Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.
I consider that I understand an equation when I can predict the properties of its solutions, without actually solving it.
It is impossible, by the way, when picking one example of anything, to avoid picking one which is atypical in some sense.
Scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad — but it does not carry instructions on how to use it.
In talking about the impact of ideas in one field on ideas in another field, one is always apt to make a fool of oneself.
I conceive the essential task of religion to be "to develop the consciences, the ideals, and the aspirations of mankind".
After reading a paper by a young theoretical scientist, Pauli, shaking his head sadly, commented: That is not even wrong.
The urge to discover, to invent, to know the unknown, seems so deeply human that we cannot imagine our history without it.
I wouldn't overall say that "The Diagnosis" is a funny book. I would say that it has comic moments. It's a modern tragedy.
We've got 21st century technology and speed colliding head-on with 20th and 19th century institutions, rules and cultures.
A state-of-the-art calculation requires 100 hours of CPU time on the state-of-the-art computer, independent of the decade.
[John Wheeler] rejuvenated general relativity; he made it an experimental subject and took it away from the mathematicians
If we want to go to space with humans, that's for fun not for science. Human adventures in space are just sporting events.
I am an experimenter, or rather I used to be one. Then I stopped working, and since then people think I am a theoretician.
The only laws of matter are those that our minds must fabricate and the only laws of mind are fabricated for it by matter.
Nothing can create something all the time due to the laws of quantum mechanics, and it's - it's fascinatingly interesting.
I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.
We live at a very special time . . . the only time when we can observationally verify that we live at a very special time!
French culture is known for many great attributes, some of which probably have nothing to do with food, wine, and romance.
Farsighted theologians are now working to mine the eternal metal from the teachings of Jesus and to forge it for all time.
Look at those animals and remember the greatest scientists in the world have never discovered how to make grass into milk.
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.
When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you've told most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway.
Whether or not you reach your goals in life depends entirely on how well you prepare for them and how badly you want them.
All women scientists should marry, rear children, cook, and clean in order to achieve fulfillment, to be a complete woman.
I feel it is now my duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers and, particularly, careers in science.
There is a very real danger that we will kill everything on this planet now that we have the technological power to do so.
Biology will tell you a lot of things, but there are many that it can not explain and you need to look at physics instead.
This is to show the world that I can paint like Titian. [A big drawing of a rectangle] Only technical details are missing.
All writers have roots they draw from - travel, work, family. My roots are in science and it is fertile ground for fiction.
Significant new peer-reviewed research has cast even more doubt on the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming.
Much public thinking follows a rut. The same thing is true in science. People get stuck and don't look in other directions.
Like in nature, I like things which are based on a few simple principles, even though their manifestation can be very rich.
Now is the time for everyone who believes in the rule of reason to speak up against pathological science and its purveyors.
It's better to work with a nice category containing some nasty objects, than a nasty category containing only nice objects.
The physics of undergraduate text-books is 90% true; the contents of the primary research journals of physics is 90% false.
Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.
At the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, we have long had a tradition of close cooperation between physicists and technicians.
We strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery.
The secret of life does not lie in its chemical basis . . . Life succeeds precisely because it evades chemical imperatives.
A scientist is never certain. ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.
The pathetic thing about it is that many scientists are trying to prove the doctrine of evolution, which no science can do.
String theory's biggest prediction is that gravity exists. That's good. That's a lot more than preceding theories could do.
The idea of 10 dimensions might sound exciting, but they would cause real problems if you forget where you parked your car.
Debating is not an honest intellectual exercise. It's like a trial in which the goal is not to get to the truth but to win.
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
As a scientist, I don't believe science will ever discover whether God exists. Nor do I believe religion will ever prove it.
Fire made us human, fossil fuels made us modern, but now we need a new fire that makes us safe, secure, healthy and durable.
Energy-saving technologies keep improving faster than they're applied, so efficiency is an ever larger and cheaper resource.
I've become interested in the impact of climate change on the world and the future of energy needs for the developing world.