Sadness is more or less like a head cold - with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
Barbara KingsolverRead
There are always more questions. Science as a process is never complete. It is not a foot race, with a finish line.... People will always be waiting at a particular finish line: journalists with their cameras, impatient crowds eager to call the race, astounded to see the scientists approach, pass the mark, and keep running. It's a common misunderstanding, he said. They conclude there was no race. As long as we won't commit to knowing everything, the presumption is we know nothing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science is an ongoing journey of discovery without a definitive endpoint.
In this quote, Barbara Kingsolver emphasizes that the scientific process is an endless pursuit of knowledge, where new questions continuously arise and discoveries lead to even more inquiries. She critiques the notion that science has a concrete finish line and asserts that the true essence of science lies in its ability to perpetually seek understanding, rather than presenting definitive answers.
Themes
ScienceKnowledgeDiscoveryQuestionsUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a science conference to inspire students and researchers.
More from Barbara Kingsolver
All quotes →Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.
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I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.
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I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.
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Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
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