The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a star.
—Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 1825Quotes
Most new discoveries are suddenly-seen things that were always there.
—Susanne K. Langer, 1942When they shout “Long live progress,” always ask, “Progress of what?”
—Stanisław Jerzy Lec, 1957I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.
—Maxine Hong Kingston, 1976I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
—Herman Melville, 1853Science is a cemetery of dead ideas.
—Miguel de Unamuno, 1913One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1911Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
—Zora Neale Hurston, 1942They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
—Francis Bacon, 1605The unknown is the largest need of the intellect.
—Emily Dickinson, 1876There are truths that prove their discoverers witless.
—Karl Kraus, 1909True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.
—Edith Wharton, 1924One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
—André Gide, 1926