James Lovelock Quotes

Science, in the broadest sense, includes all reasonable claims to knowledge about ourselves and the world.

Science, my boy, is composed of errors, but errors that it is right to make, for they lead step by step to the truth.

Theory is continually the precursor of truth; we must pass through the twilight and its shade, to arrive at the full and perfect day.

In science, mistakes always precede the truth

By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.

The stream of time sweeps away errors, and leaves the truth for the inheritance of humanity.

Science has fulfilled her function when she has ascertained and enunciated truth.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.

None can judge with certainty who is right and who is wrong, who is nearest the truth, or which is the best way to achieve the greatest good for each and everyone. Freedom coupled with experience, is the only way of discovering the truth and what is best …

Time and chance reveal all secrets.

Speculation and the exploration of ideas beyond what we know with certainty are what lead to progress.

Science is a wonderful way of getting out what's real.

It is wiser to find out than to suppose.

Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

Which country is real, mine or the teacher's? My wish is that we might progressively lose our confidence in what we think we believe and the things we consider stable and secure, in order to remind ourselves of the infinite number of things still waiting to be discovered.

Science is the search for truth.

I'm constantly searching for the truth amidst a sea of confusion and uncertainty.

Do you really know what's going on And if you don't... find out

This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.

I do not know whether any of this is true. I am certain that the scientific community does not know that it is false.

Experiment is the sole source of truth.

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