Martin Rees Quotes

I don't think that science is complete at all. We don't understand everything, and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies. We just have to accept that we don't understand.

We know a lot of things, but what we don't know is a lot more.

We have learned the answers, all the answers: It is the question that we do not know.

If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.

There are no explanations, there are no answers.

No one will ever know the complete truth.

It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown.

And she could never give me an answer. And I realized that, you know, I had a problem on my hands.

Fortunately, nature is as generous with its problems as Nobel with his fortune. The more we know, the more aware we are of what we know not.

What's an expert? I read somewhere, that the more a man knows, the more he knows he doesn't know. So I suppose one definition of an expert would be someone who doesn't admit out loud that he knows enough about a subject to know he doesn't really know how much.

There can sometimes be this fear among laypeople: 'I don't understand everything in science perfectly, so I just can't say anything about it.' I think it's good to know that we scientists are also confused some of the time.

The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

The most solid piece of scientific truth I know of is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature.

You know a lot, but you don't know everything.

I think what a life in science really teaches you is the vastness of our ignorance.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

The argument for intelligent design basically depends on saying, 'You haven't answered every question with evolution,'... Well, guess what? Science can't answer every question.

There is no complete theory of anything.

We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

All that we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown.

Not all the vital questions have been settled.