There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance— that principle is contempt prior to investigation. - Herbert Spencer, British philosopher 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. -Tolstoy I am not very skeptical... a good deal of skepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met not a few men, who... have often thus been deterred from experiments or observations which would have proven serviceable. - Charles Darwin Round about the accredited and orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of dust-cloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences minute and irregular and seldom met with, which it always proves more easy to ignore than to attend to... Anyone will renovate his science who will steadily look after the irregular phenomena, and when science is renewed, its new formulas often have more of the voice of the exceptions in them than of what were supposed to be the rules. - William James It is really quite amazing by what margins competent but conservative scientists and engineers can miss the mark, when they start with the preconceived idea that what they are investigating is impossible. When this happens, the most well-informed men become blinded by their prejudices and are unable to see what lies directly ahead of them. - Arthur C. Clarke, 1963 When even the brightest mind in our world has been trained up from childhood in a superstition of any kind, it will never be possible for that mind, in its maturity, to examine sincerely, dispassionately, and conscientiously any evidence or any circumstance which shall seem to cast a doubt upon the validity of that superstition. I doubt if I could do it myself. - Mark Twain Doubt everything or believe everything: these are two equally convenient strategies. With either we dispense with the need for reflection. - Henri Poincare It is not uncommon for engineers to accept the reality of phenomena that are not yet understood, as it is very common for physicists to disbelieve the reality of phenomena that seem to contradict contemporary beliefs of physics - H. Bauer You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who dont see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it. - Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP meeting New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled, the humiliating question arises, Why then are you not taking part in them? - H. G. Wells The easy confidence with which I know another mans religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also. - Mark Twain I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE. -William James Modern science should indeed arouse in all of us a humility before the immensity of the unexplored and a tolerance for crazy hypotheses. -Martin Gardner Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced. - Alfred North Whitehead The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. - Wilfred Trotter, 1941 When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. - Arthur C. Clarkes First Law There are some people that if they dont know, you cant tell em. - Louis Armstrong The security provided by a long-held belief system, even when poorly founded, is a strong impediment to progress. General acceptance of a practice becomes the proof of its validity, though it lacks all other merit. - Dr. B. Lown, invented defibrillator The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. - Bertrand Russell New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. - John Locke All great truths begin as blasphemies. - George Bernard Shaw Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. - Spinoza If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. - Wilfred Trotter When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason. -Thucydides 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 Science might be better served when some scientists generate novel ideas while others carp at everything new, than if all scientists could somehow become disinterestedly skeptical. Dr. Henry H. Bauer Type one error is thinking that something special is happening when nothing special really is happening. Type two error is thinking that nothing special is happening, when in fact something rare or infrequent is happening. -M. Truzzi I ask you, which is the greater threat to science and mankind, accepting a claim that can have no possible benefit, or rejecting a claim that can have great benefit? -Dr. Edmund Storms There is nothing particularly scientific about excessive caution. Science thrives on daring generalizations. - L. Hogben What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find out. - Bertrand Russell What is there that confers the noblest delight? What is that which swells a mans breast with pride above that which any other experience can bring to him? Discovery! To know that you are walking where none others have walked... - Mark Twain Mans greatest asset is the unsettled mind. - Isaac Asimov It would seem to me... an offense against nature, for us to come on the same scene endowed as we are with the curiosity, filled to overbrimming as we are with questions, and naturally talented as we are for the asking of clear questions, and then for us to do nothing about, or worse, to try to suppress the questions... -Lewis Thomas Only a fool of a scientist would dismiss the evidence and reports in front of him and substitute his own beliefs in their place. - Paul Kurtz The creative person pays close attention to what appears discordant and contradictory... and is challenged by such irregularities. - F. Barron Genius in truth means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way - William James, 1896 Talent hits a target no-one else can hit; genius hits targets no-one else can see. - Schopenhauer
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 16:20:04 +0000
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