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 N > Category: Name

Name Quotes (359 quotes)


… scientific thought does not mean thought about scientific subjects with long names. There are no scientific subjects. The subject of science is the human universe; that is to say, everything that is, or has been, or may be related to man.
'On the Aims and Instruments of Scientific Thought,' a Lecture delivered before the members of the British Association, at Brighton, on 19 Aug 1872, in Leslie Stephen and Frederick Pollock (eds.), Lectures and Essays, by the Late William Kingdon Clifford (1886), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Human (1512)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Thought (17)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)

“Arcturus” is his other name-
I’d rather call him “Star.”
It’s very mean of Science
To go and interfere!
'Arcturus' (c.1859). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson (1970), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Arcturus (4)  |  Call (781)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Mean (810)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poem (104)  |  Star (460)

“Of course they answer to their names?” the Gnat remarked carelessly.
“I never knew them to do it,” [said Alice.]
“What’s the use of them having names,” said the Gnat, “if they won’t answer to them?”
“No use to them,” said Alice; “but it’s useful to the people that name them, I suppose.”
In Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871, 1897), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Course (413)  |  Day (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Moon (252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Night (133)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  People (1031)  |  Sun (407)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)

[Davy's] March of Glory, which he has run for the last six weeks—within which time by the aid and application of his own great discovery, of the identity of electricity and chemical attractions, he has placed all the elements and all their inanimate combinations in the power of man; having decomposed both the Alkalies, and three of the Earths, discovered as the base of the Alkalies a new metal... Davy supposes there is only one power in the world of the senses; which in particles acts as chemical attractions, in specific masses as electricity, & on matter in general, as planetary Gravitation... when this has been proved, it will then only remain to resolve this into some Law of vital Intellect—and all human knowledge will be Science and Metaphysics the only Science.
In November 1807 Davy gave his famous Second Bakerian Lecture at the Royal Society, in which he used Voltaic batteries to “decompose, isolate and name” several new chemical elements, notably sodium and potassium.
Letter to Dorothy Wordsworth, 24 November 1807. In Earl Leslie Griggs (ed.), The Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1956), Vol. 3, 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Aid (101)  |  Application (257)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Base (120)  |  Both (496)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Combination (150)  |  Sir Humphry Davy (49)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Element (322)  |  General (521)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Identity (19)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Man (2252)  |  March (48)  |  Matter (821)  |  Metal (88)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  New (1273)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Power (771)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Run (158)  |  Sense (785)  |  Society (350)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Specific (98)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vital (89)  |  Voltaic (9)  |  Week (73)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

[De Morgan relates that some person had made up 800 anagrams on his name, of which he had seen about 650. Commenting on these he says:]
Two of these I have joined in the title-page:
[Ut agendo surgamus arguendo gustamus.]
A few of the others are personal remarks.
Great gun! do us a sum!
is a sneer at my pursuit; but,
Go! great sum! [integral of a to the power u to the power n with respect to u] is more dignified. …
Adsum, nugator, suge!
is addressed to a student who continues talking after the lecture has commenced: …
Graduatus sum! nego
applies to one who declined to subscribe for an M.A. degree.
In Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 82. [The Latin phrases translate as, respectively, “Such action will start arguing with taste”, “Here babbler suck!” and “I graduate! I reject.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Address (13)  |  Anagram (9)  |  Apply (170)  |  Argue (25)  |  Babble (2)  |  Commence (5)  |  Comment (12)  |  Continue (179)  |  Decline (28)  |  Degree (277)  |  Augustus De Morgan (45)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Great (1610)  |  Gun (10)  |  Integral (26)  |  Join (32)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Page (35)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (75)  |  Power (771)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Relate (26)  |  Remark (28)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sneer (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Subscribe (2)  |  Suck (8)  |  Sum (103)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Title (20)  |  Two (936)

[In my early youth, walking with my father,] “See that bird?” he says. “It’s a Spencer’s warbler.” (I knew he didn’t know the real name.) “Well, in Italian, it’s a Chutto Lapittida. In Portuguese, it’s a Bom da Peida. In Chinese, it’s a Chung-long-tah, and in Japanese, it’s a Katano Tekeda. You can know the name of that bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You’ll only know about humans in different places, and what they call the bird. So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts.” (I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.)
In 'The Making of a Scientist', What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (2001), 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Bird (163)  |  Call (781)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Count (107)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Doing (277)  |  Early (196)  |  Father (113)  |  Finish (62)  |  Human (1512)  |  Italian (13)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Something (718)  |  Warbler (2)  |  Whatever (234)  |  World (1850)  |  Youth (109)

[T]he idea of protoplasm, which was really a name for our ignorance, [is] only a little less misleading than the expression “Vital force”.
Adventures of a Biologist (1940), 118.
Science quotes on:  |  Expression (181)  |  Force (497)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Little (717)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Vital (89)  |  Vital Force (7)

[To] explain the phenomena of the mineral kingdom ... systems are usually reduced to two classes, according as they refer to the origin of terrestrial bodies to FIRE or to WATER; and ... their followers have of late been distinguished by the fanciful names of Vulcanists and Neptunists. To the former of these Dr HUTTON belongs much more than to the latter; though, as he employs the agency both of fire and water in his system, he cannot, in strict propriety, be arranged with either.
Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802) collected in The Works of John Playfair (1822), Vol. 1, 21
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Belong (168)  |  Both (496)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Employ (115)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fire (203)  |  Former (138)  |  Geology (240)  |  James Hutton (22)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Late (119)  |  Mineral (66)  |  More (2558)  |  Origin (250)  |  Propriety (6)  |  Small (489)  |  System (545)  |  Terrestrial (62)  |  Two (936)  |  Usually (176)  |  Water (503)

[Pechblende] einer eigenthümlichen, selbstständigen metallischen Substanz bestehe. Es fallen folglich auch deren bisherige Benennungen, als: Ресhblende Eisenpecherz, hinweg, welche nun durch einen neuen ausschliessend bezeichnenden Namen zu ersetzen sind. Ich habe dazu den Namen: Uranerz (Uranium) erwählt; zu einigem Andenken, dass die chemische Ausfindung dieses neuen Metallkörpers in die Epoche der astronomischen. Entdeckung des Planeten Uranus gefallen sei.
[Pitchblende] consists of a peculiar, distinct, metallic substance. Therefore its former denominations, pitch-blende, pitch-iron-ore, &c. are no longer applicable, and must be supplied by another more appropriate name.—I have chosen that of uranite, (Uranium), as a kind of memorial, that the chemical discovery of this new metal happened in the period of the astronomical discovery of the new planet Uranus.
In original German edition, Beiträge Zur Chemischen Kenntniss Der Mineralkörper (1797), Vol. 2, 215. English edition, translator not named, Analytical Essays Towards Promoting the Chemical Knowledge of Mineral Substances (1801), 491. The new planet was discovered on 13 Mar 1781 by William Herschel, who originally named it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) to honour King George III.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Choice (114)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Consist (223)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Former (138)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Sir William Herschel (14)  |  Iron (99)  |  Kind (564)  |  Memorial (4)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Ore (14)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Period (200)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Pitchblende (2)  |  Planet (402)  |  Substance (253)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Uranus (6)

He who doth with the greatest exactness imaginable, weigh every individual thing that shall or hath hapned to his Patient, and may be known from the Observations of his own, or of others, and who afterwards compareth all these with one another, and puts them in an opposite view to such Things as happen in a healthy State; and lastly, from all this with the nicest and severest bridle upon his reasoning faculty riseth to the knowledge of the very first Cause of the Disease, and of the Remedies fit to remove them; He, and only He deserveth the Name of a true Physician.
Aphorism No. 13 in Boerhaave’s Aphorisms: Concerning The Knowledge and Cure of Diseases (1715), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Disease (340)  |  Exactness (29)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Happen (282)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Remove (50)  |  State (505)  |  Thing (1914)  |  True (239)  |  View (496)  |  Weigh (51)

I. Animals have an electricity peculiar to themselves to which the name animal electricity is given.
II. The organs in which animal electricity acts above all others, and by which it is distributed throughout the whole body, are the nerves, and the most important organ of secretion is the brain.
Thierische Elektricitäund Reizbarkeit. Ein Beytrag zu den neuesten Entdeckungen üdiese Gegenstä(1795), 329. Quoted and trans. in Edwin Clarke and C. D. O'Malley, The Human Brain and Spinal Cord (1968), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Animal (651)  |  Body (557)  |  Brain (281)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Organ (118)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Secretion (5)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Whole (756)

La matière verte des végétaux … Nous proposons de lui donner le nom de chlorophyle.
The green matter of plants … We propose to give the name of chlorophyll.
As coauthor with Joseph-Bienaimé Caventou, in 'Sur la Matière verte des Feuilles', Annales de Chimie (1818), 9, 195. Cited in the Oxford English Dictionary as the earliest etymology example given for chlorophyll. Translation by Google.
Science quotes on:  |  Chlorophyll (5)  |  Green (65)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Plant (320)  |  Proposal (21)

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 (89)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Charm (54)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Cut (116)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dull (58)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flat (34)  |  Hate (68)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lake (36)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Native (41)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nuisance (10)  |  Observed (149)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Single (365)  |  Soul (235)  |  Start (237)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Through (846)  |  Tool (129)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Variety (138)  |  View (496)  |  Warily (2)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Why (491)

Wenn sich für ein neues Fossil kein, auf eigenthümliche Eigenschaften desselben hinweisender, Name auffinden lassen Will; als in welchem Falle ich mich bei dem gegenwärtigen zu befinden gestehe; so halte ich es für besser, eine solche Benennung auszuwählen, die an sich gar nichts sagt, und folglich auch zu keinen unrichtigen Begriffen Anlass geben kann. Diesem zufolge will ich den Namen für die gegenwärtige metallische Substanz, gleichergestalt wie bei dem Uranium geschehen, aus der Mythologie, und zwar von den Ursöhnen der Erde, den Titanen, entlehnen, und benenne also dieses neue Metallgeschlecht: Titanium.
Wherefore no name can be found for a new fossil [element] which indicates its peculiar and characteristic properties (in which position I find myself at present), I think it is best to choose such a denomination as means nothing of itself and thus can give no rise to any erroneous ideas. In consequence of this, as I did in the case of Uranium, I shall borrow the name for this metallic substance from mythology, and in particular from the Titans, the first sons of the earth. I therefore call this metallic genus TITANIUM.
Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Original German edition, Beiträge Zur Chemischen Kenntniss Der Mineralkörper (1795), Vol. 1 , 244. English edition, translator not named, Analytical Essays Towards Promoting the Chemical Knowledge of Mineral Substances (1801), Vol. 1, 210. Klaproth's use of the term fossil associates his knowledge of the metal as from ore samples dug out of a mine.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Borrow (31)  |  Borrowing (4)  |  Call (781)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Genus (27)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Metal (88)  |  Myself (211)  |  Mythology (19)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Particular (80)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Present (630)  |  Property (177)  |  Rise (169)  |  Son (25)  |  Substance (253)  |  Think (1122)  |  Titan (2)  |  Titanium (2)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Will (2350)

~~[Attributed]~~ How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.
Referenced in opening paragraph to Chap. 6, 'The Sea', in James E. Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) 84. The origin of the Arthur C. Clarke quote is not footnoted therein, and although found widely quoted without citation, in print and on the web, Webmaster has, as yet, been unable to locate a primary source. Lovelock’s quote is also on this website, beginning, “As Arthur C. Clarke has observed:…”. In 1963, G. Carleton Ray made a similar statement, beginning “We call this planet Earth…” and referring to “sea” rather than “Ocean”.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Inappropriate (5)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Planet (402)

A chemical name should not be a phrase, it ought not to require circumlocutions to become definite; it should not be of the type “Glauber’s salt”, which conveys nothing about the composition of the substance; it should recall the constituents of a compound; it should be non-committal if nothing is known about the substance; the names should preferably be coined from Latin or Greek, so that their meaning can be more widely and easily understood; the form of the words should be such that they fit easily into the language into which they are to be incorporated.
(1782) As quoted in Archibald Clow, Chemical Revolution: A Contribution to Social Technology (1952, 1992), 618.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Definite (114)  |  Fit (139)  |  Form (976)  |  Greek (109)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (308)  |  Latin (44)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Require (229)  |  Salt (48)  |  Substance (253)  |  Type (171)  |  Understood (155)  |  Word (650)

A famous name has this peculiarity that it becomes gradually smaller especially in natural sciences where each succeeding discovery invariably overshadows what precedes.
H. S. Van Klooster, 'Van't Hoff (1852-1911) in Retrospect', Journal of Chemical Education (1952), 29, 376.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fame (51)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Succeeding (14)

A first step in the study of civilization is to dissect it into details, and to classify these in their proper groups. Thus, in examining weapons, they are to be classed under spear, club, sling, bow and arrow, and so forth; among textile arts are to be ranged matting, netting, and several grades of making and weaving threads; myths are divided under such headings as myths of sunrise and sunset, eclipse-myths, earthquake-myths, local myths which account for the names of places by some fanciful tale, eponymic myths which account for the parentage of a tribe by turning its name into the name of an imaginary ancestor; under rites and ceremonies occur such practices as the various kinds of sacrifice to the ghosts of the dead and to other spiritual beings, the turning to the east in worship, the purification of ceremonial or moral uncleanness by means of water or fire. Such are a few miscellaneous examples from a list of hundreds … To the ethnographer, the bow and arrow is the species, the habit of flattening children’s skulls is a species, the practice of reckoning numbers by tens is a species. The geographical distribution of these things, and their transmission from region to region, have to be studied as the naturalist studies the geography of his botanical and zoological species.
In Primitive Culture (1871), Vol. 1, 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Arrow (22)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Botany (63)  |  Bow (15)  |  Ceremony (6)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Club (8)  |  Death (406)  |  Detail (150)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Divided (50)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Eclipse (25)  |  Fanciful (6)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  Geography (39)  |  Ghost (36)  |  Habit (174)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kind (564)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Moral (203)  |  Myth (58)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Number (710)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Practice (212)  |  Proper (150)  |  Purification (10)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Rite (3)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Skull (5)  |  Sling (4)  |  Spear (8)  |  Species (435)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Sunrise (14)  |  Sunset (27)  |  Tale (17)  |  Textile (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thread (36)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Various (205)  |  Water (503)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Weaving (6)  |  Worship (32)  |  Zoological (5)

A monument to Newton! a monument to Shakespeare! Look up to Heaven—look into the Human Heart. Till the planets and the passions–the affections and the fixed stars are extinguished—their names cannot die.
In 'Noctes Ambrosianae: XXV' (Jun 1830), The Works of Professor Wilson of the University of Edinburgh: Noctes Ambrosianae (1865), Vol. 3, 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Die (94)  |  Extinguish (8)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Human (1512)  |  Look (584)  |  Monument (45)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Passion (121)  |  Planet (402)  |  Shakespeare (6)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

A right understanding of the words which are names of names, is of great importance in philosophy. The tendency was always strong to believe that whatever receives a name must be an entity or being, having an independent existence of its own; and if no real entity answering to the name could be found, men did not for that reason suppose that none existed, but imagined that it was something peculiarly abstruse and mysterious, too high to be an object of sense. The meaning of all general, and especially of all abstract terms, became in this way enveloped in a mystical haze; and none of these have been more generally misunderstood, or have been a more copious source of futile and bewildering speculation, than some of the words which are names of names. Genus, Species, Universal, were long supposed to be designations of sublime hyperphysical realities; Number, instead of a general name of all numerals, was supposed to be the name, if not of a concrete thing, at least of a single property or attribute.
A footnote by John Stuart Mill, which he added as editor of a new edition of a work by his father, James Mill, Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1869), Vol. 2, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Bewildering (5)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Copious (6)  |  Definition (238)  |  Entity (37)  |  Existence (481)  |  Futile (13)  |  Genus (27)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Importance (299)  |  Independent (74)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Number (710)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Property (177)  |  Source (101)  |  Species (435)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Term (357)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universal (198)  |  Word (650)

A schism has taken place among the chemists. A particular set of them in France have undertaken to remodel all the terms of the science, and to give every substance a new name, the composition, and especially the termination of which, shall define the relation in which it stands to other substances of the same family, But the science seems too much in its infancy as yet, for this reformation; because in fact, the reformation of this year must be reformed again the next year, and so on, changing the names of substances as often as new experiments develop properties in them undiscovered before. The new nomenclature has, accordingly, been already proved to need numerous and important reformations. ... It is espoused by the minority here, and by the very few, indeed, of the foreign chemists. It is particularly rejected in England.
Letter to Dr. Willard (Paris, 1788). In Thomas Jefferson and John P. Foley (ed.), The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (1900), 135. From H.A. Washington, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1853-54). Vol 3, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Develop (278)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Family (101)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Minority (24)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reform (22)  |  Reformation (6)  |  Reformed (4)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Set (400)  |  Stand (284)  |  Substance (253)  |  Term (357)  |  Termination (4)  |  Terms (184)  |  Undiscovered (15)  |  Year (963)

A scientist worthy of the name, above all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same Nature.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Experience (494)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impression (118)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

A sign of a celebrity is often that his name is worth more than his services.
In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Celebrity (8)  |  More (2558)  |  Service (110)  |  Sign (63)  |  Worth (172)

A statistician is one who has learned how to get valid evidence from statistics and how (usually) to avoid being misled by irrelevant facts. It’s too bad that we apply the same name to this kind of person that we use for those who only tabulate. It’s as if we had the same name for barbers and brain surgeons because they both work on the head.
In How to Tell the Liars from the Statisticians (1983), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Bad (185)  |  Barber (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Head (87)  |  Irrelevant (11)  |  Kind (564)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mislead (6)  |  Person (366)  |  Same (166)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Tabulate (3)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Valid (12)  |  Work (1402)

A weird happening has occurred in the case of a lansquenet named Daniel Burghammer, of the squadron of Captain Burkhard Laymann Zu Liebenau, of the honorable Madrucci Regiment in Piadena, in Italy. When the same was on the point of going to bed one night he complained to his wife, to whom he had been married by the Church seven years ago, that he had great pains in his belly and felt something stirring therein. An hour thereafter he gave birth to a child, a girl. When his wife was made aware of this, she notified the occurrence at once. Thereupon he was examined and questioned. … He confessed on the spot that he was half man and half woman and that for more than seven years he had served as a soldier in Hungary and the Netherlands… . When he was born he was christened as a boy and given in baptism the name of Daniel… . He also stated that while in the Netherlands he only slept once with a Spaniard, and he became pregnant therefrom. This, however, he kept a secret unto himself and also from his wife, with whom he had for seven years lived in wedlock, but he had never been able to get her with child… . The aforesaid soldier is able to suckle the child with his right breast only and not at all on the left side, where he is a man. He has also the natural organs of a man for passing water. Both are well, the child is beautiful, and many towns have already wished to adopt it, which, however, has not as yet been arranged. All this has been set down and described by notaries. It is considered in Italy to be a great miracle, and is to be recorded in the chronicles. The couple, however, are to be divorced by the clergy.
Anonymous
'From Piadena in Italy, the 26th day of May 1601'. As quoted in George Tennyson Matthews (ed.) The Fugger Newsletter (1970), 247-248. A handwritten collection of news reports (1568-1604) by the powerful banking and merchant house of Fugger in Ausburg. This was footnoted in The Story of the Secret Service (1937), 698. https://books.google.com/books?id=YfssAAAAMAAJ Richard Wilmer Rowan - 1937
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Birth (154)  |  Both (496)  |  Boy (100)  |  Captain (16)  |  Child (333)  |  Church (64)  |  Confess (42)  |  Consider (428)  |  Divorce (7)  |  Down (455)  |  Girl (38)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happening (59)  |  Himself (461)  |  Honorable (14)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hungary (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Organ (118)  |  Pain (144)  |  Passing (76)  |  Point (584)  |  Question (649)  |  Record (161)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Right (473)  |  Secret (216)  |  Set (400)  |  Side (236)  |  Soldier (28)  |  Something (718)  |  Water (503)  |  Wife (41)  |  Wish (216)  |  Woman (160)  |  Year (963)

Absolute, true, and mathematical time, in and of itself and of its own nature, without reference to anything external, flows uniformly and by another name is called duration. Relative, apparent, and common time is any sensible and external measure (precise or imprecise) of duration by means of motion; such as a measure—for example, an hour, a day, a month, a year—is commonly used instead of true time.
The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), 3rd edition (1726), trans. I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman (1999), Definitions, Scholium, 408.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Call (781)  |  Common (447)  |  Day (43)  |  Duration (12)  |  External (62)  |  Flow (89)  |  Hour (192)  |  Imprecise (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Month (91)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precision (72)  |  Relative (42)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Time (1911)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Year (963)

After the discovery of spectral analysis no one trained in physics could doubt the problem of the atom would be solved when physicists had learned to understand the language of spectra. So manifold was the enormous amount of material that has been accumulated in sixty years of spectroscopic research that it seemed at first beyond the possibility of disentanglement. An almost greater enlightenment has resulted from the seven years of Röntgen spectroscopy, inasmuch as it has attacked the problem of the atom at its very root, and illuminates the interior. What we are nowadays hearing of the language of spectra is a true 'music of the spheres' in order and harmony that becomes ever more perfect in spite of the manifold variety. The theory of spectral lines will bear the name of Bohr for all time. But yet another name will be permanently associated with it, that of Planck. All integral laws of spectral lines and of atomic theory spring originally from the quantum theory. It is the mysterious organon on which Nature plays her music of the spectra, and according to the rhythm of which she regulates the structure of the atoms and nuclei.
Atombau und Spektrallinien (1919), viii, Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines, trans. Henry L. Brose (1923), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Amount (153)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Attack (86)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enlightenment (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Integral (26)  |  Interior (35)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Music (133)  |  Music Of The Spheres (3)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Order (638)  |  Organon (2)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Problem (731)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Rhythm (21)  |  Wilhelm Röntgen (8)  |  Root (121)  |  Solution (282)  |  Spectral Analysis (4)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Spectrum (35)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Spite (55)  |  Spring (140)  |  Structure (365)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Alexander the king of the Macedonians, began like a wretch to learn geometry, that he might know how little the earth was, whereof he had possessed very little. Thus, I say, like a wretch for this, because he was to understand that he did bear a false surname. For who can be great in so small a thing? Those things that were delivered were subtile, and to be learned by diligent attention: not which that mad man could perceive, who sent his thoughts beyond the ocean sea. Teach me, saith he, easy things. To whom his master said: These things be the same, and alike difficult unto all. Think thou that the nature of things saith this. These things whereof thou complainest, they are the same unto all: more easy things can be given unto none; but whosoever will, shall make those things more easy unto himself. How? With uprightness of mind.
In Thomas Lodge (trans.), 'Epistle 91', The Workes of Lucius Annaeus Seneca: Both Morrall and Naturall (1614), 383. Also in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Alexander the Great (4)  |  Alike (60)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Complain (10)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  False (105)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Little (717)  |  Mad (54)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Possess (157)  |  Say (989)  |  Sea (326)  |  Small (489)  |  Subtile (3)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Understand (648)  |  Upright (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wretch (5)

All pain is one malady with many names.
The Doctor. In John Maxwell Edmonds (ed.),The Fragments of Attic Comedy After Meineke, Bergk, and Kock (1957), 211.
Science quotes on:  |  Malady (8)  |  Pain (144)

All the properties that we designate as activity of the soul, are only the functions of the cerebral substance, and to express ourselves in a coarser way, thought is just about to the brain what bile is to the liver and urine to the kidney. It is absurd to admit an independent soul who uses the cerebellum as an instrument with which he would work as he pleases.
Carl Vogt
As quoted in William Vogt, La Vie d'un Homme, Carl Vogt (1896), 48. Translated by Webmaster, from the original French, “Toutes les propriétés que nous designons sous le nom d’activité de l’âme, ne sont que les fonctions de la substance cérébrale, et pour nous exprimer d’ une façon plus grossière, la pensée est à peu près au cerveau ce que la bile est au foie et l’urine au rein. Il est absurde d’ admettre une âme indépendante qui se serve du cervelet comme d’un instrument avec lequelle travaillerait comme il lui plait.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Activity (218)  |  Admit (49)  |  Bile (5)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cerebellum (4)  |  Cerebral (2)  |  Coarse (4)  |  Express (192)  |  Function (235)  |  Independent (74)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Liver (22)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Please (68)  |  Property (177)  |  Soul (235)  |  Substance (253)  |  Thought (995)  |  Urine (18)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

All your names I and my friend approve of or nearly all as to sense & expression, but I am frightened by their length & sound when compounded. As you will see I have taken deoxide and skaiode because they agree best with my natural standard East and West. I like Anode & Cathode better as to sound, but all to whom I have shewn them have supposed at first that by Anode I meant No way.
Letter (3 May 1834) to William Whewell, who coined the terms. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1993), Vol. 2, 181. Note: Here “No way” is presumably not an idiomatic exclamation, but a misinterpretation from the Greek prefix, -a “not”or “away from,” and hodos meaning “way.” The Greek ἄνοδος anodos means “way up” or “ascent.”
Science quotes on:  |  Anode (4)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Compound (117)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Expression (181)  |  First (1302)  |  Friend (180)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sound (187)  |  Way (1214)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Will (2350)

Almost everything, which the mathematics of our century has brought forth in the way of original scientific ideas, attaches to the name of Gauss.
In Zahlentheorie, Teil 1 (1901), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Century (319)  |  Everything (489)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Original (61)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Way (1214)

Although I have several agents who know the Niam-Niam country, I did not dare to make anything of their unreliable statements before I could orient myself. These Nubians are unpredictable to a high degree, they have a very poor memory for names and practically no human idea of the points of the compass; the agents of the merchants of Khartoum who are entrusted with such great journeys are to the last man absolute liars, braggarts and habitual fibbers.
In August Petermann, Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen (1870), 20. As quoted and cited in Kathrin Fritsch, '"You Have Everything Confused And Mixed Up…!" Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge And Cartography Of Africa In The 19th Century', History in Africa (2009), 36, 93-94. Fritsch comments how at that point in his travels, thus far, Schweinfurth “did not appear to understand their geographical orientation and with his European prejudice he chose to view all Nubians as braggarts and liars.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Agent (73)  |  Compass (37)  |  Country (269)  |  Dare (55)  |  Habitual (5)  |  Journey (48)  |  Know (1538)  |  Liar (8)  |  Memory (144)  |  Merchant (7)  |  Niam-Niam (2)  |  Nubian (6)  |  Orient (5)  |  Statement (148)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  Unreliable (4)

An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little proud of it. “But the facts, my dear fellow,” said his friend, “the facts do not agree with your theory.”—“Don't they?” replied the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, “then, tant pis pour les faits;”—so much the worse for the facts!
From Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841), Vol. 3, 313, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Construct (129)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enthusiastic (7)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Friend (180)  |  Inform (50)  |  Little (717)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Pride (84)  |  Reply (58)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Worse (25)

Anatomists see no beautiful woman in all their lives, but only a ghastly sack of bones with Latin names to them, and a network of nerves and muscles and tissues inflamed by disease.
From Letter to the San Francisco Alta California (28 May 1867; published 28 Jul 1867), collected and published by Franklin Walker and G. Ezra Dane in Mark Twain's Travels with Mr. Brown (1940), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Bone (101)  |  Disease (340)  |  Ghastly (5)  |  Latin (44)  |  Live (650)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Network (21)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  See (1094)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Woman (160)

And all their botany is Latin names.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Classification (102)  |  Latin (44)

And do you know what “the world” is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not grow bigger or smaller, that does not expend itself but only transforms itself; as a whole, of unalterable size, a household without expenses or losses, but likewise without increase or income; enclosed by “nothingness”' as by a boundary; not by something blurry or wasted, not something endlessly extended, but set in a definite space as a definite force, and not a space that might be “empty” here or there, but rather as force throughout, as a play of forces and waves of forces, at the same time one and many, increasing here and at the same time decreasing there; a sea of forces flowing and rushing together, eternally changing, eternally flooding back, with tremendous years of recurrence, with an ebb and a flood of its forms; out of the simplest forms striving toward the most complex, out of the stillest, most rigid, coldest forms toward the hottest, most turbulent, most self-contradictory, and then again returning home to the simple out of this abundance, out of the play of contradictions back to the joy of concord, still affirming itself in this uniformity of its courses and its years, blessing itself as that which must return eternally, as a becoming that knows no satiety, no disgust, no weariness: this, my Dionysian world of the eternally self-creating, the eternally self-destroying, this mystery world of the twofold voluptuous delight, my “beyond good and evil,” without goal, unless the joy of the circle itself is a goal; without will, unless a ring feels good will toward itself-do you want a name for this world? A solution for all its riddles? A light for you, too, you best-concealed, strongest, most intrepid, most midnightly men?—This world is the will to power—and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power—and nothing besides!
The Will to Power (Notes written 1883-1888), book 4, no. 1067. Trans. W. Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale and ed. W. Kaufmann (1968), 549-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Back (395)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Best (467)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Circle (117)  |  Complex (202)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Course (413)  |  Definite (114)  |  Delight (111)  |  Disgust (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Empty (82)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Evil (122)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feel (371)  |  Firm (47)  |  Flood (52)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Goal (155)  |  Good (906)  |  Grow (247)  |  Home (184)  |  Income (18)  |  Increase (225)  |  Iron (99)  |  Joy (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Monster (33)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Nothingness (12)  |  Power (771)  |  Return (133)  |  Riddle (28)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Sea (326)  |  Self (268)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Still (614)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Transform (74)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Tremendous (29)  |  Uniformity (38)  |  Voluptuous (3)  |  Want (504)  |  Wave (112)  |  Weariness (6)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

And teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night …
The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. In Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain (1986), 188.
Science quotes on:  |  Burn (99)  |  Day (43)  |  Light (635)  |  Moon (252)  |  Night (133)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Sun (407)  |  Teach (299)

And the squirrel, Adjidaumo,…
Take the thanks of Hiawatha,
And the name which now he gives you;
For hereafter and forever
Boys shall call you Adjidaumo,
Tail-in-air the boys shall call you!
From 'Hiawatha’s Fishing', in The Song of Hiawatha (1855), 105-106.
Science quotes on:  |  Forever (111)  |  Squirrel (11)  |  Tail (21)  |  Thank (48)

And this is the ultimate lesson that our knowledge of the mode of transmission of typhus has taught us: Man carries on his skin a parasite, the louse. Civilization rids him of it. Should man regress, should he allow himself to resemble a primitive beast, the louse begins to multiply again and treats man as he deserves, as a brute beast. This conclusion would have endeared itself to the warm heart of Alfred Nobel. My contribution to it makes me feel less unworthy of the honour which you have conferred upon me in his name.
'Investigations on Typhus', Nobel Lecture, 1928. In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941 (1965), 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Begin (275)  |  Brute (30)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Feel (371)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  Honour (58)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Louse (6)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mode (43)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Alfred Bernhard Nobel (17)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Regression (2)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Skin (48)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Typhus (2)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Warm (74)

ARCHIMEDES. On hearing his name, shout “Eureka!” Or else: “Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world”. There is also Archimedes’ screw, but you are not expected to know what that is.
The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (1881), trans. Jaques Barzun (1968), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Eureka (13)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fulcrum (3)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Know (1538)  |  Move (223)  |  Quip (81)  |  Screw (17)  |  Shout (25)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

As I have already mentioned, wherever cells are formed, this tough fluid precedes the first solid structures that indicate the presence of future cells. Moreover, we must assume that this substance furnishes the material for the formation of the nucleus and of the primitive sac, not only because these structures are closely apposed to it, but also because,they react to iodine in the same way. We must assume also that the organization of this substance is the process that inaugurates the formation of new cells. It therefore seems justifiable for me to propose a name that refers to its physiological function: I propose the word protoplasma.
H. Mohl, Botanisch Zeitung (1846), 4, col. 73, trans. Henry Harris, The Birth of the Cell (1999), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Cell (146)  |  First (1302)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Function (235)  |  Future (467)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Iodine (7)  |  Material (366)  |  Mention (84)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Organization (120)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Presence (63)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Process (439)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Solid (119)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Tough (22)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Word (650)

As the ostensible effect of the heat … consists not in warming the surrounding bodies but in rendering the ice fluid, so, in the case of boiling, the heat absorbed does not warm surrounding bodies but converts the water into vapor. In both cases, considered as the cause of warmth, we do not perceive its presence: it is concealed, or latent, and I gave it the name of “latent heat.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Boil (24)  |  Both (496)  |  Cause (561)  |  Concealed (25)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consist (223)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Heat (180)  |  Ice (58)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Presence (63)  |  Vapor (12)  |  Warm (74)  |  Warming (24)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Water (503)

As to giving credit to whom credit is due, rest assured the best way to do good to one’s-self is to do justice to others. There is plenty for everybody in science, and more than can be consumed in our time. One may get a fair name by suppressing references, but the Jewish maxim is true, “He who seeks a name loses fame.”
Postscript to a note to George Wilson (1844). As quoted in George Wilson and Archibald Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes F.R.S. (1861), 366.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Fame (51)  |  Good (906)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Justice (40)  |  Lose (165)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Publication (102)  |  Rest (287)  |  Seek (218)  |  Self (268)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)

As we cannot use physician for a cultivator of physics, I have called him a physicist. We need very much a name to describe a cultivator of science in general. I should incline to call him a Scientist. Thus we might say, that as an Artist is a Musician, Painter or Poet, a Scientist is a Mathematician, Physicist, or Naturalist.
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. I, cxiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Call (781)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  General (521)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Musician (23)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Need (320)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Painter (30)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poet (97)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Use (771)

At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, were the only face of nature throughout the whole universe, which men have named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass, and nothing more than an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not harmonizing, heaped together in the same spot.
Describing the creation of the universe from chaos, at the beginning of Book I of Metamorphoses, lines 5-9. As translated by Henry T. Riley, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Vol I: Books I-VII (1858), 1-2. Riley footnoted: “A rude and undigested mass.—Ver. 7. This is very similar to the words of the Scriptures, ‘And the earth was without form and void,’ Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.”
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Creation (350)  |  Discord (10)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  First (1302)  |  Harmonize (4)  |  Heap (15)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Inert (14)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Rude (6)  |  Sea (326)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Together (392)  |  Undigested (2)  |  Universe (900)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)

At the Egyptian city of Naucratis there was a famous old god whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis was sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters.
Plato
In the Phaedrus. Collected in Plato the Teacher (1897), 171. A footnote gives that Naucratis was a city in the Delta of Egypt, on a branch of the Nile.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Art (680)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Bird (163)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Call (781)  |  City (87)  |  Dice (21)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Geometry (271)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Letter (117)  |  Old (499)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Use (771)

Babbage … gave the name to the [Cambridge] Analytical Society, which he stated was formed to advocate “the principles of pure d-ism as opposed to the dot-age of the university.”
In History of Mathematics (3rd Ed., 1901), 451.
Science quotes on:  |  Advocate (20)  |  Age (509)  |  Anecdote (21)  |  Charles Babbage (54)  |  Dot (18)  |  Form (976)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pure (299)  |  Society (350)  |  University (130)

Because we are urban dwellers we are obsessed with human problems. … We are so alienated from the world of nature that few of us can name the wild flowers and insects of our locality or notice the rapidity of their extinction.
In 'The Earth as a Living Organism', Essay collected in E. O. Wilson and F. M. Peter (eds.), Biodiversity (1988), Chap. 56, 489. The ellipsis is for a sentence that Webmaster has extracted as a standalone quote on this webpage, beginning: “Even environmentalists seem more concerned”.
Science quotes on:  |  Alienate (3)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Human (1512)  |  Insect (89)  |  Locality (8)  |  Notice (81)  |  Obsessed (2)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Urban (12)  |  Wildflower (3)

Before the seas and lands had been created, before the sky that covers everything, Nature displayed a single aspect only throughout the cosmos; Chaos was its name, a shapeless, unwrought mass of inert bulk and nothing more, with the discordant seeds of disconnected elements all heaped together in anarchic disarray.
Describing the creation of the universe from chaos, at the beginning of Book I of Metamorphoses, lines 5-9. As translated in Charles Martin (trans.), Metamorphoses (2004), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Cover (40)  |  Creation (350)  |  Disconnected (3)  |  Discord (10)  |  Display (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Heap (15)  |  Inert (14)  |  Land (131)  |  Mass (160)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Sea (326)  |  Seed (97)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Together (392)  |  Wrought (2)

Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And Heav’n’s high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of Nature; if a face:
Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion’d, and unfram’d,
Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam’d.
As translated by John Dryden, et al. and Sir Samuel Garth (ed.), Metamorphoses (1998), 3. Ovid started writing the 14 books of Metamorphoses in about 1 a.d.. Dryden died in 1700. He had translated about one-third of the full Metamorphoses. His work was finished by others, and the translation was published in 1717.
Science quotes on:  |  Ball (64)  |  Canopy (8)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Cover (40)  |  Digested (2)  |  Face (214)  |  Frame (26)  |  Heaven (266)  |  High (370)  |  Jar (9)  |  Justly (7)  |  Lifeless (15)  |  Lump (5)  |  Mass (160)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Rude (6)  |  Sea (326)  |  Seed (97)  |  Terrestrial (62)

Being also in accord with Goethe that discoveries are made by the age and not by the individual, I should consider the instances to be exceedingly rare of men who can be said to be living before their age, and to be the repository of knowledge quite foreign to the thought of the time. The rule is that a number of persons are employed at a particular piece of work, but one being a few steps in advance of the others is able to crown the edifice with his name, or, having the ability to generalise already known facts, may become in time to be regarded as their originator. Therefore it is that one name is remembered whilst those of coequals have long been buried in obscurity.
In Historical Notes on Bright's Disease, Addison's Disease, and Hodgkin's Disease', Guy's Hospital Reports (1877), 22, 259-260.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Already (226)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Coequal (2)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crown (39)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Employ (115)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Number (710)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Originator (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Rare (94)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remember (189)  |  Repository (5)  |  Rule (307)  |  Step (234)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

Being in love with the one parent and hating the other are among the essential constituents of the stock of psychical impulses which is formed at that time and which is of such importance in determining the symptoms of the later neurosis... This discovery is confirmed by a legend that has come down to us from classical antiquity: a legend whose profound and universal power to move can only be understood if the hypothesis I have put forward in regard to the psychology of children has an equally universal validity. What I have in mind is the legend of King Oedipus and Sophocles' drama which bears his name.
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), In James Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953), Vol. 4, 260-1.
Science quotes on:  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Children (201)  |  Classical (49)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Down (455)  |  Drama (24)  |  Equally (129)  |  Essential (210)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Legend (18)  |  Love (328)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Move (223)  |  Neurosis (9)  |  Oedipus (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Power (771)  |  Profound (105)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Regard (312)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understood (155)  |  Universal (198)  |  Validity (50)

Both died, ignored by most; they neither sought nor found public favour, for high roads never lead there. Laurent and Gerhardt never left such roads, were never tempted to peruse those easy successes which, for strongly marked characters, offer neither allure nor gain. Their passion was for the search for truth; and, preferring their independence to their advancement, their convictions to their interests, they placed their love for science above that of their worldly goods; indeed above that for life itself, for death was the reward for their pains. Rare example of abnegation, sublime poverty that deserves the name nobility, glorious death that France must not forget!
'Éloge de Laurent et Gerhardt', Moniteur Scientifique (1862), 4, 473-83, trans. Alan J. Rocke.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Allure (4)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Death (406)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fame (51)  |  Forget (125)  |  Gain (146)  |  Charles Gerhardt (3)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Independence (37)  |  Interest (416)  |  Auguste Laurent (5)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Marked (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nobility (5)  |  Offer (142)  |  Pain (144)  |  Passion (121)  |  Poverty (40)  |  Rare (94)  |  Reward (72)  |  Search (175)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Success (327)  |  Truth (1109)

But does Man have any “right” to spread through the universe? Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics, you name it, is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what man is, not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be. The Universe will let us know—later—whether or not Man has any “right” to expand through it.
In Starship Troopers (1959), 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accept (198)  |  Against (332)  |  Animal (651)  |  Arise (162)  |  Aunt (3)  |  Competition (45)  |  Correct (95)  |  Do (1905)  |  Expand (56)  |  Far (158)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Late (119)  |  Let (64)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Moral (203)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Old (499)  |  Politics (122)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Spread (86)  |  Survive (87)  |  Through (846)  |  Universe (900)  |  War (233)  |  Well-Meaning (3)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wild Animal (9)  |  Will (2350)

But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), Charles Darwin: His Life Told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters (1892), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Bear (162)  |  Beetle (19)  |  Burn (99)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Character (259)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Compare (76)  |  Description (89)  |  Dissection (35)  |  Eager (17)  |  Eagerness (5)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Follow (389)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lost (34)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Nearly (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Proof (304)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Rare (94)  |  Right (473)  |  Saw (160)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zeal (12)

By a recent estimate, nearly half the bills before the U.S. Congress have a substantial science-technology component and some two-thirds of the District of Columbia Circuit Court’s case load now involves review of action by federal administrative agencies; and more and more of such cases relate to matters on the frontiers of technology.
If the layman cannot participate in decision making, he will have to turn himself over, essentially blind, to a hermetic elite. … [The fundamental question becomes] are we still capable of self-government and therefore freedom?
Margaret Mead wrote in a 1959 issue of Daedalus about scientists elevated to the status of priests. Now there is a name for this elevation, when you are in the hands of—one hopes—a benevolent elite, when you have no control over your political decisions. From the point of view of John Locke, the name for this is slavery.
Quoted in 'Where is Science Taking Us? Gerald Holton Maps the Possible Routes', The Chronicle of Higher Education (18 May 1981). In Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (1982), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Become (821)  |  Benevolent (9)  |  Blind (98)  |  Capable (174)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Component (51)  |  Congress (20)  |  Control (182)  |  Court (35)  |  Decision (98)  |  Education (423)  |  Elevation (13)  |  Elite (6)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Government (116)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hope (321)  |  Involve (93)  |  Layman (21)  |  John Locke (61)  |  Making (300)  |  Matter (821)  |  Margaret Mead (40)  |  More (2558)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Political (124)  |  Priest (29)  |  Question (649)  |  Recent (78)  |  Review (27)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Self (268)  |  Slavery (13)  |  Status (35)  |  Still (614)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Technology (281)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Casting off the dark fog of verbal philosophy and vulgar medicine, which inculcate names alone ... I tried a series of experiments to explain more clearly many phenomena, particularly those of physiology. In order that I might subject as far as possible the reasonings of the Galenists and Peripatetics to sensory criteria, I began, after trying experiments, to write dialogues in which a Galenist adduced the better-known and stronger reasons and arguments; these a mechanist surgeon refuted by citing to the contrary the experiments I had tried, and a third, neutral interlocutor weighed the reasons advanced by both and provided an opportunity for further progress.
'Malpighi at Pisa 1656-1659', in H. B. Adelmann (ed.), Marcello Malpighi and the Evolution of Embryology (1966), Vol. 1, 155-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Argument (145)  |  Better (493)  |  Both (496)  |  Casting (10)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Dark (145)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fog (10)  |  Galen (20)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Known (453)  |  Mechanist (3)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Neutral (15)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Order (638)  |  Peripatetic (3)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Possible (560)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Series (153)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Subject (543)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Trying (144)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Write (250)

Catastrophe Theory is a new mathematical method for describing the evolution of forms in nature. … It is particularly applicable where gradually changing forces produce sudden effects. We often call such effects catastrophes, because our intuition about the underlying continuity of the forces makes the very discontinuity of the effects so unexpected, and this has given rise to the name.
From Catastrophe Theory: Selected Papers, 1972-1977 (1977), 1. As quoted and cited in a Review by: Hector J. Sussmann, SIAM Review (Apr 1979), 21, No. 2, 269.
Science quotes on:  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Catastrophe Theory (3)  |  Change (639)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Describe (132)  |  Discontinuity (4)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Unexpected (55)

Chance ... must be something more than the name we give to our ignorance.
In Science and Method (1908) translated by Francis Maitland (1914, 2007), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  Definition (238)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Something (718)

Chance may be the pseudonym God uses when He doesn't want to sign His name.
As quoted, without citation, by Marcus Bach, 'Serendiptiy in the Business World', in The Rotarian (Oct 1981), 139, No. 4, 40. If you know the primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Chance (244)  |  God (776)  |  Sign (63)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (504)

Chemical signs ought to be letters, for the greater facility of writing, and not to disfigure a printed book ... I shall take therefore for the chemical sign, the initial letter of the Latin name of each elementary substance: but as several have the same initial letter, I shall distinguish them in the following manner:— 1. In the class which I shall call metalloids, I shall employ the initial letter only, even when this letter is common to the metalloid and to some metal. 2. In the class of metals, I shall distinguish those that have the same initials with another metal, or a metalloid, by writing the first two letters of the word. 3. If the first two letters be common to two metals, I shall, in that case, add to the initial letter the first consonant which they have not in common: for example, S = sulphur, Si = silicium, St = stibium (antimony), Sn = stannum (tin), C = carbonicum, Co = colbaltum (colbalt), Cu = cuprum (copper), O = oxygen, Os = osmium, &c.
'Essay on the Cause of Chemical Proportions, and on some circumstances relating to them: together with a short and easy method of expressing them', Annals of Philosophy, 1814, 3,51-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Antimony (7)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Case (102)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Class (168)  |  Cobalt (4)  |  Common (447)  |  Consonant (3)  |  Copper (25)  |  Disfigure (2)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Employ (115)  |  Facility (14)  |  First (1302)  |  Greater (288)  |  Initial (17)  |  Latin (44)  |  Letter (117)  |  Metal (88)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Osmium (3)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Print (20)  |  Sign (63)  |  Silicon (4)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tin (18)  |  Two (936)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

Clinical science has as good a claim to the name and rights and self-subsistence of a science as any other department of biology.
Address by the President. Transactions of the Clinical Society of London (1870), 3, xxxii.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Claim (154)  |  Clinical (18)  |  Department (93)  |  Good (906)  |  Other (2233)  |  Right (473)  |  Self (268)  |  Subsistence (9)

Come celebrate with me in song the name
Of Newton, to the Muses dear, for he
Unlocked the hidden treasures of truth …
Nearer the gods no mortal may approach.
From final verse of his much longer 'Ode to Newton'. As translated from the Latin of the version in the first edition, by Leon J. Richardson. In Isaac Newton, Sir Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and His System of the World: Newton’s Principia: Motte’s Translation Revised (1934, 2022), xv. The Ode was prefaced to all three editions of Isaac Newton’s Principia, which Halley funded, edited and oversaw for its printing.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  God (776)  |  Hide (70)  |  Mortal (55)  |  Muse (10)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Ode (3)  |  Song (41)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unlock (12)

Compare the length of a moment with the period of ten thousand years; the first, however minuscule, does exist as a fraction of a second. But that number of years, or any multiple of it that you may name, cannot even be compared with a limitless extent of time, the reason being that comparisons can be drawn between finite things, but not between finite and infinite.
The Consolation of Philosophy [before 524], Book II, trans. P. G. Walsh (1999), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extent (142)  |  Finite (60)  |  First (1302)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Moment (260)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Number (710)  |  Period (200)  |  Reason (766)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Year (963)

Considering, therefore, that the metal which has been examined is to different from those hitherto discovered, it appeared proper that it should be distinguished by a peculiar name; and, having consulted with several of the eminent and ingenious chemists of this country, I have been induced to give it the name of Columbium.
Opening paragraph from Paper (26 Nov 1801) read to the Royal Society, printed in 'Analysis of a Mineral Substance From North America, Containing a Metal Hitherto Unknown', Philosophical Transactions (1802), 92, 65.
Science quotes on:  |  Columbium (2)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Element (322)  |  Examine (84)  |  Metal (88)  |  Niobium (3)

Copernicus, the most learned man whom we are able to name other than Atlas and Ptolemy, even though he taught in a most learned manner the demonstrations and causes of motion based on observation, nevertheless fled from the job of constructing tables, so that if anyone computes from his tables, the computation is not even in agreement with his observations on which the foundation of the work rests. Therefore first I have compared the observations of Copernicus with those of Ptolemy and others as to which are the most accurate, but besides the bare observations, I have taken from Copernicus nothing other than traces of demonstrations. As for the tables of mean motion, and of prosthaphaereses and all the rest, I have constructed these anew, following absolutely no other reasoning than that which I have judged to be of maximum harmony.
Dedication to the Duke of Prussia, Prutenicae Tabulae (1551), 1585 edition, as quoted in Owen Gingerich, The Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler (1993), 227.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Anew (19)  |  Atlas (3)  |  Bare (33)  |  Cause (561)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Computation (28)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  First (1302)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Job (86)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Man (2252)  |  Maximum (16)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ptolemy (19)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Rest (287)  |  Table (105)  |  Trace (109)  |  Work (1402)

Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life—yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammarabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
'75 Years and Still No Peace'. Humanist (Sep 2000)
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Code (31)  |  Commandment (8)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Design (203)  |  Evolution (635)  |  God (776)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Intelligent Design (5)  |  Interest (416)  |  Jargon (13)  |  Life (1870)  |  More (2558)  |  Myth (58)  |  Native (41)  |  Native American (4)  |  Notice (81)  |  School (227)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Study (701)  |  Theorist (44)

Daniel Bernoulli used to tell two little adventures, which he said had given him more pleasure than all the other honours he had received. Travelling with a learned stranger, who, being pleased with his conversation, asked his name; “I am Daniel Bernoulli,” answered he with great modesty; “and I,” said the stranger (who thought he meant to laugh at him) “am Isaac Newton.” Another time, having to dine with the celebrated Koenig, the mathematician, who boasted, with some degree of self-complacency, of a difficult problem he had solved with much trouble, Bernoulli went on doing the honours of his table, and when they went to drink coffee he presented Koenig with a solution of the problem more elegant than his own.
In A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary (1815), 1, 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Being (1276)  |  Daniel Bernoulli (5)  |  Boast (22)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Coffee (21)  |  Complacent (7)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dine (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Drink (56)  |  Elegant (37)  |  Great (1610)  |  Honour (58)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modesty (18)  |  More (2558)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pleased (3)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Self (268)  |  Solution (282)  |  Solve (145)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Table (105)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Travel (125)  |  Travelling (17)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Two (936)

Dibdin said: “I see you've put your own name at the top of your paper, Mr Woods.” His eyes looked sad and thoughtful. “I always make it a matter of principle to put my name as well on every paper that comes out of the department.” “Yours?” Albert said incredulously. “Yes,”said Dibdin, still sad and thoughtful. “I make it a matter of principle, Mr Woods. And I like my name to come first—it makes it easier for purposes of identification.” He rounded it off. “First come, first served.”
The Struggles of Albert Woods (1952), 53.
Science quotes on:  |  Department (93)  |  Easier (53)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Identification (20)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Paper (192)  |  Principle (530)  |  Publication (102)  |  Purpose (336)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Top (100)  |  Wood (97)

Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?
In Going Postal (2004, 2009), 101.
Science quotes on:  |  Dead (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Spoken (3)  |  Still (614)

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
Anonymous
Thomas F. Shubnell, Greatest Jokes of the Century Book 2 (2008), 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Bell (35)  |  Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (18)  |  Quip (81)

Doesn’t it strike you as odd
That a commonplace fellow like Todd Should spell if you please,
His name with two Ds.
When one is sufficient for God.
Anonymous
Quoted by M. G. De St. V. Atkins, The Times (22 Jan 1997), from memory of a conversation with 'an American tribiologist' who recalled it as current when he was an undergraduate at Christ's College.
Science quotes on:  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Fellow (88)  |  God (776)  |  Odd (15)  |  Please (68)  |  Spell (9)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Lord Alexander R. Todd (5)  |  Two (936)

Each of us has read somewhere that in New Guinea pidgin the word for 'piano' is (I use English spelling) 'this fellow you hit teeth belonging to him he squeal all same pig'. I am inclined to doubt whether this expression is authentic; it looks just like the kind of thing a visitor to the Islands would facetiously invent. But I accept 'cut grass belong head belong me' for 'haircut' as genuine... Such phrases seem very funny to us, and make us feel very superior to the ignorant foreigners who use long winded expressions for simple matters. And then it is our turn to name quite a simple thing, a small uncomplicated molecule consisting of nothing more than a measly 11 carbons, seven hydrogens, one nitrogen and six oxygens. We sharpen our pencils, consult our rule books and at last come up with 3-[(1, 3- dihydro-1, 3-dioxo-2H-isoindol-2-yl) oxy]-3-oxopropanoic acid. A name like that could drive any self-respecting Papuan to piano-playing.
The Chemist's English (1990), 3rd Edition, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acid (83)  |  Authentic (9)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Book (413)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Complication (30)  |  Cut (116)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Expression (181)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Foreigner (3)  |  Funny (11)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Grass (49)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Invention (400)  |  Island (49)  |  Kind (564)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Matter (821)  |  Molecule (185)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  New Guinea (4)  |  Nitrogen (32)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Piano (12)  |  Playing (42)  |  Read (308)  |  Rule (307)  |  Self (268)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Superior (88)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Wind (141)  |  Word (650)

Each thing in the world has names or unnamed relations to everything else. Relations are infinite in number and kind. To be is to be related. It is evident that the understanding of relations is a major concern of all men and women. Are relations a concern of mathematics? They are so much its concern that mathematics is sometimes defined to be the science of relations.
In Mole Philosophy and Other Essays (1927), 94-95.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Define (53)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evident (92)  |  Infinite (243)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Major (88)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Number (710)  |  Relation (166)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

Early Greek astronomers, derived their first knowledge from the Egyptians, and these from the Chaldeans, among whom the science was studied, at a very early period. Their knowledge of astronomy, which gave their learned men the name of Magi, wise men, afterwards degenerated into astrology, or the art of consulting the position of the stars to foretel events—and hence sprung the silly occupation of sooth saying, for which the Chaldeans were noted to a proverb, in later ages.
In Elements of Useful Knowledge (1806), Vol. 1, 8-9. Note “foretel” is as printed in this text.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Art (680)  |  Astrology (46)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chaldea (4)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Early (196)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Event (222)  |  First (1302)  |  Foretell (12)  |  Greek (109)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Late (119)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Occupation (51)  |  Period (200)  |  Position (83)  |  Proverb (29)  |  Silly (17)  |  Spring (140)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Wise (143)

Edward [Teller] isn’t the cloistered kind of scientist. He gets his ideas in conversation and develops them by trying them out on people. We were coming back from Europe on the Ile de France and I was standing in the ship’s nightclub when he came up and said, 'Freddie, I think I have an idea.’ It was something he’d just thought of about magnetohydrodynamics. I was a bachelor then and I’d located several good-looking girls on the ship, but I knew what I had to do, so I disappeared and started working on the calculations. I’d get something finished and start prowling on the deck again when Edward would turn up out of the night and we’d walk the deck together while he talked and I was the brick wall he was bouncing these things off of. By the end of the trip we had a paper. He’d had the ideas, and I’d done some solving of equations. But he insisted that we sign in alphabetical order, which put my name first.
As quoted in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 61-62.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Bounce (2)  |  Brick (20)  |  Brick Wall (2)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Develop (278)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  End (603)  |  Equation (138)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Girl (38)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Insist (22)  |  Kind (564)  |  Looking (191)  |  Order (638)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Reclusive (2)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Ship (69)  |  Solve (145)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Edward Teller (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Together (392)  |  Trying (144)  |  Turn (454)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wall (71)

Endowed with two qualities, which seemed incompatible with each other, a volcanic imagination and a pertinacity of intellect which the most tedious numerical calculations could not daunt, Kepler conjectured that the movements of the celestial bodies must be connected together by simple laws, or, to use his own expression, by harmonic laws. These laws he undertook to discover. A thousand fruitless attempts, errors of calculation inseparable from a colossal undertaking, did not prevent him a single instant from advancing resolutely toward the goal of which he imagined he had obtained a glimpse. Twenty-two years were employed by him in this investigation, and still he was not weary of it! What, in reality, are twenty-two years of labor to him who is about to become the legislator of worlds; who shall inscribe his name in ineffaceable characters upon the frontispiece of an immortal code; who shall be able to exclaim in dithyrambic language, and without incurring the reproach of anyone, “The die is cast; I have written my book; it will be read either in the present age or by posterity, it matters not which; it may well await a reader, since God has waited six thousand years for an interpreter of his words.”
In 'Eulogy on Laplace', in Smithsonian Report for the year 1874 (1875), 131-132.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Await (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (413)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Cast (69)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Character (259)  |  Code (31)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Connect (126)  |  Die (94)  |  Discover (571)  |  Employ (115)  |  Endow (17)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Error (339)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Expression (181)  |  Frontispiece (2)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  Glimpse (16)  |  Goal (155)  |  God (776)  |  Harmonic (4)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Incompatible (4)  |  Incur (4)  |  Inscribe (4)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Instant (46)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Interpreter (8)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Labor (200)  |  Language (308)  |  Law (913)  |  Legislator (4)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movement (162)  |  Must (1525)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pertinacity (2)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Quality (139)  |  Read (308)  |  Reader (42)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reproach (4)  |  Resolutely (3)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Still (614)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Together (392)  |  Toward (45)  |  Two (936)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Use (771)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Wait (66)  |  Weary (11)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Enhydros is a variety of geode. The name comes from the water it contains. It is always round, smooth, and very white but will sway back and forth when moved. Inside it is a liquid just as in an egg, as Pliny, our Albertus, and others believed, and it may even drip water. Liquid bitumen, sometimes with a pleasant odor, is found enclosed in rock just as in a vase.
As translated by Mark Chance Bandy and Jean A. Bandy from the first Latin Edition of 1546 in De Natura Fossilium: (Textbook of Mineralogy) (2004), 104. Originally published by Geological Society of America as a Special Paper (1955). There are other translations with different wording.
Science quotes on:  |  Saint Magnus Albertus (11)  |  Back (395)  |  Belief (615)  |  Contain (68)  |  Drip (2)  |  Egg (71)  |  Enclose (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Mineralogy (24)  |  Odor (11)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Pliny the Elder (18)  |  Rock (176)  |  Round (26)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Sway (5)  |  Variety (138)  |  Water (503)  |  White (132)  |  Will (2350)

Euler was a believer in God, downright and straightforward. The following story is told by Thiebault, in his Souvenirs de vingt ans de séjour à Berlin, … Thiebault says that he has no personal knowledge of the truth of the story, but that it was believed throughout the whole of the north of Europe. Diderot paid a visit to the Russian Court at the invitation of the Empress. He conversed very freely, and gave the younger members of the Court circle a good deal of lively atheism. The Empress was much amused, but some of her counsellors suggested that it might be desirable to check these expositions of doctrine. The Empress did not like to put a direct muzzle on her guest’s tongue, so the following plot was contrived. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician was in possession of an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God, and would give it him before all the Court, if he desired to hear it. Diderot gladly consented: though the name of the mathematician is not given, it was Euler. He advanced toward Diderot, and said gravely, and in a tone of perfect conviction:
Monsieur, (a + bn) / n = x, donc Dieu existe; repondez!

Diderot, to whom algebra was Hebrew, was embarrassed and disconcerted; while peals of laughter rose on all sides. He asked permission to return to France at once, which was granted.
In Budget of Paradoxes (1878), 251. [The declaration in French expresses, “therefore God exists; please answer!” This Euler-Diderot anecdote, as embellished by De Morgan, is generally regarded as entirely fictional. Diderot before he became an encyclopedist was an accomplished mathematician and fully capable of recognizing—and responding to—the absurdity of an algebraic expression in proving the existence of God. See B.H. Brown, 'The Euler-Diderot Anecdote', The American Mathematical Monthly (May 1942), 49, No. 5, 392-303. —Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Amused (3)  |  Ask (420)  |  Atheism (11)  |  Belief (615)  |  Believer (26)  |  Check (26)  |  Circle (117)  |  Consent (14)  |  Contrive (10)  |  Converse (9)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Counselor (2)  |  Court (35)  |  Deal (192)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Desire (212)  |  Denis Diderot (6)  |  Direct (228)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Embarrass (2)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Europe (50)  |  Existence (481)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Follow (389)  |  France (29)  |  Freely (13)  |  Gladly (2)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Grant (76)  |  Gravely (2)  |  Guest (5)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hebrew (10)  |  Inform (50)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laughter (34)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lively (17)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Member (42)  |  North (12)  |  Peal (2)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Permission (7)  |  Personal (75)  |  Plot (11)  |  Possession (68)  |  Return (133)  |  Rose (36)  |  Russia (14)  |  Say (989)  |  Side (236)  |  Story (122)  |  Straightforward (10)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Tell (344)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Tone (22)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Toward (45)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Visit (27)  |  Whole (756)  |  Young (253)  |  Younger (21)

Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated by crazy science and such things as perpetual motion machines and logical paradoxes. I’ve always enjoyed keeping up with those ideas. I suppose I didn’t get into it seriously until I wrote my first book, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. I was influenced by the Dianetics movement, now called Scientology, which was then promoted by John Campbell in Astounding Science Fiction. I was astonished at how rapidly the thing had become a cult.
In Scot Morris, 'Interview: Martin Gardner', Omni, 4, No. 4 (Jan 1982), 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonished (10)  |  Astounding (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Book (413)  |  Boy (100)  |  Call (781)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Cult (5)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Fad (10)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  First (1302)  |  Idea (881)  |  Influence (231)  |  Logical (57)  |  Machine (271)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetual Motion (14)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Write (250)

Every form of nonsense is promoted under the name of science.
In Jon R. Stone, The Routledge Book of World Proverbs (2006), 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Form (976)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Promote (32)

Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced, if only rarely, the state of lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously… this feeling may last for hours at a time, even for days. Once you have experienced it, you are eager to repeat it but unable to do it at will, unless perhaps by dogged work….
In The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician (1992), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Eager (17)  |  Exaltation (5)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hour (192)  |  Last (425)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Repeat (44)  |  State (505)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unable (25)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

Evolution is the law of policies: Darwin said it, Socrates endorsed it, Cuvier proved it and established it for all time in his paper on 'The Survival of the Fittest.' These are illustrious names, this is a mighty doctrine: nothing can ever remove it from its firm base, nothing dissolve it, but evolution.
'Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes', Which Was the Dream? (1967), Chap. 8. In Mark Twain and Brian Collins (ed.), When in Doubt, Tell the Truth: and Other Quotations from Mark Twain (1996), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Base (120)  |  Baron Georges Cuvier (34)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Firm (47)  |  Illustrious (10)  |  Law (913)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Paper (192)  |  Policy (27)  |  Proof (304)  |  Publication (102)  |  Remove (50)  |   Socrates, (17)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Time (1911)

Finally, I aim at giving denominations to things, as agreeable to truth as possible. I am not ignorant that words, like money, possess an ideal value, and that great danger of confusion may be apprehended from a change of names; in the mean time it cannot be denied that chemistry, like the other sciences, was formerly filled with improper names. In different branches of knowledge, we see those matters long since reformed: why then should chemistry, which examines the real nature of things, still adopt vague names, which suggest false ideas, and favour strongly of ignorance and imposition? Besides, there is little doubt but that many corrections may be made without any inconvenience.
Physical and Chemical Essays (1784), Vol. I, xxxvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Aim (175)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Correction (42)  |  Danger (127)  |  Denomination (6)  |  Different (595)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Error (339)  |  Examine (84)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Money (178)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Reform (22)  |  Reformed (4)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vague (50)  |  Value (393)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)

First you guess. Don’t laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it’s wrong.
As condensed in Florentin Smarandache, V. Christianto, Multi-Valued Logic, Neutrosophy, and Schrodinger Equation? (2006), 73 & 160 (footnote), paraphrasing from Lecture No. 7, 'Seeking New Laws', Messenger Lectures, Cornell (1964). The original verbatim quote, taken from the transcript is elsewhere on the Richard Feynman Quotations webpage, beginning: “In general, we look for a new law…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Compare (76)  |  Compute (19)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Disagree (14)  |  Experience (494)  |  First (1302)  |  Guess (67)  |  Important (229)  |  Key (56)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Simple (426)  |  Smart (33)  |  Statement (148)  |  Step (234)  |  Wrong (246)

For even they who compose treatises of medicine or natural philosophy in verse are denominated Poets: yet Homer and Empedocles have nothing in common except their metre; the former, therefore, justly merits the name of the Poet; while the other should rather be called a Physiologist than a Poet.
Aristotle
Aristotle’s Treatise on Poetry, I:2, trans. Thomas Twining (1957), 103
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Common (447)  |  Empedocles (10)  |  Former (138)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Merit (51)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Verse (11)

For five hundred dollars, I’ll name a subatomic particle after you. Some of my satisfied customers include Arthur C. Quark and George Meson.
Spoken by the character Dogbert in Dilbert comic strip (26 Jul 2003).
Science quotes on:  |  Customer (8)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Include (93)  |  Meson (3)  |  Particle (200)  |  Quark (9)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Subatomic (10)

For this knowledge of right living, we have sought a new name... . As theology is the science of religious life, and biology the science of [physical] life ... so let Oekology be henceforth the science of [our] normal lives ... the worthiest of all the applied sciences which teaches the principles on which to found... healthy... and happy life.
Quoted in Robert Clarke (ed.), Ellen Swallow: The Woman Who Founded Ecology (1973), 120.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Biology (232)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Happy (108)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Physical (518)  |  Principle (530)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Right (473)  |  Theology (54)

Fossils, be it understood, are given botanical names and spoken of as if they were species, but they are merely the bits, however wonderfully preserved, of extinct beings: we are apt to forget in the explicit elegance of the structures made by cell-walls, that it is the living protoplasm which is plant life and makes species.
In The Life of Plants (1964, 2002), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Cell (146)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Forget (125)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Life (1870)  |  Plant (320)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Species (435)  |  Structure (365)

From common salt are obtained chemically as primary derivatives chlorine—both a war gas and a means of purifying water; and 'caustic soda.' … [O]n the chlorine side there is obtained chloride of lime, (a bleaching powder and a disinfectant), chloroform (an anesthetic), phosgene (a frightful ware gas), chloroacetophenone (another war gas), and an indigo and a yellow dye. [O]n the soda side we get metallic sodium, from which are derived sodium cyanide (a disinfectant), two medicines with [long] names, another war gas, and a beautiful violet dye. Thus, from a healthful, preservative condiment come things useful and hurtful—according to the intent or purpose.
Anonymous
The Homiletic Review, Vol. 83-84 (1922), Vol. 83, 209.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Both (496)  |  Chlorine (15)  |  Chloroform (5)  |  Common (447)  |  Dye (10)  |  Gas (89)  |  Hurtful (8)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Phosgene (2)  |  Powder (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Salt (48)  |  Side (236)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)  |  Violet (11)  |  War (233)  |  Water (503)  |  Yellow (31)

From my earliest childhood I nourished and cherished the desire to make a creditable journey in a new country, and write such a respectable account of its natural history as should give me a niche amongst the scientific explorers of the globe I inhabit, and hand my name down as a useful contributor of original matter.
Letter to Charles Darwin (1854), in Francis Darwin, More Letters of Charles Darwin (1903).
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Cherishing (2)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Contributor (3)  |  Country (269)  |  Creditable (3)  |  Desire (212)  |  Down (455)  |  Earliest (3)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Globe (51)  |  History (716)  |  Inhabiting (3)  |  Journey (48)  |  Making (300)  |  Matter (821)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  New (1273)  |  Niche (9)  |  Nourishing (2)  |  Respectable (8)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

Given any domain of thought in which the fundamental objective is a knowledge that transcends mere induction or mere empiricism, it seems quite inevitable that its processes should be made to conform closely to the pattern of a system free of ambiguous terms, symbols, operations, deductions; a system whose implications and assumptions are unique and consistent; a system whose logic confounds not the necessary with the sufficient where these are distinct; a system whose materials are abstract elements interpretable as reality or unreality in any forms whatsoever provided only that these forms mirror a thought that is pure. To such a system is universally given the name MATHEMATICS.
In 'Mathematics', National Mathematics Magazine (Nov 1937), 12, No. 2, 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Conform (15)  |  Confound (21)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Domain (72)  |  Element (322)  |  Empiricism (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Implication (25)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Objective (96)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Process (439)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reality (274)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Symbol (100)  |  System (545)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Unique (72)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unreality (3)  |  Whatsoever (41)

Hands-on experience at the critical time, not systematic knowledge, is what counts in the making of a naturalist. Better to be an untutored savage for a while, not to know the names or anatomical detail. Better to spend long stretches of time just searching and dreaming.
In Naturalist (1994), 11-12.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Better (493)  |  Count (107)  |  Critical (73)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dreaming (3)  |  Experience (494)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Making (300)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Savage (33)  |  Searching (7)  |  Spend (97)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Time (1911)

He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.
Plato
Quoted by Sophie Germain: Mémorie sur les Surfaces Élastiques. In Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica (1914), 211
Science quotes on:  |  Diagonal (3)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Incommensurable (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Side (236)  |  Square (73)  |  Unworthy (18)

He telleth the number of stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Bible
Psalms 147:4 in The Holy Bible (1746), 549.
Science quotes on:  |  Number (710)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

He that would look with contempt on the pursuits of the farmer, is not worthy of the name of a man.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Farmer (35)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Worthy (35)

Here the most sublime scene ever witnessed in the operating room was presented when the patient placed himself voluntarily upon the table, which was to become the altar of future fame. … The heroic bravery of the man who voluntarily placed himself upon the table, a subject for the surgeon’s knife, should be recorded and his name enrolled upon parchment, which should be hung upon the walls of the surgical amphitheatre in which the operation was performed. His name was Gilbert Abbott.
Description of the first public demonstration of ether at the Massachussetts General Hospital (16 Oct 1846).
From the Semi-Centennial of Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital (1897). In Logan Clendening, Source Book of Medical History (1960), 373.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Amphitheatre (2)  |  Anesthesia (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Ether (37)  |  Fame (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  General (521)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Knife (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Operation (221)  |  Patient (209)  |  Perform (123)  |  Present (630)  |  Record (161)  |  Scene (36)  |  Subject (543)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Table (105)  |  Wall (71)  |  Witness (57)

How peacefully he sleep!
Yet may his ever-questing spirit, freed at length
from all the frettings of this little world,
Wander at will among the uncharted stars.
Fairfield his name. Perchance celestial fields
disclosing long sought secrets of the past
Spread 'neath his enraptured gaze
And beasts and men that to his earthly sight
were merely bits of stone shall live again to
gladden those eager eyes.
o let us picture him—enthusiast—scientist—friend—
Seeker of truth and light through all eternity!
New York Sun (13 Nov 1935). Reprinted in 'Henry Fairfield Osborn', Supplement to Natural History (Feb 1936), 37:2, 135. Bound in Kofoid Collection of Pamphlets on Biography, University of California.
Science quotes on:  |  Beast (58)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Eulogy (2)  |  Eye (440)  |  Field (378)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gaze (23)  |  Gladness (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Merely (315)  |  Henry Fairfield Osborn (16)  |  Past (355)  |  Picture (148)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spread (86)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stone (168)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Uncharted (10)  |  Wander (44)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Humanism is only another name for spiritual laziness, or a vague half-creed adopted by men of science and logicians whose heads are too occupied with the world of mathematics and physics to worry about religious categories.
In The Outsider (1956), 279.
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Creed (28)  |  Humanism (2)  |  Laziness (9)  |  Logician (18)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mindset (2)  |  Occupied (45)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Vague (50)  |  World (1850)  |  Worry (34)

I am almost inclined to coin a word and call the appearance fluorescence, from fluor-spar, as the analogous term opalescence is derived from the name of a mineral.
Footnote in 'On The Change of Refrangibility of Light', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1852), 142, 479. From the mineral fluor-spar, Humphry Davy named fluorine. The mineral, now called fluorite (calcium fluorite), was named was by Georg Agricola in 1546. The German flusse, flow, was applied because it melts easily, and is now important as a flux.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Call (781)  |  Fluorescence (3)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Term (357)  |  Word (650)

I am astonished that in the United States a scientist gets into such trouble because of his scientific beliefs; that your activity in 1957 and 1958 in relation to the petition to the United Nations asking for a bomb-test agreement causes you now to be called before the authorities and ordered to give the names of the scientists who have the same opinions that you have and who have helped you to gather signatures to the petition. I think that I must be dreaming!
Letter to Linus Pauling (23 Jul 1960). As quoted on the Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement website at scarc.library.oregonstate.edu.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Asking (74)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Authority (99)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Dreaming (3)  |  Gather (76)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Petition (4)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Signature (4)  |  State (505)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trouble (117)  |  United Nations (3)

I am told that the wall paintings which we had the happiness of admiring in all their beauty and freshness [in the chapel she discovered at Abu Simbel] are already much injured. Such is the fate of every Egyptian monument, great or small. The tourist carves it over with names and dates, and in some instances with caricatures. The student of Egyptology, by taking wet paper “squeezes” sponges away every vestige of the original colour. The “Collector” buys and carries off everything of value that he can, and the Arab steals it for him. The work of destruction, meanwhile goes on apace. The Museums of Berlin, of Turin, of Florence are rich in spoils which tell their lamentable tale. When science leads the way, is it wonderful that ignorance should follow?
Quoted in Margaret S. Drower, The Early Years, in T.G.H. James, (ed.), Excavating in Egypt: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1882-1982 (1982), 10. As cited in Wendy M.K. Shaw, Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (2003), 37. Also quoted in Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology (1995), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Arab (5)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Berlin (10)  |  Buy (21)  |  Caricature (6)  |  Carry (130)  |  Carve (5)  |  Collector (8)  |  Color (155)  |  Date (14)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Discover (571)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Egyptology (3)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fate (76)  |  Florence (2)  |  Follow (389)  |  Freshness (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Injure (3)  |  Instance (33)  |  Lamentable (5)  |  Lead (391)  |  Monument (45)  |  Museum (40)  |  Original (61)  |  Painting (46)  |  Paper (192)  |  Small (489)  |  Sponge (9)  |  Steal (14)  |  Student (317)  |  Tale (17)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tourist (6)  |  Turin (3)  |  Value (393)  |  Vestige (11)  |  Wall (71)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)

I call this Spirit, unknown hitherto, by the new name of Gas, which can neither be constrained by Vessels, nor reduced into a visible body, unless the feed being first extinguished. But Bodies do contain this Spirit, and do sometimes wholly depart into such a Spirit, not indeed, because it is actually in those very bodies (for truly it could not be detained, yea the whole composed body should I lie away at once) but it is a Spirit grown together, coagulated after the manner of a body, and is stirred up by an attained ferment, as in Wine, the juyce of unripe Grapes, bread, hydromel or water and Honey.
Oriatrike: Or, Physick Refined, trans. John Chandler (1662), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Attain (126)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Bread (42)  |  Call (781)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1302)  |  Gas (89)  |  Honey (15)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Lie (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Together (392)  |  Truly (118)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Visible (87)  |  Water (503)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Wine (39)

I called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.
Studies on Biological Oxidation and Some of its Catalysts (C4 Dicarboxylic Acids, Vitamin C and P Etc.) (1937), 73.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Call (781)  |  Carbohydrate (3)  |  Down (455)  |  Editor (10)  |  End (603)  |  God (776)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Rejection (36)  |  Substance (253)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)

I crave the liberty to conceal my name, not to suppress it. I have composed the letters of it written in Latin in this sentence—
In Mathesi a sole fundes.
[Anagram from Latinized name, Iohannes Flamsteedius]
In Letter (24 Nov 1669) to Brouncker, collected in Macclesfield, Correspondence of Scientific Men (1841), Vol. 2, 90. [The Latin anagram, “In Mathesi a sole fundes” was later corrected as “I mathesin a sole fundes”, which is literally translated as “go, you pour out learning from the Sun” in Eric Gray Forbes, Lesley Murdin, Frances Wilmoth, The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, The First Astronomer Royal (1995), Vol. 1, 42. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Compose (20)  |  Conceal (19)  |  Crave (10)  |  Latin (44)  |  Letter (117)  |  Liberty (29)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Sole (50)  |  Suppress (6)  |  Write (250)

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)  |  Middle (19)  |  Mingle (9)  |  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 had this experience at the age of eight. My parents gave me a microscope. I don’t recall why, but no matter. I then found my own little world, completely wild and unconstrained, no plastic, no teacher, no books, no anything predictable. At first I did not know the names of the water-drop denizens or what they were doing. But neither did the pioneer microscopists. Like them, I graduated to looking at butterfly scales and other miscellaneous objects. I never thought of what I was doing in such a way, but it was pure science. As true as could be of any child so engaged, I was kin to Leeuwenhoek, who said that his work “was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more that most other men.”
In The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth (2010), 143-144.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Book (413)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Child (333)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completely (137)  |  Craving (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Drop (77)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Gain (146)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Kin (10)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (17)  |  Little (717)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopist (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pioneer (37)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Praise (28)  |  Predictability (7)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Reside (25)  |  Scale (122)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unconstrained (2)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

I have spent some months in England, have seen an awful lot and learned little. England is not a land of science, there is only a widely practised dilettantism, the chemists are ashamed to call themselves chemists because the pharmacists, who are despised, have assumed this name.
Liebig to Berzelius, 26 Nov 1837. Quoted in J. Carriere (ed.), Berzelius und Liebig.; ihre Briefe (1898), 134. Trans. W. H. Brock.
Science quotes on:  |  Assume (43)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Despise (16)  |  England (43)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Little (717)  |  Lot (151)  |  Month (91)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Pharmacist (2)  |  Spent (85)  |  Themselves (433)

I have taken your advice, and the names used are anode cathode anions cations and ions; the last I shall have but little occasion for. I had some hot objections made to them here and found myself very much in the condition of the man with his son and ass who tried to please every body; but when I held up the shield of your authority, it was wonderful to observe how the tone of objection melted away.
Letter to William Whewell, 15 May 1834. In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (1993), Vol. 2, 186.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Anion (3)  |  Anode (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Body (557)  |  Cation (3)  |  Condition (362)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Hot (63)  |  Ion (21)  |  Last (425)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Objection (34)  |  Observe (179)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Please (68)  |  Shield (8)  |  Tone (22)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Wonderful (155)

I have tried to show why I believe that the biologist is the most romantic figure on earth at the present day. At first sight he seems to be just a poor little scrubby underpaid man, groping blindly amid the mazes of the ultra-microscopic, engaging in bitter and lifelong quarrels over the nephridia of flatworms, waking perhaps one morning to find that someone whose name he has never heard has demolished by a few crucial experiments the work which he had hoped would render him immortal.
Daedalus or Science and the Future (1924), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Biologist (70)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Demolish (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Lifelong (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Morning (98)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Poor (139)  |  Present (630)  |  Render (96)  |  Research (753)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Show (353)  |  Sight (135)  |  Waking (17)  |  Why (491)  |  Work (1402)

I like to look at mathematics almost more as an art than as a science; for the activity of the mathematician, constantly creating as he is, guided though not controlled by the external world of the senses, bears a resemblance, not fanciful I believe but real, to the activity of an artist, of a painter let us say. Rigorous deductive reasoning on the part of the mathematician may be likened here to technical skill in drawing on the part of the painter. Just as no one can become a good painter without a certain amount of skill, so no one can become a mathematician without the power to reason accurately up to a certain point. Yet these qualities, fundamental though they are, do not make a painter or mathematician worthy of the name, nor indeed are they the most important factors in the case. Other qualities of a far more subtle sort, chief among which in both cases is imagination, go to the making of a good artist or good mathematician.
From 'Fundamental Conceptions and Methods in Mathematics', Bulletin American Mathematical Society (1904), 9, 133. As cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 182.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Amount (153)  |  Art (680)  |  Artist (97)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chief (99)  |  Control (182)  |  Create (245)  |  Deductive (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drawing (56)  |  External (62)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Guide (107)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Important (229)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Fine Art (23)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painter (30)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Skill (116)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Technical (53)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

I must admit that when I chose the name, “vitamine,” I was well aware that these substances might later prove not to be of an amine nature. However, it was necessary for me to choose a name that would sound well and serve as a catchword, since I had already at that time no doubt about the importance and the future popularity of the new field.
The Vitamines translated by Harry Ennis Dubin (1922), 26, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Amine (2)  |  Catchword (3)  |  Choose (116)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Field (378)  |  Future (467)  |  Importance (299)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Prove (261)  |  Sound (187)  |  Substance (253)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vitamin (13)

I must beg leave to propose a separate technical name ‘chromosome’ for those things which have been called by Boveri ‘chromatic elements’, in which there occurs one of the most important acts in karyokinesis, viz. the longitudinal splitting.
[Coining the word ‘chromosome,’ or ‘chromosom’ in the original German.]
Original German text by Waldeyer in Archiv für Mikroskopische Anatomie (1888), 27, translated by W.B. Benham in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (1889), 30, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Beg (5)  |  Theodor Boveri (3)  |  Call (781)  |  Chromatic (4)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Element (322)  |  German (37)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occur (151)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Separate (151)  |  Splitting (3)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

I realize that Galen called an earth which contained metallic particles a mixed earth when actually it is a composite earth. But it behooves one who teaches others to give exact names to everything.
As translated by Mark Chance Bandy and Jean A. Bandy from the first Latin Edition of 1546 in De Natura Fossilium: (Textbook of Mineralogy) (2004), 19. Originally published by Geological Society of America as a Special Paper (1955). There are other translations with different wording.
Science quotes on:  |  Behoove (6)  |  Call (781)  |  Composite (4)  |  Contain (68)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Galen (20)  |  Metal (88)  |  Mix (24)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particle (200)  |  Realize (157)  |  Teach (299)

I then bequeath the whole of my property … to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
From the will of James Smithson written on 23 Oct 1826. (The amount excluded a modest lifetime annuity to a former faithful servant.) Smithson willed his estate firstly to his nephew, but it was to be bequeathed to the U.S. in the case his nephew died without heir—which did come to pass in 1835. Smithson included no further instructions concerning the Smithsonian Institution.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Bequeath (2)  |  Diffusion (13)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Increase (225)  |  Institution (73)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Property (177)  |  Smithsonian Institution (2)  |  State (505)  |  United States (31)  |  Washington (7)  |  Whole (756)

I think the name atomic theory was an unfortunate one. We talk fluently about atoms as the smallest particles that exist, and chemists regard them as indivisible … To my mind the infinitely small is as incomprehensible as the infinitely great. … we cannot comprehend it, we cannot take it in. And so with the atom. Therefore I think that it would have been better to have taken a different word—say minim—which would have been a safer term than atom.
Address, in 'Report to the Chemical Society's Jubilee', Nature (26 Mar 1891), 43, 493.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Theory (16)  |  Better (493)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Different (595)  |  Exist (458)  |  Great (1610)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Particle (200)  |  Regard (312)  |  Safe (61)  |  Say (989)  |  Small (489)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Unfortunate (19)  |  Word (650)

I venture to maintain, that, if the general culture obtained in the Faculty of Arts were what it ought to be, the student would have quite as much knowledge of the fundamental principles of Physics, of Chemistry, and of Biology, as he needs, before he commenced his special medical studies. Moreover, I would urge, that a thorough study of Human Physiology is, in itself, an education broader and more comprehensive than much that passes under that name. There is no side of the intellect which it does not call into play, no region of human knowledge into which either its roots, or its branches, do not extend; like the Atlantic between the Old and the New Worlds, its waves wash the shores of the two worlds of matter and of mind; its tributary streams flow from both; through its waters, as yet unfurrowed by the keel of any Columbus, lies the road, if such there be, from the one to the other; far away from that Northwest Passage of mere speculation, in which so many brave souls have been hopelessly frozen up.
'Universities: Actual and Ideal' (1874). In Collected Essays (1893), Vol. 3, 220.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Biology (232)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Call (781)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Culture (157)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Extend (129)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lie (370)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Northwest Passage (2)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Principle (530)  |  Root (121)  |  Side (236)  |  Soul (235)  |  Special (188)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Stream (83)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Through (846)  |  Tributary (3)  |  Two (936)  |  Wash (23)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  World (1850)

I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring Godful beauty.
[Shortly after leaving university in 1863, without completing a degree, at age 25, he began his first botanical foot journey along the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi.]
John Muir
The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), 286.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Botany (63)  |  Completed (30)  |  Degree (277)  |  Diploma (2)  |  Endless (60)  |  Excursion (12)  |  First (1302)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Geology (240)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Happy (108)  |  Journey (48)  |  Last (425)  |  Making (300)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Poor (139)  |  River (140)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  University (130)  |  Wander (44)  |  Year (963)

I want to find a voracious, small-minded predator and name it after the IRS.
Quoted, without citation, in E. Gene Davis, Get 'Em Laughing: Public Speaking Humor, Quotes and Illustrations (2007), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Find (1014)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Predator (6)  |  Small (489)  |  Want (504)

I wanted some new names to express my facts in Electrical science without involving more theory than I could help & applied to a friend Dr Nicholl [his doctor], who has given me some that I intend to adopt for instance, a body decomposable by the passage of the Electric current, I call an ‘electrolyte’ and instead of saying that water is electro chemically decomposed I say it is ‘electrolyzed’. The intensity above which a body is decomposed beneath which it conducts without decomposition I call the ‘Electrolyte intensity’ &c &c. What have been called: the poles of the battery I call the electrodes they are not merely surfaces of metal, but even of water & air, to which the term poles could hardly apply without receiving a new sense. Electrolytes must consist of two parts which during the electrolization, are determined the one in the one direction, and the other towards the poles where they are evolved; these evolved substances I call zetodes, which are therefore the direct constituents of electrolites.
Letter to William Whewell (24 Apr 1834). In Frank A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday: Volume 2, 1832-1840 (1993), 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Applied (176)  |  Apply (170)  |  Battery (12)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Body (557)  |  Call (781)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Current (122)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Direct (228)  |  Direction (185)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electrolysis (8)  |  Electrolyte (4)  |  Express (192)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Friend (180)  |  Intensity (34)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metal (88)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Pole (49)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)  |  Water (503)

I was one of those nerds before the name was popular. I spent all my time in the electrical engineering laboratory and not enough time socializing.
In transcript of a video history interview with Seymour Cray by David K. Allison at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, (9 May 1995), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Electrical Engineering (12)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Popular (34)

I’m saying that the leaders of the church have locked the sacred cow called science in the stable and they won’t let anybody enter; they should open it immediately so that we can milk that cow in the name of humanity and thus find the truth.
From the play Galileo Galilei (2001) .
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Church (64)  |  Cow (42)  |  Enter (145)  |  Find (1014)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Leader (51)  |  Milk (23)  |  Open (277)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Stable (32)  |  Truth (1109)

I’m very good at integral and differential calculus,
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
In The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Act 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Integral (26)  |  Integral Calculus (7)  |  Know (1538)  |  Major (88)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Model (106)  |  Modern (402)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Short (200)  |  Vegetable (49)

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima. The people must unite, or they will perish.
Speech at Fuller Lodge when the U.S. Army was honouring the work at Los Alamos. (16 Oct 1945). Quoted in Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin, American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (2005), 323.
Science quotes on:  |  Arsenal (5)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Curse (20)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Los Alamos (6)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Perish (56)  |  Preparing (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unite (43)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

If Darwin had printed “The Origin of Species” as a serial running twenty or thirty years he might have found himself, at the end of it, a member of the House of Lords or even Archbishop of Canterbury. But he disgorged it in one stupendous and appalling dose, and in consequence he alarmed millions, including many of his fellow scientists, and got an evil name.
From Baltimore Evening Sun (6 Apr 1931). Collected in A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949, 1956), 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Alarm (19)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Archbishop Of Canterbury (2)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Dose (17)  |  End (603)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Lord (97)  |  Member (42)  |  Million (124)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Species (42)  |  Running (61)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Serial (4)  |  Species (435)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Year (963)

If I could remember the names of all these particles I’d be a botanist.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Botanist (25)  |  Particle (200)  |  Remember (189)

If I were asked to name the most needed of all reforms in the spirit of education, I should say: “Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for later life, and make it the full meaning of the present life.”
[This is widely seen quoted in a paraphrased form: Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.]
In essay, 'Self-Realization as the Moral Ideal', collected in John Dewey and Jo Ann Boydston (ed.), The Early Works, 1882-1898: Volume 4: 1893-1894: Early Essays and The Study of Ethics (1967, 2008), 50.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Cease (81)  |  Education (423)  |  Form (976)  |  Later (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Most (1728)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Present (630)  |  Reform (22)  |  Say (989)  |  Spirit (278)

If it [a hypothesis] disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement, is the key to science: it doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is; it doesn’t make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is—if it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong; that’s all there is to it.
Verbatim from Lecture No. 7, 'Seeking New Laws', Messenger Lectures, Cornell, (1964) in video and transcript online at caltech.edu website. Also in Christopher Sykes, No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman (1994), 143. This quote continues one elsewhere on the Richard Feynman Quotations webpage, which begins: “In general, we look for a new law by…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disagree (14)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Guess (67)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Key (56)  |  Science (39)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Smart (33)  |  Statement (148)  |  Wrong (246)

If the average man in the street were asked to name the benefits derived from sunshine, he would probably say “light and warmth” and there he would stop. But, if we analyse the matter a little more deeply, we will soon realize that sunshine is the one great source of all forms of life and activity on this old planet of ours. … [M]athematics underlies present-day civilization in much the same far-reaching manner as sunshine underlies all forms of life, and that we unconsciously share the benefits conferred by the mathematical achievements of the race just as we unconsciously enjoy the blessings of the sunshine.
From Address (25 Feb 1928) to National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Boston. Abstract published in 'Mathematics and Sunshine', The Mathematics Teacher (May 1928), 21, No. 5, 245.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Activity (218)  |  Ask (420)  |  Average (89)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Blessings (17)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Confer (11)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Far-Reaching (9)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Man In The Street (2)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Planet (402)  |  Present (630)  |  Race (278)  |  Realize (157)  |  Say (989)  |  Share (82)  |  Soon (187)  |  Source (101)  |  Stop (89)  |  Sun (407)  |  Sunshine (12)  |  Unconsciously (9)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Warmth (21)  |  Will (2350)

Wilhelm Röntgen quote: If the hand be held between the discharge-tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen wit
If the hand be held between the discharge-tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen within the slightly dark shadow-image of the hand itself… For brevity’s sake I shall use the expression “rays”; and to distinguish them from others of this name I shall call them “X-rays”.
From 'On a New Kind of Rays' (1895). In Herbert S. Klickstein, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen: On a New Kind of Rays, A Bibliographic Study (1966), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Bone (101)  |  Brevity (8)  |  Call (781)  |  Dark (145)  |  Discharge (21)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Expression (181)  |  Hand (149)  |  Image (97)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ray (115)  |  Sake (61)  |  Screen (8)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Use (771)  |  X-ray (43)

If tombstones were still in style, I would want to have the two words [“Renaissance hack”] chiseled right under my name.
In an encounter Flanagan had with The New Yorker film critic, Pauline Kael, she claimed to knew nothing about science. He gently scolded her. Kael responded with the genial retort: “Oh, you're a Renaissance hack,” a description which pleased him. Recounted in Flanagan's Version: A Spectator's Guide to Science on the Eve of the 21st Century (1988), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Hack (3)  |  Renaissance (16)  |  Right (473)  |  Still (614)  |  Tombstone (2)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

If we can combine our knowledge of science with the wisdom of wildness, if we can nurture civilization through roots in the primitive, man’s potentialities appear to be unbounded, Through this evolving awareness, and his awareness of that awareness, he can emerge with the miraculous—to which we can attach what better name than “God”? And in this merging, as long sensed by intuition but still only vaguely perceived by rationality, experience may travel without need for accompanying life.
A Letter From Lindbergh', Life (4 Jul 1969), 61. In Eugene C. Gerhart, Quote it Completely! (1998), 409.
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Attach (57)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Better (493)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Combine (58)  |  Experience (494)  |  God (776)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Potential (75)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Root (121)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Travel (125)  |  Wildness (6)  |  Wisdom (235)

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Back (395)  |  Balance (82)  |  Ball (64)  |  Bounce (2)  |  Damage (38)  |  Drop (77)  |  Family (101)  |  Five (16)  |  Friend (180)  |  Game (104)  |  Glass (94)  |  Health (210)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Irrevocably (2)  |  Keep (104)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mark (47)  |  Marked (55)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nick (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rubber (11)  |  Same (166)  |  Shatter (8)  |  Shattered (8)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strive (53)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

In 1963, when I assigned the name “quark” to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been “kwork.” Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word “quark” in the phrase “Three quarks for Muster Mark.” Since “quark” (meaning, for one thing, the cry of a gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with “Mark,” as well as “bark” and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as “kwork.” But the book represents the dreams of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the “portmanteau words” in Through the Looking Glass. From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry “Three quarks for Muster Mark” might be pronunciation for “Three quarts for Mister Mark,” in which case the pronunciation “kwork” would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature.
The Quark and the Jaguar (1994), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Bark (19)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Constituent (47)  |  Cry (30)  |  Dream (222)  |  Drink (56)  |  Excuse (27)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Glass (94)  |  Looking (191)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nucleon (5)  |  Number (710)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Occur (151)  |  Other (2233)  |  Partially (8)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Portmanteau (2)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Quark (9)  |  Represent (157)  |  Rhyme (6)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

In August, 1896, I exposed the sodium flame to large magnetic forces by placing it between the poles of a strong electromagnet. Again I studied the radiation of the flame by means of Rowland's mirror, the observations being made in the direction perpendicular to the lines of force. Each line, which in the absence of the effect of the magnetic forces was very sharply defined, was now broadened. This indicated that not only the original oscillations, but also others with greater and again others with smaller periods of oscillation were being radiated by the flame. The change was however very small. In an easily produced magnetic field it corresponded to a thirtieth of the distance between the two sodium lines, say two tenths of an Angstrom, a unit of measure whose name will always recall to physicists the meritorious work done by the father of my esteemed colleague.
'Light Radiation in a Magnetic Field', Nobel Lecture, 2 May 1903. In Nobel Lectures: Physics 1901-1921 (1967), 34-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Effect (414)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Father (113)  |  Field (378)  |  Flame (44)  |  Force (497)  |  Greater (288)  |  Large (398)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetic Field (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Observation (593)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Pole (49)  |  Produced (187)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Say (989)  |  Small (489)  |  Sodium (15)  |  Spectral Line (5)  |  Spectroscopy (11)  |  Strong (182)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

In describing the honourable mission I charged him with, M. Pernety informed me that he made my name known to you. This leads me to confess that I am not as completely unknown to you as you might believe, but that fearing the ridicule attached to a female scientist, I have previously taken the name of M. LeBlanc in communicating to you those notes that, no doubt, do not deserve the indulgence with which you have responded.
Explaining her use of a male psuedonym.
Letter to Carl Friedrich Gauss (1807)
Science quotes on:  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Biography (254)  |  Completely (137)  |  Confess (42)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Female (50)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Indulgence (6)  |  Inform (50)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mission (23)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Use (771)

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 (298)  |  Animal (651)  |  Answer (389)  |  Approach (112)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attention (196)  |  Available (80)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cast (69)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Class (168)  |  Classification (102)  |  Coalesce (5)  |  Coalescence (2)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Domain (72)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Geology (240)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indifferent (17)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Light (635)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Master (182)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Method (531)  |  Minute (129)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (731)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Question (649)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reality (274)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Show (353)  |  Side (236)  |  Significance (114)  |  Small (489)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Special (188)  |  Specialize (4)  |  Stage (152)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Stream (83)  |  Striking (48)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)

In fields of air he writes his name,
And treads the chambers of the sky;
He reads the stars, and grasps the flame
That quivers in the realms on high.
In poem 'Art', collected in Samuel Kettell (ed.), Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices (1829), Vol. 3, 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Chamber (7)  |  Field (378)  |  Flame (44)  |  Grasp (65)  |  High (370)  |  Quiver (3)  |  Read (308)  |  Realm (87)  |  Sky (174)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tread (17)  |  Write (250)

In Heaven there'll be no algebra,
No learning dates or names,
But only playing golden harps
And reading Henry James.
Anonymous
Displayed at James’s home, Lambs House in Rye. Said to have been written by Henry James’s nephew in the guest book there, as stated in J.D. McClatchy, Sweet Theft: A Poet's Commonplace Book (2016), 212. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1619027607 J.D. McClatchy - 2016
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Date (14)  |  Golden (47)  |  Harp (4)  |  Heaven (266)  |   Henry James (4)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Play (116)  |  Playing (42)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)

In its earliest development knowledge is self-sown. Impressions force themselves upon men’s senses whether they will or not, and often against their will. The amount of interest in which these impressions awaken is determined by the coarser pains and pleasures which they carry in their train or by mere curiosity; and reason deals with the materials supplied to it as far as that interest carries it, and no further. Such common knowledge is rather brought than sought; and such ratiocination is little more than the working of a blind intellectual instinct. It is only when the mind passes beyond this condition that it begins to evolve science. When simple curiosity passes into the love of knowledge as such, and the gratification of the æsthetic sense of the beauty of completeness and accuracy seems more desirable that the easy indolence of ignorance; when the finding out of the causes of things becomes a source of joy, and he is accounted happy who is successful in the search, common knowledge passes into what our forefathers called natural history, whence there is but a step to that which used to be termed natural philosophy, and now passes by the name of physical science.
In this final state of knowledge the phenomena of nature are regarded as one continuous series of causes and effects; and the ultimate object of science is to trace out that series, from the term which is nearest to us, to that which is at the farthest limit accessible to our means of investigation.
The course of nature as it is, as it has been, and as it will be, is the object of scientific inquiry; whatever lies beyond, above, or below this is outside science. But the philosopher need not despair at the limitation on his field of labor; in relation to the human mind Nature is boundless; and, though nowhere inaccessible, she is everywhere unfathomable.
The Crayfish: an Introduction to the Study of Zoölogy (1880), 2-3. Excerpted in Popular Science (Apr 1880), 16, 789-790.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Account (195)  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Against (332)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blind (98)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Call (781)  |  Carry (130)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Common (447)  |  Completeness (19)  |  Condition (362)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Course (413)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deal (192)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Despair (40)  |  Determination (80)  |  Development (441)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Field (378)  |  Final (121)  |  Finding (34)  |  Force (497)  |  Forefather (4)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inaccessible (18)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Joy (117)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Lie (370)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Outside (141)  |  Pain (144)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Ratiocination (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Search (175)  |  Self (268)  |  Sense (785)  |  Series (153)  |  Simple (426)  |  State (505)  |  Step (234)  |  Successful (134)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trace (109)  |  Tracing (3)  |  Train (118)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unfathomable (11)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

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 (73)  |  Affair (29)  |  Brotherhood (6)  |  Central (81)  |  Certain (557)  |  Competition (45)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Eventual (9)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Future (467)  |  International (40)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Past (355)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Secure (23)  |  State (505)  |  Survival (105)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Today (321)  |  War (233)  |  World (1850)

In Man the brain presents an ascensive step in development, higher and more strongly marked than that by which the preceding subclass was distinguished from the one below it. Not only do the cerebral hemispheres overlap the olfactory lobes and cerebellum, but they extend in advance of the one, and further back than the other. Their posterior development is so marked, that anatomists have assigned to that part the character of a third lobe; it is peculiar to the genus Homo, and equally peculiar is the 'posterior horn of the lateral ventricle,' and the 'hippocampus minor,' which characterize the hind lobe of each hemisphere. The superficial grey matter of the cerebrum, through the number and depth of the convolutions, attains its maximum of extent in Man. Peculiar mental powers are associated with this highest form of brain, and their consequences wonderfully illustrate the value of the cerebral character; according to my estimate of which, I am led to regard the genus Homo, as not merely a representative of a distinct order, but of a distinct subclass of the Mammalia, for which I propose a name of 'ARCHENCEPHALA.'
'On the Characters, Principles of Division, and Primary Groups of the Class MAMMALIA' (1857), Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1858), 2, 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Advance (298)  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Ascent (7)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Back (395)  |  Brain (281)  |  Cerebellum (4)  |  Cerebrum (10)  |  Character (259)  |  Characterization (8)  |  Class (168)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Depth (97)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Equally (129)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Estimation (7)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extent (142)  |  Form (976)  |  Genus (27)  |  Grey (10)  |  Hemisphere (5)  |  Hind (3)  |  Hippocampus (2)  |  Horn (18)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Lateral (3)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mental (179)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Olfactory (2)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlap (9)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Posterior (7)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Regard (312)  |  Step (234)  |  Superficiality (4)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (393)  |  Ventricle (7)

In my opinion the English excel in the art of writing text-books for mathematical teaching; as regards the clear exposition of theories and the abundance of excellent examples, carefully selected, very few books exist in other countries which can compete with those of Salmon and many other distinguished English authors that could be named.
In Projective Geometry (1886), Preface.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundance (26)  |  Art (680)  |  Author (175)  |  Book (413)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Clear (111)  |  Compete (6)  |  Country (269)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  English (35)  |  Example (98)  |  Excel (4)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Exist (458)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Regard (312)  |  Salmon (7)  |  Select (45)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

In school we had a name for guys trying to get in touch with themselves.
Quoted, without source, in Des MacHale, Wit (1999, 2003), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Guy (5)  |  School (227)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Touch (146)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)

In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth … Which beginning of time, according to our Cronologie, fell upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of Octob. in the year of the Julian Calendar, 710 [or 4004 B.C.]. Upon the first day therefore of the world, or Octob. 23. being our Sunday, God, together with the highest Heaven, created the Angels. Then having finished, as it were, the roofe of this building, he fell in hand with the foundation of this wonderfull Fabrick of the World, he fashioned this lowermost Globe, consisting of the Deep, and of the Earth; all the Quire of Angels singing together and magnifying his name therefore … And when the Earth was void and without forme, and darknesse covered the face of the Deepe, on the very middle of the first day, the light was created; which God severing from the darknesses, called the one day, and the other night.
In 'Annals of the Old Testament', The Annals of the World (1658), excerpted in Louis A. Ruprecht, God Gardened East: A Gardener's Meditation on the Dynamics of Genesis (2008), 53-54.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Angel (47)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Building (158)  |  Calendar (9)  |  Call (781)  |  Creation (350)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Day (43)  |  Deep (241)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entrance (16)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Face (214)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Finish (62)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Globe (51)  |  God (776)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Light (635)  |  Magnifying (2)  |  Night (133)  |  October (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Roof (14)  |  Singing (19)  |  Sunday (8)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Void (31)  |  Wonder (251)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

In the fall of 1967, [I was invited] to a conference … on pulsars. … In my talk, I argued that we should consider the possibility that the center of a pulsar is a gravitationally completely collapsed object. I remarked that one couldn't keep saying “gravitationally completely collapsed object” over and over. One needed a shorter descriptive phrase. “How about black hole?” asked someone in the audience. I had been searching for the right term for months, mulling it over in bed, in the bathtub, in my car, whenever I had quiet moments. Suddenly this name seemed exactly right. When I gave a more formal Sigma Xi-Phi Beta Kappa lecture … on December 29, 1967, I used the term, and then included it in the written version of the lecture published in the spring of 1968. (As it turned out, a pulsar is powered by “merely” a neutron star, not a black hole.)
[Although John Wheeler is often identified as coining the term “black hole,” he in fact merely popularized the expression. In his own words, this is his explanation of the true origin: a suggestion from an unidentified person in a conference audience.]
In Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam (2000), 296-297.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Audience (28)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Car (75)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conference (18)  |  Consider (428)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fall (243)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Merely (315)  |  Moment (260)  |  Month (91)  |  More (2558)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Neutron Star (3)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (438)  |  Origin (250)  |  Person (366)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Power (771)  |  Pulsar (3)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Right (473)  |  Small (489)  |  Spring (140)  |  Star (460)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Term (357)  |  Turn (454)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Word (650)

In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago ... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning.
[The next two revolutions occurred ... in the early part of the twentieth century: the theory of relativity and the science of quantum mechanics...]
Edward Teller with Judith L. Shoolery, Memoirs: A Twentieth-Century Journey in Science and Politics (2001), 562.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Century (319)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Early (196)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enough (341)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greek (109)  |  History (716)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Next (238)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Speed (66)  |  Stationary (11)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Thought (995)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Variable (37)

In the index to the six hundred odd pages of Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History, abridged version, the names of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes and Newton do not occur … yet their cosmic quest destroyed the mediaeval vision of an immutable social order in a walled-in universe and transformed the European landscape, society, culture, habits and general outlook, as thoroughly as if a new species had arisen on this planet.
First lines of 'Preface', in The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Culture (157)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Do (1905)  |  Europe (50)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  General (521)  |  Habit (174)  |  History (716)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Mediaeval (3)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Planet (402)  |  Quest (39)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Arnold J. Toynbee (3)  |  Transform (74)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vision (127)  |  Wall (71)

In the index to the six hundred odd pages of Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History, abridged version, the names of Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes and Newton do not occur yet their cosmic quest destroyed the medieval vision of an immutable social order in a walled-in universe and transformed the European landscape, society, culture, habits and general outlook, as thoroughly as if a new species had arisen on this planet.
In The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), Preface, 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Arise (162)  |  Copernicus_Nicolaud (2)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Culture (157)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Do (1905)  |  Europe (50)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  General (521)  |  Habit (174)  |  History (716)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Landscape (46)  |  Medieval (12)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Planet (402)  |  Quest (39)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Order (8)  |  Society (350)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Arnold J. Toynbee (3)  |  Transform (74)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vision (127)  |  Wall (71)

In this country all a man need to do is to attain a little eminence and immediately he begins to talk. Usually his eminence is financial, and the greater this eminence the more he talks and the further his voice reaches. I don't blame the rich people for talking; many of them don’t know what else to do with themselves. The fault is with these who listen. If no one would listen no harm would he done. But the American people are willing to listen to any one who has attained prominence. The main fact is that we've heard a man's name a great many times; that makes us ready to accept whatever he says. … We listen to the one who talks the most and loudest.
As quoted in 'Electricity Will Keep The World From Freezing Up', New York Times (12 Nov 1911), SM4.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  America (143)  |  Attain (126)  |  Begin (275)  |  Blame (31)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fault (58)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Know (1538)  |  Listen (81)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1031)  |  Prominence (5)  |  Ready (43)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Talk (108)  |  Talking (76)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Willing (44)

Incandescent carbon particles, by the tens of millions, leap free of the log and wave like banners, as flame. Several hundred significantly different chemical reactions are now going on. For example, a carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, coming out of the breaking cellulose, may lock together and form methane, natural gas. The methane, burning (combining with oxygen), turns into carbon dioxide and water, which also go up the flue. If two carbon atoms happen to come out of the wood with six hydrogen atoms, they are, agglomerately, ethane, which bums to become, also, carbon dioxide and water. Three carbons and eight hydrogens form propane, and propane is there, too, in the fire. Four carbons and ten hydrogens—butane. Five carbons … pentane. Six … hexane. Seven … heptane. Eight carbons and eighteen hydrogens—octane. All these compounds come away in the breaking of the cellulose molecule, and burn, and go up the chimney as carbon dioxide and water. Pentane, hexane, heptane, and octane have a collective name. Logs burning in a fireplace are making and burning gasoline.
In 'Firewood', Pieces of the Frame (1975), 205-206.
Science quotes on:  |  Atom (381)  |  Banner (9)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Bum (3)  |  Burn (99)  |  Burning (49)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Dioxide (25)  |  Cellulose (3)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemical Reaction (17)  |  Chemical Reactions (13)  |  Chimney (4)  |  Collective (24)  |  Combine (58)  |  Coming (114)  |  Compound (117)  |  Different (595)  |  Example (98)  |  Fire (203)  |  Fireplace (3)  |  Five (16)  |  Flame (44)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gasoline (4)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Incandescent (7)  |  Leap (57)  |  Lock (14)  |  Log (7)  |  Making (300)  |  Methane (9)  |  Millions (17)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Gas (2)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Particle (200)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Several (33)  |  Significantly (2)  |  Tens (3)  |  Together (392)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Water (503)  |  Wave (112)  |  Wood (97)

Injustice or oppression in the next street...or any spot inhabited by men was a personal affront to Thomas Addis and his name, from its early alphabetical place, was conspicuous on lists of sponsors of scores of organizations fighting for democracy and against fascism. He worked on more committees than could reasonably have been expected of so busy a man... Tom Addis was happy to have a hand in bringing to the organization of society some of the logic of science and to further that understanding and to promote that democracy which are the only enduring foundations of human dignity.
Kevin V. Lemley and Linus Pauling, 'Thomas Addis: 1881-1949', Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, 63, 27-29.
Science quotes on:  |  Thomas Addis (3)  |  Against (332)  |  Biography (254)  |  Conspicuous (13)  |  Democracy (36)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Early (196)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fascism (4)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Happy (108)  |  Human (1512)  |  Logic (311)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Organization (120)  |  Promote (32)  |  Society (350)  |  Sponsor (5)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

INSECTIVORA, n.
'See,' cries the chorus of admiring preachers,
'How Providence provides for all His creatures!"'
'His care,' the gnat said, 'even the insects follows: For us
He has provided wrens and swallows.'
[Under pen-name Sempen Railey.]
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  169.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Chorus (6)  |  Creature (242)  |  Follow (389)  |  Humour (116)  |  Insect (89)  |  Pen (21)  |  Preacher (13)  |  Providence (19)  |  See (1094)  |  Swallow (32)

Is there anyone whose name cannot be twisted into either praise or satire? I have had given to me,
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Mouths big: a Cantab anomaly.

In Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 83. [Macaulay’s full name is followed by an anagram of it. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Anagram (9)  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Big (55)  |  Give (208)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Praise (28)  |  Satire (4)  |  Twist (10)

Isn’t it marvelous how those scientists know the names of all those stars?
Anonymous
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Know (1538)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

Isn’t it weird how scientists can imagine all the matter of the universe exploding out of a dot smaller than the head of a pin, but they can’t come up with a more evocative name for it than “The Big Bang”? … [I’d call it] “The Horrendous Space KABLOOUIE!
Dialog by Calvin (fictional character) in syndicated newspaper comic strip Calvin and Hobbes (21 Jun 1992).
Science quotes on:  |  Big Bang (45)  |  Dot (18)  |  Evocative (2)  |  Explosion (51)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Pin (20)  |  Universe (900)

It baptised the American telegraph with the name of its Author.
Comment on the choice of a biblical text as the inaugural message.
Cited in Emma Miller Bolenius, Advanced Lessons in Everyday English (1921), quoting from Francis M. Perry, Four American Inventors.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Choice (114)  |  Message (53)  |  Telegraph (45)

It behooves us always to remember that in physics it has taken great men to discover simple things. They are very great names indeed which we couple with the explanation of the path of a stone, the droop of a chain, the tints of a bubble, the shadows of a cup.
In On Growth and Form (1917).
Science quotes on:  |  Behoove (6)  |  Bubble (23)  |  Discover (571)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Path (159)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Remember (189)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thing (1914)

It has been asserted … that the power of observation is not developed by mathematical studies; while the truth is, that; from the most elementary mathematical notion that arises in the mind of a child to the farthest verge to which mathematical investigation has been pushed and applied, this power is in constant exercise. By observation, as here used, can only be meant the fixing of the attention upon objects (physical or mental) so as to note distinctive peculiarities—to recognize resemblances, differences, and other relations. Now the first mental act of the child recognizing the distinction between one and more than one, between one and two, two and three, etc., is exactly this. So, again, the first geometrical notions are as pure an exercise of this power as can be given. To know a straight line, to distinguish it from a curve; to recognize a triangle and distinguish the several forms—what are these, and all perception of form, but a series of observations? Nor is it alone in securing these fundamental conceptions of number and form that observation plays so important a part. The very genius of the common geometry as a method of reasoning—a system of investigation—is, that it is but a series of observations. The figure being before the eye in actual representation, or before the mind in conception, is so closely scrutinized, that all its distinctive features are perceived; auxiliary lines are drawn (the imagination leading in this), and a new series of inspections is made; and thus, by means of direct, simple observations, the investigation proceeds. So characteristic of common geometry is this method of investigation, that Comte, perhaps the ablest of all writers upon the philosophy of mathematics, is disposed to class geometry, as to its method, with the natural sciences, being based upon observation. Moreover, when we consider applied mathematics, we need only to notice that the exercise of this faculty is so essential, that the basis of all such reasoning, the very material with which we build, have received the name observations. Thus we might proceed to consider the whole range of the human faculties, and find for the most of them ample scope for exercise in mathematical studies. Certainly, the memory will not be found to be neglected. The very first steps in number—counting, the multiplication table, etc., make heavy demands on this power; while the higher branches require the memorizing of formulas which are simply appalling to the uninitiated. So the imagination, the creative faculty of the mind, has constant exercise in all original mathematical investigations, from the solution of the simplest problems to the discovery of the most recondite principle; for it is not by sure, consecutive steps, as many suppose, that we advance from the known to the unknown. The imagination, not the logical faculty, leads in this advance. In fact, practical observation is often in advance of logical exposition. Thus, in the discovery of truth, the imagination habitually presents hypotheses, and observation supplies facts, which it may require ages for the tardy reason to connect logically with the known. Of this truth, mathematics, as well as all other sciences, affords abundant illustrations. So remarkably true is this, that today it is seriously questioned by the majority of thinkers, whether the sublimest branch of mathematics,—the infinitesimal calculus—has anything more than an empirical foundation, mathematicians themselves not being agreed as to its logical basis. That the imagination, and not the logical faculty, leads in all original investigation, no one who has ever succeeded in producing an original demonstration of one of the simpler propositions of geometry, can have any doubt. Nor are induction, analogy, the scrutinization of premises or the search for them, or the balancing of probabilities, spheres of mental operations foreign to mathematics. No one, indeed, can claim preeminence for mathematical studies in all these departments of intellectual culture, but it may, perhaps, be claimed that scarcely any department of science affords discipline to so great a number of faculties, and that none presents so complete a gradation in the exercise of these faculties, from the first principles of the science to the farthest extent of its applications, as mathematics.
In 'Mathematics', in Henry Kiddle and Alexander J. Schem, The Cyclopedia of Education, (1877.) As quoted and cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-book (1914), 27-29.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Act (278)  |  Actual (118)  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Appalling (10)  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Mathematics (15)  |  Arise (162)  |  Assert (69)  |  Attention (196)  |  Auxiliary (11)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  Build (211)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Child (333)  |  Claim (154)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Auguste Comte (24)  |  Conception (160)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consider (428)  |  Constant (148)  |  Count (107)  |  Counting (26)  |  Creative (144)  |  Culture (157)  |  Curve (49)  |  Demand (131)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Difference (355)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Essential (210)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extent (142)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Form (976)  |  Formula (102)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Gradation (17)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Infinitesimal Calculus (2)  |  Inspection (7)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memorize (4)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mental (179)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Multiplication Table (16)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preeminence (3)  |  Premise (40)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Pure (299)  |  Push (66)  |  Question (649)  |  Range (104)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Recondite (8)  |  Representation (55)  |  Require (229)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Scope (44)  |  Scrutinize (7)  |  Search (175)  |  Series (153)  |  Simple (426)  |  Solution (282)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Step (234)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Suppose (158)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Today (321)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Verge (10)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Writer (90)

It has been said by a distinguished philosopher that England is “usually the last to enter into the general movement of the European mind.” The author of the remark probably meant to assert that a man or a system may have become famous on the continent, while we are almost ignorant of the name of the man and the claims of his system. Perhaps, however, a wider range might be given to the assertion. An exploded theory or a disadvantageous practice, like a rebel or a patriot in distress, seeks refuge on our shores to spend its last days in comfort if not in splendour.
Opening from essay, 'Elementary Geometry', included in The Conflict of Studies and Other Essays (1873), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Claim (154)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Continent (79)  |  Disadvantageous (2)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distress (9)  |  England (43)  |  Enter (145)  |  European (5)  |  Exploded (11)  |  Famous (12)  |  General (521)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Movement (162)  |  Patriot (5)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Practice (212)  |  Range (104)  |  Rebel (7)  |  Refuge (15)  |  Remark (28)  |  Seek (218)  |  Spend (97)  |  Splendour (8)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Usually (176)

It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men. About a hundred years ago a Russian landowner by the name of Petrashevsky recorded a remarkable conclusion: “Finding nothing worthy of my attachment either among women or among men, I have vowed myself to the service of mankind.” He became a follower of Fourier, and installed a phalanstery on his estate. The end of the experiment was sad, but what one might perhaps have expected: the peasants—Petrashevsky’s neighbors-burned the phalanstery.
In 'Brotherhood', The Ordeal of Change (1963), 91.
Science quotes on:  |  Antagonism (6)  |  Attachment (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Brotherhood (6)  |  Burn (99)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Estate (5)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follower (11)  |  Fourier (5)  |  Hand In Hand (5)  |  High (370)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Idea (881)  |  Install (2)  |  Love (328)  |  Low (86)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Myself (211)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Often (109)  |  Peasant (9)  |  Receptivity (2)  |  Record (161)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Russian (3)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Service (110)  |  Vow (5)  |  Whole (756)  |  Woman (160)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

It is in the name of Moses that Bellarmin thunderstrikes Galileo; and this great vulgarizer of the great seeker Copernicus, Galileo, the old man of truth, the magian of the heavens, was reduced to repeating on his knees word for word after the inquisitor this formula of shame: “Corde sincera et fide non ficta abjuro maledico et detestor supradictos errores et hereses.” Falsehood put an ass's hood on science.
[With a sincere heart, and of faith unfeigned, I deny by oath, condemn and detest the aforesaid errors and heresies.]
In Victor Hugo and Lorenzo O'Rourke (trans.) Victor Hugo's Intellectual Autobiography: (Postscriptum de ma vie) (1907), 313.
Science quotes on:  |  Condemn (44)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Deny (71)  |  Error (339)  |  Faith (209)  |  Falsehood (30)  |  Formula (102)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (243)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Heresy (9)  |  Inquisitor (6)  |  Knee (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moses (8)  |  Oath (10)  |  Old (499)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Seeker (8)  |  Shame (15)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Word (650)

It is more important to know the thing than the name.
Aphorism as given by the fictional character Dezhnev Senior, in Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain (1987), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Know (1538)  |  More (2558)  |  Thing (1914)

It is necessary to avoid the affected conciseness and quaint terms so much in fashion, and only to use the proper language and established terms. Linnæus, otherwise the great ornament of natural historians, is very blameable in this respect…I am the more desirous of fixing technical names, as the unjustifiable and very indecent terms used by Linnaeus in his Bivalves may meet their deserved fate, by being exploded with indignation; for
    Immodest words admit of defense,
    And want of decency is want of sense.

These my terms being adopted, will render descriptions proper, intelligible, and decent; by which the science may become useful, easy, and adapted to all capacities, and to both sexes.
From Preface to Elements of Conchology or, An introduction to the Knowledge of Shells (1776), 108-109. [Note: the quotation comes from the fourth Earl of Roscommon. Benjamin Franklin also used this quote, but he was only repeating it, not originating it.]
Science quotes on:  |  Blame (31)  |  Decency (5)  |  Decent (12)  |  Description (89)  |  Indignation (5)  |  Carolus Linnaeus (36)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Proper (150)  |  Term (357)

It is not easy to name another Voyager or Traveller who has given more useful information to the world; to whom the Merchant and Mariner are so much indebted; or who has communicated his information in a more unembarrassed and intelligible manner. And this he has done in a style perfectly unassuming, equally free from affectation and from the most distant appearance of invention.
Describing Captain William Dampier in A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean: Vol. 4(1816), 486. [A similar quote found on the web is “It is not easy to name another sailor who has supplied such valuable information to the world; he had a passion for reporting exactly as he saw it, with a delicate and perfect style; he felt an unending curiosity that made his accounts have a unique delicate touch.” For this, Webmaster has so far not identified it in a primary source by Burney. Please contact if you know it. —Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Biography (254)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Captain William Dampier (2)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Easy (213)  |  Information (173)  |  Passion (121)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Reporting (9)  |  Sailor (21)  |  Saw (160)  |  Touch (146)  |  Unique (72)  |  World (1850)

It is said that the composing of the Lilavati was occasioned by the following circumstance. Lilavati was the name of the author’s daughter, concerning whom it appeared, from the qualities of the ascendant at her birth, that she was destined to pass her life unmarried, and to remain without children. The father ascertained a lucky hour for contracting her in marriage, that she might be firmly connected and have children. It is said that when that hour approached, he brought his daughter and his intended son near him. He left the hour cup on the vessel of water and kept in attendance a time-knowing astrologer, in order that when the cup should subside in the water, those two precious jewels should be united. But, as the intended arrangement was not according to destiny, it happened that the girl, from a curiosity natural to children, looked into the cup, to observe the water coming in at the hole, when by chance a pearl separated from her bridal dress, fell into the cup, and, rolling down to the hole, stopped the influx of water. So the astrologer waited in expectation of the promised hour. When the operation of the cup had thus been delayed beyond all moderate time, the father was in consternation, and examining, he found that a small pearl had stopped the course of the water, and that the long-expected hour was passed. In short, the father, thus disappointed, said to his unfortunate daughter, I will write a book of your name, which shall remain to the latest times—for a good name is a second life, and the ground-work of eternal existence.
In Preface to the Persian translation of the Lilavati by Faizi (1587), itself translated into English by Strachey and quoted in John Taylor (trans.) Lilawati, or, A Treatise on Arithmetic and Geometry by Bhascara Acharya (1816), Introduction, 3. [The Lilavati is the 12th century treatise on mathematics by Indian mathematician, Bhaskara Acharya, born 1114.]
Science quotes on:  |  12th Century (3)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Appear (122)  |  Approach (112)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Ascendant (2)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Astrologer (10)  |  Attendance (2)  |  Author (175)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Birth (154)  |  Book (413)  |  Bring (95)  |  Chance (244)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Coming (114)  |  Compose (20)  |  Concern (239)  |  Connect (126)  |  Contract (11)  |  Course (413)  |  Cup (7)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Delay (21)  |  Destined (42)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Disappointed (6)  |  Down (455)  |  Dress (10)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Examine (84)  |  Existence (481)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fall (243)  |  Father (113)  |  Find (1014)  |  Firmly (6)  |  Follow (389)  |  Girl (38)  |  Good (906)  |  Ground (222)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Hole (17)  |  Hour (192)  |  Indian (32)  |  Influx (2)  |  Intend (18)  |  Jewel (10)  |  Keep (104)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Late (119)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moderate (6)  |  Natural (810)  |  Observe (179)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Operation (221)  |  Order (638)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pearl (8)  |  Precious (43)  |  Promise (72)  |  Quality (139)  |  Remain (355)  |  Roll (41)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Separate (151)  |  Short (200)  |  Small (489)  |  Son (25)  |  Stop (89)  |  Subside (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Two (936)  |  Unfortunate (19)  |  United (15)  |  Unmarried (3)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Wait (66)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)

It is told of Faraday that he refused to be called a physicist; he very much disliked the new name as being too special and particular and insisted on the old one, philosopher, in all its spacious generality: we may suppose that this was his way of saying that he had not over-ridden the limiting conditions of class only to submit to the limitation of a profession.
Commentary (Jun 1962), 33, 461-77. Cited by Sydney Ross in Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science (1991), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Biography (254)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Class (168)  |  Condition (362)  |  Dislike (16)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Generality (45)  |  Insist (22)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limitation (52)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Old (499)  |  Over-Ride (2)  |  Particular (80)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Preference (28)  |  Profession (108)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Special (188)  |  Submit (21)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Way (1214)

It makes me feel both proud and rather humble that it shall be called Lonsdaleite. Certainly the name seems appropriate since the mineral only occurs in very small quantities (perhaps rare would be too flattering) and it is generally rather mixed up!
From Letter to Clifford Frondel, who had named a meteoritic form of diamond after Lonsdale (a petite person). As quoted in Maureen M. Julian, 'Women in Crystallography', in G. Kass-Simon and P. Farnes (eds.), Women of Science: Righting the Record (1990), 356.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Feel (371)  |  Humble (54)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occur (151)  |  Rare (94)  |  Small (489)

It may be doubted whether any character can be named which is distinctive of a race and is constant.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Constant (148)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Race (278)

It was a reaction from the old idea of “protoplasm”, a name which was a mere repository of ignorance.
Perspectives in Biochemistry (1938). As cited in Max Perutz, I Wish I’d Made You Angry Earlier: Essays on Science, Scientists, and Humanity (1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Idea (881)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Old (499)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Repository (5)

It was the movement of the air that provided the image of spirituality, since the spirit borrows its name from the breath of wind...
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 6
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Borrow (31)  |  Breath (61)  |  Image (97)  |  Movement (162)  |  Provide (79)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spirituality (8)  |  Wind (141)

It would be difficult to name a man more remarkable for the greatness and the universality of his intellectual powers than Leibnitz.
In System of Logic, Bk. 2, chap. 5, sect. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Difficult (263)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  More (2558)  |  Power (771)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Universality (22)

It... [can] be easily shown:
1. That all present mountains did not exist from the beginning of things.
2. That there is no growing of mountains.
3. That the rocks or mountains have nothing in common with the bones of animals except a certain resemblance in hardness, since they agree in neither matter nor manner of production, nor in composition, nor in function, if one may be permitted to affirm aught about a subject otherwise so little known as are the functions of things.
4. That the extension of crests of mountains, or chains, as some prefer to call them, along the lines of certain definite zones of the earth, accords with neither reason nor experience.
5. That mountains can be overthrown, and fields carried over from one side of a high road across to the other; that peaks of mountains can be raised and lowered, that the earth can be opened and closed again, and that other things of this kind occur which those who in their reading of history wish to escape the name of credulous, consider myths.
The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body enclosed by Process of Nature within a Solid (1669), trans. J. G. Winter (1916), 232-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Aught (6)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Bone (101)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Closed (38)  |  Common (447)  |  Composition (86)  |  Consider (428)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Definite (114)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Escape (85)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extension (60)  |  Field (378)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Function (235)  |  Growing (99)  |  Growth (200)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Myth (58)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Occur (151)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrown (8)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reason (766)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Rock (176)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wish (216)

Kepler’s suggestion of gravitation with the inverse distance, and Bouillaud’s proposed substitution of the inverse square of the distance, are things which Newton knew better than his modern readers. I have discovered two anagrams on his name, which are quite conclusive: the notion of gravitation was not new; but Newton went on.
In Budget of Paradoxes (1872), 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Anagram (9)  |  Better (493)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distance (171)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Inverse (7)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Modern (402)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Notion (120)  |  Propose (24)  |  Reader (42)  |  Square (73)  |  Substitution (16)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)

Leaving aside genetic surgery applied humans, I foresee that the coming century will place in our hands two other forms of biological technology which are less dangerous but still revolutionary enough to transform the conditions of our existence. I count these new technologies as powerful allies in the attack on Bernal's three enemies. I give them the names “biological engineering” and “self-reproducing machinery.” Biological engineering means the artificial synthesis of living organisms designed to fulfil human purposes. Self-reproducing machinery means the imitation of the function and reproduction of a living organism with non-living materials, a computer-program imitating the function of DNA and a miniature factory imitating the functions of protein molecules. After we have attained a complete understanding of the principles of organization and development of a simple multicellular organism, both of these avenues of technological exploitation should be open to us.
From 3rd J.D. Bernal Lecture, Birkbeck College London (16 May 1972), The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1972), 6. Collected in The Scientist as Rebel (2006), 292. (The World, the Flesh & the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul is the title of a book by J. D Bernal, a scientist who pioneered X-ray crystallography.)
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Attack (86)  |  Attain (126)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Bioengineering (5)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Century (319)  |  Coming (114)  |  Complete (209)  |  Computer (131)  |  Condition (362)  |  Count (107)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Design (203)  |  Development (441)  |  DNA (81)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enough (341)  |  Existence (481)  |  Exploitation (14)  |  Factory (20)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Human (1512)  |  Living (492)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Miniature (7)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Multicellular (4)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Organism (231)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Principle (530)  |  Protein (56)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Self (268)  |  Simple (426)  |  Still (614)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Transform (74)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Let Nature do your bottling and your pickling and preserving. For all Nature is doing her best each moment to make us well. She exists for no other end. Do not resist her. With the least inclination to be well, we should not be sick. Men have discovered—or think they have discovered—the salutariness of a few wild things only, and not of all nature. Why, “nature” is but another name for health, and the seasons are but different states of health. Some men think that they are not well in spring, or summer, or autumn, or winter; it is only because they are not well in them.
(23 Aug 1853). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: V: March 5-November 30, 1853 (1906), 395.
Science quotes on:  |  Autumn (11)  |  Best (467)  |  Bottle (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  End (603)  |  Exist (458)  |  Health (210)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Moment (260)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pickle (3)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Resist (15)  |  Salutary (5)  |  Season (47)  |  Sick (83)  |  Spring (140)  |  State (505)  |  Summer (56)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Winter (46)

LITTRÉ. Snicker on hearing his name: “the gentleman who thinks we are descended from the apes.”
The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (1881), trans. Jaques Barzun (1968), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Ape (54)  |  Descend (49)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Quip (81)  |  Think (1122)

LIVER, n. A large red organ thoughtfully provided by nature to be bilious with. The sentiments and emotions which every literary anatomist now knows to haunt the heart were anciently believed to infest the liver; and even Gascoygne, speaking of the emotional side of human nature, calls it "our hepaticall parte." It was at one time considered the seat of life; hence its name— liver, the thing we live with. 
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  195.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Call (781)  |  Consider (428)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Humour (116)  |  Know (1538)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Liver (22)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organ (118)  |  Side (236)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)

Lord Kelvin had, in a manner hardly and perhaps never equalled before, except by Archimedes, the power of theorizing on the darkest, most obscure, and most intimate secrets of Nature, and at the same time, and almost in the same breath, carrying out effectively and practically some engineering feat, or carrying to a successful issue some engineering invention. He was one of the leaders in the movement which has compelled all modern engineers worthy of the name to be themselves men not merely of practice, but of theory, to carry out engineering undertakings in the spirit of true scientific inquiry and with an eye fixed on the rapidly growing knowledge of the mechanics of Nature, which can only be acquired by the patient work of physicists and mathematicians in their laboratories and studies.
In Speech (May 1921) to the Institute of Civil Engineers, to award the newly created Kelvin Medal. As quoted in Sarah Knowles Bolton, 'Lord Kelvin', Famous Men of Science (1889, Revised Ed. 1926), 316-317.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Compel (31)  |  Dark (145)  |  Effective (68)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feat (11)  |  Fix (34)  |  Growth (200)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Invention (400)  |  Issue (46)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mere (86)  |  Modern (402)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Practice (212)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secret (216)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Success (327)  |  Theorize (2)  |  Theory (1015)  |  True (239)  |  Undertaking (17)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

Magnetism, galvanism, electricity, are “one form of many names.” Without magnetism we should never have discovered America; to which we are indebted for nothing but evil; diseases in the worst forms that can afflict humanity, and slavery in the worst form in which slavery can exist. The Old World had the sugar-cane and the cotton-plant, though it did not so misuse them.
Written for fictional character, the Rev. Dr. Opimian, in Gryll Grange (1861), collected in Sir Henry Cole (ed.) The Works of Thomas Love Peacock(1875), Vol. 2, 382. [Hans Øersted discovered electromagnetism in 1820. Presumably the next reference to magnetism refers to a compass needle for navigation. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Afflict (4)  |  America (143)  |  Cotton (8)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disease (340)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exist (458)  |  Form (976)  |  Galvanism (9)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Indebted (8)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Misuse (12)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Old World (9)  |  Plant (320)  |  Slavery (13)  |  Sugar (26)  |  World (1850)  |  Worst (57)

Man is a classifying animal: in one sense it may be said that the whole process of speaking is nothing but distributing phenomena, of which no two are alike in every respect, into different classes on the strength of perceived similarities and dissimilarities. In the name-giving process we witness the same ineradicable and very useful tendency to see likenesses and to express similarity in the phenomena through similarity in name.
Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin (1922), 388-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Classification (102)  |  Different (595)  |  Express (192)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Process (439)  |  Respect (212)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Speech (66)  |  Strength (139)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Through (846)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)  |  Whole (756)  |  Witness (57)

Man’s respect for knowledge is one of his most peculiar characteristics. Knowledge in Latin is scientia, and science came to be the name of the most respectable kind of knowledge.
In Radio Lecture (30 Jun 1973) broadcast by the Open University, collected in Imre Lakatos, John Worrall (ed.) and Gregory Currie (ed.), 'Introduction: Science and Pseudoscience', The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes (1978, 1980), Vol. 1, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latin (44)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Respect (212)  |  Respectable (8)

Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
In 'Prop. 47: The human mind possesses an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God', Ethic, translated by William Hale White (1883), 93-94. Collected in The English and Foreign Philosophical Library, Vol. 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Center (35)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Consist (223)  |  Definition (238)  |  Drawing (56)  |  Else (4)  |  Equal (88)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Say (989)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Wrong (246)

Many will, no doubt, prefer to retain old unsystematic names as far as possible, but it is easy to see that the desire to avoid change may carry us too far in this direction; it will undoubtedly be very inconvenient to the present generation of chemists to abandon familiar and cherished names, but nevertheless it may be a wise course to boldly face the difficulty, rather than inflict on coming generations a partially illogical and unsystematic nomenclature.
'International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature', Nature (19 May 1892), 46, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Carry (130)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Coming (114)  |  Course (413)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Easy (213)  |  Face (214)  |  Generation (256)  |  Inconvenience (3)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Old (499)  |  Partially (8)  |  Possible (560)  |  Preference (28)  |  Present (630)  |  Retain (57)  |  See (1094)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (143)

Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
Henri Poincaré and George Bruce Halsted (trans.) The Foundations of Science: Science and Hypothesis (1921), 375.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Different (595)  |  Give (208)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Same (166)  |  Thing (1914)

Mathematics, from the earliest times to which the history of human reason can reach, has followed, among that wonderful people of the Greeks, the safe way of science. But it must not be supposed that it was as easy for mathematics as for logic, in which reason is concerned with itself alone, to find, or rather to make for itself that royal road. I believe, on the contrary, that there was a long period of tentative work (chiefly still among the Egyptians), and that the change is to be ascribed to a revolution, produced by the happy thought of a single man, whose experiments pointed unmistakably to the path that had to be followed, and opened and traced out for the most distant times the safe way of a science. The history of that intellectual revolution, which was far more important than the passage round the celebrated Cape of Good Hope, and the name of its fortunate author, have not been preserved to us. … A new light flashed on the first man who demonstrated the properties of the isosceles triangle (whether his name was Thales or any other name), for he found that he had not to investigate what he saw in the figure, or the mere concepts of that figure, and thus to learn its properties; but that he had to produce (by construction) what he had himself, according to concepts a priori, placed into that figure and represented in it, so that, in order to know anything with certainty a priori, he must not attribute to that figure anything beyond what necessarily follows from what he has himself placed into it, in accordance with the concept.
In Critique of Pure Reason, Preface to the Second Edition, (1900), 690.
Science quotes on:  |  A Priori (26)  |  Accord (36)  |  Accordance (10)  |  According (236)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ascribe (18)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Author (175)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Change (639)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concern (239)  |  Construction (114)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Distant (33)  |  Early (196)  |  Easy (213)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Far (158)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Flash (49)  |  Follow (389)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  From The Earliest Times (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Greek (109)  |  Happy (108)  |  Himself (461)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Important (229)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Intellectual Revolution (4)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Isosceles Triangle (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Light (635)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mere (86)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  New (1273)  |  Open (277)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passage (52)  |  Path (159)  |  People (1031)  |  Period (200)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Property (177)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Represent (157)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Round (26)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Road (4)  |  Safe (61)  |  Saw (160)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Still (614)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Tentative (18)  |  Thales (9)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trace (109)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Unmistakably (2)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)

Medicine is essentially a learned profession. Its literature is ancient, and connects it with the most learned periods of antiquity; and its terminology continues to be Greek or Latin. You cannot name a part of the body, and scarcely a disease, without the use of a classical term. Every structure bears upon it the impress of learning, and is a silent appeal to the student to cultivate an acquaintance with the sources from which the nomenclature of his profession is derived.
From Address (Oct 1874) delivered at Guy’s Hospital, 'On The Study of Medicine', printed in British Medical journal (1874), 2, 425. Collected in Sir William Withey Gull and Theodore Dyke Acland (ed.), A Collection of the Published Writings of William Withey Gull (1896), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Bear (162)  |  Body (557)  |  Classical (49)  |  Connect (126)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Disease (340)  |  Greek (109)  |  Impress (66)  |  Latin (44)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Literature (116)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Period (200)  |  Profession (108)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Source (101)  |  Structure (365)  |  Student (317)  |  Term (357)  |  Terminology (12)  |  Use (771)

Men of Science. If they are worthy of the name they are indeed about God's path and about his bed and spying out all his ways.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 219.
Science quotes on:  |  Bed (25)  |  God (776)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Path (159)  |  Spy (9)  |  Way (1214)  |  Worth (172)

Most of the beds [of rock] contain shells, corals, and other related forms, called fossils,—so named because dug out of the earth, the word being from the Latin fossilis, meaning, that which is dug up. … The various species that have left their remains in any bed must have been in existence when that bed was in progress of formation…. The study of the fossils of the successive beds is the study of the succession of living species that have existed in the earth’s history.
In 'Introduction', A Text-book of Geology: Designed for Schools and Academies (1863), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Bed (25)  |  Dig (25)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fossil (143)  |  History (716)  |  Latin (44)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Progress (492)  |  Remain (355)  |  Rock (176)  |  Shell (69)  |  Species (435)  |  Study (701)  |  Succession (80)  |  Various (205)  |  Word (650)

Much as I venerate the name of Newton, I am not therefore obliged to believe that he was infallible. I see … with regret that he was liable to err, and that his authority has, perhaps, sometimes even retarded the progress of science.
From 'Dr. Young’s Reply to the Animadversions of the Edinburgh Reviewers, on Some Papers Published in the Philosophical Transactions', collected in Thomas Young, ‎George Peacock (ed.), Miscellaneous Works of the Late Thomas Young (1855), Vol. 1, 201.
Science quotes on:  |  Authority (99)  |  Error (339)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Liable (5)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Regret (31)  |  Retarded (5)  |  See (1094)  |  Venerate (3)

My books have sold largely in England, have been translated into many languages, and passed through several editions in foreign countries. I have heard it said that the success of a work abroad is the best test of its enduring value. I doubt whether this is at all trustworthy; but judged by this standard my name ought to last for a few years.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1896), 81-82.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Language (308)  |  Last (425)  |  Pass (241)  |  Success (327)  |  Test (221)  |  Through (846)  |  Trustworthy (14)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

My own thinking (and that of many of my colleagues) is based on two general principles, which I shall call the Sequence Hypothesis and the Central Dogma. The direct evidence for both of them is negligible, but I have found them to be of great help in getting to grips with these very complex problems. I present them here in the hope that others can make similar use of them. Their speculative nature is emphasized by their names. It is an instructive exercise to attempt to build a useful theory without using them. One generally ends in the wilderness.
The Sequence Hypothesis
This has already been referred to a number of times. In its simplest form it assumes that the specificity of a piece of nucleic acid is expressed solely by the sequence of its bases, and that this sequence is a (simple) code for the amino acid sequence of a particular protein...
The Central Dogma
This states that once 'information' has passed into protein it cannot get out again. In more detail, the transfer of information from nucleic acid to nucleic acid, or from nucleic acid to protein may be possible, but transfer from protein to protein, or from protein to nucleic acid is impossible. Information means here the precise determination of sequence, either of bases in the nucleic acid or of amino acid residues in the protein. This is by no means universally held—Sir Macfarlane Burnet, for example, does not subscribe to it—but many workers now think along these lines. As far as I know it has not been explicitly stated before.
'On Protein Synthesis', Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology: The Biological Replication of Macromolecules, 1958, 12, 152-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Already (226)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Base (120)  |  Both (496)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Central (81)  |  Code (31)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complex (202)  |  Detail (150)  |  Determination (80)  |  Direct (228)  |  DNA (81)  |  Dogma (49)  |  End (603)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Express (192)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Molecular Biology (27)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Negligible (5)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precise (71)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Problem (731)  |  Protein (56)  |  Residue (9)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Simple (426)  |  State (505)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Wilderness (57)

Name the greatest of all inventors: Accident.
From Mark Twain’s Notebook (1935), 374. As cited in Mark Twain and Caroline Thomas Hamsberger (ed.), Everyone’s Mark Twain (1972) 288.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Invention (400)  |  Inventor (79)

Neal and Pray are a pair of deacons who linger in the memory of my boyhood. The old-time sign of Ketchum & Cheetam, Brokers, in Wall Street, New York, seems almost too good to be true.
In 'All Sorts of a Paper: Being Stray Leaves From a Note-Book', The Atlantic (1902), 90, No. 542, 736.
Science quotes on:  |  Pray (19)

Neither the natives of Munsa [chief of the Mangbetu] nor the people of Kifan who came to me knew anything of the existence of a great lake, even though I undertook a positively detective investigation in order to discover any possible political intrigues. All of the statements of different people were noted and then compared; they agree as to names etc., which put my mind at rest.
On the necessity of compiling map data by comparisons between interviews with locals. In August Petermann, Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen (1871), 13. As quoted and cited in Kathrin Fritsch, '"You Have Everything Confused And Mixed Up…!" Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge And Cartography Of Africa In The 19th Century', History in Africa (2009), 36, 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Chief (99)  |  Compare (76)  |  Detective (11)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intrigue (4)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lake (36)  |  Native (41)  |  Note (39)  |  Political (124)  |  Possible (560)  |  Statement (148)

Never fear big long words.
Big long words name little things.
All big things have little names.
Such as life and death, peace and war.
Or dawn, day, night, hope, love, home.
Learn to use little words in a big way.
It is hard to do,
But they say what you mean.
When you don't know what you mean, use big words.
That often fools little people.
Quoted in Saturday Review (1962), 45, No. 2. It was written (1936) for his son, as advice for young copy writers. - 1995
Science quotes on:  |  Big (55)  |  Dawn (31)  |  Death (406)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fool (121)  |  Hard (246)  |  Home (184)  |  Hope (321)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Love (328)  |  Mean (810)  |  Never (1089)  |  Peace (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Poem (104)  |  Publication (102)  |  Say (989)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Use (771)  |  War (233)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)  |  Writing (192)

No category of sciences exists to which one could give the name of applied sciences. There are science and the applications of science, linked together as fruit is to the tree that has borne it.
Il n’existe pas une catégorie de sciences auxquelles on puisse donner le nom de sciences appliquées. II y a la science et les applications de la science, liées entre elles comme le fruit à l’arbre qui l’a porté.
Original French in 'La Science en france: Pourquoi la France n’a pas trouvé d’hommes supérieurs au moment de péril', La Revue Scientifique de la France et de l’Étranger Revue des Cours Scientifique (22 Jul 1871), 2, No. 4, 74. Translation as given in Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman (eds.), Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 322. Another translation gives: “…there does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are science and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit to the tree which bears it.”
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Category (19)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Link (48)  |  Technology (281)  |  Together (392)  |  Tree (269)

No national improvement can come from outside. It must come from within… But improved feeling has no chance of spreading throughout the body politic without that machinery of infection which we know by the name of education.
In paper 'On Social Unrest', The Daily Mail (1912). Collected and cited in A Sheaf (1916), 197-198.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Education (423)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Infection (27)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Outside (141)  |  Politics (122)  |  Spreading (5)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Within (7)

Nomenclature, the other foundation of botany, should provide the names as soon as the classification is made... If the names are unknown knowledge of the things also perishes... For a single genus, a single name.
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 210. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Botany (63)  |  Classification (102)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Genus (27)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perish (56)  |  Single (365)  |  Soon (187)  |  Species (435)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unknown (195)

Nor bring, to see me cease to live,
Some doctor full of phrase and fame,
To shake his sapient head, and give
The ill he cannot cure a name.
'A Wish' (1867). In Kenneth Allot (ed.), Matthew Arnold: A Selection (1954), 194.
Science quotes on:  |  Cease (81)  |  Cure (124)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Fame (51)  |  Live (650)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Phrase (61)  |  See (1094)  |  Shake (43)

Now the whole earth had one language and few words… . Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth… .
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Babel (3)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Call (781)  |  City (87)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Language (308)  |  Lord (97)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Scatter (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Speech (66)  |  Top (100)  |  Tower (45)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Of all the Prizes endowed by Alfred Nobel, only one has an ambiguous name—the Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Nobel believed that physiology was an experimental science like physics and chemistry. On the other hand, medicine was an empirical art that would rarely merit a scientific prize. To the contrary, however, many of the advances in biology during the subsequent 85 years were made by people trained in medicine who were attempting to solve medical problems.
In Banquet Speech, 'The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1985', on website nobelprize.org. Published in Les Prix Nobel, 1985: Nobel Prizes, Presentations, Biographies and Lectures (1986).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ambiguous (14)  |  Art (680)  |  Belief (615)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Experimental Science (3)  |  Medical (31)  |  Medical Problem (3)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Alfred Bernhard Nobel (17)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solve (145)

One dictionary that I consulted remarks that “natural history” now commonly means the study of animals and plants “in a popular and superficial way,” meaning popular and superficial to be equally damning adjectives. This is related to the current tendency in the biological sciences to label every subdivision of science with a name derived from the Greek. “Ecology” is erudite and profound; while “natural history” is popular and superficial. Though, as far as I can see, both labels apply to just about the same package of goods.
In The Nature of Natural History (1961, 2014), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Adjective (3)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apply (170)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Both (496)  |  Common (447)  |  Current (122)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Dictionary (15)  |  Ecology (81)  |  Equal (88)  |  Equally (129)  |  Erudite (2)  |  Good (906)  |  Goods (9)  |  Greek (109)  |  History (716)  |  Label (11)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Package (6)  |  Plant (320)  |  Popular (34)  |  Profound (105)  |  Related (5)  |  See (1094)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Study (701)  |  Subdivision (2)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Way (1214)

Only the healing art enables one to make a name for himself and at the same time give benefit to others.
Chinese proverb.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Enable (122)  |  Healing (28)  |  Himself (461)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physician (284)  |  Time (1911)

Orthodoxy can be as stubborn in science as in religion. I do not know how to shake it except by vigorous imagination that inspires unconventional work and contains within itself an elevated potential for inspired error. As the great Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto wrote: ‘Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.’ Not to mention a man named Thomas Henry Huxley who, when not in the throes of grief or the wars of parson hunting, argued that ‘irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Burst (41)  |  Contain (68)  |  Correction (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Economist (20)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Error (339)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Full (68)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grief (20)  |  Harmful (13)  |  Hold (96)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Italian (13)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Orthodoxy (11)  |   Vilfredo Pareto, (5)  |  Parson (3)  |  Potential (75)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Seed (97)  |  Shake (43)  |  Sterile (24)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unconventional (4)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  War (233)  |  Work (1402)  |  Write (250)

Ostwald was a great protagonist and an inspiring teacher. He had the gift of saying the right thing in the right way. When we consider the development of chemistry as a whole, Ostwald's name like Abou ben Adhem's leads all the rest ... Ostwald was absolutely the right man in the right place. He was loved and followed by more people than any chemist of our time.
'Ostwald', Journal of Chemical Education, 1933, 10, 612, as cited by Erwin N. Hiebert and Hans-Gunther Korber in article on Ostwald in Charles Coulston Gillespie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography Supplement 1, Vol 15-16, 466, which also says Wilder Bancroft "received his doctorate under Ostwald in 1892."
Science quotes on:  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Consider (428)  |  Development (441)  |  Follow (389)  |  Follower (11)  |  Gift (105)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Lead (391)  |  Leading (17)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Wilhelm Ostwald (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Protagonist (2)  |  Rest (287)  |  Right (473)  |  French Saying (67)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)

Our Professor, which doth have tenure,
Feared be thy name.
Thy sets partition,
Thy maps commute,
In groups as in vector spaces.
Give us this day our daily notation,
And forgive us our obtuseness,
As we forgive tutors who cannot help us.
Lead us not into Lye rings,
But deliver us from eigenvalues,
For thine is the logic, the notation, and the accent,
That confuses us forever.
Amen.
Anonymous
'Algebra Prayer' by an unnamed University of Toronto mathematics student. On the Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Accent (5)  |  Amen (4)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Daily (91)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Fear (212)  |  Forever (111)  |  Forgive (12)  |  Give (208)  |  Group (83)  |  Help (116)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Map (50)  |  Notation (28)  |  Parody (4)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Professor (133)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  Tenure (8)  |  Tutor (3)  |  Vector (6)

People complain that our generation has no philosophers. They are wrong. They now sit in another faculty. Their names are Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
Upon appointment as the first president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Berlin, formed for the advancement of science (1911).
Upon Harnack’s appointment to be the first president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Berlin, formed for the advancement of science (1911). As Quoted in Carl Seelig, Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography (1956), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  President (36)  |  Society (350)  |  Wrong (246)

Perhaps I may without immodesty lay claim to the appellation of Mathematical Adam, as I believe that I have given more names (passed into general circulation) of the creatures of the mathematical reason than all the other mathematicians of the age combined.
In Nature (1887-1888), 87, 162. As quoted and cited in As cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 178
Science quotes on:  |  Adam (7)  |  Age (509)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Claim (154)  |  Combine (58)  |  Creature (242)  |  General (521)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Reason (766)

Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because ‘experimental method’ used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.
Representing and Intervening, p. 149f (1983). Announcing the author's intention to stress 'intervening' as an essential component of science.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Attend (67)  |  Back (395)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimentation (7)  |  Hope (321)  |  Initiate (13)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Odd (15)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Reality (274)  |  Representation (55)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Technology (281)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

Physicians get neither name nor fame by the pricking of wheals or the picking out thistles, or by laying of plaisters to the scratch of a pin; every old woman can do this. But if they would have a name and a fame, if they will have it quickly, they must do some great and desperate cures. Let them fetch one to life that was dead; let them recover one to his wits that was mad; let them make one that was born blind to see; or let them give ripe wits to a fool: these are notable cures, and he that can do thus, if he doth thus first, he shall have the name and fame he deserves; he may lie abed till noon.
In John Bunyan and Robert Philip (ed.), The Works of John Bunyan (1850), Vol. 1, 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Blindness (11)  |  Cure (124)  |  Death (406)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fame (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Fool (121)  |  Great (1610)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mad (54)  |  Madness (33)  |  Must (1525)  |  Noon (14)  |  Old (499)  |  Physician (284)  |  Pin (20)  |  Plaster (5)  |  Pricking (2)  |  Scratch (14)  |  See (1094)  |  Thistle (5)  |  Vision (127)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wit (61)  |  Woman (160)

Physiology is concerned with all those phenomena of life that present them selves to us in sense perception as bodily processes, and accordingly form part of that total environment which we name the external world.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Environment (239)  |  Form (976)  |  Life (1870)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Present (630)  |  Sense (785)  |  Total (95)  |  World (1850)

Power politics existed before Machiavelli was ever heard of; it will exist long after his name is only a faint memory. What he did, like Harvey, was to recognize its existence and subject it to scientific study.
The Prince and the Discourses by Niccolò Machiavelli, with an Introduction by Max Lerner (1950), xliii.
Science quotes on:  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  William Harvey (30)  |  Long (778)  |   Niccolò Machiavelli (6)  |  Memory (144)  |  Politics (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Study (2)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Will (2350)

Professor Cayley has since informed me that the theorem about whose origin I was in doubt, will be found in Schläfli’s De Eliminatione. This is not the first unconscious plagiarism I have been guilty of towards this eminent man whose friendship I am proud to claim. A more glaring case occurs in a note by me in the Comptes Rendus, on the twenty-seven straight lines of cubic surfaces, where I believe I have followed (like one walking in his sleep), down to the very nomenclature and notation, the substance of a portion of a paper inserted by Schlafli in the Mathematical Journal, which bears my name as one of the editors upon the face.
In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1864), 642.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Case (102)  |  Arthur Cayley (17)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cubic (2)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Down (455)  |  Editor (10)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Friendship (18)  |  Glare (3)  |  Guilty (8)  |  Inform (50)  |  Insert (4)  |  Journal (31)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Notation (28)  |  Note (39)  |  Occur (151)  |  Origin (250)  |  Paper (192)  |  Plagiarism (10)  |  Portion (86)  |  Pride (84)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)

Professor von Pirquet has come to this country exactly at the right time to aid us. He has shown us how to detect tuberculosis before it has become so developed as to be contagious and has so taken hold of the individual as to be recognized by any other means. In thousands of cases I for my part am unable to detect tuberculosis in infancy or early childhood without the aid of the tuberculin test which Prof. von Pirquet has shown to be the best. He has taught us how by tubercular skin tests, to detect it. ... What Dr. von Pirquet has done already will make his name go down to posterity as one of the great reformers in tuberculin tests and as one who has done an immense amount of good to humanity. The skin test in twenty-four hours will show you whether the case is tubercular.
Discussion on 'The Relation of Tuberculosis to Infant Mortality', read at the third mid-year meeting of the American Academy of Medicine, New Haven, Conn, (4 Nov 1909). In Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine (1910), 11, 78.
Science quotes on:  |  Aid (101)  |  Already (226)  |  Amount (153)  |  Become (821)  |  Best (467)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Contagion (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Develop (278)  |  Down (455)  |  Early (196)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Hour (192)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Immense (89)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infancy (14)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Other (2233)  |  Baron Clemens von Pirquet (3)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Professor (133)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Reformer (5)  |  Right (473)  |  Show (353)  |  Skin (48)  |  Test (221)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tuberculosis (9)  |  Will (2350)

Rachel Carson. Her very name evokes the beatific luminosity of the canonized. Yet Carson was not a saint, but better, a prophet—that rare soul who diverts our attention into the path of the oncoming truth.
In his Foreward to Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (1950, 2003), xvi.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Better (493)  |  Rachel Carson (49)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  Path (159)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Rare (94)  |  Saint (17)  |  Soul (235)  |  Truth (1109)

Research is the name given the crystal formed when the night’s worry is added to the day's sweat.
Science quotes on:  |  Crystal (71)  |  Form (976)  |  Research (753)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams—they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do—they all contain truths.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 14
Science quotes on:  |  Contain (68)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Lake (36)  |  Pond (17)  |  Religion (369)  |  River (140)  |  Stream (83)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Water (503)

S = k log Ω
Carved above his name on his tombstone in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. Image in Stephen Brush, The Kind of Motion we Call Heat: A History of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the 19th Century (1976), 609.
Science quotes on:  |  Entropy (46)  |   Epitaph (19)  |  Kinetic Theory (7)

Science falsely so called.
Bible, 1 Timothy 6:20. In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 382.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  False (105)

Science in England, in America, is jealous of theory, hates the name of love and moral purpose. There's revenge for this humanity. What manner of man does science make? The boy is not attracted. He says, I do not wish to be such a kind of man as my professor is.
In essay. 'Beauty', collected in The Conduct of Life (1860), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Attract (25)  |  Boy (100)  |  Do (1905)  |  England (43)  |  Hate (68)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Jealous (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manner (62)  |  Moral (203)  |  Professor (133)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Revenge (10)  |  Say (989)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Wish (216)

Scientific development depends in part on a process of non-incremental or revolutionary change. Some revolutions are large, like those associated with the names of Copernicus, Newton, or Darwin, but most are much smaller, like the discovery of oxygen or the planet Uranus. The usual prelude to changes of this sort is, I believed, the awareness of anomaly, of an occurrence or set of occurrences that does not fit existing ways of ordering phenomena. The changes that result therefore require 'putting on a different kind of thinking-cap', one that renders the anomalous lawlike but that, in the process, also transforms the order exhibited by some other phenomena, previously unproblematic.
The Essential Tension (1977), xvii.
Science quotes on:  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Change (639)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depend (238)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fit (139)  |  Kind (564)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Planet (402)  |  Process (439)  |  Render (96)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Set (400)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Transform (74)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Way (1214)

Scientists and Drapers. Why should the botanist, geologist or other-ist give himself such airs over the draper’s assistant? Is it because he names his plants or specimens with Latin names and divides them into genera and species, whereas the draper does not formulate his classifications, or at any rate only uses his mother tongue when he does? Yet how like the sub-divisions of textile life are to those of the animal and vegetable kingdoms! A few great families—cotton, linen, hempen, woollen, silk, mohair, alpaca—into what an infinite variety of genera and species do not these great families subdivide themselves? And does it take less labour, with less intelligence, to master all these and to acquire familiarity with their various habits, habitats and prices than it does to master the details of any other great branch of science? I do not know. But when I think of Shoolbred’s on the one hand and, say, the ornithological collections of the British Museum upon the other, I feel as though it would take me less trouble to master the second than the first.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 218.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Animal (651)  |  Assistant (6)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Branch (155)  |  British (42)  |  British Museum (2)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Cotton (8)  |  Detail (150)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Family (101)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Genus (27)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habit (174)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Himself (461)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Know (1538)  |  Labor (200)  |  Latin (44)  |  Life (1870)  |  Linen (8)  |  Master (182)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mother Tongue (3)  |  Museum (40)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Ornithology (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Price (57)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Silk (14)  |  Species (435)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Textile (2)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Use (771)  |  Variety (138)  |  Various (205)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Why (491)  |  Wool (4)

Screw Machine Engineering, a magazine whose name a hyphen would have improved.
In Uncommon Carriers.
Science quotes on:  |  Engineering (188)  |  Hyphen (2)  |  Improve (64)  |  Machine (271)  |   Magazine (26)  |  Screw (17)

Sheppey hath long been noted for producing large quantities of Sheep (whence probably its name is derived) as well as Corn; and exhibits to the Curious Naturalist a most desirable Spot, by affording many rare Plants, and more especially in the of its Northern Cliffs, so great a Quantity and Variety of Fossils, both native and extraneous are scarcely to be paralleled. These Cliffs length about six miles; Minster, Shurland and Warden are the Manors to which they appertain, the more elevated parts whereof reach about thirds of their extension, and are at the very highest of them not less than fifty yards perpendicular height above the Beach and Shore.
Quoted in Augustus A. Daly, History of the Isle of Sheppey (1975), 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Beach (23)  |  Both (496)  |  Cliff (22)  |  Corn (20)  |  Curious (95)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Extension (60)  |  Extraneous (6)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Great (1610)  |  Large (398)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Native (41)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Plant (320)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rare (94)  |  Reach (286)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Variety (138)

Simple as the law of gravity now appears, and beautifully in accordance with all the observations of past and of present times, consider what it has cost of intellectual study. Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace, all the great names which have exalted the character of man, by carrying out trains of reasoning unparalleled in every other science; these, and a host of others, each of whom might have been the Newton of another field, have all labored to work out, the consequences which resulted from that single law which he discovered. All that the human mind has produced—the brightest in genius, the most persevering in application, has been lavished on the details of the law of gravity.
in The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise: A Fragment (1838), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Brightest (12)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Character (259)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (428)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Cost (94)  |  Detail (150)  |  Discover (571)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Exalt (29)  |  Exalted (22)  |  Field (378)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravity (16)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Produced (187)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Work (1402)

So far, the clumsily long name 'quasi-stellar radio sources' is used to describe these objects. Because the nature of these objects is entirely unknown, it is hard to prepare a short, appropriate nomenclature for them so that their essential properties are obvious from their name. For convenience, the abbreviated form 'quasar' will be used throughout this paper.
'Gravitational Collapse', Physics Today, 1964, 17, 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Describe (132)  |  Essential (210)  |  Form (976)  |  Hard (246)  |  Long (778)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (438)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Paper (192)  |  Quasar (4)  |  Radio (60)  |  Short (200)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)

So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field… .
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Beast (58)  |  Bird (163)  |  Call (781)  |  Cattle (18)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  Field (378)  |  Form (976)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  Living (492)  |  Lord (97)  |  Man (2252)  |  See (1094)  |  Whatever (234)

So, then, the Tincture of the Philosophers is a universal medicine, and consumes all diseases, by whatsoever name they are called, just like an invisible fire. The dose is very small, but its effect is most powerful. By means thereof I have cured the leprosy, venereal disease, dropsy, the falling sickness, colic, scab, and similar afflictions; also lupus, cancer, noli-metangere, fistulas, and the whole race of internal diseases, more surely than one could believe.
Quoted in Paracelsus and Arthur Edward Waite (ed.), The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus (1894), Vol. 1, 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Affliction (6)  |  Call (781)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Colic (3)  |  Cure (124)  |  Disease (340)  |  Dose (17)  |  Dropsy (2)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fire (203)  |  Internal (69)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Leprosy (2)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Race (278)  |  Sickness (26)  |  Small (489)  |  Surely (101)  |  Tincture (5)  |  Universal (198)  |  Venereal Disease (2)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Whole (756)

Something is as little explained by means of a distinctive vital force as the attraction between iron and magnet is explained by means of the name magnetism. We must therefore firmly insist that in the organic natural sciences, and thus also in botany, absolutely nothing has yet been explained and the entire field is still open to investigation as long as we have not succeeded in reducing the phenomena to physical and chemical laws.
Grundzüge der Wissenschaftlichen Botanik nebst einer Methodologischen Einleitung als Anleitung zum Studium der Planze [Principles of Scientific Botany] (1842-3), Vol. 1, 49. Trans. Kenneth L. Caneva, Robert Mayer and the Conservation of Energy (1993), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Attraction (61)  |  Botany (63)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Distinctive (25)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Field (378)  |  Force (497)  |  Insistence (12)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Iron (99)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Open (277)  |  Organic (161)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Something (718)  |  Still (614)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Sucess (2)  |  Vital (89)  |  Vital Force (7)

Such propositions are therefore called Eternal Truths, not because they are Eternal Truths, not because they are External Propositions actually formed, and antecedent to the Understanding, that at any time makes them; nor because they are imprinted on the Mind from any patterns, that are any where out of the mind, and existed before: But because, being once made, about abstract Ideas, so as to be true, they will, whenever they can be supposed to be made again at any time, past or to come, by a Mind having those Ideas, always actually be true. For names being supposed to stand perpetually for the same ideas, and the same ideas having immutably the same habitudes one to another, Propositions concerning any abstract Ideas that are once true, must needs be eternal Verities.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book 4, Chapter 11, Section 14, 638-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Exist (458)  |  Form (976)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Past (355)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Stand (284)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Will (2350)

Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game of chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look with a disapprobation amounting to scorn upon the father who allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without knowing a pawn from a knight?
Yet, it is a very plain and elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated—without haste, but without remorse.
Address to the South London Working Men’s College. 'A Liberal Education; and Where to Find It', in David Masson, (ed.), Macmillan’s Magazine (Mar 1868), 17, 369. Also in 'A Liberal Education and Where to Find it' (1868). In Collected Essays (1893), Vol. 3, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Allowance (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Check (26)  |  Checkmate (2)  |  Chess (27)  |  Chessboard (2)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Complication (30)  |  Connect (126)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cost (94)  |  Delight (111)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disapprobation (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Eye (440)  |  Father (113)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Game (104)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Haste (6)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Ill (12)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Knight (6)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Loss (117)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Member (42)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pawn (2)  |  Payment (6)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Player (9)  |  Primary (82)  |  Remorse (9)  |  Rule (307)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Show (353)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Son (25)  |  Stake (20)  |  State (505)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  Win (53)  |  Winning (19)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

Tait dubbed Maxwell dp/dt, for according to thermodynamics dp/dt = JCM (where C denotes Carnot’s function) the initials of (J.C.) Maxwell’s name. On the other hand Maxwell denoted Thomson by T and Tait by T'; so that it became customary to quote Thomson and Tait’s Treatise on Natural Philosophy as T and T'.
In Bibliotheca Mathematica (1903), 3, 187. As cited in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 178. [Note: Thomson is William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin. —Webmaster.]
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Lazare-Nicolas-Marguerite Carnot (4)  |  Customary (18)  |  Function (235)  |  Initial (17)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Nickname (3)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Quote (46)  |  Peter Guthrie Tait (11)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Treatise (46)

Thales thought that water was the primordial substance of all things. Heraclitus of Ephesus… thought that it was fire. Democritus and his follower Epicurus thought that it was the atoms, termed by our writers “bodies that cannot be cut up” or, by some “indivisibles.” The school of the Pythagoreans added air and the earthy to the water and fire. Hence, although Democritus did not in a strict sense name them, but spoke only of indivisible bodies, yet he seems to have meant these same elements, because when taken by themselves they cannot be harmed, nor are they susceptible of dissolution, nor can they be cut up into parts, but throughout time eternal they forever retain an infinite solidity.
Vitruvius
In De Architectura, Book 2, Chap 2, Sec. 1. As translated in Morris Hicky Morgan (trans.), Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture (1914), 42.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Atom (381)  |  Cut (116)  |  Democritus of Abdera (17)  |  Dissolution (11)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Element (322)  |  Epicurus (6)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Fire (203)  |  Forever (111)  |  Heraclitus (15)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Primordial (14)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Retain (57)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Solid (119)  |  Substance (253)  |  Term (357)  |  Thales (9)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Water (503)  |  Writer (90)

That which the sciences can add to the privileges of the human race has never been more marked than at the present moment. … The air seems to become as accessible to him as the waters…. The name of Montgolfier, the names of those hardy navigators of the new element, will live through time; but who among us, on seeing these superb experiments, has not felt his soul elevated, his ideas expanded, his mind enlarged?
As quoted by François Arago, in a biography of Bailly, read to the Academy of Sciences (26 Feb 1844), as translated by William Henry Smyth, Baden Powell and Robert Grant, published in 'Bailly', Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859), Vol. 1, 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessibility (3)  |  Accessible (27)  |  Air (366)  |  Become (821)  |  Element (322)  |  Expand (56)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Hardy (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Idea (881)  |  Live (650)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Present (630)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Race (278)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Soul (235)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Water (503)  |  Will (2350)

The ability to imagine relations is one of the most indispensable conditions of all precise thinking. No subject can be named, in the investigation of which it is not imperatively needed; but it can be nowhere else so thoroughly acquired as in the study of mathematics.
In Darwinism and other Essays (1893), 296.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Acquired (77)  |  Condition (362)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Need (320)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Precise (71)  |  Relation (166)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thoroughly (67)

The active agent is readily filterable and the name “penicillin” has been given to filtrates of broth cultures of the mould. … It is suggested that it may be an efficient antiseptic for application to, or injection into, areas infected with penicillin-sensitive microbes.
From Fleming’s paper that was his first on the subject of penicillin, which he named, in 'On the Antibacterial Action of Cultures of a Penicillium, with Special Reference to Their Use in the Isolation of B. influenzae', British Journal of Experimental Pathology (1929), 10, 236.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Agent (73)  |  Antiseptic (8)  |  Application (257)  |  Broth (2)  |  Culture (157)  |  Efficient (34)  |  Filter (10)  |  Infection (27)  |  Injection (9)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microbes (14)  |  Mold (37)  |  Penicillin (18)  |  Sensitive (15)  |  Suggest (38)

The ancients had a taste, let us say rather a passion, for the marvellous, which caused … grouping together the lofty deeds of a great number of heroes, whose names they have not even deigned to preserve, and investing the single personage of Hercules with them. … In our own time the public delight in blending fable with history. In every career of life, in the pursuit of science especially, they enjoy a pleasure in creating Herculeses.
In François Arago, trans. by William Henry Smyth, Baden Powell and Robert Grant, 'Fourier', Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859), Vol. 1, 408. This comment indicates that a single scientist or inventor may be held as the exemplar, such as James Watt and the steam-engine, although groundwork was laid by predecessors.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Career (86)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deed (34)  |  Delight (111)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Fable (12)  |  Great (1610)  |  Grouping (2)  |  Hercules (9)  |  Hero (45)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Number (710)  |  Passion (121)  |  Personage (4)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Public (100)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Say (989)  |  Single (365)  |  Taste (93)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)

The application of algebra to geometry…, far more than any of his metaphysical speculations, immortalized the name of Descartes, and constitutes the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1865), 531.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Application (257)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Exact (75)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Immortalize (2)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Single (365)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Step (234)

The attempted synthesis of paleontology and genetics, an essential part of the present study, may be particularly surprising and possibly hazardous. Not long ago, paleontologists felt that a geneticist was a person who shut himself in a room, pulled down the shades, watched small flies disporting themselves in milk bottles, and thought that he was studying nature. A pursuit so removed from the realities of life, they said, had no significance for the true biologist. On the other hand, the geneticists said that paleontology had no further contributions to make to biology, that its only point had been the completed demonstration of the truth of evolution, and that it was a subject too purely descriptive to merit the name 'science'. The paleontologist, they believed, is like a man who undertakes to study the principles of the internal combustion engine by standing on a street corner and watching the motor cars whiz by.
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Bottle (17)  |  Car (75)  |  Cat (52)  |  Combustion (22)  |  Completed (30)  |  Completion (23)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Corner (59)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Description (89)  |  Descriptive (18)  |  Down (455)  |  Engine (99)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fly (153)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Geneticist (16)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Internal (69)  |  Internal Combustion Engine (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merit (51)  |  Milk (23)  |  Motor (23)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  Person (366)  |  Point (584)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Present (630)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pull (43)  |  Purely (111)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Room (42)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shut (41)  |  Significance (114)  |  Small (489)  |  Standing (11)  |  Street (25)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (543)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Watch (118)  |  Whiz (2)

The attitude which the man in the street unconsciously adopts towards science is capricious and varied. At one moment he scorns the scientist for a highbrow, at another anathematizes him for blasphemously undermining his religion; but at the mention of a name like Edison he falls into a coma of veneration. When he stops to think, he does recognize, however, that the whole atmosphere of the world in which he lives is tinged by science, as is shown most immediately and strikingly by our modern conveniences and material resources. A little deeper thinking shows him that the influence of science goes much farther and colors the entire mental outlook of modern civilised man on the world about him.
Reflections of a Physicist (1950), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Atmosphere (117)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Capricious (9)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Color (155)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Fall (243)  |  Farther (51)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Influence (231)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mention (84)  |  Modern (402)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Religion (369)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Show (353)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations have perished; Hammurabi, Sargon and Nebuchadnezzar are empty names; yet Babylonian mathematics is still interesting, and the Babylonian scale of 60 is still used in Astronomy.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, 2012), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Assyria (2)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Babylon (7)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Empty (82)  |  Hammurabi (2)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Perish (56)  |  Scale (122)  |  Sixty (6)  |  Still (614)

The belief that mathematics, because it is abstract, because it is static and cold and gray, is detached from life, is a mistaken belief. Mathematics, even in its purest and most abstract estate, is not detached from life. It is just the ideal handling of the problems of life, as sculpture may idealize a human figure or as poetry or painting may idealize a figure or a scene. Mathematics is precisely the ideal handling of the problems of life, and the central ideas of the science, the great concepts about which its stately doctrines have been built up, are precisely the chief ideas with which life must always deal and which, as it tumbles and rolls about them through time and space, give it its interests and problems, and its order and rationality. That such is the case a few indications will suffice to show. The mathematical concepts of constant and variable are represented familiarly in life by the notions of fixedness and change. The concept of equation or that of an equational system, imposing restriction upon variability, is matched in life by the concept of natural and spiritual law, giving order to what were else chaotic change and providing partial freedom in lieu of none at all. What is known in mathematics under the name of limit is everywhere present in life in the guise of some ideal, some excellence high-dwelling among the rocks, an “ever flying perfect” as Emerson calls it, unto which we may approximate nearer and nearer, but which we can never quite attain, save in aspiration. The supreme concept of functionality finds its correlate in life in the all-pervasive sense of interdependence and mutual determination among the elements of the world. What is known in mathematics as transformation—that is, lawful transfer of attention, serving to match in orderly fashion the things of one system with those of another—is conceived in life as a process of transmutation by which, in the flux of the world, the content of the present has come out of the past and in its turn, in ceasing to be, gives birth to its successor, as the boy is father to the man and as things, in general, become what they are not. The mathematical concept of invariance and that of infinitude, especially the imposing doctrines that explain their meanings and bear their names—What are they but mathematicizations of that which has ever been the chief of life’s hopes and dreams, of that which has ever been the object of its deepest passion and of its dominant enterprise, I mean the finding of the worth that abides, the finding of permanence in the midst of change, and the discovery of a presence, in what has seemed to be a finite world, of being that is infinite? It is needless further to multiply examples of a correlation that is so abounding and complete as indeed to suggest a doubt whether it be juster to view mathematics as the abstract idealization of life than to regard life as the concrete realization of mathematics.
In 'The Humanization of Teaching of Mathematics', Science, New Series, 35, 645-46.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Abound (17)  |  Abstract (141)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Boy (100)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Cease (81)  |  Central (81)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Chief (99)  |  Cold (115)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concept (242)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Constant (148)  |  Content (75)  |  Correlate (7)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Deal (192)  |  Deep (241)  |  Detach (5)  |  Determination (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (222)  |  Element (322)  |  Ralph Waldo Emerson (161)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Equation (138)  |  Especially (31)  |  Estate (5)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Explain (334)  |  Far (158)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Father (113)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Finite (60)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Flux (21)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Functionality (2)  |  General (521)  |  Give (208)  |  Gray (9)  |  Great (1610)  |  Guise (6)  |  Handle (29)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Idealization (3)  |  Impose (22)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indication (33)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinitude (3)  |  Interdependence (4)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invariance (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Meanings (5)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Needless (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Painting (46)  |  Partial (10)  |  Passion (121)  |  Past (355)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Permanence (26)  |  Pervasive (6)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Provide (79)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Realization (44)  |  Regard (312)  |  Represent (157)  |  Restriction (14)  |  Rock (176)  |  Roll (41)  |  Save (126)  |  Scene (36)  |  Sculpture (12)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serve (64)  |  Serving (15)  |  Show (353)  |  Space (523)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Stately (12)  |  Static (9)  |  Successor (16)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Supreme (73)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Transfer (21)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Tumble (3)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unto (8)  |  Variability (5)  |  Variable (37)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Worth (172)

The choice of zoology as a main subject [at university] was to follow up my childhood love of nature. … My animal studies never became quite what I had hoped for. We hardly heard of wild beasts and the way they lived in the wilderness. We sliced up intestines and looked at them under the microscope … but their life and function in the environment was ignored in favor of their Latin names. … Was our knowledge of nature superior to, or only different from, that of the eagle-eyed Polynesian islanders, who specialized in appraising nature the way it could best benefit man? I had to think as a scientist now. Not as a Polynesian yet. Knowledge was to be sought independently of its purpose.
In Ch. 1, 'Farewell to Civilization', Fatu-Hiva (1974), 9-10.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Appraise (2)  |  Beast (58)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Different (595)  |  Environment (239)  |  Favor (69)  |  Function (235)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intestine (16)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latin (44)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Polynesian (2)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Slice (3)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Study (701)  |  Superior (88)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Zoology (38)

The combination of such characters, some, as the sacral ones, altogether peculiar among Reptiles, others borrowed, as it were, from groups now distinct from each other, and all manifested by creatures far surpassing in size the largest of existing reptiles, will, it is presumed, be deemed sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles, for which I would propose the name of Dinosauria.
'Report on British Fossil Reptiles', Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1842), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Borrow (31)  |  Borrowing (4)  |  Character (259)  |  Combination (150)  |  Creature (242)  |  Deem (7)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Existence (481)  |  Ground (222)  |  Group (83)  |  Largest (39)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Peculiarity (26)  |  Presume (9)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reptile (33)  |  Saurian (2)  |  Size (62)  |  Sufficiency (16)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Surpassing (12)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Will (2350)

The design of a book is the pattern of reality controlled and shaped by the mind of the writer. This is completely understood about poetry or fiction, but it is too seldom realized about books of fact. And yet the impulse which drives a man to poetry will send a man into the tide pools and force him to report what he finds there. Why is an expedition to Tibet undertaken, or a sea bottom dredged? Why do men, sitting at the microscope, examine the calcareous plates of a sea cucumber and give the new species a name, and write about it possessively? It would be good to know the impulse truly, not to be confused by the “services to science” platitudes or the other little mazes into which we entice our minds so that they will not know what we are doing.
In John Steinbeck and Edward Flanders Ricketts, Introduction to Sea of Cortez: a Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941), opening paragraph. John Steinbeck had an interest in marine science before he met Ricketts. This book is an account of their trip in the Gulf of California, once called the Sea of Cortez, and recording the marine life to be found there.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Completely (137)  |  Cucumber (4)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Examine (84)  |  Expedition (9)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fiction (23)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Good (906)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marine Biology (24)  |  Maze (11)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Platitude (2)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Pool (16)  |  Reality (274)  |  Report (42)  |  Sea (326)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Service (110)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Species (435)  |  Tibet (4)  |  Tide (37)  |  Truly (118)  |  Understood (155)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)  |  Writer (90)

The dexterous management of terms and being able to fend and prove with them, I know has and does pass in the world for a great part of learning; but it is learning distinct from knowledge, for knowledge consists only in perceiving the habitudes and relations of ideas one to another, which is done without words; the intervention of sounds helps nothing to it. And hence we see that there is least use of distinction where there is most knowledge: I mean in mathematics, where men have determined ideas with known names to them; and so, there being no room for equivocations, there is no need of distinctions.
In Conduct of the Understanding, Sect. 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Consist (223)  |  Determine (152)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Habit (174)  |  Help (116)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Least (75)  |  Management (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Need (320)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Part (235)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Prove (261)  |  Relation (166)  |  Room (42)  |  See (1094)  |  Sound (187)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Use (771)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The double horror of two Japanese city names [Hiroshima and Nagasaki] grew for me into another kind of double horror; an estranging awareness of what the United States was capable of, the country that five years before had given me its citizenship; a nauseating terror at the direction the natural sciences were going. Never far from an apocalyptic vision of the world, I saw the end of the essence of mankind an end brought nearer, or even made, possible, by the profession to which I belonged. In my view, all natural sciences were as one; and if one science could no longer plead innocence, none could.
Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life before Nature (1978), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Belong (168)  |  Capable (174)  |  City (87)  |  Country (269)  |  Direction (185)  |  End (603)  |  Essence (85)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Horror (15)  |  Innocence (13)  |  Japanese (7)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nagasaki (3)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Never (1089)  |  Possible (560)  |  Profession (108)  |  Saw (160)  |  State (505)  |  Terror (32)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

The embryos of mammals, of birds, lizards, and snakes are, in their earliest states, exceedingly like one another, both as a whole and in the mode of development of their parts, indeed we can often distinguish such embryos only by their size. I have two little embryos in spirit [alcohol] to which I have omitted to attach the names. I am now quite unable to say to what class they belong.
Science quotes on:  |  Alcohol (22)  |  Attach (57)  |  Belong (168)  |  Bird (163)  |  Both (496)  |  Class (168)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Embryology (18)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Little (717)  |  Lizard (7)  |  Mammal (41)  |  Say (989)  |  Snake (29)  |  Spirit (278)  |  State (505)  |  Taxonomy (19)  |  Two (936)  |  Whole (756)

The fact is that there are few more “popular” subjects than mathematics. Most people have some appreciation of mathematics, just as most people can enjoy a pleasant tune; and there are probably more people really interested in mathematics than in music. Appearances may suggest the contrary, but there are easy explanations. Music can be used to stimulate mass emotion, while mathematics cannot; and musical incapacity is recognized (no doubt rightly) as mildly discreditable, whereas most people are so frightened of the name of mathematics that they are ready, quite unaffectedly, to exaggerate their own mathematical stupidity.
In A Mathematician's Apology (1940, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 86.
Science quotes on:  |  Appearance (145)  |  Appreciation (37)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Easy (213)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fear (212)  |  Interest (416)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Music (133)  |  People (1031)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tune (20)

The fibrous material and muscle were thus digested in the same way as the coagulated egg albumen, namely, by free acid in combination with another substance active in very small amounts. Since the latter really carries on the digestion of the most important animal nutrient materials, one might with justice apply to it the name pepsin.
'Ueber das Wesen des Verdauungsprocesses', Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie und Wissenschaftliche Medicin (1836), 90-138. Trans. L. G. Wilson, 'The Discovery of Pepsin', in John F. Fulton and Leonard G. Wilson (eds.), Selected Readings in the History of Physiology (1966), 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Active (80)  |  Albumen (2)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apply (170)  |  Coagulation (5)  |  Combination (150)  |  Digestion (29)  |  Egg (71)  |  Fibre (6)  |  Free (239)  |  Justice (40)  |  Material (366)  |  Most (1728)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Nutrient (8)  |  Small (489)  |  Substance (253)  |  Way (1214)

The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this notion consists in having a true idea of the objects; objects are distinguished and known by classifying them methodically and giving them appropriate names. Therefore, classification and name-giving will be the foundation of our science.
Systema Naturae (1735), trans. M. S. J. Engel-Ledeboer and H. Engel (1964), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Classification (102)  |  Consist (223)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  First (1302)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Idea (881)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Step (234)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)

The fittest survive.
What is meant by the fittest?
Not the strongest; not the cleverest—
Weakness and stupidity everywhere survive.
There is no way of determining fitness except in that a thing does survive.
'Fitness,' then, is only another name for 'survival.'
Darwinism:
That survivors survive.
The Book of the Damned (1932). In The Complete Books of Charles Fort (1975), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survival Of The Fittest (43)  |  Survive (87)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)

The focal points of our different reflections have been called “science”’ or “art” according to the nature of their “formal” objects, to use the language of logic. If the object leads to action, we give the name of “art” to the compendium of rules governing its use and to their technical order. If the object is merely contemplated under different aspects, the compendium and technical order of the observations concerning this object are called “science.” Thus metaphysics is a science and ethics is an art. The same is true of theology and pyrotechnics.
Definition of 'Art', Encyclopédie (1751). Translated by Nelly S. Hoyt and Thomas Cassirer (1965), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Action (342)  |  Art (680)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Call (781)  |  Compendium (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Different (595)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Formal (37)  |  Govern (66)  |  Governing (20)  |  Language (308)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Point (584)  |  Pyrotechnic (2)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Rule (307)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Technical (53)  |  Theology (54)  |  Use (771)

The highest reach of science is, one may say, an inventive power, a faculty of divination, akin to the highest power exercised in poetry; therefore, a nation whose spirit is characterised by energy may well be eminent in science; and we have Newton. Shakspeare [sic] and Newton: in the intellectual sphere there can be no higher names. And what that energy, which is the life of genius, above everything demands and insists upon, is freedom; entire independence of all authority, prescription and routine, the fullest room to expand as it will.
'The Literary Influence of Acadennes' Essays in Criticism (1865), in R.H. Super (ed.) The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: Lectures and Essays in Criticism (1962), Vol. 3, 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Authority (99)  |  Demand (131)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everything (489)  |  Expand (56)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Genius (301)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Life (1870)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Nation (208)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Power (771)  |  Prescription (18)  |  Reach (286)  |  Routine (26)  |  Say (989)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Will (2350)

The history of the word sankhyā shows the intimate connection which has existed for more than 3000 years in the Indian mind between ‘adequate knowledge’ and ‘number.’ As we interpret it, the fundamental aim of statistics is to give determinate and adequate knowledge of reality with the help of numbers and numerical analysis. The ancient Indian word Sankhyā embodies the same idea, and this is why we have chosen this name for the Indian Journal of Statistics.
Editorial, Vol. 1, Part 1, in the new statistics journal of the Indian Statistical Institute, Sankhayā (1933). Also reprinted in Sankhyā: The Indian Journal of Statistics (Feb 2003), 65, No. 1, xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aim (175)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Connection (171)  |  Determinate (7)  |  Embody (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Help (116)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  India (23)  |  Indian (32)  |  Interpret (25)  |  Journal (31)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Reality (274)  |  Show (353)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Why (491)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)

The history of thought should warn us against concluding that because the scientific theory of the world is the best that has yet been formulated, it is necessarily complete and final. We must remember that at bottom the generalizations of science or, in common parlance, the laws of nature are merely hypotheses devised to explain that ever-shifting phantasmagoria of thought which we dignify with the high-sounding names of the world and the universe. In the last analysis magic, religion, and science are nothing but theories of thought.
In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890, 1900), Vol. 3, 460.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Best (467)  |  Common (447)  |  Complete (209)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Devise (16)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Explain (334)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Generalization (61)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Magic (92)  |  Mere (86)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parlance (2)  |  Phantasmagoria (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Warn (7)  |  World (1850)

The human mind prefers something which it can recognize to something for which it has no name, and, whereas thousands of persons carry field glasses to bring horses, ships, or steeples close to them, only a few carry even the simplest pocket microscope. Yet a small microscope will reveal wonders a thousand times more thrilling than anything which Alice saw behind the looking-glass.
In The World Was My Garden (1938, 1941), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Carry (130)  |  Field (378)  |  Glass (94)  |  Horse (78)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Looking (191)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Saw (160)  |  Ship (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)

The human understanding is of its own nature prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds. And though there be many things in nature which are singular and unmatched, yet it devises for them parallels and conjugates and relatives which do not exist. Hence the fiction that all celestial bodies move in perfect circles, spirals and dragons being (except in name) utterly rejected.
From Aphorism 45, Novum Organum, Book I (1620). Collected in James Spedding (ed.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1858), Vol. 4, 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Circle (117)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Find (1014)  |  Human (1512)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Singular (24)  |  Spiral (19)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  World (1850)

The idea that the Earth is alive may be as old as humankind. The ancient Greeks gave her the powerful name Gaia and looked on her as a goddess.
In 'The Earth as a Living Organism', Essay collected in E. O. Wilson and F. M. Peter (eds.), Biodiversity (1988), Chap. 56, 488. [Lovelock gave the name Gaia to Earth’s self-regulation of its own material conditions and requirements akin to a living organism. —Webmaster
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Gaia (15)  |  Goddess (9)  |  Greek (109)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Idea (881)  |  Old (499)  |  Powerful (145)

The instinct for collecting, which began as in other animals as an adaptive property, could always in man spread beyond reason; it could become a hoarding mania. But in its normal form it provides a means of livelihood at the hunting and collecting stage of human evolution. It is then attached to a variety of rational aptitudes, above all in observing, classifying, and naming plants, animals and minerals, skills diversely displayed by primitive peoples. These skills with an instinctive beginning were the foundation of most of the civilised arts and sciences. Attached to other skills in advanced societies they promote the formation of museums and libraries; detached, they lead to acquisition and classification by eccentric individuals, often without any purpose or value at all.
As quoted in Richard Fifield, 'Cytologist Supreme', New Scientist (16 Apr 1981), 90, No. 1249, 179; citing C.D. Darlington, The Little Universe of Man (1978).
Science quotes on:  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Animal (651)  |  Aptitude (19)  |  Art (680)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Become (821)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Classification (102)  |  Collection (68)  |  Display (59)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Lead (391)  |  Library (53)  |  Livelihood (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mania (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Most (1728)  |  Museum (40)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Plant (320)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Promote (32)  |  Property (177)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reason (766)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spread (86)  |  Stage (152)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)

The magnet’s name the observing Grecians drew
From the magnetic region where it grew.
Lucretius, as quoted by William Gilbert in De Magnete. Cited in Gerrit L. Verschuur, Hidden Attraction (1996), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Greece (9)  |  Growth (200)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Observation (593)  |  Region (40)

The man who proportions the several parts of a mill, uses the same scientific principles [mechanics], as if he had the power of constructing an universe; but as he cannot give to matter that invisible agency, by which all the component parts of the immense machine of the universe have influence upon each other, and set in motional unison together without any apparent contact, and to which man has given the name of attraction, gravitation, and repulsion, he supplies the place of that agency by the humble imitation of teeth and cogs. All the parts of man’s microcosm must visibly touch.
In The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (27 Jan O.S. 1794), 42-43.
Science quotes on:  |  Agency (14)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Cog (7)  |  Component (51)  |  Constructing (3)  |  Contact (66)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Humble (54)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Immense (89)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Microcosm (10)  |  Mill (16)  |  Motion (320)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Set (400)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Together (392)  |  Touch (146)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)

The mathematics clearly called for a set of underlying elementary objects—at that time we needed three types of them—elementary objects that could be combined three at a time in different ways to make all the heavy particles we knew. ... I needed a name for them and called them quarks, after the taunting cry of the gulls, “Three quarks for Muster mark,” from Finnegan's Wake by the Irish writer James Joyce.
From asppearance in the BBC-TV program written by Nigel Calder, 'The Key to the Universe,' (27 Jan 1977). As cited in Arthur Lewis Caso, 'The Production of New Scientific Terms', American Speech (Summer 1980), 55, No. 2, 101-102.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Cry (30)  |  Different (595)  |  Elementary (98)  |  James Joyce (5)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (438)  |  Particle (200)  |  Quark (9)  |  Set (400)  |  Time (1911)  |  Type (171)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Way (1214)  |  Writer (90)

The more innocuous the name of a weapon, the more hideous its impact. (Some of the most horrific weapons of the Vietnam era were named “Bambi”, “Infant”, “Daisycutter”, “Grasshopper”, and “Agent Orange.” Nor is the trend new: from the past we have “Mustard Gas”, “Angel Chasers” (two cannonballs linked with a chain for added destruction) and “The Peacemaker” to name but a few.)
The Official Explanations (1980), 48.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Angel (47)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Era (51)  |  Gas (89)  |  Grasshopper (8)  |  Hideous (5)  |  Impact (45)  |  Infant (26)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Orange (15)  |  Past (355)  |  Trend (23)  |  Two (936)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)

The most noble and profitable invention of all other, was that of SPEECH, consisting of Names or Appellations, and their Connexion; whereby men register their Thoughts; recall them when they are past; and also declare them one to another for mutuall utility and conversation; without which, there had been amongst men, neither Commonwealth, nor Society, nor Contract, nor Peace, no more than amongst Lyons, Bears, and Wolves.
Leviathan (1651), ed. C. B. Macpherson (1968), Part 1, Chapter 4, 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Declare (48)  |  Invention (400)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noble (93)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Peace (116)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Register (22)  |  Society (350)  |  Speech (66)  |  Thought (995)  |  Utility (52)

The name chronic alcoholism applies to the collective symptoms of a disordered condition of the mental, motor, and sensory functions of the nervous system, these symptoms assuming a chronic form, and without their being immediately connected with any of those (organic) modifications of the central or peripheric portions of the nervous system which may be detected during life, or discovered after death by ocular inspection; such symptoms, moreover, affecting individuals who have persisted for a considerable length of time in the abuse of alcoholic liquors.
Published in Swedish in 1849. Translation quoted in William Marcet On Chronic Alcoholic Intoxication (1868), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Alcoholism (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Central (81)  |  Condition (362)  |  Connect (126)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Death (406)  |  Detect (45)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disease (340)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Form (976)  |  Function (235)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mental (179)  |  Modification (57)  |  Motor (23)  |  Nervous System (35)  |  Organic (161)  |  Portion (86)  |  Sensory (16)  |  Symptom (38)  |  System (545)  |  Time (1911)

The name is not the thing named but is of different logical type, higher than that of the thing named.
In Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (1979, 1987), 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Different (595)  |  Logic (311)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Type (171)

The name of medicine is thought to have been given from 'moderation', modus, that is, from a due proportion, which advises that things be done not to excess, but 'little by little', paulatim. For nature is pained by surfeit but rejoices in moderation. Whence also those who take drugs and antidotes constantly, or to the point of saturation, are sorely vexed, for every immoderation brings not health but danger.
Etymologies [c.600], Book IV, chapter 2, quoted in E. Grant (ed.), A Source Book in Medieval Science (1974), trans. W. D. Sharpe (1964), 701.
Science quotes on:  |  Antidote (9)  |  Danger (127)  |  Drug (61)  |  Due (143)  |  Excess (23)  |  Health (210)  |  Hypochondriac (9)  |  Little (717)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Moderation (2)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pain (144)  |  Point (584)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Saturation (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vex (10)

The name of Sir Isaac Newton has by general consent been placed at the head of those great men who have been the ornaments of their species. … The philosopher [Laplace], indeed, to whom posterity will probably assign a place next to Newton, has characterized the Principia as pre-eminent above all the productions of human intellect.
In Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1831), 1, 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Assign (15)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Consent (14)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Head (87)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Next (238)  |  Ornament (20)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Place (192)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Preeminent (6)  |  Principia (14)  |  Probably (50)  |  Production (190)  |  Species (435)  |  Will (2350)

The names of the plants ought to be stable [certa], consequently they should be given to stable genera.
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 151. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Classification (102)  |  Genus (27)  |  Plant (320)  |  Stable (32)

The nature of heredity is based upon the transmission of nuclear substance with a specific molecular constitution. This substance is the specific nucleoplasm of the germ-cell, to which I have given the name of germ-plasm.
Trans. Joseph S. Froton, Proteins, Enzymes, Genes: The Interplay of Chemistry and Biology (1999), 391.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Germ (54)  |  Germ Cell (2)  |  Germ-Plasm (2)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleoplasm (2)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Specific (98)  |  Substance (253)  |  Transmission (34)

The Nubians never remember the native name for a river; thus their statements are of little value to geographical criticism. Hence they never speak of the River Bah or Ibba, for example, but always say the “Penio’s river,” because this is the name of the district head whose seat is on this river. In other places they are quite helpless…. This is a dreadful fact. Were the well-traveled and well-informed Arab leaders able to remember the names of the rivers, it would be wonderfully easy to draw a map of the entire country.
In August Petermann, Petermann’s Geographische Mittheilungen (1871), 137. As quoted and cited in Kathrin Fritsch, '"You Have Everything Confused And Mixed Up…!" Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge And Cartography Of Africa In The 19th Century', History in Africa (2009), 36, 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Arab (5)  |  Country (269)  |  Criticism (85)  |  District (11)  |  Draw (140)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Easy (213)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Geography (39)  |  Head (87)  |  Helpless (14)  |  Leader (51)  |  Map (50)  |  Native (41)  |  Nubian (6)  |  Place (192)  |  Remember (189)  |  River (140)  |  Seat (7)  |  Statement (148)  |  Value (393)  |  Well-Informed (7)

The other book you may have heard of and perhaps read, but it is not one perusal which will enable any man to appreciate it. I have read it through five or six times, each time with increasing admiration. It will live as long as the ‘Principia’ of Newton. It shows that nature is, as I before remarked to you, a study that yields to none in grandeur and immensity. The cycles of astronomy or even the periods of geology will alone enable us to appreciate the vast depths of time we have to contemplate in the endeavour to understand the slow growth of life upon the earth. The most intricate effects of the law of gravitation, the mutual disturbances of all the bodies of the solar system, are simplicity itself compared with the intricate relations and complicated struggle which have determined what forms of life shall exist and in what proportions. Mr. Darwin has given the world a new science, and his name should, in my opinion, stand above that of every philosopher of ancient or modem times. The force of admiration can no further go!!!
Letter to George Silk (1 Sep 1860), in My Life (1905), Vol. I, 372-373.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Alone (324)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Book (413)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enable (122)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Exist (458)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Growth (200)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravitation (23)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Perusal (2)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Principia (14)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Read (308)  |  Show (353)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Slow (108)  |  Solar (8)  |  Solar System (81)  |  Stand (284)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Study (701)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Vast (188)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

The persons who have been employed on these problems of applying the properties of matter and the laws of motion to the explanation of the phenomena of the world, and who have brought to them the high and admirable qualities which such an office requires, have justly excited in a very eminent degree the admiration which mankind feels for great intellectual powers. Their names occupy a distinguished place in literary history; and probably there are no scientific reputations of the last century higher, and none more merited, than those earned by great mathematicians who have laboured with such wonderful success in unfolding the mechanism of the heavens; such for instance as D ’Alembert, Clairaut, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace.
In Astronomy and General Physics (1833), Bk. 3, chap. 4, 327.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Apply (170)  |  Bring (95)  |  Century (319)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Earn (9)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Excited (8)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Feel (371)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justly (7)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Last (425)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Motion (14)  |  Laws Of Motion (10)  |  Literary (15)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Merit (51)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Office (71)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Place (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Properties Of Matter (7)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Success (327)  |  Unfold (15)  |  Unfolding (16)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)

The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them into shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 5, Scene 1. In Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain (1986), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eye (440)  |  Form (976)  |  Frenzy (6)  |  Glance (36)  |  Habitation (7)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pen (21)  |  Poet (97)  |  Shape (77)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unknown (195)

The Principle of Uncertainty is a bad name. In science or outside of it we are not uncertain; our knowledge is merely confined, within a certain tolerance. We should call it the Principle of Tolerance. And I propose that name in two senses: First, in the engineering sense, science has progressed, step by step, the most successful enterprise in the ascent of man, because it has understood that the exchange of information between man and nature, and man and man, can only take place with a certain tolerance. But second, I also use the word, passionately, about the real world. All knowledge, all information between human beings, can only be exchanged within a play of tolerance. And that is true whether the exchange is in science, or in literature, or in religion, or in politics, or in any form of thought that aspires to dogma. It’s a major tragedy of my lifetime and yours that scientists were refining, to the most exquisite precision, the Principle of Tolerance, and turning their backs on the fact that all around them, tolerance was crashing to the ground beyond repair. The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930s it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it, the ascent of man, against the throwback to the despots’ belief that they have absolute certainty. It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false: tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods. Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken.” We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people. [Referring to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.]
'Knowledge or Certainty,' episode 11, The Ascent of Man (1972), BBC TV series.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Act (278)  |  Against (332)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Ascent Of Man (7)  |  Aspire (15)  |  Auschwitz (5)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Beseech (3)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Call (781)  |  Camp (12)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Christ (17)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Conception (160)  |  Confrontation (7)  |  Culture (157)  |  Cure (124)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Edge (51)  |  End (603)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Error (339)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Exquisite (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fallible (6)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Future (467)  |  Gas (89)  |  God (776)  |  Ground (222)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Information (173)  |  Itch (11)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Literature (116)  |  Look (584)  |  Major (88)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Outside (141)  |  People (1031)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Politics (122)  |  Pond (17)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Precision (72)  |  Principle (530)  |  Progress (492)  |  Push (66)  |  Reality (274)  |  Realization (44)  |  Refining (4)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rise (169)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stand (284)  |  Step (234)  |  Step By Step (11)  |  Successful (134)  |  Test (221)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tolerance (11)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tragedy (31)  |  Tribute (10)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Uncertainty Principle (9)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The publication of a long list of authors’ names after the title is a little like having all a vessel’s ballast hanging from the masthead, as if to counterbalance the barnacles.
Anonymous
New England Journal of Medicine (1964), 271, 1068.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Counterbalance (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Publication (102)  |  Vessel (63)

The puritanical potentialities of science have never been forecast. If it evolves a body of organized rites, and is established as a religion, hierarchically organized, things more than anything else will be done in the name of 'decency.' The coarse fumes of tobacco and liquors, the consequent tainting of the breath and staining of white fingers and teeth, which is so offensive to many women, will be the first things attended to.
Wyndham Lewis: an Anthology of his Prose (1969), 170.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Body (557)  |  Breath (61)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Decency (5)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Finger (48)  |  First (1302)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Fume (7)  |  Hierarchy (17)  |  Liquor (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Offensive (4)  |  Organization (120)  |  Potential (75)  |  Puritan (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Rite (3)  |  Stain (10)  |  Taint (10)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  White (132)  |  Will (2350)  |  Woman (160)

The quality of Mersey is not strained. A century ago the river of that name, in England, afforded not less than sixty varieties of fish; now it affords none. (1876)
Newspaper
Description of the turbid, polluted River Mersey, Liverpool, England in the nineteenth century. In Daily Alta California (21 Aug 1876), 28, No. 9633, 2. The expression “The quality of Mersey is not strained” is seen repeated in various sources through the years to the present. The pun refers a line in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice that “The quality of mercy is not strained.” An earlier mention appears in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (Dec 1870), 42, No. 247, 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Environment (239)  |  Fish (130)  |  Liverpool (3)  |  Pun (3)  |  Quality (139)  |  River (140)  |  River Mersey (3)  |  Strained (3)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)

The rallying motto of a sectarian name is incapable of exciting to sober, calm, scientific investigation; it only rouses the explosive spirit of accusations of heresy to a fierce volcanic flame. Truth and the weal of humanity should be the only motto of the genuine elucidators of the art, and the watchword of their brotherly, peaceful bond of union, without slavish adherence to any sectarian leader, if we would not see the little good that we know completely sacrificed to party spirit and discord.
In 'View of Professional Liberality at the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century' from the Allgemeiner Anzeiger d. D. No. 32 (1801), collected in R.E. Dudgeon (ed., trans.) The Lesser Writings of Samuel Hahnemann (1851), 363.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Art (680)  |  Bond (46)  |  Brother (47)  |  Calm (32)  |  Completely (137)  |  Discord (10)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Flame (44)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Good (906)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Leader (51)  |  Little (717)  |  Motto (29)  |  Party (19)  |  Peace (116)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sect (5)  |  See (1094)  |  Sober (10)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Union (52)  |  Watchword (2)

The real name for 'science' is magic.
Jeffty is Five (1977). Quoted in Gary Westfahl, Science Fiction Quotations (2005), 322.
Science quotes on:  |  Magic (92)

The Reason of making Experiments is, for the Discovery of the Method of Nature, in its Progress and Operations. Whosoever, therefore doth rightly make Experiments, doth design to enquire into some of these Operations; and, in order thereunto, doth consider what Circumstances and Effects, in the Experiment, will be material and instructive in that Enquiry, whether for the confirming or destroying of any preconceived Notion, or for the Limitation and Bounding thereof, either to this or that Part of the Hypothesis, by allowing a greater Latitude and Extent to one Part, and by diminishing or restraining another Part within narrower Bounds than were at first imagin'd, or hypothetically supposed. The Method therefore of making Experiments by the Royal Society I conceive should be this.
First, To propound the Design and Aim of the Curator in his present Enquiry.
Secondly, To make the Experiment, or Experiments, leisurely, and with Care and Exactness.
Thirdly, To be diligent, accurate, and curious, in taking Notice of, and shewing to the Assembly of Spectators, such Circumstances and Effects therein occurring, as are material, or at least, as he conceives such, in order to his Theory .
Fourthly, After finishing the Experiment, to discourse, argue, defend, and further explain, such Circumstances and Effects in the preceding Experiments, as may seem dubious or difficult: And to propound what new Difficulties and Queries do occur, that require other Trials and Experiments to be made, in order to their clearing and answering: And farther, to raise such Axioms and Propositions, as are thereby plainly demonstrated and proved.
Fifthly, To register the whole Process of the Proposal, Design, Experiment, Success, or Failure; the Objections and Objectors, the Explanation and Explainers, the Proposals and Propounders of new and farther Trials; the Theories and Axioms, and their Authors; and, in a Word the history of every Thing and Person, that is material and circumstantial in the whole Entertainment of the said Society; which shall be prepared and made ready, fairly written in a bound Book, to be read at the Beginning of the Sitting of the Society: The next Day of their Meeting, then to be read over and further discoursed, augmented or diminished, as the Matter shall require, and then to be sign'd by a certain Number of the Persons present, who have been present, and Witnesses of all the said Proceedings, who, by Subscribing their names, will prove undoubted testimony to Posterity of the whole History.
'Dr Hooke's Method of Making Experiments' (1664-5). In W. Derham (ed.), Philosophical Experiments and Observations Of the Late Eminent Dr. Robert Hooke, F.R.S. And Geom. Prof. Gresh. and Other Eminent Virtuoso's in his Time (1726), 26-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Aim (175)  |  Assembly (13)  |  Augment (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Book (413)  |  Bound (120)  |  Care (203)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Consider (428)  |  Curious (95)  |  Design (203)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Entertainment (19)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Extent (142)  |  Failure (176)  |  Farther (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Greater (288)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Making (300)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notice (81)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Objection (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Posterity (29)  |  Present (630)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Process (439)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Prove (261)  |  Read (308)  |  Reason (766)  |  Register (22)  |  Require (229)  |  Research (753)  |  Royal (56)  |  Royal Society (17)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Society (350)  |  Success (327)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trial (59)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The science of figures is most glorious and beautiful. But how inaptly it has received the name of geometry!
Dialog 1. In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Figure (162)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nomenclature (159)

The science of the Mediterranean is the epitome of the science of the world. The very name of that inland sea is the text from which the sermon on all other seas must be preached”
From Literary Papers (1855), 106. As quoted in On Early Explorations in the Mediterranean.In George Wilson and Archibald Geikie, Memoir of Edward Forbes F.R.S. (1861), 279.
Science quotes on:  |  Epitome (3)  |  Inland (3)  |  Mediterranean (9)  |  Mediterranean Sea (6)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Preach (11)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sermon (9)  |  Text (16)  |  World (1850)

The senses at first let in particular Ideas, and furnish the yet empty Cabinet: And the Mind by degrees growing familiar with some of them, they are lodged in the Memory, and Names got to them.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book I, Chapter 2, Section 15, 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Degree (277)  |  Empty (82)  |  First (1302)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Growing (99)  |  Idea (881)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Sense (785)  |  Understanding (527)

The skein of human continuity must often become this tenuous across the centuries (hanging by a thread, in the old cliché), but the circle remains unbroken if I can touch the ink of Lavoisier’s own name, written by his own hand. A candle of light, nurtured by the oxygen of his greatest discovery, never burns out if we cherish the intellectual heritage of such unfractured filiation across the ages. We may also wish to contemplate the genuine physical thread of nucleic acid that ties each of us to the common bacterial ancestor of all living creatures, born on Lavoisier’s ancienne terre more than 3.5 billion years ago—and never since disrupted, not for one moment, not for one generation. Such a legacy must be worth preserving from all the guillotines of our folly.
From The Lying Stones of Marrakech (2000, 2011), 114, previously published in an article in Natural History Magazine. Gould was writing about tangibly having Lavoisier’s signature on proof plates bought at an auction. (The plates were made to accompany Lavoisier’s sole geological article of 1789.)
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Across (32)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Bear (162)  |  Become (821)  |  Billion (104)  |  Burn (99)  |  Candle (32)  |  Century (319)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Circle (117)  |  Cliche (8)  |  Common (447)  |  Contemplate (29)  |  Continuity (39)  |  Creature (242)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Disrupt (2)  |  Folly (44)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Guillotine (5)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hang (46)  |  Heritage (22)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ink (11)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Legacy (14)  |  Light (635)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nucleic Acid (23)  |  Nurture (17)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Oxygen (77)  |  Physical (518)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Remain (355)  |  Skein (2)  |  Tenuous (3)  |  Thread (36)  |  Tie (42)  |  Touch (146)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  Wish (216)  |  Worth (172)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

The tendency of the sciences has long been an increasing proclivity of separation and dismemberment … The mathematician turns away from the chemist; the chemist from the naturalist; the mathematician, left to himself divides himself into a pure mathematician and a mixed mathematician, who soon part company … And thus science, even mere physical science, loses all traces of unity. A curious illustration of this result may be observed in the want of any name by which we can designate the students of the knowledge of the material world collectively. We are informed that this difficulty was felt very oppressively by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at their meetings at York, Oxford and Cambridge, in the last three summers. There was no general term by which these gentlemen could describe themselves with reference to their pursuits … some ingenious gentleman [William Whewell] proposed that, by analogy with artist, they might form Scientist, and added that there could be no scruple … when we have words such as sciolist, economist, and atheist—but this was not generally palatable.
In Review of Mrs Somerville, 'On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences', The Quarterly Review (1834), 51, 58-61.
Science quotes on:  |  Advancement (63)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Artist (97)  |  Association (49)  |  Atheist (16)  |  British (42)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Company (63)  |  Curious (95)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Designation (13)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Dismemberment (3)  |  Divide (77)  |  Division (67)  |  Economist (20)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Himself (461)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Inform (50)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Long (778)  |  Lose (165)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oxford (16)  |  Palatable (3)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Proposal (21)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sciolist (2)  |  Separation (60)  |  Soon (187)  |  Student (317)  |  Summer (56)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Unity (81)  |  Want (504)  |  William Whewell (70)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The totality of life, known as the biosphere to scientists and creation to theologians, is a membrane of organisms wrapped around Earth so thin it cannot be seen edgewise from a space shuttle, yet so internally complex that most species composing it remain undiscovered. The membrane is seamless. From Everest's peak to the floor of the Mariana Trench, creatures of one kind or another inhabit virtually every square inch of the planetary surface.
In 'Vanishing Before Our Eyes', Time (26 Apr 2000). Also in The Future of Life (2002), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Biosphere (14)  |  Complex (202)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creature (242)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Life (1870)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Most (1728)  |  Organism (231)  |  Planetary (29)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Remain (355)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Shuttle (12)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Theologian (23)  |  Thin (18)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Totality (17)  |  Trench (6)  |  Undiscovered (15)

The usual designation of the magnitude scale to my name does less than justice to the great part that Dr. Gutenberg played in extending the scale to apply to earthquakes in all parts of the world.
From interview with Henry Spall, as in an abridged version of Earthquake Information Bulletin (Jan-Feb 1980), 12, No. 1, that is on the USGS website.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Designation (13)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Extending (3)  |  Great (1610)  |  Beno Gutenberg (2)  |  Justice (40)  |  Less (105)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Played (2)  |  Richter Scale (4)  |  Scale (122)  |  World (1850)

The various reasons which we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radio-active substance contains a new element which we propose to give the name of radium.
Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Gustave Bémont, 'Sur une Nouvelle Substance Fortement Radio-Active, Contenue dans las Pechblende', (On a new, strongly radio-active substance, contained in pitchblende), Comptes Rendus (1898). 127, 1217. In Joseph E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross (editors), The Scientific Literature (2007), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Element (322)  |  Lead (391)  |  New (1273)  |  Radio (60)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  Reason (766)  |  Substance (253)  |  Various (205)

The various systems of doctrine that have held dominion over man have been demonstrated to be true beyond all question by rationalists of such power—to name only a few—as Aquinas and Calvin and Hegel and Marx. Guided by these master hands the intellect has shown itself more deadly than cholera or bubonic plague and far more cruel. The incompatibility with one another of all the great systems of doctrine might surely be have expected to provoke some curiosity about their nature.
In 'Has the Intellect A Function?', The Collected Papers of Wilfred Trotter, FRS (1941), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Cholera (7)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Expect (203)  |  Great (1610)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Man (2252)  |  Master (182)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Plague (42)  |  Power (771)  |  Provoke (9)  |  Question (649)  |  Rationalist (5)  |  Surely (101)  |  System (545)  |  Various (205)

The word “electromagnetic” which is used to characterize the phenomena produced by the conducting wires of the voltaic pile, … were those which M. Oersted discovered, exhibited by an electric current and a magnet. I have determined to use the word electrodynamic in order to unite under a common name all these phenomena, and particularly to designate those which I have observed between two voltaic conductors. It expresses their true character, that of being produced by electricity in motion: while the electric attractions and repulsions, which have been known for a long time, are electrostatic phenomena produced by the unequal distribution of electricity at rest in the bodies in which they are observed.
New terminology introduced in 'Experiments on the New Electrodynamical Phenomena', Annales de Chemie et de Physique (1822), Series 2, Vol. 20, 60. As translated in Dagobert David Runes (ed.), A Treasury of World Science (1962), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Attraction (61)  |  Being (1276)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Conductor (17)  |  Current (122)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Electric (76)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Electromagnetic (2)  |  Electrostatic (7)  |  Known (453)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Observed (149)  |  Hans Christian Oersted (5)  |  Order (638)  |  Produced (187)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  Rest (287)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Unequal (12)  |  Unite (43)  |  Use (771)  |  Voltaic (9)  |  Voltaic Pile (2)  |  Wire (36)  |  Word (650)

The word, “Vitamine,” served as a catchword which meant something even to the uninitiated, and it was not by mere accident that just at that time, research developed so markedly in this direction. Our view as to the fortunate choice of this name is strengthened, on the one hand, because it has become popular (and a badly chosen catchword, like a folksong without feeling, can never become popular), and on the other, because of the untiring efforts of other workers to introduce a varied nomenclature, for example, “accessory food factors, food hormones, water-soluble B and fat-soluble A, nutramine, and auximone” (for plants). Some of these designations are certainly not better, while others are much worse than “Vitamine.”
The Vitamines translated by Harry Ennis Dubin (1922), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Badly (32)  |  Become (821)  |  Better (493)  |  Catchword (3)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Choice (114)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Designation (13)  |  Develop (278)  |  Direction (185)  |  Effort (243)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Food (213)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Hormone (11)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nomencalture (4)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plant (320)  |  Popularity (4)  |  Research (753)  |  Soluble (5)  |  Something (718)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  Vitamin (13)  |  Water (503)  |  Word (650)

The works which this man [Joseph Banks] leaves behind him occupy a few pages only; their importance is not greatly superior to their extent; and yet his name will shine out with lustre in the history of the sciences.
Funeral oration at the Academy of Sciences, Paris (2 Apr 1821). Quoted in Hector Charles Cameron, Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., P.R.S.: the Autocrat of the Philosophers (1952) 209.
Science quotes on:  |  Bank (31)  |  Sir Joseph Banks (3)  |  Behind (139)  |  Extent (142)  |  History (716)  |  Importance (299)  |  Lustre (3)  |  Man (2252)  |  Obituary (11)  |  Publication (102)  |  Shine (49)  |  Superior (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The world is comparable to ice, and the Truth to water, the origin of this ice. The name “ice” is only lent to this coagulation; it is the name of water which is restored to it, according to its essential reality.
Al- Jill
Universal Man. In Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilisation in Islam (1968), 341.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Coagulation (5)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Essential (210)  |  Ice (58)  |  Origin (250)  |  Reality (274)  |  Science In Islam (2)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

There are four classes of Idols which beset men’s minds. To these for distinction’s sake I have assigned names,—calling the first class Idols of the Tribe; the second, Idols of the Cave; the third, Idols of the Market Place; the fourth, Idols of the Theatre
The Idols of the Tribe have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For every one (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolours the light of nature; owing either to his own proper and peculiar nature; or to his education and conversation with others; or to the reading of books, and the authority of those whom he esteems and admires; or to the differences of impressions, accordingly as they take place in a mind preoccupied and predisposed or in a mind indifferent and settled; or the like.
There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market-place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate; and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar, and therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations where with in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.
Lastly, there are Idols which have immigrated into men’s minds from the various dogmas of philosophies, and also from wrong laws of demonstration. These I call Idols of the Theatre; because in my judgment all the received systems are but so many stage-plays, representing worlds of their own creation after an unreal and scenic fashion.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorisms 39, 41-44. 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, 53-55.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Account (195)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Associate (25)  |  Association (49)  |  Authority (99)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Choice (114)  |  Class (168)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Common (447)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Creation (350)  |  Definition (238)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Difference (355)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Distort (22)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Education (423)  |  Empty (82)  |  Error (339)  |  Explanation (246)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  General (521)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idle (34)  |  Idol (5)  |  Impression (118)  |  Individual (420)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Things (30)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owing (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Perception (97)  |  Proper (150)  |  Race (278)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reading (136)  |  Right (473)  |  Sake (61)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Settled (34)  |  Stage (152)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

There have been men, like Dalton, of humble origin and retiring habits, unable to command the advantages of a public position, and scantily provided with the means for private research, who by speculation and experiment confined to some one branch have reached the highest eminence in science, and discovered laws of nature with which their names are thenceforth connected.
In obituary, Benjamin Silliman, Benjamin Silliman Jr., and James D. Dana (eds.), Art. XXXI, 'Heinrich Rose', American Journal of Science and Arts (Nov 1864), s2-38, No. 114, 305. The article title gives no author name, but it ends with a one-letter signature, “D.”, [For attribution, Webmaster has assumed this is the initial identifying one of the journal editors, of which only the name James Dana corresponds.]
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Discover (571)  |  Eminence (25)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Humble (54)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Means (587)  |  Origin (250)  |  Position (83)  |  Private (29)  |  Provide (79)  |  Public (100)  |  Research (753)  |  Speculation (137)

There is an occasional glimmer of fertility [as compounds], the chemical equivalent of a blade of grass [in a desert]. So, gone … is the justification for “inert.” [Group 0 elements] are now known collectively as the noble gases, a name intended to imply a kind of chemical aloofness rather than a rigorous chastity.
In The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey Into the Land of the Chemical Elements (1995), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Blade (11)  |  Chastity (5)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Compound (117)  |  Desert (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Grass (49)  |  Group (83)  |  Inert (14)  |  Justification (52)  |  Kind (564)  |  Known (453)  |  Noble (93)  |  Noble Gas (4)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Occasional (23)  |  Rigorous (50)

There is something sublime in the secrecy in which the really great deeds of the mathematician are done. No popular applause follows the act; neither contemporary nor succeeding generations of the people understand it. The geometer must be tried by his peers, and those who truly deserve the title of geometer or analyst have usually been unable to find so many as twelve living peers to form a jury. Archimedes so far outstripped his competitors in the race, that more than a thousand years elapsed before any man appeared, able to sit in judgment on his work, and to say how far he had really gone. And in judging of those men whose names are worthy of being mentioned in connection with his,—Galileo, Descartes, Leibnitz, Newton, and the mathematicians created by Leibnitz and Newton’s calculus,—we are forced to depend upon their testimony of one another. They are too far above our reach for us to judge of them.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 86, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Analyst (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Applause (9)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Competitor (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Create (245)  |  Deed (34)  |  Depend (238)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Elapse (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Generation (256)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Jury (3)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Outstrip (4)  |  Peer (13)  |  People (1031)  |  Popular (34)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Really (77)  |  Say (989)  |  Secrecy (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Something (718)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Title (20)  |  Truly (118)  |  Try (296)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

Artificial Intelligence quote: There once was a cat named Albert
There once was a cat named Albert’s pet,
Whose physics ideas you wouldn’t forget,
  It solved E=mc^2,
  With a twitch of its tail and a mew,
Proving cats can be smart, that’s a sure bet!
Text by Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT. Einstein caricature by AI: midjourney. Prompts by Webmaster. (10 Feb 2023)
Science quotes on:  |  Bet (13)  |  Cat (52)  |  E=mc2 (2)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Forget (125)  |  Idea (881)  |  Limerick (7)  |  Mew (2)  |  Pet (10)  |  Physics (564)  |  Smart (33)  |  Solve (145)  |  Tail (21)  |  Twitch (2)

There will come a time when the world will look back to modern vivisection in the name of science as they now do the burning at the stake in the name of religion.
Concluding remark from 'Vivisection', an original paper in Surgical Anaesthesia: Addresses, and Other Papers (1894, 1900), 370.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Burning (49)  |  Do (1905)  |  Look (584)  |  Modern (402)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Stake (20)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vivisection (7)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

These earthly godfathers of heaven’s lights
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
The Sonnets, (1906), 169.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Profit (56)  |  Shining (35)  |  Star (460)  |  Walk (138)

These earthly godfathers of heaven’s lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
Dialog for Biron, written in Love’s Labour Lost (1598), Act 1, Scene 1, line 78-81.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomical Society (2)  |  Classification (102)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Know (1538)  |  Light (635)  |  Night (133)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Profit (56)  |  Star (460)  |  Walk (138)

These expert men, technologists, engineers, or whatever name may best suit them, make up the indispensable General staff of the industrial system; and without their immediate and unremitting guidance and correction the industrial system will not work. It is a mechanically organized structure of technical processes designed, installed, and conducted by these production engineers. Without them and their constant attention the industrial equipment, the mechanical appliances of industry, will foot up to just so much junk.
Collected in 'The Captains of Finance and the Engineers', The Engineers and the Price System (1921), 69. Previously published in The Dial (1919).
Science quotes on:  |  Appliance (9)  |  Attention (196)  |  Best (467)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Constant (148)  |  Correction (42)  |  Design (203)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Expert (67)  |  General (521)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Industry (159)  |  Install (2)  |  Junk (6)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Organize (33)  |  Process (439)  |  Production (190)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)  |  Technical (53)  |  Technologist (7)  |  Technology (281)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

These microscopic organisms form an entire world composed of species, families and varieties whose history, which has barely begun to be written, is already fertile in prospects and findings of the highest importance. The names of these organisms are very numerous and will have to be defined and in part discarded. The word microbe which has the advantage of being shorter and carrying a more general meaning, and of having been approved by my illustrious friend, M. Littré, the most competent linguist in France, is one we will adopt.
In paper read to the Académie de Medecine (Mar 1878). In Charles-Emile Sedillot, 'Influence de M. Pasteur sur les progres de la chirurgie' [Influence of Pasteur on the progress of surgery].
Science quotes on:  |  Adoption (7)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Already (226)  |  Approval (12)  |  Being (1276)  |  Composition (86)  |  Definition (238)  |  Discard (32)  |  Family (101)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Finding (34)  |  Form (976)  |  France (29)  |  Friend (180)  |  General (521)  |  History (716)  |  Illustrious (10)  |  Importance (299)  |  Linguist (2)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Organism (231)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Shortness (2)  |  Species (435)  |  Variety (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

These symptoms are formed in such a particular way that they form a disease group in themselves and thus merit being designated and described as a definite disease ... It is this group of symptoms which I wish to designate by the name Alcoholismus chronicus.
Alcoholismus chronicus: Chronisk alcoholisjudkom: Ett bidrag till dyskrasiarnas känndom (1849). Trans. quoted in John William Crowley, William L. White, Drunkard's Refuge (2004), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Alcoholism (6)  |  Being (1276)  |  Definite (114)  |  Disease (340)  |  Form (976)  |  Merit (51)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)

They [mathematicians] only take those things into consideration, of which they have clear and distinct ideas, designating them by proper, adequate, and invariable names, and premising only a few axioms which are most noted and certain to investigate their affections and draw conclusions from them, and agreeably laying down a very few hypotheses, such as are in the highest degree consonant with reason and not to be denied by anyone in his right mind. In like manner they assign generations or causes easy to be understood and readily admitted by all, they preserve a most accurate order, every proposition immediately following from what is supposed and proved before, and reject all things howsoever specious and probable which can not be inferred and deduced after the same manner.
In Mathematical Lectures (1734), 65-66.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Affection (44)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Deduce (27)  |  Degree (277)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Down (455)  |  Draw (140)  |  Easy (213)  |  Generation (256)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Infer (12)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Order (638)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Proof (304)  |  Proper (150)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reject (67)  |  Right (473)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Understood (155)

They are a fairly aggressive conservation organization that was started to protect the great whales particularly, but in general all marine life around the world. So those are the people I’m trying to attach my name to.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aggressive (4)  |  Attach (57)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Fairly (4)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Life (1870)  |  Marine (9)  |  Organization (120)  |  Particularly (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Protect (65)  |  Start (237)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Whale (45)  |  World (1850)

They have come a long way, those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.
Concluding sentences, Ch. 2, The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition (1976, 2006), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Gene (105)  |  Long (778)  |  Machine (271)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Replicator (3)  |  Survival (105)

This [the fact that the pursuit of mathematics brings into harmonious action all the faculties of the human mind] accounts for the extraordinary longevity of all the greatest masters of the Analytic art, the Dii Majores of the mathematical Pantheon. Leibnitz lived to the age of 70; Euler to 76; Lagrange to 77; Laplace to 78; Gauss to 78; Plato, the supposed inventor of the conic sections, who made mathematics his study and delight, who called them the handles or aids to philosophy, the medicine of the soul, and is said never to have let a day go by without inventing some new theorems, lived to 82; Newton, the crown and glory of his race, to 85; Archimedes, the nearest akin, probably, to Newton in genius, was 75, and might have lived on to be 100, for aught we can guess to the contrary, when he was slain by the impatient and ill mannered sergeant, sent to bring him before the Roman general, in the full vigour of his faculties, and in the very act of working out a problem; Pythagoras, in whose school, I believe, the word mathematician (used, however, in a somewhat wider than its present sense) originated, the second founder of geometry, the inventor of the matchless theorem which goes by his name, the pre-cognizer of the undoubtedly mis-called Copernican theory, the discoverer of the regular solids and the musical canon who stands at the very apex of this pyramid of fame, (if we may credit the tradition) after spending 22 years studying in Egypt, and 12 in Babylon, opened school when 56 or 57 years old in Magna Græcia, married a young wife when past 60, and died, carrying on his work with energy unspent to the last, at the age of 99. The mathematician lives long and lives young; the wings of his soul do not early drop off, nor do its pores become clogged with the earthy particles blown from the dusty highways of vulgar life.
In Presidential Address to the British Association, Collected Mathematical Papers, Vol. 2 (1908), 658.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Age (509)  |  Aid (101)  |  Akin (5)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Apex (6)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Art (680)  |  Aught (6)  |  Babylon (7)  |  Become (821)  |  Belief (615)  |  Blow (45)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Canon (3)  |  Carry (130)  |  Clog (5)  |  Conic Section (8)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Copernican Theory (3)  |  Credit (24)  |  Crown (39)  |  Delight (111)  |  Die (94)  |  Discoverer (43)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drop (77)  |  Dusty (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Energy (373)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fame (51)  |  Founder (26)  |  Full (68)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Glory (66)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Guess (67)  |  Handle (29)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Highway (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Impatient (4)  |  Invent (57)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Last (425)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Let (64)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Manner (62)  |  Marry (11)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Musical (10)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Old (499)  |  Open (277)  |  Originate (39)  |  Pantheon (2)  |  Particle (200)  |  Past (355)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plato (80)  |  Pore (7)  |  Present (630)  |  Probably (50)  |  Problem (731)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Pyramid (9)  |  Pythagoras (38)  |  Race (278)  |  Regular (48)  |  Roman (39)  |  Say (989)  |  School (227)  |  Second (66)  |  Send (23)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sergeant (2)  |  Solid (119)  |  Soul (235)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spending (24)  |  Stand (284)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Undoubtedly (3)  |  Vigour (18)  |  Vulgar (33)  |  Wide (97)  |  Wife (41)  |  Wing (79)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

This new force, which was unknown until now, is common to organic and inorganic nature. I do not believe that this is a force entirely independent of the electrochemical affinities of matter; I believe, on the contrary, that it is only a new manifestation, but since we cannot see their connection and mutual dependence, it will be easier to designate it by a separate name. I will call this force catalytic force. Similarly, I will call the decomposition of bodies by this force catalysis, as one designates the decomposition of bodies by chemical affinity analysis.
In'Some Ideas on a New Force which Acts in Organic Compounds', Annales chimie physiques, 1836, 61, 146. Translated in Henry M. Leicester and Herbert S. Klickstein, A Source Book in Chemistry 1400-1900 (1952), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Affinity (27)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Call (781)  |  Catalysis (7)  |  Catalyst (9)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Decomposition (19)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easier (53)  |  Electrochemical (4)  |  Force (497)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Organic (161)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)  |  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)  |  Military (45)  |  Mistake (180)  |  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)

Those who assert that the mathematical sciences make no affirmation about what is fair or good make a false assertion; for they do speak of these and frame demonstrations of them in the most eminent sense of the word. For if they do not actually employ these names, they do not exhibit even the results and the reasons of these, and therefore can be hardly said to make any assertion about them. Of what is fair, however, the most important species are order and symmetry, and that which is definite, which the mathematical sciences make manifest in a most eminent degree. And since, at least, these appear to be the causes of many things—now, I mean, for example, order, and that which is a definite thing, it is evident that they would assert, also, the existence of a cause of this description, and its subsistence after the same manner as that which is fair subsists in.
Aristotle
In Metaphysics [MacMahon] Bk. 12, chap. 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Affirmation (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Cause (561)  |  Definite (114)  |  Degree (277)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Description (89)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Employ (115)  |  Estimates of Mathematics (30)  |  Evident (92)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fair (16)  |  False (105)  |  Frame (26)  |  Good (906)  |  Hardly (19)  |  Important (229)  |  It Is Evident (6)  |  Least (75)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Order (638)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Speak (240)  |  Species (435)  |  Subsist (5)  |  Subsistence (9)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Word (650)

Thus it might be said, that the vegetable is only the sketch, nor rather the ground-work of the animal; that for the formation of the latter, it has only been requisite to clothe the former with an apparatus of external organs, by which it might be connected with external objects.
From hence it follows, that the functions of the animal are of two very different classes. By the one (which is composed of an habitual succession of assimilation and excretion) it lives within itself, transforms into its proper substance the particles of other bodies, and afterwards rejects them when they are become heterogeneous to its nature. By the other, it lives externally, is the inhabitant of the world, and not as the vegetable of a spot only; it feels, it perceives, it reflects on its sensations, it moves according to their influence, and frequently is enabled to communicate by its voice its desires, and its fears, its pleasures, and its pains.
The aggregate of the functions of the first order, I shall name the organic life, because all organized beings, whether animal or vegetable, enjoy it more or less, because organic texture is the sole condition necessary to its existence. The sum of the functions of the second class, because it is exclusively the property of the animal, I shall denominate the animal life.
Physiological Researches on Life and Death (1815), trans. P. Gold, 22-3.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Aggregate (24)  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Assimilation (13)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Class (168)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Condition (362)  |  Connect (126)  |  Desire (212)  |  Different (595)  |  Excretion (7)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formation (100)  |  Former (138)  |  Function (235)  |  Ground (222)  |  Influence (231)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Move (223)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Particle (200)  |  Plant (320)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Proper (150)  |  Property (177)  |  Reject (67)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sole (50)  |  Substance (253)  |  Succession (80)  |  Sum (103)  |  Transform (74)  |  Two (936)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Timorous readers, however, need entertain no feverish fear, on, visiting the Isle of Sheppey, of encountering either wild elephants, crocodiles, sharks, serpents, or man-eating birds of huge dimensions, bearing strange names, and armed with sets of teeth for masticating and digestive purposes, as the author can assure them that they all died out a million or so of years ago, before he undertook to look up their records and write the history of this wonderful little island. Visitors may, however, honestly deplore the absence of the feathery palm trees bearing the luscious date and the lacteous cocoa-nut; but by prosecuting a diligent search they may, at least, be consoled by procuring some of these, rare fossil remains, reminiscent of an incalculable period of time when our particular portion of this hemisphere performed its diurnal revolutions in the immediate zone of the tropics.
Quoted in Augustus A. Daly, History of the Isle of Sheppey (1975), 250.
Science quotes on:  |  Arm (82)  |  Author (175)  |  Bird (163)  |  Crocodile (14)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Eating (46)  |  Elephant (35)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feverish (6)  |  Fossil (143)  |  History (716)  |  Honestly (10)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Island (49)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Perform (123)  |  Period (200)  |  Portion (86)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rare (94)  |  Record (161)  |  Remain (355)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Search (175)  |  Set (400)  |  Shark (11)  |  Strange (160)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tree (269)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

To be great, a surgeon must have a fierce determination to be the leader in his field. He must have a driving ego, a hunger beyond money. He must have a passion for perfectionism. He is like the actor who wants his name in lights.
Quoted in 'The Best Hope of All', Time (3 May 1963)
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Determination (80)  |  Driving (28)  |  Ego (17)  |  Field (378)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Leader (51)  |  Light (635)  |  Money (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Passion (121)  |  Perfectionism (2)  |  Physician (284)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Want (504)

To be worthy of the name, an experimenter must be at once theorist and practitioner. While he must completely master the art of establishing experimental facts, which are the materials of science, he must also clearly understand the scientific principles which guide his reasoning through the varied experimental study of natural phenomena. We cannot separate these two things: head and hand. An able hand, without a head to direct it, is a blind tool; the head is powerless without its executive hand.
In Claude Bernard and Henry Copley Greene (trans.), An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Blind (98)  |  Completely (137)  |  Direct (228)  |  Directing (5)  |  Establish (63)  |  Executive (3)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Guide (107)  |  Hand (149)  |  Head (87)  |  Master (182)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Powerless (7)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  Study (701)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Tool (129)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Various (205)

To get your name well enough known that you can run for a public office, some people do it by being great lawyers or philanthropists or business people or work their way up the political ladder. I happened to become known from a different route.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Business (156)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enough (341)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Lawyer (27)  |  Office (71)  |  People (1031)  |  Philanthropist (4)  |  Political (124)  |  Public (100)  |  Route (16)  |  Run (158)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

To see every day how people get the name “genius” just as the wood-lice in the cellar the name “millipede”—not because they have that many feet, but because most people don't want to count to 14—this has had the result that I don't believe anyone any more without checking.
Lichtenberg: Aphorisms & Letters (1969), 48, translated by Franz H. Mautner and Henry Hatfield.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Checking (3)  |  Count (107)  |  Feet (5)  |  Genius (301)  |  Insect (89)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1031)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Want (504)  |  Wood (97)

To us, men of the West, a very strange thing happened at the turn of the century; without noticing it, we lost science, or at least the thing that had been called by that name for the last four centuries. What we now have in place of it is something different, radically different, and we don’t know what it is. Nobody knows what it is.
From La Science et Nous (1941), translated as 'Classical Science and After', in Richard Rees (ed.), On Science, Necessity and the Love of God (1968), as quoted and cited in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 809-810. Also seen translated as, “Something happened to the people of the Western world at the beginning of the century, something quite strange: we lost science without even being aware of it, or at least, what had been called science for the last four centuries. What we now have under this name is something else, something radically different, and we do not know what it is. Probably no one knows what it is”, collected in Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings (2015), Chap. 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Century (319)  |  Different (595)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Least (75)  |  Lose (165)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Notice (81)  |  Place (192)  |  Radically (5)  |  Something (718)  |  Strange (160)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Turn (454)  |  West (21)

To what part of electrical science are we not indebted to Faraday? He has increased our knowledge of the hidden and unknown to such an extent, that all subsequent writers are compelled so frequently to mention his name and quote his papers, that the very repetition becomes monotonous. [How] humiliating it may be to acknowledge so great a share of successful investigation to one man...
In the Second Edition ofElements of Electro-Metallurgy: or The Art of Working in Metals by the Galvanic Fluid (143), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Acknowledge (33)  |  Acknowledgment (13)  |  Become (821)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Extent (142)  |  Michael Faraday (91)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Humiliation (4)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indebtedness (4)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Monotonous (3)  |  Paper (192)  |  Quote (46)  |  Repetition (29)  |  Share (82)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Writer (90)

To-day we no longer beg of nature; we command her, because we have discovered certain of her secrets and shall discover others each day. We command her in the name of laws she can not challenge because they are hers; these laws we do not madly ask her to change, we are the first to submit to them. Nature can only be governed by obeying her.
In Henri Poincaré and George Bruce Halsted (trans.), The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare (1907), 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Beg (5)  |  Certain (557)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Change (639)  |  Command (60)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1302)  |  Govern (66)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Mad (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obey (46)  |  Other (2233)  |  Secret (216)  |  Submit (21)

Today, everybody remembers Galileo. How many can name the bishops and professors who refused to look through his telescope?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Bishop (3)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Look (584)  |  Professor (133)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Remember (189)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Through (846)  |  Today (321)

True greatness is when your name is like ampere, watt, and fourier—when it's spelled with a lower case letter.
'You and Your Research', Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar, 7 Mar 1986.
Science quotes on:  |  André-Marie Ampère (11)  |  Baron Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (17)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Letter (117)  |  Spelling (8)  |  James Watt (11)

Vivisection is blood-lust, screened behind the sacred name of science.
In Elbert Hubbard (ed. and publ.), The Philistine (1907), 26, 187.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Blood (144)  |  Lust (7)  |  Sacred (48)  |  Screen (8)  |  Vivisection (7)

Wallace’s error on human intellect arose from the in adequacy of his rigid selectionism, not from a failure to apply it. And his argument repays our study today, since its flaw persists as the weak link in many of the most ‘modern’ evolutionary speculations of our current literature. For Wallace’s rigid selectionism is much closer than Darwin’s pluralism to the attitude embodied in our favored theory today, which, ironically in this context, goes by the name of ‘Neo-Darwinism.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequacy (10)  |  Apply (170)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arise (162)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Close (77)  |  Closer (43)  |  Context (31)  |  Current (122)  |  Darwins (5)  |  Embody (18)  |  Error (339)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Failure (176)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  Flaw (18)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Intellect (32)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Ironically (2)  |  Link (48)  |  Literature (116)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Persist (13)  |  Pluralism (3)  |  Repay (3)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Study (701)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Today (321)  |  Weak (73)

We are not to think that Jupiter has four satellites given him by nature, in order, by revolving round him, to immortalize the name of the Medici, who first had notice of the observation. These are the dreams of idle men, who love ludicrous ideas better than our laborious and industrious correction of the heavens.—Nature abhors so horrible a chaos, and to the truly wise, such vanity is detestable.
From Nodus Gordius, Appendix, as cited in John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune, Life of Galileo Galilei: With Illustrations of the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy (1832), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Abhor (8)  |  Better (493)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Correction (42)  |  Dream (222)  |  First (1302)  |  Gift (105)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Horrible (10)  |  Idea (881)  |  Idle (34)  |  Idleness (15)  |  Immortalize (2)  |  Industrious (12)  |  Jupiter (28)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Love (328)  |  Ludicrous (7)  |  Moon (252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notice (81)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truly (118)  |  Vanity (20)  |  Wise (143)

We believe the substance we have extracted from pitch-blende contains a metal not yet observed, related to bismuth by its analytical properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed we propose to call it polonium, from the name of the original country of one of us.
Proceedings of the Academy of Science (18 July 1898). In Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1937, 2007), 161.
Science quotes on:  |  Bismuth (7)  |  Call (781)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Country (269)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extract (40)  |  Metal (88)  |  New (1273)  |  Observed (149)  |  Pitch (17)  |  Polonium (5)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Substance (253)

We call this planet Earth, yet this is the only planet that has a sea. I think we should have called it “sea”, of course, but the naming is already done.
From 'Remarks Delivered at Symposium', after Ray’s paper, 'The Scientific Need for Shallow-Water Marine Sanctuaries,' collected as Article VI, in Julia Allen Field and Henry Field (eds.), Scientific Use of Natural Areas: Symposium (1965), 92. The Symposium was the XVI International Congress of Zoology, Washington (Aug 1963). Arthur C. Clarke is attributed by James Lovelock, with a similar quote using the name “Ocean” in place of “sea”.
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Planet (402)  |  Sea (326)  |  Wilderness (57)

We find that light acquires properties which are relative only to the sides of the ray,–which are the same for the north and south sides of the ray, (using the points of the compass for description’s sake only) and which are different when we go from the north and south to the east or to the west sides of the ray. I shall give the name of poles to these sides of the ray, and shall call polarization the modification which gives to light these properties relative to these poles.
(1811). As quoted in William Whewell, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), 336.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Call (781)  |  Compass (37)  |  Different (595)  |  Find (1014)  |  Light (635)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Point (584)  |  Polarization (4)  |  Pole (49)  |  Property (177)  |  Ray (115)  |  Relative (42)  |  Sake (61)  |  Side (236)  |  South (39)

We have before us the restoration of that ancient land whose name was a synonym for abundance, prosperity, and grandeur for many generations. Records as old as those of Egypt and as well attested tell of fertile lands and teeming populations, mighty kings and warriors, sages and wise men, over periods of thousands of years. ... A land such as this is worth resuscitating. Once we have apprehended the true cause of its present desolate and abandoned condition, we are on our way to restoring it to its ancient fertility. A land which so readily responded to ancient science, and gave a return which sufficed for the maintenance of a Persian Court in all its splendor, will surely respond to the efforts of modern science and return manifold the money and talent spent on its regeneration.
From The Restoration of the Ancient Irrigation Works on the Tigris: or, The Re-creation of Chaldea (1903), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Abundance (26)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Apprehend (5)  |  Attest (4)  |  Cause (561)  |  Condition (362)  |  Court (35)  |  Desolation (3)  |  Effort (243)  |  Egypt (31)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Fertility (23)  |  Generation (256)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  King (39)  |  Land (131)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Science (55)  |  Money (178)  |  Old (499)  |  Period (200)  |  Persian (4)  |  Population (115)  |  Present (630)  |  Prosperity (31)  |  Record (161)  |  Regeneration (5)  |  Restoration (5)  |  Return (133)  |  Sage (25)  |  Spent (85)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Suffice (7)  |  Surely (101)  |  Synonym (2)  |  Talent (99)  |  Teem (2)  |  Teeming (5)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Warrior (6)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wise (143)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

We have decided to call the entire field of control and communication theory, whether in the machine or in the animal, by the name Cybernetics, which we form from the Greek … for steersman. In choosing this term, we wish to recognize that the first significant paper on feedback mechanisms is an article on governors, which was published by Clerk Maxwell in 1868, and that governor is derived from a Latin corruption … We also wish to refer to the fact that the steering engines of a ship are indeed one of the earliest and best-developed forms of feedback mechanisms.
In Cybernetics (1948), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Article (22)  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Clerk (13)  |  Communication (101)  |  Control (182)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Cybernetic (5)  |  Cybernetics (5)  |  Decision (98)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Engine (99)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feedback (10)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Governor (13)  |  Greek (109)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Latin (44)  |  Machine (271)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Paper (192)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Ship (69)  |  Significant (78)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Wish (216)

We have hitherto considered those Ideas, in the reception whereof, the Mind is only passive, which are those simple ones received from Sensation and Reflection before-mentioned, whereof the Mind cannot make anyone to it self, nor have any Idea which does not wholy consist of them. But as these simple Ideas are observed to exist in several Combinations united together; so the Mind has a power to consider several of them united together, as one Idea; and that not only as they are united in external Objects, but as it self has joined them. Ideas thus made up of several simple ones put together, I call Complex; such as are Beauty, Gratitude, a Man, an Army, the Universe; which tough complicated various simple Ideas, made up of simple ones, yet are, when the Mind pleases, considered each by if self, as one entire thing, and signified by one name.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), Book 2, Chapter 12, Section 1, 163-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Army (35)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Call (781)  |  Combination (150)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consist (223)  |  Exist (458)  |  Gratitude (14)  |  Idea (881)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Object (438)  |  Observed (149)  |  Please (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Reception (16)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Self (268)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Simple (426)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Tough (22)  |  Universe (900)  |  Various (205)

We know that the probability of well-established induction is great, but, when we are asked to name its degree we cannot. Common sense tells us that some inductive arguments are stronger than others, and that some are very strong. But how much stronger or how strong we cannot express.
In A Treatise on Probability (1921), Chap. 22, 259.
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Ask (420)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Degree (277)  |  Express (192)  |  Great (1610)  |  Induction (81)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Know (1538)  |  Other (2233)  |  Probability (135)  |  Sense (785)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Tell (344)  |  Well-Established (6)

We know the laws of trial and error, of large numbers and probabilities. We know that these laws are part of the mathematical and mechanical fabric of the universe, and that they are also at play in biological processes. But, in the name of the experimental method and out of our poor knowledge, are we really entitled to claim that everything happens by chance, to the exclusion of all other possibilities?
From Nobel Prize Lecture (Dec 1974), 'The Coming Age of the Cell'. Collected in Jan Lindsten (ed.) Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1971-1980 (1992).
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chance (244)  |  Claim (154)  |  Error (339)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Method (531)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poor (139)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Probability (135)  |  Process (439)  |  Trial (59)  |  Trial And Error (5)  |  Universe (900)

We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.
In The Selfish Gene (1976).
Science quotes on:  |  Abbreviate (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Classicist (2)  |  Consolation (9)  |  Convey (17)  |  Cultural (26)  |  Forgive (12)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gene (105)  |  Greek (109)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imitation (24)  |  Meme (2)  |  Memory (144)  |  New (1273)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Noun (6)  |  Replicator (3)  |  Rhyme (6)  |  Root (121)  |  Sound (187)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Unit (36)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

We pass with admiration along the great series of mathematicians, by whom the science of theoretical mechanics has been cultivated, from the time of Newton to our own. There is no group of men of science whose fame is higher or brighter. The great discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, had fixed all eyes on those portions of human knowledge on which their successors employed their labors. The certainty belonging to this line of speculation seemed to elevate mathematicians above the students of other subjects; and the beauty of mathematical relations and the subtlety of intellect which may be shown in dealing with them, were fitted to win unbounded applause. The successors of Newton and the Bernoullis, as Euler, Clairaut, D’Alembert, Lagrange, Laplace, not to introduce living names, have been some of the most remarkable men of talent which the world has seen.
In History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1, Bk. 4, chap. 6, sect. 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Applause (9)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Jacob Bernoulli (6)  |  Bright (81)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Alexis Claude Clairaut (2)  |  Nicolaus Copernicus (54)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Jean le Rond D’Alembert (13)  |  Deal (192)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Elevate (15)  |  Employ (115)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fame (51)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fix (34)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Count Joseph-Louis de Lagrange (26)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Line (100)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Portion (86)  |  Relation (166)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Speculation (137)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Successor (16)  |  Talent (99)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unbounded (5)  |  Win (53)  |  World (1850)

Western science is a product of the Apollonian mind: its hope is that by naming and classification, by the cold light of intellect, archaic night can be pushed back and defeated.
In Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Archaic (2)  |  Back (395)  |  Classification (102)  |  Cold (115)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Hope (321)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Light (635)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Night (133)  |  Product (166)  |  Push (66)  |  Western (45)

What counts is the person, not the name.
Aphorism as given by the fictional character Dezhnev Senior, in Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain (1987), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Count (107)  |  Person (366)

What is a scientist?… We give the name scientist to the type of man who has felt experiment to be a means guiding him to search out the deep truth of life, to lift a veil from its fascinating secrets, and who, in this pursuit, has felt arising within him a love for the mysteries of nature, so passionate as to annihilate the thought of himself.
The Montessori Method, trans. Anne E. George,(1964), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Annihilate (10)  |  Arising (22)  |  Deep (241)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Guide (107)  |  Himself (461)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lift (57)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passion (121)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Search (175)  |  Secret (216)  |  Self (268)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Type (171)  |  Veil (27)

What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it.
Passages From the Life of a Philosopher (1864), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Empty (82)  |  Merely (315)  |  Something (718)

What shall be done with nature to reclaim
 The herbless, treeless waste? those dead seas past,
 Dried summer lands, deserts and “antres vast,”
The earth’s reproach, her barrenness and shame.
Can human toil and foresight help the same?
 Science, of soils declares with grand forecast,
 Last shall be first, and first shall be the last
To come to fruit in Irrigation’s name!
In 'Arid Lands', Poems of Expansion (1898), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  Agriculture (78)  |  Barren (33)  |  Dead Sea (2)  |  Declare (48)  |  Desert (59)  |  Dry (65)  |  Earth (1076)  |  First (1302)  |  Forecast (15)  |  Foresight (8)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Grand (29)  |  Help (116)  |  Human (1512)  |  Irrigation (12)  |  Land (131)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Past (355)  |  Reproach (4)  |  Shame (15)  |  Soil (98)  |  Soil Science (4)  |  Summer (56)  |  Toil (29)  |  Treeless (2)  |  Vast (188)  |  Waste (109)

When I was a little over eight years old,… I was sent to a day-school…. [By this time] my taste for natural history, and more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso, or a miser, was very strong in me.
In Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin (ed.), 'Autobiography', The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887, 1896), Vol. 1, 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Coin (13)  |  Collect (19)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  History (716)  |  Lead (391)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mineral (66)  |  Miser (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Old (499)  |  Passion (121)  |  Plant (320)  |  School (227)  |  Seal (19)  |  Shell (69)  |  Strong (182)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Year (963)

When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.
In Simone Weil and Siân Miles (ed.), 'Human Personality', Simone Weil: An Anthology (2000), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Abyss (30)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Anonymous (567)  |  Art (680)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Literature (116)  |  Live (650)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Personality (66)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possible (560)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Year (963)

When the greatest of American logicians, speaking of the powers that constitute the born geometrician, had named Conception, Imagination, and Generalization, he paused. Thereupon from one of the audience there came the challenge, “What of reason?” The instant response, not less just than brilliant, was: “Ratiocination—that is but the smooth pavement on which the chariot rolls.”
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  American (56)  |  Audience (28)  |  Bear (162)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Chariot (9)  |  Conception (160)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Geometrician (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Instant (46)  |  Less (105)  |  Logician (18)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Pause (6)  |  Pavement (2)  |  Power (771)  |  Ratiocination (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Response (56)  |  Roll (41)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)

When the late Sophus Lie … was asked to name the characteristic endowment of the mathematician, his answer was the following quaternion: Phantasie, Energie, Selbstvertrauen, Selbstkritik.
In Lectures on Philosophy, Science and Art (1908), 31. [“Quaternion” is used here in its meaning of a set of four people or things. The last four words, given in German, translate as “Imagination, Energy, Self-confidence, Self-criticism.” —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Follow (389)  |  Late (119)  |  Lie (370)  |  Sophus Lie (6)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Quaternion (9)

When there is no explanation, then give it a name, which immediately explains everything
Martin H. Fischer, Howard Fabing (ed.) and Ray Marr (ed.), Fischerisms (1944), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Nomenclature (159)

When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.
From An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1927, 1957), 164, as translated by Henry Copley Greene. From the original French by Claude Bernard: “Quand le fait qu’on rencontre est en opposition avec une théorie régnante, il faut accepter le fait et abandonner la théorie, lors même que celle-ci, soutenue par de grands noms, est généralement adoptée.” (1865), 287-288. A Google translation gives: “When the fact one encounters is in opposition to a reigning theory, one must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the latter, supported by great names, is generally adopted.”
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Must (1525)  |  Prevailing (3)  |  Support (151)  |  Theory (1015)

When, however, you see the specification, you will see that the fundamental principles are contained therein. I do not, however, claim even the credit of inventing it, as I do not believe a mere description of an idea that has never been reduced to practice—in the strict sense of that phrase—should be dignified with the name invention.‎
Letter (5 Mar 1877) to Alexander Graham Bell. Quoted in The Bell Telephone (1908), 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Claim (154)  |  Credit (24)  |  Description (89)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignify (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Idea (881)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mere (86)  |  Never (1089)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Practice (212)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reduce (100)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Specification (7)  |  Strict (20)  |  Will (2350)

Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users?
In Clifford Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (1995), 136.
Science quotes on:  |  Computer (131)  |  User (5)

Why, in God's name, in our days, is there such a great difference between a physician and a surgeon? The physicians have abandoned operative procedures and the laity, either, as some say, because they disdain to operate with their hands, or rather, as I think, because they do not know how to perform operation. Indeed, this abuse is so inveterate that the common people look upon it as impossible for the same person to understand both surgery and medicine.
Chirurgia Magna (1296, printed 1479). In Henry Ebenezer Handerson, Gilbertus Anglicus (1918), 77.
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Abuse (25)  |  Both (496)  |  Common (447)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Know (1538)  |  Look (584)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operative (10)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Person (366)  |  Physician (284)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Say (989)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Why (491)

Will we ever again be able to view a public object with civic dignity, unencumbered by commercial messages? Must city buses be fully painted as movable ads, lampposts smothered, taxis festooned, even seats in concert halls sold one by one to donors and embellished in perpetuity with their names on silver plaques?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  City (87)  |  Civic (3)  |  Commercial (28)  |  Concert (7)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Embellish (4)  |  Festoon (3)  |  Fully (20)  |  Hall (5)  |  Message (53)  |  Movable (2)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Paint (22)  |  Perpetuity (9)  |  Plaque (2)  |  Public (100)  |  Seat (7)  |  Sell (15)  |  Silver (49)  |  Smother (3)  |  Taxi (4)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

You are literally filled with the fruit of your own devices, with rats and mice and such small deer, paramecia, and entomostraceæ, and kicking things with horrid names, which you see in microscopes at the Polytechnic, and rush home and call for brandy—without the water—stone, and gravel, and dyspepsia, and fragments of your own muscular tissue tinged with your own bile.
'The Water Supply of London', North British Review (1851), 15, 246
Science quotes on:  |  Bile (5)  |  Call (781)  |  Deer (11)  |  Device (71)  |  Dyspepsia (2)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Home (184)  |  Literally (30)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Muscle (47)  |  Paramecium (2)  |  Polytechnic (2)  |  Rat (37)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Stone (168)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Water (503)

You should call it entropy, for two reasons. In the first place your uncertainty function has been used in statistical mechanics under that name, so it already has a name. In the second place, and more important, no one really knows what entropy really is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage.
From the recollection of Claude Shannon given in discussion with Myron Tribus (Apr 1961) about the reason Shannon chose the word “entropy” for his information function (first used by Shannon in a 1945 memorandum at Bell Labs). The suggestion from Neumann to use “entropy” dates back to a Neumann-Shannon conversation c.1940. Shannon’s recollection of the Neumann’s recommendation was quoted as recollected by Tribus in Myron Tribus and Edward C. McIrving, 'Energy and Information', Scientific American (1971), 225, 179-88.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Already (226)  |  Call (781)  |  Debate (40)  |  Entropy (46)  |  First (1302)  |  Function (235)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  More (2558)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Statistical Mechanics (7)  |  Two (936)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)

Young man, if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist.
Given as a reply to Leon M. Lederman (then a young researcher) when he asked Fermi for his opinion of the evidence of a particle named the K-zero-two, while standing next to him in a conference lunch line. Lederman wrote his recollection of the answer in his book, The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question? (1993), 15. Lederman mentioned this statement much earlier, as “If I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist,” in a lecture (9 Jan 1963) on 'Neutrino Physics,' collected in Brookhaven Lecture Series (Dec 1963), 23, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Man (2252)  |  Particle (200)  |  Remember (189)  |  Young (253)

Zenophobia: the irrational fear of converging sequences.
Pun on the name of the Greek philosopher, Zeno, famous for his challenging paradoxes concerning converging sequences.
Anonymous
In Wieslaw Krawcewicz, Bindhyachal Rai, Calculus with Maple Labs (2003), 407.
Science quotes on:  |  Converge (10)  |  Fear (212)  |  Greek (109)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Quip (81)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Zeno (5)

ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, including its king, the House Fly (Musca maledicta.) The father of Zoology was Aristotle, as is universally conceded, but the name of its mother has not come down to us.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  376.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Aristotle (179)  |  Down (455)  |  Father (113)  |  Fly (153)  |  History (716)  |  House (143)  |  Humour (116)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Mother (116)  |  Zoology (38)


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.