Lewis Thomas Quotes

From all this it follows what the general character of the problem of the development of a body of scientific knowledge is, in so far as it depends on elements internal to science itself.

The whole point of science is that most of it is uncertain. That's why science is exciting--because we don't know. Science is all about things we don't understand. The public, of course, imagines science is just a set of facts. But it's not. Science is a process of exploring, which is always partial. We explore, and we find out things that we understand. We find out things we thought we understood were wrong. That's how it makes progress.

You learn that the interest is in what you don't yet know and that theories evolve. But we nonetheless have progress and improved knowledge over time.

I'm not fascinated by one particular case, but by knowledge that I had no idea was out there.

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied research; to me, it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature.

You can only learn by opening yourself up to engage with different sources of information. How can you learn something if you never see it, read it, or hear it?

Always just remember that you can never know all; you're always going to be learning; there's always going to be something new. I don't think you'll ever have it all figured out.

If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world of new questions.

Learning is always rebellion... Every bit of new truth discovered is revolutionary to what was believed before.

As I enter a new phase of life and my circle broadens, I start learning new things.

To-day it appears as though it may well be altogether abolished in the future as it has to some extent been mitigated in the past by the unceasing, and as it now appears, unlimited ascent of man to knowledge, and through knowledge to physical power and dominion over Nature.

If you're an adult and you choose not to believe in science, fine, but please don't prevent your children from learning about it and letting them draw their own conclusions.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

Scientific facts are often described in textbooks as if they just sort of exist, like nickels someone picked up on the street. But science at the cutting edge, conducted by sharp minds probing deep into nature, is not about self-evident facts. It is about mystery and not knowing. It is about taking huge risks.

In the history of science, we often find that the study of some natural phenomenon has been the starting point in the development of a new branch of knowledge.

Real science is a very risky activity; people can spend their whole life working on a theory that doesn’t work out.

I just try to stuff my brain with everything that I can read on what is going on in science at a very high level, and sometimes I see connections of what might need to be done.

There's a lot of faith expressed by scientists about science. It's kind of an act of faith that science is a good thing. We don't know that for sure. We may not know that millions of years from now.

I have told many times I am always a student willing to learn new things.

It's just plain learning something that you didn't know. There is a real aesthetic experience in being dumbfounded.

There is not a piece of science, but its flank may be turned tomorrow.

Although it is uncertain, it is necessary to make science useful. Science is only useful if it tells you about some experiment that has not been done; it is not good if it only tells you what just went on.

One truth that I know for sure, for me anyway, is that the more you know, the more you realize that you don't know.

We are just in the kindergarten of uncovering things; there is no downcurve in science.

Every time I've learned something, I've realized there are a hundred more things I don't know about the thing I just learned.