Best evidence & observation Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Science starts with preconception, with the common culture, and with common sense. It moves on to observation, is marked by the discovery of paradox, and is then concerned with the correction of preconception. It moves then to use these corrections for the designing of further observation and for more refined experiment. And as it moves along this course the nature of the evidence and experience that nourish it becomes more and more unfamiliar; it is not just the language that is strange [to common culture].”

“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.”

Children Doe Loses Vision Clear Evidence Discovery Adults Scientist Prejudice Strive Senses Observation Preconceptions Scientific Discovery Candid Aberration

Book:Induction and intuition in scientific thought

Source: Induction and intuition in scientific thought

“Religion is based upon blind faith supported by no evidence. Science is based upon confidence that results from evidence - and that confidence can be modified and/or reversed by further observations and experimentation. Science approaches truth, closer and closer, by hard dedicated work. Religion already has it all decided, and it's in the book. It's dogma, unchangeable, and unaffected by reality and whatever facts we come upon in the real world.”

World Book Real Hard Facts Reality Results Atheism Approach Evidence Decided Blind Positive Atheism Observation Real World Dedicated Dogma Experimentation Blind Faith Unchangeable

Author:James Randi

“The human mind feels restless and dissatisfied under the anxieties of ignorance. It longs for the repose of conviction; and to gain this repose it will often rather precipitate its conclusions than wait for the tardy lights of observation and experiment. There is such a thing, too, as the love of simplicity and system,--a prejudice of the understanding which disposes it to include all the phenomena of nature under a few sweeping generalities,--an indolence which loves to repose on the beauties of a theory rather than encounter the fatiguing detail of its evidences.”

Source: Works

“Humility is the sure evidence of Christian virtues. Without it, we retain all our faults still, and they are only covered over with pride, which hides them from other men's observation, and sometimes from our own too.”

Men Stills Sometimes Christian Virtue Humility Pride Evidence Faults Observation Covered

Author:Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“The philosophy of science is inherent in the process. This is to say, you think critically, you draw a conclusion based on evidence, but we all pursue discovery based on our observations. That's where science starts.”

Thinking Philosophy Process Draws Evidence Discovery Pursue Conclusion Observation Inherent Philosophy Of Science

Author:Bill Nye

“Almost everyone... seems to be quite sure that the differences between the methodologies of history and of the natural sciences are vast. For, we are assured, it is well known that in the natural sciences we start from observation and proceed by induction to theory. And is it not obvious that in history we proceed very differently? Yes, I agree that we proceed very differently. But we do so in the natural sciences as well.”

Wells Seems Science Natural Differences Known Theory Evidence Agree Obvious Observation Well Known Assured Methodology Natural Science

Book:The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality

Source: The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality

“Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, tanquam tabula naufragii: when industrious persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.”

Persons Said Book Stories Names Records Evidence Concern Tradition Observation Passages Fragments Monument Diligence Antiquity Industrious Remnants Deluge

Book:The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England: A New Edition:

Source: The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England: A New Edition:

“Look ... first and foremost, I'm a scientist. That means it's my responsibility to make observations and gather evidence before forming a hypothesis, not vice versa.”

Firsts Looks Mean Responsibility Evidence Scientist Vices Observation Hypothesis Vice Versa

Book:Hex

Source: Hex

“Extraordinary observations require extraordinary evidence to make them believable.”

Evidence Extraordinary Observation Believable

Author:Carl Sagan

“The indispensability argument seeks to assimilate the epistemology of metaphysical statements to the epistemology of statements that are obviously empirical. I think it fails to achieve this goal. The argument does not refute the Carnapian thesis that scientific theories and metaphysical claims differ epistemologically - observations can provide evidence for the former, but not for the latter.”

Thinking Doe Goal Failing Achieve Theory Evidence Argument Claims Statements Observation Former Latter Metaphysical Epistemology Thesis Scientific Theory

Author:Elliott Sober

“I don't bill myself as an atheist but as a naturalist. Naturalism is a belief system. A lot of scientists bristle at that. We all have to believe we can find the truth. Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification.”

Believe Belief Evidence Scientist Bills Atheist Guides Observation Rely Experimentation Naturalism Belief Systems Naturalist Verification

Author:Greg Graffin

“I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”

Source: Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

“The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.”

Ifs Wells Doe Real Science Results Accepting Cases Acceptance Ought Evidence Consequence Determine Appearance Observation Certainty Combination Hypothesis Correctness

Author:William Whewell

“The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work-that is, correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably wide area.”

Trying Science Certain Models Evidence Areas Accounts Mathematics Wide Expected Observation Mathematical Interpretation Justification Constructs Mathematical Models

Book:The Neumann Compendium

Source: The Neumann Compendium

“Well-established theories collapse under the weight of new facts and observations which cannot be explained, and then accumulate to the point where the once useful theory is clearly obsolete.”

Wells Facts Science Theory Evidence Weight Observation Collapse Obsolete

Author:Al Gore

“[Theory is] an explanation that has been confirmed to such a degree, by observation and experiment, that knowledgeable experts accept it as fact. That's what scientists mean when they talk about a theory: not a dreamy and unreliable speculation, but an explanatory statement that fits the evidence. They embrace such an explanation confidently but provisionally - taking it as their best available view of reality, at least unil some severely conflicting data or some better explanation might come along.”

“On the whole, the evidence indicates that model trends in the troposphere are very likely inconsistent with observations.”

Whole Energy Environment Models Evidence Climate Change Observation Trends Inconsistent

Author:David Douglass

“It is one thing to impose drastic measures and harsh economic penalties when an environmental problem is clear-cut and severe....It is foolish to do so when the problem is largely hypothetical and not substantiated by observations....we do not currently have any convincing evidence or observations of significant climate change from other than natural causes.”

“The observations, so numerous and so important, of the pendulum as object are especially relevant to the length of its oscillations. Those that I propose to make known to the [Paris] Academy [of Sciences] are principally addressed to the direction of the plane of its oscillation, which, moving gradually from east to west, provides evidence to the senses of the diurnal movement of the terrestrial globe.”

Important Earth Moving Science Known Movement Objects Evidence West East Senses Observation Planes Paris Length Relevant Globes Propose Academy Pendulums Oscillation

Author:Leon Foucault

“After a lifetime in this subject, I have concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is one reasonable tentative approach to putting the best-documented and most puzzling UFO reports into a scientifically defensible conceptual framework. By such reports I mean those with credible multiple or independent witnesses, instrumented observations, and physical evidence.”

Mean Subjects Approach Evidence Independent Lifetime Observation Witness Reasonable Reports Multiple Hypothesis Framework Ufo Credible Puzzling Extraterrestrial Conceptual Framework

Author:Jerome Clark

“There is an overwhelming mass of authentic evidence which can be cited as: direct observation, indirect observation, and supporting evidence or indication.”

Mass Evidence Direct Observation Overwhelming Ufo Indication Indirect

Author:Morris K. Jessup

“Whether we like it or not, quantification in history is here to stay for reasons which the quantifiers themselves might not actively approve. We are becoming a numerate society: almost instinctively there seems now to be a greater degree of truth in evidence expressed numerically than in any literary evidence, no matter how shaky the statistical evidence, or acute the observing eye.”

Matter Reason Seems Might Eye Truth Science History Greater Becoming Degrees Evidence Observation Approval Observing

Author:J. H. Plumb

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Evidence Quotes