Robert D. Hare Quotes

The heart of science is measurement.

In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.

Science has authority, not because of white coats, or titles, but because of precision and transparency: you explain your theory, set out your evidence, and reference the studies that support your case.

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.

I feel passionately about measurement - about how difficult it is, about how much theory and conceptualization is involved in measurement, and indeed, how much politics is involved.

An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.

It's not about size, it's a science.

All science requires mathematics.

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

Science isn't about authority or white coats; it's about following a method. That method is built on core principles: precision and transparency; being clear about your methods; being honest about your results; and drawing a clear line between the results, on the one hand, and your judgment calls about how those results support a hypothesis.

This was good training for research, because large parts of experimental work are sometimes boring or involve the use of skills in which one is not particularly gifted.

A painstaking course in qualitative and quantitative analysis by John Wing gave me an appreciation of the need for, and beauty of, accurate measurement.

In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.

But a science is exact to the extent that its method measures up to and is adequate to its object.

There are an infinite number of boring things to do in science.

I time everything. I'm a scientist at heart.

My parents are both scientists. They like order.

In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics.

We must have the real thing before we can have a science of a thing.

I belong to those theoreticians who know by direct observation what it means to make a measurement. Methinks it were better if there were more of them.

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.

I have emphasized experiments more than theory. Of course, we need some theory when thinking of soft matter.

Refining is inevitable in science when you have made measurements of a phenomenon for a long period of time.

Mostly, research is much more fun than the actual writing.

Science is fun. Science is curiosity. We all have natural curiosity. Science is a process of investigating. It's posing questions and coming up with a method. It's delving in.