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George Sarton Quotes (1884-1956)
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About George Sarton
George Sarton (August 31, 1884 – March 22, 1956) is considered by some to be the "father" of the history of science, having established the history of science as a discipline in its own right.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful George Sarton quotes.
“I am obliged to deal with hundreds of men and to make them live without killing the reader.”
“The scientific books written in Arabic during the Middle Ages were, for a few centuries, the main vehicle of the living science.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If we are generous enough, we can stretch our souls everywhere and everywhen else. If we succeed in doing so, we shall discover that our present embraces the past and the future and that the whole world is our province.”
“The rationalism of the creative minds was tempered by abundant fantasies, and the supreme beauty of the monuments was probably spoiled by the circumambient vanities and ugliness; in a few cases the Greeks came as close to perfection as it was possible to do, yet they were human and imperfect.”
“The chief requisite for the making of a good chicken pie is chicken; no amount of culinary legerdemain can make up for the lack of chicken. In the same way, the chief requisite for the history of science is intimate scientific knowledge; no amount of philosophic legerdemain can make up for its absence.”
“The main task of mankind was accomplished by Muslims. The greatest philosopher, al-Farabi, was a Muslim; the greatest mathematicians, Abu Kamil and Ibrahim ibn Sinan, Were Muslims; the greatest geographer and encyclopaedist, al-Mas'udi, was a Muslim; the greatest historian, aI-Tabari, was still a Muslim.”
“All men are our brothers. As far as the discovery of the truth is concerned, they are all working for the same purpose; they may be separated by the accidents of space and time, and by the exigencies of race, religion, nationality, and other groupings; from the point of view of eternity they are working together.”
“The history of science should not be an instrument to defend any kind of social or philosophic theory; it should be used only for its own purpose, to illustrate impartially the working of reason against unreason, the gradual unfolding of truth, in all its forms, whether pleasant or unpleasant, useful of useless, welcome or unwelcome.”
George Sarton Quotes by Topic
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George Sarton on History of science 7 quotes
“The history of science should be the leading thread in the history of civilization.”
George Sarton on Science in classical antiquity 2 quotes
“It is childish to assume that science began in Greece; the Greek "miracle" was prepared by millenia of work in Egypt, Mesopotamia and possibly in other regions. Greek science was less an invention than a revival.”
George Sarton on Capricious
George Sarton on Image
“Ancient portraits are symbolic images without any immediate relation to the individuals represented; they are not portraits as we understand them. ...It is remarkable that philologists who are capable of carrying accuracy to the extremes in the case of words are as credulous as babies when it comes to "images," and yet an image is so full of information that ten thousands words would not add up to it.”
What George Sarton Said About Others
Discover personal opinions George Sarton shared regarding contemporaries.
George Sarton on Robert Grosseteste 3 quotes
“His main reason for advocating the study of Hebrew was to promote the conversion of the Jews. He was not hostile to the latter, and saved many of them from being massacred. ...Robert was not simply a great scholar, but a courageous man. He did not fear to repress the evil tendencies of his flock, nor reprove those of the Roman curia.”
George Sarton on Plato
“We can imagine that the Academy, which could be attended only by men of leisure, was a cradle of discontent. The author of the Laws was a disgruntled old man, full of political rancor, fearing and hating the crowd and above all their demagogues; his prejudices had crystallized and he had become an old doctrinaire, unable to see anything but the reflections of his own personality and to hear anything but the echoes of his own thoughts. The worst of it was that he, a noble Athenian, admired the very Spartans who had defeated and humiliated his fatherland. Plato was witnessing a social revolution (even as we are) and he could not bear it at all. His main concern was: how could one stop it.”
About George Sarton
George Sarton (August 31, 1884 – March 22, 1956) is considered by some to be the "father" of the history of science, having established the history of science as a discipline in its own right.