[Hill]

I read a lot about science and scientists. Some of them are a goldmine of quotes and anecdotes. I like the humorous ones best. Your additions are welcomed.

I'll start the ball rolling, or swinging, with this one about Richard Feynman.

There were 183 of us freshmen, and a bowling ball hanging from the three-story ceiling to just above the floor. Feynman walked in and, without a word, grabbed the ball and backed against the wall with the ball touching his nose. He let go, and the ball swung slowly 60 feet across the room and back — stopping naturally just short of crushing his face. Then he took the ball again, stepped forward, and said: "I wanted to show you that I believe in what I'm going to teach you over the next two years."

Michael Scott, first CEO of Apple Computer

Feynman Online

[Hill]

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Richard Feynman

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

Richard Feynman
US educator & physicist (1918 - 1988)

[Hill]

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

Carl Sagan

[arkain101]

If Z=A+B+C, and Z equals Success, then A equals work, B equals play, and C equals keeping your mouth shut."-Albert Einstein ...

[Hill]

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Carl Sagan

[Hill]

"When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions."

Anonymous kid

[Michaelangelica]

Terry Pratchett's books are full of quotable quotes. Funny and serious at the same time
The one I remember:-
"At first there was nothing
Then it exploded."

[freeztar]

I was looking for this quote:

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Einstein

And came across a million more...so I'll share a few...

We see only what we know.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power.
Bertrand Russell

I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it.
Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) Austrian physicist. Nobel Prize, 1933. Speaking of quantum mechanics.

An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.
Arthur S. Eddington

Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
Albert Szent-Györgi

Boswell: But, Sir is it not somewhat singular that you should happen to have Cocker's Arithmetic about you on your journey?
Dr. Johnson: Why, Sir if you are to have but one book with you upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book of science is inexhaustible.
James Boswell (1740-95) Scottish author, biographer of Samuel Johnson.

I could quote for days...

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 the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated.
Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter (1872-1939) English surgeon.

[Michaelangelica]

nice quotes
This is a favourite of mine, from Charles Darwin's Gardener who said-about his employer-:-

"He's really a sad little man.
Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours.
I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

nice quotes
This is a favourite of mine, from Charles Darwin's Gardener who said-about his employer-:-

"He's really a sad little man.
Sometimes he stands and stares at a flower for hours.
I really think he'd be better off if he had something to do."

Bravo!!!! That's great!

Here's one:
"If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror."
- John Young, former Apollo astronaut