Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness. Aleister Crowley, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
To know the history of science is to recognize the mortality of any claim to universal truth. Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflections on Gender and Science
There is safety in numbers. And science. Clone your way to being safe. Nobody can protect you like you. And you and you and you. Jarod Kintz, $3.33
Scientists talk about dark matter, the invisible, mysterious substance that occupies the space between stars. Dark matter makes up 99.99 percent of the universe, and they don’t know what it is. Well I do. It’s apathy. That's the truth of it; pile together everything we know and care about in the universe and it will still be nothing more than a tiny speck in the middle of a vast black ocean of Who Gives a Fuck. David Wong, John Dies at the End
Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination. John Dewey, The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action
Scientific principles and laws do not lie on the surface of nature. They are hidden, and must be wrested from nature by an active and elaborate technique of inquiry. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy
Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. Robert K Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure
The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems. G W Allport
If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again. Penn Jillette, ‘God, No! Signs You May Already Be An Atheist and Other Magical Tales’
Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men’s eyes, because they know – or think they know – some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explains not, then it says there is nothing to explain. Bram Stoker, Dracula
The split in America, rather than simply economic, is between those who embrace reason, who function in the real world of cause and effect, and those who, numbed by isolation and despair, now seek meaning in a mythical world of intuition, a world that is no longer reality-based, a world of magic. Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable. H L Mencken
Christian theology is not only opposed to the scientific spirit, it is opposed to every other form of rational thinking. H L Mencken
How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate – your brain – that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all. V S Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human
No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didn’t bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didn’t teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. If you won’t take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you. Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale
The scientist only imposes two things, namely truth and sincerity, imposes them upon himself and upon other scientists. Erwin Schrodinger
Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man’s destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be published before the destruction takes place. Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins
There is a philosophy that says that if something is unobservable – unobservable in principle – it is not part of science. If there is no way to falsify or confirm a hypothesis, it belongs to the realm of metaphysical speculation, together with astrology and spiritualism. By that standard, most of the universe has no scientific reality – it’s just a figment of our imaginations. Leonard Susskind, The Black Hole War
The extraordinary thing is not that there are laws but that we can understand them. Why should we be able to understand them? Dr David Deutsch
Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions. Vera Rubin
No observational problem will be solved by more data. Vera Rubin
Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting. Vera Rubin
3NASA Kennedy Space Center, 28th January 1986: Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known. The Challenger 2013 starring William Hurt & Bruce Greenwood & Joanne Whalley & Kevin McNally & Henry Goodman & Eve Best & Brian Dennehy et al, director James Hawes, Feynman lecture
Science teaches us what the rules of evidence are. ibid.
You can use the science to cut through the bullshit. ibid. General
He [Feynman] died of cancer in February 1988. ibid.
Science moves fastest when there’s plenty debate and controversy. Lee Smolin
When people join a scientific community, they give up certain childish but universal desires: the need to feel that they are right all the time or the belief that they are in possession of the absolute truth. In exchange, they receive membership in an ongoing enterprise that over time will achieve what no individual could ever achieve alone. They also receive expert training in a craft, and in most cases learn much more than they ever could on their own. Then, in exchange for their labor expended in the practice of that craft, the community safeguards a member’s right to advocate any view or research program he or she feels is supported by the evidence developed from its practice. Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics
Science is a kind of open laboratory for a democracy. It’s a way to experiment with the ideals of our democratic societies. For example, in science you must accept the fact that you live in a community that makes the ultimate judgment as to the worth of your work. But at the same time, everybody's judgment is his or her own. The ethics of the community require that you argue for what you believe and that you try as hard as you can to get results to test your hunches, but you have to be honest in reporting the results, whatever they are. You have the freedom and independence to do whatever you want, as long as in the end you accept the judgment of the community. Good science comes from the collision of contradictory ideas, from conflict, from people trying to do better than their teachers did, and I think here we have a model for what a democratic society is about. There’s a great strength in our democratic way of life, and science is at the root of it. Lee Smolin, article Loop Quantum Gravity
My experience in science has always been that the future always exceeds what we believe is possible. I suspect that we will explore the universe. Neil Turok
I think that physics is the most important – indeed the only – means we have of finding out the origins and fundamentals of our universe, and this is what interests me most about it. I believe that as science advances religion necessarily recedes, and this is a process I wish to encourage, because I consider that, on the whole, the influence of religion is malign. William Bowen Bonner