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“As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and I do not see why it should be. The story of Genesis is beautiful, and profoundly significant as symbolism: there is no good reason to torture it into conformity with modern theory.”

Should Believe Reason Done Stories Beautiful Religion Modern Creation Theory Evolution Accounts Significant Torture Conformity Biblical Genesis Symbolism Theory Of Evolution

Author:Will Durant

“There can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate with the theory of the earth.”

Earth Theory Accounts

Book:Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892

Source: Walt Whitman: Selected Poems 1855-1892

“The first business of philosophy is to account for things as they are; and till our theories will do this, they ought not to be the ground of any practical conclusion.”

Firsts Philosophy Theory Ought Accounts Practicals Conclusion

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population, Or, a View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness: With an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal Or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population, Or, a View of Its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness: With an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal Or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions

“I am now about to set seriously to work upon preparing for the press an account of my theory of Logic and Probabilities which in its present state I look upon as the most valuable if not the only valuable contribution that I have made or am likely to make to Science and the thing by which I would desire if at all to be remembered hereafter.”

Ifs Looks Made States Desire Theory Logic Accounts Presses Valuable Remembered Contribution Look Up Preparing Probability Hereafter

Author:George Boole

“As to ethics, unfortunately, we are still at sea. We never did have any popular base for what little ethics we knew, except the religious theories, and now that our faith is shaken in those theories we cannot account for ethics at all. It is no wonder we behave badly, we are literally ignorant of the laws of ethics, which is the simplest of sciences, the most necessary, the most continuously needed. The childish misconduct of our 'revolted youth' is quite equaled by that of older people, and neither young nor old seem to have any understanding of the reasons why conduct is 'good' or 'bad.”

Source: The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography

“The Church demonstrated the falsity and folly of Darwin's theories by showing that they contradicted the Mosaic account of creation, and now that the theories of Darwin having been fairly established, the Church says that the Mosaic account is true because it is in harmony with Darwin. Now, if it should turn out that Darwin was mistaken, what then?”

Ifs Should Turns Church Atheism Creation Theory Accounts Harmony Positive Atheism Folly Mistaken Mosaics Falsity

Book:The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

Source: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

“For the individual, as I can testify, a brief grounding in semantics, besides making philosophy unreadable, makes unreadable most political speeches, classical economic theory, after-dinner oratory, diplomatic notes, newspaper editorials, treatises on pedagogics and education, expert financial comment, dissertations on money and credit, accounts of debates, and Great Thoughts from Great Thinkers in general. You would be surprised at the amount of time this saves.”

Source: Tyranny of Words

“It's so important what you're doing in your life. It's tremendously important to the work, and no aesthetic theories take that into account.”

Important Theory Accounts Aesthetic

Author:John Maus

“My own reasons for favouring talk of natural kinds is just that I believe the best accounts of the success of scientific theories presupposes the existence of natural kinds.”

Believe Kind Reason I Believe Natural My Own Existence Theory Accounts Scientific Theory

Author:Hilary Kornblith

“How can Hitler, or some other murderer, appear in this world? I don't think any single theory can account for the phenomenon, and I think it's a mistake to try to reduce it to being brutalized by your parents or having grown up in some horrible situation - like Charles Manson.”

Thinking World Trying Parent Mistake Situation This World Theory Accounts Horrible Phenomenon Murderer Manson

Author:James Hillman

“Today this is what we are confronted with, I mean what is pure ideology, which takes no account of the human context. In economics it's the same. Economics wanted to take into account theory over and above human criteria, or the parameter 'man'.”

Men Humans Mean Today Wanted Theory Pure Economics Accounts Ideology Criteria Parameters

Author:Catherine Camus

“Like most young physicists, when I was a kid enraptured with physics, I thought, "Everything can be explained by the theory of the atom!" But as I've gotten older, and I look at the world, I think there's a lot of ways in which that kind of building up from the smallest building blocks doesn't actually account for the world. As I've gotten older, I've also become sensitive to the ways - to all that is not amenable to explanation. Things that, even if you had an explanation, what good would it be?”

Ifs Thinking World Way Looks Kind Kids Young Building Theory Accounts Physics Block Sensitive Explanation Atoms Smallest Physicist Building Up Building Blocks Amenable

Author:Adam Frank

“Man is so intelligent that he feels impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic.”

Men World Feels Enough Happens Cases Theory Accounts Intelligent Behave Explanation Lunatic

Book:Texts & pretexts: an anthology with commentaries

Source: Texts & pretexts: an anthology with commentaries

“Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.”

Ifs Facts Taken Theory Fit Accounts

Book:The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Easyread Comfort Edition

Source: The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Easyread Comfort Edition

“It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die." His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably shriveled up. After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.”

Ifs Firsts Humans Dies Human Beings Brain Nice Theory Months Habit Exercise Mouths Accounts Lips Come Up Obvious Observation Encounters Tall Peculiar Nice Day

Book:The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“I wanted to kick Bruce in the taint. No one is just one thing. Many things contribute to the whole of a person, and just because vodka accounts for 50 percent of my body weight, that doesn't mean I walk around with a vodka drip, forcing every plant, person, or animal to imbibe. I've always had a disliking for animal trainers, and this guy cemented my theory that people who chaperone animals for a living have never had a girl sit on their face.”

People Mean Persons Whole Body Wanted Faces Guy Girl Walks Animal One Thing Theory Percent Weight Accounts Plant Kicks Just One This Guy Trainers Vodka Body Weight Chaperones

Author:Chelsea Handler

“I have a theory that kitchens, once they reach a certain level of complexity, attract new gadgets into their orbit, like planets. Only this can account for the fact that I own two melon ballers.”

Two Facts Certain Levels Planets Theory Accounts Kitchen Complexity Orbit Gadgets Melons Ballers

Author:Kerry Greenwood

“A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context.”

Character Values Social Knowledge Impossible Modern Subjects Position Theory Accounts Absolutes Historical Assumption Relative Spheres Absolute Truth Theory Of Knowledge Historical Knowledge

Author:Karl Mannheim

“And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I have endeavoured to tell just the story of the adventure itself.”

Stories Adventure Theory Travel My Friends Accounts Funny Travel Deductions

Book:Sailing Alone: Around the World

Source: Sailing Alone: Around the World

“The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow outvalues all theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.”

Should Science Courses Planets Theory Lessons Taste Accounts Sight Astronomy Shock Chemistry Sparks Artificial Electric Volume Elbows Telescopes Firing Volcanoes

Book:The Annotated Emerson

Source: The Annotated Emerson

“I have tried to read philosophers of all ages and have found many illuminating ideas but no steady progress toward deeper knowledge and understanding. Science, however, gives me the feeling of steady progress: I am convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy. It has revolutionized fundamental concepts, e.g., about space and time (relativity), about causality (quantum theory), and about substance and matter (atomistics), and it has taught us new methods of thinking (complementarity) which are applicable far beyond physics.”

“Theory is the essence of facts. Without theory scientific knowledge would be only worthy of the madhouse.”

Knows Facts Would Be Science Knowledge Theory Essence Accounts Worthy Scientific Knowledge Madhouses

Author:Oliver Heaviside

“All scientific theories are provisional and may be changed, but ... on the whole, they are accepted from Washington to Moscow because of their practical success. Where religion has opposed the findings of science, it has almost always had to retreat.”

May Whole Success Science Change Changed Theory Findings Accounts Accepted Practicals Retreat Moscow Scientific Theory

Author:Nevill Francis Mott

“It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science.”

Science Effects Particular Theory Accounts Curiosity Curious Branches Beneficial

Book:The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance

Source: The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance

“Sarcastic Science, she would like to know, In her complacent ministry of fear, How we propose to get away from here When she has made things so we have to go Or be wiped out. Will she be asked to show Us how by rocket we may hope to steer To some star off there, say, a half light-year Through temperature of absolute zero? Why wait for Science to supply the how When any amateur can tell it now? The way to go away should be the same As fifty million years ago we came- If anyone remembers how that was I have a theory, but it hardly does.”

“Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.”

“Science preceded the theory of science, and is independent of it. Science preceded naturalism, and will survive it.”

Science Theory Accounts Independent Naturalism

Book:Theism and Humanism: The Book That Influenced C. S. Lewis

Source: Theism and Humanism: The Book That Influenced C. S. Lewis

“The fact that Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment, is nowhere better illustrated than in the two fields for slight contributions to which you have done me the great honour of awarding the the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 1923. Sometimes it is one foot that is put forward first, sometimes the other, but continuous progress is only made by the use of both-by theorizing and then testing, or by finding new relations in the process of experimenting and then bringing the theoretical foot up and pushing it on beyond, and so on in unending alterations.”

“The scientific tradition is distinguished from the pre-scientific tradition by having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its theories; but it also passes on a critical attitude towards them.”

Two Science Attitude Theory Tradition Criticism Accounts Critical Latter Layers Distinguished

Book:Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

Source: Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge

“[John] Dalton was a man of regular habits. For fifty-seven years he walked out of Manchester every day; he measured the rainfall, the temperature-a singularly monotonous enterprise in this climate. Of all that mass of data, nothing whatever came. But of the one searching, almost childlike question about the weights that enter the construction of these simple molecules-out of that came modern atomic theory. That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.”

“It is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment... It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress. If there is not complete agreement between the results of one's work and experiment, one should not allow oneself to be too discouraged, because the discrepancy may well be due to minor features that are not properly taken into account and that will get cleared up with further developments of the theory.”

“Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds must begin their manufacture before we are aware of it.”

Mind Facts Science Accepting Theory Accounts Fantastic Accustomed Devising

Book:The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories

Source: The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories

“The more experiences and experiments accumulate in the exploration of nature, the more precarious the theories become. But it is not always good to discard them immediately on this account. For every hypothesis which once was sound was useful for thinking of previous phenomena in the proper interrelations and for keeping them in context. We ought to set down contradictory experiences separately, until enough have accumulated to make building a new structure worthwhile.”

Thinking Enough Science Sound Nature Building Theory Ought Accounts Structure Experiments Exploration Worthwhile Hypothesis Contradictory Precarious

Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg

“Whether statistics be an art or a science... or a scientific art, we concern ourselves little. It is the basis of social and political dynamics, and affords the only secure ground on which the truth or falsehood of the theories and hypotheses of that complicated science can be brought to the test.”

Littles Art Science Political Social Theory Concern Tests Accounts Bases Complicated Secure Statistics Falsehood Hypothesis Dynamics

Author:Adolphe Quetelet

“Of course, if one ignores contradictory observations, one can claim to have an "elegant" or "robust" theory. But it isn't science.”

Ifs Science Courses Theory Accounts Claims Observation Elegant Contradictory Robust

Author:Halton Arp

“We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind has put into nature. We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. And Lo! it is our own.”

Mind Made Lasts Success Science Universe Found Nature Feet Strange Theory Creatures Accounts Profound Print Shore Reconstructing

Author:Arthur Eddington

“The theory of the earth is the science which describes and explains changes that the terrestrial globe has undergone from its beginning until today, and which allows the prediction of those it shall undergo in the future. The only way to understand these changes and their causes is to study the present-day state of the globe in order to gradually reconstruct its earlier stages, and to develop probable hypotheses on its future state. Therefore, the present state of the earth is the only solid base on which the theory can rely.”

Way States Today Earth Science Order Causes Understanding Study Stage Theory Accounts Rely Globes Predictions Hypothesis Present Day

Author:Horace-Benedict de Saussure

“We regard as 'scientific' a method based on deep analysis of facts, theories, and views, presupposing unprejudiced, unfearing open discussion and conclusions. The complexity and diversity of all the phenomena of modern life, the great possibilities and dangers linked with the scientific-technical revolution and with a number of social tendencies demand precisely such an approach, as has been acknowledged in a number of official statements.”

Source: Progress, coexistence, and intellectual freedom