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: “I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell ... whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Polish

Polish Quotes (17 quotes)

[Experimental Physicist] Phys. I cannot imagine myself perceiving non-Euclidean space!
Math. Look at the reflection of the room in a polished doorknob, and imagine yourself one of the actors in what you see going on there.
In Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920, 1921), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Experimental (193)  |  Experimental Physicist (11)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Look (584)  |  Myself (211)  |  Non-Euclidean (7)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Reflection (93)  |  See (1094)  |  Space (523)

All our contemporary philosophers perhaps without knowing it are looking through eyeglasses that Baruch Spinoza polished.
Quoted in Frank Heynick, Jews and Medicine: An Epic Saga (2002), 204. Heynick adds some background that, “Heine’s quote alludes to the fact that Spinoza earned his livelihood by grinding lenses.”
Science quotes on:  |  Knowing (137)  |  Lens (15)  |  Livelihood (13)  |  Looking (191)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Through (846)

Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.
In Lincoln Lecture (1880), in Abraham Lincoln: A Lecture (1895), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  College (71)  |  Diamond (21)  |  Pebble (27)  |  University (130)

Every physical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the earth, the work of any and all of those agents which make the face of the world what it is, and as we see it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a group of physical facts, we do not know what practical bearings they may have, though right-minded men know that they contain many precious jewels, which science, or the expert hand of philosophy will not fail top bring out, polished, and bright, and beautifully adapted to man's purposes.
In The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), 209-210. Maury was in particular referring to the potential use of deep-sea soundings.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Agent (73)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Bright (81)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Expert (67)  |  Expression (181)  |  Face (214)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Fail (191)  |  Feature (49)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Jewel (10)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physical (518)  |  Practical (225)  |  Precious (43)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Right (473)  |  See (1094)  |  Top (100)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Historical theories are, after all, intellectual apple carts. They are quite likely to be upset. Nor should it be forgotten that they tend to attract, when they gain ascendancy, a fair number of apple-polishers
'Books of the Times'. New York Times (9 Dec 1965), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Apple (46)  |  Ascendancy (3)  |  Attract (25)  |  Cart (3)  |  Forget (125)  |  Forgotten (53)  |  Gain (146)  |  Historical (70)  |  History (716)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Number (710)  |  Tend (124)  |  Tendency (110)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Upset (18)

If I make a decision it is a possession. I take pride in it, I tend to defend it and not listen to those who question it. If I make sense, then this is more dynamic, and I listen and I can change it. A decision is something you polish. Sensemaking is a direction for the next period.
Personal communication (13 Jun 1995). In Karl E. Weick, 'The Experience of Theorizing: Sensemaking as Topic and Resource'. Quoted in Ken G. Smith (ed.) and Michael A. Hitt (ed), Great Minds in Management: the Theory of Process Development (2005), 398. Weick writes that Gleason explains how leadership needs 'sensemaking rather than decision making.' As a highly skilled wildland firefighter he would make sense of an unfolding fire, giving directives that are open to revision at any time, so they can be self-correcting, responsive, with a transparent rationale. By contrast, decision making eats up valuable time with polishing the decision to get it 'right' and defending it, and also encourages blind spots.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Decision (98)  |  Defend (32)  |  Direction (185)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  Listen (81)  |  More (2558)  |  Next (238)  |  Period (200)  |  Possession (68)  |  Pride (84)  |  Question (649)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Tend (124)

In like manner, the loadstone has from nature its two poles, a northern and a southern; fixed, definite points in the stone, which are the primary termini of the movements and effects, and the limits and regulators of the several actions and properties. It is to be understood, however, that not from a mathematical point does the force of the stone emanate, but from the parts themselves; and all these parts in the whole—while they belong to the whole—the nearer they are to the poles of the stone the stronger virtues do they acquire and pour out on other bodies. These poles look toward the poles of the earth, and move toward them, and are subject to them. The magnetic poles may be found in very loadstone, whether strong and powerful (male, as the term was in antiquity) or faint, weak, and female; whether its shape is due to design or to chance, and whether it be long, or flat, or four-square, or three-cornered or polished; whether it be rough, broken-off, or unpolished: the loadstone ever has and ever shows its poles.
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies and on the Great Magnet the Earth: A New Physiology, Demonstrated with many Arguments and Experiments (1600), trans. P. Fleury Mottelay (1893), 23.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Antiquity (34)  |  Belong (168)  |  Broken (56)  |  Chance (244)  |  Corner (59)  |  Definite (114)  |  Design (203)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Effect (414)  |  Female (50)  |  Flat (34)  |  Force (497)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Look (584)  |  Magnetic (44)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Move (223)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Pole (49)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Primary (82)  |  Show (353)  |  Square (73)  |  Stone (168)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Subject (543)  |  Term (357)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Two (936)  |  Understood (155)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whole (756)

It is strange, but rocks, properly chosen and polished, can be as beautiful as flowers, and much more durable.
Epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 159.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Choice (114)  |  Chosen (48)  |  Durable (7)  |  Flower (112)  |  Mineralogy (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Rock (176)  |  Strange (160)

Noitaton Hsilop esrever diova!
In Michael Stueben Twenty Years Before the Blackboard, (1998), 131. The sentence is written backwards from “Avoid reverse Polish notation!” [Note the E. Kim Nebeuts is probably a pen name since, also reversed, it reads Mike Stueben. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Notation (28)  |  Reverse (33)

Observation is like a piece of glass, which, as a mirror, must be very smooth, and must be very carefully polished, in order that it may reflect the image pure and undistorted.
'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:  |  Care (203)  |  Carefully (65)  |  Glass (94)  |  Image (97)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Smooth (34)  |  Undistorted (2)

Our popular lecturers on physics present us with chains of deductions so highly polished that it is a luxury to let them slip from end to end through our fingers. But they leave nothing behind but a vague memory of the sensation they afforded.
Said by the fictional character Lydia in Cashel Byron’s Profession (1886, 1906), 88.
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Chain (51)  |  Deduction (90)  |  End (603)  |  Finger (48)  |  Highly (16)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lecturer (13)  |  Luxury (21)  |  Memory (144)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Popular (34)  |  Present (630)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Slip (6)  |  Through (846)  |  Vague (50)

The due cultivation of practical manual arts in a nation, has a greater tendency to polish, and humanize mankind, than mere speculative science, however refined and sublime it may be.
From 'Artist and Mechanic', The artist & Tradesman’s Guide: embracing some leading facts & principles of science, and a variety of matter adapted to the wants of the artist, mechanic, manufacturer, and mercantile community (1827), 143.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Cultivation (36)  |  Due (143)  |  Greater (288)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Manual (7)  |  Nation (208)  |  Practical (225)  |  Refined (8)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Tendency (110)

The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.…
Yet the program construct, unlike the poet's words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separate from the construct itself. […] The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on a keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be.
In The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Castle In The Air (4)  |  Creation (350)  |  Display (59)  |  Flexible (7)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Incantation (6)  |  Keyboard (3)  |  Legend (18)  |  Magic (92)  |  Myth (58)  |  Output (12)  |  Poet (97)  |  Programmer (5)

The sciences and arts are not cast in a mold, but formed and shaped little by little, by repeated handling and polishing, as bears lick their cubs into shape at leisure.
In Donald M. Frame (trans.), The Complete Essays of Montaigne (1958), 421.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Bear (162)  |  Cast (69)  |  Cub (2)  |  Form (976)  |  Handle (29)  |  Leisure (25)  |  Lick (4)  |  Little (717)  |  Mold (37)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shape (77)

The sun’s rays proceed from the sun along straight lines and are reflected from every polished object at equal angles, i.e. the reflected ray subtends, together with the line tangential to the polished object which is in the plane of the reflected ray, two equal angles. Hence it follows that the ray reflected from the spherical surface, together with the circumference of the circle which is in the plane of the ray, subtends two equal angles. From this it also follows that the reflected ray, together with the diameter of the circle, subtends two equal angles. And every ray which is reflected from a polished object to a point produces a certain heating at that point, so that if numerous rays are collected at one point, the heating at that point is multiplied: and if the number of rays increases, the effect of the heat increases accordingly.
Alhazan
In H.J.J. Winter, 'A Discourse of the Concave Spherical Mirror by Ibn Al-Haitham', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1950, 16, 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Certain (557)  |  Circle (117)  |  Circumference (23)  |  Diameter (28)  |  Effect (414)  |  Eye (440)  |  Follow (389)  |  Heat (180)  |  Increase (225)  |  Light (635)  |  Mirror (43)  |  Number (710)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Object (438)  |  Optics (24)  |  Point (584)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Ray (115)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Sun (407)  |  Surface (223)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)

The world has been centuries in learning to use other metals; in learning to roll, draw, temper and polish them. Aluminum is new. but we are learning how to deal with it, how to secure the qualities of strength, hardness, ductility, lustre, etc., when required, much more rapidly than has occurred in the history of the other metals.
Conclusion of article, Chas. M. Hall, 'The Properties of Aluminum', Western Electrician (30 May 1891), 8, No. 22, 312.
Science quotes on:  |  Aluminum (15)  |  Century (319)  |  Draw (140)  |  Hardness (4)  |  History (716)  |  Learn (672)  |  Metal (88)  |  New (1273)  |  Quality (139)  |  Rapid (37)  |  Roll (41)  |  Strength (139)  |  Temper (12)  |  World (1850)

Your aim is no better than your knowledge of chemistry.
[On being shot at by a Polish student whom Werner had failed in an examination.]
In G. B. Kauffman, Alfred Werner (1966), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Examination (102)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Shooting (6)  |  Student (317)


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.