Science not only provides knowledge to the youth and joy to the elderly but also cultivates a habit of labor and the pursuit of truth. It creates genuine spiritual and material wealth for the people, producing values that would be unattainable without it. — Dmitri Mendeleev
Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. History makes a man wise; poetry fine; mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Whatever you learn, you become. — Francis Bacon
I view the vast garden of science as an extensive plain, scattered with places of darkness and places of light. Our work should aim either to expand the boundaries of the illuminated areas or to add new centers of light to the plain. — Denis Diderot
True scientific spirit emerges from correct criticism and self-criticism; true scientific results must withstand the test of facts. With these double guarantees, we can proceed boldly without falling into the trap of arrogance. — Li Siguang
I believe that a person has two shoulders and should make use of both simultaneously: one carrying a load to deliver scientific knowledge and tools directly to the workers; the other serving as a human ladder for the youth to climb to higher peaks of science. — Hua Luogeng
Great works sometimes require no comfortable seat at all. Zheng Xuxi once said that the Germans regard the ability to sit as a prerequisite for intellectuals. For instance, with just the ability to sit, one could compile name indexes for *Water Margin* or *Dream of the Red Chamber* without much effort. This is the Western scientific method, and even more so, the tool of learning in the twentieth century. — Qian Zhongshu
Scientific inspiration cannot be obtained by simply waiting. If there are any accidental opportunities in scientific discovery, such "accidental opportunities" are reserved only for those who are well-educated, those who are skilled in independent thinking, and those who possess the spirit of perseverance, rather than for the lazy. — Hua Luogeng
