Memorable science quotes.

[Hill]

I read a lot about science and scientists. Some of them are a goldmine of quotes and anecdotes. I like the humorous ones best. Your additions are welcomed.

 

I'll start the ball rolling, or swinging, with this one about Richard Feynman.

 

There were 183 of us freshmen, and a bowling ball hanging from the three-story ceiling to just above the floor. Feynman walked in and, without a word, grabbed the ball and backed against the wall with the ball touching his nose. He let go, and the ball swung slowly 60 feet across the room and back — stopping naturally just short of crushing his face. Then he took the ball again, stepped forward, and said: "I wanted to show you that I believe in what I'm going to teach you over the next two years."

 

Michael Scott, first CEO of Apple Computer

Feynman Online

[Hill]

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Richard Feynman

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Richard Feynman

US educator & physicist (1918 - 1988)

[Hill]

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

 

Carl Sagan

[arkain101]

If Z=A+B+C, and Z equals Success, then A equals work, B equals play, and C equals keeping your mouth shut."-Albert Einstein ...

[Hill]

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Carl Sagan

[Hill]

"When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions."

 

Anonymous kid

[Michaelangelica]

Terry Pratchett's books are full of quotable quotes. Funny and serious at the same time

The one I remember:-

"At first there was nothing

Then it exploded."

[freeztar]

I was looking for this quote:

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Einstein

 

And came across a million more...so I'll share a few...

 

We see only what we know.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

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

 

I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it.

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) Austrian physicist. Nobel Prize, 1933. Speaking of quantum mechanics.

 

An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.

Arthur S. Eddington

 

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

Albert Szent-Györgi

 

Boswell: But, Sir is it not somewhat singular that you should happen to have Cocker's Arithmetic about you on your journey?

Dr. Johnson: Why, Sir if you are to have but one book with you upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book of science is inexhaustible.

James Boswell (1740-95) Scottish author, biographer of Samuel Johnson.

 

I could quote for days...:singer:

 

 

The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated.

Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter (1872-1939) English surgeon.

[Michaelangelica]

nice quotes

This is a favourite of mine, from Charles Darwin's Gardener who said-about his employer-:-

 

"He's really a sad little man.

Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours.

I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."

[freeztar]

nice quotes

This is a favourite of mine, from Charles Darwin's Gardener who said-about his employer-:-

 

"He's really a sad little man.

Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours.

I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."

 

Bravo!!!! That's great! :shrug:

 

Here's one:

"If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror."

- John Young, former Apollo astronaut

[wigglieverse]

How's this?

 

"Ut(i) iucundum sapere debet, sapiens sibi fortunam habet" -unknown (since wisdom is its own treasure, learning should be a joy)

[Michaelangelica]

Great Quote Thank you

 

BUT

How come we destroy this in schools?

[wigglieverse]

I can still remember a female teacher "Miss Imabitch" who decided that my attitude needed some adjusting and marched me down the hall. I can remember stuff like "I know what to do with you!", and "We'll see how smart you think you are!" , an so on. So she takes me into an earlier grade class and tells me: "You're staying here for a while, until..." etc. So I got "demoted" from the third to the second grade for being a "smartass kid".

Of course, I figured then that it was what happened when you spoke out of turn or whatever it was I did, but I never did figure out why the other teacher agreed with my "lesson". I guess maybe they both figured that smartass kids aren't good for the way things should be, or something.

[Michaelangelica]

I can still remember a female teacher "Miss Imabitch" who decided that my attitude needed some adjusting and marched me down the hall. I can remember stuff like "I know what to do with you!", and "We'll see how smart you think you are!" , an so on. So she takes me into an earlier grade class and tells me: "You're staying here for a while, until..." etc. So I got "demoted" from the third to the second grade for being a "smartass kid".

Of course, I figured then that it was what happened when you spoke out of turn or whatever it was I did, but I never did figure out why the other teacher agreed with my "lesson". I guess maybe they both figured that smartass kids aren't good for the way things should be, or something.

Some Childhood memories can be so powerful and yet we remember so little

When I was about 3-4 YO a boy at my pre-school soiled his pants.

The teacher's (sic) put him in a paper machae dress and he was humiliated in the playground.

I can still remember my anger and indignation that anyone could do this to a little kid. I wanted out from that day.

maybe its the reason I'm a member of Amnesty International now.

Strange that such a sense of injustice was so strong in one so young

 

The word "Education" is derived from the Latin educare "to lead out", "to lead forth" To draw out what is already there.

Teachers should facilitate the growth of the inner child, just as a gardener raises an oak tree from an acorn.

 

i had awonderful quote about this i used in areport 30 yers ago. i can't remember it. It was about education for tolerance of ambigity (by Michaels)

Anyway the web has thown up this nice one

The abilities characteristic of those engaged in scientific investigations include: reasoning, intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, appropriate skepticism, open-mindedness, and the ability to make logical conclusions based on current evidence

How teachers teach, rather than the "facts"(?) they teach, is the real lesson.

[wigglieverse]

Well, I think teaching itself is at least part of the problem where kids just don't learn stuff. I mean basic things like spelling or grammar, and what a pronoun or an adverb is and how it's used, stuff like that. When I went back to Uni after 7-8 yrs in the industry (working), I met this dude in a 3rd year course who asked me what the difference was berween a noun and a verb. I really didn't know what to tell the guy, I was completely stunned, for starters.

 

Also I can remember some teachers who instead of talking about anything much would fill the blackboard with writing about something (I really can't remember now) that we were supposed to be "learning" about history, maybe. The best way to learn anything is to try to teach it to someone else (I think that might be some kind of saying). Teaching isn't getting kids to copy notes off boards, it's telling and showing: demonstrating, something. Trying to make it real in their imagination.

 

“Igitur indici in mens parare, indici auscultatoris instruere, iuli argumenti virili parte”

(the best evidence for an argument is that in the mind of the listener).

[wigglieverse]

Personally I think Latin is a bit boring these days. But you can still go back to the source of a lot of English words because they came from the older language. So learning a bit about it means you have a better insight into other meanings the word had, and still does to some extent. But enough about Latin.

 

“the total number of people who understand relativistic time ...is still much smaller than the number ...who believe in horoscopes.” -Yuval Ne'eman

 

Now there's a pithy English one...

[CraigD]

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra

 

“Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity.”

[wiki]Erik Christopher Zeeman[.wiki]