"You have heard it repeated, I dare say, that men of science work by means of induction and deduction, and that by the help of these operations, they, in a sort of sense, wring from nature certain other things, which are called natural laws... To hear all these large words, you would think that the mind of a man of science must be constituted differently from that of his fellow men; but if you will not be frightened by terms, you will discover that you are quite wrong, and that all these terrible apparatus are being used by yourselves every day and every hour of your lives."
-Thomas Henry Huxley
"Once upon a time, there were priesthoods of magic, and members of those priesthoods cast spells, muttered runes, and made intricate diagrams on the floor with powders of arcane composition... Nowadays, there is a modern priesthood of science that calls on the power of expanding steam, of shifting electrons or drifting neutrons, of exploding gasoline or uranium, and does so without spells, powders, or even any visible change of expression. In response, onlookers are without awe, for indeed, they seem to participate in the magic."
-Issac Asimov
"Thus it is that geometry, arithmetic, music, physics, medicine, architecture, and all the sciences subject to experiment and reason must be added to if they are to become perfect. The ancients found them merely sketched by their predecessors, and we shall leave them in a more perfected state than when we received them."
-Blaise Pascal
"Without facts we have no science. Facts are to the scientist what words are to the poet. The scientist has a love of facts, even isolated facts, similar to a poet's love of words. But a collection of facts is not a science any more than a dictionary is poetry. Around his facts the scientist weaves a logical pattern or theory which gives the facts meaning, order and significance."
-Isidor Issac Rabi
"Hence we must all believe that all the sciences are interconnected, that it is much easier to study them all together than to isolate one from all the others. If, therefore, anyone wishes to search out the truth of things in serious earnest, he ought not to select one special science, for all the sciences are cojoined with each other and interdependent."
-René Descartes
"...it is much easier to have some vague notion about any subject, no matter what, than to arrive at the real truth about a single question, however simple that may be."
-René Descartes
"In this way the two aspects of science [pure and applied] correspond to the two principal activities of man: thought and action. They are inseparable if human science is to progress as a whole and fulfill with increasing success its high and twofold task."
-Louis Victor Broglie
"In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and moving hands, and even hears the ticking, but he as no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious enough he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations."
-Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld
"Such is... the progress which electricity has made in the last thirty years: chemistry and magnetism have successively acknowledged it overruling influence: and it is probable that every effect depending upon the powers of inorganic matter, and perhaps most of those related to vegetable and animal life, will ultimately be found subordinate to it."
-Michael Faraday
"I would feel more content that the universe should accomplish some great scheme of evolution and, having achieved whatever may be achieved, lapse back into chaotic changelessness, than its purpose should be banalised by continual repetition. I am an Evolutionist, not a Multiplicationist. It seems rather stupid to keep doing the same thing over and over again."
-Arthur Stanley Eddington
"Therefore, my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these, the most important have been &emdash the love of science &emdash unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject &emdash industry in observing and collecting facts &emdash and a fair share of invention as well as common sense."
-Charles Darwin
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather it because it opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
-Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
"Put me in a room with a pad and a pencil and set me up against a hundred people with a hundred computers - I'll outcreate every goddam sonofabitch in the room."
-Ray Bradbury
Issac Asimov(1920-1992)
From a review of the book The Way Things Work, Volume 1, published in the New York Times Book Review, Nov. 19, 1967. A biochemist and prodigious author, Asimov producdd more than 500 books on science and science fiction.
Blaise Pascal(1623-1622)
From his Preface to the Treatise on the Vacuum. A French mathematician and philosopher, Pascal invented the first mechanical adding machine and formulated the theory of probability with mathematician Pierre de Fermat.
Isidor Issac Rabi(1898-1988)
From the essay "Faith in Science." A U.S. physicist and winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize in physics, Rabi invented a method of studying the hyperfine structure of atomic spectra.
René Descartes(1596-1650)
From his 1629 text Rules for the Direction of the Mind. A mathematician and philosopher, Descartes systematized analytical geometry and is sometimes called the father of modern philosophy.
Louis Victor Broglie(1892-1987)
From "Pure and Applied Science" a commentary appearing in the 1949 issue of the journal Research, volume 2. A French physicist and winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in physics, Broglie rationalized the dual particle and wave nature of matter and energy.
Albert Einstein(1879-1955) and
Leopold Infeld(1898-1968)
From "Rise and Decline of Classical Physics," a chapter in The Evolution of Physics. Einstein, well known for his general and special theories of relativity, also received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his research involving the photoelectric effect. Infeld, author of several popular science books, made contributions to both relativity and quantum theory.
Michael Faraday(1791-1867)
From "Experimental Researches in Electricity, Section Eleven." The British scientist made pioneering contributions to the fields of chemistry, electricity, and magnetism.
Arthur Stanley Eddington(1882-1944)
From his 1928 book The Nature of the Physical World, in which he discusses the Oscillating Universe Theory. Eddington was a cosmologist and a strong supporter of Einstein's theory of general relativity, as well as the author of a number of popular science books.
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
From his book Charles Darwin's Autobiography. Darwin made significant contributions to the field of geology, in addition to his revolutionary theory of evolution.
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (1858-1947)
From the posthumously printed Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers. Planck was a physicist and winner of the 1918 Nobel Prize in physics for his quantum theory.
Ray Bradbury (1920- )
From an article in the October 1998 issue of Wired. Ray (Douglas) Bradbury, a prodigious author and storyteller, is the author of such classics as The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451.
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