"The lessons of science should be experimental..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow outvalues all theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.”
“There is ever a slight suspicion of the burlesque about earnest good men.”
“Our young people are diseased with the theological problems of original sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like. These never presented a practical difficulty to any man,--never darkened across any man's road, who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul's mumps, and measles, and whooping- coughs, and those who have not caught them cannot describe their health or prescribe a cure. A simple mind will not know these enemies.”
More on Science
“The best thing we're put here for's to see; The strongest thing that's given us to see with's a telescope. Someone in every town, seems to me, owes it to the town to keep one.”
“From a certain temperature on, the molecules 'condense' without attractive forces; that is, they accumulate at zero velocity. The theory is pretty, but is there some truth in it.”
“It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.”
More on Learning
“Again, the great number of cultivated men keep each other up to a high standard. The habit of meeting well-read and knowing men teaches the art of omission and selection.”
“Why do we make so much of knowledge, struggle so hard to get some little skill not worth the effort?”
“We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.”