Theory Quotes

2628 Theory quotes by 1622 unique authors

It is to them [fossils] alone that we owe the commencement of even a Theory of the Earth ... By them we are enabled to… — Georges Cuvier
There is no foundation in geological facts, for the popular theory of the successive development of the animal and vegetable world, from the simplest to… — Charles Lyell
His [Thomas Edison] method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance… — Nikola Tesla
I am convinced that it is impossible to expound the methods of induction in a sound manner, without resting them upon the theory of probability.… — William Stanley Jevons
I have tried to read philosophers of all ages and have found many illuminating ideas but no steady progress toward deeper knowledge and understanding. Science,… — Max Born
I think the next [21st] century will be the century of complexity. We have already discovered the basic laws that govern matter and understand all… — Stephen Hawking
It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence… — Albert Einstein
No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions,… — Francis Bacon
Something unknown is doing we don't know what-that is what our theory amounts to. — Arthur Eddington
The world has arisen in some way or another. How it originated is the great question, and Darwin's theory, like all other attempts, to explain… — Louis Agassiz
Theory is the essence of facts. Without theory scientific knowledge would be only worthy of the madhouse. — Oliver Heaviside
To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge. — Isaac Asimov
All scientific theories are provisional and may be changed, but ... on the whole, they are accepted from Washington to Moscow because of their practical… — Nevill Francis Mott
It is curious how often erroneous theories have had a beneficial effect for particular branches of science. — Ernst Mayr
Science does not rest upon solid bedrock. The bold structure of its theories rises, as it were, above a swamp. It is like a building… — Karl Popper
Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for… — Isaac Asimov
Science preceded the theory of science, and is independent of it. Science preceded naturalism, and will survive it. — Arthur Balfour
The fact that Science walks forward on two feet, namely theory and experiment, is nowhere better illustrated than in the two fields for slight contributions… — Robert Andrews Millikan
The scientific tradition is distinguished from the pre-scientific tradition by having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its theories; but it also passes… — Karl Popper
[John] Dalton was a man of regular habits. For fifty-seven years he walked out of Manchester every day; he measured the rainfall, the temperature-a singularly… — Jacob Bronowski
A conceptual scheme is never discarded merely because of a few stubborn facts with which it cannot be reconciled; a conceptual scheme is either modified… — James Bryant Conant
A scientifically unimportant discovery is one which, however true and however interesting for other reasons, has no consequences for a system of theory with which… — Talcott Parsons
A theory can be proved by experiment; but no path leads from experiment to the birth of a theory. — Albert Einstein
A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more… — Albert Einstein
Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory. — Charles Darwin

Who Wrote These Theory Quotes

1,622 authors contributed a total of 2,628 Theory Quotes, led by these top contributors: