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 M > Category: Methods

Methods Quotes (204 quotes)

...Outer space, once a region of spirited international competition, is also a region of international cooperation. I realized this as early as 1959, when I attended an international conference on cosmic radiation in Moscow. At this conference, there were many differing views and differing methods of attack, but the problems were common ones to all of us and a unity of basic purpose was everywhere evident. Many of the papers presented there depended in an essential way upon others which had appeared originally in as many as three or four different languages. Surely science is one of the universal human activities.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (85)  |  Attend (65)  |  Basic (140)  |  Common (438)  |  Competition (43)  |  Conference (18)  |  Cooperation (34)  |  Cosmic (72)  |  Depend (231)  |  Different (579)  |  Early (190)  |  Essential (201)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Evident (91)  |  Human (1479)  |  International (37)  |  Language (298)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Paper (187)  |  Present (622)  |  Problem (699)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Radiation (45)  |  Space (504)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Surely (101)  |  Unity (79)  |  Universal (191)  |  View (491)  |  Way (1214)

The Charms of Statistics.�It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of man.
Natural Inheritance (1889), 62-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (83)  |  Beauty (304)  |  Charm (53)  |  Complicated (115)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Cut (114)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dull (55)  |  Existence (468)  |  Extraordinary (79)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Find (1002)  |  Flat (33)  |  Hate (67)  |  Interest (399)  |  Lake (33)  |  Limit (284)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (194)  |  Name (337)  |  Native (38)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nuisance (9)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2234)  |  Path (149)  |  People (1008)  |  Power (755)  |  Pursue (59)  |  Scheme (58)  |  Single (357)  |  Soul (231)  |  Start (225)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (160)  |  Through (847)  |  Tool (121)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (619)  |  Variety (133)  |  View (491)  |  Warily (2)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Why (490)

A cell has a history; its structure is inherited, it grows, divides, and, as in the embryo of higher animals, the products of division differentiate on complex lines. Living cells, moreover, transmit all that is involved in their complex heredity. I am far from maintaining that these fundamental properties may not depend upon organisation at levels above any chemical level; to understand them may even call for different methods of thought; I do not pretend to know. But if there be a hierarchy of levels we must recognise each one, and the physical and chemical level which, I would again say, may be the level of self-maintenance, must always have a place in any ultimate complete description.
'Some Aspects of Biochemistry', The Irish Journal of Medical Science (1932), 79, 346.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Call (768)  |  Cell (143)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Complete (205)  |  Complex (193)  |  Depend (231)  |  Different (579)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Divide (76)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embryo (29)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Grow (239)  |  Growth (194)  |  Heredity (60)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  History (685)  |  Inherit (33)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Involved (90)  |  Know (1522)  |  Living (492)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Physical (509)  |  Product (161)  |  Say (984)  |  Self (267)  |  Structure (351)  |  Thought (962)  |  Ultimate (149)  |  Understand (619)

A cell of a higher organism contains a thousand different substances, arranged in a complex system. This great organized system was not discovered by chemical or physical methods; they are inadequate to its refinement and delicacy and complexity.
'The Cell in Relation to its Environment', Journal of the Maryland Academy of Sciences (1931), 2, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Biochemistry (49)  |  Cell (143)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Complex (193)  |  Complexity (112)  |  Delicacy (8)  |  Different (579)  |  Discover (558)  |  Great (1577)  |  Inadequate (19)  |  Method (512)  |  Organism (223)  |  Physical (509)  |  Refinement (18)  |  Substance (249)  |  System (538)  |  Thousand (331)

A closer look at the course followed by developing theory reveals for a start that it is by no means as continuous as one might expect, but full of breaks and at least apparently not along the shortest logical path. Certain methods often afforded the most handsome results only the other day, and many might well have thought that the development of science to infinity would consist in no more than their constant application. Instead, on the contrary, they suddenly reveal themselves as exhausted and the attempt is made to find other quite disparate methods. In that event there may develop a struggle between the followers of the old methods and those of the newer ones. The former's point of view will be termed by their opponents as out-dated and outworn, while its holders in turn belittle the innovators as corrupters of true classical science.
In 'On the Development of the Methods of Theoretical Physics in Recent Times', Popul�re Schriften, Essay 14. Address (22 Sep 1899) to the Meeting of Natural Scientists at Munich. Collected in Brian McGuinness (ed.), Ludwig Boltzmann: Theoretical Physics and Philosophical Problems, Selected Writings (1974), 79.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Break (102)  |  Certain (551)  |  Classical (46)  |  Closer (43)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constant (144)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Contrary (142)  |  Course (410)  |  Develop (271)  |  Development (431)  |  Event (217)  |  Expect (201)  |  Find (1002)  |  Follow (381)  |  Former (137)  |  Handsome (4)  |  Infinity (92)  |  Look (581)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Men Of Science (145)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Old (482)  |  Opponent (20)  |  Other (2234)  |  Path (149)  |  Point (581)  |  Point Of View (83)  |  Result (684)  |  Reveal (149)  |  Shortest (16)  |  Start (225)  |  Struggle (108)  |  Suddenly (89)  |  Term (352)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thought (962)  |  Turn (449)  |  View (491)  |  Will (2354)

A comparison between the triplets tentatively deduced by these methods with the changes in amino acid sequence produced by mutation shows a fair measure of agreement.
In Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1962). Collected in Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962 (1964).
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Agreement (54)  |  Amino Acid (11)  |  Change (605)  |  Comparison (103)  |  Measure (236)  |  Method (512)  |  Mutation (38)  |  Produced (187)  |  Sequence (69)  |  Show (346)  |  Triplet (2)

A great part of its [higher arithmetic] theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by induction, and yet are of so profound a character that we cannot find the demonstrations till after many vain attempts; and even then, when we do succeed, it is often by some tedious and artificial process, while the simple methods may long remain concealed.
Quoted in H. Eves, Mathematical Circles (1977) .
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Character (246)  |  Charm (53)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Demonstration (116)  |  Derive (65)  |  Discover (558)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1002)  |  Great (1577)  |  Impress (65)  |  Induction (80)  |  Long (788)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Process (427)  |  Profound (104)  |  Proposition (123)  |  Remain (351)  |  Simple (410)  |  Simplicity (170)  |  Succeed (109)  |  Success (311)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Vain (85)

A noteworthy and often-remarked similarity exists between the facts and methods of geology and those of linguistic study. The science of language is, as it were, the geology of the most modern period, the Age of the Man, having for its task to construct the history of development of the earth and its inhabitants from the time when the proper geological record remains silent � The remains of ancient speech are like strata deposited in bygone ages, telling of the forms of life then existing, and of the circumstances which determined or affected them; while words are as rolled pebbles, relics of yet more ancient formations, or as fossils, whose grade indicates the progress of organic life, and whose resemblances and relations show the correspondence or sequence of the different strata; while, everywhere, extensive denudation has marred the completeness of the record, and rendered impossible a detailed exhibition of the whole course of development.
In Language and the Study of Language (1867), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (500)  |  Ancient (192)  |  Bygone (4)  |  Circumstance (136)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Construct (126)  |  Construction (112)  |  Correspondence (23)  |  Course (410)  |  Denudation (2)  |  Detail (147)  |  Development (431)  |  Different (579)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Exhibition (7)  |  Exist (445)  |  Extensive (33)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Form (965)  |  Formation (96)  |  Fossil (139)  |  Geology (226)  |  History (685)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Indicate (61)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Language (298)  |  Life (1818)  |  Man (2249)  |  Marred (3)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Organic (159)  |  Pebble (27)  |  Period (198)  |  Progress (481)  |  Proper (146)  |  Record (156)  |  Remain (351)  |  Render (94)  |  Resemblance (38)  |  Roll (40)  |  Sequence (69)  |  Show (346)  |  Similarity (31)  |  Speech (64)  |  Strata (36)  |  Stratum (10)  |  Study (666)  |  Task (149)  |  Time (1886)  |  Whole (740)  |  Word (629)

A physician�s subject of study is necessarily the patient, and his first field for observation is the hospital. But if clinical observation teaches him to know the form and course of diseases, it cannot suffice to make him understand their nature; to this end he must penetrate into the body to find which of the internal parts are injured in their functions. That is why dissection of cadavers and microscopic study of diseases were soon added to clinical observation. But to-day these various methods no longer suffice; we must push investigation further and, in analyzing the elementary phenomena of organic bodies, must compare normal with abnormal states. We showed elsewhere how incapable is anatomy alone to take account of vital phenenoma, and we saw that we must add study of all physico-chemical conditions which contribute necessary elements to normal or pathological manifestations of life. This simple suggestion already makes us feel that the laboratory of a physiologist-physician must be the most complicated of all laboratories, because he has to experiment with phenomena of life which are the most complex of all natural phenomena.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), as translated by Henry Copley Greene (1957), 140-141.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (193)  |  Alone (315)  |  Already (222)  |  Anatomy (73)  |  Body (543)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Clinical (17)  |  Compare (72)  |  Complex (193)  |  Complicated (115)  |  Condition (359)  |  Course (410)  |  Diagnosis (64)  |  Disease (334)  |  Dissection (34)  |  Doctor (189)  |  Element (311)  |  Elementary (96)  |  End (594)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Feel (365)  |  Field (369)  |  Find (1002)  |  First (1287)  |  Form (965)  |  Function (230)  |  Hospital (44)  |  Incapable (40)  |  Internal (67)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Know (1522)  |  Laboratory (200)  |  Life (1818)  |  Manifestation (58)  |  Method (512)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Most (1729)  |  Must (1526)  |  Natural (796)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Necessarily (135)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Observation (578)  |  Organic (159)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Patient (201)  |  Penetrate (67)  |  Physician (279)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Push (64)  |  Saw (160)  |  Show (346)  |  Simple (410)  |  Soon (186)  |  State (495)  |  Study (666)  |  Subject (529)  |  Suggestion (47)  |  Understand (619)  |  Various (201)  |  Vital (87)  |  Why (490)

According to the older view, for every single effect of a serum, there was a separate substance, or at least a particular chemical group... A normal serum contained as many different haemagglutinins as it agglutinated different cells. The situation was undoubtedly made much simpler if, to use the Ehrlich terminology... the separate haptophore groups can combine with an extremely large number of receptors in stepwise differing quantities as a stain does with different animal tissues, though not always with the same intensity. A normal serum would therefore visibly affect such a large number of different blood cells... not because it contained countless special substances, but because of the colloids of the serum, and therefore of the agglutinins by reason of their chemical constitution and the electrochemical properties resulting from it. That this manner of representation is a considerable simplification is clear; it also opens the way to direct experimental testing by the methods of structural chemistry.
'Die Theorien der Antikorperbildung ... ', Wiener klinische Wöchenschrift (1909), 22, 1623-1631. Trans. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Animal (627)  |  Blood (138)  |  Cell (143)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Colloid (5)  |  Combine (57)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Constitution (76)  |  Countless (37)  |  Different (579)  |  Direct (225)  |  Effect (398)  |  Electrochemical (4)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Large (396)  |  Method (512)  |  Number (703)  |  Open (274)  |  Reason (753)  |  Representation (54)  |  Separate (145)  |  Serum (11)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Single (357)  |  Situation (114)  |  Special (186)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (351)  |  Substance (249)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Tissue (46)  |  Use (768)  |  View (491)  |  Way (1214)

All children are curious and I wonder by what process this trait becomes developed in some and suppressed in others. I suspect again that schools and colleges help in the suppression insofar as they meet curiosity by giving the answers, rather than by some method that leads from narrower questions to broader questions. It is hard to satisfy the curiosity of a child, and even harder to satisfy the curiosity of a scientist, and methods that meet curiosity with satisfaction are thus not apt to foster the development of the child into the scientist. I don't advocate turning all children into professional scientists, although I think there would be advantages if all adults retained something of the questioning attitude, if their curiosity were less easily satisfied by dogma, of whatever variety.
The Nature of Natural History (1950, 1990), 256-257.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (136)  |  Advocate (20)  |  Answer (372)  |  Attitude (83)  |  Become (816)  |  Child (321)  |  Children (200)  |  College (70)  |  Curiosity (134)  |  Curious (92)  |  Develop (271)  |  Development (431)  |  Dogma (48)  |  Foster (12)  |  Hard (243)  |  Lead (388)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Process (427)  |  Professional (73)  |  Question (632)  |  Retain (57)  |  Satisfaction (74)  |  School (222)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Something (718)  |  Suppression (9)  |  Think (1093)  |  Variety (133)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Wonder (241)

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 (285)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Best (462)  |  Computer (127)  |  Current (119)  |  Discussion (76)  |  Economic (81)  |  Economics (43)  |  Generation (249)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (685)  |  Impact (42)  |  Last (426)  |  Man (2249)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Past (341)  |  Problem (699)  |  Science History (3)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Statistics (160)  |  Study (666)  |  Theory (987)  |  Tremendous (27)

Another diversity of Methods is according to the subject or matter which is handled; for there is a great difference in delivery of the Mathematics, which are the most abstracted of knowledges, and Policy, which is the most immersed ... , yet we see how that opinion, besides the weakness of it, hath been of ill desert towards learning, as that which taketh the way to reduce learning to certain empty and barren generalities; being but the very husks and shells of sciences, all the kernel being forced out and expulsed with the torture and press of the method.
Advancement of Learning, Book 2. In James Spedding, The Works of Francis Bacon (1863), Vol. 6, 292-293 . Peter Pe�ić, explains that 'By Mathematics, he had in mind a sterile and rigid scheme of logical classifications, called dichotomies in his time,' inLabyrinth: A Search for the Hidden Meaning of Science (2001), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (130)  |  According (236)  |  Barren (30)  |  Barrenness (2)  |  Being (1277)  |  Certain (551)  |  Delivery (6)  |  Desert (57)  |  Difference (342)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Empty (80)  |  Generality (45)  |  Great (1577)  |  Husk (4)  |  Kernel (4)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Learning (288)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Matter (804)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Opinion (285)  |  Policy (25)  |  Reduce (95)  |  See (1081)  |  Shell (65)  |  Subject (529)  |  Torture (29)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (49)

Anthropology has reached that point of development where the careful investigation of facts shakes our firm belief in the far-reaching theories that have been built up. The complexity of each phenomenon dawns on our minds, and makes us desirous of proceeding more cautiously. Heretofore we have seen the features common to all human thought. Now we begin to see their differences. We recognize that these are no less important than their similarities, and the value of detailed studies becomes apparent. Our aim has not changed, but our method must change. We are still searching for the laws that govern the growth of human culture, of human thought; but we recognize the fact that before we seek for what is common to all culture, we must analyze each culture by careful and exact methods, as the geologist analyzes the succession and order of deposits, as the biologist examines the forms of living matter. We see that the growth of human culture manifests itself in the growth of each special culture. Thus we have come to understand that before we can build up the theory of the growth of all human culture, we must know the growth of cultures that we find here and there among the most primitive tribes of the Arctic, of the deserts of Australia, and of the impenetrable forests of South America; and the progress of the civilization of antiquity and of our own times. We must, so far as we can, reconstruct the actual history of mankind, before we can hope to discover the laws underlying that history.
The Jesup North Pacific Expedition: Memoir of the American Museum of Natural History (1898), Vol. 1, 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (117)  |  Aim (167)  |  America (134)  |  Anthropology (60)  |  Antiquity (33)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Arctic (10)  |  Australia (9)  |  Become (816)  |  Begin (264)  |  Belief (590)  |  Biologist (69)  |  Build (204)  |  Change (605)  |  Civilization (212)  |  Common (438)  |  Complexity (112)  |  Culture (147)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Desert (57)  |  Desirous (2)  |  Detail (147)  |  Development (431)  |  Difference (342)  |  Discover (558)  |  Examine (81)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Find (1002)  |  Firm (47)  |  Forest (157)  |  Form (965)  |  Geologist (77)  |  Govern (65)  |  Growth (194)  |  History (685)  |  History Of Mankind (14)  |  Hope (307)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Culture (10)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Know (1522)  |  Law (902)  |  Living (492)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Matter (804)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Must (1526)  |  Order (633)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Point (581)  |  Primitive (77)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Progress (481)  |  Reach (283)  |  Recognize (128)  |  See (1081)  |  Seek (216)  |  Shake (42)  |  South (39)  |  South America (6)  |  Special (186)  |  Still (614)  |  Succession (77)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Tribe (23)  |  Underlying (30)  |  Understand (619)  |  Value (377)

Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in the state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number�there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method.
In paper delivered at a symposium on the Monte Carlo method. 'Various Techniques Used in Connection with Random Digits', Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, Appl. Math. Series, Vol. 3 (1951), 3, 36. Reprinted in John von Neumann: Collected Works (1963), Vol. 5, 700. Also often seen misquoted (?) as �Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.�
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Consider (417)  |  Course (410)  |  Method (512)  |  Number (703)  |  Point (581)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Produce (107)  |  Random (41)  |  Random Number (3)  |  Sin (42)  |  State (495)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1886)

Archimedes possessed so high a spirit, so profound a soul, and such treasures of highly scientific knowledge, that though these inventions [used to defend Syracuse against the Romans] had now obtained him the renown of more than human sagacity, he yet would not deign to leave behind him any commentary or writing on such subjects; but, repudiating as sordid and ignoble the whole trade of engineering, and every sort of art that lends itself to mere use and profit, he placed his whole affection and ambition in those purer speculations where there can be no reference to the vulgar needs of life; studies, the superiority of which to all others is unquestioned, and in which the only doubt can be whether the beauty and grandeur of the subjects examined, or the precision and cogency of the methods and means of proof, most deserve our admiration.
Plutarch
In John Dryden (trans.), Life of Marcellus.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (60)  |  Affection (43)  |  Against (332)  |  Ambition (45)  |  Archimedes (60)  |  Art (663)  |  Beauty (304)  |  Behind (138)  |  Commentary (3)  |  Defend (31)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Doubt (309)  |  Engineering (178)  |  Examine (81)  |  Grandeur (31)  |  High (365)  |  Highly (16)  |  Human (1479)  |  Ignoble (2)  |  Invention (385)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Leave (131)  |  Lend (4)  |  Life (1818)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Mere (83)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Need (295)  |  Obtain (163)  |  Other (2234)  |  Place (181)  |  Possess (156)  |  Precision (69)  |  Profit (54)  |  Profound (104)  |  Proof (297)  |  Pure (293)  |  Reference (33)  |  Renown (3)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Roman (38)  |  Sagacity (11)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Knowledge (10)  |  Sordid (3)  |  Sort (49)  |  Soul (231)  |  Speculation (131)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Study (666)  |  Subject (529)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Trade (34)  |  Treasure (57)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Use (768)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Whole (740)  |  Write (237)  |  Writing (191)

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 (13)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aim (167)  |  Belong (162)  |  Biochemistry (49)  |  Century (312)  |  Discipline (82)  |  Essential (201)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Furtherance (4)  |  Inheritance (34)  |  Last (426)  |  Living (492)  |  Mean (808)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (512)  |  Myself (212)  |  Obtain (163)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Pioneer (36)  |  Present (622)  |  Promise (68)  |  Small (481)  |  Success (311)  |  Tissue (46)  |  Ultimate (149)

As arithmetic and algebra are sciences of great clearness, certainty, and extent, which are immediately conversant about signs, upon the skilful use whereof they entirely depend, so a little attention to them may possibly help us to judge of the progress of the mind in other sciences, which, though differing in nature, design, and object, may yet agree in the general methods of proof and inquiry.
In Alciphron: or the Minute Philosopher, Dialogue 7, collected in The Works of George Berkeley D.D. (1784), Vol. 1, 621.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (26)  |  Algebra (115)  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Attention (193)  |  Certainty (175)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Conversant (6)  |  Depend (231)  |  Design (196)  |  Different (579)  |  Entire (48)  |  Extent (139)  |  General (513)  |  Great (1577)  |  Help (109)  |  Immediately (114)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Judge (109)  |  Little (707)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Object (427)  |  Other (2234)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Progress (481)  |  Proof (297)  |  Sign (59)  |  Skillful (16)  |  Use (768)

As for methods I have sought to give them all the rigour that one requires in geometry, so as never to have recourse to the reasons drawn from the generality of algebra.
In Cours d�analyse (1821), Preface, trans. Ivor Grattan-Guinness.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Method (512)  |  Never (1088)  |  Reason (753)  |  Require (222)  |  Rigour (21)

As soon as we touch the complex processes that go on in a living thing, be it plant or animal, we are at once forced to use the methods of this science [chemistry]. No longer will the microscope, the kymograph, the scalpel avail for the complete solution of the problem. For the further analysis of these phenomena which are in flux and flow, the investigator must associate himself with those who have labored in fields where molecules and atoms, rather than multicellular tissues or even unicellular organisms, are the units of study.
'Experimental and Chemical Studies of the Blood with an Appeal for More Extended Chemical Training for the Biological and Medical Investigator', Science (6 Aug 1915), 42, 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (238)  |  Animal (627)  |  Associate (25)  |  Atom (361)  |  Biochemistry (49)  |  Biology (220)  |  Cell (143)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Complete (205)  |  Complex (193)  |  Complexity (112)  |  Field (369)  |  Flow (84)  |  Flux (21)  |  Himself (461)  |  Investigator (67)  |  Labor (109)  |  Life (1818)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (512)  |  Microscope (83)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Multicellular (4)  |  Must (1526)  |  Organism (223)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Plant (310)  |  Problem (699)  |  Process (427)  |  Scalpel (4)  |  Solution (272)  |  Soon (186)  |  Study (666)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tissue (46)  |  Touch (144)  |  Use (768)  |  Will (2354)

At the beginning of its existence as a science, biology was forced to take cognizance of the seemingly boundless variety of living things, for no exact study of life phenomena was possible until the apparent chaos of the distinct kinds of organisms had been reduced to a rational system. Systematics and morphology, two predominantly descriptive and observational disciplines, took precedence among biological sciences during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. More recently physiology has come to the foreground, accompanied by the introduction of quantitative methods and by a shift from the observationalism of the past to a predominance of experimentation.
In Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937, 1982), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  18th Century (21)  |  19th Century (35)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Beginning (308)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (220)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Chaos (97)  |  Description (88)  |  Descriptive (17)  |  Discipline (82)  |  Distinct (97)  |  Existence (468)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Foreground (3)  |  Introduction (35)  |  Kind (559)  |  Life (1818)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Observation (578)  |  Observational (15)  |  Organism (223)  |  Past (341)  |  Physiology (98)  |  Possible (553)  |  Precedence (4)  |  Predominance (3)  |  Quantitative (30)  |  Rational (94)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Shift (44)  |  Study (666)  |  System (538)  |  Systematic (57)  |  Systematics (4)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Variety (133)

Attitudes are more important than abilities
Motives are more important than methods
Character is more important than cleverness,
And the Heart takes precedence over the head.
when asked to autograph his book
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (83)  |  Character (246)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Heart (232)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Motive (60)

Besides it is an error to believe that rigour is the enemy of simplicity. On the contrary we find it confirmed by numerous examples that the rigorous method is at the same time the simpler and the more easily comprehended. The very effort for rigor forces us to find out simpler methods of proof.
'Mathematical Problems', Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (Jul 1902), 8, 441.
Science quotes on:  |  Confirm (57)  |  Contrary (142)  |  Effort (230)  |  Enemy (83)  |  Error (334)  |  Find (1002)  |  Force (490)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Numerous (68)  |  Proof (297)  |  Rigor (29)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Simplicity (170)  |  Time (1886)

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.
Confucius
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 109
Science quotes on:  |  Bitter (30)  |  Easy (207)  |  Experience (480)  |  First (1287)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Learn (647)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Reflection (92)  |  Second (62)  |  Third (15)  |  Wisdom (227)

Chemistry affords two general methods of determining the constituent principles of bodies, the method of analysis, and that of synthesis. When, for instance, by combining water with alkohol, we form the species of liquor called, in commercial language, brandy or spirit of wine, we certainly have a right to conclude, that brandy, or spirit of wine, is composed of alkohol combined with water. We can produce the same result by the analytical method; and in general it ought to be considered as a principle in chemical science, never to rest satisfied without both these species of proofs. We have this advantage in the analysis of atmospherical air, being able both to decompound it, and to form it a new in the most satisfactory manner.
Elements of Chemistry (1790), trans. R. Kerr, 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (136)  |  Air (352)  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Atmosphere (107)  |  Being (1277)  |  Both (494)  |  Brandy (2)  |  Call (768)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Conclude (65)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Consider (417)  |  Constituent (45)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Form (965)  |  General (513)  |  Language (298)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  Principle (515)  |  Proof (297)  |  Rest (284)  |  Result (684)  |  Right (458)  |  Species (410)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (491)  |  Wine (38)

Chemistry is one of those branches of human knowledge which has built itself upon methods and instruments by which truth can presumably be determined. It has survived and grown because all its precepts and principles can be re-tested at any time and anywhere. So long as it remained the mysterious alchemy by which a few devotees, by devious and dubious means, presumed to change baser metals into gold, it did not flourish, but when it dealt with the fact that 56 g. of fine iron, when heated with 32 g. of flowers of sulfur, generated extra heat and gave exactly 88 g. of an entirely new substance, then additional steps could be taken by anyone. Scientific research in chemistry, since the birth of the balance and the thermometer, has been a steady growth of test and observation. It has disclosed a finite number of elementary reagents composing an infinite universe, and it is devoted to their inter-reaction for the benefit of mankind.
Address upon receiving the Perkin Medal Award, 'The Big Things in Chemistry', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Feb 1921), 13, No. 2, 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (30)  |  Balance (79)  |  Base (117)  |  Benefit (116)  |  Birth (149)  |  Branch (152)  |  Building (157)  |  Change (605)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Determination (77)  |  Devious (2)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotee (6)  |  Element (311)  |  Elementary (96)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Finite (60)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Flourishing (6)  |  Flower (108)  |  Gold (98)  |  Growth (194)  |  Heat (176)  |  Human (1479)  |  Infinite (234)  |  Instrument (147)  |  Inter (11)  |  Iron (97)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Long (788)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Metal (84)  |  Method (512)  |  Mysterious (81)  |  Mystery (182)  |  New (1239)  |  Number (703)  |  Observation (578)  |  Precept (10)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Principle (515)  |  Reaction (103)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Remain (351)  |  Research (728)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Steady (44)  |  Step (231)  |  Stoichiometry (2)  |  Substance (249)  |  Sulfur (5)  |  Sulphur (18)  |  Survival (99)  |  Test (214)  |  Thermometer (11)  |  Time (1886)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Universe (870)

Definition of Mathematics.�It has now become apparent that the traditional field of mathematics in the province of discrete and continuous number can only be separated from the general abstract theory of classes and relations by a wavering and indeterminate line. Of course a discussion as to the mere application of a word easily degenerates into the most fruitless logomachy. It is open to any one to use any word in any sense. But on the assumption that �mathematics� is to denote a science well marked out by its subject matter and its methods from other topics of thought, and that at least it is to include all topics habitually assigned to it, there is now no option but to employ �mathematics� in the general sense of the �science concerned with the logical deduction of consequences from the general premisses of all reasoning.�
In article 'Mathematics', Encyclopedia Britannica (1911, 11th ed.), Vol. 17, 880. In the 2006 DVD edition of the encyclopedia, the definition of mathematics is given as �The science of structure, order, and relation that has evolved from elemental practices of counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects.� [Premiss is a variant form of �premise�. �Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (130)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Application (248)  |  Assign (15)  |  Assumption (94)  |  Become (816)  |  Class (166)  |  Concern (230)  |  Consequence (208)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (410)  |  Deduction (84)  |  Definition (227)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Denote (6)  |  Discrete (11)  |  Discussion (76)  |  Employ (113)  |  Field (369)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  General (513)  |  Habitual (4)  |  Include (90)  |  Indeterminate (3)  |  Logic (294)  |  Mark (45)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Matter (804)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Number (703)  |  Open (274)  |  Option (10)  |  Other (2234)  |  Premise (37)  |  Province (35)  |  Reason (753)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Relation (159)  |  Sense (776)  |  Separate (145)  |  Subject (529)  |  Subject Matter (3)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thought (962)  |  Topic (21)  |  Traditional (15)  |  Use (768)  |  Waver (2)  |  Word (629)

Deprived, therefore, as regards this period, of any assistance from history, but relieved at the same time from the embarrassing interference of tradition, the archaeologist is free to follow the methods which have been so successfully pursued in geology�the rude bone and stone implements of bygone ages being to the one what the remains of extinct animals are to the other. The analogy may be pursued even further than this. Many mammalia which are extinct in Europe have representatives still living in other countries. Our fossil pachyderms, for instance, would be almost unintelligible but for the species which still inhabit some parts of Asia and Africa; the secondary marsupials are illustrated by their existing representatives in Australia and South America; and in the same manner, if we wish clearly to understand the antiquities of Europe, we must compare them with the rude implements and weapons still, or until lately, used by the savage races in other parts of the world. In fact, the Van Diemaner and South American are to the antiquary what the opossum and the sloth are to the geologist.
Pre-historic Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages, (2nd ed. 1869, 1890), 429-430.
Science quotes on:  |  Africa (35)  |  Age (500)  |  America (134)  |  Analogy (72)  |  Animal (627)  |  Antiquary (4)  |  Antiquity (33)  |  Archaeologist (17)  |  Assistance (22)  |  Australia (9)  |  Being (1277)  |  Bone (99)  |  Bygone (4)  |  Compare (72)  |  Europe (44)  |  Extinct (22)  |  Extinction (77)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Follow (381)  |  Fossil (139)  |  Free (234)  |  Geologist (77)  |  Geology (226)  |  History (685)  |  Implement (13)  |  Interference (22)  |  Living (492)  |  Marsupial (2)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Opossum (3)  |  Other (2234)  |  Period (198)  |  Race (270)  |  Regard (305)  |  Remain (351)  |  Savage (31)  |  Sloth (6)  |  South (39)  |  South America (6)  |  Species (410)  |  Still (614)  |  Stone (164)  |  Time (1886)  |  Tradition (72)  |  Understand (619)  |  Unintelligible (15)  |  Weapon (95)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wish (214)  |  World (1810)

Descriptive geometry has two objects: the first is to establish methods to represent on drawing paper which has only two dimensions,�namely, length and width,�all solids of nature which have three dimensions,�length, width, and depth,�provided, however, that these solids are capable of rigorous definition.
The second object is to furnish means to recognize accordingly an exact description of the forms of solids and to derive thereby all truths which result from their forms and their respective positions.
From On the Purpose of Descriptive Geometry as translated by Arnold Emch in David Eugene Smith, A Source Book in Mathematics (1929), 426.
Science quotes on:  |  Capable (168)  |  Definition (227)  |  Depth (94)  |  Derive (65)  |  Description (88)  |  Descriptive (17)  |  Descriptive Geometry (3)  |  Dimension (62)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Exact (68)  |  First (1287)  |  Form (965)  |  Furnish (96)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Length (23)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Object (427)  |  Paper (187)  |  Recognize (128)  |  Represent (154)  |  Result (684)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Solid (116)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Two (936)  |  Width (5)

Educators may bring upon themselves unnecessary travail by taking a tactless and unjustifiable position about the relation between scientific and religious narratives. � The point is that profound but contradictory ideas may exist side by side, if they are constructed from different materials and methods and have different purposes. Each tells us something important about where we stand in the universe, and it is foolish to insist that they must despise each other.
In The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Construct (126)  |  Contradictory (7)  |  Creationism (8)  |  Despise (15)  |  Different (579)  |  Educator (5)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Exist (445)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Idea (855)  |  Important (217)  |  Insist (20)  |  Material (356)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Narrative (7)  |  Other (2234)  |  Point (581)  |  Position (78)  |  Profound (104)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Relation (159)  |  Religious (129)  |  Science And Religion (327)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Side (233)  |  Side By Side (2)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (276)  |  Tell (341)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Travail (5)  |  Universe (870)  |  Unjustifiable (2)  |  Unnecessary (23)

Engineering is the art or science of utilizing, directing or instructing others in the utilization of the principles, forces, properties and substance of nature in the production, manufacture, construction, operation and use of things ... or of means, methods, machines, devices and structures ...
(1920}
Science quotes on:  |  Art (663)  |  Construction (112)  |  Device (70)  |  Direct (225)  |  Engineering (178)  |  Force (490)  |  Instruction (96)  |  Machine (263)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Operation (213)  |  Other (2234)  |  Principle (515)  |  Production (185)  |  Property (170)  |  Structure (351)  |  Substance (249)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (768)  |  Utilization (15)  |  Utilize (9)

Eratosthenes of Cyrene, employing mathematical theories and geometrical methods, discovered from the course of the sun, the shadows cast by an equinoctial gnomon, and the inclination of the heaven that the circumference of the earth is two hundred and fifty-two thousand stadia, that is, thirty-one million five hundred thousand paces.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 1, Chap 6, Sec. 9. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 27-28.
Science quotes on:  |  Cast (67)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Course (410)  |  Discover (558)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Eratosthenes (6)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Heaven (259)  |  Hundred (231)  |  Inclination (34)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Pace (14)  |  Shadow (72)  |  Sun (392)  |  Thousand (331)  |  Two (936)

Essentially only one thing in life interests us: our psychical constitution, the mechanism of which was and is wrapped in darkness. All human resources, art, religion, literature, philosophy and historical sciences, all of them join in bringing lights in this darkness. But man has still another powerful resource: natural science with its strictly objective methods. This science, as we all know, is making huge progress every day. The facts and considerations which I have placed before you at the end of my lecture are one out of numerous attempts to employ a consistent, purely scientific method of thinking in the study of the mechanism of the highest manifestations of life in the dog, the representative of the animal kingdom that is man's best friend.
'Physiology of Digestion', Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1904). In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1901-1921 (1967), 134
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Animal Kingdom (20)  |  Art (663)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Best (462)  |  Best Friend (4)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (48)  |  Constitution (76)  |  Darkness (70)  |  Dog (70)  |  Employ (113)  |  Employment (32)  |  End (594)  |  Essential (201)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Friend (169)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (685)  |  Human (1479)  |  Interest (399)  |  Kingdom (79)  |  Know (1522)  |  Lecture (106)  |  Life (1818)  |  Light (617)  |  Literature (108)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2249)  |  Manifestation (58)  |  Mechanism (98)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Science (128)  |  Numerous (68)  |  Objective (92)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Progress (481)  |  Psychology (159)  |  Purely (110)  |  Religion (365)  |  Representative (14)  |  Resource (65)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Still (614)  |  Strictness (2)  |  Study (666)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Wrap (7)

Everywhere science is enriched by unscientific methods and unscientific results, ... the separation of science and non-science is not only artificial but also detrimental to the advancement of knowledge. If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a small selection of them.
Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge (1975), 305-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (62)  |  Enrich (24)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Idea (855)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Master (179)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Physical (509)  |  Result (684)  |  Selection (128)  |  Separation (58)  |  Small (481)  |  Understand (619)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Unscientific (13)  |  Use (768)  |  Want (497)

For just as musical instruments are brought to perfection of clearness in the sound of their strings by means of bronze plates or horn sounding boards, so the ancients devised methods of increasing the power of the voice in theaters through the application of the science of harmony.
Vitruvius
In Vitruvius Pollio and Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), 'Book V: Chapter III', Vitruvius, the Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 139. From the original Latin, �Ergo veteres Architecti, naturae vestigia persecuti, indagationibus vocis scandentes theatrorum perfecerunt gradationes: & quaesiuerunt per canonicam mathematicorum,& musicam rationem, ut quaecunq; vox effet in scena, clarior & suauior ad spectatorum perueniret aures. Uti enim organa in aeneis laminis, aut corneis, diesi ad chordarum sonituum claritatem perficiuntur: sic theatrorum, per harmonicen ad augendam vocem, ratiocinationes ab antiquis sunt constitutae.� In De Architectura libri decem (1552), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Acoustics (4)  |  Ancient (192)  |  Application (248)  |  Board (12)  |  Bronze (5)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Devise (14)  |  Harmonic (4)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Horn (18)  |  Increase (214)  |  Instrument (147)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Music (132)  |  Perfection (130)  |  Plate (6)  |  Power (755)  |  Science And Art (191)  |  Sound (186)  |  String (21)  |  Through (847)  |  Voice (54)

For the holy Bible and the phenomena of nature proceed alike from the divine Word, the former as the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the latter as the observant executrix of God's commands. It is necessary for the Bible, in order to be accommodated to the understanding of every man, to speak many things which appear to differ from the absolute truth so far as the bare meaning of the words is concerned. But Nature, on the other hand, is inexorable and immutable; she never transgresses the laws imposed upon her, or cares a whit whether her abstruse reasons and methods of operation are understandable to men. For that reason it appears that nothing physical which sense-experience sets before our eyes, or which necessary demonstrations prove to us, ought to be called in question (much less condemned) upon the testimony of biblical passages which may have some different meaning beneath their words.
Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany: Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science (1615), trans. Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), 182-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (148)  |  Abstruse (10)  |  Alike (60)  |  Bare (33)  |  Beneath (64)  |  Call (768)  |  Care (195)  |  Command (58)  |  Concern (230)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Demonstration (116)  |  Differ (85)  |  Different (579)  |  Divine (112)  |  Experience (480)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Eye (427)  |  Former (137)  |  Ghost (36)  |  God (762)  |  Holy (34)  |  Immutable (25)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Law (902)  |  Man (2249)  |  Meaning (237)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Never (1088)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Observation (578)  |  Operation (213)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Passage (50)  |  Physical (509)  |  Proceed (130)  |  Prove (253)  |  Question (632)  |  Reason (753)  |  Sense (776)  |  Set (395)  |  Speak (234)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Understandable (12)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Word (629)

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 (307)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Last (426)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Other (2234)  |  Resort (8)  |  Statistics (160)

From the intensity of the spots near the centre, we can infer that the protein molecules are relatively dense globular bodies, perhaps joined together by valency bridges, but in any event separated by relatively large spaces which contain water. From the intensity of the more distant spots, it can be inferred that the arrangement of atoms inside the protein molecule is also of a perfectly definite kind, although without the periodicities characterising the fibrous proteins. The observations are compatible with oblate spheroidal molecules of diameters about 25 A. and 35 A., arranged in hexagonal screw-axis. ... At this stage, such ideas are merely speculative, but now that a crystalline protein has been made to give X-ray photographs, it is clear that we have the means of checking them and, by examining the structure of all crystalline proteins, arriving at a far more detailed conclusion about protein structure than previous physical or chemical methods have been able to give.
'X-Ray Photographs of Crystalline Pepsin', Nature (1934), 133, 795.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (92)  |  Atom (361)  |  Bridge (47)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Definite (110)  |  Detail (147)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Event (217)  |  Idea (855)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Kind (559)  |  Large (396)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  Molecule (176)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (578)  |  Physical (509)  |  Protein (54)  |  Ray (114)  |  Screw (17)  |  Space (504)  |  Stage (145)  |  Structure (351)  |  Together (389)  |  Valency (4)  |  Water (491)  |  X-ray (38)  |  X-ray Crystallography (12)

Generality of points of view and of methods, precision and elegance in presentation, have become, since Lagrange, the common property of all who would lay claim to the rank of scientific mathematicians. And, even if this generality leads at times to abstruseness at the expense of intuition and applicability, so that general theorems are formulated which fail to apply to a single special case, if furthermore precision at times degenerates into a studied brevity which makes it more difficult to read an article than it was to write it; if, finally, elegance of form has well-nigh become in our day the criterion of the worth or worthlessness of a proposition,�yet are these conditions of the highest importance to a wholesome development, in that they keep the scientific material within the limits which are necessary both intrinsically and extrinsically if mathematics is not to spend itself in trivialities or smother in profusion.
In Die Entwickdung der Mathematik in den letzten Jahrhunderten (1884), 14-15.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (10)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Apply (163)  |  Article (22)  |  Become (816)  |  Both (494)  |  Brevity (8)  |  Claim (149)  |  Common (438)  |  Condition (359)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Development (431)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Elegance (38)  |  Expense (17)  |  Fail (186)  |  Form (965)  |  Formulate (15)  |  General (513)  |  Generality (45)  |  Importance (292)  |  Intrinsic (18)  |  Intuition (79)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lead (388)  |  Limit (284)  |  Material (356)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Point (581)  |  Point Of View (83)  |  Precision (69)  |  Presentation (23)  |  Profusion (3)  |  Property (170)  |  Proposition (123)  |  Rank (68)  |  Read (294)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Single (357)  |  Smother (3)  |  Special (186)  |  Special Case (9)  |  Spend (96)  |  Study (666)  |  Theorem (113)  |  Time (1886)  |  Triviality (3)  |  View (491)  |  Wholesome (12)  |  Worth (170)  |  Worthless (22)  |  Write (237)

Genuine religion has its root deep down in the heart of humanity and in the reality of things. It is not surprising that by our methods we fail to grasp it: the actions of the Deity make no appeal to any special sense, only a universal appeal; and our methods are, as we know, incompetent to detect complete uniformity. There is a principle of Relativity here, and unless we encounter flaw or jar or change, nothing in us responds; we are deaf and blind therefore to the Immanent Grandeur, unless we have insight enough to recognise in the woven fabric of existence, flowing steadily from the loom in an infinite progress towards perfection, the ever-growing garment of a transcendent God.
Continuity: The Presidential Address to the British Association (1913), 92-93.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (331)  |  Blind (98)  |  Change (605)  |  Complete (205)  |  Deep (233)  |  Deity (22)  |  Detect (44)  |  Down (455)  |  Enough (341)  |  Existence (468)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Fail (186)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Garment (13)  |  Genuine (52)  |  God (762)  |  Grandeur (31)  |  Growing (98)  |  Heart (232)  |  Humanity (175)  |  Infinite (234)  |  Insight (103)  |  Know (1522)  |  Loom (20)  |  Method (512)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Perfection (130)  |  Principle (515)  |  Progress (481)  |  Reality (266)  |  Relativity (88)  |  Religion (365)  |  Root (121)  |  Sense (776)  |  Special (186)  |  Surprise (86)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Universal (191)

Geometric writings are not rare in which one would seek in vain for an idea at all novel, for a result which sooner or later might be of service, for anything in fact which might be destined to survive in the science; and one finds instead treatises on trivial problems or investigations on special forms which have absolutely no use, no importance, which have their origin not in the science itself but in the caprice of the author; or one finds applications of known methods which have already been made thousands of times; or generalizations from known results which are so easily made that the knowledge of the latter suffices to give at once the former. Now such work is not merely useless; it is actually harmful because it produces a real incumbrance in the science and an embarrassment for the more serious investigators; and because often it crowds out certain lines of thought which might well have deserved to be studied.
From 'On Some Recent Tendencies in Geometric Investigations', Rivista di Matematica (1891), 43. In Bulletin American Mathematical Society (1904), 443.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (222)  |  Application (248)  |  Author (169)  |  Caprice (9)  |  Certain (551)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Destined (42)  |  Embarrassment (5)  |  Encumbrance (5)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Find (1002)  |  Form (965)  |  Former (137)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Harmful (12)  |  Idea (855)  |  Importance (292)  |  In Vain (11)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Investigator (67)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Known (451)  |  Latter (21)  |  Line Of Thought (2)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Novel (33)  |  Origin (242)  |  Problem (699)  |  Rare (90)  |  Result (684)  |  Seek (216)  |  Serious (94)  |  Service (110)  |  Sooner Or Later (6)  |  Special (186)  |  Study (666)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Survive (81)  |  Thought (962)  |  Thousand (331)  |  Time (1886)  |  Treatise (44)  |  Trivial (58)  |  Use (768)  |  Useless (36)  |  Vain (85)  |  Work (1368)  |  Writing (191)

God pity the man of science who believes in nothing but what he can prove by scientific methods; for if ever a human being needed divine pity, he does.
Every-Day Topics, a Book of Briefs (1882), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1277)  |  Belief (590)  |  Divine (112)  |  God (762)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Being (178)  |  Man (2249)  |  Men Of Science (145)  |  Method (512)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Prove (253)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)

Good methods can teach us to develop and use to better purpose the faculties with which nature has endowed us, while poor methods may prevent us from turning them to good account. Thus the genius of inventiveness, so precious in the sciences, may be diminished or even smothered by a poor method, while a good method may increase and develop it.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (193)  |  Better (485)  |  Develop (271)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Genius (296)  |  Good (893)  |  Increase (214)  |  Inventiveness (7)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Poor (136)  |  Precious (42)  |  Prevent (96)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Smother (3)  |  Teach (281)  |  Use (768)

He who seeks for methods without having a definite problem in mind seeks for the most part in vain.
'Mathematical Problems', Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (Jul 1902), 8, 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Definite (110)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Most (1729)  |  Problem (699)  |  Seek (216)  |  Vain (85)

He [Lord Bacon] appears to have been utterly ignorant of the discoveries which had just been made by Kepler�s calculations � he does not say a word about Napier�s Logarithms, which had been published only nine years before and reprinted more than once in the interval. He complained that no considerable advance had been made in Geometry beyond Euclid, without taking any notice of what had been done by Archimedes and Apollonius. He saw the importance of determining accurately the specific gravities of different substances, and himself attempted to form a table of them by a rude process of his own, without knowing of the more scientific though still imperfect methods previously employed by Archimedes, Ghetaldus and Porta. He speaks of the εὕρηκα of Archimedes in a manner which implies that he did not clearly appreciate either the problem to be solved or the principles upon which the solution depended. In reviewing the progress of Mechanics, he makes no mention either of Archimedes, or Stevinus, Galileo, Guldinus, or Ghetaldus. He makes no allusion to the theory of Equilibrium. He observes that a ball of one pound weight will fall nearly as fast through the air as a ball of two, without alluding to the theory of acceleration of falling bodies, which had been made known by Galileo more than thirty years before. He proposed an inquiry with regard to the lever,�namely, whether in a balance with arms of different length but equal weight the distance from the fulcrum has any effect upon the inclination�though the theory of the lever was as well understood in his own time as it is now. � He speaks of the poles of the earth as fixed, in a manner which seems to imply that he was not acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes; and in another place, of the north pole being above and the south pole below, as a reason why in our hemisphere the north winds predominate over the south.
From Spedding�s 'Preface' to De Interpretations Naturae Pro�mium, in The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 3, 511-512. [Note: the Greek word �εὕρηκα� is �Eureka� �Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Accurate (87)  |  Advance (285)  |  Air (352)  |  Apollonius (6)  |  Appreciate (63)  |  Archimedes (60)  |  Arm (81)  |  Arms (37)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (185)  |  Balance (79)  |  Ball (62)  |  Being (1277)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Body (543)  |  Calculation (131)  |  Complain (8)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Depend (231)  |  Determine (145)  |  Different (579)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Distance (165)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Effect (398)  |  Employ (113)  |  Equal (85)  |  Equilibrium (33)  |  Equinox (5)  |  Euclid (54)  |  Eureka (12)  |  Fall (235)  |  Fast (45)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Form (965)  |  Fulcrum (3)  |  Galileo Galilei (129)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Hemisphere (5)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorant (90)  |  Imperfect (45)  |  Importance (292)  |  Inclination (34)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Johannes Kepler (93)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Known (451)  |  Length (23)  |  Lever (13)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Lord (95)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mechanic (119)  |  Mechanics (132)  |  Mention (82)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  John Napier (4)  |  Nearly (137)  |  North Pole (5)  |  North Wind (2)  |  Notice (78)  |  Observe (169)  |  Pole (48)  |  Pound (14)  |  Precession (4)  |  Predominate (7)  |  Principle (515)  |  Problem (699)  |  Process (427)  |  Progress (481)  |  Reason (753)  |  Regard (305)  |  Saw (160)  |  Say (984)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Solution (272)  |  Solve (136)  |  South (39)  |  South Pole (3)  |  Speak (234)  |  Specific (95)  |  Specific Gravity (2)  |  Still (614)  |  Substance (249)  |  Table (104)  |  Theory (987)  |  Through (847)  |  Time (1886)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (619)  |  Understood (156)  |  Weight (136)  |  Why (490)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wind (135)  |  Word (629)  |  Year (935)

HEART, n. An automatic, muscular blood- pump. Figuratively, this useful organ is said to be the seat of emotions and sentiments�a very pretty fancy which, however, is nothing but a survival of a once universal belief. It is now known that the sentiments and emotions reside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action of the gastric fluid. The exact process by which a beefsteak becomes a feeling�tender or not, according to the age of the animal from which it was cut; the successive stages of elaboration through which a caviar sandwich is transmuted to a quaint fancy and reappears as a pungent epigram; the marvelous functional methods of converting a hard-boiled egg into religious contrition, or a cream-puff into a sigh of sensibility�these things have been patiently ascertained by M. Pasteur, and by him expounded with convincing lucidity.�
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,� 133-134.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Action (331)  |  Age (500)  |  Animal (627)  |  Ascertain (39)  |  Become (816)  |  Being (1277)  |  Belief (590)  |  Blood (138)  |  Boil (24)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Cut (114)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Egg (70)  |  Elaboration (11)  |  Emotion (102)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Feeling (254)  |  Fluid (53)  |  Food (202)  |  Gastric (3)  |  Hard (243)  |  Heart (232)  |  Humour (116)  |  Known (451)  |  Lucidity (7)  |  Marvelous (29)  |  Method (512)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Organ (117)  |  Louis Pasteur (83)  |  Process (427)  |  Quaint (7)  |  Religious (129)  |  Reside (25)  |  Stage (145)  |  Stomach (39)  |  Successive (73)  |  Survival (99)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (847)  |  Universal (191)  |  Useful (253)

Historical science is not worse, more restricted, or less capable of achieving firm conclusions because experiment, prediction, and subsumption under invariant laws of nature do not represent its usual working methods. The sciences of history use a different mode of explanation, rooted in the comparative and observational richness in our data. We cannot see a past event directly, but science is usually based on inference, not unvarnished observation (you don�t see electrons, gravity, or black holes either).
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (69)  |  Badly (32)  |  Base (117)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Black Holes (4)  |  Capable (168)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Data (160)  |  Different (579)  |  Directly (23)  |  Do (1905)  |  Electron (95)  |  Event (217)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Explanation (238)  |  Firm (47)  |  Gravity (134)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (685)  |  Inference (45)  |  Invariant (10)  |  Law (902)  |  Less (103)  |  Method (512)  |  Mode (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Observation (578)  |  Observational (15)  |  Past (341)  |  Prediction (86)  |  Represent (154)  |  Restrict (12)  |  Richness (14)  |  Root (121)  |  See (1081)  |  Subsumption (3)  |  Unvarnished (2)  |  Use (768)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1368)

I am convinced that it is impossible to expound the methods of induction in a sound manner, without resting them upon the theory of probability. Perfect knowledge alone can give certainty, and in nature perfect knowledge would be infinite knowledge, which is clearly beyond our capacities. We have, therefore, to content ourselves with partial knowledge�knowledge mingled with ignorance, producing doubt.
The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method, 2nd edition (1877), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (155)  |  Alone (315)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Certainty (175)  |  Doubt (309)  |  Ignorance (246)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Induction (80)  |  Infinite (234)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Ourselves (246)  |  Perfect (218)  |  Probability (133)  |  Sound (186)  |  Theory (987)

I believe that the useful methods of mathematics are easily to be learned by quite young persons, just as languages are easily learned in youth. What a wondrous philosophy and history underlie the use of almost every word in every language�yet the child learns to use the word unconsciously. No doubt when such a word was first invented it was studied over and lectured upon, just as one might lecture now upon the idea of a rate, or the use of Cartesian co-ordinates, and we may depend upon it that children of the future will use the idea of the calculus, and use squared paper as readily as they now cipher. � When Egyptian and Chaldean philosophers spent years in difficult calculations, which would now be thought easy by young children, doubtless they had the same notions of the depth of their knowledge that Sir William Thomson might now have of his. How is it, then, that Thomson gained his immense knowledge in the time taken by a Chaldean philosopher to acquire a simple knowledge of arithmetic? The reason is plain. Thomson, when a child, was taught in a few years more than all that was known three thousand years ago of the properties of numbers. When it is found essential to a boy�s future that machinery should be given to his brain, it is given to him; he is taught to use it, and his bright memory makes the use of it a second nature to him; but it is not till after-life that he makes a close investigation of what there actually is in his brain which has enabled him to do so much. It is taken because the child has much faith. In after years he will accept nothing without careful consideration. The machinery given to the brain of children is getting more and more complicated as time goes on; but there is really no reason why it should not be taken in as early, and used as readily, as were the axioms of childish education in ancient Chaldea.
In Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (193)  |  Acquire (42)  |  Actually (27)  |  Afterlife (3)  |  Ancient (192)  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Axiom (63)  |  Belief (590)  |  Boy (96)  |  Brain (276)  |  Bright (79)  |  Calculation (131)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Careful (24)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Chaldea (3)  |  Child (321)  |  Childish (20)  |  Children (200)  |  Cipher (2)  |  Close (69)  |  Complicated (115)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Coordinate (5)  |  Depend (231)  |  Depth (94)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (309)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Early (190)  |  Easily (35)  |  Easy (207)  |  Education (396)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Enable (119)  |  Essential (201)  |  Faith (206)  |  Find (1002)  |  First (1287)  |  Future (446)  |  Gain (146)  |  Give (201)  |  History (685)  |  Idea (855)  |  Immense (86)  |  Invent (53)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (72)  |  Know (1522)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Known (451)  |  Language (298)  |  Learn (647)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (106)  |  Life (1818)  |  Machinery (57)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Memory (138)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Notion (117)  |  Number (703)  |  Paper (187)  |  Person (363)  |  Philosopher (262)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Plain (33)  |  Property (170)  |  Rate (29)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reason (753)  |  Same (157)  |  Second Nature (3)  |  Simple (410)  |  Spend (96)  |  Spent (85)  |  Square (72)  |  Study (666)  |  Teach (281)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Thought (962)  |  Thousand (331)  |  Time (1886)  |  Unconsciously (8)  |  Underlie (18)  |  Use (768)  |  Useful (253)  |  Why (490)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wondrous (21)  |  Word (629)  |  Year (935)  |  Young (235)  |  Youth (105)

I conclude that, while it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
Religion and Science (1935), 243.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Conclude (65)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Decision (93)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Falsehood (28)  |  Intellect (239)  |  Know (1522)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Lie (363)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Outside (141)  |  Question (632)  |  Realm (86)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Value (377)  |  Whatever (234)

I consider [H. G. Wells], as a purely imaginative writer, to be deserving of very high praise, but our methods are entirely different. I have always made a point in my romances of basing my so-called inventions upon a groundwork of actual fact, and of using in their construction methods and materials which are not entirely without the pale of contemporary engineering skill and knowledge. ... The creations of Mr. Wells, on the other hand, belong unreservedly to an age and degree of scientific knowledge far removed from the present, though I will not say entirely beyond the limits of the possible.
Gordon Jones, 'Jules Verne at Home', Temple Bar (Jun 1904), 129, 670.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (117)  |  Age (500)  |  Belong (162)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Call (768)  |  Consider (417)  |  Construction (112)  |  Creation (338)  |  Degree (276)  |  Different (579)  |  Engineering (178)  |  Fact (1227)  |  High (365)  |  Invention (385)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Limit (284)  |  Material (356)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Point (581)  |  Possible (553)  |  Present (622)  |  Purely (110)  |  Romance (17)  |  Say (984)  |  Science Fiction (31)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Skill (114)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Herbert George (H.G.) Wells (39)  |  Will (2354)  |  Writer (88)

I do not think we can impose limits on research. Through hundreds of thousands of years, man�s intellectual curiosity has been essential to all the gains we have made. Although in recent times we have progressed from chance and hit-or-miss methods to consciously directed research, we still cannot know in advance what the results may be. It would be regressive and dangerous to trammel the free search for new forms of truth.
In Margaret Mead and Rhoda Bubendey M�traux (ed.), Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (285)  |  Chance (240)  |  Conscious (45)  |  Curiosity (134)  |  Dangerous (106)  |  Direct (225)  |  Directed (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Essential (201)  |  Form (965)  |  Free (234)  |  Gain (146)  |  Hit (20)  |  Hundred (231)  |  Impose (22)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Know (1522)  |  Limit (284)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Miss (51)  |  New (1239)  |  Progress (481)  |  Recent (77)  |  Research (728)  |  Result (684)  |  Search (165)  |  Still (614)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thousand (331)  |  Through (847)  |  Time (1886)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Year (935)

I have been described on more than one occasion as belonging to something called the 'Functional School of Social Anthropology' and even as being its leader, or one of its leaders. This Functional School does not really exist; it is a myth invented by Professor Malinowski ... There is no place in natural science for 'schools' in this sense, and I regard social anthropology as a branch of natural science. ... I conceive of social anthropology as the theoretical natural science of human society, that is, the investigation of social phenomena by methods essentially similar to those used in the physical and biological sciences. I am quite willing to call the subject 'comparative sociology', if anyone so wishes.
In A. Kuper, Anthropologists and Anthropology: The Modern British School (1983), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropology (60)  |  Being (1277)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Biography (248)  |  Biological (137)  |  Branch (152)  |  Call (768)  |  Conceive (99)  |  Exist (445)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Society (13)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Leader (45)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Myth (56)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Science (128)  |  Occasion (85)  |  Physical (509)  |  Professor (129)  |  Regard (305)  |  School (222)  |  Sense (776)  |  Social (257)  |  Society (333)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Something (718)  |  Subject (529)  |  Willing (44)

I have often thought that an interesting essay might be written on the influence of race on the selection of mathematical methods. methods. The Semitic races had a special genius for arithmetic and algebra, but as far as I know have never produced a single geometrician of any eminence. The Greeks on the other hand adopted a geometrical procedure wherever it was possible, and they even treated arithmetic as a branch of geometry by means of the device of representing numbers by lines.
In A History of the Study of Mathematics at Cambridge (1889), 123
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Branch (152)  |  Device (70)  |  Eminence (24)  |  Essay (27)  |  Genius (296)  |  Geometrician (6)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Greek (108)  |  Influence (224)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Know (1522)  |  Line (93)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Never (1088)  |  Number (703)  |  On The Other Hand (37)  |  Other (2234)  |  Possible (553)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Produced (187)  |  Race (270)  |  Represent (154)  |  Selection (128)  |  Single (357)  |  Special (186)  |  Thought (962)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Write (237)

I have tried to read philosophers of all ages and have found many illuminating ideas but no steady progress toward deeper knowledge and understanding. Science, however, gives me the feeling of steady progress: I am convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy. It has revolutionized fundamental concepts, e.g., about space and time (relativity), about causality (quantum theory), and about substance and matter (atomistics), and it has taught us new methods of thinking (complementarity) which are applicable far beyond physics.
Max Born
My Life & My Views (1968), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (117)  |  Age (500)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Causality (11)  |  Complementarity (5)  |  Concept (223)  |  Feeling (254)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Idea (855)  |  Illuminating (12)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Matter (804)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Philosopher (262)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physics (539)  |  Progress (481)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Physics (18)  |  Quantum Theory (66)  |  Read (294)  |  Relativity (88)  |  Space (504)  |  Space And Time (36)  |  Space-Time (19)  |  Steady (44)  |  Substance (249)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1886)  |  Understanding (525)

I presume that few who have paid any attention to the history of the Mathematical Analysis, will doubt that it has been developed in a certain order, or that that order has been, to a great extent, necessary�being determined, either by steps of logical deduction, or by the successive introduction of new ideas and conceptions, when the time for their evolution had arrived. And these are the causes that operate in perfect harmony. Each new scientific conception gives occasion to new applications of deductive reasoning; but those applications may be only possible through the methods and the processes which belong to an earlier stage.
Explaining his choice for the exposition in historical order of the topics in A Treatise on Differential Equations (1859), Preface, v-vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (238)  |  Application (248)  |  Attention (193)  |  Being (1277)  |  Belong (162)  |  Cause (547)  |  Certain (551)  |  Conception (154)  |  Deduction (84)  |  Develop (271)  |  Development (431)  |  Doubt (309)  |  Earlier (9)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Extent (139)  |  Great (1577)  |  Harmony (105)  |  History (685)  |  Idea (855)  |  Introduction (35)  |  Logic (294)  |  Mathematical Analysis (20)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Necessity (193)  |  New (1239)  |  Occasion (85)  |  Order (633)  |  Perfect (218)  |  Possible (553)  |  Process (427)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Stage (145)  |  Step (231)  |  Successive (73)  |  Through (847)  |  Time (1886)  |  Will (2354)

I regarded as quite useless the reading of large treatises of pure analysis: too large a number of methods pass at once before the eyes. It is in the works of application that one must study them; one judges their utility there and appraises the manner of making use of them.
As reported by J. F. Maurice in Moniteur Universel (1814), 228.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (238)  |  Application (248)  |  Eye (427)  |  Judge (109)  |  Large (396)  |  Making (300)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Number (703)  |  Pass (238)  |  Pure (293)  |  Reading (136)  |  Regard (305)  |  Study (666)  |  Treatise (44)  |  Use (768)  |  Utility (49)  |  Work (1368)

I respect Kirkpatrick both for his sponges and for his numinous nummulosphere. It is easy to dismiss a crazy theory with laughter that debars any attempt to understand a man�s motivation�and the nummulosphere is a crazy theory. I find that few men of imagination are not worth my attention. Their ideas may be wrong, even foolish, but their methods often repay a close study ... The different drummer often beats a fruitful tempo.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (253)  |  Attention (193)  |  Beat (41)  |  Both (494)  |  Close (69)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Debar (2)  |  Different (579)  |  Dismiss (11)  |  Drummer (3)  |  Easy (207)  |  Find (1002)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Fruitful (60)  |  Idea (855)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Laughter (32)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Motivation (27)  |  Often (107)  |  Repay (3)  |  Respect (210)  |  Sponge (9)  |  Study (666)  |  Tempo (3)  |  Theory (987)  |  Understand (619)  |  Worth (170)  |  Wrong (236)

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 (438)  |  Discover (558)  |  Follow (381)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Instinct (90)  |  Integral (26)  |  Integral Calculus (7)  |  Integration (20)  |  Large (396)  |  Last (426)  |  Metaphysics (51)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Planning (21)  |  Pleasure (188)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Result (684)  |  Route (15)  |  See (1081)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Succeed (109)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Why (490)  |  Work (1368)

If I had my life to live over again I would not devote it to develop new industrial processes: I would try to add my humble efforts to use Science to the betterment of the human race.
I despair of the helter-skelter methods of our vaulted homo sapiens, misguided by his ignorance and his politicians. If we continue our ways, there is every possibility that the human race may follow the road of former living races of animals whose fossils proclaim that they were not fit to continue. Religion, laws and morals is not enough. We need more. Science can help us.
Letter to a friend (14 Jan 1934). In Savage Grace (1985, 2007), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Betterment (4)  |  Continue (168)  |  Despair (40)  |  Develop (271)  |  Devotion (36)  |  Effort (230)  |  Enough (341)  |  Extinction (77)  |  Fit (135)  |  Follow (381)  |  Former (137)  |  Fossil (139)  |  Help (109)  |  Helter-Skelter (2)  |  Homo Sapiens (23)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Race (103)  |  Humble (52)  |  Humility (28)  |  Ignorance (246)  |  Industry (146)  |  Law (902)  |  Life (1818)  |  Live (635)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (512)  |  Misguiding (2)  |  Moral (198)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (295)  |  New (1239)  |  Politician (39)  |  Possibility (166)  |  Process (427)  |  Proclaim (30)  |  Race (270)  |  Religion (365)  |  Try (284)  |  Use (768)  |  Way (1214)

If it were possible for a metaphysician to be a golfer, he might perhaps occasionally notice that his ball, instead of moving forward in a vertical plane (like the generality of projectiles, such as brickbats and cricket balls), skewed away gradually to the right. If he did notice it, his methods would naturally lead him to content himself with his caddies�s remark-�ye heeled that yin,� or �Ye jist sliced it.� � But a scientific man is not to be put off with such flimsy verbiage as that. He must know more. What is �Heeling�, what is �slicing�, and why would either operation (if it could be thoroughly carried out) send a ball as if to cover point, thence to long slip, and finally behind back-stop? These, as Falstaff said, are �questions to be asked.�
In 'The Unwritten Chapter on Golf, Nature (1887), 36, 502.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (412)  |  Back (392)  |  Ball (62)  |  Behind (138)  |  Contentment (11)  |  Cricket (7)  |  Flimsy (2)  |  Forward (103)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Golfer (3)  |  Gradual (28)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1522)  |  Lead (388)  |  Long (788)  |  Man (2249)  |  Metaphysician (7)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (157)  |  Must (1526)  |  Notice (78)  |  Occasion (85)  |  Operation (213)  |  Plane (20)  |  Point (581)  |  Possibility (166)  |  Possible (553)  |  Projection (5)  |  Question (632)  |  Right (458)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Verbiage (3)  |  Vertical (4)  |  Why (490)

If it were possible to transfer the methods of physical or of biological science directly to the study of man, the transfer would long ago have been made ... We have failed not for lack of hypotheses which equate man with the rest of the universe, but for lack of a hypothesis (short of animism) which provides for the peculiar divergence of man ... Let me now state my belief that the peculiar factor in man which forbids our explaining his actions upon the ordinary plane of biology is a highly specialized and unstable biological complex, and that this factor is none other than language.
Linguistics as a Science (1930), 555.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (331)  |  Belief (590)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (220)  |  Complex (193)  |  Divergence (6)  |  Fail (186)  |  Forbid (14)  |  Hypothesis (305)  |  Lack (121)  |  Language (298)  |  Long (788)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Other (2234)  |  Peculiar (113)  |  Physical (509)  |  Possible (553)  |  Rest (284)  |  Short (197)  |  State (495)  |  Study (666)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Universe (870)

If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must employ methods never before attempted.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (99)  |  Achieve (69)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Employ (113)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Never (1088)  |  Result (684)

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 (56)  |  Attention (193)  |  Closely (12)  |  Creation (338)  |  Deed (34)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Field (369)  |  Find (1002)  |  Finding (32)  |  If You Want To Find (4)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Listen (76)  |  Listening (26)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Other (2234)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Principle (515)  |  Product (161)  |  Reality (266)  |  Regard (305)  |  Stick (25)  |  Theoretical Physicist (20)  |  Thought (962)  |  Use (768)  |  Want (497)  |  Word (629)

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 (183)  |  Advice (56)  |  Appearance (141)  |  Construction (112)  |  Creation (338)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Examine (81)  |  Field (369)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Learn (647)  |  Listen (76)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Necessity (193)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Reality (266)  |  Theoretical Physicist (20)  |  Thought (962)  |  Use (768)  |  Wish (214)  |  Word (629)

In 1735 the solving of an astronomical problem, proposed by the Academy, for which several eminent mathematicians had demanded several months� time, was achieved in three days by Euler with aid of improved methods of his own. � With still superior methods this same problem was solved by the illustrious Gauss in one hour.
In History of Mathematics (1897), 248.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (36)  |  Achieve (69)  |  Aid (98)  |  Astronomy (238)  |  Demand (124)  |  Eminent (18)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (78)  |  Hour (186)  |  Illustrious (10)  |  Improve (59)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Method (512)  |  Month (88)  |  Problem (699)  |  Propose (23)  |  Same (157)  |  Several (32)  |  Solve (136)  |  Still (614)  |  Superior (82)  |  Time (1886)

In 1847 I gave an address at Newton, Mass., before a Teachers� Institute conducted by Horace Mann. My subject was grasshoppers. I passed around a large jar of these insects, and made every teacher take one and hold it while I was speaking. If any one dropped the insect, I stopped till he picked it up. This was at that time a great innovation, and excited much laughter and derision. There can be no true progress in the teaching of natural science until such methods become general.
Science quotes on:  |  Address (12)  |  Become (816)  |  Conduct (69)  |  Conducting (2)  |  Derision (8)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Excitement (55)  |  General (513)  |  Grasshopper (7)  |  Great (1577)  |  Hold (95)  |  Innovation (44)  |  Insect (86)  |  Institute (7)  |  Jar (9)  |  Large (396)  |  Laughter (32)  |   Horace Mann (18)  |  Mass (156)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Science (128)  |  Pass (238)  |  Pick (16)  |  Progress (481)  |  Speak (234)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stop (82)  |  Subject (529)  |  Teacher (144)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Time (1886)  |  True (218)

In a sense, of course, probability theory in the form of the simple laws of chance is the key to the analysis of warfare;� My own experience of actual operational research work, has however, shown that its is generally possible to avoid using anything more sophisticated. � In fact the wise operational research worker attempts to concentrate his efforts in finding results which are so obvious as not to need elaborate statistical methods to demonstrate their truth. In this sense advanced probability theory is something one has to know about in order to avoid having to use it.
In 'Operations Research', Physics Today (Nov 1951), 19. As cited by Maurice W. Kirby and Jonathan Rosenhead, 'Patrick Blackett (1897)' in Arjang A. Assad (ed.) and Saul I. Gass (ed.),Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators (2011), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (117)  |  Advanced (12)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Avoid (117)  |  Chance (240)  |  Concentrate (26)  |  Course (410)  |  Demonstrate (77)  |  Effort (230)  |  Elaborate (28)  |  Experience (480)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Finding (32)  |  Form (965)  |  Key (52)  |  Know (1522)  |  Law (902)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Obvious (126)  |  Order (633)  |  Possible (553)  |  Probability (133)  |  Research (728)  |  Result (684)  |  Sense (776)  |  Simple (410)  |  Something (718)  |  Sophisticated (15)  |  Statistics (160)  |  Theory (987)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Use (768)  |  Warfare (12)  |  Wise (135)  |  Work (1368)

In describing a protein it is now common to distinguish the primary, secondary and tertiary structures. The primary structure is simply the order, or sequence, of the amino-acid residues along the polypeptide chains. This was first determined by Sanger using chemical techniques for the protein insulin, and has since been elucidated for a number of peptides and, in part, for one or two other small proteins. The secondary structure is the type of folding, coiling or puckering adopted by the polypeptide chain: the a-helix structure and the pleated sheet are examples. Secondary structure has been assigned in broad outline to a number of librous proteins such as silk, keratin and collagen; but we are ignorant of the nature of the secondary structure of any globular protein. True, there is suggestive evidence, though as yet no proof, that a-helices occur in globular proteins, to an extent which is difficult to gauge quantitatively in any particular case. The tertiary structure is the way in which the folded or coiled polypeptide chains are disposed to form the protein molecule as a three-dimensional object, in space. The chemical and physical properties of a protein cannot be fully interpreted until all three levels of structure are understood, for these properties depend on the spatial relationships between the amino-acids, and these in turn depend on the tertiary and secondary structures as much as on the primary. Only X-ray diffraction methods seem capable, even in principle, of unravelling the tertiary and secondary structures.
Co-author with G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips
'A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis', Nature (1958) 181, 662.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (11)  |  Author (169)  |  Capable (168)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Common (438)  |  Depend (231)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Diffraction (5)  |  Distinguish (164)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Extent (139)  |  First (1287)  |  Form (965)  |  Helix (10)  |  Ignorant (90)  |  Insulin (9)  |  Method (512)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Number (703)  |  Object (427)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Physical (509)  |  Polypeptide (2)  |  Primary (81)  |  Principle (515)  |  Proof (297)  |  Protein (54)  |  Ray (114)  |  Relationship (105)  |  Residue (9)  |  Frederick Sanger (6)  |  Sequence (69)  |  Silk (13)  |  Small (481)  |  Space (504)  |  Structure (351)  |  Technique (83)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Turn (449)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (167)  |  Understood (156)  |  Way (1214)  |  X-ray (38)  |  X-ray Diffraction (5)

In early times, when the knowledge of nature was small, little attempt was made to divide science into parts, and men of science did not specialize. Aristotle was a master of all science known in his day, and wrote indifferently treatises on physics or animals. As increasing knowledge made it impossible for any one man to grasp all scientific subjects, lines of division were drawn for convenience of study and of teaching. Besides the broad distinction into physical and biological science, minute subdivisions arose, and, at a certain stage of development, much attention was, given to methods of classification, and much emphasis laid on the results, which were thought to have a significance beyond that of the mere convenience of mankind.
But we have reached the stage when the different streams of knowledge, followed by the different sciences, are coalescing, and the artificial barriers raised by calling those sciences by different names are breaking down. Geology uses the methods and data of physics, chemistry and biology; no one can say whether the science of radioactivity is to be classed as chemistry or physics, or whether sociology is properly grouped with biology or economics. Indeed, it is often just where this coalescence of two subjects occurs, when some connecting channel between them is opened suddenly, that the most striking advances in knowledge take place. The accumulated experience of one department of science, and the special methods which have been developed to deal with its problems, become suddenly available in the domain of another department, and many questions insoluble before may find answers in the new light cast upon them. Such considerations show us that science is in reality one, though we may agree to look on it now from one side and now from another as we approach it from the standpoint of physics, physiology or psychology.
In article 'Science', Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), 402.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulated (2)  |  Advance (285)  |  Animal (627)  |  Answer (372)  |  Approach (109)  |  Aristotle (174)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Attention (193)  |  Available (79)  |  Barrier (32)  |  Become (816)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (220)  |  Cast (67)  |  Certain (551)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Class (166)  |  Classification (99)  |  Coalesce (5)  |  Coalescence (2)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Convenience (50)  |  Data (160)  |  Deal (188)  |  Department (92)  |  Develop (271)  |  Development (431)  |  Difference (342)  |  Different (579)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Divide (76)  |  Division (67)  |  Domain (69)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (190)  |  Economic (81)  |  Economics (43)  |  Experience (480)  |  Find (1002)  |  Follow (381)  |  Geology (226)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indifferent (16)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Known (451)  |  Light (617)  |  Little (707)  |  Look (581)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Master (179)  |  Men Of Science (145)  |  Method (512)  |  Minute (126)  |  Most (1729)  |  Name (337)  |  Nature (1952)  |  New (1239)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (274)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physics (539)  |  Physiology (98)  |  Problem (699)  |  Psychology (159)  |  Question (632)  |  Radioactivity (31)  |  Reach (283)  |  Reality (266)  |  Result (684)  |  Say (984)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Show (346)  |  Side (233)  |  Significance (115)  |  Small (481)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Special (186)  |  Specialize (3)  |  Stage (145)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Stream (81)  |  Striking (48)  |  Study (666)  |  Subject (529)  |  Suddenly (89)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Treatise (44)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (768)

In Euclid each proposition stands by itself; its connection with others is never indicated; the leading ideas contained in its proof are not stated; general principles do not exist. In modern methods, on the other hand, the greatest importance is attached to the leading thoughts which pervade the whole; and general principles, which bring whole groups of theorems under one aspect, are given rather than separate propositions. The whole tendency is toward generalization. A straight line is considered as given in its entirety, extending both ways to infinity, while Euclid is very careful never to admit anything but finite quantities. The treatment of the infinite is in fact another fundamental difference between the two methods. Euclid avoids it, in modern mathematics it is systematically introduced, for only thus is generality obtained.
In 'Geometry', Encyclopedia Britannica (9th edition).
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (46)  |  Aspect (124)  |  Attach (56)  |  Attached (36)  |  Avoid (117)  |  Both (494)  |  Bring (92)  |  Careful (24)  |  Connection (165)  |  Consider (417)  |  Contain (67)  |  Difference (342)  |  Do (1905)  |  Entirety (6)  |  Euclid (54)  |  Exist (445)  |  Extend (128)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  General (513)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Give (201)  |  Great (1577)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Group (79)  |  Idea (855)  |  Importance (292)  |  Indicate (61)  |  Infinite (234)  |  Infinity (92)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Lead (388)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Never (1088)  |  Obtain (163)  |  On The Other Hand (37)  |  Other (2234)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Principle (515)  |  Proof (297)  |  Proposition (123)  |  Quantity (133)  |  Separate (145)  |  Stand (276)  |  State (495)  |  Straight (73)  |  Straight Line (32)  |  Systematically (7)  |  Tendency (102)  |  Theorem (113)  |  Thought (962)  |  Toward (45)  |  Treatment (132)  |  Two (936)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (740)

In every case the awakening touch has been the mathematical spirit, the attempt to count, to measure, or to calculate. What to the poet or the seer may appear to be the very death of all his poetry and all his visions�the cold touch of the calculating mind,�this has proved to be the spell by which knowledge has been born, by which new sciences have been created, and hundreds of definite problems put before the minds and into the hands of diligent students. It is the geometrical figure, the dry algebraical formula, which transforms the vague reasoning of the philosopher into a tangible and manageable conception; which represents, though it does not fully describe, which corresponds to, though it does not explain, the things and processes of nature: this clothes the fruitful, but otherwise indefinite, ideas in such a form that the strict logical methods of thought can be applied, that the human mind can in its inner chamber evolve a train of reasoning the result of which corresponds to the phenomena of the outer world.
In A History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1896), Vol. 1, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Appear (118)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (163)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Awaken (16)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Born (34)  |  Calculate (54)  |  Chamber (7)  |  Cold (112)  |  Conception (154)  |  Correspond (10)  |  Count (105)  |  Create (242)  |  Death (397)  |  Definite (110)  |  Describe (129)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Dry (61)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Explain (324)  |  Figure (160)  |  Form (965)  |  Formula (98)  |  Fruitful (60)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Mind (132)  |  Hundred (231)  |  Idea (855)  |  Indefinite (20)  |  Inner (71)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Logical (55)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Measure (236)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Nature (1952)  |  New (1239)  |  Otherwise (25)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Philosopher (262)  |  Poet (92)  |  Poetry (146)  |  Problem (699)  |  Process (427)  |  Prove (253)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Represent (154)  |  Result (684)  |  Seer (5)  |  Spell (9)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Strict (18)  |  Student (307)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (962)  |  Touch (144)  |  Train (116)  |  Transform (73)  |  Vague (48)  |  Vision (124)  |  World (1810)

In light of new knowledge ... an eventual world state is not just desirable in the name of brotherhood, it is necessary for survival ... Today we must abandon competition and secure cooperation. This must be the central fact in all our considerations of international affairs; otherwise we face certain disaster. Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (72)  |  Affair (29)  |  Brotherhood (6)  |  Central (80)  |  Certain (551)  |  Competition (43)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Cooperation (34)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Disaster (56)  |  Eventual (9)  |  Face (213)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Future (446)  |  International (37)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Light (617)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Name (337)  |  Necessary (364)  |  New (1239)  |  Otherwise (25)  |  Past (341)  |  Prevent (96)  |  Secure (22)  |  State (495)  |  Survival (99)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Today (317)  |  War (227)  |  World (1810)

In no subject is there a rule, compliance with which will lead to new knowledge or better understanding. Skilful observations, ingenious ideas, cunning tricks, daring suggestions, laborious calculations, all these may be required to advance a subject. Occasionally the conventional approach in a subject has to be studiously followed; on other occasions it has to be ruthlessly disregarded. Which of these methods, or in what order they should be employed is generally unpredictable. Analogies drawn from the history of science are frequently claimed to be a guide; but, as with forecasting the next game of roulette, the existence of the best analogy to the present is no guide whatever to the future. The most valuable lesson to be learnt from the history of scientific progress is how misleading and strangling such analogies have been, and how success has come to those who ignored them.
'Cosmology', in Arthur Beer (ed.), Vistas in Astronomy (1956), Vol. 2, 1722.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (285)  |  Analogy (72)  |  Approach (109)  |  Best (462)  |  Better (485)  |  Calculation (131)  |  Claim (149)  |  Compliance (7)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Cunning (16)  |  Daring (17)  |  Employ (113)  |  Existence (468)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Follow (381)  |  Future (446)  |  Game (102)  |  Guide (101)  |  History (685)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Idea (855)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Laborious (16)  |  Lead (388)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Method (512)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Most (1729)  |  New (1239)  |  Next (236)  |  Observation (578)  |  Occasion (85)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Present (622)  |  Progress (481)  |  Required (108)  |  Rule (296)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Subject (529)  |  Success (311)  |  Suggestion (47)  |  Trick (36)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Unpredictable (17)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2354)

In order to comprehend and fully control arithmetical concepts and methods of proof, a high degree of abstraction is necessary, and this condition has at times been charged against arithmetic as a fault. I am of the opinion that all other fields of knowledge require at least an equally high degree of abstraction as mathematics,�provided, that in these fields the foundations are also everywhere examined with the rigour and completeness which is actually necessary.
In 'Die Theorie der algebraischen Zahlkorper', Vorwort, Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, Bd. 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstraction (47)  |  Actually (27)  |  Against (332)  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Arithmetical (11)  |  Charge (60)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Comprehend (42)  |  Concept (223)  |  Condition (359)  |  Control (171)  |  Degree (276)  |  Equally (130)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Examine (81)  |  Fault (56)  |  Field (369)  |  Foundation (176)  |  Fully (20)  |  High (365)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Least (74)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Opinion (285)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Proof (297)  |  Provide (72)  |  Require (222)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Time (1886)

In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.
Often seen quoted in a condensed form: If you cannot measure it, then it is not science.
From lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers, London (3 May 1883), 'Electrical Units of Measurement', Popular Lectures and Addresses (1889), Vol. 1, 80-81.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (308)  |  Connect (125)  |  Direction (177)  |  Essential (201)  |  Express (187)  |  Find (1002)  |  First (1287)  |  Form (965)  |  Kind (559)  |  Know (1522)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Learning (288)  |  Matter (804)  |  Measure (236)  |  Measurement (175)  |  Method (512)  |  Number (703)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Principle (515)  |  Quality (136)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Say (984)  |  Scarcely (74)  |  Something (718)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stage (145)  |  Step (231)  |  Subject (529)  |  Thought (962)  |  Whatever (234)

In the beginning (if there was such a thing), God created Newton�s laws of motion together with the necessary masses and forces. This is all; everything beyond this follows from the development of appropriate mathematical methods by means of deduction.
Autobiographical Notes (1946), 19. In Albert Einstein, Alice Calaprice, Freeman Dyson , The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2011), 397.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Beginning (308)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Deduction (84)  |  Development (431)  |  Everything (479)  |  Follow (381)  |  Following (16)  |  Force (490)  |  God (762)  |  Law (902)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Mass (156)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Motion (313)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (339)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (389)

In the fight which we have to wage incessantly against ignorance and quackery among the masses and follies of all sorts among the classes, diagnosis, not drugging, is our chief weapon of offence. Lack of systematic personal training in the methods of the recognition of disease leads to the misapplication of remedies, to long courses of treatment when treatment is useless, and so directly to that lack of confidence in our methods which is apt to place us in the eyes of the public on a level with empirics and quacks.
Address to the Canadian Medical Association, Montreal (17 Sep 1902), 'Chauvinism in Medicine', published in The Montreal Medical Journal (1902), 31, 267. Collected in Aequanimitas, with Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses and Practitioners of Medicine (1904), 299.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Chief (98)  |  Confidence (71)  |  Course (410)  |  Diagnosis (64)  |  Disease (334)  |  Drug (57)  |  Eye (427)  |  Folly (43)  |  Ignorance (246)  |  Lack (121)  |  Lead (388)  |  Long (788)  |  Method (512)  |  Public (96)  |  Quack (18)  |  Quackery (4)  |  Recognition (90)  |  Remedy (62)  |  Systematic (57)  |  Training (88)  |  Treatment (132)  |  Useless (36)  |  Weapon (95)

In the mathematical investigations I have usually employed such methods as present themselves naturally to a physicist. The pure mathematician will complain, and (it must be confessed) sometimes with justice, of deficient rigour. But to this question there are two sides. For, however important it may be to maintain a uniformly high standard in pure mathematics, the physicist may occasionally do well to rest content with arguments which are fairly satisfactory and conclusive from his point of view. To his mind, exercised in a different order of ideas, the more severe procedure of the pure mathematician may appear not more but less demonstrative. And further, in many cases of difficulty to insist upon the highest standard would mean the exclusion of the subject altogether in view of the space that would be required.
In Preface to second edition, The Theory of Sound (1894), Vol. 1, vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (118)  |  Argument (139)  |  Complain (8)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Confess (42)  |  Deficient (3)  |  Demonstrate (77)  |  Demonstrative (14)  |  Different (579)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Do (1905)  |  Employ (113)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  High (365)  |  Idea (855)  |  Insist (20)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Justice (40)  |  Maintain (104)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mean (808)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1526)  |  Order (633)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Point (581)  |  Point Of View (83)  |  Present (622)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Mathematics (67)  |  Question (632)  |  Required (108)  |  Rest (284)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Satisfactory (17)  |  Severe (16)  |  Side (233)  |  Space (504)  |  Standard (58)  |  Subject (529)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Two (936)  |  Usually (176)  |  View (491)  |  Will (2354)

Investigating the conditions under which mutations occur � requires studies of mutation frequency under various methods of handling the organisms. As yet, extremely little has been done along this line. That is because, in the past, a mutation was considered a windfall, and the expression �mutation frequency� would have seemed a contradiction in terms. To attempt to study it would have seemed as absurd as to study the conditions affecting the distribution of dollar bills on the sidewalk. You were simply fortunate if you found one. � Of late, however, we may say that certain very exceptional banking houses have been found, in front of which the dollars fall more frequently�in other words, specially mutable genes have been discovered, that are beginning to yield abundant data at the hands of Nilsson-Ehle, Zeleny, Emerson, Anderson and others.
In 'Variation Due to Change in the Individual Gene', The American Naturalist (Jan-Feb 1922), 56, No. 642, 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (59)  |  Abundant (22)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Beginning (308)  |  Certain (551)  |  Condition (359)  |  Consider (417)  |  Contradiction (68)  |  Data (160)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Exceptional (18)  |  Expression (177)  |  Fall (235)  |  Fortunate (28)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Gene (103)  |  House (140)  |  Investigate (103)  |  Late (119)  |  Little (707)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutation (38)  |  Occur (151)  |  Organism (223)  |  Other (2234)  |  Past (341)  |  Require (222)  |  Say (984)  |  Sidewalk (2)  |  Study (666)  |  Term (352)  |  Terms (184)  |  Various (201)  |  Windfall (2)  |  Word (629)  |  Yield (83)

It has been recognized that hydrogen bonds restrain protein molecules to their native configurations, and I believe that as the methods of structural chemistry are further applied to physiological problems it will be found that the significance of the hydrogen bond for physiology is greater than that of any other single structural feature.
Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals (1939), 265.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Applied (176)  |  Belief (590)  |  Bond (46)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Configuration (7)  |  Feature (47)  |  Greater (289)  |  Hydrogen (76)  |  Hydrogen Bond (3)  |  Method (512)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Native (38)  |  Other (2234)  |  Physiological (62)  |  Physiology (98)  |  Problem (699)  |  Protein (54)  |  Recognition (90)  |  Restraint (15)  |  Significance (115)  |  Single (357)  |  Structural (29)  |  Structure (351)  |  Will (2354)

It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom.
Quoted in H. Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles.
Science quotes on:  |  Delicate (44)  |  Entirely (35)  |  Freedom (137)  |  Holy (34)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Little (707)  |  Method (512)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Modern (389)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (295)  |  Plant (310)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  Strangle (3)  |  Teach (281)  |  Teaching (190)

It is characteristic of our age to endeavour to replace virtues by technology. That is to say, wherever possible we strive to use methods of physical or social engineering to achieve goals which our ancestors thought attainable only by the training of character. Thus, we try so far as possible to make contraception take the place of chastity, and anaesthetics to take the place of fortitude; we replace resignation by insurance policies and munificence by the Welfare State. It would be idle romanticism to deny that such techniques and institutions are often less painful and more efficient methods of achieving the goods and preventing the evils which unaided virtue once sought to achieve and avoid. But it would be an equal and opposite folly to hope that the take-over of virtue by technology may one day be complete, so that the necessity for the laborious acquisition of the capacity for rational choice by individuals can be replaced by the painless application of the fruits of scientific discovery over the whole field of human intercourse and enterprise.
'Mental Health in Plato's Republic', in The Anatomy of the Soul: Historical Essays in the Philosophy of Mind (1973), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (45)  |  Age (500)  |  Anaesthetic (2)  |  Ancestor (61)  |  Application (248)  |  Avoid (117)  |  Capacity (103)  |  Character (246)  |  Characteristic (152)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Choice (112)  |  Complete (205)  |  Contraception (2)  |  Deny (70)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Engineering (178)  |  Enterprise (55)  |  Evil (117)  |  Field (369)  |  Folly (43)  |  Fruit (104)  |  Goal (147)  |  Good (893)  |  Hope (307)  |  Human (1479)  |  Idle (34)  |  Individual (408)  |  Institution (68)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Laborious (16)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Munificence (2)  |  Necessity (193)  |  Opposite (105)  |  Physical (509)  |  Possible (553)  |  Rational (94)  |  Romanticism (5)  |  Say (984)  |  Science And Society (24)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Social (257)  |  Social Engineering (2)  |  State (495)  |  Technique (83)  |  Technology (264)  |  Thought (962)  |  Training (88)  |  Try (284)  |  Use (768)  |  Virtue (111)  |  Welfare (26)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Whole (740)

It is clear, from these considerations, that the three methods of classifying mankind�that according to physical characters, according to language, and according to culture�all reflect the historical development of races from different standpoints; and that the results of the three classifications are not comparable, because the historical facts do not affect the three classes of phenomena equally. A consideration of all these classes of facts is needed when we endeavour to reconstruct the early history of the races of mankind.
'Summary of the Work of the Committee in British Columbia', Report of the Sixty-Eighth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1899, 670.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Character (246)  |  Classification (99)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Culture (147)  |  Development (431)  |  Different (579)  |  Do (1905)  |  Early (190)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Equally (130)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (685)  |  History Of Mankind (14)  |  Human Culture (10)  |  Language (298)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Method (512)  |  Physical (509)  |  Race (270)  |  Result (684)  |  Standpoint (28)

It is not only a decided preference for synthesis and a complete denial of general methods which characterizes the ancient mathematics as against our newer Science [modern mathematics]: besides this extemal formal difference there is another real, more deeply seated, contrast, which arises from the different attitudes which the two assumed relative to the use of the concept of variability. For while the ancients, on account of considerations which had been transmitted to them from the Philosophie school of the Eleatics, never employed the concept of motion, the spatial expression for variability, in their rigorous system, and made incidental use of it only in the treatment of phonoromically generated curves, modern geometry dates from the instant that Descartes left the purely algebraic treatment of equations and proceeded to investigate the variations which an algebraic expression undergoes when one of its variables assumes a continuous succession of values.
In 'Untersuchungen �ber die unendlich oft oszillierenden und unstetigen Functionen', Ostwald�s Klassiker der exacten Wissenschaften (1905), No. 153, 44-45. As translated in Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath�s Quotation-book (1914), 115. From the original German, �Nicht allein entschiedene Vorliebe f�r die Synthese und g�nzliche Verleugnung allgemeiner Methoden charakterisiert die antike Mathematik gegen�ber unserer neueren Wissenschaft; es gibt neben diesem mehr �u�eren, formalen, noch einen tiefliegenden realen Gegensatz, welcher aus der verschiedenen Stellung entspringt, in welche sich beide zu der wissenschaftlichen Verwendung des Begriffes der Ver�nderlichkeit gesetzt haben. Denn w�hrend die Alten den Begriff der Bewegung, des r�umlichen Ausdruckes der Ver�nderlichkeit, aus Bedenken, die aus der philosophischen Schule der Eleaten auf sie �bergegangen waren, in ihrem strengen Systeme niemals und auch in der Behandlung phoronomisch erzeugter Kurven nur vor�bergehend verwenden, so datiert die neuere Mathematik von dem Augenblicke, als Descartes von der rein algebraischen Behandlung der Gleichungen dazu fortschritt, die Gr��enver�nderungen zu untersuchen, welche ein algebraischer Ausdruck erleidet, indem eine in ihm allgemein bezeichnete Gr��e eine stetige Folge von Werten durchl�uft.�
Science quotes on:  |  Account (193)  |  Against (332)  |  Algebra (115)  |  Ancient (192)  |  Arise (158)  |  Attitude (83)  |  Complete (205)  |  Concept (223)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Contrast (44)  |  Curve (49)  |  Denial (17)  |  Ren� Descartes (82)  |  Difference (342)  |  Different (579)  |  Employ (113)  |  Equation (134)  |  Expression (177)  |  General (513)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Instant (45)  |  Investigate (103)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (313)  |  Never (1088)  |  Preference (28)  |  Proceed (130)  |  Purely (110)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  School (222)  |  Succession (77)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  System (538)  |  Treatment (132)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (768)  |  Value (377)  |  Variable (35)  |  Variation (91)

It is often assumed that because the young child is not competent to study geometry systematically he need be taught nothing geometrical; that because it would be foolish to present to him physics and mechanics as sciences it is useless to present to him any physical or mechanical principles.
An error of like origin, which has wrought incalculable mischief, denies to the scholar the use of the symbols and methods of algebra in connection with his early essays in numbers because, forsooth, he is not as yet capable of mastering quadratics! � The whole infant generation, wrestling with arithmetic, seek for a sign and groan and travail together in pain for the want of it; but no sign is given them save the sign of the prophet Jonah, the withered gourd, fruitless endeavor, wasted strength.
From presidential address (9 Sep 1884) to the General Meeting of the American Social Science Association, 'Industrial Education', printed in Journal of Social Science (1885), 19, 121. Collected in Francis Amasa Walker, Discussions in Education (1899), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Assume (40)  |  Capable (168)  |  Child (321)  |  Competent (20)  |  Connection (165)  |  Deny (70)  |  Early (190)  |  Endeavor (67)  |  Error (334)  |  Essay (27)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  Generation (249)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Groan (6)  |  Infant (26)  |  Mastering (11)  |  Mechanic (119)  |  Mechanical (140)  |  Mechanics (132)  |  Method (512)  |  Mischief (13)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Number (703)  |  Origin (242)  |  Pain (138)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physics (539)  |  Present (622)  |  Principle (515)  |  Prophet (21)  |  Quadratic (3)  |  Save (120)  |  Scholar (51)  |  Seek (216)  |  Sign (59)  |  Strength (128)  |  Study (666)  |  Symbol (94)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Together (389)  |  Travail (5)  |  Use (768)  |  Want (497)  |  Waste (104)  |  Whole (740)  |  Wrestle (2)  |  Young (235)

It seems perfectly clear that Economy, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science. There exists much prejudice against attempts to introduce the methods and language of mathematics into any branch of the moral sciences. Most persons appear to hold that the physical sciences form the proper sphere of mathematical method, and that the moral sciences demand some other method�I know not what.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Branch (152)  |  Demand (124)  |  Economy (57)  |  Exist (445)  |  Form (965)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Know (1522)  |  Language (298)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Moral (198)  |  Most (1729)  |  Must (1526)  |  Other (2234)  |  Person (363)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Prejudice (92)  |  Proper (146)  |  Sphere (116)

It would seem at first sight as if the rapid expansion of the region of mathematics must be a source of danger to its future progress. Not only does the area widen but the subjects of study increase rapidly in number, and the work of the mathematician tends to become more and more specialized. It is, of course, merely a brilliant exaggeration to say that no mathematician is able to understand the work of any other mathematician, but it is certainly true that it is daily becoming more and more difficult for a mathematician to keep himself acquainted, even in a general way, with the progress of any of the branches of mathematics except those which form the field of his own labours. I believe, however, that the increasing extent of the territory of mathematics will always be counteracted by increased facilities in the means of communication. Additional knowledge opens to us new principles and methods which may conduct us with the greatest ease to results which previously were most difficult of access; and improvements in notation may exercise the most powerful effects both in the simplification and accessibility of a subject. It rests with the worker in mathematics not only to explore new truths, but to devise the language by which they may be discovered and expressed; and the genius of a great mathematician displays itself no less in the notation he invents for deciphering his subject than in the results attained. � I have great faith in the power of well-chosen notation to simplify complicated theories and to bring remote ones near and I think it is safe to predict that the increased knowledge of principles and the resulting improvements in the symbolic language of mathematics will always enable us to grapple satisfactorily with the difficulties arising from the mere extent of the subject.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A., (1890), Nature, 42, 466.
Science quotes on:  |  Access (20)  |  Accessibility (3)  |  Acquaint (9)  |  Additional (6)  |  Area (31)  |  Arise (158)  |  Arising (22)  |  Attain (126)  |  Become (816)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Belief (590)  |  Both (494)  |  Branch (152)  |  Brilliant (54)  |  Bring (92)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Communication (98)  |  Complicated (115)  |  Conduct (69)  |  Counteract (4)  |  Course (410)  |  Daily (88)  |  Danger (118)  |  Decipher (7)  |  Devise (14)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Discover (558)  |  Display (56)  |  Ease (37)  |  Effect (398)  |  Enable (119)  |  Exaggeration (15)  |  Exercise (112)  |  Expansion (42)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Express (187)  |  Extent (139)  |  Facility (12)  |  Faith (206)  |  Field (369)  |  First (1287)  |  First Sight (6)  |  Form (965)  |  Future (446)  |  General (513)  |  Genius (296)  |  Grapple (10)  |  Great (1577)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Himself (461)  |  Improvement (112)  |  Increase (214)  |  Invent (53)  |  Keep (100)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Labour (99)  |  Language (298)  |  Less (103)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Mere (83)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Must (1526)  |  New (1239)  |  Notation (27)  |  Number (703)  |  Of Course (20)  |  Open (274)  |  Other (2234)  |  Power (755)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Predict (81)  |  Previously (11)  |  Principle (515)  |  Progress (481)  |  Rapid (34)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Region (37)  |  Remote (84)  |  Rest (284)  |  Result (684)  |  Safe (54)  |  Satisfactory (17)  |  Say (984)  |  Seem (145)  |  Sight (133)  |  Simplification (20)  |  Simplify (13)  |  Source (95)  |  Specialized (8)  |  Study (666)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (529)  |  Symbolic (15)  |  Tend (124)  |  Territory (24)  |  Theory (987)  |  Think (1093)  |  True (218)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Understand (619)  |  Way (1214)  |  Well-Chosen (2)  |  Widen (10)  |  Will (2354)  |  Work (1368)  |  Worker (33)

It�s a common occurrence in a forefront area of science, where the questions are tough and the measurements extremely difficult. You have different groups using different methods and they get different answers. You see it all the time, and the public rarely notices. But when it happens to be in cosmology, it makes headlines.
As quoted in John Moble Wilford, 'Astronomers Debate Conflicting Answers for the Age of the Universe', New York Times (27 Dec 1994), C9.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (372)  |  Area (31)  |  Common (438)  |  Cosmology (26)  |  Different (579)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Forefront (2)  |  Group (79)  |  Happen (276)  |  Headline (6)  |  Measurement (175)  |  Method (512)  |  Notice (78)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Public (96)  |  Question (632)  |  Rarely (21)  |  See (1081)  |  Time (1886)  |  Tough (19)

Let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. He arrives at two generalisations:
(1) No sea-creature is less than two inches long.
(2) All sea-creatures have gills.
These are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it.
In applying this analogy, the catch stands for the body of knowledge which constitutes physical science, and the net for the sensory and intellectual equipment which we use in obtaining it. The casting of the net corresponds to observation; for knowledge which has not been or could not be obtained by observation is not admitted into physical science.
An onlooker may object that the first generalisation is wrong. �There are plenty of sea-creatures under two inches long, only your net is not adapted to catch them.� The icthyologist dismisses this objection contemptuously. �Anything uncatchable by my net is ipso facto outside the scope of icthyological knowledge. In short, what my net can't catch isn't fish.� Or�to translate the analogy��If you are not simply guessing, you are claiming a knowledge of the physical universe discovered in some other way than by the methods of physical science, and admittedly unverifiable by such methods. You are a metaphysician. Bah!�
In 'Selective Subjectivism', The Philosophy of Physical Science (1938, 2012), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (67)  |  Analogy (72)  |  Assortment (5)  |  Body (543)  |  Both (494)  |  Cast (67)  |  Casting (10)  |  Claiming (8)  |  Constitute (97)  |  Creature (238)  |  Discover (558)  |  Equipment (44)  |  First (1287)  |  Fish (125)  |  Ichthyologist (2)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Life (1818)  |  Long (788)  |  Method (512)  |  Object (427)  |  Objection (34)  |  Observation (578)  |  Obtain (163)  |  Ocean (203)  |  Other (2234)  |  Outside (141)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Proceed (130)  |  Remain (351)  |  Reveal (149)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Scope (44)  |  Sea (315)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Short (197)  |  Stand (276)  |  Suppose (157)  |  Surveying (6)  |  Translate (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (870)  |  Use (768)  |  Water (491)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wrong (236)

Liebig was not a teacher in the ordinary sense of the word. Scientifically productive himself in an unusual degree, and rich in chemical ideas, he imparted the latter to his advanced pupils, to be put by them to experimental proof; he thus brought his pupils gradually to think for themselves, besides showing and explaining to them the methods by which chemical problems might be solved experimentally.
As quoted in G. H. Getman, The Life of Ira Remsen (1980), 18-19.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemical (295)  |  Degree (276)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idea (855)  |  Impart (24)  |  Justus von Liebig (38)  |  Method (512)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Problem (699)  |  Productive (33)  |  Proof (297)  |  Pupil (61)  |  Sense (776)  |  Student (307)  |  Teacher (144)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Word (629)

Like almost every subject of human interest, this one [mathematics] is just as easy or as difficult as we choose to make it. A lifetime may be spent by a philosopher in discussing the truth of the simplest axiom. The simplest fact as to our existence may fill us with such wonder that our minds will remain overwhelmed with wonder all the time. A Scotch ploughman makes a working religion out of a system which appalls a mental philosopher. Some boys of ten years of age study the methods of the differential calculus; other much cleverer boys working at mathematics to the age of nineteen have a difficulty in comprehending the fundamental ideas of the calculus.
In Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (500)  |  All The Time (4)  |  Appall (2)  |  Axiom (63)  |  Boy (96)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Choose (113)  |  Clever (38)  |  Comprehend (42)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Discuss (24)  |  Easy (207)  |  Existence (468)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Fill (63)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Human (1479)  |  Idea (855)  |  Interest (399)  |  Lifetime (34)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mental (178)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Other (2234)  |  Overwhelm (5)  |  Overwhelmed (5)  |  Philosopher (262)  |  Ploughman (3)  |  Religion (365)  |  Remain (351)  |  Simple (410)  |  Spend (96)  |  Spent (85)  |  Study (666)  |  Subject (529)  |  System (538)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Time (1886)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wonder (241)  |  Work (1368)  |  Year (935)

Long intervals frequently elapse between the discovery of new principles in science and their practical application� Those intellectual qualifications, which give birth to new principles or to new methods, are of quite a different order from those which are necessary for their practical application.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Birth (149)  |  Creativity (80)  |  Different (579)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Invention (385)  |  Long (788)  |  Method (512)  |  Necessary (364)  |  New (1239)  |  Order (633)  |  Practical (208)  |  Principle (515)  |  Qualification (15)

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.
Published under the name Don A. Stuart, 'Who Goes There?', Astounding Stories (Aug 1938). In Robert Silverberg, Ben Bova and Science Fiction Writers of America, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (1973), Vol. 2, 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (155)  |  Do (1905)  |  Final (120)  |  Flight (99)  |  Fly (149)  |  Learn (647)  |  Machine (263)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  Success (311)  |  Trick (36)  |  Trying (144)

Mathematicians attach great importance to the elegance of their methods and their results. This is not pure dilettantism. What is it indeed that gives us the feeling of elegance in a solution, in a demonstration? It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details. But this is exactly what yields great results, in fact the more we see this aggregate clearly and at a single glance, the better we perceive its analogies with other neighboring objects, consequently the more chances we have of divining the possible generalizations. Elegance may produce the feeling of the unforeseen by the unexpected meeting of objects we are not accustomed to bring together; there again it is fruitful, since it thus unveils for us kinships before unrecognized. It is fruitful even when it results only from the contrast between the simplicity of the means and the complexity of the problem set; it makes us then think of the reason for this contrast and very often makes us see that chance is not the reason; that it is to be found in some unexpected law. In a word, the feeling of mathematical elegance is only the satisfaction due to any adaptation of the solution to the needs of our mind, and it is because of this very adaptation that this solution can be for us an instrument. Consequently this esthetic satisfaction is bound up with the economy of thought.
In 'The Future of Mathematics', Monist, 20, 80. Translated from the French by George Bruce Halsted.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Adaptation (58)  |  Aesthetic (47)  |  Aggregate (23)  |  Analogy (72)  |  Attach (56)  |  Balance (79)  |  Better (485)  |  Both (494)  |  Bound (120)  |  Chance (240)  |  Complexity (112)  |  Comprehend (42)  |  Contrast (44)  |  Demonstration (116)  |  Detail (147)  |  Diverse (18)  |  Due (141)  |  Elegance (38)  |  Ensemble (7)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Feeling (254)  |  Fruitful (60)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Glance (35)  |  Great (1577)  |  Happy (105)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Importance (292)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Instrument (147)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Law (902)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Meeting (21)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Neighboring (5)  |  Object (427)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Permit (59)  |  Possible (553)  |  Problem (699)  |  Pure (293)  |  Reason (753)  |  Result (684)  |  Satisfaction (74)  |  See (1081)  |  Set (395)  |  Simplicity (170)  |  Single (357)  |  Solution (272)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thought (962)  |  Together (389)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unforeseen (10)  |  Unity (79)  |  Word (629)  |  Yield (83)

Mathematics � above all other subjects, makes the student lust after knowledge, fills him, as it were, with a longing to fathom the cause of things and to employ his own powers independently; it collects his mental forces and concentrates them on a single point and thus awakens the spirit of individual inquiry, self-confidence and the joy of doing; it fascinates because of the view-points which it offers and creates certainty and assurance, owing to the universal validity of its methods. Thus, both what he receives and what he himself contributes toward the proper conception and solution of a problem, combine to mature the student and to make him skillful, to lead him away from the surface of things and to exercise him in the perception of their essence. A student thus prepared thirsts after knowledge and is ready for the university and its sciences. Thus it appears, that higher mathematics is the best guide to philosophy and to the philosophic conception of the world (considered as a self-contained whole) and of one�s own being.
In Die Mathematik die Fackeltr�gerin einer neuen Zeit (1889), 40. As translated in Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath�s Quotation-book (1914), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (118)  |  Assurance (17)  |  Awaken (16)  |  Being (1277)  |  Best (462)  |  Both (494)  |  Cause (547)  |  Certainty (175)  |  Collect (16)  |  Combine (57)  |  Concentrate (26)  |  Conception (154)  |  Confidence (71)  |  Consider (417)  |  Contribute (27)  |  Create (242)  |  Doing (280)  |  Employ (113)  |  Essence (83)  |  Exercise (112)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Fill (63)  |  Force (490)  |  Guide (101)  |  Himself (461)  |  Independently (24)  |  Individual (408)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Joy (113)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Lead (388)  |  Long (788)  |  Longing (19)  |  Lust (7)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mature (16)  |  Mental (178)  |  Method (512)  |  Offer (141)  |  Other (2234)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophic (6)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Point (581)  |  Power (755)  |  Prepare (39)  |  Problem (699)  |  Proper (146)  |  Ready (40)  |  Receive (115)  |  Self (267)  |  Self-Confidence (11)  |  Self-Contained (3)  |  Single (357)  |  Skillful (16)  |  Solution (272)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Student (307)  |  Subject (529)  |  Surface (211)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thirst (11)  |  Universal (191)  |  University (121)  |  Validity (48)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  View (491)  |  Whole (740)  |  World (1810)

May there not be methods of using explosive energy incomparably more intense than anything heretofore discovered? Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings�nay, to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke? Could not explosives even of the existing type be guided automatically in flying machines by wireless or other rays, without a human pilot, in ceaseless procession upon a hostile city, arsenal, camp or dockyard?
'Shall We All Commit Suicide?' Pall Mall (Sep 1924). Reprinted in Thoughts and Adventures (1932), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (113)  |  Blast (13)  |  Building (157)  |  Camp (11)  |  City (83)  |  Concentrate (26)  |  Destroy (184)  |  Discover (558)  |  Dockyard (2)  |  Energy (355)  |  Explosive (23)  |  Flying (73)  |  Flying Machine (13)  |  Force (490)  |  Human (1479)  |  Machine (263)  |  Method (512)  |  Missile (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Orange (14)  |  Other (2234)  |  Possess (156)  |  Power (755)  |  Procession (5)  |  Ray (114)  |  Secret (204)  |  Stroke (18)  |  Thousand (331)  |  Ton (23)  |  Type (167)  |  War (227)  |  Whole (740)

Methods of fishing are becoming more and more efficient, but the whole fishing industry is based on the exploitation of a wild population. This is almost a prehistoric concept on land, but it has never been questioned at sea.
In Men, Machines, and Sacred Cows (1984), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (117)  |  Become (816)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Concept (223)  |  Efficient (28)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  Fish (125)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Industry (146)  |  Land (125)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1088)  |  Population (110)  |  Prehistoric (11)  |  Question (632)  |  Sea (315)  |  Whole (740)  |  Wild (90)

Moreover, the works already known are due to chance and experiment rather than to sciences; for the sciences we now possess are merely systems for the nice ordering and setting forth of things already invented; not methods of invention or directions for new works.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 8. 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, 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (222)  |  Chance (240)  |  Direction (177)  |  Due (141)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Invention (385)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Known (451)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Nice (13)  |  Order (633)  |  Possess (156)  |  Possessing (3)  |  Setting (44)  |  System (538)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Work (1368)

My main thesis will be that in the study of the intermediate processes of metabolism we have to deal not with complex substances which elude ordinary chemical methods, but with the simple substances undergoing comprehensible reactions... I intend also to emphasise the fact that it is not alone with the separation and identification of products from the animal that our present studies deal; but with their reactions in the body; with the dynamic side of biochemical phenomena.
'The Dynamic Side of Biochemistry', Address (11 Sep 1913) in Report on the 83rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1914), 653.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (315)  |  Animal (627)  |  Biochemistry (49)  |  Body (543)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Complex (193)  |  Deal (188)  |  Elude (11)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Identification (16)  |  Intermediate (37)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (512)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Present (622)  |  Product (161)  |  Reaction (103)  |  Separation (58)  |  Side (233)  |  Simple (410)  |  Study (666)  |  Substance (249)  |  Thesis (15)  |  Will (2354)

My [algebraic] methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously.
Letter to H. Hasse (1931). As quoted in Israel Kleiner, A History of Abstract Algebra (2007), 100. The author used the quote to remark on Noether�s widespread influence, either directly or indirectly, for the introduction of algebra (her specialty) or its terminology into a variety of mathematical fields in the twentieth century.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Method (512)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Why (490)  |  Working (21)

No other animals have ever lighted fires as far as we can tell. In field archeology, a charcoal deposit found in such a location that it could not have been made by a forest fire is taken as conclusive evidence of man. A circular dark disk in the soil five or six feet in diameter is such a find. � With � modern radioactive dating methods, we can trace man�s history.
In 'Man�s Place in the Physical Universe', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Sep 1965), 21, No. 7, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Archaeology (49)  |  Charcoal (10)  |  Circular (19)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Dark (141)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Field (369)  |  Find (1002)  |  Fire (194)  |  Forest (157)  |  History (685)  |  Light (617)  |  Location (15)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mankind (345)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  Other (2234)  |  Radioactive (22)  |  Soil (92)  |  Tell (341)  |  Trace (106)

Nobody since Newton has been able to use geometrical methods to the same extent for the like purposes; and as we read the Principia we feel as when we are in an ancient armoury where the weapons are of gigantic size; and as we look at them we marvel what manner of man he was who could use as a weapon what we can scarcely lift as a burthen.
From Speech delivered at the Dejeuner, after the Inauguration of the statue of Isaac Newton at Grantham. Collected in Edmund Fillingham King, A biographical sketch of Sir Isaac Newton (1858), 105.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (192)  |  Armory (3)  |  Burden (27)  |  Extent (139)  |  Feel (365)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Gigantic (40)  |  Lift (56)  |  Look (581)  |  Man (2249)  |  Manner (59)  |  Marvel (36)  |  Method (512)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (339)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Principia (13)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Read (294)  |  Scarcely (74)  |  Size (61)  |  Use (768)  |  Weapon (95)  |  Weapons (57)

Nominally a great age of scientific inquiry, ours has become an age of superstition about the infallibility of science; of almost mystical faith in its non-mystical methods; above all�which perhaps most explains the expert's sovereignty�of external verities; of traffic-cop morality and rabbit-test truth.
In Company Manners: A Cultural Inquiry into American Life (1954), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (500)  |  Become (816)  |  Expert (67)  |  Explain (324)  |  Explanation (238)  |  External (58)  |  Faith (206)  |  Great (1577)  |  Infallibility (7)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Method (512)  |  Morality (53)  |  Most (1729)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Rabbit (9)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Sovereignty (6)  |  Superstition (68)  |  Test (214)  |  Traffic (10)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Verity (5)

Nowadays group theoretical methods—especially those involving characters and representations, pervade all branches of quantum mechanics.
Group Theory and its Significance', Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (1973), 117, No. 5, 380.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (246)  |  Group Theory (5)  |  Mechanic (119)  |  Mechanics (132)  |  Method (512)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Representation (54)

Obviously we biologists should fit our methods to our materials. An interesting response to this challenge has been employed particularly by persons who have entered biology from the physical sciences or who are distressed by the variability in biology; they focus their research on inbred strains of genetically homogeneous laboratory animals from which, to the maximum extent possible, variability has been eliminated. These biologists have changed the nature of the biological system to fit their methods. Such a bold and forthright solution is admirable, but it is not for me. Before I became a professional biologist, I was a boy naturalist, and I prefer a contrasting approach; to change the method to fit the system. This approach requires that one employ procedures which allow direct scientific utilization of the successful long-term evolutionary experiments which are documented by the fascinating diversity and variability of the species of animals which occupy the earth. This is easy to say and hard to do.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist�s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (19)  |  Allow (45)  |  Animal (627)  |  Approach (109)  |  Become (816)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biologist (69)  |  Biology (220)  |  Bold (22)  |  Boy (96)  |  Challenge (87)  |  Change (605)  |  Contrast (44)  |  Direct (225)  |  Distress (9)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Document (7)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Easy (207)  |  Eliminate (22)  |  Employ (113)  |  Enter (142)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Extent (139)  |  Fascinating (37)  |  Fit (135)  |  Focus (36)  |  Genetically (2)  |  Hard (243)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Interest (399)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Laboratory (200)  |  Long (788)  |  Long-Term (10)  |  Material (356)  |  Maximum (12)  |  Method (512)  |  Naturalist (75)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Obviously (11)  |  Occupy (26)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Person (363)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Possible (553)  |  Prefer (25)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Professional (73)  |  Require (222)  |  Research (728)  |  Response (54)  |  Say (984)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Solution (272)  |  Species (410)  |  Strain (11)  |  Successful (130)  |  System (538)  |  Term (352)  |  Utilization (15)  |  Variability (5)

One feature which will probably most impress the mathematician accustomed to the rapidity and directness secured by the generality of modern methods is the deliberation with which Archimedes approaches the solution of any one of his main problems. Yet this very characteristic, with its incidental effects, is calculated to excite the more admiration because the method suggests the tactics of some great strategist who foresees everything, eliminates everything not immediately conducive to the execution of his plan, masters every position in its order, and then suddenly (when the very elaboration of the scheme has almost obscured, in the mind of the spectator, its ultimate object) strikes the final blow. Thus we read in Archimedes proposition after proposition the bearing of which is not immediately obvious but which we find infallibly used later on; and we are led by such easy stages that the difficulties of the original problem, as presented at the outset, are scarcely appreciated. As Plutarch says: �It is not possible to find in geometry more difficult and troublesome questions, or more simple and lucid explanations.� But it is decidedly a rhetorical exaggeration when Plutarch goes on to say that we are deceived by the easiness of the successive steps into the belief that anyone could have discovered them for himself. On the contrary, the studied simplicity and the perfect finish of the treatises involve at the same time an element of mystery. Though each step depends on the preceding ones, we are left in the dark as to how they were suggested to Archimedes. There is, in fact, much truth in a remark by Wallis to the effect that he seems �as it were of set purpose to have covered up the traces of his investigation as if he had grudged posterity the secret of his method of inquiry while he wished to extort from them assent to his results.� Wallis adds with equal reason that not only Archimedes but nearly all the ancients so hid away from posterity their method of Analysis (though it is certain that they had one) that more modern mathematicians found it easier to invent a new Analysis than to seek out the old.
In The Works of Archimedes (1897), Preface, vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Add (40)  |  Admiration (60)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Ancient (192)  |  Anyone (36)  |  Appreciate (63)  |  Approach (109)  |  Archimedes (60)  |  Assent (12)  |  Bear (162)  |  Belief (590)  |  Blow (44)  |  Calculate (54)  |  Certain (551)  |  Characteristic (152)  |  Conducive (3)  |  Contrary (142)  |  Cover (37)  |  Dark (141)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Decidedly (2)  |  Deliberation (5)  |  Depend (231)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Discover (558)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easiness (4)  |  Easy (207)  |  Effect (398)  |  Elaboration (11)  |  Element (311)  |  Eliminate (22)  |  Equal (85)  |  Everything (479)  |  Exaggeration (15)  |  Excite (15)  |  Execution (25)  |  Explanation (238)  |  Extort (2)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Feature (47)  |  Final (120)  |  Find (1002)  |  Finish (59)  |  Foresee (20)  |  Generality (45)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Great (1577)  |  Grudge (2)  |  Hide (69)  |  Himself (461)  |  Immediately (114)  |  Impress (65)  |  Incidental (15)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Invent (53)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Involve (90)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (388)  |  Leave (131)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Main (28)  |  Master (179)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Modern (389)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Mystery (182)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1239)  |  Object (427)  |  Obscure (64)  |  Obvious (126)  |  Old (482)  |  Order (633)  |  Original (59)  |  Outset (7)  |  Perfect (218)  |  Plan (118)  |  Plutarch (15)  |  Position (78)  |  Possible (553)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Precede (23)  |  Present (622)  |  Probably (49)  |  Problem (699)  |  Proposition (123)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Question (632)  |  Rapidity (27)  |  Read (294)  |  Reason (753)  |  Remark (28)  |  Result (684)  |  Same (157)  |  Say (984)  |  Scarcely (74)  |  Scheme (58)  |  Secret (204)  |  Secure (22)  |  Secured (18)  |  Seek (216)  |  Set (395)  |  Simple (410)  |  Simplicity (170)  |  Solution (272)  |  Spectator (11)  |  Stage (145)  |  Step (231)  |  Strike (70)  |  Study (666)  |  Successive (73)  |  Suddenly (89)  |  Suggest (34)  |  Tactic (7)  |  Time (1886)  |  Trace (106)  |  Treatise (44)  |  Troublesome (7)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Ultimate (149)  |  John Wallis (3)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wish (214)

One of the most striking evidences of the reliability of the organic chemist's methods of determining molecular structure is the fact that he has never been able to derive satisfactory structures for supposed molecules which are in fact nonexistent.
Physical Organic Chemistry; Reaction Rates, Equilibria, and Mechanisms (1940),38.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemist (158)  |  Derive (65)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Method (512)  |  Molecular Structure (8)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Most (1729)  |  Never (1088)  |  Organic (159)  |  Organic Chemistry (40)  |  Reliability (17)  |  Striking (48)  |  Structure (351)

One reason which has led the organic chemist to avert his mind from the problems of Biochemistry is the obsession that the really significant happenings in the animal body are concerned in the main with substances of such high molecular weight and consequent vagueness of molecular structure as to make their reactions impossible of study by his available and accurate methods. There remains, I find, pretty widely spread, the feeling�due to earlier biological teaching�that, apart from substances which are obviously excreta, all the simpler products which can be found in cells or tissues are as a class mere objects, already too remote from the fundamental biochemical events to have much significance. So far from this being the case, recent progress points in the clearest way to the fact that the molecules with which a most important and significant part of the chemical dynamics of living tissues is concerned are of a comparatively simple character.
In 'The Dynamic Side of Biochemistry', Address (11 Sep 1913) in Report on the 83rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1914), 657-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (87)  |  Already (222)  |  Animal (627)  |  Available (79)  |  Being (1277)  |  Biochemistry (49)  |  Biological (137)  |  Body (543)  |  Character (246)  |  Chemical (295)  |  Chemist (158)  |  Class (166)  |  Concern (230)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Due (141)  |  Event (217)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Feeling (254)  |  Find (1002)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Happening (59)  |  High (365)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Living (492)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Molecular Structure (8)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Most (1729)  |  Object (427)  |  Obsession (13)  |  Organic (159)  |  Point (581)  |  Problem (699)  |  Product (161)  |  Progress (481)  |  Reaction (103)  |  Reason (753)  |  Recent (77)  |  Remain (351)  |  Remote (84)  |  Significance (115)  |  Significant (74)  |  Simple (410)  |  Spread (85)  |  Structure (351)  |  Study (666)  |  Substance (249)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Tissue (46)  |  Vagueness (15)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (136)

Ordinarily logic is divided into the examination of ideas, judgments, arguments, and methods. The two latter are generally reduced to judgments, that is, arguments are reduced to apodictic judgments that such and such conclusions follow from such and such premises, and method is reduced to judgments that prescribe the procedure that should be followed in the search for truth.
Amp�re expresses how arguments have a logical structure which he expected should be applied to relate scientific theories to experimental evidence. In James R. Hofmann, Andr�-Marie Amp�re (1996), 158. Cites Acad�mie des Sciences Amp�re Archives, �cole Normale lecture 15 notes, box 261.
Science quotes on:  |  Apodictic (3)  |  Argument (139)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Divided (50)  |  Division (67)  |  Examination (100)  |  Follow (381)  |  Following (16)  |  Generality (45)  |  Idea (855)  |  Judgment (135)  |  Latter (21)  |  Logic (294)  |  Method (512)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Premise (37)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Reduction (51)  |  Search (165)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Two (936)

Our indirect methods have taught us a mountain of things about horses, but if you wished to learn even more, would you rather be Whirlaway in the stretch, than interview Eddie Arcaro afterwards?
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Horse (77)  |  Indirect (18)  |  Interview (5)  |  Learn (647)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (194)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Teach (281)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wish (214)

Our methods of communication with our fellow men take many forms. We share with other animals the ability to transmit information by such diverse means as the posture of our bodies, by the movements of our eyes, head, arms, and hands, and by our utterances of non-specific sounds. But we go far beyond any other species on earth in that we have evolved sophisticated forms of pictorial representation, elaborate spoken and written languages, ingenious methods of recording music and language on discs, on magnetic tape and in a variety of other kinds of code.
As quoted in epigraph before title page in John Wolfenden, Hermann Bondi, et al., The Languages of Science: A Survey of Techniques of Communication (1963), i.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (155)  |  Animal (627)  |  Arm (81)  |  Arms (37)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Code (31)  |  Communication (98)  |  Diverse (18)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Elaborate (28)  |  Eye (427)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Form (965)  |  Hand (143)  |  Head (81)  |  Information (167)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Kind (559)  |  Language (298)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Movement (157)  |  Music (132)  |  Other (2234)  |  Picture (143)  |  Posture (7)  |  Record (156)  |  Recording (13)  |  Representation (54)  |  Share (78)  |  Sophisticated (15)  |  Sound (186)  |  Species (410)  |  Specific (95)  |  Spoken (3)  |  Tape (5)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Variety (133)  |  Written (6)

Out of the interaction of form and content in mathematics grows an acquaintance with methods which enable the student to produce independently within certain though moderate limits, and to extend his knowledge through his own reflection. The deepening of the consciousness of the intellectual powers connected with this kind of activity, and the gradual awakening of the feeling of intellectual self-reliance may well be considered as the most beautiful and highest result of mathematical training.
In 'Ueber Wert und angeblichen Unwert der Mathematik', Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung (1904), 374.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (37)  |  Activity (215)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Beautiful (263)  |  Certain (551)  |  Connect (125)  |  Conscious (45)  |  Consciousness (127)  |  Consider (417)  |  Content (72)  |  Enable (119)  |  Extend (128)  |  Feeling (254)  |  Form (965)  |  Grow (239)  |  Independently (24)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Interaction (46)  |  Kind (559)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Limit (284)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Power (755)  |  Reflection (92)  |  Result (684)  |  Self (267)  |  Student (307)  |  Through (847)  |  Training (88)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Physical science comes nearest to that complete system of exact knowledge which all sciences have before them as an ideal. Some fall far short of it. The physicist who inveighs against the lack of coherence and the indefiniteness of theological theories, will probably speak not much less harshly of the theories of biology and psychology. They also fail to come up to his standard of methodology. On the other side of him stands an even superior being�the pure mathematician�who has no high opinion of the methods of deduction used in physics, and does not hide his disapproval of the laxity of what is accepted as proof in physical science. And yet somehow knowledge grows in all these branches. Wherever a way opens we are impelled to seek by the only methods that can be devised for that particular opening, not over-rating the security of our finding, but conscious that in this activity of mind we are obeying the light that is in our nature.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends� House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 77-78.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (193)  |  Activity (215)  |  Against (332)  |  Being (1277)  |  Biology (220)  |  Coherence (13)  |  Complete (205)  |  Deduction (84)  |  Fail (186)  |  Fall (235)  |  Grow (239)  |  Hide (69)  |  High (365)  |  Ideal (103)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Lack (121)  |  Light (617)  |  Method (512)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Open (274)  |  Opinion (285)  |  Other (2234)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Physics (539)  |  Proof (297)  |  Psychology (159)  |  Pure (293)  |  Security (49)  |  Seek (216)  |  Short (197)  |  Side (233)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Speak (234)  |  Stand (276)  |  Superior (82)  |  System (538)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Will (2354)

Physics most strongly insists that its methods do not penetrate behind the symbolism.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends� House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (138)  |  Do (1905)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Penetrate (67)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physics (539)

Positive, objective knowledge is public property. It can be transmitted directly from one person to another, it can be pooled, and it can be passed on from one generation to the next. Consequently, knowledge accumulates through the ages, each generation adding its contribution. Values are quite different. By values, I mean the standards by which we judge the significance of life. The meaning of good and evil, of joy and sorrow, of beauty, justice, success-all these are purely private convictions, and they constitute our store of wisdom. They are peculiar to the individual, and no methods exist by which universal agreement can be obtained. Therefore, wisdom cannot be readily transmitted from person to person, and there is no great accumulation through the ages. Each man starts from scratch and acquires his own wisdom from his own experience. About all that can be done in the way of communication is to expose others to vicarious experience in the hope of a favorable response.
The Nature of Science and other Lectures (1954), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (50)  |  Age (500)  |  Agreement (54)  |  Beauty (304)  |  Communication (98)  |  Constitute (97)  |  Contribution (89)  |  Conviction (99)  |  Different (579)  |  Evil (117)  |  Exist (445)  |  Experience (480)  |  Expose (23)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Generation (249)  |  Good (893)  |  Great (1577)  |  Hope (307)  |  Individual (408)  |  Joy (113)  |  Judge (109)  |  Justice (40)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Life (1818)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mean (808)  |  Meaning (237)  |  Method (512)  |  Next (236)  |  Objective (92)  |  Obtain (163)  |  Other (2234)  |  Pass (238)  |  Peculiar (113)  |  Person (363)  |  Positive (94)  |  Property (170)  |  Purely (110)  |  Response (54)  |  Scratch (13)  |  Significance (115)  |  Sorrow (17)  |  Start (225)  |  Store (48)  |  Success (311)  |  Through (847)  |  Universal (191)  |  Value (377)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (227)

Psychological introspection goes hand in hand with the methods of experimental physiology. If one wants to put the main emphasis on the characteristic of the method, our science, experimental psychology, is to be distinguished from the ordinary mental philosophy [Seelenlehre], based purely on introspection.
In Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie [Principles of Physiological Psychology] (1874), 2-3. Trans. K. Damiger, Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research (1990), 206.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (152)  |  Distinguish (164)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Introspection (5)  |  Mental (178)  |  Method (512)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Physiology (98)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Psychology (159)  |  Purely (110)  |  Want (497)

Pure mathematics and physics are becoming ever more closely connected, though their methods remain different. One may describe the situation by saying that the mathematician plays a game in which he himself invents the rules while the while the physicist plays a game in which the rules are provided by Nature, but as time goes on it becomes increasingly evident that the rules which the mathematician finds interesting are the same as those which Nature has chosen. � Possibly, the two subjects will ultimately unify, every branch of pure mathematics then having its physical application, its importance in physics being proportional to its interest in mathematics.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Become (816)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Being (1277)  |  Branch (152)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Closely (12)  |  Connect (125)  |  Connected (8)  |  Describe (129)  |  Different (579)  |  Evident (91)  |  Find (1002)  |  Game (102)  |  Himself (461)  |  Importance (292)  |  Interest (399)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Invent (53)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Physics (539)  |  Play (112)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Proportional (4)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Mathematics (67)  |  Remain (351)  |  Rule (296)  |  Situation (114)  |  Subject (529)  |  Time (1886)  |  Two (936)  |  Ultimately (55)  |  Unify (6)  |  Will (2354)

Pure mathematics proves itself a royal science both through its content and form, which contains within itself the cause of its being and its methods of proof. For in complete independence mathematics creates for itself the object of which it treats, its magnitudes and laws, its formulas and symbols.
In Die Mathematik die Fackeltr�gerin einer neuen Zeit (1889), 94. As translated in Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath�s Quotation-book (1914), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1277)  |  Both (494)  |  Cause (547)  |  Complete (205)  |  Contain (67)  |  Content (72)  |  Create (242)  |  Form (965)  |  Formula (98)  |  Independence (35)  |  Law (902)  |  Magnitude (85)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Object (427)  |  Proof (297)  |  Prove (253)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Mathematics (67)  |  Royal (56)  |  Symbol (94)  |  Through (847)  |  Treat (35)

Quantity is that which is operated with according to fixed mutually consistent laws. Both operator and operand must derive their meaning from the laws of operation. In the case of ordinary algebra these are the three laws already indicated [the commutative, associative, and distributive laws], in the algebra of quaternions the same save the law of commutation for multiplication and division, and so on. It may be questioned whether this definition is sufficient, and it may be objected that it is vague; but the reader will do well to reflect that any definition must include the linear algebras of Peirce, the algebra of logic, and others that may be easily imagined, although they have not yet been developed. This general definition of quantity enables us to see how operators may be treated as quantities, and thus to understand the rationale of the so called symbolical methods.
In 'Mathematics', Encyclopedia Britannica (9th ed.).
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (35)  |  According (236)  |  Algebra (115)  |  Already (222)  |  Both (494)  |  Call (768)  |  Commutative (2)  |  Consistent (48)  |  Definition (227)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Derive (65)  |  Develop (271)  |  Distributive (2)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enable (119)  |  Fix (25)  |  General (513)  |  Include (90)  |  Law (902)  |  Linear (13)  |  Logic (294)  |  Meaning (237)  |  Method (512)  |  Multiplication (45)  |  Must (1526)  |  Mutually (7)  |  Object (427)  |  Operate (18)  |  Operation (213)  |  Operator (3)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Other (2234)  |  Charles Sanders Peirce (22)  |  Quantity (133)  |  Quaternion (9)  |  Question (632)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Reader (41)  |  Reflect (32)  |  Save (120)  |  See (1081)  |  Sufficient (129)  |  Understand (619)  |  Vague (48)  |  Will (2354)

Research is industrial prospecting. The oil prospectors use every scientific means to find new paying wells. Oil is found by each one of a number of methods. My own group of men are prospecting in a different field, using every possible scientific means. We believe there are still things left to be discovered. We have only stumbled upon a few barrels of physical laws from the great pool of knowledge. Some day we are going to hit a gusher.
'Industrial Prospecting', an address to the Founder Societies of Engineers (20 May 1935). In National Research Council, Reprint and Circular Series of the National Research Council (1933), No. 107, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Barrel (5)  |  Belief (590)  |  Different (579)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Field (369)  |  Find (1002)  |  Great (1577)  |  Industry (146)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Law (902)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Number (703)  |  Oil (59)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Law (15)  |  Pool (15)  |  Possible (553)  |  Prospector (5)  |  Research (728)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Still (614)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (768)

Research may start from definite problems whose importance it recognizes and whose solution is sought more or less directly by all forces. But equally legitimate is the other method of research which only selects the field of its activity and, contrary to the first method, freely reconnoitres in the search for problems which are capable of solution. Different individuals will hold different views as to the relative value of these two methods. If the first method leads to greater penetration it is also easily exposed to the danger of unproductivity. To the second method we owe the acquisition of large and new fields, in which the details of many things remain to be determined and explored by the first method.
In Zum Ged�chtniss an Julius Plucker', G�ttinger Abhandlungen (1871), 16, Mathematische Classe, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (45)  |  Activity (215)  |  Capable (168)  |  Contrary (142)  |  Danger (118)  |  Definite (110)  |  Detail (147)  |  Determine (145)  |  Different (579)  |  Easy (207)  |  Equally (130)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Expose (23)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Field (369)  |  First (1287)  |  Force (490)  |  Freely (13)  |  Great (1577)  |  Greater (289)  |  Hold (95)  |  Importance (292)  |  Individual (408)  |  Large (396)  |  Lead (388)  |  Legitimate (25)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (69)  |  New (1239)  |  Other (2234)  |  Owe (71)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Problem (699)  |  Productivity (22)  |  Recognize (128)  |  Reconnoitre (2)  |  Relative (40)  |  Remain (351)  |  Research (728)  |  Search (165)  |  Select (44)  |  Solution (272)  |  Start (225)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Value (377)  |  View (491)  |  Will (2354)

Science can never be a closed book. It is like a tree, ever growing, ever reaching new heights. Occasionally the lower branches, no longer giving nourishment to the tree, slough off. We should not be ashamed to change our methods; rather we should be ashamed never to do so.
Papers of Charles V. Chapin, M.D.: A Review of Public Health Realities (1934), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (396)  |  Change (605)  |  Closed (38)  |  Do (1905)  |  Growing (98)  |  Method (512)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  Nourishment (26)  |  Progress (481)  |  Tree (259)

Science finds it methods.
Journal excerpt in 'Notes', collected in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1903), 380.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1002)  |  Method (512)

Science is not, as so many seem to think, something apart, which has to do with telescopes, retorts, and test-tubes, and especially with nasty smells, but it is a way of searching out by observation, trial and classification; whether the phenomena investigated be the outcome of human activities, or of the more direct workings of nature's laws. Its methods admit of nothing untidy or slip-shod; its keynote is accuracy and its goal is truth.
The University of Utopia (1918), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Classification (99)  |  Direct (225)  |  Do (1905)  |  Goal (147)  |  Human (1479)  |  Investigate (103)  |  Keynote (2)  |  Law (902)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Observation (578)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Smell (29)  |  Something (718)  |  Telescope (103)  |  Test (214)  |  Think (1093)  |  Trial (57)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Way (1214)

Science is often regarded as the most objective and truth-directed of human enterprises, and since direct observation is supposed to be the favored route to factuality, many people equate respectable science with visual scrutiny�just the facts ma�am, and palpably before my eyes. But science is a battery of observational and inferential methods, all directed to the testing of propositions that can, in principle, be definitely proven false ... At all scales, from smallest to largest, quickest to slowest, many well-documented conclusions of science lie beyond the strictly limited domain of direct observation. No one has ever seen an electron or a black hole, the events of a picosecond or a geological eon.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Battery (12)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Direct (225)  |  Domain (69)  |  Electron (95)  |  Enterprise (55)  |  Eon (11)  |  Equate (3)  |  Event (217)  |  Eye (427)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Factuality (2)  |  False (102)  |  Favor (66)  |  Favored (5)  |  Geological (11)  |  Human (1479)  |  Inferential (2)  |  Large (396)  |  Largest (39)  |  Lie (363)  |  Limit (284)  |  Limited (102)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Objective (92)  |  Observation (578)  |  Observational (15)  |  Often (107)  |  Palpably (2)  |  People (1008)  |  Principle (515)  |  Proposition (123)  |  Prove (253)  |  Quick (13)  |  Regard (305)  |  Respectable (7)  |  Route (15)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1081)  |  Slow (103)  |  Small (481)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Suppose (157)  |  Test (214)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Visual (16)

Science is what scientists do, and there are as many scientific methods as there are individual scientists.
'On Scientific Method' in Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 370.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Individual (408)  |  Method (512)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientist (846)

Science is, I believe, nothing but trained and organised common-sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit; and its methods differ from those of common-sense only so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club.
Lecture at St. Martin's Hall (22 Jul 1854), printed as On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences (1854), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Common (438)  |  Common Sense (131)  |  Cut (114)  |  Differ (85)  |  Method (512)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Raw (28)  |  Sense (776)  |  Thrust (12)  |  Train (116)

Science will continue to surprise us with what it discovers and creates; then it will astound us by devising new methods to surprise us. At the core of science�s self-modification is technology. New tools enable new structures of knowledge and new ways of discovery. The achievement of science is to know new things; the evolution of science is to know them in new ways. What evolves is less the body of what we know and more the nature of our knowing.
'Speculations on the Future of Science'. In Clifford A. Pickover, Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them (2008), 172.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (183)  |  Astound (7)  |  Body (543)  |  Continue (168)  |  Core (18)  |  Create (242)  |  Devise (14)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Enable (119)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Know (1522)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Less (103)  |  Method (512)  |  Modification (57)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  New (1239)  |  Self (267)  |  Structure (351)  |  Surprise (86)  |  Technology (264)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tool (121)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2354)

Scientific method is often defined as if it were a set procedure, to be learned, like a recipe, as if anyone could like a recipe, as if anyone could become a scientist simply by learning the method. This is as absurd ... [so I shall not] discuss scientific method, but rather the methods of scientists. We proceed by common sense and ingenuity. There are no rules, only the principles of integrity and objectivity, with a complete rejection of all authority except that of fact.
In Science in the Making (1957), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (59)  |  Anyone (36)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (816)  |  Common (438)  |  Common Sense (131)  |  Complete (205)  |  Definition (227)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Ingenuity (41)  |  Integrity (19)  |  Learn (647)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (288)  |  Method (512)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Principle (515)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Proceed (130)  |  Recipe (7)  |  Rejection (35)  |  Rule (296)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Sense (776)  |  Set (395)

Scientists and particularly the professional students of evolution are often accused of a bias toward mechanism or materialism, even though believers in vitalism and in finalism are not lacking among them. Such bias as may exist is inherent in the method of science. The most successful scientific investigation has generally involved treating phenomena as if they were purely materialistic, rejecting any metaphysical hypothesis as long as a physical hypothesis seems possible. The method works. The restriction is necessary because science is confined to physical means of investigation and so it would stultify its own efforts to postulate that its subject is not physical and so not susceptible to its methods.
The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of its Significance for Man (1949), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Belief (590)  |  Believer (26)  |  Bias (21)  |  Confinement (4)  |  Effort (230)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Exist (445)  |  Hypothesis (305)  |  Inherent (42)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Involved (90)  |  Lacking (2)  |  Long (788)  |  Materialism (11)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Mechanism (98)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (51)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Necessity (193)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Physical (509)  |  Possible (553)  |  Postulate (40)  |  Professional (73)  |  Purely (110)  |  Rejection (35)  |  Restriction (14)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Student (307)  |  Stultify (5)  |  Subject (529)  |  Success (311)  |  Successful (130)  |  Treatment (132)  |  Vitalism (5)  |  Work (1368)

Sea-water is, of course, opaque and this is the first difficulty that faces the oceanographer. Most of the tools needed to investigate the sea must use physical principles which are more complicated than the optical methods that are so satisfactory for studying the surface features of the land.
In 'Man Explores the Sea', Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (Sep 1963), 111, No. 5086, 786.
Science quotes on:  |  Complicated (115)  |  Course (410)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Face (213)  |  First (1287)  |  Investigate (103)  |  Land (125)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Must (1526)  |  Need (295)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Optical (11)  |  Physical (509)  |  Principle (515)  |  Sea (315)  |  Study (666)  |  Studying (70)  |  Surface (211)  |  Tool (121)  |  Use (768)  |  Water (491)

Shakespeare was pursuing two Methods at once; and besides the Psychological Method, he had also to attend to the Poetical. (Note) we beg pardon for the use of this insolent verbum: but it is one of which our Language stands in great need. We have no single term to express the Philosophy of the Human Mind.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (65)  |  Express (187)  |  Great (1577)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Mind (132)  |  Language (298)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Pardon (7)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Poetry (146)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Psychology (159)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  William Shakespeare (105)  |  Single (357)  |  Stand (276)  |  Term (352)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (768)

Since religion intrinsically rejects empirical methods, there should never be any attempt to reconcile scientific theories with religion. [An infinitely old universe, always evolving may not be compatible with the Book of Genesis. However, religions such as Buddhism get along without having any explicit creation mythology and are in no way contradicted by a universe without a beginning or end.] Creatio ex nihilo, even as religious doctrine, only dates to around AD 200. The key is not to confuse myth and empirical results, or religion and science.
Quoted in Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', Washington Times, supplement: The World and I (May 1988),196.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (253)  |  Beginning (308)  |  Book (396)  |  Contradict (41)  |  Creatio Ex Nihilo (2)  |  Creation (338)  |  Empirical (56)  |  Empiricism (21)  |  End (594)  |   Genesis (26)  |  Method (512)  |  Myth (56)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Never (1088)  |  Old (482)  |  Reconcile (18)  |  Reject (64)  |  Religion (365)  |  Religious (129)  |  Result (684)  |  Science And Religion (327)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Theory (987)  |  Universe (870)  |  Way (1214)

Since the seventeenth century, physical intuition has served as a vital source for mathematical porblems and methods. Recent trends and fashions have, however, weakened the connection between mathematics and physics; mathematicians, turning away from their roots of mathematics in intuition, have concentrated on refinement and emphasized the postulated side of mathematics, and at other times have overlooked the unity of their science with physics and other fields. In many cases, physicists have ceased to appreciate the attitudes of mathematicians. This rift is unquestionably a serious threat to science as a whole; the broad stream of scientific development may split into smaller and smaller rivulets and dry out. It seems therefore important to direct our efforts towards reuniting divergent trends by classifying the common features and interconnections of many distinct and diverse scientific facts.
As co-author with David Hilbert, in Methods of Mathematical Physics (1937, 1989), Preface, v.
Science quotes on:  |  17th Century (18)  |  Appreciate (63)  |  Appreciation (36)  |  Attitude (83)  |  Ceasing (2)  |  Century (312)  |  Classification (99)  |  Common (438)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Connection (165)  |  Development (431)  |  Direct (225)  |  Directing (5)  |  Distinct (97)  |  Divergence (6)  |  Divergent (6)  |  Diverse (18)  |  Dry (61)  |  Effort (230)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fashion (33)  |  Feature (47)  |  Field (369)  |  Importance (292)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Intuition (79)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Overlook (32)  |  Overlooking (3)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Physics (539)  |  Postulate (40)  |  Problem (699)  |  Recent (77)  |  Refinement (18)  |  Rift (3)  |  Rivulet (5)  |  Root (121)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Serious (94)  |  Serving (15)  |  Side (233)  |  Source (95)  |  Stream (81)  |  Threat (30)  |  Time (1886)  |  Trend (23)  |  Turning (5)  |  Unity (79)  |  Unquestionably (3)  |  Vital (87)  |  Weakening (2)  |  Whole (740)

Sociology is the science with the greatest number of methods and the least results.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Great (1577)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Least (74)  |  Method (512)  |  Number (703)  |  Result (684)  |  Sociology (46)

Stone, wood and iron are wrought and put together by mechanical methods, but the greatest work is to keep right the animal part of the machinery.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Engineering (178)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Iron (97)  |  Machinery (57)  |  Mechanical (140)  |  Method (512)  |  Right (458)  |  Stone (164)  |  Together (389)  |  Wood (92)  |  Work (1368)

That man can interrogate as well as observe nature was a lesson slowly learned in his evolution. Of the two methods by which he can do this, the mathematical and the experimental, both have been equally fruitful�by the one he has gauged the starry heights and harnessed the cosmic forces to his will; by the other he has solved many of the problems of life and lightened many of the burdens of humanity.
In 'The Evolution of the Idea of Experiment in Medicine', in C.G. Roland, Sir William Osler, 1849-1919: A Selection for Medical Students (1982), 103. As cited in William Osler and Mark E. Silverman (ed.), The Quotable Osler (2002), 249
Science quotes on:  |  Both (494)  |  Burden (27)  |  Cosmic (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equally (130)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Force (490)  |  Fruitful (60)  |  Harness (23)  |  Humanity (175)  |  Interrogation (5)  |  Learn (647)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Life (1818)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Observation (578)  |  Observe (169)  |  Other (2234)  |  Problem (699)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2354)

That the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry.
Address to Section L, Education, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Boston (1909), 'Science as Subject-Matter and as Method'. Published in Science (28 Jan 1910), N.S. Vol. 31, No. 787, 126.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (59)  |  Belief (590)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Distaste (3)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Expect (201)  |  Great (1577)  |  Idea (855)  |  Improve (59)  |  Inquiry (84)  |  Interest (399)  |  Kind (559)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Lively (17)  |  Majority (66)  |  Marked (55)  |  Method (512)  |  Reach (283)  |  Required (108)  |  School (222)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Substantiate (4)  |  Type (167)  |  Way (1214)

The chances for favorable serendipity are increased if one studies an animal that is not one of the common laboratory species. Atypical animals, or preparations, force one to use non-standard approaches and non-standard techniques, and even to think nonstandard ideas. My own preference is to seek out species which show some extreme of adaptation. Such organisms often force one to abandon standard methods and standard points of view. Almost inevitably they lead one to ask new questions, and most importantly in trying to comprehend their special and often unusual adaptations one often serendipitously stumbles upon new insights.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist�s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 234.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (72)  |  Adaptation (58)  |  Animal (627)  |  Approach (109)  |  Ask (412)  |  Atypical (3)  |  Chance (240)  |  Common (438)  |  Comprehend (42)  |  Extreme (75)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Force (490)  |  Idea (855)  |  Importantly (3)  |  Increase (214)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Insight (103)  |  Laboratory (200)  |  Lead (388)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  New (1239)  |  Often (107)  |  Organism (223)  |  Point (581)  |  Preference (28)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Question (632)  |  Seek (216)  |  Serendipity (15)  |  Show (346)  |  Special (186)  |  Species (410)  |  Standard (58)  |  Study (666)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Technique (83)  |  Think (1093)  |  Try (284)  |  Trying (144)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Use (768)  |  View (491)

The chemists work with inaccurate and poor measuring services, but they employ very good materials. The physicists, on the other hand, use excellent methods and accurate instruments, but they apply these to very inferior materials. The physical chemists combine both these characteristics in that they apply imprecise methods to impure materials.
Quoted in Ralph Oesper, The Human Side of Scientists (1975), 116.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (87)  |  Application (248)  |  Apply (163)  |  Both (494)  |  Characteristic (152)  |  Chemist (158)  |  Combination (145)  |  Combine (57)  |  Employ (113)  |  Employment (32)  |  Excellence (39)  |  Good (893)  |  Imprecise (3)  |  Imprecision (2)  |  Inaccuracy (3)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Inferiority (7)  |  Instrument (147)  |  Material (356)  |  Measurement (175)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Poor (136)  |  Service (110)  |  Use (768)  |  Work (1368)

The concepts and methods on which the classification of hominid taxa is based do not differ in principle from those used for other zoological taxa. Indeed, the classification of living human populations or of samples of fossil hominids is a branch of animal taxonomy.
Opening sentence of 'The Taxonomic Evaluation of Fossil Hominids' (1963). Collected in Sherwood L. Washburn, Classification and Human Evolution (1964), 332.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (627)  |  Branch (152)  |  Classification (99)  |  Concept (223)  |  Differ (85)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fossil (139)  |  Hominid (4)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Being (178)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Population (110)  |  Principle (515)  |  Sample (19)  |  Taxonomy (18)  |  Zoological (5)

The development of abstract methods during the past few years has given mathematics a new and vital principle which furnishes the most powerful instrument for exhibiting the essential unity of all its branches.
In Lectures on Fundamental Concepts of Algebra and Geometry (1911), 225.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (130)  |  Branch (152)  |  Development (431)  |  Essential (201)  |  Exhibit (20)  |  Furnish (96)  |  Instrument (147)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern Mathematics (50)  |  Most (1729)  |  New (1239)  |  Past (341)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Principle (515)  |  Unity (79)  |  Vital (87)  |  Year (935)

The dispute between evolutionists and creation scientists offers textbook writers and teachers a wonderful opportunity to provide students with insights into the philosophy and methods of science. � What students really need to know is � how scientists judge the merit of a theory. Suppose students were taught the criteria of scientific theory evaluation and then were asked to apply these criteria � to the two theories in question. Wouldn�t such a task qualify as authentic science education? � I suspect that when these two theories are put side by side, and students are given the freedom to judge their merit as science, creation theory will fail ignominiously (although natural selection is far from faultless). � It is not only bad science to allow disputes over theory to go unexamined, but also bad education.
In Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future (1999), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (45)  |  Apply (163)  |  Ask (412)  |  Authentic (8)  |  Bad (180)  |  Bad Science (5)  |  Creation (338)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Dispute (34)  |  Education (396)  |  Evaluation (10)  |  Evolutionist (8)  |  Examine (81)  |  Fail (186)  |  Fault (56)  |  Freedom (137)  |  Ignominious (2)  |  Insight (103)  |  Judge (109)  |  Know (1522)  |  Merit (50)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Selection (96)  |  Offer (141)  |  Opportunity (92)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Question (632)  |  Science And Education (16)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Selection (128)  |  Side (233)  |  Student (307)  |  Suppose (157)  |  Task (149)  |  Teacher (144)  |  Textbook (37)  |  Theory (987)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wonderful (151)  |  Writer (88)

The enthusiasm of Sylvester for his own work, which manifests itself here as always, indicates one of his characteristic qualities: a high degree of subjectivity in his productions and publications. Sylvester was so fully possessed by the matter which for the time being engaged his attention, that it appeared to him and was designated by him as the summit of all that is important, remarkable and full of future promise. It would excite his phantasy and power of imagination in even a greater measure than his power of reflection, so much so that he could never marshal the ability to master his subject-matter, much less to present it in an orderly manner.
Considering that he was also somewhat of a poet, it will be easier to overlook the poetic flights which pervade his writing, often bombastic, sometimes furnishing apt illustrations; more damaging is the complete lack of form and orderliness of his publications and their sketchlike character, � which must be accredited at least as much to lack of objectivity as to a superfluity of ideas. Again, the text is permeated with associated emotional expressions, bizarre utterances and paradoxes and is everywhere accompanied by notes, which constitute an essential part of Sylvester�s method of presentation, embodying relations, whether proximate or remote, which momentarily suggested themselves. These notes, full of inspiration and occasional flashes of genius, are the more stimulating owing to their incompleteness. But none of his works manifest a desire to penetrate the subject from all sides and to allow it to mature; each mere surmise, conceptions which arose during publication, immature thoughts and even errors were ushered into publicity at the moment of their inception, with utmost carelessness, and always with complete unfamiliarity of the literature of the subject. Nowhere is there the least trace of self-criticism. No one can be expected to read the treatises entire, for in the form in which they are available they fail to give a clear view of the matter under contemplation.
Sylvester�s was not a harmoniously gifted or well-balanced mind, but rather an instinctively active and creative mind, free from egotism. His reasoning moved in generalizations, was frequently influenced by analysis and at times was guided even by mystical numerical relations. His reasoning consists less frequently of pure intelligible conclusions than of inductions, or rather conjectures incited by individual observations and verifications. In this he was guided by an algebraic sense, developed through long occupation with processes of forms, and this led him luckily to general fundamental truths which in some instances remain veiled. His lack of system is here offset by the advantage of freedom from purely mechanical logical activity.
The exponents of his essential characteristics are an intuitive talent and a faculty of invention to which we owe a series of ideas of lasting value and bearing the germs of fruitful methods. To no one more fittingly than to Sylvester can be applied one of the mottos of the Philosophic Magazine:
�Admiratio generat quaestionem, quaestio investigationem investigatio inventionem.�
In Mathematische Annalen (1898), 50, 155-160. As translated in Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath�s Quotation-book (1914), 176-178.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (155)  |  Active (77)  |  Activity (215)  |  Advantage (136)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attention (193)  |  Available (79)  |  Being (1277)  |  Carelessness (6)  |  Character (246)  |  Characteristic (152)  |  Complete (205)  |  Conception (154)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitute (97)  |  Contemplation (73)  |  Creative (140)  |  Criticism (80)  |  Degree (276)  |  Desire (208)  |  Develop (271)  |  Easier (53)  |  Enthusiasm (55)  |  Error (334)  |  Essential (201)  |  Everywhere (96)  |  Expect (201)  |  Exponent (6)  |  Expression (177)  |  Fail (186)  |  Flight (99)  |  Form (965)  |  Free (234)  |  Freedom (137)  |  Fruitful (60)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Future (446)  |  General (513)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Genius (296)  |  Germ (55)  |  Gift (104)  |  Gifted (24)  |  Greater (289)  |  High (365)  |  Idea (855)  |  Illustration (49)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Inception (3)  |  Indicate (61)  |  Individual (408)  |  Induction (80)  |  Inspiration (79)  |  Intelligible (34)  |  Invention (385)  |  Lack (121)  |  Literature (108)  |  Long (788)  |  Master (179)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (804)  |  Mature (16)  |  Measure (236)  |  Mechanical (140)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Moment (255)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1526)  |  Never (1088)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Observation (578)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Orderliness (9)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Overlook (32)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Penetrate (67)  |  Possess (156)  |  Power (755)  |  Present (622)  |  Presentation (23)  |  Production (185)  |  Promise (68)  |  Proximate (4)  |  Publication (102)  |  Pure (293)  |  Purely (110)  |  Read (294)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Reflection (92)  |  Remain (351)  |  Remote (84)  |  Self (267)  |  Sense (776)  |  Series (149)  |  Side (233)  |  Subject (529)  |  Subject-Matter (8)  |  Summit (26)  |  Surmise (7)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  System (538)  |  Talent (98)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (962)  |  Through (847)  |  Time (1886)  |  Trace (106)  |  Treatise (44)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Unfamiliarity (5)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Value (377)  |  Veil (27)  |  Verification (32)  |  View (491)  |  Will (2354)  |  Work (1368)  |  Writing (191)

The exploration of the external world by the methods of physical science leads not to a concrete reality but to a shadow world of symbols, beneath which those methods are unadapted for penetrating.
Swarthmore Lecture (1929) at Friends� House, London, printed in Science and the Unseen World (1929), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Beneath (64)  |  Concrete (54)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Lead (388)  |  Method (512)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Reality (266)  |  Shadow (72)  |  Symbol (94)  |  World (1810)

The future of Thought, and therefore of History, lies in the hands of the physicists, and � the future historian must seek his education in the world of mathematical physics. A new generation must be brought up to think by new methods, and if our historical departments in the Universities cannot enter this next phase, the physical departments will have to assume this task alone.
In The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma (1920), 283.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (315)  |  Assume (40)  |  Department (92)  |  Education (396)  |  Enter (142)  |  Future (446)  |  Generation (249)  |  Hand (143)  |  Historian (58)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (685)  |  Lie (363)  |  Mathematical Physics (12)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  New (1239)  |  Next (236)  |  Phase (36)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Physics (539)  |  Seek (216)  |  Task (149)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thought (962)  |  University (121)  |  Will (2354)  |  World (1810)

The idea of making a fault a subject of study and not an object to be merely determined has been the most important step in the course of my methods of observation. If I have obtained some new results it is to this that I owe it.
'Notice sur les Travaux Scientifiques de Marcel Bertrand' (1894). In Geological Society of London, The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (May 1908), 64, li.
Science quotes on:  |  Course (410)  |  Determine (145)  |  Fault (56)  |  Idea (855)  |  Making (300)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  New (1239)  |  Object (427)  |  Observation (578)  |  Obtain (163)  |  Owe (71)  |  Result (684)  |  Step (231)  |  Study (666)  |  Subject (529)

The importance of a result is largely relative, is judged differently by different men, and changes with the times and circumstances. It has often happened that great importance has been attached to a problem merely on account of the difficulties which it presented; and indeed if for its solution it has been necessary to invent new methods, noteworthy artifices, etc., the science has gained more perhaps through these than through the final result. In general we may call important all investigations relating to things which in themselves are important; all those which have a large degree of generality, or which unite under a single point of view subjects apparently distinct, simplifying and elucidating them; all those which lead to results that promise to be the source of numerous consequences; etc.
From 'On Some Recent Tendencies in Geometric Investigations', Rivista di Matematica (1891), 44. In Bulletin American Mathematical Society (1904), 444.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (193)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Artifice (4)  |  Attach (56)  |  Attached (36)  |  Call (768)  |  Change (605)  |  Circumstance (136)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Consequence (208)  |  Degree (276)  |  Different (579)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Distinct (97)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Final (120)  |  Gain (146)  |  General (513)  |  Generality (45)  |  Great (1577)  |  Happen (276)  |  Happened (88)  |  Importance (292)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invent (53)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Judge (109)  |  Large (396)  |  Lead (388)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessary (364)  |  New (1239)  |  Noteworthy (3)  |  Numerous (68)  |  Point (581)  |  Point Of View (83)  |  Present (622)  |  Problem (699)  |  Promise (68)  |  Relative (40)  |  Result (684)  |  Simplify (13)  |  Single (357)  |  Solution (272)  |  Source (95)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (529)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (847)  |  Time (1886)  |  Unite (43)  |  View (491)

The institutional goal of science is the extension of certified knowledge. The technical methods employed toward this end provide the relevant definition of knowledge: empirically confirmed and logically consistent predictions. The institutional imperatives (mores) derive from the goal and the methods. The entire structure of technical and moral norms implements the final objective. The technical norm of empirical evidence, adequate, valid and reliable, is a prerequisite for sustained true prediction; the technical norm of logical consistency, a prerequisite for systematic and valid prediction. The mores of science possess a methodologic rationale but they are binding, not only because they are procedurally efficient, but because they are believed right and good. They are moral as well as technical prescriptions. Four sets of institutional imperatives�universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized scepticism�comprise the ethos of modern science.
Social Theory and Social Structure (1957), 552-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Belief (590)  |  Binding (9)  |  Certification (2)  |  Communism (11)  |  Confirm (57)  |  Consistency (31)  |  Consistent (48)  |  Definition (227)  |  Derive (65)  |  Disinterest (6)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Empirical (56)  |  Empiricism (21)  |  Employ (113)  |  End (594)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Extension (58)  |  Final (120)  |  Goal (147)  |  Good (893)  |  Imperative (15)  |  Implement (13)  |  Institution (68)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Method (512)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Modern (389)  |  Modern Science (52)  |  Moral (198)  |  More (2558)  |  Objective (92)  |  Organisation (7)  |  Possess (156)  |  Prediction (86)  |  Prerequisite (9)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Relevance (18)  |  Reliability (17)  |  Right (458)  |  Scepticism (16)  |  Set (395)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Structure (351)  |  Sustain (48)  |  Systematic (57)  |  Technical (50)  |  Validity (48)

The method of arithmetical teaching is perhaps the best understood of any of the methods concerned with elementary studies.
In Education as a Science (1879), 288.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (143)  |  Best (462)  |  Concern (230)  |  Elementary (96)  |  Method (512)  |  Study (666)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Understood (156)

The methods of science aren�t foolproof, but they are indefinitely perfectible. Just as important: there is a tradition of criticism that enforces improvement whenever and wherever flaws are discovered. The methods of science, like everything else under the sun, are themselves objects of scientific scrutiny, as method becomes methodology, the analysis of methods. Methodology in turn falls under the gaze of epistemology, the investigation of investigation itself�nothing is off limits to scientific questioning. The irony is that these fruits of scientific reflection, showing us the ineliminable smudges of imperfection, are sometimes used by those who are suspicious of science as their grounds for denying it a privileged status in the truth-seeking department�as if the institutions and practices they see competing with it were no worse off in these regards. But where are the examples of religious orthodoxy being simply abandoned in the face of irresistible evidence? Again and again in science, yesterday�s heresies have become today�s new orthodoxies. No religion exhibits that pattern in its history.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (72)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Arent (6)  |  Badly (32)  |  Become (816)  |  Being (1277)  |  Compete (6)  |  Criticism (80)  |  Deny (70)  |  Department (92)  |  Discover (558)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Everything (479)  |  Evidence (259)  |  Example (94)  |  Exhibit (20)  |  Face (213)  |  Fall (235)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Foolproof (5)  |  Fruit (104)  |  Gaze (21)  |  Ground (220)  |  Heresy (9)  |  History (685)  |  Imperfection (31)  |  Important (217)  |  Improvement (112)  |  Indefinitely (10)  |  Institution (68)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Irony (8)  |  Irresistible (16)  |  Limit (284)  |  Method (512)  |  Methodology (14)  |  New (1239)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Object (427)  |  Orthodoxy (9)  |  Pattern (112)  |  Practice (207)  |  Privilege (40)  |  Question (632)  |  Reflection (92)  |  Regard (305)  |  Religion (365)  |  Religious (129)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  See (1081)  |  Show (346)  |  Simply (53)  |  Smudge (2)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Status (34)  |  Sun (392)  |  Suspicious (3)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (317)  |  Tradition (72)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Turn (449)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Yesterday (36)

The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable to all those branches of thought in which the essential features are expressible with numbers.
Nobel Prize Banquet Speech (10 Dec1933). In Carl Gustaf Santesson (Ed.), Les Prix Nobel en 1933 (1935), 78
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Essential (201)  |  Method (512)  |  Number (703)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physics (539)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Thought (962)

The moment one has offered an original explanation for a phenomenon which seems satisfactory, that moment affection for his intellectual child springs into existence, and as the explanation grows into a definite theory his parental affections cluster about his offspring and it grows more and more dear to him. ... There springs up also unwittingly a pressing of the theory to make it fit the facts and a pressing of the facts to make them fit the theory... To avoid this grave danger, the method of multiple working hypotheses is urged. It differs from the simple working hypothesis in that it distributes the effort and divides the affections... In developing the multiple hypotheses, the effort is to bring up into view every rational exploration of the phenomenon in hand and to develop every tenable hypothesis relative to its nature, cause or origin, and to give to all of these as impartially as possible a working form and a due place in the investigation. The investigator thus becomes the parent of a family of hypotheses; and by his parental relations to all is morally forbidden to fasten his affections unduly upon anyone. ... Each hypothesis suggests its own criteria, its own method of proof, its own method of developing the truth, and if a group of hypotheses encompass the subject on all sides, the total outcome of means and of methods is full and rich.
'Studies for Students. The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses', Journal of Geology (1897), 5, 840-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (43)  |  Avoid (117)  |  Become (816)  |  Cause (547)  |  Child (321)  |  Cluster (16)  |  Danger (118)  |  Definite (110)  |  Develop (271)  |  Differ (85)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Divide (76)  |  Due (141)  |  Effort (230)  |  Existence (468)  |  Explanation (238)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Family (96)  |  Fit (135)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Form (965)  |  Grave (52)  |  Grow (239)  |  Hypothesis (305)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Investigator (67)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Moment (255)  |  More (2558)  |  Multiple (16)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Offer (141)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Origin (242)  |  Parent (78)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Possible (553)  |  Proof (297)  |  Rational (94)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Side (233)  |  Simple (410)  |  Spring (136)  |  Subject (529)  |  Tenable (4)  |  Theory (987)  |  Total (94)  |  Truth (1084)  |  View (491)

The origin of a science is usually to be sought for not in any systematic treatise, but in the investigation and solution of some particular problem. This is especially the case in the ordinary history of the great improvements in any department of mathematical science. Some problem, mathematical or physical, is proposed, which is found to be insoluble by known methods. This condition of insolubility may arise from one of two causes: Either there exists no machinery powerful enough to effect the required reduction, or the workmen are not sufficiently expert to employ their tools in the performance of an entirely new piece of work. The problem proposed is, however, finally solved, and in its solution some new principle, or new application of old principles, is necessarily introduced. If a principle is brought to light it is soon found that in its application it is not necessarily limited to the particular question which occasioned its discovery, and it is then stated in an abstract form and applied to problems of gradually increasing generality.
Other principles, similar in their nature, are added, and the original principle itself receives such modifications and extensions as are from time to time deemed necessary. The same is true of new applications of old principles; the application is first thought to be merely confined to a particular problem, but it is soon recognized that this problem is but one, and generally a very simple one, out of a large class, to which the same process of investigation and solution are applicable. The result in both of these cases is the same. A time comes when these several problems, solutions, and principles are grouped together and found to produce an entirely new and consistent method; a nomenclature and uniform system of notation is adopted, and the principles of the new method become entitled to rank as a distinct science.
In A Treatise on Projections (1880), Introduction, xi. Published as United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Treasury Department Document, No. 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (130)  |  Add (40)  |  Adopt (20)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (248)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (163)  |  Arise (158)  |  Become (816)  |  Both (494)  |  Bring (92)  |  Case (99)  |  Cause (547)  |  Class (166)  |  Condition (359)  |  Confine (26)  |  Consistent (48)  |  Deem (6)  |  Department (92)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Distinct (97)  |  Effect (398)  |  Employ (113)  |  Enough (341)  |  Entirely (35)  |  Entitle (3)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exist (445)  |  Expert (67)  |  Extension (58)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1002)  |  First (1287)  |  Form (965)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generally (15)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1577)  |  Group (79)  |  History (685)  |  Improvement (112)  |  Increase (214)  |  Insoluble (15)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Know (1522)  |  Known (451)  |  Large (396)  |  Light (617)  |  Limit (284)  |  Limited (102)  |  Machinery (57)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Necessarily (135)  |  Necessary (364)  |  New (1239)  |  Nomenclature (148)  |  Notation (27)  |  Occasion (85)  |  Old (482)  |  Ordinary (162)  |  Origin (242)  |  Original (59)  |  Other (2234)  |  Particular (78)  |  Performance (49)  |  Physical (509)  |  Piece (38)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Principle (515)  |  Problem (699)  |  Process (427)  |  Produce (107)  |  Propose (23)  |  Question (632)  |  Rank (68)  |  Receive (115)  |  Recognize (128)  |  Reduction (51)  |  Require (222)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (684)  |  Same (157)  |  Seek (216)  |  Several (32)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simple (410)  |  Solution (272)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Solve (136)  |  Soon (186)  |  State (495)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  System (538)  |  Systematic (57)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Together (389)  |  Tool (121)  |  Treatise (44)  |  True (218)  |  Two (936)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1368)  |  Workman (13)

The physicist, in his study of natural phenomena, has two methods of making progress: (1) the method of experiment and observation, and (2) the method of mathematical reasoning. The former is just the collection of selected data; the latter enables one to infer results about experiments that have not been performed. There is no logical reason why the second method should be possible at all, but one has found in practice that it does work and meets with reasonable success.
From Lecture delivered on presentation of the James Scott prize, (6 Feb 1939), 'The Relation Between Mathematics And Physics', printed in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938-1939), 59, Part 2, 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Collection (66)  |  Data (160)  |  Enable (119)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Former (137)  |  Infer (12)  |  Logical (55)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Meet (33)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Science (128)  |  Observation (578)  |  Perform (121)  |  Performed (3)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Physics (539)  |  Possible (553)  |  Practice (207)  |  Progress (481)  |  Reason (753)  |  Reasonable (28)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Result (684)  |  Select (44)  |  Study (666)  |  Success (311)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Two (936)  |  Why (490)  |  Work (1368)

The picture of scientific method drafted by modern philosophy is very different from traditional conceptions. Gone is the ideal of a universe whose course follows strict rules, a predetermined cosmos that unwinds itself like an unwinding clock. Gone is the ideal of the scientist who knows the absolute truth. The happenings of nature are like rolling dice rather than like revolving stars; they are controlled by probability laws, not by causality, and the scientist resembles a gambler more than a prophet. He can tell you only his best posits�he never knows beforehand whether they will come true. He is a better gambler, though, than the man at the green table, because his statistical methods are superior. And his goal is staked higher�the goal of foretelling the rolling dice of the cosmos. If he is asked why he follows his methods, with what title he makes his predictions, he cannot answer that he has an irrefutable knowledge of the future; he can only lay his best bets. But he can prove that they are best bets, that making them is the best he can do�and if a man does his best, what else can you ask of him?
The Rise of Scientific Philosophy (1951, 1973), 248-9. Collected in James Louis Jarrett and Sterling M. McMurrin (eds.), Contemporary Philosophy: A Book of Readings (1954), 376.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (148)  |  Absoluteness (4)  |  Answer (372)  |  Ask (412)  |  Asking (74)  |  Best (462)  |  Bet (12)  |  Better (485)  |  Causality (11)  |  Clock (48)  |  Conception (154)  |  Cosmos (63)  |  Course (410)  |  Dice (21)  |  Difference (342)  |  Different (579)  |  Do (1905)  |  Draft (6)  |  Follow (381)  |  Foretelling (4)  |  Future (446)  |  Gambler (7)  |  Goal (147)  |  Green (64)  |  Happening (59)  |  Ideal (103)  |  Irrefutable (5)  |  Know (1522)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Law (902)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Never (1088)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Picture (143)  |  Posit (2)  |  Prediction (86)  |  Probability (133)  |  Proof (297)  |  Prophet (21)  |  Prove (253)  |  Resemble (64)  |  Roll (40)  |  Rule (296)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Stake (19)  |  Star (434)  |  Stars (304)  |  Statistics (160)  |  Superior (82)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Table (104)  |  Tell (341)  |  Tradition (72)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Universe (870)  |  Why (490)  |  Will (2354)

The point [is] largely scientific in character �[concerning] the methods which can be invented or adopted or discovered to enable the Earth to control the Air, to enable defence from the ground to exercise control�indeed dominance�upon aeroplanes high above its surface. � science is always able to provide something. We were told that it was impossible to grapple with submarines, but methods were found � Many things were adopted in war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men�s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands.
[Remarks made in the House of Commons on 7 June 1935. His speculation was later proved correct with the subsequent development of radar during World War II, which was vital in the air defence of Britain.]
Quoting himself in The Second World War: The Gathering Storm (1948, 1986), Vol. 1, 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (276)  |  Air (352)  |  Airplane (42)  |  Brain (276)  |  Britain (24)  |  Character (246)  |  Common (438)  |  Condition (359)  |  Control (171)  |  Defence (15)  |  Defense (25)  |  Demand (124)  |  Development (431)  |  Discover (558)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Enable (119)  |  Exercise (112)  |  Grapple (10)  |  Greater (289)  |  Ground (220)  |  High (365)  |  House (140)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Invention (385)  |  Method (512)  |  Necessity (193)  |  Patience (56)  |  Perseverance (23)  |  Point (581)  |  Radar (9)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Something (718)  |  Sonar (2)  |  Speculation (131)  |  Submarine (12)  |  Subsequent (33)  |  Surface (211)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vital (87)  |  War (227)  |  World (1810)

The present knowledge of the biochemical constitution of the cell was achieved largely by the use of destructive methods. Trained in the tradition of the theory of solutions, many a biochemist tends, even today, to regard the cell as a �bag of enzymes�. However, everyone realizes now that the biochemical processes studied in vitro may have only a remote resemblance to the events actually occurring in the living cell.
Nucleo-cytoplasmic Relations in Micro-Organisms: Their Bearing on Cell Heredity and Differentiation (1953), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Biochemist (9)  |  Cell (143)  |  Constitution (76)  |  Enzyme (19)  |  Event (217)  |  In Vitro (3)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Living (492)  |  Method (512)  |  Present (622)  |  Realize (150)  |  Regard (305)  |  Remote (84)  |  Resemblance (38)  |  Solution (272)  |  Solution. (53)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theory (987)  |  Today (317)  |  Tradition (72)  |  Train (116)  |  Use (768)

The reader will find no figures in this work. The methods which I set forth do not require either constructions or geometrical or mechanical reasonings: but only algebraic operations, subject to a regular and uniform rule of procedure.
From the original French, �On ne trouvera point de Figures dans set Ouvrage. Les m�thodes que j�y expose ne demandent ni constructions, ni raisonnements g�om�triqus ou m�chaniques, mais seulement des op�rations alg�briques, assujetties � une march r�guli�re et uniforme.� In 'Avertissement', M�canique Analytique (1788, 1811), Vol. 1, i. English version as given in Cornelius Lanczos, The Variational Principles of Mechanics (1966), Vol. 1, 347.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (115)  |  Construction (112)  |  Do (1905)  |  Figure (160)  |  Find (1002)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Mechanical (140)  |  Method (512)  |  Operation (213)  |  Operations (107)  |  Procedure (43)  |  Reader (41)  |  Reasoning (209)  |  Regular (47)  |  Require (222)  |  Rule (296)  |  Set (395)  |  Subject (529)  |  Uniform (20)  |  Will (2354)  |  Work (1368)

The second great channel through which the impulse towards the control of procreation for the elevation of the race is entering into practical life is by the general adoption, by the educated�of methods for the prevention of conception except when conception is deliberately desired.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1913), Vol. 4, 588.
Science quotes on:  |  Conception (154)  |  Control (171)  |  Elevation (13)  |  General (513)  |  Great (1577)  |  Impulse (49)  |  Life (1818)  |  Method (512)  |  Practical (208)  |  Prevention (36)  |  Procreation (4)  |  Race (270)  |  Sex (68)  |  Through (847)

The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment. The important applications of the science, the theoretical interest of its ideas, and the logical rigour of its methods all generate the expectation of a speedy introduction to processes of interest. We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it.
Opening to An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (98)  |  Application (248)  |  Billion (97)  |  Commencement (14)  |  Count (105)  |  Disappointment (17)  |  Drop (77)  |  Effort (230)  |  Elude (11)  |  Eluding (2)  |  Expectation (66)  |  Father (110)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Grasping (2)  |  Great (1577)  |  Hamlet (7)  |  Idea (855)  |  Importance (292)  |  Interest (399)  |  Introduction (35)  |  Logic (294)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Mental (178)  |  Method (512)  |  Molecule (176)  |  Process (427)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Speedy (2)  |  Star (434)  |  Stars (304)  |  Study (666)  |  Theory (987)  |  Water (491)  |  Weapon (95)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Weigh (51)

The term element is applied in chemistry to those forms of matter which have hitherto resisted all attempts to decompose them. Nothing is ever meant to be affirmed concerning their real nature; they are simply elements to us at the present time; hereafter, by new methods of research, or by new combinations of those already possessed by science, many of the substances which now figure as elements may possibly be shown to be compounds; this has already happened, and may again take place.
In Elementary Chemistry, Theoretical and Practical (1854), 103. There follows on this page, 62 listed elements, some indicated as �of recent discovery and yet imperfectly known�. Two of the later names were Norium and Pelopium.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (222)  |  Applied (176)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Combination (145)  |  Compound (114)  |  Decompose (9)  |  Element (311)  |  Figure (160)  |  Form (965)  |  Happen (276)  |  Happened (88)  |  Matter (804)  |  Method (512)  |  Nature (1952)  |  New (1239)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Possess (156)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Present (622)  |  Research (728)  |  Resist (15)  |  Substance (249)  |  Term (352)  |  Time (1886)

The theory of numbers is particularly liable to the accusation that some of its problems are the wrong sort of questions to ask. I do not myself think the danger is serious; either a reasonable amount of concentration leads to new ideas or methods of obvious interest, or else one just leaves the problem alone. �Perfect numbers� certainly never did any good, but then they never did any particular harm.
In A Mathematician�s Miscellany (1953). Reissued as B�la Bollob�s (ed.), Littlewood�s Miscellany (1986), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Alone (315)  |  Amount (151)  |  Ask (412)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Danger (118)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (893)  |  Harm (39)  |  Idea (855)  |  Interest (399)  |  Lead (388)  |  Leave Alone (2)  |  Liable (4)  |  Method (512)  |  Myself (212)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Number (703)  |  Obvious (126)  |  Perfect (218)  |  Perfect Number (6)  |  Problem (699)  |  Question (632)  |  Reasonable (28)  |  Serious (94)  |  Theory (987)  |  Theory Of Numbers (7)  |  Think (1093)  |  Wrong (236)

The transition from a paradigm in crisis to a new one from which a new tradition of normal science can emerge is far from a cumulative process, one achieved by an articulation or extension of the old paradigm. Rather it is a reconstruction of the field from new fundamentals, a reconstruction that changes some of the field's most elementary theoretical generalizations as well as many of its paradigm methods and applications. During the transition period there will be a large but never complete overlap between the problems that can be solved by the old and by the new paradigm. But there will also be a decisive difference in the modes of solution. When the transition is complete, the profession will have changed its view of the field, its methods, and its goals.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), 84-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Change (605)  |  Complete (205)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Cumulative (14)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Difference (342)  |  Elementary (96)  |  Extension (58)  |  Field (369)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Generalization (59)  |  Goal (147)  |  Large (396)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  Old (482)  |  Overlap (8)  |  Paradigm (14)  |  Period (198)  |  Problem (699)  |  Process (427)  |  Profession (102)  |  Reconstruction (16)  |  Solution (272)  |  Theory (987)  |  Tradition (72)  |  Transition (26)  |  View (491)  |  Will (2354)

The truth is that other systems of geometry are possible, yet after all, these other systems are not spaces but other methods of space measurements. There is one space only, though we may conceive of many different manifolds, which are contrivances or ideal constructions invented for the purpose of determining space.
In Science (1903), 18, 106. In Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 352.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceive (99)  |  Construction (112)  |  Contrivance (10)  |  Determine (145)  |  Different (579)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Ideal (103)  |  Invention (385)  |  Manifold (22)  |  Measurement (175)  |  Method (512)  |  Other (2234)  |  Possibility (166)  |  Possible (553)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Space (504)  |  System (538)  |  Truth (1084)

The validity of all the Inductive Methods depends on the assumption that every event, or the beginning of every phenomenon, must have some cause; some antecedent, upon the existence of which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent.
A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive (1843), Vol. 2, 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Antecedent (5)  |  Assumption (94)  |  Beginning (308)  |  Cause (547)  |  Consequence (208)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Depend (231)  |  Event (217)  |  Existence (468)  |  Induction (80)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Method (512)  |  Must (1526)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Validity (48)

The value of fundamental research does not lie only in the ideas it produces. There is more to it. It affects the whole intellectual life of a nation by determining its way of thinking and the standards by which actions and intellectual production are judged. If science is highly regarded and if the importance of being concerned with the most up-to-date problems of fundamental research is recognized, then a spiritual climate is created which influences the other activities. An atmosphere of creativity is established which penetrates every cultural frontier. Applied sciences and technology are forced to adjust themselves to the highest intellectual standards which are developed in the basic sciences. This influence works in many ways: some fundamental students go into industry; the techniques which are applied to meet the stringent requirements of fundamental research serve to create new technological methods. The style, the scale, and the level of scientific and technical work are determined in pure research; that is what attracts productive people and what brings scientists to those countries where science is at the highest level. Fundamental research sets the standards of modern scientific thought; it creates the intellectual climate in which our modern civilization flourishes. It pumps the lifeblood of idea and inventiveness not only into the technological laboratories and factories, but into every cultural activity of our time. The case for generous support for pure and fundamental science is as simple as that.
In 'Why Pure Science?' in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1965.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (331)  |  Activity (215)  |  Adjust (8)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (34)  |  Atmosphere (107)  |  Basic (140)  |  Being (1277)  |  Civilization (212)  |  Climate (100)  |  Concern (230)  |  Country (256)  |  Create (242)  |  Creativity (80)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Develop (271)  |  Establish (61)  |  Factory (20)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Frontier (40)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Generous (17)  |  Idea (855)  |  Importance (292)  |  Industry (146)  |  Influence (224)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Inventive (10)  |  Inventiveness (7)  |  Judge (109)  |  Laboratory (200)  |  Lie (363)  |  Life (1818)  |  Lifeblood (4)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  Modern Civilization (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Nation (201)  |  New (1239)  |  Other (2234)  |  Penetrate (67)  |  People (1008)  |  Problem (699)  |  Production (185)  |  Productive (33)  |  Pump (7)  |  Pure (293)  |  Recognize (128)  |  Regard (305)  |  Requirement (65)  |  Research (728)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Serve (60)  |  Set (395)  |  Simple (410)  |  Spiritual (92)  |  Standard (58)  |  Stringent (2)  |  Student (307)  |  Support (149)  |  Technique (83)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (264)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Value (377)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (740)  |  Work (1368)

The value of mathematical instruction as a preparation for those more difficult investigations, consists in the applicability not of its doctrines but of its methods. Mathematics will ever remain the past perfect type of the deductive method in general; and the applications of mathematics to the simpler branches of physics furnish the only school in which philosophers can effectually learn the most difficult and important of their art, the employment of the laws of simpler phenomena for explaining and predicting those of the more complex. These grounds are quite sufficient for deeming mathematical training an indispensable basis of real scientific education, and regarding with Plato, one who is � as wanting in one of the most essential qualifications for the successful cultivation of the higher branches of philosophy
In System of Logic, Bk. 3, chap. 24, sect. 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicability (6)  |  Application (248)  |  Art (663)  |  Basis (174)  |  Branch (152)  |  Complex (193)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Deductive (11)  |  Deem (6)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Doctrine (77)  |  Education (396)  |  Effectually (2)  |  Employment (32)  |  Essential (201)  |  Explain (324)  |  Furnish (96)  |  General (513)  |  Ground (220)  |  High (365)  |  Important (217)  |  Indispensable (28)  |  Instruction (96)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Law (902)  |  Learn (647)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Past (341)  |  Perfect (218)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Philosopher (262)  |  Philosophy (387)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physics (539)  |  Plato (77)  |  Predict (81)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Qualification (15)  |  Real (152)  |  Regard (305)  |  Remain (351)  |  School (222)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Simple (410)  |  Successful (130)  |  Sufficient (129)  |  Training (88)  |  Type (167)  |  Value (377)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Want (497)  |  Will (2354)

There is as much difference between a collection of mentally free citizens and a community molded by modern methods of propaganda as there is between a heap of raw materials and a battleship.
From An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1937, 1943), 9. Collected in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (2009), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Citizen (52)  |  Collection (66)  |  Community (109)  |  Difference (342)  |  Free (234)  |  Heap (15)  |  Material (356)  |  Mental (178)  |  Method (512)  |  Modern (389)  |  Mold (34)  |  Propaganda (13)  |  Raw (28)

There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought. Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought. In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends. To keep to the social level, our political universe is peopled exclusively by myths and monsters; all it contains is absolutes and abstract entities. This is illustrated by all the words of our political and social vocabulary: nation, security, capitalism, communism, fascism, order, authority, property, democracy. We never use them in phrases such as: There is democracy to the extent that� or: There is capitalism in so far as� The use of expressions like �to the extent that� is beyond our intellectual capacity. Each of these words seems to represent for us an absolute reality, unaffected by conditions, or an absolute objective, independent of methods of action, or an absolute evil; and at the same time we make all these words mean, successively or simultaneously, anything whatsoever. Our lives are lived, in actual fact, among changing, varying realities, subject to the casual play of external necessities, and modifying themselves according to specific conditions within specific limits; and yet we act and strive and sacrifice ourselves and others by reference to fixed and isolated abstractions which cannot possibly be related either to one another or to any concrete facts. In this so-called age of technicians, the only battles we know how to fight are battles against windmills.
From 'The Power of Words', collected in Si�n Miles (ed.), Simone Weil: An Anthology (2000), 222-223.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (148)  |  Abstract (130)  |  Abstraction (47)  |  Accord (35)  |  According (236)  |  Act (276)  |  Action (331)  |  Actual (117)  |  Against (332)  |  Age (500)  |  Apply (163)  |  Area (31)  |  Authority (99)  |  Battle (35)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Call (768)  |  Capacity (103)  |  Capitalism (12)  |  Casual (8)  |  Change (605)  |  Communism (11)  |  Comparison (103)  |  Complex (193)  |  Concrete (54)  |  Condition (359)  |  Contain (67)  |  Contingency (11)  |  Cover (37)  |  Degree (276)  |  Democracy (35)  |  Device (70)  |  Element (311)  |  Elementary (96)  |  End (594)  |  Entire (48)  |  Entity (35)  |  Evil (117)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Expression (177)  |  Extent (139)  |  External (58)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Far (154)  |  Fascism (4)  |  Fight (43)  |  Fill (63)  |  Fix (25)  |  Greek (108)  |  Idea (855)  |  Illustrate (10)  |  Incapable (40)  |  Independent (67)  |  Intellectual (256)  |  Intelligence (214)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interrelation (8)  |  Invade (5)  |  Isolate (23)  |  Keep (100)  |  Know (1522)  |  Level (67)  |  Limit (284)  |  Live (635)  |  Lose (160)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Measure (236)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Modify (15)  |  Monster (32)  |  Most (1729)  |  Myth (56)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nation (201)  |  Necessity (193)  |  Never (1088)  |  Objective (92)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Ourselves (246)  |  P (2)  |  People (1008)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Play (112)  |  Political (121)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Principle (515)  |  Problem (699)  |  Property (170)  |  Proportion (136)  |  Rational (94)  |  Reality (266)  |  Realm (86)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relate (21)  |  Relation (159)  |  Represent (154)  |  Reserve (25)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Sacrifice (54)  |  Same (157)  |  Security (49)  |  Seem (145)  |  Simultaneous (22)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (257)  |  Solve (136)  |  Specific (95)  |  Sphere (116)  |  Store (48)  |  Strive (50)  |  Subject (529)  |  Subtle (35)  |  Superstition (68)  |  Technician (9)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Unaffected (6)  |  Universe (870)  |  Use (768)  |  Vary (27)  |  Vocabulary (9)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Windmill (4)  |  Word (629)

There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.
Pragmatism as a Principle and Method of Right Thinking (1997), 266.
Science quotes on:  |  Desire (208)  |  Find (1002)  |  Intelligent (101)  |  Logic (294)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Vital (87)  |  Whatever (234)

There is, however, no universal recipe for scientific advance. It is a matter of groping forward into terra incognita of the outer world by means of methods which should be adapted to the circumstances.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 455.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (67)  |  Advance (285)  |  Circumstance (136)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Forward (103)  |  Groping (3)  |  Matter (804)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Recipe (7)  |  Research (728)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Universal (191)  |  World (1810)

They are the best physicians, who being great in learning most incline to the traditions of experience, or being distinguished in practice do not reflect the methods and generalities of art.
The Advancement of Learning, Bk IV, Ch. II.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (663)  |  Being (1277)  |  Best (462)  |  Distinguish (164)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (396)  |  Experience (480)  |  Great (1577)  |  Learning (288)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Physician (279)  |  Practice (207)  |  Tradition (72)

This example illustrates the differences in the effects which may be produced by research in pure or applied science. A research on the lines of applied science would doubtless have led to improvement and development of the older methods�the research in pure science has given us an entirely new and much more powerful method. In fact, research in applied science leads to reforms, research in pure science leads to revolutions, and revolutions, whether political or industrial, are exceedingly profitable things if you are on the winning side.
In Lord Rayleigh, The Life of Sir J. J. Thomson (1943), 199
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (34)  |  Development (431)  |  Difference (342)  |  Effect (398)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Improvement (112)  |  Lead (388)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1239)  |  Political (121)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Produced (187)  |  Profit (54)  |  Profitable (28)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Science (27)  |  Reform (22)  |  Research (728)  |  Revolution (130)  |  Side (233)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Win (52)  |  Winning (19)

This irrelevance of molecular arrangements for macroscopic results has given rise to the tendency to confine physics and chemistry to the study of homogeneous systems as well as homogeneous classes. In statistical mechanics a great deal of labor is in fact spent on showing that homogeneous systems and homogeneous classes are closely related and to a considerable extent interchangeable concepts of theoretical analysis (Gibbs theory). Naturally, this is not an accident. The methods of physics and chemistry are ideally suited for dealing with homogeneous classes with their interchangeable components. But experience shows that the objects of biology are radically inhomogeneous both as systems (structurally) and as classes (generically). Therefore, the method of biology and, consequently, its results will differ widely from the method and results of physical science.
Atom and Organism: A New Approach to Theoretical Biology (1966), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (90)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Arrangement (92)  |  Biology (220)  |  Both (494)  |  Chemistry (358)  |  Component (49)  |  Concept (223)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Deal (188)  |  Differ (85)  |  Experience (480)  |  Extent (139)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Great (1577)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Irrelevance (4)  |  Labor (109)  |  Mechanic (119)  |  Mechanics (132)  |  Method (512)  |  Object (427)  |  Physic (516)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Physics (539)  |  Result (684)  |  Rise (166)  |  Show (346)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statistical Mechanics (7)  |  Study (666)  |  System (538)  |  Tendency (102)  |  Theory (987)  |  Will (2354)

This science, Geometry, is one of indispensable use and constant reference, for every student of the laws of nature; for the relations of space and number are the alphabet in which those laws are written. But besides the interest and importance of this kind which geometry possesses, it has a great and peculiar value for all who wish to understand the foundations of human knowledge, and the methods by which it is acquired. For the student of geometry acquires, with a degree of insight and clearness which the unmathematical reader can but feebly imagine, a conviction that there are necessary truths, many of them of a very complex and striking character; and that a few of the most simple and self-evident truths which it is possible for the mind of man to apprehend, may, by systematic deduction, lead to the most remote and unexpected results.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences Part 1, Bk. 2, chap. 4, sect. 8 (1868).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (42)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Alphabet (12)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Character (246)  |  Clearness (11)  |  Complex (193)  |  Constant (144)  |  Conviction (99)  |  Deduction (84)  |  Degree (276)  |  Evident (91)  |  Feeble (27)  |  Foundation (176)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Great (1577)  |  Human (1479)  |  Imagine (168)  |  Importance (292)  |  Indispensable (28)  |  Insight (103)  |  Interest (399)  |  Kind (559)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Law (902)  |  Lead (388)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Mind Of Man (7)  |  Most (1729)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Number (703)  |  Peculiar (113)  |  Possess (156)  |  Possible (553)  |  Reader (41)  |  Reference (33)  |  Relation (159)  |  Remote (84)  |  Result (684)  |  Self (267)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Simple (410)  |  Space (504)  |  Strike (70)  |  Striking (48)  |  Student (307)  |  Systematic (57)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Understand (619)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Use (768)  |  Value (377)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Wish (214)  |  Write (237)

To bring scientific investigation to a happy end once appropriate methods have been determined, we must hold firmly in mind the goal of the project. The object here is to focus the train of thought on more and more complex and accurate associations between images based on observation and ideas slumbering in the unconscious.
From Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigac�on Cientifica: Los t�nicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (87)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Association (48)  |  Based (10)  |  Complex (193)  |  Determined (9)  |  End (594)  |  Focus (36)  |  Goal (147)  |  Happy (105)  |  Idea (855)  |  Image (96)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1526)  |  Object (427)  |  Observation (578)  |  Project (75)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Thought (962)  |  Train (116)  |  Unconscious (22)

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 (193)  |  Accrue (3)  |  Achieve (69)  |  Advance (285)  |  Appear (118)  |  Applicability (6)  |  Application (248)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (163)  |  Associate (25)  |  Astronomy (238)  |  Belief (590)  |  Body (543)  |  Build (204)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chief (98)  |  Choose (113)  |  Complex (193)  |  Condenser (4)  |  Connection (165)  |  Consideration (140)  |  Conspicuous (12)  |  Construction (112)  |  Current (119)  |  Deduce (25)  |  Deem (6)  |  Develop (271)  |  Development (431)  |  Difficult (250)  |  Discontinuous (6)  |  Discussion (76)  |  Domain (69)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Dynamics (9)  |  Elaborate (28)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Electrostatics (6)  |  Emphasize (23)  |  Equation (134)  |  Extension (58)  |  Extremely (17)  |  Far (154)  |  Fluid (53)  |  Fluid Motion (2)  |  Function (230)  |  Functional (10)  |  General (513)  |  Geometrical (10)  |  Guide (101)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Hydrodynamics (5)  |  Idea (855)  |  Important (217)  |  Initiate (13)  |  Instance (33)  |  Interest (399)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Interpret (19)  |  Interpreting (5)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Investigation (239)  |  Issue (42)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Last (426)  |  Least (74)  |  Let (61)  |  Map (46)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1729)  |  Motion (313)  |  Natural (796)  |  Opinion (285)  |  Other (2234)  |  Paper (187)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Physical (509)  |  Plan (118)  |  Henri Poincar� (96)  |  Portion (84)  |  Possible (553)  |  Practical (208)  |  Principle (515)  |  Property (170)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Mathematics (67)  |  Purely (110)  |  Question (632)  |  Refine (8)  |  Regard (305)  |  Region (37)  |  Relation (159)  |  Representation (54)  |  Result (684)  |  Rotate (8)  |  Score (8)  |  Similar (36)  |  Sole (50)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (529)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Supreme (72)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thought (962)  |  Time (1886)  |  Title (19)  |  Turn (449)  |  Turned Out (4)  |  Two (936)  |  Unwise (4)  |  Use (768)  |  Variable (35)  |  Various (201)  |  Work (1368)  |  Year (935)

Today there remain but a few small areas on the world�s map unmarked by explorers� trails. Human courage and endurance have conquered the Poles; the secrets of the tropical jungles have been revealed. The highest mountains of the earth have heard the voice of man. But this does not mean that the youth of the future has no new worlds to vanquish. It means only that the explorer must change his methods.
On the Trail of Ancient Man (1926), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (605)  |  Conquer (38)  |  Courage (76)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Endurance (6)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Explorer (29)  |  Future (446)  |  Human (1479)  |  Jungle (22)  |  Man (2249)  |  Map (46)  |  Mean (808)  |  Means (578)  |  Method (512)  |  Mountain (194)  |  Must (1526)  |  New (1239)  |  Pole (48)  |  Remain (351)  |  Reveal (149)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Secret (204)  |  Small (481)  |  Today (317)  |  World (1810)  |  Youth (105)

We are redefining and we are restating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution � The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or outdated methods on either side of industry.
Speech (1 Oct 1963) at the Labour Party Conference, Scarborough. Quoted in David Rubinstein, The Labour Party and British Society (2006), 122.
Science quotes on:  |  Britain (24)  |  Heat (176)  |  Industry (146)  |  Method (512)  |  Practice (207)  |  Revolution (130)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Side (233)  |  Term (352)  |  Terms (184)  |  White (128)  |  Will (2354)

We are told that �Mathematics is that study which knows nothing of observation, nothing of experiment, nothing of induction, nothing of causation.� I think no statement could have been made more opposite to the facts of the case; that mathematical analysis is constantly invoking the aid of new principles, new ideas, and new methods, not capable of being defined by any form of words, but springing direct from the inherent powers and activities of the human mind, and from continually renewed introspection of that inner world of thought of which the phenomena are as varied and require as close attention to discern as those of the outer physical world (to which the inner one in each individual man may, I think, be conceived to stand somewhat in the same relation of correspondence as a shadow to the object from which it is projected, or as the hollow palm of one hand to the closed fist which it grasps of the other), that it is unceasingly calling forth the faculties of observation and comparison, that one of its principal weapons is induction, that it has frequent recourse to experimental trial and verification, and that it affords a boundless scope for the exercise of the highest efforts of the imagination and invention.
In Presidential Address to British Association, Exeter British Association Report (1869), pp. 1-9, in Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2, 654.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (215)  |  Afford (17)  |  Aid (98)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Attention (193)  |  Being (1277)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Call (768)  |  Capable (168)  |  Case (99)  |  Causation (14)  |  Close (69)  |  Closed (38)  |  Comparison (103)  |  Conceive (99)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Continually (17)  |  Correspondence (23)  |  Define (49)  |  Direct (225)  |  Discern (34)  |  Effort (230)  |  Exercise (112)  |  Experiment (717)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Faculty (73)  |  Fist (3)  |  Form (965)  |  Forth (14)  |  Frequent (23)  |  Grasp (63)  |  Hand (143)  |  High (365)  |  Hollow (5)  |  Human (1479)  |  Human Mind (132)  |  Idea (855)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Individual (408)  |  Induction (80)  |  Inherent (42)  |  Inner (71)  |  Introspection (5)  |  Invention (385)  |  Invoke (7)  |  Know (1522)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mathematical Analysis (20)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1239)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Nothing (976)  |  Object (427)  |  Observation (578)  |  Opposite (105)  |  Other (2234)  |  Outer (13)  |  Palm (5)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical World (29)  |  Power (755)  |  Principal (64)  |  Principle (515)  |  Project (75)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Relation (159)  |  Renew (20)  |  Require (222)  |  Same (157)  |  Scope (44)  |  Shadow (72)  |  Spring (136)  |  Stand (276)  |  Statement (142)  |  Study (666)  |  Tell (341)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thought (962)  |  Trial (57)  |  Unceasingly (2)  |  Vary (27)  |  Verification (32)  |  Weapon (95)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Word (629)  |  World (1810)

We love to discover in the cosmos the geometrical forms that exist in the depths of our consciousness. The exactitude of the proportions of our monuments and the precision of our machines express a fundamental character of our mind. Geometry does not exist in the earthly world. It has originated in ourselves. The methods of nature are never so precise as those of man. We do not find in the universe the clearness and accuracy of our thought. We attempt, therefore, to abstract from the complexity of phenomena some simple systems whose components bear to one another certain relations susceptible of being described mathematically.
In Man the Unknown (1935), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (130)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Attempt (253)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1277)  |  Certain (551)  |  Character (246)  |  Clarity (48)  |  Complexity (112)  |  Component (49)  |  Consciousness (127)  |  Cosmos (63)  |  Depth (94)  |  Describe (129)  |  Discover (558)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1012)  |  Exact (68)  |  Exactitude (10)  |  Exist (445)  |  Express (187)  |  Find (1002)  |  Form (965)  |  Fundamental (254)  |  Geometry (265)  |  Love (316)  |  Machine (263)  |  Man (2249)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Monument (45)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Never (1088)  |  Originate (37)  |  Ourselves (246)  |  Phenomenon (323)  |  Precise (68)  |  Precision (69)  |  Proportion (136)  |  Relation (159)  |  Simple (410)  |  Susceptible (8)  |  System (538)  |  Thought (962)  |  Universe (870)  |  World (1810)

We may best hope to understand the nature and conditions of real knowledge, by studying the nature and conditions of the most certain and stable portions of knowledge which we already possess: and we are most likely to learn the best methods of discovering truth, by examining how truths, now universally recognised, have really been discovered.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. I, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (222)  |  Best (462)  |  Certain (551)  |  Condition (359)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Examining (2)  |  Hope (307)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Learn (647)  |  Learning (288)  |  Method (512)  |  Most (1729)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Portion (84)  |  Possess (156)  |  Recognized (3)  |  Stability (27)  |  Stable (30)  |  Study (666)  |  Studying (70)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Understand (619)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Universal (191)

We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to help make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power to prevent these weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.
In The New York Times, (29 Aug 1948).
Science quotes on:  |  Annihilation (15)  |  Being (1277)  |  Consider (417)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (61)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1526)  |  Power (755)  |  Prevent (96)  |  Purpose (320)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Tragic (17)  |  Weapon (95)  |  Weapons (57)

Western doctors are like poor plumbers. They treat a splashing tube by cleaning up the water. These plumbers are extremely apt at drying up the water, constantly inventing new, expensive, and refined methods of drying up water. Somebody should teach them how to close the tap.
Science quotes on:  |  Cleaning (7)  |  Doctor (189)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Poor (136)  |  Prevention (36)  |  Teach (281)  |  Water (491)  |  Western (45)

What is peculiar and new to the [19th] century, differentiating it from all its predecessors, is its technology. It was not merely the introduction of some great isolated inventions. It is impossible not to feel that something more than that was involved. � The process of change was slow, unconscious, and unexpected. In the nineteeth century, the process became quick, conscious, and expected. � The whole change has arisen from the new scientific information. Science, conceived not so much in its principles as in its results, is an obvious storehouse of ideas for utilisation. � Also, it is a great mistake to think that the bare scientific idea is the required invention, so that it has only to be picked up and used. An intense period of imaginative design lies between. One element in the new method is just the discovery of how to set about bridging the gap between the scientific ideas, and the ultimate product. It is a process of disciplined attack upon one difficulty after another This discipline of knowledge applies beyond technology to pure science, and beyond science to general scholarship. It represents the change from amateurs to professionals. � But the full self-conscious realisation of the power of professionalism in knowledge in all its departments, and of the way to produce the professionals, and of the importance of knowledge to the advance of technology, and of the methods by which abstract knowledge can be connected with technology, and of the boundless possibilities of technological advance,�the realisation of all these things was first completely attained in the nineteeth century.
In Science and the Modern World (1925, 1997), 96.
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (35)  |  Abstract (130)  |  Advance (285)  |  Amateur (19)  |  Attack (85)  |  Attain (126)  |  Bare (33)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Century (312)  |  Change (605)  |  Completely (136)  |  Connect (125)  |  Conscious (45)  |  Department (92)  |  Design (196)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Discipline (82)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Element (311)  |  Expect (201)  |  Expected (5)  |  Feel (365)  |  First (1287)  |  Gap (33)  |  General (513)  |  Great (1577)  |  Idea (855)  |  Ideal (103)  |  Imagination (340)  |  Importance (292)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Information (167)  |  Introduction (35)  |  Invention (385)  |  Involved (90)  |  Isolated (15)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Lie (363)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (512)  |  Mistake (178)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1239)  |  Obvious (126)  |  Peculiar (113)  |  Period (198)  |  Power (755)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Principle (515)  |  Process (427)  |  Product (161)  |  Professional (73)  |  Pure (293)  |  Pure Science (27)  |  Realisation (4)  |  Represent (154)  |  Required (108)  |  Result (684)  |  Scholarship (20)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Self (267)  |  Set (395)  |  Slow (103)  |  Something (718)  |  Storehouse (6)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (264)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1093)  |  Ultimate (149)  |  Unconscious (22)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (740)

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me that my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
�...
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (50)  |  Conclusion (257)  |  Examine (81)  |  Fantasy (14)  |  Gift (104)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Mean (808)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (212)  |  Positive (94)  |  Talent (98)  |  Thought (962)

When the difficulty of a problem lies only in finding out what follows from certain fixed premises, mathematical methods furnish invaluable wings for flying over intermediate obstructions.
From The Economic Theory of the Location of Railways (1887, 1914), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (551)  |  Difficulty (200)  |  Find (1002)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Fly (149)  |  Flying (73)  |  Follow (381)  |  Furnish (96)  |  Intermediate (37)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Lie (363)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Obstruction (4)  |  Premise (37)  |  Problem (699)  |  Wing (77)

Whether moral and social phenomena are really exceptions to the general certainty and uniformity of the course of nature; and how far the methods, by which so many of the laws of the physical world have been numbered among truths irrevocably acquired and universally assented to, can be made instrumental to the gradual formation of a similar body of received doctrine in moral and political science.
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (1858), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Assent (12)  |  Body (543)  |  Certainty (175)  |  Course (410)  |  Exception (74)  |  Formation (96)  |  General (513)  |  Law (902)  |  Method (512)  |  Moral (198)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Number (703)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical World (29)  |  Political (121)  |  Social (257)  |  Truth (1084)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  World (1810)

Who of us would not be glad to lift the veil behind which the future lies hidden; to cast a glance at the next advances of our science and at the secrets of its development during future centuries? What particular goals will there be toward which the leading mathematical spirits of coming generations will strive? What new methods and new facts in the wide and rich field of mathematical thought will the new centuries disclose?
Opening of Lecture (1900), 'Mathematische Probleme' (Mathematical Problems), to the International Congress of Mathematicians, Paris. From the original German reprinted in David Hilbert: Gesammelte Abhandlungen (Collected Treatises, 1970), Vol. 3. For full citation, see the quote that begins, �This conviction of the solvability��, on the David Hilbert Quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (285)  |  Behind (138)  |  Cast (67)  |  Century (312)  |  Coming (114)  |  Development (431)  |  Disclose (19)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (369)  |  Future (446)  |  Generation (249)  |  Glad (7)  |  Glance (35)  |  Goal (147)  |  Hide (69)  |  Lead (388)  |  Lie (363)  |  Lift (56)  |  Method (512)  |  New (1239)  |  Next (236)  |  Particular (78)  |  Secret (204)  |  Spirit (270)  |  Thought (962)  |  Toward (45)  |  Veil (27)  |  Wide (96)  |  Will (2354)

With an interest almost amounting to anxiety, geologists will watch the development of researches which may result in timing the strata and the phases of evolutionary advance; and may even-going still further back�give us reason to see in the discrepancy between denudative and radioactive methods, glimpses of past aeons, beyond that day of regeneration which at once ushered in our era of life, and, for all that went before, was 'a sleep and a forgetting'.
John Joly
Radioactivity and Geology (1909), 250-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (285)  |  Anxiety (30)  |  Back (392)  |  Beyond (310)  |  Development (431)  |  Discrepancy (7)  |  Era (51)  |  Geologist (77)  |  Interest (399)  |  Life (1818)  |  Method (512)  |  Origin Of The Earth (13)  |  Past (341)  |  Phase (36)  |  Radioactive (22)  |  Radioactivity (31)  |  Reason (753)  |  Regeneration (5)  |  Result (684)  |  See (1081)  |  Sleep (76)  |  Still (614)  |  Strata (36)  |  Watch (110)  |  Will (2354)

With the extension of mathematical knowledge will it not finally become impossible for the single investigator to embrace all departments of this knowledge? In answer let me point out how thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
In 'Mathematical Problems', Lecture at the International Congress of Mathematics, Paris, (8 Aug 1900). Translated by Dr. Maby Winton Newson in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (1902), 8, 479. As quoted and cited in Robert �douard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath's Quotation-book (1914), 94-95. It is reprinted in Jeremy Gray, The Hilbert Challenge (2000), 282.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (285)  |  Answer (372)  |  Assist (9)  |  Become (816)  |  Branch (152)  |  Cast (67)  |  Casting (10)  |  Complicated (115)  |  Department (92)  |  Development (431)  |  Early (190)  |  Easily (35)  |  Embrace (46)  |  Extension (58)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1002)  |  Hand In Hand (5)  |  Impossible (257)  |  Individual (408)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Invention (385)  |  Investigator (67)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Let (61)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  More (2558)  |  Point (581)  |  Point Out (8)  |  Possible (553)  |  Real (152)  |  Same (157)  |  Sharp (14)  |  Simple (410)  |  Simpler (8)  |  Single (357)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Theory (987)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Time (1886)  |  Tool (121)  |  Understand (619)  |  Understanding (525)  |  Various (201)  |  Will (2354)

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 (183)  |  Aim (167)  |  Antiquity (33)  |  Concept (223)  |  Develop (271)  |  Down (455)  |  Find (1002)  |  Generation (249)  |  Greek (108)  |  Last (426)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Method (512)  |  Previous (13)  |  Result (684)  |  Right (458)  |  Understand (619)  |  Year (935)

Young men, have confidence in those powerful and safe methods, of which we do not yet know all the secrets. And, whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren skepticism � Live � until the time comes when you have the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed in some way to the progress and to the good of humanity.
Acceptance speech (27 Dec 1892) when awarded a 70th birthday commemorative medal by the Academy of Sciences in the great theatre of the Sorbonne, as translated in Ren� Vallery-Radot and Mrs R.L. Devonshire (trans.), The Life of Pasteur (1902), Vol. 2, 297-298. Pasteur addressed an audience that included �deep masses of students� and �boys from the lyc�es.�
Science quotes on:  |  Barren (30)  |  Become (816)  |  Career (78)  |  Confidence (71)  |  Contribution (89)  |  Do (1905)  |  Good (893)  |  Happiness (119)  |  Humanity (175)  |  Immense (86)  |  Know (1522)  |  Live (635)  |  Method (512)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Progress (481)  |  Safe (54)  |  Scepticism (16)  |  Secret (204)  |  Skepticism (31)  |  Taint (10)  |  Tainted (5)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1886)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Young (235)

Young men, trust those certain and powerful methods, only the first secrets of which we yet know. And all of you, whatever your career, � do not allow yourselves to be discouraged by the gloom of certain hours which pass a nation.
Advice in Speech (27 Dec 1892) to young scientists at the Golden Jubilee celebration for Pasteur's 70th birthday. As translated in Nature (1893), 47, 205. Also translated as �Young men, have faith in those powerful and safe methods, of which we do not yet know all the secrets. And, whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves be discouraged by the sadness of certain hours which pass over nations.� By Ren� J. Dubos, quoted and cited in Maurice B. Strauss, Familiar Medical Quotations (1968), 526.
Science quotes on:  |  Career (78)  |  Certain (551)  |  Discouraged (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1287)  |  Gloom (11)  |  Hour (186)  |  Know (1522)  |  Method (512)  |  Nation (201)  |  Pass (238)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Secret (204)  |  Student (307)  |  Trust (69)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Young (235)

[Blackett] came one morning, deep in thought, into the G (technical) Office at Stanmore. It was a bitterly cold day, and the staff were shivering in a garret warmed over only with an oil-stove. Without a word of greeting, Blackett stepped silently up on to the table and stood there pondering with his feet among the plans. After ten minutes somebody coughed uneasily and said, diffidently: �Wouldn�t you like a chair, sir � or something?� �No, thank you,� said Professor Blackett, �it is necessary to apply scientific methods. Hot air rises. The warmest spot in this room, therefore, will be near the ceiling.� At this, Colonel Krohn, my technical G.S.O., stepped up on the table beside the Professor, and for the next half-hour, the two stayed there in silence. At the end of this period Professor Blackett stepped down from the table saying: �Well! That�s that problem solved.� And so it was.
Anecdote as told by General Sir Frederick Pile, in Frederick Pile, Ack-Ack: Britain�s Defence Against Air Attack During Second World War (1949), 161. As cited by Maurice W. Kirby and Jonathan Rosenhead, 'Patrick Blackett (1897)' in Arjang A. Assad (ed.) and Saul I. Gass (ed.),Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators (2011), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (352)  |  Apply (163)  |  Ceiling (5)  |  Chair (24)  |  Cold (112)  |  Deep (233)  |  Down (455)  |  End (594)  |  Greeting (10)  |  Heat (176)  |  Hot (60)  |  Hour (186)  |  Method (512)  |  Minute (126)  |  Morning (95)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Next (236)  |  Office (71)  |  Oil (59)  |  Period (198)  |  Physics (539)  |  Plan (118)  |  Problem (699)  |  Professor (129)  |  Rise (166)  |  Rising (44)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Silence (58)  |  Something (718)  |  Standing (11)  |  Stove (2)  |  Table (104)  |  Thank (46)  |  Thank You (8)  |  Thought (962)  |  Two (936)  |  Warm (70)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Will (2354)  |  Word (629)

[Edison] definitely ended the distinction between the theoretical man of science and the practical man of science, so that today we think of scientific discoveries in connection with their possible present or future application to the needs of man. He took the old rule-of-thumb methods out of industry and substituted exact scientific knowledge, while, on the other hand, he directed scientific research into useful channels.
In My Friend Mr. Edison (1930). Quoted in Dyson Carter, If You Want to Invent (1939), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (248)  |  Connection (165)  |  Direct (225)  |  Discovery (812)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Thomas Edison (84)  |  End (594)  |  Exact (68)  |  Future (446)  |  Industry (146)  |  Knowledge (1588)  |  Man (2249)  |  Men Of Science (145)  |  Method (512)  |  Old (482)  |  Other (2234)  |  Possible (553)  |  Practical (208)  |  Present (622)  |  Research (728)  |  Rule (296)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Technology (264)  |  Theoretical (23)  |  Think (1093)  |  Thumb (17)  |  Today (317)  |  Useful (253)

[I shall not] discuss scientific method, but rather the methods of scientists. We proceed by common sense and ingenuity. There are no rules, only the principles of integrity and objectivity, with a complete rejection of all authority except that of fact.
In Science in the Making (1957), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Authority (99)  |  Common (438)  |  Common Sense (131)  |  Complete (205)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Ingenuity (41)  |  Integrity (19)  |  Method (512)  |  Objectivity (17)  |  Principle (515)  |  Proceed (130)  |  Rejection (35)  |  Rule (296)  |  Scientific (946)  |  Scientific Method (182)  |  Scientist (846)  |  Sense (776)

[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-Th�orie, 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 (115)  |  Back (392)  |  Confine (26)  |  Course (410)  |  Dark (141)  |  Deliver (29)  |  Discover (558)  |  Discovery (812)  |  End (594)  |  Extend (128)  |  False (102)  |  Follow (381)  |  Forever (104)  |  Forget (121)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Frequent (23)  |  Go Back (2)  |  Guess (64)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hour (186)  |  Keep (100)  |  Last (426)  |  Leap (54)  |  Lecture (106)  |  Light (617)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Mention (82)  |  Mentioned (3)  |  Method (512)  |  Mind (1354)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1526)  |  Never (1088)  |  New (1239)  |  Next (236)  |  Pass (238)  |  Prove (253)  |  Rest (284)  |  Say (984)  |  Side (233)  |  Statement (142)  |  Surprise (86)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Think (1093)  |  Time (1886)  |  Treasure (57)  |  Trying (144)  |  Turn (449)  |  Turn Out (9)  |  Two (936)  |  Universal (191)  |  Week (70)  |  Will (2354)  |  Wonderful (151)  |  Work (1368)  |  Year (935)

[Regarding evolution believers:] Their business is not with the possible, but the actual—not with a world which might be, but with a world that is. This they explore with a courage not unmixed with reverence, and according to methods which, like the quality of a tree, are tested by their fruits. They have but one desire—to know the truth. They have but one fear—to believe a lie.
'Scientific Use of the Imagination', Discourse Delivered Before the British Association at Liverpool, (16 Sep 1870). Fragments of Science for Unscientific People: A Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews (1892), Vol. 2, 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (35)  |  According (236)  |  Actual (117)  |  Actuality (6)  |  Believer (26)  |  Business (151)  |  Courage (76)  |  Desire (208)  |  Evolution (613)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Fear (205)  |  Fruit (104)  |  Know (1522)  |  Lie (363)  |  Method (512)  |  Mixture (42)  |  Possibility (166)  |  Possible (553)  |  Quality (136)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Test (214)  |  Tree (259)  |  Truth (1084)  |  World (1810)

[The religion of science was] an implicit faith that by the methods of physical science, and by these methods alone, could be solved all the problems arising out of the relation of man to man and of man towards the universe.
In My Apprenticeship (1926), 89.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (315)  |  Arising (22)  |  Faith (206)  |  Implicit (12)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Physical (509)  |  Physical Science (102)  |  Problem (699)  |  Religion (365)  |  Solution (272)  |  Universe (870)

[The teaching of Nature] is harsh and wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful disobedience�incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. Nature�s discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your ears are boxed.
The object of what we commonly call education�that education in which man intervenes, and which I shall distinguish as artificial education�is to make good these defects in Nature�s methods; to prepare the child to receive Nature�s education, neither incapably, nor ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the preliminary symptoms of her displeasure, without waiting for the box on the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to he an anticipation of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education, which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters with as free a hand as her penalties.
From Inaugural Address as Principal, South London Working Men�s College, in 'A Liberal Education; and Where to Find it', Macmillan's Magazine (Mar 1868), 17, 370.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipation (18)  |  Appreciate (63)  |  Blow (44)  |  Box (22)  |  Call (768)  |  Child (321)  |  Crime (39)  |  Defect (31)  |  Discipline (82)  |  Disobedience (4)  |  Distinguish (164)  |  Ear (69)  |  Education (396)  |  Escape (81)  |  Evil (117)  |  Find (1002)  |  First (1287)  |  Free (234)  |  Good (893)  |  Great (1577)  |  Harsh (8)  |  Ignorance (246)  |  Incapacity (3)  |  Law (902)  |  Man (2249)  |  Method (512)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Law (42)  |  Nature (1952)  |  Object (427)  |  Operation (213)  |  Penalty (7)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Receive (115)  |  Reward (70)  |  Short (197)  |  Symptom (35)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Train (116)  |  Understand (619)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Why (490)  |  Word (629)

� just as the astronomer, the physicist, the geologist, or other student of objective science looks about in the world of sense, so, not metaphorically speaking but literally, the mind of the mathematician goes forth in the universe of logic in quest of the things that are there; exploring the heights and depths for facts�ideas, classes, relationships, implications, and the rest; observing the minute and elusive with the powerful microscope of his Infinitesimal Analysis; observing the elusive and vast with the limitless telescope of his Calculus of the Infinite; making guesses regarding the order and internal harmony of the data observed and collocated; testing the hypotheses, not merely by the complete induction peculiar to mathematics, but, like his colleagues of the outer world, resorting also to experimental tests and incomplete induction; frequently finding it necessary, in view of unforeseen disclosures, to abandon one hopeful hypothesis or to transform it by retrenchment or by enlargement:�thus, in his own domain, matching, point for point, the processes, methods and experience familiar to the devotee of natural science.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 26
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (72)  |  Analysis (238)  |  Astronomer (95)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Class (166)  |  Colleague (50)  |  Complete (205)  |  Data (160)  |  Depth (94)  |  Devotee (6)  |  Disclosure (7)  |  Domain (69)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Enlargement (8)  |  Experience (480)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Exploration (147)  |  Fact (1227)  |  Facts (553)  |  Familiar (44)  |  Find (1002)  |  Forth (14)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Geologist (77)  |  Guess (64)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Height (33)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Hypothesis (305)  |  Idea (855)  |  Implication (24)  |  Incomplete (30)  |  Induction (80)  |  Infinite (234)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Internal (67)  |  Limitless (12)  |  Literally (30)  |  Located (2)  |  Logic (294)  |  Look (581)  |  Making (300)  |  Match (29)  |  Mathematician (395)  |  Mathematics (1353)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphor (34)  |  Method (512)  |  Microscope (83)  |  Mind (1354)  |  Minute (126)  |  Natural (796)  |  Natural Science (128)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (364)  |  Objective (92)  |  Observe (169)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (633)  |  Other (2234)  |  Outer (13)  |  Peculiar (113)  |  Physicist (262)  |  Point (581)  |  Powerful (141)  |  Process (427)  |  Quest (39)  |  Regard (305)  |  Relationship (105)  |  Resort (8)  |  Rest (284)  |  Sense (776)  |  Speak (234)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Student (307)  |  Telescope (103)  |  Test (214)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transform (73)  |  Unforeseen (10)  |  Universe (870)  |  Vast (179)  |  View (491)  |  World (1810)


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.