Theoretical Quotes - Page 4

• In an enterprise such as the building of the atomic bomb the difference between ideas, hopes, suggestions and theoretical calculations, and solid numbers based on measurement, is paramount. All the committees, the politicking and the plans would have come to naught if a few unpredictable nuclear cross sections had been different from what they are by a factor of two.

  Emilio G. Segre

  Ideas, Two, Differences

  Epigraph by Emilio G. Segre in Richard Rhodes' book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (p. 8), 1986.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mine is an enthusiastic and dionysian pessimism, like a flame that sets my vital exuberance ablaze, that mocks at any theoretical, scientific or moral prison.

  Renzo Novatore

  Flames, Moral, Prison

  13 Copy quote

• Increasingly, those who used to teach and write critical or theoretical texts are writing fiction, poetry and so on; and kinds of texts are being produced that call for budding readers rather different from those who studied literature in the past.

  Nicholas Royle

  Writing, Past, Poetry

  4 Copy quote

• The career of a young theoretical physicist consists of treating the harmonic oscillator in ever-increasing levels of abstraction.

  Sidney Coleman

  Careers, Levels, Young

  11 Copy quote

• The whole point of building theoretical systems is to explain what humans know by pre-theoretical experience. That is the starting point for any philosophy. That is the data it seeks to explain. If it fails to explain the data of experience, then it has failed the test. It has been falsified.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Philosophy, Data, Tests

  4 Copy quote

• Feminism as a theoretical enterprise is approached differently by Black women depending on where we are. There are more reformist Black women who tend to use the phrase "Black feminism".

  Bell Hooks

  Black, Feminism, Phrases

  Interview with Pierce Freelon, blackademics.org. October, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We do have tendency, now in biology especially to make up stories, to make theoretical biology a kind of game, in fact we have game theory in biology which is meant to use the theory of games to make predictions or explain things.

  Richard Lewontin

  Games, Stories, Use

  Source: www.abc.net.au

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• The switch from 'steam engines' to 'heat engines' signals the transition from engineering practice to theoretical science.

  Hans Christian von Baeyer

  Engineering, Practice, Transition

  Hans Christian Von Baeyer (2004). “Information: The New Language of Science”, p.154, Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humans in modern societies are driven by a perhaps desperate hope that they might find some way of mobilizing their theoretical and empirical knowledge and their evaluative systems so as both to locate themselves and their projects in some larger imaginative structure that makes sense to them. ... Furthermore, many modern agents would like it to be the case that the form of orientation which their life has is, if not true, at least compatible with the best available knowledge.

  Raymond Geuss

  Agents, Might, Way

  "Philosophy and Real Politics". Book by Raymond Geuss, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our relationships as experimentalists with theoretical physicists should be like those with a beautiful woman - we should accept with gratitude any favours she offers, but we should not expect too much nor believe all that is said.

  Lev Artsimovich

  Beautiful, Gratitude, Believe

  Artsimovich Memorial Session of the Seventh International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research,

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The chief difficulty of modern theoretical physics resides not in the fact that it expresses itself almost exclusively in mathematical symbols, but in the psychological difficulty of supposing that complete nonsense can be seriously promulgated and transmitted by persons who have sufficient intelligence of some kind to perform operations in differential and integral calculus.

  Celia Green

  Science, Supposing That, Theoretical Physics

  Celia Elizabeth Green (1976). “The decline and fall of science”, Hamish Hamilton

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Buildings are seldom just buildings in downtown Chicago, they are Examples, and not a city on Earth, I swear, is as knowledgeably preoccupied with architectural meaning. Where else would a department store include in its advertisements the name of the architect who created it, or a newspaper property section throw in a scholarly exposition of theoretical design?

  Jan Morris

  Cities, Names, Design

  Jan Morris (1993). “Locations”, Oxford University Press, USA

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you really want to contribute to our theoretical understanding of physical laws - and it is an exciting experience if you succeed! - there are many things you need to know. First of all, be serious about it!

  Gerard 't Hooft

  Law, Understanding, Succeed

  "How to Become a Good Theoretical Physicist". Utrecht University Official Website, www.staff.science.uu.nl.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is the purpose of theoretical physics to be no more than a cataloging of all the things that can happen when particles interact with each other and seperate? Or is it to be an understanding at a deeper level in which there are things that are not directly observable (as the underlying quantized fields are) but in terms of which we shall have a more fundamental understanding?

  Julian Schwinger

  Theoretical Physics, Understanding, Purpose

  Julian Schwinger (2013). “Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements”, p.25, Springer Science & Business Media

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Physics has entered a remarkable era. Ideas that were once the realm of science fiction are now entering our theoretical — and maybe even experimental — grasp. Brand-new theoretical discoveries about extra dimensions have irreversibly changed how particle physicists, astrophysicists, and cosmologists now think about the world. The sheer number and pace of discoveries tells us that we've most likely only scratched the surface of the wondrous possibilities that lie in store. Ideas have taken on a life of their own.

  Lisa Randall

  Lying, Taken, Thinking

  "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions". Book by Lisa Randall, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't have a favorite cooking tool. In the kitchen, I always have my pencil and notebook in my hand. I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical. The pencil has a symbolic meaning for me. The type of person who carries a pencil around is the type of person who's open to change. Someone who walks around with a pen isn't; he's the opposite.

  Ferran Adria

  Notebook, Jobs, Creativity

  4 Copy quote

• I have confronted theoretical positions whose protagonists claim that what I take to be historically produced characteristics of what is specifically modern are in fact the timelessly necessary characteristics of all and any moral judgment, of all and any selfhood.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Facts, Moral, Judgment

  Alasdair MacIntyre (1981). “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory”, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nor do piecemeal steps however well intended, even partially resolve problems that have reached a universal, global and catastrophic character. If anything, partial 'solutions' serve merely as cosmetics to conceal the deep seated nature of the ecological crisis. They thereby deflect public attention and theoretical insight from an adequate understanding of the depth and scope of the necessary changes.

  Murray Bookchin

  Character, Understanding, Depth

  "The Ecology of Freedom". Book by Murray Bookchin, 1982.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Whenever the truth is uncovered, the artist will always cling with rapt gaze to what still remains covering even after such uncovering; but the theoretical man enjoys and finds satisfaction in the discarded covering and finds the highest object of his pleasure in the process of an ever happy uncovering that succeeds through his own efforts.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Artist, Men, Effort

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.94, Modern Library

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not paradox to say that in our most theoretical moods we may be nearest to our most practical applications.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  May, Paradox, Mood

  Alfred North Whitehead (1958). “An Introduction to Mathematics”, p.71, New York : Oxford University Press, 1958 [c1948]

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Theoretical Computer Science is just as useless as everything we mathematicians do.

  Jennifer Tour Chayes

  Science, Useless, Computer

  4 Copy quote

• German Nazism could not have succeeded in establishing itself except as a result of the theoretical contributions of Fichte, Goethe and Nietzsche, coupled with the ingenious and mighty leadership of Hitler and his comrades.

  Abul A'la Maududi

  Nazism, Results, Contribution

  "Minhaj al-inqilab al-Islami" (The method of Islamic Revolution) by Abul A'la Maududi, (p. 19), 1977.

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is surprising is that almost all the trends that developed within the sciences, Aristotelianism and an extreme Platonism included, produced results, not only in special domains, but everywhere; there exist highly theoretical branches of biology and highly empirical parts of astrophysics. The world is a complex an many-sided thing.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Special, World, Branches

  "Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction Versus the Richness of Richness". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today, we know that time travel need not be confined to myths, science fiction, Hollywood movies, or even speculation by theoretical physicists. Time travel is possible. For example, an object traveling at high speeds ages more slowly than a stationary object. This means that if you were to travel into outer space and return, moving close to light speed, you could travel thousands of years into the Earth's future.

  Clifford A. Pickover

  Moving, Mean, Space

  Clifford A. Pickover (1999). “Time: A Traveler's Guide”, p.15, Oxford University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no theoretical study of motherhood. You know, before I became a mother, I did play a mother, but I was like - I was more thinking of my own mother. I was doing my mother.

  Joan Chen

  Mother, Thinking, Play

  "Joan Chen — Saving Face". Groucho Reviews Interview, grouchoreviews.com. March 11, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source