“Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.”
Professor Lidenbrock argues that mistaken hypotheses can still advance inquiry when testing them exposes better explanations.
Source details
A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, Chapter XXXI, ‘Preparations for a Voyage of Discovery,’ represented by Project Gutenberg #3748 in F. A. Malleson's 1877 English translation. Professor Lidenbrock says that science has been built upon many errors after underground observations conflict with accepted heat theory. It remains translated speculative-adventure dialogue and a character's philosophy of scientific error, not a methodological rule supplied by Quote Atlas or a current scientific finding.