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Science Quotes
"Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is ever green."
159
"The science of today is the technology of tomorrow."
155
"Paleoanthropology is not a science that ends with the discovery of a bone. One has to have the original to work with. It is a life-long task."
123
"In the past, it was only in science fiction novels that you could read about ordinary people being able to go to space... But you laid the foundation for space tourism."
108
"Whenever one reads of the determination of the species, or opens a book on natural science and history, in whatever language, one inevitably comes across the name of Linne."
106
"Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none."
104
"Science and literature give me answers. And they ask me questions I will never be able to answer."
100
"I wanted to have a political career. I thought studying political science would be the best way to achieve it."
99
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
97
"If science fiction is the mythology of modern technology, then its myth is tragic."
93
"The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill."
92
"Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response."
86
"The time has come when advertising in some hands has reached the status of a science."
77
"Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house."
74
"A new concept of god: "something not very different from the sum total of the physical laws of the universe; that is, gravitation plus quantum mechanics plus grand unified field theories plus a few other things equaled god. And by that all they meant was that here were a set of exquisitely powerful physical principles that seemed to explain a great deal that was otherwise inexplicable about the universe. Laws of nature that apply not just locally, not just in Glasgow, but far beyond: Edinburgh, Moscow, Mars, the center of the Milky Way, and out by the most distant quarters known. That the same laws of physics apply everywhere is quite remarkable. Certainly that represents a power greater than any of us."
72
"The Cosmos extends, for all practical purposes, forever. After a brief sedentary hiatus, we are resuming our ancient nomadic way of life. Our remote descendants, safely arrayed on many worlds throughout the Solar System and beyond, will be unified by their common heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by the knowledge that, whatever other life may be, the only humans in all the Universe come from Earth. They will gaze up and strain to find the blue dot in their skies. They will love it no less for its obscurity and fragility. They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings, how many rivers we had to cross before we found our way."
70
"Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact."
64
"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion."
64
"Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality."
60
"Science never solves a problem without creating ten more."
60
"I wrote somewhere during the Cold War that I sometimes wish the Iron Curtain were much taller than it is, so that you could see whether the development of science with no communication was parallel on the two sides. In this case it certainly wasn't."
58
"Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths."
57
"Crystals grew inside rock like arithmetic flowers. They lengthened and spread, added plane to plane in an awed and perfect obedience to an absolute geometry that even stones - maybe only the stones - understood."
57
"In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics."
56
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere."
55
"Nowhere in this country should we have laws that permit drinking and driving or drinking in vehicles that are on American highways. This is not rocket science. We know how to prevent this, and 36 states do."
55
"Science begs literature to develop wings."
54
"Music, which should pulsate with life, needs new means of expression, and science alone can infuse it with youthful vigor."
54
"Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science."
54
"Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10."
53
"In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons."
53
"I have done a lot of things outside of Science Fiction, but there has been an almost disproportionate amount of that genre in my body of work. I don't know what to make of it."
53
"Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself."
53
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