Accepting Quote by Lewis Wolpert
“Both Newton and Darwin were driven by the data and were forced to recognize that they couldn't explain everything. It may be a characteristic of great scientists to know what to accept and what to leave out.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Unfinished Symphony of Science, 1994
Great scientists accept limits of knowledge, using data to guide what to explain and what to omit.
In simple terms: Scientists know when to accept uncertainty.
Key Takeaway
Embrace uncertainty and focus on data.
Themes
science
uncertainty
methodology
Mood
thoughtful
analytical
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- research design
- policy making
- education curriculum
- public communication
Key Concepts
epistemology
critical thinking
paradigm shifts
Questions to Reflect On
- What data should you ignore to see the bigger picture?
- How do you decide what to leave out?
A Different Perspective
Overemphasis on certainty can hinder innovation.
![“When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try…” quote by Richard Hamming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8ae/richard-hamming-14135_acorns_when-you-are-famous-it-is-hard-to-work-o_2457509.jpg)
![“[Great scientists] are men of bold ideas, but highly critical of their own ideas: they try to find whether their ideas are right by trying first to find whether they are not perhaps wrong. They work with bold conjectures and severe attempts at refuting their own conjectures.” quote by Karl Popper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/eb7/karl-popper-2167_conjecture_great-scientists-are-men-of-bold-ideas-b_1147559.jpg)
