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The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.

The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.

Approximate author period: c. 1944 AD · modern

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Arthur Koestler
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1944 AD · modern
Approximate period for the recorded attribution to Arthur Koestler, based on documented lifetime 1905 to 1983. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q78494 (checked 2026-10-08). This is not a quotation composition date or independent authentication of its attribution. Source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q78494 (accessed 2026-10-08).
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 442703; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.