# Quotes about science

- Quotes: 74
- Authors: 18
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science

## Quotes

> A man can understand astronomy only by being an astronomer; he can understand entomology only by being an entomologist (or, perhaps, an insect); but he can understand a great deal of anthropology merely by being a man. He is himself the animal which he studies. Hence arises the fact which strikes the eye everywhere in the records of ethnology and folk-lore—the fact that the same frigid and detached spirit which leads to success in the study of astronomy or botany leads to disaster in the study of mythology or human origins. It is necessary to cease to be a man in order to do justice to a microbe; it is not necessary to cease to be a man in order to do justice to men. That same suppression of sympathies, that same waving away of intuitions or guess-work which make a man preternaturally clever in dealing with the stomach of a spider, will make him preternaturally stupid in dealing with the heart of man. He is making himself inhuman in order to understand humanity.

[G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/a-man-can.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md)

> But the thing which is irrational any one can understand. That is why religion came so early into the world and spread so far, while science came so late into the world and has not spread at all. History unanimously attests the fact that it is only mysticism which stands the smallest chance of being understanded of the people.

[G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/but-the-thing.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> But undoubtedly it was to this almost eerie innocence of the intellect that the great men of the great scientific period, which now appears to be closing, owed their enormous power and triumph. If they had brought the heavens down like a house of cards their plea was not even that they had done it on principle; their quite unanswerable plea was that they had done it by accident.

[G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/but-undoubtedly-it-was.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> I now saw, that a science is either deductive or experimental, according as, in the province it deals with, the effects of causes when conjoined, are or are not the sums of the effects which the same causes produce when separate. It followed that politics must be a deductive science. It thus appeared, that both Macaulay and my father were wrong; the one in assimilating the method of philosophising in politics to the purely experimental method of chemistry; while the other, though right in adopting a deductive method, had made a wrong selection of one, having taken as the type of deduction, not the appropriate process, that of the deductive branches of natural philosophy, but the inappropriate one of pure geometry, which, not being a science of causation at all, does not require or admit of any summing-up of effects.

Autobiography · p. 160

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Most boys or youths who have had much knowledge drilled into them, have their mental capacities not strengthened, but over-laid by it. They are crammed with mere facts, and with the opinions or phrases of other people, and these are accepted as a substitute for the power to form opinions of their own: and thus the sons of eminent fathers, who have spared no pains in their education, so often grow up mere parroters of what they have learnt, incapable of using their minds except in the furrows traced for them. Mine, however, was not an education of cram. My father never permitted anything which I learnt to degenerate into a mere exercise of memory. He strove to make the understanding not only go along with every step of the teaching, but, if possible, precede it. Anything which could be found out by thinking I never was told, until I had exhausted my efforts to find it out for myself.

Autobiography · p. 31

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> He was often, and much beyond reason, provoked by my failures in cases where success could not have been expected; but in the main his method was right, and it succeeded. I do not believe that any scientific teaching ever was more thorough, or better fitted for training the faculties, than the mode in which logic and political economy were taught to me by my father. Striving, even in an exaggerated degree, to call forth the activity of my faculties, by making me find out everything for myself, he gave his explanations not before, but after, I had felt the full force of the difficulties; and not only gave me an accurate knowledge of these two great subjects, as far as they were then understood, but made me a thinker on both.

Autobiography · p. 28

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)

> I have no remembrance of the time when I began to learn Greek. I have been told that it was when I was three years old. My earliest recollection on the subject, is that of committing to memory what my father termed Vocables, being lists of common Greek words, with their signification in English, which he wrote out for me on cards. Of grammar, until some years later, I learnt no more than the inflexions of the nouns and verbs, but, after a course of vocables, proceeded at once to translation; and I faintly remember going through AEsop's Fables, the first Greek book which I read. The Anabasis, which I remember better, was the second. I learnt no Latin until my eighth year. At that time I had read, under my father's tuition, a number of Greek prose authors, among whom I remember the whole of Herodotus, and of Xenophon's Cyropaedia and Memorials of Socrates; some of the lives of the philosophers by Diogenes Laertius; part of Lucian, and Isocrates' ad Demonicum and ad Nicoclem. I also read, in 1813, the first six dialogues (in the common arrangement) of Plato, from the Euthyphron to the Theaetetus inclusive: which last dialogue, I venture to think, would have been better omitted, as it was totally impossible I should understand it. But my father, in all his teaching, demanded of me not only the utmost that I could do, but much that I could by no possibility have done. What he was himself willing to undergo for the sake of my instruction, may be judged from the fact, that I went through the whole process of preparing my Greek lessons in the same room and at the same table at which he was writing: and as in those days Greek and English lexicons were not, and I could make no more use of a Greek and Latin lexicon than could be made without having yet begun to learn Latin, I was forced to have recourse to him for the meaning of every word which I did not know. This incessant interruption, he, one of the most impatient of men, submitted to, and wrote under that interruption several volumes of his History and all else that he had to write during those years.

Autobiography · p. 5

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> In the course of instruction which I have partially retraced, the point most superficially apparent is the great effort to give, during the years of childhood an amount of knowledge in what are considered the higher branches of education, which is seldom acquired (if acquired at all) until the age of manhood.

Autobiography · p. 30

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> In these frequent talks about the books I read, he used, as opportunity offered, to give me explanations and ideas respecting civilization, government, morality, mental cultivation, which he required me afterwards to restate to him in my own words. He also made me read, and give him a verbal account of, many books which would not have interested me sufficiently to induce me to read them of myself: among others, Millar's Historical View of the English Government, a book of great merit for its time, and which he highly valued; Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, McCrie's Life of John Knox, and even Sewel's and Rutty's Histories of the Quakers. He was fond of putting into my hands books which exhibited men of energy and resource in unusual circumstances, struggling against difficulties and overcoming them: of such works I remember Beaver's African Memoranda, and Collins's account of the first settlement of New South Wales.

Autobiography · p. 8

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md)

> It is also a study peculiarly adapted to an early stage in the education of philosophical students, since it does not presuppose the slow process of acquiring, by experience and reflection, valuable thoughts of their own.

Autobiography · p. 19

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> If I had been by nature extremely quick of apprehension, or had possessed a very accurate and retentive memory or were of a remarkably active and energetic character, the trial would not be conclusive; but in all these natural gifts I am rather below than above par; what I could do, could assuredly be done by any boy or girl of average capacity and healthy physical constitution: and if I have accomplished anything, I owe it, among other fortunate circumstances, to the fact that through the early training bestowed on me by my father, I started, I may fairly say, with an advantage of a quarter of a century over my contemporaries.

Autobiography · p. 30

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md)

> There is no author to whom my father thought himself more indebted for his own mental culture, than Plato, or whom he more frequently recommended to young student. I can bear similar testimony in regard to myself. The Socratic method, of which the Platonic dialogues are the chief example, is unsurpassed as a discipline for correcting the errors, and clearing up the confusions incident to the intellectus sibi permissus...

Autobiography · p. 21

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)

> It does not destroy matter, which is reassuring. Rewriting one law of physics is worse than trying to eat one peanut.

[Larry Niven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven.md) · [The World Of Ptavvs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/the-world-of-ptavvs.md) · p. 40 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/the-world-of-ptavvs/it-does-not.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> I refused to make any changes.
>
> I said to them, haughtily, “It isn’t written in the stars that I must make a million dollars, but it is written in the stars that I must be true to my principles.”
>
> So they fired me. They had someone else do the changes, and on June 26, 1978, I made them remove my name from the book. The project was a fiasco from beginning to end.
>
> What does one do in a case like this? One is helpless in the face of cowardly publishers, pliant school boards, and fanatical ignoramuses. All I can do is write essays denouncing creationism with its believe in Adam, Eve, a talking serpent, and a worldwide Flood, all in a six- to ten-thousand-year-old universe, and in a supernatural creation of all the species of life so that they were different from the start.
>
> Some of my essays appeared in as august an organ as The New York Times Magazine and that roused the anger of many Fundamentalists—an anger I am happy and proud to inspire.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 307 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/i-refused-to-make.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> If an interaction is too weak to be detectable or to exert influence in any way, then by any operational definition, it doesn't exist.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Gods Themselves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves.md) · p. 257 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves/if-an-interaction.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> By the time I was reading the Bible, however, science fiction and science books had taught me their version of the universe and I was not ready to accept the creation tale of Genesis or the various miracles described throughout the book. My experience with the Greek myths (and, later, the grimmer Norse myths) made it quite obvious to me that I was reading Hebrew myths.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 13 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/by-the-time.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Does said, “You’re not a…a believer?”
>
> “I’m a scholar,” said Mycelium with obvious pride.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 272 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/does-said-youre.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> For it is the chief characteristic of the religion of science, that it works, and that such curses as that of Aporat's are really deadly.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/for-it-is-the.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> "First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you've shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past – never on yourselves. It amounts to a diseased attitude – a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon wiser. And that's wrong, don't you see? It isn't just you. It's the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin's idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject – written by men who were dead for centuries. He thought that the way to solve archaeological puzzles was to weigh the opposing authorities. And Pirenne listened and made no objections. Don't you see that there's something wrong with that? And you men and half of Terminus as well are just as bad. We sit here,considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power. Don't you see? It's Galaxy wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration – a stagnation!"

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/first-you-refused.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md)

> Q. You do not consider your statement a disloyal one?
>
> A. No, sir. Scientific truth is beyond loyalty and disloyalty.
>
> Q. You are sure that your statement represents scientific truth?
>
> A. I am.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/q-you-do-not.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md)

> Gillbret said, “Statistics show that one out of three stars has a planetary system.”
>
> Biron nodded. It was a well-worn statistic. Every child was taught that in elementary Galactography.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Stars, Like Dust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-stars-like-dust.md) · p. 142 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-stars-like-dust/gillbret-said-statistics.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> There isn’t an instinct around that can’t give way to a good, persistent education. Not in human beings, where instincts are weak anyway. In fact, if you go about it right, education gets easier with each generation.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Naked Sun](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun.md) · p. 331 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun/there-isnt-an-instinct.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/i-accept-nothing.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)

> The machine is only a tool after all, which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back. The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 187 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/the-machine-is-only.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)

> Like the atom bomb, it arose out of equally academic research. Never, gentlemen, underestimate science. I doubt if there is a single field of study so theoretical, so remote from what is laughingly called everyday life, that it may not one day produce something that will shake the world.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 500 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/like-the-atom.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> It is hardly necessary for me to say that I do not believe in the supernatural; everything that happened has a perfectly rational explanation, obvious to any man with the slightest knowledge of psychology.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 786 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/it-is-hardly.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Though I've often made fun of the scientists, they've freed us forever from the stagnation that was overtaking your race.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 298 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/though-ive-often.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> The search for alien artefacts in the Solar System should be a perfectly legitimate branch of science ('exoarchaeology'?). Unfortunately, it has been largely discredited by claims that such evidence has already been found - and has been deliberately suppressed by NASA! p. 97, Acknowledgements

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [3001 The Final Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/3001-the-final-odyssey/the-search-for.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> The fact was that he suffered from an incurable malady which, it seemed, attacked only Homo sapiens among all the intelligent races of the universe. That disease was religious mania.
>
> Throughout the earlier part of its history, the human race had brought forth an endless succession of prophets, seers, messiahs, and evangelists who convinced themselves and their followers that to them alone were the secrets of the universe revealed. Some of them succeeded in establishing religions which survived for many generations and influenced billions of men; others were forgotten even before their deaths.
>
> The rise of science, which with monotonous regularity refuted the cosmologies of the prophets and produced miracles which they could never match, eventually destroyed all these faiths. It did not destroy the awe, not the reverence and humility, which all intelligent beings felt as they contemplated the stupendous universe in which they found themselves. What it did weaken, and finally obliterate, were the countless religions, each of which claimed with unbelievable arrogance, that it was the sole repository of the truth and that its millions of rivals and predecessors were all mistaken.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The City And The Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars.md) · p. 99 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-city-and-the-stars/the-fact-was.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Professor Simon Newcomb was expounding this to the New York Mathematical Society only a month or so ago. You know how on a flat surface, which has only two dimensions, we can represent a figure of a Three-Dimensional solid, and similarly they think that by models of three dimensions they could represent one of four—if they could master the perspective of the thing. See?

[H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [The Time Machine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine/professor-simon-newcomb.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Are you so sure we can move freely in Space? Right and left we can go, backward and forward freely enough, and men always have done so. I admit we move freely in two dimensions. But now about up and down? Gravitation limits us there.

[H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [The Time Machine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine/are-you-so-sure.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Space, as our mathematicians have it, is spoken of as having three dimensions, which one may call Length, Breadth, and Thickness, and is always definable by reference to these planes, each at right angle to the others. But some philosophical people have been asking why three dimensions particularly—why not another direction at right angles to the other three?—and have even tried to construct a Four Dimensional geometry.

[H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [The Time Machine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine/space-as-our.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production of objective fact.

[H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/science-at-bottom.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.

[James A. Michener](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener.md) · [Space](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/space.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/space/scientists-dream-about.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Or... they observe an astronomic phenomenon... an eclipse of the moon, and... suppose... this... is perceived simultaneously from all points of the earth. That is not altogether true, since the propagation of light is not instantaneous; if absolute exactitude were desired, there would be a correction... according to a complicated rule.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/or-they-observe.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Now what is science? ...it is before all a classification, a manner of bringing together facts which appearances separate, though they are bound together by some natural and hidden kinship. Science, in other words, is a system of relations. ...it is in relations alone that objectivity must be sought. ...it is relations alone which can be regarded as objective.
>
> External objects... are really objects and not fleeting and fugitive appearances, because they are not only groups of sensations, but groups cemented by a constant bond. It is this bond, and this bond alone, which is the object in itself, and this bond is a relation.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/now-what-is-science.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> One need only open the eyes to see that the conquests of industry which have enriched so many practical men would never have seen the light, if these practical men alone had existed and if they had not been preceded by unselfish devotees who died poor, who never thought of utility, and yet had a guide far other than caprice.
>
> As Mach says, these devotees have spared their successors the trouble of thinking.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/one-need-only.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> [This] shows, perhaps, why we have tried to put all physical phenomena into the same frame. But that can not pass for a definition of simultaneity, since this hypothetical intelligence, even if it existed, would be for us impenetrable. It is... necessary to seek something else.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/this-shows-perhaps.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> When an astronomer tells me that some stellar phenomenon, which his telescope reveals to him at this moment, happened... fifty years ago... I... ask... how he has measured the velocity of light.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/when-an-astronomer.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> In physical reality one cause does not produce a given effect, but a multitude of distinct causes contribute to produce it, without our having any means of discriminating the part of each of them. ...[C]auses which have produced a certain effect will never be reproduced except approximately.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/in-physical-reality.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> He has begun by supposing that light has a constant velocity... the same in all directions. This... could never be verified directly by experiment... The postulate... resembling the ... furnishes us with a new rule for the investigation of simultaneity.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/he-has-begun.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> We have not a direct intuition of simultaneity, nor of the equality of two durations. If we think we have this intuition, this is an illusion. We replace it by the aid of certain rules which we apply almost always without taking count of them.
>
> ...We ...choose these rules, not because they are true, but because they are the most convenient, and we may recapitulate them as follows: "The simultaneity of two events, or the order of their succession, the equality of two durations, are to be so defined that the enunciation of the natural laws may be as simple as possible. In other words, all these rules, all these definitions, are only the fruit of an unconscious opportunism."

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/we-have-not-a.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md)

> Where speculation ends — in real life — there real, positive science begins: the representation of the practical activity, of the practical process of development of men. Empty talk about consciousness ceases, and real knowledge has to take place. When reality is depicted, philosophy as an independent branch of activity loses its medium of existence. At the best its place can only be taken by a summing-up of the most general results, abstractions which arise from the observation of the historical development of men. Viewed apart from real history, these abstractions have in themselves no value whatsoever. They can only serve to facilitate the arrangement of historical material, to indicate the sequence of its separate strata. But they by no means afford a recipe or schema, as does philosophy, for neatly trimming the epochs of history. On the contrary, our difficulties begin only when we set about the observation and the arrangement — the real depiction — of our historical material, whether of a past epoch or of the present.

[Karl Marx](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx.md) · [The German Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/karl-marx/the-german-ideology/where-speculation-ends.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> It is only through science and art that civilization is of value. Some have wondered at the formula: science for its own sake; an yet it is as good as life for its own sake, if life is only misery; and even as happiness for its own sake, if we do not believe that all pleasures are of the same quality...
>
> Every act should have an aim. We must suffer, we must work, we must pay for our place at the game, but this is for seeing's sake; or at the very least that others may one day see.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/it-is-only.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md)

> [H]ave we really the right to speak of the cause of a phenomenon?

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/h-ave-we-really.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Roemer used eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter, and sought how much the event fell behind its prediction. But... this prediction [is] made... by... astronomic laws; for instance Newton's... [T]he velocity of light... is adopted, such that the astronomic laws compatible with this value may be as simple as possible.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/roemer-used-eclipses.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Scientists believe there is a hierarchy of facts and that among them may be made a judicious choice. They are right, since otherwise there would be no science...

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/scientists-believe-there.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> What we call objective reality is, in the last analysis, what is common to many thinking beings, and could be common to all; this common part, we shall see, can only be the harmony expressed by mathematical laws. It is this harmony... which is the sole objective reality, the only truth we can attain; and when I add that the universal harmony of the world is the source of all beauty, it will be understood what price we should attach to the slow and difficult progress which little by little enables us to know it better.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/what-we-call.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md)

> All laws are... deduced from experiment; but to enunciate them, a special language is needful... ordinary language is too poor...
>
> This... is one reason why the physicist can not do without mathematics; it furnishes him the only language he can speak. And a well-made language is no indifferent thing;
>
> ...the analyst, who pursues a purely esthetic aim, helps create, just by that, a language more fit to satisfy the physicist.
>
> ...law springs from experiment, but not immediately. Experiment is individual, the law deduced from it is general; experiment is only approximate, the law is precise...
>
> In a word, to get the law from experiment, it is necessary to generalize... But how generalize? ...in this choice what shall guide us?
>
> It can only be analogy. ...What has taught us to know the true profound analogies, those the eyes do not see but reason divines?
>
> It is the mathematical spirit, which disdains matter to cling only to pure form.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/all-laws-are.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Mathematics have a triple aim. They must furnish an instrument for the study of nature. But that is not all: they have a philosophic aim and, I dare maintain, an esthetic aim. They must aid the philosopher to fathom the notions of number, of space, of time. And above all, their adepts find therein delights analogous to those given by painting and music. They admire the delicate harmony of numbers and forms; they marvel when a new discovery opens to them an unexpected perspective; and has not the joy they thus feel the esthetic character, even though the senses take no part therein? Only a privileged few are called to enjoy it fully, it is true, but is not this the case for all the noblest arts?
>
> This is why I do not hesitate to say that mathematics deserve to be cultivated for their own sake, and the theories inapplicable to physics as well as the others. Even if the physical aim and the esthetic aim were not united, we ought not to sacrifice either.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/mathematics-have-a-triple.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md)

> [A]stronomers... define duration in the following way: time... so defined that Newton's law and that of vis viva [or of the ] may be verified. Newton's law is an experimental truth... only approximate... [W]e still have only a definition by approximation.

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/a-stronomers-define-duration.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md)

> [W]hat postulate do we implicitly admit? It is that the duration of two identical phenomena is the same; or... that the same causes take the same time to produce the same effects. ...Is it impossible that experiment may some day contradict our postulate?

[Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/w-hat-postulate-do-we-implicitly.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md)

> I had been to school most all the time and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five, and I don’t reckon I could ever get any further than that if I was to live forever. I don’t take no stock in mathematics, anyway.

[Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md) · [Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/i-had-been.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> To get [the breakthroughs on the "Technologies needed" list] ready soon enough to make a difference, governments need to . . . [q]uintuple clean energy and climate-related R&D over the next decade. . . .

[Bill Gates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates.md) · [How to Avoid a Climate Disaster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster.md) · p. 200 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster/to-get-the.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers.

[Bill Gates](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates.md) · [The Road Ahead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/the-road-ahead.md) · p. 265 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-gates/the-road-ahead/the-obvious-mathematical.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> I took an estimated two thousand years of high school French, and when I finally got to France, I discovered that I didn't know one single phrase that was actually useful in a real-life French situation.

[Dave Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry.md) · [Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barrys-only-travel-guide-youll-ever-need.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/dave-barrys-only-travel-guide-youll-ever-need/i-took-an-estimated.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> For the inquisition of Final Causes is barren, and like a virgin consecrated to God produces nothing.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/for-the-inquisition.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> As we divided natural philosophy in general into the inquiry of causes, and productions of effects: so that part which concerneth the inquiry of causes we do subdivide according to the received and sound division of causes. The one part, which is physic, inquireth and handleth the material and efficient causes; and the other, which is metaphysic, handleth the formal and final causes.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/as-we-divided.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/i-could-not.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> The natural philosophy of Democritus and some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs of nature, which they term fortune, seemeth to me... in particularities of physical causes more real and better inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato; whereof both intermingled final causes, the one as a part of theology, and the other as a part of logic, which were the favourite studies respectively of both those persons. Not because those final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired, being kept within their own province; but because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that tract.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/the-natural-philosophy.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> This misplacing hath caused a deficience, or at least a great improficience in the sciences themselves. For the handling of final causes, mixed with the rest in physical inquiries, hath intercepted the severe and diligent inquiry of all real and physical causes, and given men the occasion to stay upon these satisfactory and specious causes, to the great arrest and prejudice of further discovery. For this I find done not only by Plato, who ever anchoreth upon that shore, but by Aristotle, Galen, and others which do usually likewise fall upon these flats of discoursing causes.

[Francis Bacon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon.md) · [The Advancement of Learning](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/francis-bacon/the-advancement-of-learning/this-misplacing-hath.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Let this serve as an outline of the good; for we must presumably first sketch it roughly, and then later fill in the details. But it would seem that any one is capable of carrying on and articulating what has once been well outlined, and that time is a good discoverer or partner in such a work; to which facts the advances of the arts are due; for any one can add what is lacking. And we must also remember what has been said before, and not look for precision in all things alike, but in each class of things such precision as accords with the subject-matter, and so much as is appropriate to the inquiry. For a carpenter and a geometer investigate the right angle in different ways; the former does so in so far as the right angle is useful for his work, while the latter inquires what it is or what sort of thing it is; for he is a spectator of the truth. We must act in the same way, then, in all other matters as well, that our main task may not be subordinated to minor questions. Nor must we demand the cause in all matters alike; it is enough in some cases that the fact be well established, as in the case of the first principles; the fact is the primary thing or first principle. Now of first principles we see some by induction, some by perception, some by a certain habituation, and others too in other ways. But each set of principles we must try to investigate in the natural way, and we must take pains to state them definitely, since they have a great influence on what follows. For the beginning is thought to be more than half of the whole, and many of the questions we ask are cleared up by it.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/let-this-serve.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/for-the-things.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Nicomachean Ethics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/it-is-the.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to recreation, the inventors of the latter were naturally always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. ... This is why the mathematical arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste was allowed to be at leisure.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Metaphysics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics/but-as-more.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun and of the stars, and about the genesis of the universe. And a man who is puzzled and wonders thinks himself ignorant (whence even the lover of myth is in a sense a lover of Wisdom, for the myth is composed of wonders); therefore since they philosophized order to escape from ignorance, evidently they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end. — Metaphysics by Aristotle – Book 1, ClassicalWisdom.com

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Metaphysics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics/for-it-is-owing.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> Those who assert that the mathematical sciences say nothing of the beautiful or the good are in error. For these sciences say and prove a great deal about them; if they do not expressly mention them, but prove attributes which are their results or definitions, it is not true that they tell us nothing about them. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Metaphysics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/metaphysics/those-who-assert.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md)

> Sound is the motion of that which is able to be moved, after the manner in which those things are moved, that rebound from smooth bodies, when any one strikes them. Not every thing... sounds... but it is necessary, that the body which is struck should be equable, that the air may collectively rebound, and be shaken. The differences, however, of bodies which sound, are manifested in the sound, which is in energy; for, as colours are not perceived without light, so neither are the sharp and the flat perceived without sound. But these things are asserted metaphorically, from those which pertain to the touch; for the sharp moves the sense much in a short time, but the flat a little in a long time. The sharp, therefore, is not rapid, and the flat slow; but such a motion is produced of the one, on account of celerity, and of the other on account of slowness, that, also, which is perceived in the touch, appears to be analogous to the acute and obtuse, for the acute, as it were, stings; but the obtuse, as it were, impels: because the one moves in a short, but the other in a long time. Hence it happens that the one is swift but the other slow. Let it therefore be thus determined concerning sound.

[Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [De Anima](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/de-anima.md) · p. 62 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/de-anima/sound-is-the.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> "What really is the point of trying to teach anything to anybody?"
>
> This question seemed to provoke a murmur of sympathetic approval from up and down the table.
>
> Richard continued, "What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that's really the essence of programming. By the time you've sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you've learned something about it yourself."

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency/what-really-is-the.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md)

> You see, lots of the real people can't do it at all: they're such fools that they think style comes by nature to people in their position; and so they never learn. There's always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well.

[George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Pygmalion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion/you-see-lots.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md)

> You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

[George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Major Barbara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/major-barbara/you-have-learnt.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> Softmindedness often invades religion. ... Softminded persons have revised the Beautitudes to read "Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God." This has led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between softminded religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion. ... Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.

[Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/softmindedness-often-invades.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> When confronted by midnight in the social order we have in the past turned to science for help. And little wonder! On so many occasions science has saved us. When we were in the midnight of physical limitation and material inconvenience, science lifted us to the bright morning of physical and material comfort. When we were in the midnight of crippling ignorance and superstition, science brought us to the daybreak of the free and open mind. When we were in the midnight of dread plagues and diseases, science, through surgery, sanitation, and the wonder drugs, ushered in the bright day of physical health, thereby prolonging our lives and making for greater security and physical well-being. How naturally we turn to science in a day when the problems of the world are so ghastly and ominous. But alas! science cannot now rescue us, for even the scientist is lost in the terrible midnight of our age. Indeed, science gave us the very instruments that threaten to bring universal suicide.'''

[Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/when-confronted-by-midnight.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)

> The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.

[Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/the-means-by-which.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md)