Knowledge Quotes - Page 29

• The first business of a man of science is to proclaim the truth as he finds it, and let the world adjust itself as best it can to the new knowledge.

  Percy Williams Bridgman

  Science, Men, Firsts

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• The first thing the reasonable man must do is to be content with a very little knowledge and a very great deal of ignorance. The second thing he must do is to make the utmost possible use of the knowledge he has and not waste his energy crying for the moon. The third thing he must do is try and see clearly where his knowledge ends and his ignorance begins.

  Arthur David Ritchie

  Ignorance, Science, Moon

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• The question whether atoms exist or not... belongs rather to metaphysics. In chemistry we have only to decide whether the assumption of atoms is an hypothesis adapted to the explanation of chemical phenomena... whether a further development of the atomic hypothesis promises to advance our knowledge of the mechanism of chemical phenomena... I rather expect that we shall some day find, for what we now call atoms, a mathematico-mechanical explanation, which will render an account of atomic weight, of atomicity, and of numerous other properties of the so-called atoms.

  August Kekule

  Science, Promise, Atoms

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• The science and technology which have advanced man safely into space have brought about startling medical advances for man on earth. Out of space research have come new knowledge, techniques and instruments which have enabled some bedridden invalids to walk, the totally deaf to hear, the voiceless to talk, and, in the foreseeable future, may even make it possible for the blind to "see."

  Hubertus Strughold

  Science, Technology, Men

  "From Outer Space - Advances For Medicine on Earth" by Hubertus Strughold, contributed in "Space, Its Impact on Man and Society" by Lillian Levy, (p. 117), 1965.

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• The task of science is to stake out the limits of the knowable, and to center consciousness within them.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Science, Limits, Tasks

  "On Man". 1849.

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• The task of science, therefore, is not to attack the objects of faith, but to establish the limits beyond which knowledge cannot go and found a unified self-consciousness within these limits.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Science, Self, Limits

  Rudolf Virchow (1958). “Disease, Life, and Man: Selected Essays”, p.69, Stanford University Press

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• The word "mathematics" is a Greek word and, by origin, it means "something that has been learned or understood," or perhaps "acquired knowledge," or perhaps even, somewhat against grammar, "acquirable knowledge," that is, "learnable knowledge," that is, "knowledge acquirable by learning."

  Salomon Bochner

  Mean, Science, Greek

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• There are few substance to which it yields interest, when it is considered how very intimately the knowledge and properties and uses of iron is connected with human civilization.

  George Fownes

  Science, Civilization, Iron

  George Fownes (1845). “Elementary Chemistry: Theoretical and Practical”, p.224

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• To solve a problem is to create new problems, new knowledge immediately reveals new areas of ignorance, and the need for new experiments. At least, in the field of fast reactions, the experiments do not take very long to perform.

  George Porter

  Ignorance, Science, Long

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• To stop short in any research that bids fair to widen the gates of knowledge, to recoil from fear of difficulty or adverse criticism, is to bring reproach on science. There is nothing for the investigator to do but go straight on, 'to explore up and down, inch by inch, with the taper his reason;' to follow the light wherever it may lead, even should it at times resemble a will-o'-the-wisp.

  William Crookes

  Science, Light, Criticism

  "Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science". "Nature", No. 1506, Vol. 58, (p. 438), September 8, 1989.

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• To this day, we see all around us the Promethean drive to omnipotence through technology and to omniscience through science. The effecting of all things possible and the knowledge of all causes are the respective primary imperatives of technology and of science. But the motivating imperative of society continues to be the very different one of its physical and spiritual survival. It is now far less obvious than it was in Francis Bacon's world how to bring the three imperatives into harmony, and how to bring all three together to bear on problems where they superpose.

  Gerald Holton

  Spiritual, Science, Technology

  Gerald James Holton (1986). “The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens: The Jefferson Lecture and Other Essays”, p.183, CUP Archive

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• Unanimity of opinion may be fitting for a church, for the frightened or greedy victims of some (ancient, or modern) myth, or for the weak and willing followers of some tyrant. Variety of opinion is necessary for objective knowledge. And a method that encourages variety is also the only method that is comparable with a humanitarian outlook.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Science, Tyrants, Church

  Paul Feyerabend (1975). “Against method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge”, Not Avail

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• Unfortunately what is little recognized is that the most worthwhile scientific books are those in which the author clearly indicates what he does not know; for an author most hurts his readers by concealing difficulties.

  Evariste Galois

  Hurt, Book, Science

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• We do not live in a time when knowledge can be extended along a pathway smooth and free from obstacles, as at the time of the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus, and in a measure also when in the development of projective geometry obstacles were suddenly removed which, having hemmed progress for a long time, permitted a stream of investigators to pour in upon virgin soil. There is no longer any browsing along the beaten paths; and into the primeval forest only those may venture who are equipped with the sharpest tools.

  Heinrich Burkhardt

  Science, Discovery, Long

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• We seem to be heading for a state of affairs in which the determination of whether or not Doomsday has arrived will be made either by an automatic device ... or by a pre-programmed president who, whether he knows it or not, will be carrying out orders written years before by some operations analyst.

  Herbert York

  Determination, Science, Order

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• Wisdom is not knowledge, but lies in the use we make of knowledge.

  Nilakanta Sri Ram

  Wisdom, Lying, Science

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• With crystals we are in a situation similar to an attempt to investigate an optical grating merely from the spectra it produces... But a knowledge of the positions and intensities of the spectra does not suffice for the determination of the structure. The phases with which the diffracted waves vibrate relative to one another enter in an essential way. To determine a crystal structure on the atomic scale, one must know the phase differences between the different interference spots on the photographic plate, and this task may certainly prove to be rather difficult.

  Max von Laue

  Determination, Science, Differences

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• The big idea we start with is: "How is the genome interpreted, and how are stable decisions that affect gene expression inherited from one cell to the next?" This is one of the most competitive areas of molecular biology at the moment, and the students are reading papers that in some instances were published this past year. As a consequence, one of the most common answers I have to give to their questions is, "We just don't know."

  Shirley M. Tilghman

  Reading, Past, Cells

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• [Mathematics] is security. Certainty. Truth. Beauty. Insight. Structure. Architecture. I see mathematics, the part of human knowledge that I call mathematics, as one thing - one great, glorious thing. Whether it is differential topology, or functional analysis, or homological algebra, it is all one thing. ... They are intimately interconnected, they are all facets of the same thing. That interconnection, that architecture, is secure truth and is beauty. That's what mathematics is to me.

  Paul Halmos

  Science, Analysis, Architecture

  "Celebrating 50 Years of Mathematics".

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• Knowledge is the death of research.

  Walther Nernst

  Science, Research, Knows

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• With full responsibility for my words as a professional biologist, I do not hesitate to say that all existing and genuine knowledge about the way in which the physical characteristics of human communities are related to their cultural capabilities can be written on the back of a postage stamp.

  Lancelot Hogben

  Responsibility, Science, Community

  Lancelot Thomas Hogben (1940). “Dangerous Thoughts”

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• Obvious is the most dangerous word in mathematics.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Math, Science, Sensual

  Eric Temple Bell (1938). “The queen of the sciences”

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• The Man That Knowz Something Knowz That He Knowz Nothing At All.

  Erykah Badu

  Life, Humble, Men

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• Some mathematician, I believe, has said that true pleasure lies not in the discovery of truth, but in the search for it.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Lying, Believe, Math

  LEO TOLSTOY (1961). “ANNA KARENINA”

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• ...one can hardly deny that mankind has a common store of thoughts which is transmitted from one generation to another.

  Gottlob Frege

  Mind, Generations, Common

  Gottlob Frege (1952). “Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege”

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