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: “The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index R > Category: Really

Really Quotes (77 quotes)

... I think the guys who are really controlling their emotions... are going to win; the guy who is controlling his emotions is going to win!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Control (182)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Guy (5)  |  Think (1122)  |  Win (53)

Every teacher certainly should know something of non-euclidean geometry. Thus, it forms one of the few parts of mathematics which, at least in scattered catch-words, is talked about in wide circles, so that any teacher may be asked about it at any moment. … Imagine a teacher of physics who is unable to say anything about Röntgen rays, or about radium. A teacher of mathematics who could give no answer to questions about non-euclidean geometry would not make a better impression.
On the other hand, I should like to advise emphatically against bringing non-euclidean into regular school instruction (i.e., beyond occasional suggestions, upon inquiry by interested pupils), as enthusiasts are always recommending. Let us be satisfied if the preceding advice is followed and if the pupils learn to really understand euclidean geometry. After all, it is in order for the teacher to know a little more than the average pupil.
In George Edward Martin, The Foundations of Geometry and the Non-Euclidean Plane (1982), 72.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Advise (7)  |  Against (332)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Average (89)  |  Better (493)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Bring (95)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Circle (117)  |  Emphatically (8)  |  Enthusiast (9)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Follow (389)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Give (208)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Inquiry (88)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Interest (416)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Least (75)  |  Let (64)  |  Little (717)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  More (2558)  |  Non-Euclidean (7)  |  Occasional (23)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Precede (23)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Question (649)  |  Radium (29)  |  Ray (115)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Regular (48)  |  Wilhelm Röntgen (8)  |  Satisfied (23)  |  Say (989)  |  Scatter (7)  |  School (227)  |  Something (718)  |  Suggestion (49)  |  Talk (108)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Wide (97)  |  Word (650)  |  X-ray (43)

Question: How would you disprove, experimentally, the assertion that white light passing through a piece of coloured glass acquires colour from the glass? What is it that really happens?
Answer: To disprove the assertion (so repeatedly made) that “white light passing through a piece of coloured glass acquires colour from the glass,” I would ask the gentleman to observe that the glass has just as much colour after the light has gone through it as it had before. That is what would really happen.
Genuine student answer* to an Acoustics, Light and Heat paper (1880), Science and Art Department, South Kensington, London, collected by Prof. Oliver Lodge. Quoted in Henry B. Wheatley, Literary Blunders (1893), 178, Question 8. (*From a collection in which Answers are not given verbatim et literatim, and some instances may combine several students' blunders.)
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Ask (420)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Color (155)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Gentleman (26)  |  Glass (94)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Howler (15)  |  Light (635)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Passing (76)  |  Question (649)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Through (846)  |  White (132)  |  White Light (5)

~~[Need source]~~ All theoretical chemistry is really physics; and all theoretical chemists know it.
Webmaster, so far, has been unable to find a primary source that adds the ending clause. (Can you help?) But Feynman certainly several times stated the idea in the opening clause. See, for example, the quote, “The theory of quantum mechanics … supplied the theory behind chemistry. So, fundamental theoretical chemistry is really physics.” on the Richard Feynman Quotes page on this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Chemist (169)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Know (1538)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Theoretical Chemistry (4)

A government, at bottom, is nothing more than a gang of men, and as a practical matter most of them are inferior men ... Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent. Indeed, it would not be far wrong to describe the best as the common enemy of all decent citizens.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Arbitrary (27)  |  Bad (185)  |  Best (467)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Citizen (52)  |  Civilized (20)  |  Common (447)  |  Cruel (25)  |  Decent (12)  |  Describe (132)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Failure (176)  |  Far (158)  |  Gang (4)  |  Good (906)  |  Government (116)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inferior (37)  |  Man (2252)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Practical (225)  |  Tolerable (2)  |  Unintelligent (2)  |  Worst (57)  |  Wrong (246)

Absolute space, that is to say, the mark to which it would be necessary to refer the earth to know whether it really moves, has no objective existence…. The two propositions: “The earth turns round” and “it is more convenient to suppose the earth turns round” have the same meaning; there is nothing more in the one than in the other.
From La Science et l’Hypothèse (1908), 141, as translated by George Bruce Halsted in Science and Hypothesis (1905), 85-86. From the original French, “L’espace absolu, c’est-à-dire le repère auquel il faudrait rapporter la terre pour savoir si réellement elle tourne, n’a aucune existence objective. … Ces deux propositions: ‘la terre tourne’, et: ‘il est plus commode de supposer que la terre tourne’, ont un seul et même sens; il n’y a rien de plus dans l’une que dans l’autre.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Convenience (54)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Existence (481)  |  Know (1538)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Move (223)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Objective (96)  |  Other (2233)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Reference Frame (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Space (523)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)

Anybody who really wants to abolish war must resolutely declare himself in favor of his own country’s committing a portion of its sovereignty in favor of international institutions.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Commit (43)  |  Country (269)  |  Declare (48)  |  Favor (69)  |  Himself (461)  |  Institution (73)  |  International (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Portion (86)  |  Resolutely (3)  |  Sovereignty (6)  |  Want (504)  |  War (233)

Are you aware that humanity is just a blip? Not even a blip. Just a fraction of a fraction of what the universe has been and will become? Talk about perspective. I figure I can’t feel so entirely stupid about saying what I said because, first of all, it’s true. And second of all, there will be no remnant of me or my stupidity. No fossil or geographical shift that can document, really, even the most important historical human beings, let alone my paltry admissions.
In novel, The Rug Merchant (2006), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Admission (17)  |  Alone (324)  |  Aware (36)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blip (2)  |  Document (7)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Feel (371)  |  Figure (162)  |  First (1302)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Geographical (6)  |  Historical (70)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Important (229)  |  Let (64)  |  Most (1728)  |  Paltry (4)  |  Perspective (28)  |  Remnant (7)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Shift (45)  |  Stupid (38)  |  Stupidity (40)  |  Talk (108)  |  True (239)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)

As a nation, we are too young to have true mythic heroes, and we must press real human beings into service. Honest Abe Lincoln the legend is quite a different character from Abraham Lincoln the man. And so should they be. And so should both be treasured, as long as they are distinguished. In a complex and confusing world, the perfect clarity of sports provides a focus for legitimate, utterly unambiguous support or disdain. The Dodgers are evil, the Yankees good. They really are, and have been for as long as anyone in my family can remember.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Complex (202)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Different (595)  |  Disdain (10)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Evil (122)  |  Family (101)  |  Focus (36)  |  Good (906)  |  Hero (45)  |  Honest (53)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Legend (18)  |  Legitimate (26)  |  Abraham Lincoln (13)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nation (208)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Press (21)  |  Provide (79)  |  Real (159)  |  Remember (189)  |  Service (110)  |  Sport (23)  |  Support (151)  |  Treasure (59)  |  True (239)  |  Unambiguous (6)  |  Utterly (15)  |  World (1850)  |  Yankee (2)  |  Young (253)

As we push ever more deeply into the universe, probing its secrets, discovering its way, we must also constantly try to learn to cooperate across the frontiers that really divide earth’s surface.
In 'The President’s News Conference at the LBJ Ranch' (29 Aug 1965). Collected in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson: 1965 (1966), 945.
Science quotes on:  |  Cooperate (4)  |  Discover (571)  |  Divide (77)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Frontier (41)  |  Learn (672)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Probe (12)  |  Push (66)  |  Secret (216)  |  Surface (223)  |  Try (296)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)

Debate is an art form. It is about the winning of arguments. It is not about the discovery of truth. There are certain rules and procedures to debate that really have nothing to do with establishing fact–which creationists have mastered. Some of those rules are: never say anything positive about your own position because it can be attacked, but chip away at what appear to be the weaknesses in your opponent’s position. They are good at that. I don’t think I could beat the creationists at debate. I can tie them. But in courtrooms they are terrible, because in courtrooms you cannot give speeches. In a courtroom you have to answer direct questions about the positive status of your belief. We destroyed them in Arkansas. On the second day of the two-week trial we had our victory party!
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Appear (122)  |  Argument (145)  |  Arkansas (2)  |  Art (680)  |  Attack (86)  |  Beat (42)  |  Belief (615)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chip (4)  |  Creationist (16)  |  Debate (40)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Do (1905)  |  Establish (63)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Give (208)  |  Good (906)  |  Master (182)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Opponent (23)  |  Party (19)  |  Position (83)  |  Positive (98)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Question (649)  |  Rule (307)  |  Say (989)  |  Second (66)  |  Speech (66)  |  Status (35)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Think (1122)  |  Tie (42)  |  Trial (59)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Victory (40)  |  Weakness (50)  |  Week (73)  |  Win (53)  |  Winning (19)

Don’t think of organ donations as giving up part of yourself to keep a total stranger alive. It’s really a total stranger giving up almost all of themselves to keep part of you alive.
Anonymous
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Give (208)  |  Keep (104)  |  Organ (118)  |  Organ Donation (3)  |  Part (235)  |  Strange (160)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Think (1122)  |  Total (95)

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Everything (489)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Great (1610)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Labor (200)

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Far (158)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Persist (13)  |  Reassure (7)  |  Satisfy (29)  |  Universe (900)

Frequently on the lunar surface I said to myself, “This is the Moon, that is the Earth. I’m really here, I’m really here!”
Apollo 12
Science quotes on:  |  Earth (1076)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Lunar (9)  |  Moon (252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Say (989)  |  Surface (223)

Have you ever watched an eagle held captive in a zoo, fat and plump and full of food and safe from danger too?
Then have you seen another wheeling high up in the sky, thin and hard and battle-scarred, but free to soar and fly?
Well, which have you pitied the caged one or his brother? Though safe and warm from foe or storm, the captive, not the other!
There’s something of the eagle in climbers, don’t you see; a secret thing, perhaps the soul, that clamors to be free.
It’s a different sort of freedom from the kind we often mean, not free to work and eat and sleep and live in peace serene.
But freedom like a wild thing to leap and soar and strive, to struggle with the icy blast, to really be alive.
That’s why we climb the mountain’s peak from which the cloud-veils flow, to stand and watch the eagle fly, and soar, and wheel... below...
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Below (26)  |  Blast (13)  |  Brother (47)  |  Cage (12)  |  Captive (2)  |  Climb (39)  |  Climber (7)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Danger (127)  |  Different (595)  |  Eagle (20)  |  Eat (108)  |  Fat (11)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fly (153)  |  Foe (11)  |  Food (213)  |  Free (239)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Full (68)  |  Hard (246)  |  High (370)  |  Hold (96)  |  Icy (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Leap (57)  |  Live (650)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Peace (116)  |  Peak (20)  |  Pity (16)  |  Safe (61)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Serene (5)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Soar (23)  |  Something (718)  |  Sort (50)  |  Soul (235)  |  Stand (284)  |  Storm (56)  |  Strive (53)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Thin (18)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Veil (27)  |  Warm (74)  |  Watch (118)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Wheeling (3)  |  Why (491)  |  Wild (96)  |  Work (1402)  |  Zoo (9)

I am very astonished that the scientific picture of the real world around me is deficient. It gives a lot of factual information, puts all our experience in a magnificently consistent order, but it is ghastly silent about all and sundry that is really near to our heart, that really matters to us. It cannot tell us a word about red and blue, bitter and sweet, physical pain and physical delight; it knows nothing of beautiful and ugly, good or bad, God and eternity. Science sometimes pretends to answer questions in these domains, but the answers are very often so silly that we are not inclined to take them seriously.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonished (10)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Blue (63)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Deficient (3)  |  Delight (111)  |  Domain (72)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Experience (494)  |  Factual (8)  |  Ghastly (5)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Good (906)  |  Heart (243)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Information (173)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lot (151)  |  Magnificently (2)  |  Matter (821)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Pain (144)  |  Physical (518)  |  Picture (148)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Question (649)  |  Real World (15)  |  Red (38)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Silent (31)  |  Silly (17)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sundry (4)  |  Sweet (40)  |  Tell (344)  |  Ugly (14)  |  Word (650)  |  World (1850)

I do not think it is possible really to understand the successes of science without understanding how hard it is—how easy it is to be led astray, how difficult it is to know at any time what is the next thing to be done.
In The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), 132.
Science quotes on:  |  Astray (13)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easy (213)  |  Hard (246)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lead (391)  |  Next (238)  |  Possible (560)  |  Success (327)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

I really enjoy good murder mystery writers, usually women, frequently English, because they have a sense of what the human soul is about and why people do dark and terrible things. I also read quite a lot in the area of particle physics and quantum mechanics, because this is theology. This is about the nature of being. This is what life is all about. I try to read as widely as I possibly can.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Area (33)  |  Being (1276)  |  Dark (145)  |  Do (1905)  |  English (35)  |  Enjoy (48)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lot (151)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Murder (16)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Particle (200)  |  Particle Physics (13)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Mechanics (47)  |  Read (308)  |  Sense (785)  |  Soul (235)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Theology (54)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  Usually (176)  |  Why (491)  |  Widely (9)  |  Woman (160)  |  Writer (90)

I shall devote all my efforts to bring light into the immense obscurity that today reigns in Analysis. It so lacks any plan or system, that one is really astonished that so many people devote themselves to it—and, still worse, it is absolutely devoid of any rigour.
In Oeuvres (1826), Vol. 2, 263. As translated and cited in Ernst Hairer and Gerhard Wanner Analysis by Its History (2008), 188. From the original French, “Je consacrerai toutes mes forces à répandre de la lumière sur l’immense obscurité qui règne aujourd’hui dans l’Analyse. Elle est tellement dépourvue de tout plan et de tout système, qu’on s’étonne seulement qu’il y ait tant de gens qui s’y livrent—et ce qui pis est, elle manque absolument de rigueur.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonished (10)  |  Badly (32)  |  Bring (95)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Devote (45)  |  Effort (243)  |  Immense (89)  |  Lack (127)  |  Light (635)  |  Obscurity (28)  |  People (1031)  |  Plan (122)  |  Reign (24)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Still (614)  |  System (545)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Today (321)

I wrote a fair amount of poetry in college. It was really, really bad. I mean, bad. And that’s how I found out—by doing it.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Amount (153)  |  Bad (185)  |  College (71)  |  Doing (277)  |  Fair (16)  |  Find (1014)  |  Mean (810)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Write (250)

If anyone could prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth.
Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 155
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Christ (17)  |  Exclude (8)  |  Outside (141)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Prove (261)  |  Stay (26)  |  Truth (1109)

If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact or the description of one actual phenomenon to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect, but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through, it is not comprehended in its entireness.
In Walden (1878), 311.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolutely (41)  |  Actual (118)  |  Bored (5)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Concur (2)  |  Confine (26)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Conflicting (13)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Course (413)  |  Description (89)  |  Detect (45)  |  Element (322)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Far (158)  |  Form (976)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Infer (12)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Instance (33)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  More (2558)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Notion (120)  |  Number (710)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Outline (13)  |  Particular (80)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Point (584)  |  Result (700)  |  Seemingly (28)  |  Step (234)  |  Still (614)  |  Through (846)  |  Traveler (33)  |  Vary (27)  |  View (496)  |  Wonderful (155)

If we take quantum theory seriously as a picture of what’s really going on, each measurement does more than disturb: it profoundly reshapes the very fabric of reality.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Disturb (31)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Picture (148)  |  Profoundly (13)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reshape (5)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Theory (1015)

In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognise, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Angry (10)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  God (776)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Mind (1377)  |  People (1031)  |  Quote (46)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Say (989)  |  Support (151)  |  View (496)

It [mathematics] is in the inner world of pure thought, where all entia dwell, where is every type of order and manner of correlation and variety of relationship, it is in this infinite ensemble of eternal verities whence, if there be one cosmos or many of them, each derives its character and mode of being,—it is there that the spirit of mathesis has its home and its life.
Is it a restricted home, a narrow life, static and cold and grey with logic, without artistic interest, devoid of emotion and mood and sentiment? That world, it is true, is not a world of solar light, not clad in the colours that liven and glorify the things of sense, but it is an illuminated world, and over it all and everywhere throughout are hues and tints transcending sense, painted there by radiant pencils of psychic light, the light in which it lies. It is a silent world, and, nevertheless, in respect to the highest principle of art—the interpenetration of content and form, the perfect fusion of mode and meaning—it even surpasses music. In a sense, it is a static world, but so, too, are the worlds of the sculptor and the architect. The figures, however, which reason constructs and the mathematic vision beholds, transcend the temple and the statue, alike in simplicity and in intricacy, in delicacy and in grace, in symmetry and in poise. Not only are this home and this life thus rich in aesthetic interests, really controlled and sustained by motives of a sublimed and supersensuous art, but the religious aspiration, too, finds there, especially in the beautiful doctrine of invariants, the most perfect symbols of what it seeks—the changeless in the midst of change, abiding things hi a world of flux, configurations that remain the same despite the swirl and stress of countless hosts of curious transformations.
In 'The Universe and Beyond', Hibbert Journal (1904-1906), 3, 314.
Science quotes on:  |  Abide (12)  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Alike (60)  |  Architect (32)  |  Art (680)  |  Artistic (24)  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Behold (19)  |  Being (1276)  |  Change (639)  |  Changeless (2)  |  Character (259)  |  Cold (115)  |  Color (155)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Construct (129)  |  Content (75)  |  Control (182)  |  Correlation (19)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Countless (39)  |  Curious (95)  |  Delicacy (8)  |  Derive (70)  |  Despite (7)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Ensemble (8)  |  Especially (31)  |  Eternal (113)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Figure (162)  |  Find (1014)  |  Flux (21)  |  Form (976)  |  Fusion (16)  |  Glorify (6)  |  Grace (31)  |  Grey (10)  |  High (370)  |  Home (184)  |  Host (16)  |  Hue (3)  |  Illuminate (26)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interest (416)  |  Intricacy (8)  |  Invariant (10)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Logic (311)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Midst (8)  |  Mode (43)  |  Mood (15)  |  Most (1728)  |  Motive (62)  |  Music (133)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Order (638)  |  Paint (22)  |  Pencil (20)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Poise (4)  |  Principle (530)  |  Psychic (15)  |  Pure (299)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Religious (134)  |  Remain (355)  |  Respect (212)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Rich (66)  |  Same (166)  |  Sculptor (10)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sensuous (5)  |  Sentiment (16)  |  Silent (31)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Solar (8)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Static (9)  |  Statue (17)  |  Stress (22)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Sustain (52)  |  Swirl (10)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Temple (45)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Tint (3)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Transformation (72)  |  True (239)  |  Type (171)  |  Variety (138)  |  Verity (5)  |  Vision (127)  |  World (1850)

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
In Through the Magic Door (1908), Chap. 2, 24.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Good (906)  |  Great (1610)  |  Life (1870)  |  Number (710)  |  Small (489)  |  Start (237)  |  Thing (1914)

It is above all the duty of the methodical text-book to adapt itself to the pupil’s power of comprehension, only challenging his higher efforts with the increasing development of his imagination, his logical power and the ability of abstraction. This indeed constitutes a test of the art of teaching, it is here where pedagogic tact becomes manifest. In reference to the axioms, caution is necessary. It should be pointed out comparatively early, in how far the mathematical body differs from the material body. Furthermore, since mathematical bodies are really portions of space, this space is to be conceived as mathematical space and to be clearly distinguished from real or physical space. Gradually the student will become conscious that the portion of the real space which lies beyond the visible stellar universe is not cognizable through the senses, that we know nothing of its properties and consequently have no basis for judgments concerning it. Mathematical space, on the other hand, may be subjected to conditions, for instance, we may condition its properties at infinity, and these conditions constitute the axioms, say the Euclidean axioms. But every student will require years before the conviction of the truth of this last statement will force itself upon him.
In Methodisches Lehrbuch der Elementar-Mathemalik (1904), Teil I, Vorwort, 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Abstraction (48)  |  Adapt (70)  |  Art (680)  |  Axiom (65)  |  Basis (180)  |  Become (821)  |  Beyond (316)  |  Body (557)  |  Book (413)  |  Caution (24)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Comparatively (8)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Concern (239)  |  Condition (362)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consequently (5)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Development (441)  |  Differ (88)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Duty (71)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  Euclidean (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Force (497)  |  Furthermore (2)  |  Gradually (102)  |  High (370)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Increase (225)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Infinity (96)  |  Instance (33)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Lie (370)  |  Logical (57)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Material (366)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Methodical (8)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pedagogy (2)  |  Physical (518)  |  Point (584)  |  Portion (86)  |  Power (771)  |  Property (177)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Real (159)  |  Reference (33)  |  Require (229)  |  Say (989)  |  Sense (785)  |  Space (523)  |  Statement (148)  |  Stellar (4)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Tact (8)  |  Teach (299)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teaching of Mathematics (39)  |  Test (221)  |  Text-Book (5)  |  Through (846)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Universe (900)  |  Visible (87)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

It is one of the little ironies of our times that while the layman was being indoctrinated with the stereotype image of black holes as the ultimate cookie monsters, the professionals have been swinging round to the almost directly opposing view that black holes, like growing old, are really not so bad when you consider the alternative.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alternative (32)  |  Bad (185)  |  Being (1276)  |  Black Hole (17)  |  Black Holes (4)  |  Consider (428)  |  Cookie (2)  |  Directly (25)  |  Grow (247)  |  Growing (99)  |  Image (97)  |  Irony (9)  |  Layman (21)  |  Little (717)  |  Monster (33)  |  Old (499)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Professional (77)  |  Round (26)  |  Stereotype (4)  |  Swing (12)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  View (496)

It is this mythical, or rather this symbolic, content of the religious traditions which is likely to come into conflict with science. This occurs whenever this religious stock of ideas contains dogmatically fixed statements on subjects which be long in the domain of science. Thus, it is of vital importance for the preservation of true religion that such conflicts be avoided when they arise from subjects which, in fact, are not really essential for the pursuance of the religious aims.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Arise (162)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Contain (68)  |  Content (75)  |  Domain (72)  |  Essential (210)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fix (34)  |  Idea (881)  |  Importance (299)  |  Likely (36)  |  Long (778)  |  Mythical (3)  |  Occur (151)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Statement (148)  |  Stock (7)  |  Subject (543)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Tradition (76)  |  True (239)  |  Vital (89)  |  Whenever (81)

It seems plain and self-evident, yet it needs to be said: the isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever, but only in its synthesis with all the rest of knowledge and only inasmuch as it really contributes in this synthesis toward answering the demand, ‘Who are we?’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Demand (131)  |  Evident (92)  |  Field (378)  |  Group (83)  |  Inasmuch (5)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Need (320)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Plain (34)  |  Rest (287)  |  Say (989)  |  Seem (150)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Evident (22)  |  Specialist (33)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Toward (45)  |  Value (393)  |  Whatsoever (41)

It seems to me that the older subjects, classics and mathematics, are strongly to be recommended on the ground of the accuracy with which we can compare the relative performance of the students. In fact the definiteness of these subjects is obvious, and is commonly admitted. There is however another advantage, which I think belongs in general to these subjects, that the examinations can be brought to bear on what is really most valuable in these subjects.
In Conflict of Studies and other Essays (1873), 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Admit (49)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Bear (162)  |  Belong (168)  |  Bring (95)  |  Classic (13)  |  Commonly (9)  |  Compare (76)  |  Definiteness (3)  |  Examination (102)  |  Fact (1257)  |  General (521)  |  Ground (222)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Old (499)  |  Performance (51)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Relative (42)  |  Seem (150)  |  Strongly (9)  |  Student (317)  |  Subject (543)  |  Think (1122)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)

It sometimes strikes me that the whole of science is a piece of impudence; that nature can afford to ignore our impertinent interference. If our monkey mischief should ever reach the point of blowing up the earth by decomposing an atom, and even annihilated the sun himself, I cannot really suppose that the universe would turn a hair.
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ch. 14 (1929, rev 1970).
Science quotes on:  |  Afford (19)  |  Annihilate (10)  |  Atom (381)  |  Blow (45)  |  Blowing (22)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Hair (25)  |  Himself (461)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Impertinent (5)  |  Interference (22)  |  Mischief (13)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Piece (39)  |  Point (584)  |  Reach (286)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Strike (72)  |  Sun (407)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)

It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it’s an imperative.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Choice (114)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Imperative (16)  |  Nature (2017)  |  See (1094)  |  Stretch (39)  |  Understand (648)

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ambition (46)  |  Become (821)  |  Belittle (2)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feel (371)  |  Great (1610)  |  Keep (104)  |  People (1031)  |  Small (489)  |  Try (296)

Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs, the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
From an interview published in a Serbian electrical engineering magazine by Dragislav L. Petković, 'A Visit to Nikola Tesla', Politika (Apr 1927). This quote needs context. In Margaret Cheney, Robert Uth and Jim Glenn, Tesla, Master of Lightning (1999), 73, it is explained that Tesla’s remark followed expressing concern about having to contest his patents being used by others. (These included a Tesla radio patent ignored by Marconi.) The second sentence is often seen as a quote by itself, even more lacking in context, “The present is theirs, the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Mine (78)  |  Present (630)  |  Theirs (3)  |  Work (1402)

Mathematics accomplishes really nothing outside of the realm of magnitude; marvellous, however, is the skill with which it masters magnitude wherever it finds it. We recall at once the network of lines which it has spun about heavens and earth; the system of lines to which azimuth and altitude, declination and right ascension, longitude and latitude are referred; those abscissas and ordinates, tangents and normals, circles of curvature and evolutes; those trigonometric and logarithmic functions which have been prepared in advance and await application. A look at this apparatus is sufficient to show that mathematicians are not magicians, but that everything is accomplished by natural means; one is rather impressed by the multitude of skilful machines, numerous witnesses of a manifold and intensely active industry, admirably fitted for the acquisition of true and lasting treasures.
In Werke [Kehrbach] (1890), Bd. 5, 101. As quoted, cited and translated in Robert Édouard Moritz, Memorabilia Mathematica; Or, The Philomath’s Quotation-Book (1914), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Accomplishment (102)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Active (80)  |  Admirably (3)  |  Advance (298)  |  Altitude (5)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Application (257)  |  Ascension (4)  |  Await (6)  |  Circle (117)  |  Curvature (8)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Everything (489)  |  Evolute (2)  |  Find (1014)  |  Fit (139)  |  Function (235)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Industry (159)  |  Intense (22)  |  Latitude (6)  |  Line (100)  |  Logarithmic (5)  |  Longitude (8)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Magician (15)  |  Magnitude (88)  |  Manifold (23)  |  Marvellous (25)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Multitude (50)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Network (21)  |  Normal (29)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Outside (141)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recall (11)  |  Refer (14)  |  Right (473)  |  Show (353)  |  Skill (116)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Spin (26)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  System (545)  |  Tangent (6)  |  Treasure (59)  |  Trigonometry (7)  |  True (239)  |  Wherever (51)  |  Witness (57)

Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All science is. Scientists want to show that things that don’t look alike are really the same. That is one of their innermost Freudian motivations. In fact, that is what we mean by understanding.
In 'A Mathematician's Gossip', Indiscrete Thoughts (2008), 214.
Science quotes on:  |  Alike (60)  |  Analogy (76)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Innermost (3)  |  Look (584)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Same (166)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Show (353)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Want (504)

Microsoft isn’t evil, they just make really crappy operating systems.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Evil (122)  |  Microsoft (2)  |  Operate (19)  |  System (545)

Mssr. Fermat—what have you done?
Your simple conjecture has everyone
Churning out proofs,
Which are nothing but goofs!
Could it be that your statement’s an erudite spoof?
A marginal hoax
That you’ve played on us folks?
But then you’re really not known for your practical jokes.
Or is it then true
That you knew what to do
When n was an integer greater than two?
Oh then why can’t we find
That same proof…are we blind?
You must be reproved, for I’m losing my mind.
In 'Fermat's Last Theorem', Mathematics Magazine (Apr 1986), 59, No. 2, 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Blind (98)  |  Churn (4)  |  Conjecture (51)  |  Do (1905)  |  Erudite (2)  |  Fermat�s Last Theorem (3)  |  Pierre de Fermat (15)  |  Find (1014)  |  Folk (10)  |  Goof (2)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hoax (6)  |  Integer (12)  |  Joke (90)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Lose (165)  |  Marginal (3)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Parody (4)  |  Play (116)  |  Practical (225)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reprove (2)  |  Simple (426)  |  Statement (148)  |  True (239)  |  Two (936)  |  Why (491)

My mother, my dad and I left Cuba when I was two [January, 1959]. Castro had taken control by then, and life for many ordinary people had become very difficult. My dad had worked [as a personal bodyguard for the wife of Cuban president Batista], so he was a marked man. We moved to Miami, which is about as close to Cuba as you can get without being there. It’s a Cuba-centric society. I think a lot of Cubans moved to the US thinking everything would be perfect. Personally, I have to say that those early years were not particularly happy. A lot of people didn’t want us around, and I can remember seeing signs that said: “No children. No pets. No Cubans.” Things were not made easier by the fact that Dad had begun working for the US government. At the time he couldn’t really tell us what he was doing, because it was some sort of top-secret operation. He just said he wanted to fight against what was happening back at home. [Estefan’s father was one of the many Cuban exiles taking part in the ill-fated, anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow dictator Fidel Castro.] One night, Dad disappeared. I think he was so worried about telling my mother he was going that he just left her a note. There were rumors something was happening back home, but we didn’t really know where Dad had gone. It was a scary time for many Cubans. A lot of men were involved—lots of families were left without sons and fathers. By the time we found out what my dad had been doing, the attempted coup had taken place, on April 17, 1961. Initially he’d been training in Central America, but after the coup attempt he was captured and spent the next two years as a political prisoner in Cuba. That was probably the worst time for my mother and me. Not knowing what was going to happen to Dad. I was only a kid, but I had worked out where my dad was. My mother was trying to keep it a secret, so she used to tell me Dad was on a farm. Of course, I thought that she didn’t know what had really happened to him, so I used to keep up the pretense that Dad really was working on a farm. We used to do this whole pretending thing every day, trying to protect each other. Those two years had a terrible effect on my mother. She was very nervous, just going from church to church. Always carrying her rosary beads, praying her little heart out. She had her religion, and I had my music. Music was in our family. My mother was a singer, and on my father’s side there was a violinist and a pianist. My grandmother was a poet.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  America (143)  |  April (9)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Back (395)  |  Bad (185)  |  Bay Of Pigs (2)  |  Become (821)  |  Begin (275)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capture (11)  |  Carry (130)  |  Fidel Castro (3)  |  Central (81)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Church (64)  |  Close (77)  |  Control (182)  |  Coup (2)  |  Course (413)  |  Cuba (2)  |  Dad (4)  |  Dictator (3)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Early (196)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  Effect (414)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exile (6)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Family (101)  |  Farm (28)  |  Father (113)  |  Fight (49)  |  Find (1014)  |  Government (116)  |  Grandmother (4)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happened (88)  |  Happening (59)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heart (243)  |  Home (184)  |  Invasion (9)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Keep (104)  |  Kid (18)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowing (137)  |  Leave (138)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Lot (151)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mark (47)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mother (116)  |  Move (223)  |  Music (133)  |  Nervous (7)  |  Next (238)  |  Night (133)  |  Note (39)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Operation (221)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Other (2233)  |  Overthrow (5)  |  Part (235)  |  Particularly (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Personal (75)  |  Personally (7)  |  Pet (10)  |  Pianist (2)  |  Place (192)  |  Poet (97)  |  Political (124)  |  Pray (19)  |  President (36)  |  Pretence (7)  |  Pretend (18)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Probably (50)  |  Protect (65)  |  Religion (369)  |  Remember (189)  |  Rumour (2)  |  Say (989)  |  Scary (3)  |  Secret (216)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Side (236)  |  Sign (63)  |  Society (350)  |  Something (718)  |  Son (25)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Tell (344)  |  Terrible (41)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Top (100)  |  Training (92)  |  Try (296)  |  Trying (144)  |  Two (936)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wife (41)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worry (34)  |  Worst (57)  |  Year (963)

On principle, there is nothing new in the postulate that in the end exact science should aim at nothing more than the description of what can really be observed. The question is only whether from now on we shall have to refrain from tying description to a clear hypothesis about the real nature of the world. There are many who wish to pronounce such abdication even today. But I believe that this means making things a little too easy for oneself.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Belief (615)  |  Clear (111)  |  Description (89)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Exact Science (11)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Little (717)  |  Making (300)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Postulate (42)  |  Principle (530)  |  Pronounce (11)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  Refrain (9)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tie (42)  |  Today (321)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

Only the mathematically minded can really teach mathematics; and it takes a great deal of mathematics to teach any mathematics well.
In A Preface to Mathematics (1938), 75.
Science quotes on:  |  Deal (192)  |  Great (1610)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Teach (299)

Perhaps randomness is not merely an adequate description for complex causes that we cannot specify. Perhaps the world really works this way, and many events are uncaused in any conventional sense of the word. Perhaps our gut feeling that it cannot be so reflects only our hopes and prejudices, our desperate striving to make sense of a complex and confusing world, and not the ways of nature.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complex (202)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Description (89)  |  Desperate (5)  |  Event (222)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Gut Feeling (2)  |  Hope (321)  |  Merely (315)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Randomness (5)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sense Of The Word (6)  |  Specify (6)  |  Strive (53)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

Revere those things beyond science which really matter and about which it is so difficult to speak.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Matter (821)  |  Revere (2)  |  Speak (240)  |  Thing (1914)

Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can’t talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.
'How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later,' introduction, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1986).
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Dreadful (16)  |  Fiction (23)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Say (989)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Sorry (31)  |  Talk (108)  |  Usually (176)  |  Writer (90)

Science is really in the business of disproving current models or changing them to conform to new information. In essence, we are constantly proving our latest ideas wrong.
John Mitchinson and John Lloyd, If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People?: Smart Quotes for Dumb Times (2009), 274.
Science quotes on:  |  Business (156)  |  Change (639)  |  Conform (15)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Current (122)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Essence (85)  |  Idea (881)  |  Information (173)  |  Late (119)  |  Model (106)  |  New (1273)  |  Prove (261)  |  Wrong (246)

Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production of objective fact.
In Minority Report: H. L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956, 2006), 277.
Science quotes on:  |  Anti-Intellectual (2)  |  Bottom (36)  |  Demand (131)  |  Distrust (11)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Objective (96)  |  Production (190)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reason (766)

Taking … the mathematical faculty, probably fewer than one in a hundred really possess it, the great bulk of the population having no natural ability for the study, or feeling the slightest interest in it*. And if we attempt to measure the amount of variation in the faculty itself between a first-class mathematician and the ordinary run of people who find any kind of calculation confusing and altogether devoid of interest, it is probable that the former could not be estimated at less than a hundred times the latter, and perhaps a thousand times would more nearly measure the difference between them.
[* This is the estimate furnished me by two mathematical masters in one of our great public schools of the proportion of boys who have any special taste or capacity for mathematical studies. Many more, of course, can be drilled into a fair knowledge of elementary mathematics, but only this small proportion possess the natural faculty which renders it possible for them ever to rank high as mathematicians, to take any pleasure in it, or to do any original mathematical work.]
In Darwinism, chap. 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Altogether (9)  |  Amount (153)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Boy (100)  |  Bulk (24)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Class (168)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Course (413)  |  Devoid (12)  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Drill (12)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Fair (16)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fewer (11)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  First-Class (2)  |  Former (138)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Great (1610)  |  High (370)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Interest (416)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Latter (21)  |  Less (105)  |  Master (182)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Original (61)  |  People (1031)  |  Pleasure (191)  |  Population (115)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possible (560)  |  Probable (24)  |  Probably (50)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Public School (4)  |  Rank (69)  |  Render (96)  |  Run (158)  |  School (227)  |  Slight (32)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Study (701)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Variation (93)  |  Work (1402)

The actual evolution of mathematical theories proceeds by a process of induction strictly analogous to the method of induction employed in building up the physical sciences; observation, comparison, classification, trial, and generalisation are essential in both cases. Not only are special results, obtained independently of one another, frequently seen to be really included in some generalisation, but branches of the subject which have been developed quite independently of one another are sometimes found to have connections which enable them to be synthesised in one single body of doctrine. The essential nature of mathematical thought manifests itself in the discernment of fundamental identity in the mathematical aspects of what are superficially very different domains. A striking example of this species of immanent identity of mathematical form was exhibited by the discovery of that distinguished mathematician … Major MacMahon, that all possible Latin squares are capable of enumeration by the consideration of certain differential operators. Here we have a case in which an enumeration, which appears to be not amenable to direct treatment, can actually be carried out in a simple manner when the underlying identity of the operation is recognised with that involved in certain operations due to differential operators, the calculus of which belongs superficially to a wholly different region of thought from that relating to Latin squares.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 290.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Actually (27)  |  Amenable (4)  |  Analogous (7)  |  Appear (122)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Belong (168)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Branch (155)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Capable (174)  |  Carry (130)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Classification (102)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Develop (278)  |  Different (595)  |  Differential (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discernment (4)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Doctrine (81)  |  Domain (72)  |  Due (143)  |  Employ (115)  |  Enable (122)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Example (98)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  Frequent (26)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Generalization (61)  |  Identity (19)  |  Include (93)  |  Independent (74)  |  Independently (24)  |  Induction (81)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Latin (44)  |  Percy Alexander MacMahon (3)  |  Major (88)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Manner (62)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Operator (4)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Process (439)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Region (40)  |  Relate (26)  |  Result (700)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Special (188)  |  Species (435)  |  Square (73)  |  Strictly (13)  |  Strike (72)  |  Striking (48)  |  Subject (543)  |  Superficial (12)  |  Synthesis (58)  |  Synthesize (3)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Treatment (135)  |  Trial (59)  |  Underlying (33)  |  Wholly (88)

The Internet’s been so great, and it’s so nice to have fans do nice, elaborate websites, but I think the downside is some of the things... for real fans to go on and see that 90 percent of the information isn’t true or to see pictures that aren’t really me, or for them to be able to sell these things, that’s one of the downsides, I think.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Arent (6)  |  Do (1905)  |  Downside (2)  |  Elaborate (31)  |  Fan (3)  |  Great (1610)  |  Information (173)  |  Internet (24)  |  Nice (15)  |  Percent (5)  |  Picture (148)  |  Real (159)  |  See (1094)  |  Sell (15)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  True (239)

The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events–provided, of course, that he takes the hypothesis of causality really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man’s actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God’s eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it undergoes. Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.
From 'Religion And Science', as collected in Ideas And Opinions (1954), 39, given its source as: “Written expressly for the New York Times Magazine. Appeared there November 9, 1930 (pp. 1-4). The German text was published in the Berliner Tageblatt, November 11, 1930.” The NYT Magazine article in full, is reprinted in Edward H. Cotton (ed.), Has Science Discovered God? A Symposium of Modern Scientific Opinion (1931), 101. This original version directly from the magazine has significantly different wording, beginning, “For anyone who is pervaded with the sense of causal law….” See this alternate form on the Albert Einstein Quotes page on this website. As for why the difference, Webmaster speculates the book form editor perhaps used a revised translation from Einstein’s German article.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Base (120)  |  Basis (180)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Being (1276)  |  Causality (11)  |  Causation (14)  |  Charge (63)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Course (413)  |  Death (406)  |  Determine (152)  |  Education (423)  |  Effectually (2)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Equally (129)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Event (222)  |  External (62)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  God (776)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Internal (69)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Causation (2)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moment (260)  |  Moral (203)  |  Morality (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Need (320)  |  Object (438)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Operation (221)  |  Poor (139)  |  Provide (79)  |  Punish (8)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Restrain (6)  |  Reward (72)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Simple (426)  |  Social (261)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Tie (42)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Undermine (6)  |  Universal (198)  |  Unjust (6)  |  Use (771)  |  Way (1214)

The mathematician requires tact and good taste at every step of his work, and he has to learn to trust to his own instinct to distinguish between what is really worthy of his efforts and what is not; he must take care not to be the slave of his symbols, but always to have before his mind the realities which they merely serve to express. For these and other reasons it seems to me of the highest importance that a mathematician should be trained in no narrow school; a wide course of reading in the first few years of his mathematical study cannot fail to influence for good the character of the whole of his subsequent work.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, (1890), Nature, 42, 467.
Science quotes on:  |  Care (203)  |  Character (259)  |  Course (413)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Effort (243)  |  Express (192)  |  Fail (191)  |  First (1302)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Importance (299)  |  Influence (231)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Must (1525)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Other (2233)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Require (229)  |  School (227)  |  Seem (150)  |  Serve (64)  |  Slave (40)  |  Step (234)  |  Study (701)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Subsequent (34)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tact (8)  |  Taste (93)  |  Train (118)  |  Trust (72)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wide (97)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

The mathematician requires tact and good taste at every step of his work, and he has to learn to trust to his own instinct to distinguish between what is really worthy of his efforts and what is not.
In Presidential Address to the 60th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A (Sep 1890), published in Report of the Annual Meeting (1891), 60, 725.
Science quotes on:  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Effort (243)  |  Good (906)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Learn (672)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Require (229)  |  Step (234)  |  Tact (8)  |  Taste (93)  |  Trust (72)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)

The one lesson that comes out of all our theorizing and experimenting is that there is only one really scientific progressive method; and that is the method of trial and error.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Error (339)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Method (531)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Trial (59)  |  Trial And Error (5)

The physicists say that I am a mathematician, and the mathematicians say that I am a physicist. I am a completely isolated man and though everybody knows me, there are very few people who really know me.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Completely (137)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Know (1538)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  People (1031)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Say (989)

The really valuable factor is intuition!
In Alexander Moszkowski, Gesprächen mit Einstein (1921), translated in Conversations with Einstein 96.
Science quotes on:  |  Factor (47)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Value (393)

The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the State but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Create (245)  |  Creative (144)  |  Dull (58)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Herd (17)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Individual (420)  |  Life (1870)  |  Noble (93)  |  Pageant (3)  |  Personality (66)  |  Remain (355)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sentient (8)  |  State (505)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Value (393)

The student of mathematics often finds it hard to throw off the uncomfortable feeling that his science, in the person of his pencil, surpasses him in intelligence,—an impression which the great Euler confessed he often could not get rid of. This feeling finds a sort of justification when we reflect that the majority of the ideas we deal with were conceived by others, often centuries ago. In a great measure it is really the intelligence of other people that confronts us in science.
In Popular Scientific Lectures (1910), 196.
Science quotes on:  |  Century (319)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Confess (42)  |  Confront (18)  |  Deal (192)  |  Leonhard Euler (35)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Get Rid (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hard (246)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impression (118)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Justification (52)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Often (109)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pencil (20)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Reflect (39)  |  Sort (50)  |  Student (317)  |  Study And Research In Mathematics (61)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Throw (45)  |  Uncomfortable (7)

The view of the moon that we’ve been having recently is really spectacular. It fills about three-quarters of the hatch window, and of course we can see the entire circumference even though part of it is in complete shadow and part of it is in earthshine. It’s a view worth the price of the trip.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Circumference (23)  |  Complete (209)  |  Course (413)  |  Entire (50)  |  Fill (67)  |  Hatch (4)  |  Moon (252)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Part (235)  |  Price (57)  |  Recently (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Spectacular (22)  |  Three-Quarters (3)  |  Trip (11)  |  View (496)  |  Window (59)  |  Worth (172)

The views of the Earth are really beautiful. If you’ve ever seen a space IMAX movie, that’s really what it looks like. I wish I’d had more time just to sit and look out the window with a map, but our science program kept us very busy in the lab most of the time.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Busy (32)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Keep (104)  |  Look (584)  |  Map (50)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Movie (21)  |  Program (57)  |  See (1094)  |  Sit (51)  |  Space (523)  |  Time (1911)  |  View (496)  |  Window (59)  |  Wish (216)

There is something sublime in the secrecy in which the really great deeds of the mathematician are done. No popular applause follows the act; neither contemporary nor succeeding generations of the people understand it. The geometer must be tried by his peers, and those who truly deserve the title of geometer or analyst have usually been unable to find so many as twelve living peers to form a jury. Archimedes so far outstripped his competitors in the race, that more than a thousand years elapsed before any man appeared, able to sit in judgment on his work, and to say how far he had really gone. And in judging of those men whose names are worthy of being mentioned in connection with his,—Galileo, Descartes, Leibnitz, Newton, and the mathematicians created by Leibnitz and Newton’s calculus,—we are forced to depend upon their testimony of one another. They are too far above our reach for us to judge of them.
In 'Imagination in Mathematics', North American Review, 86, 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Analyst (8)  |  Appear (122)  |  Applause (9)  |  Archimedes (63)  |  Being (1276)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Competitor (4)  |  Connection (171)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Create (245)  |  Deed (34)  |  Depend (238)  |  René Descartes (83)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Elapse (3)  |  Far (158)  |  Find (1014)  |  Follow (389)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Generation (256)  |  Geometer (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Jury (3)  |  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (51)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mention (84)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Name (359)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Outstrip (4)  |  Peer (13)  |  People (1031)  |  Popular (34)  |  Race (278)  |  Reach (286)  |  Say (989)  |  Secrecy (2)  |  Sit (51)  |  Something (718)  |  Sublime (50)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Succeeding (14)  |  Testimony (21)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Title (20)  |  Truly (118)  |  Try (296)  |  Unable (25)  |  Understand (648)  |  Usually (176)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worthy (35)  |  Year (963)

This is really the cornerstone of our situation. Now, I believe what we should try to bring about is the general conviction that the first thing you have to abolish is war at all costs, and every other point of view must be of secondary importance.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bring (95)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cornerstone (8)  |  Cost (94)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Importance (299)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Situation (117)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)

This theme of mutually invisible life at widely differing scales bears an important implication for the ‘culture wars’ that supposedly now envelop our universities and our intellectual discourse in general ... One side of this false dichotomy features the postmodern relativists who argue that all culturally bound modes of perception must be equally valid, and that no factual truth therefore exists. The other side includes the benighted, old-fashioned realists who insist that flies truly have two wings, and that Shakespeare really did mean what he thought he was saying. The principle of scaling provides a resolution for the false parts of this silly dichotomy. Facts are facts and cannot be denied by any rational being. (Often, facts are also not at all easy to determine or specify–but this question raises different issues for another time.) Facts, however, may also be highly scale dependent–and the perceptions of one world may have no validity or expression in the domain of another. The one-page map of Maine cannot recognize the separate boulders of Acadia, but both provide equally valid representations of a factual coastline.
The World as I See It (1999)
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Benighted (2)  |  Bind (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Boulder (8)  |  Bound (120)  |  Coastline (2)  |  Culturally (2)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deny (71)  |  Dependent (26)  |  Determine (152)  |  Dichotomy (4)  |  Differ (88)  |  Different (595)  |  Discourse (19)  |  Domain (72)  |  Easy (213)  |  Envelop (5)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exist (458)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Factual (8)  |  False (105)  |  Feature (49)  |  Fly (153)  |  General (521)  |  Highly (16)  |  Implication (25)  |  Important (229)  |  Include (93)  |  Insist (22)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Issue (46)  |  Life (1870)  |  Map (50)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mode (43)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutually (7)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Old-Fashioned (9)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Perception (97)  |  Principle (530)  |  Provide (79)  |  Question (649)  |  Raise (38)  |  Rational (95)  |  Realist (3)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Relativist (2)  |  Representation (55)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Say (989)  |  Scale (122)  |  Separate (151)  |  Shakespeare (6)  |  Side (236)  |  Silly (17)  |  Specify (6)  |  Supposedly (2)  |  Theme (17)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truly (118)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  University (130)  |  Valid (12)  |  Validity (50)  |  War (233)  |  Widely (9)  |  Wing (79)  |  World (1850)

To ask what qualities distinguish good from routine scientific research is to address a question that should be of central concern to every scientist. We can make the question more tractable by rephrasing it, “What attributes are shared by the scientific works which have contributed importantly to our understanding of the physical world—in this case the world of living things?” Two of the most widely accepted characteristics of good scientific work are generality of application and originality of conception. . These qualities are easy to point out in the works of others and, of course extremely difficult to achieve in one’s own research. At first hearing novelty and generality appear to be mutually exclusive, but they really are not. They just have different frames of reference. Novelty has a human frame of reference; generality has a biological frame of reference. Consider, for example, Darwinian Natural Selection. It offers a mechanism so widely applicable as to be almost coexistent with reproduction, so universal as to be almost axiomatic, and so innovative that it shook, and continues to shake, man’s perception of causality.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 230.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Achieve (75)  |  Address (13)  |  Appear (122)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (257)  |  Ask (420)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Axiomatic (2)  |  Biological (137)  |  Case (102)  |  Causality (11)  |  Central (81)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Conception (160)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consider (428)  |  Continue (179)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Course (413)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Easy (213)  |  Example (98)  |  Exclusive (29)  |  Extremely (17)  |  First (1302)  |  Frame (26)  |  Frame of Reference (5)  |  Generality (45)  |  Good (906)  |  Hear (144)  |  Hearing (50)  |  Human (1512)  |  Importantly (3)  |  Innovative (3)  |  Living (492)  |  Living Things (8)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mutually (7)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Of Course (22)  |  Offer (142)  |  Originality (21)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perception (97)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical World (30)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Out (9)  |  Quality (139)  |  Question (649)  |  Reference (33)  |  Rephrase (2)  |  Rephrasing (2)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Research (753)  |  Routine (26)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Selection (130)  |  Shake (43)  |  Share (82)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)  |  Widely (9)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

To most ... of us, Russia was as mysterious and remote as the other side of the moon and not much more productive when it came to really new ideas or inventions. A common joke of the time [mid 1940s] said that the Russians could not surreptitiously introduce nuclear bombs in suitcases into the United States because they had not yet been able to perfect a suitcase.
In Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986), 760.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Common (447)  |  Idea (881)  |  Introduce (63)  |  Introduction (37)  |  Invention (400)  |  Joke (90)  |  Moon (252)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Bomb (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Perfection (131)  |  Production (190)  |  Productive (37)  |  Remote (86)  |  Russia (14)  |  Side (236)  |  State (505)  |  Suitcase (3)  |  Surreptitious (2)  |  Time (1911)  |  United States (31)

To say that mind is a product or function of protoplasm, or of its molecular changes, is to use words to which we can attach no clear conception. You cannot have, in the whole, what does not exist in any of the parts; and those who argue thus should put forth a definite conception of matter, with clearly enunciated properties, and show, that the necessary result of a certain complex arrangement of the elements or atoms of that matter, will be the production of self-consciousness. There is no escape from this dilemma—either all matter is conscious, or consciousness is something distinct from matter, and in the latter case, its presence in material forms is a proof of the existence of conscious beings, outside of, and independent of, what we term matter. The foregoing considerations lead us to the very important conclusion, that matter is essentially force, and nothing but force; that matter, as popularly understood, does not exist, and is, in fact, philosophically inconceivable. When we touch matter, we only really experience sensations of resistance, implying repulsive force; and no other sense can give us such apparently solid proofs of the reality of matter, as touch does. This conclusion, if kept constantly present in the mind, will be found to have a most important bearing on almost every high scientific and philosophical problem, and especially on such as relate to our own conscious existence.
In 'The Limits of Natural Selection as Applied to Man', last chapter of Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), 365-366.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparently (22)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Atom (381)  |  Attach (57)  |  Bearing (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Change (639)  |  Clear (111)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Complex (202)  |  Conception (160)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Definite (114)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Element (322)  |  Escape (85)  |  Especially (31)  |  Essentially (15)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Force (497)  |  Foregoing (3)  |  Form (976)  |  Forth (14)  |  Found (11)  |  Function (235)  |  Give (208)  |  High (370)  |  Important (229)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Independent (74)  |  Latter (21)  |  Lead (391)  |  Material (366)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Molecular (7)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Part (235)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Presence (63)  |  Present (630)  |  Problem (731)  |  Product (166)  |  Production (190)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relate (26)  |  Repulsive (7)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Self (268)  |  Self-Consciousness (2)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Solid (119)  |  Something (718)  |  Term (357)  |  Touch (146)  |  Understood (155)  |  Use (771)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Very few people, including authors willing to commit to paper, ever really read primary sources–certainly not in necessary depth and contemplation, and often not at all ... When writers close themselves off to the documents of scholarship, and then rely only on seeing or asking, they become conduits and sieves rather than thinkers. When, on the other hand, you study the great works of predecessors engaged in the same struggle, you enter a dialogue with human history and the rich variety of our own intellectual traditions. You insert yourself, and your own organizing powers, into this history–and you become an active agent, not merely a ‘reporter.’
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Active (80)  |  Agent (73)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Author (175)  |  Become (821)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Close (77)  |  Commit (43)  |  Conduit (3)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Depth (97)  |  Dialogue (10)  |  Document (7)  |  Engage (41)  |  Enter (145)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Include (93)  |  Insert (4)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Merely (315)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Often (109)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paper (192)  |  People (1031)  |  Power (771)  |  Predecessor (29)  |  Primary (82)  |  Read (308)  |  Rely (12)  |  Reporter (5)  |  Rich (66)  |  Same (166)  |  Scholarship (22)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sieve (3)  |  Source (101)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Study (701)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Variety (138)  |  Willing (44)  |  Work (1402)  |  Writer (90)

We must really agree with Bamberger, who thinks that the greater part of patients who die, of endocarditis even, have succumbed not to the disease, but to the remedy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Agree (31)  |  Die (94)  |  Disease (340)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Must (1525)  |  Part (235)  |  Patient (209)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Think (1122)

We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Quoted in Kim Lim (ed.), 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom: Words to Enrich, Inspire, and Guide Your Life (2014), 246
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Both (496)  |  Choose (116)  |  Dark (145)  |  Inside (30)  |  Light (635)  |  Matter (821)  |  Part (235)

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Choice (114)  |  Creation (350)  |  God (776)  |  Interest (416)  |  World (1850)

When I came back from Munich, it was September, and I was Professor of Mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Later I learned that I had been the Department’s third choice, after two numerical analysts had turned the invitation down; the decision to invite me had not been an easy one, on the one hand because I had not really studied mathematics, and on the other hand because of my sandals, my beard and my ‘arrogance’ (whatever that may be).
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Analyst (8)  |  Arrogance (22)  |  Back (395)  |  Beard (8)  |  Choice (114)  |  Decision (98)  |  Department (93)  |  Down (455)  |  Easy (213)  |  Hand (149)  |  Invitation (12)  |  Invite (10)  |  Late (119)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Munich (3)  |  Numerical (39)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Professor (133)  |  Sandal (3)  |  September (2)  |  Study (701)  |  Technology (281)  |  Third (17)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  University (130)  |  Whatever (234)

When you think about flying, it’s nuts really. Here you are at about 40,000 feet, screaming along at 700 miles an hour and you’re sitting there drinking Diet Pepsi and eating peanuts. It just doesn’t make any sense.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Diet (56)  |  Drink (56)  |  Drinking (21)  |  Eat (108)  |  Eating (46)  |  Fly (153)  |  Flying (74)  |  Foot (65)  |  Hour (192)  |  Mile (43)  |  Nut (7)  |  Peanut (4)  |  Pepsi (2)  |  Scream (7)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sit (51)  |  Sitting (44)  |  Think (1122)

Whenever anyone says, “theoretically,” they really mean, “not really.”
As quoted, without citation in Jon Fripp, ‎Michael Fripp and, ‎Deborah Fripp, Speaking of Science (2000), 54.
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Mean (810)  |  Say (989)  |  Theoretically (2)  |  Whenever (81)

Why then does science work? The answer is that nobody knows. It is a complete mystery—perhaps the complete mystery&mdashwhy the human mind should be able to understand anything at all about the wider universe. ... Perhaps it is because our brains evolved through the working of natural law that they somehow resonate with natural law. ... But the mystery, really, is not that we are at one with the universe, but that we are so to some degree at odds with it, different from it, and yet can understand something about it. Why is this so?
Coming of Age in the Milky Way (1988), 385. In Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World (2008), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Brain (281)  |  Complete (209)  |  Degree (277)  |  Different (595)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Law (46)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Odds (6)  |  Resonate (2)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Something (718)  |  Through (846)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Why (491)  |  Wide (97)  |  Work (1402)

Years ago I used to worry about the degree to which I specialized. Vision is limited enough, yet I was not really working on vision, for I hardly made contact with visual sensations, except as signals, nor with the nervous pathways, nor the structure of the eye, except the retina. Actually my studies involved only the rods and cones of the retina, and in them only the visual pigments. A sadly limited peripheral business, fit for escapists. But it is as though this were a very narrow window through which at a distance, one can only see a crack of light. As one comes closer the view grows wider and wider, until finally looking through the same narrow window one is looking at the universe. It is like the pupil of the eye, an opening only two to three millimetres across in daylight, but yielding a wide angle of view, and manoeuvrable enough to be turned in all directions. I think this is always the way it goes in science, because science is all one. It hardly matters where one enters, provided one can come closer, and then one does not see less and less, but more and more, because one is not dealing with an opaque object, but with a window.
In Scientific American, 1960s, attributed.
Science quotes on:  |  Angle (25)  |  Business (156)  |  Closer (43)  |  Cone (8)  |  Contact (66)  |  Crack (15)  |  Daylight (23)  |  Dealing (11)  |  Degree (277)  |  Direction (185)  |  Distance (171)  |  Enough (341)  |  Enter (145)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fit (139)  |  Grow (247)  |  Involved (90)  |  Light (635)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Looking (191)  |  Matter (821)  |  More (2558)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Object (438)  |  Opaque (7)  |  Opening (15)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Peripheral (3)  |  Pigment (9)  |  Pupil (62)  |  Retina (4)  |  Rod (6)  |  See (1094)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Sensation (60)  |  Signal (29)  |  Structure (365)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Universe (900)  |  View (496)  |  Vision (127)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wide (97)  |  Window (59)  |  Year (963)

Yet I also appreciate that we cannot win this battle to save species and environments without forging an emotional bond between ourselves and nature as well–for we will not fight to save what we do not love (but only appreciate in some abstract sense). So let them all continue–the films, the books, the television programs, the zoos, the little half acre of ecological preserve in any community, the primary school lessons, the museum demonstrations, even ... the 6:00 A.M. bird walks. Let them continue and expand because we must have visceral contact in order to love. We really must make room for nature in our hearts.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Acre (13)  |  Appreciate (67)  |  Battle (36)  |  Bird (163)  |  Bond (46)  |  Book (413)  |  Community (111)  |  Contact (66)  |  Continue (179)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ecological (7)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Environment (239)  |  Expand (56)  |  Fight (49)  |  Film (12)  |  Forge (10)  |  Half (63)  |  Heart (243)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Let (64)  |  Little (717)  |  Love (328)  |  Museum (40)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Primary (82)  |  Program (57)  |  Room (42)  |  Save (126)  |  School (227)  |  Sense (785)  |  Species (435)  |  Television (33)  |  Visceral (3)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)  |  Win (53)  |  Zoo (9)


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.