Scientist

Explore 194 quotes by Scientists

The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be. Our contemplations of the cosmos stir us. There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

The universe Origin of the universe Space The mysterious

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Cosmos

Medium

TV program

Language

English

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Cosmos. Random House, 1980.

In the discovery of secret things and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort.

William Gilbert

De Magnete

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Topic

Scientific method

Author

William Gilbert

Source

De Magnete

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

Latin

Time

1600 1600s 16th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Gilbert, William. De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure [On the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies, and on That Great Magnet the Earth]. London: Peter Short, 1600, preface.

Current Citation

Gilbert, William. De Magnete, translated by P. Fleury Mottelay. Dover Publications, 1991.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Carl Sagan

Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

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Topic

Genius

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Random House, 1979, pt. 2, ch. 5.

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

Oliver Sacks

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Topic

Gratitude Facing death Life

Author

Oliver Sacks

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2015 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sacks, Oliver. "My Own Life." The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2015.

A sharp distinction between humans and "animals" is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them—without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret... Humans—who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals—have had an understandable penchant for pretending that animals do not feel pain... It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer... The behavior of other animals, especially the chimps and bonobos, renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

Carl Sagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Animal cruelty Man and animals Animals

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1992 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are. Random House, 1992, ch. 19.

If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum.

Arthur Eddington

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and animals Probability Randomness

Author

Arthur Eddington

Source

The Nature of the Physical World

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Eddington, Arthur. "The Nature Of The Physical World." Gifford lecture. January – March 1927, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.

John Burroughs

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from nature Nature

Author

John Burroughs

Source

Time and Change

Genre

Nature writing

Language

English

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Burroughs, John. "The Gospel of Nature." Time and Change. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1912.

Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat.

Julian Huxley

More information about this quote

Topic

God of the gaps Science and religion Existence of God Nature of God God

Author

Julian Huxley

Source

Religion without Revelation

Genre

Philosophical literature Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Julian. Religion without Revelation. New American Library, 1957, ch. 3. Originally published by Harper & Brothers, 1927, ch. 3.

It did not take atomic weapons to make man want peace, a peace that would last. But the atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of future war unendurable.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

More information about this quote

Topic

Nuclear weapons

Speaker

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Source

The Atomic Bomb and College Education

Medium

Speech

Genre

Commencement address

Language

English

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Oppenheimer, Julius Robert. "The Atomic Bomb and College Education." Commencement ceremony. 28 Feb. 1946, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Con artists and charlatans

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Genre

Scientific literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House, 1995, ch. 13.

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that has happened in politics or religion.

Carl Sagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Changing one's mind Scientific progress

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1987 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. "The Burden of Skepticism." CSICOP conference. 3 Apr. 1987, Pasadena, CA, USA. Keynote address.

Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind.

George Gaylord Simpson

More information about this quote

Topic

Human origins Nature of man Evolution

Author

George Gaylord Simpson

Source

The Meaning Of Evolution

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Simpson, George Gaylord. The Meaning of Evolution. Yale University Press, 1949, epilogue.

There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.

Oliver Sacks

More information about this quote

Topic

Uniqueness of each person The individual

Author

Oliver Sacks

Source

The New York Times

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2015 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sacks, Oliver. "My Own Life." The New York Times, 19 Feb. 2015.

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.

John Burroughs

More information about this quote

Topic

Grass is always greener Bloom where you're planted Opportunities

Author

John Burroughs

Source

The Divine Soil The Atlantic

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Burroughs, John. "The Divine Soil." The Atlantic, Apr. 1908.

From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.

James Jeans

More information about this quote

Topic

God Origin of the universe The universe

Author

James Jeans

Source

The Mysterious Universe

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1930 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jeans, James. The Mysterious Universe. Cambridge University Press/Macmillan, 1930, ch. 5.

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

Fred Hoyle

More information about this quote

Topic

Space

Speaker

Fred Hoyle

Source

Sayings of the Week Observer

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Hoyle, Fred. "Sayings of the Week." The Observer, 9 Sept. 1979.

For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders, undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation?

Carl Sagan

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More information about this quote

Topic

Technological progress Progress Human potential Human nature

Speaker

Carl Sagan

Source

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, 1994.

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.

Gerald M. Edelman

More information about this quote

Topic

Perception Observation Creation Memory Imagination

Author

Gerald M. Edelman

Source

A Universe of Consciousness

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

2000 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Edelman, Sam and Giulio Tononi. A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination. Basic Books, 2000.

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living.

Henri Poincaré

Science and Method

More information about this quote

Topic

Beauty of nature Nature

Author

Henri Poincaré

Source

Science and Method

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

French

Time

1908 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Poincare, Henri. Science et methode [Science and Method]. Flammarion, 1914, bk. 1, ch. 3.

The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.

Steven Weinberg

More information about this quote

Topic

The universe Curiosity The human condition

Author

Steven Weinberg

Source

The First Three Minutes

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1977 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Weinberg, Steven. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe. Basic Books, 1977, epilogue.