May Quotes

20575 May quotes by 7930 unique authors

[In the case of research director, Willis R. Whitney, whose style was to give talented investigators as much freedom as possible, you may define "serendipity"… — Irving Langmuir
[This] may prove to be the beginning of some embracing generalization, which will throw light, not only on radioactive processes, but on elements in general… — Frederick Soddy
In so far as such developments utilise the natural energy running to waste, as in water power, they may be accounted as pure gain. But… — Frederick Soddy
Nature does nothing without a purpose. In children may be observed the traces and seeds of what will one day be settled psychological habits, though… — Aristotle
Nature in her unfathomable designs had mixed us of clay and flame, of brain and mind, that the two things hang indubitably together and determine… — William James
Questions of personal priority, however interesting they may be to the persons concerned, sink into insignificance in the prospect of any gain of deeper insight… — Lord Kelvin
The greater is the circle of light, the greater is the boundary of the darkness by which it is confined. But, notwithstanding this, the more… — Joseph Priestley
A great part of its [higher arithmetic] theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them,… — Carl Friedrich Gauss
Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not. "Immortality" may be a silly word, but probably a… — G. H. Hardy
Distrust even Mathematics; albeit so sublime and highly perfected, we have here a machine of such delicacy it can only work in vacuo, and one… — Anatole France
I have never done anything 'useful'. No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the… — G. H. Hardy
If the proof starts from axioms, distinguishes several cases, and takes thirteen lines in the text book ... it may give the youngsters the impression… — George Polya
Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness; but, nevertheless, what you get out… — Thomas Huxley
Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play:… — G. H. Hardy
The Mathematics are Friends to Religion, inasmuch as they charm the Passions, restrain the Impetuosity of the Imagination, and purge the Mind from Error and… — John Arbuthnot
The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience — Immanuel Kant
We may always depend on it that algebra, which cannot be translated into good English and sound common sense, is bad algebra. — William Kingdon Clifford
We may as well cut out group theory. That is a subject that will never be of any use in physics. — James Jeans
I am busy just now again on Electro-Magnetism and think I have got hold of a good thing but can't say; it may be a… — Michael Faraday
I told him that for a modern scientist, practicing experimental research, the least that could be said, is that we do not know. But I… — Albert Claude
Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit… — Charles Babbage
It is not in the world of ideas that life is lived. Life is lived for better or worse in life, and to a man… — Archibald MacLeish
The devil does not bring sinners to hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. Before we… — Alphonsus Liguori
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what… — Elmore Leonard
Historians desiring to write the actions of men, ought to set down the simple truth, and not say anything for love or hatred; also to… — Walter Raleigh

Who Wrote These May Quotes

7,930 authors contributed a total of 20,575 May Quotes, led by these top contributors: