When asked what kind of grad student Lynn Marulis takes: ‘I never take a straight A student. A real scientist tends to be critical, and somewhere along the line, they had to rebel against their...

A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional objectivity. It would be more nearly true to say that it...

In Italy the artist is a god. Now if the artist is a god, the scientist is likewise a god.

Be brave. Be free from philosophies, prophets and holy lies. Go deep into your feelings and explore the mystery of your body, mind and soul. You will find the truth.

It is a matter for considerable regret that Fermat, who cultivated the theory of numbers with so much success, did not leave us with the proofs of the theorems he discovered. In truth, Messrs Euler...

And when statesmen or others worry him [the scientist] too much, then he should leave with his possessions. With a firm and steadfast mind one should hold under all conditions, that everywhere the earth is...

As science is more and more subject to grave misuse as well as to use for human benefit it has also become the scientist’s responsibility to become aware of the social relations and applications of...

Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to...

I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met.

Le savant doit ordonner ; on fait la science avec des faits comme une maison avec des pierres ; mais une accumulation de faits n’est pas plus une science qu’un tas de pierres n’est une...

[On Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]The answer is unknowable, but it may not be unreasonable to see him, at least in theological terms, as essentially a deist. He is a determinist: there are no miracles (the events...

The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof.

A body of work such as Pasteur’s is inconceivable in our time: no man would be given a chance to create a whole science. Nowadays a path is scarcely opened up when the crowd begins...

I believe it to be of particular importance that the scientist have an articulate and adequate social philosophy, even more important than the average man should have a philosophy. For there are certain aspects of...

Conor, I could search the world for another swashbuckling scientist, but I doubt if I would find one like you.

A scientist doesn’t know all the answers. Nobody does, not even teachers. But a scientist keeps on trying to find the answers.

Theories cannot claim to be indestructible. They are only the plough which the ploughman uses to draw his furrow and which he has every right to discard for another one, of improved design, after the...

I notice that, in the lecture … which Prof. Lowry gave recently, in Paris … he brought forward certain freak formulae for tartaric acid, in which hydrogen figures as bigamist … I may say, he...

I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of the conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing on whether it is true or not.

The creatures I seek do not want to be seen.

On tue un homme, on est un assassin. On tue des millions d’hommes, on est un conquérant. On les tue tous, on est un dieu.Kill a man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of...

I wanted to be a scientist. I did a thesis on lions. But I realised photography can show things writing can’t. Lions were my professor of photography.

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

In 1902, Marcellin P. Berthelot, often called the founder of modern organic chemistry, was one of France’s most celebrated scientists—if not the world’s. He was permanent secretary of the French Academy, having succeeded the giant...

The perfect being, huh? There is no such thing as perfect in this world. That may sound cliché, but it’s the truth. The average person admires perfection and seeks to obtain it. But, what’s the...

This man [Alexander von Humboldt] is as knowledgeable as a whole academy.

I often asked Laplace what he thought of God. He owned that he was an atheist.

Not only in antiquity but in our own times also laws have been passed…to secure good conditions for workers; so it is right that the art of medicine should contribute its portion for the benefit...

The theist and the scientist are rival interpreters of nature, the one retreats as the other advances.

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy laws my services are bound…{His second motto, from King Lear by Shakespeare}

It is well known that geometry presupposes not only the concept of space but also the first fundamental notions for constructions in space as given in advance. It only gives nominal definitions for them, while...

There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world.

The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is...

In the last four days I have got the (results) given by Tantalum, Chromium, Manganese, Iron , Nickel, Cobalt and Copper … The chief result is that … the result for any metal (is) quite...

{In a letter to his friend Rudolf Wagner}I believe you are more believing in the Bible than I. I am not.

There were many women in the Soviet scientific community, proportionately more so than in the United States. But they tended to occupy menial middle-level positions, and male Soviet scientists, like their American counterparts, were puzzled...

The intention (of an artist) is (the same as a scientist)…to discover and reveal what is unsuspected but significant in life.

It is not possible to be intellectually honest and believe in gods. And it is not possible to believe in gods and be a true scientist.

A number of our scientists boast intelligence but lack wisdom. I find those to be the predictable ones.

There comes a time when every scientist, even God, has to write off an experiment.

The text-book is rare that stimulates its reader to ask, Why is this so? Or, How does this connect with what has been read elsewhere?

My final remark to young women and men going into experimental science is that they should pay little attention to the speculative physics ideas of my generation. After all, if my generation has any really...

During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast...

I’m all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better...

All of us,’ he said, ‘have hopes of being poet, artist, discoverer, philospoher, scientist; of possessing the attributes of all these simultaneously. Few are permitted to achieve any of them in daily life. But in...

The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist’s job to find the ways in which these laws can...

It was my good fortune to be linked with Mme. Curie through twenty years of sublime and unclouded friendship. I came to admire her human grandeur to an ever growing degree. Her strength, her purity...

Any chemist reading this book can see, in some detail, how I have spent most of my mature life. They can become familiar with the quality of my mind and imagination. They can make judgements...

Love permeates all things and laws.Scientists should research it more.

A scientist has to be neutral in his search for the truth, but he cannot be neutral as to the use of that truth when found. If you know more than other people, you have...