Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“The term 'simplicity' functions then merely as a disguise for another meaning than its own. It is used for smuggling an essential quality into our appreciation of a scientific theory, which a mistaken conception of objectivity forbids us to openly acknowledge.”
Michael Polanyi (1891–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Microsoft] must be testing the outer limits of what a customer will put up with before bolting to Linux, certainly a valuable scientific study from my point of view.”
Pamela Jones first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Brave New Modular World - Another MS Patent Application, retrieved 1 September 2010.
“I have so emphatically impressed the need of harmlessness upon all of you, for it is the scientific method, par excellence, and esoterically speaking, of cleaning house, and of purifying the centres. Its practice clears the clogged channels and permits the entrance of the higher energies. p. 40”
Alice Bailey (1880–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With support from institutions like the United Nations as well as the donor community, governments can strengthen their national technological and scientific capacities by devising policies to link up to research networks, encourage technology transfer, and build indigenous capabilities through education and collaborative projects.”
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (born 1938) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 23, 2005, at the Eighth Session of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, Palais de Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
“Making the future and the road to the future wealth lies in the youth of the present and future, and rebuilding the nation’s institutions based on knowledgeable scientific foundations that require promising human capacities derived from college graduates. Universities are the makers of men, we are proud of their role and of the efforts of their administrators.”
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh (born 1938) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 8, 2005, at the First Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Commerce – Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza Palestine.
“Today humanity is confronted with the choice of total elimination or radical enhancement of human beings. This crisis demands that we draw the best from our scientific and religious resources.”
Kuruvilla Pandikattu (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our examination of computer viruses leads us to the conclusion that they are very close to what we might define as "artificial life." Rather than representing a scientific achievement, this probably represents a flaw in our definition.”
Gene Spafford (born 1956) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Computer Viruses: A Form of Artificial Life?" (invited contribution); Artificial Life II, Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, vol. XII, eds. D. Farmer, C. Langton, S. Rasmussen, and C. Taylor; Addison-Wesley; pp. 727…
“We don't know what energy is, any more than we know what information is, but as a now robust scientific concept we can describe it in precise mathematical terms, and as a commodity we can measure, market, regulate and tax it.”
Hans Christian von Baeyer (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Both induction and deduction, reasoning from the particular and the general, and back again from the universal to the specific, form the essence to scientific thinking.”
Hans Christian von Baeyer (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scientific world is to be less threatening than was feared. It is to be made safe for human beings. And the way to make it safe is to reflect on the foundation of knowledge.”
Simon Blackburn (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Buddha's teachings are scientific methods to solve the problems of all living beings permanently.”
Kelsang Gyatso (1931–2022) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom (2011)
“Hunting for elusive dark matter is now a multibillion dollar international scientific industry.”
John Moffat (physicist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The public wants miracles. The public demands miracles; and if one source ceases to provide them, they will turn to another source which seems to accomplish the spectacular. Even while they resented and opposed the scientific attitude, they lapped up the miracles which this attitude accomplished with glee.”
Mark Clifton (1906–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since we want not emancipation from impulse but clarification of impulse, the duty of rhetoric is to bring together action and understanding into a whole that is greater than scientific perception.”
Richard Weaver (1910–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is the question: is a legitimization of the social bond, a just society, feasible in terms of a paradox analogous to that of scientific activity? What would such a paradox be?”
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…Scientific knowledge does not represent the totality of knowledge; it has always existed in addition to, and in competition and conflict with, another kind of knowledge, which I will call narratives in the interest of simplicity.”
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Inquisitor is the forgiving father, the scientific materialist, and the social engineer. He is the most compassionate, and honest, of politicians; he takes on great burdens of responsibility in order to protect his subjects from ethical doubt. But he also suppresses any attempt to expand their self-consciousness: he is the ‘great simplifier’, the shepherd to a flock of carefree children.”
John Carroll (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scientific journey has no end. It has only halting places—points at which the traveller can look round and survey.”
Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the religiosity of Zen Buddhism, demythologization of the mythical and existentialization of the scientific belong to one and the same process.”
Keiji Nishitani (1900–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Zen Skin, Zen Marrow (Oxford: 2008), p. 134.
“The way of Socrates had shown itself to be a limited way because it concerned itself “only with the scientific investigation of justice and the virtues,” and it had shown itself to be an intransigent way because it chose “non-conformity and death.” Plato corrected the way of Socrates—he removed the limitation and tempered its intransigence.”
Laurence Lampert (1941–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not want to defend the occult sciences; I am, however, convinced that further unbiased investigation of these phenomena by collection and evaluation of old and new evidence, in the usual scientific manner, will lead us sooner or later to the discovery of new and important relations of which we have as yet no knowledge, but which are natural phenomena in the usual sense.”
Richard von Mises (1883–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nowadays, however, we are much more aware of the fact that the best proof in the world is worth no more than its premises: every scientific theory is transitory and provisional, in wait for a better one, and accepted only as long as the experimental results conform to its predictions.”
Ivar Ekeland (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The measurement of time was the first example of a scientific discovery changing the technology.”
Ivar Ekeland (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scientific method I was closest to was the Linnaean: discover, collect, examine.”
Tomas Tranströmer (1931–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is far more arrogant to profess intuitive knowledge of the sacred than scientific knowledge of the tangible.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am very conscious that there is no scientific explanation for the fact that we are conscious.”
Andrew Huxley (1917–2012) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Economist, 16 June 2012, p. 98
“It was really evident that what we were learning from a scientific point of view from wolves wasn't very much. The Native Americans I lived with knew far more about wolves than we ever did. I believe it was because they had the time to live alongside these creatures, to share their world.”
Shaun Ellis (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have always known that I want to be a scholar. That it is a worthy thing for a man to work at the university and discover the secrets of nature. Scientific work was not a revelation, it was not a change in life direction – except my first dream to be a pearl diver. It was all from the nature, from home.”
Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (2013): Macanie świata, interview. Focus (in Polish).
“My father taught me that in scientific work even the most brilliant intelligence won't be useful if it won't be supported by a long, hard work.”
Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Adam Vetulani. 1901–1976. Kraków: Polish Acadcemy of Learning, 2005, p. 77.
“The worst thing happens when ideologists are trying to analyse scientific researches.”
Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vetulani, Jerzy (2008): Neurobiologia inteligencji. Wiedza i Życie, 2, pp. 14–19 (in Polish).
“In this sense Marxism performs the function of a religion, and its efficacy is of a religious character. But it is a caricature and a bogus form of religion, since it presents its temporal eschatology as a scientific system, which religious mythologies do not purport to be.”
Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009) first seen 1208 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epilogue, p. 1208
“Hence the most scientific classification is a rough-and-ready business at the best.”
Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A star fall, a phone call It joins all Synchronicity It's so deep, it's so wide You're inside Synchronicity Effect without a cause Sub-atomic laws, scientific pause Synchronicity....”
Sting (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If adequate incentives could be assured, public ownership and scientific operation of banking,sources of electric energy, basic natural resources, chief means of transportation and communication, and steel, would increase productivity enormously by national planning and correlating.”
Kirby Page (1890–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anthropology is the most scientific of humanities, the most humanistic of sciences. (1964)”
Eric Wolf (1923–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Empiricism and positivism share the common view that scientific knowledge should in some way be derived from the facts arrived at by observation.”
Alan Chalmers (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientists are typically good at making scientific progress, but not particularly good at articulating what the progress consists of.”
Alan Chalmers (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While no one is going to make a decision on abortion purely on scientific grounds, we feel that everyone, at the very least, ought to get the facts straight.”
Harold J. Morowitz (1927–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the more judicial and scientific temper of our day their invective would seem overdrawn and their sympathy would seem partisanship. In Jeremiah and in the prophetic psalms the poor as a class are made identical with the meek and godly, and "rich" and "wicked" are almost synonymous terms.”
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A new factor enters the situation when we encounter the influence of ‘scientific socialism.’ It is true, the party platform declares that ‘religion is a private affair.’ The saving of souls is the only industry that socialism distinctly relegates to private enterprise.”
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The history of scientific ideas shows all too blatantly that there has been no overall linear progression.”
Ernst von Glasersfeld (1917–2010) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Glasersfeld (2001, p.32) as cited in: Alexander Riegler, "Constructivism." in: Paradigms in theory construction. Springer, New York, NY, 2012. 235-255.
“The essence of scientific progress is to edge up this ladder from ignorance to knowledge, and it is complicated by the fact that the ladder keeps getting longer!”
George Stigler (1911–1991) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 4th ed. (1987), Chap. 1 : Introduction to Economic Analysis
“Most managers have some conception of at least some of the types of decisions they must make. Their conceptions, however, are likely to be deficient in a very critical way, a way that follows from an important principle of scientific economy: The less we understand a phenomenon, the more variables we require to explain it.”
Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Christianity, for Blake, bled from Jesus his real substance as prophet/poet. Reason, or Ratio, on the other side, born with the scientific revolution, divided the world from the self, the human from the natural, the inside from the outside, and the outside itself into ever finer degrees of manipulable parts.”
Curtis White (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An objective of O.R. as it emerged from this evolution of industrial organization, is to provide managers of the organizations with a scientific basis for solving problems involving the interaction of the components of the organization in the best interest of the organization as a whole. A decision which is best for the organization as a whole is called optimum decision.”
C. West Churchman (1913–2004) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 6; Partly cited in: (2004) "In memory of C. West Churchman (1913–2004)." Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change. Vol 1 (Nr. 2–3) p. 210
“Operations research '(OR) is the securing of improvement in social systems by means of scientific method”
C. West Churchman (1913–2004) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: C. West Churchman, "Operations research as a profession" (1970); cited in Arjang A. Assad, Saul I. Gass (2011) Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators. p. 181
“Scientific observers often view living systems as existing in spaces which they conceptualize or abstract from the phenomena with which they deal. Examples of such spaces are:”
James Grier Miller (1916–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scientific world picture does not include … things that have not been constructed, that are not understood as artefacts … Instead of the final cause one starts to speak about purpose, which nature itself does not have. Only humans can set aims and achieve them by their activities if they know the laws of nature and set up various processes based on them and organise them purposively.”
Rein Vihalemm (1938–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That there is a difference between the average and the first class man is known to all employers, but that the first class man can do in most cases from two to four times as much is known to few, and is fully realized only by those who have made a thorough and scientific study of the possibilities of men.”
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) first seen 1346 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 1346.
“The Chairman: Mr. Taylor, do you believe that any system of scientific management induced by a desire for greater profits would revolutionize the minds of the employers to such an extent that they would immediately, voluntarily and generally enforce the golden rule.?”
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source