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Quotes by Physicist
"The violent reaction on the recent development of modern physics can only be understood when one realises that here the foundations of physics have started moving; and that this motion has caused the feeling that the ground would be cut from science."
40
"It was not simply out of a spirit of contradiction that I exposed a light source to magnetic forces. The idea came to me during an investigation of the effect discovered by Kerr on light reflected by magnetic mirrors."
40
"If our dreams were more regular, more connected, more stable, they would also have more practical importance for us."
40
"If you didn't have any conscious beings in the world, there really wouldn't be morality but with consciousness that you have it."
40
"From a consideration of the immense volume of newly discovered facts in the field of physics, especially atomic physics, in recent years it might well appear to the layman that the main problems were already solved and that only more detailed work was necessary."
39
"At present, too much theological thinking is very human-centered."
39
"If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist."
39
"Man is a masterpiece of creation if for no other reason than that, all the weight of evidence for determinism notwithstanding, he believes he has free will."
39
"It may well be said that the answer to the question: Of what do the cosmic rays in fact consist before they produce their familiar secondary radiation phenomena in the earth's atmosphere? can only be obtained from numerous measurements in the stratosphere."
39
"No matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you're going to fail."
39
"I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image."
39
"In order to make further progress, particularly in the field of cosmic rays, it will be necessary to apply all our resources and apparatus simultaneously and side-by-side; an effort which has not yet been made, or at least, only to a limited extent."
39
"Actual aristocracy cannot be abolished by any law: all the law can do is decree how it is to be imparted and who is to acquire it."
39
"I do not keep up with the details of particle physics."
39
"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."
38
"Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and times - and this is the worst of all - before we have new ones."
38
"Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle."
38
"I was a student in Germany when Hitler came to power."
38
"Moreover, photography has made it possible to fix these images and now provides us with a permanent record of each observed spectrum, which can be measured out at any time."
38
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy."
38
"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."
38
"But the nuclear powers still cling tenaciously to their weapons."
38
"Theologians have a great problem because they're seeking to speak about God. Since God is the ground of everything that is, there's a sense in which every human inquiry is grist to the theological mill. Obviously, no theologian can know everything."
38
"I survived only a year in Berkeley, partly because I declined to sign the anticommunist loyalty oath."
37
"We wanted the language to feel fresh, fun, and rock solid."
37
"The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them."
37
"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."
37
"The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers."
37
"In the absence of a magnetic field the period of all these oscillations is the same. But as soon as the electron is exposed to the effect of a magnetic field, its motion changes."
37
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
37
"Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them."
37
"When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so."
37
"How can a speck of a universe be physically identical to the great expanse we view in the heavens above?"
37
"Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets."
Now,
37
"If you are going to build something in the air it is always better to build castles than houses of cards."
37
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