"I think that science may be styled the knowledge of universals, or abstract wisdom; and art is science reduced to practice - or science is reason, and art the mechanism of it - and may be called practical science. Science, in fine, is the theorem, and art the problem." (Richard Griffith, 1779) [attributed to Laurence Sterne]
"Both science and art form in the course of the centuries a human language by which we can speak about the more remote parts of reality, and the coherent sets of concepts as well as the different styles of art are different words or groups of words in this language." (Werner K Heisenberg, "Physics and Philosophy", 1958)
"When terms [...] evolve and change definition with time; and when the social reality which terms are intended to organize and render intelligible is also seen to be in flux, capturing the truth in a net of words becomes a matter of intuition and style more than of any scientific method that can be replicated by others and made to achieve the same result every time someone asks the same question, or undertakes the same operations." (William H McNeill, "Discrepancies among the Social Sciences", 1981)
"The body of mathematics to which the calculus gives rise embodies a certain swashbuckling style of thinking, at once bold and dramatic, given over to large intellectual gestures and indifferent, in large measure, to any very detailed description of the world. It is a style that has shaped the physical but not the biological sciences, and its success in Newtonian mechanics, general relativity and quantum mechanics is among the miracles of mankind. But the era in thought that the calculus made possible is coming to an end. Everyone feels this is so and everyone is right." (David Berlinski, "A Tour of the Calculus", 1995)
"Modeling involves a style of scientific thinking in which the argument is structured by the model, but in which the application is achieved via a narrative prompted by an external fact, an imagined event or question to be answered." (Uskali Mäki, "Fact and Fiction in Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction", 2002)
"[...] the scientific models of concrete things are symbolic rather than iconic: they are systems of propositions, not pictures. Besides, such models are seldom if ever completely accurate, if only because they involve more or less brutal simplifications, such as pretending that a metallic surface is smooth, a crystal has no impurities, a biopopulation has a single predator, or a market is in equilibrium. These are all fictions. However, they are stylizations rather than wild fantasies. Hence, introducing and using them to account for real existents does not commit us to fictionism, just as defending the role of experience need not make us empiricists, nor is admitting the role of intuition enough to qualify as intuitionist." (Mario Bunge, "Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism", 2006)
"Scientists reach their conclusions for the damnedest of reasons: intuition, guesses, redirections after wild-goose chases, all combing with a dollop of rigorous observation and logical reasoning to be sure […] This messy and personal side of science should not be disparaged, or covered up, by scientists for two major reasons. First, scientists should proudly show this human face to display their kinship with all other modes of creative human thought […] Second, while biases and references often impede understanding, these mental idiosyncrasies may also serve as powerful, if quirky and personal, guides to solutions." (Stephen J Gould,"Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in natural history", 1995)
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