George Sarton Quotes

The most malicious kind of hatred is that which is built upon a theological foundation.

Men of science have made abundant mistakes of every kind; their knowledge has improved only because of their gradual abandonment of ancient errors, poor approximations, and premature conclusions.

Erudition without pedantry is as a rare as wisdom itself.

Scientific achievements seem evanescent, because the very progress of science causes their supersedure; yet some of them are of so fundamental a nature that they are immortal in a deeper way.

The whole iconography of ancient science is simply the fruit of wishful thinking.

From the humanistic point of view every human achievement is unforgettable and immortal in its essence, even if it is replaced by a "better" one.

There are but few saints amongst scientists, as among other men, but truth itself is a goal comparable with sanctity.

The darkness, of which the historians complain, is essentially the darkness of their own ignorance.

I am obliged to deal with hundreds of men and to make them live without killing the reader.

A deed happens in a definite place at a definite time, but if it be sufficiently great and pregnant, its virtue radiates everywhere in time and space.

On the basis of my historical experience, I fully believe that mathematics of the 25th century will be as different from that of today as the latter is from that of the 16th century.

Some forty years of experience in my field as a scholar and as a teacher have given me great confidence mixed with greater humility.

The intensity of a national culture should be represented by... the general education level and... the exceptional merit of a small elite of pioneers.

The whole past and the whole world are alive in my heart, and I shall do my part to communicate their presence to my readers.

My gratitude to them [my first teachers] grows as I myself grow older.

Greek culture is pleasant to contemplate because of its great simplicity and naturalness, and because of the absence of gadgets, each of which is sooner or later a cause of servitude.

science is the most revolutionary force in the world.