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 R > Category: Real Life

Real Life Quotes (8 quotes)

Anton Chekhov wrote that ‘one must not put a loaded rifle on stage if no one is thinking of firing it.’ Good drama requires spare and purposive action, sensible linking of potential causes with realized effects. Life is much messier; nothing happens most of the time. Millions of Americans (many hotheaded) own rifles (many loaded), but the great majority, thank God, do not go off most of the time. We spend most of real life waiting for Godot, not charging once more unto the breach.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  American (56)  |  Breach (2)  |  Cause (561)  |  Charge (63)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drama (24)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fire (203)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Happen (282)  |  Life (1870)  |  Link (48)  |  Linking (8)  |  Load (12)  |  Majority (68)  |  Messy (6)  |  Millions (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Potential (75)  |  Realize (157)  |  Require (229)  |  Rifle (3)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Spare (9)  |  Spend (97)  |  Stage (152)  |  Thank (48)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unto (8)  |  Wait (66)  |  Waiting (42)  |  Write (250)

Arithmetic, as we shall see by and by, is overdone, in a certain sense, in our schools; just so far as the teaching is based upon the concrete, so far is it profitable; but when the book-makers begin to make it too abstract, as they very often do, it becomes a torture to both teacher and learners, or, at best, a branch of imaginary knowledge unconnected with real life.
From 'Introduction', Mathematical Teaching and its Modern Methods (1886), 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Arithmetic (144)  |  Base (120)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Best (467)  |  Book (413)  |  Both (496)  |  Branch (155)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Do (1905)  |  Imaginary (16)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learner (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Maker (34)  |  Overdo (2)  |  Profitable (29)  |  School (227)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Torture (30)  |  Unconnected (10)

Chess is not a game. Chess is a well-defined form of computation. You may not be able to work out the answers, but in theory there must be a solution, a right procedure in any position. Now real games are not like that at all. Real life is not like that. Real life consists of bluffing, of little tactics of deception, of asking yourself what is the other man going to think I mean to do.
In Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man (2011), 324. Although printed within single quote marks, these words are presumably not verbatim, but only a narrative recollection of a conversation with the author (during WWII, in a taxi, about von Neumann’s Theory of Games).
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Bluff (3)  |  Chess (27)  |  Computation (28)  |  Consist (223)  |  Deception (9)  |  Define (53)  |  Form (976)  |  Game (104)  |  Position (83)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Right (473)  |  Solution (282)  |  Tactic (9)  |  Theory (1015)

Deductivism in mathematical literature and inductivism in scientific papers are simply the postures we choose to be seen in when the curtain goes up and the public sees us. The theatrical illusion is shattered if we ask what goes on behind the scenes. In real life discovery and justification are almost always different processes.
Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought (1969), 26.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Behind (139)  |  Choice (114)  |  Choose (116)  |  Curtain (4)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Justification (52)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literature (116)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Paper (192)  |  Posture (7)  |  Process (439)  |  Public (100)  |  Publication (102)  |  Scene (36)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Shatter (8)  |  Shattered (8)  |  Theatre (5)

I read … that geometry is the art of making no mistakes in long calculations. I think that this is an underestimation of geometry. Our brain has two halves: one is responsible for the multiplication of polynomials and languages, and the other half is responsible for orientation of figures in space and all the things important in real life. Mathematics is geometry when you have to use both halves.
In S.H. Lui, 'An Interview with Vladimir Arnol’d', Notices of the AMS (Apr 1997) 44, No. 4, 438. Reprinted from the Hong Kong Mathematics Society (Feb 1996).
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Figure (162)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Half (63)  |  Important (229)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Multiplication (46)  |  Orientation (4)  |  Other (2233)  |  Polynomial (2)  |  Read (308)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Space (523)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Two (936)  |  Underestimate (7)  |  Use (771)

Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason ;knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity.
Essay, 'The Study of Mathematics' (1902), collected in Philosophical Essays (1910), 73-74. Also collected in Mysticism and Logic: And Other Essays (1919), 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Barrier (34)  |  Best (467)  |  Compromise (12)  |  Creative (144)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  Perpetual (59)  |  Possible (560)  |  Practical (225)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)  |  Second Best (2)  |  World (1850)

Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
In 'Tips for Teens,' Social Studies (1981), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Assure (16)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Firm (47)  |  Life (1870)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Remain (355)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)

The scientific method is a potentiation of common sense, exercised with a specially firm determination not to persist in error if any exertion of hand or mind can deliver us from it. Like other exploratory processes, it can be resolved into a dialogue between fact and fancy, the actual and the possible; between what could be true and what is in fact the case. The purpose of scientific enquiry is not to compile an inventory of factual information, nor to build up a totalitarian world picture of Natural Laws in which every event that is not compulsory is forbidden. We should think of it rather as a logically articulated structure of justifiable beliefs about nature. It begins as a story about a Possible World—a story which we invent and criticise and modify as we go along, so that it ends by being, as nearly as we can make it, a story about real life.
Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought (1969), 59.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Build (211)  |  Common (447)  |  Common Sense (136)  |  Compulsory (8)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Deliver (30)  |  Determination (80)  |  Dialogue (10)  |  End (603)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Error (339)  |  Event (222)  |  Exertion (17)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fancy (50)  |  Firm (47)  |  Forbidden (18)  |  Information (173)  |  Inventory (7)  |  Justification (52)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Logic (311)  |  Method (531)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Modify (15)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Other (2233)  |  Persist (13)  |  Picture (148)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Resolve (43)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Sense (785)  |  Story (122)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)


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.