All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Ernest Rutherford (1871 - 1937), in J. B. Birks "Rutherford at
Manchester" (1962)
In physics, your solution should convince a reasonable person. In
math, you have to convince a person who's trying to make trouble.
Ultimately, in physics, you're hoping to convince Nature. And I've found
Nature to be pretty reasonable.
Frank Wilczek (1951 - )
For the truth of the conclusions of physical science, observation is
the supreme Court of Appeal. It does not follow that every item which we
confidently accept as physical knowledge has actually been certified by
the Court; our confidence is that it would be certified by the Court if
it were submitted. But it does follow that every item of physical
knowledge is of a form which might be submitted to the Court. It must be
such that we can specify (although it may be impracticable to carry out)
an observational procedure which would decide whether it is true or not.
Clearly a statement cannot be tested by observation unless it is an
assertion about the results of observation. Every item of physical
knowledge must therefore be an assertion of what has been or would be
the result of carrying out a specified observational procedure.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944), The Philosophy of Physical
Science
I ask you to look both ways. For the road to a knowledge of the stars
leads through the atom; and important knowledge of the atom has been
reached through the stars.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944), Stars and Atoms (1928), Lecture 1
It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with
perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944), In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World
of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than
we can imagine.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944)
Something unknown is doing we don't know what.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944), comment on the Uncertainty
Principle in quantum physics, 1927
We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown. We
have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its
origins. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that
made the footprint. And lo! It is our own.
Sir Arthur Eddington (1882 - 1944), Space, Time, and Gravitation,
1920
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