Physics Quotes: Mind-Bending Ideas from Famous Physicists

[Brad12d3]

I am a Physics Nerd and a filmmaker. I have a short film that takes a look at how strange physics can be especially under certain conditions. Wanted to open up with a quote from a well known Physicist that conveys how mind bending physics can be. Doesn't need to be anything too long. Don't suppose any of you can think of anything off the top of your head?

 

[Matterwave]

What about Einstein's "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible."?

 

[Bill_K]

"The universe is so remarkable, you'd never think it was possible if you hadn't witnessed it first-hand."

 

[Einj]

I really like Richard Dawkins': "There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality."

 

[Nugatory]

Variously attributed to Eddington and to Haldane:

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Attributed to Feynman:

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, then you don't understand quantum mechanics.

 

[rbj]

this is sort of Einstein's lemma to Occam's razor:

"Things should be described as simple as possible, but no simpler."

an Einstein quote i use in my email sig:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

 

[ConformalGrpOp]

I have always been partial to Eddington's comment about Lie Algebra:

"We need a super-mathematics in which the operations are as unknown as the quantities they operate on, and a super-mathematician who does not know what he is doing when he performs these operations. Such a super-mathematics is the Theory of Groups."

 

[Number Nine]

Not an inspirational quote, but it is physics related (and one of my favourites, so I look for excuses to share it): During the rise of anti-semitism (and "Jewish physics") in Germany, Einstein used to joke during his lectures that his theory of special relativity was "...translated from the original Hebrew". Somehow, knowing Einstein made that joke makes me admire him more.

 

[FeynmanIsCool]

"Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry." - Richard Feynman

 

[Zarqon]

You could also opt for a more humoristic/fictional quote, for example by Douglas Adams:

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

 

[zoobyshoe]

I am a Physics Nerd and a filmmaker. I have a short film that takes a look at how strange physics can be especially under certain conditions. Wanted to open up with a quote from a well known Physicist that conveys how mind bending physics can be. Doesn't need to be anything too long. Don't suppose any of you can think of anything off the top of your head?

Whatever you end up using make sure you can absolutely verify the person it's attributed to actually said or wrote it. Because, as Abraham Lincoln said:

"You can't always trust what you read on the internet."

 

[Lisa!]

In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself - nature does
it for you. Frank Wilczek

 

[samalkhaiat]

I have two, one is simple, beautiful and deep from Einstein. It says something like this:
"Nature is the simplest conceivable mathematical idea"
The second is what I regard as the postulate that makes theoretical physics possible. It is from a cosmologist called Heller:
"If some unverifiable assumptions are true, then the conclusions derived from them are also true" Heller, Acta Cosmologica, 14, 57-72 (1986).

 

[WannabeNewton]

"The true logic of this world is the calculus of probabilities." - James Clerk Maxwell

 

[collinsmark]

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
-Carl Sagan​

 

[lisab]

Dammit, E&M is really hard!

--lisab

 

[jobyts]

Shut up and calculate.