“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders among those who may do well under the new.” Machiavelli – The Prince

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

Max Planck

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Science advances funeral by funeral.

Unknown (A paraphrase of Planck?)

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“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

Leo Tolstoy

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"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."

Sherlock Holmes

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“There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.”

Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961)
U. S. physicist, Nobel Prize, 1946

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"I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed."

Max Born (1882-1970)
German Physicist. Nobel Prize, 1954.

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“Science is not formal logic–it needs the free play of the mind in as great a degree as any other creative art. It is true that this is a gift which can hardly be taught, but its growth can be encouraged in those who already posses it.”

Max Born (1882-1970)
German Physicist. Nobel Prize, 1954.

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"There ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish something!"

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931).

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“One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.”

J. D. Watson – The Double Helix

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"In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."

Galileo Galilei

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“Thus, the task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.”

Erwin Schrödinger

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"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are that good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."

Howard Aiken

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“What, sir? You would make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.”

Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, upon hearing of the latter’s plans for a steam-powered engine.

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"That is the biggest fool thing we have ever done ... The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives."

U.S. Admiral William D. Leahy to President Truman, on atomic weaponry (1945)

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“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

Robert Goddard

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"The man who cannot occasionally imagine events and conditions of existence that are contrary to the causal principle as he knows it will never enrich his science by the addition of a new idea."

Max Planck

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“The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively not by the false appearance of things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

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"When I examined myself and my methods of thought, I came to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."

Albert Einstein

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“Perhaps the only thing that saves science from invalid conventional wisdom that becomes effectively permanent is the presence of mavericks in every generation – people who keep challenging convention and thinking up new ideas for the sheer hell of it or from an innate contrariness.”

Dr. D. M. Raup, Paleontologist, U. Chicago.

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"The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect."

Lewis Thomas

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When leading authorities are all in agreement, they are almost always wrong.

An old axiom

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Almost everything that almost everyone believes is wrong.

Andrew J. Galambos

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"Great thinkers have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

Albert Einstein

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“The truth of today was the heresy of yesterday. Therefore, dare.”

Immanuel Velikovsky

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"Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way."

William James

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Inventions rarely come from people within an industry, but, instead come from people on the outside who aren’t under the same limiting beliefs and habitual thinking that forms within any organization or industry.

Dr. James Asher
Author on Advanced Learning

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"The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.... Our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals."

Albert. A. Michelson, speech at the dedication of Ryerson Physics Lab, U. of Chicago, 1894

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“Never attribute to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Robert Heinlein

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“X-rays are a hoax.”

Lord Kelvin, engineer and physicist (c. 1900)

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I have indeed observed the same Disposition among most of the Mathematicians I have known in Europe; although I could never discover the least Analogy between the two Sciences; unless those People suppose, that because the smallest Circle hath as many Degrees as the largest, therefore the Regulation and Management of the World require no more Abilities than the handling and turning of a Globe. But, I rather take this Quality to spring from a very common Infirmity of human Nature, inclining us to be more curious and conceited in Matters where we have least Concern, and for which we are least adapted either by Study or Nature.

These People are under continual Disquietudes, never enjoying a Minute’s Peace of Mind; and their Disturbances proceed from Causes which very little affect the rest of Mortals. Their Apprehensions arise from several Changes they dread in the Celestial Bodies. For Instance; that the Earth by the continual Approaches of the Sun towards it, must in Course of Time be absorbed or swallowed up. That the Face of the Sun will by Degrees be encrusted with its own Effluvia, and give no more Light to the World. That, the Earth very narrowly escaped a Brush from the Tail of the last Comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to Ashes; and that the next, which they have calculated for One and Thirty Years hence, will probably destroy us. For, if in its Perihelion it should approach within a certain Degree of the Sun, (as by their Calculations they have Reason to dread) it will conceive a Degree of Heat ten Thousand Times more intense than that of red hot glowing Iron; and in its Absence from the Sun, carry a blazing Tail Ten Hundred Thousand and Fourteen Miles long; through which if the Earth should pass at the Distance of one Hundred Thousand Miles from the Nucleus or main Body of the Comet, it must in its Passage be set on Fire, and reduced to Ashes. That the Sun daily spending its Rays without any Nutriment to supply them, will at last be wholly consumed and annihilated; which must be attended with the Destruction of this Earth, and of all the Planets that receive their Light from it. They are so perpetually alarmed with the Apprehensions of these and the like impending Dangers, that they can neither sleep quietly in their Beds, nor have any Relish for the common Pleasures or Amusements of Life.

Jonathon Swift, 1667-1745, Gulliver’s Travels, Part III, Chapter II.

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“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason”.

Thomas Paine – Common Sense
January 10, 1776

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“Up till now surviving has prevented us from living. This is why much is to be expected of the increadsingly obvious impossibility of survival, an impossibility that will become all the more obvious as the glut of conveniences and elements of survival reduces life to a single choice: suicide or revolution.”

Raoul Vaneigem – Basic Banalities, 1962

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