Gerald Holton Quotes

United Kingdom, Physicist
May 23, 1922

Gerald Holton is an American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of History of Science, Em, at Harvard University.

Also known as Historian

Even in the best times, managing science has been compared to herding cats; it is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all.

Gerald Holton
- Done
- Science
- Find
The flight of most members of a profession to the high empyrean, where they can work peacefully on purely scientific problems, isolated from the turmoil of real life, was perhaps quite appropriate at an earlier stage of science; but in today's world it is a luxury we cannot afford.

Gerald Holton

Persons living in this modern world who do not know the basic facts that determine their very existence, functioning, and surroundings, are living in a dream world. Such persons are, in a very real sense, not sane.

Gerald Holton
- Dream
- Persons
- Existence
Though in application it works splendidly, we do not even understand the physical meaning of quantum mechanics, much less how it might be united with general relativity.

Gerald Holton
In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side-by-side with the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

Gerald Holton
- Science
- Giants
- Sit
A culture is kept alive by the interaction of all its parts.

Gerald Holton
- Culture
- Alive
- Parts
The unsolved problems of the physical world now seem even more formidable than those solved in the twentieth century.

Gerald Holton
- Problems
- Century
- Solved