A Quote by Carl Sagan

In a lot of scientists, the ratio of wonder to skepticism declines in time. That may be connected with the fact that in some fields-mathematics, physics, some others-the great discoveries are almost entirely made by youngsters.

Carl Sagan

Quote Topics

Almost Connected Discoveries Entirely Fact Fields Great Lot Made Mathematics May Others Physics Ratio Scientists Skepticism Some Time Wonder Youngsters

Quote Author

Carl Sagan
American - Scientist
November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996

It seems that every practitioner of physics has had to wonder at some point why mathematics and physics have come to be so closely entwined. Opinions vary on the answer. ..Bertrand Russell acknowledged..'Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little.' ..Mathematics may be indispensable to physics, but it obviously does not constitute physics.

Etienne Klein

But, contrary to the lady's prejudices about the engineering profession, the fact is that quite some time ago the tables were turned between theory and applications in the physical sciences. Since World War II the discoveries that have changed the world are not made so much in lofty halls of theoretical physics as in the less-noticed labs of engineering and experimental physics. The roles of pure and applied science have been reversed; they are no longer what they were in the golden age of physics, in the age of Einstein, Schrödinger, Fermi and Dirac.

Nicholas Metropolis

I wonder if economics has less basic core material than is necessary for fields such as mathematics, physics, or chemistry, say.

Clive Granger

Some of the most important discoveries that scientists have made were not what they were seeking at the time.

Jamie Hyneman

It is all about love. It is all about caring. We are all in this game together, we are all connected. You may not be able to see it with your eyes but if you go to the Quantum Universe, some of the physics of nature, we are all connected.

John Assaraf

The universe does not exist 'out there,' independent of us. We are inescapably involved in bringing about that which appears to be happening. We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe. Physics is no longer satisfied with insights only into particles, fields of force, into geometry, or even into time and space. Today we demand of physics some understanding of existence itself.

John P. Wheeler III

Nowadays, not to say that that doesn't happen, but music is made a lot almost in a laboratory where you get one guy working in one studio, they send the file to another guy in some other part of the world, they send it back and then they send it this way and that way. Musicianship is kind of - there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, some great music is made that way.

Dave Koz

A large fraction of the most interesting scientists have read a lot of SF at one time or another, either early enough that it may have played a part in their becoming scientists or at some later date just because they liked the ideas.

Frederik Pohl

All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries.

Karl Pearson

My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.

Carl Sagan

I may have made a straight A in physics, but I was panic-struck. Physics made me sick the whole time I learned it.

Sylvia Plath

The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists of the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.

Bertrand Russell

...My friend, there are some things that I cannot tell you. Some I will tell you in time; some, others will tell you; some you may never know, or you may be the first to find the answers.

Robin McKinley

When I run, I think about everything: physics, family problems, plans for the weekend. I haven't made any big discoveries on a run, but it does give me time to think through problems. Some solutions are obvious, but they are only obvious when you are relaxed enough to find them.

Wolfgang Ketterle

A work of art... is not a living thing... that walks or runs. But the making of a life. That which gives you a reaction. To some it is the wonder of man's fingers. To some it is the wonder of the mind. To some it is the wonder of technique. And to some it is how real it is. To some, how transcendent it is. Like the 5th Symphony, it presents itself with a feeling that you know it, if you have heard it once.