Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.
Alan AldaRead
It's very important for us to see that science is done by people, not just brains but whole human beings, and sometimes at great cost.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science is a human endeavor that involves emotions and sacrifices, not just intellect.
Alan Alda's quote emphasizes the humanity behind scientific progress, reminding us that researchers and scientists are not only intellectual beings but also individuals who face challenges and make sacrifices. This perspective sheds light on the emotional and social dimensions of scientific work, recognizing the personal investments and the costs associated with the pursuit of knowledge.
Themes
ScienceHumanitySacrificeResearchEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to inspire students pursuing careers in science.
More from Alan Alda
All quotes βBegin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.
Alan AldaRead
Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself.
Alan AldaRead
Here's my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others, but keep after them until they're fair with you.
Alan AldaRead
If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.
Alan AldaRead
I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something. I would box them into a corner with a badly formed question, and they didn't know how to get out of it. Now, I let them take me through it step by step, and I listen.
Alan AldaRead
Similar quotes
It is clear that Economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science ... simply because it deals with quantities... As the complete theory of almost every other science involves the use of calculus, so we cannot have a true theory of Economics without its aid.
William Stanley JevonsRead
E pur si muove. "Albeit It does move". (That's what Galileo purportedly muttered after torturers forced him to recant his theory that the earth orbits the sun.)
Galileo GalileiRead
All our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody's allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn't be added to except by special permission from the head cook.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.
Rosalind FranklinRead
The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.
Albert EinsteinRead
Science, we are repeatedly told, is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion, by contrast, is based on faith. The term 'doubting Thomas' well illustrates the difference.
Paul DaviesRead