Top 1106 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Physicists

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.

Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.

Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that's precise, predictive and reliable - a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.

We're plugged in 24 hours a day now. We're all part of one big machine, whether we are conscious of that or not. And if we can't unplug from that machine, eventually we're going to become mindless.

It is, after all, impossible in the modern world to shield everyone from nonsense and stupidity.

Natural science, does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves.

I've always felt that specialization is best left to the insects.

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.

The standard model of particle physics describes forces and particles very well, but when you throw gravity into the equation, it all falls apart. You have to fudge the figures to make it work.

Nonverbal communication forms a social language that is in many ways richer and more fundamental than our words.

But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.

If we look at the way the universe behaves, quantum mechanics gives us fundamental, unavoidable indeterminacy, so that alternative histories of the universe can be assigned probability.

Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science.

The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within.

For reasons probably related to the popular vision of Albert Einstein and, also, the threat posed by black holes in comic books and science fiction, our gravitational wave discoveries have had an amazing public impact.

The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.

Asking yourself deeper questions opens up new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air. It makes life more joyful. The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery.

God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.

Each black hole spins on its axis like the Earth spins. That spin creates two vortexes of twisting space, somewhat like vortexes in a bathtub or a whirlpool.

Extra dimensional theories are sometimes considered science fiction with equations. I think that's a wrong attitude. I think extra dimensions are with us, they are with us to stay, and they entered physics a long time ago. They are not going to go away.

The Cold War is over but Cold War thinking survives.

Physics is experience, arranged in economical order.

When people start using science to argue for their specific beliefs and delusions, to try to claim that they're supported by science, then scientists at least have to speak up and say, You re welcome to your delusions, but don't say that they're supported by science.

Everything comes to him who knows how to wait.

It's nice to be right sometimes.

It is the faithfulness of God that allows epistemology to model ontology.

But I don't see myself as a woman in science. I see myself as a scientist.

Heat can also be produced by the impact of imperfectly elastic bodies as well as by friction. This is the case, for instance, when we produce fire by striking flint against steel, or when an iron bar is worked for some time by powerful blows of the hammer.

Einstein had two new predictions from general relativity. One was that light would bend. That was tested in 1919, and basically, he was proven right. The second prediction was gravitational waves, which took us 100 years to prove. The theory itself, which is thought by most to be rather obscure, you use every day, probably.

In the context of general relativity, space almost is a substance. It can bend and twist and stretch, and probably the best way to think about space is to just kind of imagine a big piece of rubber that you can pull and twist and bend.

It's always good news when you're closer to the truth.

We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.

When you look at a city, you know, it looks so unique. You feel this kind of uniqueness, you know, and especially if you go from a big city to a small city or if you go from one country to another. Cities look very different, often. They even feel very different. You know, and they are, of course. They certainly are.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

My father said I should become a doctor and do science in my spare time, which in retrospect might not have been a bad idea, but I wasn't interested in taking care of people's ills.

Fullness of knowledge always means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance; and that is always conducive to humility and reverence.

It takes a huge amount of effort to move from a successful high-tech prototype to broader adoption of an imaging technology.

If string theory is a mistake, it's not a trivial mistake. It's a deep mistake and therefore kind of worthy.

My childhood home backed onto wheat and cotton fields.

The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.

The essence of science is independent thinking, hard work, and not equipment. When I got my Nobel Prize, I had spent hardly 200 rupees on my equipment.

I think the universe is pure geometry - basically, a beautiful shape twisting around and dancing over space-time.

Facts are not science - as the dictionary is not literature.

There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

The visible world is the invisible organization of energy.

I couldn't achieve the American dream in Japan.

We can in fact first place the beam of rays of moving positive atomic ions in a plane perpendicular to the axis in which we see the spectral lines emitted by them.

When I was 28 years old, I found myself in Schenectady, New York, where I discovered that it was possible for some people to make a good living as physicists.

There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.

After earning my Ph.D., I stayed at the Max-Planck Institute as a postdoc, working on laser excitation of Rydberg states of triatomic hydrogen and helium hydride. I also succeeded in analyzing all the emission spectra of helium hydride, which I had discovered during my Ph.D.

I read everything: fiction, history, science, mathematics, biography, travel.

It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too.

I certainly remember building model rockets. It was fun to watch the rocket blast into the air, suspenseful to wonder if the parachute would open to bring the rocket safely back.

Science has become something that everybody knows he has to pay attention to, but not everybody is a believer. So I don't think we should equate science with religion. But, that science is progressively playing a more and more important part in the life of every individual is obvious.

The beauty of string theory is that it is all about mathematics. For that, you don't need resources or labs. Just sit in your room and do the maths.