Quotessence
Home / Topics / Theory Quotes

Theory Quotes

Browse 4151 quotes about Theory.

Related topics

IfsSciencePeopleFactsThinkingMenKnowsWorldWayPracticeHumansShouldMayEvolutionHas BeensIdeasBelieveWellsFirstsMindDoeTwoYearsArtNeedsKindWantMadeQuantumUniverseFormDifferentMeanSeemsMathematicsRelativityPrinciplesGivingStatesEconomicMatterRealityTryingNaturalLawPoliticalWholeExperimentsUseStudyGovernmentMathematicalPhysicsLittlesLongSocialTheory Of EvolutionPhilosophyScientistViewsBookConspiracyObservationRealBeliefImportantCertainLooksSaidEvidenceFieldsWritingBigsActionReasonResultsConspiracy TheoryEarthSchoolStringsEnoughScientific TheoryCasesMightModernNumbersPersonsProblemStillsWould BeHappensString TheoryConceptsQuantum TheoryCoursesFeelsFoundOrderProveTheories Of Relativitymore

Theory Quotes

“The Theory of Relativity confers an absolute meaning on a magnitude which in classical theory has only a relative significance: the velocity of light. The velocity of light is to the Theory of Relativity as the elementary quantum of action is to the Quantum Theory: it is its absolute core.”

LightActionScienceTheoryAbsolutesCoreSignificanceRelativeQuantumRelativityMagnitudeVelocityQuantum TheoryTheories Of Relativity
Book:Scientific Autobiography: and Other Papers
Create image

“We could tell them [alien civilization] things that we have discovered in the realm of mathematical physics, but there is stuff that I would like to know. There are some famous problems like how to bring gravitation and quantum physics together, the long-sought-after theory of quantum gravity. But it may be hard to understand the answer that comes back.”

KnowsMayLongHardProblemTogetherStuffAnswersTheoryCivilizationPhysicsAliensMathematicalRealmsGravityQuantumQuantum PhysicsGravitation
Author:Paul Davies
Create image

“The chance is high that the truth lies in the fashionable direction. But, on the off-chance that it is in another direction - a direction obvious from an unfashionable view of field theory - who will find it? Only someone who has sacrificed himself by teaching himself quantum electrodynamics from a peculiar and unusual point of view; one that he may have to invent for himself.”

MayLyingChanceViewsTeachingFieldsTheoryObviousPoint Of ViewPeculiarQuantumChances AreFashionable
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“Science may be weird and incomprehensible--more weird and less comprehensible than any theology--but science works. It gets results. It can fly you to Saturn, slingshotting you around Venus and Jupiter on the way. We may not understand quantum theory (heaven knows, I don't), but a theory that predicts the real world to ten decimal places cannot in any straightforward sense be wrong.”

KnowsWorldWayMayRealHeavenResultsTheoryTenTheologyWorking ItReal WorldQuantumStraightforwardVenusJupiterQuantum TheorySaturnDecimals
Author:Richard Dawkins
Create image

“According to quantum field theory, fields alone are real. They are the substance of the universe and not 'matter'. Matter is simply the momentary manifestation of interacting fields which, intangible and insubstantial as they are, are the only real things in the universe.”

RealMatterUniverseFieldsTheoryUnitySubstanceManifestationQuantumReal ThingsMomentaryInteractingIntangible
Book:The dancing Wu Li masters: an overview of the new physics
Create image

“'Participant' is the incontrovertible new concept given by quantum mechanics. It strikes down the 'observer' of classical theory, the man who stands safely behind the thick glass wall and watches what goes on without taking part. It can't be done, quantum mechanics says it...May the universe in some sense be 'brought into being' by the participation of those who participate?”

MenMayDoneUniverseGivenBehindsWatchesHe ManTheoryWallGoes OnConceptsUnityGlassesStrikesThickQuantumParticipationMechanicObserversParticipantsQuantum Mechanics
Author:John Archibald Wheeler
Create image

“String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense.”

ShouldBelieveTogetherUniverseTheoryCapacityMake SenseConsistentStringsQuantumMechanicRelativityQuantum MechanicsString TheoryGeneral Relativity
Author:Brian Greene
Create image

“Scientific realism in classical (i.e. pre-quantum) physics has remained compatible with the naive realism of everyday thinking on the whole; whereas it has proven impossible to find any consistent way to visualize the world underlying quantum theory in terms of our pictures in the everyday world. The general conclusion is that in quantum theory naive realism, although necessary at the level of observations, fails at the microscopic level.”

ThinkingWorldWayWholeTermLevelsImpossibleFailingTheoryEverydayPhysicsConclusionObservationConsistentQuantumRealismProvenNaiveQuantum PhysicsCompatibleQuantum Theory
Author:Ravi Gomatam
Create image

“Human rights are an aspect of natural law, a consequence of the way the universe works, as solid and as real as photons or the concept of pi. The idea of self- ownership is the equivalent of Pythagoras' theorem, of evolution by natural selection, of general relativity, and of quantum theory. Before humankind discovered any of these, it suffered, to varying degrees, in misery and ignorance.”

WayHumansIdeasRealSelfLawUniverseNaturalRightsIgnoranceTheoryEvolutionDegreesConceptsConsequenceAspectMiseryHuman RightsHumankindQuantumOwnershipSelectionRelativityNatural SelectionNatural LawTheoremsQuantum TheoryPhotonsGeneral RelativitySelf Ownership
Author:L. Neil Smith
Create image

“Combining quantum entanglement with wormholes yields mind boggling results about black holes. But I don't trust them until we have a theory of everything which can combine quantum effects with general relativity. i.e. we need to have a full blown string theory resolve this sticky question.”

NeedsMindBlackResultsEffectsTheoryHolesStringsResolveYieldQuantumRelativityDon't TrustCombiningBlack HoleStickyString TheoryEntanglementMind BogglingGeneral RelativityWormholes
Author:Michio Kaku
Create image

“The treatment of the indeterminacy principle as absolute and final can then be criticized as constituting an arbitrary restriction on scientific theories, since it does not follow from the quantum theory as such, but rather from the assumption of the unlimited validity of certain of its features, an assumption that can in no way ever be subjected to experimental proof.”

WayDoeScienceCertainPrinciplesTheoryAbsolutesFinalsProofFeaturesAssumptionTreatmentQuantumUnlimitedMechanicArbitraryRestrictionQuantum MechanicsValidityQuantum TheoryScientific Theory
Book:Causality and Chance in Modern Physics
Create image

“A popular feel for scientific endeavors should, if possible, be restored given the needs of the twenty-first century. This does not mean that every literature major should take a watered-down physics course or that a corporate lawyer should stay abreast of quantum mechanics. Rather, it means that an appreciation for the methods of science is a useful asset for a responsible citizenry. What science teaches us, very significantly, is the correlation between factual evidence and general theories, something well illustrated in Einstein's life.”

IfsNeedsFeelsShouldFirstsWellsMeanDoeCoursesLiteratureGivenTeachCenturyTheoryMajorsEvidenceTwentiesResponsibleMethodAppreciationLawyerPhysicsCorporateEndeavorAssetsQuantumMechanicQuantum MechanicsFactualCorrelationCitizenry
Book:Einstein: His Life and Universe
Create image

“Renormalization is just a stop-gap procedure. There must be some fundamental change in our ideas, probably a change just as fundamental as the passage from Bohr's orbit theory to quantum mechanics. When you get a number turning out to be infinite which ought to be finite, you should admit that there is something wrong with your equations, and not hope that you can get a good theory just by doctoring up that number.”

ShouldIdeasNumbersTheoryOughtInfiniteFundamentalsGapsPassagesQuantumMechanicFiniteEquationsProceduresQuantum MechanicsOrbitDoctoring
Author:Paul Dirac
Create image

“The shell game that we play ... is technically called 'renormalization'. But no matter how clever the word, it is still what I would call a dippy process! Having to resort to such hocus-pocus has prevented us from proving that the theory of quantum electrodynamics is mathematically self-consistent. It's surprising that the theory still hasn't been proved self-consistent one way or the other by now; I suspect that renormalization is not mathematically legitimate.”

WayStillsSelfMatterPlayGamesProcessTheoryProveCleverOne WayConsistentSuspectsSurprisingQuantumShellsResortsHocus Pocus
Book:QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
Create image

“There may be rhetoric about the socially constructed nature of Western science, but wherever it matters, there is no alternative. There are no specifically Hindu or Taoist designs for mobile phones, faxes or televisions. There are no satellites based on feminist alternatives to quantum theory. Even that great public sceptic about the value of science, Prince Charles, never flies a helicopter burning homeopathically diluted petrol, that is, water with only a memory of benzine molecules, maintained by a schedule derived from reading tea leaves, and navigated by a crystal ball.”

MayMatterValuesReadingWaterMemoriesDesignTelevisionTheoryBallsWesternPhonesFeministBurningAlternativesTeaQuantumRhetoricSchedulesMobileCrystalsMoleculesSatellitesHelicoptersQuantum TheoryMobile PhonesScepticFaxPetrolCrystal BallTea Leaves
Author:Simon Blackburn
Create image

“You have nothing to do but mention the quantum theory, and people will take your voice for the voice of science, and belive anything.”

PeopleVoiceTheoryQuantumBeliveQuantum Theory
Book:George Bernard Shaw: The Collected Plays (Illustrated): 60 plays including Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, Cymbeline, Androcles And The Lion, The Man Of Destiny, The Inca Of Perusalem and Macbeth Skit
Create image

“General relativity is in the old Newtonian framework where you predict what will happen, not the probability of what will happen. And putting together the probabilities of quantum mechanics with the certainty of general relativity, that's been the big challenge and that's why we have been excited about string theory, as it's one of the only approaches that can put it together.”

Has BeensBigsHappensTogetherChallengesTheoryApproachExcitedCertaintyStringsQuantumProbabilityMechanicFrameworkRelativityQuantum MechanicsBig ChallengesString TheoryGeneral Relativity
Author:Brian Greene
Create image

“Henceforth, whilst there are a great many theories and models proposed as to how, or why, magic works (based on subtle energies, animal magnetism, psychological concepts, quantum theory, mathematics or the so-called anthropomorphic principle) it is not a case that one of them is more 'true' than others, but a case of which theory or model you choose to believe in, or which theory you find most attractive. Indeed, from a Chaos Magic perspective, you can selectively believe that a particular theory or model of magical action is true only for the duration of a particular ritual or phase of work.”

BelieveActionEnergyAnimalPrinciplesCasesMagicParticularTheoryPerspectiveModelsConceptsMathematicsChaosPsychologicalAttractiveGreat MenSubtleRitualYou ChooseQuantumPhasesDurationQuantum TheoryMagnetismAnimal Magnetism
Author:Phil Hine
Create image