In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian Astronomer, Physicist, Mathematician
Science is an integral part of culture. It’s not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It’s one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.
—Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American Paleontologist, Science Writer
Science, which cuts its way through the muddy pond of daily life without mingling with it, casts its wealth to right and left, but the puny boatmen do not know how to fish for it.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
—Unknown
Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
All fine architectural values are human values, else not valuable.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
God pity the man of seience who believes in nothing but what he can prove by scientific methods; for if ever a human being needed divine pity he does.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point. Now we know only a few laws, and our result is vitiated, not, of course, by any confusion or irregularity in Nature, but by our ignorance of essential elements in the calculation. Our notions of law and harmony are commonly confined to those instances which we detect; but the harmony which results from a far greater number of seemingly conflicting, but really concurring, laws, which we have not detected, is still more wonderful. The particular laws are as our points of view, as, to the traveler, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form. Even when cleft or bored through it is not comprehended in its entireness.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Facts are not science – as the dictionary is not literature.
—Martin H. Fischer
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
The pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
What wreath for Lamia? What for Lycius?
What for the sage, old Apollonius?
Upon her aching forehead be there hung
The leaves of willow and of adder’s tongue;
And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him
The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim
Into forgetfulness; and, for the sage,
Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage
War on his temples. Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person’d Lamia melt into a shade.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, See! this our fathers did for us.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Art and science have their meeting point in method.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
There is no method but to be very intelligent.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.
—Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) Scottish-born American Inventor, Engineer, Academic
I am acutely aware of the fact that the marriage between mathematics and physics which was so enormously fruitful in past centuries, has recently ended in divorce.
—Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) American Theoretical Physicist, Author
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. … To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of devoutly religious men.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Science corrects the old creeds, sweeps away, with every new perception, our infantile catechisms, and necessitates a faith commensurate with the grander orbits and universal laws which it discloses.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Architect: One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Whether a person shows themselves to be a genius in science or in writing a song, the only point is, whether the thought, the discovery, or the deed, is living and can live on.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The negative cautions of science are never popular. If the experimentalist would not commit himself, the social philosopher, the preacher, and the pedagogue tried the harder to give a short-cut answer.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Science must have originated in the feeling that something was wrong.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is a point at which methods devour themselves.
—Frantz Fanon (1925–61) French-Martinique Psychoanalyst, Philosopher
Science has always been too dignified to invent a good backscratcher.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
The best theology would need no advocates; it would prove itself.
—Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Reformed Theologian, Author
The credit of advancing science has always been due to individuals and never to the age.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Medicine heals doubts as well as diseases.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Science is simply common sense at its best—that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Science does not know its debt to imagination.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.
—Karl Popper (1902–94) Austrian-born British Philosopher
I was not long since in a company where I was not who of my fraternity brought news of a kind of pills, by true account, composed of a hundred and odd several ingredients; whereat we laughed very heartily, and made ourselves good sport; for what rock so hard were able to resist the shock or withstand the force of so thick and numerous a battery?
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
In everything that relates to science, I am a whole Encyclopaedia behind the rest of the world.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
If rational men cooperated and used their scientific knowledge to the full, they could now secure the economic welfare of all.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Nevertheless, in order to imbue civilization with sound principles and enliven it with the spirit of the gospel, it is not enough to be illumined with the gift of faith and enkindled with the desire of forwarding a good cause. For this end it is necessary to take an active part in the various organizations and influence them from within. And since our present age is one of outstanding scientific and technical progress and excellence, one will not be able to enter these organizations and work effectively from within unless he is scientifically competent, technically capable and skilled in the practice of his own profession.
—Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) Italian Catholic Religious Leader, Pope
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Isn’t it marvelous how those scientists know the names of all those stars?
—Unknown
The pace of science forces the pace of technique. Theoretical physics forces atomic energy on us; the successful production of the fission bomb forces upon us the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb. We do not choose our problems, we do not choose our products; we are pushed, we are forced—by what? By a system which has no purpose and goal transcending it, and which makes man its appendix.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.
—Hippocrates (460–370 BCE) Ancient Greek Physician
Science is the search for truth – it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others. We need to have the spirit of science in international affairs, to make the conduct of international affairs the effort to find t he right solution, the just solution of international problems, not the effort by each nation to get the better of other nations, to do harm to them when it is possible.
—Linus Pauling (1901–94) American Scientist, Peace Activist
Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
The sciences are of sociable disposition, and flourish best in the neighborhood of each other; nor is there any branch of learning but may be helped and improved by assistance drawn from other arts.
—William Blackstone (1723–80) English Judge, Jurist, Academic
We know from science that nothing in the universe exists as an isolated or independent entity.
—Margaret J. Wheatley American Management Consultant, Writer
Mathematicians are like Frenchman: whatever you say to them they translate Into their own language, and forthwith it is something entirely different.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer