I remember reading once a quote similar to "All the great discoveries
were made by outsiders or radicals."  That might not be exactly how it
goes, but it is similar.  I recall it being attributed to Albert
Einstein, but it's been a long time and I'm not sure about that.

I am looking for the correct quote and who said it.  A citation would
be nice too.

goode,

I thought that quote sounded familiar, but it wasn't from Einstein. It
was from R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), as noted in the following
book excerpt:

"There is another kind of security: being too fast and agile to hit.
This strategy requires taking chances and thinking for yourself. It
can be effective: ***Bucky said, "All human advances occur in the
outlaw area."*** This sort of security is an individual matter, not
dependent on insurance or politics."

p.223, paragraph 4
"Bucky Works - Buckminster Fuller's Ideas for Today"
by J. Baldwin
John Wiley & Sons, 1996
ISBN 0-471-12953-4

I just happened to have this one on my shelf.

Although I couldn't find this quote online, there are mentions of the
following magazine article with a similar title:

"In The Outlaw Area, A Profile of Buckminster Fuller" 
by Calvin Tomkins
The New Yorker
January 8, 1966

The article was also included in this subsequent book (one of a set of
four volumes):

Tomkins, Calvin. "In the Outlaw Area: A Profile of R. Buckminster
Fuller."
In The Artifacts of R. Buckminster Fuller. 
Volume One: The Dymaxion Experiment, 1926-1943
edited by James Ward, xv-xxxi.
New York: Garland, 1985.

Long live Bucky!
huntsman


Search Term & Google Result -

"in the outlaw area"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=%22in+the+outlaw+area%22&btnG=Google+Search

---

Request for Answer Clarification by goode-ga on 18 Jun 2002 08:31 PDT

That expresses a similar idea, but it is not the quote I'm looking
for.  It was 'discoveries', not 'advances'.  More importantly, it was
about WHO makes the discoveries (outsiders and radicals), not WHERE
they are made (outlaw area).  I don't remember the exact wording of
the quote, but I remember the three key words that were in the quote:
discoveries, outsiders and radicals.  I may have mis-remembered one of
them, but not all three.

I few more details that may be helpful.  I read this quote about
1975-1980.  It probably was not a book that had recently been
published, so the quote is probably older than that.  The comment
about Thomas Kuhn seems likely.  Upon further consideration, Albert
Einstein probably did not say it.  I would guess he was used as an
example of principle and I confused the two over the years.

---

Clarification of Answer by huntsman-ga on 18 Jun 2002 10:24 PDT

goode,

I'm sorry I missed it: I should have asked you for a clarification
first.

Your original question mentioned several times that you were looking
for something similar to "All the great discoveries were made by
outsiders or radicals.", and that you were unsure of the exact quote.
You did not state that "discoveries", "outsiders", and "radicals" were
specifically required key words.

Actually, my initial Google search was:

discoveries outsiders radicals
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&q=discoveries+outsiders+radicals

but it didn't turn up any appropriate phrases. I then tried many
different keywords, alone and in combination, but without success. I
also searched several quotation sites on the Web. Since I could not
find anything exact, I went looking for "similar" quotes, and it
seemed to me that Bucky's old quote came the closest overall.

This is a tough one: there are many quotes from a variety of sources
that express a similar idea. Here are some of the others I found:

"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created
them."
Albert Einstein 

"The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the
level of thinking that created them."
Albert Einstein

"Civilization may be said indeed to be the creation of its outlaws."
James Joyce

"Perhaps the only thing that saves science from invalid conventional
wisdom that becomes effectively permanent is the presence of mavericks
in every generation - people who keep challenging convention and
thinking up new ideas for the sheer hell of it or from an innate
contrariness."
Dr. D. M. Raup, Paleontologist, U. Chicago.

"If evolution is outlawed only outlaws will evolve."
Daniel Ashlock

And more darkly:

"Science advances funeral by funeral."
(Max Planck?)

I gave it my best effort. If you would like to request a refund and
repost your question, please do so here:

Google Answers Refund or Repost Request
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=refundrequest 

Thanks,
huntsman

I was looking for a specific quote that I remember reading once.  The
answer only gave me a quote about the same subject.  It is an
intersting quote, but I'm looking for the specifc quote I remember.

This is interesting information, but I was looking for the specific
quote I mentioned.

This is what Thomas Kuhn talked about in his book "Structure of
Scientific Revolustions".  I don't have a specific quotation, but I'm
sure many could be taken from that book.

The fragment you give does not  fit Einstein's writing at all.  

I see some similarity with famous  quote by the George Bernard Shaw:
 
"   The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
one persists in trying to
    adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the
unreasonable man. "

as listed e.g. here:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4148/george.html

Whoever  it was, I beleive the GBS said it best.

I looked up a bit about the book and it seems to express the idea of
the quote.  I do not recognize the title or author, so that was
probably not the book I read.  However, what I read was likely quoting
from Kuhn's book.

I am going to read the book to see.  Even if it does not have the
quote, it looks like a very interesting book.  Thanks for your help.

The quote you are looking for is very similar to a quote made by W.
Edwards Deming, "As a good rule, profound knowledge comes from the
outside, and by invitation. A system can not understand itself."

Regards.