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Conjecture Quotes

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Conjecture Quotes

“A man that is of Copernicus’ Opinion, that this Earth of ours is a Planet, carry’d round and enlightn’d by the Sun, like the rest of them, cannot but sometimes have a fancy  …   that the rest of the Planets have their Dress and Furniture, nay and their Inhabitants too as well as this Earth of ours.… But we were always apt to conclude, that ’twas in vain to enquire after what Nature had been pleased to do there, seeing there was no likelihood of ever coming to an end of the Enquiry  …   but a while ago, thinking somewhat seriously on this matter (not that I count my self quicker sighted than those great Men [of the past], but that I had the happiness to live after most of them) me thoughts the Enquiry was not so impracticable nor the way so stopt up with Difficulties, but that there was very good room left for probable Conjectures.”

LifeEarthScienceUniverseNatureSpaceSunSpecialConjectureCopernicusAstrobiologyAlien LifeInhabitantsNicolaus CopernicusLife On Other Planets
Author:Christiaan Huygens
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“The Coach’s head was oblong with tiny slits that served as eyes, which drifted in tides slowly inward, as though the face itself were the sea or, in fact, a soup of macromolecules through which objects might drift, leaving in their wake, ripples of nothingness. The eyes—they floated adrift like land masses before locking in symmetrically at seemingly prescribed positions off-center, while managing to be so closely drawn into the very middle of the face section that it might have seemed unnecessary for there to have been two eyes when, quite likely, one would easily have sufficed. These aimless, floating eyes were not the Coach’s only distinctive feature—for, in fact, connected to the interior of each eyelid by a web-like layer of rubbery pink tissue was a kind of snout which, unlike the eyes, remained fixed in its position among the tides of the face, arcing narrowly inward at the edges of its sharp extremities into a serrated beak-like projection that hooked downward at its tip, in a fashion similar to that of a falcon’s beak. This snout—or beak, rather—was, in fact, so long and came to such a fine point that as the eyes swirled through the soup of macromolecules that comprised the man’s face, it almost appeared—due to the seeming thinness of the pink tissue—that the eyes functioned as kinds of optical tether balls that moved synchronously across the face like mirror images of one another. 'I wore my lizard mask as I entered the tram, last evening, and people found me fearless,' the Coach remarked, enunciating each word carefully through the hollow clack-clacking sound of his beak, as its edges clapped together. 'I might have exchanged it for that of an ox and then thought better. A lizard goes best with scales, don’t you think?' Bunnu nodded as he quietly wondered how the Coach could manage to fit that phallic monstrosity of a beak into any kind of mask, unless, in fact, this disguise of which he spoke, had been specially designed for his face and divided into sections in such a way that they could be readily attached to different areas—as though one were assembling a new face—in overlapping layers, so as to veil, or perhaps even amplify certain distinguishable features. All the same, in doing so, one could only imagine this lizard mask to be enormous to the extent that it would be disproportionate with the rest of the Coach’s body. But then, there were ways to mask space, as well—to bend light, perhaps, to create the illusion that something was perceptibly larger or smaller, wider or narrower, rounder or more linear than it was in actuality. That is to say, any form of prosthesis designed for the purposes of affecting remedial space might, for example, have had the capability of creating the appearance of a gap of void in occupied space. An ornament hangs from the chin, let’s say, as an accessory meant to contour smoothly inward what might otherwise appear to be hanging jowls. This surely wouldn’t be the exact use that the Coach would have for such a device—as he had no jowls to speak of—though he could certainly see the benefit of the accessory’s ingenuity. This being said, the lizard mask might have appeared natural rather than disproportionate given the right set of circumstances. Whatever the case, there was no way of even knowing if the Coach wasn’t, in fact, already wearing a mask, at this very moment, rendering Bunnu’s initial appraisal of his character—as determined by a rudimentary physiognomic analysis of his features—a matter now subject to doubt. And thus, any conjecture that could be made with respect to the dimensions or components of a lizard mask—not to speak of the motives of its wearer—seemed not only impractical, but also irrelevant at this point in time.”

PataphysicsSurrealismConjectureAbsurdismPhysiognomyVeilWeird FictionMetafictionSurreal QuotesDisproportionateProsthesisRemedial SpaceMacromoleculesStealth Surrealism
Book:Don't Forget to Breathe
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“[...] if truth be told, evolution hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits. Yes, bacteria evolve drug resistance, and yes, we must take countermeasures, but beyond that there is not much to say. Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines to manufacture because microbes evolve unpredictably. But hasn’t evolution helped guide animal and plant breeding? Not very much. Most improvement in crop plants and animals occurred long before we knew anything about evolution, and came about by people following the genetic principle of ‘like begets like’. Even now, as its practitioners admit, the field of quantitative genetics has been of little value in helping improve varieties. Future advances will almost certainly come from transgenics, which is not based on evolution at all. [review of The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life, Nature 442, 983-984 (31 August 2006)]”

ScienceEvolutionBiologySpeculationDarwinismConjectureDarwinMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionPseudo ScienceNeo DarwinismConfessions Of The DarwinistsDarwinist Confessions
Author:Jerry A. Coyne
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“In science's pecking order, evolutionary biology lurks somewhere near the bottom, far closer to phrenology than to physics. For evolutionary biology is a historical science, laden with history's inevitable imponderables. We evolutionary biologists cannot generate a Cretaceous Park to observe exactly what killed the dinosaurs; and, unlike "harder" scientists, we usually cannot resolve issues with a simple experiment, such as adding tube A to tube B and noting the color of the mixture.”

ScienceEvolutionBiologySpeculationDarwinismConjectureDarwinMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionPseudo ScienceNeo DarwinismConfessions Of The DarwinistsDarwinist Confessions
Author:Jerry A. Coyne
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“Conjecture as to things useful, is good; but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, is very idle.”

KnowsWould BeTheoryUselessIdleConjecture
Book:Dr. Johnson's Table Talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners; with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Dr. Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“Ourselves are cosmic and capacious beyond conjecture, and to experience some notion of the planetary perspective is the richest income from travelling. It takes all to inform and educate all. Sallies forth from our cramped firesides into other homes, other hearts, are wonderfully wholesome and enlarging. Travel opens prospects on all sides, widens our horizon, liberates the mind from geographical and conventional limitations, from local prejudices and national, showing the globe in its differing climates, zones, and latitudes of intelligence.”

MindHeartHomeSidesPerspectivePrejudiceClimateNotionIncomeLocalsLimitationZoneHorizonCosmicEducateConventionalGlobesProspectsConjectureLatitude
Book:Table-talk
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“When we seek a textbook case for the proper operation of science, the correction of certain error offers far more promise than the establishment of probable truth. Confirmed hunches, of course, are more upbeat than discredited hypotheses. Since the worst traditions of "popular" writing falsely equate instruction with sweetness and light, our promotional literature abounds with insipid tales in the heroic mode, although tough stories of disappointment and loss give deeper insight into a methodology that the celebrated philosopher Karl Popper once labeled as "conjecture and refutation.”

GivingWritingStoriesLightCertainCoursesLiteratureLossCasesWorstPromiseOffersToughTraditionErrorsPhilosopherDisappointmentDeeperInsightTalesOperationsHeroicInstructionEstablishmentSweetnessHypothesisTextbooksCorrectionsMethodologyHunchesConjectureInsipidUpbeatRefutation
Book:Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
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“When we look to presumed sources of origin for competing evolutionary explanations of the giraffe's long neck, we find either nothing at all, or only the shortest of speculative conjectures. Length, of course, need not correspond with importance. Garrulous old Polonius , in a rare moment of clarity, reminded us that "brevity is the soul of wit" (and then immediately vitiated his wise observation with a flood of woolly words about Hamlet 's Madness.”

NeedsLooksLongSoulMomentsCoursesWiseSourceImportanceMadnessWitClarityObservationExplanationNecksLengthFloodCompetingBrevityConjectureGiraffePoloniusRare MomentsMoments Of Clarity
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge thousands of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousand casual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather - assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence.”

IfsMenTryingStillsReasonOrderHouseRoomsBehindsWindKeysHigherThousandTenGunTownsSuperiorsWeatherLockedPrudenceCasualProceedingDischargeHaresConjectureMoors
Book:Contemporary Mind - Some Modern Answers
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“The world, and whatever that be which we call the heavens, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created nor subject at any time to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man; nor can the human mind form any conjecture concerning it.”

MenWorldMindHumansFormHeavenSubjectsEternalConcernAll ThingsDestructionBoundsHuman MindDeitiesConjectureVaults
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)
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“Whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the Constitution, is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which out seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative, in doubtful case. ... But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers, and its acts to be considered as void. The opposition between the Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.”

IfsFeelsShouldLawStrongCasesClearJudgingDecidedConstitutionConvictionAll TimeOppositionVoidVagueImplicationsLegislatureDoubtfulDelicacyAffirmativeConjectureIncompatibility
Author:John Marshall
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“All doctrines relating to the creation of the world, the government of man by superior beings, and his destiny after death, are conjectures which have been given out as facts, handed down with many adornments by tradition, and accepted by posterity as "revealed religion". They are theories more or less rational which uncivilised men have devised in order to explain the facts of life, and which civilised men believe that they believe.”

MenWorldBelieveHas BeensFactsGovernmentOrderGivenDestinyCreationTheoryTraditionAcceptedDoctrineSuperiorsRationalPosterityAfter DeathFacts Of LifeCivilisedConjectureAdornmentCreation Of The World
Book:The Martyrdom of Man
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“The wisdom of God exceeds that of the wisest man, more than his wisdom exceeds that of a child. If a child were to conjecture how an army is to be formed in the day of battle--how a city is to be fortified, or a state governed--what chance has he to guess right? As little chance has the wisest man when he pretends to conjecture how the planets move in their courses, how the sea ebbs and flows, and how our minds act upon our bodies.”

IfsMenMindChildrenLittlesStatesBodyMovingCoursesChanceCitiesSeaPlanetsBattleFlowArmyExceedWisestConjectureEbb And FlowWisest Man
Book:Philosophical works
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“There may be a soul of the world, there may be ... a psychical side, of which we are not aware, to every atom in the universe, and the psychical side, like the moon, may show us ever but the one face, the other forever in the shadow; but, at best, this is only a conjecture, it presents no solid foundation upon which to rest a theory.”

WorldMaySoulShowsFacesUniverseSidesForeverTheoryMoonShadowFoundationAtomsConjectureSolid Foundation
Author:John Grier Hibben
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“There are those who feel an imperative need to believe, for whom the values of a belief are proportionate not to its truth, but to its definiteness. Incapable of either admitting the existence of contrary judgments or of suspending their own, they supply the place of knowledge by turning other men's conjectures into dogmas.”

MenNeedsFeelsBelieveValuesBeliefExistenceAtheismJudgmentPositive AtheismContraryDogmaIncapableImperativesAdmittingConjecture
Author:C. E. M. Joad
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“We must consider how very little history there is--I mean real, authentic history. That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the coloring, all the philosophy, of history is conjecture.”

MeanLittlesRealPhilosophyCertainHistoryDependsKingsBattleConjecture
Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
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“The importance of the romantic element does not rest upon conjecture. Pleasing testimonies abound. Hannah More traced her earliest impressions of virtue to works of fiction; and Adam Clarke gives a list of tales that won his boyish admiration. Books of entertainment led him to believe in a spiritual world; and he felt sure of having been a coward, but for romances. He declared that he had learned more of his duty to God, his neighbor and himself from Robinson Crusoe than from all the books, except the Bible, that were known to his youth.”

WorldGivingBelieveDoeBookSpiritualRomanceFeltFictionKnownVirtueYouthDutyElementsImportanceEntertainmentNeighborListsImpressionTalesAdmirationCowardAdamTestimonyConjectureBoyishRobinson CrusoeDuty To God
Book:Pleasures of Literature
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“While the scientist, on the one hand, is concerned with giving a faithful description of facts, on the other, he has the equally important task of construing them in relation to some explanatory conjecture. Similarly the historian has a double duty: both of reporting the past as nearly as possible as it passed or was lived through by men at the time (without doctoring up events to fit later developments or some more "enlightened reading" of them); and second, of interpreting their import in the light of a present hypothesis.”

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Book:The judgment of history
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“Without the knowledge of the true number of the people, as a principle, the whole scope and use of keeping bills of birth and burials is impaired; wherefore by laborious conjectures and calculations to deduce the number of people from the births and burials, may be ingenious, but very preposterous.”

PeopleMayWholeUseNumbersPrinciplesBirthBillsScopeCalculationsIngeniousBurialConjecture
Book:The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty: Together with the Observations Upon the Bills of Mortality More Probably by John Graunt
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“The classes of problems which are respectively known and not known to have good algorithms are of great theoretical interest. [...] I conjecture that there is no good algorithm for the traveling salesman problem. My reasons are the same as for any mathematical conjecture: (1) It is a legitimate mathematical possibility, and (2) I do not know.”

KnowsReasonProblemInterestKnownClassPossibilityMathematicalTheoreticalSalesmanAlgorithmsConjecture
Author:Jack Edmonds
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“Do not walk in the path of human reason, and resist the pressures that would project you into conjectures about the future. Live one day at a time! Simply striving to bring joy to your Father's heart is enough to keep you occupied. For you know that He loves you, and you will find your peace as you rest in Him.”

KnowsHumansHeartReasonEnoughJoyFatherWalksPathLove YouOne DayProjectsPressureStriveOne Day At A TimeConjectureHuman ReasonLiving One Day At A Time
Book:Come Away My Beloved Updated
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“A line partakes of the simplicity of a point more than does a surface; and a surface [partakes thereof more] than does a material object-as was evident. From this consideration of a point and a material object elevate yourself unto a likeness of True Being and of the universe; and by means of [this] quite clear symbolism [of a point] make a conjecture about what has been said.”

MeanDoeHas BeensSaidUniverseLinesClearObjectsMaterialsSimplicitySurfaceConsiderationEvidentSymbolismConjecture
Author:Nicholas of Cusa
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“But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is at such times, when they begin to think, that they begin to doubt the truth of the Christian religion; and well they may, for it is too fanciful and too full of conjecture, inconsistency, improbability and irrationality, to afford consolation to the thoughtful man. His reason revolts against his creed. He sees that none of its articles are proved, or can be proved.”

ThinkingMenWellsMayReasonChristianDoubtSeriousThoughtfulArticlesCreedsConsolationRevoltInconsistencyIrrationalityConjectureImprobability
Book:The Works of Thomas Paine: A Hero in the American Revolution. With an Account of His Life ...
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