Dean Ornish Quotes

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

Only science and the spirit of seeking truth from facts can save China. I firmly believe in this.

It is not only by the questions we have answered that progress may be measured, but also by those we are still asking. The passionate controversies of one era are viewed as sterile preoccupations by another, for knowledge alters what we seek as well as what we find.

Every great scientific truth goes through three states: first, people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before; lastly, they say they always believed it.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth.

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

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

The history of science shows that theories are perishable. With every new truth that is revealed we get a better understanding of Nature and our conceptions and views are modified.

It is sometimes important for science to know how to forget the things she is surest of.

The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.

As a researcher, every once in a while you encounter something a little disconcerting. And this is something that changes your understanding of the world around you, and teaches you that you're very wrong about something that you really believed firmly in.

It's really important, whether you're a conservative or a liberal, to always challenge the conventional wisdom, which is what I've tried to do in all my work.

Nothing energizes me more than to burrow myself under a pile of received wisdom and emerge triumphant with the truth.

The great tragedy of Science --- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact

Moving forward in science is as much unwinding the distorted thinking of the past as it is putting a clearer idea on the table.

There are three stages of truth. First is that it can't be true, and that's what they said. “You couldn't immunize against polio with a killed-virus vaccine.” Second phase: they say, "Well, if it's true, it's not very important. And the third stage is, 'Well, we've known it all along.

You don’t make progress in science by finding things that are right. You make progress by finding things that are wrong. You won’t win the Nobel Prize by showing Einstein was right. You win the prize by showing that he was wrong.

The essence of scientific genius is to question what the rest of us take for granted.

As for my own views, they've of course evolved over the years. This conception of 'renouncing beliefs' is very odd, as if we're in some kind of religious cult. I 'renounce beliefs' practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I reject most conventional wisdom.

Conventional wisdom is not always the best wisdom.

I felt the need to unlearn my formal education.

The passion for truth is silenced by answers which have the weight of undisputed authority.

I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions... Don't take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can't. Be willing to ask questions about what is taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself.