Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Research involves exploring the unknown, so if you already knew the outcome, it would not be research.
In plain terms
Research means you do not know the answer yet.
What can you take from it?
Embrace uncertainty in discovery.

Where it applies

  • science
  • innovation
  • problem solving

Putting it to work

  • accept not knowing
  • investigate openly

Questions to consider

  • What are you exploring?
  • How do you handle uncertainty?

Another view

Some research builds on known facts to confirm them.

More from Albert Einstein

  1. If I give you a penny, you will be one penny richer and I'll be one penny poorer. But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have i…

    Permalink to quote #201
  2. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

    Permalink to quote #203
  3. If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

    Permalink to quote #200

Related quotes

  1. 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'v…

    Enrico FermiEnrico Fermi quote #7
  2. A science in its infancy is the least satisfactory, and, at the same time, the most profitable theme for a general description.

    Herbert DingleHerbert Dingle quote #1
  3. Both of us had decided, quite independently of each other, that the central problem in molecular biology was the chemical structure of the gene.

    Francis CrickFrancis Crick quote #2