We hate the very idea that our own ideas may be mistaken, so we cling dogmatically to our conjectures.

Now this principle of induction cannot be a purely logical truth like a tautology or an analytic statement. . . .

Science is not a system of certain, or -established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality... And our guesses are guided by the unscientific, the metaphysical (though biologically explicable) faith in laws, in regularities which we can uncover-discover. Like Bacon, we might describe our own contemporary science-'the method of reasoning which men now ordinarily apply to nature'-as consisting of 'anticipations, rash and premature' and as 'prejudices'.

Optimism is a duty. The future is open. It is not predetermined. No one can predict it, except by chance. We all contribute to determining it by what we do. We are all equally responsible for its success.

If you know that things are bound to happen whatever you do, then you may feel free to give up the fight against them.

The conspiracy theory of society... comes from abandoning god and then asking: "Who is in his place"

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.