I must begin, not with hypothesis, but with specific…

There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…

— Christopher Hitchens

Even mistaken hypotheses and theories are of use in leading to discoveries. This remark is true in all the sciences. The alchemists founded chemistry…

— Claude Bernard

...but then the general trouble with ignorance is always that the ignorant person has no idea that that's what they are. You can be…

— Louis de Bernieres

Whenever known and sufficient causes are available, it is anti-scientific to discard them in favour of a hypothesis that can never be verified.

— Max Weber

There's a scientific hypothesis that every person's name is a primary suggestive command that contains the entire script of their life in highly concentrated…

— Victor Pelevin

From the almost total absence of fossil evidence relative to the origin of the phyla, it follows that any explanation of the mechanism in…

— Pierre-Paul Grasse

The religious hypothesis, therefore, must be considered only as a particular method of accounting for the visible phenomena of the universe: but no just…

— David Hume

“The only part of evolution in which any considerable interest is felt is evolution applied to man. A hypothesis in regard to the rocks…

— William Jennings Bryan

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.

— Konrad Lorenz

In science, each new result, sometimes quite surprising, heralds a step forward and allows one to discard some hypotheses, even though one or two…

— Stanley B. Prusiner

Whether statistics be an art or a science... or a scientific art, we concern ourselves little. It is the basis of social and political…

— Adolphe Quetelet

When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock.…

— Steven Pinker

I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many…

— Charles Darwin

The greatest problem for mathematicians now is probably the Riemann Hypothesis.

— Andrew Wiles

If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?

— David Hilbert