Best Physicist Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“At any one time there is a natural tendency among physicists to believe that we already know the essential ingredients of a comprehensive theory . But each time a new frontier of observation is broached we inevitably discover new phenomena which force us to modify substantially our previous conceptions. I believe this process to be unending, that the delights and challenges of unexpected discovery will continue always.”

“If physics is too difficult for the physicists, the nonphysicist may wonder whether he should try at all to grasp its complexities and ambiguities. It is undeniably an effort, but probably one worth making, for the basic questions are important and the new experimental results are often fascinating. And if the layman runs into serious perplexities, he can be consoled with the thought that the points which baffle him are more than likely the ones for which the professionals have not found satisfactory answers.”

Ifs Should Trying May Important Running Found Difficult Answers Results Effort Wonder Serious Physics Complexity Fascinating Physicist Ambiguity Perplexity Layman

Author:Edward Condon

“Self-confidence is an important ingredient that makes for a successful physicist.”

Important Self Successful Self Confidence Ingredients Physicist

Author:Victor Frederick Weisskopf

“If you want to get an interesting perspective do not think of Hugh as a traditional 20th century physicist but more of a Renaissance man with interests and skills in many different areas. He was smart and lots of things interested him and he brought the same general conceptual methodology to solve them. The subject matter was not so important as the solution ideas.”

“The medieval theologian who gazed at the night sky through the eyes of Aristotle and saw angels moving the spheres in harmony has become the modern cosmologist who gazes at the same sky through the eyes of Einstein and sees the hand of God not in angels but in the constants of nature. When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it¹s very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it.”

“Since the death of Nikola Tesla in 1943, his life has deserved a worthy biography. Bernard Carlson has delivered that in Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age, which portrays Tesla as intensely human. . . . Anyone, whether simply an interested reader or a professional historian, engineer, or physicist, will finish Tesla with a deepened understanding of his world, character, and accomplishments.”

World Humans Character Age Understanding Reader Worthy Accomplishment Historian Engineers Biographies Physicist Inventor Electrical Tesla Carlson

Author:Robert Rosenberg

“Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be a criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.”

Has Beens Language Understanding Degrees Description Physicist Criteria Plain Language

Book:Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science

Source: Physics and philosophy: the revolution in modern science

“In reality, as any physicist will tell you, the physical world is made up of moving energy. All matter is energy.”

World Made Matter Reality Moving Science Energy Buddhism Physicist

Book:Surfing the Himalayas: conversations and travels with Master Fwap

Source: Surfing the Himalayas: conversations and travels with Master Fwap

“Somebody once asked Niels Bohr why he had a horseshoe hanging above the front door of his house. Surely you, a world famous physicist, can't really believe that hanging a horseshoe above your door brings you luck? Of course not, Bohr replied, but I have been reliably informed that it will bring me luck whether I believe in it or not.”

World Believe Has Beens Courses House I Believe Doors Atheism Fronts Luck I Believe In Positive Atheism Physicist Front Doors World Famous Horseshoes

Author:Arthur Koestler

“Creativity is essential to particle physics, cosmology, and to mathematics, and to other fields of science, just as it is to its more widely acknowledged beneficiaries - the arts and humanities.”

Art Science Humanity Creativity Fields Essentials Mathematics Physics Physicist Particles Cosmology Creativeness Beneficiaries Smart Women Arts And Humanities Particle Physics

Book:Knocking On Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate our Universe

Source: Knocking On Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate our Universe

“Quantum mechanics is so counter-intuitive, physicists have never been able to come up with a comfortable picture of how it works.”

Able Religion Comfortable Come Up Quantum Mechanic Physicist Intuitive Quantum Mechanics

Author:Taner Edis

“Physicists use 'God' as a metaphor more often than other scientists-- especially in popular writing, but in the technical literature as well. Of course, this is just a metaphor for order at the heart of confusion. A rational or aesthetic pattern underlying reality is far from a theistic God.”

Writing Wells Heart Use Reality Religion Order Courses Literature Scientist Metaphor Patterns Rational Confusion Aesthetic Physicist

Author:Taner Edis

“Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.”

Science Willing Mathematics Traditional Composer Mathematician Physicist Avant Garde Classical Composers

Author:Brian Greene

“When general relativity was first put forward in 1915, the math was very unfamiliar to most physicists. Now we teach general relativity to advanced high school students.”

Firsts School Teach Students High School Math Physicist Relativity Unfamiliar High School Students General Relativity

Author:Brian Greene

“I've never heard a person say, 'I had a rotten mother, but she's such a great physicist.”

Persons Mother Heard Physicist Rotten

Author:Sonia Manzano

“Our relationships as experimentalists with theoretical physicists should be like those with a beautiful woman - we should accept with gratitude any favours she offers, but we should not expect too much nor believe all that is said.”

Should Believe Said Beautiful Accepting Too Much Gratitude Offers Our Relationship Favour Physicist Beautiful Women Theoretical

Author:Lev Artsimovich

“We have to give up the idea of realism to a far greater extent than most physicists believe today.”

Giving Believe Ideas Today Greater Giving Up Realism Physicist

Author:Anton Zeilinger

“We physicists don't like to admit it, but some of us are closet science fiction fans. We hate to admit it because it sounds undignified. But when we were children, that's when we got interested in science, for a lot of us.”

Children Hate Sound Fiction Fans Science Fiction Closets Physicist

Author:Michio Kaku

“Physics admits of a lovely unification, not just at the level of fundamental forces, but when considering its extent and implications. Classifications like "optics" or "thermodynamics" are just straitjackets, preventing physicists from seeing countless intersections.”

Force Levels Seeing Fundamentals Physics Lovely Considering Physicist Implications Preventing Classification Intersections Unification Thermodynamics Optics

Book:Arrival (Stories of Your Life MTI)

Source: Arrival (Stories of Your Life MTI)

“The development of quantum mechanics early in the twentieth century obliged physicists to change radically the concepts they used to describe the world.”

World Used Century Development Concepts Quantum Mechanic Physicist Obliged Twentieth Century Quantum Mechanics

Author:Alain Aspect

“I assume the same problem exists in Australia as in America of back-biting and jealousy and parochialism among disciplines - there are the scientists, and there are the humanities people, and there are chemists and the physicists and everybody snipes at everybody else and inter-disciplinary communication is rare. But it's very precious and necessary.”

People Problem America Humanity Communication Discipline Scientist Assuming Australia Physicist Biting Chemist Parochialism

Author:Richard Lewontin

“The history of science alone can keep the physicist from the mad ambitions of dogmatism as well as the despair of pyrrhonian scepticism.”

Wells Despair Ambition Mad Physicist Dogmatism History Of Science Scepticism

Author:Pierre Duhem

“I have a theory that evolutionary biologists are more vain than particle physicists.”

Theory Vain Physicist Particles Biologist

Author:Robin Ince

“I have a tendency, more than most other physicists, to try to figure out everything all at once, before I publish. And even to try to figure out everything in my head, without pencil and paper.”

Trying Figures Paper Tendencies Pencils Physicist Publish

Author:Edward Witten

“The career of a young theoretical physicist consists of treating the harmonic oscillator in ever-increasing levels of abstraction.”

Young Levels Careers Abstraction Physicist Theoretical

Author:Sidney Coleman

“I was raised on technology. I grew up in Livermore, California, a town of physicists and cowboys. My parents worked at the government laboratories there. So technology was very normal for me.”

Government Parent Technology Grew Normal Grew Up Towns Raised California Cowboy Physicist Laboratory

Author:Cynthia Breazeal

“You can pay attention to the fact, in which case you'll probably become a mathematician, or you can ignore it, in which case you'll probably become a physicist.”

Facts Funny Science Pay Attention Cases Technology Pay Attention Mathematician Physicist

Author:Len Evans

“When I was younger, I read a book by Frank Barnaby, this wonderful nuclear physicist. He said that media had a responsibility, that all sectors of society had a responsibility to try and move things forward. And that fascinated me... I'd been messing around with a camera most of my life...”

Trying Said Book Moving Responsibility Progress Wonderful Media Cameras Nuclear Fascinated Frank Physicist

Author:Jeremy Gilley

“Learn from yesterday, live for today.”

“Whenever I want to represent or depict the official version, I will refer to them as 'mathematicians' or 'mathematical physicists' or idiots or something like that. There are no physicists in mainstream 'Physics.' From Newton to Einstein to Hawking, they are all just mathematicians as far as Science and Physics are concerned.”

Want Concerned Physics Versions Mathematical Idiot Officials Mainstream Mathematician Physicist Newton

Author:Bill Gaede

“The mathematicians of this world regard themselves as 'physicists,' yet they know next to nothing about Physics.”

Knows World Next This World Regard Physics Mathematician Physicist

Author:Bill Gaede

“Nature is not personal. She is the compound of all these processes which move through the universe to effect the results we know as Life and of all the ordinances which govern that universe and that make Life continuous. She is no more the Hebrew's Jehovah than she is the Physicist's Force; she is as much Providence as she is Electricity; she is not the Great Pattern any more than she is the Blind Chance.”

Knows Moving Universe Force Process Chance Results Atheism Effects Blind Patterns Positive Atheism Providence Electricity Physicist Compounds Hebrew Jehovah Ordinances

Author:Luther Burbank

“People will listen to sophisticated physicists, using God as a kind of metaphor for the deep constants, the deep problems, the deep principles of physics, and say that in that sense I believe in God. The reaction is, "Oh, this great physicist believes in God - that means I'm free to believe in the trinity and in the crucifixion and in the reincarnation of Christ" - and all that stuff, which of course has nothing whatever to do with the fundamental constants of physics, which is what these physicists are talking about.”

“In spite of the fact that religion looks backward to revealed truth while science looks forward to new vistas and discoveries, both activities produce a sense of awe and a curious mixture of humility and arrogance in their practitioners. All great scientists are inspired by the subtlety and beauty of the natural world that they are seeking to understand. Each new subatomic particle, every unexpected object, produces delight and wonderment. In constructing their theories, physicists are frequently guided by arcane concepts of elegance in the belief that the universe is intrinsically beautiful.”

“The sensation of colour cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves.”

Light Color Wave Objectives Colour Sensations Physicist Light Waves

Author:Erwin Schrodinger

“We form cities in order to enhance interaction, to facilitate growth, wealth creation, ideas, innovation, but in so doing, we create from - from a physicist's viewpoint, entropy, meaning all of those bad things that we feel are engulfing us.”

Ideas Form Order Growth Wealth Cities Creation Innovation Interaction Physicist Wealth Creation Viewpoints Facilitate Entropy

Author:Geoffrey West

“We, however, want to become those we are--human beings who are new, unique, incomparable, who give themselves laws, who create themselves. To that end we must become the best learners and discoverers of everything that is lawful and necessary in the world: we must become physicists in order to be able to be creators in this sense--while hitherto all valuations and ideals have been based on ignorance of physics or were constructed so as to contradict it. Therefore: long live physics! And even more so that which compels us to turn to physics--our honesty!”

World Want Giving Humans Long Has Beens Ends Able Law Order Turns Human Beings Honesty Ignorance Unique Ideals Creator Physics Physicist Learners Incomparable Valuation

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The physicist may be satisfied when he has the mathematical scheme and knows how to use for the interpretation of the experiments. But he has to speak about his results also to non-physicists who will not be satisfied unless some explanation is given in plain language. Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be the criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.”

“Superstring theories provide a framework in which the force of gravity may be united with the other three forces in nature: the weak, electromagnetic and strong forces. Recent progress has shown that the most promising superstring theories follow from a single theory. For the last generation, physicists have studied five string theories and one close cousin. Recently it has become clear that these five or six theories are different limiting cases of one theory which, though still scarcely understood, is the candidate for superunification of the forces of nature.”

“Physicists can only talk to other physicists and economists to economists... sociologists often cannot even understand each other.”

Economist Physicist Sociologists

Author:Kenneth E. Boulding

“Today, we know that time travel need not be confined to myths, science fiction, Hollywood movies, or even speculation by theoretical physicists. Time travel is possible. For example, an object traveling at high speeds ages more slowly than a stationary object. This means that if you were to travel into outer space and return, moving close to light speed, you could travel thousands of years into the Earth's future.”

Source: Time: A Traveler's Guide

“We cannot expect in the immediate future that all women who seek it will achieve full equality of opportunity. But if women are tostart moving towards that goal, we must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed.”

“Songwriting is a craft. Writing good songs on a a consistent basis doesn not happen spontaneously. In fact, most of our best songwriters learned to write good songs by writing a lot of not so good ones. Education matters in songwriting, just as it matters for physicists, chemists, doctors, lawyers and MBAs. Education lays the foundataion on which to build experience.”

Writing Matter Facts Happens Song Doctors Bases Lays Lawyer Crafts Consistent Songwriting Songwriters Physicist Chemist Mba

Author:Michael Kosser

“We live in a highly industrialized society and every member of the Black nation must be as academically and technologically developed as possible. To wage a revolution, we need competent teachers, doctors, nurses, electronics experts, chemists, biologists, physicists, political scientists, and so on and so forth. Black women sitting at home reading bedtime stories to their children are just not going to make it.”

“We are fast approaching a situation in which nobody will believe anything we [physicists] say in any matter that touches upon our self-interest. Nothing we do is likely to arrest our decline in numbers, support or social value.”

Believe Self Matter Values Social Interest Numbers Situation Support Decline Physicist Credibility Self Interest Social Values

Author:Leo Kadanoff

“The mathematical education of the young physicist [Albert Einstein] was not very solid, which I am in a good position to evaluate since he obtained it from me in Zurich some time ago.”

Young Position Mathematical Physicist Evaluate Zurich

Author:Hermann Minkowski

“Among physicists, I'm respected I hope.”

Physicist

Author:Stephen Hawking

“Female physicists, astronomers and mathematicians are up against more than 2,000 years of convention that has long portrayed these fields as inherently male.”

Years Long Fields Female Males Conventions Mathematician Physicist Astronomers

Author:Margaret Wertheim

“Wave particle duality is a core feature of our world. Or rather, we should say, it is a core feature of our mathematical descriptions of our world. But what is critical to note here is that, however ambiguous our images, the universe itself remains whole and is manifestly not fracturing into schizophrenic shards. It is this tantalizing wholeness and the thing itself that drives physicists onward like an eternally beckoning light that seems so teasingly near. It is always out of reach.”

“I don't think you can pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere indefinitely and not have a reaction. But there are great scientists such as Freeman Dyson, one of the greatest physicists of the last hundred years, who has studied the question, who believes quite the opposite. The reason transnational action is so difficult is because the major problem with climate change is, A, that there is no consensus, and, B, that the economic cost is simply staggering. Reversing it completely might mean undoing the modern industrial economy.”

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Physicist Quotes