We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
Marie Curie in Lecture at Vassar College (14 May 1921)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
In this complex world, science, the scientific method, and the consequences of the scientific method are central to everything the
human race is doing and to wherever we are going. If we blow ourselves up we will do it by misapplication of science; if we manage to keep from blowing ourselves up, it will be through intelligent application of science.
quote by Robert Heinlein
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But perhaps the rest of us could have separate classes in science appreciation, the wonder of science, scientific ways of thinking, and the history of scientific ideas, rather than laboratory experience.
quote by Richard Dawkins
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We're uncomfortable about considering history as a science. It's classified as a social science, which is considered not quite scientific.
quote by Jared Diamond
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Many have gone on to do important scientific work but all remember those wonderful times when we and our science were young and our excitement in meeting new challenges knew no bounds.
quote by Sydney Brenner
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Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.
quote by Max Planck
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Psychology more than any other science has had its pseudo-scientific no less than its scientific period.
quote by James M. Baldwin
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Alliance of Poetry and Science
Poetry and Science don’t always
Appear to marry very well
But there are times
Amid these rhymes
When similar stories they tell
Science supports the quite Poetic view
I am both like and different from you
Though we hail from a like molecular start
Differences arise to set us apart
Poetry and Science do keep
Some common goals in mind
Both delving into the deep
While seeking to aid mankind
By examination of life’s glory
Both illuminate the human story
Scientists do quite logically rely
On observations of scientific eye
Poetry and Prose are much different art
Better envisioned when aided by the heart
Poets need not ever argue with Science
Nor should those of Science forgo reliance
On the value of the views brought
By what Poetry has wrought
If something at length be True
Such Truth will be valid then
No matter latter have you
Proved it by Science or Pen
poem by Mary Havran
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This means that to entrust to science - or to deliberate control according to scientific principles - more than scientific method can achieve may have deplorable effects.
quote by Friedrich August von Hayek
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Anybody who has been seriously engaged is 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.'
quote by Max Planck
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Indeed science alone may perhaps be sterile when pursued without an understanding of the world in which scientific knowledge is created and in which the fruits of science are used.
quote by Polykarp Kusch
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Science is analytical, descriptive, informative. Man does not live by bread alone, but by science he attempts to do so. Hence the deadliness of all that is purely scientific.
Science has not done away with cruelty. It has only given it a scientific character.
aphorism by Valeriu Butulescu from Immensity of the Point, translated by Eva A. Ziem
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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.
quote by Max Planck
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People, and especially theologians, should try to familiarize themselves with scientific ideas. Of course, science is technical in many respects, but there are some very good books that try to set out some of the conceptual structure of science.
quote by John Polkinghorne
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Sonnet: The Poet and Science
Is Science, a poet’s foe in poetry?
Why blame the world of science for its progress?
Out-moded’s the poet’s Nature-study;
Literature must wear a scientific dress.
Gone are the days of blind beliefs/ legends;
Man has landed on the moon many times;
No more the moon has myths it portends;
Let science therefore be thy decor in rhymes.
Decoded has man, the human genome;
Many diseases have a cure today;
’Tis unwise still to write the myths of Rome!
Poets incorporate what science shall say.
Science is no impediment to the art!
Let modern poets make a newer start.
poem by John Celes
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As the Nation's primary supporter of research in the physical sciences, the DOE Office of Science led the way in creating a unique system of large-scale, specialized, often one-of-a-kind facilities for scientific discovery.
quote by Judy Biggert
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Science is only a Latin word for knowledge.
Carl Sagan in The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Science is Unscientific
The Professor rose from his chair.
He moved the book to the middle
Of the table as he stood up.
"Now, listen! " he said in an amicable voice.
"Science prides itself in being factual,
objective, precise, unbiased, detached
and verifiable, free from introversion,
a way of knowing things without added colours
and portraying accurately the physical world
in its own light".
The Turtle was sipping his ginger ale.
"Oh, this description of science is nothing
but a myth", he said. "As I see it,
even the most magnificent accomplishments
of science involve emotions,
an individual sense of wonder and curiosity,
the psychological experience of the rapturous
and the mystical. Consequently,
a paradoxical and built in property
of science concerns
its own unscientific disposition.
And therefore, in my opinion,
science is thoroughly unscientific."
"Nonsense", the professor objected.
"If science were really unscientific,
as you claim, it could not produce
nuclear energy, airplanes, or computers.
And it could not put
astronauts on the moon".
"Well, I indeed never stop to wonder,
How is it possible that with so little knowledge
humans can accomplish so much? "
the Turtle said.
And then he added:
"But, you should not
confuse science with technology".
"I don't get your point", the Professor said,
"because you still did not provide me with
a good justification of your negative view
of science".
"Look! Science stands on very shaky
theoretical foundations", the Turtle explained.
This is so due to its reduction
of the concrete whole
to incomplete abstractions. Ironically,
the more scientific science tries to be,
the less scientific it becomes.
Science is rational and logical but the
universe, which it investigates is not.
We cannot separate ourselves
from the world outside.
Therefore, an objective investigation
of actuality ought to incorporate
the subjective experience.
The depiction of reality must be total.
Otherwise it cannot be truly scientific.
Mind you, ignoring the dominant
subjective realm of existence does not
make the world more objective.
Imagine, for example, a computer
that tries to understand
the human world without understanding
the human mind and human emotions".
A moment of silence ensued.
The Professor sank into his thoughts.
The Turtle took another sip
from the ginger ale.
"I'm not sure",
the Professor said eventually,
"that it would be a good thing
evolving a computer to a level
in which it would understand
such human qualities as humour, concern,
loyalty, compassion, love and anger.
I wonder if such a cybernetic device
would be our servant or our master."
poem by Paul Hartal
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We would like to carry out 100 percent, or maybe more, of our scientific program; I would like to devote some of my spare time toward extra scientific work.
quote by John L. Phillips
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The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the world-wide scientific community.
quote by Kenneth G. Wilson
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