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The scientific books written in Arabic during the Middle Ages were, for a few centuries, the main vehicle of the living science.

— George Sarton

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Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: George Sarton, ‘Science' in Mid-East: World-Center, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, ed. Ruth Nanda Anshen, Cooper Square Publishers, New York, 1975, p. 269.
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

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Erudition without pedantry is as a rare as wisdom itself.

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The whole iconography of ancient science is simply the fruit of wishful thinking.

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The whole past and the whole world are alive in my heart, and I shall do my part to communicate their presence to my readers.

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My gratitude to them [my first teachers] grows as I myself grow older.

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Some forty years of experience in my field as a scholar and as a teacher have given me great confidence mixed with greater humility.

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A deed happens in a definite place at a definite time, but if it be sufficiently great and pregnant, its virtue radiates everywhere in time and space.

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The general acceptance of simple ideas is difficult and rare, and yet it is only when simple, fundamental, ideas have been accepted that further progress becomes possible on a higher level.

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Arabic science was the fruit of Semitic genius fertilized by the Iranian genius.

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More quotes by George Sarton

There are two kinds of people in the world, whom we might dub the jobholders and the enthusiasts.

A History of Science Vol.1 Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece (1952)

History has often proved the shortsightedness of the practical men and vindicated the "lazy" dreamers; it has also proved that the dreamers are often mistaken.

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The history of science should be the leading thread in the history of civilization.

From the humanistic point of view every human achievement is unforgettable and immortal in its essence, even if it is replaced by a "better" one.

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I am obliged to deal with hundreds of men and to make them live without killing the reader.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: George Sarton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.