To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge.
Interpretation
The pursuit of knowledge should be done with the right tools, or the results may be flawed.
Isaac Asimov highlights the fundamental issue of relying on inadequate methods or instruments when attempting to validate a theory. The Greek philosophers valued precision in their quest for knowledge, suggesting that to derive accurate understanding, one must employ appropriate and effective means of investigation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture about scientific methods in research.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
When we become truly ourselves, we just become a swinging door, and we are purely independent of, and at the same time, dependent upon everything.
For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?
I've had people say to me, 'You'll never sell handbags. You don't work with leather, and leather is luxury.' To me, it's the complete opposite: leather is everywhere - it's so cheap a material; it's so mass produced. Over 50 million animals a year are killed just for fashion. For me, it doesn't have a luxury element to it.
Now, one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house.
All the evolution we know of proceeds from the vague to the definite.
New York is something awful, something monstrous. I like to walk the streets, lost, but I recognize that New York is the world's greatest lie. New York is Senegal with machines.
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