Sean M. Carroll Quotes

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

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

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

I like solving problems, and science provides a logical way of solving real-life problems.

One of the biggest and most important tools of theoretical physics is the wastebasket.

You must acquire something of that industrious habit of mind which the study of natural science gives,—the art of comparing, of perceiving true likenesses and true differences, and so of classifying and arranging what you see; the art of connecting facts together in your mind in cause and effect

Science is the practice of failing repeatedly but learning as you go.

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.

I learned quickly, as I tell my graduate students now, there are no answers in the back of the book when the equipment doesn't work or the measurements look strange.

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

Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.

Science is simply common sense at its best, that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic.

I love to watch how scientists' minds work.

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.

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

Scientific research involves going beyond the well-trodden and well-tested ideas and theories that form the core of scientific knowledge. During the time scientists are working things out, some results will be right, and others will be wrong. Over time, the right results will emerge.

We should teach the students, as well as executives, how to conduct experiments, how to examine data, and how to use these tools to make better decisions.

I tend to approach things from a physics framework. And physics teaches you to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.

In scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.

In science, we must be interested in things, not in persons.

Science is a self-sufficient activity.

Science is nothing, but trained and organized common sense.

Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 - 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.

That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.

Science is a self-correcting discipline that can, in subsequent generations, show that previous ideas were not correct.