Science was a systematic way to avoid fooling yourself, after all. - Gregory Benford

You got to learn to wait people out. Hear what they got to say. Not enough to have a majority rule, y’know. Otherwise, the minority won’t be convinced and they won’t support the plan. No point havin’ people at your elbow who’re against what you’re doin’. So we just got to talk it out Quaker-style till ever’body agrees. More efficient in the long run.

Only senators and simpletons thought science took place in neatly drawn boxes.

It was an example of what he thought of as the Law of Controversy: Passion was inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.