Leon M. Lederman Quotes

• Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Time, Science, Religion

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• The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Mathematician, Physicist

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Silly, Asking, Scientist

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• We hope to explain the entire universe in a single, simple formula that you can wear on your T-shirt.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Simple, T Shirt, Shirts

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• Science should have no less lofty a goal. My ambition is to live to see all of physics reduced to a formula so elegant and simple that it will fit easily on the front of a T-shirt.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Ambition, Simple, Should Have

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.21, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The sequence of theorist, experimenter, and discovery has occasionally been compared to the sequence of farmer, pig, truffle. The farmer leads the pig to an area where there might be truffles. The pig searches diligently for the truffles. Finally, he locates one, and just as he is about to devour it, the farmer snatches it away.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Science, Pigs, Discovery

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• He [Democritus] is probably best known for two of the most scientifically intuitive quotes ever uttered by an ancient: 'Nothing exists except atoms and space, everything else is opinion'.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Space, Two, Atoms

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• I'm so old I can remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Sea, Sick, Remember

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• One of the major ingredients for professional success in science is luck. Without this, forget it.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Luck, Ingredients, Physics

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.152, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The real goal of physics is to come up with an equation that could explain the universe but still be small enough to fit on a T-shirt

  Leon M. Lederman

  Real, Science, Goal

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• Theorists write all the popular books on science: Heinz Pagels, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, et al. And why not? They have all that spare time.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Book, Writing, Science

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• My children have often asked me why I never received a Nobel Prize. I used to tell them it was because the Nobel committee couldn’t make up its mind which of my projects to recognize.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Children, Mind, Used

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• During an intense period of lab work, the outside world vanishes and the obsession is total. Sleep is when you can curl up on the accelerator floor for an hour.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Sleep, Science, Curls

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• The aether: Invented by Isaac Newton, reinvented by James Clerk Maxwell. This is the stuff that fills up the empty space of the universe. Discredited and discarded by Einstein, the aether is now making a Nixonian comeback. It's really the vacuum, but burdened by theoretical, ghostly particles.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Science, Space, Clerks

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Experimenters don’t come in late—they never went home.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Home, Late

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.14, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Theorists tend to peak at an early age; the creative juices tend to gush very early and start drying up past the age of fifteen-or so it seems. They need to know just enough; when they're young they haven't accumulated the intellectual baggage.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Knowledge, Science, Past

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• When I talk about the pain and hardship of a scientist's life, I'm speaking of more than existential angst. Galileo's work was condemned by the Church; Madame Curie paid with her life, a victim of leukemia wrought by radiation poisoning. Too many of us develop cataracts. None of us gets enough sleep. Most of what we know about the universe we know thanks to a lot of guys (and ladies) who stayed up late at night.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Pain, Sleep, Night

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The history of atomism is one of reductionism – the effort to reduce all the operations of nature to a small number of laws governing a small number of primordial objects.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Small Numbers, Law, Effort

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.87, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Science is not about status quo. It's about revolution.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Revolution, Status Quo

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.193, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I sometimes think about the tower at Pisa as the first particle accelerator, a (nearly) vertical linear accelerator that Galileo used in his studies.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Science, Thinking, Towers

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.200, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Where do we stand today compared to Greece circa 400 B.C.? Today's experiment-driven 'standard model' is not all that dissimilar to Democritus's speculative [sic] atomic theory.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Today, Driven, Standards

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• A theoretical physicist can spend his entire lifetime missing the intellectual challenge of experimental work, experiencing none of the thrills and dangers - the overhead crane with its ten-ton load, the flashing skull and crossbones and danger, radioactivity signs. A theorist's only real hazard is stabbing himself with a pencil while attacking a bug that crawls out of his calculations.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Real, Science, Skulls

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said that philosophy went downhill after Democritus and did not recover until the Renaissance.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Philosophy, Renaissance, Philosopher

  Leon M. Lederman, Dick Teresi (1993). “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, what is the Question?”, p.61, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• By the grace of AEC, BNL, God, Green and Hayworth (alphabetical order), we should see neutrinos.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Order, Grace, Green

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• Particle physics suffers more from being infected by the socio-political mood of the day than from lack of spectacular opportunities for major and profound discoveries.

  Leon M. Lederman

  Opportunity, Discovery, Profound

  "Future of the field calls for charisma and courage" by Kurt Riesselmann, www.fnal.gov. June 28, 2002.

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