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: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Pioneer

Pioneer Quotes (37 quotes)
Pioneering Quotes, Pioneered Quotes

[The compass needle] as the guide of Vasco de Gama to the East Indies, and of Columbus to the West Indies and the New World, it was pre-eminently the precursor and pioneer of the telegraph. Silently, and as with finger on its lips, it led them across the waste of waters to the new homes of the world; but when these were largely filled, and houses divided between the old and new hemispheres longed to exchange affectionate greetings, it removed its finger and broke silence. The quivering magnetic needle which lies in the coil of the galvanometer is the tongue of the electric telegraph, and already engineers talk of it as speaking.
'Progress of the Telegraph.' In Jesse Aitken Wilson, Memoirs of George Wilson. Quoted in Natural History Society of Montreal, 'Reviews and Notices of Books,' The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist (1861) Vol. 6, 392.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Compass (37)  |  Divided (50)  |  Electric (76)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Exchange (38)  |  Galvanometer (4)  |  Greeting (10)  |  Guide (107)  |  Home (184)  |  House (143)  |  Lie (370)  |  Long (778)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Precursor (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Telegraph (45)  |  Tongue (44)  |  Waste (109)  |  Water (503)  |  World (1850)

As a progressive discipline [biochemistry] belongs to the present century. From the experimental physiologists of the last century it obtained a charter, and, from a few pioneers of its own, a promise of success; but for the furtherance of its essential aim that century left it but a small inheritance of facts and methods. By its essential or ultimate aim I myself mean an adequate and acceptable description of molecular dynamics in living cells and tissues.
'Some Chemical Aspects of Life', Address (Sep 1933) in Report on the 103rd Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1933), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptable (14)  |  Adequate (50)  |  Aim (175)  |  Belong (168)  |  Biochemistry (50)  |  Century (319)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Essential (210)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Furtherance (4)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Last (425)  |  Living (492)  |  Mean (810)  |  Metabolism (15)  |  Method (531)  |  Myself (211)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Physiologist (31)  |  Present (630)  |  Promise (72)  |  Small (489)  |  Success (327)  |  Tissue (51)  |  Ultimate (152)

As an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents … I congratulate you [Nikola Tesla] on the great successes of your life’s work.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Current (122)  |  Eminent (20)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Realm (87)  |  Success (327)  |  Nikola Tesla (39)  |  Work (1402)

At the origin, the [space travel] pioneers of the greatest adventure of all times were motivated by the drive to explore, by the pure spirit of conquest, by the lofty desire to open up new fields to human genius. … From their exceptional journeys, they all came back with the revelation of beauty. Beauty of the black sky, beauty and variety of our planet, beauty of the Earth seen from the Moon, girdled by a scintillating belt of equatorial thunderstorms. They all emphasize that our planet is one, that borderlines are artificial, that humankind is one single community on board spaceship Earth. They all insist that this fragile gem is at our mercy and that we must all endeavor to protect it.
Written for 'Foreword' to Kevin W. Kelley (ed.), The Home Planet (1988), paragraphs 6-7 (unpaginated).
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Artificial (38)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belt (4)  |  Black (46)  |  Board (13)  |  Borderline (2)  |  Community (111)  |  Conquest (31)  |  Desire (212)  |  Drive (61)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Equatorial (3)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Field (378)  |  Fragile (26)  |  Gem (17)  |  Genius (301)  |  Girdle (2)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Insist (22)  |  Journey (48)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Moon (252)  |  Motivate (8)  |  New (1273)  |  Open Up (2)  |  Origin (250)  |  Planet (402)  |  Protect (65)  |  Pure (299)  |  Revelation (51)  |  See (1094)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Space Travel (23)  |  Spaceship Earth (3)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Thunderstorm (7)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vulnerable (7)

Gifford Pinchot points out that in colonial and pioneer days the forest was a foe and an obstacle to the settler. It had to be cleared away... But [now] as a nation we have not yet come to have a proper respect for the forest and to regard it as an indispensable part of our resources—one which is easily destroyed but difficult to replace; one which confers great benefits while it endures, but whose disappearance is accompanied by a train of evil consequences not readily foreseen and positively irreparable.
Concluding remark, in 'A Country that has Used up its Trees', The Outlook (24 Mar 1906), 82, 700. The topic of the article is the extensive deforestation in China, its consequences, and that America must avoid such massive problems.
Science quotes on:  |  Benefit (123)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Deforestation (50)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Evil (122)  |  Foe (11)  |  Foresee (22)  |  Forest (161)  |  Great (1610)  |  Nation (208)  |  Natural Resource (23)  |  Obstacle (42)  |  Point (584)  |  Proper (150)  |  Regard (312)  |  Replace (32)  |  Respect (212)  |  Train (118)

Honest pioneer work in the field of science has always been, and will continue to be, life’s pilot. On all sides, life is surrounded by hostility. This puts us under an obligation.
In Function of the Orgasm: Discovery of the Orgone (1927, 1973), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Continue (179)  |  Field (378)  |  Honest (53)  |  Hostility (16)  |  Life (1870)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Pilot (13)  |  Side (236)  |  Surround (33)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

I can see him [Sylvester] now, with his white beard and few locks of gray hair, his forehead wrinkled o’er with thoughts, writing rapidly his figures and formulae on the board, sometimes explaining as he wrote, while we, his listeners, caught the reflected sounds from the board. But stop, something is not right, he pauses, his hand goes to his forehead to help his thought, he goes over the work again, emphasizes the leading points, and finally discovers his difficulty. Perhaps it is some error in his figures, perhaps an oversight in the reasoning. Sometimes, however, the difficulty is not elucidated, and then there is not much to the rest of the lecture. But at the next lecture we would hear of some new discovery that was the outcome of that difficulty, and of some article for the Journal, which he had begun. If a text-book had been taken up at the beginning, with the intention of following it, that text-book was most likely doomed to oblivion for the rest of the term, or until the class had been made listeners to every new thought and principle that had sprung from the laboratory of his mind, in consequence of that first difficulty. Other difficulties would soon appear, so that no text-book could last more than half of the term. In this way his class listened to almost all of the work that subsequently appeared in the Journal. It seemed to be the quality of his mind that he must adhere to one subject. He would think about it, talk about it to his class, and finally write about it for the Journal. The merest accident might start him, but once started, every moment, every thought was given to it, and, as much as possible, he read what others had done in the same direction; but this last seemed to be his real point; he could not read without finding difficulties in the way of understanding the author. Thus, often his own work reproduced what had been done by others, and he did not find it out until too late.
A notable example of this is in his theory of cyclotomic functions, which he had reproduced in several foreign journals, only to find that he had been greatly anticipated by foreign authors. It was manifest, one of the critics said, that the learned professor had not read Rummer’s elementary results in the theory of ideal primes. Yet Professor Smith’s report on the theory of numbers, which contained a full synopsis of Kummer’s theory, was Professor Sylvester’s constant companion.
This weakness of Professor Sylvester, in not being able to read what others had done, is perhaps a concomitant of his peculiar genius. Other minds could pass over little difficulties and not be troubled by them, and so go on to a final understanding of the results of the author. But not so with him. A difficulty, however small, worried him, and he was sure to have difficulties until the subject had been worked over in his own way, to correspond with his own mode of thought. To read the work of others, meant therefore to him an almost independent development of it. Like the man whose pleasure in life is to pioneer the way for society into the forests, his rugged mind could derive satisfaction only in hewing out its own paths; and only when his efforts brought him into the uncleared fields of mathematics did he find his place in the Universe.
In Florian Cajori, Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States (1890), 266-267.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Adhere (3)  |  Anticipate (20)  |  Appear (122)  |  Article (22)  |  Author (175)  |  Beard (8)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Being (1276)  |  Board (13)  |  Book (413)  |  Bring (95)  |  Class (168)  |  Companion (22)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Constant (148)  |  Contain (68)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Critic (21)  |  Derive (70)  |  Development (441)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Direction (185)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Doom (34)  |  Effort (243)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Error (339)  |  Example (98)  |  Explain (334)  |  Field (378)  |  Figure (162)  |  Final (121)  |  Finally (26)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Follow (389)  |  Forehead (3)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Forest (161)  |  Formula (102)  |  Full (68)  |  Function (235)  |  Genius (301)  |  Give (208)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Hair (25)  |  Half (63)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hear (144)  |  Help (116)  |  Hew (3)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Independent (74)  |  Intention (46)  |  Journal (31)  |  Ernst Eduard Kummer (3)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Last (425)  |  Late (119)  |  Lead (391)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Likely (36)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listener (7)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mere (86)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mode (43)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Notable (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outcome (15)  |  Oversight (4)  |  Pass (241)  |  Path (159)  |  Pause (6)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Place (192)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Point (584)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prime (11)  |  Principle (530)  |  Professor (133)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rapidly (67)  |  Read (308)  |  Real (159)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  Report (42)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Rest (287)  |  Result (700)  |  Right (473)  |  Rugged (7)  |  Rum (3)  |  Same (166)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Several (33)  |  Small (489)  |  Smith (3)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Soon (187)  |  Sound (187)  |  Spring (140)  |  Start (237)  |  Stop (89)  |  Subject (543)  |  Subsequently (2)  |  James Joseph Sylvester (58)  |  Synopsis (2)  |  Talk (108)  |  Term (357)  |  Textbook (39)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Numbers (7)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weakness (50)  |  White (132)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)  |  Wrinkle (4)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

I enjoy, and always have enjoyed, disturbing scientists.
[About pioneering with his new ideas.]
As quoted by Neil Shubin in The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body (2013), 113
Science quotes on:  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Idea (881)  |  New (1273)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Scientist (881)

I had this experience at the age of eight. My parents gave me a microscope. I don’t recall why, but no matter. I then found my own little world, completely wild and unconstrained, no plastic, no teacher, no books, no anything predictable. At first I did not know the names of the water-drop denizens or what they were doing. But neither did the pioneer microscopists. Like them, I graduated to looking at butterfly scales and other miscellaneous objects. I never thought of what I was doing in such a way, but it was pure science. As true as could be of any child so engaged, I was kin to Leeuwenhoek, who said that his work “was not pursued in order to gain the praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after knowledge, which I notice resides in me more that most other men.”
In The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth (2010), 143-144.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Book (413)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Child (333)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completely (137)  |  Craving (5)  |  Doing (277)  |  Drop (77)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Gain (146)  |  Graduation (6)  |  Kin (10)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (17)  |  Little (717)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopist (2)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Name (359)  |  Never (1089)  |  Notice (81)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Praise (28)  |  Predictability (7)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  Reside (25)  |  Scale (122)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thought (995)  |  Unconstrained (2)  |  Water (503)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

I would be the last to deny that the greatest scientific pioneers belonged to an aristocracy of the spirit and were exceptionally intelligent, something that we as modest investigators will never attain, no matter how much we exert ourselves. Nevertheless … I continue to believe that there is always room for anyone with average intelligence … to utilize his energy and … any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain, and that even the least gifted may, like the poorest land that has been well-cultivated and fertilized, produce an abundant harvest..
From Preface to the second edition, Reglas y Consejos sobre Investigacíon Cientifica: Los tónicos de la voluntad. (1897), as translated by Neely and Larry W. Swanson, in Advice for a Young Investigator (1999), xv.
Science quotes on:  |  Abundant (23)  |  Aristocracy (7)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Average (89)  |  Belief (615)  |  Belong (168)  |  Brain (281)  |  Continue (179)  |  Cultivated (7)  |  Deny (71)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exert (40)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Fertilized (2)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Harvest (28)  |  Inclination (36)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Land (131)  |  Last (425)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modest (19)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Poorest (2)  |  Produce (117)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sculptor (10)  |  Something (718)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Utilize (10)  |  Will (2350)

I’ve tried to make the men around me feel as I do, that we are embarked as pioneers upon a new science and industry in which our problems are so new and unusual that it behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea with the statement, “It can’t be done.”
Start of Boeing’s quote, inscribed on his memorial at the Boeing Developmental Center, Tukwila, WA, as given in Mike Lombardi, 'Historical Perspective: 50 years at the Leading Edge', Boeing Frontiers (Aug 2009), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Behoove (6)  |  Can�t (16)  |  Dismiss (12)  |  Do (1905)  |  Embark (7)  |  Feel (371)  |  Idea (881)  |  Industry (159)  |  New (1273)  |  Novel (35)  |  Problem (731)  |  Statement (148)  |  Unusual (37)

In honoring the Wright Brothers, it is customary and proper to recognize their contribution to scientific progress. But I believe it is equally important to emphasize the qualities in their pioneering life and the character in man that such a life produced. The Wright Brothers balanced sucess with modesty, science with simplicity. At Kitty Hawk their intellects and senses worked in mutual support. They represented man in balance, and from that balance came wings to lift a world.
Speech, quoted in Leonard Mosley, Lindbergh (2000), 347. In 1949, Lindbergh gave a speech when he received the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy.
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Biography (254)  |  Brother (47)  |  Character (259)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Customary (18)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Equally (129)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Kitty Hawk (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lift (57)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modesty (18)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Produced (187)  |  Progress (492)  |  Proper (150)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Represent (157)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Progress (14)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Success (327)  |  Support (151)  |  Wing (79)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)  |  Orville Wright (10)  |  Wilbur Wright (14)

It is not easy to be a pioneer—but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.
As quoted, without citation, in Arlene J. Morris-Lipsman, Notable Women (1990), 70. The author dates this to “twenty years after her graduation,” [which was on 23 Jan 1849]. Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Easy (213)  |  Fascinating (38)  |  Moment (260)  |  Riches (14)  |  Trade (34)  |  World (1850)  |  Worst (57)

It is often held that scientific hypotheses are constructed, and are to be constructed, only after a detailed weighing of all possible evidence bearing on the matter, and that then and only then may one consider, and still only tentatively, any hypotheses. This traditional view however, is largely incorrect, for not only is it absurdly impossible of application, but it is contradicted by the history of the development of any scientific theory. What happens in practice is that by intuitive insight, or other inexplicable inspiration, the theorist decides that certain features seem to him more important than others and capable of explanation by certain hypotheses. Then basing his study on these hypotheses the attempt is made to deduce their consequences. The successful pioneer of theoretical science is he whose intuitions yield hypotheses on which satisfactory theories can be built, and conversely for the unsuccessful (as judged from a purely scientific standpoint).
Co-author with Raymond Arthur Lyttleton, in 'The Internal Constitution of the Stars', Occasional Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society 1948, 12, 90.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Capable (174)  |  Certain (557)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Consider (428)  |  Construct (129)  |  Contradict (42)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Detail (150)  |  Development (441)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Happen (282)  |  History (716)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inexplicable (8)  |  Insight (107)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practice (212)  |  Purely (111)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Still (614)  |  Study (701)  |  Successful (134)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  View (496)  |  Yield (86)

It is the geniuses who, as pioneers, create the highways, and the cultivated who level and beautify them. Highway improvement would be a good thing in the sciences, so that we could get from one of them to another more easily.
Aphorism 39 in Notebook D (1773-1775), as translated by R.J. Hollingdale in Aphorisms (1990). Reprinted as The Waste Books (2000), 49.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Create (245)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Genius (301)  |  Good (906)  |  Highway (15)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Level (69)  |  More (2558)  |  Thing (1914)

It is therefore easy to see why the churches have always fought science and persecuted its devotees. On the other hand, I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research. Only those who realize the immense efforts and, above all, the devotion without which pioneer work in theoretical science cannot be achieved are able to grasp the strength of the emotion out of which alone such work, remote as it is from the immediate realities of life, can issue. What a deep conviction of the rationality of the universe and what a yearning to understand, were it but a feeble reflection of the mind revealed in this world, Kepler and Newton must have had to enable them to spend years of solitary labor in disentangling the principles of celestial mechanics! Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Acquaintance (38)  |  Age (509)  |  Alone (324)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Celestial Mechanics (4)  |  Century (319)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Church (64)  |  Completely (137)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Countless (39)  |  Deep (241)  |  Derive (70)  |  Develop (278)  |  Devote (45)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Disentangle (4)  |  Easily (36)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effort (243)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Enable (122)  |  End (603)  |  Failure (176)  |  False (105)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fight (49)  |  Give (208)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Immense (89)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Issue (46)  |  Kepler (4)  |  Kindred (12)  |  Labor (200)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Materialistic (2)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Mentality (5)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motive (62)  |  Must (1525)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Notion (120)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ours (4)  |  People (1031)  |  Persecute (6)  |  Practical (225)  |  Principle (530)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reality (274)  |  Realization (44)  |  Realize (157)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Remote (86)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Revealed (59)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Serious (98)  |  Show (353)  |  Similar (36)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spite (55)  |  Strength (139)  |  Strong (182)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Surround (33)  |  Theoretical Science (4)  |  Through (846)  |  True (239)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Unjustly (2)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wide (97)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)  |  Yearn (13)  |  Yearning (13)

It seems a miracle that young children easily learn the language of any environment into which they were born. The generative approach to grammar, pioneered by Chomsky, argues that this is only explicable if certain deep, universal features of this competence are innate characteristics of the human brain. Biologically speaking, this hypothesis of an inheritable capability to learn any language means that it must somehow be encoded in the DNA of our chromosomes. Should this hypothesis one day be verified, then lingusitics would become a branch of biology.
'The Generative Grammar of the Immune System', Nobel Lecture, 8 Dec 1984. In Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine 1981-1990 (1993), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Become (821)  |  Biology (232)  |  Birth (154)  |  Brain (281)  |  Branch (155)  |  Capability (44)  |  Certain (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Avram Noam Chomsky (7)  |  Chromosome (23)  |  Chromosomes (17)  |  Competence (13)  |  Deep (241)  |  DNA (81)  |  Environment (239)  |  Grammar (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Inheritance (35)  |  Innate (14)  |  Language (308)  |  Learn (672)  |  Linguistics (39)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Miracle (85)  |  Must (1525)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Universal (198)  |  Young (253)

Man always kills the thing he loves, and so we the pioneers have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?
Concluding paragraph of 'Chihuahua and Sonora', A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949, 1987), 148-149.
Science quotes on:  |  Blank (14)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Kill (100)  |  Love (328)  |  Map (50)  |  Spot (19)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Young (253)

Mathematics vindicates the right … to stand in the front rank of the pioneers that search the real truth and find it crystallized forever in brilliant gems.
In Lectures on the Philosophy of Mathematics (1918), 194.
Science quotes on:  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forever (111)  |  Front (16)  |  Gem (17)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Rank (69)  |  Real (159)  |  Right (473)  |  Search (175)  |  Stand (284)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Vindicate (4)

Maxwell, like every other pioneer who does not live to explore the country he opened out, had not had time to investigate the most direct means of access to the country, or the most systematic way of exploring it. This has been reserved for Oliver Heaviside to do. Maxwell’s treatise is cumbered with the débris of his brilliant lines of assault, of his entrenched camps, of his battles. Oliver Heaviside has cleared those away, has opened up a direct route, has made a broad road, and has explored a considerable tract of country.
Book Review of Heaviside’s Electrical Papers in The Electrician (11 Aug 1893). Collected in Joseph Larmore (ed.), The Scientific Writings of the Late George Francis FitzGerald (1902), 294.
Science quotes on:  |  Access (21)  |  Assault (12)  |  Battle (36)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Camp (12)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Country (269)  |  Debris (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Do (1905)  |  Encumber (4)  |  Entrench (2)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Oliver Heaviside (25)  |  Investigate (106)  |  Live (650)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Open (277)  |  Other (2233)  |  Route (16)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Time (1911)  |  Treatise (46)  |  Way (1214)

Most people regard scientists as explorers … Imagine a handful of people shipwrecked on a strange island and setting out to explore it. One of them cuts a solitary path through the jungle, going on and on until he is exhausted or lost or both. He eventually returns to his companions, and they listen to him with goggling eyes as he describes what he saw; what he fell into, and what bit him. After a rest he demands more supplies and sets off again to explore the unknown. Many of his companions will be doing the same, each choosing his own direction and pursuing his pioneering path.
In The Development of Design (1981), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Both (496)  |  Companion (22)  |  Cut (116)  |  Demand (131)  |  Describe (132)  |  Direction (185)  |  Doing (277)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Explorer (30)  |  Eye (440)  |  Handful (14)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Island (49)  |  Jungle (24)  |  Listen (81)  |  Listening (26)  |  Lost (34)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Path (159)  |  People (1031)  |  Pursuing (27)  |  Regard (312)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Strange (160)  |  Through (846)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Will (2350)

My grandfather pioneered exploration of what he called “our water planet,” then my father sought to understand the human connection, and now, as part of the third generation, I’m dedicated to not only raising awareness but also to empowering people to take action.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Call (781)  |  Connection (171)  |  Dedicate (12)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Father (113)  |  Generation (256)  |  Grandfather (14)  |  Human (1512)  |  People (1031)  |  Planet (402)  |  Understand (648)  |  Water (503)

New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life.
Letter to Vannevar Bush (17 Nov 1944). As printed in Vannevar Bush, Science, the Endless Frontier: A report to the President (1945), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Boldness (11)  |  Create (245)  |  Drive (61)  |  Employment (34)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Vision (127)  |  Wage (7)  |  War (233)

Telescopes are in some ways like time machines. They reveal galaxies so far away that their light has taken billions of years to reach us. We in astronomy have an advantage in studying the universe, in that we can actually see the past.
We owe our existence to stars, because they make the atoms of which we are formed. So if you are romantic you can say we are literally starstuff. If you’re less romantic you can say we’re the nuclear waste from the fuel that makes stars shine.
We’ve made so many advances in our understanding. A few centuries ago, the pioneer navigators learnt the size and shape of our Earth, and the layout of the continents. We are now just learning the dimensions and ingredients of our entire cosmos, and can at last make some sense of our cosmic habitat.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Advance (298)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Atom (381)  |  Billion (104)  |  Billions (7)  |  Century (319)  |  Continent (79)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Entire (50)  |  Existence (481)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Fuel (39)  |  Galaxies (29)  |  Galaxy (53)  |  Habitat (17)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Last (425)  |  Layout (2)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Less (105)  |  Light (635)  |  Literally (30)  |  Machine (271)  |  Navigator (8)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Waste (4)  |  Owe (71)  |  Past (355)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Romantic (13)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Shape (77)  |  Shine (49)  |  Size (62)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Starstuff (5)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time Machine (4)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universe (900)  |  Waste (109)  |  Way (1214)  |  Year (963)

The foundations of population genetics were laid chiefly by mathematical deduction from basic premises contained in the works of Mendel and Morgan and their followers. Haldane, Wright, and Fisher are the pioneers of population genetics whose main research equipment was paper and ink rather than microscopes, experimental fields, Drosophila bottles, or mouse cages. Theirs is theoretical biology at its best, and it has provided a guiding light for rigorous quantitative experimentation and observation.
'A Review of Some Fundamental Concepts and Problems of Population Genetics', Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 1955, 20, 13-14.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Best (467)  |  Biology (232)  |  Cage (12)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Drosophila (10)  |  Drosphilia (4)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Field (378)  |  Fischer_Ronald (2)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  J.B.S. Haldane (50)  |  Light (635)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Gregor Mendel (22)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Thomas Hunt Morgan (14)  |  Mouse (33)  |  Observation (593)  |  Paper (192)  |  Population (115)  |  Premise (40)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Research (753)  |  Rigorous (50)  |  Work (1402)  |  Sewall Wright (9)

The preservation of a few samples of undeveloped territory is one of the most clamant issues before us today. Just a few more years of hesitation and the only trace of that wilderness which has exerted such a fundamental influence in molding American character will lie in the musty pages of pioneer books. … To avoid this catastrophe demands immediate action.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  American (56)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Book (413)  |  Catastrophe (35)  |  Character (259)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Demand (131)  |  Exert (40)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Hesitation (19)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Influence (231)  |  Issue (46)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mold (37)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Musty (2)  |  Page (35)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Sample (19)  |  Territory (25)  |  Today (321)  |  Trace (109)  |  Undeveloped (6)  |  Wilderness (57)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

The story of scientific discovery has its own epic unity—a unity of purpose and endeavour—the single torch passing from hand to hand through the centuries; and the great moments of science when, after long labour, the pioneers saw their accumulated facts falling into a significant order—sometimes in the form of a law that revolutionised the whole world of thought—have an intense human interest, and belong essentially to the creative imagination of poetry.
In Prefactory Note, Watchers of the Sky (1922), v.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulated (2)  |  Belong (168)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Century (319)  |  Creative (144)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Epic (12)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Falling (6)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hand (149)  |  Human (1512)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Intense (22)  |  Interest (416)  |  Labor (200)  |  Law (913)  |  Long (778)  |  Moment (260)  |  Order (638)  |  Passing (76)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Saw (160)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Significant (78)  |  Single (365)  |  Story (122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Torch (13)  |  Unity (81)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  World (1850)

The work of a pioneer in science of technique often consists of finding a correct solution, or creating a working mechanism, based on laws that are not yet discovered.
In The Story of the Winged-S: The Autobiography of Igor I. Sikorsky (2011).
Science quotes on:  |  Based (10)  |  Consist (223)  |  Correct (95)  |  Create (245)  |  Discover (571)  |  Find (1014)  |  Law (913)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Solution (282)  |  Technique (84)  |  Work (1402)

There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.
English Journey (1934), 123.
Science quotes on:  |  Battle (36)  |  Better (493)  |  Despair (40)  |  Development (441)  |  Fear (212)  |  Gamble (3)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Giant (73)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Hope (321)  |  Loneliness (6)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Manufacture (30)  |  Manufacturing (29)  |  Merely (315)  |  Novel (35)  |  Raid (5)  |  Romance (18)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Typewriter (6)

We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.
Speech, NASA Headquarters (14 Jan 2004). In Office of the Federal Register (U.S.) Staff (eds.), Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush (2007), 58-59.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dream (222)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fascination (35)  |  Generation (256)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Innovator (3)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Limit (294)  |  Mars (47)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moon (252)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Resource (74)  |  Study (701)  |  Test (221)  |  Will (2350)  |  Young (253)

What do all of these pioneers [Archibald Garrod, Oswald Avery, Peyton Rous] have in common? First, they were physicians who were trained in basic science. To them, it was not a question of physiology or medicine. To them, medicine was physiology. Second, they showed technical courage in using the most advanced scientific methods to solve medical problems.
In Banquet Speech, 'The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1985', on website nobelprize.org. Published in Les Prix Nobel, 1985: Nobel Prizes, Presentations, Biographies and Lectures (1986).
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Oswald Avery (6)  |  Basic Science (5)  |  Courage (82)  |  Archibald Garrod (7)  |  Medical Problem (3)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Physician (284)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Question (649)  |  Peyton Rous (2)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Solve (145)  |  Technical (53)  |  Train (118)

When Archimedes jumped out of his bath one morning and cried Eureka he obviously had not worked out the whole principle on which the specific gravity of various bodies could be determined j and undoubtedly there were people who laughed at his first attempts. That is perhaps why most scientific pioneers are so slow to disclose the nature of their first insights when they believe themselves to be on a track of a new discovery.
In Max Planck and James Vincent Murphy (trans.), Where Is Science Going? (1932), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Eureka (13)  |  Reluctance (6)  |  Research (753)

When ever we turn in these days of iron, steam and electricity we find that Mathematics has been the pioneer. Were its back bone removed, our material civilization would inevitably collapse. Modern thought and belief would have been altogether different, had Mathematics not made the various sciences exact.
The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and the Secondary School (1907), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bone (101)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Exactness (29)  |  Find (1014)  |  Inevitability (10)  |  Iron (99)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Thought (4)  |  Removal (12)  |  Steam (81)  |  Thought (995)  |  Turn (454)  |  Various (205)

When first I applied my mind to Mathematics I read straight away most of what is usually given by the mathematical writers, and I paid special attention to Arithmetic and Geometry because they were said to be the simplest and so to speak the way to all the rest. But in neither case did I then meet with authors who fully satisfied me. I did indeed learn in their works many propositions about numbers which I found on calculation to be true. As to figures, they in a sense exhibited to my eyes a great number of truths and drew conclusions from certain consequences. But they did not seem to make it sufficiently plain to the mind itself why these things are so, and how they discovered them. Consequently I was not surprised that many people, even of talent and scholarship, should, after glancing at these sciences, have either given them up as being empty and childish or, taking them to be very difficult and intricate, been deterred at the very outset from learning them. … But when I afterwards bethought myself how it could be that the earliest pioneers of Philosophy in bygone ages refused to admit to the study of wisdom any one who was not versed in Mathematics … I was confirmed in my suspicion that they had knowledge of a species of Mathematics very different from that which passes current in our time.
In Elizabeth S. Haldane (trans.) and G.R.T. Ross (trans.), 'Rules for the Direction of the Mind', The Philosophical Works of Descartes (1911, 1973), Vol. 1, Rule 4, 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Applied (176)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Attention (196)  |  Author (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bygone (4)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certain (557)  |  Childish (20)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Current (122)  |  Deter (4)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Discover (571)  |  Empty (82)  |  Eye (440)  |  Figure (162)  |  First (1302)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intricate (29)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Myself (211)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Read (308)  |  Rest (287)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  Sense (785)  |  Speak (240)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Straight (75)  |  Study (701)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Talent (99)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Usually (176)  |  Way (1214)  |  Why (491)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

When the pioneer in science sets forth the groping feelers of his thought, he must have a vivid, intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction, but by an artistically creative imagination.
In Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers (1968), 109.
Science quotes on:  |  Artistic (24)  |  Creative (144)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Feeler (3)  |  Grope (5)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Intuitive (14)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  New Ideas (17)  |  Set (400)  |  Thought (995)  |  Vivid (25)

While there is still much to learn and discover through space exploration, we also need to pay attention to our unexplored world here on earth. Our next big leap into the unknown can be every bit as exciting and bold as our pioneering work in space. It possesses the same “wow” factor: alien worlds, dazzling technological feats and the mystery of the unknown.
In 'Why Exploring the Ocean is Mankind’s Next Giant Leap', contributed to CNN 'Lightyears Blog' (13 Mar 2012)
Science quotes on:  |  Alien (35)  |  Attention (196)  |  Bold (22)  |  Dazzling (13)  |  Discover (571)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Excite (17)  |  Exciting (50)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Factor (47)  |  Feat (11)  |  Leap (57)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Next (238)  |  Possess (157)  |  Space (523)  |  Space Exploration (15)  |  Still (614)  |  Technological (62)  |  Technology (281)  |  Through (846)  |  Unexplored (15)  |  Unknown (195)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

You can always tell the pioneers because they are face down in the mud with arrows in their backs.
Anonymous
Seen in various paraphrases, such as $ldquo;in the dirt”.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrow (22)  |  Back (395)  |  Dirt (17)  |  Down (455)  |  Face (214)  |  Mud (26)  |  Tell (344)


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.