Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

The theory of evolution must be considered as a scientific theory, as theory, that is, proposed to explain or systemize read more

The theory of evolution must be considered as a scientific theory, as theory, that is, proposed to explain or systemize a set of facts, and that no one has any claim to be considered as a serious rival to Darwin in the "discovery" of this theory who did not conduct his evolutionary studies upon a reasonably wide basis of facts. To have ideas, apercus, is not enough, and it is the overevalutation of such clever but uncontrolled guesses which is apt to produce the ludicrous fallacy of combination, in which fragments of the final theory are collected from widely scattered sources and are combined in such a way as to impugn the originality of him who was the first to see how such a synthesis was possible.

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are read more

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.

You can shoot the tiger, or stay out of his way, but you cannot pronounce him a vegetarian.

You can shoot the tiger, or stay out of his way, but you cannot pronounce him a vegetarian.

To get into the best society nowadays, one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people.

To get into the best society nowadays, one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people.

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task read more

The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity.

Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; read more

Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; but he has only a limited capacity for understanding the latter's undeveloped mental life and for interpreting, as it were, his nature.

The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, and ordered read more

The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, and ordered their estate.

The Universe has as many different centers as there are living beings in it.

The Universe has as many different centers as there are living beings in it.