One factor that has remained constant through all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of the mathematical imagination.
Freeman DysonRead
In the history of science it has often happened that the majority was wrong and refused to listen to a minority that later turned out to be right.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that popular opinion is not always correct, and minority viewpoints can lead to significant breakthroughs in science.
Freeman Dyson highlights the tendency in scientific history for the majority view to dismiss the insights of a minority. This serves as a reminder that scientific progress often involves challenging established beliefs and being open to new, perhaps unpopular, ideas that may ultimately prove to be correct.
Themes
ScienceMajorityMinorityTruthKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a science symposium to encourage innovative thinking and discussions.
More from Freeman Dyson
All quotes βBiology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century.
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As a working hypothesis to explain the riddle of our existence, I propose that our universe is the most interesting of all possible universes, and our fate as human beings is to make it so
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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.
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The bottom line for mathematicians is that the architecture has to be right. In all the mathematics that I did, the essential point was to find the right architecture. It's like building a bridge. Once the main lines of the structure are right, then the details miraculously fit. The problem is the overall design.
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For some days I quietly worked out in my own mind the metaphysics of Cosmic Unity. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it was the living truth. It was logically incontrovertible. It provided for the first time a firm foundation for ethics. It offered mankind the radical change of heart and mind that was our only hope of peace at a time of desperate danger. Only one small problem remained. I must find a way to convert the world to my way of thinking.
Freeman DysonRead
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