Quotessence
Home / Authors / Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson

Freeman Dyson Quotes

Physicist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingWorldIfsScienceHumansUniverseWayMathematicsTechnologyGlobal WarmingLooksKnowsGivingMeanToolsTryingYearsCoursesFacts

Famous Freeman Dyson Quotes

“The essential fact which emerges ... is that the three smallest and most active reservoirs ( of carbon in the global carbon cycle), the atmosphere, the plants and the soil, are all of roughly the same size. This means that large human disturbance of any one of these reservoirs will have large effects on all three. We cannot hope either to understand or to manage the carbon in the atmosphere unless we understand and manage the trees and the soil too.”

HumansMeanFactsScienceThreeTreeEffectsEssentialsPlantSizeActiveManageAtmosphereSoilCyclesSmallestCarbonDisturbanceReservoirsCarbon Cycle
Author:Freeman Dyson
Create image

“The whole point of science is that most of it is uncertain. That's why science is exciting--because we don't know. Science is all about things we don't understand. The public, of course, imagines science is just a set of facts. But it's not. Science is a process of exploring, which is always partial. We explore, and we find out things that we understand. We find out things we thought we understood were wrong. That's how it makes progress.”

KnowsWholeFactsCoursesProcessImagineProgressUnderstoodExcitingUncertainExploring
Author:Freeman Dyson
Create image

“We have no reason to think that climate change is harmful if you look at the world as a whole. Most places, in fact, are better off being warmer than being colder. And historically, the really bad times for the environment and for people have been the cold periods rather than the warm periods.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldLooksHas BeensReasonWholeFactsEnvironmentColdPeriodsClimateClimate ChangeWarmNo ReasonBetter OffBad TimesGood Times Bad Times
Author:Freeman Dyson
Create image