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Discovery Quotes

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Discovery Quotes

“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”

MenHas BeensTwoSidesMoralIntellectualDiscoveryDoomedBoth SidesShipwreckJekyll
Book:The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: The Merry Men and Other Stories
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“The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.”

YearsHas BeensUseChristianReligionCultureNationsBornChurchSinChristianityStepsTakenFiveAtheismHundredDiscoveryInnovationArchitectureAstronomyArtisticGreekCurseSpiteEnlightenedBigotryProgressiveSuperstitionsBiblicalScience And ReligionAvoidedEvery StepChildbirthGeologyScience ReligionChristian AtheistScience Vs ReligionChristian NationAnesthetics
Author:Mark Twain
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“There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C. when Saul and Delilah Korn's inadvertent discovery swept across Western civilization. (Before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy, because although everyone agrees with the formula of affection times purity times intensity times duration, no one has ever been completely satisfied with how much weight each element should receive. But on any system, there are five that everyone agrees deserve full marks. Well, this one left them all behind.”

ShouldWellsHas BeensLeftDifficultBehindsFiveCoupleCivilizationKissingElementsDiscoveryDeserveWeightMarkAgreeWesternAffectionSatisfiedPurityFormulasIntensityPreciseControversyThumbsDifficult ThingsRatingHookedDurationWestern Civilization
Book:The Princess Bride
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“I am sure it is everyone’s experience, as it has been mine, that any discovery we make about ourselves or the meaning of life is never, like a scientific discovery, a coming upon something entirely new and unsuspected; it is rather, the coming to conscious recognition of something, which we really knew all the time but, because we were unwilling to formulate it correctly, we did not hitherto know we knew.”

KnowsHas BeensLife IsMinesConsciousDiscoveryRecognitionMeaning Of LifeLife ExperienceUnwillingScientific Discovery
Author:W. H. Auden
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“Accurate and minute measurement seems to the non-scientific imagination, a less lofty and dignified work than looking for something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries of science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement and patient long-continued labour in the minute sifting of numerical results.”

LongHas BeensSeemsScienceImaginationResultsMinutesHard WorkDiscoveryDignityRewardsPatientLabourSomething NewAccurateMeasurementLoftySifting
Author:Lord Kelvin
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“To me there never has been a higher source of honour or distinction than that connected with advances in science. I have not possessed enough of the eagle in my character to make a direct flight to the loftiest altitudes in the social world; and I certainly never endeavored to reach those heights by using the creeping powers of the reptile, who in ascending, generally chooses the dirtiest path, because it is the easiest.”

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Author:Humphry Davy
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“Whoever wishes to acquire a deep acquaintance with Nature must observe that there are analogies which connect whole branches of science in a parallel manner, and enable us to infer of one class of phenomena what we know of another. It has thus happened on several occasions that the discovery of an unsuspected analogy between two branches of knowledge has been the starting point for a rapid course of discovery.”

KnowsHas BeensTwoWholeScienceCoursesWishClassKnowledgeHappenedDiscoveryStartingObservationOccasionsBranchesAcquireParallelsRapidsAcquaintanceAnalogiesStarting Point
Book:The Principles of Science: Book IV. Inductive investigation. Book V. Generalization, analogy, and classification. Book VI. Reflections on the results and limits of scientific method
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“A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge. During my lifetime, I made two. Both were rejected offhand by the popes of the field. Had I predicted these discoveries in my applications, and had those authorities been my judges, it is evident what their decisions would have been.”

Has BeensMadeTwoScienceDecisionExistenceKnowledgeFieldsJudgingAuthorityEvidenceDiscoveryLifetimeDefinitionsApplicationRejectedPopeEvidentVariance
Author:Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
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“I have been trying to point out that in our lives chance may have an astonishing influence and, if I may offer advice to the young laboratory worker, it would be this-never neglect an extraordinary appearance or happening. It may be-usually is, in fact-a false alarm that leads to nothing, but may on the other hand be the clue provided by fate to lead you to some important advance.”

IfsTryingMayHas BeensImportantFactsHandsWould BeYoungScienceChanceOur LivesFateInfluenceAdviceOffersHappeningsDiscoveryLuckExtraordinaryWorkersAppearanceNeglectClueAstonishingLaboratoryAlarmsPenicillin
Author:Alexander Fleming
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“Kepler's discovery would not have been possible without the doctrine of conics. Now contemporaries of Kepler-such penetrating minds as Descartes and Pascal-were abandoning the study of geometry ... because they said it was so UTTERLY USELESS. There was the future of the human race almost trembling in the balance; for had not the geometry of conic sections already been worked out in large measure, and had their opinion that only sciences apparently useful ought to be pursued, the nineteenth century would have had none of those characters which distinguish it from the ancien régime.”

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Author:Charles Sanders Peirce
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“But it is just this characteristic of simplicity in the laws of nature hitherto discovered which it would be fallacious to generalize, for it is obvious that simplicity has been a part cause of their discovery, and can, therefore, give no ground for the supposition that other undiscovered laws are equally simple.”

GivingHas BeensWould BeLawScienceCausesSimpleDiscoverySimplicityObviousCharacteristicsLaws Of NatureSupposition
Book:Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays
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“But medicine has long had all its means to hand, and has discovered both a principle and a method, through which the discoveries made during a long period are many and excellent, while full discovery will be made, if the inquirer be competent, conduct his researches with knowledge of the discoveries already made, and make them his starting-point. But anyone who, casting aside and rejecting all these means, attempts to conduct research in any other way or after another fashion, and asserts that he has found out anything, is and has been victim of deception.”

IfsWayMeanLongHas BeensMadeHandsScienceFoundPrinciplesFashionPeriodsResearchDiscoveryMethodVictimMedicineStartingDeceptionExcellentCastingCompetentStarting PointRejectingInquirers
Author:Hippocrates
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“If Watson and I had not discovered the [DNA] structure, instead of being revealed with a flourish it would have trickled out and that its impact would have been far less. For this sort of reason Stent had argued that a scientific discovery is more akin to a work of art than is generally admitted. Style, he argues, is as important as content. I am not completely convinced by this argument, at least in this case.”

IfsHas BeensArtImportantReasonScienceCasesStyleDiscoveryArgumentImportanceImpactStructureConvincedArguingWorks Of ArtDnaWatsonScientific Discovery
Author:Francis Crick
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“In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago ... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning.”

FirstsBelieveMeanHas BeensMadeTwoEnoughEarthMovingScienceUniverseThreeNamesI BelieveRevolutionPerceptionDiscoveryBiggerSpeedPhysicsAbsurdBeing TrueGreekProposalVariablesStationary
Author:Edward Teller
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“Standard mathematics has recently been rendered obsolete by the discovery that for years we have been writing the numeral five backward. This has led to reevaluation of counting as a method of getting from one to ten. Students are taught advanced concepts of Boolean algebra, and formerly unsolvable equations are dealt with by threats of reprisals.”

WritingYearsHas BeensScienceEducationFiveStudentsTaughtTenStandardsConceptsDiscoveryMathematicsMethodThreatMathMathematicalEquationsCountingObsoleteAlgebraMath And ScienceMath EducationReprisalNumerals
Book:The Insanity Defense: The Complete Prose
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“We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.”

Has BeensMadeScienceTaughtDiscoveryIndiaIndependenceIndianHinduismWorthwhileCould Have BeenTaught UsIndependence DayScientific DiscoveryIndependence Day PatrioticRepublic DayHappy Independence Day UsaHappy Independence Day IndiaHappy Independence DayIndia Independence DayInspiring Independence DayIndian Independence DayUs Independence DayDiscovery In ScienceAncient IndiaIndian PatrioticMake In India
Author:Albert Einstein
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“New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”

Has BeensTodayReligionResultsHalfAtheismCenturyFieldsTheoryEvolutionDiscoveryArgumentSeriesVariousFollowingAcceptedFavorsSignificantRecognitionRemarkableHypothesisPublicationResearchersTheory Of EvolutionConvergenceNew KnowledgeHalf A Century
Author:Pope John Paul II
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“The advances of biology during the past 20 years have been breathtaking, particularly in cracking the mystery of heredity. Nevertheless, the greatest and most difficult problems still lie ahead. The discoveries of the 1970's about the chemical roots of memory in nerve cells or the basis of learning, about the complex behavior of man and animals, the nature of growth, development, disease and aging will be at least as fundamental and spectacular as those of the recent past.”

MenYearsHas BeensStillsProblemPastScienceLyingDifficultGrowthMemoriesAnimalLearningMysteryDevelopmentDiseaseBehaviorDiscoveryRootsBasesFundamentalsAgingComplexesCellsBiologyNervesChemistryChemicalsNeverthelessSpectacularHeredityBreathtakingDifficult ProblemsRecent Past
Author:H. Bentley Glass
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“But, contrary to the lady's prejudices about the engineering profession, the fact is that quite some time ago the tables were turned between theory and applications in the physical sciences. Since World War II the discoveries that have changed the world are not made so much in lofty halls of theoretical physics as in the less-noticed labs of engineering and experimental physics. The roles of pure and applied science have been reversed; they are no longer what they were in the golden age of physics, in the age of Einstein, Schrödinger, Fermi and Dirac.”

WorldHas BeensMadeWarFactsAgeScienceRolesChangedTheoryPureDiscoveryPrejudiceTablesProfessionContraryPhysicsGoldenWar Of The WorldsHallsApplicationWorld War IiEngineeringWorld War ITheoreticalLoftyLabsGolden AgePhysical ScienceApplied ScienceTheoretical Physics
Author:Nicholas Metropolis
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“In my first publication I might have claimed that I had come to the conclusion, as a result of serious study of the literature and deep thought, that valuable antibacterial substances were made by moulds and that I set out to investigate the problem. That would have been untrue and I preferred to tell the truth that penicillin started as a chance observation. My only merit is that I did not neglect the observation and that I pursued the subject as a bacteriologist. My publication in 1929 was the starting-point of the work of others who developed penicillin especially in the chemical field.”

FirstsHas BeensMadeProblemMightScienceLiteratureChanceResultsStudySubjectsFieldsSeriousDiscoveryStartingValuableConclusionObservationSubstanceMeritTelling The TruthNeglectChemicalsDeep ThoughtPursuedPublicationStarting PointUntrueMouldPenicillin
Author:Alexander Fleming
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“The phosphorous smell which is developed when electricity (to speak the profane language) is passing from the points of a conductor into air, or when lightning happens to fall upon some terrestrial object, or when water is electrolysed, has been engaging my attention the last couple of years, and induced me to make many attempts at clearing up that mysterious phenomenon. Though baffled for a long time, at last, I think, I have succeeded so far as to have got the clue which will lead to the discovery of the true cause of the smell in question.”

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Author:Christian Friedrich Schonbein
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“Sometime in the last ten years the best brains of the Occident discovered to their amazement that we live in an Environment. This discovery has been forced on us by the realization that we are approaching the limits of something.”

YearsHas BeensLastsBrainEnvironmentTenLimitsDiscoveryEconomicsRealizationAmazement
Book:A Place in Space: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Watersheds : New and Selected Prose
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“It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”

MenShouldLooksHas BeensPhilosophySchoolNaturalPrinciplesTeachSubjectsTaughtDivineOughtDiscoveryErrorsAstronomyAccomplishmentNatural Philosophy
Book:The Theological Works ...: The Most Complete Ed. Ever Pub
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“Every one of us is a mystic. We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage - the sage we all are, if only we could see.”

IfsKnowsWorldMayHas BeensGodWisdomSpiritualityGivenRealizingExistenceCompassionAcceptingJourneyCreaturesEternalDiscoveryExperienceUltimateCaringMysticalSageBoundlessMysticInvitingGifts Of LifeMystical ExperiencesBoundless Love
Book:The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions
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“It has been observed that a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant will see farther than the giant himself; and the moderns, standing as they do on the vantage ground of former discoveries and uniting all the fruits of the experience of their forefathers, with their own actual observation, may be admitted to enjoy a more enlarged and comprehensive view of things than the ancients themselves.”

MayHas BeensEnjoyViewsKnowledgeDiscoveryStandingFruitShouldersObservationFormerGiantsSelf KnowledgeComprehensiveForefathersDwarfsDwarvesUniting
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“Nature first, then theory. Or, better, Nature and theory closely intertwined while you throw all your intellectual capital at the subject. Love the organisms for themselves first, then strain for general explanations, and, with good fortune, discoveries will follow. If they don't, the love and the pleasure will have been enough.”

IfsFirstsHas BeensEnoughPleasureSubjectsTheoryIntellectualDiscoveryFortuneExplanationOrganismsStrainGood FortuneIntertwinedIntellectual Capital
Author:E. O. Wilson
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