Qualities

Passion, patience, invention (Charles Darwin)
Enthusiasm, perseverance (Louis Pasteur)
Curiosity (John Dewey)
Insight, discernment (John Dewey)
Gradualness, modesty, passion (Ivan Pavlov)
Heuristic passion (Michael Polanyi)
The searcher's virtues (Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff)
Learning, imagination, critical sense (John Ziman)
Attitudes in productive thinking (Max Wertheimer)

Passion, patience, invention

[1876] Charles Darwin, Autobiography, 1983
“[Therefore] my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have been - the love of science - unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject - industry in observing and collecting facts - and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense.” (p. 87)

Enthusiasm, perseverance

[1960] Louis Pasteur in René Dubos, Pasteur and Modern Science, 1988
"The Greeks have given us one of the most beautiful words of our language, the word 'enthusiasm' - a God within. The grandeur of the acts of men is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a God within." (Chapter 15, p. 146)
"And you, dearest father ... you have shown to me what patience and protracted effort can accomplish. It is to you that I owe perseverance in daily work." (Chapter 15. p. 144)

Curiosity

[1910] John Dewey, How We Think, 1991
"Thinking involves the suggestion of a conclusion for acceptance, and also search or inquiry to test the value of the suggestion before finally accepting it.
This implies (a) a certain fund or store of experiences and facts from which suggestions proceed; (b) promptness, flexibility, and fertility of suggestions; and (c) orderliness, consecutiveness, appropriateness in what is suggested."
"The most vital and significant factor in supplying the primary material whence suggestion may issue is, without doubt, curiosity."
"In its first manifestations, curiosity is a vital overflow, an expression of an abundant organic energy."
"Curiosity rises above the organic and the social planes and becomes intellectual in the degree in which it is transformed in problems provoked by the observation of things and the accumulation of material."
(Chapter III, pp. 30 - 33)

Insight, discernment

[1910] John Dewey, How We Think, 1991
"To be a good judge is to have a sense of the relative indicative or signifying values of the various features of the perplexing situation; to know what to let go as of no account; what to eliminate as irrelevant; what to retain as conducive to outcome; what to emphasize as a clue to the difficulty. This power in ordinary matters we call knack, tact, cleverness; in more important affairs, insight, discernment. "
(Chapter 8, p. 104)

Gradualness, modesty, passion

[1936] Ivan Pavlov in W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation, 1957
“What can I wish to the youth of my country who devote themselves to science? Firstly, gradualness. About this most important condition of fruitful scientific work I can never speak without emotion. Gradualness, gradualness, gradualness ... never begin the subsequent without mastering the preceding ... But do not become the archivist of facts. Try to penetrate the secret of their occurrence, persistently searching for the laws which govern them.
Secondly, modesty ... do not allow haughtiness to take you in possession. Due to that you will obstinate where it is necessary to agree, you will refuse useful and friendly help, you will lose your objectiveness.
Thirdly, passion. Remember that science demands from a man all his life. If you had two lives that would not be enough for you. Be passionate in your work and your searching.”
(Chapter 11, pp. 207 - 208 ; taken from "Science", 1936 - 83, 369)

Heuristic passion

[1958] Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 1962
"Any process of inquiry unguided by intellectual passions would inevitably spread out into a desert of trivialities." (Chapter 6, p. 135)
"Scientists ... are sustained and guided ... by their heuristic passion."
"We have to cross the logical gap between a problem and its solution by relying on the unspecifiable impulse of our heuristic passion, and must undergo as we do so a change of our intellectual personality."
"Originality must be passionate." (Chapter 6, p. 143)

The searcher's virtues

[1957] Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher, 1970
The Searcher's six virtues:
- Accuracy
- Love of Order
- Logic
- Honesty
- Self-Awareness [making clear the assumptions]
- Imagination
(from Chapter 3, pp. 58-62)

Learning, imagination, critical sense

[1968] John Ziman, Public Knowledge
“... scientific investigation ... is a practical art. It is not learnt out of books, but by imitation and experience.” (p. 7)
"Learning, imagination and critical sense - these are the three qualities which the scientist mind must possess in abundance.
He must not be ignorant of the present and past consensus. [learning];
he must not be blind to the possibility of change [imagination];
he must not give credence to every passing whim or fancy [critical sense]." (p. 80)
“... attention to observational accuracy, logical rigour and encyclopaedic detail is quite as essential to Science as imagination and inspiration.” (p. 86)

Attitudes in productive thinking

[1945] Max Wertheimer, Productive Thinking, 1968
“... the very nature of the operations [of Problem Solving], their genesis, and their development seem deeply connected with the actual human attitude toward the problem and its solution. Neither slyness, nor a spirit of domineering seems to be the most advisable attitude in productive thinking, even though it may sometimes lead to practical success and thus make for a certain quick, short-range efficiency.” (Chapter 7, pp. 179-180)

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