Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Science
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“If a given science accidentally reached its goal, this would by no means stop the workers in the field, who would be driven past their goal by the sheer momentum of the illusion of unlimited progress.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thinking withdraws radically and for its own sake from this world and its evidential nature, whereas science profits from a possible withdrawal for the sake of specific results.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics, which gives us equations, not for abstract figures, triangles, spheres, and the like, but for the human emotions. If one has a mind which inclines to magic rather than science, one will prefer to speak of these equations as spells or incantations; it sounds more arcane, mysterious, recondite.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Spirit of Romance (1910), p. 5
“Thus, the Semitic race is recognizable almost solely through negative characteristics: it has neither mythology, nor epic, nor science, nor philosophy, nor fiction, nor plastic arts, nor civil life; in sum an absence of complexity, of nuance, an exclusive sentiment of unity.”
Ernest Renan (1823–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated in Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, trans. Sonia Wichmann (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 96.
“Science has no enemies save those who consider truth as useless and making no difference, and those who granting to truth its priceless value profess to get at it by other roads than those of criticism and rational investigation.”
Ernest Renan (1823–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lofty serenity of science only becomes possible on the condition of impartial criticism, which without regard for the beliefs of a certain portion of humanity, handles its imperturbable instrument with the inflexibility of the geometrician, without anger and without pity. The critic never insults.”
Ernest Renan (1823–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion.”
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics held at Cambridge in October 1871, re-edited by W. D. Niven (2003) in Volume 2 of The Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, Courier Dover Publications, p. 243.
“It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state...”
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), Preface, p. xiii.
“Science is for the cultivation of religion, not for worldly enjoyments.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 4. Tr. Edward B. Eastwick, The Gulistan; or, Rose-Garden (Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1852) p. 264
“Two persons take trouble in vain, and use fruitless endeavors, — he who acquires wealth without enjoying it, and he who is taught wisdom but does not practice it. How much soever you may study science, when you do not act wisely you are ignorant. The beast whom they load with books is not profoundly learned and wise; what knoweth his empty skull whether he carrieth firewood or books?”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Witchcraft offers the model of a religion of poetry, not theology. It presents metaphors, not doctrines, and leaves open the possibility of reconciliation of science and religion, of many ways of knowing.”
“When we practice magic we are always making connections, moving energy, identifying with other forms of being. Magic could be called the applied science that is based on an understanding of how energy makes patterns and patterns direct energy. To put it another way, at its heart is a paradox:”
“The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments, and a passionate unwillingness to do so.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not an atheist — I think I'm happily confused and a work in progress; I'm sort of more agnostic. I do think that science has become the lens through which we see the world, more and more.”
Dan Brown (born 1964) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown Says He Has Abandoned Christianity, but Is Not an Atheist" The Christian Post (24 Oct 2017)
“I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.”
Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gryll Grange, chapter XIX (1860).
“Our Being is Becoming, not stasis. Our Science is Utopia, our Reality is Eros, our Desire is Revolution.”
Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Desire and Need (1967).
“I blame science! I blame technology! Domin! Myself! All of us! We, we are at fault! For the sake of our megalomania, for the sake of somebody's profits, for the sake of progress, I don't know, for the sake of some tremendous something we have murdered humanity! So now you can crash under the weight of all your greatness! No Genghis Khan has ever erected such an enormous tomb from human bones!”
Karel Čapek (1890–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is not about control. It is about cultivating a perpetual sense of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtle than our latest theory about it. It is about reverence, not mastery.”
Richard Powers (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The universe is female Eluding the science of men You sway and you swagger with your neat little dagger You're gonna blow it again .... I'll prove her existence in everything The soul of her rivers and stones Her acquiescence in everything Her essence, her presence, her bones. ~ Essence”
Steve Kilbey (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hate the whole übermensch, superman temptation that pervades science fiction. I believe no protagonist should be so competent, so awe-inspiring, that a committee of 20 really hard-working, intelligent people couldn't do the same thing.”
David Brin (born 1950) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Locus (March 1997)
“Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.”
David Brin (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.”
Stephen Colbert (born 1964) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Mock Columnist, Amok", in The New York Times (14 October 2007)
“I grew up to be indifferent to the distinction between literature and science, which in my teens were simply two languages for experience that I learned together.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in World Authors 1950–1970 (1975) by J. Wakeman, pp. 221–223
“The sneer that science is only critical came from others. It was made by the timid and laboured artists of the nineties in order that they might by comparison appear to be creative and intuitive. Yet this finesse could not hide their own knowledge that the best minds were already being drawn to the more adventurous practice of the new sciences.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is not a special sense. It is as wide as the literal meaning of its name: knowledge.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science changes our values in two ways. It injects new ideas into the familiar culture. And it subjects it to the pressure of technical change, in the way I have just been describing, until the whole basis of our culture has imperceptibly been remade.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are three creative ideas which, each in its turn, have been central to science. They are the idea of order, the idea of causes, and the idea of chance.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purpose of science is to describe the world in an orderly scheme or language which will help us to look ahead. We want to forecast what we can of the future behaviour of the world; particularly we want to forecast how it would behave under several alternative actions of our own between which we are usually trying to choose.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laws of science have two functions, to be true and to be helpful; probably each of these functions includes the other. If the statistical law does both, that is all that can be asked of it. We may persuade ourselves that it is intellectually less satisfying than a causal law, and fails somehow to give us the same feeling of understanding the process of nature. But this is an illusion of habit.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If any ideas have a claim to be called creative, because they have created something, then certainly it is the ideas of science.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science, like art, is not a copy of nature but a re-creation of her.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The symbol and the metaphor are as necessary to science as to poetry.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can't honestly say that I appreciate the way in which he changed baseball — from a game of science to an extension of his powerful slugging — but he was the most natural and unaffected man I ever knew. No one ever loved life more. No one ever inspired more youngsters. I have reverence for his marvelous ability . I look forward to meeting him again some day.”
Ty Cobb (1886–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As art is a habit with reference to things to be done, so is science a habit in respect to things to be known.”
William Harvey (1578–1657) said by 1657 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seldom seems to strike the ultra-Darwinists that theology might have its own richness and subtleties, and might—strange thought—actually tell us things about the world that are not only to our real advantage, but will never be revealed by science.”
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the other world-picture?, one based not just on science but wedded to a scientistic programme. Well, you know it as well as I do. Here all is ultimately meaningless.”
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A world-picture that encompasses science but also the deep wisdom of theology may help us to explain how it is we can think, how we discover the extraordinary, but so too it may warn us of present dangers and future catastrophes . . .”
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s a basic tenet of military science. No stronghold can be taken if a mule laden with gold bars can leave it unobserved.”
“Imagine my surprise when it turned out the main thing that I was qualified for was to get another degree and teach Political Science to other people, who would, in turn, teach it to other people! This wasn't higher education, this was Amway with a football team!”
Richard Jeni (1957–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science holds our answer; knowledge—real knowledge, verifiable knowledge, not superstition, not religious nonsense—will be our salvation.”
Robert J. Sawyer (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It turned out that big-bucks science had been a purely mid-twentieth-century phenomenon, starting with the Manhattan Project and ending with the fall of the Soviet Union.”
Robert J. Sawyer (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jag barked dismissively. “Philosophy,” he said. “Not science. They just want to believe that.”
Robert J. Sawyer (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While you’re playing cards with a regular guy or having a bite to eat with him, he seems a peaceable, good-humoured and not entirely dense person. But just begin a conversation with him about something inedible, politics or science, for instance, and he ends up in a deadend or starts in on such an obtuse and base philosophy that you can only wave your hand and leave.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ionych (1898)
“When one longs for a drink, it seems as though one could drink a whole ocean—that is faith; but when one begins to drink, one can only drink altogether two glasses—that is science.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And I thought that were we now to obtain political liberty, of which we talk so much, while engaged in biting one another, we should not know what to do with it, we should waste it in accusing one another in the newspapers of being spies and money-grubbers, we should frighten society with the assurance that we have neither men, nor science, nor literature, nothing! Nothing!”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pharisaism, obtuseness and tyranny reign not only in the homes of merchants and in jails; I see it in science, in literature, and among youth. I consider any emblem or label a prejudice.... My holy of holies is the human body, health, intellect, talent, inspiration, love and the most absolute of freedoms, the freedom from force and falsity in whatever forms they might appear.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1888 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Alexei Pleshcheev (October 4, 1888)
“Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to A.S. Suvorin (December 27, 1889)
“The wealthy are always surrounded by hangers-on; science and art are as well.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) said by 1904 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fisheries science asks: "How many fish can we keep taking?" Marine ecology asks: "What would living systems look like if we stopped?" Even practitioners often mix them up.”
George Monbiot (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists; though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mammon" an address at the London School of Economics (6 December 1963); published in Mammon and the Black Goddess (1965)