Quotes about science

„Science and religion are not at odds. Science is simply too young to understand.“

—  Dan Brown, book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

„Political science is the study of the authoritative allocation of values for a society.“

—  David Easton Canadian academic 1917 - 2014

The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science (1953)

„My experiences with science led me to God.“

—  Wernher von Braun German, later an American, aerospace engineer and space architect 1912 - 1977

From a letter to the California State board of Education (14 September 1972)
Context: My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?

„I don't believe in empirical science. I only believe in a priori truth.“

—  Kurt Gödel logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics 1906 - 1978

„Science is too important not to be a part of a popular culture.“

—  Brian Cox (physicist) English physicist and former musician 1968

in The Large Hadron Collider will revolutionise how we understand the universe, Telegraph.co.uk Comment (2008-09-06) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3561949/The-Large-Hadron-Collider-will-revolutionise-how-we-understand-the-universe.html

„Science is the only news. When you scan through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is the same old he-said-she-said, the politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas, the fashions a pathetic illusion of newness, and even the technology is predictable if you know the science. Human nature doesn’t change much; science does, and the change accrues, altering the world irreversibly.“

—  Stewart Brand, book Whole Earth Discipline

Whole Earth Discipline (2009), page 216.

„Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, the concept around which it revolves, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.“

—  Isaac Asimov American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction and popular … 1920 - 1992

"My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock; later published in Asimov on Science Fiction (1981)
General sources

„Science had better not free the minds of men too much, before it has tamed their instincts.“

—  Jean Rostand French writer 1894 - 1977

[Jean Rostand, The substance of men, Doubleday, 1962, 19]

„Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.“

—  Max Planck German theoretical physicist 1858 - 1947

Variants:
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature, for in the final analysis we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve.
Source: Where is Science Going? (1932)

„Long and tedious reflection cannot enable us to shape our decisions and attitudes properly; only that definite and clear instruction which we gain can form a direct inner link to God. This instruction alone is able to give us the inner firmness and lasting peace of mind which must be regarded as the highest boon in life. And if we ascribe to God, in addition to His omnipotence and omniscience, also the attributes of goodness and love, recourse to Him produces an increased feeling of safety and happiness in the human being thirsting for solace. Against this conception not even the slightest objection can be raised from the point of natural science, for as we pointed it out before, questions of ethics are entirely outside of its realm.“

—  Max Planck German theoretical physicist 1858 - 1947

Religion and Natural Science (1937)

„Science advances one funeral at a time.“

—  Max Planck German theoretical physicist 1858 - 1947

„All other sciences are called speculative: they are not concerned with the deeds of the present or future life affecting man's salvation or damnation. All procedures of art and of nature are“

—  Roger Bacon, book Opus Tertium

Source: Opus Tertium, c. 1267, Ch. 14 as quoted in J. H. Bridges, The 'Opus Majus' of Roger Bacon (1900) Vol.1 http://books.google.com/books?id=6F0XAQAAMAAJ Preface pp.x-xi
Context: All these foregoing sciences are, properly speaking, speculative. There is indeed in every science a practical side, as Avicenna teaches in the first book of his Art of Medicine. Nevertheless, of Moral Philosophy alone can it be said that it is in the special and autonomatic sense practical, dealing as it does with human conduct with reference to virtue and vice, beatitude and misery. All other sciences are called speculative: they are not concerned with the deeds of the present or future life affecting man's salvation or damnation. All procedures of art and of nature are directed to these moral actions, and exist on account of them. They are of no account except in that they help forward right action. Thus practical and operative sciences, as experimental alchemy and the rest, are regarded as speculative in reference to the operations with which moral or political science is concerned. This science is the mistress of every department of philosophy. It employs and controls them for the advantage of states and kingdoms. It directs the choice of men who are to study in sciences and arts for the common good. It orders all members of the state or kingdom so that none shall remain without his proper work.

„Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus Ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy.“

—  Roger Bacon, book Opus Majus

cited in: Morris Kline (1969) Mathematics and the physical world. p. 1
Opus Majus, c. 1267

„Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.“

—  Aleister Crowley poet, mountaineer, occultist 1875 - 1947

Introduction.
Source: Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Context: Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" — these sentences — in the "magical language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.

„Fortunate those who, born before science, were privileged to die of their first disease!“

—  Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995

Drawn and Quartered (1983)

„If truth were not boring, science would have done away with God long ago. But God as well as the saints is a means to escape the dull banality of truth.“

—  Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995

Tears and Saints (1937)

„The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set some limit on infinite error.“

—  Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo

Source: Life of Galileo (1939)

„I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is — I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.“

—  George W. Bush 43rd President of the United States 1946

emphasis added
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050519182609990007&ncid=NWS00010000000001 AP, 21 May 2005
2000s, 2005

„Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.“

—  Rosalind Franklin British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer 1920 - 1958

in answer to her father, who accused her of making science her religion, as related by [Brenda Maddox, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA‎, Perennial, 2003, 0060985089, 61]