Emperor Has No Clothes Award acceptance speech (2003) 
Context: The purpose of science in understanding who we are as humans is not to rob us of our sense of mystery, not to cure us of our sense of mystery. The purpose of science is to constantly reinvent and reinvigorate that mystery. To always use it in a context where we are helping people in trying to resist the forces of ideology that we are all familiar with.
                                    
“Mystery, speaking through mysteries. Insn't that meaning? Isn't that the conscious or unconsciousnes purpose of the compulsive urge to create?”
            Quote, c. 1910; as cited by de:Wolf-Dieter Dube, in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 112 
1910 - 1915
        
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Wassily Kandinsky 68
Russian painter 1866–1944Related quotes
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“Conscious experience is at once the most familiar thing in the world and the most mysterious.”
The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory (1996)
                                        
                                        Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 69 
Context: The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
                                    
“Scientifically speaking, a butterfly is at least as mysterious as a superstring.”
                                        
                                        Source: Infinite in All Directions (1988), Ch. 2 : Butterflies and Superstrings, p. 14 
Context: Scientifically speaking, a butterfly is at least as mysterious as a superstring. When something ceases to be mysterious it ceases to be of absorbing interest to scientists. Almost all things scientists think and dream about are mysterious.
                                    
“You know how sailors love to create mystery where there is none.”
A Tradition of Victory, Cap 2 "No Looking Back"