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Quotes by Physicist
"Show me a genuine case of platonic friendship, and I shall show you two old or homely faces."
18
"As you say, the way string theory requires all these extra dimensions and this comes from certain consistency requirements about how string should behave and so on."
18
"In 1971 I returned to the University of Chicago as Professor of Physics."
17
"I do not keep up with the details of particle physics."
17
"There are relatively few experiments in atomic physics these days that don't involve the use of a laser."
16
"Each individual fact, taken by itself, can indeed arouse our curiosity or our astonishment, or be useful to us in its practical applications."
16
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
16
"Revenge is often like biting a dog because the dog bit you."
16
"The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them."
16
"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."
16
"My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."
16
"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago."
16
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit."
15
"No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect."
15
"Many applications of the coincidence method will therefore be found in the large field of nuclear physics, and we can say without exaggeration that the method is one of the essential tools of the modern nuclear physicist."
15
"In the final analysis, the incident is seen as originating from an emotional expression of the frustration and anger of the proud people of China who had been subject to ever increasing oppression from without and decadent corruption from within."
15
"It is evident that an acquaintance with natural laws means no less than an acquaintance with the mind of God therein expressed."
14
"Among my activities was membership in the Boy Scouts; I rose each year through the ranks, eventually achieving the rank of Eagle Scout and undertaking leadership roles in the organization."
14
"In and after 1964 when I began to concern myself with the biological issues, and particularly from 1967 onwards, the extent of the problems over which I felt uneasy increased to such a point that in 1968 I felt a compelling urge to make my views public."
14
"The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father."
14
"Between rounds of speed chess I read enough of a programming manual to teach myself to write programs on the school's DEC mainframe in the language Basic."
14
"Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle."
14
"My table is now brightly, now dimly lighted. Its temperature varies. It may receive an ink stain. One of its legs may be broken. It may be repaired, polished, and replaced part by part. But, for me, it remains the table at which I daily write."
14
"Bodies do not produce sensations, but complexes of elements (complexes of sensations) make up bodies."
14
"My project was radiation damage of Si and Ge by energetic electrons, critical for the use of the recently developed semiconductor devices for applications in outer space."
14
"This means that the only function of nuclear weapons, while they exist, is to deter a nuclear attack."
14
"However, I had a chance encounter with an admissions officer of Stevens Institute of Technology, who so impressed me by his erudition and enthusiasm for the school that I changed course and entered Stevens Institute."
14
"So what I'm saying is why don't we think about changing Schrodinger's equation at some level when masses become too big at the level that you might have to worry about Einstein's general relativity."
14
"I was so pleased to be at university to do physics and mathematics."
14
"Of course, nobody would deny the importance of human beings for theological thinking, but the time span of history that theologians think about is a few thousand years of human culture rather than the fifteen billion years of the history of the universe."
14
"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."
14
"It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value."
13
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