Here's a selection of quotes, mostly science-related, that I appreciate. The Hubbard one is probably my absolute favorite...just because I've seen it confirmed so many times.
Francis Bacon
-They are ill discoverers that think there is no land when they can see nothing but sea.
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Niels Bohr
-Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.
-The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
-We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.
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Percy W. Bridgeman
-There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.
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Marie Curie
-Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
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Charles Darwin
-Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
-A man who dares to waste an hour of life has not discovered the value of life. This means you, ATOTers!
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Albert Einstein
-No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
-The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
-The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
-The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
-Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
-He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
-A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
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Enrico Fermi
-There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.
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Richard P. Feynman
-I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring.
-Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.
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Galileo Galilei
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
-You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself.
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Stephen Jay Gould
-Nothing is more dangerous than a dogmatic worldview - nothing more constraining, more blinding to innovation, more destructive of openness to novelty.
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Stephen W. Hawking
-My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
-I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
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Elbert G. Hubbard
-In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it.
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Thomas H. Huxley
-Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
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Margaret Mead
-Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
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Henry L. Mencken
-Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.
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Louis Pasteur
-Chance favors the prepared mind.
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Carl Sagan
-I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
-A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
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