None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The process of discovery is very simple. An unwearied and systematic application of known laws to nature, causes the unknown to reveal themselves. Almost any mode of observation will be successful at last, for what is most wanted is method.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Discovery is achieved through persistence and systematic observation of nature using established principles.
Henry David Thoreau emphasizes that the journey of discovery is fundamentally straightforward when one diligently applies known principles to the natural world. He suggests that with consistent effort and a methodical approach, the unknown can eventually be uncovered, indicating that the key to successful observation lies in having a structured method rather than relying solely on specific techniques or conditions.
Themes
DiscoveryObservationNatureMethodScience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to inspire students in a science class to approach experiments with a methodical mindset.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes →Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead
Similar quotes
The historian of science may be tempted to exclaim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them.
Thomas KuhnRead
To command their professors of astronomy to refute their own observations is to command them not to see what they do see and not to understand what they do understand.
Galileo GalileiRead
In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down.
Stephen HawkingRead
Do you realize that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout, that sum of money is greater than the entire 50 year running budget of NASA. And so when someone says, 'We don't have enough money for this space probe.' No, it's not that you don't have enough money. It's that the distribution of money that you're spending is warped in some way that you are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
You can stop splitting the atom; you can stop visiting the moon; you can stop using aerosols; you may even decide not to kill entire populations by the use of a few bombs. But you cannot recall a new form of life.
Erwin ChargaffRead
Gravitation is, so far, not understandable in terms of other phenomena.
Richard P. FeynmanRead