Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet Quotes

43 Sourced Quotes

The secrets of Nature are... reserved for those who seek them purely for the love of truth and desire for understanding. The "just and faithful knight" can see Nature unveiled and pass into the spiritual city of science, where purer joys than all earthly fame can give will be his prize.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
To the popular mind, a man of science is a callous necromancer who has cut himself off from communion with his fellows, and has thereby lost the throbbing and compassionate heart of a full life: he is a Faust who has not yet made a bargain with Mephistopheles, and is therefore without human interest.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
It may be impossible for human intelligence to comprehend absolute truth, but it is possible to observe Nature with an unbiased mind and to bear truthful testimony of things seen.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
The pleasure derived from the discovery of some secret of Nature unknown before except to the architect of the universe surpasses all the rewards the world can give.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Many men have been laughed at... for gazing heavenward when their minds might have been occupied with affairs of earth. There will always be the mind that strives to reach to the skies, and the scoffer who regards all such aspirations as folly. Two men stood looking through the bars, One saw mud, the other saw the stars.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
To qualify for admission into the temple of science it is necessary to offer sacrifices at the alter of knowledge; and only those with sincere regard for truth will find their gifts acceptable.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Science is not to be measured by practical service alone, though it may contribute to material prosperity: it is an intellectual outlook, a standard of truth and a gospel of light.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
New treasures can never be secured from Nature without effort; "tribulation, not undisturbed progress gives life and soul, and leads to success when success can be reached, in the struggle for natural knowledge."

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Out of these eight minutes [referring to the Copernican theory of the orbits of planets] we will construct a new theory that will explain the motions of all the planets.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Scientific work must... be carried on with an open mind, uninfluenced by preconceived ideas, critical of its own observations, cautious in arriving at conclusions from them, and ready to revise any statement which has not stood the test of further experiment or reasoning.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
In the pursuit of truth the man of science spends his days; and for the defense of truth he is prepared to stand against the world.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Facts which appear to be opposed to prevailing belief or theory are often reached in science, but if they stand unaltered after being subjected to rigorous and critical examination they must be adhered to and the belief or theory abandoned.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet
Those who transgress the laws of man sometimes escape punishment; but the laws of Nature can never be broken without paying the penalty. The man who steps over the side of a cliff, consciously or unconsciously, meets the consequences of his action swiftly, whether he be sinner or saint.

Sir Richard Gregory, 1st Baronet