Famous quotes
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“People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been said that every great emerging scientific truth goes to three phases: First people say: "It can't be true". Second they say: "It conflicts with the bible." Third they say: "It's true all along.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This universality of physical laws drives scientific discovery like nothing else.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every discipline develops standards of professional competence to which its workers are subject... Every scientific community is a society in the small, so to speak, with its own agencies of social control.”
Abraham Kaplan (1918–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The temptation to use mathematics is irresistible for economists. It appears to convey the appropriate air of scientific authority and precision to economists' musings.”
Paul Ormerod (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The early anatomists, who laid the foundations of scientific medicine, were primarily artists; the early psychotherapists, like Freud, were primarily poets. Neither group ever cured anything, but each opened up a previously forbidden area of investigation. Both were retired to the sidelines when really hardcore knowledge began to be available.”
James Blish (1921–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order. ... This firm belief, a belief bound up with deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Essays in Science (1934) p. 11. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions On Scientific Truth (1954) p. 261, Crown Publishers, Inc. New York, New York, USA, 1954, .
“One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect [upon me] that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For scientific endeavor is a natural whole the parts of which mutually support one another in a way which, to be sure, no one can anticipate.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 6 "On Freedom" (1940), p. 12
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists, who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood. The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists. In any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Hawes The Logic of Contemporary English Realism (1923), p. 110;thumb|Most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so. cf. Ockham's maxim: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
“Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Can a Scientific Community Be Stable?," Lecture, Royal Society of Medicine, London (29 November 1949)
“In the welter of conflicting fanaticisms, one of the few unifying forces is scientific truthfulness, by which I mean the habit of basing our beliefs upon observations and inferences as impersonal, and as much divested of local and temperamental bias, as is possible for human beings.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Budget, and the policy of the Budget, is the first conscious attempt on the part of the State to build up a better and a more scientific organization of society for the workers of this country.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The People's Rights [1909] (1970), pp. 146-147
“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a scientific fact that your body will not absorb cholesterol if you take it from another person's plate.”
Dave Barry (born 1947) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Funny Side of 'Beowulf'", The Miami Herald, November 2, 1997.
“Bad times have a scientific value. [...] We learn geology the morning after the earthquake, on ghastly diagrams of cloven mountains, upheaved plains, and the dry bed of the sea.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society undergoes continual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For everything that is given something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts. The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet; he has a fine Geneva watch, but cannot tell the hour by the sun.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: PBS interview with David Frost (November 1995)
“Had the modern professors of eugenics had power in France in 1694, they probably would not have permitted such a child to have been born. Their scientific knowledge would have shown conclusively that no person of value could have come from the union of his father and mother. In those days, nature had not been instructed by the professors of eugenics and so Voltaire was born.”
Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”
E. B. White (1899–1985) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Some Remarks on Humor," preface to A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941)
“Service of the people by sciences and arts will only exist when men live with the people and as the people live, and without presenting any claims will offer their scientific and artistic services, which the people will be free to accept or decline as they please.”
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Futurologists have been multiplying like flies since the day Herman Kahn made Cassandra's profession "scientific," yet somehow not one of them has come out with the clear statement that we have wholly abandoned ourselves to the mercy of technological progress. The roles are now reversed: humanity becomes, for technology, a means, an instrument for achieving a goal unknown and unknowable.”
Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can found no scientific discipline, nor a hearty profession, on the technical mistakes of the Department of Defense and, mainly, one computer manufacturer.”
Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a great pity that human beings cannot find all of their satisfaction in scientific contemplativeness.”
Niels Bohr (1885–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Chandra: A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar (1991) by Kameshwar C. Wali, p. 147
“Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific Method... [is] even less existent than some other non-existent subjects.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific theories are distinguished from myths... in being criticizable, and... open to modifications... They can be neither verified nor probabilified.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The newsmen were writing down sentences busily as Hoskins spoke to them. They did not understand and they were sure their readers would not, but it sounded scientific and that was what counted.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) said by 1992 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The attitude that living things are placed here for our benefit still dominates our culture, even where its underpinnings have disappeared. We now need, for purposes of scientific understanding, to find a less human-centered view of the natural world.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If any remedy is tested under controlled scientific conditions and proved to be effective, it will cease to be alternative and will simply become medicine. So-called alternative medicine either hasn't been tested or it has failed its tests.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm quite certain that we'll have such [lunar] bases in our lifetime, somewhat like the Antarctic stations and similar scientific outposts, continually manned.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BBC interview (1970)
“If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist-in economic, political, scientific and all the other kinds of struggles as well as the military-then the peril to freedom will continue to rise.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have the greatest admiration for this learned doctor: with what scientific stoicism he walks through the land of wonders, unwondering; like a wise man through some huge, gaudy, imposing Vauxhall, whose fire-works, cascades and symphonies, the vulgar may enjoy and believe in,—but where he finds nothing real but the saltpetre, pasteboard and catgut.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With what scientific stoicism he walks through the land of wonders, unwondering.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you make the same guess often enough it ceases to be a guess and becomes a Scientific Fact. This is the inductive method.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men became scientific because they expected law in Nature; and they expected law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific education for the masses will do little good, and probably a lot of harm, if it simply boils down to more physics, more chemistry, more biology, etc to the detriment of literature and history. Its probable effect on the average human being would be to narrow the range of his thoughts and make him more than ever contemptuous of such knowledge as he did not possess.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What is Science?", Tribune (26 October 1945)
“It is in applied psychology, if anywhere, that today we should be modest and grant validity to a number of apparently contradictory opinions; for we are still far from having anything like a thorough knowledge of the human psyche, that most challenging field of scientific enquiry. For the present we have merely more or less plausible opinions that defy reconciliation.”
Carl Jung (1875–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern man may assert that he can dispense with them, and he may bolster his opinion by insisting that there is no scientific evidence of their truth. But since we are dealing with invisible and unknowable things (for God is beyond human understanding, and there is no mean of proving immortality), why should we bother with evidence?”
Carl Jung (1875–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Philosophy and religion are enemies, and because they are enemies they have need of one another. There is no religion without some philosophical basis, no philosophy without roots in religion. … the attacks which are directed against religion from a presumed scientific or philosophical point of view are merely attacks from another but opposing religious point of view.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Objection to scientific knowledge: this world doesn't deserve to be known.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.”
David Hilbert (1862–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Mathematical Circles Revisited (1971) by Howard Whitley Eves
“If people like being deceived — and this can hardly be doubted — there can rarely have been a time during which they can have had more of the wish than now. The literary, scientific and religious worlds vie with one another in trying to gratify the public.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In endeavouring to recall a few memorials of Mrs. Lawrence Burgoyne, I do it on the same principle that scientific men collect the bones of a mammoth — the whole exists no longer ; but there are sufficient remains to show that it did exist.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I should describe mine own nature as tripartite, my interests consisting of three parallel and dissociated groups—(a) Love of the strange and fantastic. (b) Love of the abstract truth and of scientific logick. (c) Love of the ancient and the permanent. Sundry combinations of these three strains will probably account for all my odd tastes and eccentricities.”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Reinhardt Kleiner (7 March 1920), in Selected Letters I, 1911-1924 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 110