Good Science Quotes

• The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Believe, Science, Bad Ass

  Twitter post from Jun 14, 2013

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• Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

  Howard Aiken

  Life And Love, Business, Congratulations

  "A Computer Science Reader : Selections from Abacus" by Eric A. Weiss, (p. 404), 1988.

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• Imagination is more important than knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.32, St. Martin's Press

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• He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Philosophical, Eye

  Albert Einstein (2013). “Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb”, p.229, Princeton University Press

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Science, Theoretical Physics

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference, 1987.

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Learning, Humility

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?" Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003.

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• There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt is awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

  Albert Einstein

  Beautiful, Art, Eye

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• I am not very sceptical, — a frame of mind which I believe to be injurious to the progress of science. A good deal of scepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met with not a few men, who, I feel sure, have often thus been deterred from experiment or observations, which would have proved directly or indirectly serviceable .

  Charles Darwin

  Loss, Science, Men

  "The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: Including an Autobiographical Chapter".

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• It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Morning, Good Day, Science

  On Aggression ch. 2 (1966)

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• The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.

  Claude Levi-Strauss

  Science, Technology, Giving

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• Given the power and influence that science increasingly has in our daily lives, it is important that we as citizens of an open and democratic society learn to separate good science from bunk. This is not just a matter of intellectual curiosity, as it affects where large portions of our tax money go, and in some cases even whether people’s lives are lost as a result of nonsense.

  Massimo Pigliucci

  People, Intellectual, Curiosity

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• We asked ourselves and the world to base decisions on good science, and I really believe the United States can be the leader in delivering that message to our international trading partners.

  Mike Johanns

  Believe, Decision, Leader

  "An Exclusive Interview: USDA Secretary Mike Johanns". Interview with Sam Gazdziak, www.provisioneronline.com. June 1, 2005.

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• In really, really good science fiction the line between the science and the fiction is blurry.

  Damon Lindelof

  Fiction, Lines, Blurry

  "Writing a TED Talk from the future: Q&A with Damon Lindelof". TED Talk, blog.ted.com. February 28, 2012.

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• I felt strongly that since the pursuit of good science was so difficult it was essential that the problem being studied was an important one to justify the effort expanded.

  Paul Nurse

  Effort, Important, Essentials

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• Good science and good art are always about a condition of awe. I don't think there is any other function for the poet or the scientist in the human tribe but the astonishment of the soul.

  Derek Walcott

  Art, Thinking, Soul

  "Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas are Born". Book by Denise G. Shekerjian, 1990.

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• Much of good science and perhaps all of great science has its roots in fantasy.

  E. O. Wilson

  Roots, Fantasy, Great Science

  "Letters to a Young Scientist". Book by E. O. Wilson, 2013.

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• Remember that sign they hung up in an EPA office during the Reagan administration, "No good deed goes unpunished"? Under George Bush, no good science goes unpunished.

  David Helvarg

  Office, Deeds, Epa

  Grist magazine, January 03, 2005.

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• Every month, the US is spending more on the Iraqi war than it took to reach Saturn and Titan. Mass murder is expensive, and good science is relatively cheap.

  Caitlín R. Kiernan

  War, Saturn, Months

  "Doomsday averted" by Caitlín R. Kiernan, greygirlbeast.livejournal.com. January 16, 2005.

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• I publish things that in my judgment are good science.

  Susan Fiske

  Judgment, Publish

  "We talked to the scientist at the center of a brutal firestorm in the field of psychology". Interview with Rafi Letzter, www.businessinsider.com. September 26, 2016.

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• Good science is all about following the data as it shows up and letting yourself be proven wrong, and letting everything change while you're working on it - and I think writing is the same way.

  Rebecca Skloot

  Writing, Thinking, Data

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• Debunking bad science should be constant obligation of the science community, even if it takes time away from serious research or seems to be a losing battle. One takes comfort from the fact there is no Gresham's laws in science. In the long run, good science drives out bad.

  Martin Gardner

  Running, Law, Long

  "The Night Is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995". Book by Martin Gardner (Introduction to Part III "Pseudoscience", p. 171), 1996.

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• Good science is done by being curious in general, by asking questions all around, by acknowledging the likelihood of being wrong and taking this in good humor for granted, by having a deep fondness for nature, and by being made jumpy and nervous by ignorance.

  Lewis Thomas

  Motivational, Ignorance, Asking Questions

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• A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.

  Frederik Pohl

  Fiction Stories, Able, Jam

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• I do agree that the science is not settled on this. The idea we would put Americans' economy in jeopardy based on scientific theory that is not settled yet to me is nonsense. Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said this is the fact... Galileo got outvoted for a spell. To put Americans' economic future in jeopardy, asking us to cut back in areas that would have monstrous economic impact on this country is not good economics and I would suggest is not necessarily good science.

  Rick Perry

  Country, Crazy, Cutting

  "The end of Michele Bachmann? 'Queen of rage' losing momentum as funds reportedly dwindle" by Thomas Durante, www.dailymail.co.uk. September 9, 2011.

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• [There is] one distinctly human thing - the story. There can be as good science about a turnip as about a man. ... [Or philosophy, or theology] ...There can be, without any question at all, as good higher mathematics about a turnip as about a man. But I do not think, though I speak in a manner somewhat tentative, that there could be as good a novel written about a turnip as a man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Philosophy, Science, Men

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