Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
Interpretation
Language serves as a tool to express scientific ideas, with words acting as signs for those concepts.
In this quote, Samuel Johnson emphasizes the fundamental role of language in the realm of science. He suggests that language itself is not the essence of science but rather a means to convey and articulate scientific ideas. Words function as symbols that represent complex concepts and thoughts, highlighting the importance of effective communication in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
In practice
In a presentation about scientific discoveries, you might start with this quote to emphasize the importance of language in conveying complex ideas.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
Of course it is possible that UFO's really do contain aliens as many people believe, and the government is hushing it up
Those who say that climate change doesn't exist are being understood as the flat-earthers that they are, as the people who deny the link between smoking and cancer, as the people who denied the link between HIV and AIDS.
The science of systematics has long been affected by profound philosophical preconceptions, which have been all the more influential for being usually covert, even subconscious.
Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.
NASA has spin-offs, and it's a huge and very impressive list, including accurate and affordable LASIK eye surgery.
I would designate as science fiction in the best sense: they are visions and anticipations by which we seek to attain a true knowledge, but, in fact, they are only imaginations whereby we seek to draw near to the reality.
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