Theoretical Physicist Quotes

“Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life.”

“There is no place in this new kind of physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”

“An evening everyone agrees, is a lost evening.”

“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.”

“Student is not a container you have to fill but a torch you have to light up.”

“What physics looks for: The simplest possible system of thought which will bind together the observed facts.”

“We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”

“My pacifism is not based on any intellectual theory but on a deep antipathy to every form of cruelty and hatred.”

“The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

“You can move through life seeing nothing as a miracle, or seeing everything as a miracle.”

“You can't solve your problems by using the same thinkingthat got you into those problems in the first place.”

“In art, and in the higher ranges of science, there is a feeling of harmony which underlies all endeavor. There is no true greatness in art or science without that sense of harmony.”

“It is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race larvae that men are to be helped.”

“Every serious scientific worker is painfully conscious of this involuntary relegation to an ever-narrowing sphere of knowledge, which threatens to deprive the investigator of his broad horizon and degrades him to the level of a mechanic.”

“...behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable.”

“There are actually two approaches to reside your daily life. One is as if absolutely nothing is really a miracle. The other is as if every little thing is a wonder”

“What the individual can do is to give a fine example, and to have the courage to uphold ethical values .. in a society of cynics.”

“Persistence is the most powerful force on earth, it can move mountains.”

“If I had my life to live over again, I would elect to be a trader of goods rather than a student of science. I think barter is a noble thing.”

“The thinking that got us to where we are is not the thinking that will get us to where we want to be.”

“The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.”

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

“If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don't read that hogwash, but rather leave it for the reptile from whom it has been fabricated.”

“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence -- these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.”