List of Frederick Soddy Quotes

Physical Science Enjoys The Distinction Of Being The Most Fundamental Of The Experimental Sciences, And Its Laws Are Obeyed Universally, So Far As Is Known, Not Merely By Inanimate Things, But Also By Living Organisms, In Their Minutest Parts, As Single Individuals, And Also As Whole Communities. It Results From This That, However Complicated A Series Of Phenomena May Be And However Many Other Sciences May Enter Into Its Complete Presentation, The Purely Physical Aspect, Or The Application Of The Known Laws Of Matter And Energy, Can Always Be Legitimately Separated From The Other Aspects.

The Pure Air And Dazzling Snow Belong To Things Beyond The Reach Of All Personal Feeling, Almost Beyond The Reach Of Life.

[the Human Control Of Atomic Energy Could] Virtually Provide Anyone Who Wanted It With A Private Sun Of His Own.

[this] May Prove To Be The Beginning Of Some Embracing Generalization, Which Will Throw Light, Not Only On Radioactive Processes, But On Elements In General And The Periodic Law.... Chemical Homogeneity Is No Longer A Guarantee That Any Supposed Element Is Not A Mixture Of Several Of Different Atomic Weights, Or That Any Atomic Weight Is Not Merely A Mean Number.

Four Circles To The Kissing Come, The Smaller Are The Benter. The Bend Is Just The Inverse Of The Distance From The Centre. Though Their Intrigue Left Euclid Dumb There's Now No Need For Rule Of Thumb. Since Zero Bend's A Dead Straight Line And Concave Bends Have Minus Sign, The Sum Of Squares Of All Four Bends Is Half The Square Of Their Sum.

Scientific Men Can Hardly Escape The Charge Of Ignorance With Regard To The Precise Effect Of The Impact Of Modern Science Upon The Mode Of Living Of The People And Upon Their Civilisation.

[the Blame For The Future 'plight Of Civilization] Must Rest On Scientific Men, Equally With Others, For Being Incapable Of Accepting The Responsibility For The Profound Social Upheavals Which Their Own Work Primarily Has Brought About In Human Relationships.

Some Of The Beliefs And Legends Bequethed To Us By Antquity Are So Universally And Firmly Established That We Have Become Accustomed To Consider Them As Being Almost As Ancient As Humanity Itself. Nevertheless We Are Tempted To Inquire How Far The Fact That Some Of These Beliefs And Legends Have So Many Features In Common Is Due To Chance, And Wether The Similarity Between Them May Not Point To The Exestience Of An Ancient, Totally Unknown And Unsuspected Civilization Of Which All Other Traces Have Disappeared.

Mankind Has Always Drawn From Outside Sources Of Energy. This Island Was The First To Harness Coal And Steam. But Our Present Sources Stand In The Ratio Of A Million To One, Compared With Any Previous Sources. The Release Of Atomic Energy Will Change The Whole Structure Of Society.

For A Modern Ruler The Laws Of Conservation And Transformation Of Energy, When The Vivifing Stream Takes Its Source, The Ways It Wends Its Course In Nature, And How, Under Wisdom And Knowledge, It May Be Intertwined With Human Destiny, Instead Of Careering Headlong To The Ocean, Are A Study At Least As Pregnant With Consequences To Life As Any Lesson Taught By The Long Unscientific History Of Man.

On Our Plane Knowledge And Ignorance Are The Immemorial Adversaries.

With All Our Mastery Over The Powers Of Nature We Have Adhered To The View That The Struggle For Existence Is A Permanent And Necessary Condition Of Life.