Quotes About Science

To those who have substituted authoritarian science for authoritarian religion, individual thought is worthless unless it is the symbol for a reality which can be seen, tasted, felt, or thought about by everyone else. Such men adhere to a dogma as rigidly as men of fanatical religiosity. They reject the world of the personal, the happy world of open, playful, or aspiring thought.

History is the short trudge from Adam to atom.

You weren't using the moon for anything. Only some long-term robot storage.

There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable -- unobservable in principle -- it is not part of science. If there is no way to falsify or confirm a hypothesis, it belongs to the realm of metaphysical speculation, together with astrology and spiritualism. By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality -- it's just a figment of our imaginations.

The great tragedy of science—the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact." — THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Unforeseen surprises are the rule in science, not the exception. Remember: Stuff happens.

If a system is chaotic (most are), then it implies that however good the resolving power may be, the time over which the system is predictable is limited. Perfect predictability is not achievable, simply because we are limited in our resolving power.

the world seems filled with people who are genuinely, deeply interested in physics but whose lives have taken them in different directions. This book is for all of us.

We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.

Mechanics is the paradise of the mathematical sciences because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics.

Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

tra il gruppo dei «ragazzi di via Panisperna» e lui, c'era una differenza profonda: che Fermi e «i ragazzi» cercavano, mentre lui semplicemente trovava. Per quelli la scienza era un fatto di volontà, per lui di natura.

La scienza, come la poesia, si sa che sta ad un passo dalla follia [...]

The kind of knowledge which is supported only by observations and is not yet proved must be carefully distinguished from the truth; it is gained by induction, as we usually say. Yet we have seen cases in which mere induction led to error.

The only thing not worth destroying is science. That would be useless. Science is unchangeable, and if you destroyed it today, it would rise up again the same as before.

So when dogmatic atheists assume that science has all the answers, or imagine that it soon will, they are no more immune than the most literal religious fundamentalist to the deceptive enchantment of certainty.

Simon wrote on the paper and passed it over. Mr Parnock studied it wisely, as he would have studied a Greek text. Cu + Hg + HNO3 + Bf = CuHgNO3 + H2O + NO2

I view science as the priceless legacy of humanity's search for understanding of the material world. But in an unequal economic system, science cannot avoid being stained by prevailing prejudices and bigotry - not only social sciences, like anthropology, but the so-called hard sciences like biology.

The attempt to interpret human behavior in terms of models derived from the natural sciences eventually destroys personal responsibility.

Modern science has placed in human hands the power to do things that were previously unimaginable. Technology, the development of ever more sophisticated means for achieving any end we choose, dominates modern and modernized societies. But there is a growing perception that science and technology are no substitute for wisdom - for the power to discern what ends are in accordance with the truth and the power to judge rightly between alternative ends.

The scientist starts with the conviction that the world is rational and that events at different times and places in the natural world can be related to one another in a coherent way. Without this conviction, which is a matter of faith, he could not begin his work. But the goal of his work is to prove the truth of the faith from which he began, to prove it in ever new situations.

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.

Scientists have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is life after death -- though they say it's virtually impossible to get decent Chinese food.

The study of magic is not a science, it is not an art, and it is not a religion. Magic is a craft. When we do magic, we do not wish and we do not pray. We rely upon our will and our knowledge and our skill to make a specific change to the world.