Famous quotes
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“Von Noorden’s focus on metabolic expenditure set the science of obesity on the path we still find it. The evolution of this research, however, proceeded like a magician’s sleight-of-hand. By the 1940s, common sense, logic, and science had parted ways.”
Gary Taubes (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Psychology...is a science, not a sort of Savonarola. It cannot reform people against their wills. It can only provide a better method of mixing the human ingredients presented to it. As it is a social science it must depend as much upon the patient's willingness to be cured, as upon the physician's skill in curing. There is neither force nor magic in psychiatry.”
Phyllis Bottome (1882–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a region or population produces major advances in knowledge, science there is real and alive, otherwise not. By that standard, science does not exist in sub-Saharan Africa or in the Islamic world today. As Pervez Hoodbhoy (head of the physics department in Islamabad) has written, “No major invention or discovery has emerged from the Muslim world for well over seven centuries now.”
Henry Harpending (1944–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[...] All too often, people who write about science in the newspapers have no idea what they are writing about and probably don't even have the means to tell the difference between a credible, important study and one that isn't. In the newspapers, science is covered more from the perspective of gossip than from the perspective of genuine knowledge. It has to sell, not be understood.”
Piergiorgio Odifreddi (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A complete, luminous system of categories, so well disposed that its own law seemed to serve it as proof, and that the spirit, once placed in the admirable labyrinth, found itself there as invincibly restrained, would constitute a perfect philosophy. This science of science would have by its true name "general logic".”
Charles Renouvier (1815–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Merging ju-ju with science fiction, merging Nigerian mythology with technology and science fiction—those are my favourite things.”
C. J. Obasi (born 1985) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Influenced by Donna Haraway, I have also discovered 1970s American feminist science fiction, especially the works of Marge Piercy and Joanna Russ. I never would have thought I would ever voluntarily read science fiction, but you see, anything is possible!”
Sveta Grigorjeva (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I chose to do political science, not with the idea of becoming a politician, but to understand the “science” of politics: What does politics and policy do to reduce inequalities in the world?”
Ketakandriana Rafitoson wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am willing to say that Kipchoge is the greatest person in this world and he did in his life more than science, He ran sub-two hours, and science says that nobody can run sub-two.”
Shura Kitata (born 1996) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion has no more place in science than science has in religion.”
Louis Pasteur (disputed) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Answer from Pasteur to his disciple Elie Metchnikoff when was questioned whether his approach to spontaneous generation was bound to a religious ideal. According to Patrice Debré's Luis Pasteur, 2000, p. 176.
“A little science estranges men from God, but much science leads them back to Him.”
Louis Pasteur (misattributed) first seen 1597 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This alleged quotation is attributed to Pasteur at least as early as 1952, in Miracles, by Morvan Lebesque. A similar quotation reportedly appeared in a Pittsburgh Observer letter, written by Monsignor Joseph Guillot ab…
“What is systems science? This question, which I have been asked on countless occasions, can basically be answered either in terms of activities associated with systems science or in terms of the domain of its inquiry. The most natural answers to the question are, almost inevitably, the following definitions:”
George Klir (1932–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is often identified with knowledge. This is a gross misunderstanding. Science is not merely knowledge, but also consciousness, that is, the skill of properly using knowledge.”
Vasily Klyuchevsky (attributed) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in V. V. Vorontsov, ed., Words of the Wise: A Book of Russian Quotations (USSR: Progress Publishers, 1979), p. 486
“Well, he wasn't a relativist. There's a long and complicated story of the rise of a desire for scientific relativism. Part of it may well be simply sort of rage against reason, the fear of the sciences and a kind of total dislike of the arrogance of a great many scientists who say we're finding out the truth about everything—and here [with Kuhn] there was a way to undermine that arrogance.”
Ian Hacking (1936–2023) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ian Hacking, in Gary Stix, "A Q&A with Ian Hacking on Thomas Kuhn's Legacy as "The Paradigm Shift" Turns 50" (April 27, 2012)
“Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds.”
Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not against a body of uninterpreted data, radically thinned descriptions, that we must measure the cogency of our explications, but against the power of the scientific imagination to bring us into touch with the lives of strangers.”
Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“About the scientific revolution: it “outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes”.”
Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) first seen 1300 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The origins of modern science, 1300-1800, Bell (1949)
“But has man's political skill marched hand-in-hand with his technical and scientific skill? Man can chain lightning to his command-can be control the society in which be lives? The answer is No! The political skill of man has been far outstripped by technical skill, and what lie has made he cannot be sure of controlling.”
Sukarno (1901–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most beliefs about nature and man, which were not founded on scientific observation, have served directly or indirectly religious and social interests, and hence they have been protected by force against the criticisms of persons who have the inconvenient habit of using their reason.”
J. B. Bury (1861–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The progressive stack is basically a measure of how much you aren’t like, say, James Watt, the developer of the modern steam engine, the key invention of the Industrial Revolution. Watt was white, male, Protestant, straight, rich, mechanically skilled, and a scientific genius, so you’d better not be.”
Steve Sailer (born 1958) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Unhappiness Explosion, Taki's Magazine, December 19, 2018
“I would not, if I could, give up the memory of the joy I have had in books for any advantage that could be offered in other pursuits or occupations. Books have been to me what gold is to the miser, what new fields are to the explorer, what a new discovery is to the scientific student.”
Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (1838–1912) said by 1912 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have lived half of my life in "Western society" and never encountered those principles [listed by the NYT as "Western" ]. What is wrong with me. … So Mr. Bush stands for "gender equality, religious freedom, scientific inquiry and the rule of law" and I have never noticed?”
As'ad AbuKhalil (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Crank theories) always violated the first rule of a scientific model: they were uncheckable.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somehow to them, the press was always the judge of things scientific.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In popularizing a scientific development it was always crucial to sail the narrow strait between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public befuddlement.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Physicists had abandoned God long ago and hoped that firing repeated questions at nature would get to the truth. What scientists really believed in was that the think-check-think-again style of scientific method would yield some species of Truth.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Better be a bit more diplomatic. Translation: cover your scientific ass.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blacker, with the exception of Col Everest, was the ablest and most scientific man that ever presided over this expensive department”
Valentine Blacker (1778–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Andrew Waugh quoted in J. R. Smith, Everest: The Man and the Mountain (1999), p. 226.
“I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.”
A. J. Ayer (1910–1989) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Profile of Sir Alfred Ayer (June 1971) by Euro-Television, quoted in A.J. Ayer: A Life (1999), p. 2.
“My relationship with scientists has changed. Now, they consider me more of a peer than a guinea pig, and I'm part of the scientific discussion.”
Daniel Tammet (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mind is just as open as it ever was, professor. But it's a scientific mind, and there's no place in it for superstitions.”
Garrett Fort (1900–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.”
Frans de Waal (1948–2024) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Are We in Anthropodenial?" in Discover magazine (July 1997)
“Bill Finger was a contributing force on Batman right from the beginning. He wrote most of the great stories and was influential in setting the style and genre other writers would emulate … I made Batman a superhero-vigilante when I first created him. Bill turned him into a scientific detective.”
Bob Kane (1915–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Socialism knows that revolutionary upheavals and transformations proceed from the rock bed of material needs. With a full appreciation of and veneration for moral impulses that are balanced with scientific knowledge, it eschews, looks with just suspicion upon and gives a wide berth to balloon morality, or be it those malarial fevers that reformers love to dignify with the name of "moral feelings”
Daniel De Leon (1852–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. Shaw at the RAND Corporation, and subsequently with numerous faculty and student colleagues at Carnegie-Mellon University, they have made basic contributions to artificial intelligence, the psychology of human cognition, and list processing.”
Allen Newell (1927–1992) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1975 Turing Award Citation awarded jointly to Allen Newell and Herbert Simon.
“Analogy pervades all our thinking, our everyday speech and our trivial conclusions as well as artistic ways of expression and the highest scientific achievements.”
George Pólya (1887–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Human knowledge increases, while human irrationality stays the same. Scientific inquiry may be an embodiment of reason, but what such inquiry demonstrates is that humans are not rational animals. The fact that humanists refuse to accept the demonstration only confirms its truth.”
John Gray (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The powers, aspirations, and mission of man are such as to raise the study of his origin and nature, inevitably and by the very necessity of the case, from the mere physiological to the psychological stage of scientific operations.”
Richard Owen (1804–1892) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as stated in "The Edinburgh Review" on page 521 by Sydney Smith, Francis Jeffrey Jeffrey, William Empson, Macvey Napier, George Cornewall Lewis, Henry Reeve, Arthur Ralph Douglas Elliot, and Harold Cox, publication in 1…
“Capitalism might be defined, if we wish to be scientific, as a form of economic organization motivated by the pursuit of profit within a price structure.”
Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would urge that just as democracy initially meant the right of man to defend himself, to have a sword, and then meant the right to write, and then meant the right to read — so, now, democracy means the right to have the scientific experience.”
Edwin H. Land (1909–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[This] is or should be our main scientific activity — studying the structure of information and the structure of problem solving processes independently of applications and independently of its realization in animals or humans.”
John McCarthy (computer scientist) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John McCarthy (1974), quoted in: Joscha Bach (2009) Principles of Synthetic Intelligence PSI, p. 233
“Every sentence in order to have definite scientific meaning must be practically or at least theoretically verifiable as either true or false upon the basis of experimental measurements either practically or theoretically obtainable by carrying out a definite and previously specified operation in the future. The meaning of such a sentence is the method of its verification.”
Walter A. Shewhart (1891–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil. At least a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only Communism can resolve the problems of the masses.”
Lavrentiy Beria (1899–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My own beliefs are that the road to a scientific discovery is seldom direct, and that it does not necessarily require great expertise. In fact, I am convinced that often a newcomer to a field has a great advantage because he is ignorant and does not know all the complicated reasons why a particular experiment should not be attempted.”
Ivar Giaever (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When it comes to scientific matters the ready talkers simply run riot. There are a lot of pseudo-scientists who with a little technical jargon to spatter through their talk are always getting in the limelight by making startling predictions of what the future has in store, using as their text the most recent discovery or invention.”
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific theories need reconstruction every now and then. If they didn't need reconstruction they would be facts, not theories.”
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a mathematician, von Neumann was quick, brilliant, efficient, and enormously broad in scientific interests beyond mathematics itself. He knew his technical abilities; his virtuosity in following complicated reasoning and his insights were supreme; yet he lacked absolute self confidence.”
Stanislaw Ulam (1909–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among the first truths which the historical student, or indeed any scientific scholar, learns to recognise, this is perhaps the most important, that no theory or principle works in isolation.”
William Stubbs (1825–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In disputes upon moral or scientific points, ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent: so you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.”
James Burgh (1714–1775) said by 1775 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Deliberately or not, every author is of course present in every book he or she writes — even in a scientific text.”
Abraham Pais (1918–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source