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Science

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“Science is, on the whole, an informal activity, a life of shirt sleeves and coffee served in beakers.”
George Porter (1920–2002) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nobel Banquet Speech in Stockholm, December 10, 1967.
“Science brings to the light of day everything man had believed sacred. Technique takes possession of it and enslaves it.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The opinions that the price of commodities depends solely on the proportion of supply and demand, or demand to supply, has become almost an axiom in political economy, and has been the source of much error in that science.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cosmology is a science which has only a few observable facts to work with.”
Robert Woodrow Wilson (born 1936) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conclusion of his Nobel lecture (December 8, 1978) emphasizing that every new experimental discovery increases significantly our knowledge.
“How scientists go about their job: and it's a process, it's a question of asking questions, respecting observation, respecting experiment, having tentative explanations and then testing them.... There is a problem sometimes with how we teach science at schools. Because we sometimes teach it as if it has been chiseled in stone.”
Paul Nurse (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There`s only so much bad luck that a person can have. For her to continue to wake up and con-front the alien and resolve the situation, then go back to sleep and wake up to yet another situation-to me, it`s a burden on the whole science-fiction premise of the alien.”
Sigourney Weaver (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The museums of science are replete with fossils of species that could not last the course. The leading-coinciding-lagging indicators might be buried forever in old footnotes. But occasionally Sleeping Beauty is brought back to life by the kiss of a new Prince Charming.”
Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paradise Lost & Refound: The Harvard ABC Barometers", The Journal of Portfolio Management, 13(3), 4-9, 1987
“My notion of a fruitful economic science would be that it can help us explain and understand the course of actual economic history. A scholar who seriously addresses commentary on contemporary monthly and yearly events is, in this view, practicing the study of history—history in its most contemporary time phasing.”
Paul Samuelson (1915–2009) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in William A. Barnett, An Interview with Paul A. Samuelson (December 23, 2003)
“Perhaps the most important contribution to science that the Royal Society has made in its three centuries of existence is its early role in publishing Newton's masterful account of his discoveries: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy—the Principia.”
Julian Schwinger (1918–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Einstein's Legacy: The Unity of Space and Time (2002) p. 2
“As a soldier who has spent a quarter of his life in the study of the science of arms, let me tell you I went into the British Army believing that if you want peace you must prepare for war. I believe now that if you prepare thoroughly and efficiently for war, you get war.”
Frederick B. Maurice (1871–1951) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking in Carnegie Hall, New York City, on 4 April 1919.
“Science is a way to pursue one's sense of inquiry at the expense of the State.”
Lev Artsimovich (1909–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In religion, faith is a virtue. In science, faith is a vice.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: For the love of God...scientists in uproar at £1m religion prize" on independent.co.uk, April 6, 2011
“Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn’t come close.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A huge water geyser on Saturn’s moon helps make the rings, and a bonus eclipse from Mars" September 17, 2012
“Why, exactly, are scientists supposed to accord “respect” to a bunch of ancient fables that are not only ludicrous on their face, but motivate so much opposition to science?”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nicholas Wade’s ridiculous prescription for curing creationism" November 28, 2012
“Everyone else besides the faithful already knows that religion has nothing useful to say to science.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Science versus religion: Are they “gifts” to each other?" November 29, 2019
“Yes, it’s true that gender ideologues will oppose the article and upcoming book, but they have long put ideology over science, a strategy that is a loser, as we know from the failures of creationism and intelligent design.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2026 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jesse Singal’s op-ed in the NYT: A turning point in “affirmative care”?" February 25, 2026
“If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible—though very unlikely—that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never needed; we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science and religion, then, are competitors in the business of finding out what is true about our universe. In this goal religion has failed miserably, for its tools for discerning “truth” are useless. These areas are incompatible in precisely the same way, and in the same sense, that rationality is incompatible with irrationality.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If religion and science get along so well, why are so many scientists nonbelievers?”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important component of the incompatibility between science and religion is religion’s dependence on faith.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theologians intensely dislike the definition of faith as belief without—or in the face of—evidence, for that practice sounds irrational. But it surely is, as is any system that requires supporting a priori beliefs without good evidence. In religion, but not science, that kind of faith is seen as a virtue.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blasphemy” and “heresy” are terms of religion, not science.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as many churches don’t want to be seen as rejecting science, neither do they wish to lag too far behind public morality, and so they often tweak their religious “truths” to reflect the zeitgeist.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The methodological conflicts between science and religion cannot be brokered, for faith has no reliable way to find truth.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This shows what we already know: belief may arise by indoctrination or authority, but is often maintained by social utility. But if no conceivable evidence can shake your faith in a theistic God, then you’ve deliberately removed yourself from rational discourse. In other words, your faith has trumped science.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the end, theistic evolution is not a useful compromise between science and religion. Insofar as it makes testable predictions, it has been falsified, and insofar as it makes claims that can’t be tested, it can be ignored.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course, atheism, which is merely the lack of belief in gods, isn’t responsible for explaining altruism and ethics, a task that properly belongs to philosophy, science, and psychology. And those areas have offered plenty of nonreligious explanations for the “Moral law” and altruism. The explanations involve evolution, reason, and education.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science’s results alone justify its usefulness, for it is, hands down, the single best way we’ve devised to understand the universe.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Isn’t science, as some maintain, based on a “faith” that it’s good to pursue the truth? Hardly. The notion that knowledge is better than ignorance is not a quasi-religious faith, but a preference: we prefer to know the truth because accepting what’s false doesn’t give us useful answers about the universe.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science has a huge advantage over “other ways of knowing”: built-in methods of self-correction.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion has no warrant and no method for decreeing what is and what is not beyond science.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion has nothing to tell scientists that can improve their trade. Indeed, the progress of science has required shedding all vestiges of religion, whether those be the beliefs themselves or religious methods for finding “truth.” We do not need those hypotheses.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What might be considered a real contribution of science to religious belief is the empirical demonstration that some of those beliefs are wrong.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have argued that religion is to science as superstition is to reason; indeed, that is the very reason they are incompatible.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With the help of two concepts that are traditionally opposed—science and spirituality—we humbly reintroduce psychedelics back into the cultural dialogue.”
Joe Rogan (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Moving forward in science is as much unwinding the distorted thinking of the past as it is putting a clearer idea on the table.”
Craig Venter (1946–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think from my experience in war and life and science, it all has made me believe that we have one life on this planet. We have one chance to live it and to contribute to the future of society and the future of life. The only "afterlife" is what other people remember of you.”
Craig Venter (1946–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A science only advances with certainty, when the plan of inquiry and the object of our researches have been clearly defined; otherwise a small number of truths are loosely laid hold of, without their connexion being perceived, and numerous errors, without being enabled to detect their fallacy.”
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Political economy has only become a science since it has been confined to the results of inductive investigation.”
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some writers maintain arithmetic to be only the only sure guide in political economy; for my part, I see so many detestable systems built upon arithmetical statements, that I am rather inclined to regard that science as the instrument of national calamity.”
Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have been young, but now am old. I have spent a whole life-time in battling against infidelity with the weapons of apologetic science; but I have become ever more and more convinced that the way to the heart does not lie through the head; and that the only way to the conversion of the head lies through a converted heart which already tastes the living fruits of the gospel.”
Friedrich Tholuck (1799–1877) said by 1877 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 137.
“[Although the natural sciences are indispensable to human survival,] this does not mean that people would be able to solve the problems that face us, peaceful coexistence of peoples and the preservation of the balance of nature, with science as such. It is obvious that not mathematics but the linguistic nature of people is the basis of human civilization.”
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ästhetik und Poetik I. Kunst als Aussage (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1993), p. 342; as quoted in Andrew Bowie, Adorno and the Ends of Philosophy (Cambridge: Polity, 2013), p. 15
“I now come to the third great obstacle to human self-knowledge, to the belief — deeply rooted in our western culture — that what can be explained in terms of natural science has no values. This belief springs from an exaggeration of Kant's values-philosophy, the consequence of the idealistic dichotomy of the world into the external world of things and the internal laws of human reason.”
Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The direction in which science will move is set by the philosophic world view of the scientists.”
Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How Should We Then Live : The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976), Chapter 1, Ancient Rome
“Science, as an institution, cannot be independent of human passions.”
Carlos Gershenson (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science deals with epistemology, not with ontology.”
Carlos Gershenson (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Electric and magnetic forces. May they live for ever, and never be forgot, if only to remind us that the science of electromagnetics, in spite of the abstract nature of its theory, involving quantities whose nature is entirely unknown at the present, is really and truly founded on the observations of real Newtonian forces, electric and magnetic respectively.”
Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Electromagnetic Theory (1912), Volume III; p. 1; "The Electrician" Pub. Co., London.
“Does it strike you, Mr. Keller, that we live every day in the science fiction of our youth?”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live in an enlightened age, however, an age that has learned to see and to value other living things as they are, not as we wish them to be. And the long and creditable history of science has taught us, if nothing else, to look carefully before we judge—to judge, if we must, based on what we see, not what we would prefer to believe.”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source