Science has helped us to understand and master ourselves, creating an elevated new form of human life, the wealth and beauty of which cannot be pictured today by the keenest imagination.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Discovery often occurs when opportunity and readiness intersect.
This quote emphasizes that while discoveries may appear accidental, they often occur when an individual is intellectually prepared to recognize and seize unexpected opportunities. It suggests that having a prepared mind is essential for understanding and appreciating the serendipity of discoveries in various fields.
Themes
DiscoveryAccidentPreparedMindOpportunity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation, one might say, 'As Albert Szent-Gyorgyi observed, a discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.'
More from Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
All quotes βI called it ignose, not knowing which carbohydrate it was. This name was turned down by my editor. 'God-nose' was not more successful, so in the end 'hexuronic acid' was agreed upon. To-day the substance is called 'ascorbic acid' and I will use this name.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
It is impossible to encircle the hips of a girl with my right arm and hold her smile in my left hand, then proceed to study the two items separately. Similarly, we can not separate life from living matter, in order to study only living matter and its reactions. Inevitably, studying living matter and its reactions, we study life itself
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
The real scientist is ready to bear privation and, if need be, starvation rather than let anyone dictate to him which direction his work must take.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.
Albert Szent-GyorgyiRead
Similar quotes
The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.
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I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it. If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. Tact and diplomacy are fine in international relations, in politics, perhaps even in business; in science only one thing matters, and that is the facts.
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But our ways of learning about the world are strongly influenced by the social preconceptions and biased modes of thinking that each scientist must apply to any problem. The stereotype of a fully rational and objective scientific method, with individual scientists as logical (and interchangeable) robots, is self-serving mythology.
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Theory is the essence of facts. Without theory scientific knowledge would be only worthy of the madhouse.
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Correlation doesnβt imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing βlook over there.β
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The edifice of science not only requires material, but also a plan. Without the material, the plan alone is but a castle in the air-a mere possibility; whilst the material without a plan is but useless matter.
Dmitri MendeleevRead