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Science

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“To me it is a riddle that , who for most of his life was a fanatical representative of extreme opinions in the social debate, could present a completely different personality in the scholarly context. During the period when I knew him he was the diffident seeker after scientific truth.”
Bertil Ohlin (1899–1979) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bertil Ohlin (1972, 558), as cited in: Carlson, Benny, and Lars Jonung. "Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Eli Heckscher, Bertil Ohlin and Gunnar Myrdal on the role of the economist in public debate." Econ Journal Watch 3.3…
“If two objects or human beings show similar behaviour in all their relevant aspects open to observation, the assumption of some unobservable hidden difference between them must be regarded as a completely gratuitous hypothesis and one contrary to sound scientific method.”
John Harsanyi (1920–2000) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Harsanyi, J. C. (1955). "Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility". J. Polit. Economy 63 (4): p. 317
“For me, growing up in the 1930s, the two motivations powerfully reinforced each other. The miserable failures of capitalist economies in the Great Depression were root causes of worldwide social and political disasters. The crisis triggered a fertile period of scientific ferment and revolution in economic theory.”
James Tobin (1918–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever mathematics has entered it has never again been pushed out by other developments. The mathematization of an area of human endeavor is not a passing fad; it is the prime mover of scientific and technological progress.”
Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is the Airship Possible? That depends, first of all, on whether we are to make the requisite scientific discoveries... the construction of an aerial vehicle ... which could carry even a single man from place-to-place at pleasure requires the discovery of some new metal or some new force.”
Simon Newcomb (1835–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Newton achieved the clearest appreciation of the relation between the empirical elements in a scientific system and the hypothetical elements derived from a philosophy of nature.”
Alistair Cameron Crombie (1915–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alistair Cameron Crombie, as quoted by John Freely in Before Galileo; The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012).
“When we say that the mind is a function of the brain, we are therefore to understand that in exact scientific truth we can mean nothing more than this: That physical and physiological changes go on, seriatim, side by side with changes in psychic experience; or vice versa, that psychic changes run parallel, pari passu, with physiological changes in the brain and the other neural tissues.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soil is not unalive. It is a mixture of broken rock, pollen, fungal filaments, ciliate cysts, bacterial spores, nematodes and other microscopic animals and their parts. 'Nature,' Aristotle observed, 'proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation.' Independence is a political, not a scientific, term.”
Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific treatment of the subject of currency is impossible without some form of the quantity theory … but the quantity theory by itself is inadequate, and it leads up to the method of treatment based on what I have called the consumers’ income and the consumers’ outlay – that is to say, simply the aggregates of individual incomes and individual expenditures.”
Ralph George Hawtrey (1879–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ideology is not absent in the technocracy... it is simply invisible, having blended into the supposedly indisputable truth of the scientific world view. ...The most effective ideologies are always those that are congruent with the limits of consciousness, for then they work subliminally.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Making of the Counter Culture (1969)
“Sociological researchers maintain a mask of objectivity. But... when students in these movements report facts that contradict the tenets of their group's creed, they are... punished for their heresy. ...forcing them "to leave the movement." A similar mechanism of repression is at work in every scientific discipline that I know.”
Howard Bloom (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The particles of this cosmos rock and roll to their own self-generated beat. They defy the rules of arithmetic. Protons plus neutrons... equals music. Is this harmony... entropy? ...No. ...it's social behavior ...riddled with form. And it's so antientropic that those in the scientific world who are trying desparately to rescue entropy... call it "negentropy." …Entropy is a very big assumption.”
Howard Bloom (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A belief in the validity of the acquisition of knowledge and a scientific understanding of the world we live in, the creation and appreciation of aesthetic phenomena in all their many forms, and the broadening and deepening of our range of experiences in day-to-day living, is rapidly becoming the ‘religion’ of our time.”
Desmond Morris (1928–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When people start rejecting the fundamental understanding of the world that scientific process brings you, well, that's bad in my opinion.”
Bill Nye (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. That you cannot tie any one event to that is not the same as doubt about the whole thing. There is no debate in the scientific community.”
Bill Nye (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A great number of our common ideas and ways of looking at the world were really shaped for us by the Greeks of antiquity, and... incorporated into the scientific knowledge of today. Such ideas as those of matter, force, element, number, space, time, etc., came to us from the ancient Greeks.”
J. R. Partington (1886–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I did not call him "Fritz." To me he remained always "Professor Hayek," despite his own graciousness in treating me as a peer. I shall not attempt to evaluate Professor Hayek's monumental contribution to our understanding of the events of this turbulent century, to the influence of his ideas on these events themselves or even to the development of economic theory in a strictly scientific sense.”
James M. Buchanan (1919–2013) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I did not call him “Fritz”: Personal recollections of Professor F. A. v. Hayek." Constitutional Political Economy 3.2 (1992): 129-135.
“Any scientific treatment of the history of art must encompass not only the concepts of ‘social class’ and ‘class struggle’, but also all the terms which describe particular social groups such as social category, autonomous fraction of a class, fraction of a class, and social stratum.”
Nicos Hadjinicolaou (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prejudices of the people are far stronger than those of the privileged classes; they are far more vulgar; and they are far more dangerous, because they are apt to run counter to scientific conclusions.”
Henry James Sumner Maine (1822–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though its fame is much restricted by its specialized nature, there is no doubt that Panini's grammar is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization, and the most detailed and scientific grammar composed before the 19th century in any part of the world.”
Pāṇini (520–460 BC) said by 460 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Professor A. L. Basham in: Daya Kishan Thussu Communicating India's Soft Power: Buddha to Bollywood, Palgrave Macmillan, 24 October 2013, p. 47.
Also quoted by: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
“Sanskrit is a scientific and systematic language. Its grammar is perfect and has attracted scholars worldwide. Sanskrit has a perfect grammar which has been explained to us by the world's greatest grammarian Panini.”
Pāṇini (520–460 BC) said by 460 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Piero was the sort of person that every religion needs but no religion likes. Thoughtful, rational, scientific. He asked questions and did not accept the easy answers on faith.”
Pat Murphy (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The neatly integrated paradigm for brain water... was derived from experiments done by Walter Dandy... Most brain scientists and brain physicians honour the Dandy paradigm as a navigator honours the North Star. ...yet new scientific evidence makes it difficult, if not impossible, to accept... It is a mismeme; the experimental facts no longer allow it to be 'true', and we need a paradigm switch.”
Richard Bergland wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As knowledge advances and scientific disciplines change, so do the disciplines impinging on them.”
Eric Kandel (born 1929) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind (2008)
“Once a scientific question is settled, it remains interesting and alive only if it draws attention to new questions; every conclusion is meant as a transition to a new beginning.”
Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tektology is not something principally new; it is not a leap in scientific evolution, but a necessary conclusion from the past, the necessary continuation of what has been done and is being done by men in their practice and theory. This is in part a justification for my boldness ... if any justification is necessary.”
Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[It remains to be seen whether the newer management theories, based as they are on research in industrial concerns, will be] equally applicable to other kinds of organized human activity, such as schools, voluntary organizations, unions, hospitals, governmental agencies, scientific and professional organizations, and the like.”
Rensis Likert (1903–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 4; as cited in: James G. March. Handbook of Organizations (RLE: Organizations). 2013. p. 817
“The cosmology of scientific materialism … considers the cosmos an absurd accident, and life within it to be no more than another accident.”
Herman E. Daly (1938–2022) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Herman E. Daly, "Feynman's Unanswered Question", Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, volume 26, number 1/2 (Winter/Spring 2006), p. 14
“The fiction of an ideal language composed of pure atomic statements is as metaphysical as the fiction of Laplace's 'spirit'. Scientific language, with its ever growing equipment of systematic symbol formations, can by no means be regarded as an approximation to such an ideal language.”
Otto Neurath (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The number-one philosophical battle therefore takes place on the frontier between the scientific and the ideological. There the idealist philosophies which exploit the sciences struggle against the materialist philosophies which serve the sciences.”
Louis Althusser (1918–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While speaking in ideology, and from within ideology we have to outline a discourse which tries to break with ideology, in order to dare to be the beginning of a scientific (i.e. subject-less) discourse on ideology.”
Louis Althusser (1918–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Believers in psychic phenomena — such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis — appear to have won a decisive victory and virtually silenced opposition... What is unique about the present is, that during the last 15 years, scarcely a single scientific paper has appeared attacking the work of the parapsychologists.”
George R. Price (1922–1975) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Price, G.R. (1955). "Science and the supernatural". Science. 122 (3165). Aug, 26. p. 359–367
“There is a rich tradition to help answer this question ["What can be done?"]. It's the fight for human freedom. And the fundamental lesson is that the meek don't make it. But audacity must be fused with attention to detail, with an awareness of social attitudes, power relations and scientific possibilities.”
Henry Spira (1927–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The scientific sterility of the Middle Ages has to be condemned for the same reasons which make it necessary today to condemn the philosophic sterility of scientism.”
Étienne Gilson (1884–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our problem is not a predetermined clash of irreconcilable genomes. Racism is generated and empowered by a flawed worldview that can be corrected with scientific and historical knowledge.”
Guy P. Harrison (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Consciousness is the biggest mystery. It may be the largest outstanding obstacle in our quest for a scientific understanding of the universe.”
David Chalmers (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Philosophy asks for a reason, not just a scientific fact.”
Catherine Rowett (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(E)ven within the realm of the strictly scientific; we need constant touch with the concrete realities of living nature to prevent our picturing her as exclusively such as we make her in our specialties and in our private dreams.”
Ralph Vary Chamberlin (1879–1967) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Science and Reality" (1931) Bios Vol. 2, No. 1 , p. 39
“The various creation stories of ancient time were not scientific theories in any modern sense. They did not attempt to reveal anything new about the structures of the world; they aimed simply to remove the specter of the unknown from human imaginings.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By interlinking causes, by searching always for unity in the face of superficial diversity, modern scientific explanations prize depth above breadth. A deep and narrow theory can, and often does, graduate to become a deep and broad one. A broad and shallow theory never does.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not hard to see why the Eastern holistic perspective made scientific progress so difficult. It denies the intuition that one can study the parts of the world in isolation from the rest—that one can analyze the world...”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Images and pictures... have played a key role in shaping our scientific picture of the world. ...Carefully constructed families of pictures can act as a calculus all their own. Like any successful systems of symbols, with an appropriate grammar they enlarge the number of things that we can do without consciously thinking.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was inevitable that artists should turn around and question the validity of the fundamental assumption that art aimed at representation; and the moment the question was fairly posed it became clear the pseudo scientific assumption that fidelity to appearance was the measure of art had no logical foundation.”
Roger Fry (1866–1934) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lecture to Fabian Soiety 1917 Art and Life from Vision and design by Roger Fry , Forgotten Books , 2012
“Every scientific generation, measured by its most vocal members, exaggerates the historical importance of its own members. ...there is a perpetual temptation to study the latest and to neglect the past.”
Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under the guise of eugenic improvement and racial purity, and what the implementation of eugenic measures could supposedly do to improve human society, notions of racial superiority continued in popularity, but with a purported scientific foundation.”
Daniel J. Fairbanks (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when those elites were enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s. p. 18”
Naomi Klein (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope to... provide insights into the interpretation of "evidence" and the application of the "scientific method" so that you... will be more attuned to what scientists are saying, and why they may be saying it, and realize that the problems and issues that they are addressing are matters we can all think about critically.”
Jeffrey H. Schwartz (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The evolution of scientific thought is inseparable from the history of man's efforts to resolve the perplexities of his own existence.”
Tobias Dantzig (1884–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He [Apollonius of Perga] spent a very long time with the pupils of Euclid at Alexandria, and it was thus that he acquired such a scientific habit of thought.”
Pappus of Alexandria (290–350) said by 350 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Psychology is an attempt to gain a scientific understanding of human nature. We are all deeply interested in knowing human nature. When we are not talking about ourselves we are usually talking about our neighbors.”
Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source