Quotessence
Home / Topics / Physicist Quotes

Physicist Quotes

Browse 482 quotes about Physicist.

Related topics

SciencePhysicsIfsWorldMathematicsPeopleMathematicianUniverseTheoryThinkingTheoreticalMayHas BeensKnowsWayMathematicalScientistProblemQuantumRealityShouldChemistIdeasNuclearYearsLawMenBelieveLittlesSaidUnderstandingAtomsDoeFactsKnownWantMeanTryingDifferentInspirationalLooksMathMindOrderWellsChildrenEnergyExperimentsFieldsLanguageMatterParticlesQuantum PhysicsUltimateUsedAbleAsksCommonEconomistHappensImportantInterestKindLearningLifeMethodMovingNaturePastRealizingStudentsStudyTodayUseAstronomersAtheismBecomingBombsChemistryEquationsFeelsFundamentalsHumansImpossibleKnowledgeLevelsMadeMassMaterialsModernNumbersRealResultsSchoolScience PhysicsSeemsSimpleSolveSpiritualStillsmore

Physicist Quotes

“The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.”

MadeWarProblemFunnyEnergyPeaceExistenceMilitaryIntelligenceReleaseAntiwarProblem SolvingPhysicistUrgentTheoreticalMaking PeacePeace WarMake Peace Not WarPeace Not WarSolved ProblemsAtomic EnergyAtomic WarInspirational ScienceCreating PeaceMerely Existing
Book:Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
Create image

“I don't like honors. I'm appreciated for the work that I did, and for people who appreciate it, and I notice that other physicists use my work. I don't need anything else. I don't think there's any sense to anything else.... I've already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it. Those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors... I can't stand it, it hurts me.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsBelieveI CanRealUseHurtPleasureHonorFindingsDiscoveryAppreciateDon't BelievePhysicsObservationKicksPrizeIt HurtsPhysicistAppreciatedReal ThingsUnrealHurt Me
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“To the pure geometer the radius of curvature is an incidental characteristic - like the grin of the Cheshire cat. To the physicist it is an indispensable characteristic. It would be going too far to say that to the physicist the cat is merely incidental to the grin. Physics is concerned with interrelatedness such as the interrelatedness of cats and grins. In this case the "cat without a grin" and the "grin without a cat" are equally set aside as purely mathematical phantasies.”

Would BeCasesPureConcernedCatMathematicsMathPhysicsMathematicalCharacteristicsIndispensablePhysicistRadiusInterrelatedness
Book:The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's 'Great Debate', 1900-1931
Create image

“The physicist, in his study of natural phenomena, has two methods of making progress: (1) the method of experiment and observation, and (2) the method of mathematical reasoning. The former is just the collection of selected data; the latter enables one to infer results about experiments that have not been performed. There is no logical reason why the second method should be possible at all, but one has found in practice that it does work and meets with reasonable success.”

ShouldDoeTwoReasonFoundNaturalResultsPracticeStudyProgressMethodMathExperimentsObservationFormerDataMathematicalReason WhyReasoningReasonableCollectionsLatterLogicalPhysicistSelectedNatural Phenomena
Author:Paul Dirac
Create image

“As commonly understood, creationism involves belief in an earth formed only about ten thousand years ago, an interpretation of the Bible that is still very popular. For the record, I have no reason to doubt that the universe is the billions of years old that physicists say it is. Further, I find the idea of common descent (that all organisms share a common ancestor) fairly convincing, and have no particular reason to doubt it.”

YearsStillsIdeasReasonEarthUniverseBeliefCommonDoubtRecordsShareParticularThousandTenUnderstoodYears AgoBillionsNo ReasonInterpretationAncestorOrganismsThousand YearsPhysicistConvincingDescentCreationismVery Popular
Author:Michael Behe
Create image

“A theoretical physicist can spend his entire lifetime missing the intellectual challenge of experimental work, experiencing none of the thrills and dangers - the overhead crane with its ten-ton load, the flashing skull and crossbones and danger, radioactivity signs. A theorist's only real hazard is stabbing himself with a pencil while attacking a bug that crawls out of his calculations.”

RealScienceChallengesMissingDangerTenIntellectualLifetimeIntellectExperimentsLoadThrillPencilsBugsPhysicistAttackingTheoreticalCalculationsSkullsHazardsOverheadTheoristsStabbingCranes
Book:The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?
Create image

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”

InspirationalRealityPastSciencePoliticsNatureNaturalTechnologySuccessfulEnvironmentRelationEnvironmentalSkepticismEcologyConservationPhysicistOur EnvironmentSkepticalSkepticFooledScience And TechnologyPublic RelationsNatural EnvironmentNature And EnvironmentSave Mother EarthPrecedenceImmersionNature ConservationWorld EnvironmentSpace ShuttleScience TechnologyBeing NaturalWonder Of NatureBest TechnologyTechnology And EducationOld TechnologyArt And TechnologySpace Shuttle Challenger
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“The story is told of Lord Kelvin, a famous Scotch physicist of the last century, that after he had given a lecture on atoms and molecules, one of his students came to him with the question, "Professor, what is your idea of the structure of the atom." "What," said Kelvin, "The structure of the atom? Why, don't you know, the very word 'atom' means the thing that can't be cut. How then can it have a structure?" "That," remarked the facetious young man, "shows the disadvantage of knowing Greek."”

KnowsMenMeanSaidIdeasStoriesShowsLastsYoungScienceGivenLordKnowingCuttingCenturyStudentsStructureGreekYoung ManProfessorsAtomsPhysicistLecturesDisadvantagesMoleculesScotchFacetious
Author:Arthur Compton
Create image

“Erwin Schrodinger has explained how he and his fellow physicists had agreed that they would report their new discoveries and experiments in quantum physics in the language of Newtonian physics. That is, they agreed to discuss and report the non-visual, electronic world in the language of the visual world of Newton.”

WorldLanguageMediaDiscoveryFellowsPhysicsExperimentsVisualsReportsQuantumPhysicistNewtonQuantum PhysicsNew DiscoveriesSchrodinger
Author:Marshall McLuhan
Create image

“I get heartfelt thanks from all kinds of people. Today I heard from a waitress in Georgia who has lost her job and is trying to figure out how her local bank can change the terms on her credit card, and I heard from a physicist at a major research university who wants to explain a better theory of financial stress tests.”

PeopleWantTryingKindTodayJobsLostTermHeardFiguresTheoryMajorsResearchTestsStressUniversityFinancialCreditLocalsAll KindsCardsThanksPhysicistGeorgiaHeartfeltCredit CardWaitressHeartfelt Thanks
Author:Elizabeth Warren
Create image

“Physicists often quote from T. H. White's epic novel The Once and Future King, where a society of ants declares, "Everything not forbidden is compulsory." In other words, if there isn't a basic principle of physics forbidding time travel, then time travel is necessarily a physical possibility. (The reason for this is the uncertainty principle. Unless something is forbidden, quantum effects and fluctuations will eventually make it possible if we wait long enough. Thus, unless there is a law forbidding it, it will eventually occur.)”

IfsLongReasonEnoughLawScienceWaitingWhitePrinciplesNovelEffectsPossibilityKingsPhysicsUncertaintyTime TravelQuantumEpicForbiddenPhysicistAntsBasic PrinciplesCompulsoryFluctuationUncertainty Principle
Author:Michio Kaku
Create image

“Four years ago nobody but nuclear physicists had ever heard of the Internet. Today even my cat, Socks, has his own web page. I'm amazed at that. I meet kids all the time, been talking to my cat on the Internet.”

YearsKidsTodayScienceTalkingFourHeardInternetPagesYears AgoCatNuclearFour YearsAmazedPhysicistSockWeb Page
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995
Create image

“Observation and theory get on best when they are mixed together, both helping one another in the pursuit of truth. It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory.”

IfsHas BeensHelpingTogetherScienceResultsToo MuchTheoryAddPursuitObservationShockPhysicist
Author:Arthur Eddington
Create image