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: “God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Person

Person Quotes (366 quotes)

…persons, with big wigs many of them and austere aspect, whom I take to be Professors of the Dismal Science…
Coining “Dismal Science” as a nickname for Political Economy (though used earlier referring to social science in an article, Dec 1849).
'The Present Time', Latter Day Pamphlets, No. 1—Feb 1850, (1850), 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Austere (7)  |  Dismal Science (3)  |  Economics (44)  |  Political (124)  |  Professor (133)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)

’Tis a pity learned virgins ever wed
With persons of no sort of education,
Or gentlemen, who, though well born and bred,
Grow tired of scientific conversation.
Science quotes on:  |  Conversation (46)  |  Education (423)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Grow (247)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Science And Society (25)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Tired (13)  |  Virgin (11)

“Normal” science, in Kuhn’s sense, exists. It is the activity of the non-revolutionary, or more precisely, the not-too-critical professional: of the science student who accepts the ruling dogma of the day… in my view the 'normal' scientist, as Kuhn describes him, is a person one ought to be sorry for… He has been taught in a dogmatic spirit: he is a victim of indoctrination… I can only say that I see a very great danger in it and in the possibility of its becoming normal… a danger to science and, indeed, to our civilization. And this shows why I regard Kuhn’s emphasis on the existence of this kind of science as so important.
In Imre Lakatos and A. Musgrave (eds.), 'Normal Science and its Dangers', Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970), 52-53.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Activity (218)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Critical (73)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Danger (127)  |  Describe (132)  |  Description (89)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Dogmatism (15)  |  Emphasis (18)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Great (1610)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Indoctrination (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Thomas S. Kuhn (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Normal (29)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Professional (77)  |  Regard (312)  |  Revolutionary (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Student (317)  |  Victim (37)  |  View (496)  |  Why (491)

“You know that it is quite preposterous of you to chase rainbows,” said the sane person to the poet.
“Yet it would be rather beautiful if I did one day manage to catch one,” mused the poet.
'Dreams' in Little Stings (1907, 1908), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chase (14)  |  Know (1538)  |  Manage (26)  |  Muse (10)  |  Poet (97)  |  Preposterous (8)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Sane (5)

[1665-09-14] ...my finding that although the Bill [total of dead] in general is abated, yet the City within the walls is encreasd and likely to continue so (and is close to our house there) - my meeting dead corps's of the plague, carried to be buried close to me at noonday through the City in Fanchurch-street - to see a person sick of the sores carried close by me by Grace-church in a hackney-coach - my finding the Angell tavern at the lower end of Tower-hill shut up; and more then that, the alehouse at the Tower-stairs; and more then that, that the person was then dying of the plague when I was last there, a little while ago at night, to write a short letter there, and I overheard the mistress of the house sadly saying to her husband somebody was very ill, but did not think it was of the plague - to hear that poor Payne my waterman hath buried a child and is dying himself - to hear that a labourer I sent but the other day to Dagenhams to know how they did there is dead of the plague and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday morning last, when I had been all night upon the water ... is now dead of the plague - to hear ... that Mr Sidny Mountagu is sick of a desperate fever at my Lady Carteret's at Scott's hall - to hear that Mr. Lewes hath another daughter sick - and lastly, that both my servants, W Hewers and Tom Edwards, have lost their fathers, both in St. Sepulcher's parish, of the plague this week - doth put me into great apprehensions of melancholy, and with good reason. But I put off the thoughts of sadness as much as I can, and the rather to keep my wife in good heart and family also.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (14 Sep 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Child (333)  |  Church (64)  |  City (87)  |  Continue (179)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daughter (30)  |  End (603)  |  Family (101)  |  Father (113)  |  Fever (34)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Grace (31)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hear (144)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sadness (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Servant (40)  |  Short (200)  |  Shut (41)  |  Sick (83)  |  Soon (187)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Total (95)  |  Tower (45)  |  Wall (71)  |  Water (503)  |  Week (73)  |  Wife (41)  |  Write (250)

[A]s you know, scientific education is fabulously neglected … This is an evil that is inherited, passed on from generation to generation. The majority of educated persons are not interested in science, and are not aware that scientific knowledge forms part of the idealistic background of human life. Many believe—in their complete ignorance of what science really is—that it has mainly the ancillary task of inventing new machinery, or helping to invent it, for improving our conditions of life. They are prepared to leave this task to the specialists, as they leave the repairing of their pipes to the plumber. If persons with this outlook decide upon the curriculum of our children, the result is necessarily such as I have just described it.
Opening remarks of the second of four public lectures for the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at University College, Dublin (Feb 1950), The Practical Achievements of Science Tending to Obliterate its True Import', collected in Science and Humanism: Physics in Our Time (1951). Reprinted in 'Nature and the Greeks' and 'Science and Humanism' (1996), 113.
Science quotes on:  |  Awareness (42)  |  Background (44)  |  Belief (615)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Complete (209)  |  Condition (362)  |  Curriculum (11)  |  Education (423)  |  Evil (122)  |  Form (976)  |  Generation (256)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Inherit (35)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Majority (68)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  New (1273)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Pass (241)  |  Pipe (7)  |  Plumber (10)  |  Repair (11)  |  Result (700)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Task (152)

[At DuPont,] I was very fortunate that I worked under men who were very much interested in making discoveries and inventions. They were very much interested in what they were doing, and they left me alone. And I was able to experiment on my own, and I found this very stimulating. It appealed to the creative person in me.
From transcript for video interview (2007, published Aug 2012), 'Stephanie Kwolek: Curiosity and the Discovery of Kevlar', in the series Women in Chemistry, on Chemical Heritage Foundation website.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doing (277)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fortunate (31)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Making (300)  |  Research (753)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  Work (1402)

[Boswell]: Sir Alexander Dick tells me, that he remembers having a thousand people in a year to dine at his house: that is, reckoning each person as one, each time that he dined there.
[Johnson]: That, Sir, is about three a day.
[Boswell]: How your statement lessens the idea.
[Johnson]: That, Sir, is the good of counting. It brings every thing to a certainty, which before floated in the mind indefinitely.
Entry for Fri 18 Apr 1783. In George Birkbeck-Hill (ed.), Boswell's Life of Johnson (1934-50), Vol. 4, 204.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Counting (26)  |  Float (31)  |  Good (906)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Remember (189)  |  Statement (148)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Year (963)

[Cloning] can't make you immortal because clearly the clone is a different person. If I take twins and shoot one of them, it will be faint consolation to the dead one that the other one is still running around, even though they are genetically identical. So the road to immortality is not through cloning.
Quoted in 'Baby, It's You! And You, And You...', Time magazine (19 Feb 2001).
Science quotes on:  |  Clone (8)  |  Cloning (8)  |  Consolation (9)  |  Different (595)  |  Identical (55)  |  Immortal (35)  |  Other (2233)  |  Running (61)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Twin (16)  |  Will (2350)

[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)  |  Name (359)  |  Other (2233)  |  Page (35)  |  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)

[E.H.] Moore was presenting a paper on a highly technical topic to a large gathering of faculty and graduate students from all parts of the country. When half way through he discovered what seemed to be an error (though probably no one else in the room observed it). He stopped and re-examined the doubtful step for several minutes and then, convinced of the error, he abruptly dismissed the meeting—to the astonishment of most of the audience. It was an evidence of intellectual courage as well as honesty and doubtless won for him the supreme admiration of every person in the group—an admiration which was in no wise diminished, but rather increased, when at a later meeting he announced that after all he had been able to prove the step to be correct.
In Obituary, 'Eliakim Hastings Moore', The American Mathematical Monthly (Apr 1933), 40, 191.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Announce (13)  |  Astonishment (30)  |  Audience (28)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Correct (95)  |  Country (269)  |  Courage (82)  |  Diminish (17)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dismiss (12)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Examine (84)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Graduate Student (13)  |  Honesty (29)  |  Increase (225)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Large (398)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Minute (129)  |   Eliakim Hastings Moore (2)  |  Most (1728)  |  Observed (149)  |  Paper (192)  |  Present (630)  |  Prove (261)  |  Step (234)  |  Stop (89)  |  Student (317)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Technical (53)  |  Through (846)  |  Topic (23)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wise (143)

[Having already asserted his opposition to communism in every respect by signing the regents' oath, his answer to a question why a non-Communist professor should refuse to take a non-Communist oath as a condition of University employment was that to do so would imply it was] up to an accused person to clear himself. ... That sort of thing is going on in Washington today and is a cause of alarm to thoughtful citizens. It is the method used in totalitarian countries. It sounds un-American to people who don’t like to be pushed around. If someone says I ought to do a certain thing the burden should be on him to show I why I should, not on me to show why I should not.
As quoted in 'Educator Scores Oath For Faculty', New York Times (16 Apr 1950), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Accusation (6)  |  Alarm (19)  |  Already (226)  |  Answer (389)  |  Assert (69)  |  Burden (30)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Communism (11)  |  Communist (9)  |  Condition (362)  |  Country (269)  |  Do (1905)  |  Employment (34)  |  Himself (461)  |  Method (531)  |  Oath (10)  |  Opposition (49)  |  People (1031)  |  Professor (133)  |  Push (66)  |  Question (649)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Respect (212)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Sound (187)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Today (321)  |  Totalitarian (6)  |  Un-American (3)  |  Unamerican (2)  |  University (130)  |  Washington (7)  |  Why (491)

[Ignorance] of the principle of conservation of energy … does not prevent inventors without background from continually putting forward perpetual motion machines… Also, such persons undoubtedly have their exact counterparts in the fields of art, finance, education, and all other departments of human activity… persons who are unwilling to take the time and to make the effort required to find what the known facts are before they become the champions of unsupported opinions—people who take sides first and look up facts afterward when the tendency to distort the facts to conform to the opinions has become well-nigh irresistible.
From Evolution in Science and Religion (1927), 58-59. An excerpt from the book including this quote appears in 'New Truth and Old', Christian Education (Apr 1927), 10, No. 7, 394-395.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Art (680)  |  Background (44)  |  Become (821)  |  Conform (15)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Continual (44)  |  Counterpart (11)  |  Department (93)  |  Distort (22)  |  Education (423)  |  Effort (243)  |  Energy (373)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (378)  |  Finance (4)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Forward (104)  |  Human (1512)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Known (453)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Motion (320)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetual Motion (14)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Prevention (37)  |  Principle (530)  |  Required (108)  |  Side (236)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unwilling (9)

[In research on bacteria metabolism] we have indeed much the same position as an observer trying to gain an idea of the life of a household by careful scrutiny of the persons and material arriving or leaving the house; we keep accurate records of the foods and commodities left at the door and patiently examine the contents of the dust-bin and endeavour to deduce from such data the events occurring within the closed doors.
Bacterial Metabolism (1930), Preface. In 'Obituary Notice: Marjory Stephenson, 1885–1948', Biochemistry Journal (1950), 46:4, 380.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Closed (38)  |  Data (162)  |  Door (94)  |  Dust (68)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Event (222)  |  Examine (84)  |  Food (213)  |  Gain (146)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Life (1870)  |  Material (366)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Record (161)  |  Research (753)  |  Scrutiny (15)  |  Trying (144)

[On suburbia] We’re bringing up our children in one-class areas. When they grow up and move to a city or go abroad, they’re not accustomed to variety and they get uncertain and insecure. We should bring up our children where they’re exposed to all types of people.
As quoted in interview with Frances Glennon, 'Student and Teacher of Human Ways', Life (14 Sep 1959), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Accustomed (46)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  City (87)  |  Class (168)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Grow (247)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Move (223)  |  People (1031)  |  Type (171)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Variety (138)

[P]olitical and social and scientific values … should be correlated in some relation of movement that could be expressed in mathematics, nor did one care in the least that all the world said it could not be done, or that one knew not enough mathematics even to figure a formula beyond the schoolboy s=(1/2)gt2. If Kepler and Newton could take liberties with the sun and moon, an obscure person ... could take liberties with Congress, and venture to multiply its attraction into the square of its time. He had only to find a value, even infinitesimal, for its attraction.
The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography? (1918), 376.
Science quotes on:  |  Attraction (61)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Care (203)  |  Congress (20)  |  Enough (341)  |  Express (192)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Formula (102)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Politics (122)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Square (73)  |  Sun (407)  |  Time (1911)  |  Value (393)  |  World (1850)

[Werhner von Braun] is a human leader whose eyes and thoughts have always been turned toward the stars. It would be foolish to assign rocketry success to one person totally. Components must necessarily be the work of many minds; so must successive stages of development. But because Wernher von Braun joins technical ability, passionate optimism, immense experience and uncanny organizing ability in the elusive power to create a team, he is the greatest human element behind today’s rocketry success
Quoted in 'Reach For The Stars', Time (17 Feb 1958), 71, 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Behind (139)  |  Wernher von Braun (29)  |  Component (51)  |  Create (245)  |  Development (441)  |  Element (322)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Foolish (41)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Human (1512)  |  Immense (89)  |  Leader (51)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Optimism (17)  |  Organize (33)  |  Passionate (22)  |  Power (771)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Stage (152)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Success (327)  |  Successive (73)  |  Team (17)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thought (995)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Uncanny (5)  |  Work (1402)

[When questioned on his longevity] First of all, I selected my ancestors very wisely. ... They were long-lived, healthy people. Then, as a chemist, I know how to eat, how to exercise, keep my blood circulating. ... I don't worry. I don't get angry at people. I don't worry about things I can't help. I do what I can to make the world a better place to live, but I don't complain if things aren't right. As a scientist I take the world as I find it.
[About celebrating his 77th birthday by swimming a half mile in 22 minutes] I used swim fins and webbed gloves because a man of intelligence should apply his power efficiently, not just churn the water.
As quoted in obituary by Wallace Turner, 'Joel Hildebrand, 101', New York Times (3 May 1983), D27.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Anger (21)  |  Application (257)  |  Apply (170)  |  Better (493)  |  Birthday (9)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Churn (4)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Complaint (13)  |  Do (1905)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Fin (4)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Glove (4)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Keeping (9)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Lived (2)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Man (2252)  |  Minute (129)  |  Obituary (11)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Question (649)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Select (45)  |  Selection (130)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Water (503)  |  Web (17)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)  |  Worry (34)

~~[Dubious]~~ A plagiarist steals from one person. A true artist steals from everybody.
Seen feral on the web, but never with source citation. Webmaster has not yet found any primary source, and regards the quote as spurious. Compare the believed authentic quote, “When there's anything to steal, I steal,” See the Pablo Picasso Quotes page on this site.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Steal (14)  |  True (239)

230(231-1) ... is the greatest perfect number known at present, and probably the greatest that ever will be discovered; for; as they are merely curious without being useful, it is not likely that any person will attempt to find a number beyond it.
In An Elementary Investigation of the Theory of Numbers (1811), 43. The stated number, which evaluates as 2305843008139952128 was discovered by Euler in 1772 as the eighth known perfect number. It has 19 digits. By 2013, the 48th perfect number found had 34850340 digits.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Curious (95)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Known (453)  |  Merely (315)  |  Number (710)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfect Number (6)  |  Present (630)  |  Unlikely (15)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Will (2350)

A celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Celebrity (8)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)

A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
Anonymous
Widely found on the web as an Einstein quote, but Webmaster has not yet found a primary source. Can you help? It is probably yet another example of a “wise” quote to which Einstein’s name has been falsely attributed. For authentic quotes see Albert Einstein Quotes on Problem.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Clever (41)  |  Problem (731)  |  Solve (145)  |  Wise (143)

A considerable number of persons are able to protect themselves against the outbreak of serious neurotic phenomena only through intense work.
From Observations on Ferenczi's paper on 'Sunday Neuroses' (1918). Quoted in Peter Bryan Warr, Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness (2007), 161.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Neurotic (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Protect (65)  |  Serious (98)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Through (846)  |  Work (1402)

A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.
Quoted in James B. Simpson (ed.), Webster’s II New Riverside Desk Quotations (1992), 158; citing Fortune (Apr 1976).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Good (906)  |  Linger (14)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perennial (9)  |  Quality (139)  |  Question (649)  |  Scientist (881)

A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.
In Disturbing the Universe (1979), 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Design (203)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Few (15)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Original (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Work (1402)

A good work of visual art carries a person who is capable of appreciating it out of life into ecstasy.
In Art (1913), 29-30
Science quotes on:  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Art (680)  |  Capable (174)  |  Carry (130)  |  Ecstasy (9)  |  Good (906)  |  Life (1870)  |  Visual (16)  |  Work (1402)

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
In Letter (4 Mar 1950), replying to a grieving father over the loss of a young son. In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Circle (117)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (242)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (212)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Kind (564)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Part (235)  |  Personal (75)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

A neurotic person can be most simply described as someone who, while he was growing up, learned ways of behaving that are self-defeating in his society.
In Margaret Mead and Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (ed.), Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979), 216.
Science quotes on:  |  Behave (18)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Describe (132)  |  Growing (99)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neurotic (6)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Self (268)  |  Simple (426)  |  Society (350)  |  Way (1214)

A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, “I am making stones.” He asked a stone carver what he was doing. “I am carving a gargoyle.” And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. “I am helping build a cathedral.”
...Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture.
[For example, in education, a teacher might say in the next class he was going to “explain Young's modulus and how to measure it,” rather than, “I am going to educate the students and prepare them for their future careers.”]
In The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1975, 2005), 195.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Career (86)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Class (168)  |  Construction (114)  |  Detail (150)  |  Doing (277)  |  Education (423)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Future (467)  |  Gargoyle (3)  |  Ground (222)  |  Immersion (4)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mason (2)  |  Measure (241)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  Old (499)  |  Parable (5)  |  Part (235)  |  Picture (148)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Relation (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Special (188)  |  Stone (168)  |  Student (317)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  Woman (160)  |  Young (253)

A perfectly normal person is rare in our civilization.
Quoted in obituary, Time magazine (15 Dec 1952).
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  Normal (29)  |  Rare (94)

A person by study must try to disengage the subject from useless matter, and to seize on points capable of improvement. ... When subjects are viewed through the mists of prejudice, useful truths may escape.
In An Essay on Aërial Navigation, With Some Observations on Ships (1844), 80.
Science quotes on:  |  Capability (44)  |  Capable (174)  |  Disengage (3)  |  Escape (85)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mist (17)  |  Must (1525)  |  Point (584)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Seize (18)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Uselessness (22)  |  View (496)

A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit about stewing about things. He’s at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes. That’s gumption. If you’re going to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven’t got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they won’t do you any good.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), 272.
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fill (67)  |  First (1302)  |  Front (16)  |  Gather (76)  |  Good (906)  |  Gumption (2)  |  Important (229)  |  Meet (36)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motorcycle (2)  |  Other (2233)  |  Repair (11)  |  See (1094)  |  Sit (51)  |  Stew (2)  |  Supply (100)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tool (129)  |  Track (42)  |  Train (118)  |  Watch (118)

A person is smart. People are dumb ... Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
Anonymous
Character Agent K in movie Men in Black(1997), screen story and screenplay by Ed Solomon. Quoted in George Aichele, Culture, Entertainment and the Bible (2000), 26. In a footnote, from the post-movie novel by Steve Perry, Men in Black (1997), 66, is added, 'Yeah. A hundred years from now, whoever is here will probably pee themselves laughing at what we believe.'
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Dumb (11)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Flat (34)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Know (1538)  |  Minute (129)  |  People (1031)  |  Planet (402)  |  Smart (33)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Universe (900)  |  Year (963)

A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Certain (557)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Must (1525)

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Himself (461)  |  Live (650)  |  Outside (141)  |  Start (237)

A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content and the depth of the conviction concerning its overpowering meaningfulness, regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those superpersonal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Accordingly (5)  |  Age (509)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appear (122)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |   Buddha (5)  |  Capable (174)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Cling (6)  |  Completely (137)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Content (75)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Count (107)  |  Definition (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Desire (212)  |  Devout (5)  |  Divine (112)  |  Domain (72)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Effect (414)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Exist (458)  |  Extend (129)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Goal (155)  |  Himself (461)  |  Important (229)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Kind (564)  |  Liberate (10)  |  Loftiness (3)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Matter (821)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Object (438)  |  Old (499)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Outside (141)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Rational (95)  |  Regardless (8)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Require (229)  |  Same (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Seem (150)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Sense (785)  |  Significance (114)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Superpersonal (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unite (43)  |  Value (393)

A person with strength of character is one who has strong feelings, and strong command over them.
Aphorism in The Philistine (Jan 1905), 20, No. 2, 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Command (60)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)

A pessimist is a person who is always right but doesn’t get any enjoyment out of it, while an optimist, is one who imagines that the future is uncertain. It is a duty to be an optimist, because if you imagine that the future is uncertain, then you must do something about it.
In The Pursuit of Simplicity (1980, 1981), 149, footnote 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Duty (71)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Future (467)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Must (1525)  |  Optimist (8)  |  Pessimist (7)  |  Right (473)  |  Something (718)  |  Uncertain (45)

A research laboratory jealous of its reputation has to develop less formal, more intimate ways of forming a corporate judgment of the work its people do. The best laboratories in university departments are well known for their searching, mutual questioning.
In Editorial, 'Is Science Really a Pack of Lies', Nature (1983), 303, 1257. As quoted and cited in Bradley P. Fuhrman, Jerry J. Zimmerman, Pediatric Critical Care (2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Corporate (4)  |  Department (93)  |  Develop (278)  |  Do (1905)  |  Formal (37)  |  Forming (42)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Jealous (3)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Known (453)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  People (1031)  |  Question (649)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Research (753)  |  Searching (7)  |  University (130)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

A statistician is a person who believes that if you put your head in a furnace and your feet in a bucket of iced water, on the average you should feel reasonably comfortable.
Anonymous
Found, for example, in Planning a Prevention Program: A Handbook for the Youth Worker in an Alcohol Service Agency (1977), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bucket (4)  |  Comfortable (13)  |  Feel (371)  |  Foot (65)  |  Furnace (13)  |  Head (87)  |  Ice (58)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Water (503)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Same (166)  |  Statistician (27)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Tabulate (3)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Valid (12)  |  Work (1402)

A very sincere and serious freshman student came to my office with a question that had clearly been troubling him deeply. He said to me, ‘I am a devout Christian and have never had any reason to doubt evolution, an idea that seems both exciting and well documented. But my roommate, a proselytizing evangelical, has been insisting with enormous vigor that I cannot be both a real Christian and an evolutionist. So tell me, can a person believe both in God and in evolution?’ Again, I gulped hard, did my intellectual duty, a nd reassured him that evolution was both true and entirely compatible with Christian belief –a position that I hold sincerely, but still an odd situation for a Jewish agnostic.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agnostic (10)  |  Belief (615)  |  Both (496)  |  Christian (44)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compatible (4)  |  Deeply (17)  |  Devout (5)  |  Document (7)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Duty (71)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Evolutionist (8)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Freshman (3)  |  God (776)  |  Gulp (3)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Insist (22)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Jewish (15)  |  Nd (2)  |  Never (1089)  |  Odd (15)  |  Office (71)  |  Position (83)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reassure (7)  |  Roommate (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Seem (150)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sincere (4)  |  Sincerely (3)  |  Situation (117)  |  Still (614)  |  Student (317)  |  Tell (344)  |  Trouble (117)  |  True (239)  |  Vigor (12)

A young person who reads a science book is confronted with a number of facts, x = ma … ma - me² … You never see in the scientific books what lies behind the discovery—the struggle and the passion of the person, who made that discovery.
From 'Asking Nature', collected in Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards (eds.), Passionate Minds: The Inner World of Scientists (1997), 197.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Book (413)  |  Confront (18)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Lie (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Number (710)  |  Passion (121)  |  Read (308)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Young (253)

About ten months ago [1609] a report reached my ears that a certain Fleming [Hans Lippershey] had constructed a spyglass, by means of which visible objects, though very distant from the eye of the observer, were distinctly seen as if nearby... Of this truly remarkable effect several experiences were related, to which some persons gave credence while others denied them. A few days later the report was confirmed to me in a letter from a noble Frenchman at Paris, Jacques Badovere, which caused me to apply myself wholeheartedly to enquire into the means by which I might arrive at the invention of a similar instrument. This I did shortly afterwards, my basis being the theory of refraction. First I prepared a tube of lead, at the ends of which I fitted two glass lenses, both plane on one side while on the other side one was spherically convex and the other concave.
The Starry Messenger (1610), trans. Stillman Drake, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957), 28-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Apply (170)  |  Basis (180)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concave (6)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Construct (129)  |  Convex (6)  |  Ear (69)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Glass (94)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invention (400)  |  Lead (391)  |  Lens (15)  |  Letter (117)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Month (91)  |  Myself (211)  |  Noble (93)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reach (286)  |  Refraction (13)  |  Side (236)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truly (118)  |  Two (936)  |  Visible (87)

After some experiments made one day at my house upon the phosphorus, a little piece of it being left negligently upon the table in my chamber, the maid making the bed took it up in the bedclothes she had put on the table, not seeing the little piece. The person who lay afterwards in the bed, waking at night and feeling more than ordinary heat, perceived that the coverlet was on fire.
Quoted in John Emsley, The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus (2000), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fire (203)  |  Heat (180)  |  House (143)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  Negligence (2)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Table (105)  |  Waking (17)

All our knowledge has been built communally; there would be no astrophysics, there would be no history, there would not even be language, if man were a solitary animal. What follows? It follows that we must be able to rely on other people; we must be able to trust their word. That is, it follows that there is a principle, which binds society together because without it the individual would be helpless to tell the truth from the false. This principle is truthfulness.
In Lecture at M.I.T. (19 Mar 1953), collected in 'The Sense of Human Dignity', Science and Human Values (1956, 1990), 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Astrophysics (15)  |  Bind (26)  |  Build (211)  |  Communal (7)  |  False (105)  |  Follow (389)  |  Helpless (14)  |  History (716)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rely (12)  |  Society (350)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Tell (344)  |  Together (392)  |  Trust (72)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Word (650)

Among people I have met, the few whom I would term “great” all share a kind of unquestioned, fierce dedication; an utter lack of doubt about the value of their activities (or at least an internal impulse that drives through any such angst); and above all, a capacity to work (or at least to be mentally alert for unexpected insights) at every available moment of every day of their lives.
From The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History (2000), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Alert (13)  |  Angst (2)  |  Available (80)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Dedication (12)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Drive (61)  |  Fierce (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Insight (107)  |  Internal (69)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lack (127)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mentally (3)  |  Met (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  People (1031)  |  Share (82)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexpected (55)  |  Unquestioned (7)  |  Utter (8)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see.
From Space: A Novel (1983), 709. As cited by David G. Anderson, 'Archaic Mounds and Southeastern Tribal Societies', in Jon L. Gibson, Philip J. Carr (ed.), Signs of Power: The Rise of Cultural Complexity in the Southeast (2004), 297. A footnote by Anderson explains that Michener described the supernova of 1054 A.D. which blazed for 23 days and was recorded around the world, except in western Europe where religious dogma insisted the heavens were immutable. The quote above was Michener’s comment on that “refusal to see.”.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Call (781)  |  Called (9)  |  Dark (145)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failing (5)  |  Light (635)  |  People (1031)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Refuse (45)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Shining (35)

An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious—just dead wrong.
'Sunday Observer: Terminal Education', New York Times Magazine (9 Nov 1980), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Education (423)  |  False (105)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Information (173)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mendacious (2)  |  Misleading (21)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wrong (246)

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
As quoted by Edward Teller, in Robert Coughlan, 'Dr. Edward Teller’s Magnificent Obsession', Life (6 Sep 1954), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Expert (67)  |  Field (378)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Narrow (85)

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
Quoted without citation in Edmund Fuller, Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1948), 162.
Science quotes on:  |  Help (116)  |  Idealist (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Prosperity (31)

An insolent reply from a polite person is a bad sign.
Prorrhetic, in Hippocrates, trans. P. Potter (1995), Vol. 8, 181.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Insolent (2)  |  Polite (9)  |  Reply (58)

An intimate friend and a hated enemy have always been indispensable requirements for my emotional life; I have always been able to create them anew, and not infrequently my childish ideal has been so closely approached that friend and enemy coincided in the same person.
The Interpretation of Dreams (1913), 385. Sigmund Freud - 1913
Science quotes on:  |  Anew (19)  |  Approach (112)  |  Childish (20)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Create (245)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Friend (180)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Infrequently (2)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Requirement (66)

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn’t take his education too seriously. You see, from the time a person is six years old until he graduates form college he has to take three or four examinations a year. If he flunks once, he is out. But an inventor is almost always failing. He tries and fails maybe a thousand times. It he succeeds once then he’s in. These two things are diametrically opposite. We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.
In 'How Can We Develop Inventors?' presented to the Annual meeting of the American Society of Society Engineers. Reprinted in Mechanical Engineering (Apr 1944). Collected in Prophet of Progress: Selections from the Speeches of Charles F. Kettering (1961), 108.
Science quotes on:  |  College (71)  |  Diametrically (6)  |  Education (423)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Form (976)  |  Graduate (32)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Job (86)  |  Learn (672)  |  Old (499)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Success (327)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Train (118)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

And, in this case, science could learn an important lesson from the literati–who love contingency for the same basic reason that scientists tend to regard the theme with suspicion. Because, in contingency lies the power of each person, to make a difference in an unconstrained world bristling with possibilities, and nudgeable by the smallest of unpredictable inputs into markedly different channels spelling either vast improvement or potential disaster.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Bristle (3)  |  Case (102)  |  Channel (23)  |  Contingency (11)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Important (229)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Input (2)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Lie (370)  |  Love (328)  |  Markedly (2)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Potential (75)  |  Power (771)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regard (312)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Small (489)  |  Spell (9)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Tend (124)  |  Theme (17)  |  Unconstrained (2)  |  Unpredictable (18)  |  Vast (188)  |  World (1850)

Another great and special excellence of mathematics is that it demands earnest voluntary exertion. It is simply impossible for a person to become a good mathematician by the happy accident of having been sent to a good school; this may give him a preparation and a start, but by his own individual efforts alone can he reach an eminent position.
In Conflict of Studies (1873), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Alone (324)  |  Become (821)  |  Demand (131)  |  Earnest (3)  |  Effort (243)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happy (108)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Position (83)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Reach (286)  |  School (227)  |  Send (23)  |  Simply (53)  |  Special (188)  |  Start (237)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Voluntary (6)

As for what I have done as a poet, I take no pride in whatever. Excellent poets have lived at the same time with me, poets more excellent lived before me, and others will come after me. But that in my country I am the only person who knows the truth in the difficult science of colors—of that, I say, I am not a little proud, and here have a consciousness of superiority to many.
Wed 18 Feb 1829. Johann Peter Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe, ed. J. K. Moorhead and trans. J. Oxenford, (1971), 302.
Science quotes on:  |  Color (155)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Country (269)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Know (1538)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pride (84)  |  Say (989)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

As marvelous as the stars is the mind of the person who studies them.
Jr., in Voyage to the Great Attractor by Alan Dressier (1995).
Science quotes on:  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)

As pilgrimages to the shrines of saints draw thousands of English Catholics to the Continent, there may be some persons in the British Islands sufficiently in love with science, not only to revere the memory of its founders, but to wish for a description of the locality and birth-place of a great master of knowledge—John Dalton—who did more for the world’s civilisation than all the reputed saints in Christendom.
In The Worthies of Cumberland (1874), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Birth (154)  |  Britain (26)  |  British (42)  |  Catholic (18)  |  Civilisation (23)  |  Continent (79)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Draw (140)  |  Founder (26)  |  Great (1610)  |  Island (49)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Love (328)  |  Master (182)  |  Memory (144)  |  More (2558)  |  Pilgrimage (4)  |  Repute (3)  |  Revere (2)  |  Saint (17)  |  Shrine (8)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

As the Director of the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos, I participated at the most senior level in the World War II Manhattan Project that produced the first atomic weapons.
Now, at age 88, I am one of the few remaining such senior persons alive. Looking back at the half century since that time, I feel the most intense relief that these weapons have not been used since World War II, mixed with the horror that tens of thousands of such weapons have been built since that time—one hundred times more than any of us at Los Alamos could ever have imagined.
Today we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons development still continues. Whether and when the various Nations of the World can agree to stop this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still influence this process by withholding their skills.
Accordingly, I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.
[On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Hiroshima.]
Letter, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Nov 1995), 51:6, 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Alive (97)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Back (395)  |  Biological (137)  |  Call (781)  |  Cease (81)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Continue (179)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Development (441)  |  Disarmament (6)  |  Division (67)  |  Era (51)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Hiroshima (18)  |  Horror (15)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Looking (191)  |  Los Alamos (6)  |  Manhattan Project (15)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Mass (160)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Weapon (17)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Other (2233)  |  Potential (75)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Project (77)  |  Relief (30)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Senior (7)  |  Skill (116)  |  Still (614)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Various (205)  |  War (233)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

As the sense of smell is so intimately connected with that of taste, it is not surprising that an excessively bad odour should excite wretching or vomitting in some persons.
The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Connect (126)  |  Sense (785)  |  Smell (29)  |  Taste (93)

As to rocket ships flying between America and Europe, I believe it is worth seriously trying for. Thirty years ago persons who were developing flying were laughed at as mad, and that scorn hindered aviation. Now we heap similar ridicule upon stratoplane or rocket ships for trans-Atlantic flights.
Predicting high-altitude jet aircraft for routine long-distance travel. As quoted by Gobind Behari Lal, Universal Service Science Editor, as printed in 'Prof. Piccard Reaches U.S.', Syracuse Journal (13 Jan 1933), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Aircraft (9)  |  America (143)  |  Aviation (8)  |  Belief (615)  |  Development (441)  |  Europe (50)  |  Flight (101)  |  Flying (74)  |  Hinder (12)  |  Jet (4)  |  Laugh (50)  |  Mad (54)  |  Madness (33)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Scorn (12)  |  Ship (69)  |  Transatlantic (4)  |  Trying (144)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

Ask a scientist a very profound question on his science, and he will be silent. Ask a religious person a very simple question on his religion, and he will be frenzied.
Quotations: Superultramodern Science and Philosophy (2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Frenzy (6)  |  Profound (105)  |  Question (649)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Silence (62)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Will (2350)

At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit many millions of men swarmed to the East; the words of an hallucinated person … have created the force necessary to triumph over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther set Europe ablaze and bathed in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius transform a civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history.
From Les Premières Civilisations (1889), 171. English in The Psychology of Peoples (1898), Book 1, Chap. 1, 204, tweaked by Webmaster. Original French text: “A la voix d'un Pierre l'Ermite, plusieurs millions d'hommes se sont précipités sur l'Orient; les paroles d'un halluciné … ont créé la force nécessaire pour triompher du vieux monde gréco-romain; un moine obscur, comme Luther, a mis l'Europe à feu et à sang. Ce n’est pas parmi les foules que la voix d’un Galilée ou d’un Newton aura jamais le plus faible écho. Les inventeurs de génie transforment une civilisation. Les fanatiques et les hallucinés créent l’histoire.”
Science quotes on:  |  Bathe (3)  |  Bidding (2)  |  Blood (144)  |  Capable (174)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Create (245)  |  East (18)  |  Echo (12)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Europe (50)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Genius (301)  |  Greece (9)  |  Hasten (13)  |  History (716)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Martin Luther (9)  |  March (48)  |  Million (124)  |  Monk (5)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Orient (5)  |  Roman (39)  |  Rome (19)  |  Set (400)  |  Swarm (15)  |  Transform (74)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Voice (54)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Available energy is energy which we can direct into any desired channel. Dissipated energy is energy which we cannot lay hold of and direct at pleasure, such as the energy of the confused agitation of molecules which we call heat. Now, confusion, like the correlative term order, is not a property of material things in themselves, but only in relation to the mind which perceives them. A memorandum-book does not, provided it is neatly written, appear confused to an illiterate person, or to the owner who understands it thoroughly, but to any other person able to read it appears to be inextricably confused. Similarly the notion of dissipated energy could not occur to a being who could not turn any of the energies of nature to his own account, or to one who could trace the motion of every molecule and seize it at the right moment. It is only to a being in the intermediate stage, who can lay hold of some forms of energy while others elude his grasp, that energy appears to be passing inevitably from the available to the dissipated state.
'Diffusion', Encyclopaedia Britannica (1878). In W. D. Niven (ed.), The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell (1890), Vol. 2, 646.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Agitation (10)  |  Available (80)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Diffusion (13)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dissipate (8)  |  Elude (11)  |  Energy (373)  |  Form (976)  |  Heat (180)  |  Illiterate (6)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Material (366)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Moment (260)  |  Motion (320)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Notion (120)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passing (76)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Property (177)  |  Read (308)  |  Right (473)  |  Stage (152)  |  State (505)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Trace (109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)

Batter my heart, three-personed God …
Holy Sonnets, No. 14. Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 164
Science quotes on:  |  God (776)  |  Heart (243)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Number (710)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Originator (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rare (94)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remember (189)  |  Repository (5)  |  Rule (307)  |  Step (234)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)

Being perpetually charmed by his familiar siren, that is, by his geometry, he [Archimedes] neglected to eat and drink and took no care of his person; that he was often carried by force to the baths, and when there he would trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and with his finger draws lines upon his body when it was anointed with oil, being in a state of great ecstasy and divinely possessed by his science.
Plutarch
As translated in George Finlay Simmons, Calculus Gems: Brief Lives and Memorable Mathematics, (1992), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Ash (21)  |  Bath (11)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Care (203)  |  Carry (130)  |  Charm (54)  |  Divine (112)  |  Draw (140)  |  Drink (56)  |  Eat (108)  |  Ecstasy (9)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Figure (162)  |  Finger (48)  |  Fire (203)  |  Force (497)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Line (100)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Neglected (23)  |  Often (109)  |  Oil (67)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Possess (157)  |  Siren (4)  |  State (505)  |  Trace (109)

But from the time I was in college I learned that there is nothing one could imagine which is so strange and incredible that it was not said by some philosopher; and since that time, I have recognized through my travels that all those whose views are different from our own are not necessarily, for that reason, barbarians or savages, but that many of them use their reason either as much as or even more than we do. I also considered how the same person, with the same mind, who was brought up from infancy either among the French or the Germans, becomes different from what they would have been if they had always lived among the Chinese or among the cannibals, and how, even in our clothes fashions, the very thing that we liked ten years ago, and that we may like again within the next ten years, appears extravagant and ridiculous to us today. Thus our convictions result from custom and example very much more than from any knowledge that is certain... truths will be discovered by an individual rather than a whole people.
Discourse on Method in Discourse on Method and Related Writings (1637), trans. Desmond M. Clarke, Penguin edition (1999), Part 2, 14-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chinese (22)  |  College (71)  |  Consider (428)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Custom (44)  |  Different (595)  |  Discover (571)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ethnology (9)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  German (37)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Incredible (43)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Next (238)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Strange (160)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Travel (125)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

But it is precisely mathematics, and the pure science generally, from which the general educated public and independent students have been debarred, and into which they have only rarely attained more than a very meagre insight. The reason of this is twofold. In the first place, the ascendant and consecutive character of mathematical knowledge renders its results absolutely insusceptible of presentation to persons who are unacquainted with what has gone before, and so necessitates on the part of its devotees a thorough and patient exploration of the field from the very beginning, as distinguished from those sciences which may, so to speak, be begun at the end, and which are consequently cultivated with the greatest zeal. The second reason is that, partly through the exigencies of academic instruction, but mainly through the martinet traditions of antiquity and the influence of mediaeval logic-mongers, the great bulk of the elementary text-books of mathematics have unconsciously assumed a very repellant form,—something similar to what is termed in the theory of protective mimicry in biology “the terrifying form.” And it is mainly to this formidableness and touch-me-not character of exterior, concealing withal a harmless body, that the undue neglect of typical mathematical studies is to be attributed.
In Editor’s Preface to Augustus De Morgan and Thomas J. McCormack (ed.), Elementary Illustrations of the Differential and Integral Calculus (1899), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Academic (20)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Ascendant (2)  |  Assume (43)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biology (232)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (413)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Character (259)  |  Conceal (19)  |  Consecutive (2)  |  Consequent (19)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Debar (2)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Educated (12)  |  Elementary (98)  |  End (603)  |  Exigency (3)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Exterior (7)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Formidable (8)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harmless (9)  |  Independent (74)  |  Influence (231)  |  Insight (107)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meager (2)  |  Medieval (12)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Part (235)  |  Patient (209)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Protective (5)  |  Public (100)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Reason (766)  |  Render (96)  |  Repellent (4)  |  Result (700)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Term (357)  |  Terrify (12)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thorough (40)  |  Through (846)  |  Touch (146)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Typical (16)  |  Unacquainted (3)  |  Unconscious (24)  |  Undue (4)  |  Zeal (12)

But the fact is that when wine is taken in moderation, it gives rise to a large amount of breath, whose character is balanced, and whose luminosity is strong and brilliant. Hence wine disposes greatly to gladness, and the person is subject to quite trivial exciting agents. The breath now takes up the impression of agents belonging to the present time more easily than it does those which relate to the future; it responds to agents conducive to delight rather than those conducive to a sense of beauty.
Avicenna
'The External Causes of Delight and Sadness', in The Canon of Medicine, adapted by L. Bakhtiar (19-99), 149-50.
Science quotes on:  |  Agent (73)  |  Amount (153)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Breath (61)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Character (259)  |  Delight (111)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Future (467)  |  Gladness (5)  |  Impression (118)  |  Large (398)  |  Luminosity (6)  |  More (2558)  |  Present (630)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sense (785)  |  Strong (182)  |  Subject (543)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Wine (39)

Can any thoughtful person admit for a moment that, in a society so constituted that these overwhelming contrasts of luxury and privation are looked upon as necessities, and are treated by the Legislature as matters with which it has practically nothing do, there is the smallest probability that we can deal successfully with such tremendous social problems as those which involve the marriage tie and the family relation as a means of promoting the physical and moral advancement of the race? What a mockery to still further whiten the sepulchre of society, in which is hidden ‘all manner of corruption,’ with schemes for the moral and physical advancement of the race!
In 'Human Selection', Fortnightly Review (1890),48, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Admit (49)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Constituted (5)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Family (101)  |  Further (6)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Involve (93)  |  Legislature (4)  |  Look (584)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mockery (2)  |  Moment (260)  |  Moral (203)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Physical (518)  |  Practically (10)  |  Privation (5)  |  Probability (135)  |  Problem (731)  |  Promoting (7)  |  Race (278)  |  Relation (166)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Sepulchre (4)  |  Smallest (9)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Still (614)  |  Successful (134)  |  Thoughtful (16)  |  Tie (42)  |  Treated (2)  |  Tremendous (29)

Climate change threatens every corner of our country, every sector of our economy and the health and future of every child. We are already seeing its impacts and we know the poorest and most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world will suffer most of all.
In Hillary Clinton, 'Hillary Clinton: America Must Lead at Paris Climate Talks', Time (29 Nov 2015).
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Change (639)  |  Child (333)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Corner (59)  |  Country (269)  |  Economy (59)  |  Future (467)  |  Health (210)  |  Impact (45)  |  Know (1538)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1031)  |  Poorest (2)  |  Sector (7)  |  Seeing (143)  |  State (505)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Threat (36)  |  Threaten (33)  |  United States (31)  |  Vulnerable (7)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Deformed persons commonly take revenge on nature.
The Advancement of Learning, Bk VI, Ch. 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Handicap (7)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Revenge (10)

Despite the high long-term probability of extinction, every organism alive today, including every person reading this paper, is a link in an unbroken chain of parent-offspring relationships that extends back unbroken to the beginning of life on earth. Every living organism is a part of an enormously long success story—each of its direct ancestors has been sufficiently well adapted to its physical and biological environments to allow it to mature and reproduce successfully. Viewed thus, adaptation is not a trivial facet of natural history, but a biological attribute so central as to be inseparable from life itself.
In 'Integrative Biology: An Organismic Biologist’s Point of View', Integrative and Comparative Biology (2005), 45, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alive (97)  |  Allow (51)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Central (81)  |  Chain (51)  |  Despite (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enormously (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Facet (9)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Link (48)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Mature (17)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organism (231)  |  Paper (192)  |  Parent (80)  |  Part (235)  |  Physical (518)  |  Probability (135)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Story (122)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  Term (357)  |  Today (321)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  View (496)

Doctors have been exposed—you always will be exposed—to the attacks of those persons who consider their own undisciplined emotions more important than the world's most bitter agonies—the people who would limit and cripple and hamper research because they fear research may be accompanied by a little pain and suffering.
Doctors (1908), 28-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Attack (86)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Consider (428)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fear (212)  |  Limit (294)  |  Little (717)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pain (144)  |  People (1031)  |  Physician (284)  |  Research (753)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Don’t talk to me of your Archimedes’ lever. He was an absent-minded person with a mathematical imagination. Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines. Give me the right word and the right accent and I will move the world.
In 'Preface', A Personal Record (1912), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Absent-Minded (4)  |  Accent (5)  |  Archimedes Lever (3)  |  Command (60)  |  Engine (99)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Lever (13)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Move (223)  |  Respect (212)  |  Right (473)  |  Talk (108)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.
As quoted, without citation, in Robert Slater, Portraits in Silicon (1987), 88. In reply to a student expressing concern that his own ideas might be stolen before he had published his own thesis. Also seen as “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats,” in Eric A. Weiss, A Computer Science Reader: Selections from ABACUS (1988), 404. (The selections were published in the first three-and-a-half years of ABACUS, a quarterly journal for computing professionals.)
Science quotes on:  |  Down (455)  |  Idea (881)  |  Original (61)  |  People (1031)  |  Ram (3)  |  Steal (14)  |  Throat (10)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worry (34)

Each person is an idiom unto himself, an apparent violation of the syntax of the species.
Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality (1955), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Himself (461)  |  Idiom (5)  |  Species (435)  |  Violation (7)

Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  College (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Experience (494)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Little (717)  |  Matter (821)  |  Private (29)  |  School (227)  |  World (1850)

Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and the convenience of people. In its modern form engineering involves people, money, materials, machines, and energy. It is differentiated from science because it is primarily concerned with how to direct to useful and economical ends the natural phenomena which scientists discover and formulate into acceptable theories. Engineering therefore requires above all the creative imagination to innovate useful applications of natural phenomena. It seeks newer, cheaper, better means of using natural sources of energy and materials.
In McGraw Hill, Science and Technology Encyclopedia
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptable (14)  |  Application (257)  |  Art (680)  |  Better (493)  |  Cheaper (6)  |  Concern (239)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Creative (144)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Direct (228)  |  Directing (5)  |  Discover (571)  |  Economical (11)  |  End (603)  |  Energy (373)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Form (976)  |  Formulate (16)  |  Great (1610)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innovate (2)  |  Involve (93)  |  Machine (271)  |  Material (366)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Modern (402)  |  Money (178)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomena (8)  |  Power (771)  |  Primarily (12)  |  Require (229)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Source (101)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)

Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.
Aphorism 63 from Selected Aphorisms from the Lyceum (1797-1800). In Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms (trans. 1968), 137.
Science quotes on:  |  Caricature (6)  |  Himself (461)  |  Uneducated (9)

Everybody is pathological to a certain degree... the more so the elevated his standing... only myth and cliche have that a person must be either sane or crazy.
In Ausgewahlte Werke, Vol. I (1909), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Cliche (8)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Degree (277)  |  Everybody (72)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Myth (58)  |  Pathological (21)  |  Sanity (9)

Evolution is a hard, inescapable mistress. There is just no room for compassion or good sportsmanship. Too many organisms are born, so, quite simply, a lot of them are going to have to die because there isn't enough food and space to go around. You can be beautiful, fast and strong, but it might not matter. The only thing that does matter is, whether you leave more children carrying your genes than the next person leaves. It’s true whether you’re a prince, a frog, or an American elm.
From The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Birth (154)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Death (406)  |  Elm (4)  |  Enough (341)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fast (49)  |  Food (213)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gene (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Hard (246)  |  Inescapable (7)  |  Lot (151)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mistress (7)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Next (238)  |  Organism (231)  |  Prince (13)  |  Space (523)  |  Strong (182)  |  Thing (1914)

Finally, in regard to those who possess the largest shares in the stock of worldly goods, could there, in your opinion, be any police so vigilant and effetive, for the protections of all the rights of person, property and character, as such a sound and comprehensive education and training, as our system of Common Schools could be made to impart; and would not the payment of a sufficient tax to make such education and training universal, be the cheapest means of self-protection and insurance?
Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts for the years 1839-1844, Life and Works of Horace Mann (1891), Vol. 3, 100.
Science quotes on:  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Comprehensive (29)  |  Education (423)  |  Good (906)  |  Impart (24)  |  Insurance (12)  |  Largest (39)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Police (5)  |  Possess (157)  |  Property (177)  |  Protection (41)  |  Regard (312)  |  Right (473)  |  School (227)  |  Self (268)  |  Share (82)  |  Sound (187)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Tax (27)  |  Training (92)  |  Universal (198)

First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.
From biography on University of California, Berkeley, website.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Background (44)  |  Calm (32)  |  Computer (131)  |  Desktop (2)  |  Era (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lot (151)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mainframe (3)  |  Next (238)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Personal (75)  |  Recede (11)  |  Receding (2)  |  Sharing (11)  |  Staring (3)  |  Technology (281)  |  Ubiquitous (5)

First, it must be a pleasure to study the human body the most miraculous masterpiece of nature and to learn about the smallest vessel and the smallest fiber. But second and most important, the medical profession gives the opportunity to alleviate the troubles of the body, to ease the pain, to console a person who is in distress, and to lighten the hour of death of many a sufferer.
Reasons for his choice of medicine as a career, from essay written during his last year in the Gymnasium (high school). As quoted in Leslie Dunn, Rudolf Virchow: Now You Know His Name (2012), 8-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Alleviate (4)  |  Body (557)  |  Career (86)  |  Console (3)  |  Death (406)  |  Distress (9)  |  Ease (40)  |  Fiber (16)  |  First (1302)  |  Hour (192)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Importance (299)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lighten (2)  |  Masterpiece (9)  |  Medical (31)  |  Miraculous (11)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Profession (108)  |  Smallest (9)  |  Study (701)  |  Sufferer (7)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Vessel (63)

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance.
Citing calculations made by environmentalist author, Chris Goodall.
'Walking to the shops damages planet more than going by car', in The Times (4 Aug 2007)
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Calorie (2)  |  Car (75)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Footprint (2)  |  Distance (171)  |  Emit (15)  |  Energy (373)  |  Enough (341)  |  Food (213)  |  Intensive (9)  |  More (2558)  |  Production (190)  |  Shop (11)  |  Walk (138)

For a smart material to be able to send out a more complex signal it needs to be nonlinear. If you hit a tuning fork twice as hard it will ring twice as loud but still at the same frequency. That’s a linear response. If you hit a person twice as hard they’re unlikely just to shout twice as loud. That property lets you learn more about the person than the tuning fork. - When Things Start to Think, 1999.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Complex (202)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Hard (246)  |  Hit (20)  |  Learn (672)  |  Let (64)  |  Linear (13)  |  Loud (9)  |  Material (366)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (320)  |  Nonlinear (4)  |  Property (177)  |  Response (56)  |  Ring (18)  |  Same (166)  |  Send (23)  |  Shout (25)  |  Signal (29)  |  Smart (33)  |  Start (237)  |  Still (614)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tuning Fork (2)  |  Twice (20)  |  Unlikely (15)  |  Will (2350)

For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself.
Lecture, University of Maryland (Mar 2005).
Science quotes on:  |  Baffled (3)  |  Life (1870)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Work (1402)

For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England and on Some of its Causes (1830), 18.
Science quotes on:  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessed (20)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Invention (400)  |  Power (771)  |  Principle (530)  |  Will (2350)

For the sake of persons of ... different types, scientific truth should be presented in different forms, and should be regarded as equally scientific, whether it appears in the robust form and the vivid coloring of a physical illustration, or in the tenuity and paleness of a symbolic expression.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Appear (122)  |  Color (155)  |  Different (595)  |  Equally (129)  |  Expression (181)  |  Form (976)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Physical (518)  |  Present (630)  |  Regard (312)  |  Robust (7)  |  Sake (61)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Tenuity (2)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Type (171)  |  Vivid (25)

Freeman’s gift? It’s cosmic. He is able to see more interconnections between more things than almost anybody. He sees the interrelationships, whether it’s in some microscopic physical process or in a big complicated machine like Orion. He has been, from the time he was in his teens, capable of understanding essentially anything that he’s interested in. He’s the most intelligent person I know.
As quoted in Kenneth Brower, 'The Danger of Cosmic Genius', The Atlantic (Dec 2010). Webmaster note: The Orion Project was a study of the possibility of nuclear powered propulsion of spacecraft.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Capable (174)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Connection (171)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Freeman Dyson (55)  |  Gift (105)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interested (5)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machine (271)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Process (439)  |  Relationship (114)  |  See (1094)  |  Teen (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

Gardner writes about various kinds of cranks with the conscious superiority of the scientist…. He asserts that the scientist, unlike the crank, does his best to remain open-minded, so how can he be so sure that no sane person has ever seen a flying saucer…? … A.J. Ayer once remarked wryly “I wish I was as certain of anything as he seems to be about everything”.
In The Quest For Wilhelm Reich (1981), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Best (467)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Crank (18)  |  Everything (489)  |  Flying (74)  |  Flying Saucer (3)  |  Martin Gardner (50)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Open (277)  |  Open-Minded (2)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sane (5)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Superiority (19)  |  Various (205)  |  Wish (216)  |  Write (250)

Genetics is the first biological science which got in the position in which physics has been in for many years. One can justifiably speak about such a thing as theoretical mathematical genetics, and experimental genetics, just as in physics. There are some mathematical geniuses who work out what to an ordinary person seems a fantastic kind of theory. This fantastic kind of theory nevertheless leads to experimentally verifiable prediction, which an experimental physicist then has to test the validity of. Since the times of Wright, Haldane, and Fisher, evolutionary genetics has been in a similar position.
Oral history memoir. Columbia University, Oral History Research Office, New York, 1962. Quoted in William B. Provine, Sewall Wright and Evolutionary Biology (1989), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Biology (232)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Fantastic (21)  |  First (1302)  |  Fischer_Ronald (2)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lead (391)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Speak (240)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Validity (50)  |  Work (1402)  |  Sewall Wright (9)  |  Year (963)

Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one’s mind right. All of its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to enter into geometrical reasoning, because it is well arranged and orderly. Thus, the mind that constantly applies itself to geometry is not likely to fall into error. In this convenient way, the person who knows geometry acquires intelligence.
In Ibn Khaldûn, Franz Rosenthal (trans.) and N.J. Dawood (ed.), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (1967, 1969), Vol. 1, 378.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Apply (170)  |  Arranged (4)  |  Clear (111)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enter (145)  |  Error (339)  |  Fall (243)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Know (1538)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Orderly (38)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Right (473)  |  Set (400)  |  Way (1214)

Given one has before oneself a strong, healthy, youth rich in spirited blood and a powerless, weak, cachectic old man scarcely capable of breathing. If now the physician wishes to practise the rejuvenating art on the latter, he should make silver tubes which fit into each other: open then the artery of the healthy person and introduce one of the tubes into it and fasten it into the artery; thereupon he opens also the artery of the ill person...
[First detailed description of blood transfusion (1615)]
In N.S.R. Maluf, 'History of Blood Transfusion', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1954), 9, No. 1, 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Artery (10)  |  Blood (144)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Capable (174)  |  Detail (150)  |  First (1302)  |  Fit (139)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Man (2252)  |  Old (499)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physician (284)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Silver (49)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strong (182)  |  Transfusion (2)  |  Weak (73)  |  Youth (109)

Good work is no done by “humble” men. It is one of the first duties of a professor, for example, in any subject, to exaggerate a little both the importance of his subject and his own importance in it. A man who is always asking “Is what I do worth while?” and “Am I the right person to do it?” will always be ineffective himself and a discouragement to others. He must shut his eyes a little and think a little more of his subject and himself than they deserve. This is not too difficult: it is harder not to make his subject and himself ridiculous by shutting his eyes too tightly.
In A Mathematician’s Apology (1940, 1967), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Both (496)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Deserving (4)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Duty (71)  |  Exaggeration (16)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Harder (6)  |  Himself (461)  |  Humble (54)  |  Importance (299)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Professor (133)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Shut (41)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Tightly (2)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some occult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling. The difference in geese, as discovered by this ingenious method, is considerable: many are found to have only trivial and insignificant powers, but some are seen to be very great geese indeed.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  119-120.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Author (175)  |  Bird (163)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Degree (277)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discover (571)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Goose (13)  |  Great (1610)  |  Humour (116)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Occult (9)  |  Paper (192)  |  Power (771)  |  Process (439)  |  Result (700)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Various (205)  |  Writing (192)

He [Robert Hooke] is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his face but little belowe, but his head is lardge; his eie full and popping, and not quick; a grey eie. He haz a delicate head of haire, browne, and of an excellent moist curle. He is and ever was very temperate, and moderate in dyet, etc. As he is of prodigious inventive head, so is a person of great vertue and goodnes. Now when I have sayd his Inventive faculty is so great, you cannot imagine his Memory to be excellent, for they are like two Bucketts, as one goes up, the other goes downe. He is certainly the greatest Mechanick this day in the World.
Brief Lives (1680), edited by Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Biography (254)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Face (214)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Robert Hooke (20)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Little (717)  |  Memory (144)  |  Moist (13)  |  Other (2233)  |  Prodigious (20)  |  Something (718)  |  Two (936)  |  World (1850)

Hell, if I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel prize.
After being awarded a Nobel Prize, he was frequently asked to explain what he had done, and would would give this answer. As stated in Lee Dye, 'Nobel Physicist R.P. Feynman of Caltech Dies', Los Angeles Times (16 Feb 1988). About this answer, the articles also states that, “Feynman once said, claiming he was told that by a New York cab driver.”
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Worth (172)

Hence when a person is in great pain, the cause of which he cannot remove, he sets his teeth firmly together, or bites some substance between them with great vehemence, as another mode of violent exertion to produce a temporary relief. Thus we have the proverb where no help can be has in pain, 'to grin and abide;' and the tortures of hell are said to be attended with 'gnashing of teeth.'Describing a suggestion of the origin of the grin in the present form of a proverb, 'to grin and bear it.'
Zoonomia, Or, The Laws of Organic Life, in three parts (1803), Vol. 1, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Attend (67)  |  Bear (162)  |  Bite (18)  |  Cause (561)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Origin (250)  |  Pain (144)  |  Present (630)  |  Proverb (29)  |  Relief (30)  |  Remove (50)  |  Set (400)  |  Substance (253)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Teeth (43)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Together (392)  |  Torture (30)

His [Erwin Schrödinger's] private life seemed strange to bourgeois people like ourselves. But all this does not matter. He was a most lovable person, independent, amusing, temperamental, kind and generous, and he had a most perfect and efficient brain.
Max Born
In My Life, Recollections of a Nobel Laureate (1978), 270. Quoted by Walter Moore, Schrödinger: Life and Thought (1992), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brain (281)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Generosity (7)  |  Generous (17)  |  Independence (37)  |  Kind (564)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Life (1870)  |  Matter (821)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Private Life (3)  |  Erwin Schrödinger (68)  |  Strange (160)  |  Temperament (18)

Historical chronology, human or geological, depends... upon comparable impersonal principles. If one scribes with a stylus on a plate of wet clay two marks, the second crossing the first, another person on examining these marks can tell unambiguously which was made first and which second, because the latter event irreversibly disturbs its predecessor. In virtue of the fact that most of the rocks of the earth contain imprints of a succession of such irreversible events, an unambiguous working out of the chronological sequence of these events becomes possible.
'Critique of the Principle of Uniformity', in C. C. Albritton (ed.), Uniformity and Simplicity (1967), 31.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Chronology (9)  |  Depend (238)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possible (560)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Principle (530)  |  Rock (176)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Succession (80)  |  Tell (344)  |  Two (936)  |  Virtue (117)

History without the history of science, to alter slightly an apothegm of Lord Bacon, resembles a statue of Polyphemus without his eye—that very feature being left out which most marks the spirit and life of the person. My own thesis is complementary: science taught ... without a sense of history is robbed of those very qualities that make it worth teaching to the student of the humanities and the social sciences.
'The History of Science and the Teaching of Science', in I. Bernard Cohen and Fletcher G. Watson (eds.), General Education in Science (1952), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Alter (64)  |  Sir Francis Bacon (188)  |  Being (1276)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Eye (440)  |  Feature (49)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lord (97)  |  Mark (47)  |  Most (1728)  |  Quality (139)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Sense (785)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Statue (17)  |  Student (317)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thesis (17)  |  Worth (172)

Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization, never intended ... to take in the whole sick population. May we hope that the day will come ... when every poor sick person will have the opportunity of a share in a district sick-nurse at home.
In 'Nursing of the Sick' paper, collected in Hospitals, Dispensaries and Nursing: Papers and Discussions in the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Section III, Chicago, June 12th to 17th, 1893 (1894), 457.
Science quotes on:  |  Civilization (220)  |  District (11)  |  Home (184)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hospital (45)  |  Intent (9)  |  Intermediate (38)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nurse (33)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Poor (139)  |  Population (115)  |  Share (82)  |  Sick (83)  |  Stage (152)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Art (680)  |  Awaken (17)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Definite (114)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Important (229)  |  Keep (104)  |  Most (1728)  |  Notion (120)  |  Receptive (5)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rise (169)  |  Theology (54)  |  View (496)

How have people come to be taken in by The Phenomenon of Man? Just as compulsory primary education created a market catered for by cheap dailies and weeklies, so the spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought … [The Phenomenon of Man] is written in an all but totally unintelligible style, and this is construed as prima-facie evidence of profundity.
Medawar’s book review of The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin first appeared as 'Critical Notice' in the journal Mind (1961), 70, No. 277, 105. The book review was reprinted in The Art of the Soluble: Creativity and Originality in Science (1967).
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Cheap (13)  |  Compulsory (8)  |  Construed (2)  |  Created (6)  |  Daily (91)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Educated (12)  |  Education (423)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Large (398)  |  Literary (15)  |  Man (2252)  |  Market (23)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Population (115)  |  Prima Facie (2)  |  Primary (82)  |  Profundity (6)  |  Scholarly (2)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Spread (86)  |  Style (24)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tertiary (4)  |  Thought (995)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Written (6)

I agree with Schopenhauer that one of the most powerful motives that attracts people to science and art is the longing to escape from everyday life.
Quoted, without citation in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Feb 1959), 85. If you know a primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Art (680)  |  Attract (25)  |  Escape (85)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Life (1870)  |  Longing (19)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  People (1031)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Arthur Schopenhauer (19)  |  Science And Art (195)

I am aware that those hateful persons called Original Researchers now maintain that Raleigh was not the man; but to them I turn a deaf ear.
On who offered his coat for Queen Elizabeth I.
My Lady Nicotine (1890), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Ear (69)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Offer (142)  |  Research (753)  |  Researcher (36)  |  Turn (454)

I am very sorry, Pyrophilus, that to the many (elsewhere enumerated) difficulties which you may meet with, and must therefore surmount, in the serious and effectual prosecution of experimental philosophy I must add one discouragement more, which will perhaps is much surprise as dishearten you; and it is, that besides that you will find (as we elsewhere mention) many of the experiments published by authors, or related to you by the persons you converse with, false and unsuccessful (besides this, I say), you will meet with several observations and experiments which, though communicated for true by candid authors or undistrusted eye-witnesses, or perhaps recommended by your own experience, may, upon further trial, disappoint your expectation, either not at all succeeding constantly, or at least varying much from what you expected.
Opening paragraph of The First Essay Concerning the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments (1673), collected in The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle in Six Volumes to Which is Prefixed the Life of the Author (1772), Vol. 1, 318-319.
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Disappoint (14)  |  Disappointment (18)  |  Discouragement (10)  |  Disheartening (2)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Eye (440)  |  False (105)  |  Find (1014)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Say (989)  |  Serious (98)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Success (327)  |  Surprise (91)  |  Trial (59)  |  Unsuccessful (4)  |  Will (2350)

I believe that in every person is a kind of circuit which resonates to intellectual discovery—and the idea is to make that resonance work
Quoted by Dennis Meredith, in 'Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish', Science Digest (Jun 1979), 85, 37. Reproduced in Carl Sagan and Tom Head (editor), Conversations With Sagan (2006), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Kind (564)  |  Resonance (7)  |  Work (1402)

I believe that the useful methods of mathematics are easily to be learned by quite young persons, just as languages are easily learned in youth. What a wondrous philosophy and history underlie the use of almost every word in every language—yet the child learns to use the word unconsciously. No doubt when such a word was first invented it was studied over and lectured upon, just as one might lecture now upon the idea of a rate, or the use of Cartesian co-ordinates, and we may depend upon it that children of the future will use the idea of the calculus, and use squared paper as readily as they now cipher. … When Egyptian and Chaldean philosophers spent years in difficult calculations, which would now be thought easy by young children, doubtless they had the same notions of the depth of their knowledge that Sir William Thomson might now have of his. How is it, then, that Thomson gained his immense knowledge in the time taken by a Chaldean philosopher to acquire a simple knowledge of arithmetic? The reason is plain. Thomson, when a child, was taught in a few years more than all that was known three thousand years ago of the properties of numbers. When it is found essential to a boy’s future that machinery should be given to his brain, it is given to him; he is taught to use it, and his bright memory makes the use of it a second nature to him; but it is not till after-life that he makes a close investigation of what there actually is in his brain which has enabled him to do so much. It is taken because the child has much faith. In after years he will accept nothing without careful consideration. The machinery given to the brain of children is getting more and more complicated as time goes on; but there is really no reason why it should not be taken in as early, and used as readily, as were the axioms of childish education in ancient Chaldea.
In Teaching of Mathematics (1902), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acquire (46)  |  Actually (27)  |  Afterlife (3)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Belief (615)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brain (281)  |  Bright (81)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Careful (28)  |  Cartesian (3)  |  Chaldea (4)  |  Child (333)  |  Childish (20)  |  Children (201)  |  Cipher (3)  |  Close (77)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Coordinate (5)  |  Depend (238)  |  Depth (97)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Doubtless (8)  |  Early (196)  |  Easily (36)  |  Easy (213)  |  Education (423)  |  Egyptian (5)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essential (210)  |  Faith (209)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Future (467)  |  Gain (146)  |  Give (208)  |  History (716)  |  Idea (881)  |  Immense (89)  |  Invent (57)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Baron William Thomson Kelvin (74)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Language (308)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Memory (144)  |  Method (531)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Paper (192)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Plain (34)  |  Property (177)  |  Rate (31)  |  Readily (10)  |  Reason (766)  |  Same (166)  |  Second Nature (3)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Square (73)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unconsciously (9)  |  Underlie (19)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wondrous (22)  |  Word (650)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)  |  Youth (109)

I came by the horror naturally. Surgery is the one branch of medicine that is the most violent. After all, it’s violent to take up a knife and cut open a person’s body and rummage around with your hands. I think I was attracted to the horrific.
As quoted in Randy Hutter Epstein, 'Richard Selzer, Who Fictionalized Medicine’s Absurdity and Gore, Dies at 87', New York Times (15 Jun 2016). Explaining why his first fiction writing was horror stories.
Science quotes on:  |  Attracted (3)  |  Body (557)  |  Branch (155)  |  Cut (116)  |  Hand (149)  |  Horror (15)  |  Knife (24)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Open (277)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Think (1122)  |  Violent (17)

I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.
Preferring the “silence of the forest” to the noise of a cocktail party while participating in a symposium, 'What We Can Learn About Humankind From the Apes' at Sweet Briar College campus. As quoted by Nan Robertson in 'Three Who Have Chosen a Life in the Wild', New York Times (1 May 1981), B36.
Science quotes on:  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feel (371)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivated (14)  |  Motivation (28)  |  People (1031)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)

I feel sorry for the person who can't get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile.
Science quotes on:  |  Feel (371)  |  Feel Sorry (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthwhile (18)

I grew up in love with science, asking the same questions all children ask as they try to codify the world to find out what makes it work. “Who is the smartest person in the world?” and “Where is the tallest mountain in the world?” turned into questions like, “How big is the universe?” and “What is it that makes us alive?”
In Introduction to Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman (eds.), Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), xix.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Codify (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Learn (672)  |  Love (328)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Question (649)  |  Smart (33)  |  Tall (11)  |  Try (296)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

I had a Meccano set with which I “played” endlessly. Meccano which was invented by Frank Hornby around 1900, is called Erector Set in the US. New toys (mainly Lego) have led to the extinction of Meccano and this has been a major disaster as far as the education of our young engineers and scientists is concerned. Lego is a technically trivial plaything and kids love it partly because it is so simple and partly because it is seductively coloured. However it is only a toy, whereas Meccano is a real engineering kit and it teaches one skill which I consider to be the most important that anyone can acquire: This is the sensitive touch needed to thread a nut on a bolt and tighten them with a screwdriver and spanner just enough that they stay locked, but not so tightly that the thread is stripped or they cannot be unscrewed. On those occasions (usually during a party at your house) when the handbasin tap is closed so tightly that you cannot turn it back on, you know the last person to use the washroom never had a Meccano set.
Nobel laureate autobiography in Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures 1996 (1997), 189.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Back (395)  |  Bolt (11)  |  Call (781)  |  Closed (38)  |  Color (155)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consider (428)  |  Disaster (58)  |  Education (423)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enough (341)  |  Extinction (80)  |  House (143)  |  Important (229)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kid (18)  |  Kit (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Lock (14)  |  Love (328)  |  Major (88)  |  Meccano (5)  |  Most (1728)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nut (7)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Party (19)  |  Play (116)  |  Plaything (3)  |  Real (159)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Screwdriver (2)  |  Seduction (3)  |  Sensitive (15)  |  Set (400)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Skill (116)  |  Spanner (2)  |  Strip (7)  |  Tap (10)  |  Teach (299)  |  Technical (53)  |  Thread (36)  |  Tight (4)  |  Touch (146)  |  Toy (22)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Usually (176)  |  Young (253)

I hardly know of a great physical truth whose universal reception has not been preceded by an epoch in which the most estimable persons have maintained that the phenomena investigated were directly dependent on the Divine Will, and that the attempt to investigate them was not only futile but blasphemous. And there is a wonderful tenacity of life about this sort of opposition to physical science. Crushed and maimed in every battle, it yet seems never to be slain; and after a hundred defeats it is at this day as rampant, though happily not so mischievous, as in the time of Galileo.
In Address (10 Feb 1860) to weekly evening meeting, 'On Species and Races, and their Origin', Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution: Vol. III: 1858-1862 (1862), 199.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Battle (36)  |  Crush (19)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Divine (112)  |  Epoch (46)  |  Futile (13)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maim (3)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mischievous (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Rampant (2)  |  Reception (16)  |  Tenacity (10)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universal (198)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)

I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul.
In Keeping Cool: And Other Essays (1940), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Meet (36)  |  Never (1089)  |  Soul (235)  |  Worry (34)

I have sometimes experienced from nitrous oxide, sensations similar to no others, and they have consequently been indescribable. This has been likewise often the case with other persons. Of two paralytic patients who were asked what they felt after breathing nitrous oxide, the first answered, “I do not know how, but very queer.” The second said, “I felt like the sound of a harp.”
Referring to his investigation of the effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Breathing (23)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  Harp (4)  |  Know (1538)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Nitrous Oxide (5)  |  Other (2233)  |  Patient (209)  |  Queer (9)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sound (187)  |  Two (936)

I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me with them. When I began to study man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not suited to him, and that in diving into them, I wandered farther from my real object than those who knew them not, and I forgave them for not having attended to these things. I expected then, however, that I should find some companions in the study of man, since it was so specifically a duty. I was in error. There are fewer students of man than of geometry.
Thoughts of Blaise Pascal (1846), 137.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Attend (67)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Communication (101)  |  Companion (22)  |  Disgust (10)  |  Error (339)  |  Expect (203)  |  Farther (51)  |  Find (1014)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Object (438)  |  Saw (160)  |  Spent (85)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wander (44)

I must not pass by Dr. Young called Phaenomenon Young at Cambridge. A man of universal erudition, & almost universal accomplishments. Had he limited himself to anyone department of knowledge, he must have been first in that department. But as a mathematician, a scholar, a hieroglyphist, he was eminent; & he knew so much that it is difficult to say what he did not know. He was a most amiable & good-tempered man; too fond, perhaps, of the society of persons of rank for a true philosopher.
J. Z. Fullmer, 'Davy's Sketches of his Contemporaries', Chymia (1967), 12, 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Amiable (10)  |  Call (781)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Department (93)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Erudition (7)  |  First (1302)  |  Fond (13)  |  Good (906)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Pass (241)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Rank (69)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Society (350)  |  Universal (198)  |  Young (253)  |  Thomas Young (15)

I should object to any experimentation which can justly be called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction ... [but I regret] a condition of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the web of the foot. ... [Maybe the frog is] inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his toes tied out ... But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that way for gain or for sport) without due licence of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, granted under the authority of the Vivisection Act.
... [Yet, in] 1877, two persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for hours; the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would be pained by tying strings round his fingers, and keeping him in the position of a hydropathic patient. The first offender says, 'I did it because I find fishing very amusing,' and the magistrate bids him depart in peace; nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second pleads, 'I wanted to impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness attainable in no other way, on the minds of my scholars,' and the magistrate fines him five pounds.
I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly creditable state of things.
'On Elementary Instruction in Physiology'. Science and Culture (1882), 92.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Amusement (37)  |  Animal (651)  |  Authority (99)  |  Bait (2)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Boy (100)  |  Call (781)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Condition (362)  |  Creature (242)  |  Creditable (3)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  Deal (192)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Department (93)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fine (37)  |  First (1302)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gain (146)  |  Good (906)  |  Grant (76)  |  Home (184)  |  Hour (192)  |  Idle (34)  |  Impress (66)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Law (913)  |  Live (650)  |  Magistrate (2)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Object (438)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Patient (209)  |  Peace (116)  |  Permit (61)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Regret (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholar (52)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Set (400)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Spectacles (10)  |  Sport (23)  |  State (505)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trial (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Use (771)  |  Vivisection (7)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)

I suppose that the first chemists seemed to be very hard-hearted and unpoetical persons when they scouted the glorious dream of the alchemists that there must be some process for turning base metals into gold. I suppose that the men who first said, in plain, cold assertion, there is no fountain of eternal youth, seemed to be the most cruel and cold-hearted adversaries of human happiness. I know that the economists who say that if we could transmute lead into gold, it would certainly do us no good and might do great harm, are still regarded as unworthy of belief. Do not the money articles of the newspapers yet ring with the doctrine that we are getting rich when we give cotton and wheat for gold rather than when we give cotton and wheat for iron?
'The Forgotten Man' (1883). In The Forgotten Man and Other Essays (1918), 468.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Article (22)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Base (120)  |  Base Metal (3)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Cold (115)  |  Cotton (8)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Cruelty (24)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dream (222)  |  Economist (20)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Eternity (64)  |  First (1302)  |  Fountain (18)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Glory (66)  |  Gold (101)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Hard (246)  |  Harm (43)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Iron (99)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Metal (88)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Newspaper (39)  |  Process (439)  |  Regard (312)  |  Richness (15)  |  Ring (18)  |  Say (989)  |  Scout (3)  |  Still (614)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supposition (50)  |  Transmutation (24)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Wheat (10)  |  Youth (109)

I tell [medical students] that they are the luckiest persons on earth to be in medical school, and to forget all this worry about H.M.O.’s and keep your eye on helping the patient. It’s the best time ever to be a doctor because you can heal and treat conditions that were untreatable even a couple of years ago.
From Cornelia Dean, 'A Conversation with Joseph E. Murray', New York Times (25 Sep 2001), F5.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Best (467)  |  Condition (362)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Eye (440)  |  Forget (125)  |  Heal (7)  |  Help (116)  |  Luck (44)  |  Medical School (3)  |  Patient (209)  |  School (227)  |  Student (317)  |  Tell (344)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treat (38)  |  Worry (34)  |  Year (963)

I tell young people to reach for the stars. And I can't think of a greater high than you could possibly get than by inventing something.
From audio on MIT video '1999 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award Winner', on 'Innovative Lives: Stephanie Kwolek and Kevlar, The Wonder Fiber' on the Smithsonian website.
Science quotes on:  |  Greater (288)  |  High (370)  |  Invention (400)  |  People (1031)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Reach (286)  |  Something (718)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Tell (344)  |  Telling (24)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Young (253)

I think it is the general rule that the originator of a new idea is not the most suitable person to develop it, because his fears of something going wrong are really too strong…
At age 69.
The Development of Quantum Theory (1971). In A. Pais, 'Playing With Equations, the Dirac Way'. Behram N. Kursunoglu (Ed.) and Eugene Paul Wigner (Ed.), Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences about a Great Physicist (1990), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Develop (278)  |  Fear (212)  |  General (521)  |  Idea (881)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Originator (7)  |  Rule (307)  |  Something (718)  |  Strong (182)  |  Think (1122)  |  Wrong (246)

I took a good clear piece of Cork and with a Pen-knife sharpen'd as keen as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off, and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth, then examining it very diligently with a Microscope, me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous; but I could not so plainly distinguish them, as to be sure that they were pores, much less what Figure they were of: But judging from the lightness and yielding quality of the Cork, that certainly the texture could not be so curious, but that possibly, if I could use some further diligence, I might find it to be discernable with a Microscope, I with the same sharp Penknife, cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it with a deep plano-convex Glass, I could exceedingly plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular; yet it was not unlike a Honey-comb in these particulars.
First, in that it had a very little solid substance, in comparison of the empty cavity that was contain'd between, ... for the Interstitia or walls (as I may so call them) or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in proportion to their pores as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb (which enclose and constitute the sexangular cells) are to theirs.
Next, in that these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but constituted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long pore, by certain Diaphragms...
I no sooner discerned these (which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this) but me thought I had with the discovery of them, presently hinted to me the true and intelligible reason of all the Phænomena of Cork.
Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries thereupon (1665), 112-6.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Cavity (9)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Convex (6)  |  Cork (2)  |  Curious (95)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deep (241)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Discern (35)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Empty (82)  |  Exceedingly (28)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Glass (94)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hint (21)  |  Honey (15)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Knife (24)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Mention (84)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Next (238)  |  Pen (21)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Regular (48)  |  Saw (160)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Solid (119)  |  Substance (253)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thought (995)  |  Use (771)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wax (13)  |  Writer (90)

I was sitting in a chair in the patent office at Bern when all of a sudden a thought occurred to me: “If a person falls freely he will not feel his own weight.” I was startled. This simple thought made a deep impression on me. It impelled me toward a theory of gravitation.
Lecture in Japan (1922). The quote is footnoted in Michael White, John Gribbin, Einstein: a Life in Science (1995), 128, saying the talk is known as the 'Kyoto address', reported in J. Ishiwara, Einstein Koen-Roku (1977).
Science quotes on:  |  Chair (25)  |  Deep (241)  |  Fall (243)  |  Falling (6)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Free (239)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Impelling (2)  |  Impression (118)  |  Occurrence (53)  |  Office (71)  |  Patent (34)  |  Patent Office (3)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Startling (15)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Gravitation (6)  |  Thought (995)  |  Weight (140)  |  Will (2350)

I was unable to devote myself to the learning of this al-jabr [algebra] and the continued concentration upon it, because of obstacles in the vagaries of Time which hindered me; for we have been deprived of all the people of knowledge save for a group, small in number, with many troubles, whose concern in life is to snatch the opportunity, when Time is asleep, to devote themselves meanwhile to the investigation and perfection of a science; for the majority of people who imitate philosophers confuse the true with the false, and they do nothing but deceive and pretend knowledge, and they do not use what they know of the sciences except for base and material purposes; and if they see a certain person seeking for the right and preferring the truth, doing his best to refute the false and untrue and leaving aside hypocrisy and deceit, they make a fool of him and mock him.
A. P. Youschkevitch and B. A. Rosenfeld, 'Al-Khayyami', in C. C. Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1973), Vol. 7, 324.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Base (120)  |  Best (467)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concentration (29)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deceit (7)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Fool (121)  |  Hinder (12)  |  Imitate (18)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learning (291)  |  Life (1870)  |  Majority (68)  |  Material (366)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Research (753)  |  Right (473)  |  Save (126)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Snatch (14)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Untrue (12)  |  Use (771)

I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give any woman the instrument to procure abortion. … I will not cut a person who is suffering with stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of such work.
From 'The Oath', as translated by Francis Adams in The Genuine Works of Hippocrates (1849), Vol. 2, 780.
Science quotes on:  |  Abortion (4)  |  Ask (420)  |  Counsel (11)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Give (208)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Leave (138)  |  Manner (62)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Procure (6)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Stone (168)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Will (2350)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)

I wish people would more generally bring back the seeds of pleasing foreign plants and introduce them broadcast, sowing them by our waysides and in our fields, or in whatever situation is most likely to suit them. It is true, this would puzzle botanists, but there is no reason why botanists should not be puzzled. A botanist is a person whose aim is to uproot, kill and exterminate every plant that is at all remarkable for rarity or any special virtue, and the rarer it is the more bitterly he will hunt it down.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 281.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Back (395)  |  Bitterly (2)  |  Botanist (25)  |  Down (455)  |  Exterminate (10)  |  Field (378)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Kill (100)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  People (1031)  |  Plant (320)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Rarity (11)  |  Reason (766)  |  Seed (97)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sowing (9)  |  Special (188)  |  Uproot (2)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wayside (4)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

I’d like the [Cosmos] series to be so visually stimulating that somebody who isn’t even interested in the concepts will just watch for the effects. And I’d like people who are prepared to do some thinking to be really stimulated.
Quoted by Dennis Meredith, in 'Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish', Science Digest (Jun 1979), 85, 38. Reproduced in Carl Sagan and Tom Head, Conversations With Sagan (2006), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Interest (416)  |  People (1031)  |  Series (153)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Visualize (8)  |  Watch (118)  |  Will (2350)

I’m sick of people thinking that efficiency is going to be sufficient. I’m sick of seeing people say, “I’m going to reduce my carbon footprint,” and think that being less bad is being good. … I want healthy, safe things in closed cycles, not just being less bad.
In interview with Kerry A. Dolan, 'William McDonough On Cradle-to-Cradle Design', Forbes (4 Aug 2010)
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Carbon Footprint (2)  |  Closed (38)  |  Cycle (42)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Footprint (16)  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Less (105)  |  People (1031)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Safe (61)  |  Safety (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sick (83)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Want (504)

I’m supposed to be a scientific person but I use intuition more than logic in making basic decisions.
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), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Decision (98)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Logic (311)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Use (771)

I’ve always thought that my exposure to competitive sports helped me a great deal in the operating room. It teaches you endurance, and it teaches you how to cope with defeat, and with complications of all sort. I think I’m a well-coordinated person, more than average, and I think that came through my interest in sports, and athletics. … [Playing basketball] You have to make decisions promptly, and that’s true in the operating room as well.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Average (89)  |  Complication (30)  |  Deal (192)  |  Decision (98)  |  Defeat (31)  |  Endurance (8)  |  Great (1610)  |  Interest (416)  |  More (2558)  |  Playing (42)  |  Sport (23)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
Second stanza of poem 'On Turning 70'. The poem is printed in Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, Annual Report 2004 (2005), no page number.
Science quotes on:  |  Christmas (13)  |  Handle (29)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lot (151)  |  Luggage (5)  |  Rain (70)  |  Tangle (8)  |  Tell (344)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tree (269)  |  Way (1214)

I've never seen a job being done by a five-hundred-person engineering team that couldn't be done better by fifty people.
Statement once told to the author, as quoted in Thomas J. Peters, Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties (1992), 572.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Job (86)  |  Never (1089)  |  People (1031)  |  Team (17)

If a person cannot love a plant after he has pruned it, then he has either done a poor job or is devoid of emotion.
In The Pruning-Book: A Monograph of the Pruning and Training of Plants (1898), 134.
Science quotes on:  |  Devoid (12)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Job (86)  |  Love (328)  |  Plant (320)  |  Poor (139)  |  Prune (7)

If a person sweeps streets for a living, he should sweep them as Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed music, as Shakespeare wrote his plays.
As quoted, without citation, in Patricia J. Raskin, Pathfinding: Seven Principles for Positive Living (2002), 102.
Science quotes on:  |  Beethoven (14)  |  Beethoven_Ludwig (8)  |  Compose (20)  |  Living (492)  |   Michelangelo, (3)  |  Music (133)  |  Paint (22)  |  Play (116)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Street (25)  |  Sweep (22)  |  Write (250)

If any layman were to ask a number of archaeologists to give, on the spur of the moment, a definition of archaeology, I suspect that such a person might find the answers rather confusing. He would, perhaps, sympathize with Socrates who, when he hoped to learn from the poets and artisans something about the arts they practised, was forced to go away with the conviction that, though they might themselves be able to accomplish something, they certainly could give no clear account to others of what they were trying to do.
Opening statement in lecture at Columbia University (8 Jan 1908), 'Archaeology'. Published by the Columbia University Press (1908).
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Account (195)  |  Answer (389)  |  Archaeologist (18)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Art (680)  |  Artisan (9)  |  Ask (420)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Definition (238)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Layman (21)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Moment (260)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Poet (97)  |  Science And Art (195)  |   Socrates, (17)  |  Something (718)  |  Sympathize (2)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Trying (144)

If any person thinks the examination of the rest of the animal kingdom an unworthy task, he must hold in like disesteem the study of man. For no one can look at the primordia of the human frame—blood, flesh, bones, vessels, and the like—without much repugnance. Moreover, in every inquiry, the examination of material elements and instruments is not to be regarded as final, but as ancillary to the conception of the total form. Thus, the true object of architecture is not bricks, mortar or timber, but the house; and so the principal object of natural philosophy is not the material elements, but their composition, and the totality of the form to which they are subservient, and independently of which they have no existence.
Aristotle
On Parts of Animals, Book 1, Chap 5, 645a, 26-36. In W. Ogle (trans.), Aristotle on the Parts of Animals (1882), 17. Alternate translations: “primodia” = “elements”; “Moreover ... Thus” = “Moreover, when anyone of the parts or structures, be it which it may, is under discussion, it must not be supposed that it is its material composition to which attention is being directed or which is the object of the discussion, but rather the total form. Similarly”; “form ... subservient, and” = “totality of the substance.” See alternate translation in Jonathan Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle (1984), Vol. 1, 1004.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Kingdom (21)  |  Architecture (50)  |  Blood (144)  |  Bone (101)  |  Brick (20)  |  Composition (86)  |  Conception (160)  |  Element (322)  |  Examination (102)  |  Existence (481)  |  Final (121)  |  Form (976)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Independently (24)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Material (366)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Object (438)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Principal (69)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rest (287)  |  Study (701)  |  Task (152)  |  Think (1122)  |  Total (95)  |  Totality (17)  |  Unworthy (18)  |  Vessel (63)

If the earth’s population continues to double every 50 years (as it is now doing) then by 2550 A.D. it will have increased 3,000-fold. … by 2800 A.D., it would reach 630,000 billion! Our planet would have standing room only, for there would be only two-and-a-half square feet per person on the entire land surface, including Greenland and Antarctica. In fact, if the human species could be imagined as continuing to multiply further at the same rate, by 4200 A.D. the total mass of human tissue would be equal to the mass of the earth.
In The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science: The Biological Sciences (1960), 117. Also in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 237.
Science quotes on:  |  Antarctica (8)  |  Billion (104)  |  Continue (179)  |  Doing (277)  |  Double (18)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Greenland (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Increase (225)  |  Land (131)  |  Mass (160)  |  Multiple (19)  |  Multiply (40)  |  Planet (402)  |  Population (115)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Surface (223)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Total (95)  |  Two (936)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

If the finding of Coines, Medals, Urnes, and other Monuments of famous Persons, or Towns, or Utensils, be admitted for unquestionable Proofs, that such Persons or things have, in former Times, had a being, certainly those Petrifactions may be allowed to be of equal Validity and Evidence, that there have been formerly such Vegetables or Animals. These are truly Authentick Antiquity not to be counterfeited, the Stamps, and Impressions, and Characters of Nature that are beyond the Reach and Power of Humane Wit and Invention, and are true universal Characters legible to all rational Men.
Lectures and Discourses of Earthquakes (1668). In The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, containing his Cutlerian Lectures and other Discourses read at the Meetings of the Illustrious Royal Society (1705), 449.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Archaeology (51)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Character (259)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Former (138)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Humane (19)  |  Impression (118)  |  Invention (400)  |  Monument (45)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Power (771)  |  Proof (304)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reach (286)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  Validity (50)  |  Vegetable (49)  |  Wit (61)

If the love of surgery is a proof of a person’s being adapted for it, then certainly I am fitted to he a surgeon; for thou can’st hardly conceive what a high degree of enjoyment I am from day to day experiencing in this bloody and butchering department of the healing art. I am more and more delighted with my profession.
Letter to his father (1853). In John Vaughan, 'Lord Lister', The Living Age (1918), 297, 361. Reprinted from The Fortnightly Review (1918), 109, 417- .
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Degree (277)  |  Delight (111)  |  Department (93)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Healing (28)  |  High (370)  |  Love (328)  |  More (2558)  |  Profession (108)  |  Proof (304)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)

If there really is God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity, He will not use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
From newspaper column '25 Things I Have Learned in 50 Years' (Oct 1998), collected in Dave Barry Turns Fifty (2010), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Cable (11)  |  Creation (350)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Glory (66)  |  God (776)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Message (53)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Universe (900)  |  Use (771)  |  Will (2350)

If there’s one thing in physics I feel more responsible for than any other, it’s this perception of how everything fits together. I like to think of myself as having a sense of judgment. I’m willing to go anywhere, talk to anybody, ask any question that will make headway. I confess to being an optimist about things, especially about someday being able to understand how things are put together. So many young people are forced to specialize in one line or another that a young person can’t afford to try and cover this waterfront — only an old fogy who can afford to make a fool of himself. If I don't, who will?
Stated during a 1983 interview. Quoted in Dennis Overbye, 'John A. Wheeler, Physicist Who Coined the Term Black Hole, Is Dead at 96', New York Times (14 Apr 2008).
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Ask (420)  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Being (1276)  |  Confess (42)  |  Everything (489)  |  Feel (371)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fool (121)  |  Himself (461)  |  Judgment (140)  |  More (2558)  |  Myself (211)  |  Old (499)  |  Optimist (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Question (649)  |  Sense (785)  |  Someday (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Try (296)  |  Understand (648)  |  Will (2350)  |  Willing (44)  |  Young (253)

If we define 'thought collective' as a community of persons mutually exchanging ideas or maintaining intellectual interaction, we will find by implication that it also provides the special 'carrier' for the historical development of any field of thought, as well as for the given stock of knowledge and level of culture. This we have designated thought style.
Genesis and the Development of a Scientific Fact (1935), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Community (111)  |  Culture (157)  |  Development (441)  |  Field (378)  |  Find (1014)  |  Historical (70)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Special (188)  |  Thought (995)  |  Will (2350)

If you ask a person, “What were you thinking?” you may get an answer that is richer and more revealing of the human condition than any stream of thoughts a novelist could invent. I try to see through people’s faces into their minds and listen through their words into their lives, and what I find there is beyond imagining.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Condition (362)  |  Face (214)  |  Find (1014)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Condition (6)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Invent (57)  |  Listen (81)  |  Live (650)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Novelist (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Rich (66)  |  See (1094)  |  Stream (83)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Try (296)  |  Word (650)

If you could see what I almost daily see in my practice … persons … in the very last stages of wretched existence, emaciated to a skeleton, with both tables of the skull almost completely perforated in many places, half the nose gone, with rotten jaws, ulerated throats, breaths most pestiferous more intolerable than poisonous upas, limbs racked with the pains of the Inquisition, minds as imbecile as the puling babe, a grievous burden to themselves and a disgusting spectacle to others, you would exclaim as I have often done, 'O! the lamentable want of science that dictates the abuse (use) of that noxious drug calomel!'
[Calomel is the mercury compound, Hg2Cl2.]
Quoted in Wooster Beach, A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Health (1848), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Abuse (25)  |  Both (496)  |  Breath (61)  |  Completely (137)  |  Compound (117)  |  Daily (91)  |  Drug (61)  |  Emaciated (2)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Existence (481)  |  Inquisition (9)  |  Lamentable (5)  |  Last (425)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pain (144)  |  Poison (46)  |  Practice (212)  |  See (1094)  |  Skeleton (25)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Stage (152)  |  Table (105)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Use (771)  |  Want (504)  |  Wretched (8)

If, for example, I had some idea, which, as it turned out would, say, be quite wrong, was going off of the tangent, Watson would tell me in no uncertain terms this was nonsense, and vice-versa. If he had some idea I didn’t like and I would say so and this would shake his thinking about it and draw him back again. And in fact, it’s one of the requirements for collaboration of this sort that you must be perfectly candid, one might almost say rude, to the person you are working with. It’s useless, working with somebody who’s either much too junior than yourself, or much too senior, because then politeness creeps in. And this is the end of all real collaboration in science.
As quoted in Robert Olby, The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of the Double Helix, (1974, 1994), 316, citing Transcript of BBC TV program, The Prizewinners (1962).
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Candid (3)  |  Collaboration (16)  |  Creep (15)  |  Draw (140)  |  End (603)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Idea (881)  |  Junior (6)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nonsense (48)  |  Politeness (4)  |  Real (159)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Rude (6)  |  Say (989)  |  Senior (7)  |  Shake (43)  |  Tangent (6)  |  Tell (344)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Turn (454)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Useless (38)  |  Vice (42)  |  James Watson (33)  |  Working (23)  |  Wrong (246)

Imagine a person with a gift of ridicule [He might say] First that a negative quantity has no logarithm; secondly that a negative quantity has no square root; thirdly that the first non-existent is to the second as the circumference of a circle is to the diameter.
Science quotes on:  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Diameter (28)  |  First (1302)  |  Gift (105)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Logarithm (12)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Negative (66)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Ridicule (23)  |  Root (121)  |  Say (989)  |  Square (73)  |  Square Root (12)

In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy a few people have their way; in a democracy, no one has his way.
In The Decline and Fall of Science (1976), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Aristocracy (7)  |  Democracy (36)  |  People (1031)  |  Way (1214)

In an era in which the domain of intellect and politics were almost exclusively male, Theon [her father] was an unusually liberated person who taught an unusually gifted daughter [Hypatia] and encouraged her to achieve things that, as far as we know, no woman before her did or perhaps even dreamed of doing.
From 'Hypatia', in Louise S. Grinstein (ed.), Women of Mathematics, (1987), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Doing (277)  |  Domain (72)  |  Dream (222)  |  Encourage (43)  |  Era (51)  |  Exclusively (10)  |  Far (158)  |  Father (113)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Know (1538)  |  Liberated (2)  |  Male (26)  |  Politics (122)  |  Teach (299)  |  Theon (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Woman (160)

In clinical investigation the sick individual is at the centre of the picture. The physician must have a deep interest in his patient’s economic and social structure as well as in his physical and psychic state. If attention is not paid to the diagnosis of the person the clinical investigator is apt to fail in studies of the patient’s disease. Without a consideration of the patient as a human being it would have been difficult to have fed patients daily large amounts of liver.
In Nobel Banquet speech (10 Dec 1934). Collected in Gustaf Santesson (ed.) Les Prix Nobel en 1934 (1935).
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Centre (31)  |  Clinical (18)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Daily (91)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disease (340)  |  Economic (84)  |  Fail (191)  |  Feed (31)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interest (416)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Liver (22)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physician (284)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Sick (83)  |  Social (261)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)

In consequence of Darwin's reformed Theory of Descent, we are now in a position to establish scientifically the groundwork of a non-miraculous history of the development of the human race. ... If any person feels the necessity of conceiving the coming into existence of this matter as the work of a supernatural creative power, of the creative force of something outside of matter, we have nothing to say against it. But we must remark, that thereby not even the smallest advantage is gained for a scientific knowledge of nature. Such a conception of an immaterial force, which as the first creates matter, is an article of faith which has nothing whatever to do with human science.
In Ernst Haeckel and E. Ray Lankester (trans.), The History of Creation (1880), Vol. 1, 6-9.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Against (332)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conception (160)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Create (245)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creative (144)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Descent (30)  |  Development (441)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Faith (209)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Force (497)  |  Gain (146)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Immaterial (6)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Outside (141)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Reform (22)  |  Reformed (4)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Something (718)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Work (1402)

In one person he [Isaac Newton] combined the experimenter, the theorist, the mechanic and, not least, the artist in exposition.
In 'Foreword' to Isaac Newton, Opticks (1952), lix.
Science quotes on:  |  Artist (97)  |  Combine (58)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Exposition (16)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Theorist (44)

In science we must be interested in things, not in persons.
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie (1938), 233.
Science quotes on:  |  Interest (416)  |  Must (1525)  |  Thing (1914)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Neutron Star (3)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Object (438)  |  Origin (250)  |  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 school of political projectors, I was but ill entertained, the professors appearing, in my judgment, wholly out of their senses; which is a scene that never fails to make me melancholy. These unhappy people were proposing schemes for persuading monarchs to choose favourites upon the score of their wisdom, capacity, and virtue; of teaching ministers to consult the public good; of rewarding merit, great abilities, and eminent services; of instructing princes to know their true interest, by placing it on the same foundation with that of their people; of choosing for employment persons qualified to exercise them; with many other wild impossible chimeras, that never entered before into the heart of man to conceive, and confirmed in me the old observation, that there is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth.
Gulliver's Travels (1726, Penguin ed. 1967), Part III, Chap. 6, 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Chimera (10)  |  Choose (116)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Employment (34)  |  Enter (145)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extravagance (3)  |  Extravagant (10)  |  Fail (191)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heart (243)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Interest (416)  |  Irrational (16)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  Merit (51)  |  Minister (10)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Old (499)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Political (124)  |  Prince (13)  |  Professor (133)  |  Projector (3)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Scene (36)  |  Scheme (62)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Service (110)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Unhappiness (9)  |  Unhappy (16)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wisdom (235)

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the old Oolitic Silurian Period, must a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have their streets joined together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
Life on the Mississippi (1883, 2000), 173.
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Blind (98)  |  Calm (32)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fishing (20)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Gulf Of Mexico (5)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Investment (15)  |  Long (778)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Old (499)  |  Period (200)  |  Return (133)  |  River (140)  |  See (1094)  |  Silurian (3)  |  Single (365)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Together (392)  |  Token (10)  |  Two (936)  |  Upward (44)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It’s a kind of understanding that flourishes if it’s combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It’s the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.
In Irv Broughton (ed.), The Writer's Mind: Interviews with American Authors (1990), Vol. 2, 57.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Absence (21)  |  Cause (561)  |  Combine (58)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Correct (95)  |  Draw (140)  |  Exist (458)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Fool (121)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Good (906)  |  Inference (45)  |  Information (173)  |  Insufficient (10)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Logic (311)  |  Memory (144)  |  Problem (731)  |  Rational (95)  |  Reasonable (29)  |  Result (700)  |  Solution (282)  |  Subtle (37)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)

Inventions and discoveries are of two kinds. The one which we owe to chance, such as those of the mariner’s compass, gunpowder, and in general almost all the discoveries we have made in the arts. The other which we owe to genius: and here we ought to understand by the word discovery, a new combination, or a new relation perceived between certain objects or ideas. A person obtains the title of a man of genius, if the ideas which result from this combination form one grand whole, are fruitful in truths, and are of importance with respect to mankind.
From the original French, “Les inventions ou les découvertes sont de deux espèces. Il en est que nous devons au hazard; telles sont la boussole, la poudre à canon, & généralement presque toutes les découvertes que nous avons faites dans les arts. Il en est d'autres que nous devons au génie: &, par ce mot de découverte, on doit alors entendre une nouvelle combinaison, un rapport nouveau aperçu entre certains objets ou certaines idées. On obtient le titre d'homme de génie, si les idées qui résultent de ce rapport forment un grand ensemble, sont fécondes en vérités & intéressantes pour l'humanité,” in 'Du Génie', L’Esprit (1758), Discourse 4, 476. English version from Claude Adrien Helvétius and William Mudford (trans.), 'Of Genius', De l’Esprit or, Essays on the Mind and its several Faculties (1759), Essay 4, Chap. 1, 241-242.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chance (244)  |  Combination (150)  |  Compass (37)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  General (521)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gunpowder (18)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Invention (400)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mariner (12)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Relation (166)  |  Respect (212)  |  Result (700)  |  Title (20)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

INVENTOR, n. A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  173-174.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Humour (116)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Lever (13)  |  Spring (140)  |  Wheel (51)

Is it not true that for every person the course of life is along the line of least resistance, and that in this the movement of humanity is like the movement of material bodies?
In preface to Scientific Memoirs (1878), xiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Course (413)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Least (75)  |  Life (1870)  |  Line (100)  |  Material (366)  |  Movement (162)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Truth (1109)

It frequently happens that two persons, reasoning right on a mechanical subject, think alike and invent the same thing without any communication with each other.
As quoted by Coleman Sellers, Jr., in his Lecture (20 Nov 1885) delivered at the Franklin Institute. Printed in Coleman Sellers, Jr., 'Oliver Evans and his Inventions', Journal of the Franklin Institute (Jul 1886), 122, No. 1, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Communication (101)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Happen (282)  |  Invent (57)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Right (473)  |  Same (166)  |  Subject (543)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)

It gets you nowhere if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Conversation (46)  |  Half (63)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Other (2233)  |  Second (66)  |  Sight (135)  |  Tail (21)

It is a common rule with primitive people not to waken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to get back.
In The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion: Part II: Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (1890, 1911), 39.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Common (447)  |  People (1031)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Rule (307)  |  Soul (235)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wake (17)

It is certain that as a nation we are all smoking a great deal too much ... Smoking among boys—to whom it cannot possibly do any kind of good, while it may do a vast amount of active harm—is becoming prevalent to a most pernicious extent. ... It would be an excellent thing for the morality of the people could the use of “intoxicants and tobacco” be forbidden to all persons under twenty years of age. (1878)
In London Daily Telegraph (22 Jan 1878). Reprinted in English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League, Monthly letters of the Committee of the English Anti-Tobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League 1878, 1879, 1880, (1 Feb 1878), 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Age (509)  |  Amount (153)  |  Becoming (96)  |  Boy (100)  |  Certain (557)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Extent (142)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harm (43)  |  Kind (564)  |  Morality (55)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  People (1031)  |  Pernicious (9)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Prevalent (4)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Twenty (4)  |  Use (771)  |  Vast (188)  |  Year (963)

It is for such inquiries the modern naturalist collects his materials; it is for this that he still wants to add to the apparently boundless treasures of our national museums, and will never rest satisfied as long as the native country, the geographical distribution, and the amount of variation of any living thing remains imperfectly known. He looks upon every species of animal and plant now living as the individual letters which go to make up one of the volumes of our earth’s history; and, as a few lost letters may make a sentence unintelligible, so the extinction of the numerous forms of life which the progress of cultivation invariably entails will necessarily render obscure this invaluable record of the past. It is, therefore, an important object, which governments and scientific institutions should immediately take steps to secure, that in all tropical countries colonised by Europeans the most perfect collections possible in every branch of natural history should be made and deposited in national museums, where they may be available for study and interpretation. If this is not done, future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations. They will charge us with having culpably allowed the destruction of some of those records of Creation which we had it in our power to preserve; and while professing to regard every living thing as the direct handiwork and best evidence of a Creator, yet, with a strange inconsistency, seeing many of them perish irrecoverably from the face of the earth, uncared for and unknown.
In 'On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago', Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1863), 33, 234.
Science quotes on:  |  Add (42)  |  Age (509)  |  Allowed (3)  |  Amount (153)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Available (80)  |  Back (395)  |  Best (467)  |  Blind (98)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Branch (155)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Charge (63)  |  Collect (19)  |  Collection (68)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Creation (350)  |  Creator (97)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entail (4)  |  European (5)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Future (467)  |  Geographical (6)  |  Government (116)  |  Handiwork (6)  |  Higher (37)  |  History (716)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Imperfectly (2)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconsistency (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Institution (73)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Invaluable (11)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Known (453)  |  Letter (117)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Lost (34)  |  Made (14)  |  Material (366)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Museum (40)  |  National (29)  |  Native (41)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Never (1089)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Object (438)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perish (56)  |  Plant (320)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Professing (2)  |  Progress (492)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Record (161)  |  Regard (312)  |  Remain (355)  |  Render (96)  |  Rest (287)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Secure (23)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sentence (35)  |  Species (435)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Strange (160)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Tropical (9)  |  Unintelligible (17)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Variation (93)  |  Volume (25)  |  Want (504)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Will (2350)

It is impossible for the strength of an elderly person to be great. Some physicians think that children also do not have great strength, but they are mistaken in their opinion.
As quoted in Robert Taylor, White Coat Tales: Medicine's Heroes, Heritage, and Misadventures (2010), 125.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Do (1905)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Physician (284)  |  Strength (139)  |  Think (1122)

It is not enough to teach man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine, but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he—with his specialized knowledge—more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.
From interview with Benjamin Fine, 'Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking', New York Times (5 Oct 1952), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Become (821)  |  Develop (278)  |  Developed (11)  |  Dog (70)  |  Enough (341)  |  Essential (210)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Good (906)  |  Harmonious (18)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lively (17)  |  Machine (271)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Personality (66)  |  Resemble (65)  |  Sense (785)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Specialty (13)  |  Student (317)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Vivid (25)

It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.
1921, commenting on Thomas Edison’s opinion that a college education is useless, in Einstein: His Life and Times by Philipp Frank (1953).
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Book (413)  |  College (71)  |  Education (423)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Learning (291)  |  Liberal Arts (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Something (718)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Think (1122)  |  Training (92)  |  Value (393)

It is notorious that the same discovery is frequently made simultaneously and quite independently, by different persons. Thus, to speak of only a few cases in late years, the discoveries of photography, of electric telegraphy, and of the planet Neptune through theoretical calculations, have all their rival claimants. It would seem, that discoveries are usually made when the time is ripe for them—that is to say, when the ideas from which they naturally flow are fermenting in the minds of many men.
Hereditary Genius (1869), 192.
Science quotes on:  |  Calculation (134)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Electric (76)  |  Flow (89)  |  Idea (881)  |  Independently (24)  |  Late (119)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Neptune (13)  |  Photography (9)  |  Planet (402)  |  Rival (20)  |  Say (989)  |  Speak (240)  |  Telegraphy (3)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Usually (176)  |  Year (963)

It is with our entire past ... that we desire, will and act ... from this survival of the past it follows that consciousness cannot go through the same state twice. The circumstances may still be the same, but they will act no longer on the same person ... that is why our duration is irreversible.
Creative Evolution (1911), trans. Arthur Mitchell, 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Desire (212)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Follow (389)  |  Irreversible (12)  |  Past (355)  |  State (505)  |  Still (614)  |  Survival (105)  |  Through (846)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)

It seems perfectly clear that Economy, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science. There exists much prejudice against attempts to introduce the methods and language of mathematics into any branch of the moral sciences. Most persons appear to hold that the physical sciences form the proper sphere of mathematical method, and that the moral sciences demand some other method—I know not what.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Branch (155)  |  Demand (131)  |  Economy (59)  |  Exist (458)  |  Form (976)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Proper (150)  |  Sphere (118)

It was not easy for a person brought up in the ways of classical thermodynamics to come around to the idea that gain of entropy eventually is nothing more nor less than loss of information.
Letter to Irving Langmuir, 5 Aug 1930. Quoted in Arthur Lachman, Borderland of the Unknown: The Life Story of Gilbert Newton, One of the World’s Great Scientists (1955), 64.
Science quotes on:  |  Classical (49)  |  Easy (213)  |  Entropy (46)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Gain (146)  |  Idea (881)  |  Information (173)  |  Loss (117)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Way (1214)

It’s hard to explain to people what the significance of an invention is, so it’s hard to get funding. The first thing they say is that it can’t be done. Then they say, “You didn't do it right.” Then, when you’ve done it, they finally say, “Well, it was obvious anyway.”
http://www.thetech.org/nmot/detail.cfm?id=95&st=awardDate&qt=1997&kiosk=Off
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Explain (334)  |  Finally (26)  |  First (1302)  |  Funding (20)  |  Hard (246)  |  Invention (400)  |  Obvious (128)  |  People (1031)  |  Right (473)  |  Say (989)  |  Significance (114)  |  Thing (1914)

John [H.] Van Vleck, who was a leading young theoretical physicist when I was also a leading young theoretical physicist, said to me one day, “I never have made a contribution to physics that I didn’t get by fiddling with the equations,” and I said, “I’ve never made a contribution that I didn’t get by just having a new idea. Then I would fiddle with the equations to help support the new idea.” Van Vleck was essentially a mathematical physicist, you might say, and I was essentially a person of ideas. I don’t think I’m primarily mathematical. … I have a great curiosity about the nature of the world as a whole, and most of my ideas are qualitative rather than quantitative.
Interview with George B. Kauffman and Laurie M. Kauffman, in 'Linus Pauling: Reflections', American Scientist (Nov-Dec 1994), 82, No. 6, 523.
Science quotes on:  |  Contribution (93)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Equation (138)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Mathematical Physics (12)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Say (989)  |  Support (151)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Think (1122)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)  |  Young (253)

Just think of the differences today. A young person gets interested in chemistry and is given a chemical set. But it doesn't contain potassium cyanide. It doesn't even contain copper sulfate or anything else interesting because all the interesting chemicals are considered dangerous substances. Therefore, these budding young chemists don't get a chance to do anything engrossing with their chemistry sets. As I look back, I think it is pretty remarkable that Mr. Ziegler, this friend of the family, would have so easily turned over one-third of an ounce of potassium cyanide to me, an eleven-year-old boy.
In Barbara Marinacci, Linus Pauling In His Own Words (1995), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Boy (100)  |  Chance (244)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chemistry Set (3)  |  Consider (428)  |  Copper (25)  |  Danger (127)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Family (101)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gift (105)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Look (584)  |  Old (499)  |  Potassium (12)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Set (400)  |  Substance (253)  |  Think (1122)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Year (963)  |  Young (253)

Kids like their fossils. I’ve taken my godson fossil-hunting and there’s nothing more magical than finding a shiny shell and knowing you’re the first person to have seen it for 150 million years.
As reported by Adam Lusher in 'Sir David Attenborough', Daily Mail (28 Feb 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Hunting (23)  |  Kid (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Magic (92)  |  Million (124)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  See (1094)  |  Shell (69)  |  Shiny (3)  |  Year (963)

Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to reflect, too, and so he never married.
From the original French, “Leibnitz ne s'était point marié ; il y avait pensé à l'âge de cinquante ans; mais la personne qu’il avait en vue voulut avoir le temps de faire ses réflexions. Cela donna à Leibnitz le loisir de faire aussi les siennes, et il ne se maria point.” In 'Éloge de Leibniz' (1768), in Éloges de Fontenelle (1883), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Ask (420)  |  Consider (428)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Marry (11)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Time (1911)

Life and business are rather simple after all—to make a success of either, you've got to hang on to the knack of putting yourself into the other person's place.
c. 1891. On Wrigley Company web site.
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Hang (46)  |  Knack (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Other (2233)  |  Place (192)  |  Putting (2)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Success (327)  |  Yourself (7)

Many a person thinks he is hard-boiled when he is only half-baked.
Science quotes on:  |  Bake (2)  |  Boil (24)  |  Half (63)  |  Hard (246)  |  Sociology (46)  |  Think (1122)

Many persons have inquired concerning a recent message of mine that “a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels.”
From interview with Michael Amrine, 'The Real Problem is in the Hearts of Men', New York Times Magazine, (23 Jun 1946), 7. See more of the message from which Einstein quoted himself, see the longer quote that begins, “Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived…,” on the Albert Einstein Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Essential (210)  |  High (370)  |  Inquire (26)  |  Level (69)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Message (53)  |  Mine (78)  |  Move (223)  |  New (1273)  |  Recent (78)  |  Survive (87)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Type (171)

Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs’ legs—especially if the frogs are decapitated—and that—on the other hand—any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings—with heads on their shoulders—must be benighted and superstitious.
'Lowell Lectures on “The Brain and the Mind” (1876)' collected in Manuscript Lectures (1988), 29. [Note: Although Encarta book of Quotations (2000), 475, cites Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking (1907), Webmaster is unable to find the subject quote in that source.]
Science quotes on:  |  Argument (145)  |  Being (1276)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Favor (69)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Frog (44)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Leg (35)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Shoulder (33)  |  Think (1122)

Many psychologists ... thought by turning their attention to their own consciousness to be able to explain what happened when we were thnking. Or they sought to attain the same end by asking another person a question, by means of which certain processes of thought would be excited, and then by questioning the person about the introspection he had made. It is obvious ... that nothing can be discovered in such experiments.
An Introduction to Psychology (1912)
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attention (196)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Discover (571)  |  End (603)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Introspection (6)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Question (649)  |  Thought (995)

Mathematical knowledge is not—as all Cambridge men are surely aware—the result of any special gift. It is merely the development of those conceptions of form and number which every human being possesses; and any person of average intellect can make himself a fair mathematician if he will only pay continuous attention; in plain English, think enough about the subject.
'Science', a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution. The Works of Charles Kingsley (1880), 241.
Science quotes on:  |  Attention (196)  |  Average (89)  |  Being (1276)  |  Conception (160)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Development (441)  |  Enough (341)  |  Form (976)  |  Gift (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Merely (315)  |  Number (710)  |  Result (700)  |  Special (188)  |  Subject (543)  |  Surely (101)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)

Mathematics, while giving no quick remuneration, like the art of stenography or the craft of bricklaying, does furnish the power for deliberate thought and accurate statement, and to speak the truth is one of the most social qualities a person can possess. Gossip, flattery, slander, deceit, all spring from a slovenly mind that has not been trained in the power of truthful statement, which is one of the highest utilities.
In Social Phases of Education in the School and the Home (1900), 30.
Science quotes on:  |  Accurate (88)  |  Art (680)  |  Craft (11)  |  Deceit (7)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Flattery (7)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Gossip (10)  |  High (370)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Possess (157)  |  Power (771)  |  Quality (139)  |  Quick (13)  |  Remuneration (2)  |  Slander (3)  |  Slovenly (2)  |  Social (261)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spring (140)  |  Statement (148)  |  Thought (995)  |  Train (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

Most advances in science come when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields.
Viewing a new field with fresh eyes, and bringing prior knowledge, results in creativity.
Quoted in Roger Von Oech, A Whack on the Side of the Head (1982), 71. (Berger is credited in the Introduction in a listed of people providing ideas and suggestions.) In Cheryl Farr, Jim Rhode, Newsletters, Patients and You (1985), 142.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Change (639)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Eye (440)  |  Field (378)  |  Fresh (69)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  New (1273)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)

Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun's demise, 6 billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.
Lecture (2006), reprinted as 'Dark Materials'. As cited in J.G. Ballard, 'The Catastrophist', collected in Christopher Hitchens, Arguably: Selected Essays (2011), 353
Science quotes on:  |  Amoeba (21)  |  Aware (36)  |  Bacteria (50)  |  Billion (104)  |  Creature (242)  |  Culmination (5)  |  Charles Darwin (322)  |  Demise (2)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Education (423)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Human (1512)  |  Lifespan (9)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Outcome (15)  |  People (1031)  |  Selection (130)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tend (124)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Watch (118)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

Mr. Dalton's aspect and manner were repulsive. There was no gracefulness belonging to him. His voice was harsh and brawling; his gait stiff and awkward; his style of writing and conversation dry and almost crabbed. In person he was tall, bony, and slender. He never could learn to swim: on investigating this circumstance he found that his spec. grav. as a mass was greater than that of water; and he mentioned this in his lectures on natural philosophy in illustration of the capability of different persons for attaining the art of swimming. Independence and simplicity of manner and originality were his best qualities. Though in comparatively humble circumstances he maintained the dignity of the philosophical character. As the first distinct promulgator of the doctrine that the elements of bodies unite in definite proportions to form chemical compounds, he has acquired an undying fame.
Dr John Davy's (brother of Humphry Davy) impressions of Dalton written in c.1830-31 in Malta.
John Davy
Quoted in W. C. Henry, Memoirs of the Life and Scientific Researches of John Dalton (1854), 217-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Best (467)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brother (47)  |  Capability (44)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Compound (117)  |  Conversation (46)  |  John Dalton (25)  |  Definite (114)  |  Different (595)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Dry (65)  |  Element (322)  |  Fame (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Greater (288)  |  Humble (54)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Impression (118)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mention (84)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Philosophy (52)  |  Never (1089)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Swim (32)  |  Swimming (19)  |  Unite (43)  |  Water (503)  |  Writing (192)

Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine enquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was well, and bid us a cordial good night. These remarks were not only perfectly audible to ourselves, but to a dozen or more persons gathered around.
Scientific American (22 Dec 1877). Quoted in By John Henry Pepper, The Boy's Playbook of Science, Revised (1881), 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Crank (18)  |  Thomas Edison (83)  |  Gather (76)  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Inform (50)  |  Invention (400)  |  Little (717)  |  Machine (271)  |  More (2558)  |  Office (71)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Phonograph (8)  |  Turn (454)

My thoughts … are like persons met upon a journey; I think them very agreeable at first but soon find, as a rule, that I am tired of them.
Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 216.
Science quotes on:  |  Agreeable (20)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Journey (48)  |  Meet (36)  |  Rule (307)  |  Soon (187)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tired (13)

Nearly anyone in this line of work would take a bullet for the last pregnant dodo. But should we not admire the person who, when faced with an overwhelmingly sad reality beyond and personal blame or control, strives valiantly to rescue what ever can be salvaged, rather than retreating to the nearest corner to weep or assign fault?
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Admire (19)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Assign (15)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Blame (31)  |  Bullet (6)  |  Control (182)  |  Corner (59)  |  Dodo (7)  |  Face (214)  |  Fault (58)  |  Last (425)  |  Line (100)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Overwhelmingly (3)  |  Personal (75)  |  Pregnant (4)  |  Reality (274)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Retreat (13)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Salvage (2)  |  Strive (53)  |  Valiantly (2)  |  Weep (5)  |  Work (1402)

Nernst was a great admirer of Shakespeare, and it is said that in a conference concerned with naming units after appropriate persons, he proposed that the unit of rate of liquid flow should be called the falstaff.
'The Nemst Memorial Lecture', Journal of the Chemical Society (1953), Part 3, 2855.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Admirer (9)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Call (781)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conference (18)  |  Falstaff (2)  |  Flow (89)  |  Great (1610)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Walther Hermann Nernst (5)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Rate (31)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Unit (36)

Nevertheless, his [Dostoyevsky’s] personality retained sadistic traits in plenty, which show themselves in his irritability, his love of tormenting, and his intolerance even towards people he loved, and which appear also in the way in which, as an author, he treats his readers. Thus in little things he was a sadist towards others, and in bigger things a sadist towards himself, in fact a masochist—that is to say the mildest, kindliest, most helpful person possible.
In James Strachey (ed.), 'Dostoyevsky and Parricide', The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1953-74), Vol. 21, 178-179. Reprinted in Writings on Art and Literature (1997), 236
Science quotes on:  |  Author (175)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Helpful (16)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intolerance (8)  |  Irritability (4)  |  Kind (564)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Mild (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Personality (66)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Reader (42)  |  Retain (57)  |  Sadist (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Show (353)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Torment (18)  |  Trait (23)  |  Treat (38)  |  Way (1214)

No person was ever honored for what he received; honor has been the reward for what he gave.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Give (208)  |  Honor (57)  |  Honored (3)  |  Receive (117)  |  Reward (72)

No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England (1830), 167.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Advance (298)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Greater (288)  |  Labor (200)  |  Last (425)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Precision (72)  |  Require (229)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)

No study is less alluring or more dry and tedious than statistics, unless the mind and imagination are set to work, or that the person studying is particularly interested in the subject; which last can seldom be the case with young men in any rank of life.
In The Statistical Breviary: Shewing, on a Principle Entirely New, the Resources of Every State and Kingdom in Europe (1801), 16.
Science quotes on:  |  Alluring (5)  |  Dry (65)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Interest (416)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Rank (69)  |  Seldom (68)  |  Set (400)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tedious (15)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

Nobody knows more than a tiny fragment of science well enough to judge its validity and value at first hand. For the rest he has to rely on views accepted at second hand on the authority of a community of people accredited as scientists. But this accrediting depends in its turn on a complex organization. For each member of the community can judge at first hand only a small number of his fellow members, and yet eventually each is accredited by all. What happens is that each recognizes as scientists a number of others by whom he is recognized as such in return, and these relations form chains which transmit these mutual recognitions at second hand through the whole community. This is how each member becomes directly or indirectly accredited by all. The system extends into the past. Its members recognize the same set of persons as their masters and derive from this allegiance a common tradition, of which each carries on a particular strand.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Chain (51)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Derive (70)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strand (9)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Turn (454)  |  Validity (50)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

Not long ago the head of what should be a strictly scientific department in one of the major universities commented on the odd (and ominous) phenomenon that persons who can claim to be scientists on the basis of the technical training that won them the degree of Ph.D. are now found certifying the authenticity of the painted rag that is called the “Turin Shroud” or adducing “scientific” arguments to support hoaxes about the “paranormal” or an antiquated religiosity. “You can hire a scientist [sic],” he said, “to prove anything.” He did not adduce himself as proof of his generalization, but he did boast of his cleverness in confining his own research to areas in which the results would not perturb the Establishment or any vociferous gang of shyster-led fanatics. If such is indeed the status of science and scholarship in our darkling age, Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls.
In 'The Price of the Head', Instauration Magazine (Mar 1980).
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Antiquated (3)  |  Area (33)  |  Argument (145)  |  Ask (420)  |  Authenticity (5)  |  Basis (180)  |  Bell (35)  |  Boast (22)  |  Call (781)  |  Certify (2)  |  Claim (154)  |  Cleverness (15)  |  Comment (12)  |  Confine (26)  |  Degree (277)  |  Department (93)  |  Establishment (47)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Find (1014)  |  Gang (4)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Head (87)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hire (7)  |  Hoax (6)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  Major (88)  |  Odd (15)  |  Ominous (5)  |  Paint (22)  |  Paranormal (3)  |  Perturb (2)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Proof (304)  |  Prove (261)  |  Prove Anything (7)  |  Rag (2)  |  Religiosity (2)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Send (23)  |  Shroud (2)  |  Status (35)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Support (151)  |  Technical (53)  |  Toll (3)  |  Training (92)  |  Turin (3)  |  University (130)  |  Win (53)

Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—and occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do.
In Amelia Earhart and George Palmer Putnam (ed.), Last Flight (1937), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Already (226)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Do (1905)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Establishing (7)  |  Greater (288)  |  Independence (37)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reason (766)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Want (504)  |  Women (9)

Now having (I know not by what accident) engaged my thoughts upon the Bills of Mortality, and so far succeeded therein, as to have reduced several great confused Volumes into a few perspicuous Tables, and abridged such Observations as naturally flowed from them, into a few succinct Paragraphs, without any long Series of multiloquious Deductions, I have presumed to sacrifice these my small, but first publish'd, Labours unto your Lordship, as unto whose benign acceptance of some other of my Papers even the birth of these is due; hoping (if I may without vanity say it) they may be of as much use to persons in your Lordships place, as they are of none to me, which is no more than fairest Diamonds are to the Journeymen Jeweller that works them, or the poor Labourer that first digg'd them from Earth.
[An early account demonstrating the value of statistical analysis of public health data. Graunt lived in London at the time of the plague epidemics.]
From Graunt's 'Epistle Dedicatory', for Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index and Made upon Bills of Mortality (1662). Reproduced in Cornelius Walford, The Insurance Cyclopaedia (1871), Vol. 1, 286. (This text used abbreviations for “Mort.” and “vols.”) The italicized words are given as from other sources. Note: bills of mortality are abstracts from parish registers showing the numbers that have died in each week, month or year.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accident (92)  |  Account (195)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Birth (154)  |  Data (162)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Diamond (21)  |  Due (143)  |  Early (196)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Epidemic (8)  |  First (1302)  |  Flow (89)  |  Great (1610)  |  Health (210)  |  Journeyman (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Long (778)  |  More (2558)  |  Mortality (16)  |  Observation (593)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Public Health (12)  |  Sacrifice (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Series (153)  |  Small (489)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Table (105)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)

Obviously we biologists should fit our methods to our materials. An interesting response to this challenge has been employed particularly by persons who have entered biology from the physical sciences or who are distressed by the variability in biology; they focus their research on inbred strains of genetically homogeneous laboratory animals from which, to the maximum extent possible, variability has been eliminated. These biologists have changed the nature of the biological system to fit their methods. Such a bold and forthright solution is admirable, but it is not for me. Before I became a professional biologist, I was a boy naturalist, and I prefer a contrasting approach; to change the method to fit the system. This approach requires that one employ procedures which allow direct scientific utilization of the successful long-term evolutionary experiments which are documented by the fascinating diversity and variability of the species of animals which occupy the earth. This is easy to say and hard to do.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Admirable (20)  |  Allow (51)  |  Animal (651)  |  Approach (112)  |  Become (821)  |  Biological (137)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Biology (232)  |  Bold (22)  |  Boy (100)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Change (639)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distress (9)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Document (7)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Easy (213)  |  Eliminate (25)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enter (145)  |  Evolutionary (23)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Fit (139)  |  Focus (36)  |  Genetically (2)  |  Hard (246)  |  Homogeneous (17)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Material (366)  |  Maximum (16)  |  Method (531)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Obviously (11)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Particularly (21)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Professional (77)  |  Require (229)  |  Research (753)  |  Response (56)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Solution (282)  |  Species (435)  |  Strain (13)  |  Successful (134)  |  System (545)  |  Term (357)  |  Utilization (16)  |  Variability (5)

Oh! But I have better news for you, Madam, if you have any patriotism as citizen of this world and wish its longevity. Mr. Herschel has found out that our globe is a comely middle-aged personage, and has not so many wrinkles as seven stars, who are evidently our seniors. Nay, he has discovered that the Milky Way is not only a mob of stars, but that there is another dairy of them still farther off, whence, I conclude, comets are nothing but pails returning from milking, instead of balloons filled with inflammable air.
Letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory (4 Jul 1785) in W. S. Lewis (ed.), Horace Walpole's Correspondence with the Countess of Upper Ossory (1965), Vol. 33, 474.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Better (493)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Comet (65)  |  Conclude (66)  |  Dairy (2)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Farther (51)  |  Find (1014)  |  Globe (51)  |  Sir John Herschel (24)  |  Inflammable (5)  |  Longevity (6)  |  Milky Way (29)  |  Mob (10)  |  New (1273)  |  News (36)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Pail (3)  |  Patriotism (9)  |  Personage (4)  |  Senior (7)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrinkle (4)

On consideration and by the advice of learned men, I thought it improper to unfold the secrets of the art (alchemy) to the vulgar, as few persons are capable of using its mysteries to advantage and without detriment.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Advice (57)  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Art (680)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Detriment (3)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Secret (216)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vulgar (33)

Once you go from 10 people to 100, you already don’t know who everyone is. So at that stage you might as well keep growing, to get the advantages of scale.
As quoted, without citation, in Can Akdeniz, Fast MBA (2014), 281.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Already (226)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  People (1031)  |  Scale (122)  |  Stage (152)

One more word on “designed laws” and “undesigned results.” - I see a bird which I want for food, take my gun and kill it, I do this designedly.—An innocent and good man stands under a tree and is killed by a flash of lightning. Do you believe (& I really should like to hear) that God designedly killed this man? Many or most persons do believe this; I can’t and don’t.—If you believe so, do you believe that when a swallow snaps up a gnat that God designed that that particular swallow should snap up that particular gnat at that particular instant? I believe that the man and the gnat are in the same predicament. If the death of neither man nor gnat are designed, I see no good reason to believe that their first birth or production should be necessarily designed.
Letter to Asa Gray, 3 July 1860. In F. Burkhardt and S. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Charles Darwin 1860 (1993), Vol. 8, 275.
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Birth (154)  |  Death (406)  |  Design (203)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Do (1905)  |  First (1302)  |  Flash (49)  |  Food (213)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Hear (144)  |  Instant (46)  |  Kill (100)  |  Law (913)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Production (190)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Snap (7)  |  Stand (284)  |  Swallow (32)  |  Tree (269)  |  Want (504)  |  Word (650)

One morning a great noise proceeded from one of the classrooms [of the Braunsberger gymnasium] and on investigation it was found that Weierstrass, who was to give the recitation, had not appeared. The director went in person to Weierstrass’ dwelling and on knocking was told to come in. There sat Weierstrass by a glimmering lamp in a darkened room though it was daylight outside. He had worked the night through and had not noticed the approach of daylight. When the director reminded him of the noisy throng of students who were waiting for him, his only reply was that he could impossibly interrupt his work; that he was about to make an important discovery which would attract attention in scientific circles.
In Karl Weierstrass: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Mathematiker Vereinigung (1897), 6), 88-89. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Attention (196)  |  Attract (25)  |  Circle (117)  |  Classroom (11)  |  Daylight (23)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Glimmer (5)  |  Glimmering (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Home (184)  |  Important (229)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Interrupt (6)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Morning (98)  |  Night (133)  |  Noise (40)  |  Notice (81)  |  Outside (141)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Reply (58)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Student (317)  |  Through (846)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |   Karl Weierstrass, (10)  |  Work (1402)

One must be wary in attributing scientific discovery wholly to any one person. Almost every discovery has a long and precarious history. Someone finds a bit here, another a bit there. A third step succeeds later and thus onward till a genius pieces the bits together and makes the decisive contribution. Science, like the Mississippi, begins in a tiny rivulet in the distant forest. Gradually other streams swell its volume. And the roaring river that bursts the dikes is formed from countless sources.
In 'The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge', Harper’s (Jun/Nov 1939), No. 179, 549
Science quotes on:  |  Attribute (65)  |  Begin (275)  |  Bit (21)  |  Burst (41)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Countless (39)  |  Decisive (25)  |  Dike (2)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distant (33)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forest (161)  |  Form (976)  |  Genius (301)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Gradually (102)  |  History (716)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Long (778)  |  Mississippi (7)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Piece (39)  |  Precarious (6)  |  River (140)  |  Rivulet (5)  |  Roar (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Source (101)  |  Step (234)  |  Stream (83)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Swell (4)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Volume (25)  |  Wary (3)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholly (88)

One of the earliest questions asked by an intelligent child is: “What is this made of?” “What is that made of?” And the answer is generally more or less satisfactory. For example, if the question relates to butter, the reply may be, “From cream.” It may be explained, besides, that when cream is beaten up, or churned, the butter separates, leaving skim-milk behind. But the question has not been answered. The child may ask, “Was the butter in the milk before it was churned? or has it been made out of the milk by the churning?” Possibly the person to whom the question is addressed may know that the milk contained the butter in the state of fine globules, and that the process of churning breaks up the globules, and causes them to stick together. The original question has not really been answered; and indeed it is not an easy one to reply to. Precisely such questions suggested themselves to the people of old, and they led to many speculations.
Opening paragraph of Modern Chemistry (1900, rev. 1907), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Beat (42)  |  Behind (139)  |  Break (109)  |  Butter (8)  |  Cause (561)  |  Child (333)  |  Churn (4)  |  Cream (6)  |  Earliest (3)  |  Easy (213)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Globule (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Know (1538)  |  Milk (23)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Old (499)  |  People (1031)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Process (439)  |  Question (649)  |  Reply (58)  |  Satisfactory (19)  |  Separate (151)  |  Separation (60)  |  Speculation (137)  |  State (505)  |  Stick (27)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Together (392)

One precept for the scientist-to-be is already obvious. Do not place yourself in an environment where your advisor is already suffering from scientific obsolescence. If one is so unfortunate as to receive his training under a person who is either technically or intellectually obsolescent, one finds himself to be a loser before he starts. It is difficult to move into a position of leadership if one’s launching platform is a scientific generation whose time is already past.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 229.
Science quotes on:  |  Advisor (3)  |  Already (226)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Environment (239)  |  Find (1014)  |  Generation (256)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Launch (21)  |  Leadership (13)  |  Loser (3)  |  Move (223)  |  Obsolescence (4)  |  Obsolescent (2)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Past (355)  |  Place (192)  |  Platform (3)  |  Position (83)  |  Precept (10)  |  Receive (117)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Start (237)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Technically (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Training (92)  |  Unfortunate (19)

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Demand (131)  |  Devote (45)  |  Himself (461)  |  Master (182)  |  Mastery (36)  |  Reason (766)  |  Soul (235)  |  Strength (139)  |  True (239)  |  Whole (756)

Our studies have shown that all cases of typhoid of this type have arisen by contact, that is, carried directly from one person to another. There was no trace of a connection to drinking water.
'Die Bekämpfing des Typhus', Veröffentlichungen aus dem Gebiete des Militär-Sanitätswesens (1903), 21. Quoted in English in Thomas D. Brock, Robert Koch: A Life in Medicine and Bacteriology (1988), 256.
Science quotes on:  |  Carrier (6)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contact (66)  |  Drinking (21)  |  Trace (109)  |  Type (171)  |  Typhoid (7)  |  Water (503)

People make the mistake of talking about “natural laws”. There are no natural laws. There are only temporary habits of nature.
In Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, as recorded by Lucien Price (1954), 367. As cited in G. Debrock (ed.), Process Pragmatism: Essays on a Quiet Philosophical Revolution (2003), 94.
Science quotes on:  |  Habit (174)  |  Law (913)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)  |  Talking (76)  |  Temporary (24)

People, houses, streets, animals, flowers—everything in Holland looks as if it were washed and ironed each night in order to glisten immaculately and newly starched the next morning.
In The Mirror of Souls, and Other Essays (1966), 334.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Everything (489)  |  Flower (112)  |  Holland (2)  |  House (143)  |  Immaculate (2)  |  Iron (99)  |  Look (584)  |  Morning (98)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Night (133)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Street (25)  |  Wash (23)  |  Washed (2)

Perseverance is the chief, but perseverance must have some practical end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our asylums.
In Orison Swett Marden, 'Bell Telephone Talk: Hints on Success by Alexander G. Bell', How They Succeeded: Life Stories of Successful Men Told by Themselves (1901), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Asylum (5)  |  Become (821)  |  Chief (99)  |  Crank (18)  |  End (603)  |  Idiot (22)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Perseverance (24)  |  Practical (225)  |  View (496)

Persons possessing great intellect and a capacity for excelling in the creative arts and also in the sciences are generally likely to have heavier brains than the ordinary individual. Arguing from this we might expect to find a corresponding lightness in the brain of the criminal, but this is not always the case ... Many criminals show not a single anomaly in their physical or mental make-up, while many persons with marked evidences of morphological aberration have never exhibited the criminal tendency.
Every attempt to prove crime to be due to a constitution peculiar only to criminals has failed signally. It is because most criminals are drawn from the ranks of the low, the degraded, the outcast, that investigators were ever deceived into attempting to set up a 'type' of criminal. The social conditions which foster the great majority of crimes are more needful of study and improvement.
From study of known normal brains we have learned that there is a certain range of variation. No two brains are exactly alike, and the greatest source of error in the assertions of Benedict and Lombroso has been the finding of this or that variation in a criminal’s brains, and maintaining such to be characteristic of the 'criminal constitution,' unmindful of the fact that like variations of structure may and do exist in the brains of normal, moral persons.
Address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia (28 Dec 1904), as quoted in 'Americans of Future Will Have Best Brains', New York Times (29 Dec 1904), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Aberration (10)  |  Alike (60)  |  Anomaly (11)  |  Art (680)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Brain (281)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Condition (362)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Crime (39)  |  Criminal (18)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Find (1014)  |  Foster (12)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Low (86)  |  Majority (68)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mental (179)  |  Moral (203)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Physical (518)  |  Prove (261)  |  Range (104)  |  Rank (69)  |  Set (400)  |  Show (353)  |  Single (365)  |  Social (261)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Variation (93)

Persons, who have a decided mathematical talent, constitute, as it were, a favored class. They bear the same relation to the rest of mankind that those who are academically trained bear to those who are not.
In Ueber die Anlage zur Mathematik (1900), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Academic (20)  |  Bear (162)  |  Class (168)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Decide (50)  |  Favor (69)  |  Favored (5)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Relation (166)  |  Rest (287)  |  Talent (99)  |  Train (118)

Persons, who have a decided mathematical talent, constitute, as it were, a favored class. They bear the same relation to the rest of mankind that those who are academically trained bear to those who are not.
In Ueber die Anlage zur Mathematik (1900), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Bear (162)  |  Class (168)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Favor (69)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Rest (287)  |  Talent (99)  |  Train (118)

Physic is of little use to a temperate person, for a man's own observation on what he finds does him good or what hurts him, is the best physic to preserve health.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893), 348:17.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Health (210)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Observation (593)  |  Physic (515)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Use (771)

Positive, objective knowledge is public property. It can be transmitted directly from one person to another, it can be pooled, and it can be passed on from one generation to the next. Consequently, knowledge accumulates through the ages, each generation adding its contribution. Values are quite different. By values, I mean the standards by which we judge the significance of life. The meaning of good and evil, of joy and sorrow, of beauty, justice, success-all these are purely private convictions, and they constitute our store of wisdom. They are peculiar to the individual, and no methods exist by which universal agreement can be obtained. Therefore, wisdom cannot be readily transmitted from person to person, and there is no great accumulation through the ages. Each man starts from scratch and acquires his own wisdom from his own experience. About all that can be done in the way of communication is to expose others to vicarious experience in the hope of a favorable response.
The Nature of Science and Other Lectures (1954), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Age (509)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Communication (101)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Different (595)  |  Evil (122)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expose (28)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Generation (256)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hope (321)  |  Individual (420)  |  Joy (117)  |  Judge (114)  |  Justice (40)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Method (531)  |  Next (238)  |  Objective (96)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Positive (98)  |  Property (177)  |  Purely (111)  |  Response (56)  |  Scratch (14)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Start (237)  |  Store (49)  |  Success (327)  |  Through (846)  |  Universal (198)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wisdom (235)

Professor Ayrton said that we were gradually coming within thinkable distance of the realization of a prophecy he had ventured to make four years before, of a time when, if a person wanted to call to a friend he knew not where, he would call in a very loud electromagnetic voice, heard by him who had the electromagnetic ear, silent to him who had it not. “Where are you?” he would say. A small reply would come, “I am at the bottom of a coalmine, or crossing the Andes, or in the middle of the Atlantic.” Or, perhaps in spite of all the calling, no reply would come, and the person would then know that his friend was dead. Think of what this would mean ... a real communication from a distance based on true physical laws.
[His prophecy of cell phones, as a comment on Marconi's paper, 'Syntonic Wireless Telegraphy,' read before the Society of Arts, 15 May 1901, about his early radio signal experiments.]
From Engineering Magazine (Jul 1901) as described in 'Marconi and his Transatlantic Signal', The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1902), Vol. 63, 782.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell Phone (6)  |  Coming (114)  |  Communication (101)  |  Distance (171)  |  Ear (69)  |  Early (196)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Invention (400)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Guglielmo Marconi (6)  |  Mean (810)  |  Paper (192)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Law (15)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Professor (133)  |  Prophecy (14)  |  Radio (60)  |  Read (308)  |  Realization (44)  |  Reply (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Signal (29)  |  Small (489)  |  Society (350)  |  Spite (55)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinkable (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Want (504)  |  Year (963)

Psychoanalysis is a science conducted by lunatics for lunatics. They are generally concerned with proving that people are irresponsible; and they certainly succeed in proving that some people are.
From Illustrated London News (23 Jun 1928). In Dale Ahlquist (ed.) The Universe According to G.K. Chesterton: A Dictionary of the Mad, Mundane and Metaphysical (2013), 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Irresponsible (5)  |  Lunatic (9)  |  People (1031)  |  Prove (261)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Succeed (114)

Questions of personal priority, however interesting they may be to the persons concerned, sink into insignificance in the prospect of any gain of deeper insight into the secrets of nature.
As quoted in Silvanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910), Vol. 2, 602.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Deeper (4)  |  Gain (146)  |  Insight (107)  |  Insignificance (12)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Personal (75)  |  Priority (11)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Question (649)  |  Secret (216)  |  Sink (38)

Quite distinct from the theoretical question of the manner in which mathematics will rescue itself from the perils to which it is exposed by its own prolific nature is the practical problem of finding means of rendering available for the student the results which have been already accumulated, and making it possible for the learner to obtain some idea of the present state of the various departments of mathematics. … The great mass of mathematical literature will be always contained in Journals and Transactions, but there is no reason why it should not be rendered far more useful and accessible than at present by means of treatises or higher text-books. The whole science suffers from want of avenues of approach, and many beautiful branches of mathematics are regarded as difficult and technical merely because they are not easily accessible. … I feel very strongly that any introduction to a new subject written by a competent person confers a real benefit on the whole science. The number of excellent text-books of an elementary kind that are published in this country makes it all the more to be regretted that we have so few that are intended for the advanced student. As an example of the higher kind of text-book, the want of which is so badly felt in many subjects, I may mention the second part of Prof. Chrystal’s Algebra published last year, which in a small compass gives a great mass of valuable and fundamental knowledge that has hitherto been beyond the reach of an ordinary student, though in reality lying so close at hand. I may add that in any treatise or higher text-book it is always desirable that references to the original memoirs should be given, and, if possible, short historic notices also. I am sure that no subject loses more than mathematics by any attempt to dissociate it from its history.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A (1890), Nature, 42, 466.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Add (42)  |  Advance (298)  |  Algebra (117)  |  Already (226)  |  Approach (112)  |  At Hand (7)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Available (80)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Badly (32)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Book (413)  |  Branch (155)  |  George Chrystal (8)  |  Close (77)  |  Compass (37)  |  Competent (20)  |  Confer (11)  |  Contain (68)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Dissociate (2)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Example (98)  |  Excellent (29)  |  Expose (28)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Far (158)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Give (208)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Historic (7)  |  History (716)  |  Hitherto (6)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intend (18)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Journal (31)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Last (425)  |  Learner (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Literature (116)  |  Lose (165)  |  Lying (55)  |  Making (300)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Memoir (13)  |  Mention (84)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  Part (235)  |  Peril (9)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Prof (2)  |  Prolific (5)  |  Publish (42)  |  Question (649)  |  Reach (286)  |  Real (159)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reference (33)  |  Regard (312)  |  Regret (31)  |  Render (96)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Second (66)  |  Short (200)  |  Small (489)  |  State (505)  |  Strongly (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Technical (53)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Useful (260)  |  Value (393)  |  Various (205)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

Rachel Carson was the best thing America is capable of producing: a modest person, concerned, courageous, and profoundly right—all at the same time. Troubled by knowledge of an emerging threat to the web of life, she took pains to become informed, summoned her courage, breached her confines, and conveyed a diligently constructed message with eloquence enough to catalyze a new social movement. Her life addressed the promise and premise of being truly human.
In his Foreward to Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us (1950, 2003), xvi.
Science quotes on:  |  America (143)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Capable (174)  |  Rachel Carson (49)  |  Concern (239)  |  Construct (129)  |  Courage (82)  |  Eloquence (7)  |  Emerge (24)  |  Enough (341)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inform (50)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Message (53)  |  Modest (19)  |  Movement (162)  |  New (1273)  |  Pain (144)  |  Premise (40)  |  Promise (72)  |  Right (473)  |  Social (261)  |  Summon (11)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Threat (36)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Web Of Life (9)

Relations between authors and referees are, of course, almost always strained. Authors are convinced that the malicious stupidity of the referee is alone preventing them from laying their discoveries before an admiring world. Referees are convinced that authors are too arrogant and obtuse to recognize blatant fallacies in their own reasoning, even when these have been called to their attention with crystalline lucidity. All physicists know this, because all physicists are both authors and referees, but it does no good. The ability of one person to hold both views is an example of what Bohr called complementarity.
In Boojums All the Way Through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age (1990), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Attention (196)  |  Author (175)  |  Blatant (4)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Complementarity (6)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Course (413)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Good (906)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lucidity (7)  |  Malice (6)  |  Malicious (8)  |  Obtuse (2)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physicists (2)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Referee (8)  |  Relation (166)  |  Strain (13)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  View (496)  |  World (1850)

Religion shows a pattern of heredity which I think is similar to genetic heredity. ... There are hundreds of different religious sects, and every religious person is loyal to just one of these. ... The overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one their parents belonged to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained-glass, the best music when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing compared to the matter of heredity.
From edited version of a speech, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (15 Apr 1992), as reprinted from the Independent newspaper in Alec Fisher, The Logic of Real Arguments (2004), 82-83.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Best (467)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Choose (116)  |  Code (31)  |  Count (107)  |  Different (595)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Favor (69)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Glass (94)  |  Happen (282)  |  Heredity (62)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Loyal (5)  |  Majority (68)  |  Matter (821)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Moral (203)  |  Music (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Potential (75)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Sect (5)  |  Show (353)  |  Similar (36)  |  Stained Glass (2)  |  Think (1122)  |  Virtue (117)

Richard Drew embodied the essential spirit of the inventor, a person of vision and unrelenting persistence who refused to give in to adversity. He made an enormous contribution, not only to the growth of 3M, but also to advancement of many modern industries vital to worldwide economic growth.
Speaking at Drew's posthumous induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Akron, Ohio (4 May 2007). From Press Release (7 May 2007) on 3M Company website.
Science quotes on:  |  3M Company (2)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Adversity (6)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Richard G. Drew (6)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Embody (18)  |  Essential (210)  |  Give In (3)  |  Growth (200)  |  Industry (159)  |  Inventor (79)  |  Modern (402)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Unrelenting (2)  |  Vision (127)  |  Vital (89)  |  Worldwide (19)

Science and Religion. These are reconciled in amiable and sensible people but nowhere else.
In Samuel Butler and Henry Festing Jones (ed.), 'Elementary Mortality', The Note-books of Samuel Butler (1912, 1917), 36.
Science quotes on:  |  Amiable (10)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  People (1031)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sensible (28)

Science deals with judgments on which it is possible to obtain universal agreement. These judgments do not concern individual facts and events, but the invariable association of facts and events known as the laws of science. Agreement is secured by observation and experiment—impartial courts of appeal to which all men must submit if they wish to survive. The laws are grouped and explained by theories of ever increasing generality. The theories at first are ex post facto—merely plausible interpretations of existing bodies of data. However, they frequently lead to predictions that can be tested by experiments and observations in new fields, and, if the interpretations are verified, the theories are accepted as working hypotheses until they prove untenable. The essential requirements are agreement on the subject matter and the verification of predictions. These features insure a body of positive knowledge that can be transmitted from person to person, and that accumulates from generation to generation.
From manuscript on English Science in the Renaissance (1937), Edwin Hubble collection, Box 2, Huntington Library, San Marino, California. As cited by Norriss S. Hetherington in 'Philosophical Values and Observation in Edwin Hubble's Choice of a Model of the Universe', Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (1982), 13, No. 1, 41. (Hetherington comments parenthetically that the references to court, judgment and appeal may be attributable to his prior experiences as a Rhodes Scholar reading Roman law at Oxford, and to a year's practice as an attorney in Louisville, Kentucky.)
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Association (49)  |  Body (557)  |  Concern (239)  |  Court (35)  |  Data (162)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Essential (210)  |  Event (222)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Generality (45)  |  Generation (256)  |  Impartiality (7)  |  Individual (420)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Science (2)  |  Lead (391)  |  Matter (821)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Obervation (4)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Plausibility (7)  |  Plausible (24)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Prove (261)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Secured (18)  |  Subject (543)  |  Survival (105)  |  Survive (87)  |  Test (221)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Universal (198)  |  Untenable (5)  |  Verification (32)  |  Wish (216)

Science gives us the grounds of premises from which religious truths are to be inferred; but it does not set about inferring them, much less does it reach the inference; that is not its province. It brings before us phenomena, and it leaves us, if we will, to call them works of design, wisdom, or benevolence; and further still, if we will, to proceed to confess an Intelligent Creator. We have to take its facts, and to give them a meaning, and to draw our own conclusions from them. First comes Knowledge, then a view, then reasoning, then belief. This is why Science has so little of a religious tendency; deductions have no power of persuasion. The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon a dogma; no man will be a martyr for a conclusion.
Letter collected in Tamworth Reading Room: Letters on an Address Delivered by Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P. on the Establishment of a Reading Room at Tamworth (1841), 32. Excerpted in John Henry Newman, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), 89 & 94 footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Benevolence (11)  |  Bring (95)  |  Call (781)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confess (42)  |  Creator (97)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Deed (34)  |  Description (89)  |  Design (203)  |  Die (94)  |  Direct (228)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Draw (140)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Far (158)  |  First (1302)  |  Give (208)  |  Ground (222)  |  Heart (243)  |  History (716)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Impression (118)  |  Infer (12)  |  Inference (45)  |  Inflame (2)  |  Influence (231)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Leave (138)  |  Less (105)  |  Little (717)  |  Live (650)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Martyr (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Melt (16)  |  Persuasion (9)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Power (771)  |  Premise (40)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Province (37)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Religious (134)  |  Set (400)  |  Still (614)  |  Subdue (7)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  View (496)  |  Voice (54)  |  Why (491)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1402)

Science quickens and cultivates directly the faculty of observation, which in very many persons lies almost dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid generalizations, and the mental habit of method and arrangement; it accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of cause and effect; it familiarizes then with a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which they can promptly comprehend; and it is perhaps the best corrective for that indolence which is the vice of half-awakened minds, and which shrinks from any exertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely mechanical.
Anonymous
Report of the Royal Commission on Education (1861), Parliamentary Papers (1864), Vol 20, 32-33, as cited in Paul White, Thomas Huxley: Making the "Man of Science" (2003), 77, footnote. Also quoted in John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life (1887, 2007), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Accustom (52)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Awakening (11)  |  Best (467)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Corrective (2)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Effect (414)  |  Effort (243)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Familiarization (2)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Habit (174)  |  Indolence (8)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Memory (144)  |  Mental (179)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Power (771)  |  Promptness (2)  |  Quickening (4)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Shrink (23)  |  Through (846)  |  Trace (109)  |  Vice (42)  |  Young (253)

Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and survey things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order.
From 'Scientific Truth' in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Effect (414)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Higher (37)  |  Lie (370)  |  Order (638)  |  People (1031)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Superstition (70)  |  Survey (36)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Should a person do good, let him do it again and again. Let him find pleasure therein, for blissful is the accumulation of good.
Buddha
The Dhammapada. Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 236
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Blissful (3)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Good (906)  |  Let (64)  |  Pleasure (191)

Since an organism is inseparable from its environment, any person who attempts to understand an organism’s distribution must keep constantly in mind that the item being studied is neither a stuffed skin, a pickled specimen, nor a dot on a map. It is not even the live organism held in the hand, caged in a laboratory, or seen in the field. It is a complex interaction between a self-sustaining physicochemical system and the environment. An obvious corollary is that to know the organism it is necessary to know its environment.
From 'The role of physiology in the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates', collected in C.L. Hubbs (ed.), Zoogeography: Publ. 51 (1958), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cage (12)  |  Complex (202)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Corollary (5)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Dot (18)  |  Environment (239)  |  Field (378)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hold (96)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Item (4)  |  Keep (104)  |  Know (1538)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Live (650)  |  Map (50)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Organism (231)  |  Pickle (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Sustaining (3)  |  Skin (48)  |  Specimen (32)  |  Study (701)  |  Stuff (24)  |  System (545)  |  Understand (648)

So great is the effect of cleanliness upon man, that it extends even to his moral character. Virtue never dwelt long with filth and nastiness; nor do I believe there ever was a person scrupulously attentive to cleanliness, who was a consummate villain.
In Essays, Political, Economical, and Philosophical (1798), Vol. 1, 35.
Science quotes on:  |  Attentive (15)  |  Belief (615)  |  Character (259)  |  Cleanliness (6)  |  Consummate (5)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Effect (414)  |  Extend (129)  |  Filth (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  Moral (203)  |  Scrupulous (7)  |  Villain (5)  |  Virtue (117)

Some guns were fired to give notice that the departure of the balloon was near. ... Means were used, I am told, to prevent the great balloon's rising so high as might endanger its bursting. Several bags of sand were taken on board before the cord that held it down was cut, and the whole weight being then too much to be lifted, such a quantity was discharged as would permit its rising slowly. Thus it would sooner arrive at that region where it would be in equilibrio with the surrounding air, and by discharging more sand afterwards, it might go higher if desired. Between one and two o’clock, all eyes were gratified with seeing it rise majestically from above the trees, and ascend gradually above the buildings, a most beautiful spectacle. When it was about two hundred feet high, the brave adventurers held out and waved a little white pennant, on both sides of their car, to salute the spectators, who returned loud claps of applause. The wind was very little, so that the object though moving to the northward, continued long in view; and it was a great while before the admiring people began to disperse. The persons embarked were Mr. Charles, professor of experimental philosophy, and a zealous promoter of that science; and one of the Messrs Robert, the very ingenious constructors of the machine.
While U.S. ambassador to France, writing about witnessing, from his carriage outside the garden of Tuileries, Paris, the first manned balloon ascent using hydrogen gas on the afternoon of 1 Dec 1783. A few days earlier, he had watched the first manned ascent in Montgolfier's hot-air balloon, on 21 Nov 1783.
Letter to Sir Charles Banks (1 Dec 1783). In The Writings of Benjamin Franklin: 1783-1788 (1906), Vol. 9, 119-120.
Science quotes on:  |  Aeronautics (15)  |  Air (366)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Balloon (16)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Brave (16)  |  Building (158)  |  Car (75)  |  Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles (2)  |  Clock (51)  |  Cut (116)  |  Down (455)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Eye (440)  |  First (1302)  |  Garden (64)  |  Gas (89)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Hot (63)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Hydrogen (80)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Lift (57)  |  Little (717)  |  Long (778)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (438)  |  Outside (141)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Professor (133)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Return (133)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rising (44)  |  Salute (3)  |  Sand (63)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Side (236)  |  Spectacle (35)  |  Tree (269)  |  Two (936)  |  View (496)  |  Watch (118)  |  Weight (140)  |  White (132)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wind (141)  |  Writing (192)

Some persons have contended that mathematics ought to be taught by making the illustrations obvious to the senses. Nothing can be more absurd or injurious: it ought to be our never-ceasing effort to make people think, not feel.
Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton (1856) 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Contend (8)  |  Effort (243)  |  Feel (371)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Injurious (14)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  More (2558)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Obvious (128)  |  People (1031)  |  Sense (785)  |  Teach (299)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)

Statistics are far from being the barren array of figures ingeniously and laboriously combined into columns and tables, which many persons are apt to suppose them. They constitute rather the ledger of a nation, in which, like the merchant in his books, the citizen can read, at one view, all of the results of a year or of a period of years, as compared with other periods, and deduce the profit or the loss which has been made, in morals, education, wealth or power.
Statistical View of the United States: A Compendium of the Seventh Census (1854), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Barren (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Book (413)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Education (423)  |  Figure (162)  |  Loss (117)  |  Moral (203)  |  Nation (208)  |  Other (2233)  |  Period (200)  |  Power (771)  |  Profit (56)  |  Read (308)  |  Result (700)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Table (105)  |  View (496)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Year (963)

Stay in college, get the knowledge. And stay there until you’re through. If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.
Advice to a young person to continue his education.
From address to students at New School for Social Research, New York City, 'Words of the Week',Jet (3 Jan 1980), 57, No. 16, 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Bread (42)  |  College (71)  |  Continue (179)  |  Education (423)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mold (37)  |  Penicillin (18)  |  Something (718)  |  Through (846)  |  Young (253)

Suicide is merely the product of the general condition of society, and that the individual felon only carries into effect what is a necessary consequence of preceding circumstances. In a given state of society, a certain number of persons must put an end to their own life. This is the general law; and the special question as to who shall commit the crime depends of course upon special laws; which, however, in their total action, must obey the large social law to which they are all subordinate. And the power of the larger law is so irresistible, that neither the love of life nor the fear of another world can avail any thing towards even checking its operation.
In History of Civilization in England (1857, 1904), 15-16.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Certain (557)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commit (43)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Crime (39)  |  Depend (238)  |  Effect (414)  |  End (603)  |  Fear (212)  |  General (521)  |  Individual (420)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Love (328)  |  Merely (315)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Number (710)  |  Obey (46)  |  Operation (221)  |  Power (771)  |  Product (166)  |  Question (649)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Special (188)  |  State (505)  |  Suicide (23)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Total (95)  |  World (1850)

Suppose there is something which a person cannot understand. He happens to notice the similarity of this something to some other thing which he understands quite well. By comparing them he may come to understand the thing which he could not understand up to that moment. If his understanding turns out to be appropriate and nobody else has ever come to such an understanding, he can claim that his thinking was really creative.
Creativity and Intuition: A Physicist Looks at East and West (1973), 114.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Claim (154)  |  Creative (144)  |  Happen (282)  |  Moment (260)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Notice (81)  |  Other (2233)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Something (718)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Turn (454)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

TELEPHONE, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  341.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Devil (34)  |  Disagreeable (5)  |  Distance (171)  |  Humour (116)  |  Invention (400)  |  Making (300)  |  Telephone (31)

That many very remarkable change and involuntary motions are sudden produced in the body by various affections of the mind, is undeniably evinced from a number of facts. Thus fear often causes a sudden and uncommon flow of pale urine. Looking much at one troubled with sore eyes, has sometimes affected the spectator with the same disease.—Certain sounds cause a shivering over the whole body.—The noise of a bagpipe has raised in some persons an inclination to make urine.—The sudden appearance of any frightful object, will, in delicate people, cause an uncommon palpitation of the heart.—The sight of an epileptic person agitated with convulsions, has brought on an epilepsy; and yawning is so very catching, as frequently to be propagated through whole companies.
In An Essay on the Vital and Other Involuntary Motions of Animals (1751), 253-254.
Science quotes on:  |  Affection (44)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Body (557)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Convulsion (5)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Disease (340)  |  Epilepsy (3)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fear (212)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fright (11)  |  Heart (243)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Involuntary (4)  |  Looking (191)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motion (320)  |  Noise (40)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  People (1031)  |  Produced (187)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sound (187)  |  Sudden (70)  |  Through (846)  |  Urine (18)  |  Various (205)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yawn (2)

That mathematics “do not cultivate the power of generalization,”; … will be admitted by no person of competent knowledge, except in a very qualified sense. The generalizations of mathematics, are, no doubt, a different thing from the generalizations of physical science; but in the difficulty of seizing them, and the mental tension they require, they are no contemptible preparation for the most arduous efforts of the scientific mind. Even the fundamental notions of the higher mathematics, from those of the differential calculus upwards are products of a very high abstraction. … To perceive the mathematical laws common to the results of many mathematical operations, even in so simple a case as that of the binomial theorem, involves a vigorous exercise of the same faculty which gave us Kepler’s laws, and rose through those laws to the theory of universal gravitation. Every process of what has been called Universal Geometry—the great creation of Descartes and his successors, in which a single train of reasoning solves whole classes of problems at once, and others common to large groups of them—is a practical lesson in the management of wide generalizations, and abstraction of the points of agreement from those of difference among objects of great and confusing diversity, to which the purely inductive sciences cannot furnish many superior. Even so elementary an operation as that of abstracting from the particular configuration of the triangles or other figures, and the relative situation of the particular lines or points, in the diagram which aids the apprehension of a common geometrical demonstration, is a very useful, and far from being always an easy, exercise of the faculty of generalization so strangely imagined to have no place or part in the processes of mathematics.
In An Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy (1878), 612-13.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Admit (49)  |  Agreement (55)  |  Aid (101)  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Arduous (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Binomial (6)  |  Binomial Theorem (5)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Call (781)  |  Case (102)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Competent (20)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Contemptible (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Diagram (20)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential Calculus (11)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Far (158)  |  Figure (162)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  High (370)  |  Higher Mathematics (7)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Involve (93)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Law (913)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Line (100)  |  Management (23)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Notion (120)  |  Object (438)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Particular (80)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Place (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Power (771)  |  Practical (225)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Problem (731)  |  Process (439)  |  Product (166)  |  Purely (111)  |  Qualified (12)  |  Qualify (6)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Relative (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Rose (36)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Mind (13)  |  Seize (18)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solve (145)  |  Strangely (5)  |  Successor (16)  |  Superior (88)  |  Tension (24)  |  Theorem (116)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Triangle (20)  |  Universal (198)  |  Upward (44)  |  Upwards (6)  |  Useful (260)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Will (2350)

That the master manufacturer, by dividing the work to be executed into different processes, each requiring different degrees of skill or of force, can purchase precisely the precise quantity of both which is necessary for each process; whereas, if the whole work were executed by one workman, that person must possess sufficient skill to perform the most difficult, and sufficient strength to execute the most laborious, of the operations into which the art is divided.
In 'On the Division of Labour', Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1st ed., 1832), chap. 18, 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Both (496)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Divide (77)  |  Divided (50)  |  Economics (44)  |  Execute (7)  |  Force (497)  |  Labor (200)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Manufacturer (10)  |  Master (182)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Perform (123)  |  Possess (157)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Process (439)  |  Purchase (8)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Skill (116)  |  Strength (139)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Whole (756)  |  Work (1402)  |  Workman (13)

The “British Association for the Promotion of Science,” … is almost necessary for the purposes of science. The periodical assemblage of persons, pursuing the same or différent branches of knowledge, always produces an excitement which is favourable to the development of new ideas; whilst the long period of repose which succeeds, is advantageous for the prosecution of the reasonings or the experiments then suggested; and the récurrence of the meeting in the succeeding year, will stimulate the activity of the inquirer, by the hope of being then enabled to produce the successful result of his labours.
In 'Future Prospects', On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1st ed., 1832), chap. 32, 274. Note: The British Association for the Advancement of Science held its first meeting at York in 1831, the year before the first publication of this book in 1832.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Advancement (63)  |  Advantageous (10)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Assembly (13)  |  Association (49)  |  Being (1276)  |  Branch (155)  |  British (42)  |  Conference (18)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Enable (122)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Favourable (3)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Information (173)  |  Inquirer (9)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Long (778)  |  Meeting (22)  |  Necessary (370)  |  New (1273)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Period (200)  |  Periodic (3)  |  Produce (117)  |  Promotion (8)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Reasonings (2)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Same (166)  |  Society (350)  |  Stimulate (21)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Suggest (38)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

The assumption we have made … is that marriages and the union of gametes occur at random. The validity of this assumption may now be examined. “Random mating” obviously does not mean promiscuity; it simply means, as already explained above, that in the choice of mates for marriage there is neither preference for nor aversion to the union of persons similar or dissimilar with respect to a given trait or gene. Not all gentlemen prefer blondes or brunettes. Since so few people know what their blood type is, it is even safer to say that the chances of mates being similar or dissimilar in blood type are determined simply by the incidence of these blood types in a given Mendelian population.
[Co-author with Theodosius Dobzhansky]
In Radiation, Genes and Man (1960), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Author (175)  |  Aversion (9)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Chance (244)  |  Choice (114)  |  Determined (9)  |  Dissimilar (6)  |  Examined (3)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Gamete (5)  |  Gene (105)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Incidence (2)  |  Know (1538)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Mate (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Means (587)  |  Occur (151)  |  People (1031)  |  Population (115)  |  Preference (28)  |  Promiscuity (3)  |  Random (42)  |  Respect (212)  |  Safety (58)  |  Say (989)  |  Similar (36)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Trait (23)  |  Type (171)  |  Union (52)  |  Validity (50)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Paleontology (32)  |  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 autopsy of a person who had died from phosphorus poisoning would reveal inflammation and haemorrhage in the stomach and bowel, the liver would show fatty changes and both it, and the kidneys would be enlarged, greasy and of a yellow colour. But the most convincing proof of death due to phosphorus exposure would be to turn off all the lights in the mortuary and see its tell-tale glow...
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorus (U.S., 2000), 191. Also published in Great Britain as The Shocking History of Phosphorus (2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Autopsy (3)  |  Both (496)  |  Bowel (17)  |  Change (639)  |  Death (406)  |  Due (143)  |  Inflammation (7)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Light (635)  |  Liver (22)  |  Most (1728)  |  Phosphorus (18)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reveal (152)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Stomach (40)  |  Tell (344)  |  Turn (454)  |  Yellow (31)

The believer has the whole world of wealth (Prov. 17: 6 LXX) and “possesses all things as if he had nothing” (2 Cor. 6: 10) by virtue of his attachment to you whom all things serve; yet he may know nothing about the circuits of the Great Bear. It is stupid to doubt that he is better than the person who measures the heaven and counts the stars and weighs the elements, but neglects you who have disposed everything “by measure and number and weight” (Wisd. 11: 21).
Confessions [c.397], Book V, chapter 4 (7), trans. H. Chadwick (1991), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Bear (162)  |  Believer (26)  |  Better (493)  |  Bible (105)  |  Circuit (29)  |  Count (107)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Element (322)  |  Everything (489)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Know (1538)  |  Measure (241)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Neglect (63)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Weigh (51)  |  Weight (140)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The best education will not immunize a person against corruption by power. The best education does not automatically make people compassionate. We know this more clearly than any preceding generation. Our time has seen the best-educated society, situated in the heart of the most civilized part of the world, give birth to the most murderously vengeful government in history.
In Before the Sabbath (1979), 40-41.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Automatically (5)  |  Best (467)  |  Best-Educated (2)  |  Birth (154)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Compassionate (2)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Education (423)  |  Generation (256)  |  Give (208)  |  Government (116)  |  Heart (243)  |  History (716)  |  Know (1538)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Part (235)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Precede (23)  |  See (1094)  |  Situate (3)  |  Society (350)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The best person able to appraise promise as a mathematician is a gifted teacher, and not a professional tester.
In speech, 'Education for Creativity in the Sciences', Conference at New York University, Washington Square. As quoted by Gene Currivan in 'I.Q. Tests Called Harmful to Pupil', New York Times (16 Jun 1963), 66.
Science quotes on:  |  Appraisal (2)  |  Best (467)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Professional (77)  |  Promise (72)  |  Teacher (154)

The best person to decide what research shall be done is the man who is doing the research. The next best is the head of the department. After that you leave the field of best persons and meet increasingly worse groups. The first of these is the research director, who is probably wrong more than half the time. Then comes a committee which is wrong most of the time. Finally there is a committee of company vice-presidents, which is wrong all the time.
1935, in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1961.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Company (63)  |  Department (93)  |  Doing (277)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Next (238)  |  President (36)  |  Research (753)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vice (42)  |  Wrong (246)

The capital ... shall form a fund, the interest of which shall be distributed annually as prizes to those persons who shall have rendered humanity the best services during the past year. ... One-fifth to the person having made the most important discovery or invention in the science of physics, one-fifth to the person who has made the most eminent discovery or improvement in chemistry, one-fifth to the one having made the most important discovery with regard to physiology or medicine, one-fifth to the person who has produced the most distinguished idealistic work of literature, and one-fifth to the person who has worked the most or best for advancing the fraternization of all nations and for abolishing or diminishing the standing armies as well as for the forming or propagation of committees of peace.
From will (27 Nov 1895), in which he established the Nobel Prizes, as translated in U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Consular Reports, Issues 156-159 (1897), 331.
Science quotes on:  |  Annual (5)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Best (467)  |  Capital (16)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Confer (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Form (976)  |  Forming (42)  |  Fund (19)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Interest (416)  |  Invention (400)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Past (355)  |  Peace (116)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Produced (187)  |  Propagation (15)  |  Regard (312)  |  Render (96)  |  Service (110)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

The determination of the value of an item must not be based on its price, but rather on the utility it yields. The price of the item is dependent only on the thing itself and is equal for everyone; the utility, however, is dependent on the particular circumstances of the person making the estimate. Thus there is no doubt that a gain of one thousand ducats is more significant to a pauper than to a rich man though both gain the same amount.
Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk (1738), 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Both (496)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Determination (80)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Gain (146)  |  Making (300)  |  Man (2252)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Price (57)  |  Significant (78)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Utility (52)  |  Value (393)  |  Yield (86)

The development doctrines are doing much harm on both sides of the Atlantic, especially among intelligent mechanics, and a class of young men engaged in the subordinate departments of trade and the law. And the harm thus considerable in amount must be necessarily more than considerable in degree. For it invariably happens, that when persons in these walks become materialists, they become turbulent subjects and bad men.
The Foot-prints of the Creator: Or, The Asterolepis of Stromness (1850, 1859), Preface, vi.
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Atlantic (8)  |  Bad (185)  |  Become (821)  |  Both (496)  |  Class (168)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Degree (277)  |  Department (93)  |  Development (441)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Doing (277)  |  Happen (282)  |  Harm (43)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Law (913)  |  Materialist (4)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessarily (137)  |  Side (236)  |  Subject (543)  |  Trade (34)  |  Turbulent (4)  |  Walk (138)  |  Young (253)

The difficulties connected with my criterion of demarcation (D) are important, but must not be exaggerated. It is vague, since it is a methodological rule, and since the demarcation between science and nonscience is vague. But it is more than sharp enough to make a distinction between many physical theories on the one hand, and metaphysical theories, such as psychoanalysis, or Marxism (in its present form), on the other. This is, of course, one of my main theses; and nobody who has not understood it can be said to have understood my theory.
The situation with Marxism is, incidentally, very different from that with psychoanalysis. Marxism was once a scientific theory: it predicted that capitalism would lead to increasing misery and, through a more or less mild revolution, to socialism; it predicted that this would happen first in the technically highest developed countries; and it predicted that the technical evolution of the 'means of production' would lead to social, political, and ideological developments, rather than the other way round.
But the (so-called) socialist revolution came first in one of the technically backward countries. And instead of the means of production producing a new ideology, it was Lenin's and Stalin's ideology that Russia must push forward with its industrialization ('Socialism is dictatorship of the proletariat plus electrification') which promoted the new development of the means of production.
Thus one might say that Marxism was once a science, but one which was refuted by some of the facts which happened to clash with its predictions (I have here mentioned just a few of these facts).
However, Marxism is no longer a science; for it broke the methodological rule that we must accept falsification, and it immunized itself against the most blatant refutations of its predictions. Ever since then, it can be described only as nonscience—as a metaphysical dream, if you like, married to a cruel reality.
Psychoanalysis is a very different case. It is an interesting psychological metaphysics (and no doubt there is some truth in it, as there is so often in metaphysical ideas), but it never was a science. There may be lots of people who are Freudian or Adlerian cases: Freud himself was clearly a Freudian case, and Adler an Adlerian case. But what prevents their theories from being scientific in the sense here described is, very simply, that they do not exclude any physically possible human behaviour. Whatever anybody may do is, in principle, explicable in Freudian or Adlerian terms. (Adler's break with Freud was more Adlerian than Freudian, but Freud never looked on it as a refutation of his theory.)
The point is very clear. Neither Freud nor Adler excludes any particular person's acting in any particular way, whatever the outward circumstances. Whether a man sacrificed his life to rescue a drowning, child (a case of sublimation) or whether he murdered the child by drowning him (a case of repression) could not possibly be predicted or excluded by Freud's theory; the theory was compatible with everything that could happen—even without any special immunization treatment.
Thus while Marxism became non-scientific by its adoption of an immunizing strategy, psychoanalysis was immune to start with, and remained so. In contrast, most physical theories are pretty free of immunizing tactics and highly falsifiable to start with. As a rule, they exclude an infinity of conceivable possibilities.
'The Problem of Demarcation' (1974). Collected in David Miller (ed.) Popper Selections (1985), 127-128.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alfred Adler (3)  |  Against (332)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blatant (4)  |  Break (109)  |  Call (781)  |  Capitalism (12)  |  Child (333)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Connect (126)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Course (413)  |  Criterion (28)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Dream (222)  |  Enough (341)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Falsification (11)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Forward (104)  |  Free (239)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Ideology (15)  |  Immunization (3)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marxism (3)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Mention (84)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Methodology (14)  |  Mild (7)  |  Misery (31)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Non-Science (2)  |  Non-Scientific (7)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Physical (518)  |  Plus (43)  |  Point (584)  |  Political (124)  |  Possible (560)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Present (630)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Principle (530)  |  Production (190)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Push (66)  |  Reality (274)  |  Refutation (13)  |  Remain (355)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Sense (785)  |  Situation (117)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Special (188)  |  Start (237)  |  Strategy (13)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understood (155)  |  Vague (50)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whatever (234)

The doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this: that, given the motives which are present to an individual’s mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly inferred: that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event.
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (1858), 522.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Character (259)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Event (222)  |  Foretell (12)  |  Individual (420)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motive (62)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Physical (518)  |  Predict (86)  |  Present (630)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Will (2350)

The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acting (6)  |  Artist (97)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bread (42)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Course (413)  |  Daily (91)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Development (441)  |  Direct (228)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconspicuous (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lot (151)  |  Minority (24)  |  Most (1728)  |  Emmy Noether (7)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (141)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Run (158)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Special (188)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Successor (16)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (393)

The entire mathematical arsenal that our modern sages command cannot establish facts. Practical people should always keep this in mind when they ask mathematicians for help.
As translated from Literaturnaya Gazeta (5 Dec 1979), 49, 12, in 'Miscellanea', The American Mathematical Monthly (Aug-Sep 1980), 87, No. 7, 589.
Science quotes on:  |  Arsenal (5)  |  Ask (420)  |  Command (60)  |  Entire (50)  |  Establish (63)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Help (116)  |  Keep (104)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modern (402)  |  People (1031)  |  Practical (225)  |  Sage (25)

The experience and behaviour that gets labelled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.
Politics of Experience (1967), 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Behaviour (42)  |  Experience (494)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Order (638)  |  Situation (117)  |  Special (188)  |  Strategy (13)

The fact that death from cancer is on the increase is not only a problem of medicine, but its at the same time testifies to the wonderful efficiency of medical science... [as it] enables more persons top live long enough to develop some kind of cancer in old and less resistant tissues.
Charles H. Mayo and William A. Hendricks, 'Carcinoma of the Right Segment of the Colon', presented to Southern Surgical Assoc. (15 Dec 1925). In Annals of Surgery (Mar 1926), 83, 357.
Science quotes on:  |  Cancer (61)  |  Death (406)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Efficiency (46)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enough (341)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Increase (225)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Long (778)  |  Medical Science (19)  |  Medicine (392)  |  More (2558)  |  Old (499)  |  Old Age (35)  |  Problem (731)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Top (100)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)

The first nonabsolute number is the number of people for whom the table is reserved. This will vary during the course of the first three telephone calls to the restaurant, and then bear no apparent relation to the number of people who actually turn up, or to the number of people who subsequently join them after the show/match/party/gig, or to the number of people who leave when they see who else has turned up.
The second nonabsolute number is the given time of arrival, which is now known to be one of the most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexcluson, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself. In other words, the given time of arrival is the one moment of time at which it is impossible that any member of the party will arrive. Recipriversexclusons now play a vital part in many branches of math, including statistics and accountancy and also form the basic equations used to engineer the Somebody Else’s Problem field.
The third and most mysterious piece of nonabsoluteness of all lies in the relationship between the number of items on the check [bill], the cost of each item, the number of people at the table and what they are each prepared to pay for. (The number of people who have actually brought any money is only a subphenomenon of this field.)
Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, 1995), 47-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Arrival (15)  |  Basic (144)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bill (14)  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Cost (94)  |  Course (413)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equation (138)  |  Existence (481)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Reservation (7)  |  Restaurant (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.
From Commencement Address, Caltech (1974), 'Cargo Cult Science'. On Caltech library website. This quote may be the origin of a paraphrase (which by itself seems to have no verbatim source): “Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself.” Also seen as, “Science is a way to not fool ourselves,” or “Science is a long history of learning how not to fool ourselves.”
Science quotes on:  |  Careful (28)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Easy (213)  |  First (1302)  |  Fool (121)  |  Honest (53)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Principle (530)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Way (1214)

The following story is true. There was a little boy, and his father said, “Do try to be like other people. Don’t frown.” And he tried and tried, but could not. So his father beat him with a strap; and then he was eaten up by lions. Reader, if young, take warning by his sad life and death. For though it may be an honour to be different from other people, if Carlyle’s dictum about the 30 million be still true, yet other people do not like it. So, if you are different, you had better hide it, and pretend to be solemn and wooden-headed. Until you make your fortune. For most wooden-headed people worship money; and, really, I do not see what else they can do. In particular, if you are going to write a book, remember the wooden-headed. So be rigorous; that will cover a multitude of sins. And do not frown.
From 'Electromagnetic Theory, CXII', The Electrician (23 Feb 1900), Vol. 44, 615.
Science quotes on:  |  Beat (42)  |  Better (493)  |  Book (413)  |  Boy (100)  |  Thomas Carlyle (38)  |  Cover (40)  |  Death (406)  |  Dictum (10)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Father (113)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Frown (5)  |  Hide (70)  |  Hiding (12)  |  Honour (58)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lion (23)  |  Little (717)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Reader (42)  |  Remember (189)  |  Remembering (7)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Sadness (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Sin (45)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Still (614)  |  Story (122)  |  Strap (3)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Warning (18)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worship (32)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)  |  Young (253)

The function of Latin literature is its expression of Rome. When to England and France your imagination can add Rome in the background, you have laid firm the foundations of culture. The understanding of Rome leads back to the Mediterranean civilisation of which Rome was the last phase, and it automatically exhibits the geography of Europe, and the functions of seas and rivers and mountains and plains. The merit of this study in the education of youth is its concreteness, its inspiration to action, and the uniform greatness of persons, in their characters and their staging. Their aims were great, their virtues were great, and their vices were great. They had the saving merit of sinning with cart ropes.
In 'The Place of Classics in Education', The Aims of Education: & Other Essays (1917), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Aim (175)  |  Back (395)  |  Background (44)  |  Character (259)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Concreteness (5)  |  Culture (157)  |  Education (423)  |  England (43)  |  Europe (50)  |  Expression (181)  |  Firm (47)  |  Foundation (177)  |  France (29)  |  Function (235)  |  Geography (39)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Last (425)  |  Latin (44)  |  Lead (391)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mediterranean (9)  |  Merit (51)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Phase (37)  |  Plain (34)  |  River (140)  |  Rome (19)  |  Rope (9)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sin (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vice (42)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Youth (109)

The gradual advance of Geology, during the last twenty years, to the dignity of a science, has arisen from the laborious and extensive collection of facts, and from the enlightened spirit in which the inductions founded on those facts have been deduced and discussed. To those who are unacquainted with this science, or indeed to any person not deeply versed in the history of this and kindred subjects, it is impossible to convey a just impression of the nature of that evidence by which a multitude of its conclusions are supported:—evidence in many cases so irresistible, that the records of the past ages, to which it refers, are traced in language more imperishable than that of the historian of any human transactions; the relics of those beings, entombed in the strata which myriads of centuries have heaped upon their graves, giving a present evidence of their past existence, with which no human testimony can compete.
The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (1838), 47-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Age (509)  |  Being (1276)  |  Collection (68)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Existence (481)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Geology (240)  |  Grave (52)  |  Historian (59)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Impression (118)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Induction (81)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Laborious (17)  |  Language (308)  |  Last (425)  |  More (2558)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Myriad (32)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Past (355)  |  Present (630)  |  Record (161)  |  Research (753)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strata (37)  |  Subject (543)  |  Support (151)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Year (963)

The great horde of physicians are always servile imitators, who can neither perceive nor correct the faults of their system, and are always ready to growl at and even to worry the ingenious person that could attempt it. Thus was the system of Galen secured in the possession of the schools of physic.
In Lectures Introductory to the Practice of Physic, Collected in The Works of William Cullen: Containing his Physiology, Nosology, and first lines of the practice of physic (1827), Vol. 1, 386.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Correct (95)  |  Fault (58)  |  Galen (20)  |  Great (1610)  |  Growl (3)  |  Horde (3)  |  Imitator (3)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physician (284)  |  Possession (68)  |  Ready (43)  |  School (227)  |  Secure (23)  |  Secured (18)  |  Servile (3)  |  System (545)  |  Worry (34)

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
In Pascal’s Pensées (1958), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greater (288)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Originality (21)  |  People (1031)

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
In Pensées (1670), Section 7, No. 1. As translated in Blaise Pascal and W.F. Trotter (trans.), 'Thoughts', No. 7, collected in Charles W. Eliot (ed.), The Harvard Classics (1910), Vol. 48, 10. Also seen translated as, “The more intelligent one is, the more men of originality one finds. Ordinary people find no difference between men.” From the original French, “A mesure qu’on a plus d’esprit, on trouve qu’il y a plus d’hommes originaux. Les gens du commun ne trouvent pas de différence entre les hommes,” in Ernest Havet (ed.), Pensées de Pascal (1892), 205.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Find (1014)  |  Greater (288)  |  Intellect (251)  |  More (2558)  |  Ordinary (167)

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Attributed. The wording as above may be a popularized derivative from this quote: “The greatest enjoyment possible to man was that which this philosophy promises its votaries—the pleasure of being always right, and always reasoning—without ever being bound to look at anything.” In The English Constitution (1867), 296.
Science quotes on:  |  Cannot (8)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Life (1870)  |  People (1031)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Say (989)

The greatest possibility of evil in self-medication [with penicillin] is the use of too-small doses, so that, instead of clearing up the infection, the microbes are educated to resist penicillin and a host of penicillin-fast organisms is bred out which can be passed on to other individuals and perhaps from there to others until they reach someone who gets a septicemia or a pneumonia which penicillin cannot save. In such a case the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who finally succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism. I hope this evil can be averted.
In 'Penicillin’s Finder Assays Its Future: Sir Alexander Fleming Says Improved Dosage Method is Needed to Extend Use', New York Times (26 Jun 1945), 21.
Science quotes on:  |  Avert (5)  |  Breed (26)  |  Clear (111)  |  Death (406)  |  Dose (17)  |  Educate (14)  |  Evil (122)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hope (321)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infection (27)  |  Man (2252)  |  Medication (8)  |  Microbe (30)  |  Microbes (14)  |  Moral (203)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Penicillin (18)  |  Playing (42)  |  Pneumonia (8)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Reach (286)  |  Resistant (4)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Save (126)  |  Self (268)  |  Small (489)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Thoughtless (2)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Use (771)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Saw (160)  |  Ship (69)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonder (251)

The Humorless Person: I have a friend who has about as much sense of humor as the wooden Indian of commerce. Some time ago he made a trip through the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. … He did his sight-seeing very thoroughly. He didn’t miss a single ramification in that great crack in the face of Mother Nature. … I asked him what he thought of the Mammoth Cave. “Well,” said he, “taking it as a hole, it is all right.”
In A Sample Case of Humor (1919), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Commerce (23)  |  Crack (15)  |  Face (214)  |  Friend (180)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hole (17)  |  Humor (10)  |  Indian (32)  |  Kentucky (4)  |  Mammoth (9)  |  Miss (51)  |  Mother (116)  |  Mother Nature (5)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Right (473)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sight (135)  |  Sight-Seeing (2)  |  Single (365)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trip (11)

The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is called “acrolein.” It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes.
[From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, Orange, N.J., April 26, 1914.]
Quoted in Henry Ford, The Case Against the Little White Slaver (1914), Vol. 1, 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Agent (73)  |  April (9)  |  Boy (100)  |  Brain (281)  |  Burning (49)  |  Call (781)  |  Cell (146)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Degeneration (11)  |  Employ (115)  |  Employment (34)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Injurious (14)  |  Injury (36)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Orange (15)  |  Paper (192)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Rapidity (29)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Smoker (4)  |  Substance (253)  |  Uncontrollable (5)  |  Violence (37)

The last person who left the lab will be the one held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
Anonymous
Found in The NIH Catalyst (May-June 2003), 11, No. 3, 8, as part of list 'A Scientist’s Dozen,' cited as “culled and adapted…from a variety of sources” by Howard Young.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Last (425)  |  Leaving (10)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wrong (246)

The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly-organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many persons. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians.
The Descent of Man (1871), Vol. 2, 404.
Science quotes on:  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Descend (49)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Form (976)  |  Man (2252)  |  Regret (31)  |  Think (1122)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The meaning of geography is as much a sealed book to the person of ordinary intelligence and education as the meaning of a great cathedral would be to a backwoodsman, and yet no cathedral can be more suggestive of past history in its many architectural forms than is the land about us, with its innumerable and marvellously significant geographic forms. It makes one grieve to think of opportunity for mental enjoyment that is last because of the failure of education in this respect.
'Geographic Methods in Geologic Investigation', The National Geographic Magazine, 1889, 1, 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Education (423)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Failure (176)  |  Form (976)  |  Geographic (10)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geomorphology (3)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Last (425)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mental (179)  |  More (2558)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Past (355)  |  Respect (212)  |  Seal (19)  |  Sealed Book (2)  |  Significant (78)  |  Think (1122)

The mind is a vagrant thing ... Thinking is not analogous to a person working in a laboratory who invents something on company time.
Answering criticism that the book for which he won a Pulitzer Prize was written in the years he had been employed at the Smithsonian. He specified that did not write on the premises there, but only at home outside of working hours.
Quoted by Barbara Gamarekian in 'Working Profile: Daniel J. Boorstin. Helping the Library of Congress Fulfill Its Mission', New York Times (8 Jul 1983), B6.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Company (63)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Employ (115)  |  Home (184)  |  Hour (192)  |  Invention (400)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Outside (141)  |  Premise (40)  |  Something (718)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vagrant (5)  |  Workplace (2)  |  Write (250)  |  Year (963)

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits which favor that theory.
In Letter (20 Sep 1787) to Charles Thompson. Collected in Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1829), Vol. 2, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Favor (69)  |  Form (976)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Moment (260)  |  Object (438)  |  See (1094)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Trait (23)

The moment after, I began to respire 20 quarts of unmingled nitrous oxide. A thrilling, extending from the chest to the extremities, was almost immediately produced. I felt a sense of tangible extension highly pleasurable in every limb; my visible impressions were dazzling, and apparently magnified, I heard distinctly every sound in the room and was perfectly aware of my situation. By degrees, as the pleasurable sensations increased, I last all connection with external things; trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through my mind, and were connected with words in such a manner, as to produce perceptions perfectly novel. I existed in a world of newly connected and newly modified ideas. I theorised—I imagined that I made discoveries. When I was awakened from this semi-delirious trance by Dr. Kinglake, who took the bag from my mouth, indignation and pride were the first feelings produced by the sight of the persons about me. My emotions were enthusiastic and sublime; and for a minute I walked round the room, perfectly regardless of what was said to me. As I recovered my former state of mind, I felt an inclination to communicate the discoveries I had made during the experiment. I endeavoured to recall the ideas, they were feeble and indistinct; one collection of terms, however, presented itself: and with the most intense belief and prophetic manner, I exclaimed to Dr Kinglake, 'Nothing exists but thoughts!—the universe is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains!'
Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800), in J. Davy (ed.), The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy (1839-40), Vol 3, 289-90.
Science quotes on:  |  Anaesthetic (2)  |  Belief (615)  |  Biography (254)  |  Collection (68)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Degree (277)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Exclaim (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Extension (60)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  First (1302)  |  Former (138)  |  Idea (881)  |  Image (97)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Last (425)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Moment (260)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Nitrous Oxide (5)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Novel (35)  |  Pain (144)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perception (97)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Present (630)  |  Pride (84)  |  Produced (187)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sight (135)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sound (187)  |  State (505)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Train (118)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Walk (138)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

The morning stars sang together.
And a person of delicate ear and nice judgment discussed the singing at length, and showed how and wherein one star differed from another, and which was great and which was not.
And still the morning stars sang together.
'Classification' in Little Stings (1907, 1908), 83.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Classification (102)  |  Delicate (45)  |  Differ (88)  |  Discuss (26)  |  Ear (69)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Morning (98)  |  Nice (15)  |  Show (353)  |  Singing (19)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Still (614)  |  Together (392)

The most important effect of the suffrage is psychological. The permanent consciousness of power for effective action, the knowledge that their own thoughts have an equal chance with those of any other person … this is what has always rendered the men of a free state so energetic, so acutely intelligent, so powerful.
In “Common Sense” Applied to Woman Suffrage (1894), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Chance (244)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Effect (414)  |  Effective (68)  |  Energetic (6)  |  Equal (88)  |  Free (239)  |  Important (229)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Render (96)  |  State (505)  |  Suffrage (4)  |  Thought (995)

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Most (1728)  |  Pathetic (4)  |  Sight (135)  |  Someone (24)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

THE OATH. I swear by Apollo [the healing God], the physician and Aesclepius [son of Apollo], and Health [Hygeia], and All-heal [Panacea], and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation—to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!
The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, trans. Francis Adams (1886), Vol. 2, 344-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Abortion (4)  |  Abroad (19)  |  Abstain (7)  |  According (236)  |  Act (278)  |  Art (680)  |  Ask (420)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Bound (120)  |  Brother (47)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consider (428)  |  Continue (179)  |  Corruption (17)  |  Counsel (11)  |  Cut (116)  |  Deadly (21)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equally (129)  |  Female (50)  |  Follow (389)  |  God (776)  |  Grant (76)  |  Healing (28)  |  Health (210)  |  Hear (144)  |  Holiness (7)  |  House (143)  |  Impart (24)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Learn (672)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Lot (151)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Mischief (13)  |  Mischievous (12)  |  Oath (10)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Pass (241)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Precept (10)  |  Professional (77)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Reckoning (19)  |  Required (108)  |  Respect (212)  |  Reverse (33)  |  Secret (216)  |  Seduction (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Share (82)  |  Sick (83)  |  Slave (40)  |  Stone (168)  |  Substance (253)  |  Swear (7)  |  System (545)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trespass (5)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Woman (160)  |  Work (1402)

The observer is not he who merely sees the thing which is before his eyes, but he who sees what parts the thing is composed of. To do this well is a rare talent. One person, from inattention, or attending only in the wrong place, overlooks half of what he sees; another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers; another takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating their degree, leaves the quantity of each vague and uncertain; another sees indeed the whole, but makes such an awkward division of it into parts, throwing into one mass things which require to be separated, and separating others which might more conveniently be considered as one, that the result is much the same, sometimes even worse than if no analysis had been attempted at all.
In A System of Logic Ratiocinative and Inductive (1858), 216.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attend (67)  |  Awkward (11)  |  Being (1276)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Composed (3)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confounding (8)  |  Consider (428)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Degree (277)  |  Division (67)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Eye (440)  |  Half (63)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inexpert (2)  |  Infer (12)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mass (160)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Note (39)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observer (48)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Place (192)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Rare (94)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Separate (151)  |  Set (400)  |  Set Down (2)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Throwing (17)  |  Uncertain (45)  |  Vague (50)  |  Whole (756)  |  Worse (25)  |  Wrong (246)

The old fashioned family physician and general practitioner ... was a splendid figure and useful person in his day; but he was badly trained, he was often ignorant, he made many mistakes, for one cannot by force of character and geniality of person make a diagnosis of appendicitis, or recognize streptococcus infection.
New York Medical Journal (1913), 97, 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Badly (32)  |  Character (259)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Error (339)  |  Family (101)  |  Figure (162)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Infection (27)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Old (499)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Splendid (23)  |  Streptococcus (3)  |  Train (118)  |  Useful (260)

The opening of a foreign trade, by making them acquainted with new objects, or tempting them by the easier acquisition of things which they had not previously thought attainable, sometimes works a sort of industrial revolution in a country whose resources were previously undeveloped for want of energy and ambition in the people; inducing those who were satisfied with scanty comforts and little work to work harder for the gratification of their new tastes, and even to save, and accumulate capital, for the still more complete satisfaction of those tastes at a future time.
In Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy Vol. 1 (1873), Vol. 1, 351.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Acquaint (11)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Attain (126)  |  Capital (16)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Complete (209)  |  Country (269)  |  Easier (53)  |  Energy (373)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Future (467)  |  Gratification (22)  |  Hard (246)  |  Induce (24)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  People (1031)  |  Resource (74)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Save (126)  |  Scanty (3)  |  Still (614)  |  Taste (93)  |  Tempt (6)  |  Tempting (10)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Want (504)  |  Work (1402)  |  Work Hard (14)

The people has no definite disbelief in the temples of theology. The people has a very fiery and practical disbelief in the temples of physical science.
In Charles Dickens: A Critical Study (1906, 1910), 176.
Science quotes on:  |  Definite (114)  |  Disbelief (4)  |  Fiery (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Practical (225)  |  Temple (45)  |  Theology (54)

The person most often late for a doctor's appointment is the doctor himself.
Anonymous
In Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts and Funny Sayings (1993), 99
Science quotes on:  |  Appointment (12)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Himself (461)  |  Late (119)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physician (284)

The person who did most to give to analysis the generality and symmetry which are now its pride, was also the person who made mechanics analytical; I mean Euler.
From History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to the Present (1837), Vol. 2, 93.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Generality (45)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Most (1728)  |  Pride (84)  |  Symmetry (44)

The person who observes a clock, sees in it not only the pendulum swinging to and fro, and the dial-plate, and the hands moving, for a child can see all this; but he sees also the parts of the clock, and in what connexion the suspended weight stands to the wheel-work, and the pendulum to the moving hands.
'The Study of the Natural Sciences: An Introductory Lecture to the Course of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Munich, for the Winter Session of 1852-53,' as translated and republished in The Medical Times and Gazette (22 Jan 1853), N.S. Vol. 6, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Child (333)  |  Clock (51)  |  Dial (9)  |  Hand (149)  |  Movement (162)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Part (235)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  See (1094)  |  Stand (284)  |  Suspend (11)  |  Weight (140)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Work (1402)

The person who thinks there can be any real conflict between science and religion must be either very young in science or very ignorant in religion.
In Tryon Edwards. A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), 506.
Science quotes on:  |  Conflict (77)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Must (1525)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Think (1122)  |  Young (253)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Occupy (27)  |  Office (71)  |  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 philosophy that I have worked under most of my life is that the serious study of natural history is an activity which has far-reaching effects in every aspect of a person’s life. It ultimately makes people protective of the environment in a very committed way. It is my opinion that the study of natural history should be the primary avenue for creating environmentalists.
As quoted in William V. Mealy, Peter Friederici and Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Value in American Wildlife Art: Proceedings of the 1992 Forum (1992), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Avenue (14)  |  Committed (2)  |  Create (245)  |  Effect (414)  |  Environment (239)  |  Environmentalist (7)  |  Far-Reaching (9)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Make (25)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Opinion (291)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Primary (82)  |  Protective (5)  |  Serious (98)  |  Study (701)  |  Ultimately (56)  |  Way (1214)  |  Work (1402)

The power of man to do work—one man-power—is, in its purely physical sense, now an insignificant accomplishment, and could only again justify his existence if other sources of power failed. … Curious persons in cloisteral seclusion are experimenting with new sources of energy, which, if ever harnessed, would make coal and oil as useless as oars and sails. If they fail in their quest, or are too late, so that coal and oil, everywhere sought for, are no longer found, and the only hope of men lay in their time-honoured traps to catch the sunlight, who doubts that galley-slaves and helots would reappear in the world once more?
Science and Life (1920), 6.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Coal (64)  |  Curious (95)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Energy (373)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fail (191)  |  Harness (25)  |  Honour (58)  |  Hope (321)  |  Insignificant (33)  |  Late (119)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Oil (67)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Power (771)  |  Purely (111)  |  Quest (39)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sense (785)  |  Slave (40)  |  Solar Energy (21)  |  Sunlight (29)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

The prize is such an extraordinary honor. It might seem unfair, however, to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses.
Quoted in the New York Times, 11 Oct 1983.
Science quotes on:  |  Asking (74)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Honor (57)  |  Maize (4)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  Plant (320)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Problem (731)  |  Response (56)  |  Reward (72)  |  Solve (145)  |  Specific (98)  |  Year (963)

The prominent reason why a mathematician can be judged by none but mathematicians, is that he uses a peculiar language. The language of mathesis is special and untranslatable. In its simplest forms it can be translated, as, for instance, we say a right angle to mean a square corner. But you go a little higher in the science of mathematics, and it is impossible to dispense with a peculiar language. It would defy all the power of Mercury himself to explain to a person ignorant of the science what is meant by the single phrase “functional exponent.” How much more impossible, if we may say so, would it be to explain a whole treatise like Hamilton’s Quaternions, in such a wise as to make it possible to judge of its value! But to one who has learned this language, it is the most precise and clear of all modes of expression. It discloses the thought exactly as conceived by the writer, with more or less beauty of form, but never with obscurity. It may be prolix, as it often is among French writers; may delight in mere verbal metamorphoses, as in the Cambridge University of England; or adopt the briefest and clearest forms, as under the pens of the geometers of our Cambridge; but it always reveals to us precisely the writer’s thought.
In North American Review (Jul 1857), 85, 224-225.
Science quotes on:  |  Adopt (22)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Brief (37)  |  Cambridge (17)  |  Cambridge University (2)  |  Clear (111)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Corner (59)  |  Defy (11)  |  Delight (111)  |  Disclose (19)  |  Dispense (10)  |  England (43)  |  Exact (75)  |  Explain (334)  |  Exponent (6)  |  Expression (181)  |  Form (976)  |  French (21)  |  Function (235)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Hamilton_William (2)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Judge (114)  |  Language (308)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mathematics As A Language (20)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Metamorphose (2)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Obscure (66)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Pen (21)  |  Phrase (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Power (771)  |  Precise (71)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prolix (2)  |  Prominent (6)  |  Quaternion (9)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Right (473)  |  Right Angle (4)  |  Say (989)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Special (188)  |  Square (73)  |  Thought (995)  |  Translate (21)  |  Treatise (46)  |  University (130)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Verbal (10)  |  Whole (756)  |  Why (491)  |  Wise (143)  |  Writer (90)

The radiation of radium was “contagious”—Contagious like a persistent scent or a disease. It was impossible for an object, a plant, an animal or a person to be left near a tube of radium without immediately acquiring a notable “activity” which a sensitive apparatus could detect.
Eve Curie
In Eve Curie, Madame Curie: a Biography by Eve Curie (1937, 2007), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Animal (651)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Contagious (5)  |  Detect (45)  |  Disease (340)  |  Immediately (115)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Object (438)  |  Persistence (25)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Plant (320)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Radium (29)  |  Scent (7)

The reactions follow a pattern, which is valid for the blood of all humans... Basically, in fact, there are four different types of human blood, the so-called blood groups. The number of the groups follows from the fact that the erythrocytes evidently contain substances (iso-agglutinogens) with two different structures, of which both may be absent, or one or both present, in the erythrocytes of a person. This alone would still not explain the reactions; the active substances of the sera, the iso-agglutinins, must also be present in a specific distribution. This is actually the case, since every serum contains those agglutinins which react with the agglutinogens not present in the cells—a remarkable phenomenon, the cause of which is not yet known for certain.
'On Individual Differences in Human Blood', Nobel Lecture (11 Dec 1930). In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941 (1965), 235.
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Agglutinin (2)  |  Alone (324)  |  Blood (144)  |  Both (496)  |  Call (781)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Different (595)  |  Distribution (51)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Explain (334)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Follow (389)  |  Human (1512)  |  Known (453)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Present (630)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Serum (11)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specific (98)  |  Still (614)  |  Structure (365)  |  Substance (253)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)

The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. The desire is to have the idea clearly communicated to the other person. [But] precise language is not precise in any sense if you deal with the real objects of the world, and is overly pedantic and quite confusing to use it unless there are some special subtleties which have to be carefully distinguished.
Criticizing “overly pedantic” language in proposed textbooks for a modified arithmetic course for grades 1-8 in California schools. In article, 'New Textbooks for the ‘New’ Mathematics', Engineering and Science (Mar 1965), 28, No. 6. Collected in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard Feynman (2008), 454. He was writing as a member of the California State Curriculum Committee
Science quotes on:  |  Carefully (65)  |  Clear (111)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Deal (192)  |  Definition (238)  |  Desire (212)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Idea (881)  |  Language (308)  |  Object (438)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pedantic (4)  |  Precise (71)  |  Problem (731)  |  Real (159)  |  Sense (785)  |  Special (188)  |  Speech (66)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Use (771)  |  World (1850)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notice (81)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Objection (34)  |  Occur (151)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  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 reputation of science which ought to be the most lasting, as synonymous with truth, is often the least so. One discovery supersedes another; and the progress of light throws the past into obscurity. What is become of the Blacks, the Lavoisiers, the Priestleys, in chemistry? … When any set of men think theirs the only science worth studying, and themselves the only infallible persons in it, it is a sign how frail the traces are of past excellence in it.
Characteristics: In the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims (1837), 148-149.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Joseph Black (14)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Frail (2)  |  Infallible (18)  |  Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (41)  |  Least (75)  |  Light (635)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  Often (109)  |  Past (355)  |  Joseph Priestley (16)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reputation (33)  |  Set (400)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Supersede (8)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Trace (109)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Worth (172)

The saddest moment in a person’s life comes but once.
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Life (1870)  |  Moment (260)  |  Sadness (36)

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he’s one who asks the right questions.
Translation of the original French, “Le savant n’est pas l’homme qui fournit les vraies réponses; c’est luis qui pose les vraies questions,” in Mythologiques, Vol. 1, Le Cru et le Cuit (1964), 15. As seen in various books, with no credit to a translator, for example, in What a Piece of Work is Man!: Camp's Unfamiliar Quotations (1989), 283. Also translated as “The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.”
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Give (208)  |  Question (649)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientist (881)

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, to us insiders) has so far only proved that no matter what you beam up—the Pythagorean theorem, pictures of attractive nude people, etc.—the big 800 number in the sky does not return calls.
From essay 'First Person Secular: Blocking the Gates to Heaven', Mother Jones Magazine (Jun 1986), 48. Collected in The Worst Years of our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1995), 267.
Science quotes on:  |  Attractive (25)  |  Beam (26)  |  Call (781)  |  Extraterrestrial Life (20)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nude (3)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Picture (148)  |  Proof (304)  |  Return (133)  |  Search (175)  |  SETI (3)  |  Sky (174)  |  Theorem (116)

The second great product of industry should be the rewarding life for every person
In Alan R. Earls and Nasrin Rohani, Polaroid (2005), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Great (1610)  |  Industry (159)  |  Life (1870)  |  Product (166)  |  Reward (72)

The slow rejection of the foreign skin grafts fascinated me. How could the host distinguish another person's skin from his own?
Recalling his experience during WW II when assigned to a plastic surgery ward of an army hospital. In Tore Frängsmyr and Jan E. Lindsten (eds.), Nobel Lectures: Physiology Or Medicine: 1981-1990 (1993), 556.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Fascinate (12)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Graft (4)  |  Host (16)  |  Rejection (36)  |  Skin (48)  |  Slow (108)

The student of mathematics often finds it hard to throw off the uncomfortable feeling that his science, in the person of his pencil, surpasses him in intelligence,—an impression which the great Euler confessed he often could not get rid of. This feeling finds a sort of justification when we reflect that the majority of the ideas we deal with were conceived by others, often centuries ago. In a great measure it is really the intelligence of other people that confronts us in science.
In Popular Scientific Lectures (1910), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Confess (42)  |  Confront (18)  |  Deal (192)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Get Rid (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impression (118)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Justification (52)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pencil (20)  |  People (1031)  |  Really (77)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Sort (50)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Throw (45)  |  Uncomfortable (7)

The three most effective incentives to human action may be … classified as creed, greed and dread. … In examining the scientist it is perhaps worth while to examine how far he is moved by these three incentives. I think that, rather peculiarly and rather exceptionally, he is very little moved by dread. … He is in fact essentially a person who has been taught he must be fearless in his dealing with facts.
'Scientist and Citizen', Speech to the Empire Club of Canada (29 Jan 1948), The Empire Club of Canada Speeches (29 Jan 1948), 209-221.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Classification (102)  |  Creed (28)  |  Dread (13)  |  Effective (68)  |  Effectiveness (13)  |  Examine (84)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fearless (7)  |  Greed (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Incentive (10)  |  Little (717)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Think (1122)  |  Worth (172)

The tide of evolution carries everything before it, thoughts no less than bodies, and persons no less than nations.
Little Essays (1920, 2008), 106.
Science quotes on:  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Nation (208)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tide (37)

The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but the scientists. Unfortunately poetry cannot celebrate them because their deeds are concerned with things, not persons, and are, therefore, speechless.
In 'The Poet and the City' (1962), collected in The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays (1965), 81.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Celebrate (21)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deed (34)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Politician (40)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transform (74)  |  Unfortunately (40)  |  World (1850)

The true wealth of a nation consists not in the stored-up gold but in the intellectual and physical strength of its people.
Quoted in India Today (Apr 2008), 33, No 16, as cited on webpage of Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Science quotes on:  |  Consist (223)  |  Gold (101)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Nation (208)  |  People (1031)  |  Physical (518)  |  Store (49)  |  Strength (139)  |  True (239)  |  Wealth (100)

The unscientific person takes things as they are, and cares not for their origin. To study things from a scientific standpoint means to take an inventory of them—to find the process in which they are being produced; to connect them with other things; to see things in their causal process.
From a series of lectures at Johns Hopkins University. Lecture 5 (4 Feb 1893), 'Herbert Spencer and What Knowledge is of Most Worth', The Philosophy of Education (1893), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Care (203)  |  Causal (7)  |  Connect (126)  |  Connection (171)  |  Find (1014)  |  Inventory (7)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Process (439)  |  Produced (187)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unscientific (13)

The use of sea and air is common to all; neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people or private persons, forasmuch as neither nature nor public use and custom permit any possession therof.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Belong (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Custom (44)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ocean (216)  |  People (1031)  |  Permit (61)  |  Possession (68)  |  Public (100)  |  Sea (326)  |  Title (20)  |  Use (771)

The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological—technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science. Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein: TIME’s Person of the Century.
'A Brief History of Relativity'. Time (31 Dec 1999).
Science quotes on:  |  20th Century (40)  |  Advance (298)  |  Basic (144)  |  Better (493)  |  Century (319)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economics (44)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Flow (89)  |  History (716)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  Political (124)  |  Politics (122)  |  Reason (766)  |  Represent (157)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

There are some modern practitioners, who declaim against medical theory in general, not considering that to think is to theorize; and that no one can direct a method of cure to a person labouring under disease, without thinking, that is, without theorizing; and happy therefore is the patient, whose physician possesses the best theory.
Zoonomia, or, The Laws Of Organic Life (1801), Vol. 2, ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Best (467)  |  Cure (124)  |  Diagnosis (65)  |  Direct (228)  |  Disease (340)  |  General (521)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Happy (108)  |  Method (531)  |  Modern (402)  |  Patient (209)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Treatment (135)

There are very few persons who pursue science with true dignity.
Consolations in Travel (1830), Dialogue 5, The Chemical Philosopher, 226.
Science quotes on:  |  Dignity (44)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  Pursue (63)

There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.
From interview with Mary R. Mullett, 'How to Keep Young Mentally', The American Magazine (Dec 1921), 92, 68.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Atrophy (8)  |  Continue (179)  |  Mental (179)  |  Observe (179)  |  Remember (189)  |  Seek (218)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Unceasing (3)  |  Why (491)

There is no art so difficult as the art of observation: it requires a skillful, sober spirit and a well-trained experience, which can only be acquired by practice; for he is not an observer who only sees the thing before him with his eyes, but he who sees of what parts the thing consists, and in what connexion the parts stand to the whole. One person overlooks half from inattention; another relates more than he sees while he confounds it with that which he figures to himself; another sees the parts of the whole, but he throws things together that ought to be separated. ... When the observer has ascertained the foundation of a phenomenon, and he is able to associate its conditions, he then proves while he endeavours to produce the phenomena at his will, the correctness of his observations by experiment. To make a series of experiments is often to decompose an opinion into its individual parts, and to prove it by a sensible phenomenon. The naturalist makes experiments in order to exhibit a phenomenon in all its different parts. When he is able to show of a series of phenomena, that they are all operations of the same cause, he arrives at a simple expression of their significance, which, in this case, is called a Law of Nature. We speak of a simple property as a Law of Nature when it serves for the explanation of one or more natural phenomena.
'The Study of the Natural Sciences: An Introductory Lecture to the Course of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Munich, for the Winter Session of 1852-53,' as translated and republished in The Medical Times and Gazette (22 Jan 1853), N.S. Vol. 6, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Associate (25)  |  Call (781)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Cause (561)  |  Component (51)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Consist (223)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expression (181)  |  Eye (440)  |  Figure (162)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observer (48)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Practice (212)  |  Produce (117)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Prove (261)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Report (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Significance (114)  |  Simple (426)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Sober (10)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Validity (50)  |  Verify (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

There is probably no other science which presents such different appearances to one who cultivates it and to one who does not, as mathematics. To this person it is ancient, venerable, and complete; a body of dry, irrefutable, unambiguous reasoning. To the mathematician, on the other hand, his science is yet in the purple bloom of vigorous youth, everywhere stretching out after the “attainable but unattained” and full of the excitement of nascent thoughts; its logic is beset with ambiguities, and its analytic processes, like Bunyan’s road, have a quagmire on one side and a deep ditch on the other and branch off into innumerable by-paths that end in a wilderness.
In 'The Theory of Transformation Groups', (A review of Erster Abschnitt, Theorie der Transformationsgruppen (1888)), Bulletin New York Mathematical Society (1893), 2 (First series), 61.
Science quotes on:  |  Ambiguity (17)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Attain (126)  |  Bloom (11)  |  Body (557)  |  Branch (155)  |  John Bunyan (5)  |  Complete (209)  |  Cultivate (24)  |  Deep (241)  |  Different (595)  |  Ditch (2)  |  Dry (65)  |  End (603)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Excitement (61)  |  Innumerable (56)  |  Irrefutable (5)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nascent (4)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Path (159)  |  Present (630)  |  Process (439)  |  Purple (4)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Road (71)  |  Side (236)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unambiguous (6)  |  Venerable (7)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Youth (109)

These Disciplines [mathematics] serve to inure and corroborate the Mind to a constant Diligence in Study; to undergo the Trouble of an attentive Meditation, and cheerfully contend with such Difficulties as lie in the Way. They wholly deliver us from a credulous Simplicity, most strongly fortify us against the Vanity of Scepticism, effectually restrain from a rash Presumption, most easily incline us to a due Assent, perfectly subject us to the Government of right Reason, and inspire us with Resolution to wrestle against the unjust Tyranny of false Prejudices. If the Fancy be unstable and fluctuating, it is to be poized by this Ballast, and steadied by this Anchor, if the Wit be blunt it is sharpened upon this Whetstone; if luxuriant it is pared by this Knife; if headstrong it is restrained by this Bridle; and if dull it is rouzed by this Spur. The Steps are guided by no Lamp more clearly through the dark Mazes of Nature, by no Thread more surely through the intricate Labyrinths of Philosophy, nor lastly is the Bottom of Truth sounded more happily by any other Line. I will not mention how plentiful a Stock of Knowledge the Mind is furnished from these, with what wholesome Food it is nourished, and what sincere Pleasure it enjoys. But if I speak farther, I shall neither be the only Person, nor the first, who affirms it; that while the Mind is abstracted and elevated from sensible Matter, distinctly views pure Forms, conceives the Beauty of Ideas, and investigates the Harmony of Proportions; the Manners themselves are sensibly corrected and improved, the Affections composed and rectified, the Fancy calmed and settled, and the Understanding raised and excited to more divine Contemplations. All which I might defend by Authority, and confirm by the Suffrages of the greatest Philosophers.
Prefatory Oration in Mathematical Lectures (1734), xxxi.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Affection (44)  |  Against (332)  |  Anchor (10)  |  Assent (12)  |  Attentive (15)  |  Authority (99)  |  Ballast (2)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Calm (32)  |  Chemical Biodynamics (2)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Credulous (9)  |  Dark (145)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Diligence (22)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Divine (112)  |  Due (143)  |  Dull (58)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Farther (51)  |  First (1302)  |  Food (213)  |  Form (976)  |  Fortify (4)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Government (116)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Idea (881)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Knife (24)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labyrinth (12)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Maze (11)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mention (84)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rash (15)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rectified (4)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Right (473)  |  Scepticism (17)  |  Settled (34)  |  Sharpen (22)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Sound (187)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spur (4)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  Suffrage (4)  |  Surely (101)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thread (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Tyranny (15)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  Vanity (20)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whetstone (2)  |  Wholesome (12)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wit (61)

To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning around. Surely our innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford to despise this or any other source of them.
On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences' (1854). In Collected Essays (1893). Vol. 3, 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Art (680)  |  Country (269)  |  Education (423)  |  Face (214)  |  Gallery (7)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Sea (326)  |  Side (236)  |  Something (718)  |  Surely (101)  |  Teach (299)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Walk (138)  |  Wall (71)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

To discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person.
Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education. Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin (1852), Preface, xii.
Science quotes on:  |  Commonly (9)  |  Discover (571)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Function (235)  |  Gift (105)  |  Teach (299)  |  United (15)

To my knowledge there are no written accounts of Fermi’s contributions to the [first atomic bomb] testing problems, nor would it be easy to reconstruct them in detail. This, however, was one of those occasions in which Fermi’s dominion over all physics, one of his most startling characteristics, came into its own. The problems involved in the Trinity test ranged from hydrodynamics to nuclear physics, from optics to thermodynamics, from geophysics to nuclear chemistry. Often they were closely interrelated, and to solve one’it was necessary to understand all the others. Even though the purpose was grim and terrifying, it was one of the greatest physics experiments of all time. Fermi completely immersed himself in the task. At the time of the test he was one of the very few persons (or perhaps the only one) who understood all the technical ramifications.
In Enrico Fermi: Physicist (1970), 145
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Completely (137)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Detail (150)  |  Dominion (11)  |  Easy (213)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Enrico Fermi (20)  |  First (1302)  |  Geophysics (5)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Grim (6)  |  Himself (461)  |  Hydrodynamics (5)  |  Involved (90)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Physics (6)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Optics (24)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Problem (731)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Ramification (8)  |  Solve (145)  |  Startling (15)  |  Task (152)  |  Terror (32)  |  Test (221)  |  Thermodynamics (40)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trinity (9)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)

To regard such a positive mental science [psychology] as rising above the sphere of history, and establishing the permanent and unchanging laws of human nature, is therefore possible only to a person who mistakes the transient conditions of a certain historical age for the permanent conditions of human life.
The Idea of History (1946), 224.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Certain (557)  |  Condition (362)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Positive (98)  |  Possible (560)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rising (44)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Transient (13)

True, no one can absolutely control the direction of his life; but each person can certainly influence it. The armchair explorers who complain that they never got their “one lucky shot” were never really infected by the incurable drive to explore. Those who have the bug—go.
In Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein, The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World (2007), 32.
Science quotes on:  |  Armchair (7)  |  Bug (10)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Complain (10)  |  Control (182)  |  Direction (185)  |  Drive (61)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Incurable (10)  |  Influence (231)  |  Life (1870)  |  Luck (44)  |  Never (1089)

Try to find pleasure in the speed that you’re not used to. Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside of you.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 236
Science quotes on:  |  Allow (51)  |  Change (639)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Grow (247)  |  Inside (30)  |  New (1273)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Routine (26)  |  Speed (66)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)

Two erroneous impressions … seem to be current among certain groups of uninformed persons. The first is that religion today stands for mediaeval theology; the second that science is materialistic and irreligious.
Explaining the object of the statement formulated by Millikan (1923) signed by forty-five leaders of religion, science and human affairs. Reproduced in Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (May 1923), 9, No. 5, 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Current (122)  |  Erroneous (31)  |  Error (339)  |  First (1302)  |  Impression (118)  |  Irreligious (2)  |  Materialistic (2)  |  Mediaeval (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Stand (284)  |  Theology (54)  |  Today (321)  |  Two (936)  |  Uninformed (3)

Under certain given circumstances, and only under those circumstances, an agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd, or, if the term is considered preferable, a psychological crowd. It forms a single being and is subject to the law of the mental unity of crowds.
From Psychologie des Foules (1895), 12. English text in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1897), Book 1, Chap. 1, 1-2. The original French text is, “Dans certaines circonstances données, et seulement dans ces circonstances, une agglomération d’hommes possède des caractères nouveaux fort différents de ceux des individus composant cette agglomération. La personnalité consciente s’évanouit, les sentiments et les idées de toutes les unités sont orientés dans une même direction. Il se forme une âme collective, transitoire sans doute, mais présentant des caractères très nets. La collectivité est alors devenue ce que, faute d’une expression meilleure, j’appellerai une foule organisée, ou, si l’on préfère, une foule psychologique. Elle forme un seul être et se trouve soumise à la loi de l'unité mentale des foules.”
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Call (781)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Consider (428)  |  Crowd (25)  |  Different (595)  |  Direction (185)  |  Expression (181)  |  Form (976)  |  Gathering (23)  |  Idea (881)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (913)  |  Mental (179)  |  Mind (1377)  |  New (1273)  |  Personality (66)  |  Present (630)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Single (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Term (357)  |  Unity (81)  |  Will (2350)

Untruth naturally afflicts historical information. There are various reasons that make this unavoidable. One of them is partisanship for opinions and schools … Another reason making untruth unavoidable in historical information is reliance upon transmitters … Another reason is unawareness of the purpose of an event … Another reason is unfounded assumption as to the truth of a thing. … Another reason is ignorance of how conditions conform with reality … Another reason is the fact that people as a rule approach great and high-ranking persons with praise and encomiums … Another reason making untruth unavoidable—and this one is more powerful than all the reasons previously mentioned—is ignorance of the nature of the various conditions arising in civilization. Every event (or phenomenon), whether (it comes into being in connection with some) essence or (as the result of an) action, must inevitably possess a nature peculiar to its essence as well as to the accidental conditions that may attach themselves to it.
In Ibn Khaldûn, Franz Rosenthal (trans.) and N.J. Dawood (ed.), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (1967, 1969), Vol. 1, 35-36.
Science quotes on:  |  Accidental (31)  |  Action (342)  |  Approach (112)  |  Arising (22)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Attach (57)  |  Being (1276)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Condition (362)  |  Connection (171)  |  Essence (85)  |  Event (222)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Information (173)  |  Making (300)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possess (157)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  School (227)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Various (205)

Vannevar Bush has said that there is no more thrilling experience for a man than to be able to state that he has learned something no other person in the world has ever known before him. … I have been lucky enough to be included in such an event.
From address to the 101st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Gainesville, Florida (27 Dec 1958). Printed in 'An Account of the Discovery of Jupiter as a Radio Source', The Astronomical Journal (Mar 1959), 64, No. 2, 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Vannevar Bush (16)  |  Enough (341)  |  Event (222)  |  Experience (494)  |  Known (453)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lucky (13)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Something (718)  |  State (505)  |  Thrill (26)  |  World (1850)

Very few people do anything creative after the age of thirty-five. The reason is that very few people do anything creative before the age of thirty-five.
Atrributed, without citation, in Richard V. Eastman, Discovery Workbook: Why Didn't I Think Of That, 6. If you known a primary source, please contact Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  People (1031)  |  Reason (766)  |  Thirty-Five (2)

Water is the most precious, limited natural resource we have in this country… But because water belongs to no one—except the people—special interests, including government polluters, use it as their private sewers.
In Nader’s Foreword to David Zwick, Marcy Benstock and Ralph Nader, Water wasteland: Ralph Nader's Study Group Report on Water Pollution (1971), xiii.
Science quotes on:  |  Belong (168)  |  Country (269)  |  Government (116)  |  Interest (416)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Ocean Pollution (10)  |  People (1031)  |  Pollution (53)  |  Precious (43)  |  Private (29)  |  Sewer (5)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Interest (2)  |  Use (771)  |  Water (503)  |  Water Pollution (17)

We … came up with the notion that not all web pages are created equal. People are, but not web pages.
Guest Lecture, UC Berkeley, 'Search Engines, Technology, and Business' (3 Oct 2005). At 7:43 in the YouTube video.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Equal (88)  |  Notion (120)  |  People (1031)  |  Web Page (2)

We cannot hope to fill the schools with persons of high intelligence, for persons of high intelligence simply refuse to spend their lives teaching such banal things as spelling and arithmetic. Among the teachers male we may safely assume that 95% are of low mentality, else they would depart for more appetizing pastures. And even among the teachers female the best are inevitably weeded out by marriage, and only the worst (with a few romantic exceptions) survive. The task before us, as I say, is … to search out and put to use the value lying concealed in it.
In 'Education' Prejudices: Third Series (1922), 3, 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Assume (43)  |  Bad (185)  |  Best (467)  |  Depart (5)  |  Exception (74)  |  Female (50)  |  Fill (67)  |  High (370)  |  Hope (321)  |  Inevitably (6)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Live (650)  |  Low (86)  |  Male (26)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Mentality (5)  |  More (2558)  |  Pasture (15)  |  Refuse (45)  |  Romantic (13)  |  School (227)  |  Simply (53)  |  Spell (9)  |  Spelling (8)  |  Spend (97)  |  Survive (87)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Value (393)  |  Weed (19)  |  Worst (57)

We don’t understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. … I think talent is like that.
In Maya Angelo and Joanne M. Braxon (ed.), 'An interview with Claudia Tate', I Know why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook (1999), 154. Also seen paraphrased as, “Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.…”. [Many thanks to P.D. for locating the citation, previously unverified here.]
Science quotes on:  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Heart (243)  |  Lamp (37)  |  Light (635)  |  Plug (3)  |  Pump (9)  |  Talent (99)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Use (771)

We just want to have great people working for us.
As quoted, without citation, in Can Akdeniz, Fast MBA (2014), 281.
Science quotes on:  |  Great (1610)  |  People (1031)  |  Want (504)  |  Work (1402)

We may lay it down that a happy person never phantasises, only an unsatisfied one... The motive forces of phantasies are unsatisfied wishes, and every single phantasy is the fulfilment of a wish, a correction of unsatisfying reality. These motivating wishes vary according to the sex, character and circumstances of the person who is having the phantasy; but they fall naturally into two main groups. They are either ambitious wishes, which serve to elevate the subject's personality; or they are erotic ones. It was shocking when Nietzsche said this, but today it is commonplace; our historical position—and no end to it is in sight—is that of having to philosophise without 'foundations'.
Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (1906), In James Strachey (ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychcological Works of Sigmund Freud (1959), Vol 9, 146-7.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Character (259)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Correction (42)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  Fall (243)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Happy (108)  |  Historical (70)  |  Motive (62)  |  Never (1089)  |  Personality (66)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Reality (274)  |  Sex (68)  |  Sight (135)  |  Single (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Today (321)  |  Two (936)  |  Wish (216)

We must examine the moral alchemy through which the in-group readily transmutes virtue into vice and vice into virtue, as the occasion may demand. … We begin with the engagingly simple formula of moral alchemy: the same behavior must be differently evaluated according to the person who exhibits it. For example, the proficient alchemist will at once know that the word “firm” is properly declined as follows:
I am firm,
Thou art obstinate,
He is pig-headed.
There are some, unversed in the skills of this science, who will tell you that one and the same term should be applied to all three instances of identical behavior.
In article, 'The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy', The Antioch Review (Summer 1948), 8, No. 2, 195-196. Included as Chap. 7 of Social Theory and Social Structure (1949), 201.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Alchemist (23)  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Applied (176)  |  Art (680)  |  Begin (275)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Demand (131)  |  Different (595)  |  Evaluate (7)  |  Evaluated (4)  |  Examine (84)  |  Firm (47)  |  Follow (389)  |  Formula (102)  |  Identical (55)  |  Know (1538)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Occasion (87)  |  Simple (426)  |  Skill (116)  |  Tell (344)  |  Term (357)  |  Through (846)  |  Vice (42)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

We must protect each other against the attacks of those self-appointed watchdogs of patriotism now abroad in the land who irresponsibly pin red labels on anyone whom they wish to destroy. ... [Academic professionals are the only person competant to differentiate between honest independents and the Communists.] This is our responsibility. It is not a pleasant task. But if it is left to outsiders, the distinction is not likely to be made and those independent critics of social institutions among us who are one of the glories of a true university could be silenced.
As quoted by William L. Laurence in 'Professors Urged to Guard Freedom', New York Times (19 Sep 1952), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Against (332)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Attack (86)  |  Communist (9)  |  Critic (21)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Differentiate (19)  |  Distinction (72)  |  Glory (66)  |  Honest (53)  |  Institution (73)  |  Irresponsibility (5)  |  Label (11)  |  Like (23)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Patriotism (9)  |  Pin (20)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Professional (77)  |  Protect (65)  |  Red (38)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Self (268)  |  Silence (62)  |  Social (261)  |  Task (152)  |  University (130)  |  Wish (216)

We need science education to produce scientists, but we need it equally to create literacy in the public. Man has a fundamental urge to comprehend the world about him, and science gives today the only world picture which we can consider as valid. It gives an understanding of the inside of the atom and of the whole universe, or the peculiar properties of the chemical substances and of the manner in which genes duplicate in biology. An educated layman can, of course, not contribute to science, but can enjoy and participate in many scientific discoveries which as constantly made. Such participation was quite common in the 19th century, but has unhappily declined. Literacy in science will enrich a person’s life.
In Popular Mechanics (Sep 1961), 256
Science quotes on:  |  19th Century (41)  |  Atom (381)  |  Biology (232)  |  Century (319)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Consider (428)  |  Course (413)  |  Create (245)  |  Duplicate (9)  |  Education (423)  |  Enrich (27)  |  Equally (129)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Gene (105)  |  Layman (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literacy (10)  |  Man (2252)  |  Participation (15)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Picture (148)  |  Science Education (16)  |  Science Literacy (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Substance (253)  |  Today (321)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

We’re going to see public attitudes [on climate change] switch not in proportion to scientific findings or graphs, but in proportion to the stories they hear, the people they know whose lives have been touched by climate change or some environmental calamity. That’s what really changed public opinion.
From interview with Mark Tercek, 'Q&A With Ramez Naam: Dialogues on the Environment', Huffington Post (1 Jul 2013).
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Calamity (11)  |  Change (639)  |  Climate (102)  |  Climate Change (76)  |  Environment (239)  |  Finding (34)  |  Graph (8)  |  Hear (144)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Opinion (291)  |  People (1031)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Public (100)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Story (122)  |  Switch (10)  |  Touch (146)

WEATHER, n. The climate of an hour. A permanent topic of conversation among persons whom it does not interest, but who have inherited the tendency to chatter about it from naked arboreal ancestors whom it keenly concerned. The setting up of official weather bureaus and their maintenance in mendacity prove that even governments are accessible to suasion by the rude forefathers of the jungle.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Vol. 7, The Devil's Dictionary,  362-363.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Arboreal (8)  |  Climate (102)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conversation (46)  |  Government (116)  |  Hour (192)  |  Humour (116)  |  Inherit (35)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Interest (416)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Maintenance (21)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Prove (261)  |  Setting (44)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Topic (23)  |  Weather (49)

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)  |  Name (359)

What has been learned in physics stays learned. People talk about scientific revolutions. The social and political connotations of revolution evoke a picture of a body of doctrine being rejected, to be replaced by another equally vulnerable to refutation. It is not like that at all. The history of physics has seen profound changes indeed in the way that physicists have thought about fundamental questions. But each change was a widening of vision, an accession of insight and understanding. The introduction, one might say the recognition, by man (led by Einstein) of relativity in the first decade of this century and the formulation of quantum mechanics in the third decade are such landmarks. The only intellectual casualty attending the discovery of quantum mechanics was the unmourned demise of the patchwork quantum theory with which certain experimental facts had been stubbornly refusing to agree. As a scientist, or as any thinking person with curiosity about the basic workings of nature, the reaction to quantum mechanics would have to be: “Ah! So that’s the way it really is!” There is no good analogy to the advent of quantum mechanics, but if a political-social analogy is to be made, it is not a revolution but the discovery of the New World.
From Physics Survey Committee, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, 'The Nature of Physics', in report Physics in Perspective (1973), 61-62. As cited in I. Bernard Cohen, Revolution in Science (1985), 554-555.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Basic (144)  |  Being (1276)  |  Body (557)  |  Century (319)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Decade (66)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Einstein (101)  |  Albert Einstein (624)  |  Equally (129)  |  Evoke (13)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  History (716)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Landmark (9)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  New World (6)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Picture (148)  |  Political (124)  |  Profound (105)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Question (649)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Reject (67)  |  Rejected (26)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Replace (32)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Revolution (13)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Social (261)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

What I really want is a creative person. You can always hire a Ph.D. to take care of the details.
A recollection by Ray Hunder on Drew's philosophy, as quoted in A Century of Innovation: The 3M Story (2002), 27. (Note: The quote is in the words of Ray Hunder, and not necessarily a verbatim quote as spoken by Drew.)
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Creative (144)  |  Detail (150)  |  Invention (400)  |  PhD (10)  |  Research (753)  |  Want (504)

When a believing person prays, great things happen.
Bible
James 5:13-16. Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 177
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Pray (19)  |  Thing (1914)

When he to whom a person speaks does not understand, and he who speaks does not understand himself, that is metaphysics.
In James Wood, Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899), 361. From the original French, “Quand celui à qui l’on parle ne comprend pas et celui qui parle ne se comprend pas, c’est de la métaphysique.”
Science quotes on:  |  Himself (461)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Speak (240)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

When I first ventured into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s, the sea appeared to be a blue infinity too large, too wild to be harmed by anything that people could do. I explored powder white beaches, dense marshes, mangrove forests, and miles of sea grass meadows alive with pink sea urchins, tiny shrimps, and seahorses half the size of my little finger. … Then, in mere decades, not millennia, the blue wilderness of my childhood disappeared: biologic change in the space of a lifetime.
From 'My Blue Wilderness', National Geographic Magazine (Oct 2010), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Beach (23)  |  Biological (137)  |  Blue (63)  |  Change (639)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Decade (66)  |  Dense (5)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Do (1905)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Finger (48)  |  First (1302)  |  Forest (161)  |  Grass (49)  |  Gulf (18)  |  Gulf Of Mexico (5)  |  Harm (43)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Large (398)  |  Lifetime (40)  |  Little (717)  |  Mangrove (3)  |  Marsh (10)  |  Meadow (21)  |  Mile (43)  |  Millennium (5)  |  People (1031)  |  Pink (4)  |  Powder (9)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sea Urchin (3)  |  Shrimp (5)  |  Size (62)  |  Space (523)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Venture (19)  |  White (132)  |  Wild (96)  |  Wilderness (57)

When I was growing up, I always knew I’d be in the top of my class in math, and that gave me a lot of self-confidence. [But now that students can see beyond their own school, they see that] there are always going to be a million people better than you at times, or someone will always be far better than you. I feel there’s an existential angst among young people. I didn’t have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb.
From address at a conference on Google campus, co-hosted with Common Sense Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop 'Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age'. As quoted in Technology blog report by Dan Fost, 'Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants more computers in schools', Los Angeles Times (28 Oct 2009). On latimesblogs.latimes.com website. As quoted, without citation, in Can Akdeniz, Fast MBA (2014), 280.
Science quotes on:  |  Angst (2)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Class (168)  |  Climb (39)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Enormous (44)  |  Existential (3)  |  Feel (371)  |  Growing (99)  |  Hill (23)  |  Little (717)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mountain (202)  |  People (1031)  |  Saw (160)  |  School (227)  |  See (1094)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Confidence (11)  |  Student (317)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  Young (253)

When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.
As quoted by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion (2006, 2008), Preface, 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Call (781)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Insanity (8)  |  People (1031)  |  Religion (369)  |  Suffering (68)

When we have fully discovered the scientific laws that govern life, we shall realise that one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
In Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (2007), 111.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dreamer (14)  |  Govern (66)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Realize (157)  |  Scientific (955)

When you row another person across the river, you get there yourself.
Anonymous
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  River (140)  |  Row (9)

Why should [persons of artistic sensibility] stop to think when they are not very good at thinking?
In Art (1913), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Artistic (24)  |  Good (906)  |  Sensibility (5)  |  Stop (89)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Why (491)

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)  |  Name (359)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operative (10)  |  People (1031)  |  Perform (123)  |  Physician (284)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Say (989)  |  Surgeon (64)  |  Surgery (54)  |  Think (1122)  |  Understand (648)  |  Why (491)

Wise [persons] learn by others’ mistakes, fools by their own.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Fool (121)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Other (2233)  |  Wise (143)

With respect of the development of physiological love, it is probable that its nucleus is always to be found in an individual fetich (charm) which a person of one sex exercises over a person of the opposite sex.
Psychopathia Sexualis: With Special Reference to Contrary Sexual Instinct: A Medico-Legal Study (1886), trans. Charles Gilbert Chaddock (1892), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Charm (54)  |  Development (441)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Individual (420)  |  Love (328)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Respect (212)  |  Sex (68)

Working on the final formulation of technological patents was a veritable blessing for me. It enforced many-sided thinking and also provided important stimuli to physical thought. Academia places a young person under a kind of compulsion to produce impressive quantities of scientific publications–a temptation to superficiality.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Academia (4)  |  Bless (25)  |  Blessing (26)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Enforce (11)  |  Final (121)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Important (229)  |  Impressive (27)  |  Kind (564)  |  Many-Sided (2)  |  Patent (34)  |  Physical (518)  |  Place (192)  |  Produce (117)  |  Provide (79)  |  Publication (102)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Superficiality (4)  |  Technological (62)  |  Temptation (14)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Veritable (5)  |  Work (1402)  |  Young (253)

You make experiments and I make theories. Do you know the difference? A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.
Remark to Hermann F. Mark.
As related by Herman F. Mark to the author. Quoted in Gerald Holton, The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens, (1986), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Know (1538)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Something (718)  |  Theory (1015)

Your average scientist is not a good PR person because he wants to get on with his science.
On BBC website, 'Climate change scientists losing “PR war”' (11 Feb 2010).
Science quotes on:  |  Average (89)  |  Good (906)  |  Public Relations (5)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Want (504)


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.