quotations about theory and theories
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Herbert Spencer lecture delivered at Oxford, June 10, 1933
First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.
WILLIAM JAMES
Lecture VI, "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth", Pragmatism
There is nothing more gray, stultifying, or dreary than life lived inside the confines of a theory.
JARON LANIER
"One Half of a Manifesto", The New Humanists: Science at the Edge
I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.
JAMES BALDWIN
Notes of a Native Son
Everybody has a theory.
DANIEL HANDLER
Adverbs