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Though a state of affairs that would contravene the laws of physics can be represented by us spatially, one that would contravene the laws of geometry cannot.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
Anthropology has been compared to a great region, marked out indeed as within the sphere of influence of science, but unsettled and for the most part unsubdued. Like all such hinterland sciences, it is a happy hunting-ground for adventurers.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
In the metaphysical elements of aesthetics the various nonmoral feelings are to be made use of; in the elements of moral metaphysics the various moral feelings of men, according to the differences in sex, age, education, and government, of races and climates, are to be employed.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
We have abolished space here on the little Earth; we can never abolish the space that yawns between the stars. Once again, as in the days when Homer sang, we are face-to-face with immensity and must accept its grandeur and terror, its inspiring possibilities and its dreadful restraints.
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If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run, and often in the short one, the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
Busy old fool, unruly Sun, why dost thou thus through windows and through curtains call on us? Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
Now if light be reflected, not by impinging on the solid parts of bodies, but by some other principle; it's probable that as many of its rays as impinge on the solid parts of bodies are not reflected but stifled and lost in the bodies. For otherwise we must allow two sorts of reflexions. Should all the rays be reflected which impinge on the internal parts of clear water or crystal, those substances would rather have a cloudy colour than a clear transparency. To make bodies look black, it's necessary that many rays be stopp'd, retained, and lost in them; and it seems not probable that any rays can be stopp'd and stifled in them which do not impinge on their parts.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
Geometry does not teach us to draw these lines, but requires them to be drawn.
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
Whence do you have it that the terrestrial globe is so heavy? For my part, either I do not know what heaviness is, or the terrestrial globe is neither heavy nor light, as likewise all other globes of the universe. Heaviness to me (and I believe to Nature) is that innate tendency by which a body resists being moved from its natural place and by which, when forcibly removed therefrom, it spontaneously returns there. Thus a bucketful of water raised on high and set free, returns to the sea; but who will say that the same water remains heavy in the sea, when being set free there, does not move?
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in Quotes & Aphorisms (Science and technologies)
The plain message physical science has for the world at large is this, that were our political and social and moral devices only as well contrived to their ends as a linotype machine, an antiseptic operating plant, or an electric tram-car, there need now at the present moment be no appreciable toil in the world.
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