William Stanley Jevons - The principles of science (1874)

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Whoever wishes to acquire a deep acquaintance with Nature must observe that there are analogies which connect whole branches of science in a parallel manner, and enable us to infer of one class of phenomena what we know of another. It has thus happened on several occasions that the discovery of an unsuspected analogy between two branches of knowledge has been the starting point for a rapid course of discovery.

William Stanley Jevons
Although it might seem that there are few terms more free from ambiguity than the term equal, yet scientific men do employ it with at least four meanings, which it is desirable to distinguish. These meanings I may describe as (1) Absolute Equality. (2) Sub-equality. (3) Apparent Equality. (4) Probable Equality.

William Stanley Jevons
It is the prerogative of Intellect to discover what is uniform and unchanging in the phenomena around us.

William Stanley Jevons
The fertile discoverer... chooses between many theories, and is never wedded to anyone, unless impartial and repeated comparison has convinced him of its validity.

William Stanley Jevons
The successful investigator must combine diverse qualities; he must have clear notions of the result he expects and confidence in the truth of his theories, and yet he must have that candour and flexibility of mind which enable him to accept unfavourable results and abandon mistaken views.

William Stanley Jevons
I am convinced that it is impossible to expound the methods of induction in a sound manner, without resting them upon the theory of probability. Perfect knowledge alone can give certainty, and in nature perfect knowledge would be infinite knowledge, which is clearly beyond our capacities. We have, therefore, to content ourselves with partial knowledge-knowledge mingled with ignorance, producing doubt.

William Stanley Jevons
In place of the actual objects which we see and feel, the mathematician substitutes imaginary objects, only partially resembling those represented, but so devised that the discrepancies are not of an amount to alter seriously the character of the solution.

William Stanley Jevons
It is surprising to learn the number of causes of error which enter into the simplest experiment, when we strive to attain rigid accuracy.

William Stanley Jevons
Nature is a spectacle continually exhibited to our senses, in which phenomena are mingled in combinations of endless variety and novelty.

William Stanley Jevons
The man of one idea has but a single chance of truth.

William Stanley Jevons
The faculties of the human mind, even when aided by the wonderful powers of abbreviation conferred by analytical methods, are utterly unable to cope with the complications of any real problem.

William Stanley Jevons
Just as, in the map of a half-explored country, we see detached bits of rivers, isolated mountains, and undefined plains, not connected into any complete plan, so a new branch of knowledge consists of groups of facts, each group standing apart, so as not to allow us to reason from one to another.

William Stanley Jevons
In no part of physical science can we be free from exceptions and outstanding facts, of which our present knowledge can give no account. It is among such anomalies that we must look for the clues to new realms of facts worthy of discovery. They are like the floating waifs which led Columbus to suspect the existence of the New World.

William Stanley Jevons
Numerical facts, like other facts, are but the raw materials of knowledge, upon which our reasoning faculties must be exerted in order to draw forth the principles of nature.

William Stanley Jevons
Quantities which are called errors in one case, may really be most important and interesting phenomena in another investigation. When we speak of eliminating error we really mean disentangling the complicated phenomena of nature.

William Stanley Jevons
It must be the ground of all reasoning and inference that what is true of one thing will be true of its equivalent, and that under carefully ascertained conditions Nature repeats herself.

William Stanley Jevons