51 quotes
It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary; because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.
I think I have already said somewhere that mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
Science and Method (1908)
Scientists believe there is a hierarchy of facts and that among them may be made a judicious choice. They are right, since otherwise there would be no science...
The Value of Science (1905)
But these labels can only be finite in number. On that score, psychologic time should be discontinuous.
The Value of Science (1905)
As we can not give a general definition of energy, the principle of the conservation of energy signifies simply that there is something which remains constant.
The Value of Science (1905)
If, then, a phenomenon admits of a complete mechanical explanation, it will admit of an infinity of others, that will render an account equally well of all the particulars revealed by experiment.
Science and Hypothesis (1901)
If all the parts of the universe are interchained in a certain measure, any one phenomenon will not be the effect of a single cause, but the resultant of causes infinitely numerous; it is, one often says, the consequence of the state of the universe the moment before.
The Value of Science (1905)
What has taught us to know the true profound analogies, those the eyes do not see but reason divines?
It is the mathematical spirit, which disdains matter to cling only to pure form.
The Value of Science (1905)
Why is it that showers and even storms seem to come by chance, so that many people think it quite natural to pray for rain or fine weather, though they would consider it ridiculous to ask for an eclipse by prayer?
For a definition to be of any use, it must teach us to measure force; moreover that suffices; it is not at all necessary that it teach us what force is in itself, nor whether it is the cause or the effect of motion.
Science and Hypothesis (1901)
If one looks at the different problems of the integral calculus which arise naturally when one wishes to go deep into the different parts of physics, it is impossible not to be struck by the analogies existing.
It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details.
Is not my present nearer my past of yesterday than the present of Sirius?
The Value of Science (1905)
Time and Space … It is not nature which imposes them upon us, it is we who impose them upon nature because we find them convenient.
The Value of Science (1905)
The Scientist must set in order. Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.
Science and Hypothesis (1901)
The mathematician is born, not made.
The Value of Science (1905)
Mathematicians do not study objects, but the relations between objects; to them it is a matter of indifference if these objects are replaced by others, provided that the relations do not change. Matter does not engage their attention, they are interested in form alone.
Science and Hypothesis (1901)
[W]e should say: Causes almost identical take almost the same time to produce almost the same effects.
The Value of Science (1905)
[H]ave we really the right to speak of the cause of a phenomenon?
The Value of Science (1905)
Everyone is sure of this [that errors are normally distributed], Mr. Lippman told me one day, since the experimentalists believe that it is a mathematical theorem, and the mathematicians that it is an experimentally determined fact.