Hal Clement quotes

“Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science.”
-- Hal Clement

#Tests Quotes #Superstitions Quotes #Speculation Quotes

“Human beings are prone to believe the things they wish were true.”
-- Hal Clement

#Believe Quotes #Wish Quotes #Statistics Quotes

“Some things are to hard to believe, however entertaining they might be to hear or read.”
-- Hal Clement

#Believe Quotes #Statistics Quotes #Might Quotes

“The captain, thinking over this event afterward, realized that by his own lifelong standards he had a crew composed entirely of lunatics, with himself well to the front in degree of aberration; but he was fairly sure that this particular form of insanity was going to be useful.”
-- Hal Clement

Source : "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement, (Ch. 9), 1954.

#Thinking Quotes #Insanity Quotes #Events Quotes

“No one likes to be watched constantly by someone he can't see.”
-- Hal Clement

Source : Hal Clement (2002). “Heavy Planet: The Classic Mesklin Stories”, p.99, Macmillan

#Likes Quotes

“What's the use of a high school education if you can't recall it when needed later on?”
-- Hal Clement

Source : Hal Clement (2002). “Heavy Planet: The Classic Mesklin Stories”, p.125, Macmillan

#School Quotes #High School Quotes #Use Quotes

“Maybe we've been taking nova precautions for a red dwarf.”
-- Hal Clement

Source : Hal Clement (2002). “Heavy Planet: The Classic Mesklin Stories”, p.133, Macmillan

#Dwarves Quotes #Red Quotes #Novas Quotes

“Some things were too hard to believe, however entertaining they might be to hear or read.”
-- Hal Clement

Source : "The Nitrogen Fix".

#Believe Quotes #Statistics Quotes #Might Quotes

“There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed.”

Source : "Philosophy in the Twentieth Century" by A.J. Ayer, (p. 133), 1982.

“Elegance is innate...individual...eternal...it stands the test of time!”

“The test of intellect is the refusal to belabor the obvious.”

“I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.”

“Faith must have adequate evidence, else it is mere superstition.”

“Primitive superstition lies just below the surface of even the most tough-minded individuals, and it is precisely those who most fight against it who are the first to succumb to its suggestive effects.”

“In practical life the wisest and soundest people avoid speculation.”

“The universality of tattooing is a curious subject for speculation.”

“Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties.”

Source : The Homiletic Review, April 1896.

“If you're doing a good job as author, then you get the reader to engage in whatever speculation might be called for. And it's much more meaningful for the reader, if he or she comes up with the questions.”