If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want. - John Maynard Keynes
I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially to the extent to which it has been applied, will be one of the greatest jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity it has. - Malcolm Muggeridge
In choosing a hypothesis there is no virtue in being timid. I clearly would have been burned at the stake in another age. - Thomas Gold
If any choose to maintain, as many do, that species were gradually brought to their maturity from humbler forms ... he is welcome to his hypothesis, but I have nothing to do with it.
Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement. - Will Durant
Your Excellency, I have no need of this hypothesis. - Pierre Laplace
There are two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. - Enrico Fermi
..the senses do not give us a picture of the world directly; rather they provide evidence for checking hypotheses about what lies before us. Indeed we may say that a perceived object is a hypothesis, suggested and tested by sensory data. - Richard Langton Gregory
Before man ventures into daydreams about his futuristic society, he shouldfirst immerse himself in the nothingness of his being, and finally restore life to what it is all about: a working hypothesis. - Tomislav Sunić
It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. - Konrad Lorenz
The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective. - Edward Teller