Robert K. Merton

Reference groups provide the standards for self-evaluation.

The deviant behavior is a response to the strain between cultural goals and institutional means.

Innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion—these are modes of adaptation to anomie.

Anomie arises from the disjunction between cultural norms and social structures.

The American Dream is a cultural goal that not all can achieve through legitimate means.

Sociology of knowledge must account for the social determinants of thought.

Truth is not independent of the social context in which it is produced.

The focus on the individual obscures the structural sources of inequality.

Middle-range theories bridge the gap between grand theory and empirical research.

Theory without data is empty; data without theory is blind.

The serendipity pattern in scientific discovery is the recognition of unanticipated significance.

Multiple discoveries are the rule rather than the exception in science.

Obliteration by incorporation: once ideas are absorbed, their origin is forgotten.

The sociology of science examines the social processes of scientific activity.

Priority in discovery is a social construct in the republic of science.

In science, as in life, recognition begets further recognition.

The pursuit of knowledge is a collective endeavor.

I had the good fortune to be born into a family that valued education above all.

Sociology taught me to see the invisible structures shaping human behavior.

Life is a series of unintended consequences, much like social action.