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Quotes about science

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There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.
Michael Faraday1791–1867The Chemical History of a Candle (1860)
Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early or too late, which is in due time for thee.
Marcus Aurelius121–180Meditations, Book IV, 23
- Nature
- Time
The world is wide; no two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of the world.
John Constable1776–1837As quoted in C. R. Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable (1843)
- Nature
Slowly I discovered the secret of my art. It consists of a meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which is always inspired by reality.
Henri Matisse1869–1954“Interview with Henri Matisse” by Jacques Guenne, L’Art Vivant (15 September 1925), translated by Jack Flam in Matisse on Art (1995)
- Art
- Nature
The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite.
Werner Heisenberg1901–1976Physics and Philosophy (1958)
- Knowledge
As they say in Discworld, we are trying to unravel the Mighty Infinite using a language which was designed to tell one another where the fresh fruit was.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015Relatively Einstein episode 3, “Fantasy Physics” (18 January 2005); the Discworld version of this statement appears in Night Watch (2002)
- Talking
Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two faculties, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.
Alan Turing1912–1954“Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals,” section 11: The purpose of ordinal logics (1938), published in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, series 2, vol. 45 (1939)
- Thinking
Science is nothing more than a method of inquiry. The method says an assertion is valid — and merits universal acceptance — only if it can be independently verified.
Michael Crichton1942–2008Testimony before the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (28 September 2005)
My dear Kepler, what would you say of the learned here, who, replete with the pertinacity of the asp, have steadfastly refused to cast a glance through the telescope?
Galileo Galilei1564–1642Letter to Johannes Kepler (1610), as quoted in The Crime of Galileo (1955) by Giorgio De Santillana
- Clever Jabs
I know also that still more interesting discoveries will be made that I have not the imagination to describe — and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm.
Linus Pauling1901–1994Lecture at Yale University, “Chemical Achievement and Hope for the Future.” (October 1947) Published in Science in Progress. Sixth Series. Ed. George A. Baitsell. 100-21, (1949).
Science without philosophy, facts without perspective and valuation, cannot save us from havoc and despair. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
Will Durant1885–1981The Story of Philosophy (1926)
- Philosophy
- Wisdom
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythms, by effort that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
Henri Matisse1869–1954Letter to Henry Clifford (14 February 1948)
- Art
- Nature
To-day I made the ascent of the highest mountain in this region, which is not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer.
Petrarch1304–1374Letter to Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro (26 April 1336), “The Ascent of Mount Ventoux”, tr. James Harvey Robinson (1898)
- Nature
Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.
Paul Klee1879–1940Diary entry (Munich, 1909), # 857, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 236
- Art
- Nature
But by far the greatest obstacle to the progress of science and to the undertaking of new tasks and provinces therein is found in this — that men despair and think things impossible.
Francis Bacon1561–1626Novum Organum (1620), Book I, Aphorism 92