James Lovelock Quotes

We live, I think, in the century of science and, perhaps, even in the century of physics.

One of the things Kuhn said about normal science is that people 'expect' things to be discovered.

One of Kuhn's marvellous legacies is science studies as we know it today.

The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution.

In science novelty emerges only with difficulty, manifested by resistance, against a background provided by expectation.

I believe that the quantum of our knowledge will increase considerably in the coming years and that scientists will continue to be amongst the brave voices speaking out.

I had then and still retain an interest in science for its own sake and as a metaphor for our current lives.

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

The point here is that physics followed the data where it seemed to lead, even though some thought the model gave aid and comfort to religion.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

Scientific knowledge is a kind of discourse.

Science is a part of culture. Indeed, it is the only truly global culture because protons and proteins are the same all over the world, and it's the one culture we can all share.

I think that we scientists are seeking an understanding of the natural world. We come in various types - chemists and physicists and biologists and such - and we all have the same goal. We are making progress.

I proceed with the proper subject of this discourse; namely, the further changes in scientific belief, which have occurred within my own recollection, even since the time when I first aspired to authorship, now forty- five years ago.

In the history of science, we often find that the study of some natural phenomenon has been the starting point in the development of a new branch of knowledge.

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

Discoveries in physics are made when the time for making them is ripe, and not before.

Relativity was a highly technical new theory that gave new meanings to familiar concepts and even to the nature of the theory itself. The general public looked upon relativity as indicative of the seemingly incomprehensible modern era, educated scientists despaired of ever understanding what Einstein had done, and political ideologues used the new theory to exploit public fears and anxieties—all of which opened a rift between science and the broader culture that continues to expand today.

The word scientist was coined in 1834, as the sciences were becoming professionalized and specialized

Kuhn was the intellectual of whom many scientists said he's 'telling it as is it is' insofar as talking about a process of 'tinkering' in terms of theory and experiment followed by radical changes. But often, what Kuhn had in mind were some very spectacular incidents in the history of the sciences that changed our way of looking at the world.

Typically in science, individual scientists make up their minds about scientific fact or theory one at a time. We don't take votes. We just don't vote on quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, why the sky is blue, or anything else.

Professors in every branch of the sciences, prefer their own theories to truth: the reason is that their theories are private property, but truth is common stock.

Science is neither a single tradition, nor the best tradition there is, except for people who have become accustomed to its presence, its benefits and its disadvantages. In a democracy it should be separated from the state just as churches are now separated from the state.

Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible.

The discovery which has been pointed to by theory is always one of profound interest and importance, but it is usually the close and crown of a long and fruitful period, whereas the discovery which comes as a puzzle and surprise usually marks a fresh epoch and opens a new chapter in science.