quotations about theory and theories
Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
G. C. LICHTENBERG
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
All theories are worth exploring.
JOHN STOEHR
"Russia Is an Existential Threat", U.S. News & World Report, May 31, 2017
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
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
How empty is theory in the presence of fact!
MARK TWAIN
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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 is not enough for theory to describe and analyse, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must partake of and become the acceleration of this logic. It must tear itself from all referents and take pride only in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
"Why Theory?", The Ecstasy of Communication
The final test of a theory is its capacity to solve the problems which originated it.
GEORGE DANTZIG
Linear Programming and Extensions
The quickest way to kill a good theory is to put it into practice.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
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
Leave your theories. All theories, you see, even those of virtue, are bad, foolish, mischievous.
ROMAIN ROLLAND
Jean-Christophe
For theories and schools, like microbes and corpuscles, devour one another and by their strife ensure the continuity of life.
MARCEL PROUST
Sodom and Gomorrah
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
Theories are very thin and unsubstantial; experience only is tangible.
HOSEA BALLOU
Treasury of Thought
No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.
ANDRE GIDE
Journals 1889-1949
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
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
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
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
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