48 quotes
The old Dances of Death supplied what fails so much in our modern life—an artistic representation appealing to all classes of at least one experience common to the whole of humanity.
The Chances of Death (1895)
[T]he task of science can never end till man ceases to be, till history is no longer made, and development itself ceases.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
The shadow of death, more strongly even than blood or nation, maketh mankind akin; it arouses sympathy and understanding, which surmount all the barriers of caste and station.
The Chances of Death (1895)
So soon as science entered the field of alchemy with a true classification and a true method, alchemy was converted into chemistry and became an important branch of human knowledge.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
[T]he universe is largely the construction of each individual mind.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
The absence of the improbable, the redundancy of the probable, is just as much conclusive evidence against conformity with scientific law as the too frequent occurrence of the improbable itself.
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
That it does not pay to gamble has been the oft repeated theme of the moralist, and has been demonstrated with much brave show of symbols by mathematicians from Lagrange to De Morgan and onwards.
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
The field of science is unlimited; its material is endless, every group of natural phenomena, every phase of social life, every stage of past or present development is material for science. The unity of all science consists alone in its method, not in its material.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
[I]t is better to be content with the fraction of a right solution than to beguile ourselves with the whole of a wrong solution.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
In my enthusiasm Monte Carlo appeared to me in a new light; it was clearly a scientific laboratory preparing material for the natural philosopher.
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
Each one of us is... called upon to give a judgment upon an immense variety of problems, crucial for our social existence. If that judgment confirms measures and conduct tending to the increased welfare of society, then it may be termed a moral, or, better, a social judgment.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
I felt somewhat taken aback. ...to have hit upon a month of roulette ...so improbable ...that it would only occur on the average once in 167,000 years of continuous roulette playing.
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
Monte Carlo roulette, if judged by returns which are published... is, if the laws of chance rule, from the standpoint of exact science the most prodigious miracle of the nineteenth century.
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
Step by step men of science are coming to recognise that mechanism is not at the bottom of phenomena, but is only the conceptual shorthand by aid of which they can briefly describe and resume phenomena.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
That all science is description and not explanation, that the mystery of change in the inorganic world is just as great and just as omnipresent as in the organic world, are statements which will appear platitudes to the next generation.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
If any... work gives a description of phenomena that appeals to... imagination rather than to... reason, then it is bad science.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
For the latter half of Chapter III and for the whole of Chapter IV... I am alone responsible. Yet whatever there is in them of value I owe to Clifford; whatever is feeble or obscure is my own.
The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885)
One result of this obscurity we probably find in the ease with which the physicist, as compared with either the pure mathematician or the historian, is entangled in the meshes of such pseudosciences as natural theology and spiritualism.
The Grammar of Science (1900)
No statements of mere averages... are of the least avail against our statistics. Fluctuations from the averages are the sole reliable test...
The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette (1894)
[T]he tribal conscience ought for the sake of social welfare to be stronger than private interest...
The Grammar of Science (1900)