The real point of honor [for a scientist] is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

— Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

Le vrai point d'honneur [d'un scientifique] n'est pas d'être toujours dans le vrai. Il est d'oser, de proposer des idées neuves, et ensuite de les vérifier.

Original text (French)

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In our days, when we are spoilt with exceedingly complex toys, such as nuclear reactors or synchrotron sources, I particularly like to describe experiments of this Franklin style to my students.

The real point of honor … is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

The final lines are not mine: they come from an experiment on soft matter, after Boudin… An English translation might run like this

A dense film of a conventional surfactant is quite impermeable. On the other hand, a dense film of Janus grains always has some interstices between the grains, and allows for chemical exchange between the two sides; "the skin can breathe". This may possibly be of some practical interest.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.

The real point of honor [for a scientist] is not to be always right. It is to dare to propose new ideas, and then to check them.

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