Scientific Method Quotes

• The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

  Thomas Huxley

  Faith, Believe, Science

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1908). “Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.4, Library of Alexandria

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• Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Peace

  Strength to Love ch. 7 (1963)

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• The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.

  Karl Pearson

  Science, Class, Supposing That

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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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• There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that 'belief' must be discarded and replaced by 'the scientific method.

  Max Born

  Believe, Two, Belief

  1951 Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance.

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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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• 'The scientific method,' Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, 'is nothing but the normal working of the human mind.' That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in correcting its mistakes.

  Neil Postman

  Mistake, Mind, Normal

  Neil Postman (2011). “The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School”, p.68, Vintage

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• We are the recipients of scientific method. We can each be a creative and active part of it if we so desire.

  Kary Mullis

  Creativity, Creative, Desire

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• The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in correcting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry — is not even a ”subject " — but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.

  Neil Postman

  Mistake, Humility, Views

  "The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School".

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• When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.

  Albert Einstein

  Thinking, Play, Weather

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”, p.23, Open Road Media

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• Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 - 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Knowledge, Science, Thinking

  1974 Zen and theArt of MotorcycleMaintenance, pt.3, ch.24.

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• Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.

  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

  Science, Thinking, Discovery

  Chairman Habil Khorakiwala's speech of Wockhardt Ltd., economictimes.indiatimes.com. March 2013.

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• The scientific method actually correctly uses the most direct evidence as the most reliable, because that's the way you are least likely to get led astray into dead ends and to misunderstand your data.

  Aubrey de Grey

  Data, Way, Use

  "How Beer, Oprah and Sergey Brin can help cure aging". Interview with Steven Leckart, www.wired.com. October 19, 2010.

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• Science is what scientists do, and there are as many scientific methods as there are individual scientists.

  Percy Williams Bridgman

  Science, Scientist, Individual

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• My background is basically scientific math. My Dad was a physicist, so I have it in my blood somewhere. Scientific method is very important to me. I think anything that contradicts it is probably not true.

  John Astin

  Dad, Math, Thinking

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• There is no short cut to truth, no way to gain a knowledge of the universe except through the gateway of scientific method.

  Karl Pearson

  Way, Gains, Shortcuts

  "The Grammar of Science".

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• Influenced by him, and probably even more so by my brother Theodore a year older than me, I soon became interested in biology and developed a respect for the importance of science and the scientific method.

  Frederick Sanger

  Respect, Brother, Years

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• This means that to entrust to science - or to deliberate control according to scientific principles - more than scientific method can achieve may have deplorable effects.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Mean, Principles, May

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• I don't think the scientific method and the science fictional method are really analogous. The thing about them is that neither is really practiced very much, at least not consciously. But the fact that they are methodical does relate them.

  Frederik Pohl

  Thinking, Doe, Facts

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• Creation is not taking place now, so far as can be observed. Therefore, it was accomplished sometime in the past, if at all, and thus is inaccessible to the scientific method.

  Henry M. Morris

  Past, Religion, Creation

  Dr. Henry M. Morris (1974). “Scientific Creationism”, p.5, New Leaf Publishing Group

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• When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless, no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us. Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.

  Albert Einstein

  Thinking, Order, Play

  Albert Einstein (2000). “Albert Einstein in his own words in two complete books: Relativity-the special and general theory; Out of my later years-the scientist, philosopher and man portrayed through his own words”

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• My feeling is that scientific method has the power to account for and interlink all phenomena in the universe, including its origin, using the laws of nature. But that still leaves the laws unexplained.

  Paul Davies

  Law, Feelings, Stills

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• We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Children, Teaching

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.434, Ballantine Books

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• The scientific method is the ultimate elegant explanation. It is the ultimate foundation for anything worthy of the name "explanation". It makes no sense to talk about explanations without having a process for deciding which are right and which are wrong, and in a broad sense that is what the scientific method is about. All of the other wonderful explanations celebrated here owe their origin and credibility to the process by which they are verified-the scientific method.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Names, Foundation, Wonderful

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• Science is not, as so many seem to think, something apart, which has to do with telescopes, retorts, and test-tubes, and especially with nasty smells, but it is a way of searching out by observation, trial and classification; whether the phenomena investigated be the outcome of human activities, or of the more direct workings of nature's laws. Its methods admit of nothing untidy or slip-shod; its keynote is accuracy and its goal is truth.

  Archibald Garrod

  Science, Thinking, Law

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