A Quote by Christopher Hitchens

I appear as a skeptic, who believes that doubt is the great engine, the great fuel of all inquiry, all discovery and all innovation.

Christopher Hitchens

Quote Topics

Appear Believes Discovery Doubt Engine Fuel Great Innovation Inquiry Skeptic

Quote Author

Christopher Hitchens
American - Author
April 13, 1949 - December 15, 2011

Cross-examination is beyond any doubt the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth. ... Cross-examination, not trial by jury, is the great and permanent contribution of the Anglo-American system of law to improved methods of trial-procedure.

John Henry Wigmore

People acting in their own self-interest is the fuel for all the discovery, innovation, and prosperity that powers the world.

John Stossel

Scientific discovery is a private event, and the delight that accompanies it, or the despair of finding it illusory, does not travel. One scientist may get great satisfaction from another's work and admire it deeply; it may give him great intellectual pleasure; but it gives him no sense of participation in the discovery, it does not carry him away, and his appreciation of it does not depend on his being carried away. If it were otherwise the inspirational origin of scientific discovery would never have been in doubt.

Peter Medawar

Doubt, skepticism, innovation, and inquiry are the only means by which wonder, beauty, awe, and symmetry will be discovered.

Christopher Hitchens

The routine of custom tends to deaden even scientific inquiry; it stands in the way of discovery and of the active scientific worker. For discovery and inquiry are synonymous as an occupation. Science is a pursuit, not a coming into possession of the immutable; new theories as points of view are more prized than discoveries that quantitatively increase the store on hand.

John Dewey

A great discovery solves a great problem, but there is a grain of discovery in the solution of any problem. Your problem may be modest, but if it challenges your curiosity and brings into play your inventive faculties, and if you solve it by your own means, you may experience the tension and enjoy the triumph of discovery.

George Polya

Let all your moments of self-doubt, fear, or disappointment fuel your drive to be great.

Devin McCourty

If there were no falsehood in the world, there would be no doubt, if there were no doubt, there would be no inquiry; if no inquiry, no wisdom, no knowledge, no genius; and Fancy herself would lie muffled up in her robe, inactive, pale, and bloated.

Walter Savage Landor

Among all the wonderful things we have, we don't seem to have a time to love. And to me that's the fuel, that's the fuel we need to make the engine go.

Stevie Wonder

I want MIT to be the dream of every child who wants to grow up to make the world a better place. We need to reach those young explorers and bring them with us on the great adventure of discovery and innovation.

Susan Hockfield

A GREAT discovery solves a great problem but there is a grain of discovery in any problem.

George Polya

Conserving fuel is fine, and it was great in the past. The problem is that the drivers don't have to do it. It's all done electronically. You sit there, and it saves fuel for you, and that defeats the purpose.

Jacques Villeneuve

We have made a great effort to stabilize the Jaguars, and London has played a key part in that. We see the Jaguars as an engine and catalyst for the overall growth of Jacksonville, and I believe we have proven our commitment beyond a doubt.

Shahid Khan

By mastering both aspects of our being we remember not only how to think, but what to think. What I'm clear about now is that the mind is a tool, a mechanism, and the soul provides the fuel for that machine. The less fuel you use, the more inefficiently the engine will operate. On the other hand, if your soul fills your mind with spiritual energy, you will be Mind-Full - and the workings of this engine can produce miracles.

Neale Donald Walsch

It's sort of another innovation, probably a good innovation, of Western culture to separate the ideas between science and philosophy, but it's important to remember they weren't always separate realms of inquiry.