612 Quotes About Research

My dear Kepler, I wish that we might laugh at the stupidity of the human herd. What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times? Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth.

They bought research as they bough vegetables - a wonderful insight into official thinking about science.

The problem with all fields of research is that people are impatient. It a particular line of enquiry seems to be making progress, we continue down the line, but if it seems to be getting nowhere, we abandon it. This is a problem because the route to the future is often tortuous. Things seems to be moving towards the goal but then unexpectedly snake off in the wrong direction. Initially unproductive approaches can often turn out to be the only ones that lead to the desired destination.

Darwin's work is a testament to the power of two of the most basic tools used in research, the pencil and paper.

As a general rule, researchers should assume an unobtrusive stance in public settings. A researcher should strive to blend into his or her surroundings in order to reduce his or her impact on the research setting. The art of blending into a research setting entails conscious decisions about how to dress in a research setting, what mannerisms to exhibit, whether to take notes openly or in a concealed manner, and other strategies that allow a researcher to become invisible in the field.

The false starts and futilities of the past years proved themselves to be groundwork, foundations, laid in the dark but well laid.

Research is so vital to a great story. Know what you're writing about!

No one can ever know in advance if a project is going to result in something useful. Results are often negative. We learn what something is not—and that is as important as a positive discovery to the man who is going to pick up from there. At least he knows what not to do.

Design research both inspires imagination and informs intuition through a variety of methods with related intents: to expose patterns underlying the rich reality of people’s behaviors and experiences, to explore reactions to probes and prototypes, and to shed light on the unknown through iterative hypothesis and experiment.