from all the points of nature, the forces of bodies converge, to become interiorised and sublimated in beauty and truth.
In Teilhard de Chardin and Bernard Wall (trans.), The Phenomenon of Man (1959, 2008), 63. Originally published in French as Le Phénomene Humain (1955).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Converge (10)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Energy (373)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operating (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Single (365)  |  Slightest (2)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Something (718)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Through (846)  |  Together (392)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)

Worship the spirit of criticism. If reduced to itself it is not an awakener of ideas or a stimulant to great things, but, without it, everything is fallible; it always has the last word.
Address at the Inauguration of the Pasteur Institute. In René Vallery-Radot, The Life of Pasteur, translated by Mrs. R. L. Devonshire (1919), 443.
Science quotes on:  |  Always (7)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fallibility (4)  |  Fallible (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Idea (881)  |  Itself (7)  |  Last Word (10)  |  Reducing (2)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stimulant (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Without (13)  |  Word (650)  |  Worship (32)

You ask me how, with so much study, I manage to retene my health. ... Morpheous is my last companion ; without 8 or 9 hours of him yr correspondent is not worth one scavenger's peruke. My practices did at ye first hurt my stomach, but now I eat heartily enou' as y’ will see when I come down beside you. [On the value of sleep, and harm of eating poorly while intent on study.]
Letter to Dr. Law (15 Dec 1716) as quoted in Norman Lockyer, (ed.), Nature (25 May 1881), 24, 39. The source refers to it as an unpublished letter.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Companion (22)  |  Down (455)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  First (1302)  |  Food (213)  |  Health (210)  |  Heartily (3)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hurt (14)  |  Manage (26)  |  Practice (212)  |  Scavenger (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Study (701)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worth (172)

You have all heard of that celebrated painter who would never allow any one to mix his colors for him. He always insisted on doing that himself, and at last one of his students, whose curiosity had been aroused, said: “Professor, what do you mix your colors with?” “With brains, sir,” said the professor. Now, that is what we have to do with our observations.
From Address (22 May 1914) to the graduating class of the Friends’ School, Washington, D.C. Printed in 'Discovery and Invention', The National Geographic Magazine (1914), 25, 650.
Science quotes on:  |  Brain (281)  |  Color (155)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Himself (461)  |  Mix (24)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Painter (30)  |  Professor (133)  |  Student (317)

You know something I could really do without? The Space Shuttle. … It’s irresponsible. The last thing we should be doing is sending our grotesquely distorted DNA out into space.
Brain Droppings (1998), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Distort (22)  |  Distortion (13)  |  DNA (81)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Grotesque (6)  |  Irresponsibility (5)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last Thing (3)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Shuttle (12)  |  Thing (1914)

You know, all is development. The principle is perpetually going on. First, there was nothing, then there was something; then—I forget the next—I think there were shells, then fishes; then we came—let me see—did we come next? Never mind that; we came at last. And at the next change there will be something very superior to us—something with wings. Ah! That's it: we were fishes, and I believe we shall be crows.
Tancred: or, The New Crusade (1847), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Development (441)  |  Evolution (635)  |  First (1302)  |  Forget (125)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Principle (530)  |  See (1094)  |  Shell (69)  |  Something (718)  |  Superior (88)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wing (79)


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.