I don't think that science is complete at all. We don't understand everything, and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies. We just have to accept that we don't understand.
Charles H. TownesRead
The imposing edifice of science provides a challenging view of what can be achieved by the accumulation of many small efforts in a steady objective and dedicated search for truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the power of consistent, small efforts in achieving significant scientific advancements.
Charles H. Townes highlights the importance of perseverance and dedication in the pursuit of scientific truth. He suggests that great achievements in science are often the result of cumulative efforts made over time, underscoring the need for steady commitment and a clear objective in the quest for knowledge.
Themes
ScienceEffortDedicationTruthAchievement
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech to inspire students about the value of persistence in their studies.
More from Charles H. Townes
All quotes βOne of the things my family taught me - I think very important in religion and science - is that you must be ready to stand up for what you think. Decide what you really think is best, and stick with it.
Charles H. TownesRead
I knew I wanted to be a scientist. Which kind of scientist was the question.
Charles H. TownesRead
The development of science is basically a social phenomenon, dependent on hard work and mutual support of many scientists and on the societies in which they live.
Charles H. TownesRead
Science has faith. We make postulates. We can't prove those postulates, but we have faith in them.
Charles H. TownesRead
It was strange, in a way, because there were no ideas involved in the laser that weren't already known by somebody 25 years before lasers were discovered. The ideas were all there; just, nobody put it together.
Charles H. TownesRead
Similar quotes
We often say that our science is objective and accurate, but we don't often say that our science is incomplete - that although the established parts of natural science are very well tested and the evidence makes a compelling case for things being as they've been described, there nevertheless are open questions that we cannot answer.
Jim PeeblesRead
Our job is not to predict the future. Rather, it's to suggest all the possible futures - so that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go.
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Traditionally, scientists have treated the laws of physics as simply 'given,' elegant mathematical relationships that were somehow imprinted on the universe at its birth, and fixed thereafter. Inquiry into the origin and nature of the laws was not regarded as a proper part of science.
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Some 5 billion years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth... then the sun will begin to die, life will be extinguished, the oceans will boil and evaporate away.
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Science appears to us with a very different aspect after we have found out that it is not in lecture rooms only, and by means of the electric light projected on a screen, that we may witness physical phenomena, but that we may find illustrations of the highest doctrines of science in games and gymnastics, in travelling by land and by water, in storms of the air and of the sea, and wherever there is matter in motion.
James Clerk MaxwellRead
Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more β we have increased their mortality.
Benjamin RushRead