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Quotes by Scientist
"An ideal world inhabited by carefree people is nothing more than a utopia."
15
"When an influencing idea comes to life, people cannot exactly predict all its inevitable consequences."
15
"Tell us which ideas you promote and we will know which type of person you are."
15
"Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God's approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment? That's not morality, that's just sucking up, apple-polishing, looking over your shoulder at the great surveillance camera in the sky, or the still small wiretap inside your head, monitoring your every move, even your every base though."
15
"It is equally important to learn from experience and from books."
15
"Of course, we would love to know more about the exact moment of Big Bang, but interposing an outside intelligence does nothing to add to that knowledge, as we still know nothing about the creation of that intelligence."
15
"He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men."
15
"Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more."
15
"Some readers may realize that this story, first published in 1956, has been overtaken by events. In 1965, astronomers discovered that Mercury does not keep one side always to the Sun, but has a period of rotation of about fifty-four days, so that all parts of it are exposed to the sunlight at one time or another.Well, what can I do except say that I wish astronomers would get things right to begin with?And I certainly refuse to change the story to suit their whims."
15
"And you are made of a hundred trillion cells. We are, each of us, a multitude."
15
"I'm fascinated by the idea that genetics is digital. A gene is a long sequence of coded letters, like computer information. Modern biology is becoming very much a branch of information technology."
15
"Being blinded in love and friendship is a common mistake."
15
"Sometimes she would be engaged in a laboratory exercise or a seminar when the instructor would say, "Gentlemen, let's proceed," and sensing Ellie's frown would add, "Sorry, Miss Arroway, but I think of you as one of the boys." The highest compliment they were capable of paying was that in their minds she was not overtly female."
15
"Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control."
15
"The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age."
15
"Intelligent life on other planets? I'm not even sure there is on earth!"
15
"Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race."
15
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."
15
"To smile sincerely is acceptable after making mistakes " that is the best way to feel cheerful and repeat the same mistakes."
15
"Part of the resistance to Darwin and Wallace derives from our difficulty in imagining the passage of the millennia, much less the aeons. What does seventy million years mean to beings who live only one-millionth as long? We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."
15
"There's no reason to cry over spilled milk. People cannot change the things that have already happened."
15
"We will never have a perfect world, but it's not romantic or naA ve to work toward a better one."
15
"If you wish to learn from the theoretical physicist anything about the methods which he uses, I would give you the following piece of advice: Don't listen to his words, examine his achievements. For to the discoverer in that field, the constructions of his imagination appear so necessary and so natural that he is apt to treat them not as the creations of his thoughts but as given realities."
15
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
15
"You never find friends them following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own."
15
"As in all such technological nightmares, the principal task is to foresee what is possible; to educate use and misuse; and to prevent its organizational, bureaucratic and governmental abuse."
15
"The Solarians have given up something mankind has had for a million years; something worth more than atomic power, cities, agriculture, tools, fire, everything; because it's something that made everything possible (...) The tribe, sir. Cooperation between individuals."
15
"The [mental] organization of grammar [is] a case where complexity in the mind is not caused by learning, learning is caused by complexity in the mind."
15
"Left to our own devices, we are apt to backslide to our instinctive conceptual ways. This underscores the place of education in a scientifically literate democracy, and even suggests a statement of purpose for it (a surprisingly elusive principle in higher education today). The goal of education is to make up for the shortcomings in our instinctive ways of thinking about the physical and social world. And education is likely to succeed not by trying to implant abstract statements in empty minds but by taking the mental models that are our standard equipment, applying them to new subjects in selective analogies, and assembling them into new and more sophisticated combinations."
15
"Do dogs feel for humans something akin to religious ecstasy? What other strong or subtle emotions are felt by animals that do not communicate with us?"
15
"We're all a genius, but If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
15
"The only source of knowledge is experience."
15
"How was I able to live alone before, my little everything? Without you I lack self-confidence, passion for work, and enjoyment of life - in short, without you, my life is no life. [Written to his wife, Mileva]"
15
"Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency."
15
"Science is thus a paradigm for how we ought to gain knowledge-not the particular methods or institutions of science but its value system, namely to seek to explain the world, to evaluate candidate explanations objectively, and to be cognizant of the tentativeness and uncertainty of our understanding at any time."
15
"Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I have a feeling, for instance, that I will something or other; but what relation this has with freedom I cannot understand at all. I feel that I will to light my pipe and I do it; but how can I connect this up with the idea of freedom? What is behind the act of willing to light the pipe? Another act of willing? Schopenhauer once said: Der Mensch kann was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will (Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills)."
15
"A happy man doesn't reconsider life."
15
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