Herbert Spencer Quotes

Scientific research involves going beyond the well-trodden and well-tested ideas and theories that form the core of scientific knowledge. During the time scientists are working things out, some results will be right, and others will be wrong. Over time, the right results will emerge.

Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one.

In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.

A good scientist can understand the current state of a field, pick interesting questions where a success will actually lead to useful new knowledge, and push that field further through their work.

Science is simply a powerful way of understanding what's real and what isn't, what's true and what's not. It can help us determine what works, what doesn't, for whom, and under what circumstances.

Science by itself is about numbers, and it's about measuring things. It's very important but it's very dry.

It is crucial for scientists to be willing to be wrong; otherwise, you might not do the most important experiments, or you may ignore your most important findings.

Science is a self-correcting discipline that can, in subsequent generations, show that previous ideas were not correct.

Science always has its origin in the adaptation of thought to some definite field of experience.

Today's truth is tomorrow's null hypothesis-and next years's error.

One of the biggest and most important tools of theoretical physics is the wastebasket.

Science is a series of judgments, revised without ceasing.

Every result of science is provisional and subject to future revision

If you're a real scientist, you're constantly open to new data. Nothing is ever 100% validated.

Science is evidence-based and provides a continuing understanding of complex natural phenomena. Our understanding is constantly evolving and continually improving.

Educated guesswork' is what science is. You form hypotheses, test them against the evidence, and if they fit the evidence, you can assume you've got close to the truth.

I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.

In science, each new result, sometimes quite surprising, heralds a step forward and allows one to discard some hypotheses, even though one or two of these might have been highly favored.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.

I had learned that science is a rewarding, active process of discovery, not the passive absorption of what others had discovered.

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.

Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.

The process of science is difficult and challenging. It involves always being aware that your ideas might be right or they might be wrong. I think it's that kind of balance that makes science so interesting.

Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.