Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
—George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author
There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American Philosopher, Logician, Mathematician, Scientist
We know from science that nothing in the universe exists as an isolated or independent entity.
—Margaret J. Wheatley American Management Consultant, Writer
A single mind can acquire a fair knowledge of the whole field of science, and find plenty of time to spare for ordinary human affairs. Not many people take the trouble to do so. But without a knowledge of science one cannot understand current events. That is why our modem literature and art are mostly so unreal.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Material science now has the clear possibility and promise of the systematic utilization of all the natural resources of the earth for the good of the whole human race…. Maintaining and improving the standard of living of all the peoples of the earth through increasing use of mechanical horsepower and the scientific approach is now one of the keys to peace in the world.
—Charles E. Wilson (1886–1972) American Businessperson
Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important aims of philosophy.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
—William Lawrence Bragg
There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.
—P. D. James (b.1920) British Novelist
Science is the only truth and it is the great lie. It knows nothing, and people think it knows everything. It is misrepresented. People think that science is electricity, automobilism, and dirigible balloons. It is something very different. It is life devouring itself. It is the sensibility transformed into intelligence. It is the need to know stifling the need to live. It is the genius of knowledge vivisecting the vital genius.
—Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) French Poet, Novelist, Critic
It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer
The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Scientist, Critic, Writer
Science is the labor and handicraft of the mind.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics.
Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.
There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.
—Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American Novelist, Film Producer, Film Director, Screenwriter
Machines are beneficial to the degree that they eliminate the need for labor, harmful to the degree that they eliminate the need for skill.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A tool is but the extension of a man’s hand and a machine is but a complex tool; and he that invents a machine augments the power of man and the well-being of mankind.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Protestant Clergyman, Social Reformer, Abolitionist
Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.
—Will Durant (1885–1981) American Historian, Philosopher, Memoirist, Socialist
Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
If politicians and scientist were lazier, how much happier we should all be.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) English Novelist, Humorist, Writer
Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? Our poets do not write about it; our artists do not try to portray this remarkable thing. The value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.
—Richard Feynman (1918–88) American Physicist
The doubter is a true man of science; he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science.
—Claude Bernard (1813–78) French Physiology, Academic
Science is the topography of ignorance.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
There’s nothing colder than chemistry.
—Anita Loos (1888–1981) American Actor, Novelist, Screenwriter
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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 Paleontology, Biologist, Historian, Academic
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 Novelist, Poet
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Critic, Writer
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
Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.
—Claude Bernard (1813–78) French Physiology, Academic
When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) American Nuclear Physicist
Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
—Georges Braque (1882–1963) French Painter, Artist, Sculptor
Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; but a belief is always sensitive.
—James Anthony Froude (1818–94) British Historian, Novelist, Biographer, Editor
Freedom is the oxygen without which science cannot breathe.
—David Sarnoff (1891–1972) American Broadcaster, Businessman
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Sociologist, Political Theorist
Many talk like philosophers yet live like fools.
—Common Proverb
Science is the systematic classification of experience.
—George Henry Lewes (1817–78) English Philosopher, Literary Critic, Art Critic
Science has been seriously retarded by the study of what is not worth knowing and of what is not knowable.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of Nature. And it is because in the last analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.
—Max Planck (1858–1947) German Theoretical Physicist
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
—Max Planck (1858–1947) German Theoretical Physicist
Science is all metaphor.
—Timothy Leary (1920–96) American Psychologist, Author
The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
—Stephen Hawking (b.1942) English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Academic
Science is all those things which are confirmed to such a degree that it would be unreasonable to withhold one’s provisional consent.
—Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American Paleontology, Biologist, Historian, Academic
Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense, differing from the latter only as a veteran may from a raw recruit, and its methods differ from those of common sense, only as the guardsman’s cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man’s upper chamber, if it has common sense on the ground floor.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) American Nuclear Physicist
There could be whole antiworlds and antipeople made out of antiparticles. However, if you ever meet your antiself, don’t shake hands! You would both vanish in a great flash of light.
—Stephen Hawking (b.1942) English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Academic
Science is what you know, philosophy what you don’t know.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
If we are to become the masters of science, not its slaves, we must learn to use its immense power to good purpose. The machine itself has neither mind nor soul nor moral sense. Only man has been endowed with these godlike attributes. Every age has its destined duty. Ours is to nurture an awareness of those divine attributes and a sense of responsibility in giving them expression.
—David Sarnoff (1891–1972) American Broadcaster, Businessman
Thomas Edison reads not for entertainment but to increase his store of knowledge. He sucks in information as eagerly as the bee sucks honey from flowers. The whole world, so to speak, pours its wisdom into his mind. He regards it as a criminal waste of time to go through the slow and painful ordeal of ascertaining things for one’s self if these same things have already been ascertained and made available by others. In Edison’s mind knowledge is power.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher