Famous Quotes & Sayings

Ashley Montagu

Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.

Arthur Cayley

Metrical geometry is thus a part of descriptive geometry, and descriptive geometry is all geometry.

John Pierce

This is what we do. We put together different sciences and technologies to make things.

Colin Wilson

The sheer volume of evidence for survival after death is so immense that to ignore it is like standing at the foot of Mount Everest and insisting that you cannot see the mountain.

Claude Bernard

A man of science rises ever, in seeking truth; and if he never finds it in its wholeness, he discovers nevertheless very significant fragments; and these fragments of universal truth are precisely what constitutes science.

Claude Bernard

Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.

Claude Bernard

Well-observed facts, though brought to light by passing theories, will never die; they are the material on which alone the house of science will at last be built.

Claude Bernard

When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.

Claude Bernard

A discovery is generally an unforeseen relation not included in theory.

Claude Bernard

When entering on new ground we must not be afraid to express even risky ideas so as to stimulate research in all directions. As Priestley put it, we must not remain inactive through false modesty based on fear of being mistaken.

Claude Bernard

Experiment is fundamentally only induced observation.

Claude Bernard

The better educated we are and the more acquired information we have, the better prepared shall we find our minds for making great and fruitful discoveries.

Claude Bernard

First causes are outside the realm of science.

Claude Bernard

[Those] who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make very poor observations.

Claude Bernard

The joy of discovery is certainly the liveliest that the mind of man can ever feel.

Claude Bernard

Priestley [said] that each discovery we make shows us many others that should be made.

Claude Bernard

Men who have excessive faith in their theories ... make poor observations, because they choose among the results of their experiments only what suits their object, neglecting whatever is unrelated to it and carefully setting aside everything which might tend toward the idea they wish to combat

Claude Bernard

The first requirement in using statistics is that the facts treated shall be reduced to comparable units.

Claude Bernard

In the patient who succumbed, the cause of death was evidently something which was not found in the patient who recovered; this something we must determine, and then we can act on the phenomena or recognize and foresee them accurately. But not by statistics shall we succeed in this; never have statistics taught anything, and never can they teach anything about the nature of the phenomenon.

Claude Bernard

Proof that a given condition always precedes or accompanies a phenomenon does not warrant concluding with certainty that a given condition is the immediate cause of that phenomenon. It must still be established that when this condition is removed, the phenomen will no longer appear.

Claude Bernard

The minds that rise and become really great are never self-satisfied, but still continue to strive.

Claude Bernard

Progress is achieved by exchanging our theories for new ones which go further than the old, until we find one based on a larger number of facts. ... Theories are only hypotheses, verified by more or less numerous facts. Those verified by the most facts are the best, but even then they are never final, never to be absolutely believed.

Claude Bernard

Put off your imagination, as you put off your overcoat, when you enter the laboratory. Put it on again, as you put on your overcoat, when you leave.

Claude Bernard

Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.

Claude Bernard

Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations. Of necessity, they observe with a preconceived idea, and when they devise an experiment, they can see, in its results,only a confirmation of their theory. In this way they distort observation and often neglect very important facts because they do not further their aim.

Claude Bernard

The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds.

James Gleick

I really don't think of myself as a science writer.

Alastair Reynolds

I prioritise story over science, but not at the expense of being really stupid about it.

Kenneth Miller

If you use scripture as science, you're not elevating scripture, you're profaning it.

J. G. Ballard

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.

Ivar Giaever

Incontrovertible is not a scientific word. Nothing is incontrovertible in science.

Isaac Watts

No science is speedily learned by the noblest genius without tuition.

Isaac Newton

Are not all Hypotheses erroneous, in which Light is supposed to consist in Pression or Motion, propagated through a fluid Medium? For in all these Hypotheses the Phaenomena of Light have been hitherto explain'd by supposing that they arise from new Modifications of the Rays; which is an erroneous Supposition.