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: “Environmental extremists ... wouldn�t let you build a house unless it looked like a bird�s nest.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Sailing

Sailing Quotes (14 quotes)

Nautae etiam mare legentes, cum beneficium claritatis solis in tempore nubilo non sentiunt, aut etiam cum caligne nocturnarum tenebrarum mundus obvolvitur, et ignorant in quem mundi cardinem prora tendat, acum super mangentem ponunt, quae circulariter circumvolvitur usque dum, ejus motu cessante.
Mariners at sea, when, through cloudy weather in the day which hides the sun, or through the darkness of night, they lose knowlege of the quarter of the world to which they are sailing, touch a needle with a magnet, which will turn round till, on its motion ceasing, its point will be directed towards the north.
De naturis rerum. Original Latin text quoted in Thomas Wright, A Volume of Vocabularies... (1873), 114. Translation from Lloyd A Brown, The Story of Maps (1980), 127.
Science quotes on:  |  Compass (37)  |  Darkness (72)  |  Direct (228)  |  Hide (70)  |  Ignorant (91)  |  Lose (165)  |  Magnet (22)  |  Magnetism (43)  |  Mariner (12)  |  Motion (320)  |  Point (584)  |  Sea (326)  |  Sun (407)  |  Through (846)  |  Touch (146)  |  Turn (454)  |  Weather (49)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

After an orange cloud—formed as a result of a dust storm over the Sahara and caught up by air currents—reached the Philippines and settled there with rain, I understood that we are all sailing in the same boat.
In Jack Hassard and Julie Weisberg , Environmental Science on the Net: The Global Thinking Project (1999), 40.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Boat (17)  |  Catch (34)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Current (122)  |  Dust (68)  |  Dust Storm (2)  |  Form (976)  |  Orange (15)  |  Philippines (3)  |  Rain (70)  |  Reach (286)  |  Result (700)  |  Sahara (2)  |  Sail (37)  |  Same (166)  |  Settle (23)  |  Settled (34)  |  Storm (56)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understood (155)

Coastal sailing as long as it is perfectly safe and easy commands no magic. Overseas expeditions are invariably bound up with ceremonies and ritual. Man resorts to magic only where chance and circumstances are not fully controlled by knowledge.
Culture (1931), 636.
Science quotes on:  |  Bound (120)  |  Ceremony (6)  |  Chance (244)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Coast (13)  |  Command (60)  |  Control (182)  |  Easy (213)  |  Expedition (9)  |  Invariably (35)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Long (778)  |  Magic (92)  |  Man (2252)  |  Ritual (9)  |  Safe (61)  |  Safety (58)

Herschel removed the speckled tent-roof from the world and exposed the immeasurable deeps of space, dim-flecked with fleets of colossal suns sailing their billion-leagued remoteness.
'The Secret History of Eddypus', in Mark Twain and David Ketterer (ed.), Tales of Wonder (2003), 223.
Science quotes on:  |  Billion (104)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Deep (241)  |  Exposed (33)  |  Fleck (2)  |  Sir William Herschel (14)  |  Remoteness (9)  |  Roof (14)  |  Space (523)  |  Speckled (3)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tent (13)  |  World (1850)

How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof! In such places standing alone on the mountain-top it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make - leaves and moss like the marmots and birds, or tents or piled stone - we all dwell in a house of one room - the world with the firmament for its roof - and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track.
John Muir
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Beast (58)  |  Bird (163)  |  Camp (12)  |  Celestial (53)  |  Dwell (19)  |  Easy (213)  |  Firmament (18)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Hard (246)  |  House (143)  |  Leave (138)  |  Moss (14)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nest (26)  |  Pile (12)  |  Place (192)  |  Realize (157)  |  Roof (14)  |  Room (42)  |  Sail (37)  |  Space (523)  |  Special (188)  |  Stand (284)  |  Star (460)  |  Stone (168)  |  Tent (13)  |  Top (100)  |  Track (42)  |  Whatever (234)  |  World (1850)

I hear the scream of a great hawk, sailing with a ragged wing against the high wood-side, apparently to scare his prey and so detect it—shrill, harsh, fitted to excite terror in sparrows and to issue from his split and curved bill. I see his open bill the while against the sky. Spit with force from his mouth with an undulatory quaver imparted to it from his wings or motion as he flies.
(15 Jun 1852). In Henry David Thoreau and Bradford Torrey (ed.), The Writings of Henry Thoreau: Journal: IV: May 1, 1852-February 27,, 1853 (1906), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Bill (14)  |  Detect (45)  |  Excite (17)  |  Fly (153)  |  Force (497)  |  Great (1610)  |  Harsh (9)  |  Hawk (4)  |  Hear (144)  |  High (370)  |  Impart (24)  |  Motion (320)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Open (277)  |  Ornithology (21)  |  Prey (13)  |  Scare (6)  |  Scream (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Shrill (2)  |  Side (236)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sparrow (6)  |  Terror (32)  |  Wing (79)  |  Wood (97)

It is a strange feeling which comes over one as he stands in the centre of the tunnel, and knows that a mighty river is rolling on over his head, and that great ships with their thousands of tons burthen, sail over him. ... There is no single work of Art in London (with the exception of St. Paul's Cathedral) which excites so much curiosity and admiration among foreigners as the Tunnel. Great buildings are common to all parts of Europe, but the world has not such another Tunnel as this. There is something grand in the idea of walking under a broad river—making a pathway dry and secure beneath ships and navies!
[About visiting Brunel's Thames Tunnel, the first in the world under a navigable waterway.]
What I Saw in London: or, Men and Things in the Great Metropolis (1853), 168-169.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Art (680)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Building (158)  |  Cathedral (27)  |  Centre (31)  |  Common (447)  |  Curiosity (138)  |  Dry (65)  |  Exception (74)  |  Feeling (259)  |  First (1302)  |  Great (1610)  |  Idea (881)  |  Know (1538)  |  Making (300)  |  Pathway (15)  |  River (140)  |  Sail (37)  |  Ship (69)  |  Single (365)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (284)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strangeness (10)  |  Thames (6)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Ton (25)  |  Tunnel (13)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

My own prejudices are exactly the opposite of the functionalists’: “If you want to understand function, study structure.” I was supposed to have said in my molecular biology days. (I believe I was sailing at the time.)
What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (1988), 150.
Science quotes on:  |  Biology (232)  |  Function (235)  |  Molecular Biology (27)  |  Opposite (110)  |  Prejudice (96)  |  Structure (365)  |  Study (701)  |  Time (1911)  |  Understand (648)  |  Want (504)

Some gifted adventurer is always sailing round the world of art and science, to bring home costly merchandise from every port.
Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Literature (1855), 53.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Gift (105)  |  Gifted (25)  |  Home (184)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  World (1850)

The role of hypothesis in research can be discussed more effectively if we consider first some examples of discoveries which originated from hypotheses. One of the best illustrations of such a discovery is provided by the story of Christopher Columbus’ voyage; it has many of the features of a classic discovery in science. (a) He was obsessed with an idea—that since the world is round he could reach the Orient by sailing West, (b) the idea was by no means original, but evidently he had obtained some additional evidence from a sailor blown off his course who claimed to have reached land in the west and returned, (c) he met great difficulties in getting someone to provide the money to enable him to test his idea as well as in the actual carrying out of the experimental voyage, (d) when finally he succeeded he did not find the expected new route, but instead found a whole new world, (e) despite all evidence to the contrary he clung to the bitter end to his hypothesis and believed that he had found the route to the Orient, (f) he got little credit or reward during his lifetime and neither he nor others realised the full implications of his discovery, (g) since his time evidence has been brought forward showing that he was by no means the first European to reach America.
The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Actual (118)  |  America (143)  |  Best (467)  |  Bitter (30)  |  Carrying Out (13)  |  Claim (154)  |  Christopher Columbus (16)  |  Consider (428)  |  Contrary (143)  |  Course (413)  |  Difficulty (201)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Enable (122)  |  End (603)  |  Error (339)  |  Evidence (267)  |  Evidently (26)  |  Expect (203)  |  Experimental (193)  |  Find (1014)  |  First (1302)  |  Forward (104)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Idea (881)  |  Illustration (51)  |  Little (717)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Money (178)  |  More (2558)  |  New (1273)  |  Obtain (164)  |  Other (2233)  |  Reach (286)  |  Research (753)  |  Return (133)  |  Reward (72)  |  Role (86)  |  Sailor (21)  |  Story (122)  |  Succeed (114)  |  Test (221)  |  Time (1911)  |  Whole (756)  |  World (1850)

The world is like a vast sea: mankind like a vessel sailing on its tempestuous bosom. … [T]he sciences serve us for oars.
From concluding paragraph, 'Letters from a Chinese Philosopher', LXXXIII, first published in journal The Public Ledger collected in The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith (1762, 1809), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Bosom (14)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Oar (2)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sea (326)  |  Tempest (7)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vessel (63)  |  World (1850)

To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.
Address for the Dedication of the New Building of the Boston Medical Library (12 Jan 1901). Printed as 'Books and Men', The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (17 Jan 1901), 144, No. 3, 60.
Science quotes on:  |  Book (413)  |  Disease (340)  |  Patient (209)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sea (326)  |  Study (701)  |  Uncharted (10)

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.
Address at Rice University in Houston (12 Sep 1962). On website of John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. [This go-to-the-moon speech was largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen.]
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Decision (98)  |  Depend (238)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Force (497)  |  Gain (146)  |  Good (906)  |  Help (116)  |  Ill (12)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Must (1525)  |  New (1273)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nuclear Science (2)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Peace (116)  |  People (1031)  |  Position (83)  |  Preeminence (3)  |  Progress (492)  |  Right (473)  |  Sail (37)  |  Science And Technology (46)  |  Sea (326)  |  Set (400)  |  Space (523)  |  State (505)  |  Technology (281)  |  United States (31)  |  Use (771)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)  |  Winning (19)

When young Galileo, then a student at Pisa, noticed one day during divine service a chandelier swinging backwards and forwards, and convinced himself, by counting his pulse, that the duration of the oscillations was independent of the arc through which it moved, who could know that this discovery would eventually put it in our power, by means of the pendulum, to attain an accuracy in the measurement of time till then deemed impossible, and would enable the storm-tossed seaman in the most distant oceans to determine in what degree of longitude he was sailing?
Hermann von Helmholtz, Edmund Atkinson (trans.), Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects: First Series (1883), 29.
Science quotes on:  |  Accuracy (81)  |  Arc (14)  |  Attain (126)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Church (64)  |  Counting (26)  |  Degree (277)  |  Determine (152)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Divine (112)  |  Enable (122)  |  Eventually (64)  |  Forward (104)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Himself (461)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Independent (74)  |  Know (1538)  |  Longitude (8)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Most (1728)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Pendulum (17)  |  Power (771)  |  Pulse (22)  |  Seaman (3)  |  Service (110)  |  Storm (56)  |  Student (317)  |  Swing (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toss (8)  |  Young (253)


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.