Imagination is more important than knowledge.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
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.
Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion.
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
May every young scientist remember and not fail to keep his eyes open for the possibility that an irritating failure of his apparatus to give consistent results may once or twice in a lifetime conceal an important discovery.
It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
or simply:
