Quotes about science

„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?

„All content of science, and also their protocol statements that are used for verification, are selected on the basis of decisions and can be altered in principle.“

—  Otto Neurath austrian economist, philosopher and sociologist 1882 - 1945

Otto Neurath (1934:102), as cited in: Cartwright (2008;199)
1930s

„It is the great beauty of our science, chemistry, that advancement in it, whether in a degree great or small, instead of exhausting the subjects of research, opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge, overflowing with beauty and utility.“

—  Michael Faraday English scientist 1791 - 1867

Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. 2 (1834) p. 257 http://books.google.com/books?id=XuITAAAAQAAJ&vq=257&pg=PA257

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

—  Dan Brown, book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

„If cybernetics is the science of control, management is the profession of control“

—  Anthony Stafford Beer British theorist, consultant, and professor 1926 - 2002

Source: Decision and control: the meaning of operational research and management cybernetics, 1966, p. 239 cited in: A. Ghosal (1978) Applied cybernetics: its relevance in operations research. p. 2 and many other sources.

„That logic, as a science, is susceptible of very wide applications is admitted; but it is equally certain that its ultimate forms and processes are mathematical.“

—  George Boole English mathematician, philosopher and logician 1815 - 1864

Source: 1850s, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), p. 12; Cited in: William Stanley Jevons (1887) The Principles of Science: : A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method. p. 155

„But my favorite of Einstein's words on religion is "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." I like this because both science and religion are needed to answer life's great questions.“

—  Temple Grandin USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist 1947

Source: Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism

„Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.“

—  Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, p. 94
Context: Religion and science go together. As I've said before, science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind. They are interdependent and have a common goal—the search for truth. Hence it is absurd for religion to proscribe Galileo or Darwin or other scientists. And it is equally absurd when scientists say that there is no God. The real scientist has faith, which does not mean that he must subscribe to a creed. Without religion there is no charity. The soul given to each of us is moved by the same living spirit that moves the universe.

„America shall not lag a century behind Europe: it will stride as an equal first, and lead later; it will, in the end, be the most illuminated by the sciences just as it is most illuminated by the sun.“

—  Jose Cecilio del Valle Honduran politician- 1777 - 1996

El Amigo de la Patria, 1821

„It is called a “pure” theory of law, because it only describes the law and attempts to eliminate from the object of this description everything that is not strictly law: Its aim is to free the science of law from alien elements. This is the methodological basis of the theory.“

—  Hans Kelsen, book Pure Theory of Law

Pure Theory of Law (revised ed., 1960), 1. The “Pure” Theory

„There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon the practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application; and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.“

—  William Thomson British physicist and engineer 1824 - 1907

Lecture on "Electrical Units of Measurement" (3 May 1883), published in Popular Lectures Vol. I, p. 73, as quoted in The Life of Lord Kelvin (1910) by Silvanus Phillips Thompson

„I can better understand the inert blindness & defiant ignorance of the reactionaries from having been one of them. I know how smugly ignorant I was—wrapped up in the arts, the natural (not social) sciences, the externals of history & antiquarianism, the abstract academic phases of philosophy, & so on—all the one-sided standard lore to which, according to the traditions of the dying order, a liberal education was limited. God! the things that were left out—the inside facts of history, the rational interpretation of periodic social crises, the foundations of economics & sociology, the actual state of the world today … & above all, the habit of applying disinterested reason to problems hitherto approached only with traditional genuflections, flag-waving, & callous shoulder-shrugs! All this comes up with humiliating force through an incident of a few days ago—when young Conover, having established contact with Henneberger, the ex-owner of WT, obtained from the latter a long epistle which I wrote Edwin Baird on Feby. 3, 1924, in response to a request for biographical & personal data. Little Willis asked permission to publish the text in his combined SFC-Fantasy, & I began looking the thing over to see what it was like—for I had not the least recollection of ever having penned it. Well …. I managed to get through, after about 10 closely typed pages of egotistical reminiscences & showing-off & expressions of opinion about mankind & the universe. I did not faint—but I looked around for a 1924 photograph of myself to burn, spit on, or stick pins in! Holy Hades—was I that much of a dub at 33 … only 13 years ago? There was no getting out of it—I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, & at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damned fool would have known better! That earlier illness had kept me in seclusion, limited my knowledge of the world, & given me something of the fatuous effusiveness of a belated adolescent when I finally was able to get around more in 1920, is hardly much of an excuse. Well—there was nothing to be done … except to rush a note back to Conover & tell him I'd dismember him & run the fragments through a sausage-grinder if he ever thought of printing such a thing! The only consolation lay in the reflection that I had matured a bit since '24. It's hard to have done all one's growing up since 33—but that's a damn sight better than not growing up at all.“

—  H.P. Lovecraft American author 1890 - 1937

Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters

„It is sometimes easier to circumvent prevailing difficulties [in science] rather than to attack them.“

—  Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Dutch physical and organic chemist 1852 - 1911

„… it is shameful that there are so few women in science… In China there are many, many women in physics. There is a misconception in America that women scientists are all dowdy spinsters. This is the fault of men. In Chinese society, a woman is valued for what she is, and men encourage her to accomplishments yet she remains eternally feminine.“

—  Chien-Shiung Wu Chinese American experimental physicist 1912 - 1997

As quoted in "Queen of Physics", Newsweek (20 May 1963) no. 61, 20.

„[This] science is the work of the human mind, which is destined rather to study than to know, to seek the truth rather than to find it.“

—  Évariste Galois French mathematician, founder of group theory 1811 - 1832

Of mathematics — as quoted in Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty (1980) by Morris Kline, p. 99.

„The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically, there is nothing in the world that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing.“

—  Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986

Bombay, Second Public Talk (25 February 1962)
1960s
Context: The fact is there is nothing that you can trust; and that is a terrible fact, whether you like it or not. Psychologically, there is nothing in the world that you can put your faith, your trust, or your belief in. Neither your gods, nor your science can save you, can bring you psychological certainty; and you have to accept that you can trust in absolutely nothing. That is a scientific fact, as well as a psychological fact. Because, your leaders — religious and political — and your books — sacred and profane — have all failed, and you are still confused, in misery, in conflict. So, that is an absolute, undeniable fact.

„The world itself is a great fusing pot, out of which the One Humanity is emerging. This necessitates a drastic change in our methods of presenting history and geography. Science has always been universal. Great art and literature have always belonged to the world. It is upon these facts that the education to be given to the children of the world must be built - upon our similarities, our creative achievements, our spiritual idealisms, and our points of contact. Unless this is done, the wounds of the nations will never be healed, and the barriers which have existed for centuries will never be removed.“

—  Alice A. Bailey esoteric, theosophist, writer 1880 - 1949

Source: Education in the New Age (1954), p.46

„The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.“

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

Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations (1988), edited with Jason A. Shulman, p. 281
General sources

„Progress in science is often built on wrong theories that are later corrected. It is better to be wrong than to be vague.“

—  Freeman Dyson theoretical physicist and mathematician 1923

The Scientist As Rebel (2006)