List of Arthur Eddington Quotes

Electrical Force Is Defined As Something Which Causes Motion Of Electrical Charge; An Electrical Charge Is Something Which Exerts Electric Force.

The Understanding Between A Non-technical Writer And His Reader Is That He Shall Talk More Or Less Like A Human Being And Not Like An Act Of Parliament. I Take It That The Aim Of Such Books Must Be To Convey Exact Thought In Inexact Language... He Can Never Succeed Without The Co-operation Of The Reader.

An Electron Is No More (and No Less) Hypothetical Than A Star. Nowadays We Count Electrons One By One In A Geiger Counter, As We Count The Stars One By One On A Photographic Plate.

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.

[when Thinking About The New Relativity And Quantum Theories] I Have Felt A Homesickness For The Paths Of Physical Science Where There Are Ore Or Less Discernible Handrails To Keep Us From The Worst Morasses Of Foolishness.

On One Occasion When [william] Smart Found Him Engrossed With His Fundamental Theory, He Asked Eddington How Many People He Thought Would Understand What He Was Writing-after A Pause Came The Reply, 'perhaps Seven.'

We Have Found That Where Science Has Progressed The Farthest, The Mind Has But Regained From Nature That Which The Mind Put Into Nature.

The Word Reality Frightens Me.

When An Investigator Has Developed A Formula Which Gives A Complete Representation Of The Phenomena Within A Certain Range, He May Be Prone To Satisfaction. Would It Not Be Wiser If He Should Say 'foiled Again! I Can Find Out No More About Nature Along This Line.'

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.

So Far As Physics Is Concerned, Time's Arrow Is A Property Of Entropy Alone.

A Hundred Thousand Million Stars Make One Galaxy; A Hundred Thousand Million Galaxies Make One Universe. The Figures May Not Be Very Trustworthy, But I Think They Give A Correct Impression.