Common Quotes (4)
In the discovery of hidden things and the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort...
De Magnete (1600). In William Gilbert and P. Fleury Mottelay (trans.), William Gilbert of Colchester, physician of London: On the load stone and magnetic bodies (1893), xlvii.
See also: | Cause (49) | Conjecture (8) | Discovery (166) | Experiment (199) | Hidden (2) | Investigation (25) | Obtain (5) | Opinion (36) | Philosopher (33) | Probable (4) | Reason (69)
It is a common failing–and one that I have myself suffered from–to fall in love with a hypothesis and to be unwilling to take no for an answer. A love affair with a pet hypothesis can waste years of precious time. There is very often no finally decisive yes, though quite often there can be a decisive no.
Advice to a Young Scientist (1979), 73.
Truth scarce ever yet carried it by Vote any where at its first appearance: New Opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other Reason, but because they are not already common.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Edited by Peter Nidditch (1975), The Epistle Dedicatory, 4.
See also: | Acceptance (2) | Opinion (36) | Opposition (7) | Reason (69) | Suspicion (4) | Truth (241) | Understanding (94)
We find that one of the most rewarding features of being scientists these days ... is the common bond which the search for truth provides to scholars of many tongues and many heritages. In the long run, that spirit will inevitably have a constructive effect on the benefits which man can derive from knowledge of himself and his environment.
Nobel Prize Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1972).
See also: | Benefit (4) | Bond (7) | Effect (15) | Environment (35) | Feature (2) | Heritage (2) | Knowledge (330) | Language (38) | Mankind (34) | Reward (7) | Scholar (8) | Scientist (71) | Search (10) | Spirit (9) | Truth (241)
