Discovery In Science 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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• The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'

  Isaac Asimov

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

  "Betting On a Bass That Belts Them Out; Singing Fish Becomes Season’s Unlikely Hit" by Darragh Johnson, The Washington Post, July 30, 2000.

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• They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

  Francis Bacon

  Life, Nature, Travel

  'The Advancement of Learning' (1605) bk. 2, ch. 7, sect. 5

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• Who never walks save where he sees men's tracks makes no discoveries.

  J. G. Holland

  Science, Men, Discovery

  J. G. HOLLAND (1867). “KATHRINA: HER LIFE AND MINE, IN A POEM”, p.230

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• 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.

  Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett

  Failure, Eye, Science

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  The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

  Marcel Proust

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

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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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• Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.

  Alan Valentine

  Angel, Science, Discovery

  ALAN VALENTINE (1962). “1913 America Between Two Worlds”

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• 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.

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Learning, Humility

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?" Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003.

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Science, Theoretical Physics

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference, 1987.

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• The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

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• We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

  Albert Einstein

  Science, Discovery, Taught Us

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• Advances are Made by Answering Questions. Discoveries are Made by Questioning Answers.

  Bernard Haisch

  Wisdom, Science, Discovery

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• We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals.

  Marie Curie

  Forget, Prove, Scientific Discovery

  Marie Curie's lecture at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, May 14, 1921.

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• The most important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplemented in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.

  Albert A. Michelson

  Discovery, Law, Important

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• When adults first become conscious of something new, they usually either attack or try to escape from it ... Attack includes such mild forms as ridicule, and escape includes merely putting out of mind.

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge

  Science, Discovery, Mind

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

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• Many discoveries must have been stillborn or smothered at birth. We know only those which survived.

  William Ian Beardmore Beveridge

  Science, Discovery, Birth

  "The Art of Scientific Investigation". Book by William Ian Beardmore Beveridge, p. 65, 1950.

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• The greatest discoveries of science have always been those that forced us to rethink our beliefs about the universe and our place in it.

  Robert L. Park

  Math, Science, Discovery

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• There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.

  Lord Kelvin

  Science, Discovery, Measurement

  "Is Scientific Genius Extinct?" by Ross Pomeroy, bigthink.com.

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• 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.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Science, Power, Errors

  "Counsels and Maxims". Book by Arthur Schopenhauer, Vol. 2, Ch. 1, § 17, 2007.

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• 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.

  Marie Curie

  Science, Discovery, Views

  Marie Curie's lecture at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, May 14, 1921.

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• Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Wisdom, Math, Science

  "The Organization of Thought" (1917)

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• 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.

  Lewis Thomas

  Truth, Ignorance, Science

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• 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.

  Carlo Rubbia

  Art, Science, Reality

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• The Hubble Law is one of the great discoveries in science; it is one of the main supports of the scientific story of Genesis.

  Robert Jastrow

  Discovery, Law, Support

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