Humphry Davy Quotes

Exploration of space is worth it because humans need to explore. Knowledge is always good, and it's a really cool thing to see.

I think a scientist's job is to explore the Universe, to explore the cosmos around us. People always want to know - why is that useful? Well, on just pure fundamental grounds, on some level it's like art, it's like umm, music, it's aesthetics, it's like philosophy. You want to know where you are in the Universe.

Contrary to widespread belief, I do know something about science.

Of course, mankind has made giant steps forward. However, what we know is really very, very little compared to what we still have to know.

Very few recognize science as the high adventure it really is, the wildest of all explorations ever taken by human beings, the chance to glimpse things never seen before, the shrewdest maneuver for discovering how the world works.

Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.

Science would lead you to a more interesting life than something else.

We receive the truths of science by compulsion. Nothing but ignorance is able to resist them.

I don't know anything about science.

There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

Fortunately science, like that nature to which it belongs, is neither limited by time nor by space. It belongs to the world, and is of no country and of no age …

It must be for truth's sake, and not for the sake of its usefulness to humanity, that the scientific man studies Nature.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

Science appears but what in truth she is, Not as our glory and our absolute boast, But as a succedaneum, and a prop To our infirmity.

There is but one bond of peace that is both permanent and enriching: The increasing knowledge of the world in which experiment occurs.

It is little enough we know and the rest is darkness.

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a high-power transistor on the other.

Science knows no country because it is the light that iluminates the world

God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance.

Most Americans are close to total ignorance about the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.

It is precisely because it is fashionable for Americans to know no science, even though they may be well educated otherwise, that they so easily fall prey to nonsense.

Science is interesting, and if you don't agree, you can fvck off.

For me, 9/11 was a game changer. It altered my perception of the security threat we faced. I took the position that Britain should be shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. It was a big decision; I didn't take it lightly, or in ignorance of its consequences. It's a big commitment for a country to give, but I believed it was the right thing to do.