Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledg...e of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The vanity of the sciences. Physical science will not console me for the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the ...science of ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
History cannot, like physical science, deduce causal laws of general application. All attempts have failed to discover laws of "ca...use and effect" which are certain to repeat themselves in the institutions and affairs of men. The law of gravitation may be scientifically proved because it is universal and simple. But the historical law that starvation brings on revolt is not proved; indeed the opposite statement, that starvation leads to abject submission, is equally true in the light of past events. You cannot so completely isolate any historical event from its circumstances as to be able to deduce from it a law of general application. Only politicians adorning their speeches with historical arguments have this power; and even they never agree. An historical event cannot be isolated from its circumstances, any more than the onion from its skins, because an event is itself nothing but a set of circumstances, none of which will ever recur.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The best road to correct reasoning is by physical science; the way to trace effects to causes is through physical science; the onl...y corrective, therefore, of superstition is physical science.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Rather than have it the principal thing in my son's mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and tha...t the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is clear that everybody interested in science must be interested in world 3 objects. A physical scientist, to start with, may b...e interested mainly in world 1 objects--say crystals and X-rays. But very soon he must realize how much depends on our interpretation of the facts, that is, on our theories, and so on world 3 objects. Similarly, a historian of science, or a philosopher interested in science must be largely a student of world 3 objects.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal,... but the expression of those principles requires continual development.... The great point to be kept in mind is that normally an advance in science will show that statements of various religious beliefs require some sort of modification. It may be that they have to be expanded or explained, or indeed entirely restated. If the religion is a sound expression of truth, this modification will only exhibit more adequately the exact point which is of importance. This process is a gain. In so far, therefore, as any religion has any contact with physical facts, it is to be expected that the point of view of those facts must be continually modified as scientific knowledge advances. In this way, the exact relevance of these facts for religious thought will grow more and more clear. The progress of science must result in the unceasing codification of religious thought, to the great advantage of religion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You will not find science annihilating personality from the government of the Universe and making of God as ungovernable, unintell...igible, blind, often destructive physical force; you will not find jurisprudence formulating as an axiom the absurdity that man and wife are one, and that one the man--that the married woman may not hold or bequeath her own property save as subject to her husband's direction; you will not find political economists declaring that the only possible adjustment between laborers and capitalists is that of selfishness and rapacity--that each must get all he can and keep all that he gets, while the world cries laissez faire and the lawyers explain, "it is the beautiful working of the law of supply and demand;" in fine, you will not find the law of love shut out from the affairs of men after the feminine half of the world's truth is completed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the new science of the twenty-first century, not physical force but spiritual force will lead the way. Mental and spiritual gif...ts will be more in demand than gifts of a physical nature. Extrasensory perception will take precedence over sensory perception. And in this sphere woman will again predominate.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The whole of modern thought is steeped in science; it has made its way into the works of all our best poets, and even the mere man... of letters, who affects to ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. I believe that the greatest intellectual revolution mankind has yet seen is now slowly taking place by her agency. She is teaching the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority; she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of a intelligent being.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »