Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated with the mind of man.
Karl PearsonRead
All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination is crucial for making significant scientific discoveries.
This quote emphasizes the vital role of imagination in the realm of science, suggesting that while collecting factual data is important, it is the creative and artistic aspect of a scientist's mind that leads to groundbreaking discoveries. It implies that true genius lies not just in rote knowledge, but in the ability to envision possibilities beyond the existing facts.
Themes
ImaginationScienceArtDiscoveryCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on innovation, one could quote this to highlight the importance of creativity in scientific research.
More from Karl Pearson
All quotes βIf I have put the case of science at all correctly, the reader will have recognised that modern science does much more than demand that it shall be left in undisturbed possession of what the theologian and metaphysician please to term its 'legitimate field'. It claims that the whole range of phenomena, mental as well as physical-the entire universe-is its field. It asserts that the scientific method is the sole gateway to the whole region of knowledge.
Karl PearsonRead
The classification of facts and the formation of absolute judgments upon the basis of this classification-judgments independent of the idiosyncrasies of the individual mind-essentially sum up the aim and method of modern science. The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own.
Karl PearsonRead
Statistics is the grammar of science.
Karl PearsonRead
That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.
Karl PearsonRead
The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.
Karl PearsonRead
Similar quotes
It's not going to be just humans colonizing space, it's going to be life moving out from the Earth, moving it into its kingdom. And the kingdom of life, of course, is going to be the universe.
Freeman DysonRead
A science is said to be useful if its development tends to accentuate the existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth, or more directly promotes the destruction of human life.
G. H. HardyRead
Weve got to go [back to the moon]. But we dont want to stay too long. ... The ultimate goal is Mars.
Buzz AldrinRead
One lesson astronomy tells us is that we're a tiny mote in a hostile void, and help is too far away.
Sandra FaberRead
Time... is an essential requirement for effective research. An investigator may be given a palace to live in, a perfect laboratory to work in, he may be surrounded by all the conveniences money can provide; but if his time is taken from him he will remain sterile.
Walter Bradford CannonRead
Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.
Robert K. MertonRead