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Quotes about science

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He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed.
Jack London1876–1916The Call of the Wild (1903), Chapter VIIn context
- Nature
- Power
When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.
Jack London1876–1916The Call of the Wild (1903), Chapter VIIIn context
- Animals
- Nature
Men come and go as leaves year by year upon the trees. Those of autumn the wind sheds upon the ground, but when spring returns the forest buds forth with fresh vines. Even so is it with the generations of mankind, the new spring up as the old are passing away.
Homer900–800 BCThe Iliad (8th century BC), Book VIIn context
- Life & Death
- Nature
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882The Song of Hiawatha (1855), III. Hiawatha’s ChildhoodIn context
- Nature
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions,
With the odors of the forest,
With the dew and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions,
And their wild reverberations,
As of thunder in the mountains?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882The Song of Hiawatha (1855), IntroductionIn context
- Nature
- Poetry
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more
Lord Byron1788–1824Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818), Canto the Fourth (2 of 2)In context
- Nature
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean⁠—roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin⁠—his control
Stops with the shore
Lord Byron1788–1824Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818), Canto the Fourth (2 of 2)In context
- Nature
Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may increase that which has been given him, but until now he has not created, but demolished. The forests are disappearing, the rivers are running dry, the game is exterminated, the climate is spoiled, and the earth becomes poorer and uglier every day.
Anton Chekhov1860–1904Uncle Vanya (1897), Act I, spoken by AstroffIn context
- Nature
You’ve only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I think: “Oh Lord, you’ve given us huge forests, infinite fields, and endless horizons, and we, living here, ought really to be giants.”
Anton Chekhov1860–1904The Cherry Orchard (1904), Act Two, spoken by LopakhinIn context
- Character
- Nature
Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds.
Stephen Crane1871–1900The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Chapter XXIVIn context
- Hope
- 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 quality of life to be enjoyed or the existence to be survived by our children and future generations is in our hands now.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh1921–2021The World Wildlife Fund Congress, London, (1970).
- Children
- Nature
On behalf of the British people I salute the skill and courage which have brought man to the moon. May this endeavour increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind.
Elizabeth II1926–2022Message left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 11; NASA documentation (13 July 1969)
This is now our planet, run by humankind for humankind. There is little left for the rest of the living world.
David Attenboroughborn 1926David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (Netflix, 2020)
- Nature
Our imprint is now truly global. Our impact now truly profound. Our blind assault on the planet has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world.
David Attenboroughborn 1926David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (Netflix, 2020)
- Nature