Freeman Dyson Quotes

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

Scientists tend to be unappreciated in the world at large, but you can hardly overstate the importance of the work they do.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

Claiming my right to follow whethersoever science should lead... it is as respectable to be modified monkey as modified dirt.

Science appears but what in truth she is, Not as our glory and our absolute boast, But as a succedaneum, and a prop To our infirmity.

Again there is another great and powerful cause why the sciences have made but little progress; which is this. It is not possible to run a course aright when the goal itself has not been rightly placed.

Man armed with science is like a baby with a box of matches.

The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning inconvenience to passers-by.

The most heated defenders of a science, who cannot endure the slightest sneer at it, are commonly those who have not made very much progress in it and are secretly aware of this defect.

More attention to the History of Science is needed, as much by scientists as by historians, and especially by biologists, and this should mean a deliberate attempt to understand the thoughts of the great masters of the past, to see in what circumstances or intellectual milieu their ideas were formed, where they took the wrong turning or stopped short on the right track.

The increase of scientific knowledge lies not only in the occasional milestones of science, but in the efforts of the very large body of men who with love and devotion observe and study nature.

The incorrectness and weaknesses of a theory cause other minds to formulate the problems more exactly and in this way scientific progress is made.

Science is far from the center of the world for most people: even for many with highly sophisticated tastes, interests, and accomplishments.

I've been thinking about the distorted view of science that prevails in our culture. I've been wondering about this, because our civilization is completely dependent on science and high technology, yet most of us are alienated from science.

I have learned to have more faith in the scientist than he does in himself.

Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.

I count myself fortunate to be able to participate in the life of science in this era.

As you know, in most areas of science, there are long periods of beginning before we really make progress.

It takes years to realize the multiple benefits of science; without adequate, sustained funding for research, the careers of many bright, young scientists may come to a screeching halt.

There is nothing inherently wrong about science.

Science is a self-correcting discipline that can, in subsequent generations, show that previous ideas were not correct.

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.

The methods and tools of science perennially breach barriers, granting me confidence that our epic march of insight into the operations of nature will continue without end.