Quote from Thomas Huxley

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A conjecture can be dressed up as a dead certainty with enough rhetoric and protected against dissent with enough threatening language, but finally it has to meet the only test of science, which is that any theory must fit the facts, and the facts can't be altered to suit the theory.

—Clive James (23/10/2009)
We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

—Niels Bohr (1920)
The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.

—Thomas Henry Huxley
The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite.

—Werner Heisenberg
Sceptics, say the believers, don't care about the future of the human race. But being sceptical has always been one of the best ways of caring about the future of the human race. For example, it was from scepticism that modern medicine emerged, questioning the common belief that diseases were caused by magic, or could be cured by it.

—Clive James (23/10/2009)
Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, "with both eyes open."

—Nicolaus Copernicus
Among economists, the real world is often a special case.

—Horngren's Observation
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

—Abraham Lincoln
The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans.

—Richard Dawkins
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'

—Isaac Asimov
Two different theories exist concerning the origin of children: the theory of sexual reproduction, and the theory of the stork. Many people believe in the theory of sexual reproduction because they have been taught this theory at school. In reality, however, many of the world's leading scientists are in favor of the theory of the stork. If the theory of sexual reproduction is taught in schools, it must only be taught as a theory and not as the truth. Alternative theories, such as the theory of the stork, must also be taught.

Evidence supporting the theory of the stork includes the following:

1. It is a scientifically established fact that the stork does exist. This can be confirmed by every ornithologist.

2. The alleged human fetal development contains several features that the theory of sexual reproduction is unable to explain.

—Institute for Stork Research and Science
The [George W.] Bush administration has done more damage to our national identity than any administration before it... You can't have the rule of law when the vice president [Dick Cheney] claims laws don't apply to him. You can't have a nation of reason when the government elevates faith and politics over fact and science. And you can't have equal opportunity for a common good when the rules are rigged to solidify ever larger gains for those at the top. Bush has substituted our Enlightenment values with his own: crass materialism (go shopping to show your love of country), class privilege, anti-intellectualism, cronyism, religious zealotry and American exceptionalism.

—Robyn Blumner, Tribune Media Services
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

—Philip K. Dick
He recognized with absolute certainty the empty fragility of even the noblest theorizings as compared with the definitive plenitude of the smallest fact grasped in its total, concrete reality.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1961)
But I try not to think with my gut. Really it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.

—Carl Sagan
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

—Aldous Huxley
Everything you've learned in school as 'obvious' becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe.

—R. Buckminster Fuller
False views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened.

—Charles Darwin
Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.

—Werner Heisenberg (1971)
Science is facts; just as houses are made of stone, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house, and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.

—Jules Henri Poincaré

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