Science

When man seized the loadstone of science, the loadstar of superstition vanished in the clouds.
~ William Rounseville (W.R.) Alger

Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. Rigour should be a signal to the historian that the maps have been made, and the real explorers have gone elsewhere.
~ William S. Anglin, in Mathematical Intelligencer, vol. 4, no. 4 (1980). Mathematics and History

Always think of the consequences of your actions both in the field and in the laboratory.
~ William M. Bass, Ph.D., Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual of the Human Skeleton (3rd edition, 1987).

Though we must hold to our faith in the evolution of species, there is little evidence as to how it has come about, and no clear proof that the process is continuing in any considerable degree at the present time.
~ William Bateson, Address to British Association for the Advancement of Science (20 August 1914)

One cannot expect a theoretical model to be able to determine what is inherently unpredictable.
~ William J. Baumol, Princeton University Press (April 2002). Free Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism

[T]he greatness of a scientific investigator does not rest on the fact of his having never made a mistake, but rather on his readiness to admit that he has done so, whenever the contrary evidence is cogent enough.
~ William Maddock Bayliss, Principles of General Physiology (1915).

To what new realms of marvel, say,
Will conquering science war its way?
~ William Cox (W.C.) Bennett, To a Boy. Stanza 1

Elaborate apparatus plays an important part in the science of today, but I sometimes wonder if we are not inclined to forget that the most important instrument in research must always be the mind. It is true that much time and effort is devoted to training and equipping the scientist's mind, but little attention is paid to the technicalities of making the best use of it.
~ William Ian Beardmore (W.I.B.) Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950).

Generalizations can never be proved.
~ William Ian Beardmore (W.I.B.) Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950).

Hypothesis is a toll which can cause trouble if not used properly. We must be ready to abandon our hypothesis as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with the facts.
~ William Ian Beardmore (W.I.B.) Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950).

[S]ciences are of a sociable disposition, and flourish best in the neighborhood of each other: nor is there any branch of learning, but may be helped and improved by assistances drawn from other arts.
~ William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). Introduction, Section 1: On the Study of Law

[T]o be an Error, and to be Cast out is a part of God's Design.
~ William Blake, from A Vision of the Last Judgment (c. 1810).

Physicists use the wave theory on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and the particle theory on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
~ Sir William Henry Bragg

The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
~ Sir William Lawrence Bragg, quoted in Beyond Reductionism (1968).

It is the merest truism, evident at once to unsophisticated observation, that mathematics is a human invention.
~ Percy Williams (P.W.) Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics (1927).

[S]cience is only my private science.
~ Percy Williams (P.W.) Bridgman, The Nature of Physical Theory (1936).

To find the length of an object, we have to perform certain physical operations. The concept of length is therefore fixed when the operations by which length is measured are fixed: that is, the concept of length involves as much as and nothing more than the set of operations by which length is determined.
~ Percy Williams (P.W.) Bridgman (classical illustration of operationalism), The Logic of Modern Physics (1927).

Evolution seems to close the heart to some of the plainest spiritual truths while it opens the mind to the wildest guesses advanced in the name of science.
~ William Jennings Bryan, letter to The New York Times (22 February 1922).

Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals.
~ William Jennings Bryan, Prepared summation (undelivered), Tennessee v. Scopes (1925).

[T]he remarkable position we find ourselves in is that we don't actually know what we actually know.
~ Bill Bryson (on the limitations of scientific knowledge), A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003). Chapter 23: The Richness of Being

Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

No job too dirty for the scientists.
~ William S. Burroughs

The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that's just ridiculous. It's as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. Among primitive people they say if someone was bitten by a snake he was murdered. I believe that.
~ William S. Burroughs

I fish only for edible fish, and hunt only for edible game, even in the laboratory.
~ Willis H. Carrier

The subject of science is the human universe; that is to say, everything that is, or has been, or may be related to man.
~ William Kingdon (W.K.) Clifford, in Lectures and Essays, Vol. 1 (1879). On the Aims and Instruments of Scientific Thought (lecture delivered on 19 August 1872)

There is no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready made his discovery or poem or picture -- that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within.
~ William Kingdon (W.K.) Clifford, Lecture to the Royal Institution, London (1868). Some of the conditions of mental development

To stop short in any research that bids fair to widen the gates of knowledge, to recoil from fear of difficulty or adverse criticism, is to bring reproach on science. There is nothing for the investigator to do but to go straight on; to explore up and down, inch by inch, with the taper his reason; to follow the light wherever it may lead, even should it at times resemble a will-o'-the-wisp.
~ Sir William Crookes, Address, British Association for the Advancement of Science. Bristol, England (1898).

Anyone can easily misuse good data.
~ W. Edwards Deming, Some Theory of Sampling (1950).

Any view of the sciences that leaves Christ out of the picture must be seen as fundamentally deficient.
~ William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology (1999).

Simply put, intelligent design is the science that studies signs of intelligence.
~ William A. Dembski, The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design (2004). Preface

What has kept design outside the scientific mainstream these last 130 years is the absence of precise methods for distinguishing intelligently caused objects from unintelligently caused ones. For design to be a fruitful scientific theory, scientists have to be sure they can reliably determine whether something is designed. ... This fear of falsely attributing something to design only to have it overturned later has prevented design from entering science proper ...
~ William A. Dembski, in Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design (1998). Introduction

Science has never sought to ally herself with civil power. She has never subjected anyone to mental torment, physical torment, least of all death, for the purpose of promoting her ideas.
~ John William Draper

The history of science is not a mere record of isolated discoveries; it is a narrative of the conflict of two contending powers, the expansive force of the human intellect on one side, and the compression arising from traditionary faith and human interest on the other.
~ John William Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874).

Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Story of Philosophy: the Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers (1926).

The truth is that people will always demand a religion phrased in imagery and haloed with the supernatural. They don't want science; they are in mortal terror of it, for the one sermon of science is that all life eats other life and that all life must die. The masses will never accept science until it gives them an earthly paradise. As long as there is poverty, there will be gods.
~ William James "Will" Durant, The Mansions of Philosophy: A Survey Of Human Life And Destiny (1929).

Science is knowledge certain and evident in itself, or by the principle from which it is deduced, or with which it is certainly connected. It is subjective as existing in a mind -- objective, as embodied in truths -- speculative, as resting in attainment of truths, as in physicial science -- practical, as leading to do something, as in ethical science.
~ William Fleming, The Vocabulary of Philosophy, Mental, Moral, and Metaphysical (1856).

Science and religion no more contradict each other than light and electricity.
~ William Hiram Foulkes

Competing concerns make it extremely difficult to reach consensus on a federal policy in this area. Nonetheless, because both embryonic and adult stem cell research may contribute to significant medical and health advancement, research on both should be federally funded within a carefully regulated, fully transparent framework that ensures respect for the moral significance of the human embryo.
~ Bill Frist, in Time.com (19 July 2001). Person of the Week

As scientific evidence mounts bonding the link between mirthful laughter and general stimulation of physiological systems, the role and effect of laughter in physiological homeodynamics becomes more and more obvious.The effects of laughter upon health must be taken seriously ...
~ William F. Fry, Jr., MD

Scientific research is not itself a science; it is still an art or craft.
~ William Herbert George, The Scientist in Action; A Scientific Study of His Methods (1936). Four Qualities of Scientific Research

I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
~ William Schwenck (W.S.) Gilbert, Pirates of Penzance. Act I (1880 opera)

No experiment can be more precarious than that of a half-confidence.
~ William Godwin, St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century (1799). Chapter XII

We also know or it is at least scientifically respectable to postulate that at the centre of a black hole the laws of nature no longer apply. Since most scientists are just a bit religious and most religious are seldom wholly unscientific we find humanity in a comical position. His scientific intellect believes in the possibility of miracles inside a black hole while his religious intellect believes in them outside it.
~ William Golding, Nobel Lecture (7 December 1983).

A man does not know even his own science if he knows ONLY it!
~ William J.J. Gordon, Synectics: the Development of Creative Capacity (1961).

We feel our ongoing forecast research will allow us to continue to improve our predictive skill.
~ William Gray, Colorado State Press Release (20 November 2001). Third Consecutive Year of On-Target Predictions From Renowned Hurricane Forecast Team at Colorado State University

It would be vain to attempt specifically to predict what may be the effect of Photography on future generations. A Process by which the most transient actions are rendered permanent, by which facts write their own annals in a language that can never be obsolete, forming documents which prove themselves, -- must interweave itself not only with science but with history and legislature.
~ William R. Grove, A Lecture on the Progress of Physical Science since the opening of the London Institution (19 January 1842).

A Science is a complement of cognitions, having, in point of form, the character of logical perfection; in point of matter, the character of real truth.
~ Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1858-60).

The highest reach of human science is the recognition of human ignorance.
~ Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, from Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, Education and University Reform (1852).

With very few exceptions, the only parts of the theory of natural selection which have been supported by mathematical models admit to no possibility of the evolution of any characters which are on average to the disadvantage of the individuals possessing them. If natural selection followed the classical model exclusively, species would not show any behavior more positively social than the coming together of the sexes and parental care.
~ William D. Hamilton, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7: 1-16 (1964). The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour. Part I

Time is said to have only one dimension, and space to have three dimensions. ... The mathematical quaternion partakes of both these elements; in technical language, it may be said to be "time plus space", or "space plus time": and in this sense it has, or at least involves a reference to, four dimensions.
~ William Rowan Hamilton

Science is all about cause. That's why you have science; you're trying to find the explanation, the causes, for the phenomena. Now, if really everything is connected to everything, if there really is only a oneness, everything then affects everything, and everything is the cause of everything in a certain sense, so that the whole idea of causality has to be revised.
~ Willis Harman, Metaphysics and Modern Science (1998). Part I: Consciousness and Science

[I] profess both to learn and to teach anatomy, not from books but from dissections; not from the positions of philosophers but from the fabric of nature.
~ William Harvey, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (An Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals; 1628). Dedication

The breathtaking pace of antiviral drug discovery is proof that genomics works. Just as research on viral genomes in the 1980s has led and continues to lead to victories against viruses, current research on the human genome will lead to equivalent victories against many other types of disease.
~ William A. Haseltine, in Human Genome Sciences Scientific American Article Describes New Golden Age of Antiviral Drugs and Vaccines (22 October 2001)

Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis: you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory ...
~ Stephen William Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988).

In effect, we have redefined the task of science to be the discovery of laws that will enable us to predict events up to the limits set by the uncertainty principle.
~ Stephen William Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988).

The theory of relativity does, however, force us to change fundamentally our ideas of space and time. We must accept that time is not completely separate from and independent of space, but is combined with it to form an object called space-time.
~ Stephen William Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988).

The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
~ Stephen William Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988).

The origin of all science is in the desire to know causes; and the origin of all false science and imposture is in the desire to accept false causes rather than none; or, which is the same thing, in the unwillingness to acknowledge our own ignorance.
~ William Hazlitt, in The Atlas (15 February 1829). Burke And The Edinburgh Phrenologists

Anatomy ... informs the head, guides the hand, and familiarizes the heart to a kind of necessary inhumanity.
~ William Hunter, introductory lecture notes to students (c. 1780)

If there is anything in the theory of the survival of the fittest, a lot of people we know must have been overlooked.
~ (Col.) William C. Hunter, Brass Tacks (1910).

In praising science, it does not follow that we must adopt the very poor philosophies which scientific men have constructed. In philosophy they have much more to learn than to teach.
~ William Ralph (Dean) Inge

Today I think more positively about my contribution to baseball than 10 years ago. Then the perception was that I had unleashed a plague of numbers. Today there has been a considerable shaking out of the market of things that are statistically interesting. It takes a while for people to grow up with statistics.
~ Bill James, Forbes Magazine (1 December 1997). Hits and Errors in Everyday Life

Algebra is a form of low cunning.
~ William James, Attributed

Anyone will renovate his science who will steadily look after the irregular phenomena. And when the science is renewed, its new formulas often have more of the voice of the exceptions in them than of what were supposed to be the rules.
~ William James, in Scribner's Magazine (March 1890). The Hidden Self

First ..., a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally, it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.
~ William James, from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907). Pragmatism's Conception of Truth

In psychology, physiology, and medicine, wherever a debate between the mystics and the scientifics has been once for all decided, it is the mystics who have usually proved to be right about the facts, while the scientifics had the better of it in respect to the theories.
~ William James, in Forum 13: 727-742 (1892). What Psychical Research Has Accomplished

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.
~ William James, from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907). The Present Dilemma in Philosophy

Psychology is the Science of Mental Life, both of its phenomena and their conditions.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter I: The Scope of Psychology

Science, must be constantly reminded that her purposes are not the only purposes, and that the order of uniform causation which she has use for, and is therefore right in postulating, may be enveloped in a wider order, on which she has no claims at all.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 2. Chapter XXVI: Will

The aim of science is always to reduce complexity to simplicity.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Vol. 1. Chapter IX: The Stream of Thought

The ideal of every science is that of a closed and completed system of truth.
~ William James, in Forum 13: 727-742 (1892). What Psychical Research Has Accomplished

The unrest which keeps the never stopping clock of metaphysics going is the thought that the non-existence of this world is just as possible as its existence.
~ William James, in Some Problems of Philosophy: A Beginning of an Introduction to Philosophy (1911). Chapter III: The Problem of Being

There is little of the grand style about these new prism, pendulum and chronograph-philosophers. They mean business, not chivalry ... the experimental method has quite changed the face of science so far as the latter is a record of mere work done.
~ William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890). Chapter VII: The Methods and Snares of Psychology

[W]hen was not the science of the future stirred to its conquering activities by the little rebellious exceptions to the science of the present?
~ William James, in Memories and Studies (1911). Final Impressions of a Psychical Researcher (originally published in the American Magazine, October 1909; Confidences of a Psychical Researcher)

Despite the boasted powers of science, we cannot apply scientific method to our own minds and characters.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1873). Chapter XXX: Classification

I hold that in all cases of inductive inference we must invent hypotheses, until we fall upon some hypothesis which yields deductive results in accordance with experience.
~ William (W.) Stanley Jevons, The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method (1873). Chapter XI: Philosophy of Inductive Inference

Do not imagine that mathematics is harsh and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealisation of common sense.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), Presidential Address to the Birmingham and Midland Institute, Birmingham (3 October 1883). The Six Gateways of Knowledge

I have no satisfaction in formulas unless I feel their arithmetical magnitude.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), from Baltimore Lectures on Molecular Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light (1904). Lecture VII (delivered on 7 October 1884)

I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), from Popular Lectures and Addresses, Vol. 1 (1891). Electrical Units of Measurement (A Lecture delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, on 3 May 1883)

The life and soul of science is its practical application, and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in the earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), from Popular Lectures and Addresses, Vol. 1 (1891). Electrical Units of Measurement (A Lecture delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, on 3 May 1883)

There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
~ Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), Address at the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900).

The art of discovering the causes of phenomena, or true hypothesis, is like the art of decyphering, in which an ingenious conjecture greatly shortens the road.
~ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, New Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1714).

Consciousness sets the goals. This assumption is implicit in current motor control thinking; and, if we carry it one step further, then consciousness is the boss. The relationship between consciousness and the C.N.S. is analogous to that between a king and his subjects. Although the king is ignorant of, and indeed inept at the detailed operation of his realm, he sets the policies societies have found an expression of their unity. ... The stumbling block for science is the nature of the physical link between consciousness and the neuronal processors. I believe that Penrose (1989, The Emperor's New Mind) is right to insist that physical theory is currently inadequate for the job. A fundamental addition to the pantheon of physical forces or properties of matter is essential to an understanding of the relationship between living cells and conscious phenomena.
~ William A. MacKay , Behavioral & Brain Sciences 14 (1991)

The Watsonian type of behaviourism is merely a mechanistically motivated attempt to turn psychology into objectively scientific channels by the simple expedient of eliminating whatever type of subject matter the behaviourists feel themselves incapable of describing. That the phenomenon eliminated chanced to be consciousness is unfortunate for "behaviourism", not for psychology.
~ William Moulton Marston, Emotions of Normal People (1928).

Science by itself has no moral dimension. But it does seek to establish truth. And upon this truth morality can be built.
~ William H. Masters, in Life magazine (24 June 1966).

For if the proper study of mankind is man, it is evidently more sensible to occupy yourself with the coherent, substantial and significant creatures of fiction than with the irrational and shadowy figures of real life.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale (1930).

Hypnotism is regarded as undoubtedly the most important, the most fruitful and far-reaching method of experimental psychology.
~ William McDougall, Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1929).

[Wundt's introspective structuralism and Watson's behaviourism,] in striving to become branches of natural science, conceived necessarily as physical science, have lost touch with human life.
~ William McDougall, An Outline of Psychology (1923).

It is certainly not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1885-86).

Sociology as a science is not interested in making the world a better place in which to live, in encouraging beliefs, in spreading information, in dispensing news, in setting forth impressions of life, in leading the multitudes, or in guiding the ship of state. Science is interested directly in one thing only, to wit, discovering new knowledge.
~ William Fielding Ogburn, in Proceedings of the American Sociological Society, XXIV (1930). The Folkways of a Scientific Sociology

The future belongs to science. More and more she will control the destinies of the nations. Already she has them in her crucible and on her balances.
~ William Osler, in The Life of Sir William Osler, Vol. II (1925).

You are the sum of what we know,
You are our might and main;
You are the whole of what is so,
The little we retain:
Our fond beliefs all come and go,
And you alone remain.
~ William Hales Pallister, Poems of Science (1931). Science

I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details.
~ William Matthew Flinders Petrie

The Great Pyramid has lent its name as a sort of by-word for paradoxes; and, as moths to a candle, so are theorisers attracted to it. The very fact that the subject was so generally familiar, and yet so little was accurately known about it, made it the more enticing; there were plenty of descriptions from which to choose, and yet most of them were so hazy that their support could be claimed for many varying theories.
~ William Matthew Flinders Petrie, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh (1883).

The scientific age with its urban-industrial culture is, for all its magnificent achievements and intoxicating success, in a very real sense a dark age. Its complete bondage to nature has enclosed the mind and spirit of man in a fast prison out of which, try as he may, he can find no way of escape. The inability to perceive any longer the reality of things invisible and unseen is a sickness of the soul which cries out to be cured. The only way to dispel the darkness of the present age and liberate it from the prison within which it has become bound is to restore the proper relationship of nature to supernature and of time to eternity as an essential feature of external reality.
~ W.G. (William Grosvenor) Pollard

It is the characteristic of true science, to discern the impassable, but not very obvious, limits which divide the province of reason from that of speculation.
~ William Hickling Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, Volume I (1843). Book I, Chapter IV

Honest pioneer work in the field of science has always been, and will continue to be, life's pilot. On all sides, life is surrounded by hostility. This puts us under an obligation.
~ Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm (Die Funktion des Orgasmus; 1927, trans. 1942). Chapter I: Biology and Sexology Before Freud

[S]cientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena.
~ Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm (Die Funktion des Orgasmus; 1927, trans. 1942). Chapter II: Peer Gynt

They [the Creationists] have been getting away with this nonsense [Creation Science] for some time now, even to the extent of getting legislation passed to allow them to teach "creationism" side by side with evolution. The true scientific community has largely remained within its hallowed halls rather than storming out into the quadrangle to do battle with what it knows to be pure nonsense. Scientists, unlike religionists, are political neophytes and generally remain oblivious to the issue of religion.
~ William H. Reynolds, Creationism: The Fossil Record and the Flood

I didn't think; I experimented.
~ Wilhelm Roentgen

Statistics have proven there are twenty five bath tubs sold to every Bible.
~ Will Rogers

Statistics in the hands of an engineer are like a lamppost to a drunk -- they're used more for support than illumination.
~ Bill Sangster

The fields of psychotherapy, medicine, counseling psychology, psychiatry, social work, ministry, and even education have all attempted to improve the human condition and truly help people. Unfortunately, their helpfulness is limited by the very concept of science on which they are built. As many scientists are warning, this mechanistic, reductionistic scientific model is reaching a state of entropy. It is beginning to turn on and devour itself. The time has come for psychology and psychotherapy as we know them to change dramatically.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef, Beyond Therapy, Beyond Science: A New Model for Healing the Whole Person (1992).

With a hypothetical question you can only get, at best, a hypothetical answer.
~ Father William Seifert

I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans.
~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Act II, scene ii

Let me see: every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields pound and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn. what comes the wool to? I can't do it without my counters.
~ William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

There are no scientific tests for race ... blood is blood, and bone is bone. Race is a con game. Don't play.
~ Will Shetterly

A measurement is a comparison to a standard.
~ William Bradford Shockley

Conterminous with space and coeval with time is the kingdom of Mathematics; within this range her dominion is supreme; otherwise than according to her order nothing can exist, and nothing takes place in contradiction to her laws.
~ William Spottiswoode, Presidential address to the British Association, Dublin (1878)

Absolutes have no place in science. The scientist should carefully avoid dogmatic statements, couching all conclusions in relativistic terms. When the scientist fails to do this, other members of the scientific community must be ready to correct such errors.
~ William D. Stansfield, Macmillan: New York NY (1983). The Science of Evolution (1977)

Most scientific theories, however, are ephemeral. Exceptions will likely be found that invalidate a theory in one or more of its tenets. These can then stimulate a new round of research leading either to a more comprehensive theory or perhaps to a more restrictive (i.e., more precisely defined) theory. Nothing is ever completely finished in science; the search for better theories is endless. The interpretation of a scientific experiment should not be extended beyond the limits of the available data. In the building of theories, however, scientists propose general principles by extrapolation beyond available data. When former theories have been shown to be inadequate, scientists should be prepared to relinquish the old and embrace the new in their never-ending search for better solutions. It is unscientific, therefore, to claim to have "proof of the truth" when all that scientific methodology can provide is evidence in support of a theory.
~ William D. Stansfield, Macmillan: New York NY (1983). The Science of Evolution (1977)

The purpose of science is not to find "facts" or discover "truth," but rather to formulate and use theories in order to solve problems and ultimately to organize, unify, and explain all the material phenomena of the universe. Scientists attempt to avoid the use of "fact, "proof," and "truth," because these words could easily be interpreted to connote absolutes. Nothing in science is deemed absolute. Science deals only with theories or relative "truth," -- a temporary correctness so far as can be ascertained by the rational mind at the present time.
~ William D. Stansfield, Macmillan: New York NY (1983). The Science of Evolution (1977)

A differentiation into a nomothetic and idiographic point of view should not be considered as a clear-cut separation into scientific disciplines. They represent two positions, but not two fields of research.
~ William Stern (Wilhelm Louis Stern), Leipzig : Barth Die Differentielle Psychologie in Ihren, Methodischen Grundlagen (1911)

Science has its being in a perpetual mental restlessness.
~ William Temple (archbishop), in Essays and Studies By Members of the English Association, Vol. 17 (1932). Poetry and Science

We are on the verge of an Alzheimer epidemic, with the number of cases expected to rise from the current 4 million to 14 million in 2050 unless a prevention or cure is found within the next few years. Science is the only place we can turn to for clues and eventual answers to Alzheimer's.
~ William Thies, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association News Release (23 July 2001). Alzheimer's Association Statement on Experimental Alzheimer Drug AN-1792 By Bill Thies, PH.D. Vice President, Medical and Scientific Affairs

As we know, there is a great divergence of opinion among biologists, not only about the causes of evolution but even about the actual process. This divergence exists because the evidence is unsatisfactory and does not permit any certain conclusion. It is therefore right and proper to draw the attention of the non-scientific public to the disagreements about evolution. But some recent remarks of evolutionists show that they think this unreasonable. This situation, where scientific men rally to the defence of a doctrine they are unable to define scientifically, much less demonstrate with scientific rigour, attempting to maintain its credit with the public by the suppression of criticism and the elimination of difficulties, is abnormal and undesirable in science.
~ W.R. Thompson, Introduction to the Everyman's Library Edition of The Origin of Species (1956).

That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

We don't devote enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.
~ Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

As we may look back towards the first condition of our planet, we may in like manner turn our thoughts towards the first condition of the solar system, and try whether we can discern any traces of an order of things antecedent to that which is now established; and if we find, as some great mathematicians have conceived, indications of an earlier state in which the planets were not yet gathered into their present forms, we have, in pursuit of this train of research, a palaetiological portion of Astronomy. Again, as we may inquire how languages, and how man, have been diffused over the earth's surface from place to place, we may make the like inquiry with regard to the races of plants and animals, founding our inferences upon the existing geographical distribution of the animal and vegetable kingdoms: and thus the Geography of Plants and of Animals also becomes a portion of Palaetiology. Again, as we can in some measure trace the progress of Arts from nation to nation and from age to age, we can also pursue a similar investigation with respect to the progress of Mythology, of Poetry, of Government, of Law. ... It is not an arbitrary and useless proceeding to construct such a Class of sciences. For wide and various as their subjects are, it will be found that they have all certain principles, maxims, and rules of procedure in common; and thus may reflect light upon each other by being treated together.
~ William Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1 (1840). Book X. Chapter I: Of Palaetiological Sciences in General

It is a test of true theories not only to account for, but to predict phenomena.
~ William Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1 (1840). Aphorisms Concerning Science

[O]ur assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.
~ William Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 2 (1840). Part II. Book XI, Chapter V. Of Certain Characteristics of Scientific Induction

[T]he system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained in our system. Different members of the theory run together, and we have thus a constant convergence to unity. In false theories, the contrary is the case.
~ William Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 2 (1840). Part II. Book XI, Chapter V. Of Certain Characteristics of Scientific Induction

Especially in the early stages of the development of a science, those attached to the established paradigm tend to ignore the facts that don't fit or to make patchwork adjustments in the theory. A popular theory is discarded only after it is confronted with overwhelming contrary evidence and the emergence of a new theory which fits both the old facts and the new facts that have now become available.
~ William Foote Whyte, ASR Presidential Address, published in the American Sociological Review, Vol. 47, No. 1 (February 1982). Social Inventions for Solving Human Problems

[T]o be allowed to idealize, we must neglect all non-essential secondary phenomena, while considering only everything indissolubly connected with the processes under examination.
~ Wilhelm Wien, Nobel Lecture (11 December 1911).

Science is so full of surprises that the ordinary man wonders with a semi-fear what may be the next development ...
~ Archibald Williams, The Romance of Modern Invention (1902).

Biology is the search for the chemistry that works.
~ R.J.P. Williams, Lecture in Oxford (June 1996).

Nutrition is for real people. Statistical humans are of little interest.
~ Roger J. Williams, Ph.D., D.Sc.

The basic answer to the question "Why are you an individual?" is that your body in every detail, including your entire nervous system and your brain (thinking apparatus), is highly distinctive. You are not built like anyone else.
~ Roger J. Williams, Ph.D., D.Sc., You Are Extraordinary (1967).

No test tube can breed love and affection. No frozen packet of semen ever read a story to a sleepy child.
~ Shirley Williams, The Daily Mirror (2 March 1978).

Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.
~ Earl Wilson

I had experienced the Ionian Enchantment. ... It means a belief in the unity of the sciences -- a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998). The Ionian Enchantment

Science is not marginal. Like art, it is a universal possession of humanity, and scientific knowledge has become a vital part of our species' repertory. It comprises what we know of the material world with reasonable certainty. ... Thanks to science and technology, access to factual information of all kinds is rising exponentially.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998).

The best of science doesn't consist of mathematical models and experiments, as textbooks make it seem. Those come later. It springs fresh from a more primitive mode of thought, wherein the hunter's mind weaves ideas from old facts and fresh metaphors and the scambled crazy images of things recently seen. To move forward is to concoct new patterns of thought, which in turn dictate the design of the models and experiments.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, The Diversity of Life (1992). Chapter One. Storm over the Amazon

The organism is only DNA's way of making more DNA.
~ Edward Osborne (E.O.) Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975).

In all our plans for the future, we are re-defining and we are re-stating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution.
~ Harold Wilson, Speech at Labour Party conference (1 October 1963)

I'll tell you what you need to be a great scientist. You don't have to be able understand very complicated things. It's just the opposite. You have to be able to see what looks like the most complicated thing in the world and, in a flash, find the underlying simplicity. That's what you need: a talent for simplicity.
~ Mitchell A. Wilson, Live with Lightning (1949).

It has only to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with whether we are good painters, good sculptors, great poets. I mean all the things we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. It has nothing to do directly with defending the country except to make it worth defending.
~ Robert Rathbun Wilson, Testimony Before the Joint Energy Committee of Congress (17 April 1969).

Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things: --
We murder to dissect.
~ William Wordsworth, from Lyrical Ballads (1798). The Tables turned; an Evening Scene, on the same subject

[I]t is experience and reflection which constitute each and every science. Experience comes first; it gives us our bricks: reflection is the mortar, which holds the bricks together. We cannot build without both. Reflection apart from experience and experience without reflection are alike powerless. It is therefore essential for scientific progress that the sphere of experience be enlarged, and new instruments of reflection from time to time invented.
~ Wilhelm Max Wundt, from Lectures on Human and Animal Psychology (1894 translation). Lecture I, Section III

The subject matter of psychology is the whole manifoldness of qualitative contents presented to our experience.
~ Wilhelm Max Wundt, Einführung in die Psychologie (1912 translation)

The game is played by two persons. Two piles of counters are placed on the table, the number of each pile being arbitrary. The players play alternately and either take from one of the piles an arbitrary number of counters or from both piles an equal number. The player who takes up the last counter or counters, wins.
~ Willem Abraham Wythoff (of the Wythoff game), in Nieuw Archief voor wiskunde 2, 199-202 (1905-07). A modification of the game of nim

Science, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject.
~ William K. Zinsser, On Writing Well (1976). 15. Science and Technology