On Science

"If we translate 'scientific outlook' into 'view of life', 'hypothesis' into 'attempt' and 'truth' into 'outcome', then there would be no notable scientist or mathematician whose work, in courage and revolutionary impact, did not far outmatch the greatest deeds in history.  The man has not yet been born who could say to his followers: 'You may steal, kill, fornicate - our teaching is so strong that it will transform the cesspool of your sins into clear, sparkling mountain streams.'  But in science it happens that something till then held to be in error suddenly revolutionizes the field, or that some dim and disdained idea becomes the ruler of a new realm of thought.  Such events are not merely upheavals but lead us upwards like a Jacob's ladder.  The life of science is as strong and glorious and carefree as a fairy tale.  And Ulrich felt: people simply don't realise it, they have no idea how much thinking can be done already; if they could be taught to think a new way, they could change their lives." (p. 37)