Quotes from great scientists. Aphorisms about science

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“Science is interesting, and if you don’t agree, then fuck off...” - Richard Dawkins, English biologist.

Probably no one will argue with the fact that science is not only the engine of progress, but also one of the most beautiful and useful types of creativity for humanity. Every scientific research is a process of creation, every scientist is a creator, rethinking and changing reality in his own way. Like all creative people, scientists know what inspiration is and how difficult it can sometimes be to find and preserve. But if they find it, then they are happy to share their wisdom with everyone - and this is truly gratifying.

On November 10, Science Day is celebrated all over the world. By this date website collected famous quotes from great scientists, which we gleaned from their works, letters, Nobel speeches and other sources.

Albert Einstein,
one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century, creator of the special and general theories of relativity, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1921).

  • Theory is when everything is known, but nothing works. Practice is when everything works, but no one knows why. We combine theory and practice: nothing works... and no one knows why!
  • We are all geniuses. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life thinking it is stupid.
  • If you can't explain something to a six-year-old child, you don't understand it yourself.
  • Only a fool needs order - genius rules over chaos.
  • There are only two ways to live life. The first is as if miracles do not exist. The second one is like there are only miracles all around.
  • The only thing that prevents me from studying is the education I received.

Leonardo da Vinci,
Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer of the Renaissance.

  • Anyone who wants to get rich in a day will be hanged within a year.
  • Work on a work of art can never be completed, but can only be abandoned.
  • An adversary who reveals your mistakes is more useful to you than a friend who wants to hide them.
  • Experience flight once, and your eyes will forever be fixed on the sky. Once you have been there, you are doomed to yearn for it for the rest of your life.
  • Where hope dies, emptiness arises.

Lev Landau,
Soviet theoretical physicist, founder of a scientific school, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Nobel Prize laureate in physics (1962).

  • The greatest achievement of human genius is that man can understand things that he can no longer imagine.
  • You need to know English! Even the stupidest Englishmen know him well.
  • The worst sin is being bored! ... When the Last Judgment comes, the Lord God will call and ask: “Why didn’t you enjoy all the benefits of life? Why were you bored?
  • Everyone has enough strength to live life with dignity. And all this talk about what a difficult time it is now is a clever way to justify one’s inaction, laziness and various despondencies. You have to work, and then, you see, times will change.

Nikola Tesla,
inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering, engineer, physicist.

  • Are you familiar with the expression “You can’t jump above your head”? It's a delusion. A person can do anything.
  • The action of even the smallest creature leads to changes throughout the Universe.
  • Modern scientists think deeply instead of thinking clearly. To think clearly, you need to have a sound mind, but you can think deeply even if you are completely crazy.

Niels Bohr,
Danish physicist and philosopher, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1922).

  • There are such serious things in the world that one can only talk about them jokingly.
  • An expert is a person who has made all possible mistakes in a very narrow specialty.
  • Your idea is, of course, crazy. The whole question is whether she is crazy enough to be true.
  • Unhappy are those people for whom everything is clear.
  • Sigmund Freud,
    Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and neurologist, author of the theory of psychoanalysis.

    • Everything you do in bed is wonderful and absolutely right. As long as both of them like it. If there is this harmony, then you and only you are right, and everyone who condemns you is perverts.
    • We do not choose each other by chance... We meet only those who already exist in our subconscious.
    • All our actions are based on two motives: the desire to become great and sexual attraction.
    • Every normal person is actually only partly normal.

    Quotes from famous authors about science. Quotes from smart people about science and technology

    Facts are to science what experience is to social life.

    AND. Buffon

    Science has its own specific logic of development, which is very important to take into account. Science must always work in reserve, for future use, and only under this condition will it be in natural conditions.

    S. I. Vavilov

    When science reaches any peak, it opens up a vast prospect of a further path to new heights, new roads open up along which science will go further.

    S. I. Vavilov

    You can't be a real mathematician without being a little poet.

    K. Weierstrass

    The time will come when science will outstrip imagination.

    Jules Bern

    A scientific hypothesis always goes beyond the facts that served as the basis for its construction.

    V. I. Vernadsky

    The scientific worldview, imbued with natural science and mathematics, is the greatest strength not only of the present, but also of the future.

    V. I. Vernadsky

    One minute is enough to be surprised; it takes many years to make an amazing thing,

    I.Helvetius

    There are no difficult sciences, there are only difficult expositions.

    A. I. Herzen

    Science is power; it reveals the relationships of things, their laws and interactions.

    A. I. Herzen

    Science requires the whole person, without ulterior motives, with a willingness to give everything and, as a reward, to receive the heavy cross of sober knowledge.

    A. I. Herzen

    In science there is no other way to acquire than by the sweat of your brow; neither impulses, nor fantasies, nor aspirations with all your heart replace work.

    A. I. Herzen

    A person must believe that the incomprehensible can be understood.

    I. Goethe

    For that, to Some science has moved forward in order for its expansion to become more perfect; hypotheses are necessary in the same way as evidence from experience and observation.

    I. Goethe

    What is in the air and what time requires can arise simultaneously in a hundred heads without any borrowing.

    I. Goethe

    Hypotheses- these are scaffoldings that are erected in front of a building and demolished when the building is ready; they are necessary for the employee; he should not just mistake the scaffolding for a building.

    I. Goethe

    Right the scientist is freedom, and his duty is truthfulness.

    L. Girshfeld

    In science you need to believe and doubt at the same time.

    L. Girshfeld

    Science is systematized knowledge about the world around us, which reflects its most important aspects. With the help of science, people today can live the most comfortable life possible. The desire for truth has always been inherent in people. However, science had to overcome many obstacles before man could enjoy its fruits. For example, during the Middle Ages, the level of progress slowed down due to the fact that scientific research became dependent on the church. Scientific knowledge helps to improve both the spiritual and material aspects of human life. How did great people speak about science?

    Thoughts of geniuses

    A. S. Pushkin owns a statement that can be fully attributed to quotes about science. The famous Russian poet said: “Following the thoughts of a great man is the most entertaining science.” Indeed, geniuses and great people have always attracted the attention of society with their unusual way of thinking and ability to solve non-standard problems. Psychologists have been trying for decades to track and systematize the thinking patterns of great people. Noticing the patterns of the thought process of an intelligent and educated person means learning to think creatively, outside the box, and therefore to solve new problems more effectively.

    Science is a great work

    S. L. Sobolev owns another wonderful quote about science: “All scientific work consists of 99 percent failures, and maybe only one percent consists of successes.” This statement is confirmed by the biographies of many great scientists of the past and present. Science is very hard work that requires perseverance and perseverance. Without these qualities it is impossible to achieve success.

    A good illustration of this is also the story of the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison. This scientist received the famous nickname - “self-taught from America.” It is difficult to believe this fact, but the great explorer did not study a single year at school. Most teachers considered him a fool, prone to unreasonable dreams.

    Endurance is the key to success

    While working on the invention of the incandescent lamp, Edison demonstrated real miracles of endurance - once he did not sleep for 45 hours in a row. Here the quote about science by A.F. Ioffe is true: “The problem is solved not by the one who enjoys partial success, but by the researcher who achieves a full result.”

    How else did Edison show his persistence in scientific research? It is a well-known fact: the scientist tried about six thousand different materials to find the optimal one for the incandescent filament. In the end, the persistent inventor settled on the most suitable - Japanese bamboo.

    About the work of the mind

    Isaac Newton said: “I keep the subject of my research constantly in my mind and persistently wait for the moment until the first glimpse is gradually completely transformed into a brilliant light.” Psychologists studying the peculiarities of the mind of great scientists and inventors gradually came to the conclusion: constant intense observation of the object of their research sooner or later leads to the fact that a light bulb seems to light up in the scientist’s mind. "Eureka!" - everyone remembers this exclamation of Archimedes when, after much thought, he was finally able to discover his famous law. Creativity in science always begins with creativity within the mind. Each craft can only be mastered through long and intense training - and in this, Newton’s statement could not be more true.

    Science should be useful

    Louis Pasteur has the following quote about science: “The progress of science is determined by the work of its scientists and the value of their discoveries.” Indeed, if a scientific achievement does not benefit humanity, then it turns out to be completely pointless. Why is an invention necessary if it cannot be used to solve significant problems, cure sick people, or solve scientific problems? Unfortunately, in many sciences there are entire areas of research that do not solve any problems.

    Of course, some may argue that such areas of human knowledge as philosophy and mathematics do not solve applied problems. They do not directly influence the real world - not a single quadratic equation has yet helped a patient recover from a fatal disease. However, with their help, the development of other sciences becomes possible. Niels Abel said: “Mathematics is for a scientist what a scalpel is for an anatomist.”

    Are humanities necessary?

    There is a well-known quote about the humanities by M. Foucault: “The humanities address a person insofar as he lives, speaks, produces.” Indeed, complete knowledge about the world around us cannot be obtained only with the help of the exact sciences, despite their crucial role. However, humanitarian knowledge allows us to understand human nature, manage social processes, and make society more stable.

    Science Quotes

    The scientist L. Boltzmann said: “The goal of the natural sciences is to reveal the forces of nature.” Indeed, all natural science research is aimed at identifying the true patterns driving natural forces. Such sciences are physics, chemistry, biology and others. Quotes about science from great people help you understand what is important for this type of knowledge. For example, Academician D.S. Likhachev warns: “The main enemy of science is scientificity.” Therefore, it is necessary to strive not for the appearance of gaining knowledge, but for the acquisition of truth.

    Science is the knowledge of stupid other people's opinions.
    Georg Lichtenberg

    All science is prediction.
    Herbert Spencer

    Science is spectral analysis; art is a synthesis of light.
    Karl Kraus (1874–1936), Austrian writer

    What was an art that separated the smart from the stupid becomes a science that unites them.
    Mikhail Gasparov (b. 1935), philologist

    Science is often confused with knowledge. This is a gross misunderstanding. Science is not only knowledge, but also consciousness, that is, the ability to use knowledge properly.
    Vasily Klyuchevsky (1841–1911), historian

    Science is a belief in the ignorance of experts.
    Richard Feynman (1918–1988), American physicist

    Science begins with myths and with a critical attitude towards myths.
    Karl Popper (1902–1994), Austrian-British philosopher

    Science is always wrong. She is not able to solve a single question without raising a dozen new ones.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), English playwright

    Science confirms our misconceptions.
    Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909–1966), Polish poet and aphorist

    Science does not answer all questions, even in an investigator's office.
    Henryk Jagodzinski (b. 1928), Polish satirist

    Science does not answer all questions, but it helps to understand the meaninglessness of many of them.
    Henryk Jagodzinski

    Science, like virtue, is its own reward.
    Charles Kingsley (1819–1875), English writer

    There can be no scientific morality; but in the same way there cannot be an immoral science.
    Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), French mathematician and physicist

    If curiosity concerns serious problems, it is already called a thirst for knowledge.
    Maria Ebner Eschenbach (1830–1916), Austrian writer

    Knowledge is one of the forms of asceticism.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher

    To understand any science, you need to know the history of this science.
    Auguste Comte (1798–1857), French philosopher

    Scientific knowledge is not needed anywhere except science.
    Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993), English essayist

    Give a superstitious person science and he will turn it into superstition.
    George Bernard Shaw

    The bankruptcy of science is most often said by those who have not invested a penny in this enterprise.
    Felix Chwalibug (1866–1930), Polish man of letters

    The only thing my long life has taught me is that all our science, in the face of reality, looks primitive and childishly naive - and yet it is the most valuable thing we have.
    Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German physicist

    The less I believe in science, the more I fear it.
    Jean Rostand (1894–1977), French biologist

    The Church saves sinners, science is looking for ways to stop their production.
    Elbert Hubbard (1859–1915), American writer

    Science finds cures easier than answers.
    Jean Rostand

    Society can be divided into two parts: those who believe that science can do everything, and those who are afraid that it will be so.
    Dixie Rae (1914–1994), American politician

    As science increases our power, it decreases our pride in ourselves.
    Claude Bernard (1813–1878), French physiologist

    Science made us gods before we learned to be human.
    Jean Rostand

    It seems that things are heading towards the fact that Science will discover God. And I tremble in advance for his fate.
    Stanislav Jerzy Lec

    Science is a way of unraveling the mysteries of the world by discovering new mysteries.
    A. Davidovich

    Science is a drama of ideas.
    A. Einstein

    Science is a graveyard of hypotheses.
    A. Poincare

    Science is the systematic expansion of the field of human ignorance.
    R. Gutovsky

    Science is not and will never be a finished book. Every important success brings new questions. Every development reveals new and deeper difficulties over time.
    A. Einstein

    Science has conquered many diseases, cracked the genetic code and even allowed man to land on the moon, but when an eighteen-year-old man stays in the same room with two eighteen-year-old barmaids, nothing happens. Because the real problems are the same from century to century.
    B. Allen

    Science serves only to give us an idea of ​​the extent of our ignorance.
    F. Lamennais

    Just as for some science seems like a heavenly goddess, so for others it seems like a fat cow that gives them butter.
    F. Schiller

    Moving forward, science constantly crosses itself out.
    V. Hugo

    The most ardent defenders of science, who cannot bear even a slight sidelong glance at it, are usually those people who have achieved very little in science and who are aware of this shortcoming of theirs.
    G. Lichtenberg

    The key to all science is the question mark.
    O. Balzac

    It is not the truths of science that are difficult, but the clearing of human consciousness from all hereditary rubbish, all settled silt, from mistaking the unnatural for the natural, the incomprehensible for the understandable.
    A. Herzen

    An undoubted sign of true science is the awareness of the insignificance of what you know in comparison with what is revealed.
    L. Tolstoy

    The fruits of true science and true art are the fruits of sacrifice, not of material gain.
    R. Rolland

    All the power of science is aimed today at strengthening the State. Not a single scientist thought of using his knowledge to protect the individual. Here, perhaps, Freemasonry would be useful.
    A. Camus

    The living luminary of science is a learned man who has privatized a range of scientific problems and jealously protects them from the encroachment of those who see the solution to these problems differently.
    V. Zubkov

    Many discoveries in science are made by chance, but not by chance people.
    author unknown

    Astronomy grew out of superstition; eloquence - from ambition, hatred, flattery, lies; geometry - out of greed; physics - out of empty curiosity; all sciences, even morality itself, come from human pride.
    J. J. Rousseau

    Scientific work is when you read two books that no one has ever read in order to write a third book that no one will read.
    Definition proposed by NASA employees

    The basic scientific method is trial and error.
    author unknown

    I lost interest in science books
    Not because I became lazy;
    Learning is too bitter,
    And the fruit, as a rule, is wormy.
    I. Tuberman

    One small doubt: I am afraid that, while conquering new stars, man may lose the ground under his feet.
    E. Lec


    Idealism increases in direct proportion to the distance to the problem

  • № 12365

    A scientist is a lazy person who kills time with work

  • № 12361

    Make a discovery - take the future by surprise

  • № 12254

    Every miracle must find its own explanation, otherwise it is simply unbearable.


    Karel Capek
  • № 12214

    Look closely at a phenomenon and you will see that it is the husk of something else that lies deeper than it.


    Pavel Florensky
  • № 11959

    A sound scientific explanation encounters various obstacles at every step. One of them is lack of knowledge, the second is fear at the sight of miracles, the third is distrust of knowledge, the fourth is material interest.


    Nikolay Rubakin
  • № 11856

    He who does not see the vanity of the world is vanity himself. To mock philosophy is really to philosophize.


    Blaise Pascal
  • № 10792

    Scientific knowledge is not all knowledge; it has always been “in excess”, in competition, in conflict with another type of knowledge, which we will call for simplicity narrative and which we will characterize later. This does not mean that the latter can prevail over scientific knowledge, but its model is associated with the ideas of inner balance and friendliness ( convivialite), in comparison with which modern scientific knowledge pales in appearance, especially if it must undergo exteriorization in relation to the “knower” and an even stronger alienation than before from its users.

    The resulting demoralization of researchers and teachers is difficult to neglect, especially since it broke out, as is known, in the 60s among those who decided to devote themselves to these professions, among students in all the most developed countries, and was able to significantly slow down productivity during this period laboratories and universities that could not protect themselves from infection. There was no question that a revolution would come out of this, no matter how much they hoped for it or - as has happened more than once - no matter how much they feared it; the course of things in post-industrial civilization will not change from today to tomorrow.

    However, when it comes to assessing the present and future status of scientific knowledge, such an important component as the doubt of scientists cannot be excluded from consideration.

    Moreover, the status of scientific knowledge is also intertwined with the main problem - the problem of legitimation. We take this word in the broadest sense that it received in discussions on the question of power among modern German theorists. Or a civil law, and it says: such and such a category of citizens must perform such and such actions. Then legitimation is the process by which the legislator is allowed to proclaim a given law as a norm. Or a scientific statement, and it is subject to the rule: a statement must satisfy such and such a set of conditions in order to be perceived as scientific.

    Here, legitimation is the process by which the “legislator” interpreting scientific discourse is allowed to prescribe specified conditions (in general terms, conditions of internal state and experimental verification) so that a certain statement forms part of this discourse and can be taken into account by the scientific community.


    Jean-François Lyotard
  • № 10592

    I imagine the vast sphere of science as a wide field, some parts of which are dark, while others are illuminated. Our works are aimed either at expanding the boundaries of illuminated places, or at multiplying light sources on the field. One is characteristic of a creative genius, the other is characteristic of an insightful mind that makes improvements.


    Denis Diderot
  • № 10547

    One must decide to introduce into the thinking apparatus the necessary distinction between obvious philosophy and pleasant philosophy. In other words, we can come to a philosophy that is disgusting to the mind and heart, but which suggests itself. So, for me, obvious philosophy is absurd. But this does not prevent me from having (or, more precisely, from considering) a pleasant philosophy. For example: an exact balance between the mind and the world, harmony, completeness, etc. Happy is the thinker who surrenders to his inclination, and the one who denies himself this - out of love for the truth, with regret, but decisively - is an exiled thinker.


    Albert Camus
  • № 10438

    In science we must look for ideas. No idea, no science. Knowledge of facts is precious only because ideas are hidden in facts: facts without ideas are rubbish for the head and memory.


    Vissarion Belinsky
  • № 10434

    Working for science and for general ideas is personal happiness.


    Anton Chekhov
  • № 10432

    Neglecting the opportunity to use scientific data in public life means belittling the importance of science. Science helps us in the fight against fanaticism in all its manifestations; it helps us create our own ideal of justice, without borrowing anything from erroneous systems and barbaric traditions.


    Anatole France
  • № 10429

    Science is an attempt to bring the chaotic diversity of our sensory experience into conformity with some unified system of thinking.



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