"The scientist who discovers a theory is usually guided to his discovery by guesses; he cannot name a method by means of which he found the theory and can only say that it appeared plausible to him, that he had the right hunch or that he saw intuitively which assumption would fit the facts." (Hans Reichenbach, "The Rise of Scientific Philosophy", 1951)
"A discovery in science, or a new theory, even when it appears most unitary and most all-embracing, deals with some immediate element of novelty or paradox within the framework of far vaster, unanalysed, unarticulated reserves of knowledge, experience, faith, and presupposition. Our progress is narrow; it takes a vast world unchallenged and for granted. This is one reason why, however great the novelty or scope of new discovery, we neither can, nor need, rebuild the house of the mind very rapidly. This is one reason why science, for all its revolutions, is conservative. This is why we will have to accept the fact that no one of us really will ever know very much. This is why we shall have to find comfort in the fact that, taken together, we know more and more." (J. Robert Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding, 1954)
"It is important for him who wants to discover not to confine himself to one chapter of science, but to keep in touch with various others." (Jacques S Hadamard, "An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field", 1954)
"The true aim of science is to discover a simple theory which is necessary and sufficient to cover the facts, when they have been purified of traditional prejudices." (Lancelot L Whyte, "Accent on Form", 1954)
"At bottom, the society of scientists is more important than their discoveries. What science has to teach us here is not its techniques but its spirit: the irresistible need to explore." (Jacob Bronowski, "Science and Human Values", 1956)
"A change in science, whether novelty or discovery, when properly understood, when the linguistic problem is adequately solved, will even then provide only a hunch, a starting point for looking at an area of experience other than the science in which it was nourished and born." (J Robert Oppenheimer, "The Growth of Science and the Structure of Culture", Daedalus, 1958)
"Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up." (Leopold Infeld, "The Evolution of Physics", 1961)
"First, I should be clear about what the act of discovery entails. It is rarely, on the frontier of knowledge or elsewhere, that new facts are 'discovered' in the sense of being encountered, as Newton suggested, in the form of islands of truth in an uncharted sea of ignorance. Or if they appear to be discovered in this way, it is almost always thanks to some happy hypothesis about where to navigate. Discovery, like surprise, favors the well-prepared mind." (Jerome S Bruner, "On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand", 1962)
"We must now ask how changes of this sort can come about, considering first discoveries, or novelties of fact, and then inventions, or novelties of theory. That distinction between discovery and invention or between fact and theory will, however, immediately prove to be exceedingly artificial." (Thomas Kuhn, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", 1962)
“Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search.” (J Robert Oppenheimer, "Prospects in the Arts and Sciences", 1964)
"We must now ask how changes of this sort can come about, considering first discoveries, or novelties of fact, and then inventions, or novelties of theory. That distinction between discovery and invention or between fact and theory will, however, immediately prove to be exceedingly artificial." (Thomas Kuhn, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions", 1962)
“Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search.” (J Robert Oppenheimer, "Prospects in the Arts and Sciences", 1964)
"The central task of a natural science is to make the wonderful commonplace: to show that complexity, correctly viewed, is only a mask for simplicity; to find pattern hidden in apparent chaos. […] This is the task of natural science: to show that the wonderful is not incomprehensible, to show how it can be comprehended - but not to destroy wonder. For when we have explained the wonderful, unmasked the hidden pattern, a new wonder arises at how complexity was woven out of simplicity. The aesthetics of natural science and mathematics is at one with the aesthetics of music and painting - both inhere in the discovery of a partially concealed pattern." (Herbert A Simon, "The Sciences of the Artificial", 1968)
"Discovery always carries an honorific connotation. It is the stamp of approval on a finding of lasting value. Many laws and theories have come and gone in the history of science, but they are not spoken of as discoveries. […] Theories are especially precarious, as this century profoundly testifies. World views can and do often change. Despite these difficulties, it is still true that to count as a discovery a finding must be of at least relatively permanent value, as shown by its inclusion in the generally accepted body of scientific knowledge." (Richard J. Blackwell, "Discovery in the Physical Sciences", 1969)
"A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, "Dionysians and Apollonians", Science 176, 1972)
"Taken as a story of human achievement, and human blindness, the discoveries in the sciences are among the great epics." (J Robert Oppenheimer, "Reflections on the resonances of physics history" , 1972)
"Discoveries are made by pursuing possibilities suggested by existing knowledge." (Michael Polanyi, "Meaning", 1975)
"Metaphysics attempts to discover the ultimate nature of reality, and in this sense, the innerspace of science fiction is metaphysical fiction." (Kate Wilhelm, 1974)
"Discovery always carries an honorific connotation. It is the stamp of approval on a finding of lasting value. Many laws and theories have come and gone in the history of science, but they are not spoken of as discoveries. […] Theories are especially precarious, as this century profoundly testifies. World views can and do often change. Despite these difficulties, it is still true that to count as a discovery a finding must be of at least relatively permanent value, as shown by its inclusion in the generally accepted body of scientific knowledge." (Richard J. Blackwell, "Discovery in the Physical Sciences", 1969)
"A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, "Dionysians and Apollonians", Science 176, 1972)
"Taken as a story of human achievement, and human blindness, the discoveries in the sciences are among the great epics." (J Robert Oppenheimer, "Reflections on the resonances of physics history" , 1972)
"Discoveries are made by pursuing possibilities suggested by existing knowledge." (Michael Polanyi, "Meaning", 1975)
"Metaphysics attempts to discover the ultimate nature of reality, and in this sense, the innerspace of science fiction is metaphysical fiction." (Kate Wilhelm, 1974)
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