Terence Tao Quotes

Great scientific contributions have been techniques.

With science, there is this culture of experimentation, and most of the time, those experiments fail.

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

Science is about applying what we know and asking what we don't know.

I had learned that science is a rewarding, active process of discovery, not the passive absorption of what others had discovered.

Research programmes, besides their negative heuristic, are also characterized by their positive heuristic.

I love to watch how scientists' minds work.

I love to be a scientist. I've always enjoyed being curious.

Science is what scientists do.

Science is curiosity, testing and experimenting.

The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.

Research is creating new knowledge.

At its core, what we do in 'MythBusters' is turn science into an adventure.

Science isn't just for guys in lab coats, you know? It's for anybody who wants to do a good job of understanding and investigating the world.

I think all scientists are like detectives. We are most happy when we find something that doesn't fit our expectations.

Scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and instruments, but in the ened your preparations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accrued to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work.

The man who is striving to solve a problem defined by existing knowledge and technique is not, however, just looking around. He knows what he wants to achieve, and he designs his instruments and directs his thoughts accordingly. Unanticipated novelty, the new discovery, can emerge only to the extent that his anticipations about nature and his instruments prove wrong... There is no other effective way in which discoveries might be generated.

Science is simply a powerful way of understanding what's real and what isn't, what's true and what's not. It can help us determine what works, what doesn't, for whom, and under what circumstances.

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

Science by itself is about numbers, and it's about measuring things. It's very important but it's very dry.

Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.

And what I wanted to do was, I wanted to explore problems and areas where we didn't have answers. In fact, where we didn't even know the right questions to ask.

What intrigues basic scientists like me is that anytime we do a series of experiments, there are going to be three or four new questions that come up when you think you've answered one.

Facts are the air of scientists. Without them you can never fly.

I enjoy science, and I'm a very curious person. I always want to know the reason behind everything, big or small.