Home / Topics / Theory Quotes

Theory Quotes

Browse 4151 quotes about Theory.

Theory Quotes

“To no circumstance is the wide diffusion of error in the world more owing than to our habit of adopting conclusions from insufficiently established data. An indispensable preliminary, then, in every investigation, is to get at facts. Until these are arrived at, every opinion, theory, or system, however ingeniously framed, must necessarily rest upon an uncertain basis.”

World Facts Opinion Theory Habit Circumstances Bases Errors Wide Conclusion Data Investigation Uncertain Indispensable Framed Owing Adopting Diffusion

Author:Christian Nestell Bovee

“[T]ruly grand and powerful theories [...] do not and cannot rest upon single observations. Evolution is an inference from thousands of independent sources, the only conceptual structure that can make unified sense of all this disparate information. The failure of a particular claim usually records a local error, not the bankruptcy of a central theory. [...] If I mistakenly identify your father's brother as your own dad, you don't become genealogically rootless and created de novo. You still have a father; we just haven't located him properly.”

Ifs Stills Father Powerful Records Havens Information Particular Brother Theory Source Evolution Dad Claims Independent Structure Errors Locals Observation Bankruptcy Unified Inference

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“The error in positivism is that it takes as its standard of truth the contingently given division of labor, that between the science and social praxis as well as that within science itself, and allows no theory that could reveal the division of labor to be itself derivative and mediated and thus strip it of its false authority.”

Wells Given Social Theory Authority Standards Labor Errors Division Derivatives Division Of Labor Positivism Praxis

Book:Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

Source: Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords

“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.”

Form Results Steps Theory Failure Errors Trials Charm Steady Tempting Latent Detection Steps To Success

Book:Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England

Source: Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England

“Science progresses not by convincing the adherents of old theories that they are wrong, but by allowing enough time to pass so that a new generation can arise unencumbered by the old errors.”

Enough Progress Generations Theory Errors Arise Allowing Convincing Enough Time New Generation

Author:Max Planck

“Some think to avoid the influence of metaphysical errors, by paying no attention to metaphysics; but experience shows that these men beyond all others are held in an iron vice of metaphysical theory, because by theories that they have never called in question.”

Thinking Men Shows Attention Influence Theory Errors Vices Iron Metaphysics Metaphysical

Book:His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce

“While the apostles of the new so-called "behavioral" theory present ample evidence of how often human beings make irrational financial decisions, it remains to be seen whether these decisions lead to predictable errors that create systematic mispricings upon which rational investors can readily and economically capitalize.”

Humans Human Beings Decision Theory Evidence Remains Errors Investing Financial Rational Investors Irrational Apostles Predictable Systematic

Author:John C. Bogle

“I believe that I have really found the relationship between gravitation and electricity, assuming that the Miller experiments are based on a fundamental error. Otherwise, the whole relativity theory collapses like a house of cards.”

Believe Whole Found House I Believe Theory Fundamentals Assuming Errors Experiments Cards Collapse Electricity Relativity Gravitation House Of Cards

Author:Albert Einstein

“If Socialism, like all errors, contains some truth (which, moreover, the Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), it is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.”

Ifs Humans Christian Term Religious Christianity Theory Catholic Errors Supreme Socialism Peculiar Denied Nevertheless Socialist Contradictory Human Society True Christianity

Author:Pope Pius XI

“I had made considerable advance ... in calculations on my favourite numerical lunar theory, when I discovered that, under the heavy pressure of unusual matters (two transits of Venus and some eclipses) I had committed a grievous error in the first stage of giving numerical value to my theory. My spirit in the work was broken, and I have never heartily proceeded with it since.”

Giving Firsts Made Two Matter Science Spirit Values Stage Theory Broken Moon Pressure Errors Committed Heavy Unusual Favourite Calculations Eclipse Venus

Author:George Biddell Airy

“Some of Kant's particular moral opinions, either because he shared the prejudices of his time, or because of his own personal crotchets, can strike sensible people as ridiculous or offensive. But in my view, his own theory provides us with the resources (the best resources available, I believe) to correct his own personal errors or cultural prejudices.”

People Believe I Believe Views Moral Opinion Particular Theory Resources Prejudice Errors Available Strikes Ridiculous Sensible Offensive

Author:Allen W. Wood