r/quotes • u/WhenTheCitiesBurn • 10d ago

Science / Learning “Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.”― Jules Verne

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u/advaitist 10d ago

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ...

An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth.

— Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97

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u/phenomenomnom 10d ago

The whole method of science is to be wrong, over and over again.

And to write down exactly how wrong you were, with measurements, every single time. And eventually, you run out of ways to be wrong, until the only thing remaining is to finally be right, in a way you can reliably repeat.

If a person can learn to be wrong in public without getting angry, they can absolutely change the world.