“Useful quantification is so often the key to fruitful science.”
            "Exultation and Explanation", p. 184 
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)
        
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Stephen Jay Gould 274
American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002Related quotes
 
                            
                        
                        
                        “Mathematics is the key and door to the sciences.”
                                        
                                        As quoted in Building Fluency Through Practice and Performance (2008) by Timothy Rasinski and Lorraine Griffith, p. 64, but in fact a quotation by Roger Bacon: Et harum scientiarum porta et clavis est Mathematica, "And of these sciences the door and key is mathematics", from Bacon's Opus Majus (1267)  https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UfqcGd8NOFsC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=%22porta+et+clavis%22+opus+majus&source=bl&ots=nGgt2Lhxqe&sig=88kIPB5EAKAKtm0APk6J5OrS1D0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU36D2gIbLAhVBWBQKHSW9CKgQ6AEINDAE#v=onepage&q=%22porta%20et%20clavis%22%20opus%20majus&f=false. 
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                        “Money is the fruit of evil as often as the root of it.”
Don Quixote in England (1731), Act I, scene vi http://books.google.com/books?id=8_VbAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Money+is+the+fruit+of+evil+as+often+as+the+root+of+it%22&pg=PA13#v=onepage
“Science is not inevitable; this question is very fruitful indeed.”
In personal correspondence, quoted in Elisabeth Nemeth's chapter "Logical Empiricism and the History and Sociology of Science" in the Cambridge Companion to Logical Empiricism (2007) edited by Alan W. Richardson and Thomas Uebel.
 
                            
                        
                        
                        “The key is not to confuse myth and empirical results, or religion and science.”
                                        
                                        Source: Dean of the Plasma Dissidents (1988), p. 196. 
Context: Since religion intrinsically rejects empirical methods, there should never be any attempt to reconcile scientific theories with religion. An infinitely old universe, always evolving, may not be compatible with the Book of Genesis. However, religions such as Buddhism get along without having any explicit creation mythology and are in no way contradicted by a universe without a beginning or end. Creatio ex nihilo, even as religious doctrine, only dates to around AD 200. The key is not to confuse myth and empirical results, or religion and science.
                                    
 
                            
                        
                        
                        How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
 
                            
                        
                        
                        “The whole iconography of ancient science is simply the fruit of wishful thinking.”
                                        
                                        Preface. 
A History of Science Vol.2 Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959)
                                    
 
                            
                        
                        
                        
                                        
                                        Revue Scientifique (1871) 
Variant translation: There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.
                                    
 
                            
                        
                        
                        
                                        
                                        Dissent, Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co., 285 U.S. 393 (1932). 
Judicial opinions 
Context: Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right... This is commonly true even where the error is a matter of serious concern, provided correction can be had by legislation. But in cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this court has often overruled its earlier decisions. The court bows to the lessons of experience and the force of better reasoning, recognizing that the process of trial and error, so fruitful in the physical sciences, is appropriate also in the judicial function.
                                    
 
                            
                        
                        
                        “Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction.”
