(G.W. Allport; Becoming)

When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing-room full of dukes.

(W.H. Auden; The dyer’s hand)

The scientific profession does not constitute an elite, intellectual, or other. The chances are that the ‘scientist’, from the high-school teacher of science to the head of a research institute, is a person of average capacity.

(Jacques Barzun)

The best scientists are poets, the real engineer is an artist.

(Sue Birchmore)

The difficulty in most scientific work lies in framing the questions rather than in finding the answers.

(A.E. Boycott)

Science is not a mechanism but a human progress, and not a set of findings but the search for them.

(J. Bronowski; Science and human values)

There never was a scientist who did not make bold guesses, and there never was a bold man whose guesses were not sometimes wild.

(J. Bronowski; Science and human values)

Science is nothing else than the search to discover unity in the wild variety of nature – or more exactly, in the variety of our experience.

(J. Bronowski; Science and human values)

The publications of our scientific authors overflow with minute and countless details, which perplex the judgment, and which no memory can retain. In vain do we demand that they should be generalized, and reduced into order. Instead of that, the heap continues to swell. We want ideas, and get more facts. We hear constantly what nature is doing, but we rarely hear what man is thinking.

(H.T. Buckle; History of civilization in England)

If in the long course of history there is one thing more clear than another, it is, that whenever a government undertakes to protect intellectual pursuits, it will almost always protect them in the wrong place and reward the wrong man.

(H.T. Buckle; History of civilization in England)

After science has done its best the mystery is as great as ever, and the imagination and the emotions have just as free a field as before.

(John Burroughs; Science and literature)

Whatever is asked in Life, science mostly cannot answer.

(F.J.J. Buytendijk)

Scientific revolutions are not made by scientists. They are declared post factum, often by philosophers and historians of science rather than by the scientists themselves.

(Hendrik B.G. Casimir; Haphazard reality)

Science cannot be a mass occupation, anymore than the composing of music or the painting of pictures.

(Erwin Chargaff)

In most sciences the question ‘Why?’ is forbidden and the answer is actually to the question ‘How?’ Science is much better in explaining than in understanding, but it likes to mistake one for the other.

(Erwin Chargaff)

The philosophical basis [of the sciences] has never been very strong. Starting as modest probing operations to unravel the works of God in the world, to follow its traces in nature, they were driven gradually to ever more gigantic generalizations. Since the pieces of the giant puzzle never seemed to fit together perfectly, subsets of smaller, more homogeneous puzzles had to be constructed, in each of which the fit was better.

(Erwin Chargaff)

Outside his own ever-narrowing field of specialization, a scientist is a layman. What members of an academy of science have in common is a certain form of semiparasitic living.

(Erwin Chargaff)

Many scientists did not really devote their entire lives to science, carefully maintaining their amateur status. It is difficult to decide whether, for instance, Descartes should be considered a philosophical genius, a good geometrician, or an indifferent anatomist. Was Newton a physicist or a biblical exegete? Was Kepler an astrologer, a theologian, a calender maker or an astronomist? Was Paracelsus a genius-quack or one of the founders of pharmacotherapy? Was Pascal a religious thinker, a mathematician, the inventor of the calculating machine or of the first bus service? Was Kant a cosmogonist or a philosopher? They were all great men, great in what they did and what they did not do, and they avoided hanging silly labels on themselves.

(Erwin Chargaff)

The ordinary scientific man is strictly a sentimentalist. He is a sentimentalist in this essential sense that he is soaked and swept away by mere associations.

(G.K. Chesterton; Orthodoxy)

All the terms in the science books, ‘law’, ‘necessity’, ‘order’, ‘tendency’, and so on, are really unintellectual, because they assume an inner synthesis which we do not possess. The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, ‘charm’, ‘spell’, ‘enhancement’. A tree grows because it is a magic tree. Water runs down because it is bewitched. The sun shines because it is bewitched.

(G.K. Chesterton; Orthodoxy)

If a theory is on the right track then the simplifications will grow into more comprehensive articulations; otherwise it will shrivel and die.

(Patricia Churchland; Neurophilosophy)

Scientists are painfully aware that they do not know everything but they think they can often recognize nonsense when they come across it.

(Francis Crick)

A theory that fits all the facts is bound to be wrong as some of the facts will be wrong.

(Francis Crick)

Some scientists work so hard there is no time left for serious thinking.

(Francis Crick; What mad persuit)

Theorists almost always become too fond of their own ideas, often simply by living with them too long. It is difficult to believe that one's cherished theory, which really works rather nicely in some respects, may be completely false.

(Francis Crick; What mad persuit)

I followed a golden rule, namely, that whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me, which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts and thoughts were far more apt to escape from my memory than favourable ones. Owing to this habit, very few objections were raised against my views which I had not at least noticed and attempted to answer.

(Charles Darwin; Autobiography)

Whenever I have found out that I have blundered, or that my work has been imperfect, and when I have been contemptuously criticized, and even when I have been overpraised, so that I have felt mortified, it has been my greatest comfort to say hundreds of time to myself that "I have worked as hard and as well as I could, and no man can do more than this".

(Charles Darwin; Autobiography)

In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.

(Francis Darwin; Galton Lecture)

Personality plays a large role in science. Science not only refers to an objective body of knowledge but also to the activities that aim at adding to that body; and this activity is highly subjective.

(Bernard D. Davis)

No theory is good except on condition that one uses it to go beyond.

(André Gide; Journals)

As soon as one belongs to a narrow creed in science, every unprejudiced and true perception is gone.

(J.W. von Goethe)

Science is hampered a great deal if one occupies oneself with what is not worth knowing and with what is beyond our knowledge.

(J.W. von Goethe; Sprüche)

Science is always a race, and scientists are competitive people. Because the monetary rewards are minimal, they go for ego rewards.

(A. Goldstein)

Science can destroy religion but cannot replace it.

(Sebastian Haffner; Zur Zeitgeschichte)

What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our mode of questioning.

(Werner Heisenberg)

Even for a physicist the description in plain language will be a criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.

(Werner Heisenberg; Physics and Philosophy)

Every word or concept, clear as it may seem to be, has only a limited range of applicability

(Werner Heisenberg; Physics and Philosophy)

The great tragedy of science – the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

(Thomas Henry Huxley; Biogenesis and abiogenesis)

Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense.

(Thomas Henry Huxley; Collected essays IV: ‘The method of Zadig’)

There are naive people all over the world – some of them scientists – who believe that all problems, sooner or later, will be solved by Science. The word Science itself has become a vague reassuring noise, with a very ill-defined meaning and a powerful emotional charge: It is now applied to all sorts of unsuitable subjects and used as a cover for careless and incomplete thinking in dozens of fields. But even taking Science at the most sensible of its definitions, we must acknowledge that it is unperfect as are all activities of the human mind.

(Gilbert Highet; Man's unconquerable mind)

How many learned men are working at the forge of science – laborious, ardent, tireless Cyclopes, but one-eyed.

(J. Joubert; Pensées)

To yield to every whim of our curiosity and to see no bounds to our passion for research save the limitations of our abilities, demonstrates an enthousiasm that adorns science. But it is wisdom which has the merit to choose, among the innumerable problems that present themselves, precisely the one whose solution serves mankind most.

(Immanuel Kant; Dreams of a ghost-seer)

Statistics is like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive. What they conceal is vital.

(Arthur Koestler)

Commitment to a scientific theory can be as charged with emotion as a religious credo.

(Arthur Koestler; Janus)

A major obstacle to science is not ignorance but knowledge.

(Craigh Loehle)

We have often observed in persons whose lives have been devoted to serious scientific work, which has entirely absorbed them, a total absence of sexual desire for a long time, and even impotence.

(Arnold Lorand; Old age deferred)

Henri Poincaré once said that theories are fleeting like waves of the sea, one following the other. The comparison is not entirely to the point, for the waves leave no trace whatever, whereas much remains of sound theories.

(H.A. Lorentz)

It is a very good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast.

(Konrad Lorenz; On aggression)

Many very serious-minded, solid and knowledgable people work hard in science all their lives and produce nothing of the smallest importance, while others, few by comparison and not highly erudite, exhibit a serendipity of mind that enables them to have valuable ideas in any subject they may choose to take up.

(R.A. Lyttleton; The nature of knowledge)

It is a universal condition of the enjoyable that the mind must believe in the existence of a law, and yet have a mystery to move about in.

(Clerk Maxwell)

Never fall in love with your hypothesis.

(Peter Medawar)

Quite ordinary people can be good at science. To say this is not to depreciate science but to appreciate ordinary people.

(Peter Medawar)

Scientists tend not to ask themselves questions until they can see the rudiments of an answer in their minds. Embarrassing questions tend to remain unasked for or, if asked, to be asked rudely.

(Peter Medawar; The future of man)

The prototype of the scientist is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the faller, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat holes.

(H.L. Mencken)

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smooth pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

(Isaac Newton)

Experimental science has progressed thanks in great part to the work of men astoundingly mediocre, and even less than mediocre. That is to say, modern science, the root and symbol of our actual civilisation, finds a place for the intellectually commonplace man and allows him to work therein with success. A fair amount of the things that have to be done in physics or in biology is mechanical work of the mind which can be done by anyone or almost anyone. For the purpose of innumerable investigations it is possible to divide science into small sections, to enclose oneself in one of these, and leave out of consideration all the rest.

(J. Ortega y Gasset; The revolt of the masses)

Unless we foster that type of intellectual activity which - rather than expanding science in the usual sense of research - simplifies it, formulates concentrated synthesis, maintaining its substantial and qualitative essence, the future of science looks bleak.

(J. Ortega y Gasset; La mission de la universidad)

Social scientists have not been very successful in convincing the natural scientists or the public that there is much difference between their doctrines and common sense, except that the doctrines are liable to be embalmed in erudite and unintelligible jargon.

(H.N. Parton; Science is human)

Modern science, as training the mind to an exact and impartial analysis of facts, is an education specially fitted to promote sound citizenship.

(Karl Pearson; The grammar of science)

The man of action has to believe, the inquirer has to doubt; the scientific investigator is both.

(C.S. Pierce)

The real University is a state of mind. It is that great heritage of rational thought that has been brought down to us through the centuries and which does not exist at any specific location. It's a state of mind which is regenerated throughout the centuries by a body of people who traditionally carry the title of professor, but even that title is not part of the real University. The real University is nothing less than the continuing body of reason itself.

(Robert M. Pirsig; Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance)

Real is what can be measured.

(Max Planck)

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning.

(Max Planck; The philosophy of physics)

Let us not scold the scientist too much because of his unworldliness and his lack of participation in the important problems of public life. Without such a one-sided attitude, Heinrich Hertz would not have discovered the wireless waves, nor Robert Koch the tubercle bacillus.

(Max Planck; Sinn und Grenzen der exacten Wissenschaft)

Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with.

(Max Planck; Where is science going?)

It is the task of scientists to clear away the mysteries, on the understanding that they find them back a bit further on. But still, it is agreeable to have progressed a little.

(Henri Poincaré; Science and mathematics)

Science is built of facts the way a house is built of bricks; but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a pile of bricks is a house.

(Henri Poincaré; La science et la hypothèse)

Scientific theories, if they are not falsified, for ever remain hypotheses or conjectures.

(Karl Popper; Unended quest)

Bohr thought of understanding in terms of pictures and models - in terms of a kind of visualization. This was too narrow I felt; and in time I developed an entirely different view. According to this view what matters is the understanding not of pictures but of the logical force of a theory: its explanatory power, its relation to the relevant problems and to other theories.

(Karl Popper; Unended quest)

As with our children, so with our theories, and ultimately with all the work we do: our products become largely independent of their makers. We may gain more knowledge from our children or from our theories than we ever imparted to them.

(Karl Popper; Unended Quest)

I have so completely forgotten what I have myself published, that in reading my own writings, what I find in them often appears perfectly new to me, and I have more than once made experiments, the results of which have been published by me.

(Joseph Priestley)

More is owing to chance, that is to the observation of events arising from unknown causes, than from any proper design or preconceived theory in this business.

(Joseph Priestley)

The professors have considerably larger heads than the officers. The regular professors have the largest heads, followed at only a slight distance by the other university teachers.

(W. Röse)

Scientists seem to prefer questionable explanations to no explanation at all.

(Harry Rubin)

Research has suggested that scientists differ from non-scientists by exhibiting a high level of curiosity, especially at an early age, and in demonstrating a relatively low level of sociability. Scientists also tend to be shy, lonely, slow in social development, and indifferent to close personal relationships, group activities and politics. Other attributes include skepticism, preoccupation, reliability, and a facility for precise, critical thinking. Generally they are cognitively complex, independent, non-conformist, assertive, and unlikely to suppress thoughts and impulses; and, like successful entrepeneurs, eminent scientists are also calculated risk-takers.

(J.P. Rushton)

In art nothing worth doing can be done without genius; in science even a very moderate capacity can contribute to a supreme achievement.

(Bertrand Russell; ‘Science and culture’, in: Mysticism and logic)

It is no matter of chance that the greatest scientists of all time, Copernicus, Newton, Kepler, Linnaeus, Faraday, Darwin, and Maxwell, were men of noble character, modest, straightforward, and full of human sympathy. The great French mathematician, Henri Poincaré, stated that the chief end of life is contemplation, not action.

(William Seifriz; Science, 120, 1954)

Many of the really talented scientists are not at all money-minded; nor do they condone greed for wealth either in themselves or others. On the other hand, all the scientists I know sufficiently well to judge (and I include myself in this group) are extremely anxious to have their work recognized and approved by others. Is it not below the dignity of an objective scientific mind to permit such a distorsion of his true motives? Besides, what is there to be ashamed of?

(Hans Selye)

If a scientist makes no important observation he deserves no credit. But if a significant fact comes his way and he still does not see its importance, he can only blame himself.

(Hans Selye; From dream to discovery)

... ‘peripheral vision’: the ability not only to look straight at what you want to see, but also to watch continually, through the corner of your eye, for the unexpected. I believe this to be one of the greatest gifts a scientist can have. Usually we concentrate so much upon what we intend to examine that other things cannot reach our consciousness, even if they are far more important. This is particularly true of things so different from the commonplace that they seem improbable. Yet, only the improbable is really worth of attention! If the unexpected is nevertheless found to be true, the observation usually represents a great step forward.

(Hans Selye; From dream to discovery)

The microscope can see things the naked eye cannot, but the reverse is equally true.

(Hans Selye; From dream to discovery)

Life is served by the sciences, it is governed by wisdom.

(Seneca; Epistulae)

In the Middle Ages people believed that the earth was flat, for which they at least had the evidence of their senses: we believe it to be round, not because as many as one percent of us could give the physical reasons for so quaint a belief, but because modern science has convinced us that nothing that is obvious is true, and that everything that is magical, improbable, extraordinary, gigantic, microscopic, heartless, or outrageous is scientific.

(George Bernard Shaw; Preface to ‘Saint Joan’)

A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.

(B.F. Skinner) 

Theories, like old soldiers, fade away rather than being killed on the scientific battlefield.

(Henryk Skolimowski)

We are having wool pulled over our eyes if we let ourselves be convinced that scientists as a group are anything special in the way of brains. They are very ordinary professional men, and all they know is their own trade, just like all other professional men.

(Anthony Standen; Science is a sacred cow)

When a white-robed scientist, momentarily looking away from his microscope or cyclotron, makes some pronouncement for the general public, he may not be understood but at least he is certain to be believed. Scientists are exalted beings who stand at the very topmost pinnacle of popular prestige, for they have the monopoly of the formula 'It has been scientifically proved...', which appears to rule out all possibility of disagreement. Thus the world is divided into scientists, who practice the art of infallibility, and non-scientists, sometimes contemptuously called 'laymen', who are taken by it.

(Anthony Standen; Science is a sacred cow)

Physics is not about the real world, it is about 'abstractions' from the real world, and this is what makes them so scientific.

(Anthony Standen; Science is a sacred cow)

A man gets drunk on Monday on whisky and sodawater; he gets drunk on Tuesday on brandy and sodawater, and on Wednesday on gin and sodawater. What causes his drunkenness? Obviously, the common factor, the sodawater.

(Anthony Standen; Science is a sacred cow)

Science deals with but a partial aspect of reality, and there is no faintest reason for supposing that everything science ignores is less real than what it accepts. Why is it that science forms a closed system? Why is it that the elements of reality it ignores never come in to disturb it? The reason is that all the terms of physics are defined in terms of one another. The abstractions with which physics begins are all it ever has to do with.

(J.W.N. Sullivan; The limitations of science)

Science is based on the experience that nature answers intelligent questions intelligently, so if she is silent there may be something wrong with the question.

(Albert Szent-Györgyi)

The little Biblical David, who killed Goliath must have got an intense satisfaction out of seeing his giant opponent stretched out on the ground. A real scientist can never have this satisfaction. An unsolved problem looms in one's mind as big as Goliath must have loomed to David, but once the problem is solved it just vanishes.

(Albert Szent-Györgyi)

The real scientist is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take.

(Albert Szent-Györgyi)

A theory is a policy rather than a creed.

(J.J. Thomson)

Only when a scientist becomes a philosopher as well, his work may earn immortality.

(U. van de Voorde; Het pact van Faustus)

We first described billiard balls in terms of atoms and then described atoms in terms of billiard balls, a description that brought us no nearer to a true understanding of the ultimate nature of either billiard balls or atoms.

(Kenneth Walker; Meaning and purpose)

We must accept the fact that the scientist can answer only a few of the questions we ask him and never the question of ‘why?’.

(Kenneth Walker; Meaning and purpose)

The great scientists are acutely aware of the limitations of their powers and of the immensity and of the astonishing nature of the universe they are attempting to explore.

(Kenneth Walker; Meaning and Purpose)

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.

(Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr; The poet at the breakfast table)

Sometimes the word theory is used for a hypothesis, sometimes for a confirmed hypothesis; sometimes for a train of thought; sometimes for a wild guess at some fact or for a reasoned claim of what some fact is – or even for philosophical speculation.

(J.O. Wisdom; Foundations of inference in natural sciences)

There is a relevant story about Charles II, who once invited fellows of the Royal Society to explain to him why a fish when it is dead weighs more than when it was alive. The fellows responded with ingenious explanations, until the King pointed out that what he had told them was just not true.

(Lewis Wolpert; The unnatural nature of science)