In the popular mind, scientists are supposed to be people of few words, fewer still memorable. Most sayings by scientists that stick in the mind do so because at some point we have been made to memorize them, or at least some form of them. This is true for scientific laws ("To every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction"), principles ("Ontogeny recapitulates phytogeny") and more general sentiments ("Nature makes no jumps"). Modern scientists are not strong on rhetoric, but they are not supposed to be. The motto of the Royal Society of London — "Nullius in verba" — is properly translated as "On no man's word", but some commentators construe it to mean something like "Don't use fancy language". The society's founders in the seventeenth century argued strongly against the sorts of stick-in-the-mind figurative speech in which their literary contemporaries trafficked. In the twentieth century, literary critic I. A. Richards pointed out: "We believe a scientist because he can substantiate his remarks, not because he is eloquent and forcible in his enunciation."
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机译：在大众心目中，科学家本应是一言不发，却难忘的人。科学家们牢记在心的大多数话都是这样做的，因为在某些时候我们被要求记住它们，或者至少是某种形式。对于科学法则（“对每个动作总是会有相反和相等的反应”），原理（“本体论重述植物学”）和更笼统的观点（“自然不会跳跃”），这是正确的。现代科学家并不擅长言辞，但事实却并非如此。伦敦皇家学会的座右铭是“口头上的努利乌斯”（Nullius in verba），被恰当地翻译为“没有人的话”，但是一些评论家认为它的意思是“不要使用花哨的语言”。该协会的创始人在17世纪强烈反对他们的当代文学作品贩运者的那种一成不变的形象化演说。在20世纪，文学评论家I.理查兹（I. A. Richards）指出：“我们相信科学家是因为他可以证实自己的言论，而不是因为他的口才雄辩而被强迫。”
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