Theory Quotes - Page 22

• Indeed, nothing more beautifully simplifying has ever happened in the history of science than the whole series of discoveries culminating about 1914 which finally brought practically universal acceptance to the theory that the material world contains but two fundamental entities, namely, positive and negative electrons, exactly alike in charge, but differing widely in mass, the positive electron-now usually called a proton-being 1850 times heavier than the negative, now usually called simply the electron.

  Robert Andrews Millikan

  Acceptance, Science, Discovery

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• The great revelation of the quantum theory was that features of discreteness were discovered in the Book of Nature, in a context in which anything other than continuity seemed to be absurd according to the views held until then.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Nature, Book, Science

  Erwin Schrodinger (2012). “What is Life?: With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”, p.48, Cambridge University Press

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• What good does the theory [of economics] do if it is not working for people?

  Muhammad Yunus

  People, Doe, Poverty

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• A great part of its theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by induction, and yet are of so profound a character that we cannot find the demonstrations till after many vain attempts; and even then, when we do succeed, it is often by some tedious and artificial process, while the simple methods may long remain concealed.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Success, Character, Simple

  "Mathematical Circles Adieu". Book by Howard W. Eves, 1977.

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• It is always noteworthy that all those who seriously study this science [the theory of numbers] conceive a sort of passion for it.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Passion, Numbers, Study

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• Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Queens, Numbers, Firsts

  "Gauss zum Gedächtniss". Book by Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen, 1856.

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• No one shall expel us from the paradise which Cantor has created for us.
  Expressing the importance of Cantor's set theory in the development of mathematics.

  David Hilbert

  Development, Paradise, Creation

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• Poincaré was a vigorous opponent of the theory that all mathematics can be rewritten in terms of the most elementary notions of classical logic; something more than logic, he believed, makes mathematics what it is.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Opponents, Logic, Mathematics

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• The development of mathematics toward greater precision has led, as is well known, to the formalization of large tracts of it, so that one can prove any theorem using nothing but a few mechanical rules... One might therefore conjecture that these axioms and rules of inference are sufficient to decide any mathematical question that can at all be formally expressed in these systems. It will be shown below that this is not the case, that on the contrary there are in the two systems mentioned relatively simple problems in the theory of integers that cannot be decided on the basis of the axioms.

  Kurt Gödel

  Simple, Two, Development

  "Kurt Gödel: Collected Works: Volume I: Publications 1929-1936".

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• We may as well cut out group theory. That is a subject that will never be of any use in physics.

  James Jeans

  Cutting, Science, Groups

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• The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Experience, Limits, Fields

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2013). “Delphi Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Illustrated)”, p.3536, Delphi Classics

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• A theory is just a mathematical model to describe the observations.

  Karl Popper

  Religion, Atheism, Mathematical Models

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• In fact, nothing in science as a whole has been more firmly established by interwoven factual information, or more illuminating than the universal occurrence of biological evolution. Further, few natural processes have been more convincingly explained than evolution by the theory of natural selection, or as it has been popularly called, Darwinism.

  E. O. Wilson

  Religion, Atheism, Information

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• New knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.

  Pope John Paul II

  Theory Of Evolution, Discovery, Religion

  "Popeular Science" by Phil Plait, www.slate.com. October 29, 2014.

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• The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.

  George Will

  School, Intelligent, Design

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• Difficulties arise when reported observations seem to conflict with 'facts' that the majority of scientists accept as established and immutable. Scientists tend to reject conflicting observations.....Nevertheless, the history of science shows that new observations and theories can eventually prevail.

  Ian Stevenson

  Atheism, Facts, Majority

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• Theory has nothing to do with a work of art. Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures. A picture presents itself as the Unmanageable, the Illogical, the Meaningless. It demonstrates the endless multiplicity of aspects; it takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view.

  Gerhard Richter

  Art, Views, Names

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• Skills make you rich, not theories.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Inspirational, Skills, Inspire

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• Art... does not take kindly to facts, is helpless to grapple with theories, and is killed outright by a sermon.

  Agnes Repplier

  Art, Doe, Facts

  Agnes Repplier (1891). “Points of View”, Boston Houghton, Mifflin 1893.

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• One reason education undoes belief is its teaching of evolution; Darwin's own drift from orthodoxy to agnosticism was symptomatic. Martin Lings is probably right in saying that more cases of loss of religious faith are to be traced to the theory of evolution ... than to anything else.

  Huston Smith

  Religious, Teaching, Loss

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• When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.

  Richard Hamming

  Errors, Small Problems, Tree

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• Journalists generally have no bias toward one cosmological theory or another, but many have a natural preference for excitement.

  Steven Weinberg

  Evolution, Excitement, Natural

  Steven Weinberg (2012). “Facing Up”, p.175, Harvard University Press

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• Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program, and it is not really testable science.

  Karl Popper

  Research, Facts, Evolution

  "Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography". Book by Karl Popper, 1976.

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• I can envision observations and experiments that would disprove any evolutionary theory I know.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Evolution, Observation, Experiments

  Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History”, p.256, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consistently sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution.

  Arthur Keith

  Practice, Theory Of Evolution, Germany

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