Accused Quote by Francois-Joseph Servois

You can never tell what will happen to a theory before you can get around to using it.

— Josephine Lawrence

Theory, from whatever source, is not perfect until it is reduced to practice.

— Hosea Ballou

Every new body of discovery is mathematical in form, because there is no other guidance we can have.

— Charles Darwin

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor…

— Karl Popper

“But theory rarely works in practice, and predictability has a devious sister named complexity. But”

— Jurgen Appelo

Theory looks well on paper, but does not amount to anything without practice.

— Josh Billings

“Somewhere out there is a theory that would explain my empirical observations, and this theory has yet to be discovered. Mathematics thrives on such…

— Henri Darmon

Mathematics as we know it and as it has come to shape modern science could never have come into being without some disregard for…

— David Bressoud

“What we have, in fact, is not a theory at all but a large collection of approximate calculations, together with a web of conjectures…

— Lee Smolin

A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first…

— David Hilbert

Theory is good; but it doesn't prevent things from existing.

— Jean-Martin Charcot

I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions.

— David Antin