Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was a renowned American jurist and judge. Born on March 8, 1841, and passing away on March 6, 1935, Holmes served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States for three decades, profoundly influencing the American legal system. more

You May Also Like

“A scientifically unimportant discovery is one which, however true and however interesting for other reasons, has no consequences for a system of theory with which scientists in that field are concerned.”

ReasonScienceInterestingFieldsTheoryDiscoveryConsequenceConcernedScientistImportanceUnimportant
Book:The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers
Create image

“A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that within the framework of the applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown.”

KindMadeDifferentScienceDifferencesGreaterTheoryConceptsAreasUniversalSimplicityConvincedImpressionRelateDifferent KindsImpressiveFrameworkPremisesThermodynamics
Book:A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein
Create image

“Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory.”

FactsScienceTheoryEvidenceWeightDifficultyExplanationRejectionRejectsDispositionUnexplained
Book:On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Create image

“As is well known the principle of virtual velocities transforms all statics into a mathematical assignment, and by D'Alembert's principle for dynamics, the latter is again reduced to statics. Although it is is very much in order that in gradual training of science and in the instruction of the individual the easier precedes the more difficult, the simple precedes the more complicated, the special precedes the general, yet the min, once it has arrived at the higher standpoint, demands the reverse process whereby all statics appears only as a very special case of mechanics.”

WellsScienceOrderIndividualProcessDifficultSimpleKnownPrinciplesCasesSpecialTheoryHigherEasierDemandTrainingComplicatedMathematicalLatterInstructionReverseWell KnownMechanicStandpointAssignmentsDynamicsVelocity
Author:Carl Friedrich Gauss
Create image

“Buffon, who, with all his theoretical ingenuity and extraordinary eloquence, I suspect had little actual information in the science on which he wrote so admirably For instance, he tells us that the cow sheds her horns every two years; a most palpable error. ... It is wonderful that Buffon who lived so much in the country at his noble seat should have fallen into such a blunder I suppose he has confounded the cow with the deer.”

ShouldWritingYearsLittlesTwoCountryScienceWonderfulInformationTheoryShould HaveErrorsExtraordinaryNobleInstanceFallenSeatsTwo YearsSuspectsCowsShedTheoreticalHornsEloquenceIngenuityDeerBlundersBuffon
Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition Never Before Published: the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great-Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished
Create image

“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, today in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be represented as a bête noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”

IfsMenTodayScienceTheoryReaderTasteEnglandJewGermanyDescriptionApplicationRelativitySwissTheories Of Relativity
Author:Albert Einstein
Create image