The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Science must have originated in the feeling that something was wrong.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pursuit of science is driven by a recognition of problems or injustices that need to be addressed.
In this quote, Thomas Carlyle suggests that the foundation of scientific inquiry lies in the inherent sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo. When individuals perceive that something is amiss or incorrect in the world around them, it spurs them to explore, investigate, and ultimately seek understanding or solutions through scientific methods, reflecting a human instinct to rectify what is wrong.
Themes
ScienceInquiryCuriosityProblemsUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
During a science conference, a speaker quoted Carlyle to emphasize the importance of addressing societal issues through scientific research.
More from Thomas Carlyle
All quotes βThirty millions, mostly fools.
Thomas CarlyleRead
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.
Thomas CarlyleRead
For the superior morality, of which we hear so much, we too would desire to be thankful: at the same time, it were but blindness to deny that this superior morality is properly rather an inferior criminality, produced not by greater love of Virtue, but by greater perfection of Police; and of that far subtler and stronger Police, called Public Opinion.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil; it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Clean undeniable right, clear undeniable might: either of these once ascertained puts an end to battle. All battle is a confused experiment to ascertain one and both of these.
Thomas CarlyleRead
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The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
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In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
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