--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Science is the poetry of reality." description: "\"Science is the poetry of reality.\" — Richard Dawkins" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg" --- # Science is the poetry of reality. ![“Science is the poetry of reality.” quote by Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg) > “Science is the poetry of reality.” [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Science reveals the underlying beauty and order of the universe, akin to poetry. **In simple terms:** Science is beautiful and expressive. Key Takeaway Appreciate scientific wonder. Themes science beauty knowledge Mood wonder inspired Type educational philosophical When to use this quote - education - research - public outreach Key Concepts philosophy of science aesthetics Questions to Reflect On - How does scientific language inspire you? - What poetic images help you grasp concepts? A Different Perspective Scientific facts can be abstract for some. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Reality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reality/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) ## Related quotes > [There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/there-s-real-poetry-in-the-real-world-science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [There's poetry in the real world; science is the poetry of reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/there-s-poetry-in-the-real-world-science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Though science makes no use for poetry, poetry is enriched by science. Poetry “takes up” the scientific vision and re-expresses its truths, but always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/l-p-jacks-2/though-science-makes-no-use-for-poetry-poetry-is-enriched-by-science/) L.P. Jacks > [I'm interested in the poetry of reality.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christophe-lemaire/i-m-interested-in-the-poetry-of-reality/) [Christophe Lemaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christophe-lemaire/) > [Virginity is the poetry, not the reality, of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alphonse-de-lamartine/virginity-is-the-poetry-not-the-reality-of-life/) [Alphonse de Lamartine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alphonse-de-lamartine/) > [To experience poetry is to see over and above reality. It is to discover that which is beyond the physical, to experience another life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ai-weiwei/to-experience-poetry-is-to-see-over-and-above-reality-it-is-to/) [Ai Weiwei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ai-weiwei/) > [“To me faith, science, poetry, all same, many lanes to lift our one humankind.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abhijit-naskar/to-me-faith-science-poetry-all-same-many-lanes-to-lift-our-one/) [Abhijit Naskar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abhijit-naskar/) > [Science is the poetry of the intellect and poetry the science of the heart's affections.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-durrell/science-is-the-poetry-of-the-intellect-and-poetry-the-science-of-the/) [Lawrence Durrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-durrell/) > [Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ouida/music-is-not-a-science-any-more-than-poetry-is-it-is-a-sublime/) [Ouida](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ouida/) > [The symbol and the metaphor are as necessary to science as to poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacob-bronowski/the-symbol-and-the-metaphor-are-as-necessary-to-science-as-to-poetry/) [Jacob Bronowski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacob-bronowski/) > [In the earliest ages science was poetry, as in the latter poetry has become science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-russell-lowell/in-the-earliest-ages-science-was-poetry-as-in-the-latter-poetry-has/) [James Russell Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-russell-lowell/) > [ “\[L\]et us not overlook the further great fact, that not only does science underlie sculpture, painting, music, poetry, but that science is itself poetic.… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/l-et-us-not-overlook-the-further-great-fact-that-not-only-does/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [I think what we lack isn't science, but poetry that reveals what the heart is ready to recognize](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/i-think-what-we-lack-isn-t-science-but-poetry-that-reveals-what-the/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) > [Bringing science into poetry is one way of acknowledging some of the richest stuff that is in my cultural moment.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-hawthorne-deming/bringing-science-into-poetry-is-one-way-of-acknowledging-some-of-the/) [Alison Hawthorne Deming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alison-hawthorne-deming/) > [There is a beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/there-is-a-beauty-in-discovery-there-is-mathematics-in-music-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) ## More by Richard Dawkins > [At the deepest level, all living things that have ever been looked at have the same DNA code. And many of the same genes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/at-the-deepest-level-all-living-things-that-have-ever-been-looked-at/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [We animals are the most complicated things in the known universe.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/we-animals-are-the-most-complicated-things-in-the-known-universe/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“The fundamentalist Kurt Wise proclaims that all the evidence in the universe would not change his mind. 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And of all its money-making rip-offs,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-roman-catholic-church-is-an-institution-for-whose-gains-the/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/let-us-understand-what-our-own-selfish-genes-are-up-to-because-we-may/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [What's going to happen when I die? I may be buried, or I may be cremated, I may give my body to science. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/what-s-going-to-happen-when-i-die-i-may-be-buried-or-i-may-be/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/or-why-it-is-acceptable-to-train-fast-runners-and-high-jumpers-but/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully 'designed' to have come into existence by chance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/we-have-seen-that-living-things-are-too-improbable-and-too/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“We will not go quietly away. If in the future that requires violence”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/we-will-not-go-quietly-away-if-in-the-future-that-requires-violence/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [It's a truly disgusting idea that the creator of the universe - capable of inventing the laws of physics and designing the evolutionary process…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/it-s-a-truly-disgusting-idea-that-the-creator-of-the-universe-capable/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) [Explore all 1,239 Richard Dawkins quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) ## More Poetry quotes > [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/) [Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/) > [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/) [Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/) > [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/) [Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/) > [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/) [Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/) > [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/) [David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/) [Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/) Uncle Arnie Mamath [Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Science is the poetry of reality.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Richard Dawkins" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/richard-dawkins-115_poetry_science-is-the-poetry-of-reality-579549_579549.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Science is the poetry of reality.” — Richard Dawkins", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Richard Dawkins", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Science is the poetry of reality.", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/science-is-the-poetry-of-reality/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```