William Whewell Quotes

22 quotes in 395 categories

• In order that the facts obtained by observation and experiment may be capable of being used in furtherance of our exact and solid knowledge, they…
• The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to…
• ...the question undoubtedly is, or soon will be, not whether or no we shall employ notation in chemistry, but whether we shall use a bad…
• The object of science is knowledge; the objects of art are works. In art, truth is the means to an end; in science, it is…
• Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form…
• Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation.
• In art, truth is a means to an end; in science, it is the only end.
• The catastrophist constructs theories, the uniformitarian demolishes them.
• Fundamental ideas are not a consequence of experience, but a result of the particular constitution and activity of the mind, which is independent of all…
• We cannot observe external things without some degree of Thought; nor can we reflect upon our Thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our…
• There is a mask of theory over the whole face of nature.
• Gold and iron at the present day, as in ancient times, are the rulers of the world; and the great events in the world of…
• Astronomy is ... the only progressive Science which the ancient world produced.
• Nobody since Newton has been able to use geometrical methods to the same extent for the like purposes; and as we read the Principia we…
• It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena.
• The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained…
• To discover the laws of operative power in material productions, whether formed by man or brought into being by Nature herself, is the work of…
• Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending…
• Every failure is a step to success.
• According to the technical language of old writers, a thing and its qualities are described as subject and attributes; and thus a man's faculties and…

Browse William Whewell Quotes by Category