The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
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.
Who never walks save where he sees men's tracks makes no discoveries.
May every young scientist remember and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure of his apparatus to give consistent results may once or twice in a lifetime conceal an important discovery.
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect.
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.
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
Advances are Made by Answering Questions. Discoveries are Made by Questioning Answers.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."
There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
The greatest discoveries of science have always been those that forced us to rethink our beliefs about the universe and our place in it.
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.
Science for me is very close to art. Scientific discovery is an irrational act. It's an intuition which turns out to be reality at the end of it-and I see no difference between a scientist developing a marvellous discovery and an artist making a painting.
The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.
We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it. It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
Many discoveries must have been stillborn or smothered at birth. We know only those which survived.
or simply:
