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: “Genius is two percent inspiration, ninety-eight percent perspiration.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Category Index for Science Quotations > Category Index T > Category: Tower

Tower Quotes (45 quotes)

’Tis late; the astronomer in his lonely height
Exploring all the dark, descries from far
Orbs that like distant isles of splendor are,
And mornings whitening in the infinite.…
He summons one disheveled, wandering star,—
Return ten centuries hence on such a night.
That star will come. It dare not by one hour
Cheat science, or falsify her calculation;
Men will have passed, but watchful in the tower
Man shall remain in sleepless contemplation;
And should all men have perished there in turn,
Truth in their stead would watch that star’s return.
From poem, 'The Appointment', as translated by Arthur O’Shaughnessy, collected in Samuel Waddington (ed.), The Sonnets of Europe (1886), 154.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Century (319)  |  Cheat (13)  |  Comet (65)  |  Contemplation (75)  |  Dare (55)  |  Dark (145)  |  Exploration (161)  |  Falsify (3)  |  Hour (192)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Late (119)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Morning (98)  |  Orb (20)  |  Pass (241)  |  Perish (56)  |  Remain (355)  |  Return (133)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Splendor (20)  |  Star (460)  |  Summon (11)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Turn (454)  |  Wander (44)  |  Watch (118)  |  Will (2350)

[1665-09-14] ...my finding that although the Bill [total of dead] in general is abated, yet the City within the walls is encreasd and likely to continue so (and is close to our house there) - my meeting dead corps's of the plague, carried to be buried close to me at noonday through the City in Fanchurch-street - to see a person sick of the sores carried close by me by Grace-church in a hackney-coach - my finding the Angell tavern at the lower end of Tower-hill shut up; and more then that, the alehouse at the Tower-stairs; and more then that, that the person was then dying of the plague when I was last there, a little while ago at night, to write a short letter there, and I overheard the mistress of the house sadly saying to her husband somebody was very ill, but did not think it was of the plague - to hear that poor Payne my waterman hath buried a child and is dying himself - to hear that a labourer I sent but the other day to Dagenhams to know how they did there is dead of the plague and that one of my own watermen, that carried me daily, fell sick as soon as he had landed me on Friday morning last, when I had been all night upon the water ... is now dead of the plague - to hear ... that Mr Sidny Mountagu is sick of a desperate fever at my Lady Carteret's at Scott's hall - to hear that Mr. Lewes hath another daughter sick - and lastly, that both my servants, W Hewers and Tom Edwards, have lost their fathers, both in St. Sepulcher's parish, of the plague this week - doth put me into great apprehensions of melancholy, and with good reason. But I put off the thoughts of sadness as much as I can, and the rather to keep my wife in good heart and family also.
Diary of Samuel Pepys (14 Sep 1665)
Science quotes on:  |  Apprehension (26)  |  Both (496)  |  Child (333)  |  Church (64)  |  City (87)  |  Continue (179)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daughter (30)  |  End (603)  |  Family (101)  |  Father (113)  |  Fever (34)  |  General (521)  |  Good (906)  |  Grace (31)  |  Great (1610)  |  Hear (144)  |  Heart (243)  |  Himself (461)  |  House (143)  |  Know (1538)  |  Last (425)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Melancholy (17)  |  More (2558)  |  Morning (98)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Plague (42)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Sadness (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Servant (40)  |  Short (200)  |  Shut (41)  |  Sick (83)  |  Soon (187)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Total (95)  |  Wall (71)  |  Water (503)  |  Week (73)  |  Wife (41)  |  Write (250)

[Before the time of Benjamin Peirce it never occurred to anyone that mathematical research] was one of the things for which a mathematical department existed. Today it is a commonplace in all the leading universities. Peirce stood alone—a mountain peak whose absolute height might be hard to measure, but which towered above all the surrounding country.
In 'The Story of Mathematics at Harvard', Harvard Alumni Bulletin (3 Jan 1924), 26, 376. Cited by R. C. Archibald in 'Benjamin Peirce: V. Biographical Sketch', The American Mathematical Monthly (Jan 1925), 32, No. 1, 10.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Alone (324)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Country (269)  |  Department (93)  |  Exist (458)  |  Hard (246)  |  Height (33)  |  Leading (17)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Measure (241)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Never (1089)  |  Occurred (2)  |  Peak (20)  |  Benjamin Peirce (11)  |  Research (753)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Today (321)  |  University (130)

[It has been ascertained by statistical observation that in engineering enterprises one man is killed for every million francs that is spent on the works.] Supposing you have to build a bridge at an expense of one hundred million francs, you must be prepared for the death of one hundred men. In building the Eiffel Tower, which was a construction costing six million and a half, we only lost four men, thus remaining below the average. In the construction of the Forth Bridge, 55 men were lost in over 45,000,000 francs’ worth of work. That would appear to be a large number according to the general rule, but when the special risks are remembered, this number shows as a very small one.
As quoted in 'M. Eiffel and the Forth Bridge', The Tablet (15 Mar 1890), 75, 400. Similarly quoted in Robert Harborough Sherard, Twenty Years in Paris: Being Some Recollections of a Literary Life (1905), 169, which adds to the end “, and reflects very great credit on the engineers for the precautions which they took on behalf of their men.” Sherard gave the context that Eiffel was at the inauguration [4 Mar 1890] of the Forth Bridge, and gave this compliment when conversing there with the Prince of Wales.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Ascertain (41)  |  Average (89)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cost (94)  |  Death (406)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Enterprise (56)  |  Expense (21)  |  General (521)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Kill (100)  |  Large (398)  |  Man (2252)  |  Million (124)  |  Must (1525)  |  Number (710)  |  Observation (593)  |  Prepare (44)  |  Remaining (45)  |  Remember (189)  |  Risk (68)  |  Rule (307)  |  Show (353)  |  Small (489)  |  Special (188)  |  Spend (97)  |  Spent (85)  |  Statistics (170)  |  Work (1402)  |  Worth (172)

[The ancient monuments] were all dwarfs in size and pigmies in spirit beside this mighty Statue of Liberty, and its inspiring thought. Higher than the monument in Trafalgar Square which commemorates the victories of Nelson on the sea; higher than the Column Vendome, which perpetuates the triumphs of Napoleon on the land; higher than the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, which exhibit the latest and greatest results of science, invention, and industrial progress, this structure rises toward the heavens to illustrate an idea ... which inspired the charter in the cabin of the Mayflower and the Declaration of Independence from the Continental Congress.
Speech at unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, New York. In E.S. Werner (ed.), Werner's Readings and Recitations (1908), 107.
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte (20)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Brooklyn Bridge (2)  |  Charter (4)  |  Column (15)  |  Commemorate (3)  |  Congress (20)  |  Declaration (10)  |  Declaration Of Independence (5)  |  Dwarf (7)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Higher (37)  |  Idea (881)  |  Industrial (15)  |  Inspire (58)  |  Invention (400)  |  Mighty (13)  |  Monument (45)  |  Napoleon (16)  |  Perpetuate (11)  |  Pigmy (4)  |  Progress (492)  |  Result (700)  |  Rise (169)  |  Sea (326)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Square (73)  |  Statue (17)  |  Statue Of Liberty (2)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (995)  |  Trafalgar (2)  |  Triumph (76)  |  Victory (40)

The Mighty Task is Done

At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high;
Its titan piers grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.

On its broad decks in rightful pride,
The world in swift parade shall ride,
Throughout all time to be;
Beneath, fleet ships from every port,
Vast landlocked bay, historic fort,
And dwarfing all the sea.

To north, the Redwood Empires gates;
To south, a happy playground waits,
In Rapturous appeal;
Here nature, free since time began,
Yields to the restless moods of man,
Accepts his bonds of steel.

Launched midst a thousand hopes and fears,
Damned by a thousand hostile sneers,
Yet Neer its course was stayed,
But ask of those who met the foe
Who stood alone when faith was low,
Ask them the price they paid.

Ask of the steel, each strut and wire,
Ask of the searching, purging fire,
That marked their natal hour;
Ask of the mind, the hand, the heart,
Ask of each single, stalwart part,
What gave it force and power.

An Honored cause and nobly fought
And that which they so bravely wrought,
Now glorifies their deed,
No selfish urge shall stain its life,
Nor envy, greed, intrigue, nor strife,
Nor false, ignoble creed.

High overhead its lights shall gleam,
Far, far below lifes restless stream,
Unceasingly shall flow;
For this was spun its lithe fine form,
To fear not war, nor time, nor storm,
For Fate had meant it so.

Written upon completion of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, May 1937. In Allen Brown, Golden Gate: biography of a Bridge (1965), 229.
Science quotes on:  |  Accept (198)  |  Alone (324)  |  Arm (82)  |  Arms (37)  |  Ask (420)  |  Bay (6)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bond (46)  |  Bravery (2)  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Cause (561)  |  Course (413)  |  Creed (28)  |  Deck (3)  |  Deed (34)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Envy (15)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fate (76)  |  Fear (212)  |  Fire (203)  |  Flow (89)  |  Foe (11)  |  Force (497)  |  Form (976)  |  Fort (2)  |  Free (239)  |  Gate (33)  |  Golden Gate Bridge (2)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greed (17)  |  Happy (108)  |  Heart (243)  |  High (370)  |  History (716)  |  Honor (57)  |  Hope (321)  |  Hour (192)  |  Last (425)  |  Launch (21)  |  Life (1870)  |  Light (635)  |  Loom (20)  |  Low (86)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marked (55)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Ocean Floor (6)  |  Parade (3)  |  Playground (6)  |  Poem (104)  |  Power (771)  |  Price (57)  |  Pride (84)  |  Rapture (8)  |  Redwood (8)  |  Ride (23)  |  Sea (326)  |  Selfish (12)  |  Ship (69)  |  Shore (25)  |  Single (365)  |  Sky (174)  |  Sneer (9)  |  South (39)  |  Steel (23)  |  Storm (56)  |  Stream (83)  |  Strut (2)  |  Sun (407)  |  Task (152)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Time (1911)  |  Vast (188)  |  War (233)  |  Western (45)  |  Wire (36)  |  World (1850)  |  Yield (86)

Quelquefois, par exemple, je me figure que je suis suspendu en l’air, et que j’y demeure sans mouvement, pendant que la Terre tourne sous moi en vingt-quatre heures. Je vois passer sous mes yeux tous ces visages différents, les uns blancs, les autres noirs, les autres basanés, les autres olivâtres. D’abord ce sont des chapeaux et puis des turbans, et puis des têtes chevelues, et puis des têtes rasées; tantôt des villes à clochers, tantôt des villes à longues aiguilles qui ont des croissants, tantôt des villes à tours de porcelaine, tantôt de grands pays qui n’ont que des cabanes; ici de vastes mers, là des déserts épouvantables; enfin, toute cette variété infinie qui est sur la surface de la Terre.
Sometimes, for instance, I imagine that I am suspended in the air, and remain there motionless, while the earth turns under me in four-and-twenty hours. I see pass beneath me all these different countenances, some white, others black, others tawny, others olive-colored. At first they wear hats, and then turbans, then heads with long hair, then heads shaven; sometimes towns with steeples, sometimes towns with long spires, which have crescents, sometimes towns with porcelain towers, sometimes extensive countries that have only huts; here wide seas; there frightful deserts; in short, all this infinite variety on the surface of the earth.
In 'Premier Soir', Entretiens Sur La Pluralité Des Mondes (1686, 1863), 43. French and translation in Craufurd Tait Ramage, Beautiful Thoughts from French and Italian Authors (1866), 117-118.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Black (46)  |  Color (155)  |  Countenance (9)  |  Country (269)  |  Crescent (4)  |  Desert (59)  |  Different (595)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Extensive (34)  |  Face (214)  |  Figure (162)  |  First (1302)  |  Hair (25)  |  Hat (9)  |  Hour (192)  |  Hut (2)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Infinite (243)  |  Long (778)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pass (241)  |  Porcelain (4)  |  Remain (355)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Short (200)  |  Space Flight (26)  |  Spire (5)  |  Steeple (4)  |  Surface (223)  |  Surface Of The Earth (36)  |  Tawny (3)  |  Turban (2)  |  Turn (454)  |  Variety (138)  |  White (132)  |  Wide (97)

As we conquer peak after peak we see in front of us regions full of interest and beauty, but we do not see our goal, we do not see the horizon; in the distance tower still higher peaks, which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects, and deepen the feeling, the truth of which is emphasised by every advance in science, that “Great are the Works of the Lord.”
In Presidential Address to the British Association, as quoted in Arthur L. Foley, 'Recent Developments in Physical Science, The Popular Science Monthly (1910), 456.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Conquer (39)  |  Distance (171)  |  Do (1905)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Goal (155)  |  Great (1610)  |  Horizon (47)  |  Interest (416)  |  Lord (97)  |  Peak (20)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Region (40)  |  See (1094)  |  Still (614)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

Astronomy teaches the correct use of the sun and the planets. These may be put on a frame of little sticks and turned round. This causes the tides. Those at the ends of the sticks are enormously far away. From time to time a diligent searching of the sticks reveals new planets. The orbit of the planet is the distance the stick goes round in going round. Astronomy is intensely interesting; it should be done at night, in a high tower at Spitzbergen. This is to avoid the astronomy being interrupted. A really good astronomer can tell when a comet is coming too near him by the warning buzz of the revolving sticks.
In Literary Lapses (1928), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomer (97)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Avoid (123)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cause (561)  |  Comet (65)  |  Coming (114)  |  Diligent (19)  |  Distance (171)  |  End (603)  |  Good (906)  |  High (370)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Little (717)  |  Model (106)  |  New (1273)  |  Orbit (85)  |  Planet (402)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Sun (407)  |  Tell (344)  |  Tide (37)  |  Time (1911)  |  Turn (454)  |  Use (771)  |  Warning (18)

Being the most striking manifestation of the art of metal structures by which our engineers have shown in Europe, it [the Eiffel Tower] is one of the most striking of our modern national genius.
English version by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “Étant la plus saisissante manifestation de l’art des constructions métalliques par lesquelles nos ingénieurs se sont illustrés en Europe, elle est une des formes les plus frappantes de notre génie national moderne.” From interview of Eiffel by Paul Bourde, in the newspaper Le Temps (14 Feb 1887). Reprinted in 'Au Jour le Jour: Les Artistes Contre la Tour Eiffel', Gazette Anecdotique, Littéraire, Artistique et Bibliographique (Feb 1887), 126, and in Gustave Eiffel, Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 14. Also quoted in review of the Gustave Eiffel’s book La Tour Eiffel (1902), in Nature (30 Jan 1902), 65, 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Being (1276)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineer (136)  |  Europe (50)  |  Genius (301)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Metal (88)  |  Modern (402)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nation (208)  |  Striking (48)  |  Structure (365)

Building goes on briskly at the therapeutic Tower of Babel; what one recommends another condemns; what one gives in large doses another scarce dares to prescribe in small doses; and what one vaunts as a novelty another thinks not worth rescuing from merited oblivion. All is confusion, contradiction, inconceivable chaos. Every country, every place, almost every doctor, have their own pet remedies, without which they imagine their patients can not be cured; and all this changes every year, aye every mouth.
Weekly Medical Gazette, of Vienna
Science quotes on:  |  Babel (3)  |  Briskly (2)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Change (639)  |  Chaos (99)  |  Condemn (44)  |  Confusion (61)  |  Contradiction (69)  |  Country (269)  |  Cure (124)  |  Dare (55)  |  Doctor (191)  |  Dose (17)  |  Give (208)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Inconceivable (13)  |  Large (398)  |  Merit (51)  |  Mouth (54)  |  Novelty (31)  |  Oblivion (10)  |  Patient (209)  |  Pet (10)  |  Place (192)  |  Prescribe (11)  |  Recommend (27)  |  Remedy (63)  |  Rescue (14)  |  Scarce (11)  |  Small (489)  |  Therapeutic (6)  |  Think (1122)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions: oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch’d and vex’d
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers.
Dialogue by Hotspur to Glendower, in King Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act III, Scene 1. Reprinted in The Works of Shakespeare: The First Part of King Henry IV (1790), 47.
Science quotes on:  |  Break (109)  |  Colic (3)  |  Disease (340)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Earthquake (37)  |  Enlargement (8)  |  Eruption (10)  |  Forth (14)  |  Imprison (11)  |  Kind (564)  |  Moss (14)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Pinch (6)  |  Shake (43)  |  Steeple (4)  |  Strange (160)  |  Strive (53)  |  Teem (2)  |  Topple (2)  |  Unruly (4)  |  Vex (10)  |  Volcano (46)  |  Wind (141)  |  Womb (25)

Dr. [Allan] Sandage was a man of towering passions and many moods, and for years, you weren't anybody in astronomy if he had not stopped speaking to you.
In Obituary, 'Allan Sandage, 84, Astronomer, Dies; Charted Cosmos’s Age and Expansion', New York Times (17 Nov 2010), B19.
Science quotes on:  |  Anybody (42)  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Biography (254)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mood (15)  |  Passion (121)  |  Allan Rex Sandage (19)  |  Speak (240)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stop (89)  |  Towering (11)  |  Year (963)

Go to yon tower, where busy science plies
Her vast antennae, feeling through the skies
That little vernier on whose slender lines
The midnight taper trembles as it shines,
A silent index, tracks the planets’ march
In all their wanderings through the ethereal arch;
Tells through the mist where dazzled Mercury burns,
And marks the spot where Uranus returns.
From poem, pronounced to the Boston Mercantile Library Association (14 Oct, 1846), published as Urania: A Rhymed Lesson (1846), 9-10. [Note: This is too often seen online attributed incorrectly to Samuel Pierpont Langley, who quoted several lines from the poem in his New Astronomy (1888), without naming its actual original author. —Webmaster]
Science quotes on:  |  Antenna (5)  |  Arch (12)  |  Burn (99)  |  Busy (32)  |  Dazzle (4)  |  Ethereal (9)  |  Index (5)  |  Line (100)  |  Mark (47)  |  Mercury (54)  |  Midnight (12)  |  Mist (17)  |  Observatory (18)  |  Planet (402)  |  Return (133)  |  Shine (49)  |  Silent (31)  |  Sky (174)  |  Spot (19)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Track (42)  |  Tremble (8)  |  Uranus (6)  |  Vast (188)  |  Vernier (2)  |  Wander (44)

Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God, and secret passages running deep beneath external nature give their thoughts intercourse with higher intelligences, which strengthens and consoles them, and of which the labourers on the surface do not even dream!
Opening paragraph of his prose work, Kavanagh: A Tale (1849), 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Beneath (68)  |  Console (3)  |  Deep (241)  |  Dream (222)  |  External (62)  |  Greatness (55)  |  High (370)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intercourse (5)  |  Laborer (9)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Passage (52)  |  Secret (216)  |  Solitary (16)  |  Strengthen (25)  |  Surface (223)  |  Thought (995)

I can certainly wish for new, large, and properly constructed instruments, and enough of them, but to state where and by what means they are to be procured, this I cannot do. Tycho Brahe has given Mastlin an instrument of metal as a present, which would be very useful if Mastlin could afford the cost of transporting it from the Baltic, and if he could hope that it would travel such a long way undamaged… . One can really ask for nothing better for the observation of the sun than an opening in a tower and a protected place underneath.
As quoted in James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin, The Portable Renaissance Reader (1968), 605.
Science quotes on:  |  Afford (19)  |  Ask (420)  |  Better (493)  |  Tycho Brahe (24)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Construct (129)  |  Cost (94)  |  Damage (38)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enough (341)  |  Hope (321)  |  Instrument (158)  |  Large (398)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Metal (88)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Observation (593)  |  Opening (15)  |  Place (192)  |  Present (630)  |  Procure (6)  |  Protect (65)  |  State (505)  |  Sun (407)  |  Telescope (106)  |  Transport (31)  |  Travel (125)  |  Underneath (4)  |  Useful (260)  |  Way (1214)  |  Wish (216)

I had a feeling of exhilaration that the 'gadget' had gone off properly followed by one of deep relief. I wouldn't have to go to the tower to see what had gone wrong.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1975)
Science quotes on:  |  Deep (241)  |  Exhilaration (7)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Follow (389)  |  Relief (30)  |  See (1094)  |  Wrong (246)

I ought to be jealous of the tower. She is more famous than I am.
Attributed. In Peter Yapp, The Travellers' Dictionary of Quotation: Who Said What, About Where? (1983), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Jealousy (9)  |  More (2558)

I sometimes think about the tower at Pisa as the first particle accelerator, a (nearly) vertical linear accelerator that Galileo used in his studies.
In Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi, The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question (1993, 2006), 200.
Science quotes on:  |  Accelerator (11)  |  First (1302)  |  Galileo Galilei (134)  |  Linear (13)  |  Nearly (137)  |  Particle (200)  |  Particle Accelerator (4)  |  Research (753)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Study (701)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Vertical (4)

In 1944 Erwin Schroedinger, stimulated intellectually by Max Delbruck, published a little book called What is life? It was an inspiration to the first of the molecular biologists, and has been, along with Delbruck himself, credited for directing the research during the next decade that solved the mystery of how 'like begat like.' Max was awarded this Prize in 1969, and rejoicing in it, he also lamented that the work for which he was honored before all the peoples of the world was not something which he felt he could share with more than a handful. Samuel Beckett's contributions to literature, being honored at the same time, seemed to Max somehow universally accessible to anyone. But not his. In his lecture here Max imagined his imprisonment in an ivory tower of science.
'The Polymerase Chain Reaction', Nobel Lecture (8 Dec 1993). In Nobel Lectures: Chemistry 1991-1995 (1997), 103.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Award (13)  |  Samuel Beckett (3)  |  Being (1276)  |  Biologist (70)  |  Book (413)  |  Call (781)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Credit (24)  |  Decade (66)  |  Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück (20)  |  First (1302)  |  Handful (14)  |  Himself (461)  |  Honor (57)  |  Honour (58)  |  Imprisonment (2)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Lament (11)  |  Lecture (111)  |  Life (1870)  |  Literature (116)  |  Little (717)  |  Molecular Biologist (3)  |  More (2558)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Next (238)  |  Nobel Prize (42)  |  People (1031)  |  Publication (102)  |  Research (753)  |  Erwin Schrödinger (68)  |  Share (82)  |  Simulation (7)  |  Somehow (48)  |  Something (718)  |  Time (1911)  |  Work (1402)  |  World (1850)

In the distance tower still higher peaks which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects, and deepen the feeling whose truth is emphasized by every advance in science: that “Great are the Works of the Lord.”
From Inaugural Address to the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Winnipeg. Collected in 'The British Association at Winnipeg',Nature (26 Aug 1909), 81. No. 2078, 257.
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Ascend (30)  |  Distance (171)  |  Emphasize (25)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Great (1610)  |  Higher (37)  |  Lord (97)  |  Peak (20)  |  Prospect (31)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Still (614)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)  |  Yield (86)

It seems to be saying perpetually; 'I am the end of the nineteenth century; I am glad they built me of iron; let me rust.' ... It is like a passing fool in a crowd of the University, a buffoon in the hall; for all the things in Paris has made, it alone has neither wits nor soul.
About the Eiffel Tower.
Paris (1900). In Peter Yapp, The Travellers' Dictionary of Quotation: Who Said What, About Where? (1983), 183.
Science quotes on:  |  Alone (324)  |  Buffoon (3)  |  Century (319)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  End (603)  |  Engineering (188)  |  Fool (121)  |  Iron (99)  |  Passing (76)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Rust (9)  |  Soul (235)  |  Thing (1914)  |  University (130)  |  Wit (61)

It seems to me that it had no other rationale than to show that we are not simply the country of entertainers, but also that of engineers and builders called from across the world to build bridges, viaducts, stations and major monuments of modern industry, the Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with more consideration.
English version by Webmaster using Google Translate, from the original French, “Il me semble que, n’eût elle pas d’autre raison d’être que de montrer que nous ne sommes pas simplement le pays des amuseurs, mais aussi celui des ingénieurs et des constructeurs qu’on appelle de toutes les régions du monde pour édifier les ponts, les viaducs, les gares et les grands monuments de l’industrie moderne, la Tour Eiffel mériterait d’être traitée avec plus de consideration.” From interview of Eiffel by Paul Bourde, in the newspaper Le Temps (14 Feb 1887). Reprinted in 'Au Jour le Jour: Les Artistes Contre la Tour Eiffel', Gazette Anecdotique, Littéraire, Artistique et Bibliographique (Feb 1887), 126-127, and in Gustave Eiffel, Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 16. Also quoted in review of the Gustave Eiffel’s book La Tour Eiffel (1902), in Nature (30 Jan 1902), 65, 292.
Science quotes on:  |  Bridge (49)  |  Bridge Engineering (8)  |  Build (211)  |  Call (781)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Country (269)  |  Deserve (65)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Engineer (136)  |  France (29)  |  Industry (159)  |  Major (88)  |  Modern (402)  |  Monument (45)  |  More (2558)  |  Other (2233)  |  Rationale (8)  |  Show (353)  |  Station (30)  |  World (1850)

Lo! keen-eyed towering science,
As from tall peaks the modern overlooking.
In poem, 'Song of the Universal', Leaves of Grass (1867), 185.
Science quotes on:  |  Modern (402)  |  Overlook (33)  |  Peak (20)  |  Towering (11)

Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is, I dunno. If The Eiffel Tower were now to represent the world's age, the skin of paint on the pinnacle knob at its summit would represent man’s share of that age; and anybody would perceive that the skin was what the tower was built for. I reckon they would, I dunno.
Declaiming Alfred Russel Wallace's 'anthropocentric' theory, that the universe was created specifically for the evolution of mankind. From 'Was the World Made for Man?' (1903) collected in What is Man?: and Other Philosophical Writings (1973), 106. Twain used the age of the earth accepted in his time; it is now estimated as 4,500 million years. Man’s origin is now estimated as 250,000 years.
For the complete essay, see Was The World Made For Man?.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Age Of The Earth (12)  |  Anybody (42)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Paint (22)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reckon (31)  |  Represent (157)  |  Share (82)  |  Skin (48)  |  Summit (27)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Universe (900)  |  Alfred Russel Wallace (41)  |  World (1850)  |  Year (963)

Natural Science treats of motion and force. Many of its teachings remain as part of an educated man's permanent equipment in life.
Such are:
(a) The harder you shove a bicycle the faster it will go. This is because of natural science.
(b) If you fall from a high tower, you fall quicker and quicker and quicker; a judicious selection of a tower will ensure any rate of speed.(c) If you put your thumb in between two cogs it will go on and on, until the wheels are arrested, by your suspenders. This is machinery.
(d) Electricity is of two kinds, positive and negative. The difference is, I presume, that one kind comes a little more expensive, but is more durable; the other is a cheaper thing, but the moths get into it.
In Literary Lapses (1918), 130.
Science quotes on:  |  Acceleration (12)  |  Bicycle (10)  |  Cog (7)  |  Difference (355)  |  Durable (7)  |  Electricity (168)  |  Ensure (27)  |  Equipment (45)  |  Fall (243)  |  Faster (50)  |  Force (497)  |  High (370)  |  Kind (564)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Machinery (59)  |  Man (2252)  |  More (2558)  |  Motion (320)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Negative (66)  |  Other (2233)  |  Permanent (67)  |  Positive (98)  |  Remain (355)  |  Selection (130)  |  Speed (66)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thumb (18)  |  Two (936)  |  Wheel (51)  |  Will (2350)

Now the whole earth had one language and few words… . Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth… .
Bible
(circa 725 B.C.)
Science quotes on:  |  Abroad (19)  |  Babel (3)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Call (781)  |  City (87)  |  Do (1905)  |  Down (455)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Face (214)  |  Heaven (266)  |  Heavens (125)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Language (308)  |  Lord (97)  |  Name (359)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  People (1031)  |  Scatter (7)  |  See (1094)  |  Speech (66)  |  Top (100)  |  Understand (648)  |  Whole (756)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

Our revels are now ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve.
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest (1611), IV, i.
Science quotes on:  |  Actor (9)  |  Air (366)  |  Behind (139)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Dissolve (22)  |  Dream (222)  |  End (603)  |  Fabric (27)  |  Fad (10)  |  Foretelling (4)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inherit (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Melt (16)  |  Pageant (3)  |  Palace (8)  |  Rack (4)  |  Revel (6)  |  Sleep (81)  |  Solemn (20)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Temple (45)  |  Vision (127)

Scientists are supposed to live in ivory towers. Their darkrooms and their vibration-proof benches are supposed to isolate their activities from the disturbances of common life. What they tell us is supposed to be for the ages, not for the next election. But the reality may be otherwise.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Age (509)  |  Bench (8)  |  Common (447)  |  Disturbance (34)  |  Election (7)  |  Isolate (24)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Next (238)  |  Otherwise (26)  |  Proof (304)  |  Reality (274)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Tell (344)  |  Vibration (26)

The Eiffel Tower is the Empire State Building after taxes.
Anonymous
Science quotes on:  |  Building (158)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  State (505)  |  Tax (27)

The mathematical universe is already so large and diversified that it is hardly possible for a single mind to grasp it, or, to put it in another way, so much energy would be needed for grasping it that there would be none left for creative research. A mathematical congress of today reminds one of the Tower of Babel, for few men can follow profitably the discussions of sections other than their own, and even there they are sometimes made to feel like strangers.
In The Study Of The History Of Mathematics (1936), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Already (226)  |  Congress (20)  |  Creative (144)  |  Discussion (78)  |  Diversified (3)  |  Energy (373)  |  Feel (371)  |  Follow (389)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Large (398)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Remind (16)  |  Research (753)  |  Section (11)  |  Single (365)  |  Stranger (16)  |  Today (321)  |  Tower Of Babel (2)  |  Universe (900)  |  Way (1214)

The most remarkable thing was his [Clifford’s] great strength as compared with his weight, as shown in some exercises. At one time he could pull up on the bar with either hand, which is well known to be one of the greatest feats of strength. His nerve at dangerous heights was extraordinary. I am appalled now to think that he climbed up and sat on the cross bars of the weathercock on a church tower, and when by way of doing something worse I went up and hung by my toes to the bars he did the same.
Anonymous
Quoted from a letter by one of Clifford’s friends to F. Pollock, in Clifford’s Lectures and Essays (1901), Vol. 1, Introduction, 8.
Science quotes on:  |  Appalled (3)  |  Badly (32)  |  Bar (9)  |  Church (64)  |  William Kingdon Clifford (23)  |  Climb (39)  |  Compare (76)  |  Cross (20)  |  Dangerous (108)  |  Doing (277)  |  Exercise (113)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Feat (11)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greatest (330)  |  Hand (149)  |  Hang (46)  |  Height (33)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Mathematicians and Anecdotes (141)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nerve (82)  |  Pull (43)  |  Remarkable (50)  |  Same (166)  |  Show (353)  |  Sit (51)  |  Something (718)  |  Strength (139)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Toe (8)  |  Way (1214)  |  Weight (140)

There is an attraction and a charm inherent in the colossal that is not subject to ordinary theories of art … The tower will be the tallest edifice ever raised by man. Will it therefore be imposing in its own way?
Quoted in J. Harriss, The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque (1975), 25. Cited by David P. Billington, 'Bridges and the New Art of Structural Engineering,' in National Research Council (U.S.). Transportation Research Board Subcommittee on Bridge Aesthetics, Bridge Aesthetics Around the World (1991), 67. From the original French in interview of Eiffel by Paul Bourde, in the newspaper Le Temps (14 Feb 1887). Reprinted in 'Au Jour le Jour: Les Artistes Contre la Tour Eiffel', Gazette Anecdotique, Littéraire, Artistique et Bibliographique (Feb 1887), 126, and in Gustave Eiffel, Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 14. “Il y a du reste dans le colossal une attraction, un charme propre auxquels les théories d’art ordinaires ne sont guère applicables. … Ma tour sera le plus haut édifice qu'aient jamais élevé les hommes. Ne serat-elle donc pas grandiose aussi a sa façon?
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Attraction (61)  |  Charm (54)  |  Colossal (15)  |  Edifice (26)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Man (2252)  |  Ordinary (167)  |  Subject (543)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)

They think that differential equations are not reality. Hearing some colleagues speak, it’s as though theoretical physics was just playing house with plastic building blocks. This absurd idea has gained currency, and now people seem to feel that theoretical physicists are little more than dreamers locked away ivory towers. They think our games, our little houses, bear no relation to their everyday worries, their interests, their problems, or their welfare. But I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to take it as a ground rule for this course. From now on I will be filling this board with equations. … And when I'm done, I want you to do the following: look at those numbers, all those little numbers and Greek letters on the board, and repeat to yourselves, “This is reality,” repeat it over and over.
Zig Zag, trans. Lisa Dillman (2008), 63.
Science quotes on:  |  Absurd (60)  |  Bear (162)  |  Board (13)  |  Building (158)  |  Building Block (9)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Course (413)  |  Differential Equation (18)  |  Do (1905)  |  Dreamer (14)  |  Equation (138)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Feel (371)  |  Gain (146)  |  Game (104)  |  Greek (109)  |  Ground (222)  |  Hearing (50)  |  House (143)  |  Idea (881)  |  Interest (416)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Letter (117)  |  Little (717)  |  Look (584)  |  More (2558)  |  Number (710)  |  People (1031)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Plastic (30)  |  Playing (42)  |  Problem (731)  |  Reality (274)  |  Repeat (44)  |  Rule (307)  |  Something (718)  |  Speak (240)  |  Tell (344)  |  Theoretical Physicist (21)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Think (1122)  |  Want (504)  |  Welfare (30)  |  Will (2350)  |  Worry (34)

This beast is best felt. Shake, rattle, and roll. We are thrown left and right against our straps in spasmodic little jerks. It is steering like crazy, like a nervous lady driving a wide car down a narrow alley, and I just hope it knows where it’s going, because for the first ten seconds we are perilously close to that umbilical tower.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Alley (2)  |  Beast (58)  |  Best (467)  |  Car (75)  |  Close (77)  |  Crazy (27)  |  Down (455)  |  Drive (61)  |  Driving (28)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Hope (321)  |  Know (1538)  |  Lady (12)  |  Leave (138)  |  Little (717)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Nervous (7)  |  Rattle (2)  |  Right (473)  |  Roll (41)  |  Second (66)  |  Shake (43)  |  Spasmodic (2)  |  Steer (4)  |  Strap (3)  |  Throw (45)  |  Wide (97)

We look down on our research scientists … if they engage themselves in outside consultation, or if they choose to augment their income from projects of a practical nature. We implicitly promote the ivory tower, the alienation of the persons of insight from those who do things.
In 'Leadership in Science', The Indian Review (Jul-Dec 1966), 65, 293. Also seen condensed to “We look down on our scientists if they engage in outside consultation. We implicitly promote the ivory tower,” as quoted in India Today (Apr 2008), 33, No 16, as cited on webpage of Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Science quotes on:  |  Alienation (2)  |  Consulting (13)  |  Engage (41)  |  Implicit (12)  |  Income (18)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Look Down (3)  |  Outside (141)  |  Practical (225)  |  Promote (32)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)

We see only the simple motion of descent, since that other circular one common to the Earth, the tower, and ourselves remains imperceptible. There remains perceptible to us only that of the stone, which is not shared by us; and, because of this, sense shows it as by a straight line, always parallel to the tower, which is built upright and perpendicular upon the terrestrial surface.
Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632). Revised and Annotated by Giorgio De Santillana (1953), 177.
Science quotes on:  |  Circular (19)  |  Common (447)  |  Descent (30)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Fall (243)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Motion (320)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Parallel (46)  |  Remain (355)  |  See (1094)  |  Sense (785)  |  Show (353)  |  Simple (426)  |  Stone (168)  |  Straight (75)  |  Straight Line (34)  |  Surface (223)  |  Terrestrial (62)

What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship, which will cross the sea.
We plant the mast to carry the sails;
We plant the planks to withstand the gales—
The keel, the keelson, and beam and knee;
We plant the ship when we plant the tree.

What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the houses for you and me.
We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors,
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors,
The beams and siding, all parts that be;
We plant the house when we plant the tree.

What do we plant when we plant the tree?
A thousand things that we daily see;
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country's flag,
We plant the shade, from the hot sun free;
We plant all these when we plant the tree.
(Feb 1890) In The Poems of Henry Abbey (1895), 262.
Science quotes on:  |  Beam (26)  |  Carry (130)  |  Country (269)  |  Crag (6)  |  Daily (91)  |  Do (1905)  |  Door (94)  |  Flag (12)  |  Floor (21)  |  Forestry (17)  |  Free (239)  |  Hot (63)  |  House (143)  |  Keel (4)  |  Mast (3)  |  Plank (4)  |  Plant (320)  |  Planting (4)  |  Sail (37)  |  Sea (326)  |  See (1094)  |  Shade (35)  |  Shingle (2)  |  Ship (69)  |  Spire (5)  |  Staff (5)  |  Sun (407)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thousand (340)  |  Tree (269)  |  Will (2350)

What is mathematics? What is it for? What are mathematicians doing nowadays? Wasn't it all finished long ago? How many new numbers can you invent anyway? Is today’s mathematics just a matter of huge calculations, with the mathematician as a kind of zookeeper, making sure the precious computers are fed and watered? If it’s not, what is it other than the incomprehensible outpourings of superpowered brainboxes with their heads in the clouds and their feet dangling from the lofty balconies of their ivory towers?
Mathematics is all of these, and none. Mostly, it’s just different. It’s not what you expect it to be, you turn your back for a moment and it's changed. It's certainly not just a fixed body of knowledge, its growth is not confined to inventing new numbers, and its hidden tendrils pervade every aspect of modern life.
Opening paragraphs of 'Preface', From Here to Infinity (1996), vii.
Science quotes on:  |  Aspect (129)  |  Back (395)  |  Balcony (2)  |  Body (557)  |  Calculation (134)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Change (639)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Computer (131)  |  Confine (26)  |  Dangle (2)  |  Different (595)  |  Doing (277)  |  Expect (203)  |  Finish (62)  |  Finished (4)  |  Fixed (17)  |  Foot (65)  |  Growth (200)  |  Head (87)  |  Hidden (43)  |  Huge (30)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Invent (57)  |  Ivory Tower (5)  |  Kind (564)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lofty (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Long Ago (12)  |  Making (300)  |  Mathematician (407)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Modern (402)  |  Modern Life (3)  |  Moment (260)  |  New (1273)  |  Nowadays (6)  |  Number (710)  |  Other (2233)  |  Pervade (10)  |  Precious (43)  |  Today (321)  |  Turn (454)  |  Water (503)  |  Zookeeper (2)

When you, my dear Father, see them, you will understand; at present I can say nothing except this: that out of nothing I have created a strange new universe. All that I have sent you previously is like a house of cards in comparison with a tower.
Referring to his creation of a non-euclidean geometry, in a letter (3 Nov 1823) to his father, Farkas Bolyai (in Hungarian). Quoted, as a translation, in Marvin J. Greenberg, Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries: Development and History (1993), 163
Science quotes on:  |  Comparison (108)  |  Create (245)  |  Father (113)  |  House (143)  |  New (1273)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Present (630)  |  Say (989)  |  See (1094)  |  Strange (160)  |  Understand (648)  |  Universe (900)  |  Will (2350)

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.
Movie
Love Actually (Prime Minister)
Science quotes on:  |  Actually (27)  |  Airport (3)  |  Arrival (15)  |  Board (13)  |  Call (781)  |  Daughter (30)  |  Dignified (13)  |  Everywhere (98)  |  Far (158)  |  Father (113)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Friend (180)  |  Gate (33)  |  General (521)  |  Girlfriend (2)  |  Gloomy (4)  |  Greed (17)  |  Hate (68)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Hit (20)  |  Husband (13)  |  Know (1538)  |  Live (650)  |  Look (584)  |  Love (328)  |  Message (53)  |  Mother (116)  |  Often (109)  |  Old (499)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Particularly (21)  |  People (1031)  |  Phone (2)  |  Plane (22)  |  Revenge (10)  |  See (1094)  |  Seem (150)  |  Son (25)  |  Start (237)  |  State (505)  |  Think (1122)  |  Twin (16)  |  Whenever (81)  |  Wife (41)  |  World (1850)

Whereas in The Two Towers you have different races, nations, cultures coming together and examining their conscience and unifying against a very real and terrifying enemy. What the United States has been doing for the past year is bombing innocent civilians without having come anywhere close to catching Osama bin Laden or any presumed enemy.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Against (332)  |  Anywhere (16)  |  Bomb (20)  |  Catch (34)  |  Civilian (2)  |  Close (77)  |  Coming (114)  |  Conscience (52)  |  Culture (157)  |  Different (595)  |  Doing (277)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Examine (84)  |  Innocent (13)  |  Load (12)  |  Nation (208)  |  Past (355)  |  Presume (9)  |  Race (278)  |  Real (159)  |  State (505)  |  Terrify (12)  |  Together (392)  |  Two (936)  |  Unify (7)  |  United States (31)  |  Year (963)

Whereas the man of action binds his life to reason and its concepts so that he will not be swept away and lost, the scientific investigator builds his hut right next to the tower of science so that he will be able to work on it and to find shelter for himself beneath those bulwarks which presently exist.
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (1873). Collected in Keith Ansell-Pearson (ed.), and Duncan Large (ed.), The Nietzsche Reader (2006), 121.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Build (211)  |  Concept (242)  |  Exist (458)  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Next (238)  |  Progress (492)  |  Reason (766)  |  Right (473)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Shelter (23)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

Without tracing back to the Tower of Babel, one can observe that the very idea of building a very tall tower has long haunted human imagination. That kind of victory over the formidable law of gravity that tethers man to the ground has always appeared to him a symbol of the force and the challenges overcome.
From the original French, “Sans remonter à la Tour de Babel, on peut observer que l’idée même de la construction d’une tour de très grande hauteur a depuis longtemps hanté l'imagination des hommes. Celle sorte de victoire sur cette terrible loi de la pesanteur qui attache l’homme au sol lui a toujours paru un symbole de la force et des difficultés vaincues.” First sentences of Chap. 1, in Travaux Scientifiques Exécutés à la Tour de 300 Mètres de 1889 à 1900 (1900), 1. English translation by Webmaster using online resources.
Science quotes on:  |  Back (395)  |  Build (211)  |  Building (158)  |  Challenge (91)  |  Eiffel Tower (13)  |  Force (497)  |  Gravity (140)  |  Ground (222)  |  Haunt (6)  |  Human (1512)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Kind (564)  |  Law (913)  |  Law Of Gravity (16)  |  Long (778)  |  Man (2252)  |  Observe (179)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Symbol (100)  |  Tall (11)  |  Tower Of Babel (2)  |  Victory (40)

You see layers as you look down. You see clouds towering up. You see their shadows on the sunlit plains, and you see a ship’s wake in the Indian Ocean and brush fires in Africa and a lightning storm walking its way across Australia. You see the reds and the pinks of the Australian desert, and it’s just like a stereoscopic view of all nature, except you’re a hundred ninety miles up.
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Across (32)  |  Africa (38)  |  Australia (11)  |  Australian (2)  |  Brush (5)  |  Cloud (111)  |  Desert (59)  |  Down (455)  |  Fire (203)  |  Hundred (240)  |  Indian (32)  |  Layer (41)  |  Lightning (49)  |  Look (584)  |  Look Down (3)  |  Mile (43)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Ninety (2)  |  Ocean (216)  |  Pink (4)  |  Plain (34)  |  Red (38)  |  See (1094)  |  Shadow (73)  |  Ship (69)  |  Storm (56)  |  Sunlit (2)  |  Towering (11)  |  View (496)  |  Wake (17)  |  Walk (138)  |  Way (1214)


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.