Out of Context: On Scientists (Definitions)

"The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself, wherever it may lead." (Luther Burbank, "Why I Am An Infidel", 1926)

"The scientist is a practical man and his are practical aims. He does not seek the ultimate but the proximate. He does not speak of the last analysis but rather of the next approximation. […] On the whole, he is satisfied with his work, for while science may never be wholly right it certainly is never wholly wrong; and it seems to be improving from decade to decade." (Gilbert N Lewis, "The Anatomy of Science", 1926)

"[...] scientists are not a select few intelligent enough to think in terms of 'broad sweeping theoretical laws and principles'. Instead, scientists are people specifically trained to build models that incorporate theoretical assumptions and empirical evidence." (Peter Imhof, Science Vol. 287, 1935–1936)

"A good scientist is a person with original ideas." (Freeman Dyson, "Disturbing the Universe", 1979)

"Scientists are generally reluctant to accept the existence of a phenomenon when they do not know how to explain it. On the other hand, they will often accept a theory that is especially plausible before there exists any data to support it.” (Richard Morris, 1983) 

"A scientist is a person who knows more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing." (John M Ziman, "Knowing Everything about Nothing: Specialization and Change in Scientific Careers", 1987)

"A scientist is no more a collector and classifier of facts than a historian is a man who complies and classifies a chronology of the dates of great battles and major discoveries." (Sir Peter B Medawar, "Aristotle to Zoos: A Philosophical Dictionary of Biology", 1983)

"It seems that scientists are often attracted to beautiful theories in the way that insects are attracted to flowers - not by logical deduction, but by something like a sense of smell." (Steven Weinberg, "Physics Today", 2005)

"The best scientists aren't the ones who know the most data; they're the ones who know what they're looking for." (Noam Chomsky, [Guardian] 2005)

"Under normal conditions the research scientist is not an innovator but a solver of puzzles, and the puzzles upon which he concentrates are just those which he believes can be both stated and solved within the existing scientific tradition." (Thomas S Kuhn, "The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change", 2011)

"Great scientists are virtuosi of the art of discovering the meaning of what otherwise might seem barren observations." (Theodosius Dobzhansky)

"Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected." (Ernest Rutherford)

"The scientist is not content to stop at the obvious." (Charles H Mayo)