Arthur Eddington
Something unknown is doing we don't know what.
We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about 'and'.
Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One thing is certain and the rest debate. Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.
Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.
We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because 'two' is 'one and one.' We forget that we still have to make a study of 'and.'
It is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by theory.
If your theory is found to be against the second law of theromodynamics, I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control.
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.
Who will observe the observers?
It is sound judgment to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.
The mathematics is not there till we put it there.
If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum.
Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn't.
Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.
The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind put into nature.
It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.Collection: Thinking
You cannot disturb the tiniest petal of a flower without the troubling of a distant star.Collection: Stars
The physical world is entirely abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness.Collection: World
Something unknown is doing we don't know what-that is what our theory amounts to.Collection: Knowledge
Events do not happen; they are just there, and we come across them.Collection: Grace
If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.Collection: Hope
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.Collection: Children
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.Collection: Truth
Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.Collection: Nature
The pursuit of truth in science transcends national boundaries. It takes us beyond hatred and anger and fear. It is the best of us.Collection: Hatred
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind has put into nature. We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. And Lo! it is our own.Collection: Success
Do not put too much confidence in experimental results until they have been confirmed by theory.Collection: Too Much
I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been reached through the stars.Collection: Stars
An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.Collection: Ocean
Philosophically, the notion of a beginning of the present order of Nature is repugnant to me ... I should like to find a genuine loophole.Collection: Order
In Einstein's theory of relativity the observer is a man who sets out in quest of truth armed with a measuring-rod. In quantum theory he sets out with a sieve.Collection: Men
We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.Collection: Stars
It cannot be denied that for a society which has to create scarcity to save its members from starvation, to whom abundance spells disaster, and to whom unlimited energy means unlimited power for war and destruction, there is an ominous cloud in the distance though at present it be no bigger than a man's hand.Collection: War
I believe there are 15, 747, 724, 136, 275, 002, 577, 605, 653, 961, 181, 555, 468, 044, 717, 914, 527, 116, 709, 366, 231, 425, 076, 185, 631, 031, 296 protons in the universe and the same number of electrons.Collection: Believe
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.Collection: Law
Never accept a fact until it has been verified by theory.Collection: Facts
If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.Collection: Law
It is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star.Collection: Stars
I don't believe any experiment until it is confirmed by theory. I find this is a witty inversion of "conventional" wisdom.Collection: Witty
On one occasion when [William] Smart found him engrossed with his fundamental theory, he asked Eddington how many people he thought would understand what he was writing-after a pause came the reply, 'Perhaps seven.'Collection: Smart
Electrical force is defined as something which causes motion of electrical charge; an electrical charge is something which exerts electric force.Collection: Science
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers. If you look at the results which science has brought in its train, you will find them to consist almost wholly in elements of mischief. See how much belongs to the word "Explosion" alone, of which the ancients knew nothing.Collection: Wisdom
Let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. He arrives at two generalisations: No sea-creature is less than two inches long. (2) All sea-creatures have gills. These are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it.Collection: Ocean
Time is the supreme Law of nature.Collection: Law
In any attempt to bridge the domains of experience belonging to the spiritual and physical sides of nature, time occupies the key position.Collection: Spiritual