Beyond the probable

I would say the strategy in looking for life in the universe [should be] to look for what's detectable, not what's probable. We have a tendency among the theorists in this field to guess what's probable. In fact our guesses are likely to be wrong. We never had as much imagination as nature.

-- Freeman Dyson, who imagines parabolic flowers spreading across the solar system.

For this is no Height in which there are not flowers.

-- Christopher Smart.

Evolution is cleverer than you are.

-- Orgel's second rule.