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: “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index L > Category: Listen

Listen Quotes (81 quotes)


’Tis the witching hour of night,
Orbed is the moon and bright.
And the stars they glisten, glisten,
Seeming with bright eyes to listen-
For what listen they?
From poem 'Prophecy', collected in The Complete Works of John Keats (1818). Vol. 2, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Bright (81)  |  Eye (440)  |  Glistening (2)  |  Hour (192)  |  Listening (26)  |  Moon (252)  |  Night (133)  |  Orb (20)  |  Seeming (10)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

[To a man expecting a scientific proof of the impossibility of flying saucers] I might have said to him: “Listen, I mean that from my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.” It is just more likely, that is all. It is a good guess. And we always try to guess the most likely explanation, keeping in the back of the mind the fact that if it does not work we must discuss the other possibilities.
In The Character of Physical Law (1965, 2001), 166.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Effort (243)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extraterrestrial (6)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Saucer (3)  |  Good (906)  |  Guess (67)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Irrational (16)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Likelihood (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rational (95)  |  Report (42)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Try (296)  |  UFO (4)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

[Students or readers about teachers or authors.] They will listen with both ears to what is said by the men just a step or two ahead of them, who stand nearest to them, and within arm’s reach. A guide ceases to be of any use when he strides so far ahead as to be hidden by the curvature of the earth.
From Lecture (5 Apr 1917) at Hackley School, Tarrytown, N.Y., 'Choosing Books', collected in Canadian Stories (1918), 150.
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  Author (175)  |  Both (496)  |  Cease (81)  |  Curvature (8)  |  Ear (69)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Far (158)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Nearest (4)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reader (42)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Stride (15)  |  Student (317)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  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)  |  Last (425)  |  Leaving (10)  |  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)

~~[Houghton did NOT write]~~ Unless we announce disasters, no-one will listen.
This IS NOT written in his book Global Warming: The Complete Briefing (1994). Houghton has explicitly denied writing it, saying it, or even believing it, in Steve Connor, 'Fabricated quote used to discredit climate scientist', The Independent (10 Feb 2010). Perhaps the earliest example of this being falsely quoted is by Piers Akerman, in a Australian newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph (Nov 2006). Spreading virally, climate change skeptics now gleefully repeat the false quote, without verifying it.
Science quotes on:  |  Announce (13)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

A large number of areas of the brain are involved when viewing equations, but when one looks at a formula rated as beautiful it activates the emotional brain—the medial orbito-frontal cortex—like looking at a great painting or listening to a piece of music. … Neuroscience can’t tell you what beauty is, but if you find it beautiful the medial orbito-frontal cortex is likely to be involved; you can find beauty in anything.
As quoted in James Gallagher, 'Mathematics: Why The Brain Sees Maths As Beauty,' BBC News (13 Feb 2014), on bbc.co.uk web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Activate (3)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cortex (3)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Equation (138)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formula (102)  |  Frontal (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Involved (90)  |  Large (398)  |  Listening (26)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Music (133)  |  Neuroscience (3)  |  Number (710)  |  Painting (46)  |  Rat (37)  |  Tell (344)  |  View (496)

All programs on jungles had previously been filmed from the bottom up, with dead leaves and a dead animal or two. Suddenly, I realized that it’s at the top that everything is blossoming and populating and having a ball. So, I wrote it from the top. The director happened to be a young, ludicrously athletic fellow who decided to film me up a 200-foot kapok tree on a rope. Sheer vanity from elder to younger led me to say yes. At 5 feet off the ground it’s interesting. At 10 feet you say, “Hmmm a bit high.” At 50 feet it’s exhausting and at 90 feet terrifying because you realize that no one can get to you if you decide you don’t like it. To get down you have to retie all the ropes. You don’t just come down. I was so petrified I had forgotten I’d left my radio on, so everyone down below was falling about with laughter listening to me praying and swearing to myself in terror. By the time I came down I had recovered my cool and was going around saying it had all been fine without realizing they’d all heard me.
In Justine de Lacy, 'Around the World With Attenborough', New York Times (27 Jan 1985), Sec. 2, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Athletic (5)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Dead (65)  |  Decide (50)  |  Descend (49)  |  Director (3)  |  Exhausting (2)  |  Fear (212)  |  Film (12)  |  Fine (37)  |  Hear (144)  |  High (370)  |  Interest (416)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Like (23)  |  Petrified (2)  |  Pray (19)  |  Program (57)  |  Radio (60)  |  Realize (157)  |  Recover (14)  |  Rope (9)  |  Swear (7)  |  Terror (32)  |  Tie (42)  |  Top (100)  |  Tree (269)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Young (253)

Always listen to experts.They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.
In 'From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long', Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long (1973), 256.
Science quotes on:  |  Can�t (16)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expert (67)  |  Tell (344)  |  Why (491)

Among all highly civilized peoples the golden age of art has always been closely coincident with the golden age of the pure sciences, particularly with mathematics, the most ancient among them.
This coincidence must not be looked upon as accidental, but as natural, due to an inner necessity. Just as art can thrive only when the artist, relieved of the anxieties of existence, can listen to the inspirations of his spirit and follow in their lead, so mathematics, the most ideal of the sciences, will yield its choicest blossoms only when life’s dismal phantom dissolves and fades away, when the striving after naked truth alone predominates, conditions which prevail only in nations while in the prime of their development.
From Die Entwickelung der Mathematik im Zusammenhange mit der Ausbreitung der Kultur (1893), 4. As translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 191-192. From the original German, “Bei allen Kulturvölkern ist die Blüthezeit der Kunst auch immer zeitlich eng verbunden mit einer Blüthezeit der reinen Wissenschaften, insbesondere der ältesten unter ihnen, der Mathematik.
Dieses Zusammentreffen dürfte auch nicht ein zufälliges, sondern ein natürliches, ein Ergebniss innerer Notwendigkeit sein. Wie die Kunst nur gedeihen kann, wenn der Künstler, unbekümmert um die Bedrängnisse des Daseins, den Eingebungen seines Geistes lauschen und ihnen folgen kann, so kann die idealste Wissenschaft, die Mathematik, erst dann ihre schönsten Blüthen treiben, wenn des Erdenlebens schweres Traumbild sinkt und sinkt und sinkt, wenn das Streben nach der nackten Wahrheit allein bestimmend ist, was nur bei Nationen in der Vollkraft ihrer Entwickelung vorkommt.”
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Blossom (22)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Coincident (2)  |  Condition (362)  |  Development (441)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Due (143)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fade (12)  |  Follow (389)  |  Golden (47)  |  Golden Age (11)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Inner (72)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessity (197)  |  People (1031)  |  Phantom (9)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Prevail (47)  |  Prime (11)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Relieve (6)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strive (53)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yield (86)

An evolution is a series of events that in itself as series is purely physical, — a set of necessary occurrences in the world of space and time. An egg develops into a chick; … a planet condenses from the fluid state, and develops the life that for millions of years makes it so wondrous a place. Look upon all these things descriptively, and you shall see nothing but matter moving instant after instant, each instant containing in its full description the necessity of passing over into the next. … But look at the whole appreciatively, historically, synthetically, as a musician listens to a symphony, as a spectator watches a drama. Now you shall seem to have seen, in phenomenal form, a story.
In The Spirit of Modern Philosophy: An Essay in the Form of Lectures (1892), 425.
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciative (2)  |  Chick (5)  |  Condense (15)  |  Contain (68)  |  Description (89)  |  Develop (278)  |  Drama (24)  |  Egg (71)  |  Event (222)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  History (716)  |  Instant (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Make (25)  |  Matter (821)  |  Million (124)  |  Move (223)  |  Musician (23)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Pass (241)  |  Passing (76)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Planet (402)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  See (1094)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Spectator (11)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Symphony (10)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

An underwater-listening device, the “hydrophone,” has, in recent years, shown that sea creatures click, grunt, snap, moan, and, in general, make the ocean depths as maddeningly noisy as ever the land is.
(1965). In Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Click (4)  |  Creature (242)  |  Depth (97)  |  Device (71)  |  General (521)  |  Grunt (3)  |  Land (131)  |  Listening (26)  |  Moan (2)  |  Noisy (3)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Oceanography (17)  |  Recent (78)  |  Sea (326)  |  Snap (7)  |  Underwater (5)  |  Year (963)

Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused. But on a higher level.
In A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations by Alan L. Mackay (1991).
Science quotes on:  |  Lecture (111)  |  Still (614)  |  Subject (543)

Before the printing press, the young learned by listening, watching, doing.
In 'Classroom Without Walls', Explorations (May 1957), No. 7. Collected in Edmund Carpenter and Marshall McLuhan (eds.), Explorations in Communication, an Anthology (1960), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Doing (277)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Listening (26)  |  Printing (25)  |  Printing Press (5)  |  Watch (118)  |  Young (253)

By the worldly standards of public life, all scholars in their work are of course oddly virtuous. They do not make wild claims, they do not cheat, they do not try to persuade at any cost, they appeal neither to prejudice nor to authority, they are often frank about their ignorance, their disputes are fairly decorous, they do not confuse what is being argued with race, politics, sex or age, they listen patiently to the young and to the old who both know everything. These are the general virtues of scholarship, and they are peculiarly the virtues of science.
In Science and Human Values (1956).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Authority (99)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cost (94)  |  Course (413)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everything (489)  |  General (521)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Old (499)  |  Politics (122)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Race (278)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Sex (68)  |  Try (296)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Virtuous (9)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

De Morgan was explaining to an actuary what was the chance that a certain proportion of some group of people would at the end of a given time be alive; and quoted the actuarial formula, involving p [pi], which, in answer to a question, he explained stood for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. His acquaintance, who had so far listened to the explanation with interest, interrupted him and exclaimed, “My dear friend, that must be a delusion, what can a circle have to do with the number of people alive at a given time?”
In Mathematical Recreations and Problems (1896), 180; See also De Morgan’s Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Actuary (2)  |  Alive (97)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Death (406)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Augustus De Morgan (45)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formula (102)  |  Friend (180)  |  Group (83)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interrupt (6)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Pi (14)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Question (649)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Time (1911)

First listen my friend, and then you may shriek and bluster.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bluster (2)  |  First (1302)  |  Friend (180)  |  Shriek (4)

Gynaecologists are very smooth indeed. Because they have to listen to woeful and sordid symptoms they develop an expression of refinement and sympathy.
A Sense of Asher (1972), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Develop (278)  |  Expression (181)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Refinement (19)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Symptom (38)

Hold fast to dreams,
Let them stay with you forever.
Don’t let them die.
You might fly up in the sky
On a silver unicorn’s back,
Dreaming of the ocean,
Listening to the dolphins sing.
Dreams, hold on to them forever.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Die (94)  |  Dolphin (9)  |  Dream (222)  |  Fast (49)  |  Fly (153)  |  Forever (111)  |  Hold (96)  |  Let (64)  |  Listening (26)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Silver (49)  |  Sing (29)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stay (26)  |  Unicorn (4)

How many times did the sun shine, how many times did the wind howl over the desolate tundras, over the bleak immensity of the Siberian taigas, over the brown deserts where the Earth’s salt shines, over the high peaks capped with silver, over the shivering jungles, over the undulating forests of the tropics! Day after day, through infinite time, the scenery has changed in imperceptible features. Let us smile at the illusion of eternity that appears in these things, and while so many temporary aspects fade away, let us listen to the ancient hymn, the spectacular song of the seas, that has saluted so many chains rising to the light.
In Tectonics of Asia (1924, 1977), 165, trans. Albert V. and Marguerite Carozzi.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Brown (23)  |  Climate (102)  |  Desert (59)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Forest (161)  |  High (370)  |  Hymn (6)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Light (635)  |  Research (753)  |  Rising (44)  |  Salt (48)  |  Sea (326)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smile (34)  |  Song (41)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Sun (407)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wind (141)

I advise my students to listen carefully the moment they decide to take no more Mathematics courses. They might be able to hear the sound of closing doors.
From 'Everybody a Mathematician', CAIP Quarterly (Fall 1989), 2, as quoted and cited, as a space filler following article Reinhard C. Laubenbacher and Michael Siddoway, 'Great Problems of Mathematics: A Summer Workshop for High School Students', The College Mathematics Journal (Mar 1994), 25, No. 2, 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Advise (7)  |  Careful (28)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Closed (38)  |  Course (413)  |  Decide (50)  |  Door (94)  |  Hear (144)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Sound (187)  |  Student (317)

I always love geology. In winter, particularly, it is pleasant to listen to theories about the great mountains one visited in the summer; or about the Flood or volcanoes; about great catastrophes or about blisters; above all about fossils … Everywhere there are hypotheses, but nowhere truths; many workmen, but no experts; priests, but no God. In these circumstances each man can bring his hypothesis like a candle to a burning altar, and on seeing his candle lit declare ‘Smoke for smoke, sir, mine is better than yours’. It is precisely for this reason that I love geology.
In Nouvelles Genevoises (1910), 306. First edition, 1841.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Better (493)  |  Blister (2)  |  Bring (95)  |  Burning (49)  |  Candle (32)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Declare (48)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Expert (67)  |  Flood (52)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Geology (240)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Light (635)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mine (78)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Priest (29)  |  Reason (766)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Summer (56)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Visit (27)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Winter (46)  |  Workman (13)

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)  |  Last (425)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  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 have been especially fortunate for about 50 years in having two memory banks available—whenever I can't remember something I ask my wife, and thus I am able to draw on this auxiliary memory bank. Moreover, there is a second way In which I get ideas ... I listen carefully to what my wife says, and in this way I often get a good idea. I recommend to ... young people ... that you make a permanent acquisition of an auxiliary memory bank that you can become familiar with and draw upon throughout your lives.
T. Goertzel and B. Goertzel, Linus Pauling (1995), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Ask (420)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Available (80)  |  Bank (31)  |  Become (821)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Draw (140)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Life (1870)  |  Listening (26)  |  Live (650)  |  Memory (144)  |  People (1031)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Recommendation (12)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Something (718)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wife (41)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

I have often had cause to feel that my hands are cleverer than my head. That is a crude way of characterizing the dialectics of experimentation. When it is going well, it is like a quiet conversation with Nature. One asks a question and gets an answer, then one asks the next question and gets the next answer. An experiment is a device to make Nature speak intelligibly. After that, one only has to listen.
Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1967). In Nobel Lectures: Physiology Or Medicine: (1999), Vol. 4 (1963-197), 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Cause (561)  |  Characterization (8)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Crude (32)  |  Device (71)  |  Dialectic (6)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feel (371)  |  Hand (149)  |  Head (87)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Listening (26)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Next (238)  |  Question (649)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Way (1214)

I then shouted into M [the mouthpiece] the following sentence: “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you.” To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said. I asked him to repeat the words. He answered “You said—‘Mr. Watson—-come here—I want to see you.’” We then changed places and I listened at S [the reed receiver] while Mr. Watson read a few passages from a book into the mouth piece M. It was certainly the case that articulate sounds proceeded from S. The effect was loud but indistinct and muffled. If I had read beforehand the passage given by Mr. Watson I should have recognized every word. As it was I could not make out the sense—but an occasional word here and there was quite distinct. I made out “to” and “out” and “further”; and finally the sentence “Mr. Bell do you understand what I say? Do—you—un—der—stand—what—I—say” came quite clearly and intelligibly. No sound was audible when the armature S was removed.
Notebook, 'Experiments made by A. Graham Bell, vol. I'. Entry for 10 March 1876. Quoted in Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (1973), 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bell (35)  |  Book (413)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Declared (24)  |  Delight (111)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Notebook (4)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Passage (52)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Read (308)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shout (25)  |  Sound (187)  |  Stand (284)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

I think we all have a little voice inside us that will guide us. It may be God, I don’t know. But I think that if we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 142
Science quotes on:  |  Clutter (6)  |  Do (1905)  |  God (776)  |  Guide (107)  |  Inside (30)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Noise (40)  |  Right (473)  |  Shut (41)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Voice (54)  |  Will (2350)

I took him [Lawrence Bragg] to a young zoologist working on pattern formation in insect cuticles. The zoologist explained how disturbances introduced into these regular patterns pointed to their formation being governed by some kind of gradient. Bragg listened attentively and then exclaimed: “Your disturbed gradient behaves like a stream of sand running downhill and encountering an obstacle.” “Good heavens,” replied the zoologist, “I had been working on this problem for years before this simple analogy occurred to me and you think of it after twenty minutes.”
As quoted in David Phillips, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Nov 1979), 25, 132, citing: Perutz, M.F. 1971 New Sci. & Sci. J. 8 July 1967.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Being (1276)  |  Sir Lawrence Bragg (16)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Downhill (3)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Formation (100)  |  Good (906)  |  Govern (66)  |  Gradient (2)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Insect (89)  |  Kind (564)  |  Minute (129)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Point (584)  |  Problem (731)  |  Regular (48)  |  Running (61)  |  Sand (63)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stream (83)  |  Think (1122)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Zoologist (12)

I used to sit in class and listen to the terms come floating down the room like paper airplanes. Geology was called a descriptive science, and with its pitted outwash plains and drowned rivers, its hanging tributaries and starved coastlines, it was nothing if not descriptive. It was a fountain of metaphor…
In Basin and Range (1981), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Airplane (43)  |  Call (781)  |  Class (168)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Descriptive Science (2)  |  Down (455)  |  Float (31)  |  Geology (240)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Paper (192)  |  River (140)  |  Room (42)  |  Sit (51)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)

If I make a decision it is a possession. I take pride in it, I tend to defend it and not listen to those who question it. If I make sense, then this is more dynamic, and I listen and I can change it. A decision is something you polish. Sensemaking is a direction for the next period.
Personal communication (13 Jun 1995). In Karl E. Weick, 'The Experience of Theorizing: Sensemaking as Topic and Resource'. Quoted in Ken G. Smith (ed.) and Michael A. Hitt (ed), Great Minds in Management: the Theory of Process Development (2005), 398. Weick writes that Gleason explains how leadership needs 'sensemaking rather than decision making.' As a highly skilled wildland firefighter he would make sense of an unfolding fire, giving directives that are open to revision at any time, so they can be self-correcting, responsive, with a transparent rationale. By contrast, decision making eats up valuable time with polishing the decision to get it 'right' and defending it, and also encourages blind spots.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Decision (98)  |  Defend (32)  |  Direction (185)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Period (200)  |  Polish (17)  |  Possession (68)  |  Pride (84)  |  Question (649)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Tend (124)

If migraine patients have a common and legitimate second complaint besides their migraines, it is that they have not been listened to by physicians. Looked at, investigated, drugged, charged, but not listened to.
Quoted by Walter Clemons, 'Listening to the Lost', Newsweek (20 Aug 1984).
Science quotes on:  |  Common (447)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Look (584)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)

If one of these people, in whom the chance-worship of our remoter ancestors thus strangely survives, should be within reach of the sea when a heavy gale is blowing, let him betake himself to the shore and watch the scene. Let him note the infinite variety of form and size of the tossing waves out at sea; or against the curves of their foam-crested breakers, as they dash against the rocks; let him listen to the roar and scream of the shingle as it is cast up and torn down the beach; or look at the flakes of foam as they drive hither and thither before the wind: or note the play of colours, which answers a gleam of sunshine as it falls upon their myriad bubbles. Surely here, if anywhere, he will say that chance is supreme, and bend the knee as one who has entered the very penetralia of his divinity. But the man of science knows that here, as everywhere, perfect order is manifested; that there is not a curve of the waves, not a note in the howling chorus, not a rainbow-glint on a bubble, which is other than a necessary consequence of the ascertained laws of nature; and that with a sufficient knowledge of the conditions, competent physico-mathematical skill could account for, and indeed predict, every one of these 'chance' events.
In 'On the Reception of the Origin of Species'. In Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter (1888), Vol. 2, 200-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Against (332)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Beach (23)  |  Blowing (22)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Cast (69)  |  Chance (244)  |  Chorus (6)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Curve (49)  |  Divinity (23)  |  Down (455)  |  Enter (145)  |  Event (222)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Fall (243)  |  Form (976)  |  Himself (461)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Predict (86)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rock (176)  |  Say (989)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sea (326)  |  Skill (116)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surely (101)  |  Survive (87)  |  Torn (17)  |  Variety (138)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wind (141)  |  Worship (32)

If you ask a person, “What were you thinking?” you may get an answer that is richer and more revealing of the human condition than any stream of thoughts a novelist could invent. I try to see through people’s faces into their minds and listen through their words into their lives, and what I find there is beyond imagining.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Condition (362)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Condition (6)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Invent (57)  |  Live (650)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Novelist (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Rich (66)  |  See (1094)  |  Stream (83)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Try (296)  |  Word (650)

If you want to find out anything from the theoretical physicists about the methods they use, I advise you to stick closely to one principle: don't listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. To him who is a discoverer in this field the products of his imagination appear so necessary and natural that he regards them, and would like to have them regarded by others, not as creations of thought but as given realities.
From 'On the Method of Theoretical Physics', in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Attention (196)  |  Closely (12)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deed (34)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finding (34)  |  If You Want To Find (4)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Listening (26)  |  Method (531)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Principle (530)  |  Product (166)  |  Reality (274)  |  Regard (312)  |  Stick (27)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

If you wish to learn from the theoretical physicist anything about the methods which he uses, I would give you the following piece of advice: Don’t listen to his words, examine his achievements. For to the discoverer in that field, the constructions of his imagination appear so necessary and so natural that he is apt to treat them not as the creations of his thoughts but as given realities.
In Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford (10 Jun 1933), 'On the Methods of Theoretical Physics'. Printed inPhilosophy of Science (Apr 1934), 1, No. 2, 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Advice (57)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Construction (114)  |  Creation (350)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Examine (84)  |  Field (378)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Learn (672)  |  Method (531)  |  Natural (810)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Reality (274)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)  |  Wish (216)  |  Word (650)

In America, radio has grown rapidly as a great public servant—not only because of freedom to speak and freedom to listen but because of the freedom of science to advance.
In address (Fall 1946) at a dinner in New York to commemorate the 40 years of Sarnoff’s service in the radio field, 'Institute News and Radio Notes: The Past and Future of Radio', Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers (I.R.E.), (May 1947), 35, No. 5, 498.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  America (143)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Public Service (6)  |  Radio (60)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Speak (240)

In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, “Sorry, but we don’t know.” The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed.
Frederick S. Pardee Distinguished Lecture (Oct 2005), Boston University. Collected in 'Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society', A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2007), 43-44.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Confident (25)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  End (603)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expert (67)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Fashionable (15)  |  Future (467)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heretic (8)  |  Human (1512)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Know (1538)  |  Live (650)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (320)  |  Perversity (2)  |  Political (124)  |  Politician (40)  |  Politics (122)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Problem (731)  |  Public (100)  |  Question (649)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Society (350)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Tend (124)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

In this country all a man need to do is to attain a little eminence and immediately he begins to talk. Usually his eminence is financial, and the greater this eminence the more he talks and the further his voice reaches. I don't blame the rich people for talking; many of them don’t know what else to do with themselves. The fault is with these who listen. If no one would listen no harm would he done. But the American people are willing to listen to any one who has attained prominence. The main fact is that we've heard a man's name a great many times; that makes us ready to accept whatever he says. … We listen to the one who talks the most and loudest.
As quoted in 'Electricity Will Keep The World From Freezing Up', New York Times (12 Nov 1911), SM4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  America (143)  |  Attain (126)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blame (31)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fault (58)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  People (1031)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Ready (43)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Willing (44)

Isn’t it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Economist (20)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Laugh (50)  |  People (1031)  |  Same (166)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Weather (49)

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
In The Poet at the Breakfast-Table (1892), 264.
Science quotes on:  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Province (37)  |  Speak (240)  |  Wisdom (235)

It was the method which attracted me [to physics]—the experimental method, which was born with physics, and is now universal in science. It’s asking a question of nature, and listening for the answer from nature … the way in which you’re going about asking the question and detecting the answer. And in my view it’s this kind of method that attracts me.
From 'Asking Nature', collected in Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (eds.), Passionate Minds: The Inner World of Scientists (1997), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Attract (25)  |  Detect (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Kind (564)  |  Listening (26)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Universal (198)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)

Kids from all the local villages [on the slopes of Mount Gorongosa in Mozambique] showed up, and I had to be the expert for everything. … These kids went wild. They were listening to everything that I and others had to say about the creatures they were bringing in and the plants and so on. And I realized that anywhere a bioblitz could be a powerful instrument in introducing kids to science.
Describing a community bioblitz he helped lead in 2011, while serving as an adviser during the creation of the national park there. In two hours, he counted 60 species in 39 families and 13 orders of living things were brought in. From interview with National Geographic, in Andrew Revkin, 'Conservation Legend Has Big Plans For Future', on nationalgeographic.com website. Wilson added that the park, with the help of the American conservationist and philanthropist Greg Carr, has since become “a powerful force in helping the country of Mozambique recover from a very serious civil war, and in addition, create a better life for a great many people.”
Science quotes on:  |  Creature (242)  |  Education (423)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Kid (18)  |  Mozambique (2)  |  Plant (320)  |  Village (13)

Leo Szilard’s Ten Commandments:
1. Recognize the connections of things and the laws of conduct of men, so that you may know what you are doing.
2. Let your acts be directed towards a worthy goal, but do not ask if they will reach it; they are to be models and examples, not means to an end.
3. Speak to all men as you do to yourself, with no concern for the effect you make, so that you do not shut them out from your world; lest in isolation the meaning of life slips out of sight and you lose the belief in the perfection of the creation.
4. Do not destroy what you cannot create.
5. Touch no dish, except that you are hungry.
6. Do not covet what you cannot have.
7. Do not lie without need.
8. Honor children. Listen reverently to their words and speak to them with infinite love.
9. Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.
10. Lead your life with a gentle hand and be ready to leave whenever you are called.
Circulated by Mrs. Szilard in July 1964, in a letter to their friends (translated by Dr. Jacob Bronowski). As printed in Robert J. Levine, Ethics and Regulation of Clinical Research (1988), 431.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Ask (420)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Call (781)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Commandment (8)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Connection (171)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Example (98)  |  Friend (180)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hinder (12)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lose (165)  |  Love (328)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Memory (144)  |  Model (106)  |  Need (320)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Reach (286)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Shut (41)  |  Sight (135)  |  Solitude (20)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Touch (146)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Like all things of the mind, science is a brittle thing: it becomes absurd when you look at it too closely. It is designed for few at a time, not as a mass profession. But now we have megascience: an immense apparatus discharging in a minute more bursts of knowledge than humanity is able to assimilate in a lifetime. Each of us has two eyes, two ears, and, I hope, one brain. We cannot even listen to two symphonies at the same time. How do we get out of the horrible cacophony that assails our minds day and night? We have to learn, as others did, that if science is a machine to make more science, a machine to grind out so-called facts of nature, not all facts are equally worth knowing. Students, in other words, will have to learn to forget most of what they have learned. This process of forgetting must begin after each exam, but never before. The Ph.D. is essentially a license to start unlearning.
Voices In the Labyrinth: Nature, Man, and Science (1979), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Brain (281)  |  Burst (41)  |  Call (781)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ear (69)  |  Education (423)  |  Equally (129)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Forget (125)  |  Hope (321)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immense (89)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  PhD (10)  |  Process (439)  |  Profession (108)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Start (237)  |  Student (317)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Worth (172)

Listen now for the sound that forevermore separates the old from the new.
[Introducing the beep-beep chirp transmitted by the Sputnik satellite.]
NBC Radio
NBC radio announcer on the night of 4 Oct 1957. In 'The Nation: Red Moon Over the U.S.', Time (14 Oct 1957), 70, 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Forever (111)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  Sound (187)  |  Sputnik (5)

Listen to the community: it’s defining its own problems, and may well know what to do about them.
As quoted in 'Aphorism of the Month', Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (Nov 2007), 61, No. 11, 932.
Science quotes on:  |  Community (111)  |  Defining (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Problem (731)

Listen, I don't know anything about polygraphs and I don’t know how accurate they are, but I know they’ll scare the hell out of people.
Oval Office Tape (14 Jul 1971), quoted in Nature (23 Feb 1984) 307, 682.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Know (1538)  |  People (1031)  |  Polygraph (2)  |  Scare (6)

Most people regard scientists as explorers … Imagine a handful of people shipwrecked on a strange island and setting out to explore it. One of them cuts a solitary path through the jungle, going on and on until he is exhausted or lost or both. He eventually returns to his companions, and they listen to him with goggling eyes as he describes what he saw; what he fell into, and what bit him. After a rest he demands more supplies and sets off again to explore the unknown. Many of his companions will be doing the same, each choosing his own direction and pursuing his pioneering path.
In The Development of Design (1981), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Companion (22)  |  Cut (116)  |  Demand (131)  |  Describe (132)  |  Direction (185)  |  Doing (277)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Eye (440)  |  Handful (14)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Island (49)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Listening (26)  |  Lost (34)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Path (159)  |  People (1031)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Strange (160)  |  Through (846)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)

Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1980), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Bach (7)  |  Brain (281)  |  Effort (243)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Listening (26)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Music (133)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Work (1402)

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain that alone on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly organised or better constituted than mine would not, I suppose, have thus suffered, and if I had to live my life over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus have been kept alive through use.
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), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Alone (324)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Become (821)  |  Better (493)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brain (281)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Depend (238)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  General (521)  |  Kind (564)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mine (78)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Taste (93)  |  Through (846)  |  Use (771)  |  Week (73)  |  Why (491)

Nature could not err, but knew exactly and infallibly. Our function was to ask her questions, to listen patiently to the answers, and to understand them correctly.
And to this end we went out into the field, time and time again. Often at brief intervals we returned to the same outcrop where our Pythia, nature, opened her mouth from time to time to utter her equivocal oracles. Time and again we studied the same stratification, or the same interpenetration of rocks, and yet each time advanced one step further, because of what we had learned on the last visit, because the previous impression had had time to settle, or because this time our eyes were a little keener and now observed what hitherto had escaped them.
In Hans Cloos, Ernst Cloos (ed.) and Curt Dietz (ed.), Conversation With the Earth (1953, 1959), 28, as translated by E.B. Garside from the original German edition, Gespräch mit der Erde (1947).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Err (5)  |  Exact (75)  |  Field Trip (2)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Oracle (5)  |  Patience (58)  |  Question (649)  |  Stratification (2)  |  Study (701)

No video, no photographs, no verbal descriptions, no lectures can provide the enchantment that a few minutes out-of-doors can: watch a spider construct a web; observe a caterpillar systematically ravaging the edge of a leaf; close your eyes, cup your hands behind your ears, and listen to aspen leaves rustle or a stream muse about its pools and eddies. Nothing can replace plucking a cluster of pine needles and rolling them in your fingers to feel how they’re put together, or discovering that “sedges have edges and grasses are round,” The firsthand, right-and-left-brain experience of being in the out-of-doors involves all the senses including some we’ve forgotten about, like smelling water a mile away. No teacher, no student, can help but sense and absorb the larger ecological rhythms at work here, and the intertwining of intricate, varied and complex strands that characterize a rich, healthy natural world.
Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Aspen (2)  |  Behind (139)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brain (281)  |  Caterpillar (5)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Close (77)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Complex (202)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cup (7)  |  Description (89)  |  Discover (571)  |  Door (94)  |  Ear (69)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Eddy (4)  |  Edge (51)  |  Enchantment (9)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finger (48)  |  Firsthand (2)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hand (149)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Help (116)  |  Include (93)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Involve (93)  |  Large (398)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Mile (43)  |  Minute (129)  |  Muse (10)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural World (33)  |  Needle (7)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Photograph (23)  |  Pine (12)  |  Pluck (5)  |  Pool (16)  |  Provide (79)  |  Ravage (7)  |  Replace (32)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Rich (66)  |  Right (473)  |  Roll (41)  |  Round (26)  |  Rustle (2)  |  Sedge (2)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smell (29)  |  Spider (14)  |  Strand (9)  |  Stream (83)  |  Student (317)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Together (392)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Video (2)  |  Watch (118)  |  Water (503)  |  Web (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

O’ Great Spirit, help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 180
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Great (1610)  |  Help (116)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Quietly (5)  |  Remember (189)  |  Silence (62)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)

Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.… Mountains have a secret opinion about them.… Our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down… We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain.
Science quotes on:  |  Die (94)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fierce (8)  |  Fire (203)  |  Green (65)  |  Howl (3)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Objectively (6)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Realize (157)  |  Rifle (3)  |  Secret (216)  |  Wolf (11)

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 180
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Talk (108)

Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient.
From weekly Democratic address as President-Elect, online video (20 Dec 2008), announcing his selection of science and technology advisers. C-Span video 282995-102.
Science quotes on:  |  Ensure (27)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Inconvenient (5)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Politics (122)  |  Promote (32)  |  Protect (65)  |  Provide (79)  |  Resource (74)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Twist (10)

Reason must approach nature with the view, indeed, of receiving information from it, not, however, in the character of a pupil, who listens to all that his master chooses to tell him, but in that of a judge, who compels the witnesses to reply to those questions which he himself thinks fit to propose. To this single idea must the revolution be ascribed, by which, after groping in the dark for so many centuries, natural science was at length conducted into the path of certain progress.
Critique of Pure Reason, translated by J.M.D. Meiklejohn (1855), Preface to the Second Edition, xxvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Century (319)  |  Certain (557)  |  Character (259)  |  Choose (116)  |  Compel (31)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Dark (145)  |  Fit (139)  |  Grope (5)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Information (173)  |  Judge (114)  |  Master (182)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Path (159)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reply (58)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Single (365)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  View (496)  |  Witness (57)

Suppose [an] imaginary physicist, the student of Niels Bohr, is shown an experiment in which a virus particle enters a bacterial cell and 20 minutes later the bacterial cell is lysed and 100 virus particles are liberated. He will say: “How come, one particle has become 100 particles of the same kind in 20 minutes? That is very interesting. Let us find out how it happens! How does the particle get in to the bacterium? How does it multiply? Does it multiply like a bacterium, growing and dividing, or does it multiply by an entirely different mechanism ? Does it have to be inside the bacterium to do this multiplying, or can we squash the bacterium and have the multiplication go on as before? Is this multiplying a trick of organic chemistry which the organic chemists have not yet discovered ? Let us find out. This is so simple a phenomenon that the answers cannot be hard to find. In a few months we will know. All we have to do is to study how conditions will influence the multiplication. We will do a few experiments at different temperatures, in different media, with different viruses, and we will know. Perhaps we may have to break into the bacteria at intermediate stages between infection and lysis. Anyhow, the experiments only take a few hours each, so the whole problem can not take long to solve.”
[Eight years later] he has not got anywhere in solving the problem he set out to solve. But [he may say to you] “Well, I made a slight mistake. I could not do it in a few months. Perhaps it will take a few decades, and perhaps it will take the help of a few dozen other people. But listen to what I have found, perhaps you will be interested to join me.”
From 'Experiments with Bacterial Viruses (Bacteriophages)', Harvey Lecture (1946), 41, 161-162. As cited in Robert Olby, The Path of the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA (1974, 1994), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Condition (362)  |  Decade (66)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Divide (77)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hour (192)  |  Infection (27)  |  Influence (231)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Long (778)  |  Lysis (4)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Media (14)  |  Minute (129)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Month (91)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Problem (731)  |  Say (989)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solve (145)  |  Squash (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Temperature (82)  |  Trick (36)  |  Virus (32)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

The doctor listens in with a stethoscope and hears sounds of a warpath Indian drum.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Doctor (191)  |  Drum (8)  |  Hear (144)  |  Indian (32)  |  Sound (187)

The forest doctors of the Amazon say each plant has its “song”, and that to know how to use the plant you must listen to its voice.
In 'Fifty Years On, the Silence of Rachel Carson’s Spring Consumes Us', The Guardian (25 Sep 2012).
Science quotes on:  |  Amazon (11)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Forest (161)  |  Know (1538)  |  Must (1525)  |  Plant (320)  |  Rain Forest (34)  |  Say (989)  |  Song (41)  |  Use (771)  |  Voice (54)

The great enemy of communication, we find, is the illusion of it. We have talked enough; but we have not listened. And by not listening we have failed to concede the immense complexity of our society–and thus the great gaps between ourselves and those with whom we seek understanding.
In magazine article, 'Is Anybody Listening?', Fortune magazine (Sep 1950), 174.
Science quotes on:  |  Communication (101)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Concede (2)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fail (191)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gap (36)  |  Great (1610)  |  Great Enemy (3)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Immense (89)  |  Listening (26)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Seek (218)  |  Society (350)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Talk (108)  |  Understanding (527)

The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her.
In 'Maxims for Revolutionists: Reason', in Man and Superman (1903), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Enough (341)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Reason (766)  |  Slave (40)  |  Strong (182)

The need to make music, and to listen to it, is universally expressed by human beings. I cannot imagine, even in our most primitive times, the emergence of talented painters to make cave paintings without there having been, near at hand, equally creative people making song. It is, like speech, a dominant aspect of human biology.
In 'The Music of This Sphere', The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cave Painting (2)  |  Creative (144)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Equally (129)  |  Express (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Biology (3)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Making (300)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Need (320)  |  Painter (30)  |  People (1031)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Song (41)  |  Speech (66)  |  Talent (99)  |  Time (1911)  |  Universal (198)

The observer listens to nature: the experimenter questions and forces her to reveal herself.
Attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Force (497)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Question (649)  |  Reveal (152)

The one who stays in my mind as the ideal man of science is, not Huxley or Tyndall, Hooker or Lubbock, still less my friend, philosopher and guide Herbert Spencer, but Francis Galton, whom I used to observe and listen to—I regret to add, without the least reciprocity—with rapt attention. Even to-day. I can conjure up, from memory’s misty deep, that tall figure with its attitude of perfect physical and mental poise; the clean-shaven face, the thin, compressed mouth with its enigmatical smile; the long upper lip and firm chin, and, as if presiding over the whole personality of the man, the prominent dark eyebrows from beneath which gleamed, with penetrating humour, contemplative grey eyes. Fascinating to me was Francis Galton’s all-embracing but apparently impersonal beneficence. But, to a recent and enthusiastic convert to the scientific method, the most relevant of Galton’s many gifts was the unique contribution of three separate and distinct processes of the intellect; a continuous curiosity about, and rapid apprehension of individual facts, whether common or uncommon; the faculty for ingenious trains of reasoning; and, more admirable than either of these, because the talent was wholly beyond my reach, the capacity for correcting and verifying his own hypotheses, by the statistical handling of masses of data, whether collected by himself or supplied by other students of the problem.
In My Apprenticeship (1926), 134-135.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Beneficence (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Chin (2)  |  Clean (52)  |  Collected (2)  |  Common (447)  |  Compressed (3)  |  Conjuring (3)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Convert (22)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dark (145)  |  Data (162)  |  Deep (241)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Enigma (16)  |  Enthusiastic (7)  |  Eye (440)  |  Eyebrow (2)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Figure (162)  |  Firm (47)  |  Friend (180)  |  Sir Francis Galton (18)  |  Gift (105)  |  Grey (10)  |  Guide (107)  |  Handling (7)  |  Himself (461)  |  Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (12)  |  Humour (116)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Impersonal (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Lip (4)  |  Long (778)  |  John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) (26)  |  Man (2252)  |  Memory (144)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Misty (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Penetrating (3)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Personality (66)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physical (518)  |  Poise (4)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Prominent (6)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Rapt (5)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recent (78)  |  Reciprocity (2)  |  Regret (31)  |  Relevant (5)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Separate (151)  |  Smile (34)  |  Herbert Spencer (37)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Talent (99)  |  Tall (11)  |  Thin (18)  |  Train (118)  |  Uncommon (14)  |  Unique (72)  |  Upper (4)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)

The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to go on working. One is tempted to stop and listen to it. The only thing is to turn away and go on working. Work. There is nothing else.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Corruption (17)  |  Escape (85)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Personal (75)  |  Praise (28)  |  Stop (89)  |  Tempt (6)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

The ridge of the Lammer-muir hills... consists of primary micaceous schistus, and extends from St Abb's head westward... The sea-coast affords a transverse section of this alpine tract at its eastern extremity, and exhibits the change from the primary to the secondary strata... Dr HUTTON wished particularly to examine the latter of these, and on this occasion Sir JAMES HALL and I had the pleasure to accompany him. We sailed in a boat from Dunglass ... We made for a high rocky point or head-land, the SICCAR ... On landing at this point, we found that we actually trode [sic] on the primeval rock... It is here a micaceous schistus, in beds nearly vertical, highly indurated, and stretching from S.E. to N. W. The surface of this rock... has thin covering of red horizontal sandstone laid over it, ... Here, therefore, the immediate contact of the two rocks is not only visible, but is curiously dissected and laid open by the action of the waves... On us who saw these phenomena for the first time, the impression will not easily be forgotten. The palpable evidence presented to us, of one of the most extraordinary and important facts in the natural history of the earth, gave a reality and substance to those theoretical speculations, which, however probable had never till now been directly authenticated by the testimony of the senses... What clearer evidence could we have had of the different formation of these rocks, and of the long interval which separated their formation, had we actually seen them emerging from the bosom of the deep? ... The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of these wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes go than imagination can venture to follow.
'Biographical Account of the Late Dr James Hutton, F.R.S. Edin.' (read 1803), Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1805), 5, 71-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Accompany (22)  |  Action (342)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Bosom (14)  |  Change (639)  |  Consist (223)  |  Contact (66)  |  Covering (14)  |  Deep (241)  |  Different (595)  |  Earnestness (3)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examine (84)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Extremity (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Farther (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Formation (100)  |  Grow (247)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Horizontal (9)  |  James Hutton (22)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Impression (118)  |  Long (778)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Palpable (8)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Present (630)  |  Primary (82)  |  Primeval (15)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sandstone (3)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sense (785)  |  Series (153)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Strata (37)  |  Stratum (11)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Visible (87)  |  Wave (112)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Wonderful (155)

The scientists speak with an authority which the ordinary citizen, the non-scientist, cannot challenge, and to which he is compelled to listen. Since they cannot hope for much help from the generals or the ministers, they must act for themselves, in a supreme endeavor to avert the mortal dangers which confront mankind.
In 'Science and Disarmament,' Impact, 1965.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Authority (99)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Danger (127)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  General (521)  |  Hope (321)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Speak (240)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Themselves (433)

There are those who will say “unless we announce disasters, no one will listen”, but I’m not one of them. It’s not the sort of thing I would ever say. It’s quite the opposite of what I think and it pains me to see this quote being used repeatedly in this way. I would never say we should hype up the risk of climate disasters in order to get noticed.
In Steve Connor, 'Fabricated quote used to discredit climate scientist', The Independent (10 Feb 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Announce (13)  |  Being (1276)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Order (638)  |  Pain (144)  |  Quote (46)  |  Repeated (5)  |  Risk (68)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

There is only one cardinal rule: One must always listen to the patient.
Quoted by Walter Clemons, 'Listening to the Lost', Newsweek (20 Aug 1984).
Science quotes on:  |  Cardinal (9)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Must (1525)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Rule (307)

This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened,?
[Having attended Lemaitre’s seminar at Caltech on the ‘cosmic egg’, the mass of all the Universe at its origination. (Dec 1932).]
In David Michael Harland, The Big Bang (), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Caltech (2)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Creation (350)  |  Egg (71)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Mass (160)  |  Most (1728)  |  Origination (7)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Seminar (5)  |  Universe (900)

Tree…
he watching you.
You look at tree,
he listen to you.
He got no finger,
he can’t speak.
But that leaf...
he pumping, growing,
growing in the night.
While you sleeping
you dream something.
Tree and grass same thing.
They grow with your body,
with your feeling.
Poem from Gagadju Man Bill Neidjie: The Environmental and Spiritual Philosophy of a Senior Traditional Owner, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory Australia (2002), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Can�t (16)  |  Dream (222)  |  Feel (371)  |  Finger (48)  |  Grass (49)  |  Grow (247)  |  Leaf (73)  |  Night (133)  |  Pump (9)  |  Same (166)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Speak (240)  |  Tree (269)  |  Watch (118)

Trying to determine the structure of a protein by UV spectroscopy was like trying to determine the structure of a piano by listening to the sound it made while being dropped down a flight of stairs.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Determine (152)  |  Down (455)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Flight (101)  |  Listening (26)  |  Piano (12)  |  Protein (56)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Stairs (2)  |  Structure (365)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)

We are like the inhabitants of an isolated valley in New Guinea who communicate with societies in neighboring valleys (quite different societies, I might add) by runner and by drum. When asked how a very advanced society will communicate, they might guess by an extremely rapid runner or by an improbably large drum. They might not guess a technology beyond their ken. And yet, all the while, a vast international cable and radio traffic passes over them, around them, and through them... We will listen for the interstellar drums, but we will miss the interstellar cables. We are likely to receive our first messages from the drummers of the neighboring galactic valleys - from civilizations only somewhat in our future. The civilizations vastly more advanced than we, will be, for a long time, remote both in distance and in accessibility. At a future time of vigorous interstellar radio traffic, the very advanced civilizations may be, for us, still insubstantial legends.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accessibility (3)  |  Add (42)  |  Advance (298)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Both (496)  |  Cable (11)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Different (595)  |  Distance (171)  |  Drum (8)  |  Drummer (3)  |  Extremely (17)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Galactic (6)  |  Guess (67)  |  Improbable (15)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  International (40)  |  Interstellar (8)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Ken (2)  |  Large (398)  |  Legend (18)  |  Likely (36)  |  Long (778)  |  Message (53)  |  Miss (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  New (1273)  |  New Guinea (4)  |  Pass (241)  |  Radio (60)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Receive (117)  |  Remote (86)  |  Runner (2)  |  Society (350)  |  Still (614)  |  Technology (281)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Valley (37)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vastly (8)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Will (2350)

We do not listen with the best regard to the verses of a man who is only a poet, nor to his problems if he is only an algebraist; but if a man is at once acquainted with the geometric foundation of things and with their festal splendor, his poetry is exact and his arithmetic musical.
In 'Works and Days', Society and Solitude (1883), Chap. 7, 171.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Best (467)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exact (75)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  Musical (10)  |  Poet (97)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Problem (731)  |  Regard (312)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Verse (11)

We had various kinds of tape-recorded concerts and popular music. But by the end of the flight what we listened to most was Russian folk songs. We also had recordings of nature sounds: thunder, rain, the singing of birds. We switched them on most frequently of all, and we never grew tired of them. It was as if they returned us to Earth.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Concert (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  End (603)  |  Flight (101)  |  Folk (10)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Grow (247)  |  Kind (564)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Popular (34)  |  Rain (70)  |  Record (161)  |  Recording (13)  |  Return (133)  |  Russian (3)  |  Sing (29)  |  Singing (19)  |  Song (41)  |  Sound (187)  |  Switch (10)  |  Thunder (21)  |  Tired (13)  |  Various (205)

We speak of it [astrology] as an extinct science; yet let but an eclipse of the sun happen, or a comet visit the evening sky, and in a moment we all believe in astrology. In vain do you tell the gazers on such spectacles that a solar eclipse is only the moon acting for the time as a candle-extinguisher to the sun, and give them bits of smoked glass to look through, and draw diagrams on the blackboard to explain it all. They listen composedly, and seem convinced, but in their secret hearts they are saying—“What though you can see it through a glass darkly, and draw it on a blackboard, does that show that it has no moral significance? You can draw a gallows or a guillotine, or write the Ten Commandments on a blackboard, but does that deprive them of meaning?” And so with the comet. No man will believe that the splendid stranger is hurrying through the sky solely on a momentous errand of his own. No! he is plainly signalling, with that flashing sword of his, something of importance to men,—something at all events that, if we could make it out, would be found of huge concern to us.
From 'Introductory Lecture on Technology for 1858-59', published as The Progress of the Telegraph (1859), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrology (46)  |  Blackboard (11)  |  Candle (32)  |  Comet (65)  |  Commandment (8)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draw (140)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Event (222)  |  Explain (334)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Glass (94)  |  Guillotine (5)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heart (243)  |  Importance (299)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Moment (260)  |  Momentous (7)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moral (203)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sky (174)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vain (86)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)

What is it to see, in an Eagle glide
Which fills a human heart with so much pride?
Is it that it soars effortless above the Earth
That steals us from our own limits & dearth?
Trapped in our seas of befuddling sludge
We try and try but cannot budge.
And then to see a mortal; with such ease take wing
Up in a breeze that makes our failing spirits sing?
Do we, vicarious birds, search in it our childishness -
When we too were young & yearned in heart to fly?
Taking flights of fancy through adolescent nights
Listening little, heeding less, knowing not why?
From its highest perch in the forest of snow
Majestic - the Eagle soars alone.
Riding thermals, lording clouds
Till dropping silent from the sky as a stone
But we, so quick and ready to fold
Give up our wings at the whiff of age
Losing years, cursing time, wasting spirit
Living out entire lives in futile rage!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adolescent (4)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Bird (163)  |  Breeze (8)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Curse (20)  |  Dearth (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropping (8)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Ease (40)  |  Effortless (3)  |  Entire (50)  |  Fail (191)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Fill (67)  |  Flight (101)  |  Fly (153)  |  Fold (9)  |  Forest (161)  |  Futile (13)  |  Give Up (10)  |  Glide (4)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heed (12)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Less (105)  |  Limit (294)  |  Listening (26)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Lord (97)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Night (133)  |  Perch (7)  |  Pride (84)  |  Quick (13)  |  Rage (10)  |  Ready (43)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (326)  |  Search (175)  |  See (1094)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sing (29)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sludge (3)  |  Snow (39)  |  Soar (23)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steal (14)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thermal (15)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trap (7)  |  Try (296)  |  Vicarious (2)  |  Waste (109)  |  Whiff (2)  |  Why (491)  |  Wing (79)  |  Year (963)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Young (253)

What sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.
In Ashton Applewhite, Tripp Evans and Andrew Frothingham, And I Quote (1992), 172, but without definitive source. Webmaster has not found any 19th-century book with such a quotation. Contact webmaster if you can help identify if this is a valid quote or merely a joke.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Current (122)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Robert Fulton (8)  |  Invention (400)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Sail (37)  |  Ship (69)  |  Steamboat (7)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wind (141)

When I listen to a soprano sing a Handel aria with an astonishing coloratura from that particular larynx, I say to myself, there has to be a biological reason that was useful at some stage. The larynx of a human being did not evolve without having some function. And the only function I can see is sexual attraction.
From 'Interview: Of Mind and Matter: David Attenborough Meets Richard Dawkins', The Guardian (11 Sep 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Biology (232)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Function (235)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Particular (80)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sexual (27)  |  Sing (29)  |  Stage (152)  |  Useful (260)

You can’t have a big ego and be a great inventor. You constantly have to be listening and evaluating.
Quoted in Timothy L. O’Brien, 'Not Invented here: Are U.S. Innovators Losing Their Competitive Edge?', New York Times (13 Nov 2005), B6.
Science quotes on:  |  Constant (148)  |  Ego (17)  |  Evaluate (7)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Listening (26)

You must not say that this cannot be, or that that is contrary to nature. You do not know what Nature is, or what she can do; and nobody knows; not even Sir Roderick Murchison, or Professor Huxley, or Mr. Darwin, or Professor Faraday, or Mr. Grove, or any other of the great men whom good boys are taught to respect. They are very wise men; and you must listen respectfully to all they say: but even if they should say, which I am sure they never would, “That cannot exist. That is contrary to nature,” you must wait a little, and see; for perhaps even they may be wrong.
The Water-babies (1886), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Boy (100)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exist (458)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Sir William Robert Grove (5)  |  Thomas Henry Huxley (132)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (9)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Other (2233)  |  Sir Richard Owen (17)  |  Professor (133)  |  Proof (304)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Wise (143)  |  Wrong (246)


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.