Quotes about Science

Former Chancellor of Germany

The youthful brain should in general not be burdened with things ninety-five percent of which it cannot use and hence forgets again... In many cases, the material to be learned in the various subjects is so swollen that only a fraction of it remains in the head of the individual pupil, and only a fraction of this abundance can find application, while on the other hand it is not adequate for the man working and earning his living in a definite field.

Adequacy - Brain - Education - Individual - Man - Science

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Alfred North Whitehead

Mathematician, Philosopher

The aims of scientific thought are to see the general in the particular and the eternal in the transitory.

Aiming - Eternity - Science

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Ernest Rutherford

Physicist

Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist.

Man - Science

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Jean Rostand

Novelist, Scientist, Biologist

It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.

Knowledge - Science - Sometimes

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Ada Lovelace

Mathematician, Writer

Those who have learned to walk on the threshold of the unknown worlds, by means of what are commonly termed par excellence the exact sciences, may then, with the fair white wings of imagination, hope to soar further into the unexplored amidst which we live.

Excellence - Fairness - Hope - Imagination - Learning - Living - Meaning - Science - World

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Aristotle

Philosopher

But nature flies from the infinite; for the infinite is imperfect, and nature always seeks an end.

End - Imperfection - Nature - Science

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James Clerk Maxwell

Physicist

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.

Accounting - Advantage - Original - Science - State - Student

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Vladimir Nabokov

Leader, Novelist, Novelist

Perhaps if the year was 1447 instead of 1947 I might have hoodwinked my gentle nature by administering her some classical poison from a hollow agate, some tender philter of death. But in our middle-class nosy era it would not have come off the way it used to in the brocaded palaces of the past. Nowadays you have to be a scientist if you want to be a killer.

Gentleness - Past - Poison - Science - Wants

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Samuel Johnson

Writer, Poet, Lexicographer

There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever desires to be well received in female assemblies, must qualify himself by a total rejection of all that is serious, rational, or important; must consider argument or criticism as perpetually interdicted; and devote all his attention to trifles, and all his eloquence to compliment.

Accounting - Appearance - Compliment - Eloquence - Female - Man - Opinion - Rational - Reject - Science - Serious - Wellness

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Honore de Balzac

Artist, Novelist, Novelist

Most geometricians, chemists, mathematicians, and great scientists submit religion to reason only to discover a problem as unsolvable as that of squaring a circle.

Chemistry - Mathematics - Problem - Reason - Science - Submission

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Lord Kelvin

Politician, Scientist, Physicist

Simplification of modes of proof is not merely an indication of advance in our knowledge of a subject, but is also the surest guarantee of readiness for farther progress.

Guarantee - Knowledge - Progression - Proof - Science

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Michael Faraday

Politician, Scientist, Scientist

Your remarks upon chemical notation with the variety of systems which have arisen, &c., &c., had almost stirred me up to regret publicly that such hindrances to the progress of science should exist. I cannot help thinking it a most unfortunate thing that men who as experimentalists & philosophers are the most fitted to advance the general cause of science & knowledge should by promulgation of their own theoretical views under the form of nomenclature, notation, or scale, actually retard its progress.

Chemistry - Help - Hindrance - Man - Misfortune - Philosophy - Progression - Regret - Science - Thinking - Views

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Max Planck

Critic, Scientist, Physicist

The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.

Essence - Science

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Neil deGrasse Tyson

Novelist, Scientist, Astrophysicist

While I'm a big fan of science fiction, especially as rendered in expensive Hollywood blockbusters, it's the real universe that calls to me.

Calling - Fans - Fiction - Real - Sci-Fi - Science - Universe

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Jean Rostand

Novelist, Scientist, Biologist

Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth.

Science - Truth

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Alfred North Whitehead

Mathematician, Philosopher

The vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.

Adventure - Age - Custody - Death - Science - Strength - Success - Vitality

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Richard P. Feynman

Scientist, Physicist, Physicist

I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

Answers - Doubt - Knowledge - Science - Skepticism - Thinking - Uncertainty

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Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Actor, Writer, Author

It is easier to understand mankind in general than any individual man.

Individual - Man - Mankind - Psychology - Science

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Thomas A. Edison

Clergyman, Inventor, Inventor

I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.

Doubt - Experience - Finding - Science - Success

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Pope John Paul II

Clergyman, Saint, Priest

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

Idolatry - Religion - Science

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