There was a time when we wanted to be told what an electron is. The question was never answered. No familiar conceptions can be woven around the electron; it belongs to the waiting list.
I believe there are 15, 747, 724, 136, 275, 002, 577, 605, 653, 961, 181, 555, 468, 044, 717, 914, 527, 116, 709, 366, 231, 425, 076, 185, 631, 031, 296 protons in the universe and the same number of electrons.
Proof is an idol before which the mathematician tortures himself.
Human life is proverbially uncertain; few things are more certain than the solvency of a life-insurance company.
The physical world is entirely abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness.
Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.
In Einstein’s theory of relativity the observer is a man who sets out in quest of truth armed with a measuring-rod. In quantum theory he sets out with a sieve.
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind put into nature.
The word reality frightens me.
Never accept a fact until it has been verified by theory.
Electrical force is defined as something which causes motion of electrical charge; an electrical charge is something which exerts electric force.
Of the two alternatives – a curved manifold in a Euclidean space of ten dimensions or a manifold with non-Euclidean geometry and no extra dimensions – which is right? I would rather not attempt a direct answer, because I fear I should get lost in a fog of metaphysics. But I may say at once that I do not take the ten dimensions seriously; whereas I take the non-Euclidean geometry of the world very seriously, and I do not regard it as a thing which needs explaining away.
We know the prodigality of Nature. How many acorns are scattered for one that grows to an oak? And need she be more careful of her stars than of her acorns? If indeed she has no grander aim than to provide a home for her greatest experiment, Man, it would be just like her methods to scatter a million stars whereof one might haply achieve her purpose.
Never trust an experimental result until it has been confirmed by theory.
You will understand the true spirit neither of science nor of religion unless seeking is placed in the forefront.
The actuality of Nature is like the beauty of Nature. We can scarcely describe the beauty of a landscape as non-existent when there is no conscious being to witness it; but it is through consciousness that we can attribute a meaning to it. And so it is with the actuality of the world. If actuality means ‘known to mind’ then it is a purely subjective character of the world; to make it objective we must substitute ‘knowable to mind’.
The epithet “revolutionary” is usually reserved for two great modern developments – the Relativity Theory and the Quantum Theory. These are not merely new discoveries as to the content of the world; they involve changes in our mode of thought about the world.
The revelation by modern physics of the void within the atom is more disturbing than the revelation by astronomy of the immense void of interstellar space.
Consciousness is not wholly, nor even primarily a device for receiving sense-impressions.
The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.