Laws Of Physics Quotes

• We could call order by the name of God, but it would be an impersonal God. There's not much personal about the laws of physics.

  Stephen Hawking

  Atheist, Order, Law

  "Leaping the Abyss". Interview with Gregory Benford, reason.com. April 2002.

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• The remarkable feature of physical laws is that they apply everywhere, whether or not you choose to believe in them. After the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Believe, Law, Opinion

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• The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

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• Other than the laws of physics, rules have never really worked out for me.

  Craig Ferguson

  Law, Physics

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• There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Views, Law

  Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, vol. 1 for tablets”, Basic Books

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• Unless the structure of the nucleus has a surprise in store for us, the conclusion seems plain — there is nothing in the whole system of laws of physics that cannot be deduced unambiguously from epistemological considerations.

  Arthur Eddington

  Knowledge, Science, Law

  "Relativity theory of protons and electrons".

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• As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Wisdom

  Address to Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin, 27 Jan. 1921

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• American laws don't work, but at least the laws of physics might work.

  Gore Vidal

  Law, Might, Physics

  "Gore Vidal on the Media and the American People". Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. August 1, 2012.

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• Anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions from the windows of my apartment. (I live on the twenty-first floor).

  Alan Sokal

  Believe, Science, Law

  Alan D. Sokal (2008). “Beyond the hoax: science, philosophy and culture”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Acceleration is finite, I think, according to some laws of physics.

  Terry Riley

  Thinking, Law, Physics

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• If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

  Arthur Eddington

  Hope, Science, Errors

  "The Nature of the Physical World" by Arthur Eddington, (Ch. 4), 1928.

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• When the province of physical theory was extended to encompass microscopic phenomena through the creation of quantum mechanics, the concept of consciousness came to the fore again. It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.

  Eugene Wigner

  Law, Way, Consciousness

  Eugene Paul Wigner (2013). “The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner: Historical, Philosophical, and Socio-Political Papers. Historical and Biographical Reflections and Syntheses”, p.28, Springer Science & Business Media

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• All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

  Ernest Rutherford

  Witty, Humorous, Science

  Quoted in J. B. Birks, Rutherford at Manchester (1962)

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• The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve.

  Eugene Wigner

  Science, Law, Miracle

  Eugene Paul Wigner (2012). “Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses”, p.549, Springer Science & Business Media

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• It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• Nothing is accidental in the universe - this is one of my Laws of Physics - except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Science, Law, Divinity

  1970 Do WhatYou Will,'The Summing-Up: Meredith Dawe'.

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• The only watchmaker is the blind forces of physics.

  Richard Dawkins

  Physics, Blind, Force

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• What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary.

  Stephen Hawking

  Religious, Science, Law

  "Physicist Stephen Hawking Says There Is No Heaven". www.foxnews.com. May 16, 2011.

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• If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

  Arthur Eddington

  Law, Giving, Found

  Arthur Eddington (2012). “The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures (1927)”, p.74, Cambridge University Press

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• No inanimate object is ever fully determined by the laws of physics and chemistry.

  Michael Polanyi

  Law, Inanimate Objects, Determined

  Michael Polanyi (1974). “Scientific thought and social reality: essays”, Intl Universities Pr Inc

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• The physicist is like someone who's watching people playing chess and, after watching a few games, he may have worked out what the moves in the game are. But understanding the rules is just a trivial preliminary on the long route from being a novice to being a grand master. So even if we understand all the laws of physics, then exploring their consequences in the everyday world where complex structures can exist is a far more daunting task, and that's an inexhaustible one I'm sure.

  Martin Rees

  Moving, Science, Law

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• We have a closed circle of consistency here: the laws of physics produce complex systems, and these complex systems lead to consciousness, which then produces mathematics, which can then encode in a succinct and inspiring way the very underlying laws of physics that gave rise to it.

  Roger Penrose

  Law, Circles, Consistency

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• It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.

  Eugene Wigner

  Law, Way, Consciousness

  Eugene Paul Wigner (2012). “Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses”, p.248, Springer Science & Business Media

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• We could present spatially an atomic fact which contradicted the laws of physics, but not one which contradicted the laws of geometry.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Math, Law, Facts

  Ludwig Wittgenstein (2014). “The Tractatus According to Its Own Form”, p.38, Lulu.com

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• There is no science in this world like physics. Nothing comes close to the precision with which physics enables you to understand the world around you. It's the laws of physics that allow us to say exactly what time the sun is going to rise. What time the eclipse is going to begin. What time the eclipse is going to end.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Law, World, Sun

  "In the Words of Neil deGrasse Tyson: The Inspiring Voice of Science". Book by Frank Johnson, 2014.

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