Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
Jacob BronowskiRead
That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science thrives on curiosity and the pursuit of difficult questions.
This quote emphasizes that the core of scientific inquiry lies in the ability to question the status quo boldly. By encouraging a mindset that seeks to ask challenging or even 'impertinent' questions, we pave the way to uncovering valuable insights and meaningful answers that advance our understanding of the world.
Themes
ScienceQuestionsCuriosityInquiryKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
During a scientific conference, a speaker might use this quote to inspire researchers to question commonly held beliefs.
More from Jacob Bronowski
All quotes βThere is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy.
Jacob BronowskiRead
To me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.
Jacob BronowskiRead
A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The basis for poetry and scientific discovery is the ability to comprehend the unlike in the like and the like in the unlike.
Jacob BronowskiRead
Similar quotes
For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.
Charles DarwinRead
The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Claude BernardRead
With a few honorable exceptions the press of the United States is at the beck and call of the patent medicines. Not only do the newspapers modify news possibly affecting these interests, but they sometimes become their agents.
Samuel Hopkins AdamsRead
Most discoveries even today are a combination of serendipity and of searching.
Siddhartha MukherjeeRead
Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics!
Wolfgang PauliRead
But science is the great instrument of social change, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilisation.
Arthur BalfourRead