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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“Science has nothing in common with fundamentalism or with superstition, but it has a lot in common with that desire to understand where we came from and who we are.”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Charlie Rose (1997)
“The basic rules of the road for science: Test ideas by experiment and observation. Build on those ideas that pass the test. Reject the ones that fail. Follow the evidence wherever it leads. And question everything. including authority.”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are stories that make me more optimistic about our future. Through them I have come to feel more intensely the romance of science and the wonder of being alive right now, at these particular coordinates in spacetime, less alone, more at home, here in the cosmos.”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The words Einstein chose to open the 1939 World's Fair echo in my brain: "If science, like art, is to perform its mission truly and fully, its achievements must enter not only superficially but with their inner meaning into the consciousness of the people.”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the heart of science is this tremendous regard for nature and reality”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think one of the great tragedies of my own education … was that the science was denuded of all the passion and the feeling.”
Ann Druyan (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The history of mathematics cannot with certainty be traced back to any school or period before that of the…Greeks…. Though all early races …knew something of numeration yet the rules…were neither deduced from nor did they form part of any science.”
W. W. Rouse Ball (1850–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: W. W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics , Dover, New York, 1960, pp. 1–2,
“Robert Grosseteste … was born at the decisive moment when Greek and Arabic science became accessible in Latin versions.”
Carl Benjamin Boyer (1906–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the question be raised, why such an apparently special problem as the quadrature of the circle, is deserving of the sustained interest which has attained to it, and which it still possesses, the answer is only to be found in a scrutiny of the history of the problem, and especially in the closeness of the connection of that history with the general history of Mathematical Science.”
E. W. Hobson (1856–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no science which teaches the harmonies of nature more clearly than mathematics.”
Paul Carus (1852–1919) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Magic Squares and Cubes (1908) by W. S. Andrews
“All science is full of statements where you put the best face on your ignorance, where you say: true enough, we know awfully little about this, but more or less irrespective of the stuff we don't know about, we can make certain useful deductions.”
Hermann Bondi (1919–2005) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hermann Bondi, Assumption and Myth in Physical Theory, (1967) p. 11
“Nicolaus Copernicus is the supreme example of a man who revolutionized science by looking at the old facts in a new way.”
Alistair Cameron Crombie (1915–1996) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alistair Cameron Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science (1952) as quoted by John Freely in Before Galileo: The Birth of Early Modern Science in Medieval Europe (2012).
“The strategic act by which Grosseteste and his thirteenth- and fourteenth-century successors created modern experimental science was to unite the experimental habit of the practical arts with the rationalism of twelfth-century philosophy.”
Alistair Cameron Crombie (1915–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Plato defines man "the hunter of truth," "for science is a chase, and in a chase the pursuit is always of greater value than the game.”
Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By Science is understood a Knowledge acquired by, or founded on clear and self evident Principles, whence it follows that the Mathematicks may truly be stiled such.”
Jacques Ozanam (1640–1718) said by 1718 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mathematicks therefore is a Science which teaches or contemplates whatever is capable of Measure or Number as such. When it relates to Number, it is called Arithmetick; but when to measure, as Length, Breadth, Depth, Degrees of Velocity in Motion, Intenseness or Remissness of Sounds, Augmentation or Diminution of Quality, 6tc. it is called Geometry.”
Jacques Ozanam (1640–1718) said by 1718 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The invention of logarithms and the calculation of the earlier tables form a very striking episode in the history of exact science, and, with the exception of the Principia of Newton, there is no mathematical work published in the country which has produced such important consequences, or to which so much interest attaches as to Napier’s Descriptio.”
James Whitbread Lee Glaisher (1848–1928) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th Edition; Article “Logarithms.”; Reported in Robert Edouard Moritz. Memorabilia mathematica; or, The philomath's quotation-book, (1914) : On the invention of logarithms
“The subjective element in geological studies accounts for two characteristic types that can be distinguished among geologists. One considering geology as a creative art, the other regarding geology as an exact science.”
Reinout Willem van Bemmelen (1904–1983) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 453; quoted in: Robert Woodtli (1964), Methods of Prospection for Chromite, p. 80
“The arguments for the two substances - mind and body - have, we believe, entirely lost their validity; they are no longer compatible with ascertained science and clear thinking. One substance with two sets of attributes, two sides (a physical and a mental), a double-faced unity, would appear to comply with all the exigencies of the case.”
Alexander Bain (1818–1903) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Alexander Bain. Mind and Body: The Theories of their Relation (1872), p. 196; as cited in: The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 27, June 1885, p. 162.
“Like art, science is born of itself, not of nature. There is no neutral naturalism. The artist, no less than the writer, needs a vocabulary before he can embark on a 'copy' of reality.”
Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: E. H. Gombrich (1962), quoted in: Robert Maxwell Young. Mind, Brain, and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century, 1970. p. 101.
“A pantheistic edict of science would only proclaim a deadlock in the system and substance of truth itself, and herald an implacable conflict between the law of Nature and the law written indelibly in the human spirit.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We return, then, to the strict concomitance of the two series, as all that can in exact science be meant by the functional relation between the brain and the sense-perceptive consciousness.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mathematics is the science of the functional laws and transformations which enable us to convert figured extension and rated motion into number.—Howison, G. H.”
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Departments of Mathematics, and their Mutual Relations," Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 5, p. 170. Reported in Moritz (1914)
“That a formal science like algebra, the creation of our abstract thought, should thus, in a sense, dictate the laws of its own being, is very remarkable. It has required the experience of centuries for us to realize the full force of this appeal.”
George Ballard Mathews (1861–1922) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: G.B. Mathews quoted in: F. Spencer. Chapters on Aims and Practice of Teaching, (London, 1899), p. 184. Reported in Moritz (1914).
“The invention of the symbol ≡ by Gauss affords a striking example of the advantage which may be derived from an appropriate notation, and marks an epoch in the development of the science of arithmetic.”
George Ballard Mathews (1861–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pure mathematics proves itself a royal science both through its content and form, which contains within itself the cause of its being and its methods of proof. For in complete independence mathematics creates for itself the object of which it treats, its magnitudes and laws, its formulas and symbols.”
Christian Heinrich von Dillmann (1829–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is the master and politics is its servant. It is necessary to combine power with morality as well as with science and technology”
Zakir Hussain (politician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Western Science, in its present form, is toxic. It must be infused with love and humility, and an ethical code of honor to renounce any experiment or procedure that causes harm to the environment.”
Krishna Kant Shukla (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science in India is getting better support now than in the past... Doing research has changed in the way that it is very grant oriented. The mentality that some accepted paradigm must be believed has become more rigid.”
Jayant Narlikar (1938–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The study he conducted with Dabholkar goes to explain why astrology is not a science through a simple experiment. They adopted an experiment conducted by Bernie Silverman, a graduate student of Michigan State University, USA. They collected horoscopes of 100 scholarly students and 100 students with learning difficulties.”
Jayant Narlikar (1938–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have now arrived within introductory range of that very meek-spirited creature known to modern science as the "Observer". It is a permanent obstacle in the path of our search for external reality that we can never entirely get rid of this individual. Picture the universe how we may, the picture remains of our making.”
John William Dunne (1875–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not a brave man. My self-image is of a very small and weak person. In point of fact, I'm almost six feet, and solidly built. But I was a late bloomer. I spent those formative early high-school years as a pudgy little science whimp. I'm still scared of big men with deep voices.”
Rudy Rucker (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do you know computer science?” “I know it’s for lamers who can’t handle real math.”
Rudy Rucker (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The relational picture of space and time has implications that are as radical as those of natural selection, not only for science but for our perspective on who we are and how we came to exist in this evolving universe of relations.”
Lee Smolin (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many of the founders of quantum mechanics, including Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, and Louis de Broglie... were realists. For them quantum theory... was not a complete theory, because it did not provide a picture of reality absent our interaction with it. On the other side were Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and many others. Rather than being appalled, they embraced this new way of doing science.”
Lee Smolin (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Having begun my life in science searching for the equation beyond time, I now believe that the deepest secret of the universe is that its essence rests in how it unfolds moment by moment in time.”
Lee Smolin (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union — the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.”
B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–2014) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Energetic Anatomy of a Yogi: Healing the Emotional and Mental Body Through Yoga (2013) by Paul G. Balch and Jaylee Balch, p. 23
“It was the height of the first boom, so it was 1999. It was a good year to be a graduate in computer science.”
Marissa Mayer (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our goal should not be to borrow from elsewhere, but to search among our own cultural resources, perhaps even in modern science and industrialism, for ways to restore art to the status it has always held in traditional societies as a form of knowledge. ...art adds to what we learn from any combination of physics, biology, geology, and chemistry. It tells us the world is... deserving of reverence.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: with Betty Roszak, "Deep Form in Art and Nature" Alexandria 4, Vol.4 The Order of Beauty and Nature (1997) ed. David Fideler
“When it is another human being who is being... objectified, everybody (except the rapist) can clearly see the act as a crime. But when we objectify the natural world, turning it into a dead or stupid thing, we have another word for that. Science.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In four centuries of taking wealth and comfort from the body of the Earth, modern science has not troubled to produce a single rite or ritual, not even a minor prayer, that asks pardon or gives thanks. But then what sense would it make to ask anything of a dead body?”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science, in broad outline, can be divided into three parts: the study of the vast, the study of the tiny, and the study of life which... acts as audience to both the vast and the tiny.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Goethe wondered at what point our instruments might be creating what we think we see out there in the world. ...his question is still a good one. Every science of observation must take care not to get lost among its own artifacts.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here, at the birth of modern science, is a fundamental insight. Our knowledge of nature Out There begins with knowledge of ourselves In Here. Until we have freed our minds and emotions of the hidden presuppositions that stand between us and the world, we can never be certain we are in touch with reality.”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If entemologists have things backward, their errors have spawned a host of others central to modern evolutionary science. ...E. O. Wilson is... the founder of a rich and fruitful discipline—sociobiology. And sociobiology has... helped lay the groundwork for the dogma of the "selfish gene.”
Howard Bloom (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first two rules of science are: 1. The truth at any price including the price of your life. 2. Look at things right under your nose as if you've never seen them before, then proceed from there.”
Howard Bloom (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good science makes a clean environment.”
“Everything you can touch and depend on in our society goes back to science.”
“Science is the most important thing you can study in school.”
“The passion and beauty and joy of science is that we humans have invented a process to understand the universe in a way that is true for everyone. We are finding universal truths.”