Question with boldness even the existence of a god.
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
The universe is wider than our views of it.
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
Who never walks save where he sees men's tracks makes no discoveries.
There is no better soporific and sedative than skepticism.
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.
The farther the experiment is from theory, the closer it is to the Nobel Prize.
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.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
A man receives only what he is ready to receive... The phenomenon or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest of what he has observed, he does not observe.
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.
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.
or simply:
