Hypothesis Quotes

• There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

  Enrico Fermi

  Science, Discovery, Two

  "Nuclear Principles in Engineering". Book by Tatjana Jevremovic, 2005.

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• I have steadily endeavored to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypothesis, however much beloved (and I cannot resist forming one on every subject), as soon as the facts are shown to be opposed to it.

  Charles Darwin

  Giving Up, Science, Mind

  "Dow 36,000". Book by James K. Glassman, Kevin A. Hassett, www.cnn.com. September 14, 1999.

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• The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

  Thomas Huxley

  Beauty, Beautiful, Education

  "Biogenesis and Abiogenesis" (1870)

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• In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

  Denis Diderot

  Order, Literature, Sometimes

  Denis Diderot (1966). “Selected Writings”, New York : Macmillan

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• For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Science, Facts, Infinity

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• I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.

  Peter Medawar

  Truth, Giving, Advice

  Peter Brian Medawar (1981). “Advice to a young scientist”

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• Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Truth, Science, Religion

  Konrad Lorenz (2002). “On Aggression”, p.279, Psychology Press

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• It is an hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophical, Mean, Sun

  Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Francis Pears, Brian McGuinness (2001). “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus”, p.84, Psychology Press

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• [One's] inability to invalidate your hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true.

  Carl Sagan

  Inability, Prove

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• If the facts are contrary to any predictions, then the hypothesis is wrong no matter how appealing.

  David Douglass

  Matter, Facts, Predictions

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• Hypotheses non fingo. I frame no hypotheses.

  Isaac Newton

  Science

  Isaac Newton (1979). “Opticks, Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light”, p.21, Courier Corporation

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• I am not here concerned with intent, but with scientific standards, especially the ability to tell the difference between a fact, an opinion, a hypothesis, and a hole in the ground.

  Serge Lang

  Differences, Facts, Opinion

  Serge Lang (1998). “Challenges”, p.605, Springer Science & Business Media

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• I would be lying, however, if I claimed that I could always formulate worthwhile hypotheses on the basis of my theoretical framework. Sometimes there were no reflexive processes to be found; sometimes I failed to find them; and, what was the most painful of all, sometimes I got them wrong. One way or another, I often invested without a worthwhile hypothesis and my activities were not very different from a random walk.

  George Soros

  Lying, Different, Would Be

  George Soros (1994). “The Alchemy of Finance: Reading the Mind of the Market”, p.14, John Wiley & Sons

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• I feign no hypotheses.

  Isaac Newton

  Math, Mathematics, Mathematical

  Isaac Newton (2004). “Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings”, p.25, Cambridge University Press

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• A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.

  Edward Teller

  Believe, Science, Simple

  Edward Teller, Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley (2013). “Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics”, p.69, Basic Books

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• The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion - these are the most valuable coins of the thinker at work. But in most schools guessing is heavily penalized and is associated somehow with laziness.

  Jerome Bruner

  Education, School, Laziness

  The Process of Education (p. 14)

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• One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.

  Jean Rostand

  Science, Discovery, Order

  Jean Rostand (1962). “The substance of man”

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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 hypotheses we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this: our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed.

  William Whewell

  Science, Accepting, Ought

  William Whewell (1968). “Theory of Scientific Method”, p.151, Hackett Publishing

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• I long ago suggested the hypothesis, that in the basin of the Thames there are indications of a meeting in the Pleistocene period of a northern and southern fauna.

  Charles Lyell

  Long Ago, Southern, Thames

  Charles Lyell (1873). “The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man with an Outline of Glacial and Post-tertiary Geology and Remarks on the Origin of Species with Special Reference to Mans First Appearance on the Earth by Charles Lyell”, p.202

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• I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses; for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called a hypothesis, and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.

  Isaac Newton

  Philosophy, Science, Quality

  Letter to Robert Hooke, 5 Feb. 1676

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• The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

  Carl Jung

  Believe, Needs, Belief

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• The greatest problem for mathematicians now is probably the Riemann Hypothesis.

  Andrew Wiles

  Problem, Mathematician, Riemann

  "Andrew Wiles on Solving Fermat". The NOVA Interview, www.pbs.org. November 1, 2000.

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• Even mistaken hypotheses and theories are of use in leading to discoveries. This remark is true in all the sciences. The alchemists founded chemistry by pursuing chimerical problems and theories which are false. In physical science, which is more advanced than biology, we might still cite men of science who make great discoveries by relying on false theories.

  Claude Bernard

  Mistake, Science, Men

  "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine".

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• It is absolutely essential that one should be neutral and not fall in love with the hypothesis.

  David Douglass

  Falling In Love, Essentials, Should

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