It is a good principle in science not to believe any 'fact'---however well attested---until it fits into some accepted frame of reference. Occasionally, of course, an observation can shatter the frame and force the construction of a new one, but that is extremely rare. Galileos and Einsteins seldom appear more than once per century, which is just as well for the equanimity of mankind.
Interpretation
Scientific principles require that facts be contextualized within existing theories, but groundbreaking observations can challenge and reshape those frameworks.
This quote emphasizes the importance of context in scientific understanding, suggesting that facts should not be accepted in isolation but rather need to be evaluated within a pre-existing theoretical framework. It also highlights the rarity of revolutionary thinkers, like Galileo and Einstein, whose discoveries compel society to re-examine and expand that framework, ultimately leading to significant advancements in knowledge.
In practice
In a discussion about scientific methodology, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for a structured approach to evaluating new findings.
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
Just by studying mathematics we can hope to make a guess at the kind of mathematics that will come into the physics of the future... If someone can hit on the right lines along which to make this development, it may lead to a future advance in which people will first discover the equations and then, after examining them, gradually learn how to apply them... My own belief is that this is a more likely line of progress than trying to guess at physical pictures.
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated.
We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line. There is science in what we do, yes, but also habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing. The gap between what we know and what we aim for persists. And this gap complicates everything we do.
To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as a whole.
Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.
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