John Frederick William Herschel

1792–1871 · English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and photographer

Topics: learning

• Man is constituted as a speculative being; he contemplates the world, and the objects around him, not with a passive indifferent eye, but as a system disposed with order and design.

  — John Frederick William Herschel

• Science is the knowledge of many, orderly and methodically digested and arranged, so as to become attainable by one.

  — John Frederick William Herschel

• To the natural philosopher there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons.

  — John Frederick William Herschel

• A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific inquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations.

  — John Frederick William Herschel

• We must never forget that it is principles, not phenomena, — laws not insulated independent facts, — which are the objects of inquiry to the natural philosopher.

  — John Frederick William Herschel

• To ascend to the origin of things and speculate on the creation, is not the business of the natural philosopher.

  — John Frederick William Herschel