It is clear that Economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science ... simply because it deals with quantities... As the complete theory of almost every other science involves the use of calculus, so we cannot have a true theory of Economics without its aid.
Interpretation
Economics should utilize mathematical principles to become a true science.
In this quote, William Stanley Jevons asserts that for economics to be considered a legitimate science, it must incorporate mathematical methods, particularly calculus. He emphasizes that just as other scientific fields rely on mathematical theories to analyze and understand complexities, economics too requires these tools to properly address its fundamental quantities and relationships.
In practice
In a lecture on the importance of math in social sciences, you might quote Jevons to emphasize your point.
Whoever wishes to acquire a deep acquaintance with Nature must observe that there are analogies which connect whole branches of science in a parallel manner, and enable us to infer of one class of phenomena what we know of another. It has thus happened on several occasions that the discovery of an unsuspected analogy between two branches of knowledge has been the starting point for a rapid course of discovery.
Value is the most invincible and impalpable of ghosts, and comes and goes unthought of, while the visible and dense matter remains as it was.
Science proceeds more by what it has learned to ignore than what it takes into account.
That we can now think of no mechanism for astrology is relevant but unconvincing. No mechanism was known, for example, for continental drift when it was proposed by Wegener. Nevertheless, we see that Wegener was right, and those who objected on the grounds of unavailable mechanism were wrong.
The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
If we want to travel into the future, we just need to go fast. Really fast. And I think the only way we're ever likely to do that is by going into space.
Forty years as an astronomer have not quelled my enthusiasm for lying outside after dark, staring up at the stars. It isn't only the beauty of the night sky that thrills me. It's the sense I have that some of those points of light are the home stars of beings not so different from us, daily cares and all, who look across space with wonder, just as we do.
Every carbon atom in every living thing on the planet was produced in the heart of a dying star.
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