“We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes.”

—  Larry Niven

On the relationship between science and science-fiction.
Space.com interview (2000)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad f…" by Larry Niven?
Larry Niven photo
Larry Niven 138
American writer 1938

Related quotes

Winston S. Churchill photo

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech in the House of Commons, February 27, 1945 "Crimea Conference" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1945/feb/27/crimea-conference#column_1294; in The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1954), Chapter XXIII – Yalta: Finale.
The Second World War (1939–1945)

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“Mistakes don't have to define us. They're how we learn and grow. They show us who and what we don't want to be. It's why they're mistakes.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infamous

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Ayumi Hamasaki photo

“Your back always
looked small and weak
but we could laugh together
at funny stories.
But if people keep making
the same mistakes over and over
can they really regret them?”

Ayumi Hamasaki (1978) Japanese recording artist, lyricist, model, and actress

Teddy Bear
Lyrics, Duty

Rick Riordan photo

“We'de have to get in and get out the hard way; and if we made a mistake, there was no telling what sort of curse we'de unleash: monster guardians, plagues, fires, exploding donkeys(don't laugh; they're bad news).”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

John McCain photo

“We're no longer staring into the abyss of defeat and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

During General David Petraeus’ testimony before Congress on the military “surge” strategy in Iraq. 8 April 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24007825/
2000s, 2008

“In our modern world, we look unkindly on mistakes and imperfection. But this is far from the samurai ideal. Mistakes are part of the learning process and if you haven't made them then you are, indeed, dangerous because it means you have never learned anything. Mistakes, to a samurai, are the proof of your learning.”

Alexei Maxim Russell (1976) Canadian writer

from Instruction Manual for the 21st Century Samurai.

“We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist
Frederick William Robertson photo

“The mistake we make is to look for a source of comfort in ourselves: self-contemplation, instead of gazing upon God. In other words, we look for comfort precisely where comfort never can be.”

Frederick William Robertson (1816–1853) British writer and theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 477.

John Cunningham McLennan photo

“We don't want support for scientific research just to keep scientists busy: we want scientists to be looked upon by the public as people who can do things for them that they can't do themselves.”

John Cunningham McLennan (1867–1935) Canadian physicist

as quoted by Gordon Shrum. In an article by Robert Craig Brown, The life of Sir John Cunningham McLennan http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/overview/history/mclennan, Physics in Canada, March / April 2000.

Related topics