If you walk along the street you will encounter a number of scientific problems. Of these, about 80 per cent are insoluble, while 19ยฝ per cent are trivial. There is then perhaps half a per cent where skill, persistence, courage, creativity and originality can make a difference. It is always the task of the academic to swim in that half a per cent, asking the questions through which some progress can be made.
Hermann BondiSometimes I am a little unkind to all my many friends in education ... by saying that from the time it learns to talk every child makes a dreadful nuisance of itself by asking 'Why?'. To stop this nuisance society has invented a marvellous system called education which, for the majority of people, brings to an end their desire to ask that question. The few failures of this system are known as scientists.
Hermann Bondi... an opportunity to allow the bees in one's bonnet to buzz even more noisily than usual.
Hermann BondiA theory is scientific only if it can be disproved. But the moment you try to cover absolutely everything the chances are that you cover nothing.
Hermann BondiThe true contrast between science and religion is that science unites the world and makes it possible for people of widely differing backgrounds to work together and to cooperate. Religion, on the other hand, by its very claim to know โThe Truthโ through โrevelation,โ is inherently divisive and a creator of separatism and hostility.
Hermann BondiThe test of science is not whether you are reasonableโthere would not be much of physics if that was the caseโthe test is whether it works. And the great point about Newtonโs theory of gravitation was that it worked, that you could actually say something about the motion of the moon without knowing very much about the constitution of the Earth.
Hermann Bondi