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 Superfund legislation... may prove to be as far-reaching and important as any accomplishment of my administration. The reduction of the threat to America's health and safety from thousands of toxic-waste sites will continue to be an urgent�issue �”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index R > Category: Relationship

Relationship Quotes (114 quotes)

… just as the astronomer, the physicist, the geologist, or other student of objective science looks about in the world of sense, so, not metaphorically speaking but literally, the mind of the mathematician goes forth in the universe of logic in quest of the things that are there; exploring the heights and depths for facts—ideas, classes, relationships, implications, and the rest; observing the minute and elusive with the powerful microscope of his Infinitesimal Analysis; observing the elusive and vast with the limitless telescope of his Calculus of the Infinite; making guesses regarding the order and internal harmony of the data observed and collocated; testing the hypotheses, not merely by the complete induction peculiar to mathematics, but, like his colleagues of the outer world, resorting also to experimental tests and incomplete induction; frequently finding it necessary, in view of unforeseen disclosures, to abandon one hopeful hypothesis or to transform it by retrenchment or by enlargement:—thus, in his own domain, matching, point for point, the processes, methods and experience familiar to the devotee of natural science.
In Lectures on Science, Philosophy and Art (1908), 26
Science quotes on:  |  Abandon (73)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Class (168)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complete (209)  |  Data (162)  |  Depth (97)  |  Devotee (7)  |  Disclosure (7)  |  Domain (72)  |  Elusive (8)  |  Enlargement (8)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Familiar (47)  |  Find (1014)  |  Forth (14)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Geologist (82)  |  Guess (67)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Height (33)  |  Hopeful (6)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Implication (25)  |  Incomplete (31)  |  Induction (81)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Internal (69)  |  Limitless (14)  |  Literally (30)  |  Located (2)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  Making (300)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Method (531)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Minute (129)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outer (13)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Point (584)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Process (439)  |  Quest (39)  |  Regard (312)  |  Resort (8)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sense (785)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Student (317)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Transform (74)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Universe (900)  |  Vast (188)  |  View (496)  |  World (1850)

… on these expanded membranes [butterfly wings] Nature writes, as on a tablet, the story of the modifications of species, so truly do all changes of the organisation register themselves thereon. Moreover, the same colour-patterns of the wings generally show, with great regularity, the degrees of blood-relationship of the species. As the laws of nature must be the same for all beings, the conclusions furnished by this group of insects must be applicable to the whole world.
From The Naturalist on the River Amazons: A record of Adventures, Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and Aspects of Nature under the Equator, During Eleven Years of Travel (1864), 413.
Science quotes on:  |  Applicable (31)  |  Application (257)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blood (144)  |  Butterfly (26)  |  Change (639)  |  Color (155)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Degree (277)  |  Do (1905)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expand (56)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Furnishing (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Group (83)  |  Insect (89)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Membrane (21)  |  Modification (57)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural Selection (98)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organization (120)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Register (22)  |  Registration (2)  |  Regularity (40)  |  Sameness (3)  |  Show (353)  |  Species (435)  |  Story (122)  |  Tablet (6)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Truly (118)  |  Whole (756)  |  Whole World (29)  |  Wing (79)  |  World (1850)  |  Write (250)  |  Writing (192)

[A man] must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings human beings, their illusions, and their sufferings in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow-men and to the community. These precious things … primarily constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind when I recommend the “humanities” as important, not just dry specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy.
From interview with Benjamin Fine, 'Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking', New York Times (5 Oct 1952), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Community (111)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Culture (157)  |  Dry (65)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Field (378)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Humanities (21)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Important (229)  |  Individual (420)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Motive (62)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Precious (43)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Proper (150)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Specialized (9)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Sufferings (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Understand (648)

[Mathematics is] the study of the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities and sets, using numbers and symbols.
Definition of Mathematics in William morris (ed.), American Heritage Dictionary (2000).
Science quotes on:  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Number (710)  |  Property (177)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Set (400)  |  Study (701)  |  Symbol (100)

[Science] dissipates errors born of ignorance about our true relations with nature, errors the more damaging in that the social order should rest only on those relations. TRUTH! JUSTICE! Those are the immutable laws. Let us banish the dangerous maxim that it is sometimes useful to depart from them and to deceive or enslave mankind to assure its happiness.
Exposition du Système du Monde (1796), 2, 312, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 175.
Science quotes on:  |  Banish (11)  |  Damage (38)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Dissipate (8)  |  Enslave (2)  |  Error (339)  |  Happiness (126)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Immutable (26)  |  Justice (40)  |  Law (913)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Maxim (19)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Rest (287)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Order (8)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

[The blame for the future 'plight of civilization] must rest on scientific men, equally with others, for being incapable of accepting the responsibility for the profound social upheavals which their own work primarily has brought about in human relationships.
Quoted in Thaddeus Trenn, 'The Central Role of Energy in Soddy's Holistic and Critical Approach to Nuclear Science, Economics, and Social Responsibility', British Journal for the History of Science (1979), 42, 261.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Accepting (22)  |  Being (1276)  |  Blame (31)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Equality (34)  |  Equally (129)  |  Future (467)  |  Human (1512)  |  Incapable (41)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plight (5)  |  Profound (105)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Rest (287)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Social (261)  |  Upheaval (4)  |  Work (1402)

[The scientist] believes passionately in facts, in measured facts. He believes there are no bad facts, that all facts are good facts, though they may be facts about bad things, and his intellectual satisfaction can come only from the acquisition of accurately known facts, from their organization into a body of knowledge, in which the inter-relationship of the measured facts is the dominant consideration.
'Scientist and Citizen', Speech to the Empire Club of Canada (29 Jan 1948), The Empire Club of Canada Speeches (29 Jan 1948), 209-221.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Acquisition (46)  |  Bad (185)  |  Belief (615)  |  Body (557)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Dominance (5)  |  Dominant (26)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Good (906)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Inter (12)  |  Inter-Relationship (2)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Organization (120)  |  Passion (121)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)

A fear of intellectual inadequacy, of powerlessness before the tireless electronic wizards, has given rise to dozens of science-fiction fantasies of computer takeovers. ... Other scientists too are apprehensive. D. Raj Reddy, a computer scientist at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie-Mellon University, fears that universally available microcomputers could turn into formidable weapons. Among other things, says Reddy, sophisticated computers in the wrong hands could begin subverting a society by tampering with people’s relationships with their own computers—instructing the other computers to cut off telephone, bank and other services, for example.
An early prediction of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), viruses and worms like Stuxnet. As stated, without further citation, in 'The Age of Miracle Chips', Time (20 Feb 1978), 44. The article introduces a special section on 'The Computer Society.' Please contact Webmaster if you know a primary source.
Science quotes on:  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Available (80)  |  Bank (31)  |  Begin (275)  |  Computer (131)  |  Cut (116)  |  Electronics (21)  |  Fantasy (15)  |  Fear (212)  |  Formidable (8)  |  Hand (149)  |  Inadequacy (4)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Rise (169)  |  Say (989)  |  Science Fiction (35)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Service (110)  |  Society (350)  |  Sophisticated (16)  |  Subvert (2)  |  Tamper (7)  |  Tampering (3)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Tireless (5)  |  Turn (454)  |  Universal (198)  |  University (130)  |  Weapon (98)  |  Weapons (57)  |  Wizard (4)  |  Wrong (246)

A large proportion of mankind, like pigeons and partridges, on reaching maturity, having passed through a period of playfulness or promiscuity, establish what they hope and expect will be a permanent and fertile mating relationship. This we call marriage.
Genetics And Man (1964), 298.
Science quotes on:  |  Bird (163)  |  Call (781)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fertile (30)  |  Hope (321)  |  Large (398)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Marriage (39)  |  Maturity (14)  |  Pass (241)  |  Period (200)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Pigeon (8)  |  Promiscuity (3)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Reproduction (74)  |  Through (846)  |  Will (2350)

A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measurable. He lives with data that cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once. The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible. ... He becomes an equivalent of scientist, in the act of examining and sorting the things popping in [to his head], finding the marks of remote similarity, points of distant relationship, tiny irregularities that indicate that this one is really the same as that one over there only more important. Gauging the fit, he can meticulously place pieces of the universe together, in geometric configurations that are as beautiful and balanced as crystals.
In The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (1974, 1995), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Balance (82)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Configuration (8)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Data (162)  |  Definition (238)  |  Distance (171)  |  Engagement (9)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Examination (102)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Fit (139)  |  Gauge (2)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Importance (299)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Indication (33)  |  Information (173)  |  Irregularity (12)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Mark (47)  |  Measurement (178)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Once (4)  |  Piece (39)  |  Poem (104)  |  Poet (97)  |  Point (584)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Remote (86)  |  Reproducibility (2)  |  Reproducible (9)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Sort (50)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Together (392)  |  Universe (900)

All science is concerned with the relationship of cause and effect. Each scientific discovery increases man’s ability to predict the consequences of his actions and thus his ability to control future events.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Action (342)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Concern (239)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Control (182)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Event (222)  |  Future (467)  |  Increase (225)  |  Man (2252)  |  Predict (86)  |  Scientific (955)

All that comes above that surface [of the globe] lies within the province of Geography. All that comes below that surface lies inside the realm of Geology. The surface of the earth is that which, so to speak, divides them and at the same time “binds them together in indissoluble union.” We may, perhaps, put the case metaphorically. The relationships of the two are rather like that of man and wife. Geography, like a prudent woman, has followed the sage advice of Shakespeare and taken unto her “an elder than herself;” but she does not trespass on the domain of her consort, nor could she possibly maintain the respect of her children were she to flaunt before the world the assertion that she is “a woman with a past.”
From Anniversary Address to Geological Society of London (20 Feb 1903), 'The Relations of Geology', published in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (22 May 1903), 59, Part 2, lxxviii. As reprinted in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution (1904), 373.
Science quotes on:  |  Advice (57)  |  Children (201)  |  Divide (77)  |  Domain (72)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elder (9)  |  Follow (389)  |  Geography (39)  |  Geology (240)  |  Lie (370)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Man (2252)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Past (355)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Province (37)  |  Realm (87)  |  Respect (212)  |  Sage (25)  |  William Shakespeare (109)  |  Speak (240)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Time (1911)  |  Together (392)  |  Trespass (5)  |  Two (936)  |  Union (52)  |  Wife (41)  |  Woman (160)  |  World (1850)

All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relationship to everything else.
In Dwight Goddard, Buddha, Truth, and Brotherhood (1934), 44.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Cause (561)  |  Condition (362)  |  Disappear (84)  |  Disappearance (28)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Thing (1914)

As long as museums and universities send out expeditions to bring to light new forms of living and extinct animals and new data illustrating the interrelations of organisms and their environments, as long as anatomists desire a broad comparative basis human for anatomy, as long as even a few students feel a strong curiosity to learn about the course of evolution and relationships of animals, the old problems of taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution will gradually reassert themselves even in competition with brilliant and highly fruitful laboratory studies in cytology, genetics and physiological chemistry.
'Genetics Versus Paleontology', The American Naturalist, 1917, 51, 623.
Science quotes on:  |  Anatomist (24)  |  Anatomy (75)  |  Animal (651)  |  Basis (180)  |  Brilliant (57)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Competition (45)  |  Course (413)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Cytology (7)  |  Data (162)  |  Desire (212)  |  Environment (239)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expedition (9)  |  Extinct (25)  |  Feel (371)  |  Form (976)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Genetic (110)  |  Genetics (105)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Human (1512)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Learn (672)  |  Light (635)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Museum (40)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Organism (231)  |  Paleontologist (19)  |  Phylogeny (10)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Problem (731)  |  Strong (182)  |  Student (317)  |  Taxonomy (19)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Will (2350)

As regards religion, on the other hand, one is generally agreed that it deals with goals and evaluations and, in general, with the emotional foundation of human thinking and acting, as far as these are not predetermined by the inalterable hereditary disposition of the human species. Religion is concerned with man’s attitude toward nature at large, with the establishing of ideals for the individual and communal life, and with mutual human relationship. These ideals religion attempts to attain by exerting an educational influence on tradition and through the development and promulgation of certain easily accessible thoughts and narratives (epics and myths) which are apt to influence evaluation and action along the lines of the accepted ideals.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accessible (27)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Agree (31)  |  Apt (9)  |  Attain (126)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Certain (557)  |  Communal (7)  |  Concern (239)  |  Deal (192)  |  Development (441)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Easily (36)  |  Educational (7)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Epic (12)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evaluation (10)  |  Exert (40)  |  Far (158)  |  Foundation (177)  |  General (521)  |  Generally (15)  |  Goal (155)  |  Hereditary (7)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Relationship (2)  |  Human Species (11)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Individual (420)  |  Influence (231)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Line (100)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Myth (58)  |  Narrative (9)  |  Nature (2017)  |  On The Other Hand (40)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predetermined (3)  |  Promulgation (5)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religion (369)  |  Species (435)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Toward (45)  |  Tradition (76)

Biology occupies a position among the sciences both marginal and central. Marginal because, the living world, constituting only a tiny and very “special” part of the universe, it does not seem likely that the study of living beings will ever uncover general laws applicable outside the biosphere. But if the ultimate aim of the whole of science is indeed, as I believe, to clarify man's relationship to the universe, then biology must be accorded a central position, since of all the disciplines it is the one that endeavours to go most directly to the heart of the problems that must be resolved before that of “human nature” can even be framed in other than metaphysical terms.
In Jacques Monod and Austryn Wainhouse (trans.), Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology (1971), xi.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Applicable (31)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (232)  |  Biosphere (14)  |  Both (496)  |  Central (81)  |  Clarify (3)  |  Discipline (85)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  General (521)  |  Heart (243)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marginal (3)  |  Metaphysical (38)  |  Metaphysics (53)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Outside (141)  |  Problem (731)  |  Special (188)  |  Study (701)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Uncover (20)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

City wisdom became almost entirely centered on the problems of human relationships, in contrast to the wisdom of any natural tribal group, where relationships with the rest of the animate and inanimate world are still given due place.
In Gaia, a New Look at Life on Earth (1979), 135.
Science quotes on:  |  Animate (8)  |  Center (35)  |  City (87)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Due (143)  |  Human Relationship (2)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Natural (810)  |  Place (192)  |  Problem (731)  |  Tribe (26)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  World (1850)

Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us, forgetting what supports industry.
In 'Wildlife in American Culture', A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949, 1987), 178.
Science quotes on:  |  Awareness (42)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Clutter (6)  |  Dim (11)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Elemental (4)  |  Forget (125)  |  Gadget (3)  |  Industry (159)  |  Middleman (2)  |  Support (151)

Crystallographic science does not consist in the scrupulous description of all the accidents of crystalline form, but in specifying, by the description of these forms, the more or less close relationship they have with each other.
Cristallographie (1793), 1, 91
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Consist (223)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Crystallography (9)  |  Description (89)  |  Form (976)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Other (2233)  |  Scrupulous (7)  |  Specification (7)

Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
In 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace' (8 Feb 1996). Published on Electronic Frontier Foundation website. Reproduced in Lawrence Lessig, Code: Version 2.0) (2008), 303.
Science quotes on:  |  Anyone (38)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Array (5)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Communication (101)  |  Conformity (15)  |  Consist (223)  |  Cyberspace (3)  |  Economic (84)  |  Economy (59)  |  Enter (145)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Express (192)  |  Fear (212)  |  Force (497)  |  Live (650)  |  Matter (821)  |  Military (45)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Power (771)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Privilege (41)  |  Race (278)  |  Silence (62)  |  Singular (24)  |  Station (30)  |  Thought (995)  |  Transaction (13)  |  Wave (112)  |  Web (17)  |  World (1850)

Darwinian fitness is compounded of a mutual relationship between the organism and the environment. Of this, fitness of environment is quite as essential a component as the fitness which arises in the process of organic evolution; and in fundamental characteristics the actual environment is the fittest possible abode of life.
His thesis for the book stated at the beginning of The Fitness of the Environment (1913), Preface, v.
Science quotes on:  |  Abode (2)  |  Actual (118)  |  Arise (162)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Component (51)  |  Compound (117)  |  Darwinian (10)  |  Environment (239)  |  Essential (210)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fitness (9)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organism (231)  |  Possible (560)  |  Process (439)

Despite the high long-term probability of extinction, every organism alive today, including every person reading this paper, is a link in an unbroken chain of parent-offspring relationships that extends back unbroken to the beginning of life on earth. Every living organism is a part of an enormously long success story—each of its direct ancestors has been sufficiently well adapted to its physical and biological environments to allow it to mature and reproduce successfully. Viewed thus, adaptation is not a trivial facet of natural history, but a biological attribute so central as to be inseparable from life itself.
In 'Integrative Biology: An Organismic Biologist’s Point of View', Integrative and Comparative Biology (2005), 45, 330.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Adaptation (59)  |  Alive (97)  |  Allow (51)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Attribute (65)  |  Back (395)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Biological (137)  |  Central (81)  |  Chain (51)  |  Despite (7)  |  Direct (228)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Enormously (4)  |  Environment (239)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Facet (9)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Include (93)  |  Inseparable (18)  |  Life (1870)  |  Life On Earth (16)  |  Link (48)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Long (778)  |  Long-Term (11)  |  Mature (17)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organism (231)  |  Paper (192)  |  Parent (80)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Probability (135)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Story (122)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Sufficiently (9)  |  Term (357)  |  Today (321)  |  Trivial (59)  |  Unbroken (10)  |  View (496)

Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.
Letter to J. S. Switzer, 23 Apr 1953, Einstein Archive 61-381. Quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), 180.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Astonishing (29)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chinese (22)  |  Development (441)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Find (1014)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greek (109)  |  Invention (400)  |  Logic (311)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Renaissance (16)  |  Sage (25)  |  Step (234)  |  System (545)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Two (936)  |  Western (45)

Digital clocks … lack the friendly spatial relationships that exist between the hands and the numerals on an analog clock. There’s a psychological component: to me, the first half of any hour, as the minute hand falls from 12 to 6, passes a lot more quickly than the second half, when it has to struggle upward, fighting gravity all the way.
In Napalm and Silly Putty (2001), 325.
Science quotes on:  |  Analog (4)  |  Clock (51)  |  Component (51)  |  Digital (10)  |  Fall (243)  |  Fight (49)  |  First (1302)  |  Friendly (7)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Half (63)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hour (192)  |  Lack (127)  |  Minute (129)  |  Numeral (2)  |  Pass (241)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Quickly (21)  |  Second (66)  |  Spatial (10)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Upward (44)

Dr. M.L. von Franz has explained the circle (or sphere) as a symbol of Self. It expresses the totality of the psyche in all its aspects, including the relationship between man and the whole of nature. It always points to the single most vital aspect of life, its ultimate wholeness.
In Aniela Jaffé, 'Symbolism in the Visual Arts', collected in Carl Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols (1964, 1968), 266.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Circle (117)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Express (192)  |  Marie-Louise von Franz (2)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Point (584)  |  Psyche (9)  |  Self (268)  |  Single (365)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Totality (17)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Vital (89)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wholeness (9)

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we can see the emergence of a tension that has yet to be resolved, concerning the attitude of scientists towards the usefulness of science. During this time, scientists were careful not to stress too much their relationships with industry or the military. They were seeking autonomy for their activities. On the other hand, to get social support there had to be some perception that the fruits of scientific activity could have useful results. One resolution of this dilemma was to assert that science only contributed at the discovery stage; others, industrialists for example, could apply the results. ... Few noted the ... obvious paradox of this position; that, if scientists were to be distanced from the 'evil' effects of the applications of scientific ideas, so too should they receive no credit for the 'good' or socially beneficial, effects of their activities.
Co-author with Philip Gummett (1947- ), -British social scientist
Science, Technology and Society Today (1984), Introduction, 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Application (257)  |  Apply (170)  |  Assert (69)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Author (175)  |  Autonomy (6)  |  British (42)  |  Dilemma (11)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effect (414)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Good (906)  |  Idea (881)  |  Industry (159)  |  Military (45)  |  Obvious (128)  |  Other (2233)  |  Paradox (54)  |  Perception (97)  |  Receive (117)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Resolution (24)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Social (261)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stress (22)  |  Support (151)  |  Tension (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)

Even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
From paper 'Science, Philosophy and Religion', prepared for initial meeting of the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York City (9-11 Sep 1940). Collected in Albert Einstein: In His Own Words (2000), 212.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspiration (35)  |  Attainment (48)  |  Belong (168)  |  Blind (98)  |  Comprehensible (3)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Determine (152)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Express (192)  |  Faith (209)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Goal (155)  |  Image (97)  |  Lame (5)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Nevertheless (90)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Profound (105)  |  Rational (95)  |  Realm (87)  |  Reason (766)  |  Reciprocal (7)  |  Regulation (25)  |  Regulations (3)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Situation (117)  |  Sphere (118)  |  Spring (140)  |  Strong (182)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thoroughly (67)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Two (936)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Everyone now agrees that a Physics where you banish all relationship with mathematics, to confine itself to a mere collection of observations and experiences, would be but an historical amusement, more fitting to entertain idle people, than to engage the mind of a true philosopher.
In 'Préface Contenant l’Exposition du Système', Dictionnaire de Physique (1761), Vol. 1, iii. English version via Google Translate, tweaked by Webmaster. From the original French, “Tout le monde convient maintenant qu’une Physique d’où l'on banniroit tout ce qui peut avoir quelque rapport avec les mathématiques, pour se borner à un simple recueil d’observations & d’experiences, ne seroit qu’un amusement historique, plus propre à récréer un cercle de personnes oisives, qu’à occuper un esprit véritablement philosophique.” Also seen translated as—“Everyone now agrees that a physics lacking all connection with mathematics…would only be an historical amusement, fitter for entertaining the idle than for occupying the mind of a philosopher,” in John L. Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics (1979), 74. In the latter source, the subject quote immediately follows a different one by Franz Karl Achard. An editor misreading that paragraph is the likely reason the subject quote will be found in Oxford Dictionary of Science Quotations attributed to Achard. Webmaster checked the original footnoted source, and corrected the author of this entry to Paulian (16 May 2014).
Science quotes on:  |  Amusement (37)  |  Banish (11)  |  Collection (68)  |  Engage (41)  |  Entertain (27)  |  Experience (494)  |  Historical (70)  |  Idle (34)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  More (2558)  |  Observation (593)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plus (43)  |  Simple (426)

Facts, and facts alone, are the foundation of science... When one devotes oneself to experimental research it is in order to augment the sum of known facts, or to discover their mutual relations.
Precis elementaire de Physiologie (1816), ii. Trans. J. M. D. Olmsted, François Magendie: Pioneer in Experimental Physiology and Scientific Medicine in XIX Century France (1944), 62.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Augment (12)  |  Devotion (37)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Known (453)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Order (638)  |  Research (753)  |  Sum (103)

Focusing on the science-technology relationship may strike some as strange, because conventional wisdom views this relationship as an unproblematic given. … Technology is seen as being, at best, applied science … the conventional view perceives science as clearly preceding and founding technology. … Recent studies in the history of technology have begun to challenge this assumed dependency of technology on science. … But the conventional view of science is persistent.
In 'Technology and Science', Stephen V. Monsma (ed.), Responsible Technology: A Christian Perspective (1986), 78-79.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Assume (43)  |  Being (1276)  |  Best (467)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Conventional (31)  |  Conventional Wisdom (3)  |  Dependency (3)  |  Focus (36)  |  Founding (5)  |  History (716)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Precede (23)  |  Recent (78)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strike (72)  |  Study (701)  |  Technology (281)  |  View (496)  |  Wisdom (235)

For any one who is pervaded with the sense of causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of a Being who interferes with the sequence of events in the world is absolutely impossible! Neither the religion of fear nor the social-moral religion can have, any hold on him. A God who rewards and punishes is for him unthinkable, because man acts in accordance with an inner and outer necessity, and would, in the eyes of God, be as little responsible as an inanimate object is for the movements which it makes. Science, in consequence, has been accused of undermining morals—but wrongly. The ethical behavior of man is better based on sympathy, education and social relationships, and requires no support from religion. Man’s plight would, indeed, be sad if he had to be kept in order through fear of punishment and hope of rewards after death.
From 'Religion and Science', The New York Times Magazine, (9 Nov 1930), 1. Article in full, reprinted in Edward H. Cotton (ed.), Has Science Discovered God? A Symposium of Modern Scientific Opinion (1931), 101. The wording differs significantly from the version collected in 'Religion And Science', Ideas And Opinions (1954), 39, giving 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.” This variant form of the quote from the book begins, “The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation….” and is also 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:  |  Accept (198)  |  Accused (3)  |  Act (278)  |  Assumption (96)  |  Behavior (95)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Causality (11)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Death (406)  |  Education (423)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Event (222)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fear (212)  |  God (776)  |  Happen (282)  |  Hope (321)  |  Idea (881)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interfere (17)  |  Law (913)  |  Little (717)  |  Man (2252)  |  Moral (203)  |  Movement (162)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Object (438)  |  Order (638)  |  Outer (13)  |  Plight (5)  |  Punish (8)  |  Punishment (14)  |  Religion (369)  |  Require (229)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Reward (72)  |  Sadness (36)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Social (261)  |  Support (151)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Through (846)  |  Undermine (6)  |  Unthinkable (8)  |  World (1850)  |  Wrong (246)

For centuries the concept that food bore a relationship to anemia had been vaguely expressed in the literature. It had been shown that liver and kidneys, rich in complete proteins, promoted the growth of animals, and that substances in liver could enhance cell division. It was likewise recognized that liver-feeding could benefit patients with sprue…and pellagra. These were among the reasons that led to the choice of liver as a substance likely to enhance blood formation.
From Nobel Prize Lecture (12 Dec 1934), collected in Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941 (1965).
Science quotes on:  |  Anemia (4)  |  Animal (651)  |  Benefit (123)  |  Cell Division (6)  |  Century (319)  |  Concept (242)  |  Enhance (17)  |  Express (192)  |  Food (213)  |  Growth (200)  |  Kidney (19)  |  Literature (116)  |  Liver (22)  |  Patient (209)  |  Promote (32)  |  Protein (56)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Sprue (2)  |  Substance (253)  |  Vague (50)

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point) , and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought my nature had a kind of familiarity and relationship with Truth.
From 'Progress of philosophical speculations. Preface to intended treatise De Interpretatione Naturæ (1603), in Francis Bacon and James Spedding (ed.), Works of Francis Bacon (1868), Vol. 3, 85.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Affectation (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Assertion (35)  |  Being (1276)  |  Catch (34)  |  Chief (99)  |  Desire (212)  |  Difference (355)  |  Disposition (44)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguishing (14)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Enough (341)  |  Familiarity (21)  |  Fix (34)  |  Fondness (7)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Hate (68)  |  Imposture (6)  |  Kind (564)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meditation (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Myself (211)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Nimble (2)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Old (499)  |  Order (638)  |  Patience (58)  |  Point (584)  |  Readiness (9)  |  Reconsideration (3)  |  Resemblance (39)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Set (400)  |  Setting (44)  |  Slowness (6)  |  Steady (45)  |  Study (701)  |  Subtlety (19)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Versatile (6)

Fragments of the natural method must be sought with the greatest care. This is the first and last desideratum among botanists.
Nature makes no jumps.
[Natura non facit saltus]
All taxa show relationships on all sides like the countries on a map of the world.
Philosophia Botanica (1751), aphorism 77. Trans. Frans A. Stafleu, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The Spreading of their Ideas in Systematic Botany, 1735-1789 (1971), 45.
Science quotes on:  |  Botanist (25)  |  Care (203)  |  Country (269)  |  Desideratum (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Jump (31)  |  Last (425)  |  Map (50)  |  Method (531)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Show (353)  |  Side (236)  |  World (1850)

Freeman’s gift? It’s cosmic. He is able to see more interconnections between more things than almost anybody. He sees the interrelationships, whether it’s in some microscopic physical process or in a big complicated machine like Orion. He has been, from the time he was in his teens, capable of understanding essentially anything that he’s interested in. He’s the most intelligent person I know.
As quoted in Kenneth Brower, 'The Danger of Cosmic Genius', The Atlantic (Dec 2010). Webmaster note: The Orion Project was a study of the possibility of nuclear powered propulsion of spacecraft.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Capable (174)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Connection (171)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Freeman Dyson (55)  |  Gift (105)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Interconnection (12)  |  Interest (416)  |  Interested (5)  |  Know (1538)  |  Machine (271)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Person (366)  |  Physical (518)  |  Process (439)  |  See (1094)  |  Teen (2)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief … give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.
From 'Science and Literature', The Hope of Progress: A Scientist Looks at Problems in Philosophy, Literature and Science (1973), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Answer (389)  |  Believable (3)  |  Bewilderment (8)  |  Comfort (64)  |  Condition (362)  |  Deeper (4)  |  Description (89)  |  End (603)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Sigmund Freud (70)  |  Freudian (4)  |  Hang (46)  |  Incoherence (2)  |  Kind (564)  |  Loose End (3)  |  Loss (117)  |  Myth (58)  |  Mythology (19)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Order (638)  |  Psychoanalysis (37)  |  Relief (30)  |  Sense (785)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Together (392)  |  True (239)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Will (2350)

Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton…. The relationship between these very different personalities is like that of two complementary stages of a rocket. Galileo, the argumentative “wrangler” who demanded that the universe be examined through a telescope rather than by means of a philosophy book, provided the first liftoff, and Newton, the secretive mathematician who searched among his notes to find a mislaid proof for universal gravitation, put the world into orbit.
In 'Foreword', The Universe of Galileo and Newton (1964), 7.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Complementary (15)  |  Demand (131)  |  Different (595)  |  Examine (84)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Liftoff (2)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Means (587)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Note (39)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Personality (66)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Proof (304)  |  Provide (79)  |  Rocket (52)  |  Search (175)  |  Stage (152)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

Geology is part of that remarkable dynamic process of the human mind which is generally called science and to which man is driven by an inquisitive urge. By noticing relationships in the results of his observations, he attempts to order and to explain the infinite variety of phenomena that at first sight may appear to be chaotic. In the history of civilization this type of progressive scientist has been characterized by Prometheus stealing the heavenly fire, by Adam eating from the tree of knowledge, by the Faustian ache for wisdom.
In 'The Scientific Character of Geology', The Journal of Geology (Jul 1961), 69, No. 4, 454.
Science quotes on:  |  Ache (7)  |  Adam (7)  |  Appear (122)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Call (781)  |  Called Science (14)  |  Chaotic (2)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Dynamic (16)  |  Eating (46)  |  Explain (334)  |  Faustian (2)  |  Fire (203)  |  First (1302)  |  First Sight (6)  |  Geology (240)  |  Heavenly (8)  |  History (716)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Inquisitive (5)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observation (593)  |  Order (638)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Process (439)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Prometheus (7)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Result (700)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Sight (135)  |  Tree (269)  |  Tree Of Knowledge (8)  |  Type (171)  |  Urge (17)  |  Variety (138)  |  Wisdom (235)

I found out that the main ability to have was a visual, and also an almost tactile, way to imagine the physical situations, rather than a merely logical picture of the problems. … Very soon I discovered that if one gets a feeling for no more than a dozen … radiation and nuclear constants, one can imagine the subatomic world almost tangibly, and manipulate the picture dimensionally and qualitatively, before calculating more precise relationships.
In Adventures of a Mathematician (1976), 147.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Calculate (58)  |  Constant (148)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Discover (571)  |  Dozen (10)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Logical (57)  |  Manipulate (11)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Physical (518)  |  Picture (148)  |  Precise (71)  |  Problem (731)  |  Qualitative (15)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Situation (117)  |  Soon (187)  |  Subatomic (10)  |  Tangible (15)  |  Visual (16)  |  Way (1214)  |  World (1850)

I had no books as a child. I had real machines, and I went out to work in the fields. I was driving farm machinery at five, and fixing it at age seven or eight. It’s no accident that I worked on Hubble 50 to 60 years later. My books were nature; it was very important to how I related to the Earth, and the Earth from space. No doubt when I go into space, I go back into the cool soil of Earth. I’m always thinking of it. Nature was my book. Other people come from that tradition - Emerson, Thoreau, and especially Whitman. Look at what they said in their philosophy - go out and have a direct relationship with nature.
When asked by Discover magazine what books helped inspire his passion as an astronaut.
'The 1998 Discover Science Gift Guide: Fantastic Voyages Children's Books That Mattered', Discover (Dec 1998).
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Age (509)  |  Ask (420)  |  Astronaut (34)  |  Back (395)  |  Biography (254)  |  Book (413)  |  Child (333)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (571)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Driving (28)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Farm (28)  |  Field (378)  |  Look (584)  |  Machine (271)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Other (2233)  |  Passion (121)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Soil (98)  |  Space (523)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

I have always been very fond of mathematics—for one short period, I even toyed with the possibility of abandoning chemistry in its favour. I enjoyed immensely both its conceptual and formal beauties, and the precision and elegance of its relationships and transformations. Why then did I not succumb to its charms? … because by and large, mathematics lacks the sensuous elements which play so large a role in my attraction to chemistry.I love crystals, the beauty of their forms and formation; liquids, dormant, distilling, sloshing! The fumes, the odors—good or bad, the rainbow of colors; the gleaming vessels of every size, shape and purpose.
In Arthur Clay Cope Address, Chicago (28 Aug 1973). In O. T. Benfey and P. J. T. Morris (eds.), Robert Burns Woodward. Architect and Artist in the World of Molecules (2001), 427.
Science quotes on:  |  Attraction (61)  |  Bad (185)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Both (496)  |  Charm (54)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Color (155)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Distillation (11)  |  Dormant (4)  |  Elegance (40)  |  Element (322)  |  Form (976)  |  Formation (100)  |  Fume (7)  |  Gleam (13)  |  Good (906)  |  Lack (127)  |  Large (398)  |  Liquid (50)  |  Love (328)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Odor (11)  |  Period (200)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Precision (72)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Rainbow (17)  |  Role (86)  |  Shape (77)  |  Short (200)  |  Size (62)  |  Toy (22)  |  Transformation (72)  |  Vessel (63)  |  Why (491)

I have long held an opinion, almost amounting to conviction, in common I believe with many other lovers of natural knowledge, that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin; or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, one into another, and possess equivalents of power in their action.
Paper read to the Royal Institution (20 Nov 1845). 'On the Magnetization of Light and the Illumination of Magnetic Lines of Force', Series 19. In Experimental Researches in Electricity (1855), Vol. 3, 1. Reprinted from Philosophical Transactions (1846), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Belief (615)  |  Common (447)  |  Conservation Of Energy (30)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Origin (250)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possess (157)  |  Possession (68)  |  Power (771)  |  Various (205)  |  Word (650)

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accentuate (2)  |  Asset (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Briefly (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Deteriorate (3)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Devote (45)  |  Drive (61)  |  Economic (84)  |  Egotistical (2)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Essence (85)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Moreover (3)  |  Naive (13)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organic (161)  |  Perilous (4)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Positive (98)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Process (439)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Protective (5)  |  Reach (286)  |  Right (473)  |  Short (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Threat (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unsophisticated (2)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whatever (234)

I know that certain minds would regard as audacious the idea of relating the laws which preside over the play of our organs to those laws which govern inanimate bodies; but, although novel, this truth is none the less incontestable. To hold that the phenomena of life are entirely distinct from the general phenomena of nature is to commit a grave error, it is to oppose the continued progress of science.
Leçons sur les Phenomenes Physiques de la Vie (1836-38), Vol. 1, 6. Trans. J. M. D. Olmsted, François Magendie (1944), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Audacity (7)  |  Body (557)  |  Certain (557)  |  Commit (43)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Error (339)  |  General (521)  |  Govern (66)  |  Grave (52)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Incontestable (3)  |  Know (1538)  |  Law (913)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Novel (35)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Opposition (49)  |  Organ (118)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Progress (492)  |  Progress Of Science (40)  |  Regard (312)  |  Truth (1109)

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.
Third stanza of poem 'On Turning 70'. The poem is printed in Michigan Office of Services to the Aging, Annual Report 2004 (2005), no page number.
Science quotes on:  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Life (1870)  |  Miss (51)  |  Parent (80)  |  Regardless (8)

If a body releases the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass is decreased by L/V2.
[Now expressed as E= mc2 where E=energy, m=mass, c=velocity of light. This relationship of mass and energy initiated the atomic era.]
Annalen der Physik, 1905, 18, 639-641. Quoted in Alice Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein (1996), 165.
Science quotes on:  |  Body (557)  |  Energy (373)  |  Era (51)  |  Express (192)  |  Form (976)  |  Light (635)  |  Mass (160)  |  Radiation (48)  |  Release (31)  |  Velocity (51)

If the study of all these sciences which we have enumerated, should ever bring us to their mutual association and relationship, and teach us the nature of the ties which bind them together, I believe that the diligent treatment of them will forward the objects which we have in view, and that the labor, which otherwise would be fruitless, will be well bestowed.
Plato
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Association (49)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bestow (18)  |  Bind (26)  |  Bring (95)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Enumerate (3)  |  Forward (104)  |  Fruitless (9)  |  Labor (200)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Tie (42)  |  Together (392)  |  Treatment (135)  |  View (496)  |  Will (2350)

Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently. … It is that which feels & discovers what is, the REAL which we see not, which exists not for our senses. … Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. … Imagination too shows what is. … Hence she is or should be especially cultivated by the truly Scientific, those who wish to enter into the worlds around us!
Lovelace Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, 175, folio 199, journal entry for 5 Jan 1841. As quoted and cited in Dorothy Stein (ed.), 'In Time I Will Do All, I Dare Say', Ada: A Life and a Legacy (1985), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enter (145)  |  Exist (458)  |  Feel (371)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Language (308)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Scientific (955)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truly (118)  |  Unseen (23)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

In describing a protein it is now common to distinguish the primary, secondary and tertiary structures. The primary structure is simply the order, or sequence, of the amino-acid residues along the polypeptide chains. This was first determined by Sanger using chemical techniques for the protein insulin, and has since been elucidated for a number of peptides and, in part, for one or two other small proteins. The secondary structure is the type of folding, coiling or puckering adopted by the polypeptide chain: the a-helix structure and the pleated sheet are examples. Secondary structure has been assigned in broad outline to a number of librous proteins such as silk, keratin and collagen; but we are ignorant of the nature of the secondary structure of any globular protein. True, there is suggestive evidence, though as yet no proof, that a-helices occur in globular proteins, to an extent which is difficult to gauge quantitatively in any particular case. The tertiary structure is the way in which the folded or coiled polypeptide chains are disposed to form the protein molecule as a three-dimensional object, in space. The chemical and physical properties of a protein cannot be fully interpreted until all three levels of structure are understood, for these properties depend on the spatial relationships between the amino-acids, and these in turn depend on the tertiary and secondary structures as much as on the primary. Only X-ray diffraction methods seem capable, even in principle, of unravelling the tertiary and secondary structures.
Co-author with G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff, and D. C. Phillips
'A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis', Nature (1958) 181, 662.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Amino Acid (12)  |  Author (175)  |  Capable (174)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Common (447)  |  Depend (238)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Diffraction (5)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extent (142)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Helix (10)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Insulin (9)  |  Method (531)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Object (438)  |  Occur (151)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physical (518)  |  Polypeptide (2)  |  Primary (82)  |  Principle (530)  |  Proof (304)  |  Protein (56)  |  Ray (115)  |  Residue (9)  |  Frederick Sanger (6)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Silk (14)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Structure (365)  |  Technique (84)  |  Three-Dimensional (11)  |  Turn (454)  |  Two (936)  |  Type (171)  |  Understood (155)  |  Way (1214)  |  X-ray (43)  |  X-ray Diffraction (5)

In the context of biological research one can reasonably identify creativity with the capacity 1 to ask new and incisive questions, 2 to form new hypotheses, 3 to examine old questions in new ways or with new techniques, and 4 to perceive previously unnoticed relationships.
In 'Scientific innovation and creativity: a zoologist’s point of view', American Zoologist (1982), 22, 231.
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Biological (137)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Context (31)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Examine (84)  |  Form (976)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Identify (13)  |  Incisive (4)  |  New (1273)  |  Old (499)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Previously (12)  |  Question (649)  |  Reasonably (3)  |  Research (753)  |  Technique (84)  |  Unnoticed (5)  |  Way (1214)

Is man a peculiar organism? Does he originate in a wholly different way from a dog, bird, frog, or fish? and does he thereby justify those who assert that he has no place in nature, and no real relationship with the lower world of animal life? Or does he develop from a similar embryo, and undergo the same slow and gradual progressive modifications? The answer is not for an instant doubtful, and has not been doubtful for the last thirty years. The mode of man’s origin and the earlier stages of his development are undoubtedly identical with those of the animals standing directly below him in the scale; without the slightest doubt, he stands in this respect nearer the ape than the ape does to the dog. (1863)
As quoted in Ernst Haeckel and E. Ray Lankester (trans.) as epigraph for Chap. 12, The History of Creation (1886), Vol. 1, 364.
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Animal Life (21)  |  Answer (389)  |  Ape (54)  |  Assert (69)  |  Bird (163)  |  Develop (278)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Dog (70)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Doubtful (30)  |  Embryo (30)  |  Fish (130)  |  Frog (44)  |  Gradual (30)  |  Identical (55)  |  Instant (46)  |  Justify (26)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lower (11)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modification (57)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Organism (231)  |  Origin (250)  |  Origin Of Man (9)  |  Originate (39)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Place (192)  |  Progressive (21)  |  Respect (212)  |  Scale (122)  |  Similar (36)  |  Slow (108)  |  Stage (152)  |  Stand (284)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wholly (88)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

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)  |  Really (77)  |  Reason (766)  |  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 almost irresistible for humans to believe that we have some special relation to the universe, that human life is not just a more-or-less farcical outcome of a chain of accidents reaching back to the first three minutes, but that we were somehow built in from the beginning.
The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Back (395)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Belief (615)  |  Chain (51)  |  Farce (5)  |  First (1302)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Life (1870)  |  Minute (129)  |  More (2558)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Special (188)  |  Universe (900)

It is certainly true in the United States that there is an uneasiness about certain aspects of science, particularly evolution, because it conflicts, in some people’s minds, with their sense of how we all came to be. But you know, if you are a believer in God, it’s hard to imagine that God would somehow put this incontrovertible evidence in front of us about our relationship to other living organisms and expect us to disbelieve it. I mean, that doesn't make sense at all.
From video of interview with Huffington post reporter at the 2014 Davos Annual Meeting, World Economic Forum (25 Jan 2014). On web page 'Dr. Francis Collins: “There Is An Uneasiness” About Evolution'
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Believer (26)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Conflict (77)  |  Disbelief (4)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  God (776)  |  Hard (246)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Incontrovertible (8)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Mean (810)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  People (1031)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Somehow (48)  |  State (505)

It is the relationship between the physical environment and the environed organism, between physiography and ontography (to coin a term), that constitutes the essential principles of geography today.
'Systematic Geography', read 3 April 1902. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, 1902, 41, 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Constitute (99)  |  Environment (239)  |  Essential (210)  |  Geography (39)  |  Organism (231)  |  Physical (518)  |  Principle (530)  |  Term (357)  |  Today (321)

James Watt patented his steam engine on the eve of the American Revolution, consummating a relationship between coal and the new Promethean spirit of the age, and humanity made its first tentative steps into an industrial way of life that would, over the next two centuries, forever change the world.
In The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth (2002), 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Century (319)  |  Change (639)  |  Coal (64)  |  Consummation (7)  |  Engine (99)  |  Eve (4)  |  First (1302)  |  Forever (111)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Industrial Revolution (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  New (1273)  |  Next (238)  |  Patent (34)  |  Prometheus (7)  |  Revolution (133)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Steam (81)  |  Steam Engine (47)  |  Step (234)  |  Tentative (18)  |  Two (936)  |  James Watt (11)  |  Way (1214)  |  Way Of Life (15)  |  World (1850)

Kepler’s principal goal was to explain the relationship between the existence of five planets (and their motions) and the five regular solids. It is customary to sneer at Kepler for this. … It is instructive to compare this with the current attempts to “explain” the zoology of elementary particles in terms of irreducible representations of Lie groups.
In Celestial Mechanics (1969), Vol. 1, 95.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Compare (76)  |  Current (122)  |  Customary (18)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Goal (155)  |  Irreducible (7)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Lie (370)  |  Lie Group (2)  |  Motion (320)  |  Particle (200)  |  Planet (402)  |  Principal (69)  |  Regular (48)  |  Representation (55)  |  Sneer (9)  |  Solid (119)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Zoology (38)

Laplace’s equation is the most famous and most universal of all partial differential equations. No other single equation has so many deep and diverse mathematical relationships and physical applications.
In G.F.D. Duff and D. Naylor (co-authors), Differential Equations of Applied Mathematics (1966), 133.
Science quotes on:  |  Application (257)  |  Diverse (20)  |  Equation (138)  |  Famous (12)  |  Pierre-Simon Laplace (63)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Partial Differential (2)  |  Physical (518)  |  Universal (198)

Life ... is a relationship between molecules.
Quoted In T. Hager, Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling (1997), 542.
Science quotes on:  |  Life (1870)  |  Molecule (185)

Literature stands related to Man as Science stands to Nature; it is his history.
Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education. Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin (1852), Discourse 10, 353.
Science quotes on:  |  History (716)  |  Literature (116)  |  Man (2252)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Stand (284)

Man’s relationship to the sea today is that of the Stone Age culture. We like to think we are pretty modern, but in the sea we are still hunting and gathering.
From 'Remarks Delivered at Symposium', after Ray’s paper, 'The Scientific Need for Shallow-Water Marine Sanctuaries,' collected as Article VI, in Julia Allen Field and Henry Field (eds.), Scientific Use of Natural Areas: Symposium (1965), 92. The Symposium was the XVI International Congress of Zoology, Washington (Aug 1963).
Science quotes on:  |  Gather (76)  |  Hunt (32)  |  Modern (402)  |  Sea (326)  |  Stone Age (14)

Mathematical science is in my opinion an indivisible whole, an organism whose vitality is conditioned upon the connection of its parts. For with all the variety of mathematical knowledge, we are still clearly conscious of the similarity of the logical devices, the relationship of the ideas in mathematics as a whole and the numerous analogies in its different departments.
In 'Mathematical Problems', Bulletin American Mathematical Society, 8, 478.
Science quotes on:  |  Analogy (76)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Condition (362)  |  Connection (171)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Department (93)  |  Device (71)  |  Different (595)  |  Idea (881)  |  Indivisible (22)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Logical (57)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature Of Mathematics (80)  |  Numerous (70)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Organism (231)  |  Part (235)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Still (614)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vitality (24)  |  Whole (756)

Morphological information has provided the greatest single source of data in the formulation and development of the theory of evolution and that even now, when the preponderance of work is experimental, the basis for interpretation in many areas of study remains the form and relationships of structures.
'Morphology, Paleontology, and Evolution', in Sol Tax (ed.), Evolution After Darwin, Vol. 1, The Evolution of Life (1960), 524.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Data (162)  |  Development (441)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Form (976)  |  Formulation (37)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Information (173)  |  Interpretation (89)  |  Morphology (22)  |  Preponderance (2)  |  Provide (79)  |  Remain (355)  |  Single (365)  |  Source (101)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Work (1402)

Much scientific truth proved to be as hypothetical as poetic allegory. The relationshiip of those rod-connected blue and red balls to an actual atomic structure was about the same as the relationship of Christianity to the fish or the Lamb.
Another Roadside Attraction (1990), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Allegory (8)  |  Atomic Structure (4)  |  Ball (64)  |  Connect (126)  |  Fish (130)  |  Model (106)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Structure (365)  |  Truth (1109)

Neither physical science nor psychology can ever ‘explain’ human consciousness. To me then, human consciousness lies outside science, and it is here that I seek the relationship between God and man.
In Can scientists believe? (1991), 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Explain (334)  |  God (776)  |  Human (1512)  |  Lie (370)  |  Man (2252)  |  Outside (141)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Science (104)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Seek (218)

No one really understood music unless he was a scientist, her father had declared, and not just a scientist, either, oh, no, only the real ones, the theoreticians, whose language mathematics. She had not understood mathematics until he had explained to her that it was the symbolic language of relationships. “And relationships,” he had told her, “contained the essential meaning of life.”
In The Goddess Abides, (1972), 20.
Science quotes on:  |  Contain (68)  |  Declare (48)  |  Declared (24)  |  Essential (210)  |  Explain (334)  |  Father (113)  |  Language (308)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Music (133)  |  Real (159)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)

Nobody knows more than a tiny fragment of science well enough to judge its validity and value at first hand. For the rest he has to rely on views accepted at second hand on the authority of a community of people accredited as scientists. But this accrediting depends in its turn on a complex organization. For each member of the community can judge at first hand only a small number of his fellow members, and yet eventually each is accredited by all. What happens is that each recognizes as scientists a number of others by whom he is recognized as such in return, and these relations form chains which transmit these mutual recognitions at second hand through the whole community. This is how each member becomes directly or indirectly accredited by all. The system extends into the past. Its members recognize the same set of persons as their masters and derive from this allegiance a common tradition, of which each carries on a particular strand.
Personal Knowledge (1958), 163.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Acceptance (56)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Carrying (7)  |  Chain (51)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Complex (202)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependance (4)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Derive (70)  |  Directly (25)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Extend (129)  |  Extension (60)  |  Fellow (88)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Fragment (58)  |  Happen (282)  |  Happening (59)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Judge (114)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Master (182)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Number (710)  |  Organization (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Rest (287)  |  Return (133)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Secondhand (6)  |  Set (400)  |  Small (489)  |  Strand (9)  |  System (545)  |  Through (846)  |  Tiny (74)  |  Tradition (76)  |  Transmission (34)  |  Turn (454)  |  Validity (50)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)  |  Whole (756)

Nothing I then learned [in high school] had any bearing at all on the big and real questions. Who am I? What am I doing here? What is the world? What is my relationship to it?
This View of Life: the World of an Evolutionist (1964), 37.
Science quotes on:  |  Doing (277)  |  High (370)  |  High School (15)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Question (649)  |  Real (159)  |  School (227)  |  World (1850)

Numbers … were his friends. In the simplest array of digits [Ramanujan] detected wonderful properties: congruences, symmetries and relationships which had escaped the notice of even the outstandingly gifted theoreticians.
In James R. Newman (ed.), 'Commentary on Srinivasa Ramanujan', The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 1, 367.
Science quotes on:  |  Array (5)  |  Congruence (3)  |  Detect (45)  |  Detection (19)  |  Digit (4)  |  Escape (85)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Notice (81)  |  Number (710)  |  Outstanding (16)  |  Property (177)  |  Srinivasa Ramanujan (17)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Symmetry (44)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Wonder (251)  |  Wonderful (155)

Once upon a time we were just plain people. But that was before we began having relationships with mechanical systems. Get involved with a machine and sooner or later you are reduced to a factor.
In 'The Human Factor,' The Washington Post (Jan 1987).
Science quotes on:  |  Involved (90)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  People (1031)  |  System (545)  |  Time (1911)

One of the great problems of philosophy, is the relationship between the realm of knowledge and the realm of values. Knowledge is what is; values are what ought to be. I would say that all traditional philosophies up to and including Marxism have tried to derive the “ought” from the “is.” My point of view is that this is impossible, this is a farce.
Quoted in John C. Hess, 'French Nobel Biologist Says World Based On Chance', New York Times (15 Mar 1971), 6. Cited in Barbara Bennett, Linda Amster, Who Said what (and When, and Where, and How) in 1971 (1972, 168.
Science quotes on:  |  Derive (70)  |  Farce (5)  |  Great (1610)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Problem (731)  |  Realm (87)  |  Say (989)  |  Value (393)  |  View (496)

Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationship to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Complex (202)  |  Degree (277)  |  External (62)  |  Generally (15)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infinitely (13)  |  Inherit (35)  |  Inherited (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Offspring (27)  |  Organic (161)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Owing (39)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Proceed (134)  |  Proceeding (38)  |  Profitable (29)  |  Slight (32)  |  Species (435)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Tend (124)  |  Variation (93)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Will (2350)

Perhaps the least inadequate description of the general scope of modern Pure Mathematics—I will not call it a definition—would be to say that it deals with form, in a very general sense of the term; this would include algebraic form, functional relationship, the relations of order in any ordered set of entities such as numbers, and the analysis of the peculiarities of form of groups of operations.
In Presidential Address British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sheffield, Section A, Nature (1 Sep 1910), 84, 287.
Science quotes on:  |  Algebra (117)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Call (781)  |  Deal (192)  |  Definition (238)  |  Definitions and Objects of Mathematics (33)  |  Entity (37)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  Group (83)  |  Inadequate (20)  |  Include (93)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Modern (402)  |  Number (710)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Order (638)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Relation (166)  |  Say (989)  |  Scope (44)  |  Sense (785)  |  Set (400)  |  Term (357)  |  Will (2350)

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. One seeks the most general ideas of operation which will bring together in simple, logical and unified form the largest possible circle of formal relationships. In this effort toward logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Circle (117)  |  Deep (241)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Effort (243)  |  Form (976)  |  Formula (102)  |  General (521)  |  Idea (881)  |  Largest (39)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Operation (221)  |  Penetration (18)  |  Poetry (150)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seeking (31)  |  Simple (426)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Together (392)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

Radioactivity is a new primary science owing allegiance neither to physics nor chemistry, as these sciences were understood before its advent, because it is concerned with a knowledge of the elementary atoms themselves of a character so fundamental and intimate that the old laws of physics and chemistry, concerned almost wholly with external relationships, do not suffice.
In 'The Discovery of Radioactivity: Radioactivity, a New Science', The Interpretation of Radium and the Structure of the Atom (4th ed., 1920), 2-3.
Science quotes on:  |  Advent (7)  |  Allegiance (5)  |  Atom (381)  |  Character (259)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Concern (239)  |  Elementary (98)  |  External (62)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Intimate (21)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Old (499)  |  Physics (564)  |  Primary (82)  |  Radioactivity (33)  |  Understand (648)

Research is an effort of the mind to comprehend relationships no one has previously known; and it is practical as well as theoretical.
Shown as a slogan of Bell Telephone Laboratories in a Bell Telephone System advertisement, 'The Search That Never Ends', placed, for example, in Life Magazine (17 Jan 1944), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Comprehend (44)  |  Definition (238)  |  Effort (243)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Practical (225)  |  Previously (12)  |  Research (753)  |  Theoretical (27)

Samoa culture demonstrates how much the tragic or the easy solution of the Oedipus situation depends upon the inter-relationship between parents and children, and is not created out of whole cloth by the young child’s biological impulses.
Male and Female: A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World (1949), 119.
Science quotes on:  |  Biological (137)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Culture (157)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Depend (238)  |  Easy (213)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Inter (12)  |  Inter-Relationship (2)  |  Oedipus (2)  |  Parent (80)  |  Situation (117)  |  Solution (282)  |  Tragic (19)  |  Whole (756)  |  Young (253)

Since disease originates in the elementary cell, the organization and microscopic functions of which reproduce the general organization exactly and in all its relationships, nothing is more suited to simplifying the work of classification and of systematic division than to take the elementary cell as the basis of division.
As quoted in article, Marc Klein,'François-Vincent Raspail', in Charles Coulston Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1975). Vol.11, 300-301.
Science quotes on:  |  Basis (180)  |  Cell (146)  |  Classification (102)  |  Disease (340)  |  Division (67)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Function (235)  |  General (521)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  More (2558)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Organization (120)  |  Originate (39)  |  Reproduce (12)  |  Simplify (14)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Work (1402)

Success is achievable without public recognition, and the world has many unsung heroes. The teacher who inspires you to pursue your education to your ultimate ability is a success. The parents who taught you the noblest human principles are a success. The coach who shows you the importance of teamwork is a success. The spiritual leader who instills in you spiritual values and faith is a success. The relatives, friends, and neighbors with whom you develop a reciprocal relationship of respect and support - they, too, are successes. The most menial workers can properly consider themselves successful if they perform their best and if the product of their work is of service to humanity.
From 'Getting to the Heart of Success', in Jim Stovall, Success Secrets of Super Achievers: Winning Insights from Those Who Are at the Top (1999), 42-43.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Best (467)  |  Coach (5)  |  Consider (428)  |  Develop (278)  |  Education (423)  |  Faith (209)  |  Friend (180)  |  Hero (45)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humanity (186)  |  Importance (299)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Leader (51)  |  Most (1728)  |  Neighbor (14)  |  Parent (80)  |  Perform (123)  |  Principle (530)  |  Product (166)  |  Public (100)  |  Pursue (63)  |  Reciprocal (7)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Relative (42)  |  Respect (212)  |  Service (110)  |  Show (353)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Success (327)  |  Successful (134)  |  Support (151)  |  Teacher (154)  |  Teamwork (6)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Ultimate (152)  |  Unsung (4)  |  Value (393)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worker (34)  |  World (1850)

Such is the privilege of genius; it perceives, it seizes relations where vulgar eyes see only isolated facts.
In François Arago, trans. by William Henry Smyth, Baden Powell and Robert Grant, 'Fourier', Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859), Vol. 1, 412. From the original French, “Tel est le privilége du génie: il aperçoit, il saisit des rapports, là où des yeux vulgaires lie voient que des faits isolés.”
Science quotes on:  |  Eye (440)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Genius (301)  |  Isolation (32)  |  Perception (97)  |  Privilege (41)  |  See (1094)  |  Vulgar (33)

Taxonomy (the science of classification) is often undervalued as a glorified form of filing—with each species in its folder, like a stamp in its prescribed place in an album; but taxonomy is a fundamental and dynamic science, dedicated to exploring the causes of relationships and similarities among organisms. Classifications are theories about the basis of natural order, not dull catalogues compiled only to avoid chaos.
Wonderful Life (1989), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Avoid (123)  |  Basis (180)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Classification (102)  |  Dedicated (19)  |  Dull (58)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Natural (810)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Species (435)  |  Stamp (36)  |  Taxonomy (19)

The aim of science is not things themselves, as the dogmatists in their simplicity imagine, but the relation between things.
Science and Hypothesis, translated by William John Greenstreet, (1905, 1952), xxiv.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Dogmatist (4)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thing (1914)

The American Cancer Society's position on the question of a possible cause-effect relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is:
1. The evidence to date justifies suspicion that cigarette smoking does, to a degree as yet undetermined, increase the likelihood of developing cancer of the lung.
2. That available evidence does not constitute irrefutable proof that cigarette smoking is wholly or chiefly or partly responsible for lung cancer.
3. That the evidence at hand calls for the extension of statistical and laboratory studies designed to confirm or deny a causual relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.
4. That the society is committed to furthering such intensified investigation as its resources will permit.
Conclusions of statement after a meeting of the ACS board of directors in San Francisco (17 Mar 1954). Quoted in 'Tobacco Industry Denies Cancer Tie'. New York Times (14 Apr 1954), 51.
Science quotes on:  |  Available (80)  |  Call (781)  |  Cancer (61)  |  Cause (561)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Cigarette (26)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Degree (277)  |  Deny (71)  |  Design (203)  |  Effect (414)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Extension (60)  |  Increase (225)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Irrefutable (5)  |  Justification (52)  |  Laboratory (214)  |  Lung (37)  |  Lung Cancer (7)  |  Permit (61)  |  Possible (560)  |  Proof (304)  |  Question (649)  |  Research (753)  |  Smoking (27)  |  Society (350)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Suspicion (36)  |  Tobacco (19)  |  Wholly (88)  |  Will (2350)

The custom of giving patients appointments weeks in advance, during which time their illness may become seriously aggravated, seems to me to fall short of the ideal doctor-patient relationship.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Aggravate (2)  |  Appointment (12)  |  Become (821)  |  Custom (44)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Fall (243)  |  Give (208)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Illness (35)  |  Medicine (392)  |  Patient (209)  |  Seem (150)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Short (200)  |  Time (1911)  |  Week (73)

The determination of the relationship and mutual dependence of the facts in particular cases must be the first goal of the Physicist; and for this purpose he requires that an exact measurement may be taken in an equally invariable manner anywhere in the world… Also, the history of electricity yields a well-known truth—that the physicist shirking measurement only plays, different from children only in the nature of his game and the construction of his toys.
In 'Mémoire sur la mesure de force de l'électricité', Journal de Physique (1782), 21, 191. English version by Google Translate tweaked by Webmaster. From the original French, “La determination de la relation & de la dépendance mutuelle de ces données dans certains cas particuliers, doit être le premier but du Physicien; & pour cet effet, il falloit one mesure exacte qui indiquât d’une manière invariable & égale dans tous les lieux de la terre, le degré de l'électricité au moyen duquel les expéiences ont été faites… Aussi, l’histoire de l'électricité prouve une vérité suffisamment reconnue; c’est que le Physicien sans mesure ne fait que jouer, & qu’il ne diffère en cela des enfans, que par la nature de son jeu & la construction de ses jouets.”
Science quotes on:  |  Case (102)  |  Certain (557)  |  Child (333)  |  Children (201)  |  Construction (114)  |  Demonstration (120)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Determination (80)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Equally (129)  |  Exact (75)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  First (1302)  |  Game (104)  |  Goal (155)  |  History (716)  |  History Of Science (80)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Invariable (6)  |  Known (453)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Mutual (54)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Particular (80)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Play (116)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Toy (22)  |  Truth (1109)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

The engineer is concerned to travel from the abstract to the concrete. He begins with an idea and ends with an object. He journeys from theory to practice. The scientist’s job is the precise opposite. He explores nature with his telescopes or microscopes, or much more sophisticated techniques, and feeds into a computer what he finds or sees in an attempt to define mathematically its significance and relationships. He travels from the real to the symbolic, from the concrete to the abstract. The scientist and the engineer are the mirror image of each other.
In The Development of Design (1981), 19-20.
Science quotes on:  |  Abstract (141)  |  Attempt (266)  |  Begin (275)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Computer (131)  |  Concern (239)  |  Concrete (55)  |  Definition (238)  |  End (603)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Find (1014)  |  Idea (881)  |  Image (97)  |  Job (86)  |  Journey (48)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Microscope (85)  |  Mirror (43)  |  More (2558)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Other (2233)  |  Practice (212)  |  Precise (71)  |  Real (159)  |  Science And Engineering (16)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Significance (114)  |  Sophistication (12)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Technique (84)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Travel (125)  |  Travelling (17)

The facts obtained in this study may possibly be sufficient proof of the causal relationship, that only the most sceptical can raise the objection that the discovered microorganism is not the cause but only an accompaniment of the disease... It is necessary to obtain a perfect proof to satisfy oneself that the parasite and the disease are ... actually causally related, and that the parasite is the... direct cause of the disease. This can only be done by completely separating the parasite from the diseased organism [and] introducing the isolated parasite into healthy organisms and induce the disease anew with all its characteristic symptoms and properties.
Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift (1882), 393. Quoted in Edward J. Huth and T. Jock Murray (eds.), Medicine in Quotations: Views of Health and Disease Through the Ages (2000), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Anew (19)  |  Cause (561)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Completely (137)  |  Direct (228)  |  Discover (571)  |  Disease (340)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Healthy (70)  |  Induce (24)  |  Microorganism (29)  |  Most (1728)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Objection (34)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Oneself (33)  |  Organism (231)  |  Parasite (33)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Possibly (111)  |  Proof (304)  |  Sceptic (5)  |  Study (701)  |  Sufficient (133)  |  Symptom (38)

The first nonabsolute number is the number of people for whom the table is reserved. This will vary during the course of the first three telephone calls to the restaurant, and then bear no apparent relation to the number of people who actually turn up, or to the number of people who subsequently join them after the show/match/party/gig, or to the number of people who leave when they see who else has turned up.
The second nonabsolute number is the given time of arrival, which is now known to be one of the most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexcluson, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself. In other words, the given time of arrival is the one moment of time at which it is impossible that any member of the party will arrive. Recipriversexclusons now play a vital part in many branches of math, including statistics and accountancy and also form the basic equations used to engineer the Somebody Else’s Problem field.
The third and most mysterious piece of nonabsoluteness of all lies in the relationship between the number of items on the check [bill], the cost of each item, the number of people at the table and what they are each prepared to pay for. (The number of people who have actually brought any money is only a subphenomenon of this field.)
Life, the Universe and Everything (1982, 1995), 47-48.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Arrival (15)  |  Basic (144)  |  Bear (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Bill (14)  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Cost (94)  |  Course (413)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Equation (138)  |  Existence (481)  |  Field (378)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Known (453)  |  Lie (370)  |  Match (30)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Moment (260)  |  Money (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Party (19)  |  People (1031)  |  Person (366)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reservation (7)  |  Restaurant (3)  |  See (1094)  |  Show (353)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Table (105)  |  Telephone (31)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Vital (89)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

The influence of modern physics goes beyond technology. It extends to the realm of thought and culture where it has led to a deep revision in man’s conception of the universe and his relation to it
In The Tao of Physics (1975), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Beyond (316)  |  Conception (160)  |  Culture (157)  |  Deep (241)  |  Extend (129)  |  Influence (231)  |  Man (2252)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Physics (23)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Realm (87)  |  Revision (7)  |  Technology (281)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)

The Law of Inhibition. The strength of a reflex may be decreased through presentation of a second stimulus which has no other relation to the effector involved.
In The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (1938), 17.
Science quotes on:  |  Decrease (16)  |  Inhibition (13)  |  Involve (93)  |  Involved (90)  |  Law (913)  |  Other (2233)  |  Presentation (24)  |  Reflex (14)  |  Stimulus (30)  |  Strength (139)  |  Through (846)

The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhere near to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries—the first appearance of new beings on this earth.
Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, 2nd edn. (1845), 377-8.
Science quotes on:  |  Aboriginal (3)  |  America (143)  |  Appearance (145)  |  Archipelago (7)  |  Astonish (39)  |  Attach (57)  |  Attached (36)  |  Attention (196)  |  Being (1276)  |  Both (496)  |  Character (259)  |  Colonist (2)  |  Continent (79)  |  Crater (8)  |  Creation (350)  |  Crown (39)  |  Curious (95)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinct (98)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Great (1610)  |  History (716)  |  Inhabitant (50)  |  Island (49)  |  Lava (12)  |  Little (717)  |  Marked (55)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural History (77)  |  New (1273)  |  Number (710)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Open (277)  |  Organic (161)  |  Period (200)  |  Production (190)  |  Range (104)  |  Recent (78)  |  Satellite (30)  |  Seeing (143)  |  Show (353)  |  Small (489)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Spread (86)  |  Still (614)  |  Stream (83)  |  Time (1911)  |  World (1850)

The notion of evolution predicts the nested pattern of relationships we find in the living world; supernatural creation, on the other hand, predicts nothing. It is concepts of this latter kind that are truly untestable.
In The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human (2003), 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Find (1014)  |  Kind (564)  |  Living (492)  |  Nest (26)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Notion (120)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pattern (116)  |  Predict (86)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Truly (118)  |  World (1850)

The philosopher of science is not much interested in the thought processes which lead to scientific discoveries; he looks for a logical analysis of the completed theory, including the relationships establishing its validity. That is, he is not interested in the context of discovery, but in the context of justification.
In'The Philosophical Significance of the Theory of Relativity' (1949), collected in P.A. Schilpp (ed), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1969), 292. As quoted and cited in Stanley Goldberg, Understanding Relativity: Origin and Impact of a Scientific Revolution (1984, 2013), 306.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Completed (30)  |  Context (31)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Interest (416)  |  Justification (52)  |  Lead (391)  |  Logic (311)  |  Look (584)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Process (439)  |  Science And Philosophy (6)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)  |  Validity (50)

The reciprocal relationship of epistemology and science is of noteworthy kind. They are dependent on each other. Epistemology without contact with science becomes an empty scheme. Science without epistemology is–insofar as it is thinkable at all–primitive and muddled.
In Ralph Keyesr, The Quote Verifier, 51-52.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Contact (66)  |  Empty (82)  |  Epistemology (8)  |  Kind (564)  |  Other (2233)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Thinkable (5)

The relationships of free and latent heat set forth in the language of the materialistic theory remain the same if in place of the quantity of matter we put the constant quantity of motion in accordance with the laws of mechanics. The only difference enters where it concerns the generations of heat through other motive forces and where it concerns the equivalent of heat that can be produced by a particular quantity of a mechanical or electrical force.
'Wärme, physiologisch', Handwörterbuch der medicinischen Wissenschaften (1845). In Timothy Lenoir, The Strategy of Life (1982), 203.
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Constant (148)  |  Difference (355)  |  Electrical (57)  |  Enter (145)  |  Equivalent (46)  |  Force (497)  |  Free (239)  |  Generation (256)  |  Heat (180)  |  Language (308)  |  Latent Heat (7)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanic (120)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Mechanics (137)  |  Motion (320)  |  Motive (62)  |  Other (2233)  |  Produced (187)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Remain (355)  |  Set (400)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Through (846)

The role of biology today, like the role of every other science, is simply to describe, and when it explains it does not mean that it arrives at finality; it only means that some descriptions are so charged with significance that they expose the relationship of cause and effect.
As quoted in Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman (eds.), Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), 37. Webmaster so far has not found the primary source (can you help?)
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Cause (561)  |  Cause And Effect (21)  |  Describe (132)  |  Effect (414)  |  Explain (334)  |  Expose (28)  |  Finality (8)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Other (2233)  |  Role (86)  |  Significance (114)  |  Today (321)

The same society which receives the rewards of technology must, as a cooperating whole, take responsibility for control. To deal with these new problems will require a new conservation. We must not only protect the countryside and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities. Our conservation must be not just the classic conservation of protection and development, but a creative conservation of restoration and innovation. Its concern is not with nature alone, but with the total relation between man and the world around him. Its object is not just man's welfare, but the dignity of man's spirit.
In his 'Message to Congress on Conservation and Restoration of Natural Beauty' written to Congress (8 Feb 1965). It was a broad initiative aimed at beautifying America, guaranteeing water and air quality, and preserving natural areas. In Lyndon B. Johnson: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President (1965), Vol.1, 156. United States. President (1963-1969 : Johnson), Lyndon Baines Johnson, United States. Office of the Federal Register - 1970
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Charm (54)  |  City (87)  |  Classic (13)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Control (182)  |  Cooperation (38)  |  Countryside (5)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Deal (192)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destruction (135)  |  Development (441)  |  Dignity (44)  |  Environment (239)  |  Innovation (49)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Object (438)  |  Problem (731)  |  Protect (65)  |  Protection (41)  |  Receive (117)  |  Require (229)  |  Requirement (66)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Restoration (5)  |  Reward (72)  |  Salvage (2)  |  Save (126)  |  Saving (20)  |  Society (350)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Technology (281)  |  Total (95)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

The vast outpourings of publications by Professor Djerassi and his cohorts marks him as one of the most prolific scientific writers of our day... a plot of N, the papers published by Professor Djerassi in a given year, against T, the year (starting with 1945, T = 0) gives a good straight-line relationship. This line follows the equation N = 2.413T + 1.690 ... Assuming that the inevitable inflection point on the logistic curve is still some 10 years away, this equation predicts (a) a total of about 444 papers by the end of this year, (b) the average production of one paper per week or more every year beginning in 1966, and (c) the winning of the all-time productivity world championship in 10 years from now, in 1973. In that year Professor Djerassi should surpass the record of 995 items held by ...
Steroids Made it Possible (1990), 11-12.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Average (89)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Curve (49)  |  End (603)  |  Equation (138)  |  Follow (389)  |  Good (906)  |  Inevitable (53)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Paper (192)  |  Point (584)  |  Predict (86)  |  Production (190)  |  Productivity (23)  |  Professor (133)  |  Publication (102)  |  Record (161)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Still (614)  |  Straight (75)  |  Surpass (33)  |  Time (1911)  |  Total (95)  |  Vast (188)  |  Week (73)  |  Winning (19)  |  World (1850)  |  Writer (90)  |  Year (963)

There is no art so difficult as the art of observation: it requires a skillful, sober spirit and a well-trained experience, which can only be acquired by practice; for he is not an observer who only sees the thing before him with his eyes, but he who sees of what parts the thing consists, and in what connexion the parts stand to the whole. One person overlooks half from inattention; another relates more than he sees while he confounds it with that which he figures to himself; another sees the parts of the whole, but he throws things together that ought to be separated. ... When the observer has ascertained the foundation of a phenomenon, and he is able to associate its conditions, he then proves while he endeavours to produce the phenomena at his will, the correctness of his observations by experiment. To make a series of experiments is often to decompose an opinion into its individual parts, and to prove it by a sensible phenomenon. The naturalist makes experiments in order to exhibit a phenomenon in all its different parts. When he is able to show of a series of phenomena, that they are all operations of the same cause, he arrives at a simple expression of their significance, which, in this case, is called a Law of Nature. We speak of a simple property as a Law of Nature when it serves for the explanation of one or more natural phenomena.
'The Study of the Natural Sciences: An Introductory Lecture to the Course of Experimental Chemistry in the University of Munich, for the Winter Session of 1852-53,' as translated and republished in The Medical Times and Gazette (22 Jan 1853), N.S. Vol. 6, 82.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Art (680)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Associate (25)  |  Call (781)  |  Carelessness (7)  |  Cause (561)  |  Component (51)  |  Condition (362)  |  Confound (21)  |  Confuse (22)  |  Consist (223)  |  Correctness (12)  |  Decompose (10)  |  Demonstrate (79)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Expression (181)  |  Eye (440)  |  Figure (162)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Himself (461)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inattention (5)  |  Individual (420)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Nature (80)  |  More (2558)  |  Natural (810)  |  Naturalist (79)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observer (48)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Order (638)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Practice (212)  |  Produce (117)  |  Proof (304)  |  Property (177)  |  Prove (261)  |  Report (42)  |  Require (229)  |  Result (700)  |  See (1094)  |  Sensible (28)  |  Separate (151)  |  Series (153)  |  Show (353)  |  Significance (114)  |  Simple (426)  |  Skillful (17)  |  Sober (10)  |  Speak (240)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (221)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Together (392)  |  Train (118)  |  Training (92)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Validity (50)  |  Verify (24)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)

There is no sharp boundary line separating the reactions of the immune bodies from chemical processes between crystalloids, just as in nature there exists every stage between crystalloid and colloid. The nearer the colloid particle approximates to the normal electrolyte, the nearer its compounds must obviously come to conforming to the law of simple stoichiometric proportions, and the compounds themselves to simple chemical compounds. At this point, it should be recalled that Arrhenius has shown that the quantitative relationship between toxin and antitoxin is very similar to that between acid and base.
Landsteiner and Nicholas von Jagic, 'Uber Reaktionen anorganischer Kolloide und Immunkorper', Münchener medizinischer Wochenschrift (1904), 51, 1185-1189. Trans. Pauline M. H. Mazumdar.
Science quotes on:  |  Acid (83)  |  Antitoxin (2)  |  Approximate (25)  |  Svante Arrhenius (11)  |  Base (120)  |  Boundary (55)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Colloid (5)  |  Compound (117)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Electrolyte (4)  |  Exist (458)  |  Immunology (14)  |  Law (913)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearer (45)  |  Particle (200)  |  Point (584)  |  Proportion (140)  |  Quantitative (31)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stage (152)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Toxin (8)

This method is, to define as the number of a class the class of all classes similar to the given class. Membership of this class of classes (considered as a predicate) is a common property of all the similar classes and of no others; moreover every class of the set of similar classes has to the set of a relation which it has to nothing else, and which every class has to its own set. Thus the conditions are completely fulfilled by this class of classes, and it has the merit of being determinate when a class is given, and of being different for two classes which are not similar. This, then, is an irreproachable definition of the number of a class in purely logical terms.
The Principles of Mathematics (1903), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Class (168)  |  Common (447)  |  Completely (137)  |  Condition (362)  |  Consider (428)  |  Definition (238)  |  Determination (80)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Fulfillment (20)  |  Irreproachable (2)  |  Logic (311)  |  Membership (6)  |  Merit (51)  |  Method (531)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Predicate (3)  |  Property (177)  |  Purely (111)  |  Set (400)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Two (936)

Those of us who were familiar with the state of inorganic chemistry in universities twenty to thirty years ago will recall that at that time it was widely regarded as a dull and uninteresting part of the undergraduate course. Usually, it was taught almost entirely in the early years of the course and then chiefly as a collection of largely unconnected facts. On the whole, students concluded that, apart from some relationships dependent upon the Periodic table, there was no system in inorganic chemistry comparable with that to be found in organic chemistry, and none of the rigour and logic which characterised physical chemistry. It was widely believed that the opportunities for research in inorganic chemistry were few, and that in any case the problems were dull and uninspiring; as a result, relatively few people specialized in the subject... So long as inorganic chemistry is regarded as, in years gone by, as consisting simply of the preparations and analysis of elements and compounds, its lack of appeal is only to be expected. The stage is now past and for the purpose of our discussion we shall define inorganic chemistry today as the integrated study of the formation, composition, structure and reactions of the chemical elements and compounds, excepting most of those of carbon.
Inaugural Lecture delivered at University College, London (1 Mar 1956). In The Renaissance of Inorganic Chemistry (1956), 4-5.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Appeal (46)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Chiefly (47)  |  Collection (68)  |  Composition (86)  |  Compound (117)  |  Course (413)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Dull (58)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Expect (203)  |  Expectation (67)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Few (15)  |  Formation (100)  |  Inorganic Chemistry (4)  |  Integrated (10)  |  Lack (127)  |  Logic (311)  |  Long (778)  |  Most (1728)  |  Opportunity (95)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Periodic Table (19)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physical Chemistry (6)  |  Preparation (60)  |  Problem (731)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Recall (11)  |  Regard (312)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Rigour (21)  |  Specialization (24)  |  Stage (152)  |  State (505)  |  Structure (365)  |  Student (317)  |  Study (701)  |  Subject (543)  |  System (545)  |  Table (105)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  Unconnected (10)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Uninteresting (9)  |  University (130)  |  Usually (176)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Year (963)

To characterize the import of pure geometry, we might use the standard form of a movie-disclaimer: No portrayal of the characteristics of geometrical figures or of the spatial properties of relationships of actual bodies is intended, and any similarities between the primitive concepts and their customary geometrical connotations are purely coincidental.
From 'Geometry and Empirical Science', collected in Carl Hempel and James H. Fetzer (ed.), The Philosophy of Carl G. Hempel: Studies in Science, Explanation, and Rationality (2001), Chap. 2, 24. Also Carl Hempel, 'Geometry and Empirical Science', collected in J.R. Newman (ed.), The World of Mathematics (1956), Vol. 3, 1641.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  Body (557)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Characterize (22)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connotation (2)  |  Customary (18)  |  Disclaimer (2)  |  Figure (162)  |  Form (976)  |  Geometrical (11)  |  Geometry (271)  |  Importance (299)  |  Intend (18)  |  Movie (21)  |  Portrayal (2)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Property (177)  |  Pure (299)  |  Purely (111)  |  Similarity (32)  |  Spatial (10)  |  Use (771)

We have very strong physical and chemical evidence for a large impact; this is the most firmly established part of the whole story. There is an unquestionable mass extinction at this time, and in the fossil groups for which we have the best record, the extinction coincides with the impact to a precision of a centimeter or better in the stratigraphic record. This exact coincidence in timing strongly argues for a causal relationship.
Referring to the theory that he, and his father (physicist Luis W. Alvarez), held that dinosaurs abruptly went extinct as a result of a 6-mile-wide asteroid or comet struck the earth. In American Geophysical Union, EOS (2 Sep 1986), as quoted and cited in John Noble Wilford, 'New Data Extend Era of Dinosaurs' New York Times (9 Nov 1986), A41.
Science quotes on:  |  Argue (25)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Causal (7)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Coincide (6)  |  Coincidence (20)  |  Dinosaur (26)  |  Establish (63)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Exact (75)  |  Extinction (80)  |  Fossil (143)  |  Impact (45)  |  Large (398)  |  Mass (160)  |  Mass Extinction (4)  |  Most (1728)  |  Physical (518)  |  Precision (72)  |  Record (161)  |  Story (122)  |  Strong (182)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unquestionable (10)  |  Whole (756)

We know that nature invariably uses the same materials in its operations. Its ingeniousness is displayed only in the variation of form. Indeed, as if nature had voluntarily confined itself to using only a few basic units, we observe that it generally causes the same elements to reappear, in the same number, in the same circumstances, and in the same relationships to one another. If an organ happens to grow in an unusual manner, it exerts a considerable influence on adjacent parts, which as a result fail to reach their standard degree of development.
'Considérations sur les pieces de la tête osseuse des animaux vertebras, et particulièrement sur celle du crane des oiseaux', Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 1807, 10, 343. Trans. J. Mandelbaum. Quoted in Pietro Corsi, The Age of Lamarck (1988), 232.
Science quotes on:  |  Basic (144)  |  Cause (561)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Degree (277)  |  Development (441)  |  Display (59)  |  Element (322)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exert (40)  |  Fail (191)  |  Form (976)  |  Grow (247)  |  Happen (282)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Influence (231)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Know (1538)  |  Material (366)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Number (710)  |  Observe (179)  |  Operation (221)  |  Operations (107)  |  Organ (118)  |  Reach (286)  |  Result (700)  |  Unusual (37)  |  Use (771)  |  Variation (93)

We may regard the cell quite apart from its familiar morphological aspects, and contemplate its constitution from the purely chemical standpoint. We are obliged to adopt the view, that the protoplasm is equipped with certain atomic groups, whose function especially consists in fixing to themselves food-stuffs, of importance to the cell-life. Adopting the nomenclature of organic chemistry, these groups may be designated side-chains. We may assume that the protoplasm consists of a special executive centre (Leistungs-centrum) in connection with which are nutritive side-chains… The relationship of the corresponding groups, i.e., those of the food-stuff, and those of the cell, must be specific. They must be adapted to one another, as, e.g., male and female screw (Pasteur), or as lock and key (E. Fischer).
Croonian Lecture, 'On Immunity with Special Reference to Cell Life', Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 1900, 66, 433-434.
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Aspect (129)  |  Cell (146)  |  Certain (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Chemistry (376)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consist (223)  |  Constitution (78)  |  Equipped (17)  |  Female (50)  |  Emil Fischer (7)  |  Food (213)  |  Function (235)  |  Importance (299)  |  Life (1870)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nomenclature (159)  |  Organic (161)  |  Organic Chemistry (41)  |  Louis Pasteur (85)  |  Protoplasm (13)  |  Purely (111)  |  Regard (312)  |  Screw (17)  |  Side (236)  |  Special (188)  |  Specific (98)  |  Standpoint (28)  |  Themselves (433)  |  View (496)

We need only reflect on what has been prov'd at large, that we are never sensible of any connexion betwixt causes and effects, and that 'tis only by our experience of their constant conjunction, we can arrive at any knowledge of this relation.
A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1888), book 1, part 4, section 165, 247.
Science quotes on:  |  Cause (561)  |  Conjunction (12)  |  Connection (171)  |  Constant (148)  |  Effect (414)  |  Experience (494)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Never (1089)  |  Proof (304)

Well-established theories collapse under the weight of new facts and observations which cannot be explained, and then accumulate to the point where the once useful theory is clearly obsolete.
[Using Thomas S. Kuhn's theories to frame his argument about the relationship beween science and technology: as new facts continue to accumulate, a new, more accurate paradigm must replace the old one.]
Al Gore
Commencement address at M.I.T. (7 Jun 1996). In obituary, 'Thomas S. Kuhn', The Tech (26 Jun 1996), 9.
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Accurate (88)  |  Argument (145)  |  Cannot (8)  |  Collapse (19)  |  Continue (179)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Facts (553)  |  Thomas S. Kuhn (24)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Observation (593)  |  Obsolete (15)  |  Old (499)  |  Paradigm (16)  |  Point (584)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Technology (281)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Weight (140)  |  Well-Established (6)

Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap. For example she could not produce a horse if it were not preceded by all the other animals on which she ascends to the horse’s structure as if on the rungs of a ladder. Thus every one thing exists for the sake of all things and all for the sake of one; for the one is of course the all as well. Nature, despite her seeming diversity, is always a unity, a whole; and thus, when she manifests herself in any part of that whole, the rest must serve as a basis for that particular manifestation, and the latter must have a relationship to the rest of the system.
Jeremy Naydler (ed.), Goethe On Science: An Anthology of Goethe's Scientific Writings (1996), 60
Science quotes on:  |  Animal (651)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Basis (180)  |  Course (413)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Exist (458)  |  Horse (78)  |  Ladder (18)  |  Leap (57)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rest (287)  |  Sake (61)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Structure (365)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Undertake (35)  |  Unity (81)  |  Whatever (234)  |  Whole (756)

When we speak of the picture of nature in the exact science of our age, we do not mean a picture of nature so much as a picture of our relationships with nature. The old division of the world into objective processes in space and time and the mind in which these processes are mirrored … is no longer a suitable starting point for our understanding of modern science. Science, we find, is now focused on the network of relationships between man and nature, on the framework which makes us as living beings dependent parts of nature, and which we as human beings have simultaneously made the object of our thoughts and actions. Science no longer confronts nature as an objective observer, but sees itself as an actor in this interplay between man and nature. The scientific method of analysing, explaining and classifying has become conscious of its limitations, which arise out of the fact that by its intervention science alters and refashions the object of investigation. In other words, method and object can no longer be separated. The scientific world view has ceased to be a scientific view in the true sense of the word.
From Das Naturbild der Heutigen Physik (1955). Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans, The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (1958), 29. Compare a similar but original translation by O. T. Benfey, 'The Representation of Nature in Contemporary Physics', in Daedalus (Summer 1958), 87, No. 3, 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Analysis (244)  |  Classification (102)  |  Exact (75)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Interplay (9)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Limitation (52)  |  Method (531)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Observer (48)  |  Picture (148)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Separate (151)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Starting Point (16)

While the method of the natural sciences is... analytic, the method of the social sciences is better described as compositive or synthetic. It is the so-called wholes, the groups of elements which are structurally connected, which we learn to single out from the totality of observed phenomena... Insofar as we analyze individual thought in the social sciences the purpose is not to explain that thought, but merely to distinguish the possible types of elements with which we shall have to reckon in the construction of different patterns of social relationships. It is a mistake... to believe that their aim is to explain conscious action ... The problems which they try to answer arise only insofar as the conscious action of many men produce undesigned results... If social phenomena showed no order except insofar as they were consciously designed, there would indeed be no room for theoretical sciences of society and there would be, as is often argued, only problems of psychology. It is only insofar as some sort of order arises as a result of individual action but without being designed by any individual that a problem is raised which demands a theoretical explanation... people dominated by the scientistic prejudice are often inclined to deny the existence of any such order... it can be shown briefly and without any technical apparatus how the independent actions of individuals will produce an order which is no part of their intentions... The way in which footpaths are formed in a wild broken country is such an instance. At first everyone will seek for himself what seems to him the best path. But the fact that such a path has been used once is likely to make it easier to traverse and therefore more likely to be used again; and thus gradually more and more clearly defined tracks arise and come to be used to the exclusion of other possible ways. Human movements through the region come to conform to a definite pattern which, although the result of deliberate decision of many people, has yet not be consciously designed by anyone.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Aim (175)  |  Analytic (11)  |  Analyze (12)  |  Answer (389)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Apparatus (70)  |  Argue (25)  |  Arise (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Best (467)  |  Better (493)  |  Break (109)  |  Briefly (5)  |  Broken (56)  |  Call (781)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Conform (15)  |  Connect (126)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Consciously (6)  |  Construction (114)  |  Country (269)  |  Decision (98)  |  Define (53)  |  Definite (114)  |  Deliberate (19)  |  Demand (131)  |  Deny (71)  |  Describe (132)  |  Design (203)  |  Different (595)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Dominate (20)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  Element (322)  |  Everyone (35)  |  Exclusion (16)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  First (1302)  |  Form (976)  |  Gradually (102)  |  Group (83)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Independent (74)  |  Individual (420)  |  Instance (33)  |  Intention (46)  |  Learn (672)  |  Likely (36)  |  Merely (315)  |  Method (531)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Observe (179)  |  Observed (149)  |  Often (109)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Part (235)  |  Path (159)  |  Pattern (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Possible (560)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Problem (731)  |  Produce (117)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Raise (38)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Region (40)  |  Result (700)  |  Room (42)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seem (150)  |  Show (353)  |  Single (365)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Social (261)  |  Social Science (37)  |  Society (350)  |  Sort (50)  |  Structurally (2)  |  Synthetic (27)  |  Technical (53)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Theoretical Science (4)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Totality (17)  |  Track (42)  |  Traverse (5)  |  Try (296)  |  Type (171)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wild (96)  |  Will (2350)

With moth cytochrome C there are 30 differences and 74 identities. With bread yeast and humans, there are about 45 amino acids that are different and about 59 that are identical. Think how close together man and this other organism, bread yeast, are. What is the probability that in 59 positions the same choice out of 20 possibilities would have been made by accident? It is impossibly small. There is, there must be, a developmental explanation of this. The developmental explanation is that bread yeast and man have a common ancestor, perhaps two billion years ago. And so we see that not only are all men brothers, but men and yeast cells, too, are at least close cousins, to say nothing about men and gorillas or rhesus monkeys. It is the duty of scientists to dispel ignorance of such relationships.
'The Social Responsibilities of Scientists and Science', The Science Teacher (1933), 33, 15.
Science quotes on:  |  Accident (92)  |  Acid (83)  |  Ancestor (63)  |  Billion (104)  |  Bread (42)  |  Brother (47)  |  Cell (146)  |  Choice (114)  |  Closeness (4)  |  Common (447)  |  Cousin (12)  |  Development (441)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Dispelling (4)  |  Duty (71)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Gorilla (19)  |  Human (1512)  |  Identical (55)  |  Identity (19)  |  Ignorance (254)  |  Man (2252)  |  Monkey (57)  |  Moth (5)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Organism (231)  |  Other (2233)  |  Position (83)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Probability (135)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientist (881)  |  See (1094)  |  Small (489)  |  Think (1122)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Year (963)  |  Yeast (7)

You can always create a fraction by putting one variable upstairs and another variable downstairs, but that soes not establish any causal relationship between them, nor does the resulting quotient have any necessary relationship to anything in the real world.
'Penetrating the Rhetoric', The Vision of the Anointed (1996), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Create (245)  |  Downstairs (3)  |  Fraction (16)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Variable (37)  |  World (1850)

You may object that by speaking of simplicity and beauty I am introducing aesthetic criteria of truth, and I frankly admit that I am strongly attracted by the simplicity and beauty of mathematical schemes which nature presents us. You must have felt this too: the almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of the relationship, which nature suddenly spreads out before us.
Letter to Albert Einstein. In Ian Stewart, Why Beauty is Truth (), 278.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Attract (25)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Criteria (6)  |  Frightening (3)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Present (630)  |  Scheme (62)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Spread (86)  |  Suddenly (91)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Wholeness (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.