Quotes for Students

There is a debate on Sputnik, the Scottish Physics teachers’ Forum, about displaying good quotes around the Physics Department. Since starting this website I have looked at several quotes and I think some of the quotes of Carl Sagan are fantastic.

My favourite to inspire all students is

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan.

but closely followed behind it is the following little gem.

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

I would love to have included the poem by Dorothy Law Nolte “Children Learn What They Live” and I have permission to upload it here, but it must be password protected and I’d need to take it down after 4 years and pay again. I’m afraid that much as I believe people should get full rights for writing and holding the copyright, but budget won’t sustain that, so I suggest you check it out for yourself. It is online in loads of places.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Albert Einstein

and here are a couple of worryingly true quotes that seem to be even more pronounced in the UK with the latest education system.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. Carl Sagan

I think we are a long was from a society that embraces innovation.

Once you have an innovation culture, even those who are not scientists or engineers – poets, actors, journalists – they, as communities, embrace the meaning of what it is to be scientifically literate. They embrace the concept of an innovation culture. They vote in ways that promote it. They don’t fight science and they don’t fight technology. -Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

I remember that this made an impression on me at school but I didn’t even know it was one of Einstein’s. I wonder if it was. I suspect it was a culmination of several people’s work.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

One more on the benefits of getting educated and wisdom.

You’re blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom,
    when you make friends with Madame Insight.
She’s worth far more than money in the bank;
    her friendship is better than a big salary.
Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth;
    nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her.
With one hand she gives long life,
    with the other she confers recognition.
Her manner is beautiful,
    her life wonderfully complete.
She’s the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her.
    Hold her tight—and be blessed!- Proverbs 3 The Message

So I wanted to think of a quote for myself, to sum up everything, but I am just not that clever!

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