Skeptical Proof

A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step towards truth. It must be applied generally because it is the touchstone. - Denis Diderot


All how have accepted some conspiracy theory or another should read and understand this.

Be Prepared

A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi


Accidents happen but preparation is intentional.

New Discoveries

There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made. - Richard Feynman 

Doubt and skepticism are not an end in themselves.

Fools' Gold

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. - Chinese Proverb

If you can't bring yourself to ask a person, at least ask Google.

Simple Minded

To doubt everything, or, to believe everything, are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. - Henri Poincare 

Both are a cop-out.

Judgement Day

Light travels faster than sound so some people appear bright until you hear them speak. - Joe Messmore


Couple this with "Don't judge a book by its cover" and you learn not to judge until you know what you are judging.

Beauty of Mathematics

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence. - Charles Caleb Colton


Sorry Chuck, but the study of mathematics never ends....but is full of magnificence all along the way none the less.


(Other posts on Seeing)

Experiments

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 


Experiments test hypothesis. Be sure to have one before trying an experiment - otherwise you are just wandering aimlessly.


(Other posts on Discovery) 

Fear of Contradiction

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. - Sir Winston Churchill 

I love being proven wrong - I learned something.

(Other posts on Learning) 

Keeping a Secret

Washington, having been asked by an officer on the morning of a battle, what were his plans for the day, replied in a whisper, Can you keep a secret? On being answered in the affirmative, the general added - so can I.

Enduring Spirit

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit. - Ansel Adams

Those which truly reach the roots of the human spirit endure. Think about the "classics" of any field and I think you will agree.

Creative Dreaming

Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare. - Frederick Henry Hedge

Creative - maybe; productive - doubtful.

Creative Play

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. - Carl Jung

Poor old Carl always was confused. It takes a fair amount of intellect to play chess.

Hypothesis Neutrality

It is absolutely essential that one should be neutral and not fall in love with the hypothesis. - David Douglass

There is a BIG difference between a hypothesis and a proof. Think UFO's.

Underlying Order

There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance. - Albert Einstein

I agree, but I would go further. When examining processes (natural or human made) seek the order lying behind the appearance.

Unanswered Questions

A fundamental part of my soul is to doubt and to ask. I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. It is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. - Richard P. Feynman

Just because you have a question does not mean you HAVE to have an answer.

UFO Sightings

From my knowledge of the world I think it is much more likely the reports of flying saucers are the result of the known irrational characteristics of terrestial intelligence rather than the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestial intelligence. - Richard P. Feynman

For the irrational it is easy to make assumptions about the unknown. The rational will try to make the unknown knowable.

Voyage of Discovery

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust

But a change in scenery is often a good way of learning to see things differently or more clearly.

Finding Giants

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton

First you have to find the giant; the Internet makes this a lot easier.

Inconvenient Adventure

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. - GK Chesterton



May your life be full of adventures (inconveniences and all).