Science Quotes

"I very much enjoyed my career in science. I didn't leave science because I was disillusioned, but felt I'd done my bit for it after about twenty-five years"

John Polkinghorne, Physicist

"I also think we need to maintain distinctions - the doctrine of creation is different from a scientific cosmology, and we should resist the temptation, which sometimes scientists give in to, to try to assimilate the concepts of theology to the concepts of science"

John Polkinghorne, Physicist

"The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul"

Alfred Adler, Psychologist

"In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances"

Herbert Spencer, Philosopher

"The accumulation of skill and science which has been directed to diminish the difficulty of producing manufactured goods, has not been beneficial to that country alone in which it is concentrated; distant kingdoms have participated in its advantages"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"Perhaps it would be better for science, that all criticism should be avowed"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that some portion of the neglect of science in England, may be attributed to the system of education we pursue"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"A powerful attraction exists, therefore, to the promotion of a study and of duties of all others engrossing the time most completely, and which is less benefited than most others by any acquaintance with science"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress"

Marcel Proust, Author

"To those who have chosen the profession of medicine, a knowledge of chemistry, and of some branches of natural history, and, indeed, of several other departments of science, affords useful assistance"

Charles Babbage, Mathematician

"Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again"

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher

"Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another"

Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher

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

Pope John Paul II, Clergyman

"Modern science, then, so far from being an enemy of romance, is seen on every hand to be its sympathetic and resourceful friend, its swift and irresistible helper in its serious need, and an indulgent minister to its lighter fancies"

Richard Le Gallienne, Poet

"I've loved science fiction ever since I was a little kid, mainly from looking at the covers of science-fiction magazines and books, and I've read quite extensively as an adult"

Matt Groening, Cartoonist

"The radical novelty of modern science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief... that the forces which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of the human heart"

Walter Lippmann, Journalist

"Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology"

Rebecca West, Author

"Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts"

Baruch Spinoza, Philosopher

"Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for comprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge"

Alexis Carrel, Scientist

"Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence"

Edgar Allan Poe, Poet

"The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future"

Lord Acton, Historian

"From all this it follows what the general character of the problem of the development of a body of scientific knowledge is, in so far as it depends on elements internal to science itself"

Talcott Parsons, Sociologist

"Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic"

Thomas Szasz, Psychologist

"Politics is not an exact science"

Otto von Bismarck, Leader

"Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification"

Karl Popper, Philosopher

"Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths"

Karl Popper, Philosopher

"With science fiction I think we are preparing ourselves for contact with them, whoever they may be"

Dwight Schultz, Actor

"The purpose of science is not to analyze or describe but to make useful models of the world. A model is useful if it allows us to get use out of it"

Edward de Bono, Psychologist

"I'm writing a review of three books on feminism and science, and it's about social constructionism. So I would say I'm a social constructionist, whatever that means"

Clifford Geertz, Scientist

"Gender consciousness has become involved in almost every intellectual field: history, literature, science, anthropology. There's been an extraordinary advance"

Clifford Geertz, Scientist

"Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality"

Friedrich Durrenmatt, Author

"When you're thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that's faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that's science"

Anton Chekhov, Dramatist

"Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it"

J. Robert Oppenheimer, Physicist

"The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science"

James Madison, President

"The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government"

Milton Friedman, Economist

"All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry"

Gustave Flaubert, Novelist

"According to materialistic science, any memory requires a material substrate, such as the neuronal network in the brain or the DNA molecules of the genes"

Stanislav Grof, Psychologist

"Hence, even in the domain of natural science the aid of the experimental method becomes indispensable whenever the problem set is the analysis of transient and impermanent phenomena, and not merely the observation of persistent and relatively constant objects"

Wilhelm Wundt, Psychologist

"And I have lived since - as you have - in a period of cold war, during which we have ensured by our achievements in the science and technology of destruction that a third act in this tragedy of war will result in the peace of extinction"

Lester B. Pearson, Politician

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