QuoteProject
Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence -­- evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along. It embraces the body of knowledge. It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition.
Ricky Gervais
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Science is an impartial pursuit of truth that adapts to new knowledge without clinging to old beliefs.

In this quote, Ricky Gervais emphasizes the nature of science as an objective and evolving discipline. He highlights that science is driven by evidence and is unafraid of change, which allows it to discard outdated ideas and adapt to new discoveries. This humility and openness to revision are what make science a reliable source of understanding about the world.

Themes

ScienceTruthKnowledgeEvidenceHumility

In practice

Example use cases

During a science fair, a student might say, 'As Ricky Gervais reminds us, science seeks the truth without discrimination.'

More from Ricky Gervais

You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'
Ricky GervaisRead
It's better to create something that others criticise than to create nothing and criticise others. Go create, have fun!!
Ricky GervaisRead
I used to believe in God. The Christian one, that is (There are a few thousand to choose from. But I was born in a country where the dominant religion was Christianity so I believed in that one. Isn't it weird how that always happens?). Luckily I was also interested in science and nature. And reason and logic. And honesty and truth. And equality and fairness. By the age of eight I was an atheist.
Ricky GervaisRead
People now live their lives like an open wound to be famous - they do bad things because they're rewarded for it.
Ricky GervaisRead
A Christian telling an atheist they're going to hell is as scary as a child telling an adult they're not getting any presents from Santa.
Ricky GervaisRead
It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for.
Ricky GervaisRead

Similar quotes

So how can we test the idea that the transition from nonlife to life is simple enough to happen repeatedly? The most obvious and straightforward way is to search for a second form of life on Earth. No planet is more Earth-like than Earth itself, so if the path to life is easy, then life should have started up many times over right here.
Paul DaviesRead
Any scientist who can't explain to an eight-year-old what he is doing is a charlatan.
Kurt VonnegutRead
Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.
Wernher Von BraunRead
Do I get grief for the fact that in communicating, say, about the baboons I'm doing so much anthropomorphizing? One hopes that the parts that are blatantly ridiculous will be perceived as such. I've nonetheless been stunned by some of my more humorless colleagues - to see that they were not capable of recognizing that.
Robert SapolskyRead
Odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution - paths that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural process, constrained by history, follows perforce.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
Science is a human activity, and the best way to understand it is to understand the individual human beings who practise it. Science is an art form and not a philosophical method. The great advances in science usually result from new tools rather than from new doctrines. ... Every time we introduce a new tool, it always leads to new and unexpected discoveries, because Nature's imagination is richer than ours.
Freeman DysonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.