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Quotes about science

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Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IIn context
- Nature
If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.
J. B. S. Haldane1892–1964A possibly apocryphal reply to theologians who inquired if there was anything that could be concluded about the Creator from the study of creation; as described in “Homage to Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of animals” by G. Evelyn Hutc
- God
Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
J. B. S. Haldane1892–1964“Possible Worlds”, p. 286
The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Thích Nhất Hạnh1926–2022Touching Peace (1992), p. 1. Parallax Press
- Beauty
- Nature
We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology.
Yuval Noah Harariborn 1976Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), Chapter 4: “The Flood”
- Animals
- Nature
If you are cheerful, and wish to remain so, leave the study of astronomy alone. Of all the sciences, it alone deserves the character of the terrible.
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Two on a Tower (1882), Vol 1, ch. 4 (Swithin St Cleeve speaking to Viviette Constantine)
Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can’t get out of it if we would!
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Jude the Obscure (1895), Part Fifth: At Aldbrickham and Elsewhere, Chapter VIIIIn context
- Good & Evil
- Nature
Growing up brought responsibilities, he found. Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought. Nature’s logic was too horrid for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony.
Thomas Hardy1840–1928Jude the Obscure (1895), Part First: At Marygreen, Chapter IIIn context
- Maturity
- Nature
The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018A Brief History of Time (1988), p. 122
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?
Stephen Hawking1942–2018A Brief History of Time (1988), p. 174
The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
Stephen Hawking1942–2018A Brief History of Time (1988), p. 174
Science could predict that the universe must have had a beginning.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993)
So Einstein was wrong when he said, “God does not play dice.” Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018During the same 1994 exchange with Penrose as the previous quote, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, p. 26 and also in “The Nature of Space and Time” (online text)
- God
Einstein was confused, not the quantum theory.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018Lecture at the Amsterdam Symposium on Gravity, Black Holes, and String Theory (21 June 1997)
The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological — technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018From Hawking’s article A Brief History of Relativity, in Time magazine (31 December 1999)
- Change
- Technology