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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“This is an extraordinary time in the history of science, in that we cannot only theorize about the beginning of the universe, but actually study the celestial fossils of how it happened.”
John Moffat (physicist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order for the Moral Majority and the mobs to understand Rajneesh, they will have to leave their mob mentality and their morality and become amoral. Right now they are living in the 16th century; it is about time that they grow up and move with the science. And become sophisticated as Rajneesh are.”
Ma Anand Sheela (born 1949) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: USA Today, October 16, 1984, p. 11A.
“Certainly if the fundamental problem of society is that demands are infinite and resources are always limited, politics, not economics is the master science.”
Bernard Crick (1929–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.”
James Inhofe (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two basic approaches to the meaning of life and the universe about us. Man can know: That is the approach of science, its whole meaning. There are mysteries which man was not meant to know: That is the other approach. There is no reconciling of the two on a reasoning basis.”
Mark Clifton (1906–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Early in his career Hoskins had realized that no field of science is remote from the affairs of men, that there is a sociological implication inherent even in the simple set of screwing a nut on a bolt.”
Mark Clifton (1906–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great man of science, unless he is also a philosopher, … deserves the title of genius as little as the man of action.”
Otto Weininger (1880–1903) said by 1903 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work.”
Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pragmatism, in trying to turn experimental physics into a prototype of all science and to model all spheres of intellectual life after the techniques of the laboratory, is the counterpart of modern industrialism, for which the factory is the prototype of human existence, and which models all branches of culture after production on the conveyor belt.”
Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Social Science … led us to the fallacy that, since all men have their being in culture and as a result of culture, they owe a debt to that culture which even a lifetime of altruism could not repay.”
David Riesman (1909–2002) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cited in Essays on Individuality (Philadelphia: 1958), p. 110
“That others know: science. That others choose: politics.”
James Richardson (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since fresh examples and proofs could always be found of the alleged relation between guilt and punishment: if you behave in such and such a way, it will go badly with you. Now, as it generally does go badly, the allegation was constantly confirmed; and thus popular morality, a pseudo- science on a level with popular medicine, continually gained ground.”
Georg Brandes (1842–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You shouldn’t be looking for the secret to making people follow fads, you should be looking for the secret to making them think for themselves. Because that’s what science is all about.”
Connie Willis (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In science we must all submit not to what seems to us attractive from one point of view or another, but to what represents an agreement between theory and experiment.”
Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Faraday Lecture, the Royal Institution, London (1889) as quoted by Leon Gray, The Basics of the Periodic Table (2013)
“Doctor, you have science, I have faith.--to his physician, this was possibly a Jules Verne quote.”
Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A]s followers of natural science we know nothing of any relation between thoughts and the brain, except as a gross correlation in time and space.”
Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ch. 9: "Brain Collaborates with Psyche", p. 290. 2nd edition (1951), in Ch. 10: "Earth's Alchemy
“Science is the fruit of patient toil, sifting out facts and in search of more facts. It has no tilt against religion as such. It knows its own field to be vast, but also knows it limited.”
Charles Scott Sherrington (1857–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If society has a technical need, that helps science forward more than ten universities.”
Paul A. Baran (1909–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is a smorgasbord, and Google will guide you to the study that's right for you.”
Jonathan Haidt (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nowadays, secular people often see the Enlightenment as a battle between two mortal enemies; on one side was science, with its principal weapon, reason, and on the other side was religion, with its ancient shield of superstition. Reason defeated superstition, light replaced darkness.”
Jonathan Haidt (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What was most repulsive at the meetings was the stench of the guild, which assailed me everywhere: intellectual proletariat, that labors on its humdrum articles in the sweat of its brow, that does not know that science is to make one free and happy.”
Paul de Lagarde (1827–1891) first seen 1851 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paul de Lagarde describing an 1851 convention of philologists, from Paul de Lagarde: Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben für die Freunde zusammengestellt (1894), S. 21, as cited in The Politics of Cultural Despair (1961), p. …
“In science as in love a concentration on technique is quite likely to lead to impotence.”
Peter L. Berger (1929–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern science is an extreme step in this development, and in the secularization and sophistication of universe-maintenance.”
Peter L. Berger (1929–2017) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1999: 130)
“Economics is the most human of sciences. It is the science of wants and frustrations. It is psychology subject to the abstract, amplifying forces of mathematics.”
Ian McDonald (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.”
John Glenn (1921–2016) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Space All systems go for National Space Day" at CNN (4 May 2000); also at John Glenn Friendship 7 Day.
“There are three stages in this journey that I have been on. The first. the social science stage; the second, the psychedelic stage; and the third, the yogi stage.”
Ram Dass (1931–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Identity is as foreign to science as the good, and just as the good is reduced to something palpable, one’s own is raised to something vaguer but shareable.”
Harvey Mansfield (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the kynicism of Diogenes of Sinope, the laughter about philosophy itself became philosophical. … In the pantomimes and wordplays of the philosopher from the tub, the Gay Science was born, which saw the earnestness of the false life recur in the false earnestness of philosophy.”
Peter Sloterdijk (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of our fellow citizens do not share the blind faith in the simple beneficence of all technological innovation. And because they do not share the corporealist, morally neutral, and in some cases atheistic world-view that they attribute (fairly or not) to science and scientists, they are reluctant to surrender the power of decision to the very people who they think are creating the problem.”
“The real reason that physicians are rotten investors is that it never occurs to them that finance is a science, just like medicine.”
William J. Bernstein (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The position I favor is that economics is a science, but a rather pathological one.”
Steve Keen (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hitherto no rival hypothesis has been proposed as a substitute for the doctrine of transmutation; for 'independent creation,' as it is often termed, or the direct intervention of the Supreme Cause, must simply be considered as an avowal that we deem the question to lie beyond the domain of science.”
Charles Lyell (1797–1875) said by 1875 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been asserted - and this is no overstatement - that whereas other sciences draw their conclusions from what we know, the science of probability derives its most important results from what we do not know.”
Richard von Mises (1883–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seems to me that if somebody intends to marry and wants to find out 'scientifically' if his choice will probably be successful, then he can be helped, perhaps, by psychology, physiology, eugenics, or sociology, but surely by a science which centres around the word 'probable'.”
Richard von Mises (1883–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The motto of science is not just Pauca but rather Plurima ex paucissimis — the most out of the least.”
Mario Bunge (1919–2020) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mario Bunge, The myth of simplicity, 1963, p, 82; Cited in: C.C. Gaither, Alma E Cavazos-Gaither (2000), Scientifically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations, p. 187
“The real reason for the longevity of the neoclassical model have less to do with science, and more to do with the social dynamics of the universities that propagate it, and its appeal to a particular mindset.”
David Orrell (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Francis’s view there was ultimate gold in this commitment to impractical knowledge, to theories that had no responsibilities other than to be true. On good days the new ideas inched human intellect toward the grand understandings that were science’s pride and joy.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What most people don’t realize is that something unprecedented has entered the world. Bang—science—and suddenly a proposition is true because it’s true, Julie, not because its adherents have the biggest churches or the grandest inquisitors or the most weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If nothing else, their adventure had proved that God was not about to put science out of business.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you really think your terrestrial counterpart is living in the best of all possible worlds? Where I come from, an eighth grader would be ashamed to enter planet Earth in a junior high school science fair.”
James K. Morrow (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The distinction between public and special interests is an indispensable tool for the study of politics. To abolish the distinction is to make a shambles of political science by treating things that are different as if they were alike.”
Elmer Eric Schattschneider (1892–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For many years it was widely held that molecular biology was a completely useless subject, a 'fundamental' science of no interest to those working on practical matters”
Sydney Brenner (1927–2019) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The impact of society on science". Science 282, no 5393 (1998). Quoted in Donald Braben: Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilization, chapter 4.
“Conclusion: Because humanity has entered a new era of science and industry, Ecumenopolis is as inevitable as the village after the agricultural revolution.”
Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis (1913–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the records of our civilization are balanced, then—but perhaps not before—the real importance of dental science will be appreciated. Now it is merely valued at the moment of toothache.”
Avram Davidson (1923–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be silly, of course, to be either 'for' or 'against' modernity tout court, not only because it is pointless to try to stop the development of technology, science, and economic rationality, but because both modernity and antimodernity may be expressed in barbarous and antihuman terms.”
Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modernity on Endless Trial" (1986)
“Adept (Lat.). Adeptus, “He who has obtained.” In Occultism one who has reached the stage of Initiation, and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy.”
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the best-kept secrets of science is that physicists have lost their grip on reality.”
Nick Herbert (physicist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With the truth, one cannot live. To be able to live one needs illusions, not only outer illusions such as art, religion, philosophy, science and love afford, but inner illusions which first condition the outer [i.e., a secure sense of one’s active powers, and of being able to count on the powers of others].”
Ernest Becker (1924–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have reached far beyond my competence and have probably secured for good a reputation for flamboyant gestures. But the times still crowd me and give me no rest, and I see no way to avoid ambitious synthetic attempts; either we get some kind of grip on the accumulation of thought or we continue to wallow helplessly, to starve amidst plenty. So I gamble with science and write.”
Ernest Becker (1924–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It should be no news to anyone that the perceptual judgements of individuals can be unreliable for a range of reasons. The challenge, in science, is to arrange the observable situation in such a way that the reliance on such judgements is minimised if not eliminated.”
Alan Chalmers (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source