Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis 1905
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Max Planck, A Scientific Autobiography, 1949
It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. Konrad Lorenz
All science is either physics or stamp collecting. Ernest Rutherford
Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced ... The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character. Ernest Rutherford, Philosophical Magazine September 1902
It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you. Ernest Rutherford, experiment in which one in eight thousand alpha particles scattered backwards when fired at a metal sheet of foil, cited E N Da C Andrada ‘Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom’ 1964
Don’t let me catch anyone talking about the universe in my department. Ernest Rutherford, cited John Kendrew, BBC Radio Talk 26th July 1968
An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid. Ernest Rutherford, cited G J Whitrow ‘Einstein: The Man and His Achievement’ 1973
When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all – except life. We shall have found the basis of everything – of the earth we walk on, of the air we breathe, of the sunshine, of our physical body itself, of everything in the world, however great or however small – except life. Ernest Rutherford, cited Frank S Pepper 1987 ‘The Wit and Wisdom of the 20th Century: A Dictionary of Quotations’
If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment. Ernest Rutherford
I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner. Louis Pasteur
There does not exist a category of science to which one can give the name applied science. There are sciences and the applications of science, bound together as the fruit of the tree which bears it. Louis Pasteur, Revue Scientifique, 1871
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Louis Pasteur, cited Rene Jules Dubos 1960, ‘Louis Pasteur, Free Lance of Science’
I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity. ibid.
The priest persuades humbled people to endure their hard lot; the politician urges them to rebel against it; and the scientist thinks of a method that does away with the hard lot altogether. Max Perutz, Is Science Necessary, 1989
I shall certainly admit a system as empirical or scientific only if it is capable of being tested by experience. These considerations suggest that not the verifiability but the falsifiability of a system is to be taken as a criterion of demarcation … It must be possible for an empirical scientific system to be refuted by experience. Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery
The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game. ibid. ch2
Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths. Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations
The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities – perhaps the only one – in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there. ibid.
Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake. Karl Popper, In Search of a Better World, 1984
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve. Karl Popper, Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach 1972
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification – the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit. Karl Popper, The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism p44, 1992
It is the tension between the scientist’s laws and his own attempted breaches of them that powers the engines of science and makes it forge ahead. W V O Quine, Quiddities, 1987
Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas. Marie Curie, cited Henry & Dana Thomas, Living Adventures in Science, 1972
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie, attributed & disputed
I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars. Arthur Eddington, Stars and Atoms, 1928
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers. Arthur Eddington, cited Robert L Weber, ‘More Random Walks in Science’, 1982
Science aims at constructing a world which shall be symbolic of the world of commonplace experience. It is not at all necessary that every individual symbol that is used should represent something in common experience or even something explicable in terms of common experience. Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World 1928
The external world of physics has thus become a world of shadows. In removing our illusions we have removed the substance, for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions. ibid.
The law that entropy always increases, holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations – then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation – well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. ibid.
For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. Arthur Eddington, The Philosophy of Physical Science 1938
All men desire to know. Not all forms of knowledge are equal. The best is the pure and disinterested knowledge for the causes of things. Aristotle, Metaphysics
Science is organised knowledge. Herbert Spencer
I have a truly marvellous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain. Pierre de Fermat, 1601-65, written in margins of copy
If I could remember the names of all these particles I’d be a botanist. Enrico Fermi, cited R L Weber, More Random Walks in Science, 1973
Whatever Nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge. Enrico Fermi, 1901-54
The most fascinating thing about science is the ideas, the lifting of the human spirit. Lawrence Krauss
The attack on evolution in this country at least and I think elsewhere is based on a fundamental fear of science. A fear that science is immoral because it doesn’t explicitly mention God. Lawrence Krauss
Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today. Lawrence M Krauss