Quotes · Skopia

16 quotes

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Topic·Scientific progress✕clear

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

1676

★ 7.4

Scientific literature

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if we only face the facts, as they say, "with both eyes open."

Nicolaus Copernicus

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres · 1543

★ 7.0

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.

Bernard of Chartres

1159

★ 6.9

Facts which at first seem improbable will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which has hidden them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty.

Galileo Galilei

1638

★ 5.3

Scientific literature

Although we are mere sojourners on the surface of the planet, chained to a mere point in space, enduring but for a moment of time, the human mind is not only enabled to number worlds beyond the unassisted ken of mortal eye, but to trace the events of indefinite ages before the creation of our race, and is not even withheld from penetrating into the dark secrets of the ocean, or the interior of the solid globe.

Principles of Geology · 1830

★ 5.2

Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.

1929

★ 3.5

Historical literature · Scientific literature

As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice-there is no standard higher than the the assent of the relevant community. To discover how scientific revolutions are effected, we shall therefore have to examine not only the impact of nature and of logic, but also the techniques of persuasive argumentation effective within the quite special groups that constitute the community of scientists.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions · 1962

★ 3.5

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they 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 has happened in politics or religion.

1987

★ 3.5

The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.

Albert A. Michelson

1899

★ 2.6

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing a new truth or fact.

1879

★ 2.1

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.

1730

★ 1.9

I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.

Thomas Love Peacock

1860

★ 1.9

Novel · Dystopian fiction

I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and of silencing them forever.

It Can't Happen Here · 1935

★ 1.9

Scientific literature

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... An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul.

1936

★ 1.8

Scientific literature

Science and technology, and the various forms of art, all unite humanity in a single and interconnected system. As science progresses, the worldwide cooperation of scientists and technologists becomes more and more of a special and distinct intellectual community of friendship, in which, in place of antagonism, there is growing up a mutually advantageous sharing of work, a coordination of efforts, a common language for exchange of information, and solidarity, which are in many cases independent of the social and political differences of individual states.

Zhores Medvedev

1970

★ 1.7

Essay · Scientific literature

The priest persuades humble 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.

1989

★ 1.7