William Ian Beardmore Beveridge Quotes:

Elaborate apparatus plays an important part in the science of to-day, but I sometimes wonder if we are not inclined to forget that the most important instrument in research must always be the mind of man.

source: - William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

Topics: Science, Men, Play

Paradoxical as it may at first appear, the fact is that, as W. H. George has said, scientific research is an art, not a science.

Topics: Art, Science, May, Scientific Research

No one believes an hypothesis except its originator but everyone believes an experiment except the experimenter. Most people are ready to believe something based on experiment but the experimenter knows the many little things that could have gone wrong in the experiment. For this reason the discoverer of a new fact seldom feels quite so confident of it as others do. On the other hand other people are usually critical of an hypothesis, whereas the originator identifies himself with it and is liable to become devoted to it.

Topics: Believe, Hands, People

Many discoveries must have been stillborn or smothered at birth. We know only those which survived.

source: - "The Art of Scientific Investigation". Book by William Ian Beardmore Beveridge, p. 65, 1950.

Topics: Discovery, Birth, Discovery In Science

When adults first become conscious of something new, they usually either attack or try to escape from it ... Attack includes such mild forms as ridicule, and escape includes merely putting out of mind.

source: - William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

Topics: Discovery, Mind, Trying, Discovery In Science, New Discoveries

The Imagination merely enables us to wander into the darkness of the unknown where, by the dim light of the knowledge we carry, we may glimpse something that seems of interest. But when we bring it out and examine it more closely it usually proves to be only trash whose glitter had caught our attention. Imagination is at once the source of all hope and inspiration but also of frustration. To forget this is to court despair.

source: - William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

Topics: Inspiration, Frustration, Light

Cultivate an intellectual habit of subordinating one's opinions and wishes to objective evidence and a reverence for things as they really are.

source: - William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

Topics: Intellectual, Wish, Opinion

Hypothesis is a toll which can cause trouble if not used properly. We must be ready to abandon our hypothesis as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with the facts.

source: - William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1950). “The Art of Scientific Investigation”

Topics: Atheism, Tolls, Causes