Ernest Rutherford - Discovery Quotes

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It is not in the nature of things for any one man to make a sudden violent discovery; science goes step by step, and every man depends on the work of his predecessors. When you hear of a sudden unexpected discovery—a bolt from the blue, as it were—you can always be sure that it has grown up by the influence of one man on another, and it is this mutual influence which makes the enormous possibility of scientific advance. Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected.

Ernest Rutherford

An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.

Ernest Rutherford

The march of discovery has been so rapid that it has been difficult even for those directly engaged in the investigations to grasp at once the full significance of the facts that have been brought to light.

Ernest Rutherford