“Goethe opposed the use of the microscope, since he believed that what cannot be seen with the naked eye should not be seen, and that what is hidden from us is hidden for a purpose. In this, Goethe was a scandal among scientists, whose first, firm, and necessary principle is that if something can be done, then it should be done.”

-John Bainville, “Beauty, Charm and Strangeness: Science as Metaphor”, Science 281, 1998.