Quotes about science
558 quotes from 241 people
Jim Morrison1943–1971The Lords and the New Creatures: Poems (1969), “The Lords: Notes on Vision”When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
John Muir1838–1914My First Summer in the Sierra, 1869, Terry Gifford, EWDB, page 248The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir1838–1914John of the Mountains (1938), journal for July 1890, p. 313- John Muir1838–1914The Yosemite (1912), chapter 15: Hetch Hetchy Valley
- IMIris Murdoch1919–1999A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970); 2001, p. 170.
With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.
John von Neumann1903–1957Attributed to von Neumann by Enrico Fermi, as quoted by Freeman Dyson in “A meeting with Enrico Fermi” in Nature 427 (22 January 2004) p. 297- John von Neumann1903–1957“Various Techniques Used in Connection with Random Digits”, in Monte Carlo Method (1951), ed. A. S. Householder et al.
Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.
John von Neumann1903–1957Reply to a physicist friend, per Felix T. Smith; as quoted in Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1984 ed.), p. 208n- John von Neumann1903–1957Keynote, first national ACM meeting (1947), as recalled by Franz L. Alt in Communications of the ACM 15:7 (July 1972), p. 694
Isaac Newton1643–1727Reply upon being asked how he made his discoveries, as quoted in “Biographia Britannica: Or the Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who Have Flourished in Great Britain from the Earliest Ages Down to the Present Times, Volume 5 “, by W. Innys (1760)- MOMary Oliver1935–2019Thirst (2006), “Messenger”
Ovid43 BC–AD 17Metamorphoses (Transformations), Book VI, 349-351; translation by Michael SimpsonI am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner.
Louis Pasteur1822–1895Letter (December 1851); as quoted in The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History (2004) by John M. BarryIn the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur1822–1895Lecture, University of Lille (7 December 1854)