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: “Every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change its state by forces impressed.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index S > Category: Stability

Stability Quotes (28 quotes)

[In mathematics] There are two kinds of mistakes. There are fatal mistakes that destroy a theory, but there are also contingent ones, which are useful in testing the stability of a theory.
In 'Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught', Indiscrete Thoughts (2008), 202.
Science quotes on:  |  Contingent (12)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Fatal (14)  |  Kind (564)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mistake (180)  |  Testing (5)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Two (936)  |  Useful (260)

[The object of education is] to train the mind to ascertain the sequence of a particular conclusion from certain premises, to detect a fallacy, to correct undue generalisation, to prevent the growth of mistakes in reasoning. Everything in these must depend on the spirit and the manner in which the instruction itself is conveyed and honoured. If you teach scientific knowledge without honouring scientific knowledge as it is applied, you do more harm than good. I do think that the study of natural science is so glorious a school for the mind, that with the laws impressed on all these things by the Creator, and the wonderful unity and stability of matter, and the forces of matter, there cannot be a better school for the education of the mind.
Giving Evidence (18 Nov 1862) to the Public Schools Commission. As quoted in John L. Lewis, 125 Years: The Physical Society & The Institute of Physics (1999), 168-169.
Science quotes on:  |  Applied (176)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Better (493)  |  Certain (557)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Creator (97)  |  Depend (238)  |  Detect (45)  |  Do (1905)  |  Education (423)  |  Everything (489)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Force (497)  |  Glorious (49)  |  Good (906)  |  Growth (200)  |  Harm (43)  |  Honour (58)  |  Impress (66)  |  Impressed (39)  |  Instruction (101)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mistake (180)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Object (438)  |  Premise (40)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Reasoning (212)  |  School (227)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Sequence (68)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Study (701)  |  Teach (299)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Train (118)  |  Unity (81)  |  Wonderful (155)

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.
In Samuel Austin Allibone, Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay (1880), 151.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Attain (126)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Criticism (85)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Labor (200)  |  Sagacity (11)

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a high-power transistor on the other.
Quoted in Richard R. Nelson, 'The Link Between Science and Invention: The Case of the Transistor,' The Rate and Direction of the Inventive Activity (1962). In Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science (1999), 32, footnote.
Science quotes on:  |  Aesthetic (48)  |  Applied (176)  |  Applied Science (36)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Experimenter (40)  |  Frequently (21)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Importance (299)  |  Improvement (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Likelihood (10)  |  More (2558)  |  Motivation (28)  |  Nature (2017)  |  New (1273)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Other (2233)  |  Plan (122)  |  Power (771)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Science (30)  |  Purely (111)  |  Research (753)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Transistor (6)  |  Will (2350)  |  Yield (86)

I am not ... asserting that humans are either genial or aggressive by inborn biological necessity. Obviously, both kindness and violence lie with in the bounds of our nature because we perpetrate both, in spades. I only advance a structural claim that social stability rules nearly all the time and must be based on an overwhelmingly predominant (but tragically ignored) frequency of genial acts, and that geniality is therefore our usual and preferred response nearly all the time ... The center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.
In Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History (1993), 282.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Advance (298)  |  Aggressive (4)  |  Assert (69)  |  Base (120)  |  Biological (137)  |  Both (496)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bounds (8)  |  Center (35)  |  Claim (154)  |  Define (53)  |  Frequency (25)  |  Genial (3)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Inborn (4)  |  Kindness (14)  |  Lie (370)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Obviously (11)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Overwhelmingly (3)  |  Perpetrate (3)  |  Predominant (4)  |  Prefer (27)  |  Response (56)  |  Root (121)  |  Rule (307)  |  Social (261)  |  Spade (3)  |  Structural (29)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Time (1911)  |  Violence (37)

In pure mathematics we have a great structure of logically perfect deductions which constitutes an integral part of that great and enduring human heritage which is and should be largely independent of the perhaps temporary existence of any particular geographical location at any particular time. … The enduring value of mathematics, like that of the other sciences and arts, far transcends the daily flux of a changing world. In fact, the apparent stability of mathematics may well be one of the reasons for its attractiveness and for the respect accorded it.
In Fundamentals of Mathematics (1941), 463.
Science quotes on:  |  Apparent (85)  |  Art (680)  |  Attractiveness (2)  |  Changing (7)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Daily (91)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Enduring (6)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flux (21)  |  Geographical (6)  |  Great (1610)  |  Heritage (22)  |  Human (1512)  |  Independent (74)  |  Integral (26)  |  Location (15)  |  Logic (311)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Other (2233)  |  Particular (80)  |  Perfect (223)  |  Pure (299)  |  Pure Mathematics (72)  |  Reason (766)  |  Respect (212)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Structure (365)  |  Temporary (24)  |  Time (1911)  |  Transcend (27)  |  Value (393)  |  Value Of Mathematics (60)  |  World (1850)

In the discussion of the. energies involved in the deformation of nuclei, the concept of surface tension of nuclear matter has been used and its value had been estimated from simple considerations regarding nuclear forces. It must be remembered, however, that the surface tension of a charged droplet is diminished by its charge, and a rough estimate shows that the surface tension of nuclei, decreasing with increasing nuclear charge, may become zero for atomic numbers of the order of 100. It seems therefore possible that the uranium nucleus has only small stability of form, and may, after neutron capture, divide itself into two nuclei of roughly equal size (the precise ratio of sizes depending on liner structural features and perhaps partly on chance). These two nuclei will repel each other and should gain a total kinetic energy of c. 200 Mev., as calculated from nuclear radius and charge. This amount of energy may actually be expected to be available from the difference in packing fraction between uranium and the elements in the middle of the periodic system. The whole 'fission' process can thus be described in an essentially classical way, without having to consider quantum-mechanical 'tunnel effects', which would actually be extremely small, on account of the large masses involved.
[Co-author with Otto Robert Frisch]
Lise Meitner and O. R. Frisch, 'Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction', Nature (1939), 143, 239.
Science quotes on:  |  Account (195)  |  Amount (153)  |  Atomic Number (3)  |  Author (175)  |  Available (80)  |  Become (821)  |  Chance (244)  |  Charge (63)  |  Classical (49)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (428)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Deformation (3)  |  Difference (355)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Divide (77)  |  Effect (414)  |  Element (322)  |  Energy (373)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Expect (203)  |  Fission (10)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Gain (146)  |  Involved (90)  |  Kinetic (12)  |  Kinetic Energy (3)  |  Large (398)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Must (1525)  |  Neutron (23)  |  Nuclear (110)  |  Nucleus (54)  |  Number (710)  |  Order (638)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Precise (71)  |  Process (439)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Radius (5)  |  Ratio (41)  |  Remember (189)  |  Repulsion (7)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Small (489)  |  Structural (29)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Tension (2)  |  System (545)  |  Tension (24)  |  Total (95)  |  Tunnel (13)  |  Two (936)  |  Uranium (21)  |  Value (393)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Zero (38)

It is possible with … carbon … to form very large molecules that are stable. This results from the stability of the carbon-to-carbon bond. You must have complexity in order to achieve the versatility characteristic of living organisms. You can achieve this complexity with carbon forming the molecular backbone.
From interview with Neil A. Campbell, in 'Crossing the Boundaries of Science', BioScience (Dec 1986), 36, No. 11, 739.
Science quotes on:  |  Backbone (12)  |  Bond (46)  |  Carbon (68)  |  Characteristic (154)  |  Complexity (121)  |  Form (976)  |  Forming (42)  |  Large (398)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Must (1525)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Possible (560)  |  Result (700)  |  Stable (32)  |  Versatility (5)

Leopold’s Golden Rule of Ecology: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
In 'The Land Ethic: The Outlook', A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949, 1987), 224-225.
Science quotes on:  |  Beauty (313)  |  Biotic (2)  |  Community (111)  |  Integrity (21)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Right (473)  |  Wrong (246)

Nature, the parent of all things, designed the human backbone to be like a keel or foundation. It is because we have a backbone that we can walk upright and stand erect. But this was not the only purpose for which Nature provided it; here, as elsewhere, she displayed great skill in turning the construction of a single member to a variety of different uses.
It Provides a Path for the Spinal Marrow, Yet is Flexible.
Firstly, she bored a hole through the posterior region of the bodies of all the vertebrae, thus fashioning a suitable pathway for the spinal marrow which would descend through them.
Secondly, she did not make the backbone out of one single bone with no joints. Such a unified construction would have afforded greater stability and a safer seat for the spinal marrow since, not having joints, the column could not have suffered dislocations, displacements, or distortions. If the Creator of the world had paid such attention to resistance to injury and had subordinated the value and importance of all other aims in the fabric of parts of the body to this one, he would certainly have made a single backbone with no joints, as when someone constructing an animal of wood or stone forms the backbone of one single and continuous component. Even if man were destined only to bend and straighten his back, it would not have been appropriate to construct the whole from one single bone. And in fact, since it was necessary that man, by virtue of his backbone, be able to perform a great variety of movements, it was better that it be constructed from many bones, even though as a result of this it was rendered more liable to injury.
From De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem: (1543), Book I, 57-58, as translated by William Frank Richardson, in 'Nature’s Skill in Creating a Backbone to Hold Us Erect', On The Fabric of the Human Body: Book I: The Bones and Cartilages (1998), 138.
Science quotes on:  |  Aim (175)  |  Animal (651)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Attention (196)  |  Back (395)  |  Backbone (12)  |  Bend (13)  |  Better (493)  |  Body (557)  |  Bone (101)  |  Bored (5)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Column (15)  |  Component (51)  |  Construct (129)  |  Construction (114)  |  Continuous (83)  |  Creator (97)  |  Descend (49)  |  Design (203)  |  Destined (42)  |  Different (595)  |  Dislocation (4)  |  Displacement (9)  |  Display (59)  |  Distortion (13)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Flexible (7)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Body (34)  |  Importance (299)  |  Injury (36)  |  Joint (31)  |  Keel (4)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marrow (5)  |  Member (42)  |  More (2558)  |  Movement (162)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Other (2233)  |  Parent (80)  |  Path (159)  |  Pathway (15)  |  Perform (123)  |  Posterior (7)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Render (96)  |  Resistance (41)  |  Result (700)  |  Single (365)  |  Skill (116)  |  Someone (24)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stone (168)  |  Straight (75)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Through (846)  |  Unified (10)  |  Use (771)  |  Value (393)  |  Variety (138)  |  Vertebra (4)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Walk (138)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wood (97)  |  World (1850)

Our discombobulated lives need to sink some anchors in numerical stability. (I still have not recovered from the rise of a pound of hamburger at the supermarket to more than a buck.)
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anchor (10)  |  Buck (3)  |  Hamburger (2)  |  Live (650)  |  More (2558)  |  Need (320)  |  Numerical (39)  |  Pound (15)  |  Recover (14)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sink (38)  |  Still (614)

Our stability is but balance, and wisdom lies
In masterful administration of the unforeseen.
In The Testament of Beauty (1929), Book 1, 1, lines 6-7.
Science quotes on:  |  Administration (15)  |  Balance (82)  |  Lie (370)  |  Masterful (2)  |  Unforeseen (11)  |  Wisdom (235)

Phenomena unfold on their own appropriate scales of space and time and may be invisible in our myopic world of dimensions assessed by comparison with human height and times metered by human lifespans. So much of accumulating importance at earthly scales ... is invisible by the measuring rod of a human life. So much that matters to particles in the microscopic world of molecules ... either averages out to stability at our scale or simply stands below our limits of perception.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accumulate (30)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Assess (4)  |  Average (89)  |  Below (26)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Dimension (64)  |  Earthly (8)  |  Height (33)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Life (32)  |  Importance (299)  |  Invisible (66)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lifespan (9)  |  Limit (294)  |  Matter (821)  |  Measure (241)  |  Meter (9)  |  Microscopic (27)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Myopic (2)  |  Particle (200)  |  Perception (97)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Rod (6)  |  Scale (122)  |  Simply (53)  |  Space (523)  |  Space And Time (38)  |  Stand (284)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unfold (15)  |  World (1850)

The body of the Earth, large, sluggish and inapt for motion, is not to be disturbed by movement (especially three movements), any more than the Aetherial Lights [stars] are to be shifted, so that such ideas are opposed both to physical principles and to the authority of the Holy Writ which many time: confirms the stability of the Earth (as we shall discuss more fully elsewhere).
De Mundi Aetherei Recentioribus Phaenomenis (On Recent Phenomena in the Aetherial World) (1588). Quoted in M. Boas Hall, The Scientific Renaissance 1450-1630 (1962), 115.
Science quotes on:  |  Authority (99)  |  Body (557)  |  Both (496)  |  Confirm (58)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Holy (35)  |  Idea (881)  |  Large (398)  |  Light (635)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Movement (162)  |  Physical (518)  |  Principle (530)  |  Shift (45)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Time (1911)

The existence of life must be considered as an elementary fact that can not be explained, but must be taken as a starting point in biology, in a similar way as the quantum of action, which appears as an irrational element from the point of view of classical mechanical physics, taken together with the existence of elementary particles, forms the foundation of atomic physics. The asserted impossibility of a physical or chemical explanation of the function peculiar to life would in this sense be analogous to the insufficiency of the mechanical analysis for the understanding of the stability of atoms.
'Light and Life', Nature, 1933, 131, 458.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Analysis (244)  |  Assert (69)  |  Atom (381)  |  Atomic Physics (7)  |  Biology (232)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Classical (49)  |  Classical Physics (6)  |  Consider (428)  |  Element (322)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Explanation (246)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Form (976)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Function (235)  |  Impossibility (60)  |  Insufficiency (3)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mechanical (145)  |  Must (1525)  |  Particle (200)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physical (518)  |  Physics (564)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Sense (785)  |  Together (392)  |  Understanding (527)  |  View (496)  |  Way (1214)

The handling of our forests as a continuous, renewable resource means permanent employment and stability to our country life. The forests are also needed for mitigating extreme climatic fluctuations, holding the soil on the slopes, retaining the moisture in the ground, and controlling the equable flow of water in our streams.
From 'A Presidential Statement on Receipt of the Award of the Schlich Forestry Medal' (29 Jan 1935) in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1935, Volume 4 (1938), 65. Roosevelt was awarded the medal by the Society of American Foresters. This quote continues with the line “The forests are the ‘lungs’ of our land….”
Science quotes on:  |  Continuous (83)  |  Country (269)  |  Employment (34)  |  Extreme (78)  |  Flow (89)  |  Fluctuation (15)  |  Forest (161)  |  Forest Management (2)  |  Ground (222)  |  Handling (7)  |  Holding (3)  |  Hydrology (10)  |  Life (1870)  |  Mean (810)  |  Moisture (21)  |  Need (320)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Renewable (7)  |  Resource (74)  |  Slope (10)  |  Soil (98)  |  Soil Erosion (5)  |  Stream (83)  |  Water (503)

The living being is stable. It must be so in order not to be destroyed, dissolved, or disintegrated by the colossal forces, often adverse, which surround it. By apparent contradiction it maintains its stability only if it is excitable and capable of modifying itself according to external stimuli and adjusting its response to the stimulation. In a sense it is stable because it is modifiable—the slight instability is the necessary condition for the true stability of the organism.
In Dictionnaire de Physiologie (1900), Vol. 4, 72. English as quoted in Walter Bradford Cannon, The Wisdom of the Body (1932), 21, with French source citation footnoted on 26.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Adjust (11)  |  Adverse (3)  |  Apparent (85)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biology (232)  |  Capable (174)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Condition (362)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Destroyed (2)  |  External (62)  |  Force (497)  |  Instability (4)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Modify (15)  |  Must (1525)  |  Necessary (370)  |  Order (638)  |  Organism (231)  |  Response (56)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stable (32)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  Stimulus (30)

The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
From Novum Organum (1620), Book 1, Aphorism 12. Translated as The New Organon: Aphorisms Concerning the Interpretation of Nature and the Kingdom of Man), collected in James Spedding, Robert Ellis and Douglas Heath (eds.), The Works of Francis Bacon (1857), Vol. 4, 48-49.
Science quotes on:  |  Error (339)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Good (906)  |  Logic (311)  |  More (2558)  |  Notion (120)  |  Search (175)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Use (771)

The most stable arrangement for an assemblage of molecules is one in which the component atoms and groups are packed together so that (a) the distances between neighbors are close to the equilibrium distance, (b) each atom or group has as many close neighbors as possible, and (c) there are no large unoccupied regions. In other words, each structure tends to be as 'close-packed' as possible, consistent with the 'sizes' of its component atoms or groups.
'The Structure of Fibrous Proteins', Chemical Reviews (1943), 32, 198.
Science quotes on:  |  Arrangement (93)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Atom (381)  |  Component (51)  |  Consistent (50)  |  Distance (171)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Large (398)  |  Molecule (185)  |  Most (1728)  |  Other (2233)  |  Packing (3)  |  Possible (560)  |  Radical (28)  |  Stable (32)  |  Structure (365)  |  Tend (124)  |  Together (392)  |  Word (650)

The steady states of the fluid matrix of the body are commonly preserved by physiological reactions, i.e., by more complicated processes than are involved in simple physico-chemical equilibria. Special designations, therefore, are appropriate:—“homeostasis” to designate stability of the organism; “homeostatic conditions,” to indicate details of the stability; and “homeostatic reactions,” to signify means for maintaining stability.
'Physiological Regulation of Normal States: Some Tentative Postulates Concerning Biological Homeostatics', 1926. Reprinted in L. L. Langley (ed.), Homeostasis: Origins of the Concept (1973), 246.
Science quotes on:  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Body (557)  |  Chemical (303)  |  Complicated (117)  |  Condition (362)  |  Designation (13)  |  Detail (150)  |  Fluid (54)  |  Homeostasis (2)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Involved (90)  |  Matrix (14)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Organism (231)  |  Physiological (64)  |  Physiology (101)  |  Reaction (106)  |  Signify (17)  |  Simple (426)  |  Special (188)  |  State (505)  |  Steady (45)

The unavoidable conclusion is that the unprecedented meekness of the majority is responsible for the increase in violence. Social stability is the product of an equilibrium between a vigorous majority and violent minorities. Disorder does not come from an increased inner pressure or from the interaction of explosive ingredients. There is no reason to believe that the nature of the violent minorities is now greatly different from what it was in the past. What has changed is the will and ability of the majority to react.
In 'Thoughts on the Present', First Things, Last Things (1971), 110.
Science quotes on:  |  Ability (162)  |  Belief (615)  |  Change (639)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Different (595)  |  Disorder (45)  |  Equilibrium (34)  |  Explosive (24)  |  Greatly (12)  |  Increase (225)  |  Ingredient (16)  |  Inner (72)  |  Interaction (47)  |  Majority (68)  |  Meekness (2)  |  Minority (24)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Past (355)  |  Pressure (69)  |  Product (166)  |  React (7)  |  Reason (766)  |  Responsible (19)  |  Social (261)  |  Unavoidable (4)  |  Unprecedented (11)  |  Vigorous (21)  |  Violence (37)  |  Violent (17)  |  Will (2350)

The universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes—every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Animate (8)  |  Bring (95)  |  Change (639)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Crystal (71)  |  Everything (489)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flower (112)  |  Forest (161)  |  Form (976)  |  Glacier (17)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Great (1610)  |  Immensity (30)  |  Impress (66)  |  Inanimate (18)  |  Kindergarten (5)  |  Lake (36)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lesson (58)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Peculiar (115)  |  River (140)  |  Snowflake (15)  |  Soul (235)  |  Star (460)  |  Stars (304)  |  Stupendous (13)  |  Teach (299)  |  Universe (900)  |  Wind (141)

The war on drugs must be a metaphorical war. But that … has to do with our stubborn determination not to come to grips with what a drug is: … our refusal to recognize that the term “drug” is not only a medical but also a political concept. … In short, while seemingly the word “drug” is a part of the vocabulary of science, it is even more importantly a part of the vocabulary of politics. … A drug is either good or bad, effective or ineffective, therapeutic or noxious, licit or illicit. … We deploy them simultaneously as technical tools in our fight against medical diseases and as scapegoats in our struggle for personal security and political stability.
From 'The Morality of Drug Controls', collected in Ronald Hamowy (ed.), Dealing with Drugs: Consequences of Government Control (1987), 328.
Science quotes on:  |  Bad (185)  |  Concept (242)  |  Deploy (3)  |  Determination (80)  |  Disease (340)  |  Effective (68)  |  Fight (49)  |  Good (906)  |  Ineffective (6)  |  Medical (31)  |  Metaphor (37)  |  Noxious (8)  |  Personal (75)  |  Politics (122)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Refusal (23)  |  Scapegoat (3)  |  Science (39)  |  Security (51)  |  Simultaneous (23)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Stubborn (14)  |  Technical (53)  |  Term (357)  |  Therapeutic (6)  |  Tool (129)  |  Vocabulary (10)  |  War On Drugs (2)  |  Word (650)

This car of mine, I am tickled to death with it. The machine is nearly everything, its power, stability and balance. The driver, allowing for his experience and courage, is much less.
[Referring to the Bluebird racing car in which he broke the speed record on 5 Feb 1931.]
Quoted in 'Campbell Drive Auto 245 Miles an Hour, Four Miles a Minute, a World Speed Record', New York Times (6 Feb 1931), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Balance (82)  |  Car (75)  |  Courage (82)  |  Death (406)  |  Driver (5)  |  Everything (489)  |  Experience (494)  |  Less (105)  |  Machine (271)  |  Mine (78)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Power (771)  |  Race (278)  |  Record (161)  |  Speed (66)

Thus the system of the world only oscillates around a mean state from which it never departs except by a very small quantity. By virtue of its constitution and the law of gravity, it enjoys a stability that can be destroyed only by foreign causes, and we are certain that their action is undetectable from the time of the most ancient observations until our own day. This stability in the system of the world, which assures its duration, is one of the most notable among all phenomena, in that it exhibits in the heavens the same intention to maintain order in the universe that nature has so admirably observed on earth for the sake of preserving individuals and perpetuating species.
'Sur l'Équation Séculaire de la Lune' (1786, published 1788). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 11, 248-9, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 145.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Ancient (198)  |  Cause (561)  |  Certain (557)  |  Certainty (180)  |  Constitution (78)  |  The Constitution of the United States (7)  |  Destroy (189)  |  Duration (12)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Exhibit (21)  |  Foreign (45)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intention (46)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravity (16)  |  Maintain (105)  |  Mean (810)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observed (149)  |  Order (638)  |  Oscillation (13)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Phenomenon (334)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Preserving (18)  |  Quantity (136)  |  Sake (61)  |  Small (489)  |  Species (435)  |  State (505)  |  System (545)  |  Time (1911)  |  Undetectable (3)  |  Universe (900)  |  Virtue (117)  |  World (1850)

To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!
As quoted, without source, in Kate Ng, 'David Attenborough turns 95: His best quotes on nature, sustainability and humankind', Independent (8 May 2021).
Science quotes on:  |  Biodiversity (25)  |  Conservation (187)  |  Create (245)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Planet (402)  |  Remove (50)  |  Restore (12)  |  Way Out (2)  |  World (1850)

We may best hope to understand the nature and conditions of real knowledge, by studying the nature and conditions of the most certain and stable portions of knowledge which we already possess: and we are most likely to learn the best methods of discovering truth, by examining how truths, now universally recognised, have really been discovered.
In The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences (1840), Vol. I, 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Best (467)  |  Certain (557)  |  Condition (362)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Examining (2)  |  Hope (321)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learning (291)  |  Method (531)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Portion (86)  |  Possess (157)  |  Recognized (3)  |  Stable (32)  |  Study (701)  |  Studying (70)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)

You’ll be tempted to grouse about the instability of taxonomy; but stability occurs only where people stop thinking and stop working.
In 'Preface', Observing Marine Invertebrates: Drawings from the Laboratory (1987), xvi.
Science quotes on:  |  Occur (151)  |  People (1031)  |  Stop (89)  |  Taxonomy (19)  |  Tempt (6)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Work (1402)


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.