The man who is striving to solve a problem defined by existing knowledge and technique is not, however, just looking around. He knows what he wants to achieve, and he designs his instruments and directs his thoughts accordingly. Unanticipated novelty, the new discovery, can emerge only to the extent that his anticipations about nature and his instruments prove wrong... There is no other effective way in which discoveries might be generated.
Thomas KuhnAlmost always the men who achieve these fundamental inventions of a new paradigm have been either very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change.
Thomas KuhnNormal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none.
Thomas KuhnIn science novelty emerges only with difficulty, manifested by resistance, against a background provided by expectation.
Thomas KuhnFar from being magisterial in its objectivity, science was conditioned by history, society, and the prejudices of scientists.
Thomas KuhnIndividuals who break through by inventing a new paradigm are almost always either very young men or very new to the field whose paradigm they change. These are the men who, being little committed by prior practice to the traditional rules of normal science, are particularly likely to see that those rules no longer define a playable game and conceive another set that can replace them.
Thomas Kuhn