WIST

In science, “fact” can only mean “confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.” I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
“Evolution as Fact and Theory” in Speak Out Against the New Right [ed. Herbert Vetter] (1982)
Full text.

The fundamentalists, by ‘knowing’ the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science — or of any honest intellectual inquiry.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
Bully for Brontosaurus

History is complex. It cannot be reproduced in a flask.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
The Panda’s Thumb

Results rarely specify their causes unambiguously.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
The Panda’s Thumb

The best way to teach that one should be suspicious of everything one holds dear is through the study of brilliant people of the past, who, by modern standards are so wrong, and where it is easy to see that their errors were the result of cultural biases of their day.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
In Charles Petit, “A Thinker Who Delights in Discredited Theories,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (14 Feb 1993)