Scientific Discovery Quotes

“I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.”
― Michael Crichton

“It is not easy to convey, unless one has experienced it, the dramatic feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clicks into place. One immediately sees how many previously puzzling facts are neatly explained by the new hypothesis. One could kick oneself for not having the idea earlier, it now seems so obvious. Yet before, everything was in a fog.”
― Francis Crick, What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery

“I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.”
― Michael Crichton

“Creation signifies, above all, emotion, and that not in literature or art alone. We all know the concentration and effort implied in scientific discovery. Genius has been defined as an infinite capacity for taking pains.”
― Henri Bergson

“Truth and facts are not the same, because facts alone don't make the truth. Truth requires insight, truth requires wisdom. Facts can contribute to that insight and wisdom, but access to facts doesn't necessarily entail access to wisdom. The best example I can think of is that of love. Love is truth, whereas lust is fact. Lust may be a part of love, but it's not the whole of love. In fact, in many cases lust is not even part of the picture. The same goes for truth and facts. Fact is a state of matter, truth is a state of mind. Matter makes the mind - sure - but to fathom the matter behind mind in its fullest intricacies will take us millennia more.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Endeavor, explore and expand!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Şehit Sevda Society: Even in Death I Shall Live

“Fact is a state of matter, truth is a state of mind. Matter makes the mind - sure - but to fathom the matter behind mind in its fullest intricacies will take us millennia more.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Fact is a state of matter, truth is a state of mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“SCIENCE means Sapient Conscientious Investigation of Eternity with No Compromise on Empathy.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Corazon Calamidad: Obedient to None, Oppressive to None

“Science is much more than intelligence,
Those who know not what science is,
boast about the supremacy of science,
While real scientists are ever consumed
in the humanitarian application of science.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Science is service - if you don't get this, you are not a scientist, but a glorified con-artist.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Science is service.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Rowdy Scientist Sonnet

Science is neither boastful nor bashful,
Science stands dutybound, forever mindful.
Science gives the final answer as a ray of hope,
With all avenues exhausted to the last granule.

Science is neither defensive nor offensive,
Science can't afford such primitive prerogative.
Transcending binary norms science acts whole,
Defying the comfort of all corrosive narrative.

Science is slave to none, science enslaves none,
Science blooms from reason, endorsing curiosity.
But don't ever confuse curiosity with cynicism,
Curiosity brings understanding, cynicism apathy.

Average scientists seek answers,
Great scientist seeks questions.
Submissive scientists chase solutions,
I'm a Rowdy Scientist, give me problems!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Science is neither boastful nor bashful,
Science stands dutybound, forever mindful.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Average scientists seek answers,
Great scientist seeks questions.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“The food was so bad at the La Palma astronomical observatory that I stopped eating there.”
― Steven Magee

“Science Anthem (Sonnet 1216)

Science is my ode to society,
Science is serenade to society.
Science is the road to society,
Science is my aid to society.

Science is my poetry,
Science is philosophy.
Science is my thriller,
Science is my love story.

Science is not a love of knowledge,
Science is love of the light of knowledge.
Light of knowledge doesn't allow inhumanity,
Even if it's peddled in the benefit of knowledge.

Science is love, science is light,
Science is torch to the world at night.
Sometimes boring, sometimes daring,
Science es el loco amante of life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“We Are The Scientists
(Sonnet 1214)

Justifying human rights violation as
necessary evil may be habit of politicians.
Scientists must be wiser than that, otherwise,
Science is just a weapon of mass destruction.

Scientist without humanity is anything but scientist,
Science without humanity is anything but science.
Civilized scientists work for the progress of humanity,
Primitive scientists work for the progress of science.

Progress of science is not necessarily progress of humanity,
Particularly when science advances trampling human life.
World leaders may brush off such matter as collateral,
To a scientist with spine nothing is higher than human life.

Whole world is in our care, beyond all law and politics.
We are capable, we are accountable - we are the scientists!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Whole world is in our care, beyond all law and politics. We are capable, we are accountable - we are the scientists!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“SCIENCE means Sapient, Conscientious, Infinite Exploration, Never Compromising Empathy.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“You have a very special personal relationship with God, Mathieu. You’re the kind of atheist who can’t forgive God for NOT existing, and who gives the impression that in your eyes the only scientific discovery truly worthy of man’s genious would be the discovery of God.”
― Romain Gary, The Gasp

“Facts are a state of matter, truth is a state of mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yaralardan Yangın Doğar: Explorers of Night are Emperors of Dawn

“Facts and fiction both are dreams. Facts are what fiction dreams to be, while fiction is the dream that facts have conquered. And the beauty of it all is that, at any given moment, both dreams are alive, just in different shape and strength.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“Facts and fiction both are dreams. Facts are what fiction dreams to be, while fiction is the dream that facts have conquered.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“How does the bird come and go
(Sufi Scientist Sonnet, 1300)

How does the bird come and go,
In and out of this bodily cage!
So long as you nourish it with love,
Who cares about some mythical fate!

Cages are born of dust,
In dust cages will wither.
Yet you sob in love of cage,
Oblivious to the endangered flier!

With all knowledge of cosmic building blocks,
How come you still cannot put an end to war!
With all your high and mighty technocracy,
How come children still starve and suffer!

I say, put your intellect aside for a change,
First unfold a human heart outside the cage.
Otherwise, your posterboys of superficiality,
Will turn this world into a wreck of cages.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Iman Insaniyat, Mazhab Muhabbat: Pani, Agua, Water, It's All One

“The Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea is arguably one of the most disliked projects in the history of scientific discovery.”
― Steven Magee

“Claiming sole credit for scientific discovery is like claiming sole credit for a movie. Just like you and everyone involved, I played my role.”
― Lashon Byrd

“元首們走下真理祭壇，來到那些科學家面前，進行最後的努力。
法國總統說：「能不能這樣：把這事稍往後放一放，讓我陪大家去體驗另一種生活，讓我們放鬆自己，在黄昏的鳥鳴中看着夜幕降臨大地，在銀色的月光下聽着懷舊的音樂，喝着美酒想着你心愛的人⋯⋯這時你們就會發現，終極真理並不像你們想的那麼重要，與你們追求的虛無飄渺的宇宙和諧之美相比，這樣的美更讓人陶醉。」
一位物理學家冷冷地說：「所有的生活都是合理的，我們沒必要互相理解。」
法國元首還想說甚麼，美國總統已失去了耐心：「好了，不要對牛彈琴了！您還看不出來這是怎樣一群毫無責任心的人？還看不出這是怎樣一群騙子？他們聲稱為全人類的利益而研究，其實只是拿社會的財富滿足自己的慾望，滿足他們對那種玄虛的宇宙和諧美的變態慾望，這和拿公款嫖娼有甚麼區别？！」
丁儀擠上前來拍拍他的肩膀笑着說：「總統先生，科學發展到今天，終於有人對它的本質進行了比較準確的定義。
旁邊的松田誠一說：「我們早就承認這點，並反覆聲明，但一直沒人相信我們。」”
― Liu Cixin, 朝闻道

“The inherent patterns in reality are not rules to be followed. They are unavoidable. If you can figure out a way to get around one, it is not an inherent pattern.”
― George Hammond

“I can see no more reason for preferring the theories of fifty years ago than for preferring the observational data of fifty years ago.”
― Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's 'Great Debate', 1900–1931