Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Peter Medawar

Quote by Peter Medawar

“Scientific discovery is a private event, and the delight that accompanies it, or the despair of finding it illusory, does not travel. One scientist may get great satisfaction from another's work and admire it deeply; it may give him great intellectual pleasure; but it gives him no sense of participation in the discovery, it does not carry him away, and his appreciation of it does not depend on his being carried away. If it were otherwise the inspirational origin of scientific discovery would never have been in doubt.”

Quote by Peter Medawar

Book:The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science
Create image

Work

The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science

This book compiles a selection of classic essays that delve into a range of scientific subjects, offering insights and discussions on scientific phenomena and theories. more

Author

Peter Medawar
Peter Medawar

Peter Medawar was a British biologist and immunologist recognized for his work in transplantation immunology. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1960 for his discovery of immunological tolerance. more

You May Also Like

“The purpose of scientific enquiry is not to compile an inventory of factual information, nor to build up a totalitarian world picture of natural Laws in which every event that is not compulsory is forbidden. We should think of it rather as a logically articulated structure of justifiable beliefs about nature.”

ThinkingWorldShouldLawPurposeBeliefNaturalEventsInformationStructureForbiddenNatural LawScientific MethodFactualCompulsoryInventoryEnquiry
Book:Induction and intuition in scientific thought
Create image

“We shall not read it for its sociological insights, which are non-existent, nor as science fiction, because it has a general air of implausibility; but there is one high poetic fancy in the New Atlantis that stays in the mind after all its fancies and inventions have been forgotten. In the New Atlantis, an island kingdom lying in very distant seas, the only commodity of external trade is light: Bacon's own special light, the light of understanding.”

MindHas BeensLightLyingUnderstandingFictionAirSeaSpecialTradeScience FictionForgottenInsightInventionKingdomsIslandsFancyPoeticCommodityAtlantisSociological
Author:Peter Medawar
Create image

“Observation is the generative act in scientific discovery. For all its aberrations, the evidence of the senses is essentially to be relied upon provided we observe nature as a child does, without prejudices and preconceptions, but with that clear and candid vision which adults lose and scientists must strive to regain.”

ChildrenDoeLosesVisionClearEvidenceDiscoveryAdultsScientistPrejudiceStriveSensesObservationPreconceptionsScientific DiscoveryCandidAberration
Book:Induction and intuition in scientific thought
Create image

“I do not believe indeed, I deem it a comic blunder to believe that the exercise of reason is sufficient to explain our condition and where necessary to remedy it, but I do believe that the exercise of reason is at all times necessary.”

BelieveReasonConditionsExerciseAll TimeComicSufficientRemedyBlunders
Book:The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science
Create image