You cannot rationalize what is not rational to begin with - as if lying were called truthization. There is no way to obtain more truth for a proposition by bribery, flattery, or the most passionate argument - you can make more people believe the proposition, but you cannot make it more true.

Science has heroes, but no gods. The great Names are not our superiors, or even our rivals, they are passed milestones on our road; and the most important milestone is the hero yet to come.

I only want power so I can get books.

Every mystery ever solved had been a puzzle from the dawn of the human species right up until someone solved it.

After all, if you had the complete decision process, you could run it as an AI, and I'd be coding it up right now.

By and large, the answer to the question "How do large institutions survive?" is "They don't!" The vast majority of large modern-day institutions - some of them extremely vital to the functioning of our complex civilization - simply fail to exist in the first place.

There's something in science like the shine of the Patronus Charm, driving back all sorts of darkness and madness.