Arthur Eddington Quotes - Page 4

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• Our model of Nature should not be like a building-a handsome structure for the populace to admire, until in the course of time some one takes away a corner stone and the edifice comes toppling down. It should be like an engine with movable parts. We need not fix the position of any one lever; that is to be adjusted from time to time as the latest observations indicate. The aim of the theorist is to know the train of wheels which the lever sets in motion-that binding of the parts which is the soul of the engine.

  Arthur Eddington

  Knowledge, Science, Soul

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• 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

  Statistics, Results, Theory

  Sir Arthur Eddington (2013). “New Pathways In Science”, p.177, Read Books Ltd

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• Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers. If you look at the results which science has brought in its train, you will find them to consist almost wholly in elements of mischief. See how much belongs to the word "Explosion" alone, of which the ancients knew nothing.

  Arthur Eddington

  Wisdom, Children, Cutting

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• I don't believe any experiment until it is confirmed by theory. I find this is a witty inversion of "conventional" wisdom.

  Arthur Eddington

  Witty, Believe, Theory

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• Let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. He casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. Surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. He arrives at two generalisations: No sea-creature is less than two inches long. (2) All sea-creatures have gills. These are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it.

  Arthur Eddington

  Ocean, Sea, Two

  "The Philosophy of Physical Science". Book by Arthur Eddington, 1938.

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