Martin Gardner quotes - page 2

Martin Gardner was an American popular mathematics and science writer, as well as a renowned skeptic and puzzle creator. His columns in Scientific American sparked widespread interest in recreational mathematics and critical thinking. He inspired generations to explore the wonders of mathematics, logic, and magic through his engaging writing. Here are 27 of his quotes:

The deeper question that lies behind the above banalities is whether the rules of baseball are similar to or radically different from the rules of science. Clearly they are radically different. Like the rules of chess and bridge, the rules of baseball or made by humans. But the rules of science are not. They are discovered by observation, reasoning, and experiment. Newton didn't invent his laws of gravity except in the obvious sense that he thought of them and wrote them down. Biologists didn't "construct” the DNA helix; they observed it. The orbit of Mars is not a social construction. Einstein did not make up E=mc the way game rules are made up. To see rules of science as similar to baseball rules, traffic rules, or fashions in dress is to make a false analogy that leads nowhere.

Martin Gardner