“The scientist is not much given to talking of the riddle of the universe. "Riddle" is not a scientific term. The conception of a riddle is "something which can he solved." And hence the scientist does not use that popular phrase. We don't know the why of anything. On that matter we are no further advanced than was the cavedweller. The scientist is contented if he can contribute something toward the knowledge of what is and how it is.” IfsKnowsDoeMatterUseScienceUniverseGivenTermTalkingKnowledgeScientistPhrasesConceptionRiddle Author:Charles Proteus Steinmetz
“That the machine of Heaven is not a hard and impervious body full of various real spheres, as up to now has been believed by most people. It will be proved that it extends everywhere, most fluid and simple, and nowhere presents obstacles as was formerly held, the circuits of the Planets being wholly free and without the labour and whirling round of any real spheres at all, being divinely governed under a given law.” PeopleHas BeensRealHardBodyLawScienceGivenHeavenSimplePlanetsMachinesRoundsVariousObstaclesLabourSpheresFluidCircuitsImpervious Author:Tycho Brahe
“But the idea of science and systematic knowledge is wanting to our whole instruction alike, and not only to that of our business class ... In nothing do England and the Continent at the present moment more strikingly differ than in the prominence which is now given to the idea of science there, and the neglect in which this idea still lies here; a neglect so great that we hardly even know the use of the word science in its strict sense, and only employ it in a secondary and incorrect sense.” KnowsStillsIdeasWholeMomentsUseScienceLyingGivenEducationClassEnglandPresent MomentNeglectInstructionContinentsStrictSystematicProminence Book:The Works of Matthew Arnold Source: The Works of Matthew Arnold
“Given a conjecture, the best thing is to prove it. The second best thing is to disprove it. The third best thing is to prove that it is not possible to disprove it, since it will tell you not to waste your time trying to disprove it. That's what Gödel did for the Continuum Hypothesis.” TryingScienceGivenProveWasteThirdsMathematicsBest ThingsHypothesisProve ItContinuumConjectureSecond Best Author:Saharon Shelah
“What good your beautiful proof on the transcendence of Pi: Why investigate such problems, given that irrational numbers do not even exist?” ProblemBeautifulScienceGivenNumbersMathematicsProofIrrationalTranscendenceYour BeautifulIrrational Numbers Author:Leopold Kronecker
“In a mathematical proposition, for example, the objectivity is given, but therefore its truth is also an indifferent truth.” ScienceGivenExampleTruth IsMathematicsMathematicalIndifferentPropositionsObjectivity Author:Soren Kierkegaard
“It is given to few to add the store of knowledge, to strike new springs of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as it is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the future of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry the interpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors.” MenWorldIdeasHandsAbleFormScienceLyingGivenStepsKnowledgeShapesSpringAddStrikesStoresBreadInterpretationPredecessors Book:Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley Source: Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley
“The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be, for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable. To be sure, theology is always yielding a little to the progress of knowledge, and only a Holy Roller in the mountains of Tennessee would dare to preach today what the popes preached in the Thirteenth Century, but this yielding is always done grudgingly, and thus lingers a good while behind the event.” MayLittlesIdeasDoneSeemsTodayScienceReligionGivenBehindsProgressCenturyEventsWillingHolyMountainEternalEssenceFundamentalsDareTheologyAbandonPopeTennessee Book:Minority Report Source: Minority Report
“A country is not developed by constructing bridges, houses or roads but it is developed only if the brains of the people living in that country are developed, only if their level of culture is raised and only if an infinite importance is given to the science and to the knowledge!” PeopleIfsCountryScienceCultureHouseGivenLevelsBrainImportanceInfiniteRaisedBridges Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan