The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
—Albert Einstein, 1936Quotes
What one man can invent another can discover.
—Arthur Conan Doyle, 1905A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
—James Joyce, 1922One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
—André Gide, 1926The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.
—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.
—Karl Kraus, 1909Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
—Zora Neale Hurston, 1942I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.
—Maxine Hong Kingston, 1976The atavistic urge toward danger persists and its satisfaction is called adventure.
—John Steinbeck, 1941One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1911How gloriously legible are the constellations of the heavens!
—Anthony Trollope, 1859They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
—Francis Bacon, 1605When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957