The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Arthur Eddington
British
Scientist
About the author
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Hope
#Judgment
#Future
#Sound
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#May
#Mind
#Control
#Nature
#Laws
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Hope
#Nothing
#Law
#Theory
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Deals
#Physics
#Determinism
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Results
#Confidence
#Theory
Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn't.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#State
#Rest
#Body
If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Books
#Army
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#May
#Mind
#Succeed
#Laws
The quest of the absolute leads into the four-dimensional world.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#World
#Quest
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.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Light
#Rest
#Sun
#Weight
#Debate
Who will observe the observers?
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Will
Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#May
Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Nature
The mathematics is not there till we put it there.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Mathematics
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind put into nature.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Science
#Mind
#Nature
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."
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Forget
#Study
Proof is an idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
#Proof
Something unknown is doing we don't know what.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist
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'.
Arthur Eddington,
British
Scientist