quotations about theory and theories
All theories are worth exploring.
JOHN STOEHR
"Russia Is an Existential Threat", U.S. News & World Report, May 31, 2017
Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough---as most wrong theories are!
H. G. WELLS
The Time Machine
It is with theories as with wells; you may see to the bottom of the deepest if there be any water there, while another shall pass for wondrous profound when it is merely shallow, dark, and empty.
JONATHAN SWIFT
attributed, A Historical Archaeology of the Modern World
The final test of a theory is its capacity to solve the problems which originated it.
GEORGE DANTZIG
Linear Programming and Extensions
Theories are usually the over-hasty efforts of an impatient understanding that would gladly be rid of phenomena, and so puts in their place pictures, notions, nay, often mere words.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Experience arises together with theoretical assumptions not before them, and an experience without theory is just as incomprehensible as is (allegedly) a theory without experience.
PAUL FEYERABEND
Against Method
Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories.
JOHN WILMOT
"30 Quotes on Parenting", Psychology Today, September 25, 2012
We sometimes speak of stubborn facts. Nonsense! A fact is a mere babe when compared with a stubborn theory.
SAMUEL MCCHORD CROTHERS
"Quixotism", The Gentle Reader
It takes enormous effort to avoid all theories and just see.
MICHAEL CRICHTON
Travels
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Sherlock Holmes
Leave your theories. All theories, you see, even those of virtue, are bad, foolish, mischievous.
ROMAIN ROLLAND
Jean-Christophe
Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
G. C. LICHTENBERG
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
A theorist in government is as dangerous as a theorist in medicine, or in agriculture, and for precisely the same reason--the subjects are too complicated and too obscure for simple and decisive experiments.
H. S. LEGARE
speech on a bill imposing additional duties as depositaries in certain cases on public officers, October 1837
In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.
DENIS DIDEROT
On the Interpretation of Nature
It is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Death on the Nile
We can do nothing without a theory, not even the most trivial act; all our actions are the result of forethought--that is, we theorize about them before we do them.
DAVID G. CROLY
"Illustrated Journalism", Views and Interviews on Journalism
There is no great harm in the theorist who makes up a new theory to fit a new event. But the theorist who starts with a false theory and then sees everything as making it come true is the most dangerous enemy of human reason.
G. K. CHESTERTON
The Flying Inn
Suppose we have two theories -- Theory A and Theory B -- both of which account for all observations, but Theory A postulates four kinds of fundamental force while Theory B postulates 15 kinds of fundamental force. Although both theories account for all the data of observation, Theory A is to be preferred as it offers a more parsimonious account of the data.
PHILIP GOFF
"Panpsychism is a crazy theory about consciousness -- and it's probably true", The Week, March 6, 2017
Scientific theories are more than just ideas -- they represent our best understanding of the Universe at this time, and they are supported by evidence. However new evidence can arise which challenges the old theories.... Newton's theory of gravity successfully stood for 300 years but was unable to explain Mercury's orbit, and was replaced by general relativity.
HELEN CAMMACK
"Science truly is a world of inherent uncertainty", The Scotsman, May 22, 2017
Intuitive theories are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they allow us to make sense of phenomena we might otherwise find perplexing: sinking, floating, burning, freezing, growing, dying. On the other hand, they prevent us from learning more accurate theories of the world, blinding us to counter-evidence and counter-instruction.
ANDREW SHTULMAN
"In Public Understanding Of Science, Alternative Facts Are The Norm", NPR, May 29, 2017