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: “Politics is more difficult than physics.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index P > Category: Precept

Precept Quotes (10 quotes)

In primis, hominis est propria VERI inquisitio atque investigato. Itaque cum sumus negotiis necessariis, curisque vacui, tum avemus aliquid videre, audire, ac dicere, cognitionemque rerum, aut occultarum aut admirabilium, ad benè beatéque vivendum necessariam ducimus; —ex quo intelligitur, quod VERUM, simplex, sincerumque sit, id esse naturæ hominis aptissimum. Huic veri videndi cupiditati adjuncta est appetitio quædam principatûs, ut nemini parere animus benè a naturâ informatus velit, nisi præcipienti, aut docenti, aut utilitatis causâ justè et legitimè imperanti: ex quo animi magnitudo existit, et humanarum rerum contemtio.
Before all other things, man is distinguished by his pursuit and investigation of TRUTH. And hence, when free from needful business and cares, we delight to see, to hear, and to communicate, and consider a knowledge of many admirable and abstruse things necessary to the good conduct and happiness of our lives: whence it is clear that whatsoever is TRUE, simple, and direct, the same is most congenial to our nature as men. Closely allied with this earnest longing to see and know the truth, is a kind of dignified and princely sentiment which forbids a mind, naturally well constituted, to submit its faculties to any but those who announce it in precept or in doctrine, or to yield obedience to any orders but such as are at once just, lawful, and founded on utility. From this source spring greatness of mind and contempt of worldly advantages and troubles.
In De Officiis, Book 1. Sect. 13. As given in epigraph to John Frederick William Herschel, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1830), viii.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstruse (12)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Announce (13)  |  Business (156)  |  Care (203)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Congenial (3)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contempt (20)  |  Delight (111)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Direct (228)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Forbid (14)  |  Free (239)  |  Good (906)  |  Greatness (55)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Hear (144)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Longing (19)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Obedience (20)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pursuit (128)  |  See (1094)  |  Simple (426)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Spring (140)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Utility (52)  |  Whatsoever (41)  |  Yield (86)

A Law of Nature, (Lex Naturalis) is a Precept, or generall Rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same; and to omit, that, by which he thinketh it may be best preserved.
In Leviathan (1651), 64. Hobbes is identifying a precept of morality that men should naturally observe, as contrasted with a law set by politics of government.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Destructive (10)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forbid (14)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  General (521)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Omit (12)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rule (307)  |  Same (166)

Chemistry is one of those branches of human knowledge which has built itself upon methods and instruments by which truth can presumably be determined. It has survived and grown because all its precepts and principles can be re-tested at any time and anywhere. So long as it remained the mysterious alchemy by which a few devotees, by devious and dubious means, presumed to change baser metals into gold, it did not flourish, but when it dealt with the fact that 56 g. of fine iron, when heated with 32 g. of flowers of sulfur, generated extra heat and gave exactly 88 g. of an entirely new substance, then additional steps could be taken by anyone. Scientific research in chemistry, since the birth of the balance and the thermometer, has been a steady growth of test and observation. It has disclosed a finite number of elementary reagents composing an infinite universe, and it is devoted to their inter-reaction for the benefit of mankind.
Address upon receiving the Perkin Medal Award, 'The Big Things in Chemistry', The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Feb 1921), 13, No. 2, 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Alchemy (31)  |  Balance (82)  |  Base (120)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Birth (154)  |  Branch (155)  |  Building (158)  |  Change (639)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Determination (80)  |  Devious (2)  |  Devoted (59)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Finite (60)  |  Flourish (34)  |  Flourishing (6)  |  Flower (112)  |  Gold (101)  |  Growth (200)  |  Heat (180)  |  Human (1512)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Inter (12)  |  Iron (99)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Metal (88)  |  Method (531)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Presumption (15)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Reagent (8)  |  Remain (355)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Steady (45)  |  Step (234)  |  Stoichiometry (2)  |  Substance (253)  |  Sulfur (5)  |  Sulphur (19)  |  Survival (105)  |  Test (221)  |  Thermometer (11)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)

Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellences which are put of the reach of the rules of art: a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire.
From 'A Discourse Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of Prizes' (10 Dec 1774), in Seven Discourses Delivered in the Royal Academy (1778), 202-203.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquire (46)  |  Art (680)  |  Excellence (40)  |  Genius (301)  |  Industry (159)  |  Power (771)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rule (307)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)

I have from my childhood, in conformity with the precepts of a mother void of all imaginary fear, been in the constant habit of taking toads in my hand, and applying them to my nose and face as it may happen. My motive for doing this very frequently is to inculcate the opinion I have held, since I was told by my mother, that the toad is actually a harmless animal; and to whose manner of life man is certainly under some obligation as its food is chiefly those insects which devour his crops and annoy him in various ways.
Letter to an unknown correspondent, quoted by Bowdler Sharpe, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1900), Vol. 1, 69. In Averil M. Lysaght, Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766: his Diary, Manuscripts, and Collections (1971), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Annoyance (4)  |  Biography (254)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Childhood (42)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Constant (148)  |  Crop (26)  |  Devour (29)  |  Doing (277)  |  Face (214)  |  Fear (212)  |  Food (213)  |  Habit (174)  |  Happen (282)  |  Harmless (9)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inculcate (7)  |  Insect (89)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mother (116)  |  Motive (62)  |  Nose (14)  |  Obligation (26)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Toad (10)  |  Various (205)  |  Void (31)  |  Way (1214)

Medical precepts in most cases are veritable absurdities.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Absurdity (34)  |  Case (102)  |  Medical (31)  |  Most (1728)  |  Veritable (5)

Nature without learning is a blind thing, and learning without nature is an imperfect thing, and practice without both is an ineffective thing. Just as in farming, first of all the soil must be good, secondly, the husbandman skilful, and thirdly, the seed sound, so, after the same manner, nature is like to the soil, the teacher to the farmer and the verbal counsels precepts like to the seed.
Plutarch
In 'On the Education of Children', Moralia (1927), Vol 3, 9, as translated by Frank Cole Babbitt.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Both (496)  |  Counsel (11)  |  Farmer (35)  |  Farming (8)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Practice (212)  |  Seed (97)  |  Skill (116)  |  Soil (98)  |  Sound (187)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Thing (1914)

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)  |  Person (366)  |  Place (192)  |  Platform (3)  |  Position (83)  |  Receive (117)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Start (237)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Technically (5)  |  Time (1911)  |  Training (92)  |  Unfortunate (19)

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)  |  Person (366)  |  Physician (284)  |  Practice (212)  |  Practitioner (21)  |  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 practice of that which is ethically best—what we call goodness or virtue—involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside, or treading down, all competitors, it requires that the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows… It repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence… Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process.
'Evolution and Ethics' (1893). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 9, 81-2.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Call (781)  |  Competition (45)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Course (413)  |  Demand (131)  |  Direct (228)  |  Down (455)  |  End (603)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Goodness (26)  |  Individual (420)  |  Involve (93)  |  Law (913)  |  Lead (391)  |  Merely (315)  |  Moral (203)  |  Practice (212)  |  Process (439)  |  Repudiate (7)  |  Require (229)  |  Respect (212)  |  Restraint (16)  |  Ruthless (12)  |  Self (268)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Virtue (117)


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.