Sir Arthur Eddington on Science
Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Physics
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the footprint. And lo! It is our own
Sir Arthur Eddington on Physics
Something unknown is doing we don't know what.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Physics
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Physics
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.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Physics
For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by the Court; our confidence is that it
Sir Arthur Eddington on Mathematics
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'.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Mathematics
The mathematics is not there till we put it there.
Sir Arthur Eddington on Mathematics
Proof is the idol before whom the pure mathematician tortures himself.