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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“Astronomy is probably the oldest of all the sciences. It differs from virtually all other science disciplines in that it is not possible to carry out experimental tests in the laboratory.”
Ian Morison (1943–2024) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Astronomy and Cosmology (2008), Ch. 1 : Astronomy, an Observational Science
“It is imaginable that someday we will discover how to create materials from nothing, how to achieve perpetual motion, how to reverse time’s arrow, and so on. But to take such science-fiction miracles as a basis for economic policy would be absurd.”
Herman E. Daly (1938–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The legitimate purpose of abstraction in social science is never to get away from the real world but rather to isolate certain aspects of the real world for intensive investigation.”
Paul Sweezy (1910–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In possessing use value a commodity is in no way peculiar. Objects of human consumption in every age and in every form of society likewise possess use value. Use value is an expression of a certain relation between the consumer and the object consumed. Political economy, on the other hand, is a social science of the relations between people.”
Paul Sweezy (1910–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Traditional statistics is strong in devising ways of describing data and inferring distributional parameters from sample. Causal inference requires two additional ingredients: a science-friendly language for articulating causal knowledge, and a mathematical machinery for processing that knowledge, combining it with data and drawing new causal conclusions about a phenomenon.”
Judea Pearl (born 1936) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pearl, Judea. "Causal inference in statistics: An overview." Statistics Surveys 3 (2009): 96-146.
“Economics should be under no illusion that central banking will ever become a science.”
Jürg Niehans (1919–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But it is not alone the harmony of music which has such a power over the mind. The harmony of colors, every art and science, has the same power. Even the most common craft, and the most prosaic of all prose, the chase after the dollar, may take possession of a man’s soul and prostrate him in adoration before its idol.”
Joseph Dietzgen (1828–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of making machines that think has an unfailing fascination, not only for science fiction readers, but for all who can see it is a possible way of gaining some understanding of the working of our own minds. Thinking, however, is not an easily defined phenomenon, although it is often considered to be the process of solving problems.”
Edward Ihnatowicz (1926–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To will what God doth will, that is the only science That gives us any rest.”
François de Malherbe (1555–1628) said by 1628 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once, they would have meant something to Svetlana, but now all she felt was a faint prickly of recollection. Fluency with mathematics—in the context of any kind of engineering discipline or physical science—was a use-it-or-lose-it skill.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The opponents of the postmodernist cultural studies of science condude confidently from the Sokal affair that "the emperors ... have no clothes." But who, exactly, are all those naked emperors? At whom should we be laughing?”
Mara Beller (1945–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe in science, I believe in evidence, if there are other treatments that the modern medicine doesn't support those should also be brought to the table, whether its ayurveda, whether its Naturopathy... and should be evaluated in clinical trials.”
Rajiv Malhotra (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All content of science, and also their protocol statements that are used for verification, are selected on the basis of decisions and can be altered in principle.”
Otto Neurath (1882–1945) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Otto Neurath (1934:102), as cited in: Cartwright (2008;199)
“At first the Vienna Circle analysed ‘physics’ in a narrower sense almost exclusively; now psychology, biology,sociology. The task of this movement is unified science and nothing less.”
Otto Neurath (1882–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I find it very difficult to think that I am dealing with a science fully grounded in the realities of language as we ordinarily know and use it. All these specialized terms, the artificial models, the reconstructions that exist in no known texts and cannot be verified and the endless hypotheses — they all seem to belong to a world of airy-fairy speculation.”
Nicholas Kazanas (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Political science is the study of the authoritative allocation of values for a society.”
David Easton (1917–2014) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science (1953)
“All those Creationism vs. Evolution debates are misaligned and misleading. The real debate should be Creationism vs. Abiogenesis. Creationism is a belief about a supernatural origin of life. Evolution is a theory about how life changes over time. Those are not the same things. Abiogenesis is the science of life’s origin that logically stands in direct opposition to creationism.”
Guy P. Harrison (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science has revealed that human vision is much closer to cognitive theater than video surveillance. But how many people know this? Most are unaware that seeing is largely a creative act, a process that presents us with a version of reality rather than an accurate reproduction.”
Guy P. Harrison (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no other language which provides answers to complex philosophical questions like epics written in Sanskrit. Be it art, literature, science or technology, people are admitting Sanskrit is most useful.”
Rajnath Singh (born 1951) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Sanskrit, as quoted in "Sanskrit Most Useful for Science, Technology, Says Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh", NDTV (23 August 2015)
“I've always thought that science fiction films set in our world have always rung false.”
Jim Henson (1936–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We say that the string is 'random' if there is no other representation of the string which is shorter than itself. But we will say that it is 'non-random' if there does exist such an abbreviated representation. ...In general, the shorter the possible representation... the less random... On this view we recognize science to be the search for algorithmic compressions.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mathematics became an experimental subject. Individuals could follow previously intractable problems by simply watching what happened when they were programmed into a personal computer. ...The PC revolution has made science more visual and more immediate. ...by creating films of imaginary experiences of mathematical worlds. ...Words are no longer enough.”
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You see, if E. O. Wilson says that Indian scientists should do taxonomy, now of course, someone will say that you are preventing them from doing the sort of high science that is done elsewhere. So it should not come from there, it should come from us. I think that we must recognize where we have the advantages and where we have the disadvantages.”
Raghavendra Gadagkar (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The science of chemistry rests on two well-established principles: the conservation of matter and the conservation of energy.”
David W. Oxtoby (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge of the components of the atom and of the forces that hold them together stimulated entirely new fields of basic science and technology that continue to the present.”
David W. Oxtoby (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Among creations I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end, O Arjuna, I am the science of the Self, and I am the logic of all arguments.”
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge, action, and actor are declared in the science of the gunas to be of three kinds only, according to distinctions of gunas; hear them also duly.”
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“High on my short list of heroes for science-based ocean conservation is Graeme Kelleher, for 25 years the chairman of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and for his entire career a proponent of marine protected areas.”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps with knowing will come caring, and with caring, an impetus toward the needed sea change of attitude, one that combines the wisdom of science and the sensitivity of art to create an enduring ethic.”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dennis Overbye ...says ~everything we know of science convinces me ...that the world is deterministic, nevertheless I cling to the illusion of free will.~ (I'm not quoting his exact words.) ..~I can't run my life without this illusion.~ Some people have described it as a necessary illusion. We don't think it's an illusion ...It's not ...We think we have free will.”
John Horton Conway (1937–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modern technology is not simply an extension of human making through the power of a perfected science, but is a new account of what it is to know and to make in which both activities are changed by their co-penetration.”
George Grant (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The human need for unity first created subjective religion, then objective analytical science; now it corrects the partiality of these attitudes by substituting one complete doctrine. (p. 251)”
Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are good reasons to expect... a return to a concreteness of basic ideas, to simpler fundamentals easily understood, to principles that will bring exact science closer to the human perspective.”
Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dogmatism in science is usually mistaken, because the conviction of certainty expresses a psychological compulsion, never any truly compelling reasons or facts. When a view attains wide popularity and seems obviously beyond question, its decline has usually begun or will begin very soon.”
Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A better understanding of what science tells us about human genetic diversity is of immense importance, particualrly because it dispels false notions of what race is.”
Daniel J. Fairbanks (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science, especially evolutionary sciences, can only proceed from learning about theories of hypotheses that do not stand the test of time.”
Jeffrey H. Schwartz (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His essays on the foundations of science are cases in point. They strike one as extemporaneous speeches rather than edited articles. ...those who knew him best insisted that he rarely, if ever, would revise a manuscript, even if he was fully aware of its stylistic shortcomings.”
Tobias Dantzig (1884–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science... may be viewed as man's supreme effort to find himself in that perplexing pattern which he calls Nature. ...Has he succeeded in achieving some measure of harmony with Nature? Or has he merely managed to transfer to Nature the irreconcilable duality within himself?”
Tobias Dantzig (1884–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fact, rationalism is to reason as scientism is to science.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our planet is infested with pseudo-atheists", Unqualified Reservations (May 16, 2007).
“History is a branch of literature, not a field of science.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Your generation was more violent" (June 25, 2008).
“Almost the whole of Greek science and philosophy begins with Thales.”
Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the mathematician the important consideration is that the foundations of mathematics and a great portion of its content are Greek. The Greeks laid down the first principles, invented the methods ab initio, and fixed the terminology. Mathematics in short is a Greek science, whatever new developments modern analysis has brought or may bring.”
Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science... dominates all things, it alone is of any definite utility. No man, no institution shall henceforth have an enduring authority if they do not conform themselves to its precepts.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Science et Morale (1897) as quoted by P. Q. Keegan, "Mr. Berthelot on Science and Morality" (1897) Natural Science Vol. 10, No. 59 (Jan, 1897) p 359.
“The word truth can not be used outside of science without a misuse of terms.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is the real moral school; she teaches man the love and respect for the truth, without which all hope is chimerical.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most interesting of the services rendered by science is perhaps shown by comparing the servile and miserable condition of the popular masses in the past with their present state, already so much raised in dignity and comfort, without prejudice to the hopes which they are gradually realising.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science is the benefactor of humanity.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science carries its legitimate pretensions further. To-day it claims the material, intellectual, and moral direction of society. Under its impulse modern civilisation marches with an increasingly rapid stride.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hence the rôle of savants, as individuals and as a social class, has unceasingly developed in modern states. But our duties towards other men increase in the same ratio, and let it never be forgotten; let it proclaimed in this hall, in this palace of French science.”
Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“US and European pre-eminence in science-based innovation cannot be taken for granted. The centre of gravity for innovation is starting to shift from west to east.”
Charles Leadbeater (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source