On Art: Poetry and Science I

"In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied." (Charles C Colton, "Lacon: Many Things in Few Words", 1820)

"True poetry is truer than science, because it is synthetic, and seizes at once what the combination of all the sciences is able, at most, to attain as a final result." (Henri-Frédéric Amiel, 1852)

“[…] those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded.” (Herbert Spencer, 1855)

"Without poetry our science will appear incomplete, and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry." (Matthew Arnold, "The Study of Poetry", 1880)

“The story of scientific discovery has its own epic unity - a unity of purpose and endeavour - the single torch passing from hand to hand through the centuries; and the great moments of science when, after long labour, the pioneers saw their accumulated facts falling into a significant order - sometimes in the form of a law that revolutionised the whole world of thought - have an intense human interest, and belong essentially to the creative imagination of poetry.” (Alfred Noyes, "Watchers of the Sky", 1922)

"What the world needs is a fusion of the sciences and the humanities. The humanities express the symbolic, poetic, and prophetic qualities of the human spirit. Without them we would not be conscious of our history; we would lose our aspirations and the grace of expression that move men’s hearts. The sciences express the creative urge in man to construct a universe which is comprehensible in terms of the human intellect. Without them, mankind would find itself bewildered in a world of natural forces beyond comprehension, victims of ignorance, superstition and fear."  (Isidor I Rabi, [address] 1954)

"In science, one tries to say what no one else has ever said before. In poetry, one tries to say what everyone else has already said, but better. This explains, in essence, why good poetry is as rare as good science." (Anthony Zee, "Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics", 1986)

“The poetry of science is in some sense embodied in its great equations, and these equations can also be peeled. But their layers represent their attributes and consequences, not their meanings.” (Graham Farmelo, 2002)