Chance ... Must Be Something

Thought Must Never Submit, Neither To A Dogma, Nor To A Party, Nor To A Passion, Nor To An Interest, Nor To A Preconceived Idea, Nor To Whatever It May Be, Save To The Facts Themselves, Because, For Thought, Submission Would Mean Ceasing To Be.

It Is Often Said That Experiments Should Be Made Without Preconceived Ideas. That Is Impossible. Not Only Would It Make Every Experiment Fruitless, But Even If We Wished To Do So, It Could Not Be Done. Every Man Has His Own Conception Of The World, And This He Cannot So Easily Lay Aside. We Must, Example, Use Language, And Our Language Is Necessarily Steeped In Preconceived Ideas. Only They Are Unconscious Preconceived Ideas, Which Are A Thousand Times The Most Dangerous Of All.

A Scientist Worthy Of His Name, About All A Mathematician, Experiences In His Work The Same Impression As An Artist; His Pleasure Is As Great And Of The Same Nature.

Science Is Built Up With Facts, As A House Is With Stones. But A Collection Of Facts Is No More A Science Than A Heap Of Stones Is A House.

Thus, Be It Understood, To Demonstrate A Theorem, It Is Neither Necessary Nor Even Advantageous To Know What It Means.