Abraham Pais Quotes

There really is not a new law of nature. It was all in the theory to begin with but nobody worked it out.

You have people who believe they are scientifically literate but, in fact, are not. And I don't mind if you're not scientifically literate, but just admit that to yourself, so that you'll know, and perhaps you can take a first step to try to eradicate that.

Man, a mere inhabitant of the earth, cannot overstep its boundaries! But though he is confined to its crust, he may penetrate into all its secrets.

Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted.

No one who has understood even a fraction of what science has told us about the universe can fail to be in awe of both the cosmos and of science.

Whenever I think of how much pleasure I have interviewing scientists, I remember that they're having the real fun in actually being able to do the science.

I read science, because to me, that's extremely exciting. It's like a great detective story, and it's happening right in front of us.

Science would lead you to a more interesting life than something else.

I always say to my students that being a scientist is like being an explorer, and I really mean that because, in a sense, I think in science we explore the world, the universe around us.

Why do you do science? In this particular case, we don't have a very good reason to be doing this except for the knowledge that it brings. This research is especially important to young people. We all want to know what's going on in the universe.

Science appears but what in truth she is, Not as our glory and our absolute boast, But as a succedaneum, and a prop To our infirmity.

The scientific discovery appears first as the hypothesis of an analogy; and science tends to become independent of the hypothesis.

Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.

A scientifically unimportant discovery is one which, however true and however interesting for other reasons, has no consequences for a system of theory with which scientists in that field are concerned.

Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely. Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours. 5

How far would people get in physics if discovery was described as disgusting - "Your formula is disgusting and filthy"? Not very far.

Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.

Science, you don't know, looks like magic.

Alas! Your dear friend and servant Galileo has been for the last month hopelessly blind; so that this heaven, this earth, this universe, which I by my marvelous discoveries and clear demonstrations had enlarged a hundred thousand times beyond the belief of the wise men of bygone ages, henceforward for me is shrunk into such a small space as is filled by my own bodily sensations.

Science is the most intimate school of resignation and humility, for it teaches us to bow before the seemingly most insignificant of facts.

During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem.

No doubt those who really founded modern science were usually those whose love of truth exceeded their love of power.

Discoveries are made by gluttons and addicts. The man who forgets to eat and sleep has an appetite for fact, for interrelations among causes.

The progress of science is the discovery at each step of a new order which gives unity to what had seemed unlike.