Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the scientific process of questioning and disproving established ideas.
Carl Sagan emphasizes the unique aspect of scientific recognition, where the most esteemed figures are those who challenge and refine previous theories. By citing Einstein's challenge to Newton, Sagan illustrates that progress in science often comes from critically assessing and improving upon prior knowledge rather than merely accepting it as truth.
Themes
ScienceDisproveRecognitionChallengeKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a scientific conference discussing the evolution of theories.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
If popular medicine gave the people wisdom as well as knowledge, it would be the best protection for scientific and well-trained physicians.
Rudolf VirchowRead
Because a fact seems strange to you, you conclude that it is not one. ... All science, however, commences by being strange. Science is successive. It goes from one wonder to another. It mounts by a ladder. The science of to-day would seem extravagant to the science of a former time. Ptolemy would believe Newton mad.
Victor HugoRead
Mars once was wet and fertile. It's now bone dry. Something bad happened on Mars. I want to know what happened on Mars so that we may prevent it from happening here on Earth.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
All evolutionary biologists know that variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence... I had to place myself amidst the variation.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.
Thomas SowellRead
The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe: the only elements in their construction are our concepts of space and time.
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharRead