“[Alternate translation:] The Divine Spirit found a sublime outlet in that wonder of analysis, that portent of the ideal world, that amphibian between being and not-being, which we call the imaginary root of negative unity.” WorldScienceSpiritFoundWonderDivineNegativeIdealsRootsUnityAnalysisImaginarySublimeTranslationsOutletsIdeal WorldPortentsAmphibians Author:Gottfried Leibniz
“Changes, cyclic or otherwise, within the solar system or within our galaxy, would seem to be the easy and incontrovertible solution for everything that I have found remarkable in the stratigraphical record.” SeemsScienceFoundEasyRecordsSolutionsRemarkableGalaxySolar System Author:D. V. Ager
“Almost all the world is natural chemicals, so it really makes you re-think everything. A cup of coffee is filled with chemicals. They've identified a thousand chemicals in a cup of coffee. But we only found 22 that have been tested in animal cancer tests out of this thousand. And of those, 17 are carcinogens. There are ten milligrams of known carcinogens in a cup of coffee and thats more carcinogens than youre likely to get from pesticide residues for a year!” ThinkingWorldYearsHas BeensScienceFoundNaturalAnimalKnownThousandTenTestsFilledCancerCoffeeCupsChemicalsTestedCoffee CupPesticides Author:Bruce Ames
“A scientist has to be neutral in his search for the truth, but he cannot be neutral as to the use of that truth when found. If you know more than other people, you have more responsibility, rather than less.” PeopleIfsKnowsUseScienceFoundResponsibilityKnowledgeScientist Author:C.P. Snow
“To discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person.” PersonsScienceFoundUnitedTeachFunction Author:John Henry Newman
“GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some occult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling. The difference in geese, as discovered by this ingenious method, is considerable: many are found to have only trivial and insignificant powers, but some are seen to be very great geese indeed.” WritingPersonsCharacterFeelingsScienceFoundEnergyProcessDifferencesResultsEmotionalHumourDegreesPaperIntellectualBirdFairsMethodVariousAccurateInsignificantSuppliesOccultGeeseIngeniousThoughts And FeelingsFowlQuills Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
“What led me to my science and what fascinated me from a young age was the, by no means self-evident, fact that our laws of thought agree with the regularities found in the succession of impressions we receive from the external world, that it is thus possible for the human being to gain enlightenment regarding these regularities by means of pure thought” WorldHumansMeanSelfFactsAgeLawYoungScienceFoundHuman BeingsPureEnlightenmentGainsAgreeImpressionFascinatedEvidentYoung AgeSuccessionScientific MethodRegularity Author:Max Planck
“I see they found out the universe is 80 million years older than we thought. It's also been lying about its weight.” YearsFunnyScienceLyingUniverseFoundMillionsWeight Author:Bill Maher
“The phrase 'contrary to all expectations' rings through the story of the progress of human knowledge. It was 'contrary to all expectations' that the Earth was found to revolve around the sun, and not the other way round, and that a mould growing in one of Dr. Alexander Fleming's dishes was found to be capable of destroying bacteria. When in 1989 the spacecraft Voyager 2 got close enough to the planet Naptune to take detailed pictures of the surface, they were 'contrary to all expectations'.” WayHumansEnoughStoriesEarthScienceFoundSunGrowingProgressPlanetsCapableExpectationsRoundsSurfaceContraryRingsPhrasesDestroyingDishesDrsMouldBacteriaHuman KnowledgeSpacecraft Author:Anthony Terence Quincey Stewart
“When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.” ThinkingWayI CanScienceFoundCuttingIgnoranceLibraryFundAmerican SocietyLibraries And LibrariansLibraries And Reading Book:I, Asimov: A Memoir Source: I, Asimov: A Memoir
“You can keep counting forever. The answer is infinity. But, quite frankly, I don't think I ever liked it. I always found something repulsive about it. I prefer finite mathematics much more than infinite mathematics. I think that it is much more natural, much more appealing and the theory is much more beautiful. It is very concrete. It is something that you can touch and something you can feel and something to relate to. Infinity mathematics, to me, is something that is meaningless, because it is abstract nonsense.” ThinkingFeelsBeautifulScienceFoundNaturalAnswersForeverTheoryInfiniteMathematicsRelateAbstractNonsenseInfinityMeaninglessConcreteFiniteCounting Author:Doron Zeilberger
“Mathematics... is a bit like discovering oil. ... But mathematics has one great advantage over oil, in that no one has yet ... found a way that you can keep using the same oil forever.” WayScienceFoundBitsForeverAdvantageMathematicsOilDiscovering Author:Andrew Wiles
“Natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to lay the foundations of a new morality.” WantHas BeensStillsIdeasSpiritualLawScienceFoundNaturalMoralityComfortFoundationLaysSeekingDrivenCraving Book:Huxley's Autobiography and Essays Source: Huxley's Autobiography and Essays