Theory vs. Reality, Theory vs Reality Quotes

On Pragmatism: It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

Radical revolutionaries are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man, that they have totally forgotten his nature.

One pursues economic theory in too extreme an extent he is likely to be in trouble; you have to consider the reality and blend what you observe as reality with an ingredient of theory, and a little, just a little bit ahead of the time, then you are likely to succeed.

We seek ... not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and as a result.

Theories have nothing to do with life.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

A think may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.

In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person; in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them.

Someone once defined a social problem as a situation in which the real world differs from the theories of intellectuals. To the intelligentsia, it follows, as the night follows the day, that it is the real world that is wrong and which needs to change.

Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be improved by dwelling upon the theories.... It is a condition which confronts us—not a theory!

Principles ... become modified in practice, by facts.

To a theoretical physicist, there is no greater joy than to see that this curious activity we call calculation - the depositing of ink on paper, followed by throwing away the paper and depositing new ink on more paper - can actually tell us something about reality.

Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.