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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index M > Category: Middle

Middle Quotes (19 quotes)

Question: What is the reason that the hammers which strike the strings of a pianoforte are made not to strike the middle of the strings? Why are the bass strings loaded with coils of wire?
Answer: Because the tint of the clang would be bad. Because to jockey them heavily.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 176, Question 3. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bass (2)  |  Coil (4)  |  Examination (102)  |  Hammer (26)  |  Heavily (14)  |  Heavy (24)  |  Howler (15)  |  Jockey (2)  |  Load (12)  |  Piano (12)  |  Question (649)  |  Reason (766)  |  Strike (72)  |  String (22)  |  Tint (3)  |  Why (491)  |  Wire (36)

Between true science and erroneous doctrines, ignorance is in the middle.
In Leviathan (1651).
Science quotes on:  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Error (339)  |  Ignorance (254)

Comfort came in with the middle classes.
In Civilization: An Essay (1928), 70-71.
Science quotes on:  |  Class (168)  |  Comfort (64)

First, as concerns the success of teaching mathematics. No instruction in the high schools is as difficult as that of mathematics, since the large majority of students are at first decidedly disinclined to be harnessed into the rigid framework of logical conclusions. The interest of young people is won much more easily, if sense-objects are made the starting point and the transition to abstract formulation is brought about gradually. For this reason it is psychologically quite correct to follow this course.
Not less to be recommended is this course if we inquire into the essential purpose of mathematical instruction. Formerly it was too exclusively held that this purpose is to sharpen the understanding. Surely another important end is to implant in the student the conviction that correct thinking based on true premises secures mastery over the outer world. To accomplish this the outer world must receive its share of attention from the very beginning.
Doubtless this is true but there is a danger which needs pointing out. It is as in the case of language teaching where the modern tendency is to secure in addition to grammar also an understanding of the authors. The danger lies in grammar being completely set aside leaving the subject without its indispensable solid basis. Just so in Teaching of Mathematics it is possible to accumulate interesting applications to such an extent as to stunt the essential logical development. This should in no wise be permitted, for thus the kernel of the whole matter is lost. Therefore: We do want throughout a quickening of mathematical instruction by the introduction of applications, but we do not want that the pendulum, which in former decades may have inclined too much toward the abstract side, should now swing to the other extreme; we would rather pursue the proper middle course.
In Ueber den Mathematischen Unterricht an den hoheren Schulen; Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung, Bd. 11, 131.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Addition (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Attention (196)  |  Author (175)  |  Base (120)  |  Basis (180)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bring (95)  |  Case (102)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Correct (95)  |  Course (413)  |  Danger (127)  |  Decade (66)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Extent (142)  |  Extreme (78)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Former (138)  |  Formerly (5)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Framework (33)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Grammar (15)  |  Harness (25)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Hold (96)  |  Implant (5)  |  Important (229)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Kernel (4)  |  Language (308)  |  Large (398)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logic (311)  |  Lose (165)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Premise (40)  |  Proper (150)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Quicken (7)  |  Quickening (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Rigid (24)  |  School (227)  |  Secure (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Aside (4)  |  Share (82)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Side (236)  |  Solid (119)  |  Starting Point (16)  |  Student (317)  |  Stunt (7)  |  Subject (543)  |  Success (327)  |  Surely (101)  |  Swing (12)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Transition (28)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wise (143)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

For, as the element of water lies in the middle of the globe, so, the branches run out from the root in its circuit on all sides towards the plains and towards the light. From this root very many branches are born. One branch is the Rhine, another the Danube, another the Nile, etc.
'The Philosophy of the Generation of the Elements', Book the Fourth, Text II. In The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, called Paracelsus the Great, trans. A. E. Waite (1894), Vol. 1, 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Branch (155)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Danube (2)  |  Element (322)  |  Globe (51)  |  Lie (370)  |  Light (635)  |  Nile (5)  |  Plain (34)  |  Rhine (2)  |  Root (121)  |  Run (158)  |  Side (236)  |  Water (503)

I am the enfant terrible of literature and science. If I cannot, and I know I cannot, get the literary and scientific bigwigs to give me a shilling, I can, and I know I can, heave bricks into the middle of them.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Brick (20)  |  Heave (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Literature (116)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Shilling (5)  |  Terrible (41)

I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements. The highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes of so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the Greeks and ourselves call by the same name, air. It is by the force of this vital principle, pervading all things and mingling with all, that the earth, together with the fourth element, water, is balanced in the middle of space.
In The Natural History of Pliny (1855), Vol. 1, 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balance (82)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Eye (440)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fire (203)  |  Force (497)  |  Fourth (8)  |  Glittering (2)  |  Greek (109)  |  Mingle (9)  |  Name (359)  |  Next (238)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Pervading (7)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Space (523)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Vital (89)  |  Water (503)

I don’t dawdle. I'm a surgeon. I make an incision, do what needs to be done and sew up the wound. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end.
[On writing.]
Quoted in Thomas Lask, 'Publishing:Surgeon and Incisive Writer', New York Times (28 Sep 1979), C24.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Incision (2)  |  Planning (21)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Sewing (4)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Wound (26)  |  Writer (90)  |  Writing (192)

In my opinion, there is absolutely no trustworthy proof that talents have been improved by their exercise through the course of a long series of generations. The Bach family shows that musical talent, and the Bernoulli family that mathematical power, can be transmitted from generation to generation, but this teaches us nothing as to the origin of such talents. In both families the high-watermark of talent lies, not at the end of the series of generations, as it should do if the results of practice are transmitted, but in the middle. Again, talents frequently appear in some member of a family which has not been previously distinguished.
In 'On Heredity', Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems (1889), Vol. 1, 95-96.
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Bach (7)  |  Bach_Johann (2)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Both (496)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Family (101)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Generation (256)  |  High (370)  |  Improve (64)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Member (42)  |  Musical (10)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Power (771)  |  Practice (212)  |  Previous (17)  |  Proof (304)  |  Result (700)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Talent (99)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Transmit (12)  |  Trustworthy (14)

It is the middle of the night when a glittering theatre of light suddenly appears in front of the Dhaka. Where, moments before there was only darkness, suddenly there are hundreds of columns of light. The sound of helicopters and car horns carry across to the ship on the breeze. There is the scent of rain after it has evaporated from warm streets. This is unmistakably Singapore, the small city-state at the most southern point of the Asiatic mainland. Singapore was built as a centre for world trade by the British over 250 years ago, and today, Singapore has the largest container harbour in the world. This is where the axes of world trade cross paths: from the Far East to Europe, from the Far East to Southeast Asia/the East, and from the Far East to Australia. Everything runs like clockwork here. Within five hours the Dhaka has been unloaded.
Made on Earth
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Appear (122)  |  Asia (7)  |  Australia (11)  |  Axe (16)  |  Breeze (8)  |  British (42)  |  Build (211)  |  Car (75)  |  Carry (130)  |  Centre (31)  |  City (87)  |  Clockwork (7)  |  Column (15)  |  Container (2)  |  Cross (20)  |  Darkness (72)  |  East (18)  |  Europe (50)  |  Evaporate (5)  |  Everything (489)  |  Far (158)  |  Five (16)  |  Front (16)  |  Glitter (10)  |  Harbor (8)  |  Helicopter (2)  |  Horn (18)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hundreds (6)  |  Large (398)  |  Largest (39)  |  Light (635)  |  Mainland (3)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Night (133)  |  Path (159)  |  Point (584)  |  Rain (70)  |  Run (158)  |  Scent (7)  |  Ship (69)  |  Singapore (2)  |  Small (489)  |  Sound (187)  |  Southern (3)  |  State (505)  |  Street (25)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Theatre (5)  |  Today (321)  |  Trade (34)  |  Unmistakably (2)  |  Warm (74)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Look Nature thro’, ’tis neat Gradation all.
By what minute Degrees her Scale ascends!
Each middle Nature join’d at each Extreme,
To that above it join’d, to that beneath.
The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742, 1750), Night 6, 140.
Science quotes on:  |  Ascend (30)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Degree (277)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Gradation (17)  |  Join (32)  |  Look (584)  |  Minute (129)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Scale (122)

Once you have learned to fly your plane, it is far less fatiguing to fly than it is to drive a car. You don’t have to watch every second for cats, dogs, children, lights, road signs, ladies with baby carriages and citizens who drive out in the middle of the block against the lights... Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Baby (29)  |  Block (13)  |  Car (75)  |  Carriage (11)  |  Cat (52)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Dog (70)  |  Drive (61)  |  Far (158)  |  Fatigue (13)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fly (153)  |  Free (239)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Lady (12)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Less (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Morning (98)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Plane (22)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Road (71)  |  Second (66)  |  Sign (63)  |  Sky (174)  |  Watch (118)  |  Way (1214)

The known is finite, the unknown infinite; spiritually we find ourselves on a tiny island in the middle of a boundless ocean of the inexplicable. It is our task, from generation to generation, to drain a small amount of additional land.
As given in Herbert and W. Roesky and Klaud Möckel, translated from the original German by T.N. Mitchell and W.E. Russey, Chemical Curiosities: Spectacular Experiments and Inspired Quotes (1996), 212. It is a restatement of an original quote from concluding remarks to a chapter by Thomas Huxley, 'On the Reception of the ‘Origin of Species’', the last chapter in Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887), Vol. 1, 557. Webmaster suggests, the original Huxley quote was translated for the original German text, and when that was translated for the English edition, the quote morphed into into the form above.
Science quotes on:  |  Additional (6)  |  Amount (153)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Drain (12)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Generation (256)  |  Inexplicable (8)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Island (49)  |  Known (453)  |  Land (131)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Small (489)  |  Spiritually (3)  |  Task (152)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Unknown (195)

The most obvious and easy things in mathematics are not those that come logically at the beginning; they are things that, from the point of view of logical deduction, come somewhere in the middle. Just as the easiest bodies to see are those that are neither very near nor very far…
In Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1920), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Beginning (312)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Easy (213)  |  Far (158)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Near (3)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  See (1094)

The presentation of mathematics where you start with definitions, for example, is simply wrong. Definitions aren't the places where things start. Mathematics starts with ideas and general concepts, and then definitions are isolated from concepts. Definitions occur somewhere in the middle of a progression or the development of a mathematical concept. The same thing applies to theorems and other icons of mathematical progress. They occur in the middle of a progression of how we explore the unknown.
Interview for website of the Mathematical Association of America.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Definition (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Exploration (161)  |  General (521)  |  Icon (2)  |  Idea (881)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progression (23)  |  Start (237)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Wrong (246)

Thus, we have three principles for increasing adequacy of data: if you must work with a single object, look for imperfections that record historical descent; if several objects are available, try to render them as stages of a single historical process; if processes can be directly observed, sum up their effects through time. One may discuss these principles directly or recognize the ‘little problems’ that Darwin used to exemplify them: orchids, coral reefs, and worms–the middle book, the first, and the last.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Available (80)  |  Book (413)  |  Coral Reef (15)  |  Darwin (14)  |  Data (162)  |  Descent (30)  |  Directly (25)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exemplify (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Historical (70)  |  Imperfection (32)  |  Increase (225)  |  Last (425)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Orchid (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Record (161)  |  Render (96)  |  Several (33)  |  Single (365)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sum (103)  |  Sum Up (3)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worm (47)

Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I cannot soon give a solution to these questions ... It was clear that in the United States there was a development not of the best, but of the middle and worst sides of European civilization; the notorious general voting, the tendency to politics... all the same as in Europe. A new dawn is not to be seen on this side of the ocean.
The Oil Industry in the North American State of Pennsylvania and in the Caucasus (1877). Translated by H. M. Leicester, from the original in Russian, in 'Mendeleev's Visit to America', Journal of Chemical Education (1957), 34, 333.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Best (467)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Commensurate (2)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Europe (50)  |  Fraud (15)  |  General (521)  |  German (37)  |  Germany (16)  |  Hate (68)  |  India (23)  |  Indian (32)  |  Negro (8)  |  New (1273)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Notorious (8)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Politics (122)  |  Question (649)  |  Science And Poetry (17)  |  Side (236)  |  Solution (282)  |  Soon (187)  |  State (505)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Themselves (433)  |  United States (31)  |  Vote (16)  |  Why (491)  |  Worst (57)

Why is it so very important to know that the lines drawn from the extremities of the base of an isosceles triangle to the middle points of the opposite sides are equal!
In Letter (29 May 1898), at age almost 18, to Mrs. Lawrence Hutton, excerpted in The Story of My Life: With her Letters (1887-1901) (1903, 1921), 242.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Draw (140)  |  Equal (88)  |  Extremity (7)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Important (229)  |  Isosceles Triangle (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Line (100)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Point (584)  |  Side (236)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Why (491)

Younger scientists cannot freely express their opinions without risking their ability to apply for grants or publish papers. Much worse than this, few of them can now follow that strange and serendipitous path that leads to deep discovery. They are not constrained by political or theological tyrannies, but by the ever-clinging hands of the jobsworths that form the vast tribe of the qualified but hampering middle management and the safety officials that surround them.
In The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity (2006, 2007), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Apply (170)  |  Constrain (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Express (192)  |  Free (239)  |  Grant (76)  |  Hamper (7)  |  Management (23)  |  Official (8)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Paper (192)  |  Path (159)  |  Political (124)  |  Publish (42)  |  Risk (68)  |  Safety (58)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Serendipity (17)  |  Strange (160)  |  Surround (33)  |  Theological (3)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Tyranny (15)  |  Young (253)


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.