Nicolaus Copernicus Quotes

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.

If anyone offers conjectures about the truth of things from the mere possibility of hypotheses, I do not see by what stipulation anything certain can be determined in any science, since one or another set of hypotheses may always be devised which will appear to supply new difficulties.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt

I would proclaim that the vast majority of what [say, Scientific American] is true-yet my ability to defend such a claim is weaker than I would like. And most likely the readers, authors, and editors of that magazine would be equally hard pressed to come up with cogent, non-technical arguments convincing a skeptic of this point, especially if pitted against a clever lawyer arguing the contrary. How come Truth is such a slippery beast?

Science is not wisdom.

Nor must we forget that in science there are no final truths.

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

The difficulty in philosophy is to say no more than we know.

We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them.

We don't regard any scientific theory as the absolute truth.

The National Academy of Sciences would be unable to give a unanimous decision if asked whether the sun would rise tomorrow.

I lose sleep at night wondering whether we are intelligent enough to figure out the universe. I don't know.

Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.

Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I will not realise my luck and instead will spend my life trying to find flaws in this understanding - such is the role of a scientist.

Young children are naturally so philosophical. They ask: 'What is real? What is truth?' They have to learn it; they don't automatically know it. To them, it's a game. You can study this for years in college, and yet you probably asked it when you were four or five years old.

Doubt is not below knowledge, but above it.

There are no enemies in science, professor. Only phenomena to study.

No Discourse whatsoever, can End in absolute Knowledge of Fact.

It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.

To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.

There's no reason to be agnostic about ideas that are dramatically incompatible with everything we know about modern science.

We'd all like to be certain of what we know, but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?

Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read.

We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

The typical person has no trouble believing without knowing. What people need to realize is simply that you do not need to believe to know.