Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about science

558 quotes from 241 people

Most readBy personPage 28 of 38

Sociology is the science which has the most methods and the least results.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912Science and Method (1908), Part I. Ch. 1: The Selection of Facts, p. 19
- Clever Jabs
It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912Science and Method (1908), Part II. Ch. 2: Mathematical Definitions and Education, p. 129
- Thinking
It is only through science and art that civilization is of value.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912The Value of Science (1905), Ch. 11: Science and Reality
- Art
Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:
God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was light.
Alexander Pope1688–1744Epitaph intended for Sir Isaac Newton
The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.
Karl Popper1902–1994The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934), Ch. 2 “On the Problem of a Theory of Scientific Method”, Section 11: Methodological Rules as Conventions, p. 32.
Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer⁠—whether animal or man⁠—perishes with his false beliefs.
Karl Popper1902–1994Epistemology Without A Knowing Subject (1967)
If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.
Karl Popper1902–1994The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method
- Thinking
Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
Karl Popper1902–1994Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), Ch. 1 “Science: Conjectures and Refutations”, Section VII
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification — the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.
Karl Popper1902–1994The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism (1992), p. 44
Science is not about building a body of known ‘facts’. It is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015
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
We live in a time when the words impossible and unsolvable are no longer part of the scientific community’s vocabulary.
Christopher Reeve1952–2004Testimony to a U.S House of Representatives subcommittee, on NIH funding for the year 2000 (14 April 1999)
Nature is, and must be the fountain which alone is inexhaustible; and from which all excellencies must originally flow.
Joshua Reynolds1723–1792Discourse no. 6; vol. 1, p. 162.
- Nature
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.
Charles Robert
The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (26 February 1937)
- Nature