Needle In A Haystack Quotes (4 quotes)
~~[Unverified attribution]~~ Most people stop looking when they find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I would continue looking to see if there were other needles.
Alice Calaprice, the most definitive editor of Einstein’s quotes, relegates this to the end of her book under 'Attributed to Einstein', meaning no primary source could be verified for it when published. See Alice Calaprice (ed.), The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2013), 481.
![Nikola Tesla quote: If he [Thomas Edison] had a needle to find in a haystack, he would not stop to reason where it was most like](https://todayinsci.com/T/Tesla_Nikola/TeslaNikola-Haystack500x250px.jpg)
If he [Thomas Edison] had a needle to find in a haystack, he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … [J]ust a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.
As quoted in 'Tesla Says Edison Was an Empiricist', The New York Times (19 Oct 1931), 25. In 1884, Tesla had moved to America to assist Edison in the designing of motors and generators.
It’s a funny thing about looking for things. If you hunt for a needle in a haystack you don’t find it. If you don't give a darn whether you ever see the needle or not it runs into you the first time you lean against the stack.
In 'Extricating Young Gussie', Saturday Evening Post (18 Sep 1915), 10.
Needle in a haystack’s easy—just bring a magnet.
In The Zoo Job (2013), near end of Ch. 3.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
