Scientific Discovery Quotes - Page 3

• The story of scientific discovery has its own epic unity-a unity of purpose and endeavour-the single torch passing from hand to hand through the centuries; and the great moments of science when, after long labour, the pioneers saw their accumulated facts falling into a significant order-sometimes in the form of a law that revolutionised the whole world of thought-have an intense human interest, and belong essentially to the creative imagination of poetry.

  Alfred Noyes

  Fall, Science, Epic

  Alfred Noyes (1926). “Watchers of the Sky”, p.2, Library of Alexandria

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• The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism.

  Aldo Leopold

  Discovery, Land, Radio

  Aldo Leopold (1972). “Round River”, p.108, Oxford University Press

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• originality" is everyone's aim, and novel techniques are as much prized as new scientific discoveries. [T.S.] Eliot states it with surprising naïveté: "It is exactly as wasteful for a poet to do what has been done already as for a biologist to rediscover Mendel's discoveries.

  Randall Jarrell

  Discovery, Done, Technique

  "Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964". Book by Randall Jarrell, "The End of the Line" (pp. 79 - 80), 1980.

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• As Eastern thought has begun to interest a significant number of people, and meditation is no longer viewed with ridicule or suspicion, mysticism is being taken seriously even within the scientific community. An increasing number of scientists are aware that mystical thought provides a consistent and relevant philosophical background to the theories of Contemporary science, a conception of the world in which the scientific discoveries of men and women can be in perfect harmony with their spiritual aims and religious beliefs.

  Fritjof Capra

  Spiritual, Religious, Philosophical

  "The Turning Point". Book by Fritjof Capra, www.juwing.sp.ru. 1982.

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• Scientific discovery is a private event, and the delight that accompanies it, or the despair of finding it illusory, does not travel. One scientist may get great satisfaction from another's work and admire it deeply; it may give him great intellectual pleasure; but it gives him no sense of participation in the discovery, it does not carry him away, and his appreciation of it does not depend on his being carried away. If it were otherwise the inspirational origin of scientific discovery would never have been in doubt.

  Peter Medawar

  Appreciation, Discovery, Giving

  Peter Brian Medawar (1996). “The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science”, p.32, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Observation is the generative act in scientific discovery. For all its aberrations, the evidence of the senses is essentially to be relied upon provided we observe nature as a child does, without prejudices and preconceptions, but with that clear and candid vision which adults lose and scientists must strive to regain.

  Peter Medawar

  Children, Discovery, Vision

  Peter Brian Medawar (1969). “Induction and intuition in scientific thought”

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• Equations seem like treasures, spotted in the rough by some discerning individual, plucked and examined, placed in the grand storehouse of knowledge, passed on from generation to generation. This is so convenient a way to present scientific discovery, and so useful for textbooks, that it can be called the treasure-hunt picture of knowledge.

  Robert P. Crease

  Knowledge, Science, Discovery

  Robert P. Crease (2010). “The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg”, p.17, W. W. Norton & Company

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• If Watson and I had not discovered the [DNA] structure, instead of being revealed with a flourish it would have trickled out and that its impact would have been far less. For this sort of reason Stent had argued that a scientific discovery is more akin to a work of art than is generally admitted. Style, he argues, is as important as content. I am not completely convinced by this argument, at least in this case.

  Francis Crick

  Art, Science, Impact

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• As religion is now practiced and science is now practiced, there is no intersection between the two. That is for certain. And it’s not for want of trying. Over the centuries, many people—theologians as well scientists - have tried to explore points of intersection. And anytime anyone has declared that harmony has risen up, it is the consequence of religion acquiescing to scientific discovery. In every single case.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Discovery, Two, People

  "Why Revive ‘Cosmos?’ Neil DeGrasse Tyson Says Just About Everything We Know Has Changed". Interview with David Freeman, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 4, 2014.

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• There is probably nothing more sublime than discontent transmuted into a work of art, a scientific discovery, and so on.

  Eric Hoffer

  Art, Discovery, Creative

  Eric Hoffer (1969). “Working and Thinking on the Waterfront: A Journal, June 1958-May 1959”

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• Stigler's Law: No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer.

  George Stigler

  Discovery, Law, Originals

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• The more one observes, the more clearly does he see that it is in the soil of pure science that are found the origins of all our modern industry and commerce. In fact,our civilization is wholly built upon our scientific discoveries.

  Herbert Hoover

  Discovery, Civilization, Soil

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• Through scientific discovery and technological innovation, we enlist the forces of the natural world to solve many of the uniquely human problems we face - feeding and providing energy to agrowing population, improving human health, taking responsibility for protecting the environment and the global ecosystem, and ensuring our own Nation's security. Scientific discoveries inspire and enrich us, teaching us about the mysteries of life and the nature of the world.

  William J. Clinton

  Teaching, Responsibility, Ecosystems

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• [Science fiction is] a specialized type of fantasy, in which the prime assumption usually is a new scientific discovery or invention.

  Jack Williamson

  Discovery, Fiction, Assumption

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• From laboratories employing complex apparatus, poetry often emerges into the outside world after a long lapse of time, just as some scientific discoveries become common property only after they have entered the blood stream of the generations.

  Mieczyslaw Jastrun

  Blood, Discovery, Long

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• The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Discovery, Progress, Comfort

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• The philosopher of science is not much interested in the thought processes which lead to scientific discoveries; he looks for a logical analysis of the completed theory, including the establishing its validity. That is, he is not interested in the context of discovery, but in the context of justification.

  Hans Reichenbach

  Philosophy, Science, Discovery

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• If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Writing, Discovery, Mind

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• Research at the subatomic quantum level reveals an invisible connection between all particles and all members of a given species. This oneness is being demonstrated in remarkable scientific discoveries. The findings show that physical distance, what we think of as empty space, does not preclude a connection by invisible forces. Obviously there exist invisible connections between our thoughts and our actions. We do not deny this, even though the connection is impervious to our senses.

  Wayne Dyer

  Distance, Thinking, Discovery

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• His teaching became a turning point in chess history: it was from Steinitz that the era of modern chess began. The contribution of the first world champion to its development is comparable with the great scientific discoveries of the 19th century.

  Garry Kasparov

  Teaching, Discovery, Champion

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• Animal experimentation is the blackest of all the black crimes that a man is at present committing... We should be able to refuse to live if the price of living be the torture of sentient beings... I abhor [animal] experimentation with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence... The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Animal, Greatness, Men

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• I think, that after the arrival of the mechanical clock we see an explosion in scientific thinking and scientific discovery.

  Nicholas G. Carr

  Thinking, Discovery, Clock

  Source: bigthink.com

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• We have again a strange gap. We have the big scientific discoveries around the second, third century BC. Then we have an invention of the so-called Arab system, the positional system of counting with zero dated to the eighth or ninth century.

  Garry Kasparov

  Zero, Discovery, Gaps

  Interview With Timothy Taylor, timothytaylor.ca. 2001.

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• It is possible that a scientific discovery will be made that humans will later regret because it has awful consequences. The problem is, we probably would not know in advance and, once the discovery is made, it cannot be undiscovered.

  Paul Davies

  Regret, Discovery, Awful

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• What is it with science these days? Everyone is so quick to believe in it, in all these new scientific discoveries, new pills for this, new pills for that. Get thinner, grow hair, yada, yada, yada, but when it requires a little faith in something you all go crazy.' He shook his head, 'If miracles had chemical equations then everyone would believe.

  Cecelia Ahern

  Crazy, Believe, Science

  Cecelia Ahern (2008). “The Gift”, HarperCollins UK

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