"All knowledge that is not the real product of observation, or of consequences deduced from observation, is entirely groundless and illusory." (Jean-Baptiste Lamarck)
"By observation, facts are distinctly and minutely impressed in the mind; by analogy, similar facts are connected ; by experiment, new facts are discovered ; and, in the progression of knowledge, observation, guided by analogy, leads to experiment, and analogy, confirmed by experiment, becomes scientific truth." (Sir Humphry Davy)
"[…] facts by themselves are silent. Observation discovers nothing directly of the actions of causes, but only of sequences in time." (Alfred Marshall)
"For although it is certainly true that quantitative measurements are of great importance, it is a grave error to suppose that the whole of experimental physics can be brought under this heading. We can start measuring only when we know what to measure: qualitative observation has to precede quantitative measurement, and by making experimental arrangements for quantitative measurements we may even eliminate the possibility of new phenomena appearing." (Heinrich B G Casimir)
"In the study of Nature conjecture must be entirely put aside, and vague hypothesis carefully guarded against. The study of Nature begins with facts, ascends to laws, and raises itself, as far as the limits of man’s intellect will permit, to the knowledge of causes, by the threefold means of observation, experiment and logical deduction." (Jean Baptiste-Andre Dumas)
"In order to draw any conclusion... it is prudent to wait until more numerous and exact observations have provided a solid foundation on which we may build a rigorous theory." (Joseph L Gay-Lussac)
"Nothing destroys the powers of general observation quite so much as a life of experimental science." (Herbert G Wells)
"Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators." (Amos B Alcott)
"Science descends ever more deeply into the hidden recesses of things, but it must halt at a certain point when questions arise which cannot be settled by means of sense observations. At that point the scientist needs a light which is capable of revealing to him truth which entirely escapes his senses. This light is philosophy." (Pope Pius XII)
"Science does more than collect facts; it makes sense of them. Great scientists are virtuosi of the art of discovering the meaning of what otherwise might seem barren observations." (Theodosius Dobzhansky)
"Science is the observation of things possible." (Leonardo da Vinci)
"The aim of every science is foresight (prevoyance). For the laws of established observation of phenomena are generally employed to foresee their succession. All men, however little advanced make true predictions, which are always based on the same principle, the knowledge of the future from the past." (Auguste Compte)
"The art of concluding from experience and observation consists in evaluating probabilities, in estimating if they are high or numerous enough to constitute proof. This type of calculation is more complicated and more difficult than one might think. It demands a great sagacity generally above the power of common people." (Benjamin Franklin)
"The art of observation and that of experimentation are very distinct. In the first case, the fact may either proceed from logical reasons or be mere good fortune; it is sufficient to have some penetration and a sense of truth in order to profit by it. But the art of experimentation leads from the first to the last link of the chain, without hesitation and without a blank, making successive use of Reason, which suggests an alternative, and of Experience, which decides on it, until, starting from a faint glimmer, the full blaze of light is reached." (Jean Baptiste-Andre Dumas)
"The experiment serves two purposes, often independent one from the other: it allows the observation of new facts, hitherto either unsuspected, or not yet well defined; and it determines whether." (René J Dubos)
"The progress of science requires more than new data; it needs novel frameworks and contexts. And where do these fundamentally new views of the world arise? They are not simply discovered by pure observation; they require new modes of thought. And where can we find them, if old modes do not even include the right metaphors? The nature of true genius must lie in the elusive capacity to construct these new modes from apparent darkness. The basic chanciness and unpredictability of science must also reside in the inherent difficulty of such a task." (Stephen J Gould)
"The seemingly useless or trivial observation made by one worker leads on to a useful observation by another; and so science advances, ‘creeping on from point to point’." (Silvanus P Thompson)
"There is a great difference between the spirit of Mathematics and the spirit of Observation. In the former, the principles are palpable, but remote from common use; so that from want of custom it is not easy to turn our head in that direction; but if it be thus turned ever so little, the principles are seen fully confessed, and it would argue a mind incorrigibly false to reason inconsequentially on principles so obtrusive that it is hardly possible to overlook them." (Blaise Pascal)
"Thinking by analogy is not to be despised. Analogy has this merit, that it does not settle things - does not pretend to be conclusive. On the other hand, that induction is pernicious which, with a preconceived end in view, and working right forward for only that, drags in its train a number of unsifted observations, both false and true." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
"We are convinced that exactitude in experiments is less the outcome of faithful observation of the divisions of an instrument than of exactitude of method." (Joseph L Gay-Lussac)
"[…] we must not measure the simplicity of the laws of nature by our facility of conception; but when those which appear to us the most simple, accord perfectly with observations of the phenomena, we are justified in supposing them rigorously exact." (Pierre-Simon Laplace)
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