“The finding of one generation will not serve for the next. It tarnishes rapidly except it be reserved with an ever-renewed spirit of seeking.”

—  Arthur Stanley Eddington

Science and the Unseen World (1929)
Context: It is perhaps difficult sufficiently to emphasise Seeking without disparaging its correlative Finding. But I must risk this, for Finding has a clamorous voice that proclaims its own importance; it is definite and assured, something that we can take hold of —that is what we all want, or think we want. Yet how transitory it proves.
The finding of one generation will not serve for the next. It tarnishes rapidly except it be reserved with an ever-renewed spirit of seeking.<!--IX, p.87-88

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Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Arthur Stanley Eddington 105
British astrophysicist 1882–1944

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