Scientific Theory Quotes

• Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena.

  Wilhelm Reich

  Space, Chaos, Theory

  Wilhelm Reich (1973). “The Discovery of the Orgone”

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• I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme.

  Karl Popper

  Research, Evolution, Metaphysical

  Karl Popper (2005). “Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography”, p.195, Routledge

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• Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.

  Aldous Huxley

  Art, Men, Europe

  Aldous Huxley (1956). “The collected works of Aldous Huxley”

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• A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

  Max Planck

  Death, Truth, Growing Up

  Scientific Autobiography, and Other Papers "Scientific Autobiography" (1948) (translation by Frank Gaynor)

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• We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth

  Kenneth R. Miller

  Theory, Absolute Truth, Regard

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• One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Albert Einstein (2016). “The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It”, p.117, Open Road Media

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• The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.

  Mark Russell

  Inspirational, Hilarious, Funny Life

  "Frequent Flyer Humor and One-Upmanship". Book by George W. Stewart, Dog Ear Publishing, p. 12, 2011.

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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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• 

  Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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• Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Science, Experience, Scientific Method

  The Gods

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• Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.

  Bertrand Russell

  Math, Science, Air

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

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• The method of science depends on our attempts to describe the world with simple theories: theories that are complex may become untestable, even if they happen to be true. Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification-the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.

  Karl Popper

  Art, Science, Simple

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Universe: An Argument for Indeterminism From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.44, Routledge

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• Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that this is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secrets of the "Old One." I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Real, Voice

  Quoted in Ronald W. Clark's Einstein: The Life and Times (p. 340)

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• The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks

  Albert Einstein

  Memorable, Looks, Physics

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• Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough.

  Michael Crichton

  Enough, Skepticism, Situation

  "Aliens Cause Global Warming". Caltech Michelin Lecture, January 17, 2003.

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• It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment.

  Paul Dirac

  Mathematical Equations, Important, Fit

  "Magic numbers: can maths equations be beautiful?" by Ian Sample, www.theguardian.com. November 21, 2016.

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• The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.

  William Lawrence Bragg

  Knowledge, Learning, Science

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• A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.

  Karl Popper

  Thinking, People, Vices

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.48, Routledge

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• You know how it always is, every new idea, it takes a generation or two until it becomes obvious that there's no real problem. It has not yet become obvious to me that there's no real problem. I cannot define the real problem, therefore I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Real, Ideas, Two

  "Simulating Physics with Computers". Richard P. Feynman, "International Journal of Theoretical Physics", Volume 21, 1982.

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• I have second thoughts. Maybe God is malicious.
  Told to Valentine Bargmann.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Valentine, Second Thoughts

  Quoted in Jamie Sayen, Einstein in America (1985).

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• Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.

  Isaac Asimov

  Dream, Religious, Atheist

  "Like Rolling Uphill: Realizing the Honesty of Atheism". Book by Dianna Narciso, 2004.

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• Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

  Adam Smith

  Science, Flames, Enthusiasm

  The Wealth of Nations Bk V, Ch. 1

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• In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs.

  Francis Darwin

  Business, Science, Men

  Eugenics Review, Apr. 1914

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• Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.

  Karl Popper

  Funny, Art, Crazy

  1982 Quoted in the Observer,1Aug.

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• When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

  Isaac Asimov

  Atheist, Science, Epic

  "The Relativity of Wrong". Book by Isaac Asimov, 1996.

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