Robert K. Merton

The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action are not, of course, always negative. Indeed, the history of science is replete with instances of serendipitous discoveries.

The more we know, the more we realize how much we don't know.

Science, whatever its ultimate aims, is a social institution, and as such, it is subject to the same pressures and influences as other social institutions.

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true.

The Matthew effect: 'For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.'

Sociology is not merely a collection of facts, but a way of looking at the world.

The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.

It seems a valid generalization that the Matthew effect in science operates in two ways: first, through the accumulation of advantage, as described above; and second, through the denial of recognition to latecomers.

The history of science is replete with instances of the Matthew effect.

Socially patterned differentials in the availability of rewards and resources are a fundamental source of the Matthew effect.

The rich get richer, at least they are supposed to in a capitalist society.

In the competition for recognition, the already famous scientist has a distinct advantage.

Science is a social enterprise, not a solitary pursuit.

The ethos of science is that characteristically Minaan which is embodied in the mode of institutional life governing the activities tentatively described as scientific.

Universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism—these are the norms of scientific inquiry.

The institution of science presupposes a set of cultural values.

Bureaucracy is a rationalizing force in society.

Unanticipated consequences are a central problem in social theory.

The functional analysis of society must consider both manifest and latent functions.

Dysfunctions are those observed consequences which lessen the adaptation or adjustment of the system.