Augustin-Jean Fresnel Quotes

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.

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

In science, nothing is ever 100% proven.

You make observations, write theories to fit them, try experiments to disprove the theories and, if you can't, you've got something.

You can't prove any hypothesis, you can only improve or disprove it.

Science does not limit itself merely to what is currently verifiable. But it is interested in questions that are potentially verifiable (or, rather, falsifiable).

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Science is not, despite how it is often portrayed, about absolute truths. It is about developing an understanding of the world, making predictions, and then testing these predictions.

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.

A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory.

The proper method for inquiring after the properties of things is to deduce them from experiments.

One finds the truth by making a hypothesis and comparing observations with the hypothesis.

The aim of natural science is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature.

Just as houses are made of stone, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house, and a collection of facts is not necessarily science

To say that prediction is the purpose of a scientific theory is to confuse means with ends. It is like saying that the purpose of a spaceship is to burn fuel. ... Passing experimental tests is only one of many things a theory has to do to achieve the real purpose of science, which is to explain the world.

… new concepts arise from experiments and observations, and … the new concepts in turn lead to further experiments and observations.

Reason and science allow us to properly think about the necessary data that are required in order to answer a given question. This is precisely why the scientific method is the most powerful framework for understanding the world.

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.

A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory.

I have emphasized experiments more than theory. Of course, we need some theory when thinking of soft matter.

Facts are not science - as the dictionary is not literature.

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

All science is based on models, and every scientific model comprises three distinct stages: statement of well-defined hypotheses; deduction of all the consequences of these hypotheses, and nothing but these consequences; confrontation of these consequences with observed data.

There can be theory but, you know, the problem is you've got to be able to test it. So theories are one thing, testing is another.

If the facts are contrary to any predictions, then the hypothesis is wrong no matter how appealing.