George Sarton - Science Quotes

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… science is the most revolutionary force in the world.

George Sarton
Science like religion implies disinterestedness, earnestness, austerity.

George Sarton
Science tends to destroy the darkness where evil and injustice breed, but there is also some element of beauty and poetry in that darkness.

George Sarton
I like to think of the constant presence in any sound Republic of two guardian angels: the Statistician and the Historian of Science. The former keeps his finger on the pulse of Humanity.

George Sarton
When we say that science is essentially progressive this does not mean that in his quest of truth man follows always the shortest path. Far from it, he beats about the bush, does not find what he is looking for but finds something else, retraces his steps, loses himself in various detours, and finally after many wanderings touches the goal.

George Sarton
The more science enters into our lives, the more it must be "humanized," and there is no better way to humanize it than to study its history.

George Sarton
Science, like art and religion - neither more nor less - is a form of man's reaction against nature. It is an attempt to explain nature in its own terms, that is, to evidence its unity, wholeness, and congruency.

George Sarton
Science is neither philosophy, nor religion, nor art; it is the totality of positive knowledge, as closely knit as possible; it is as different from its practical applications on the one hand, as it is from idle theorizing and blind faith on the other. It behooves us to make no extravagant claims for it, and to be as humble as we can.

George Sarton
When one reads the history of science one has the exhilarating feeling of climbing a big mountain. The history of art gives one an altogether different impression. It is not at all like the ascension of a mountain, always upward whichever the direction of one's path; it is rather like a leisurely journey across a hilly country.

George Sarton
Mathematics gives to science its innermost unity and cohesion, which can never be entirely replaced with props and buttresses or with roundabout connections, no matter how many of these may be introduced.

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

George Sarton
Men of science have made abundant mistakes of every kind; their knowledge has improved only because of their gradual abandonment of ancient errors, poor approximations, and premature conclusions.

George Sarton
Hellenic science is a victory of rationalism, which appears greater, not smaller, when one is made to realize that it had been won in spite of the irrational beliefs of the Greek people; all in all, it was a triumph of reason in the face of unreason. Some knowledge of Greek superstitions is needed not only for a proper appreciation of that triumph but also for the justification of occasional failures, such as the many Platonic aberrations.

George Sarton
Scientific achievements seem evanescent, because the very progress of science causes their supersedure; yet some of them are of so fundamental a nature that they are immortal in a deeper way.

George Sarton
In ancient times there was no public education, except that of the forum, the theater, and the street, and the general degree of illiteracy was very high.... the early men of science were left very much to themselves and such a phrase as "the scientific culture of Alexandria in the third century B. C." does not cover any reality. In a sense, this is still true today; the real pioneers are so far ahead of the crowd (even a very literate crowd) that they remain almost alone...

George Sarton
It is childish to assume that science began in Greece; the Greek "miracle" was prepared by millenia of work in Egypt, Mesopotamia and possibly in other regions. Greek science was less an invention than a revival.

George Sarton
The most ominous conflict of our time is the difference of opinion, of outlook, between men of letters, historians, philosophers, the so-called humanists, on the one side and scientists on the other. The gap cannot but increase because of the intolerance of both and the fact that science is growing by leaps and bounds.

George Sarton
The chief requisite for the making of a good chicken pie is chicken; no amount of culinary legerdemain can make up for the lack of chicken. In the same way, the chief requisite for the history of science is intimate scientific knowledge; no amount of philosophic legerdemain can make up for its absence.

George Sarton
The history of science should not be an instrument to defend any kind of social or philosophic theory; it should be used only for its own purpose, to illustrate impartially the working of reason against unreason, the gradual unfolding of truth, in all its forms, whether pleasant or unpleasant, useful of useless, welcome or unwelcome.

George Sarton