Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated with the mind of man.
Karl PearsonRead
All great scientists have, in a certain sense, been great artists; the man with no imagination may collect facts, but he cannot make great discoveries.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Imagination is crucial for making significant scientific discoveries.
This quote emphasizes the vital role of imagination in the realm of science, suggesting that while collecting factual data is important, it is the creative and artistic aspect of a scientist's mind that leads to groundbreaking discoveries. It implies that true genius lies not just in rote knowledge, but in the ability to envision possibilities beyond the existing facts.
Themes
ImaginationScienceArtDiscoveryCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on innovation, one could quote this to highlight the importance of creativity in scientific research.
More from Karl Pearson
All quotes βIf I have put the case of science at all correctly, the reader will have recognised that modern science does much more than demand that it shall be left in undisturbed possession of what the theologian and metaphysician please to term its 'legitimate field'. It claims that the whole range of phenomena, mental as well as physical-the entire universe-is its field. It asserts that the scientific method is the sole gateway to the whole region of knowledge.
Karl PearsonRead
The classification of facts and the formation of absolute judgments upon the basis of this classification-judgments independent of the idiosyncrasies of the individual mind-essentially sum up the aim and method of modern science. The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own.
Karl PearsonRead
Statistics is the grammar of science.
Karl PearsonRead
That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.
Karl PearsonRead
The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.
Karl PearsonRead
Similar quotes
Chance alone is at the source of every innovaton, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, only chance, absolute but blind liberty is at the root of the prodigious edifice that is evolution... It today is the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one that squares with observed and tested fact. Stating life began by the chance collision of particles of nucleic acid in the "prebiotic soup."
Jacques MonodRead
Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food.
Albert Allen BartlettRead
I am a very bad scientist. I will do anything to make a human being feel better, even if it's unscientific. No scientist worthy of the name could say such a thing.
Kurt VonnegutRead
A big misconception is that a black hole is made of matter that has just been compacted to a very small size. That's not true. A black hole is made from warped space and time.
Kip ThorneRead
Early experience shapes the structure and function of the brain. This reveals the fundamental way in which gene expression is determined by experience.
Daniel J. SiegelRead
Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.
Denis DiderotRead