Theoretical Physicist Quotes

There is possibility in every difficulty.

Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas; he must burst it open, and that in his youth, and so try to test his ideas on reality.

When men are engaged in war and conquest, the tools of science become as dangerous as a razor in the hands of a child of three. We must not condemn man because his inventiveness and patient conquest of the forces of nature are being exploited for false and destructive purposes. Rather, we should remember that the fate of mankind hinges entirely upon man’s moral development.

In my opinion there is no other salvation for civilization and even for the human race than the creation of a world government with security on the basis of law. As long as there are sovereign states with their separate armaments and armament secrets, new world wars cannot be avoided.

The theoretical idea ... does not arise apart from and independent of experience; nor can it be derived from experience by a purely logical procedure. It is produced by a creative act. Once a theoretical idea has been acquired, one does well to hold fast to it until it leads to an untenable conclusion.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.

Study and, in general, the pursuit of truth and beauty is the sphere in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives." "Study and, in general, the pursuit of truth and beauty is the sphere in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

That little word 'we' I mistrust and here's why:No man of another can say, 'He is I.'Behind all agreement lies something amissAll seeming accord cloaks a lurking abyss.

Relations between pure and applied mathematicians are based on trust and understanding.Namely, pure mathematicians do not trust applied mathematicians, and applied mathematicians do not understand pure mathematicians.

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.

Imagination is the highest form of research.

Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever.

I am strongly drawn to the simple life and am often oppressed by the feeling that I am engrossing an unnecessary amount of the labour of my fellow men. I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force. I also consider that plain living is good for everybody, physically and mentally.

The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.

I fully agree with you about the significance and educational value of as well as history and philosophy of science. So many people today - and even professional - seem to me like someone who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is - in my opinion - the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.

Science will stagnate if it is made to serve practical goals.

There is, however, a somber point in the social outlook of Americans. Their sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to people of white skin.... The more I feel like an American, the more the situation pains me.

For the most part we humans live with the false impression of security and a feeling of being at home in a seemingly familiar and trustworthily physical and human environment. But when the expected course of everyday life is interrupted, we realize that we are like shipwrecked people trying to keep their balance on a miserable plank in the open sea, having forgotten where they came from and not knowing whether they are drifting. But once we fully accept this, life becomes easier and there is no longer any disappointment.

Time is not at all what it seems. It does not flow in only one direction, and the future exists simultaneously with the past.

I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious.

A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.

The feeling for what ought and ought not to be grows and dies like a tree, and no fertilizer of any kind will do much good. What the individual can do is give a fine example, and have the courage to firmly uphold ethical convictions in a society of cynics. I have for a long time tried to conduct myself this way, with varying success.

I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.

Most people go on living their everyday life: half-frightened, half indifferent, they behold the ghostly tragic-comedy that is being performed on the international stage before the eyes and ears of the world.

the scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

To stimulate creativity one must develop childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.

Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance

The mathematician knows some things, no doubt, but not those things one usually wants to get from him.

One must take what nature gives as one finds it.

The goal of pacifism is possible only though a supranational organization. To stand unconditionally for this cause is the criterion of true pacifism.

The important thing is to never stop questioning. Never lose a holy curiosity.

If I am right the Germans will say I was a German, and the French will say I was a Jew; If I am wrong the Germans will say I was a Jew and the French will say I was a German.

The ancients knew something, which we seem to have forgotten.

The series of integers is obviously an invention of the human mind, a self-created tool which simplifies the ordering of certain sensory experiences.

The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.

We have to do the best we are capable of. This is our sacred human responsibility.

In science, moreover, the work of the individual is so bound up with that of his scientific predecessors and contemporaries that it appears almost as an impersonal product of his generation.

One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.

I like to think the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.

A country cannot simultaneously prepare and prevent war. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them.

One feels the insignificance of the individual, and it makes one happy.

Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.

There is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.

For an idea that does not first seem insane, there is no hope.

The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.

Yes, we now have to divide up our time like that, between politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second.

Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water

We know nothing at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren. The real nature of things we shall never know.

The most powerful force in the world is compound interest.

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

The man with the greatest soul will always face the greatest war with the low minded person.

If you do the same thing over and over again you cannot ever expect a different outcome.

For the most part, I do the thing which my own nature prompts me to do. It is embarrassing to earn so much respect and love for it.

Great spirits often meet violent oppisition with mediocre minds.

The state is made for man, not man for the state.... That is to say, the state should be our servant and not we its slaves

Innovation is everyones responsibility, not just R&Ds.