Building Quote by Nancy Pearcey

Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it.

— Karl Popper

A theoretical system does not merely state facts which have been observed and that logically deducible relations to other facts which have also been…

— Talcott Parsons

There can be theory but, you know, the problem is you've got to be able to test it. So theories are one thing, testing…

— Brian Schmidt

The test of a theory is its ability to cope with all the relevant phenomena, not its a priori 'reasonableness'. The latter would have…

— John Polkinghorne

Theory is knowledge that doesn't work. Practice is when everything works and you don't know why.

— Hermann Hesse

It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena.

— William Whewell

Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

No theory ever benefited by the application of data, Amy. Data kills theories. A theory has no better time than when it's lying there…

— Christopher Moore

To understand the theory which underlies all things is not sufficient. Theory is but the preparation for practice.

— James Stephens

I was always a data guy, not a theorist. Theorists can maintain total purity. The data are always messy.

— Austan Goolsbee

The incorrectness and weaknesses of a theory cause other minds to formulate the problems more exactly and in this way scientific progress is made.

— Robert Barany

Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.

— Jawaharlal Nehru