“Progress in science is often built on wrong theories that are later corrected. It is better to be wrong than to be vague.”

— Freeman Dyson

The Scientist As Rebel (2006)

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Freeman Dyson 90

theoretical physicist and mathematician 1923

John Tukey (1915–2000) American mathematician

The future of data analysis. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 33 (1), (1962), page 13.
Variant: "An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question." "as the renowned statistician John Tukey once reportedly said," according to Super Freakonomics page 224.

“In these matters, as often in our culture, it is far, far better to be wrong in a respectable way than to be right for the wrong reasons.”

John Kenneth Galbraith book The Great Crash, 1929

Source: The Great Crash, 1929 (1954 and 1997 https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25728842M/The_Great_Crash_1929), Chapter V, The Twilight of Illusion, Section VII, p. 85

“It is surely better to be wronged than to do wrong.”

Isaac Asimov book In Memory Yet Green

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 175
General sources

“Even if we can never quantify [satisfaction or happiness]… as precisely as we currently quantify GNP,… perhaps it is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong.”

Herman E. Daly (1938) American economist

Herman E. Daly and Joshua Farley, in Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications. (2003), page 234. quoted in Beyond GDP Measuring progress, true wealth, and the well-being of nations http://ec.europa.eu/environment/beyond_gdp/key_quotes_en.html, European Commission:Environment

“Better to assume the worst and be wrong than assume the best and be wrong.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Obsidian Butterfly

Source: Obsidian Butterfly

“There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

33 min 20 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Heaven and Hell [Episode 4]
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. The worst aspect of the Velikovsky affair is not that many of his ideas were wrong or silly or in gross contradiction to the facts; rather, the worst aspect is that some scientists attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system, and the history of our study of the solar system shows clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

“It is better to suffer, than to do, wrong.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

The Sayings of the Wise (1555), p. 164

“Scientific theories can always be improved and are improved. That is one of the glories of science. It is the authoritarian view of the Universe that is frozen in stone and cannot be changed, so that once it is wrong, it is wrong forever.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"The Nearest Star" (1989) (reprinted in The Secret of the Universe (1992), p. 82)
General sources

“There are few people who are more often wrong than those who cannot suffer being wrong.”

François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Il n'y a point de gens qui aient plus souvent tort que ceux qui ne peuvent souffrir d'en avoir.
Maxim 386.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

“You would be better off having nobody than the wrong somebody. (On marrying for the wrong reasons.)”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

“Progress in science is often built on wrong theories that are later corrected. It is better to be wrong than to be vague.”

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