theory

Grau, teurer Freund, ist alleTheorie. Und gru« n  des Lebens goldner Baum. All theory, dear friend, isgrey, but the golden tree of actual life springs ever green.

—Goethe,JohannWolfgang von

Democracy isthetheory thatthe commonpeopleknow what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

Wie manches wu«  rde in derTheorie unwidersprechlich scheinen, wenn es dem Genie nicht gelungen w a« re, das Widerspiel durch dieTat zu erweisen. How many things would have appeared incontestable in theory if genius had not proved them wrong in practice. Levant

—Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

—Disraeli, Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

In order that a new theory should constitute a discovery or step forward it should conflict with its predecessor †it should contradict its predecessor; it should overthrow it. In this sense, progress in scienceöor at least striking progressöis always revolutionary.

—Popper, Sir Karl Raimund

First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.

—James,William

Appeals to rationality are mostly bluff. There is no good theory of what it is nor of how to recognize it.

—Mellor, D H

The question of how to apply social theory to historical materials, as it is usually posed, is ridiculous.One does not apply theory to history; rather one uses history to develop theory.

—Stinchcombe, Arthur S

It is a fatal defect of current principles of administration that, like proverbs, they occur in pairs. For almost every principle one can find an equally plausible and acceptable contradictory principle. Although the two principles of the pair will lead to exactly opposite recommendations, there is nothing in the theory to indicate which is the appropriate one to apply.

—Simon, Herbert A

The power of Christianity lies in its revelation in act, of that which Plato divined in theory.

—Whitehead, Alfred North

The theory of our modern technic shows that nothing is as practical as the theory.

—Oppenheimer,J(ulius) Robert

Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money off them.

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

   If you wanttoknow thetaste of a pear, you musttastethe pear by eating it for yourself. If you want to know the theoryand methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.

—Mao Zedong or MaoTse-tung

Theory is a good thing but a good experiment lasts forever.

—Kapitsa, Peter Leonidovich

Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloomisgone.Thewholetheoryof moderneducationis radically unsound. Fortunately, in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.

—Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills

Were Ito deduceanysystem frommy feelings on leaving Eton, it might be called TheTheory of Permanent Adolescence.

—Connolly, Cyril Vernon

   ThetheoryoftheCommunistsmay be summedup inthe single sentence: Abolition of private property.

—Marx, Karl Heinrich

Happily, there is nothing in the laws of value which remains for the present or any future writer to clear up; the theory of the subject is complete.

—Mill,John Stuart

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

—Mencken, H(enry) L(ouis)

The belief that we can start with pure observations alone, without anything in the nature of a theory, is absurd.

—Popper, Sir Karl Raimund

An economist is someone who, when he finds something which works in practice, wonders if it will work in theory.

—Heller,Walter Wolfgang