Talk to people... everything good I've done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon.
John C. MatherRead
There's no such thing as saying that we'll ever find the ultimate cause of stuff. We can only work to push our understanding one step further.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We may never fully understand the origins of everything, but we can continue to seek knowledge incrementally.
In this quote, John C. Mather emphasizes the idea that the quest for knowledge is ongoing and perhaps never complete. Rather than expecting to uncover a final answer to the mysteries of existence, we should aim to advance our understanding step by step, acknowledging that each discovery adds to our overall comprehension of the universe.
Themes
UnderstandingKnowledgeInquiryScienceCuriosity
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about scientific advancement, you might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of ongoing research.
More from John C. Mather
All quotes βMany of the problems facing the nation and the world today may only be solved if their technical elements are understood - climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure, to name just a few.
John C. MatherRead
Even your chin is made up of exploded stars.
John C. MatherRead
My interest in science started quite early. My earliest school recollection, from age 6, is actually of mathematics, realizing that one could fill an entire page with digits and never come to the largest possible number, so I saw what was meant by infinity.
John C. MatherRead
Astronomers can look back in time. We can look at things as they used to be. We have an idea there was a Big Bang explosion 13.7 billion years ago. We have a story of how galaxies and stars were made. It's an amazing story.
John C. MatherRead
We are discovering what the universe is really like, and it is totally magnificent, and one can only be inspired and awestruck by what we find.
John C. MatherRead
Similar quotes
That we can now think of no mechanism for astrology is relevant but unconvincing. No mechanism was known, for example, for continental drift when it was proposed by Wegener. Nevertheless, we see that Wegener was right, and those who objected on the grounds of unavailable mechanism were wrong.
Carl SaganRead
The facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only impartial jury to which we can appeal.
Louis AgassizRead
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
Thomas MalthusRead
And now the announcement of Watson and Crick about DNA. This is for me the real proof of the existence of God.
Salvador DaliRead
The paleoclimate record shouts to us that, far from being self-stabilizing, the Earth's climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts even to small nudges.
Wallace Smith BroeckerRead
Astronomy would not provide me with bread if men did not entertain hopes of reading the future in the heavens.
Johannes KeplerRead