Jacob Bronowski Quotes

We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics.

The proper method for inquiring after the properties of things is to deduce them from experiments.

I'm not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.

Modern science is predicated on 'truths' verified through accurate observation and measurements of physical world phenomena.

I wanted to understand the secrets behind my chemical experiments and behind the processes in nature.

Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.

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

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.

Doing physics is a lot of fun if you like it.

I always looked at myself as a physicist learning new tricks by looking at nature.

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

There's something really beautiful about science, that human beings can ask these questions and can answer them. You can make models of nature and understand how it works.

I think I was a born scientist.

I wanted to be a scientist. But I had no math skills.

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

If we are ever to discover the laws of nature, we must do so by obtaining the most accurate acquaintance with the facts of nature, and not by dressing up in philosophical language the loose opinions of men who had no knowledge of the facts

The aim of natural science is not simply to accept the statements of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature.

Primary causes are unknown to us; but are subject to simple and constant laws, which may be discovered by observation, the study of them being the object of natural philosophy.

if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

Science, as opposed to technology, does violence to common sense.

I chose to pursue a career in physics because there the truth isn't so easily bent.

I am completely obsessed with numbers and data. I have become a scientist in later life.

Reason and science allow us to properly think about the necessary data that are required in order to answer a given question. This is precisely why the scientific method is the most powerful framework for understanding the world.

I thought I should study physics because it's fundamental to all science.

Women study things in order to figure out how they're connected to other things. I don't know if it's controversial to say that, but that's what I've seen from doing science for a couple of decades.