If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.
Kip ThorneRead
As a true scientist, I have been proved wrong so many times that I'm very humble.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being humble is a result of frequently realizing one's errors in the pursuit of truth.
Kip Thorne highlights the importance of humility in the scientific process, emphasizing that true scientists are often faced with the evidence that disproves their previous beliefs. This iterative process of being wrong and learning from those mistakes contributes to a more grounded and open-minded approach to knowledge and discovery.
Themes
HumilityScienceLearningTruthErrorKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on scientific integrity, this quote serves to remind students about the role of errors in scientific advancement.
More from Kip Thorne
All quotes βI think that the future of the human race is to spread through the universe, and now is the time that we should be laying the foundations for that.
Kip ThorneRead
Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity.
Kip ThorneRead
'Closed timelike curve' is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past.
Kip ThorneRead
If you think that the distance from the Earth to the nearest planet where we could live comfortably... is being, like, from New York to Australia... what we've achieved so far, in going to the moon, that's about two-and-a-half inches. So that's the challenge.
Kip ThorneRead
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
Similar quotes
Climate change: It's here. If we don't react, war, pestilence and famine will follow close behind
Rajendra K. PachauriRead
As we look out into the Universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the Universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.
Freeman DysonRead
The most complex object in the known universe: brain, only uses 20 watts of power. It would require a nuclear power plant to energize a computer the size of a city block to mimic your brain, and your brain does it with just 20 watts. So if someone calls you a dim bulb, that's a compliment.
Michio KakuRead
Probability theory is nothing but common sense reduced to calculation.
Pierre-Simon LaplaceRead
Perception plays a vital role in the diagnosis of bipolar illness. Symptoms are perceived through the categories of psychiatric medicine at a given moment in history, categories which are continually shifting and being named or renamed.
Siri HustvedtRead
Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That's why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.
Craig VenterRead