“Without these experimental tests, very few physicists would have accepted general relativity. There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brilliance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.”

— Carl Sagan

Source: The Dragons of Eden (1977), Chapter 7, “Lovers and Madmen” (p. 193)

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American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science ed… 1934–1996

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