A Quote by Carl Sagan

[Kepler] preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, and that is the heart of science.

Carl Sagan

Quote Topics

Dearest Hard Heart His Illusions Kepler Preferred Science Truth

Quote Author

Carl Sagan
American - Scientist
November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996

When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, that is the heart of science.

Carl Sagan

[Kepler] had to realize clearly that logical-mathematical theoretizing, no matter how lucid, could not guarantee truth by itself; that the most beautiful logical theory means nothing in natural science without comparison with the exactest experience. Without this philosophic attitude, his work would not have been possible.

Albert Einstein

All Science is necessarily prophetic, so truly so, that the power of prophecy is the test, the infallible criterion, by which any presumed Science is ascertained to be actually & verily science. The Ptolemaic Astronomy was barely able to prognosticate a lunar eclipse; with Kepler and Newton came Science and Prophecy.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Every person has the truth in his heart. No matter how complicated his circumstances, no matter how others look at him from the outside, and no matter how deep or shallow the truth dwells in his heart, once his heart is pieced with a crystal needle, the truth will gush forth like a geyser.

Che Guevara

There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.

Raymond Chandler

I know that man who forsakes Truth can forsake his country and his nearest and dearest ones.

Mahatma Gandhi

You may believe whatever you want; but the most important thing is to update you belief with the truth, with the science! Your dearest belief might be the biggest buncombe ever! Don't be sad! Continue your road with the new truth! Everything changes!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

The notion that as a man grows older his illusions leave him is not quite true. What is true is that his early illusions are supplanted by new, and to him, equally convincing illusions.

George Jean Nathan

I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie.

Jacqueline Carey

You know, they say that there is a part of the human chest that it you strike it hard enough, it makes the person’s heart explode. This sounds like such a lie that I have to believe it’s the truth. If I were science, I’d never tell anyone where this place is. If I were science, I’d have named this place after you.

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Often while reading a book one feels that the author wouold heave preferred to paint rather than to wirte; one can sense the pleasure he derives from describing a landscape or a person, as if he were painting what he is saying, because deep in his heart he would have preferred to use brushes and colors.

Pablo Picasso

There are two kinds of truth; The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The fist of these is science and the second is art.

Raymond Chandler

Science is rooted in the will to truth. With the will to truth it stands or falls. Lower the standard even slightly and science becomes diseased at the core. Not only science, but man. The will to truth, pure and unadulterated, is among the essential conditions of his existence; if the standard is compromised he easily becomes a kind of tragic caricature of himself.

Max Wertheimer

...a man of true science uses few hard words, and those only when none other will answer his purpose; Where as the smatterer in science...thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.