Francis Bacon Quotes

There are no enemies in science, professor. Only phenomena to study.

I see no difference between scientific exploration and human exploration.

My relationship with science is as someone who's curious and hungry to know, hungry to understand. So all I have to offer is my ignorance and my curiosity, which is a good combination, as long as they come together.

A man of science doesn't discover in order to know, he wants to know in order to discover.

If there are lessons to be drawn from the sciences, then that should be the concern of everyone, including scientists to the extent that they can make a contribution.

The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions.

Our goal in science is to discover universal laws of nature. That pursuit fills me with wonder.

The routine of custom tends to deaden even scientific inquiry; it stands in the way of discovery and of the active scientific worker. For discovery and inquiry are synonymous as an occupation. Science is a pursuit, not a coming into possession of the immutable; new theories as points of view are more prized than discoveries that quantitatively increase the store on hand.

The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing knowledge of mankind.

Science's job is to map our ignorance.

We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe; it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge

It can be said with complete confidence that any scientist of any age who wants to make important discoveries must study important problems. Dull or piffling problems yield dull or piffling answers. It is not enough that a problem should be "interesting".

That's, of course, the beautiful thing about science - that it's all about things we don't understand, not just the things we do understand.

The world is devoted to physical science, because it believes theses discoveries will increase its capacity of luxury and self-indulgence. But the pursuit of science only leads to the insoluble.

I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed.

If we always thought like that, why would we study physics, why would we think of cosmology, why would we do any kind of research? Because we know already so much that there is no one person who can contain all that information.

Exploration is what you do when you don't know what you're doing. That's what scientists do every day. If a scientist already knew what they were doing, they wouldn't be discovering anything, because they already knew what they were doing.

Science, you don't know, looks like magic.

Scientists are explorers. Philosophers are tourists.

Those whose thinking is disciplined by science, like all others, need a basis for the good life, for aspiration, for courage to do great deeds. They need a faith to live by. The hope of the world lies in those who have such faith and who use the methods of science to make their visions become real. Such visions and hope and faith are not a part of science.

The intellectual advancement of man depends on how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth.

That's the beautiful thing about science - that it's all about things we don't understand, not just the things we do understand.

Science is the search for truth - it is not a game in which one tries to beat his opponent, to do harm to others.

How many wells of science there are in whose depths there is nothing but clear water!

Science is the most intimate school of resignation and humility, for it teaches us to bow before the seemingly most insignificant of facts.