Peter Medawar

The human mind is a device for escaping the present.

Science is the art of the soluble.

The scientist is a man who is trying to solve a problem that he has himself invented.

The truth is that we are all prisoners of our own experience.

The greatest possible triumph of a scientific theory is to become part of the common sense of mankind.

The human mind is not a tabula rasa; it is a tabula plena, full of prejudices, preconceptions, and prepossessions.

The purpose of science is to make sense of the world, and to make it possible for us to live in it.

The human mind is a device for escaping the present, and for creating a future.

The human mind is a device for making mistakes, and for learning from them.

The human mind is a device for making sense of the world, and for making it possible for us to live in it.

No scientist is admired for failing in the function of a scientist, but for succeeding in it.

The art of the soluble.

Science is not a productive process, it is a critical one.

The scientific method is a potentiation of common sense.

Is the hypothesis charming? No matter how pleasing to the taste, or how elegantly it is presented, if it be not true, it should be thrown out.

Today the world is a more stimulating and rewarding place for the natural philosopher than it has ever been.

For a male and a female to live continuously together is... biologically speaking, an extremely unnatural condition.

We cannot, I claim, avoid at least some knowledge of the sciences of man, however symbolic, descriptive, or generalized, and we cannot safely do without some understanding of the sciences of the body, however elementary.

The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of 'things to worry about' from 'Sources of Danger' and so forth.

A scientist's aim in a discussion with his critics is never to win, but always to be right.