Science Quotes - Page 14

• Strange as it may sound, the power of mathematics rests on its evasion of all unnecessary thought and on its wonderful saving of mental operations.

  Ernst Mach

  Sound, Saving, May

  Ernst Mach, Thomas J. McCormack (2014). “Popular Scientific Lectures”, p.195, Cambridge University Press

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• Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Time, Religion, Physics

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• Creativity is essential to particle physics, cosmology, and to mathematics, and to other fields of science, just as it is to its more widely acknowledged beneficiaries - the arts and humanities.

  Lisa Randall

  Art, Creativity, Humanity

  Lisa Randall (2012). “Knocking On Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate our Universe”, p.398, Random House

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• There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational Sports, Lying

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.28, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Success, Good Life

  1897 Following the Equator, ch.32.

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• Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

  Hypatia

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Philosophy

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• A 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

  Death, Truth, Growing Up

  Scientific Autobiography, and Other Papers "Scientific Autobiography" (1948) (translation by Frank Gaynor)

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• One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

  Albert Einstein

  Reality, Long, Scientist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.404, Princeton University Press

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• However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson; nothing is impossible.

  Lewis Mumford

  Positive, Technology, Impossible Things

  "Technics and Civilization". Book by Lewis Mumford. Chapter 8, section 13, 1934.

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• There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the existence of a hottest part implies a temperature difference, and any marginally competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat engine and make some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is obviously impossible.

  Richard Davisson

  Running, Differences, Use

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• I know little about nature and hardly anything about men.

  Albert Einstein

  Men, Littles, Knows

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.26, St. Martin's Press

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• The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Education, Time, Positive Thinking

  "The Crack-Up" (1936)

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• We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.

  Marie Curie

  Discovery, Views, Humanity

  Marie Curie's lecture at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, May 14, 1921.

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• 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

  Funny, Philosophy, Add

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.55, Knopf

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• Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.

  Douglas Adams

  Funny, Light, Law

  Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.622, Pan Macmillan

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• Faith is a fine invention When gentlemen can see, But microscopes are prudent In an emergency.

  Emily Dickinson

  Faith, Knowledge, Gentleman

  c.1860 Complete Poems, no.185 (first published 1891).

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• Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century.

  Bertrand Russell

  Triumph, World, Modern

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “History of Western Philosophy”, p.484, Routledge

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• Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Creativity, Simplicity, Problem Solving

  The Concept of Nature ch. 7 (1920)

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• You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

  Albert Einstein

  Mom, Grandma, Grandmother

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.482, Princeton University Press

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• I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Death, Knowledge, Mysterious Universe

  "Horizon (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out)". Documentary (November 23, 1981), later published in "No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman" edited by Christopher Sykes (p. 239), 1994.

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• When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

  Isaac Asimov

  Atheist, Epic, Thinking

  "The Relativity of Wrong". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1996.

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• I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.

  Lord Kelvin

  Math, Numbers, Measurement

  Popular Lectures and Addresses "Electrical Units of Measurement" (1889).

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• Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.

  Victor Hugo

  Lasts, Firsts, Last Words

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• If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Inspirational, Nature, Hipster

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.242, Ballantine Books

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• True science teaches, above all, to doubt and be ignorant.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Doubt, Ignorant, Teach

  The Tragic Sense of Life Ch. V

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