Anthony Standen

The velocity of light occupies an extraordinary place in modern physics. It is lèse-majesté to make any criticism of the velocity of…

— Anthony Standen

The really important questions in human life are hardly touched upon by psychologists. Do liars come to believe their own lies? Is…

— Anthony Standen

If you want to understand human beings, there are plenty of people to go to besides psychologists.... Most of these people are…

— Anthony Standen

Survival of the fittest led to "nature red in tooth and claw" and this is not sufficiently wishy-washy for modern scientists.

— Anthony Standen

Scientists are convinced that they, as scientists, possess a number of very admirable human qualities, such as accuracy, observation, reasoning power, intellectual…

— Anthony Standen

But regular biology, as an "ology," has to be "scientific," and this means in practice that it has to be made dull....…

— Anthony Standen

A biologist, if he wishes to know how many toes a cat has, does not "frame the hypothesis that the number of…

— Anthony Standen

The dreadful cocksureness that is characteristic of scientists in bulk is not only quite foreign to the spirit of true science, it…

— Anthony Standen

There's many a true word spoken in jest; scientists are abominably solemn; therefore scientists miss many a true word.

— Anthony Standen

Chemists are, on the whole, like physicists, only 'less so'.They don't make quite the same wonderful mistakes, and much what they do…

— Anthony Standen

The first thing to realize about physics ... is its extraordinary indirectness.... For physics is not about the real world, it is…

— Anthony Standen

If this "critical openminded attitude" ... is wanted, the question at once arises, Is it science that should be studied in order…

— Anthony Standen

Education, like everything else, goes in fads, and has the normal human tendency to put up with something bad for just so…

— Anthony Standen

Physical scientists probably deserve the reputation they enjoy for incorruptibility and unswerving devotion to pure truth. The reason for this is that…

— Anthony Standen

Such instances of the almost infinite unpredictability of man are known to social scientists, but they are no more affected by them…

— Anthony Standen

The theory that gravitational attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance leads by remorseless logic to the conclusion that…

— Anthony Standen

Psychologists, like other scientists, pride themselves on being extremely modern, and therefore much better than any group of people that ever were…

— Anthony Standen

[Scientists] define these [terms] in tight phrases which convey a meaning only to those who already understand it.

— Anthony Standen

It is true that physics gives a wonderful training in precise, logical thinking-about physics. It really does depend upon accurate reproducible experiments,…

— Anthony Standen

Physicists, being in no way different from the rest of the population, have short memories for what is inconvenient.

— Anthony Standen

“An educator should consider that he has failed in his job if he has not succeeded in instilling some trace of a…

— Anthony Standen

Our advanced and fashionable thinkers are, naturally, out on a wide swing of the pendulum, away from the previous swing of the…

— Anthony Standen

But although in theory physicists realize that their conclusions are ... not certainly true, this ... does not really sink into their…

— Anthony Standen

Mr. Hillaire Belloc has pointed out that science has changed greatly, and for the worse, since it became popular. Some hundred years…

— Anthony Standen

As advertising always convinces the sponsor even more than the public, the scientists have become sold, and remain sold, on the idea…

— Anthony Standen