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: “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index M > Category: Military

Military Quotes (45 quotes)

Socrates: Shall we set down astronomy among the objects of study? Glaucon: I think so, to know something about the seasons, the months and the years is of use for military purposes, as well as for agriculture and for navigation. Socrates: It amuses me to see how afraid you are, lest the common herd of people should accuse you of recommending useless studies.
As quoted by Plato. In Richard Garnett, Léon Vallée, Alois Brandl (eds.), The Universal Anthology: A Collection of the Best Literature (1899), Vol. 4, 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuse (4)  |  Afraid (24)  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Amuse (2)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Common (447)  |  Down (455)  |  Know (1538)  |  Month (91)  |  Navigation (26)  |  Object (438)  |  People (1031)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Season (47)  |  See (1094)  |  Set (400)  |  Something (718)  |  Study (701)  |  Think (1122)  |  Use (771)  |  Useless (38)  |  Year (963)

A large part of the training of the engineer, civil and military, as far as preparatory studies are concerned; of the builder of every fabric of wood or stone or metal designed to stand upon the earth, or bridge the stream, or resist or float upon the wave; of the surveyor who lays out a building lot in a city, or runs a boundary line between powerful governments across a continent; of the geographer, navigator, hydrographer, and astronomer,—must be derived from the mathematics.
In 'Academical Education', Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions (1870), Vol. 3, 513.
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Build (211)  |  Builder (16)  |  Building (158)  |  City (87)  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil Engineer (4)  |  Concern (239)  |  Continent (79)  |  Derive (70)  |  Design (203)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Education (423)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Float (31)  |  Geographer (7)  |  Government (116)  |  Hydrographer (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Line (100)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Metal (88)  |  Military Engineer (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preparatory (3)  |  Resist (15)  |  Run (158)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stone (168)  |  Stream (83)  |  Study (701)  |  Surveyor (5)  |  Training (92)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wood (97)

A multidisciplinary study group ... estimated that it would be 1980 before developments in artificial intelligence make it possible for machines alone to do much thinking or problem solving of military significance. That would leave, say, five years to develop man-computer symbiosis and 15 years to use it. The 15 may be 10 or 500, but those years should be intellectually the most creative and exciting in the history of mankind.
From article 'Man-Computer Symbiosis', in IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics (Mar 1960), Vol. HFE-1, 4-11.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Artificial Intelligence (12)  |  Computer (131)  |  Creative (144)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exciting (50)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Mankind (15)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possible (560)  |  Problem (731)  |  Say (989)  |  Significance (114)  |  Solving (6)  |  Study (701)  |  Symbiosis (4)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Use (771)  |  Year (963)

A study of Disease—of Pestilences methodically prepared and deliberately launched upon man and beast—is certainly being pursued in the laboratories of more than one great country. Blight to destroy crops, Anthrax to slay horses and cattle, Plague to poison not armies but whole districts—such are the lines along which military science is remorselessly advancing.
'Shall We All Commit Suicide?'. Pall Mall (Sep 1924). Reprinted in Thoughts and Adventures (1932), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Anthrax (2)  |  Army (35)  |  Beast (58)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biological Warfare (3)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Country (269)  |  Cow (42)  |  Crop (26)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Disease (340)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horse (78)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Launch (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Military Science (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Pestilence (14)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poison (46)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Study (701)  |  Whole (756)

Any country that wants to make full use of all its potential scientists and technologists … must not expect to get the women quite so simply as it gets the men. It seems to me that marriage and motherhood are at least as socially important as military service. Government regulations are framed to ensure (in the United Kingdom) that a man returning to work from military service is not penalized by his absence. Is it utopian, then, to suggest that any country that really wants a woman to return to a scientific career when her children no longer need her physical presence should make special arrangements to encourage her to do so?
In Impact of Science on Society (1970), 20 58. Commenting how for men who went to war, their jobs were held for them pending their return.
Science quotes on:  |  Absence (21)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Career (86)  |  Children (201)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Encouragement (27)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Framing (2)  |  Government (116)  |  Importance (299)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Men (20)  |  Motherhood (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Potential (75)  |  Presence (63)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Regulations (3)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Service (110)  |  Society (350)  |  Special (188)  |  Technologist (7)  |  United Kingdom (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Utopian (3)  |  Want (504)  |  Woman (160)  |  Women (9)  |  Work (1402)

As a scientist and geneticist I started to feel that science would probably soon reach the point where its interference into the life processes would be counterproductive if a properly designed governing policy was not implemented. A heavily overcrowded planet, ninety-five percent urbanized with nuclear energy as the main source of energy and with all aspects of life highly computerized, is not too pleasant a place for human life. The life of any individual soon will be predictable from birth to death. Medicine, able to cure almost everything, will make the load of accumulated defects too heavy in the next two or three centuries. The artificial prolongation of life, which looked like a very bright idea when I started research in aging about twenty-five years ago, has now lost its attractiveness for me. This is because I now know that the aging process is so multiform and complex that the real technology and chemistry of its prevention by artificial interference must be too complex and expensive. It would be the privilege of a few, not the method for the majority. I also was deeply concerned about the fact that most research is now either directly or indirectly related to military projects and objectives for power.
Quoted in 'Zhores A(leksandrovich) Medvedev', Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002.
Science quotes on:  |  Aging (9)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Birth (154)  |  Bright (81)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Complex (202)  |  Concern (239)  |  Cure (124)  |  Death (406)  |  Defect (31)  |  Design (203)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feel (371)  |  Future (467)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Governing (20)  |  Heavily (14)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Implement (13)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interference (22)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Majority (68)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Next (238)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Energy (18)  |  Objective (96)  |  Planet (402)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Process (439)  |  Project (77)  |  Reach (286)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Soon (187)  |  Start (237)  |  Technology (281)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.
As quoted in B. H. Liddell Hart, Europe in Arms (1937), 199. In Alfred F. Hurley, Robert C. Ehrhart, Air Power and Warfare: The Proceedings of the 8th Military History Symposium (1979), 47, and citation in footnote, 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Astrology (46)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Military Science (3)  |  More (2558)  |  War (233)

Bradley is one of the few basketball players who have ever been appreciatively cheered by a disinterested away-from-home crowd while warming up. This curious event occurred last March, just before Princeton eliminated the Virginia Military Institute, the year’s Southern Conference champion, from the NCAA championships. The game was played in Philadelphia and was the last of a tripleheader. The people there were worn out, because most of them were emotionally committed to either Villanova or Temple-two local teams that had just been involved in enervating battles with Providence and Connecticut, respectively, scrambling for a chance at the rest of the country. A group of Princeton players shooting basketballs miscellaneously in preparation for still another game hardly promised to be a high point of the evening, but Bradley, whose routine in the warmup time is a gradual crescendo of activity, is more interesting to watch before a game than most players are in play. In Philadelphia that night, what he did was, for him, anything but unusual. As he does before all games, he began by shooting set shots close to the basket, gradually moving back until he was shooting long sets from 20 feet out, and nearly all of them dropped into the net with an almost mechanical rhythm of accuracy. Then he began a series of expandingly difficult jump shots, and one jumper after another went cleanly through the basket with so few exceptions that the crowd began to murmur. Then he started to perform whirling reverse moves before another cadence of almost steadily accurate jump shots, and the murmur increased. Then he began to sweep hook shots into the air. He moved in a semicircle around the court. First with his right hand, then with his left, he tried seven of these long, graceful shots-the most difficult ones in the orthodoxy of basketball-and ambidextrously made them all. The game had not even begun, but the presumably unimpressible Philadelphians were applauding like an audience at an opera.
A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Activity (218)  |  Air (366)  |  Appreciatively (2)  |  Audience (28)  |  Back (395)  |  Basket (8)  |  Basketball (4)  |  Battle (36)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bradley (2)  |  Cadence (2)  |  Champion (6)  |  Championship (2)  |  Chance (244)  |  Cheer (7)  |  Close (77)  |  Commit (43)  |  Conference (18)  |  Country (269)  |  Court (35)  |  Crescendo (3)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Curious (95)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disinterest (8)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dropped (17)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Emotionally (3)  |  Event (222)  |  Exception (74)  |  First (1302)  |  Foot (65)  |  Game (104)  |  Graceful (3)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Group (83)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Hook (7)  |  Increase (225)  |  Institute (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Jump (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Leave (138)  |  Local (25)  |  Long (778)  |  March (48)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Murmur (4)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Net (12)  |  Night (133)  |  Occur (151)  |  Opera (3)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Philadelphia (3)  |  Play (116)  |  Player (9)  |  Point (584)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Presumably (3)  |  Princeton (4)  |  Promise (72)  |  Providence (19)  |  Respectively (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Right (473)  |  Routine (26)  |  Series (153)  |  Set (400)  |  Shoot (21)  |  Southern (3)  |  Start (237)  |  Steadily (7)  |  Still (614)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Team (17)  |  Temple (45)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Two (936)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Virginia (2)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warming (24)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whirl (10)  |  Worn Out (2)  |  Year (963)

CHESS. Symbol of military tactics. All great generals good at chess. Too serious as a game, too pointless as a science.
In The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (1881), trans. Jaques Barzun (1968), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Chess (27)  |  Game (104)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Pointless (7)  |  Serious (98)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tactic (9)

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
In 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' (8 Feb 1996). Published on Electronic Frontier Foundation website. Reproduced in Lawrence Lessig, Code: Version 2.0) (2008), 303.
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Array (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cyberspace (3)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enter (145)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Express (192)  |  Fear (212)  |  Force (497)  |  Live (650)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Race (278)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Silence (62)  |  Singular (24)  |  Station (30)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Wave (112)  |  Web (17)  |  World (1850)

Despite the dazzling successes of modern technology and the unprecedented power of modern military systems, they suffer from a common and catastrophic fault. While providing us with a bountiful supply of food, with great industrial plants, with high-speed transportation, and with military weapons of unprecedented power, they threaten our very survival.
In Science and Survival (1966).
Science quotes on:  |  Catastrophic (10)  |  Common (447)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Despite (7)  |  Fault (58)  |  Food (213)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Modern (402)  |  Plant (320)  |  Power (771)  |  Provide (79)  |  Speed (66)  |  Success (327)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Supply (100)  |  Survival (105)  |  System (545)  |  Technology (281)  |  Threaten (33)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Unprecedented (11)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we can see the emergence of a tension that has yet to be resolved, concerning the attitude of scientists towards the usefulness of science. During this time, scientists were careful not to stress too much their relationships with industry or the military. They were seeking autonomy for their activities. On the other hand, to get social support there had to be some perception that the fruits of scientific activity could have useful results. One resolution of this dilemma was to assert that science only contributed at the discovery stage; others, industrialists for example, could apply the results. ... Few noted the ... obvious paradox of this position; that, if scientists were to be distanced from the 'evil' effects of the applications of scientific ideas, so too should they receive no credit for the 'good' or socially beneficial, effects of their activities.
Co-author with Philip Gummett (1947- ), -British social scientist
Science, Technology and Society Today (1984), Introduction, 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Application (257)  |  Apply (170)  |  Assert (69)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Author (175)  |  Autonomy (6)  |  British (42)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Industry (159)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Perception (97)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Social (261)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stress (22)  |  Support (151)  |  Tension (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

ENGINEER, in the military art, an able expert man, who, by a perfect knowledge in mathematics, delineates upon paper, or marks upon the ground, all sorts of forts, and other works proper for offence and defence. He should understand the art of fortification, so as to be able, not only to discover the defects of a place, but to find a remedy proper for them; as also how to make an attack upon, as well as to defend, the place. Engineers are extremely necessary for these purposes: wherefore it is requisite that, besides being ingenious, they should be brave in proportion. When at a siege the engineers have narrowly surveyed the place, they are to make their report to the general, by acquainting him which part they judge the weakest, and where approaches may be made with most success. Their business is also to delineate the lines of circumvallation and contravallation, taking all the advantages of the ground; to mark out the trenches, places of arms, batteries, and lodgments, taking care that none of their works be flanked or discovered from the place. After making a faithful report to the general of what is a-doing, the engineers are to demand a sufficient number of workmen and utensils, and whatever else is necessary.
In Encyclopaedia Britannica or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1771), Vol. 2, 497.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Art (680)  |  Attack (86)  |  Being (1276)  |  Brave (16)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Defect (31)  |  Defence (16)  |  Delineate (2)  |  Demand (131)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doing (277)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Expert (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fort (2)  |  Fortification (6)  |  General (521)  |  Ground (222)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Judge (114)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Offence (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Success (327)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Survey (36)  |  Trench (6)  |  Understand (648)  |  Utensil (3)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

Geology is intimately related to almost all the physical sciences, as is history to the moral. An historian should, if possible, be at once profoundly acquainted with ethics, politics, jurisprudence, the military art, theology; in a word, with all branches of knowledge, whereby any insight into human affairs, or into the moral and intellectual nature of man, can be obtained. It would be no less desirable that a geologist should be well versed in chemistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, zoology, comparative anatomy, botany; in short, in every science relating to organic and inorganic nature. With these accomplishments the historian and geologist would rarely fail to draw correct and philosophical conclusions from the various monuments transmitted to them of former occurrences.
Principles of Geology (1830-3), Vol. 1, 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Art (680)  |  Botany (63)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Draw (140)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Fail (191)  |  Former (138)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Geology (240)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mineralogy (24)  |  Monument (45)  |  Moral (203)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Man (8)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Organic (161)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Politics (122)  |  Possible (560)  |  Short (200)  |  Theology (54)  |  Various (205)  |  Word (650)  |  Zoology (38)

I am among the most durable and passionate participants in the scientific exploration of the solar system, and I am a long-time advocate of the application of space technology to civil and military purposes of direct benefit to life on Earth and to our national security.
In 'Is Human Spaceflight Obsolete?' Quoted in Issues in Science and Technology (Summer 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Advocate (20)  |  Application (257)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Civil (26)  |  Direct (228)  |  Durable (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  National Security (3)  |  Participant (6)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Security (51)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Space (523)  |  System (545)  |  Technology (281)  |  Time (1911)

I appeal to the contemptible speech made lately by Sir Robert Peel to an applauding House of Commons. 'Orders of merit,' said he, 'were the proper rewards of the military' (the desolators of the world in all ages). 'Men of science are better left to the applause of their own hearts.' Most learned Legislator! Most liberal cotton-spinner! Was your title the proper reward of military prowess? Pity you hold not the dungeon-keys of an English Inquisition! Perhaps Science, like creeds, would flourish best under a little persecution.
Chemical Recreations (1834), 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Common (447)  |  Creed (28)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Heart (243)  |  House (143)  |  Inquisition (9)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Little (717)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Merit (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Order (638)  |  Persecution (14)  |  Proper (150)  |  Reward (72)  |  Speech (66)  |  World (1850)

In mathematics, which is but a mirror of the society in which it thrives or suffers, the pre-Athenian period is one of colorful men and important discoveries. Sparta, like most militaristic states before and after it, produced nothing. Athens, and the allied Ionians, produced a number of works by philosophers and mathematicians; some good, some controversial, some grossly overrated.
In A History of Pi (1970), 34.
Science quotes on:  |  Colorful (2)  |  Controversial (2)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Good (906)  |  Important (229)  |  Ionian (2)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Period (200)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Society (350)  |  State (505)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Thrive (22)  |  Work (1402)

In our daily lives, we enjoy the pervasive benefits of long-lived robotic spacecraft that provide high-capacity worldwide telecommunications; reconnaissance of Earth’s solid surface and oceans, with far-reaching cultural and environmental implications; much-improved weather and climatic forecasts; improved knowledge about the terrestrial effects of the Sun’s radiations; a revolutionary new global navigational system for all manner of aircraft and many other uses both civil and military; and the science of Earth itself as a sustainable abode of life.
In 'Is Human Spaceflight Obsolete?', Issues in Science and Technology (Summer 2004).
Science quotes on:  |  Abode (2)  |  Aircraft (9)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Both (496)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Civil (26)  |  Climate (102)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Environment (239)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Global (39)  |  Global Positioning System (2)  |  GPS (2)  |  High (370)  |  Implication (25)  |  Improve (64)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Manner (62)  |  New (1273)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Robot (14)  |  Solid (119)  |  Spacecraft (6)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Sustainable (14)  |  System (545)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Use (771)  |  Weather (49)  |  Worldwide (19)

Mathematics is the study which forms the foundation of the course [at West Point Military Academy]. This is necessary, both to impart to the mind that combined strength and versatility, the peculiar vigor and rapidity of comparison necessary for military action, and to pave the way for progress in the higher military sciences.
In Congressional Committee on Military Affairs, 1834, United States Bureau of Education, Bulletin 1912, No. 2, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Academy (37)  |  Action (342)  |  Both (496)  |  Combine (58)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Course (413)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Higher (37)  |  Impart (24)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Military Science (3)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Pave (8)  |  Pave The Way (3)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Point (584)  |  Progress (492)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Strength (139)  |  Study (701)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Versatility (5)  |  Vigor (12)  |  Way (1214)

Most classifications, whether of inanimate objects or of organisms, are hierarchical. There are “higher” and “lower” categories, there are higher and lower ranks. What is usually overlooked is that the use of the term “hierarchy” is ambiguous, and that two fundamentally different kinds of arrangements have been designated as hierarchical. A hierarchy can be either exclusive or inclusive. Military ranks from private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, up to general are a typical example of an exclusive hierarchy. A lower rank is not a subdivision of a higher rank; thus, lieutenants are not a subdivision of captains. The scala naturae, which so strongly dominated thinking from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is another good illustration of an exclusive hierarchy. Each level of perfection was considered an advance (or degradation) from the next lower (or higher) level in the hierarchy, but did not include it.
The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance (1982), 205-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Captain (16)  |  Century (319)  |  Classification (102)  |  Consider (428)  |  Degradation (18)  |  Different (595)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Include (93)  |  Inclusive (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Level (69)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Object (438)  |  Organism (231)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Rank (69)  |  Term (357)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)

Much of American life for the previous twenty-five years had been defined by this adversary. American budgets, politics, weapons, foreign policy, science, research, and domestic priorities and the lives of millions of military-age Americans were influenced almost as much by what happened in Moscow as by what happened in Washington.
In My American Journey (1996), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Adversary (7)  |  American (56)  |  Budget (4)  |  Define (53)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Foreign Policy (2)  |  Influence (231)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moscow (5)  |  Politics (122)  |  Priority (11)  |  Research (753)  |  Science (39)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Year (963)

My interest in the biology of tissue and organ transplantation arose from my [WW II] military experience at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania … a major plastic surgical center. While there, I spent all my available spare time on the plastic surgical wards which were jammed with hundreds of battle casualties. I enjoyed talking to the patients, helping with dressings, and observing the results of the imaginative reconstructive surgical operations.
As a First Lieutenant with only a nine-month surgical internship, randomly assigned to VFGH to await overseas duty. In Tore Frängsmyr and Jan E. Lindsten (eds.), Nobel Lectures: Physiology Or Medicine: 1981-1990 (1993), 556.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Battle (36)  |  Biography (254)  |  Biology (232)  |  Casualty (3)  |  Experience (494)  |  Forge (10)  |  General (521)  |  Help (116)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imaginative (9)  |  Interest (416)  |  Major (88)  |  Observe (179)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Organ (118)  |  Patient (209)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Result (700)  |  Spent (85)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Transplantation (4)  |  Valley (37)  |  Ward (7)

My two Jamaican cousins … were studying engineering. “That’s where the money is,” Mom advised. … I was to be an engineering major, despite my allergy to science and math. … Those who preceded me at CCNY include the polio vaccine discoverer, Dr. Jonas Salk … and eight Nobel Prize winners. … In class, I stumbled through math, fumbled through physics, and did reasonably well in, and even enjoyed, geology. All I ever looked forward to was ROTC.
Explaining his original reason for going to the City College of New York, where he shortly turned to his military career, in My American Journey (1996), 23-26. ROTC is the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) school-based program of the U.S. military. From there, the self-described “C-average student out of middling Morris High School” went on to become a four-star general.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Career (86)  |  City (87)  |  Class (168)  |  College (71)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Forward (104)  |  Geology (240)  |  Include (93)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Money (178)  |  New (1273)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Polio (8)  |  Reason (766)  |  Studying (70)  |  Stumble (19)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)

One can argue that mathematics is a human activity deeply rooted in reality, and permanently returning to reality. From counting on one’s fingers to moon-landing to Google, we are doing mathematics in order to understand, create, and handle things, … Mathematicians are thus more or less responsible actors of human history, like Archimedes helping to defend Syracuse (and to save a local tyrant), Alan Turing cryptanalyzing Marshal Rommel’s intercepted military dispatches to Berlin, or John von Neumann suggesting high altitude detonation as an efficient tactic of bombing.
In 'Mathematical Knowledge: Internal, Social and Cultural Aspects', Mathematics As Metaphor: Selected Essays (2007), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Berlin (10)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Counting (26)  |  Create (245)  |  Defend (32)  |  Detonation (2)  |  Dispatch (2)  |  Doing (277)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Finger (48)  |  Google (4)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intercept (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moon (252)  |  Moon Landing (9)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Order (638)  |  Reality (274)  |  Root (121)  |  Save (126)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Alan M. Turing (7)  |  Tyrant (10)  |  Understand (648)

One would have to have been brought up in the “spirit of militarism” to understand the difference between Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the one hand, and Auschwitz and Belsen on the other. The usual reasoning is the following: the former case is one of warfare, the latter of cold-blooded slaughter. But the plain truth is that the people involved are in both instances nonparticipants, defenseless old people, women, and children, whose annihilation is supposed to achieve some political or military objective.… I am certain that the human race is doomed, unless its instinctive detestation of atrocities gains the upper hand over the artificially constructed judgment of reason.
Max Born
In The Born-Einstein Letters: Correspondence Between Albert Einstein and Max Born (1971), 205. Born’s commentary (at age 86) added for the book, printed after letter to Albert Einstein, 8 Nov 1953.
Science quotes on:  |  Annihilation (15)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Atrocity (6)  |  Auschwitz (5)  |  Blood (144)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  Children (201)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cold-Blooded (2)  |  Construct (129)  |  Defenseless (3)  |  Difference (355)  |  Doom (34)  |  Former (138)  |  Gain (146)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Involved (90)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Nagasaki (3)  |  Objective (96)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Political (124)  |  Race (278)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Slaughter (8)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Warfare (12)

PROJECTILE, n. The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerly these disputes were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times could supply —the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth of prudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. Its capital defect is that it requires personal attendance at the point of propulsion.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  268.
Science quotes on:  |  Ammunition (2)  |  Argument (145)  |  Contact (66)  |  Defect (31)  |  Dispute (36)  |  Favor (69)  |  Final (121)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  Humour (116)  |  International (40)  |  Logic (311)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Projectile (3)  |  Propulsion (10)  |  Require (229)  |  Settled (34)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spear (8)  |  Supply (100)  |  Sword (16)  |  Time (1911)  |  War (233)

Science has been arranging, classifying, methodizing, simplifying, everything except itself. It has made possible the tremendous modern development of power of organization which has so multiplied the effective power of human effort as to make the differences from the past seem to be of kind rather than of degree. It has organized itself very imperfectly. Scientific men are only recently realizing that the principles which apply to success on a large scale in transportation and manufacture and general staff work to apply them; that the difference between a mob and an army does not depend upon occupation or purpose but upon human nature; that the effective power of a great number of scientific men may be increased by organization just as the effective power of a great number of laborers may be increased by military discipline.
'The Need for Organization in Scientific Research', in Bulletin of the National Research Council: The National Importance of Scientific and Industrial Research (Oct 1919), Col 1, Part 1, No. 1, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Army (35)  |  Classification (102)  |  Degree (277)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effort (243)  |  Everything (489)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Kind (564)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Large (398)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mob (10)  |  Modern (402)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Organization (120)  |  Past (355)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scale (122)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Transportation (19)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Work (1402)

Scientists themselves readily admit that they do not fully understand the consequences of our many-faceted assault upon the interwoven fabric of atmosphere, water, land and life in all its biological diversity. But things could also turn out to be worse than the current scientific best guess. In military affairs, policy has long been based on the dictum that we should be prepared for the worst case. Why should it be so different when the security is that of the planet and our long-term future?
Speech, 'Global Security Lecture' at Cambridge University (28 Apr 1993).
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (49)  |  Assault (12)  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Best (467)  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Current (122)  |  Dictum (10)  |  Different (595)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Future (467)  |  Guess (67)  |  Interwoven (10)  |  Land (131)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Planet (402)  |  Policy (27)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Security (51)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Water (503)  |  Why (491)  |  Worst (57)

Some of my cousins who had the great advantage of University education used to tease me with arguments to prove that nothing has any existence except what we think of it. … These amusing mental acrobatics are all right to play with. They are perfectly harmless and perfectly useless. ... I always rested on the following argument. … We look up to the sky and see the sun. Our eyes are dazzled and our senses record the fact. So here is this great sun standing apparently on no better foundation than our physical senses. But happily there is a method, apart altogether from our physical senses, of testing the reality of the sun. It is by mathematics. By means of prolonged processes of mathematics, entirely separate from the senses, astronomers are able to calculate when an eclipse will occur. They predict by pure reason that a black spot will pass across the sun on a certain day. You go and look, and your sense of sight immediately tells you that their calculations are vindicated. So here you have the evidence of the senses reinforced by the entirely separate evidence of a vast independent process of mathematical reasoning. We have taken what is called in military map-making “a cross bearing.” When my metaphysical friends tell me that the data on which the astronomers made their calculations, were necessarily obtained originally through the evidence of the senses, I say, “no.” They might, in theory at any rate, be obtained by automatic calculating-machines set in motion by the light falling upon them without admixture of the human senses at any stage. When it is persisted that we should have to be told about the calculations and use our ears for that purpose, I reply that the mathematical process has a reality and virtue in itself, and that onie discovered it constitutes a new and independent factor. I am also at this point accustomed to reaffirm with emphasis my conviction that the sun is real, and also that it is hot— in fact hot as Hell, and that if the metaphysicians doubt it they should go there and see.
In My Early Life (1930).
Science quotes on:  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Argument (145)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Better (493)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Data (162)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Ear (69)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Education (423)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hot (63)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Map (50)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mental (179)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Method (531)  |  Motion (320)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Occur (151)  |  Pass (241)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Predict (86)  |  Process (439)  |  Prolong (29)  |  Prove (261)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Record (161)  |  Reply (58)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sky (174)  |  Stage (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  University (130)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Will (2350)

The acquired [space exploration] technology has immediately been aimed at practical and profitable applications: worldwide communications, global positioning systems for ships and aircraft, and remote sensing to better know our planet and monitor its resources and to trace migrations of whales, fish, and birds. Unfortunately, it is now almost monopolized by the military.
Written for 'Foreword' to Kevin W. Kelley (ed.), The Home Planet (1988), paragraph 5 (unpaginated).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Aim (175)  |  Aircraft (9)  |  Application (257)  |  Bird (163)  |  Communication (101)  |  Fish (130)  |  Global Positioning System (2)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Migration (12)  |  Monitor (10)  |  Monopolize (2)  |  Planet (402)  |  Practical (225)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Resource (74)  |  Ship (69)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Technology (281)  |  Trace (109)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  Whale (45)  |  Worldwide (19)

The dollar is the final term in almost every equation which arises in the practice of engineering in any or all of its branches, except qualifiedly as to military and naval engineering, where in some cases cost may be ignored.
From Address on 'Industrial Engineering' at Purdue University (24 Feb 1905). Reprinted by Yale & Towne Mfg Co of New York and Stamford, Conn. for the use of students in its works.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Branch (155)  |  Case (102)  |  Cost (94)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equation (138)  |  Final (121)  |  Ignored (2)  |  Practice (212)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Term (357)

The dropping of the Atomic Bomb is a very deep problem… Instead of commemorating Hiroshima we should celebrate… man’s triumph over the problem [of transmutation], and not its first misuse by politicians and military authorities.
Address to New Europe Group meeting on the third anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb. Quoted in New Europe Group, In Commemoration of Professor Frederick Soddy (1956), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Authority (99)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Celebration (7)  |  Commemoration (2)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dropping (8)  |  First (1302)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Politician (40)  |  Problem (731)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Triumph (76)

The future generation of scientists will be a sorry lot if the best teachers leave the academic circles for more lucrative positions in military or industrial laboratories.
In 'The Physicist Returns from the War', The Atlantic Monthly (Oct 1945), 176, No. 4, 108. Collected in 'Physics: A Physicist Surveys the Scene', American Thought 1947 (1947), 326.
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  Best (467)  |  Circle (117)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lot (151)  |  More (2558)  |  Position (83)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Will (2350)

The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Armament (6)  |  Disastrous (3)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illusion (68)  |  National (29)  |  Present (630)  |  Security (51)  |  State (505)  |  Technique (84)  |  Through (846)

The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways.
In The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (1946, 2006), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Adaptable (2)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Aggressive (4)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Conservative (16)  |  Degree (277)  |  Hospitable (3)  |  Insolent (2)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Loyal (5)  |  New (1273)  |  Polite (9)  |  Push (66)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Submissive (2)  |  Timid (6)  |  Treacherous (2)  |  Way (1214)

The long-range trend toward federal regulation, which found its beginnings in the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Act of 1890, which was quickened by a large number of measures in the Progressive era, and which has found its consummation in our time, was thus at first the response of a predominantly individualistic public to the uncontrolled and starkly original collectivism of big business. In America the growth of the national state and its regulative power has never been accepted with complacency by any large part of the middle-class public, which has not relaxed its suspicion of authority, and which even now gives repeated evidence of its intense dislike of statism. In our time this growth has been possible only under the stress of great national emergencies, domestic or military, and even then only in the face of continuous resistance from a substantial part of the public. In the Progressive era it was possible only because of widespread and urgent fear of business consolidation and private business authority. Since it has become common in recent years for ideologists of the extreme right to portray the growth of statism as the result of a sinister conspiracy of collectivists inspired by foreign ideologies, it is perhaps worth emphasizing that the first important steps toward the modern organization of society were taken by arch-individualists—the tycoons of the Gilded Age—and that the primitive beginning of modern statism was largely the work of men who were trying to save what they could of the eminently native Yankee values of individualism and enterprise.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Act (278)  |  Age (509)  |  America (143)  |  Arch (12)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beginnings (5)  |  Big Business (2)  |  Business (156)  |  Class (168)  |  Collectivism (2)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Common (447)  |  Consolidation (4)  |  Conspiracy (6)  |  Consummation (7)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Dislike (16)  |  Domestic (27)  |  Emergency (10)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Era (51)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Face (214)  |  Fear (212)  |  Federal (6)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gilded (3)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growth (200)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Important (229)  |  Individualism (3)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Intense (22)  |  Large (398)  |  Largely (14)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Range (3)  |  Measure (241)  |  Middle-Class (2)  |  Modern (402)  |  National (29)  |  Native (41)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Original (61)  |  Part (235)  |  Portray (6)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Predominantly (4)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Private (29)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Public (100)  |  Quicken (7)  |  Range (104)  |  Recent (78)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Relax (3)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Response (56)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Save (126)  |  Sinister (8)  |  Society (350)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Stress (22)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toward (45)  |  Trend (23)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Uncontrolled (2)  |  Urgent (15)  |  Value (393)  |  Widespread (23)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)  |  Yankee (2)  |  Year (963)

The military engineer had died and his close relative, the civil engineer, had taken his place.
Anonymous
Reported as “one regimental commander declared…” and given as a narrative statement, not within quotation marks. The context is that by World War II, “engineer work in war … covered a far wider technical range than ever before in American military engineering experience,” with increasingly “complex and extensive” operations. In Beck, Bortz, Lynch, Mayo and Weld, 'Introduction' The Corps of Engineers: The War Against Germany (1988), 3. For more background on the change, a footnote cites William Barclay Parsons, The American Engineers in France (1920), 5-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Civil (26)  |  Civil Engineer (4)  |  Die (94)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Military Engineer (2)  |  Relative (42)  |  Replace (32)

The object of the project is to produce a practical military weapon in the form of a bomb in which the energy is released by a fast neutron chain reaction in one or more of the materials known to show nuclear fission.
From notes (written up by Edward U. Condon) of introductory lectures by Robert Serber (Apr 1943) at the start-up of the Los Alamos Project. For distribution to new arrivals, the notes were mimeographed as The Los Alamos Primer. See 'Object', Sec.1, p.1. Declassified in 1965. Published with an Introduction and extensive notations added by the editor, in Robert Serber and Richard Rhodes (ed.), The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How To Build an Atomic Bomb (1992), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Chain Reaction (2)  |  Energy (373)  |  Manhattan Project (15)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Nuclear Fission (3)  |  Object (438)  |  Practical (225)  |  Produce (117)  |  Weapon (98)

The successful launching of the Sputnik was a demonstration of one of the highest scientific and technological achievements of man—a tantalizing invitation both to the militarist in search of ever more devastating means of destruction and to the astronomer searching for new means of carrying his instruments away from their earthbound environment.
In BBC Reith Lecture (9 Nov 1958), 'Astronomy Breaks Free', published as The Individual and the Universe (1959, 1961), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Both (496)  |  Carry (130)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Devastating (6)  |  Earthbound (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Highest (19)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Launch (21)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Search (175)  |  Searching (7)  |  Sputnik (5)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)

The technical genius which could find answers … was not cooped up in military or civilian bureaucracy, but was to be found in universities and in the people at large.
Quoted by Theodore von Karman, The Wind and Beyond: Theodore von Karman, Pioneer in Aviation and Pathfinder in Science (1967), 268. As cited in Office of Air Force History, Harnessing the Genie: Science and Technology Forecasting for the Air Force 1944-1986 (1988), 186. Arnold was expressing the value of a balance between independent and government science.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bureaucracy (8)  |  Civilian (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Genius (301)  |  Large (398)  |  People (1031)  |  Research (753)  |  Technology (281)  |  University (130)

These machines [used in the defense of the Syracusans against the Romans under Marcellus] he [Archimedes] had designed and contrived, not as matters of any importance, but as mere amusements in geometry; in compliance with king Hiero’s desire and request, some time before, that he should reduce to practice some part of his admirable speculation in science, and by accommodating the theoretic truth to sensation and ordinary use, bring it more within the appreciation of people in general. Eudoxus and Archytas had been the first originators of this far-famed and highly-prized art of mechanics, which they employed as an elegant illustration of geometrical truths, and as means of sustaining experimentally, to the satisfaction of the senses, conclusions too intricate for proof by words and diagrams. As, for example, to solve the problem, so often required in constructing geometrical figures, given the two extremes, to find the two mean lines of a proportion, both these mathematicians had recourse to the aid of instruments, adapting to their purpose certain curves and sections of lines. But what with Plato’s indignation at it, and his invectives against it as the mere corruption and annihilation of the one good of geometry,—which was thus shamefully turning its back upon the unembodied objects of pure intelligence to recur to sensation, and to ask help (not to be obtained without base supervisions and depravation) from matter; so it was that mechanics came to be separated from geometry, and, repudiated and neglected by philosophers, took its place as a military art.
Plutarch
In John Dryden (trans.), Life of Marcellus.
Science quotes on:  |  Accommodate (17)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Admirable (20)  |  Against (332)  |  Aid (101)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Annihilation (15)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Ask (420)  |  Back (395)  |  Base (120)  |  Both (496)  |  Bring (95)  |  Certain (557)  |  Compliance (8)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Construct (129)  |  Contrive (10)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Curve (49)  |  Defense (26)  |  Design (203)  |  Desire (212)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Embody (18)  |  Employ (115)  |  Example (98)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Good (906)  |  Help (116)  |  Hiero (2)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indignation (5)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Invective (2)  |  King (39)  |  Line (100)  |  Machine (271)  |  Marcellus (2)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mere (86)  |  More (2558)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Object (438)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originator (7)  |  Part (235)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Place (192)  |  Plato (80)  |  Practice (212)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Recourse (12)  |  Recur (4)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Request (7)  |  Require (229)  |  Required (108)  |  Roman (39)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Section (11)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shameful (3)  |  Solve (145)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Supervision (4)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Syracuse (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Word (650)

This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This plague-spot of civilisation ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism–how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abhor (8)  |  Abolish (13)  |  Abominable (4)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Bad (185)  |  Band (9)  |  Big (55)  |  Brain (281)  |  Bring (95)  |  Business (156)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Despise (16)  |  Enough (341)  |  Formation (100)  |  Give (208)  |  Hack (3)  |  Hate (68)  |  Herd (17)  |  Heroism (7)  |  Man (2252)  |  March (48)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Order (638)  |  Part (235)  |  Patriotism (9)  |  Pestilent (2)  |  Piece (39)  |  Plague (42)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Possible (560)  |  Seem (150)  |  Senseless (4)  |  Speed (66)  |  Strain (13)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Topic (23)  |  Violence (37)  |  War (233)  |  Worst (57)

Thought-economy is most highly developed in mathematics, that science which has reached the highest formal development, and on which natural science so frequently calls for assistance. Strange as it may seem, the strength of mathematics lies in the avoidance of all unnecessary thoughts, in the utmost economy of thought-operations. The symbols of order, which we call numbers, form already a system of wonderful simplicity and economy. When in the multiplication of a number with several digits we employ the multiplication table and thus make use of previously accomplished results rather than to repeat them each time, when by the use of tables of logarithms we avoid new numerical calculations by replacing them by others long since performed, when we employ determinants instead of carrying through from the beginning the solution of a system of equations, when we decompose new integral expressions into others that are familiar,—we see in all this but a faint reflection of the intellectual activity of a Lagrange or Cauchy, who with the keen discernment of a military commander marshalls a whole troop of completed operations in the execution of a new one.
In Populär-wissenschafliche Vorlesungen (1903), 224-225.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Activity (218)  |  Already (226)  |  Assistance (23)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Avoidance (11)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (11)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completed (30)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Digit (4)  |  Discernment (4)  |  Economy (59)  |  Employ (115)  |  Equation (138)  |  Execution (25)  |  Expression (181)  |  Faint (10)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Form (976)  |  Formal (37)  |  Frequently (21)  |  High (370)  |  Highly (16)  |  Instead (23)  |  Integral (26)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Keen (10)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Long (778)  |  Marshal (4)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perform (123)  |  Previously (12)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Replace (32)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Several (33)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solution (282)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strength (139)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Troop (4)  |  Unnecessary (23)  |  Use (771)  |  Utmost (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)

We are once for all adapted to the military status. A millennium of peace would not breed the fighting disposition out of our bone and marrow, and a function so ingrained and vital will never consent to die without resistance, and will always find impassioned apologists and idealizers.
From 'Remarks at The Peace Banquet' (7 Oct 1904), Boston, on the closing day of the World’s Peace Congress. Printed in Atlantic Monthly (Dec 1904), 845-846. Collected in Essays in Religion and Morality (1982), Vol. 9, 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Bone (101)  |  Breed (26)  |  Consent (14)  |  Die (94)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Fighting (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Function (235)  |  Impassioned (2)  |  Ingrained (5)  |  Marrow (5)  |  Millennium (5)  |  Never (1089)  |  Peace (116)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Status (35)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)

We were agreed that the war was bound to break out into an intense struggle, that America was sure to get into it in one way or another sooner or later, that it would be a highly technical struggle, that we were by no means prepared in this regard, and … that the military system as it existed … would never fully produce the new instrumentalities which we would certainly need.
About the National Defense Research Committee, that was subsumed into the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which Bush headed. As quoted in Pieces of the Action (1970), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Science And Government (5)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Technology (281)  |  War (233)


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.