Science quotes

Science is organized knowledge.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher. Education.

Science is the systematic classification of experience.

George Henry Lewes (1817-78) English writer and critic.

Science is simply common sense at its best that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist.

[Science is] a great game. It is inspiring and refreshing. The playing field is the universe itself.

Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988) U. S. physicist. Nobel prize 1944.

The hypotheses we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this: our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed.

William Whewell (1794-1866) English mathematician, philosopher.

We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician.

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.

Albert Szent-Györgi (1893-1986) U. S. biochemist.

Theory guides. Experiment decides.

An old saying in science, seen attributed to many different persons.

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian physicist and astronomer.

Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things.

Virgil (70-19 BCE) Roman poet.

The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

Claude Bernard (1813-78) French physiologist.

Only one thing is certain--that is, nothing is certain. If this statement is true, it is also false.

Ancient paradox

The gods did not reveal from the beginning
All things to us; but in the course of time
Through seeking, men found that which is better.

But as for certain truth, no man has known it,
Nor will he know it; neither of the gods,
Nor yet of all the things of which I speak.
And even if by chance he were to utter
The final truth, he would himself not know it;
For all is but a woven web of guesses.

Xenophanes (c. 570-c. 480 BCE) Greek philosopher.

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.

Roger Bacon (1214?-1294?) English philosopher, scientist.

Every experiment proves something. If it doesn't prove what you wanted it to prove, it proves something else.

Prof. Anon

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.  ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature of Science, 1954

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