A Scientist’s Adversary is
Always and only the Unknown²
We know enough Science to arrive
At Morning without Undue Surprise³
Nothing’s Wasted or Failure – it’s all Data⁴
A Scientist must be absolutely like a Child: if
She Sees a thing, she must Say that she sees it,
Whether it is what she thought she was going to
See or not – See First, Think Later, then Test, but
See First – otherwise you only see what’s Expected⁵
Science is made up of Mistakes, but they are Useful
Mistakes since they Lead little by little to the Truth⁶
Wondrous Creature! Mount where Science guides,
Go, Measure earth, Weigh air, and State the tides⁷
Victories of Mind are Won for all Humankind⁸
What is now Proved was once only Imagin’d⁹
I Climb the hill of Science – I view the
Landscape o’er: such Transcendental
Prospect, I ne’er beheld before¹⁰
¹ Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
² Primo Levi tr. Raymond Rosenthal, Bacteria Roulette
³ Sidney Keys, The Anti-Symbolist
⁴ Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy
⁵ Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
⁶ Jules Verne tr. Robert Baldick, Journey to the Center of the Earth
⁷ Alexander Pope, Epistle II
⁸ Ebenezer Elliott, War
⁹ William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi