Charles Darwin on Useful Observations

About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view to be of any service.

Charles Darwin. 1861. Letter to Henry Fawcett, quoted in Steven J. Gould "Dinosaurs in the haystack," Natural History 3(92):2-13.

Thanks to Iain Davidson